The night battle of Jingcheng, which took place at the end of October 13, once again ended with the defeat of Li Zicheng.

King Li Chuang, who was invincible a few months ago, has now become a frequently defeated emperor, not only can't beat the Eight Banners, but even Wu Sangui's traitor soldiers can't win. Moreover, when elites such as the Iron Man Battalion and the Children's Battalion were dispatched to attack at night and rushed into the Wu army camp, they were blocked by the Wu officers and soldiers who were in a hurry to respond to the battle. It was delayed until the Yiding Turquoise and Firecracker Cavalry led by Wu Sangui arrived, and they used the Turtledove's Foot Firecracker and Ironclad Soldiers to enter the counterattack, and drove out the elite soldiers commanded by Luo Hu and Liu Fangliang......

After several hours of fierce fighting, except for more than 1,500 casualties, Li Zicheng gained nothing.

It really made him a little depressed. He is obviously the emperor who has won the hearts of the people, why is it that his generals are becoming more and more unable to fight?

A full 4,000 elite soldiers attacked, and even Wu Sangui's two camps couldn't take it! If it weren't for Wu Sangui's dog thief, who was not good at fighting and didn't dare to fight back, it would be hard to say whether Liu Fangliang and Luo Hu would be able to come back.

On the way back to the Guguan Great Wall under the escort of the imperial camp, Li Zicheng clearly felt the low morale. The old battalion soldiers who walked in front and behind were all depressed, without any energy, as if they had suffered a great defeat......

Just when Li Zicheng's subordinates were worried about the increasingly low morale, a rapid sound of horses' hooves suddenly came from the front, and when he looked up, he was stunned. Because it was actually the military advisor Song Xiance who was galloping on horseback!

Song Xiance is a person who shakes a goose feather fan, and he has always been a calm appearance with no last resort. Li Zicheng has been with him for so many years, and he has never seen him gallop a few times.

The last time Song Xiance was like this, it was after the defeat of a stone army!

"Strategist, what's wrong?" Li Zicheng felt strange, and asked out loud without waiting for Song Xiance to step forward.

Song Xiance didn't answer, and rode until he rode to Li Zicheng's side, then lowered his voice and said hurriedly: "Emperor, it's not good, the Tartar brigade has attacked Pingxing Pass, Fanzhi County and Daizhou Prefecture......"

"What?" Li Zicheng was so shocked that he almost fell off the horse, but he finally stabilized himself before asking, "What's the matter?" How could the Tartars raid the Pingxing Pass? Isn't the Lingqiu Ancient Road in the hands of the Datong Ming Army? ”

Song Xiance shook his head: "Emperor, it must have been the Ming army of Datong who put them in...... Let's fall for the prince of the Zhu family! ”

"This is luring the wolf into the house!" Li Zicheng gritted his teeth, "Why is the prince of the Zhu family so confused?" ”

Song Xiance sneered: "He's not confused...... He wanted to borrow a knife to kill someone! ”

"Murder? Want to kill? Li Zicheng's eyes widened, revealing a fierce light.

"It's not to kill the emperor, it's to kill his three brothers!" Song Xiance said, "He is a rebel son who has seized the power of his father, and what he is most afraid of is that his three brothers will go back." ”

"Humph! Damn it! Li Zicheng gritted his teeth, "You can't call him better...... What should I do? ”

"Emperor, we can send King Yong to Wuchang and hand it over to Zuo Liangyu."

"Medium!" Li Zicheng nodded.

Song Xiance said again: "It seems that the northern part of Shanxi can't be done, so the emperor should take a step back." ”

Li Zicheng frowned, "Does Taiyuan Mansion still have to guard?" ”

"Must be kept!" Song Xiance said, "If we don't defend Taiyuan, how can our army escape?" He paused, and then said, "Let Deputy General Chen Yong guard it!" He is loyal to the emperor, and he will definitely drag the Tartar down! ”

Li Zicheng gritted his teeth, "I'm afraid that Chen Yongfu alone can't do it, and I have to let the army lurking in Zezhou move!" The soldiers of the Tartars will definitely follow the forehead to Taiyuan Mansion, and the emptiness behind them may be able to reverse the situation a little. ”

......

The news that Pingxingguan, Fanzhi County, and Daizhou Prefecture were broken by the Qing army was sent to Datong Mansion by Tangma sent by Andong Zhongtunwei on the same day.

At this time, in the city of Datong Mansion, the 30,000 army has been reorganized, and it can attack at any time!

The armament of the Ming army in Datong may have also exceeded the expectations of Zhu Cihong, who was far away in Nanjing. Although the 30,000 Ming troops here don't get any salary, the swords, spears, bows and arrows in their hands are all good things that pass the quality test. As long as it is a soldier, each of them has a cloth iron armor.

In addition, this Ming army also has 1,000 high-quality bird guns!

In addition to the level of equipment, the complexion of these Ming soldiers also looked a lot better, obviously after a few months of full food......

The Ming army in Datong can have some good weapons and have a full meal to eat, that's because they now have a big money owner!

Their big financiers were the gentry and Jin merchants of Shanxi!

That's right, it was the Shanxi merchants who smuggled outside the customs and helped the Tartars to finance the Datong Ming army.

This is because Jin Shang has now encountered an enemy that they hate so much - Li Zicheng!

Li Zicheng was the target of torture and extortion in Beijing, including businessmen! The merchants in Beijing are mostly Shanxi merchants. The high-level leaders of the Dashun Army are all from Shaanxi, so they are naturally polite to Shaanxi businessmen. And how good can the old pit in Shanxi fall into their hands? The Shanxi people who opened business in Beijing have all suffered heavy losses!

And Li Zicheng, who withdrew from Beijing, did not go directly to Shaanxi as in history, but stationed in Taiyuan Mansion. Now the gentry and merchants in Shanxi are even more miserable! Although Li Zicheng did not continue to torture in Shanxi, he was still implementing the policy of "free grain and equal land". In the Shanxi territory ruled by Li Zicheng, the merchants and gentry not only could not collect a bucket of wheat rent, but even the usury that was released was also lost!

In addition, because of the "free grain" of the Dashun court and the policy of not recognizing the privileges of the gentry in the Ming Dynasty, tax evasion methods such as "tricky mailing" and "flying sprinkling" have also become a pain in the hearts of the Shanxi gentry - the farmers who sent the money refused to pay the gentry's grain, and they had to terminate the deposit relationship!

As for the sprinkling, which was to scatter the land on the books of the poor peasants in order to transfer taxes and assessments, it caused the rich merchants and gentry to lose their land!

This is not the end, there are still many "Diao Min tenants" who went to the government of the Dashun Dynasty to accuse the landlord of rebellion...... And it's a good deal! Even if the defendant's landlord's old wealth is not wiped out by the Dashun army, it is indispensable to go bankrupt!

For the gentry and merchants of Shanxi, such a life is really impossible...... And the one who can save them from the sea of suffering, of course, is the Great Qing State that occupies Beijing, and the other is the Dai Vassal of Datong.

However, now the gentry and merchants of Shanxi cannot see the general direction clearly.

The Great Qing Kingdom in Beijing is enclosure, occupying houses, and consigning, and it looks even more ferocious than the rogue...... Moreover, the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty are still in peace talks, and the Qing Dynasty seems to want to be a Liao State.

So a group of Shanxi old fortunes found Li Jiantai, who lived in seclusion in the township, that is, Li Jiantai, the former Ming Dynasty university scholar who spent 150,000 taels to buy a "hometown return permit" from Liu Zongmin.

At this time, Li Jiantai wanted to eat Daming's Huitou grass, so he contacted a group of Jin merchants, scraped together hundreds of thousands of taels of military expenses, thousands of high-quality firecrackers and a large amount of grain, and took advantage of the opportunity of Li Zicheng and Daming to open up merchants after they made peace, and transported all these things to Datong.

At the same time, Wang Yongji, Jiang Xuan, Luo Xiushen, and Gao Di on the Datong side are also trying to save themselves.

Not only did they all stop the Zonglu of the old Wang's family (this Zonglu is more than the positive field tax of Datong Mansion), but also rectified the Juntun Juntian of many guards under the Shanxi Xingdu Division and the Wangtian of the Wangfu of the Daiwangfu. All the royal and military fields were redistributed, so that nearly 40,000 Datong soldiers were given their own land—the division of land was a bit of a scam, because according to the terms of peace talks between Datong and Beijing, the territory of Datong Province was to be exchanged for Taiyuan Province......

But where do ordinary soldiers know this? Now that they have the land, they have enough to eat, and they have good equipment, and they are naturally motivated!

"It's done, it's done!"

In the palace governor Shi Si, Wang Yongji laughed and said to Luo Xiushen, Jiang Xuan, Gao Di and Li Jiantai: "Li is finished...... Now it's time for us to send our troops! Jiang Zongrong, Gao Zongrong, which of the two of you guards Datong, and who goes to Zhenxiwei? ”

Jiang Hao didn't have any interest in Zhenxiwei, what he wanted was Taiyuan. And Gao Di didn't say anything, Fenzhou and Qinzhou were what he wanted.

Luo Xiushen saw that the two chiefs were silent, so he seized the opportunity to ask for his life, "This time, the head of the battle is still to take the palace guards to fight!" ”