A day later, Zhu Cihong and others drove a hundred miles without stopping and came to a forest 100 miles away from Beijing.

"His Royal Highness the Prince, the front is the boundary of Gu'an County, according to the news obtained by the scouts sent out, Gu'an County was occupied by the thief army a few days ago, and there are currently 5,000 thief troops stationed there." Zhang Kuishan received a report from his subordinates and said to Zhu Cihong with a worried face. They only had 1,500 men and horses, and it was like ascending to the sky to pass through Gu'an County, where 5,000 thieves were stationed.

Zhu Cihong frowned and asked, "What about Bazhou in the south of Gu'an?" ”

"Bazhou has also been occupied by the thief army a few days ago, His Royal Highness the Prince, the south road has been broken, but Tianjin Wei is still in the hands of Daming, should we turn back and take Guangyang to Tianjin Wei, there are still 20,000 soldiers and horses of my Ming Dynasty, and with the 20,000 soldiers and horses of Tianjin Wei escorting, Your Highness will be able to reach Shandong safely." Li Zicheng had just broken through Beijing and had not had time to go south to Shandong, so the entire territory of Shandong was still in the hands of Liu Zeqing, the chief military officer of Daming Shandong.

Now there are only two ways for Zhu Cihong to go to the south of the Yangtze River, one passes through Gu'an, Bazhou, Hejianfu, Cangzhou, and enters Dezhou in Shandong from Cangzhou. One goes west, from Guangyang to Tianjin Wei, goes south to Canghai, and enters Shandong from Canghai County.

Now that Gu'an and Bazhou have been occupied by Li Zicheng, it is not easy to take this road.

If you go to Tianjin Wei --- Zhu Cihong just thought about it slightly, and then couldn't help shaking his head, he remembered that in history, the corrupt officials of Tianjin Wei at the end of the Ming Dynasty were rampant, and the chief military officer deducted military salaries all the year round, and the 20,000 troops there had already been discouraged, and many lower-level sergeants had been bought and infiltrated by Li Zicheng's people, and they would revolt and surrender when Li Zicheng captured the city of Beijing, so Zhu Cihong went there almost to throw himself into the net.

Thinking about it, Zhu Cihong sighed and said: "It is not feasible to take the road of Tianjin Wei, which has long been infiltrated by Li Zicheng, and it is by no means a credible place, we must find a way to take Gu'an, Hebazhou, reach Cangzhou through Hejian Mansion, and then enter Shandong from Cangzhou." ”

"But His Royal Highness the Prince, there are 5,000 thieves in Gu'an, and there are many in Bazhou, although Hejian and Cangzhou are still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, but now the thief army is powerful and may be lost at any time, and this road is full of difficulties." Zhang Kuishan persuaded.

"No matter how difficult it is, we have to take the road of Gu'an, Tianjin Wei will be lost in a few days, if we go there, we will become lambs to be slaughtered before we arrive." Zhu Cihong decisively said.

"Okay!" Zhang Kuishan saw that Zhu Cihong was so resolute, so he could only obey the order. Although he didn't know why Zhu Cihong thought that Tianjin Wei would definitely rebel, he was just the commander of the guards, and he would eventually listen to His Royal Highness the Prince.

"Report -----"

"Report to His Royal Highness the Prince, fifteen miles away found the traces of thieves chasing soldiers, about 10,000 people." A scout came to report.

"General Zhang, Li Zicheng's chasing troops are approaching, time is pressing, gather all the guards to rush overnight, and when you arrive in Gu'an, the prince has his own way to take Gu'an."

"The last general obeys!"

The crowd had rested for less than a quarter of an hour, and then they had to travel all night.

Take the road of Gu'an, Zhu Cihong is not helpless, if there is really a safe road, how can he take risks, now the road ahead is not passable, there are chasing soldiers behind, Zhu Cihong is not sure whether he can reach Nanjing safely at this time, he can only give it a go, Gu'an and Bazhou are not iron buckets that cannot be taken.

Soon after Zhu Cihong and they left, Liu Zongmin led his army to chase after this grove.

"Just left, chase!" Looking at the new shoe prints on the ground, Liu Zongmin concluded that Zhu Cihong and they had just left.

"General, don't worry, Gu'an in front was taken by our army yesterday, and that group of Ming troops will definitely be unable to escape." Liu Zongmin's counselor said with a smile.

"Well, even so, it's not to be taken lightly." Liu Zongmin nodded, and then after reprimanding again, he led the army to continue the pursuit.

In Gu'an County, it was dark at this time, and on the city wall, Commander Han was patrolling with soldiers.

"Click, click, click---"

Commander Han and his sergeants looked at the place where the voice came. I saw that a group of people suddenly appeared in the dark night, from far and near, gradually showing their true faces, it was actually a group of well-equipped elite Ming army, looking at the fine armor on their bodies, it can be concluded that this is the elite of the Imperial Forest Army in Beijing City.

"It's not good, the Ming army is raiding!" Commander Han didn't know any elite of the Imperial Forest Army, but he was divided between the Qingming Army and the Dashun Army.

As soon as Commander Han recognized this group of Ming troops, he saw one of the Ming soldiers riding a horse to the city and shouting to the city: "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is here, who is the general guarding the city, hurry down to meet him!" ”

"Captain Bendu doesn't know His Royal Highness the Prince, come here, release arrows!" Commander Han sneered and ordered.

"It's not good, Gu'an has been occupied by the thief army, run!" As countless arrows were shot from the city wall, the group of Ming soldiers turned and ran.

"Hahahaha, the rats of the Ming Army, His Royal Highness the Prince, when he saw our Dashun Army, he ran away, and they were all bad seeds!" The Dashun army in the city pointed at the fleeing Ming army and laughed.

A few miles away from Gu'an, Zhu Cihong ordered 1,500 guards to turn around and go east, heading to Guangyang.

"Your Royal Highness the Prince, since we have diverted to Guangyang, why did we alarm the defenders of Gu'an in advance." Zhang Kuishan rode a horse, caught up with Zhu Cihong and Empress Zhou's carriage, and asked Zhu Cihong.

"Who said we were going to Guangyang." Zhu Cihong smiled faintly and said: "The capital has been lost, and now another day has passed, Guangyang is not far from the capital, and now it must have been occupied by the thief army, and if you go there, you will also have to face the thief army defending the city in Guangyang, besides, the prince has concluded that Tianjin Wei must have been taken by the thief army, and Tianjin Wei is a dead end, and you can't go!" ”

Zhu Cihong continued: "The reason why we turned to Guangyang is just to lead away the pursuers behind us first, and then return to Gu'an, lead out the defenders of Gu'an with lightning speed, and annihilate them in one fell swoop, and take Gu'an. ”

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Shengming, play the thief legion." The eunuch Zhao Dequan was also listening to the side, and when he saw Zhu Cihong finish speaking, he immediately patted his ass.

Zhu Cihong glanced at Zhao Dequan lightly, and naturally knew that Zhao Dequan was patting his ass.

Zhao Dequan smiled and shut up.

Under the city of Gu'an, Liu Zongmin's 10,000 troops chased here.

Liu Zongmin, as one of the several famous generals under Li Zicheng, was naturally known to the commander of Han, and hurriedly welcomed him into the city, and sent someone to inform General Qian, who was guarding Gu'an.

"General Qian, I wonder if you've seen a group of Ming troops appear here recently?" Liu Zongmin didn't talk nonsense, and asked directly.

"Back to the general's words, a group of Ming troops did pass by here a quarter of an hour ago, and they claimed to be His Royal Highness the Prince, who wanted to enter the city, but was beaten away by the last general." General Qian said with a flattering face.

Although General Qian is also a general, he is too far from Liu Zongmin, the confidant of King Chuang, to be too far behind, so he can't help it. Behind General Qian, Commander Han looked at General Qian's face, and secretly held his mouth, his heart was full of disdain, but he never dared to show it.

"It turned out to be His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty! No wonder there is the protection of the guards of the Imperial Forest Army of the Ming Palace, looking at this situation, it must be planning to run to the south of the Yangtze River to establish a ******, hehe, now Guangyang and Tianjin Wei are in the hands of Dashun, see where you can escape! Liu Zongmin smiled coldly, and after asking the direction of the escape of the Royal Forest Army was Guangyang, he did not stop, and led the 10,000 troops under his command to chase after him immediately.

As soon as Liu Zongmin left, the flattering smile on General Qian's face suddenly ended, slapped his thigh fiercely, and said with a look of regret: "I didn't expect it to be the Prince of Daming, but it's a pity that this great achievement flew in front of me, hateful----"

General Qian said, glaring fiercely at Commander Han: "It's all your fault for killing talents, if you hadn't come to report to General Ben earlier, General Ben would have let go of this opportunity to make a great achievement!" ”

Han Tongling was slightly angry in his heart, he had already reported him, but he only cared about playing with women and drinking flower wine, and he didn't believe what he said at all, but now he came to blame himself, which was really unreasonable.

Thinking of this, Han Commander was a little disappointed, the original Dashun army was not like this, recalling that when he first came out of Shaanxi, the Dashun army loved the people like a son, and all the counties they passed through opened warehouses to release grain, and the land was tax-free, but now it has just captured the capital of Daming for only one day, and their true nature is exposed, only caring about drinking and enjoying playing with women, short-sighted.

At this time, Commander Han even had the idea of leaving the Dashun Army.

After Zhu Cihong left Gu'an, he ran for hundreds of miles in the direction of Guangyang.

"Stop!"

Looking at the river in front of him, Zhu Cihong stopped and beckoned to Han Tong not far away.

"His Royal Highness the Prince, the last general, what do you command!" Zhang Kuishan said respectfully.

"There are still dozens of miles to Guangyang, we don't have to cross the river, turn back from here, you immediately take people to create the illusion that we have crossed the river, and you may see the traces of our return in sweeping away the surrounding areas, and we will be safe." Zhu Cihong commanded.

"Your Highness is clever." Zhang Kuishan instantly understood Zhu Cihong's plan and admired.

Zhang Kuishan moved very fast, but a cup of tea created an illusion.

Zhu Cihong immediately led 1,500 East Palace guards to Gu'an to turn back, and left more than a dozen people all the way to clear the traces of the return, so that Li Zicheng's pursuers must not know that they had returned to Gu'an.

Because Zhu Cihong and their marching speed was slightly faster than Liu Zongmin, Liu Zongmin arrived at the river more than an hour later.

"General, there are traces of crossing the river by the river, and the Ming army must have all crossed the river!" Liu Zongmin's subordinate generals looked at the traces by the river and concluded.

Liu Zongmin frowned, he didn't expect that the Ming prince would move so fast and cross the river in a short time.

"General Li, you quickly take some people to get off the collection boat immediately, cross the army and cross the river, and don't let the Ming prince escape away." Liu Zongmin ordered with a cold face.

"Subordinates take orders!"

After a full hour, the general Li only collected a dozen boats, but Liu Zongmin had 10,000 people, according to the maximum of hundreds of people who crossed the river at a time, and after three hours, Liu Zongmin's 10,000 troops all crossed the river.

On a hill two miles away from the river, two East Palace guards who Zhu Cihong deliberately stayed to observe, looked at Liu Zongmin's last group of people, and then smiled, rode on their war horses and chased in the direction of Zhu Cihong's return to Gu'an.

More than two hours later, the two guards finally caught up with Zhu Cihong.