Inside a yellow felt tent, there is a brass dome with a golden light. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoThis military tent specially made for Li Zicheng in Xi'an is called the marching imperial tent, also known as the tent hall. A three-zhang high flagpole of the tree in the southeast corner of the imperial tent is hung with an embroidered dragon blue flag, and there is the word "Da Shun" on the red velvet sewing in it; In front of the imperial tent, facing east, there is a throne with an embroidered dragon yellow satin chair. On the left and right of the imperial tent, there is a dense rope net to prevent stray arrows and block cannons and projectiles. On the outside of the rope net, hundreds of soldiers of the imperial camp, or holding swords and guns, or carrying fire guns, or stretching bows and arrows, are all standing solemnly.

Li Zicheng sat on the throne and looked at Wang Si'er and Luo Hu kneeling in front of him with some anger.

The forward soldiers and horses were eaten by Wu Sangui. The 2,000 elite cavalry lost more than 1,000, and the remaining hundreds were also wounded. This loss made his heart almost bleed!

(Oh, right now, in the hearts of Dashun Yongchang Tianzi and Liu Zongmin and others, the soldiers and horses of Jiang Pin, You Shiwei and others cannot be regarded as people.) It's the same as when the U.S. military didn't count the casualties of the stick during the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. ）

In his heart, the status of the Zhenshan Battalion is almost equal to that of the old battalion. Moreover, it is different from the old camp elite cavalry, which requires a long time of selection and continuous brutal elimination to be selected. The soldiers of the Zhenshan Battalion are much more cost-effective. All you need to do is follow orders, keep discipline, fear the law, and a little time for training, and those hungry people and farmers will quickly become elite soldiers.

Li Zicheng's heart has long regarded Zhenshan Camp as his magic weapon. Use the strong combat power of the Zhenshan Battalion to deter those troops who are not descendants of the Chuang Battalion, and then use the Zhenshan Battalion and these miscellaneous teams to deter Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu, Yuan Zongdi and other old people who have their own small team from the old eighth team of the Chuang Battalion.

However, in just a small-scale outpost battle, more than 1,000 elite cavalry were lost, which seemed to have defeated Zuo Liangyu, and the entire Zhenshan battalion had never lost so many cavalry!

"Is there the whereabouts of Jiang Zhen and the others?" Although they did not count the troops of Jiang Zhuo, Wang Jiayin, and You Shiwei in their own army, and even when they heard that the three soldiers and horses were almost wiped out, the Dashun monarchs and ministers still had a sense of relief and joy, and they were happy to have unloaded the burden of these tens of thousands of people. However, the life and death of these three generals are related to the prestige of Dashun, and they must not be careless. Since the Eastern Expedition to Shanhaiguan, Tang Tong was beheaded by Wu Sangui in Yongping Mansion, and now, Jiang Pai and other three people are missing, and these Ming generals who surrendered in the process of crossing the river and cutting down the Ming Dynasty are almost all in ink. Isn't this a clear face for Dashun?

Luo Hu lowered his head and inspected the battlefield before inspecting the battlefield, within a radius of dozens of miles, there were corpses everywhere, especially on those broken chariots and rejected horses, which were more densely hung with all kinds of wounded and mutilated corpses.

They were all pushed by the people behind, and then they were shot by the sharp arrows in front of them, screaming and pushing forward step by step, so that the sharp thorns of the rejection horse pierced the body, and finally hung on the rejection horse and screamed until death.

On the ground, there were countless corpses that had been trampled into flesh. Originally, they were just some people who were hit by arrows, stray bullets, or even accidentally fell to the ground when they were in a panic. They shouldn't have died on the spot, but when they fell to the ground with a wail, countless pairs of big feet stepped on them and trampled them into flesh.

The men were then shot and screamed and fell to the ground, followed by countless others rushing up and trampling them to death.

In the rear, there are still a large number of defeated soldiers and civilians, crowding over this side like a nest. In the distance, the cavalry wall of the Wu army was like two tiger mouths of iron pincers, slowly but forcefully driving these people into one place. Let the sledgehammer of artillery fire and projectiles be forged hard.

Streams of blood flowed everywhere, rendering the land of dozens of miles dazzling.

"The ministers and others ordered people to carefully check it, and only found the corpses of the three general soldiers, Jiang Jiao, You Shiwei, and Wang Jiayin, and they did not find themselves, banners, customs defenses, armor and other things." Luo Hu lowered his eyelids, and did not dare to raise his head to meet the sights of Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and others.

Finished! Everyone's hearts sank! Nine times out of ten, these people are also following in the footsteps of Tang Tong! If you run away, you won't leave your own soldiers behind, and the generals who run away won't carry their banners with them at all times! That's too ostentatious, at most with a big seal to prove identity. Now, none of these things have been seen, so the only possibility is that they were captured by Wu Sangui or simply killed!

"Your Majesty, in the opinion of the ministers, there is no need to wait. The whole army immediately sent troops to Shanhaiguan! "General Liu Zongmin has made the final decision on the current situation of the enemy and us. Taking advantage of the fact that Wu Sangui's department had just fought a big battle with Jiang Zhu, You Shiwei and Wang Jiayin, and urgently needed to rest and recover his strength, Wu Sangui was not allowed to have a chance to breathe.

"Jiexuan has a point." Li Zicheng nodded, stretched out his hand and signaled, "Luo Hu, Wang Si'er, get up!" ”

Looking at the gauze on Wang Si'er's head that was still oozing blood, and his right arm hanging with a piece of cotton cloth, Li Zicheng's eyes were a little distressed: "Si'er, you don't want to go to Shanhaiguan." Take someone back to Beijing to help Mr. Niu and Mr. Wu take care of things in Beijing. They are also in need of manpower over there. I will give you another 5,000 men and horses, and go back to Beijing to calm the hearts of the people and deter Xiaoxiao. ”

Li Zicheng also knows that now because of the matter of chasing stolen goods and helping salaries, the morale of the demoted officials in Beijing is fluctuating. Since Tang Tong's defeat and death, and the news that Wu Sangui captured Yongping's office, there have been many rumors in the city, and there have even been headless posts. Roughly speaking, Wu Sangui, the head town of Shanhaiguan, was ordered by Liang Guogong to lead troops and horses from east to west to conquer the rebels. The princes of the former emperor were also seen in Wu Sangui's army. There are also some rumors that Li Huayu's department, which is currently north of the Yellow River, has also received a military order from Liang Guogong to prepare to capture Zhending Mansion, enter Taihang and take Taiyuan, and cut off the retreat of the thieves.

And Niu Jinxing and Wu Xing, one is good at internal affairs, and the other is keen on accepting protégés and electing officials, but they are helpless about this kind of thing. Therefore, Li Zicheng had no choice but to send troops and horses back to Beijing to suppress it in the name of letting Wang Si'er return to Beijing to recuperate from his injuries, so as to prevent a fire on the back road.

After making some arrangements for the march and deployment, the brigade of men and horses drove from Yongping to the direction of Shanhaiguan. The flags rolled, the hooves thundered, the wheels were crushed, the horses' hooves were trampled, and hundreds of thousands of feet walked across the ground, shaking the ground slightly.

Two days later, Li Zicheng's army arrived at Shanhaiguan and confronted Wu Sangui's troops on the west bank of the Shihe River.

"Shanhaiguan is north of Jiaoshan Mountain, south of the Bohai Sea, the city is high and the wall is strong, and the outer Luocheng and the Yicheng are each other's horns, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The Great Wall stretches for more than 1,000 miles from Shanhaiguan to Juyongguan, Qi Jiguang personally planned and supervised the repair in the early years of Longqing, divided into three associations and twelve districts, and divided troops to defend. After the middle age of Wanli, the defense was slack, and later there were no soldiers to garrison. During the Chongzhen period, Dongyu invaded the south several times, all from Jizhou and Miyun, looking for an undefended opening, and entering and exiting freely. Although our Dashun army captured Yanjing, it had no troops to defend the Great Wall. The two prefectures and counties of Jizhou and Miyun are so important that not only are there no soldiers stationed in them, but even the state and county officials have not been appointed. Once there is a police, no one reports it. If we are blind and deaf, we will be caught off guard. ”

Outside the Shanhaiguan Pass, Li Zicheng's palace was set up in the courtyard of a squire's house, and he summoned Liu Zongmin, Li Yan, Li Guo, Song Xiance, Zhang Nai, Luo Hu and other civil and military officials to listen to Liu Tichun, who was in charge of intelligence collection in Dashun and exploring horses and hidden piles in various places, to introduce the military situation to everyone.

"Erhu, will it get to the point where you say it is so serious? As far as I know, although Wu Sangui is known as a strong army, there are only more than 60,000 horses at most. In the unlikely event that we are not able to fight in Shanhaiwei, we can retreat with the whole division, and it will not make the overall situation out of control. Of course, if it is not good to go out of the army, it will not only greatly damage the morale of our army, but also greatly damage our prestige. ”

"No, Your Majesty! What General Chen and Tichun were worried about was not Wu Sangui's 60,000 or 70,000 Guan Ning troops, nor was he worried about whether Shanhaiguan would be able to be made public. Instead, they were worried that the Eight Banners of the Eastern Captives would take the opportunity to go south and cut off our army's retreat, or take advantage of the situation to invade Beijing. ”

Li Yan's words made Li Zicheng's heart feel a pang in his heart, he has always been fighting, and the most taboo thing is that a new force suddenly joins the battlefield to attack the flank, or directly joins the battle group. In that way, you will put yourself in a passive position of being attacked by the enemy.

What Lin Quan said was exactly what Wei Chen was worried about. Since the second year of Chongzhen, Dongyu has invaded several times, all from Jizhou and Miyun to enter the Great Wall, threaten Beijing, go deep into Jifu, sweep through southern Hebei, and then enter Shandong, and return with plunder. The minister was worried that our army was holding Wu Sangui under the city of Shanhai, and the elite division of Dongyu had already arrived in the suburbs of Beijing. Song Xiance, who was sitting next to Li Yan, also expressed his worries worriedly.

"Will it be so fast?" Although this situation has been included in the very likely variables in his heart, and he began to think quickly about how to deal with it, Li Zicheng still had a bit of luck and tried to get a little comfort from the mouths of his subordinates.

"Back to Your Majesty, the news of the Manchurian soldiers is different in Shanhai City. Some people say that the Manchurian, Mongolian, and Han Eight Banners are concentrating on Shenyang, and some people say that the Eight Banners have been dispatched. In recent years, the Manchurians have been very clear about the major affairs of the government and the military in Guannai, and the detectives are always on the moves, but we are not very clear about the movements in Manchuria. In the past ten years of Chongzhen, Dongyu entered the Great Wall several times, and the Ming Dynasty was unprepared in advance, just because the detectives were ineffective, waiting to be beaten. What's more, my Dashun Dynasty has been fighting against the Ming Dynasty in the interior, and has not taken Manchuria to heart; After entering Beijing, I realized that the real strong enemy of our dynasty was not the Ming Dynasty, but the Manchurians. It is easy for us to listen to all kinds of news from the Ming Dynasty on weekdays, but now that the matter is approaching, it is very difficult to listen to the news from Manchuria."

Liu Tichun's words made Li Zicheng feel a little gloomy, for more than ten years, he has always been spying and detailing the Ming army, the enemy in front of him, but he didn't expect that thousands of miles away, there was a more dangerous enemy lurking.

"You can't be blamed for that! When Wang Genzi sent a letter to the Emperor of Manchuria that day, I should have been warned! ”

"Your Majesty! The Art of War: 'Know yourself and know your opponent, and you will not be defeated in a hundred battles.' At present, it seems that I do not know where the Manchurian soldiers are, whether they have been dispatched, where they intend to attack Youyan from, and whether they have colluded with Wu Sangui. Since ancient times, soldiers have attached great importance to 'temple calculations' before sending troops. Sun Ziyun: 'The husband is the victor without a fight, and he has to count a lot. The temple is not victorious without a fight, and it is considered to be less. More wins, less wins, and nothing counts? ’”

"Since crossing the river into Jin, His Majesty and the people around him have thought that the world has been at their fingertips, as long as the city of Beijing is conquered and the Emperor Chongzhen is killed, there will be thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, and all parts of Jiangnan, Fujian and Guangzhou can be passed on. When Wu Sangui did not surrender, there was a proposal to crusade against Wu Sangui, and for such a major event, there were very few people among the ministers who admonished His Majesty. Until this time, the ministers all thought that Wu Sangui was just a disease of ringworm to my Dashun, and did not see that after my Dashun army entered Youyan and occupied Beijing, the Ming Dynasty had died, and the strong enemy who could compete with me for the world was not Wu Sangui, but the Eastern Prisoner and the Southern Barbarian. However, due to years of accumulated habits, the Han people in the interior always regarded the Manchurian tribes as the state of Liaodong Yidi, not a problem in the heart. Liang Guogong of Nanzhong is always regarded as a person who covets gold and silver goods. As the so-called leaves blind, do not see Mount Tai. At present, it is unknown whether Dongyu has colluded with Wu Sangui; It is unknown whether the Eight Banners of Dongyu have been dispatched; It is not known when and where the Manchurian soldiers will fight a fierce battle with us. Because I was ignorant of the enemy's movements, and I ventured alone to the east, there was no 'temple calculation', just as the ancients said: 'A blind man rides a blind horse, and faces a deep pool in the middle of the night.' ’”

"If it is when our army and Wu Sangui are fighting Fangxing, Dongyu suddenly breaks through the border wall in Jizhou, Miyun and other places, and takes Beijing directly with fine cavalry, and our army's back road is cut off by it, and the front is Wu Sangui's infant city and guards, at that time, what should our army do? What about Your Majesty? ”

Li Yan's words made Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and the others couldn't help but feel a little creepy, if it weren't for the layers of sentry posts in the courtyard outside, which were tightly guarded, they would almost have to exclaim in surprise.

Li Zicheng looked at Li Yan and Song Xiance who were kneeling on the ground, and his mouth was bitter, and he didn't say anything to blame him, nor did he tell him to be flat. Although Li Yan and Song Xiance said many things that disappointed him greatly, and even marked a very dangerous signal for this Eastern Expedition, their words did make sense.

At this moment, he suddenly saw that strands of dazzling silver threads appeared between Li Yan's temples, there were also a few white whiskers on his chin, and Song Xiance next to him was also wrinkled on his forehead. And three or four years ago, they weren't like that. Since Chongzhen threw himself into his army in the thirteenth year, Li Yan compiled songs, and Song Xiance presented him with "Notes", which really helped him to gather the hearts of the people and stimulate morale, and made extraordinary contributions.

"Lin Quan, Mr. Song, what you said makes sense, and it is also out of loyalty to me and Dashun. Sit down, I don't blame you. I have something important to ask you now, so sit down. ””

Li Yan and Song Xiance kowtowed and sat down again. Li Zicheng frowned and asked in a low voice, "Military Division, Lin Quan." You are all my servants. In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, when he first entered Henan, it was a difficult time, Niu Jinxing came to the army, and then you also came, and then Lin Quan introduced the children of Yudong. It can be said that it will be a stormy meeting. In the past few years, everyone has worked together to build a great cause. At present, the victory or defeat of the Eastern Crusade is related to the great cause. You have an idea for me. ”

"Your Majesty, what the minister means is that when the Japanese army division said, Wu Sangui's western expedition is not good for Sangui, and the emperor's eastern expedition is not good for the emperor. Therefore, the courtier's foolish opinion can make General Luo Hu the rear guard of the army, bluff under the banner of Ruhou, and attack Xiluo City. His Majesty led the army westward and placed the main force between Tongzhou and Yongping. Waiting for work in this way, whether it is Wu Sangui or Dongyu, or the two of them come together, I am not afraid! ”

The tactics proposed by Li Yan were in line with the habits of the Dashun army for many years. Attack for a while, and then feign defeat and retreat, lure with gold and silver goods or other things that make the enemy red-eyed, which is the so-called profit and temptation in the art of war.

Today, Li Yan plans to amplify this trick and use it on Wu Sangui and Dolgon. I'm not afraid that you will chase, I am afraid that you will not chase!

This tactical adjustment was immediately endorsed by Liu Zongmin, Li Guo and others.

"Lin Quan is right, why do we have to attack Shanhaiguan desperately, pretend to fight for a while, lure that kid from Wu Sangui out of his turtle shell, and kill him on the plains, Shanhaiguan is still ours!" Liu Zongmin's rough voice shook the house and echoed.

"Jiexuan, I plan to adjust like this." After thinking about it for a while, Li Zicheng also felt that Li Yan's method was feasible. Moreover, this tactic was also used by Wu Sangui on the Dashun Army just now, and now, let's return it in the same way!

"Luo Hu! Nai! ”

"The minister is here!"

The two young generals of the Dashun army intervened together in front of Li Zicheng to give a salute.

"The artillery battalion and the Zhenshan battalion will storm the city of Xiluo, the city of the northern flank and the city of Dongluo tomorrow. To beat Wu Sangui not dare to go out of the city! ”

"Commandment!"

"Li Guo!"

"The minister is here!"

"You command the soldiers and horses of the headquarters, and I will allocate you ten eight-pounder cannons and eight big Buddha Lang machines, and go out of the customs from a piece of stone (now the ninth gate of Suizhong, Liaoning), dig a ditch and set up camp. Inside, it threatens Wu Sangui, and outside, it guards against Liaodong thieves. After the main force of the army passes, you can join Luo Hu and Zhang Nai, and alternately cover the chasing team! ”

"Command!"

"Jiexuan."

"The minister is here! If there is anything to attack the city, I will hand it over to our old Liu! ”

"How can you work for the siege of the city and the uprooting of the village?"

Li Zicheng smiled, "From tomorrow, you will go to the front of the battle to supervise the battle, and you must make a big splash and make the momentum as loud as possible." Let Wu Sangui in Shanhaiguan see you, the Marquis of Ru, come to the front line to supervise the battle! ”

The rest of the men and horses were personally led by Li Zicheng, Li Yan, Song Xiance and others, and quietly turned back and withdrew to wait between Tongzhou and Yongping Mansion.

This arrangement can be described as both offensive and defensive.

All the way out of the nine gates, cut off the communication inside and outside the pass, monitor the Liao thief brigade that may appear, and storm the outlying strongholds of Shanhaiguan all the way. If the Liao thieves appear near the battlefield, then this is based on retreat, if they do not appear, or if they appear late, these two groups of people and the reserve team personally commanded by Li Zicheng behind them are the preparations for the battle with the Liao thieves. (To be continued.) )