On the fifth day of the fifth month of May, after knowing that Li Zicheng had escaped, Li Yan immediately issued an order to the troops to prepare for war, requiring the troops to be able to leave at any time.

Dolgon, who was outside the city of Beijing, was welcomed into the city by the ministers of the city. After all, the Qing soldiers came to avenge Emperor Chongzhen, and now they have scared the thief Li Zicheng away, so it is also appropriate to invite him into the city to treat him. And it is said that the Qing army has recovered the prince, and will escort the Ming prince back in a few days.

After Dolgon entered the city of Beijing, he was quite polite, but sent troops to take over the defense of the city wall. Then he began to extinguish the fire that Li Zicheng set when he left, and on the other hand, he asked the former Ming officials in the city to organize Langzhong to treat those sick people. Although the Langzhong were helpless, the bodies of the sick and dead were transported outside the city and buried, at least to restore some order to the city.

The ministers of the Ming Dynasty and the people of Beijing were very satisfied, and felt that this Qing soldier had indeed come to avenge Chongzhen. As a result, the previous wars with the Qing soldiers, as well as the looting and killing of the Qing army in Zhili and Shandong, were all forgotten. They were all waiting for the Qing army to invite the crown prince back to ascend the throne and continue to be the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, as for how to reward the Qing State, they did not think about it. It's just about goods and land, and when the new emperor ascends the throne, someone will naturally worry about it.

However, there was also something that made the people and officials panic, that is, the Qing army shaved the hair of the officers and soldiers in the city, leaving them in the shape of a money rat tail. Some soldiers did not want to shave their heads, but they lost their lives. Civilians and officials feared that they would also be forced to shave their heads, so there were many who fled.

After learning of this, Dolgon immediately posted a notice explaining that the Qing Dynasty did not forcibly shave their heads, and that those soldiers were surrendered soldiers, so they all shaved their hair in order to make it easier to distinguish between friend and foe. The rules of the Qing Dynasty are to shave the military but not the literature, and the officials not the people. Others, etc., have their own hairstyles, and there is no forced shaving of their heads.

With this notice, the officials and citizens in Beijing finally felt at ease. The Ming Dynasty rules the world with filial piety, and after so many years of filial piety education, he still likes the most basic thing of filial piety such as body hair and skin.

Dolgon's restraint is not because he is generous, but because the conditions are not yet ripe. Now Shanhaiguan is still in the hands of the Shun army, Tongzhou and Wu Sangui have not surrendered, and Li Yan in Tianjin is also ambiguous. If these can't be solved, when Li Zicheng reorganizes his army and kills him from Shanxi, they can only retreat to Guanwai again.

However, for him who is aspiring to the world, now is still the time to invite people to buy people's hearts. Let the people and officials remember the good of the Qing Dynasty, and after these resistance forces are cleared, it is inevitable to shave their hair and make it easy to obey. Their ancestor, the Jin Kingdom, accepted all the things of the Han people, and from strong to weak, and was finally destroyed. So they won't make the same mistake, when they were in Liaodong, it was the government and the people who shaved their hair and were easy to obey, all of them were vulgar, and those who did not obey were killed!

As soon as Dolgon entered the city of Beijing for three days, he received a report from his subordinates that Li Yan of Tianjin led his troops north, and the three counties of Wuqing, Xianghe and Dong'an had been lost. And the most suspicious thing is that none of the defenders of these three counties have returned. Although there were only more than 200 defenders in each county, it was definitely a terrifying force for the Ming army. Dolgon didn't want to believe that Li Yan's combat effectiveness would be so strong.

Dorgon left the capital and returned to his headquarters outside the city. He still followed the established steps, first quickly made Wu Sangui surrender, and then went to deal with Li Yan.

"Send scouts to the three counties to investigate and see where our people have gone!" Dolgon coldly ordered: "If they are really greedy for life and afraid of death, and they dare not come to repay it, their families will also be implicated!" ”

He still felt that there were people under him who cared about their lives, and they didn't dare to go out of the city and come back to report the military situation, so this situation happened.

Then he commanded: "Tell Wu Sangui that I will give him another day, if he doesn't surrender, once the war starts, there will be no chance of surrender!" Then tell the soldiers and people of Tongzhou that no matter when, those who can capture Wu Sangui will be rewarded with 10,000 taels of silver, and the official will be added by one level. ”

He felt that Wu Sangui should surrender, and the fire on the head of Beijing could be seen in Tongzhou. Without Li Zicheng, the emperor of the new dynasty, what else can Wu Sangui get if he insists? On the contrary, as long as he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he would be made a prince. This temptation should be big enough.

If Wu Sangui does not surrender, he will have to put 20,000 troops here. In addition to the troops sent out to occupy the surrounding roads and pursue Li Zicheng, he now has 100,000 troops in his hands, which is enough to deal with Li Yan.

However, Li Yan's troops did not stop, and continued to go all the way north, approaching the capital.

He did not leave garrisons along the way, only 2,000 garrisons in Tianjin. This time, he did not come to occupy the territory, but to fight a decisive battle with the Qing army. If the war is unfavorable, as long as his army does not disperse and the ammunition, food and grass are sufficient, he can calmly retreat to Shandong. So he brought almost all the ammunition and arrows, and collected all the mules and horses in Tianjin.

In order to prevent the Qing army from knowing his falsehood, Li Yan asked cavalry to patrol around every county town garrisoned by the Qing army, and then bombarded the city wall with five four-and-a-half-inch artillery. Twenty pounds of iron bullets smashed on the city wall at high speed, not to mention that these cities are in disrepair, even if it is a brand new brick wall, it can also collapse.

However, the Qing troops in the three counties are not stupid, and none of them are waiting for the city to be broken. All of them wanted to run away and report back at the first time. However, Li Yan's cavalry had already gone around to the front and waited, so naturally they would not let them pass.

Although the Qing army's cavalry and archery skills were powerful, compared to Li Yan's cavalry, which had a numerical advantage, and there were twenty paces of handcuffs that could penetrate heavy armor, the Qing army's cavalry and archery were not very useful. After several battles, except for the seven who were shot in the face and throat and died, the others were only slightly wounded.

Li Yan's 30,000 men and horses arrived 20 miles south of the capital on the 10th day of May, and then advanced in the direction of Tongzhou.

That is, on the same day, it was also the final surrender deadline given by Dolgon to Wu Sangui, and Wu Sangui did not surrender. Because of Li Yan's northward advance, Dolgon changed his plan and decided to defeat Li Yan who rushed north first, and then concentrate on dealing with Wu Sangui.

After all, he and Wu Sangui were familiar with each other, and knew that if Wu Sangui insisted on sticking to it, even if they had the Shenwei General Cannon they had newly cast last year to help them fight, they would not end the war in a short time. It's much easier to deal with Li Yan who dares to leave the city and wants to compete in the wild. also gave up Wu Sangui's last hope.

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