"Enter Funing City. Song Xiance said.

Now even the turtles in the urn had to do it, and they rushed towards Funing. Li Zicheng had not yet entered Funing City, and received another military report.

"Report! Hao Shaoqi led 30,000 cavalry from the north to come to the rescue!"

"Report! Gu Ying's 10,000 infantry came to the aid from the north!"

After two happy letters in a row, Li Zicheng finally breathed a sigh of relief. He retreated to Funing City. Hao Shaoqi and Gu Ying have cut off the road between Shanhaiguan and Beijing. Gu Ying's attacking infantry quickly dug a trench two zhang deep and one zhang wide.

Liu Zongmin was seriously injured again, and he was carried into Li Zicheng's temporary camp. There was a deep wound on his shoulder, and due to too much blood loss, he could only open his eyes slightly and ask, "Did the Qing soldiers catch up?"

It's the morning of the third day. Li Zicheng did not continue to retreat, and they collected the remnants of the army here.

"Nope. Hao Shaoqi and Gu Ying's 40,000 elite soldiers repelled the Qing soldiers. There is news that there is a big chaos in Jinzhou City, and part of the Qing soldiers have returned to Jinzhou, but the specific situation is not clear. It was reported from the front that all the enemy's upper three banners had retreated, and either there was a mutiny among the Manchus, or Li Laiheng was there to attack the enemy's rear. Li Zicheng squatted in front of Liu Zongmin and said comfortingly.

Liu Zongmin had a smile on his face. Song Xiance came in.

"Your Majesty, something really happened in Jinzhou. According to the intelligence report, the Emperor of Manchuria expected to enter Jinzhou today, and now there is a problem there, either civil strife or General Li Laiheng attacking their imperial guards. Song Xiance told Li Zicheng the information he had just received.

Li Zicheng was overjoyed, and was about to speak, when he reported outside the door, Hao Shaoqi asked to see him. Hao Shaoqi and Gu Ying had already repelled the enemy's attacks many times, and now that the enemy had retreated slightly, he had time to see Li Zicheng.

"Come in, come in!" Li Zicheng thought, it wasn't for this Hao Shaoqi who arrived in time, he was just afraid that he was a prisoner of the Qing soldiers.

Li Zicheng hurriedly asked, "How did you arrive in time?"

Hao Shaoqi gave Li Zicheng a big salute, he said: "Your Majesty, Gu Ying and I are always paying attention to the battle at Shanhaiguan in accordance with the instructions left by General Li Laiheng, and he said that if Wu Sangui is in a hurry to send troops, we will quickly move south to escort him." He said that Wu Sangui's eagerness to send troops showed that the Qing troops had entered the pass, so we had already moved our troops south in the morning, waiting for the emperor to enter Funing. ”

Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and Song Xiance were amazed when they heard it. Li Laiheng's arrangement is so miraculous.

What is the reason for this? Didn't the burning of the Jiang Nu Temple prompt Wu Sangui to fight in a hurry? Why did he judge that the Qing troops had entered the customs?

"What else did General Li Laiheng say?" Li Zicheng simply asked thoroughly.

Hao Shaoqi said: "General Li Laiheng said that if he went to attack the Jiang Numiao, he would not be able to return to the south of Shanhaiguan, and if he could not return, he would go deep into the hinterland of Manchuria and attack the rear of the Manchus." He said that he asked the emperor to arrange for me and Gu Ying to block the enemy in the east, and asked General Li Yan to block the enemy in the north. He also said that he asked the emperor to withdraw the order to arrest the officials of the six grades, now is not the past, and now it should be appeased, not suppressed. ”

Silent. Li Zicheng doesn't like to hear this, and Liu Zongmin doesn't like to hear it.

Song Xiance said: "Your Majesty, Li Laiheng's words please consider the saint, the minister thinks that this is reasonable, we must strictly enforce military discipline and appease those who can be appeased, no matter how loyal they were to the Ming Dynasty in the past, as long as they are willing to be appeased, then we will appease them." ”

Although Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin didn't like to hear this, since Song Xiance also said so, and besides, Hao Shaoqi saved the car and made meritorious contributions, so Li Zicheng said: "Okay, let's discuss it after we go back to Beijing." ”

The attack of the Qing soldiers was stopped, and part of the Qing soldiers went out of the customs and returned to Jinzhou. Funing became the main battlefield of Li Zicheng's eastern defense line, defended by Hao Shaoqi and Gu Ying. Li Zicheng returned to Beijing, and then he convened the Imperial Council. The setback at Shanhaiguan this time was more serious than any setback in the past.

In the past, there was nothing anyway, and when the fight is over, it is possible to get up and play again soon, but now it is different, now it is the king of a country, and it is the king of a country in China. Lost, can't afford to lose, there are still many places that have not been conquered, and there are still many Ming Dynasty relics who now support other descendants of the Zhu family as new emperors.

Li Zicheng never thought that after the recovery of Beijing, the first battle was defeated, which is not too terrible, what is terrible is that the Qing soldiers officially entered the customs, and they officially entered the customs under the banner of revenge for Chongzhen. Among them, several were famous generals of the Ming Dynasty, such as Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi, Wu Sangui, etc. In particular, there is a special figure in this team, Hong Chengchou, a famous minister in the late Ming Dynasty.

Li Zicheng needed to formulate a strategic policy for the future, and abandoning Beijing and defending Beijing became the focus of contention.

This time, a strange phenomenon appeared, the people who were anxious to attack Beijing insisted on withdrawing from Beijing as soon as possible, and the reason was very simple: the Qing troops had already entered the customs, and the center of Dashun had not had time to move eastward, so they could only retreat to Shaanxi, take Xi'an as the political center, and then organize an eastward march to drive the Qing troops out of China.

On the other hand, those who advocate holding on to Beijing are those who oppose the rush to attack Beijing, and this faction is very weak, represented by Li Yan. His reasoning was that once Beijing was lost, it would lose its appeal politically, and militarily it would return to the situation before the capture of Beijing, and the hope of pacifying the southern provinces would be dashed.

Li Zicheng hesitated, but one thing he was sure of was that he had to ascend the throne as emperor in Beijing. The meeting continued, and the debate reached the level of daylight, Li Yan was no longer subtle, and he strongly criticized the abandonment of Beijing.

At this time, Li Laiheng, who was near Shenyang, was both excited and anxious. Excitedly, he watched Shenyang, known to the Manchurians as Shengjing, in the midst of a raging fire. The anxiety was that the child of a few years old had already passed the Shanhai Pass, and after Beijing captured it, he would move Kyoto to Beijing.

A few days ago, Li Laiheng met the child emperor, and also met the child's mother, and on the day Dolgon entered the pass, the only thing Li Laiheng could do was to encircle Wei to save Zhao, and he attacked Jinzhou. His attack on Jinzhou was naturally a surprise attack, with only 300 people, and he could only disguise himself as a Manchurian soldier to infiltrate Jinzhou. At that time, the emperor had just entered the city, and it was not easy to get in, but Li Laiheng still went in. He also entered the palace of Emperor Shunzhi with more than a dozen people, and he was originally going to kill Emperor Shunzhi.

But a woman sacrificed her life to protect her, and she said to Li Laiheng: "He is still a child, you can kill me." Although he is an emperor, anyone can be an emperor. You kill him, tomorrow Dolgon himself will be the emperor, and if you have the ability, you will kill Dolgon!"

Emperor Shunzhi was so frightened by Li Laiheng's sword that he cried, and a servant came in and was waved by Li Laiheng's sword, and his head fell to the ground. Shunzhi stopped crying, Xiaozhuang stopped shouting, she said calmly: "You kill us, I have no choice, and it should be for you Han people." But please don't treat him as an emperor, in fact, he doesn't know the concept of the emperor very well, you treat him as a child. I hope you don't kill children. ”

Lee Rae-hyung hesitated, and finally he gave up.

He just made a big fuss in Jinzhou City, he killed the prince, the county king, and Baylor, killed a few generals of the Royal Forest Army, and burned several important places, until he alarmed Dolgon in the Three Customs, and Li Laiheng withdrew from Jinzhou. Later, he went north and met Lao Jiu and Gu Kecheng north of Jinzhou, and they had a plan to make a big fuss in Shenyang again.

They will meet, count the troops, and there are more than nine thousand people, and the losses are not large. To the west of Shenyang, they unexpectedly encountered a horse farm, which was one of the five major military horse farms of the Manchurians, with more than 30,000 military horses, and Li Laiheng almost drooled.

With good horses, these 10,000 soldiers will be like a tiger with wings, and it will only take two days to reach Shenyang. Shenyang is Shengjing, the capital of the Manchus, the Qing Taizu moved the capital from Liaoyang to Shenyang, and began to build the imperial palace in Shenyang, Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty renamed Shenyang as Shengjing. This is the old nest of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Li Laiheng is ready to make trouble here, so that the enemy cannot take care of each other. However, since Shenyang is the nest of the Manchus, it is definitely not easy to attack it. However, Li Laiheng and they came too suddenly, and it was not to attack the city, but just to harass them, and the goal was simple, so the tactics could be very flexible.

When they were about to arrive at the south gate of Shengjing, they raised the banner of the yellow flag. The Zhenghuang Flag is one of the eight flags of the Qing Dynasty, named after the pure yellow color of the flag. It was built in the 29th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty and was personally led by the emperor. The yellow, yellow and white flags are listed as the top three flags. Zhenghuang Banner, the largest number of soldiers, under the jurisdiction of five staff leaders, 92 whole leaders and two and a half sub-leaders, about 30,000 soldiers, men, women and children total population of about 150,000.

The result of the inquiry on the city wall was simple, no one answered, only the sword waved, and they entered the city gate and took control of it. In a city, all of a sudden, 10,000 people are slashing and killing in the city, plus setting fire to the houses, and it is not a mess for a while?

Li Laiheng's troops made trouble in Shengjing for an hour, killing some officials, and the prince and Baylor did not know how to kill a few, and when the Shengjing guards gradually gathered their troops, Li Laiheng led his troops out of the city without waiting for them to fight. They did not stop, all the way south, there were cities to attack the city, some people killed, some soldiers killed soldiers, and only after more than ten days did they officially enter Beijing.

Just as Li Laiheng entered Beijing, the dispute in the Forbidden City reached its limit, and according to Manchu spies, Li Zicheng had internal strife. There is a legend that Li Zicheng wanted to kill Li Yan.

Li Laiheng made a stir in Shengjing, which frightened Dolgon, and if he wanted his political enemies to mutiny in Shengjing, wouldn't he have no basis for retreating?

Dolgon received the secret protection of Xiaozhuang, and she told them that they almost died at the hands of Li Laiheng, which made Dolgon even more cold sweat. Therefore, in order to stabilize the rear, Dolgon had to transfer part of his troops back to Shengjing, and also sent two-thirds of his guards to Jinzhou to protect the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and the Shunzhi Emperor. The emperor could only wait in Jinzhou, and Dolgon would not be able to welcome them until he had captured Beijing.

The defenders of Funing have not retreated, although they only have 30,000 men, they are very tenacious, and it is said that this army is Li Laiheng's team.

"Damn, it's Lee Lai Heng everywhere. Dorgon scolded.