【215】Fierce battle with a stone

The second thing Wu Sangui did was to send a fast horse to Beijing to send a letter to his father, announcing the severance of the relationship between father and son, and his text said: The unscrupulous male Sangui wept blood and worshipped, and went to the knees of his father: the son is in the shadow of his father, familiar with the righteous training, has to treat sin, and is inspirational day and night, hoping to be rewarded by the saints. The border police are in a hurry, and Ningyuan Juzhen is the gateway to the country, and it has fallen several times. The child tried to recover, thinking that the Li thief was rampant, and he would soon be extinguished, fearing that the reciprocating road would cause two crashes, so he was temporarily detained for a while. I don't mean that there is no one in my country, and I am looking at the wind. My father supervised the imperial camp, the momentum is not small and weak, and the majestic pheasant is a hundred pheasants, why has it fallen in one or two days? Let the child roll up the armor to go to the customs, the matter is in the later stage, sad and hateful!

Hearing that the Holy Lord Yan drove away, the subjects were humiliated, and they were overwhelmed! I still remember that my father has always been loyal, although the general trend is gone, I still should fight hard and swear not to live. If not, he will be martyred, so that his son will mourn and take revenge; If it is not good, it will be followed by death, is it not comparable to loyalty and filial piety! He is forbearant and stealing, willing to be unrighteous, neither has the talent of filial piety and forgiveness, but also the courage of scolding thieves in the plains. The husband is a sinner for his mother; Wang Ling, Zhao Bao, and the two dukes, and heroes. My father is a general, a pretentious prince, and a woman. The father cannot be a loyal minister, and the son can be a filial son? Son and father, please from today. The father did not plan early, although the thief put his father next to him to lure Sangui to ignore it. The male three gui worship again.

On 9 April, when Li Zicheng received the news of his envoy's execution, he was very shocked, and turned to a furious rage, and he felt that the situation was serious, so he reproached Liu Zongmin for not having tortured Wu Xiang, and in order to make up for his mistake, he quietly released him from prison, and gave him a banquet and generous caressing." But it was too late, and there was no room for maneuver. At this time, there was news from the front that Tang Tong, who had gone to recruit Wu Sangui, was killed by Wu Sangui and was defeated

Li Zicheng had no choice, he could not surrender, but to raise troops to fight. However, Li Zicheng's decision to go to Shanhaiguan was opposed by several of his important advisers and generals. Niu Jinxing's proposition is: "Wu Sangui Xingbing revenge, the side report is very urgent, and the country cannot be without a king for a day." The choice of auspiciousness has been decided, and the officials and the people look up to the pole. The lord does not have to raise the teacher, appease the three guis, allow the father and son to be the marquis, still the prince of the Ming Dynasty with a big country, worship the Ming, pay tribute to the world, and rest with the country, then the foundation of unification can be achieved, and the rebellion can be stopped. "We strongly advocate a political solution, and it is not appropriate to send troops to attack. Zicheng saw his recital, got angry, and rejected his advice.

Niu Jinxing persuaded Li Zicheng again: "Our army has newly won the Beijing Division, and the people's hearts are strong, Wu Sangui will definitely not dare to act rashly, if His Majesty awards a knighthood and bounty, he will be persuaded to surrender." If Wu Sangui still doesn't know the current affairs, it will be enough to send another team of partial divisions to attack. ”

Song Xiance also said: "If Your Majesty goes, it will be bad for Your Majesty; If Wu Sangui comes, it will be bad for Wu Sangui. ”

Li Zicheng did not listen to these opinions. At the beginning, Zicheng did not think of fighting with Wu Sangui, let alone fighting with the Qing army, and even decided to send a division, but he did not make serious preparations, and lacked sufficient estimation for fighting a big battle. He thought that the occupation of Beijing, the overall situation had been decided, the "mandate of heaven" belonged to him, and he only needed to send another army to Shanhaiguan to succeed immediately, and Sangui would be captured. Therefore, he planned to send Liu Zongmin and Li Guo to the expedition. Unexpectedly, "all the pseudo-generals will be happy, but they have no fighting spirit" When discussing the teacher, "the emperor is uncertain". Especially Liu Zongmin, these days, he has used all his strength on Chen Yuanyuan, and when Li Zicheng summoned him, he was even drowsy

On April 12, Zicheng Qunchen discussed the eastward expedition to Wu Sangui again, and "Liu Zongmin and others did not respond to the patrol." I couldn't do it myself, so I had to "go on my own" to go on the expedition. He conferred on Zhang Ruoqi, a minister of the Ming Dynasty, as the "Secretary of the Military Government", and accompanied him to Liu Zongmin and other commanders, urging them to go on the expedition.

On the evening of April 12, in order to "eliminate internal troubles", Li Zicheng commanded more than 60 Ming Dynasty officials, including ministers of honor, Shangguan of Jinyi Weitang, Chen Yan, scholar of Dingguo, Xu Yunzhen, Xinjian Bo Wang Guangtong, Boping Marquis Guo Mingzhen, Qing Ping Bo Wu Zunzhou, Yongning Bo Wang Changxi, Pingjiang Bo Chen Zhi, Governor Yuan You, Zhou Ming, Zhou Duo, Zhou Xuan, etc., a total of more than 60 Ming Dynasty officials, were beheaded outside the Xihua Gate. Li Shuangxi hanged all 53 Ming officials, including Peng Xuan, Li Fengjia, and Shen Jifang, who were tortured by the "Zhongji Battalion." Li Zicheng gathered all the officials of the Yuan Ming Dynasty who had not yet been executed to Liu Zongmin, "sat on the side of the road and killed them according to their rank." It was not until the second watch that the knife was stopped and the rest of the people were released.

On April 13, just after dawn, Li Zicheng officially left the division, and surrounded by a group of generals such as Liu Zongmin and Li Guo, he went out of Zhengyangmen, and Niu Jinxing, Song Qijiao and other officials who stayed in Beijing were sent to Jinshui Bridge. When the people heard the news, they mostly ran to the east and west Chang'an Avenue to watch......

Behind Li Zicheng and his important generals, there were several other high-profile figures, who were Chongzhen's three sons: the crown prince Zhu Cihong, Yongwang, and Dingwang, and Sangui's father, Wu Xiang, each riding a horse and then marching. Zicheng took them to Shanhaiguan, the purpose was to use these important hostages to make a final fight for Sangui. Zicheng wants to let Sangui see with his own eyes that his biological father is still firmly in his hands, and if he misses the love of father and son, it is not too late to surrender. At the same time, he also hinted that if he still got lost, he would execute Wu Xiang at any time. Zicheng carried the prince and the two kings for the same purpose.

At this time, Li Zicheng's Shun army was about 60,000 people, plus the troops of Bai Guangen and Tang Tong, the total number was about 100,000, known as 200,000. Wu Sangui had about 50,000 troops, known as 150,000.

After Wu Sangui found out the news that Li Zicheng led the army to attack the fortification, on the one hand, he sent people out of the customs to ask for troops from the Qing Dynasty; On the one hand, he sent Gao Xuan, Li Yousong, Tan Dihuan, Liu Tailin, Liu Taishan, and Dong Zhen'an as his representatives to go to Li Zicheng's military camp to surrender by fraud. The purpose was to stabilize Li Zicheng first, delay his advance, and gain time, both to strengthen the defense of Guancheng, and to meet the peasant army in Sanhe, and when Li Zicheng saw Li Zicheng, he falsely claimed that Wu Sangui was willing to surrender and hoped not to attack. Li Zicheng is difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood, although he does not dare to believe it all, he still has hope for Sangui. However, he did not give up the military attack, he still took these six people in the army, and tried to recruit Sangui in person. Because he was deceived by these six people, Li Zicheng did not rush to march, and the speed of the march was slow, which gave Sangui time to invite troops and prepare for war.

Li Zicheng led a large army to march for nine days, arriving at Shanhaiguan as late as 21 April, and arriving at a place 15 miles outside Shanhaiguan at dusk. In front of Li Zicheng's troops at Shanhaiguan, it was not Wu Sangui or his representative who greeted him, but the Liao soldiers who had already set up a position in Shihexi! He immediately saw through Sangui's trick to deceive him, and at this time, Gao Xuan and the other six people tried to escape. Furious, he ordered them to be arrested and executed, but one of them was not caught, was hit by three arrows, and ran away.

When Li Zicheng arrived at Shanhaiguan, he sent an envoy to order Wu Sangui to surrender for the last time, but he was refused. found that the Wu army had lined up to meet the battle, and no longer had illusions about Sangui, and quickly deployed troops; First, in the west of Shihe, with the main force as a frontal attack, a faction of Tang Tong led a small cavalry quickly out of the pass from the nine gates, around to the outside of the pass, to a stone camp, intercepting the road of Sangui's eastward escape, and the peasant army on the side of the pass to attack the Wu army. The battle first began in Shihexi (in the area of Yansai Lake in present-day Shanhaiguan District).

The Battle of Shanhaiguan, which decided the fate of the world, officially began

A piece of stone is the pass of the Great Wall in the north of Shanhaiguan, Li Zicheng is an old thief who has experienced a hundred battles after all, and he is extremely experienced in tactics, his tactics are very simple, that is, to break through a relatively weak stone pass first, and then form a two-sided attack attitude towards Shanhaiguan from outside the pass, this move is undoubtedly very powerful, because the thief has an absolute advantage in military strength

However, Wu Sangui is not a good stubble, through the observation of the thieves in front of Shanhaiguan, he accurately judged the intentions of the thieves, gathered the heavy troops in a stone pass, came to a needle point to Maimang, the thief army launched an attack on Shanhaiguan and a stone pass at the same time the next day, but was attacked by the Guanning army

After five days of fierce fighting, both armies suffered heavy casualties, although the Guanning army has the Great Wall natural danger can be evidenced, but at this time the army of thieves is not what it used to be, these 100,000 thieves are not only experienced in a hundred battles, but also extremely well-equipped, the lineup has cavalry, archers, pikemen, sword and shield men and other perfect configurations, and even pulled more than a dozen Hongyi cannons from Beijing City.

The gate of a stone pass was soon smashed by the Hongyi cannon, the army of thieves swarmed up, the two armies launched a desperate fight in the cave of the city gate, and after five days, there were nearly 10,000 corpses inside and outside the city gate, and the corpses of the soldiers of the two armies almost filled the entire gate. The stench of the rotting corpse is disgusting thousands of paces away.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

After more than a dozen cannon sounds, followed by a violent shaking of the earth soul mountain, the corpses that blocked the city gate were instantly blown up by the solid iron bullets fired by the Hongyi cannons, and the simple city walls that the Guanning army piled up along the city gate overnight were also blown into ruins, and dozens of Guanning soldiers who stayed under the city walls were buried alive under the broken walls in an instant.

In the deafening shout, the Dashun army swarmed in, and the Dashun army swarmed up with siege weapons such as iron license plates and hook ladders to launch a fierce attack on a stone pass again!

The whole valley was like day under the reflection of the torches of the Dashun army. Li Zicheng stood on the high point of the general's platform, and casually pulled out the first arrow, "Where is Tang Tong?" Li Zicheng shouted loudly

"The last general!" Tang Tong replied

"Order the general Tang Tong to lead 20,000 troops and horses to attack from the front and attack the nine water gates at the nine gates." Li Zicheng handed the arrow to Tang Tong

"Deling~"

The second arrow, Li Zicheng shouted: "Where is Li Shuangxi? ”

"The last general!"

"Order General Li Jia to lead 20,000 troops and horses to attack from the left and attack Wanghaitai."

"Order!"

The third arrow, "Where is He Jin?" ”

"The last general!"

"Order General He Jin to lead 20,000 troops and horses to attack from the right corner of the mountain, and attack the commanding heights such as the No. 16 enemy tower and the horse wall."

"Order!"

The fourth arrow, "Where is Liu Zongmin?" ”

"The last general!" Liu Zongmin replied loudly

"Order the general Liu Tichun to lead 20,000 soldiers and horses to attack the Acropolis where the Ming army stores grain and grass."

"Order!"

The remaining 20,000 soldiers and horses were personally commanded by Li Zicheng as a reserve. Listening to Li Zicheng's order, the four men and horses of the Dashun army held torches high and shouted to kill the Ming defenders together. In an instant, the sound of cannons, shouts of killing, and the clashing of knives and guns resounded throughout the valley. After several rounds of fighting, the Ming defenders finally could not resist the powerful offensive of the Dashun army, and fled to the north of Shanhaiguan without losing their armor. Since then, after a day and night of bloody fighting, the Dashun army finally occupied the nine gates of the fortress outside the Guanwai.

Li Zicheng rode a war horse, wearing his famous felt hat, stationed on the wall of Mashan Pass, and looked from afar, only to see the Ming army under the banner of Wu Zi was retreating in the direction of a piece of stone

"Let's go~~ Where did Tang Tong dig a grave for you!" A triumphant smile appeared at the corner of Li Zicheng's mouth