Zhaozhou, a subordinate state of Zhending Mansion, which was famous for Zhaozhou Bridge in later generations, has completely become the sea of the Dashun army in blue clothes and white hats. The well-disciplined old battalion soldiers poured in like a flood, and the Qing Dynasty officials and soldiers stationed in Zhaozhou did not even have the courage to resist, so they became the "middle brave" who fled from the wind. However, before they escaped, they caused a lot of harm to Zhaozhou City, first caught the few residents in the city, drove them out of Zhaozhou City in this winter, and all of them went north, and then burned down all the houses in the city. It is also called beautifully: the wall is clear.

Soon after the Qing soldiers retreated with the people, nearly 30,000 old Dashun soldiers with high morale led by Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu drove into the deserted Zhaozhou City.

By the way, Li Zicheng's old battalion suffered a series of blows and heavy losses after a stone defeat. The 60,000 old battalion soldiers who originally led the Eastern Expedition were able to retreat to Shanxi, but less than 30,000. Although he also made a contribution from the high level of Guanzhong, Yuan Zongdi of Xiangyang transferred more than 10,000 backbone members of the old battalion to supplement it. But in any case, it will not reach the current number.

Therefore, the 40,000 old battalion soldiers led by Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu are actually water-filled troops. The elite soldiers who entered the old camp before the stone battle were only fourteen or five thousand. The rest are all newly recruited bravery, some are from the Ming army, some are bandits, and some are simply ordinary people. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of this army is no longer the same as that of the old battalion soldiers who fought with the Qing army and the Guanning army in a stone.

This time, the Northern Expedition was able to achieve such results, which was really beyond the expectations of Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu.

These two people are more cautious temperaments, especially after Tianjin Weihe Yishi suffered, and they did not have the heroic spirit of sweeping the Eight Wilderness in the past. Therefore, in the face of the situation of Lian Zhan Lianjie, he became more cautious and cautious, and he did not dare to move forward when he advanced to Zhaozhou.

In the Zhaozhou Prefecture Ya, which had passed the fire, Li Guo, who was wearing sheepskin fur, was sitting on a stone bench in the garden with an old acquaintance in a daze at this time. This old acquaintance is Li Yan and Feng San, a subordinate of the Red Lady, and now he has a big name, he goes up and down the mountain, and he has a well-known official body, and he is the chief of the Tang Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty and the commander of the left guard.

However, this time he did not order the Tang King to come, but brought Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu a handwritten letter from Zhu Cihong, the prince of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming prince wants to unite with him, the imperial nephew of Dashun, to resist the Qing Dynasty!

Moreover, Zhu Cihong also explained to him in the letter that the Dai Fan had joined the Qing Dynasty without authorization - this matter was definitely the opinion of the people of the Dai Domain, and the determination of the Ming Prince himself to resist the Qing Dynasty was firm!

In addition, Zhu Cihong also told Li Guo in the letter that if the situation of the Northern Expedition was unfavorable, he was welcome to go south to Kaifeng and Nanyang to station. There is no need for him to be a vassal to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty is willing to non-aggression with him, and he can also lend him rice and cloth......

This condition is quite attractive!

But now the whole world knows that the prince of Daming is cunning and cruel, and he joins forces to fight against the Qing, will he be annexed if he resists?

......

"Marquis, we don't have much grain and grass left, since we hit Weihui Mansion, it is difficult to raise food along the way, Tartars are burned everywhere, and both sides of the avenue are destroyed into white ground......

After Feng Mingshan left, it was Tian Jianxiu who spoke to Li Guo, and by Li Zicheng's side, he was a bigwig-level figure on an equal footing with Liu Zongmin. Now with Li Guo, he is a head shorter than Li Guo and has become Li Guo's deputy - after withdrawing from Beijing City, Li Zicheng has firmly grasped his old camp.

can be on his own, except for Yuan Zongdi, who has long been assigned to lead troops in Xiangyang, that is, the eldest nephew Li Guo, his wife and brother Gao Yigong and Luo Hu, the leader of the children's battalion who regards him as his own.

Even Tian Jianxiu and Liu Zongmin are not allowed to lead an army alone.

Unlike Liu Zongmin's unruly temperament, Tian Jianxiu is a general who knows how to advance and retreat, so Li Zicheng asked him to assist Li Guo.

"Is there any news from the emperor?" Li asked.

Tian Jianxiu shook his head: "Marquis Bo, the emperor has retired from Guguan, and I don't know where he went, so I can't get in touch...... Xu is back in Guanzhong. ”

The backbone of the Dashun army were all from Shaanxi, and after they withdrew from Beijing, they began to feel homesick and wanted to return to their hometown in Guanzhong as soon as possible to celebrate their birthday...... In the eyes of the Shaanxi people, once Tongguan and Wuguan are closed, Guanzhong will be able to become a world of its own.

Li Guo actually had such thoughts, and when he heard what Tian Jianxiu said, he also sighed: "It's better to go back to Guanzhong...... In fact, I should have gone back a long time ago, and I should have gone straight to Guanzhong after coming out of Beijing. Only when we do a good job in the management of the customs can our foundation be stable. ”

"Business?" Tian Jianxiu shook his head and lowered his voice, "Marquis Bo, I have inquired with Feng San, Li Yan is doing a good job in Runing!" In just a few months, the business has made a difference......"

"How does he run it?" Li Guo asked with a frown.

"It's not that difficult, just grab the land, the population, and the silver," Tian Mishu said, "and then reward the meritorious deeds and divide a part of the land, the population, and the silver...... Feng San explained that the prince of Fujun of the dynasty did the same in the southeast, confiscating tens of millions of acres of land and tens of millions of taels of silver from the southeast lords and nobles! The tens of thousands of soldiers of the New Army who followed him have all been given land, at least 50 acres of paddy fields in the south of the Yangtze River! Everybody rejoices....... The situation of the Zhu family in the southeast is stable.

In addition, the Tartars also circled fields, occupied houses, and surrendered within 300 miles of Beijing, and distributed the land and population to their Eight Banner generals......"

Li Guo sighed: "We should do the same!" ”

"But the emperor ......," Tian Jianxiu's words opened and swallowed back.

In fact, he didn't say it, and Li Guo also knew what he was talking about - isn't it "the emperor is a little kind of woman"?

Do you need to talk about this? Who doesn't know all the high-level leaders of the Dashun Army?

This Emperor Yongchang looked very scary when he was cruel, and he could do any evil deeds. But in the bottom of his heart, he is very sympathetic to the poor people, and he really loves the poor as the foundation of Dashun Jiangshan.

His approach is a bit like the "free model" of later Internet companies, which first uses the free model to circle the market, and then finds a way to make a profit.

But Li Zicheng had no way to raise funds to fill the deficit caused by the free model, so he had to detain his brothers.

At present, the monthly salary of ordinary veteran battalion soldiers is only a meagre tael of silver, which is not enough to support their families, and the military rations are only enough to feed their families, and if they want to get rich, they can only rely on robbery, but Li Zicheng is afraid that he will lose the hearts of the people by robbing too much, and the restrictions are very strict.

Compared with the Eight Banner soldiers who occupy a large number of banner land and the veterans of the New Army who can be assigned at least 50 acres of paddy fields in the south of the Yangtze River (recruits can only be awarded fields after five years of meritorious service or service), the actual income of the veteran battalion soldiers of the Dashun Army is only about one-tenth of that of others. Before conquering Beijing, I could talk about ideals, but now I still talk about a fart?

Fortunately, in this era, the information is not developed, and the transportation is not convenient, otherwise there would be no need to fight, and the old battalion soldiers under Li Zicheng would all go to Zhu Cihong to submit their resumes!

But if Li Guo really took Li Zicheng's 40,000 old battalions to Kaifeng and Nanyang next to Runing Mansion, and played with Zhu Cihong what kind of anti-Qing united front, hehe...... Don't let Li Yan dig up the corner of the wall?

Of course, Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu are not without the risk of seeing Lianming, but they have no way out now. This roundabout counteroffensive has been fought so far, and it has been a bit of a strong crossbow. If you go further north, do you really want to go to the city of Beijing? This time, we can't expect the people of Beijing to meet the king, because the city of Beijing has basically become a city of flag men......

Moreover, it is impossible for the Tartar soldiers to be trapped in Shanxi, as long as Dolgon still has 20,000 Tartar soldiers at hand to use, Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu's soldiers and horses are in danger.

Since it is very dangerous to go north, it is inevitable to turn south, but the question is only where to go?

Therefore, when more than 10,000 Eight Banner soldiers led by Luo Luohun and Tan Tai appeared in the territory of Zhending Mansion, Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu didn't even think of a decisive battle, and immediately chose to retreat in great strides.

At the same time, Wu Sangui's army crossed Wangwu Mountain and rushed into Huaiqing Mansion, which also cut off the retreat channel of Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu to Henan Mansion (Luoyang).

So retreating south to Kaifeng, and then turning to Nanyang, it became the only way for Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu's troops and horses to retreat.

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