Zhang Xianzhong
In the early 1630s, a Minister named Li Zicheng (1606–45) mutinied with his fellow soldiers in western Shaanxi. Li's rebel forces retaliated the government by killing the officials, and led a rebellion based in Rongyang, central Henan province by 1635. By the 1640s, an ex-soldier and rival to Li—Zhang Xianzhong (1606–47)—had created a firm rebel base in Chengdu, Sichuan, while Li's center of power was in Hubei with extended influence over Shaanxi and Henan.