[220] Pursue Li Zicheng

After passing the solid pass, Li Zicheng arrived in Pingdingzhou, and his mood was a little relaxed. One thought that it would not be easy for the enemy to break into Guguan, where Liu Fangliang's soldiers and horses were resisting the pursuers. Second, he also had a hope, hoping to rely on the natural danger of Taihang Mountain to stick to Shanxi, and then try to recover. As long as Shanxi is not lost, he will not lose his great success, and once the wound is healed, he can re-enter Kifu and seize Beijing. But behind this reassuring thought lies a deep apprehension. He could not forget the defeat he had experienced for half a month, which he had not expected before. The battle of Shanhaiguan almost killed and wounded two-thirds of his old subordinates, and the rest became demoralized troops, and his trusted generals who had been born and died for many years died one by one, and an important general who died in the end was Gu Kecheng. He was very sad and frightened when he thought about it. He was worried that if Shanxi was attacked by the enemy, he might not be able to defend it. If Shanxi is lost, Guanzhong will not be able to hold on. And there was another thing that surprised and frightened him, that he did not expect that the people of the present day should be so against him, burning down their houses at night, and shouting in the wilderness, and harassing his troops; And he filled up all the wells by the waysides, and made all his men and horses die of thirst. As soon as he arrived in Pingdingzhou, he learned that there were rebellions in Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong, which were almost out of control. Unconsciously, he asked:

"Am I going to be finished?"

At this time, he fully understood that his real enemy was not Chongzhen, but Song Youliang. Chongzhen is like a tiger that is wounded and about to die, it is easy to kill, and there is no strength to fight back; But there was a real tiger behind this half-dead tiger, which suddenly burst out, very fierce. If he had known that Song Youliang was the real enemy, he should have brought more men and horses as a backup when he entered Beijing, and it would be too late to regret his death. Thinking of this, he was secretly dissatisfied with Song Xiance and Niu Jinxing, why didn't they estimate this layer in advance and suggest it to him? What's next? If the Manchurians attacked step by step, would he be able to hold Guanzhong? He was worried in his heart, and a premonition of the death of his country weighed on him.

He didn't dare to delay on the road and came to Taiyuan all the way. Chen Yongfu, the Wenshui Bo who guarded Taiyuan, went to the suburbs to welcome him into the city and used the Jin Palace's palace as a palace. That night, Li Zicheng convened a very confidential imperial meeting in the palace to discuss the strategy of holding Shanxi. He knew completely well in his heart that since ancient times, Taiyuan has been a battleground for soldiers, and if he can hold Taiyuan, Shangdang, and Hedong, he can consolidate the whole Jin. If the whole Jin is consolidated, Shaanxi can be consolidated. Of course, the Luoyang area of Henan Province is also very important, but how to defend Quanjin is the most critical move. It's a pity that there are no soldiers in hand now, and there are only about 20,000 people in Shanxi, distributed in Pingyang, Luzhou, Shouyang and Zezhou. Now everywhere is unstable, and there is almost no place to defend. Chen Yongfu had only 4,000 men under his command, plus the 3,000 men who had newly surrendered, but only 7,000 people. In addition to defending Taiyuan, it is necessary to set aside a part of the men and horses to guard Daizhou, Yanmen, Jiexiu, Shouyang and other places to suppress the rebellion, and there are only more than 1,000 people stationed in Taiyuan City, which is really unstable. In addition, Jiang Huang, who was stationed in Datong, was originally very unreliable, and it was rumored that he had secretly colluded with Song Youliang. In case Jiang Hao rebelled, wouldn't Li Guo suffer a big loss? Also, after the battle of Shanhaiguan, Tang Tong's whereabouts are unknown, and it seems that most of them have surrendered to Song Youliang. Tang Tong and Jiang Liang have a close relationship on weekdays, if Tang Tong has surrendered to Song Youliang, then Jiang Huang's surrender to Song Youliang will be even more inevitable.

After analyzing the current situation, everyone felt that Dashun's situation was very unfavorable. Now it is necessary to stabilize the whole province of Shanxi before we can guard against Song Youliang and Wu Sangui coming to attack. Datong is a portal. If Jiang Hao surrenders to the enemy, the entire northern Jin Dynasty will fall into the hands of the enemy, and the north of Taiyuan will be empty. Not only can the three passes not be guarded, Taiyuan cannot be guarded, and Pingyang cannot be guarded, but even the Yellow River has lost its barrier, and the river can be crossed everywhere.

In addition to Shanxi, it is necessary to compete for Henan. If Henan loses, not only will it be difficult to protect Guanzhong, but it will not even be able to maintain three points of the world. They discussed until it was about to dawn, and then it was decided that Song Xiance would quickly rush back to Chang'an, collect a large army, and come to the aid of Shanxi. After Liu Zongmin recovered from his injuries, he asked him to lead two or three hundred thousand elite soldiers to Huaiqing and Zhangde to threaten Jinan, so that the Ming army could not go south to Henan and attack Shanxi.

However, Song Youliang did not give Li Zicheng a chance to breathe, and Sun Chuanting's army, with Wu Sangui as the vanguard, broke through the Guguan on the fifth day after Li Zicheng arrived in Taiyuan and entered Ping'an Prefecture. Jiang Zheng also officially surrendered to Emperor Hongde in Beijing, and Shanxi saw that it was difficult to preserve, so Li Zicheng left Chen Yongfu to guard Taiyuan, and he continued to flee in the southwest direction.

At this time, Song Youliang, who was marching into Henan, received a "holy decree" from Emperor Hongguang from Nanjing

And said that the internal ** and contradictions, so that the Hongguang court from the beginning of the country suffered from hypochondriasis, they have no intention of returning to the country, just want to live and steal peace, after the news of the setback of the Dashun army, the Hongguang court was overjoyed

On May 26, Ma Shiying, a scholar of the university, first went to Shu Hongguang and clearly pointed out: If you want to achieve the miraculous feat of restoring the Ming Dynasty, you must unite the forces of the world, and the current plan is to only defend the Yangtze River and the Huai River, which is only a strategy, and it is necessary to examine the overall situation of the world and then determine the strategy, Song Youliang has a major role in the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, and should reward it and use it to make it think that it can be used by us, and then order the generals of Jiangbei and the division of Huaishang to contact Song Youliang to clean up Shandong, so that there is a trend of recovery.

Ma Shiying saw that his recital was like a stone sinking into the sea, and there was no response, and two days later, he wrote a letter of recitation to Song Youliang in detail, wanting Emperor Hongguang to enable Song Youliang to work for Nanming.

Emperor Hongguang paid attention to it, he was about to consider this matter, and He Shishou, the servant of the Criminal Department, also made a recital, He Shishou pointed out: Today's change of consultation, if the discipline is disciplined and rewarded, Song Youliang bravely kills the thief, and the lord is worthy of shame.

Zhu Yousong didn't have the heart to deal with this matter, he pointed to these notes on the case, and asked Tian Cheng, the eunuch on the side: "What do you think I should do?" ”

Tian Cheng was slightly startled and said, "Your Majesty, why do you have to take care of these trivial things yourself?" ”

"Yes, you let the old horse and them watch it."

So, under the operation of Ma Shiying, the Hongguang Imperial Court issued an edict rewarding Song Youliang:

Song Youliang advocated righteousness against thieves, shame and evil, merit in the community, and entered the title of the Duke of Jiguo, and his descendants were hereditary. Added to sit on the python rolling dragon silk eight tables, 200 taels of silver, 50,000 taels of silver from the household department, 100,000 stones of rice, and instructed Shen Tingyang and others to send appropriate officials to send Song Youliang meritorious soldiers, so that the town came to the list to reward the loyalty.

Soon after the edict of Song Youliang Ji Guogong was issued, Liu Zeqing and Liu Kongzhao wrote to the imperial court to suggest that Song Youliang's father and son should be rewarded, and Hongguang accepted the suggestion and ordered Song Youliang's father Song Qianjin to be the Duke of Liao, and his mother Song Xia to be the wife of Liao.

Qian Qianyi and other Donglin Party members and Shi Kefa proposed that King De should be allowed to abolish the emperor title first, and then he could talk about reusing Song Youliang. Ma Shiying and Ruan Dayue said that if Song Youliang was willing to accept the canonization of Emperor Hongguang, then it would be easy for King De to abolish the imperial title. As a result, the two factions began a war of words again, but because Ma Shiying was in power, the holy decree was still issued

Song Youliang gave the "holy decree" to his father-in-law, Emperor Hongde Zhu Youshu, and Zhu Youshu asked with a smile: "What do you think of the virtuous son-in-law?" ”

Zhu Youshu never dreamed that he would become the emperor, and with the blessing of his son-in-law's daughter, he sat on the emperor's throne in a daze, and naturally obeyed this powerful son-in-law. "Virtuous son-in-law, you don't really want your father-in-law to abdicate and go back to be a vassal king, do you?"

Song Youliang smiled: "Could it be that the son-in-law will be willing to fight back to the prototype as a county horse?" Rest assured, as long as you listen to your son's words, your son will ensure that you will be a happy emperor. ”

Zhu Youshu breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good~That's good~"

"It's just~" Song Youliang said: "My father is not good at political affairs, don't interfere too much in superfluous political affairs, and have the subordinates of the yamen of each ministry to deal with." Also, several brothers-in-law also have to be restrained. ”

Zhu Youshu was not interested in things like reviewing the recitals, and he was so happy to pick on his son, so he said: "I promise my virtuous son-in-law that I will never interfere in political affairs. Several princes will also try their best to restrain them from doing anything out of the ordinary. ”

Song Youliang went south to Henan with confidence, and the "holy decree" of Emperor Hongguang was also like a mud cow into the sea and disappeared

At this moment, Henan is a three-way zone, and the powerful local gentry set up wall docks and guarded them in the mountains. Sometimes they threw themselves into Li Zicheng, sometimes they threw themselves into Nanming, and sometimes they merged with each other. As soon as Song Youliang's army arrived, he gave the officials and lords food and salary to the wall dock who took the initiative to surrender. For the place of resistance, exterminate it on the spot. Subsequently, three teams of people who eliminated the plague, distributed food and wages, and did propaganda quickly entered Henan, and in less than three months, an effective local government was re-established in Henan, Henan Dading.

In the blink of an eye, in September, Li Zicheng sent 20,000 horses to counterattack the Ming army, besieging Huaiqing Mansion, a strategic place north of the Yellow River, and as a result, the gate of Huaiqing City was opened. The Ming army suffered several thousand casualties. Later, the Ming army moved south, and this counteroffensive force quickly retreated. Li Zicheng once decided that Liu Zongmin would lead 300,000 horses out of the pass to enter northern Henan and southern Jinan, threatening Beijing, so that the Ming army did not dare to go south, but for a while they could not draw so much food and men. Not only was there a lack of cavalry, but also infantry.

Since the battle at Shanhaiguan, a lot of horses have been lost, and people have been sent to Hetao to buy horses from the Mongols, but the result has not been successful, and the envoys and the money they brought have not returned. Li Zicheng also sent a small number of troops to Henan, hoping to call on the people of Henan to resist the Qing army, but now the people of Henan no longer listen to his call. Some people originally followed the Shun Dynasty, but after three or four years of war, they were no longer interested in Li Zicheng. Originally, he was regarded as a savior, and then there were wars every year, one war after another, and the common people thought about the cure for a long time, hoping to live a stable day, but they never waited for this day. Now even if you say it wildly, the common people no longer believe it. They want to live, they want to raise their children, and they don't want to go to war anymore.

In November, the army led by Sun Chuanting crossed the Yellow River from Mengjin, arrived in Shaanzhou on December 15, and arrived 20 miles outside Tongguan on December 22, and set up camp to wait for the follow-up troops and red-coated artillery to arrive.

When Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin were holding on to Wu Sangui, the vanguard of the Ming army, at Tongguan, Sun Chuanting sent an army of the Ming Menghun River led by He Mingwei and He Guoxian to attack Yulin from outside the Saiwai. Gao Yigong had already prepared in advance and launched a stubborn defensive battle with the Ming army outside Yulin City. He Mingwei divided another group of men and horses from Yulin to the south, passed through Mizhi, and attacked Yan'an. Li Shuangxi guarded Yan'an, there were not many people and horses, and there was very little food, and soon after being besieged, the food in the city was cut off. He Mingwei attacked the city with red-coated artillery. Li Shuangxi saw that he could not hold on, so he broke out of Yan'an, did not go south, but ran to Yulin to assist Gao Yigong in defending to the death, trying to drag the Ming army and prevent his men and horses from going to Xi'an.

Li Zicheng received an urgent report of the loss of Yan'an, and knew that it was useless to defend Tongguan, so he quickly left Ma Shiyao to lead 7,000 people to guard Tongguan, and he and Liu Zongmin rushed back to Xi'an with the rest of the 100,000 people. Three days later, he gave up Xi'an and went from Lantian to Dengzhou and Xiangyang. There was heavy snow on the road, and the old and weak women froze to death on the road from Qipanling to Shangluo, and many of them died of illness. The situation is very bad.

Sun Chuanting went from Dong Duyuan to Jinpenpo in the southwest of Tongguan, so that Ma Shiyao, who was defending Tongguan City, had to surrender. But he didn't want to surrender in his heart, and sent someone to send a letter to Li Zicheng, asking Li Zicheng to counterattack, and he responded internally. It's a pity that this secret letter was intercepted by Sun Chuanting, so Sun Chuanting killed Ma Shiyao and killed all the 7,000 soldiers under him.

Sun Chuanting occupied Xi'an in early December. Gao Yigong and Li Shuangxi got the news, quickly abandoned Yulin, went south from the western part of Shaanxi Province, collected scattered men and horses stationed in various places of the Dashun army along the way, and rushed to the Hanzhong area.