The situation was even more urgent for the Qing army.

After Dolgon entered Beijing with Emperor Shunzhi, as on the way to the army, he ordered the Han gentry in Jingshi and Beizhili to shave their heads and keep braids to show their return to the Qing Dynasty. Unexpectedly, the officials and gentry who were originally intimidated by the Qing army's soldiers heard about the shaving order, and their attitudes changed sharply, even if the officials in Beijing obeyed the order, there were very few who shaved their hair, and many people could not wait and see, and even did not hesitate to take risks to protect their hair and flee south. The local people resisted even more, and the rioters in the Kisuke area were surging.

During his reign in Beijing, Dolgon's main energy was devoted to maintaining stability, claiming that "now there is a family in China and abroad, the king is like a father, the people are like a son, and the father and son are one, how can it be contrary to the difference", but the people of the Han family did not buy it, and thousands of rebels from Jifu to Shandong and other places rose and fell one after another.

The Qing army entered the customs, and there were 80,000 Manchurian, Mongolian and Han Eight Banners, which was an unprecedented mobilization. Previously, Ye Chen and others went to Shanxi, Bahana and Shi Tingzhu and others went to Shandong, each with 5,000 Eight Banner soldiers, and now they are all in Shanxi, plus the 30,000 Eight Banner Army brought by Azig later, a total of nearly 40,000. Azig also controlled Wu Sangui, Bai Guangen, and Tang Tong to surrender 20,000 troops, so the Qing army deployed 60,000 soldiers and horses in Shanxi, which can be regarded as the most important battlefield for the Qing court at present.

Soon after Azig set out on the expedition, Duoduo took another 20,000 Eight Banners out of Beijing and stationed them in the south of Shuntianfu in Beizhili, waiting for an opportunity. Because Dolgon had already learned that in addition to the Northern Expedition of the Ming Army to Shanxi, the armies of Shi Kefa and Zuo Mengeng set off from Nanjing, and arrived at the junction of Shandong and Nanzhili along the way. It is reported that the Ming army of the Northern Expedition has recently merged with Liu Zeqing's Ming army entrenched in Cao Pu and other places, and has not yet continued to go north, but its many people reach 70,000 people, and if they march into Shandong, it is far from being blocked by Wang Aoyong, Fang Dayou, Ke Yongsheng and other Qing court magistrates who temporarily put out fires. In the event of an emergency in Shandong, the army of Duoduo would move quickly.

Those who remained in Beijing were 20,000 of the Eighth Banner Army and 10,000 of the Guan Liao Army that had surrendered and reorganized at Shanhaiguan. The situation in Beijing and Kisuke is unstable, and there is an undercurrent, and Dolgon must have a military force strong enough to calm the scene in case of emergency.

Therefore, Dolgon had 30,000, Azig 60,000, and Duoduo 20,000, and the total of 110,000 Qing troops arranged in different places was the capital used by the Qing court to fight for hegemony in the world. The situation in Shanxi is the top priority, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the overall situation is critical. If Shanxi wins, the Qing army will be able to take advantage of the situation to move southward and attack Jinzhong, Guanzhong and even Henan, threatening the heart of the Ming court and forming a huge strategic detour advantage. Dolgon had high hopes for Azig and gave him many elite soldiers in order to lay the foundation of the Qing dynasty in one fell swoop. Therefore, when Azig was slightly distracted, he was urged by the Qing court, especially when the Ming army's eastern route and northern army were about to enter Shandong at any time, Dolgon wrote several letters to Azig, asking him to solve the Shanxi problem as soon as possible, so that the Qing court could free up its hands in time to deal with other variables.

As soon as the Azig soldiers and horses arrived, they successively destroyed the two armies of Tang Tong and Hou Dagui, and beat Sun Chuanting's army to pieces. Burning, killing and looting along the way, rampant and unscrupulous. Only one day, take the town and guard, and then attack Yang and Wei. On another day, the forward Ye Chen had already arrived at Huoshiling City, the only place to go to Datong Mansion City.

Yang Hewei marched along the northern passage of the mountain, because of the narrow passage and rugged terrain, it was difficult for the single passing force to exceed 5,000 troops, if there were more soldiers and horses, they had to go their separate ways. However, if the Qing army divides its troops, it must pass through Guangling County to detour, not only on the route, but also the disconnection between the two routes will be very serious, which is not conducive to combat. The Eight Banners Army did not have many troops in the early days, and most of the Ming troops who faced a large-scale attack in the face of the division of troops adopted the means of gathering troops to break through each one. The Ming army divided its troops, because the main generals of each road had different thoughts and the length and resistance of each road was different, and the expected flanking tactics often failed. The Qing army learned from this and rarely chose to divide its troops into battles.

However, in the previous years, the Qing army repeatedly broke the border wall to attack the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, because the Liaozuo Passage confined to the line between Ningyuan and Shanhaiguan was difficult to pass, the Qing army could only bypass Mongolia and choose Gubeikou in Miyun County or Xifengkou in Jizhou to penetrate. Gubeikou and Xifengkou are the two largest openings in the side wall that are relatively close to each other, but they can only accommodate up to 30,000 people at a time, and they are the entrance of the Qing army, which is basically divided into left and right wing troops, with 30,000 people each. It can be roughly seen that the division of troops into two routes is the maximum limit of the Qing Army's Eight Banner Army, and on the basis of ensuring logistics, the number of troops on each route is expanded to the maximum as much as possible, which is one of the guidelines for the Qing army's operations.

Azig is old in the army, and even if he is invincible in successive battles, he is not willing to divide his troops easily. He asked Ye Chen to lead 5,000 people to capture the fortress along the road with 5,000 people as the vanguard, and the rest of the soldiers and horses slowly collected military rations and ordnance to supplement logistics. All Qing troops were expected to pass in batches and assemble outside the city of Datongfu.

After Ye Chen led his troops to set off, he was like entering a no-man's land, and he didn't want to bump into the Ming army who were waiting for him in Flint Ridge City, so he was quite puzzled. At that time, Azig was leading the main force of the Qing army to sweep Yanghewei and Gaoshan Weicun Fort, and he had never come to meet, and Ye Chen had only 5,000 people under his hands, so he did not rashly attack the city, but chose a place to rest under the mountains.

The Qing army's sentry cavalry was scattered, trying their best to reconnoiter the situation of the Ming army in the city of Huoshiling, Han Gon looked out on the mountain ridge, and said to Wang Jinchao beside him: "Although the Tartars saw that our army planted flags all over the ridge and guarded the palace, although they did not advance, they did not retreat, but spread sentry horses to investigate, which shows that my heart is very light." On the battle array, the soldiers are fighting for a breath, how can they let the Tartars be underestimated! ”

Wang Jin said: "It's okay, let my troops send horses to fight, and give the tartars some color and see!" ”

Immediately, the blue sky was filled with shouts and shook the mountains. Wang Jin's son Wang Fu's ministers were the main generals, and he went out with 5,000 horses and soldiers.

The Qing army saw the Ming army rushing down the mountain and waiting in formation. Only the horn was heard, and the five thousand horses were divided into more than ten strands on the mountainside two hundred paces away, and the Qing army was surrounded in the middle of the mountain. Listening to the orderly bamboo whistles, these riders from the Hetao tribe dismounted, put away their riding bows, took out the long-tipped soft bows hanging on the side of the saddle, and threw them into the sky one after another.

The rain of arrows shrouded the sky and fell like a note, the Qing army held a rattan cat waist to dodge behind the chariot, Ye Chen was not angry, called the red flag Han army Gushan Ezhen Shi Tingzhu and the blue flag Han army Melle Ezhen Tong Dai, asked them to organize all the chariots and rattan players in the army, slowly advancing the mountainside, and the Manchurian light armored infantry army took advantage of the cover, using bows and arrows, and fought in the rear, and gradually counterattacked. At the same time, he also asked the Zhenglan Banner Manchurian Gushan Ezhen Ahan to organize the horse army to prepare to rush to the mountainside.

Ah Shan is a Manchurian general, once in the battle of the Jin army besieging Beijing two years after Chongzhen, he led the cavalry to kill the Ming army general Wu Jingluo Mangui, and became famous for a while. He was ordered to take thousands of horses out of the ranks, but instead of rushing bravely, he instructed the Red Banner Mongolian Gushan Ezhen Ma Laxi, and let him go to the test with light horses.

The Qing infantry in the front advanced with arrows, and the Qing light cavalry on the flank quickly outflanked. Wang Fu's ministers, who commanded the horse army on the mountainside, ordered the flags to be waved on all sides, quickly gathered more than ten horse troops, and released another wave of arrows on the horse, and then retreated.

The horse is light and fast, and even the hundreds of light horsemen of Malashi can't catch up.

At this time, Ye Chen found that there was an abnormal movement of the Ming army on the mountain range, and he was afraid that Ma Laxi would be too sudden forward, so he raised a banner and wanted to summon him back. However, Ma Lashi was obviously unwilling to let the Ming army get out easily, and rushed forward with his men and horses until the foot of the mountain. At this time, the gongs and drums on the mountain ridge are noisy, and the artillery of the Ming army deployed on the ridge is fired in unison, between the fire and gunsmoke, the ground at the foot of the mountain is instantly collapsed and cracked, and the grass and trees are scattered. Immediately afterwards, countless Ming army birds did not form a march, and took over the horse army by scattering the formation, and went down the slope, firing in five steps, echoing the fierce artillery.

Ah Shan was afraid that Ma Lashi would be in a difficult position, so he hurriedly led hundreds of horse troops to rush forward. On the flat field, the Qing army's heavily armed horse army galloped with each team. These horsemen were all dressed in iron armor and cotton armor, and most of the horses were well-protected, with strong limbs and very fast speed. When the people and horses are galloping, they are like black clouds in the sky, magnificent, and they are flickering and flickering between the guns and projectiles in the sky, gathering and scattering, and extremely agile.

The Ming Dynasty has always strictly forbidden the import of iron products to the Jurchen tribe, and even agricultural tools such as shovels and iron ploughshares are also prohibited. In order to solve the problem of material blockade in the Ming Dynasty, Nurhachi began to actively open mines by self-reliance, and gradually gathered a large number of craftsmen and mastered various metallurgical technologies through captives and training. Hetuala, Shenyang and other cities are inhabited by a large number of blacksmiths, and the barracks and forging places are combined for several miles. After decades of development, the level of armor built by the Qing army was better than that of the Ming army, and the armor such as chain mail, Ming armor, and dark armor became the standard equipment of the Qing army.

With the protection of fine armor, even if there were occasional stray arrows and stray bullets rubbing against the body, they could not cause serious damage to these Manchurian heavy horses. Ma Laxi, who had received reinforcements from Ashan, ordered all the horse troops to dismount, climb the mountain on foot, pull their bows and release arrows as they went, and shoot at the Ming army. The Ming army's bird guns did not intend to hold each other on the mountainside, according to Han Gon's military order of "three rings and return", they each remembered the number of shots in their hearts, and retreated after shooting. When Ah Shan and Ma Lashi joined up and climbed the mountain together, most of the Ming army's bird gunners began to walk back, even if they didn't have time to shoot three times, they listened to Jin Cheng behind him abandon the battle and retreat.

The Ming army was expelled and returned to the ridge, and the positive pressure of the Qing army disappeared. Ye Chen, who was always conceited, was actively provoked by the Ming army, and he also had the intention to give the Ming army a dismount, so he immediately reorganized the frontal troops and launched a siege war.

At present, two or three thousand Qing troops participated in the siege of the city, and advanced in a small formation of 100 people per brigade. In the small formation, the leading Ge Bush Xianchao was a small team of ten people, each team was equipped with two small cannons and three spears. After that, the Bayala battalion was composed of 40 people, each squad was equipped with 10 small cannons, 20 spears and 2 field autocratic chariots. At the end, a squad of 50 people from Aliha Chaoha was equipped with the same number of cannons, spears and carts as the Bayala battalion, and also carried various instruments such as ladder chisels, cone hooks, sickles, forks, and sticks. The front and back are tightly connected, and the progress is orderly and progressive.

"The Tartar couldn't help it." At the head of the city of Flint Ridge, Wang Jinchao looked down at the Qing army gathering at the foot of the hundred and ten zhang deep mountain, and took a deep breath and said.

"Good time." Han Gon's face was expressionless, and even a little cold, "The Tartar has been too smooth all the way, and the tough battle to defeat the Tartar's sharp spirit will start from here." He added, "The recovery of rivers and mountains and the expulsion of the Tartars also begin here." ”