Li showed an aptitude for horse archery at an early age but was forced to become a shepherd at the age of ten due to poverty. He became an orphan when his mother died three years later. Li joined the army at the age of 16 but later left and entered the postal service in 1626. At some point Li became an outlaw for killing a man he found in bed with his wife after returning from an extended business trip. He was arrested and jailed until his nephew Li Guo freed him, and together they fled the area. In Gansu, Li Zicheng joined the army again and became a squad commander of 50 men. After taking part in the suppression of the rebel Gao Yingxiang, Li himself became a rebel due to charges of stealing rations. By 1633, the rebels had spread into Huguang, Sichuan, Shanxi. Chen Qiyu was made Supreme Commander of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan. He drove out Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai from Sichuan. The rebels in Henan were driven west until they were bottled up in the southwestern corner of Henan in Chexiang Gorge. Heavy rains battered the rebels for 40 days. After weeks of deprivation, 13,000 rebels, including Li Zicheng, surrendered to Chen Qiyu. They were returned to their homes under supervision, but when 36 rebels were killed and their heads hung up on the city walls, a full-scale revolt broke out again. Li Zicheng besieged Longzhou but was driven away by Zuo Guangxian. Despite the inability of the rebels to take well-defended cities, the Ming army was also unable to decisively defeat them, so the Ming started building blockhouses in towns to fortify the countryside. In 1635, a meeting between major rebel groups took place at Rongyang in Central Henan. Zhang Xianzhong and Gao Yingxiang were tasked with taking Southern Zhili, Luo Rucai with defending the Yellow River, and Ma Shouying with leading the mobile division. Zhang and Gao sacked Fengyang, the ancestral home of the Hongwu Emperor and the location of his tomb. Over 4,000 Ming officials were killed and 2,600 structures were burned down. During the operation, a dispute occurred between Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong on whether or not to kill the eunuchs, which led to the dissolution of the rebel alliance.