Bai Qi groaned: "It doesn't work if there are fewer soldiers, and it is easy to expose your whereabouts if you have more soldiers, I think, one or two thousand cavalry will do." [Full text reading. After entering Shanxi, make the momentum as big as possible to confuse the officers and soldiers. ”

Li Yan frowned: "One or two hundred thousand people, can it put pressure on the Shanxi officials and soldiers?" What if Wang Qiaonian desperately came to encircle and suppress? You must know that the Qin army that entered Shanxi was a lone army in the absolute sense. ”

Bai Qi said: "This is okay, for the general, don't think about winning, think about defeat first, I already have a full plan." As long as you don't get surrounded by heavy troops, there's nothing to fear. Besides, our attack on Shanxi this time is mainly to feint to attack the capital, and after Huang Taiji got the war horse gold, I will see the opportunity to act, and we will withdraw when it is time to withdraw, and protect the people and horses. ”

Li Yan didn't say anything, he believed in Bai Qi's command ability.

The three of them agreed, and Bai Qi handed over the military affairs of Guanzhong to Li Yan, and personally ordered 20,000 cavalry to prepare to set off.

Before Bai Qi left, he wrote a letter to the king of Qin and wrote the idea of the entire battle on it, and after the king of Qin read it, he immediately agreed. He ordered someone to write a reply letter, and asked Bai Qi to bring it with him and hand it over to the envoy of Huang Taiji.

So on the night of the next day, Bai Qi led 20,000 cavalry out of Xi'an City and came to Jingbian.

On the one hand, he ordered the troops to go to Jingbian, and on the other hand, he ordered the people of Tongguan to listen to the news at any time and prepare to send troops to cross the river to respond.

Bai Qi led the men and horses out of Xi'an City quietly, and rushed at night, and it took only five days to reach Jingbian.

Wang Jian was already impatient, on the one hand, he was fierce to prevent the Qing army from coming to raid in the name of gifts, and on the other hand, he also hoped that King Qin would make up his mind quickly and have a reply.

As soon as Bai Qi led the army to arrive, Wang Jian immediately took him into the city, Bai Qi tied up the men and horses in the city, and then talked with Wang Jian alone.

After Wang Jian heard King Qin's plan, he was also very excited: "General, this is the best." The benefits of sending it to your door cannot be dispensed without. It's just that the general only brought 20,000 horses, which was too risky. ”

Bai Qi said: "Don't be afraid. You immediately meet with the envoy, hand him the letter, and order him to return to Liaodong immediately, and I will hold my troops here first, and wait until the first batch of war horse gold arrives, and then I can raise troops. ”

The two discussed, and Wang Jian asked people to invite the Liaodong envoy to meet.

As soon as the envoy came in, Wang Jian was very polite, invited him to sit down, and then said, "I have reported the meaning of your master to my king completely." I have received a reply from my king today, and it says everything in it, so take a closer look. ”

So saying, he took out the letter and handed it to the messenger.

This envoy was not a Manchu, but a Han Chinese, who served as an official under the Manchu system, he took the letter, unfolded it, and couldn't help nodding secretly, but also admired the shrewdness of the King of Qin.

After reading it, the envoy smiled: "This matter is very important, I dare not call the shots, I must reply to my emperor, from here to Liaodong, the road is long, even if I use flying pigeons to pass the book, I am afraid that it will take several days to go back and forth, so please wait patiently." ”

Wang Jian said: "I, Qin Jun, are naturally not in a hurry. ”

The envoy left Jingbian City and returned to his Mongolian station, he did not come alone, but the Qing army escorted him with more than 1,000 people, and carried carrier pigeons with him. The envoy wrote three identical letters, explaining the meaning of the King of Qin, tied them to the legs of three doves, and then released them.

Four days later, two of the three pigeons flew back, and the messenger opened the letter and saw that it was indeed Huang Taiji's reply. The gist of the above is that it can be done according to the will of King Qin.

When Huang Taiji sent the envoy, he was indeed sincere, so as soon as the envoy left, Huang Taiji prepared horses, bows and arrows and gold, sent 5,000 men and horses to escort him, and then set off.

He is also a smart man, so to speak, in the entire Manchu court, Huang Taiji is the smartest and the most politically savvy. He didn't send people to unite Li Zicheng or Fan Ju, because he saw that the Qin army was already relatively weak at this time, and he needed weapons, horses, and assets, and he had the greatest chance of success.

Because of sincerity, Huang Taiji didn't care about King Qin's suspicions, as long as he agreed, there was hope. At this time, the letter from the King of Qin arrived, and Huang Taiji immediately made a decision and agreed to all the requirements of the King of Qin, as long as the Qin army could go out of Shanxi and threaten the capital.

The envoy was overjoyed when he saw the letter, and at this time, the war horse gold escorted by the 5,000 Qing troops also arrived, and the envoy immediately set off and went to Jingbian to inform Wang Qian.

In order to show his sincerity, this time the envoy brought five thousand horses, five thousand good bows, and ten thousand taels of gold. At the same time, he also carried a reply from Huang Taiji.

As soon as Wang Jian heard that the envoy had arrived with war horses and gold, he knew that Huang Taiji had agreed, and immediately invited the envoy into the city, Bai Qi only showed up at this time, and received the five thousand war horses, five thousand good bows, and ten thousand taels of gold, and then agreed with the envoy that when the Qin army arrived at the side pass, the Qing army would send another 15,000 war horses, five thousand good bows, and fifty thousand taels of gold.

Once this plan is successful, if Chongzhen orders the people of Liaodong to come back to help, the Qing army will offer the rest.

Thus the two sides reached a secret agreement.

After receiving 5,000 good horses, 5,000 hard bows, and 10,000 taels of gold brought by the envoy, Wang Jian sent someone to Xi'an, which was a gift to the Qin army, and he did not dare to leave it privately.

Bai Qi took 20,000 cavalry, drove out of Jingbian, with great fanfare, and made it clear that he wanted to go out of the fortress to fight the Qing army, on the grounds that the Qing army had repeatedly spied on the border of the Qin people, and had the intention of attacking, and the Qin army wanted to strike first, first capture the Mongolian steppe, and then march into Liaodong.

On the other hand, Bai Qi sent people to the area around the border to secretly collect boats and prepare to cross the river.

After entering the grassland, because the Mongolian tribes also got the will of Huang Taiji, they were not allowed to attack without authorization, and let the Qin army go deep into the desert, and then find an opportunity to encircle and annihilate it. Therefore, the cavalry on the Mongolian steppe shrank far away and did not come to fight.

Bai Qi led his men and horses to the northeast, and after walking for two days, he suddenly turned around at night and pounced on the Hetao area of the Yellow River. With lightning speed, he killed near the side pass.

There is no Great Wall here because it is separated by the Yellow River. When the Qin army arrived here, the Qin army had arrived in advance, collected a large number of ships, and Bai Qi did not move the army during the day, and only at night did he order to cross the river.

The 20,000 Qin troops, together with war horses and baggage, crossed straight to Tianming, and finally completely entered the territory of Shanxi.

At this time, Bai Qi did not stop at all, and immediately showed his sharp fangs, he took 20,000 Qin troops, non-stop, and rushed straight to the partial pass, as he expected, the Ming army guards of the partial pass were still lying high, at this time it was already cold, and the officers and soldiers never dreamed that the Qin army would actually cross the Yellow River and kill in front of them. The entire Guancheng was defenseless, and even the distant patrol sentry was not sent, and when Bai Qi led the Qin army to the city, the city gate was not closed, and many people were entering and leaving.

By the time the officials and soldiers in the city saw countless murderous Qin troops with spears and knives in their hands coming out of the flying dust, the vanguard of the Qin army had already rushed to the gate of the city.

Because there are a lot of people at the city gate, when they see that there is a Qin army killed, they all want to enter the city to hide, hundreds of people and soldiers are crowded together, so the officials and soldiers are eager to close the city gate, the Qin army's forward rushed to the front, at this time can not care about the people, a random slash and stab, dozens of people and soldiers guarding the gate were assassinated to the ground.

The Qin army stormed the door and rushed into the side pass.

When the guard heard the chaos in the city, he hurriedly climbed out of the bed, hurriedly put on his armor, jumped on horseback, and took dozens of personal soldiers out of the palace gate to come and watch. How did he know that it was the Qin army that entered the city, and thought it was a mob incident, but just after he went to the street, he killed a group of Qin troops head-on, and hundreds of men and horses surrounded the guards.

Before the guard came to his senses, dozens of personal soldiers had been killed on the ground, and he was about to ride his horse away, but he was stabbed down by a Qin soldier and fell to the ground.

As soon as the defender died, the city was in chaos, and there was no one to command the army, so the Qin army quickly occupied the city.

Bai Qi did not announce the peace of the people in the city as usual, but led the army to pack up the treasury, took all the money and grain, collected the weapons and horses in the city, and then rested in the city for only one day, and the whole army left early the next morning and headed east.

The news of the Qin army's invasion of Shanxi was immediately reported to Wang Qiaonian's desk at a rapid speed.

At this time, Wang Qiaonian just breathed a sigh of relief, because Li Zicheng and the Qin army joined forces to attack, but at the last moment, he mysteriously withdrew his troops, and later inquired, only to know that under the city of Kaifeng, Li Zicheng was seriously injured, and he didn't know whether he was alive or dead, and Liu Zongmin wanted to return to Kaifeng, so he had no time to take care of Shanxi.

Unexpectedly, a wave of unsettled, wave after wave, just a month later, the Qin army actually killed from the north like a divine soldier descending from the sky. Most of his men and horses in Shanxi were in the south, in case the Qin army came out of Tongguan to attack, but he didn't expect the Qin army to go around the grassland and hit in.

This surprise was not trivial, Wang Qiaonian was so anxious that he immediately sent people to expedite 800 miles, and transferred the officers and troops in the south to the north to block the Qin army and prevent Bai Qi from killing him.

After careful questioning, Wang Qiaonian learned that the Qin army first threatened to fight the Qing army, but when it was halfway through, it suddenly turned back and crossed the Yellow River into Shanxi.

Originally, it was not surprising that the Qin army wanted to attack Shanxi, but it was strange that the Qin army used a plan to hide from the sky and cross the sea, falsely attacking the Qing army and actually attacking the official army, which caught people off guard.

At this time, it was not easy to block the Qin army that was killing like a storm, so Wang Qiaonian had to issue an emergency mobilization order, ordering the counties and towns to be strictly defended, and before the reinforcements arrived, it was necessary to block Bai Qi. At the same time, he immediately went to the table and reported to the court.

But how can Bai Qi say that it can be blocked if it is blocked, in less than ten days, Bai Qi broke five counties in a row, the whole Shanxi shook, Wang Qiaonian was like sitting on pins and needles, and the days were like years. But what puzzled him was that the Qin army's offensive route was very strange, leaving some important county towns not to attack, but all the way to the east.