The first year of Dashun Yongchang, April 22.

Inside Shanhaiguan.

"Here comes the Tartars! The Tartars are coming! ”

From the rocky river beach in the south to the rocky mountain pass in the north, the entire battlefield suddenly resounded with a huge shout of terror like a tsunami.

The shouts were accompanied by "Wow! Wow! Wow! and a sudden gust of wind blowing from the sea to the south. I don't know if it's because God is embarrassed, or if the Shanhaiguan area near the sea is already full of hurricanes in summer.

Anyway, this gust of sand and rocks were blowing, and the dark wind suddenly rose up when the Dashun army and the Guanning army on the Shihetan battlefield were fighting to the point that it was difficult to decompose, interrupting an impact launched by a 3,000-horse team that Li Zicheng had finally organized.

Just when he commanded the troops to fight hard and bloody for most of the day, Li Zicheng, who had already deeply felt that Wu Sangui's Guanning Army was in hand, was thinking about whether to collect his troops and return to the camp to rest. The cavalry of the brigade, whose flags, uniforms, and hats were different from those of the Guanning Army, suddenly appeared on the east side of the Shihetan battlefield!

Then they took advantage of the wind and the Guan Ning army, who were accustomed to the windy climate by the sea, to launch a charge!

Before the appearance of the Manchurian army, the Dashun army and the Guanning army had been fighting on the battlefield west of Shanhaiguan for two days, and they were exhausted. Especially since the early hours of this morning, the decisive battle between the two sides has been very hard. Under the personal supervision of Li Zicheng, the 60,000 Dashun army launched round after round of fierce attacks against the Guanning army, which had less than 30,000 troops. The two sides fought repeatedly on the beaches on both sides of the Shihe River that could be crossed, and the corpses were spread layer after layer, and the blood flowed into the shallow Shihe River, almost dyeing the river red.

On the side of the Dashun Army, it was not the rabble that made up the numbers that died, but the elite of the old battalion of Yishui!

Because this time Li Zicheng was on a seven-hundred-mile expedition, and he was in a hurry, wanting to take the Guanning army before the Manchurians entered the army. So they didn't bring the rabble that dragged and wasted food, and all of them brought old battalion soldiers.

He just wants to use the strong combat power of the old battalion soldiers to take down the Guanning Army in one fell swoop!

Before sending troops, he had studied the terrain of Shanhaiguan with his generals, and found that the fortification of Shanhaiguan was external (eastern). The walls of several fortresses facing the inner (west) of the city were very thin, the moats were dug shallowly, and there were no defensive facilities such as castle platforms and tiger falls.

Even with an easy-to-carry light artillery bombardment, it was possible to open a few gaps, and it would not be difficult to storm the city.

However, on 21 April, when the two sides were engaged in a tentative confrontation on both sides of the Shihe Beach, Li Zicheng had already discovered that something was wrong.

The combat effectiveness of the Guan Ning Army was much stronger than he imagined! He originally thought that the Guanning army, like most of the Ming army, was just a small number of family members who could fight. But as soon as he fought, he found that the Guanning army had a certain combat power, and even ordinary soldiers were quite brave. This shows that Wu Sangui and his family did not go south, just here in Shanhaiguan!

And what shocked Li Zicheng even more was that his old battalion soldiers had actually become weaker! In the first battle on the 21st, he showed weakness. There is no longer the momentum of everyone competing for the first place and fighting bravely.

On the night of the 21st, Li himself had to summon his generals to cheer them up, and gave a reward to the soldiers who participated in the battle. This boosted the morale of the troops a little, but that's the case - before entering Beijing, Li Zicheng's old battalion soldiers thought that they had a share in the world of Dashun and that everyone was the hero of the founding of the country, so they were full of enthusiasm, high morale, and they were also active in fighting.

And now everyone is taking money and selling their lives, and they can mix it up, and they are about the same as the elite in the Ming army.

Having lost that spirit of ownership, the foundation of the old battalion soldiers of Dashun is not very strong, and the number does not have much advantage. Therefore, when the Guanning army went out of the city and the Dashun army fought in the field, it actually fell into a bitter battle.

Of course, although the Dashun army couldn't lift its spirits, the Guanning army also didn't have too high morale. After all, Beijing fell, and the officers and men of the Guanning Army had just abandoned their homeland and became rootless soldiers. If it weren't for the news of Li Zicheng's torture and looting in Beijing, which made the officers of the Guanning Army feel the danger, and they all helped Wu Sangui to preach how murderous the rogues were in the army, they would slaughter the relatives of the Guanning Army, and the soldiers of the Guanning Army might have collapsed because of low morale.

In this way, the two most powerful and elite Han armed forces at the moment launched a brutal battle in Shanhaiguan under the condition that their morale was not very high. As time passed, the casualties on both sides became heavier and heavier, and the strength became more and more exhausted, and they all became a tired army.

If it had not been for the sudden addition of the Manchurian army led by Dolgon, who had the advantage in numbers and also the Great Shun army of Tianshi, they should have won the victory in the end.

However, around the time of April 22, 20,000 elites selected by Dolgon from the army of 100,000 Eight Banners passed through the city of Xiluo at Shanhaiguan and appeared in the center of the Shihetan battlefield.

Since this morning, Dolgon has been watching the battle from the city of Ciro, and has seen very clearly, and found that Li Zicheng's troops are not as many as the legend. And the formation he laid was too wide, from the North Mountain to the sea. Can't resist the onslaught of the Eight Banners Iron Rider at all!

As long as enough cavalry is put in to break through the middle of the Dashun army in one fell swoop, they can be split in half.

When the sudden wind stopped, Li Zicheng, who was immediately supervising the formation at the height of the red tile shop, happened to see the four-colored Eight Banners Iron Cavalry rushing over the Shihe Beach like a flood, rushing from the east bank to the west bank, and breaking the Dashun army in the center of the formation like a devastating one. Then a Dashun army camp located on the west bank of Shihetan started a fierce battle with the Dashun army defending the camp. The other one rushed straight towards the red tile shop.

Li Zicheng was dumbfounded, and suddenly a horse galloped over and reported to him: "The Tartar soldiers are coming, and the Marquis of Ru (referring to Liu Zongmin) asks the emperor to avoid it quickly!" ”

Song Xiance on the side also said in a panic: "I didn't expect the Tartars to really come, Shanhaiguan is no longer possible, please drive away quickly!" ”

Li Zicheng was not willing to leave his brothers on the battlefield and run away by himself, gritted his teeth and said to a royal general: "Quickly send orders to Ruhou and Liu Fangliang, and the army will fight and retreat!" ”

But as soon as the pro-general of the herald left, the vanguard of the Eight Banners rushed to the front of Li Zicheng's imperial camp formation, and was desperately blocked by the imperial camp soldiers led by Li Shuangxi.

At this time, on the west bank of the Shihe River, the Dashun army had been divided into many places by the Eight Banners and the Guanning Army, and there were melee battles everywhere, and the camp was also breached. However, when the Dashun army was cornered by the Eight Banners, it also showed combat effectiveness that surprised Dolgon.

They were clearly already tired divisions, and they didn't see how powerful they were when they fought with the Guan Ning army before, but now they actually resisted the charge of the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry. resisted desperately everywhere, and it was inextricable to fight with the Eight Banners, and it also caused a lot of casualties to the Eight Banners.

If it were replaced by the Ming army that Dolgon was familiar with, even if it was the Guanning army, it would have collapsed long ago if it was fought like this!

"These rogues are not weak!" Dolgon, who was standing on the city of Ciro to supervise the formation, said to himself, "Did you keep your hand when you fought with the Guanning army before?" ”

Hong Chengchou, who was standing beside Dolgon, was also a little stunned, in his impression, the Liukou should be very weak, even if he is much stronger now, he should be crushed at the touch of the Eight Banners Heavenly Soldiers!

But now it hasn't collapsed! Hong Chengchou said in his heart: Fortunately, Li Zicheng only brought about 60,000 or 70,000 people over, if he really brought in 200,000 such rogues, the battle of Shanhaiguan would really defeat both the rogues and the Tartars.

In addition, Zhu Cihong, the prince of the Ming Dynasty's Fujun, seems to have defeated 20,000 such rogues in Tianjinwei...... How did this rebel son who imprisoned his father and killed his brother do it?

When Hong Chengchou was thinking nonsense, Dolgon was already giving an order: "Send an order to Duoduo, Tan Tai and Aobai, let them lead the brigade of two white flags and two yellow flags to attack!" There are a lot of us today, even if we use people, we have to pile up Li Zicheng! ”

"Wow!"

With the two white flags and two yellow flags entering the battlefield through Xiluo City in Shanhaiguan, the situation on the battlefield was even more unfavorable to the Dashun army, which was inferior in numbers. However, under the command of Liu Zongmin and Liu Fangliang, the resistance of the Dashun army was still stubborn, and the battle was dragged out until after nightfall, and then retreated westward under the cover of night.

Because he used the night to cover the retreat, and Dolgon was unwilling to chase after the poor and cause too much loss to the Eight Banners, he only sent Wu Sangui to lead more than 10,000 cavalry of the Guanning Army to follow.

So Li Zicheng did not lose all his old capital under Shanhaiguan! In fact, he still has a chance to turn the situation around!