The development of Chongzhen's seventeen years is simply a kaleidoscope of prosperity and complexity, every pattern is so gorgeous, but it is as fleeting as fireworks, which is dizzying. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Li Zicheng, who has been making great progress since the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, seems to have met his upward inflection point at Shanhaiguan. In the case of the onslaught of Shanhaiguan, he encountered the sniping of a large amount of money from the Qing army outside the field.

After Dolgon led the army of the Eight Banners into Shanhaiguan, on the grounds that the army had come thousands of miles and the men and horses were tired and needed to rest, Wu Sangui's troops went to battle, and it was necessary to recapture the stronghold outside Shanhaiguan City first.

As a result, to the great surprise of both Wu Sangui and Dolgon, Liu Zongmin did not have any heavy troops in the northern wing of the city. It's just that hundreds of troops are deployed there to bluff.

Wu Sangui was overjoyed and poured out of the nest, preparing to fight Li Zicheng again on the bank of the Shihe River.

Liu Zongmin was not to be outdone, even if he led the Zhenshan battalion and the artillery battalion, supervising tens of thousands of soldiers and horses on the west bank of the Shihe River. The two sides met without nonsense, just fought on the front line of Shihe and Hongwadian. This time, Wu Sangui's entire army pressed on, and he didn't care about casualties at all.

Liu Zongmin was born as a blacksmith in the end, and in the face of the arrogant Guan Ning Army, he didn't answer, but ordered Zuo Guangxian and others to fight with Wu Thief's soldiers and horses.

The two sides fought from the morning to the early afternoon, seeing that Wu Sangui's men and horses gradually couldn't support it. A strong wind suddenly blew on the surface of the sea, blowing from the northeast to the southwest. The soldiers and horses of the Eight Banners, who were waiting in Jiaoshan and other places, took advantage of the situation to kill, preparing to use the wind to kill Li Zicheng and turn over on his back.

However, he never thought that although people were blown by the wind and could not open their eyes, the artillery and firecrackers had already been demarcated. The guns of the Earthquake Mountain Battalion and the artillery of the Artillery Battalion just bombarded in the direction of the influx of men and horses.

The Dashun army took cover alternately, withdrew to the large camp, and relied on the camp tent to hold on.

As for Zilharang and Dordor, the regent Dolgon was sent by the regent Dolgon to attack Li Guo, who was on the front line of the Nine Gates, to remove the threat from the flanks for the army. As a result, Duoduo, who has always been known for his combat bravery, was slapped in the head by Li who relied on the mountain-shaped terrain at the Nine Gates! Nearly 1,000 people were lost.

The next day, when Wu Sangui's army rushed out of Shanhaiguan and reached the east bank of the Shihe River, there was no Dashun army out of battle. In the midst of doubt, a guerrilla Yang Kun came to report in a hurry, and the sentry learned that in the past few days, the army of thieves has quietly withdrawn under the guise of setting up an ambush in the camp every night!

Sure enough, there was silence in the Dashun military camp. Only the empty tent was left for Wu Sangui. Except for a few broken carts pulled by lame donkeys and with flags on them, which were used to confuse the defenders of the city, even the pots and stoves for boiling water and cooking were not left behind.

When Wu Sangui was dejected and prepared to enter the city with his soldiers, and then discussed and discussed with Dolgon about the westward pursuit of Li Zicheng's troops, he found that the Qing soldiers at the head of the city had taken over the city defense.

Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou were waiting for him at the gate of the city with the edict of Prince Pingxi, the golden seal, and the robe of the prince of Pingxi issued to Wu Sangui by the regent Dolgon.

At the time of half-pushing, Wu Sangui officially became the king of Pingxi in the Qing Dynasty, cut out the old and weak soldiers and horses, reorganized them into 60,000 people, and rode their horses to the west to pursue them. Prepare to attack Li Guo, who was stationed in the area of the Nine Gates from the flank and rear, and flank Duoduo back and forth.

However, his striker was ambushed by Liu Zongmin and more than 1,000 people were killed.

The two sides attacked alternately, teasing each other all the way to the west. The interval was between thirty and fifty miles, and no one dared to attack rashly, lest the other party take advantage of the loophole.

Militarily cautious, but in civil affairs, the Qing army attacked with great fanfare.

"The soldiers and horses of this dynasty entered the customs, not to seize the wealth of the children of the Ming Dynasty, but to exterminate the ugly class and avenge the son of the Great Tomorrow!"

With such a slogan as a forerunner, let the officials and gentry along the way see that Wu Sangui's entire army was wearing a white cloth on his left arm, and no one thought it was true. There are even rumors: the crown prince Zhu Cihong, who was brought to Shanhaiguan by Li Zicheng, has been rescued by Wu Sangui in the war. At the moment, he is in the army. Prepare to recover the emperor's throne after recovering the capital, Zhongxing Daming!

For a while, inside and outside the city of Jingshi, the officials who were tormented by the pursuit of stolen goods and subsidies were as excited as if the orphans who were adrift suddenly saw their biological parents. They began to connect in private, headless posts, notices, and appeared in various places inside and outside the city every day.

It is no wonder that in the capital, the gentry and residents only see a large number of mules and horses and vehicles going out of Xizhimen every day, transferring heavy belongings along Xishan Avenue to Xuanda, which is clearly a plan to move back to Shaanxi!

Since there is such a performance, it is impossible not to let rumors fly all over the sky.

In this regard, Gu Kecheng, who was in charge of the internal security of the capital, was so tired that he cut off dozens of people's heads and hung them at the city gate every day. However, all kinds of headless posts are gone, and invisible rumors are more prosperous.

In this regard, Niu Jinxing and Wu Xing, who were in charge of the affairs of the capital, discussed and wrote to Li Zicheng in Yongping and Tianjin in the name of the scholar of Tianyou Pavilion and the servant of the household government, suggesting that the capital be abandoned. Follow the Xuanda Road to return to Shaanxi, rectify the soldiers and horses, select officials, and then compete with Wu thieves and Liao thieves after laying a solid foundation!

However, Niu Venus and Wu Xing are very different in how to build a solid foundation!

Niu Jinxing advocated that with the help of external forces, as long as it can help Li Zicheng seize the world, no matter what the Southern Yue Army and the Northern Yue Army, no matter what conditions they propose, they can agree with one brain, "Just like Liu Bang Dafeng the princes of the war on that day!" ”

However, Wu Xing has a completely different attitude. Those who are willing to help the emperor fight the country, you can. But it's not all acceptable. God knows if the leader of the world alliance will be Li Mi, and the last to sit in the country is Li Yuan?

The two opinions were delivered to Li Zicheng on the front line by a fast horse.

However, Li Zicheng didn't bother to look carefully at these two completely different manuscripts at the moment, but only drew a word on the inscription book where they proposed to withdraw from Jingshi and throw Jingshi, a large city with a population of more than a million, to Wu Sangui and Dolgon to carry their backpacks, so that Gu Kecheng, Liu Fangliang and others were ready to retreat.

All the signs seem to indicate one thing, Li Zicheng and his Dashun army have no intention of fighting, and are ready to transport back to Shaanxi the treasures, gold, and silver seized during the Jingshi and the Eastern Crusade. The brigade will also retreat to Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi for defense.

"Chase!" "Catch up!"

Wu Sangui and Azig led the vanguard to pursue westward, Funing, Lulong, Changli, Luanzhou all along the way in the city only saw the broken armor dropped by the Dashun soldiers and horses who retreated westward, the lame war horses, and the dilapidated banners, and heard the gentry who greeted the city say, "When the thieves heard that the army was coming, they did not dare to stay, and they ran westward at night." ”

What I saw and heard was similar information, how could I not make Wu Sangui and Azig excited in their hearts? Even if you urge the soldiers and horses to speed up the march, you must catch up with the thief brigade in the area of Jingdong Yutian and Jizhou!

However, when they saw the banner of the Dashun Army outside Jizhou City, Azig was a little timid.

In front of him is a sea of flags, under the banner, the infantry and cavalry are lined up separately, and the huge military formation that stretches for more than ten miles looks extremely dazzling on the land in spring.

On the north and south sides, there is a mile-long smoke and dust, and the spring breeze rolls up the loess, like a yellow dragon, and quickly pounces on the two wings of the Qing soldiers.

"It's broken!" Wu Sangui woke up like a dream, "Li Chuang retreated several cities in a row, but it was not defeated, but the old trick was repeated, luring our army to go deeper!" This is the usual trick of thieves! ”

Although he knew that he had fallen into Li Zicheng's plan to lure the enemy deeper, but he was helpless, if he turned around and retreated, Li Zicheng's army then covered up and killed, running for hundreds of miles in a row, and the soldiers were already sleepy and tired, so they could only become Li Chuang's ghost! It's not like that, it's better to form a battle with Li Chuang here!

After a little discussion, Wu Sangui and Azig agreed on tactics. Wu Sangui pressed the position with infantry, and used light artillery and firecrackers to protect the north and south flanks, blocking the cavalry of the Dashun army that was killed from these two directions. Azig led his Red Banner Manchurian soldiers and horses to attack Li Zicheng's Chinese army, adopting the tactic of piercing the heart with a knife and mobilizing the cavalry on both flanks to reinforce.

At the sound of an order, the subordinates of the two acted separately.

Wu Sangui's soldiers took the artillery from the mules, horses, and camels, added them to the gun wagons, and selected the gun positions under the shouts of the officers, and finished placing them. The artillery was in front, the muskets were behind, and the cavalry was escorted on both flanks of the artillery.

Azig's minions are preparing to change horses. The horses of the Eight Banners lacked concentrate and salt because of their feeding levels. Therefore, the physical strength is not very sufficient. However, backed by the Horqin grassland, Mongolia and Liaodong, which are horse-producing areas, the Qing soldiers also have their own ways to make up for it. That is to use the advantage of quantity to make up for the lack of quality.

The same is true of Azig's men. Each soldier had at least one riding horse and one war horse. In peacetime, they travel by horse, and in wartime, they switch to war horses to fight.

Just after the change of horses, before they had time to open the formation and prepare to form a formation, white smoke rose from the camp of the Dashun army on the opposite side, and then there was a loud noise. However, it was Zhang Nai who aimed the only six twelve-pounder cannons at Azig's Weaving Gold Dragon and began to bombard.

Six fiery cannonballs drew beautiful ballistics in mid-air, leaving a residual image on people's retina, and in the blink of an eye, they fell to the densest part of the crowd.

"Bastard thief! Artillery has such a play there! Azig scolded angrily, and under the busy service of several cronies and slaves, he was torn off his horse and jumped under the field on the side.

Fang Cai, who was still standing tall in the position of the golden dragon weaving, was suddenly shrouded in a splash of flesh and blood.

"Damn! Damn scoundrels! He is so good at using cannons! "Azig has also seen Kong Youde's Wuzhen Chaoha Battalion use cannons, which have always been placed directly in front of the formation and aimed, but today he didn't expect that the thieves actually hid the cannon in their own military formation and opened fire! Cannonballs flew over the heads of their own soldiers and horses, aren't they afraid of hitting their own heads?!

The indirect aiming and firing of the artillery was also heard by Zhang Nai from the mouths of several gunners of the Shenji Battalion, and then he consciously tested it several times when attacking the city and breaking the formations in various places. Today, it is the first time it has been used in field warfare. Azig was fortunate enough to be the first target to be hunted by the tactics of indirect artillery aimed fire.

The cavalry of the Shun army on both wings saw that the Qing army could not see the golden dragon silk of Azig, but only saw the broken limbs and bones of the array, and the frightened war horses ran out of all directions with a wail, knowing that the brothers of the artillery battalion had succeeded, they were more relieved and bold to urge the horses to dance with swords and guns.

"Lord Wang! Prince Ying's handsome banner! Wu Sangui's subordinates also saw Prince Ying's Azig dragon disappearing for the first time, and couldn't help but panic. As soon as the battle was engaged, the commander of his own side was sniped by the opponent's artillery fire, which was undoubtedly a huge blow to the morale of the army.

One trades off the other. The morale of the Qing army was low, and the command system fell into a short period of chaos, but it just gave the Dashun army a good fighter, and the two wings of ten thousand cavalry fired together, and went straight to Wu Sangui's position to kill.

"None of them are allowed to return! Which one retreated, this king was the first to behead him! Wu Sangui's eyes were red, and he was patrolling back and forth in the formation with a sword in his hand. He knew very well that the Qing army was not like the Ming army, which could not be rescued if defeated, and this army, which was linked by family and in-laws, although it was also full of internal contradictions, but once it was external, it was all one.

Sure enough, when Azig's dragon was set up again, there was a cheer in the Qing army's formation, and the cavalry mounted their horses and rushed forward like a hurricane on the Shun army's large array with a sharp arrow formation. On both flanks, Wu Sangui also led his troops and horses to shoot the cavalry of the Shun army to the ground with Xu Jin's firearms, expanding his position step by step.

However, the two wings and the Dashun army in front have already played out their morale, and in the face of the counterattack of the Qing army, they did not fall behind at all, just greeted each other with knives and arrows, and from time to time someone was hit by a stray arrow, or was hit by a stray bullet and fell to the ground without having time to snort. The robe in the back continued to pounce on the Qing army on the opposite side with his sword and gun.

The two sides fought back and forth for nearly two hours, and after all, the Qing army was a long-distance pursuit march, and its physical strength gradually became exhausted, and it slowly declined.

The artillery team of the Dashun army also came to the spirit at this time, and several shells fell on the baggage cart of the Wu army, hitting the sub-medicine projectile carried on the car. Suddenly, the sound of explosions continued in the front line of the Wu army, and from time to time white smoke rolled up, and in the smoke and firelight, those lead projectiles were pushed by the huge impact of the explosion, and flew everywhere.

Seeing this scene, the morale of the Shun army was even more boosted, and they rushed towards the Wu army's position with a loud shout, compressing the Qing army's position one by one, and gradually had the tendency to block the waist and cut it off.

The Manchurian cavalry of the Red Banner in front of them was unable to advance an inch under the alternating use of artillery, cavalry and firearms of the Shun army.

It didn't matter if he couldn't attack Li Zicheng's Chinese army, but under the pressure of the cavalry and artillery of the Shun army, he retreated step by step and retreated towards the Chinese army.

Under the Chinese army's weaving golden dragon, Azig threw his gold-inlaid helmet on the ground and pulled out his iron steel knife, "Damn! Damn thief, I don't believe that I can't move your formation! Rush up with this king! ”

"Lord Wang! The prince can't! The thieves are under fierce fire, and our soldiers can't rush up! It's better to shrink the position, and when the cavalry of the thieves rushes to the front of the formation, and the artillery fire can no longer rage, the prince will lead people out again! "Azig's Baya Lama Zhangjing hugged him desperately, preventing this prince banner lord who had been carried away by his rage to go up and take risks.

In this period just now, among the Zhenghongqi Manchuria, which was fighting with the thieves, one Meile Zhangjing had been lost, three Jiala Zhangjing, and seventeen Niu Lu Zhangjing! There were more than 100 officers below the level of Paishku, and even more soldiers and slaves were lost.

At this time, there were suddenly panicked shouts from behind, but the Shun cavalry on both wings had already rushed to the front, and the Shun infantry of the rear brigade also followed up layer by layer, squeezing only Li Xu from the Wu army's position. Arrows on both sides can almost pierce through!

To add fuel to the fire, Zhang Nai mobilized more than a dozen six-pounder guns to the two flanks to strengthen the artillery attack on the Wu army. Watching the shells whistling over their heads, Wu Sangui's subordinates fought the Battle of Tashan, and when they saw too many artillery fires washing the ground, they couldn't help but be shocked.

Finally, the artillery of the Shun army gradually stopped, thinking that each artillery had been fired to the point that the cannon body could be scalded raw meat, and it should be stopped to dissipate heat for at least half an hour, otherwise those Nanzhong cannons would explode.

Take advantage of this opportunity to suppress the thieves!

Wu Sangui stood up, not caring about the mess in front of him, he could only hear the sound of the war drums of the Shun army in his ears, and the loud shouts in front of him, as if all the Shun troops in all directions were rushing towards his Chinese army, and they were surging like a tide.

Seeing this scene, Wu Sangui had no choice but to sigh, took the spear he was used to, and clenched it in his hand. Some of his own soldiers came over to tidy up his armor and remove the big red cloak to make it easier to fight and reduce the target.

"Kill ten barrels!"

"Kill ten barrels!"

From time to time, there were bursts of thunderous shouts among the soldiers rushing from both wings.

"What are the thieves shouting?" Although Wu Sangui is at a critical juncture of life and death, he also doesn't want to be a fool.

also had such thoughts, Prince Ying Azig also asked his henchmen and slaves.

"Where are these thieves shouting what?"

A house slave is an old man who followed him from the two white flags to the positive red flag, and this person has some friendship with Niu Lu, one of Abatai's subordinates, and knows some things about Abatai's battle in Shandong.

"Back to the master, when Rao Yu Baylor was in Shandong, he also fought with Li Zicheng's subordinate thieves, and it is said that the head of a Qing Dynasty soldier and horse can be exchanged for ten barrels of Nanban gunpowder. Therefore, the thieves at that time shouted to kill ten barrels every time they fought! Today, it must be the thief among these thieves who has arrived! ”

"Kill one of my Qing officers and soldiers in exchange for ten barrels of Nanban gunpowder?" The muscles on Azig's face twitched a few times, "Let's see if this king kills all these Nikans, or if these Nikans kill this king to change gunpowder!" Follow this king to kill! ”

Azig and Wu Sangui constantly counterattacked with their subordinates, trying to repel Li Zicheng's encirclement, but to no avail.

Fourth, the encirclement of Azig and Wu Sangui has been formed. From time to time, the banners of the Qing army were cut down to the ground by the soldiers of the Shun army, and the Qing officers and soldiers who resisted wielding knives and guns were drowned in the formation of the Shun army's attack in a blink of an eye.

"It's over! Today is the time of my death. Wu Sangui sighed in his heart, and subconsciously reached out to touch the sword on his waist.

"Lord Wang! It's not the end yet, and the prince must not kill himself! Several pro-soldiers pounced on him and tried to stop Wu Sangui's suicide.

"Joke! This king would never do such a thing! This king is going to die, and he will take his hundred and ten thieves as a backing! Sons, follow this king! Kill! ”

The tip of the spear in his hand pointed forward, and hundreds of Wu Sangui's personal soldiers roared like wolves and rushed back in the direction of the Shun army. Suddenly, the two groups of people collided in one place, and the screams of blood flowers continued.

"Little Naite, do you think you can take out this Tartar's striker today?" A few miles away, under the umbrella of the Yellow Dragon, Li Zicheng raised the telescope in his hand to observe the situation on the battlefield. After a few hours of attack, the Qing army had suffered heavy casualties. From time to time, generals of the Shun army came to Li Zicheng and sent the first-level armor of the officers and generals of the Qing army who had been killed.

"It's a pity that there aren't enough artillery, otherwise, the war would have ended long ago。。。。。" As he spoke, Zhang Nai's face changed slightly, and he felt a tremor under his feet, which was the strength that can only be had when at least tens of thousands of war horses galloped at the same time!

"Your Majesty! General Gu Ying in the east sent someone to deliver an urgent report! The Liao thief inlaid with the white flag and the lord of the white flag, the prince Duoduo, has already handed over his hands. The Liao thieves are fierce, and the brothers can't support it. Please make a quick decision! ”

To the east, behind the white flags of Duoduo, there was an overwhelming force of military horses. (To be continued.) )