The thought of this makes even the dullest mind thump.

However, Li Xiao did not think that the Liukou would sweep the entire northern part of the Ming Dynasty as in real history, and finally take the Jingshi directly.

This world at the end of the Ming Dynasty, after the arrival of his own crossing, has changed a lot, like Li Zicheng last year, he was also defeated by himself in Zhuxian Town, Kaifeng, Henan, and had to retreat to Shaanxi to survive, even if Li Zicheng wanted to cross the Yellow River east to take the Beijing division as in history, I am afraid that he will also have more fear and hesitation about his own prestige.

He still felt that now he should first subdue the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and it was best to take Liaoyang, an important town of the Qing court, and then use this as a condition to take advantage of the Qing people's fear, try to strive for favorable negotiation conditions, and then return to China to fight to the death with Li Zicheng's troops.

It's just that although Li Xiao comforted himself so much in his heart, the situation in the Ming Dynasty was deteriorating faster than he imagined.

Li Zicheng's army divided into two routes, and when they marched to Beijing, they adopted a pincer offensive. Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin personally led 300,000 soldiers and horses on the north road of the Dashun army, and entered Juyong Pass by way of Taiyuan, Ningwu, Datong and Xuanhua as planned. The other southern route army of the Dashun Army, under the command of Liu Fangliang, also launched a southern front operation in accordance with the unified deployment.

Li Zicheng's army built 3,000 ships at Shawukou, crossed the Yellow River, and quickly captured Fenzhou, Yangcheng, and Puzhou.

Ten days later, Dashun's army on the northern route conquered the fortified city of Taiyuan. When the Liukou attacked the city, Niu Yong, Wang Yongkui and other overseers in the Ming army were killed in the battle, and on the eighth day, the defender Zhang Xiong was the internal response, and the city was broken by shelling, and Cai Maode hanged himself.

Li Zicheng's troops rested in Taiyuan for five days, immediately sent troops again, Kexin Prefecture, the officials and the people surrendered, Zhou Yuji, the general soldier of Daizhou Guanguan, held the city with the city, the two sides fought for more than ten days, Zhou Yuji was exhausted because of the lack of soldiers, and retreated to Ningwu Pass.

Li Zicheng waved his division into the army, Zhou Yuji tried his best to refuse, and finally the gunpowder was exhausted, and he died in the battle of opening the door, and his whole body was like a hedgehog hair, and his wife Liu led more than 20 women to the house and shot, all of whom were burned to death.

This is the battle in which Li Ziju attacked the Ming Realm in the east, and the casualties were the heaviest, from the attack on Xinzhou to the final capture of Ningwu Pass, nearly 50,000 soldiers were killed and wounded before and after, and the casualties were very heavy.

In order to take revenge on the Ming army that dared to resist, Li Zicheng, who was resentful, ordered the slaughter of the city, and none of the soldiers and civilians in Xinzhou remained.

Li Zicheng's massacre achieved a very terrifying effect, and on the evening of the same day, Jiang Xuan, the general soldier of Datong, surrendered, and Wang Chengyin, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, also arrived. Li Zicheng waved his troops eastward, and then connected to Juyongguan, Changping, and Yanghe. Eleven days later, the soldiers and horses of the Dashun Army on the North Road successfully marched into Xuanfu.

Zhu Zhifeng, the governor of Xuanfu, tried to lead the resistance, and he ordered the soldiers defending the city to fight the Liukou to the end, but he quickly fell into deeper despair.

The sergeant clasped hands and remained silent. The line of fire covering all the cannons has been extinguished, and the doors are plugged and cannot be fired. Zhu Zhifeng saw that the general trend had gone, and he was so anxious that he looked up to the sky and cried. And Wang Chengyin, who had agreed with Liukou to surrender secretly, guarded the southern city at this time, and immediately opened the city gate to welcome the Dashun army into the city.

"The city is full of colors, or silk or cloth, and there is no paper. The word 'Shunmin' was glued to the chest of the people, and incense was burned and kneeled. Faced with such a helpless scene, Governor Zhu Zhifeng hanged himself. Then his head was cut off by Wang Chengyin's troops and dedicated to Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng led his troops into the city and inspected the whole city, Wang Chengyin held Zhu Zhifeng's head in his hand, "bowing before kneeling to congratulate", and his face was virtuous. It's just that Li Zicheng was quite unimpressed with the villain behavior of a traitor seeking glory and self-defeating, and sneered to his face: "General Wang has made such a great contribution, whose city is this?" Wang Chengyin was full of panic and speechless.

The soldiers and horses on the north road of the Dashun army are going smoothly, and the soldiers and horses on the south road led by Liu Fangliang have attacked Kexian County all the way, which can be called rapid progress and invincible.

The army of the Dashun Army on the south road crossed the river at Puban and marched eastward along the north bank of the Yellow River. A few days later, when he arrived in the Huaiqing area of Henan, Chen De (the son of Chen Yongfu), the deputy general of the Ming Dynasty, was already frightened when he saw that the Liukou was coming, and he hurriedly arrested Su Jing, the governor of the imperial history, and surrendered to the Dashun army.

Liu Fangliang set up a defense envoy, a prefecture and a county commander of the six counties in the Huaiqing area, and took over these areas very effectively. Zhu Changshu, the king of Minglu who was sealed in Weihui Mansion, was already frightened at this time, and when the Dashun army had not yet arrived, under the protection of the chief soldier Bu Congshan, he fled south with his palace dependents and treasures.

After Liu Fangliang pacified the locality, he re-led the troops into the Changzhi area of Shanxi. Changzhi was called Shangdang in ancient times, and it has always been a place for soldiers to fight, but they did not expect that before the arrival of the righteous army, the officials of Lu'an Prefecture and County fled away, and there was a ridiculous situation that the local area was completely ownerless.

As a result, the Dashun army occupied Changzhi and nearby prefectures and counties without blood. The local gentry couldn't help but sigh and said: "Fuhe went to the east of the party, and it was a place where the ancient army must be fought for, and they were all at their fingertips, and nothing could be done in the world." ”

Immediately, the Daqi army captured Zhu Huihong, the king of Shen, skinned him alive, and seized a large number of gold and silver treasures hidden in the palace. Liu Fangliang appointed Sun Mingyi as the defense envoy of Lu'an, and put him in charge of recovering stolen goods and helping to pay him.

In order to supplement military salaries, the Dashun army adopted a powerful method of squeezing money from the gentry and officials of the Ming Dynasty, which was very rude.

"It is the royal clan of the county and the village scholars, non-torture, large gold and silver, tens of millions of dollars, called donations. Down to the Chengtian Commissioner, none of them were spared. or has already died, and recovering its descendants and plundering them as a whole, it is the same with the example of the famous eunuchs. …… And the distribution of thieves in each county is strictly proportional. ”

Then, Liu Fangliang left the general Ping Nanbo Liu Zhong to guard the Changzhi area, and led his troops to continue to advance.

After the main force of the left battalion of the Dashun army left Changzhi, he went east to Zhangde Mansion, sent generals to lead troops to collect the Daimyo Mansion and the counties under the prefecture, and left the general Liu Rukui to guard Zhangde Mansion in Henan.

Liu Fangliang himself led his troops through Cizhou and entered the Jifu area. The magistrate of the Ming Dynasty in Guangping Mansion had already fled when he heard the arrival of the army of thieves, and Zhang Ruxing, the former general soldier of Tongzhou who lived in Guangping Mansion, sent his heart to Cizhou to pay money to Liu Fangliang in order to save his life.

After Liu Fangliang's Dashun army entered Guangping Mansion, the surrendering officials of the Ming Dynasty welcomed thirty miles to the outskirts. After a little rest, Liu Fangliang went north as a whole team, captured Xingtai, Hejian and other places, all the way to the wind, the army went all the way, the Ming army was defeated by the wind, and finally successfully entered the important town of Baoding

Judging from the perception of the local gentry in the Ming Dynasty, that is, "Kou Dazhi, three hundred miles, feathers and iron armor, dazzling." The dust rises, and the day is twilight; The horses neighed, and the sea boiled and the mountains were destroyed. Such words show the majesty of his soldiers.

At that time, the Dashun army waved its banner, "The civil and military officials who defended the land all looked at the wind and fled, or the gentlemen fought for chaos, dragged their clothes upside down, and walked away in fear, and greeted Allah with benevolence." "The people in Baoding City, seeing that the thieves are powerful, in order to save their lives, they are not willing to help the Ming army, they promote the gentry, and they have asked to open the door and pay the money.

At this time, Li Jiantai, a scholar of Dongge University in the Ming Dynasty, who was "personally conquered by the emperor", led 50,000 elite soldiers in Beijing after a slow march like a turtle, and finally happened to arrive in Baoding.

It's just that now, this bachelor who is deeply respected by Chongzhen, under the premise that he has never fought a battle, is affected by the surrender atmosphere in the city, and he also thinks that "the enemy is strong, and our army is difficult to support", so it is better to surrender as soon as possible.

However, after all, there were still a few people in the city who were loyal to the Ming Dynasty, such as Shao Zongxuan, the governor of the Xiangzhi Bureau, and He Fu, the new prefect, but conspired with the local squire Zhang Luojun and others, and asked Li Jiantai to resolutely advocate defending the city.

They flocked to see Li Jiantai, and in front of this superintendent, they first scolded the people for their ignorance, only knowing what the fate of the thief was, but they did not understand the righteousness of the monarch and the ministers.

Seeing these people so tough, Li Jiantai, who is a scholar of Dongge University and deeply respected by Chongzhen, is not good at saying that he must surrender nakedly. only pretended to express his position, saying that he would fulfill his duties, be loyal to the country, and strive to ensure that he would not lose.

It's just that his false performance was quickly debunked by the arriving army of Liu Fangliang.

A few days later, the Dashun army arrived at the city, first shouting loudly, advising the Ming army defending the city not to be obsessed and seek a desperate way. It is said that the supervisor Li Jiantai is very moved, but because Zhang Luojun, Shao Zongxuan and others are stubborn and insist on holding on to the end, Li Jiantai can only encourage the soldiers to go to the city and hold on. However, although he put on a posture of living and dying with the city, in his heart, he had scolded Zhang Luojun and others at least a thousand times, if it weren't for such an elm-headed guy, he would have surrendered the city a long time ago, but now he can only fight for the sake of face.

Liu Fangliang saw that the persuasion was ineffective, so he ordered an all-out siege of the city.

The Dashun army "erects the soil on the earth, hits the pheasant moat like Zhenqiu seed, the lead shot iron, sprays the sky and the earth, and the roof tiles are fluttering. Everyone walks along the wall with a wooden plank. Before long, the northwest building was on fire, the south Guomen was on fire again, the God's Pond collapsed, the high oars were scattered, the deep ditch was scattered, and the defenders shuddered. ”

Two days later, the southern city guard Benwang Dengzhou and others surrendered to the city, "a hundred pheasants were empty", and the Liukou was overjoyed when they saw this and rushed up. What is shameful is that the hundreds of sergeants brought by Li Jiantai also "responded to the situation" and left their own supervisors alone, but led Xu Yueke, the governor of Baoding Prefecture, and Zhu Yongkang, the magistrate of Qingyuan, to surrender to the rebels.

Li Jiantai saw that the general trend had gone, and the situation was very bad, so he immediately made a 180-degree turn, and he immediately ordered that all the officials and gentry who were willing to serve the Ming Dynasty such as Fang Zhenghua, Shao Zongxuan, He Fu, and Zhang Luojun be executed, and then he let the city gate be opened, and personally led hundreds of officials out of the city to surrender to Liu Fangliang's army.

After Liu Fangliang received the 50,000 Ming troops from Beijing brought by Li Jiantai, his power became more and more powerful. He was in a good mood, and when Li Jiantai opened the city gate and surrendered, he ordered that after entering the city, the whole army would be purged and no killing should be banned, which won the hearts of the gentry and soldiers in the city.

Then, Liu Fangliang summoned the people at the West Gate to read out the proclamation, appointing Wenhuaguo as the governor of Baoding, and at the same time appointing the magistrates and county orders, instructing them to handle grain and grass. The next day, "he ordered to take all the surviving squires and their sons and brothers, and torture them viciously" to recover the stolen goods and help them pay them. He also beheaded Yin Xi and others in the middle of the incident who drove the military and civilians to refuse to defend, "revealing its head on the pole, and saying: According to the city resistance division, the evil eunuch rebels." ”

Three days later, Liu Fangliang left Zhang Hong, the general of the army, to defend Baoding, and led the army all the way to Beijing according to the original plan. Li Jiantai, who had always surrendered, shamelessly acted as a guide, leading Liu Fangliang's army all the way.

The southern front of the Dashun Army successfully completed the task of collecting a large number of counties north of the Yellow River, made a very important contribution to the emergence of the situation of the Dashun Army moving towards its heyday, and effectively cooperated with the main action of the northern road under the command of Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin.

(Note: These contents are not the author's accumulation of words, but a brief explanation of Li Zicheng's march to Beijing, so as not to be too abrupt.) ）

On the way to conquer Xuanfu and lead the whole army to march to Beijing, Li Zicheng issued the famous edict of the first year of Yongchang, the full text of which is as follows:

"God looks at it, and he only seeks it. The people returned, and only cut the Su. Life is normal, and love is especially visible. In the past generations of Yueji, we know the reasons for gains and losses; Learn from the past and know the present, and every time you know the reason. Advisor Ming Dynasty, Jiu Xi Taining, Prison Relaxation Discipline. The king is not very dark, isolated and eternal; Ministers do their best to do their own thing, and they are less loyal to the party than the party. even bribed the palace, and the prestige of the end of the day moved; The gentry is good at it, and the fat ointment of Lu Zuo is exhausted. The princes all eat meat, and they are the heart; The eunuch learned about the chaff dog and dolphin, and borrowed its ears and eyes. There are many prisoners, and there is no heart to repay the courtesy; There are many requisitions, and the people have the hatred of dying. The sky is poor and benevolent, causing the people to suffer from disasters. I picked up my cloth clothes and witnessed the haggard shape, and the pain of the body was cut and drooled. Nian Zi Putian led the land, and Xian was poor and poor; Patience is easy to water swallow mountain, not Su soup fire. Bow to Hengji and appease Qianli. He is still worried about Erjun Erchen, but he has not reached the emperor's heart, and he has not expressed his intentions. It is a righteous statement with questioning: Er can think of the ancestors, judge a few virtues, and I will benefit my predecessors, and I will not hesitate to make a difference. Such as the Song Dynasty, enjoy the eternal extinction, with the filial piety of Zhanger; There is a room and a home, and the people are celebrated, and the benevolence of Zhanger is used. Fanzi 100 workers, barely Bao Naipi, the Houlu of the cotton merchant Sun, the rest of the Jiake. Restraint and convulsion, friendship and friendship. But now the edict is allowed. Jun Qi thoughts, reckless resentment against the sect workers, don't be in danger of the ministers. He is cautious, loyal to his father, and has a wide range of valleys. The first year of Yongchang is hereby edicted. ”

This edict was actually an ultimatum-style persuasion issued by Li Zicheng to the Ming Dynasty, and in the Beijing Division, Chongzhen, who read this letter, was shocked and shocked, and it was difficult to describe it in words.

In the case that Li Xiao, the king of Tang, could not lead the army back, Chongzhen could no longer hold back, and he urgently transferred Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Liaodong, Wang Yongji, the governor of Jiliao, Tang Tong, the general soldier of Changping, and Liu Liangzuo, the general soldier of Xuzhou, to defend the capital, and called on the bureaucrats in Beijing to donate money.

Although he sent his own eunuchs to urgently announce the edict, Chongzhen almost intuitively felt that with the approach of Li Zicheng's army, his own end may be coming.