"They're going to open fire, they're going to hit the city gatehouse. "Sukh Saha immediately shouted loudly. With that, he stepped forward and grabbed Dolgon and ran towards the stairs.

At this time, the other generals also stood up and ran towards the stairs. Although the gate tower is quite large, it is a wooden structure, and if the pillar is hit by a cannonball, it will collapse in one fell swoop.

Before everyone could reach the staircase, they heard a few clicks, and there was a slight vibration under their feet.

A cannonball hit the first floor of the city gate tower, but unfortunately it did not hit the pillar, but broke a lot of doors and windows on the first floor.

Dolgon and the others hesitated, but immediately went downstairs, not daring to stay longer. They were all afraid of Li Yan's artillery, and guessed that the next shell might hit the support column.

Sure enough, as soon as they got downstairs, they heard a loud bang, and the whole gate tower shook, and the dust on the beams of the house fell in a torrent.

"Hurry up, Lord Regent, it's dangerous here." Everyone rushed in panic and walked out around Dolgon.

Immediately after that, there was the sound of knocking and kerala, and a solid bullet hit the edge of the column, bounced in other directions, and smashed a lot of doors, windows, tables, chairs, and other things.

The crowd gathered around Dorgon and walked out of the gate tower and went straight down the city wall. And although Li Yan saw this group of people from the telescope here, he also knew that there must be Dolgon among them, but he didn't have time to inform his artillerymen, so he could only watch these people and a large group of relatives go down the city wall.

The artillery continued to fire and continue to bombard the city gatehouse. It is not to blame that these artillerymen did not take the initiative, and even if they saw this group of people, they did not have time to adjust the artillery.

Li Yan immediately ordered: "Inform the artillery, no need to hit the city gate tower anymore." Let them cooperate with the infantry, wipe out the Qing army behind the bunker, and occupy the northern city wall as soon as possible. ”

When Dorgon had left the wall, he was surrounded by the crowd and went out of the city.

"Stop, let go of the king," Dorgon commanded, struggling.

But none of the generals listened to him, and just blindly said, "There is danger in the city, please love yourself, regent." ”

Dolgon scolded loudly: "Go back and send all your people to attack and harass Li Yan's infantry to the city, Li Yan can't fight anymore, fight back inside and outside the city, Li Yan will definitely be defeated"

A general said without replying: "There are not many soldiers in the city, only some Han troops are still guarding near the city gate." Li Yan's troops had already reached the Drum Tower, and the city was already bleeding. The regent is still in charge of the overall situation outside the city. ”

Dolgon was a little confused, why was there no one in the city so quickly There were nearly 10,000 people in the city, could it be that they were all killed by Li Yan in such a short time

When he came to the northernmost ditch outside the city, he finally saw that almost all of the Belle Zhangjing of the Eight Banners of the Man, Meng, Han and Han were here, and the men and horses were almost assembled.

"Please ask the regent to order a retreat north." Everyone bowed to Dorgon and clenched their fists in unison.

Dolgon's face turned pale, and he frowned: "The war has just begun, and you are all afraid, where is your bravery, and the titles and official positions on your body are all made up of military merits in exchange for the heads of the enemy."

Bolo clenched his fists and said, "Regent, our artillery has been lost, and we really suffer a lot of losses." Let's go back to the dynasty first, and invite the red-clothed cannon to come back and fight Li Yan again. ”

"Ask the Lord Regent to give the order," the crowd said in unison.

Dolgon knew that the matter was irreparable, and no one was willing to fight Li Yan anymore, at least not at this time. A demoralized army, even if there is their 20,000 army outside Shanhaiguan, is not capable of capturing Shanhaiguan.

He finally reluctantly agreed: "Okay, the whole army retreats north." Inform the troops in Beijing to come and converge, and inform the troops in other places to return from the Great Wall Pass. Send people to send letters to the kings of Wuying and Yujun, telling them not to engage Li Yan and lead their troops out of the Great Wall from the north as soon as possible. Be sure to inform them, don't go through the Shanhaiguan, and go directly out of the fortress from the north. ”

After his retinue sent out their men to give the order. Dolgon also ordered: "After the five hundred cavalry drawn from each banner are broken, the two yellow banners will be halved." ”

But for this command, none of the people received it, but they all stood still. Qi Chongge cautiously said: "Please think twice about the regent, let's choose some troops from the Han army to stay behind." ”

Dolgon saw that everyone wanted to preserve his strength, and at this time he could only choose to preserve his strength. When I go back this time, I will definitely have a power struggle. He himself is bound to be punished, so he has to leave enough strength for the two white flags to make a comeback.

He quickly decided: "Let Wang Shixuan lead the two red banner Han armies as the rear army to cover the withdrawal of all departments to the north." ”

Although Wang Shixuan is the color of the two red flags, and he is also the main flag owner of the two red flags, this is only a nominal master-servant relationship, and the Han army is still under the direct jurisdiction of the emperor. Therefore, the nobles of the two red flags such as Man Dahai did not feel that Dolgon was consuming the strength of their two red flags. On the contrary, he felt that Wang Shixuan had fought for many years, had outstanding achievements, and there were brave generals and strong soldiers under his command, so there was not much danger in their backs.

Although Wang Shixuan didn't want to, he didn't dare to disobey, so he had to hold his fists and take his life. He was just a Han general, and although he surrendered earlier, he was also a Han Chinese.

All the princes finally bowed down to receive the order this time, and quickly let their subordinates go down to arrange. As long as it doesn't consume their own people, they don't care about anything at this time.

At this time, even the Horqin Division, which was integrated with the Great Qing Dynasty, looked like they were in a hurry to retreat. They had resisted for a while in the city according to Dorgon's orders, but in the face of a volley of guns and shotguns, their bows and arrows were no match for them. In just a quarter of an hour, more than a thousand people were killed and wounded, so no one wanted to stay and fight Li Yan.

The Qing army at the head of the city did not last long, they kept firing their bows and arrows, and their arms were already sore. By the time Li Yan's artillery turned its guns to bombard their flanks, the projectiles and the fragments of the city bricks had become their enemies. Moreover, Li Yan's infantry also took advantage of their distraction to get closer to twenty paces under the cover of shields, and then the bombs rained down behind the bunkers.

After the loud and violent explosion, the Qing troops who could still move fled backwards. At the same time, they also received the regent's order to retreat, and they did not care about the horses and looted goods in the city, and all fled directly out of the city.

At this time, Li Yan didn't know that it was he who ordered the artillery to bombard the city gatehouse, which made the Qing army unify their thinking and decided to no longer fight with him, but retreat quickly. If he didn't have this order, at least he could continue to fight with tens of thousands of Qing troops in the city, and he would be able to destroy more Qing troops. However, this also allowed him to save some ammunition and obtain favorable conditions for the next battle with the Qing army.

This is the case with current events, one decision leads to another. However, this cause and effect, which the parties did not foresee, will only become a topic of commentary for future generations.

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