It wasn't until almost noon that Wu Sangui caught up with the convoy of the King of Joseon, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief when he looked at the strangely shaped four-wheeled carriage in the team. However, after he joined the convoy, he suddenly felt uneasy when he looked at the lifeless appearance of the team.

Scanning the people in the convoy, he immediately grabbed a North Korean official and asked, "Where did Choi's verdict go?" ”

The North Korean official looked embarrassed and could not answer Wu Sangui's question, but his eyes narrowed to the four-wheeled carriage of the Joseon king.

Wu Sangui immediately abandoned him, rushed to the king of Joseon's car, and forcibly stopped the king of Joseon's car despite the guards guarding the carriage. After seeing the carriage stop, he stepped forward and opened the door of the carriage, and shouted: "The last general Wu Sangui has visited His Highness, and the last general has something to report to His Highness, please forgive His Highness for the rudeness of the last general..."

Wu Sangui, who opened the door of the carriage, suddenly stopped, turned his head to look at the North Korean official on the side of the carriage, and asked viciously: "Where did His Highness and Cui Jushu go?" Have you betrayed Your Highness? ”

The cavalry of the Ming army behind Wu Sangui looked in through the open door and found that the carriage was empty, and immediately surrounded the Korean officials and soldiers near the carriage, as if they were about to draw swords against them if something went wrong.

When have these guards and officials around the king of Joseon ever seen such a scene. Even if the number of the entire convoy was not smaller than the number of Ming troops surrounding them, they did not have the courage to take up arms to confront these bloodstained Ming troops.

So the North Korean official in charge of the convoy finally mustered up the courage to reply: "General Wu is angry, angry. After crossing the river, His Highness went on horseback instead and Choi Juan Shu took the others to Namhansan Fortress, and asked us to continue to Jiangdu with the carriage, and His Highness did not have an accident..."

From the official's mouth and the additions of other North Korean guards, Wu Sangui finally figured out what happened. Last night's attack on the Jurchens made Li Liang extremely worried about his safety, he didn't know how many Jurchen cavalry came to attack, and he didn't know whether Wu Sangui's battalion of cavalry could stop it, or how long it could hold off the Jurchens.

Choi Mingji, the official serving beside him, saw Li Liang's panic, so he persuaded him to turn around and go to the nearby Namhansan Fortress, summon the nearby guards of King Qin's army to escort him to Gangdu. In order to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Jurchen pursuing forces, Korea would really fall at that time.

Without much thought, Li Liang agreed to Cui Mingji's suggestion, changed into the clothes of the guards, and then took Cui Mingji and half of the guards to the mountain fortress of Nanhan, and ordered the rest of the army to escort the carriage to continue to the Jiangdu in order to confuse the possible Jurchen pursuers.

After listening to what happened, Wu Sangui was speechless. He didn't know how many times he scolded Cui Mingji and Li Liang in his heart, but he couldn't give an order to turn around.

The biggest difference between the new army of the Ming Dynasty and the old army is that the new army does not value the merit of beheading, but the merit of protecting comrades-in-arms. As long as there is a glimmer of possibility, the army must not leave behind the corpses of comrades and the wounded. The camaraderie cultivated by eating, lodging, and training together on weekdays, coupled with the importance attached to the dead and wounded on the battlefield, is also a way for the new army to maintain its team spirit.

Last night's defeat was a big blow to the morale of our own troops, but more importantly, the bodies of the dead and the wounded were not brought back. This is equivalent to telling everyone that being injured here is equivalent to death, and even the corpse cannot return home, which makes it difficult to let this army, which has a casualty rate of nearly half of the troops, return to fight again. In fact, the remaining soldiers can still maintain military discipline, which has already made Wu Sangui very satisfied.

There are no families in the new army, but the army led by the officers can always leave a trace. Wu Sangui didn't want to become the object of jealousy of the soldiers for the first time he led the army alone. He could force the rest of the team to turn around now, but there was no guarantee that the soldiers would be as brave as they were last night.

Moreover, Wu Sangui really didn't plan to exchange his life for this credit. If even his life is gone, no matter how much credit he has, it will be meaningless to him.

He glanced at his subordinates behind him, and found that their eyes were away from him, so he made up his mind and said, "That's it, that's it." Since His Highness wants to wait for reinforcements from all over the world to protect him, then we will catch up with the two great monarchs first and escort them to Ganghwa Island. ”

Wu Sangui's decision relieved the Ming cavalry around him. And those North Korean officers and soldiers and officials are also very happy, with the soldiers and horses of the upper country guarding them, presumably the next two days of the journey will be much safer.

In the city of Hanyang, with the departure of the king of Joseon, the originally noisy court was much quieter. Jin Jin, the leader of the council who was ordered to defend the city, and his cronies would only say some ideas he wanted to hear in front of Li Liang, but everyone had no confidence in whether Hanyang City could be defended.

But when the king of Joseon left, these officials who were ashamed to speak in front of Li Liang and blindly blamed the peace negotiation was surrendering, only to find that something was wrong. They didn't expect that the responsibility of guarding Hanyang would fall on them, and they originally wanted to defend Li Liang from the patrol.

In particular, Dolgon, the commander of the Later Jin army, sent a letter into the city, stating that he had led an army of 30,000 to the north of Hanyang, and asked the king of Korea to personally go out of the city and enter the Houjin military camp to explain why he betrayed the alliance of Ding Mao and did not obey the orders issued by Shenyang for several years.

Dolgon finally wrote in his letter that if he did not reply after noon, he would send a large army to attack Hanyang, and that it would be difficult for the army to survive the siege, and the whole city would probably be reduced to powder.

Jin Jin and his cronies were immediately frightened by Dolgon's 30,000 horses, and quickly turned from the original preference for the main battle to a peace faction, wanting to send people out to negotiate with Dolgon.

However, Choi Myung-gil, the leader of the Juwa faction, had already escorted the Joseon king to leave, and at this moment it was the officials of the main war faction in Hanyang Fortress who had the upper hand.

Yin Ji, the school manager of Hongwenguan, Wu Daji, the editor, and Hong Yihan, the official of Taiwan, even shouted: "Hu Lu humiliated His Highness so much in his letter, how can the leader compromise with it." Don't you hear: Is the Lord dishonoring his servants to death?

What's more, now His Royal Highness Nan Hunt has entrusted the important task of guarding Hanyang to the Lingyizheng, isn't it because the Lingyizheng boasted in front of His Highness before, saying that the Hulu is insignificant, and he will be able to teach them to return with blood under Hanyang City?

The leader of the council is the same in front of His Highness, and after His Highness leaves, he is the same again, so there is such a discrepancy between the inside and the outside, how can it be done by the ministers..."

Under the oppression of the officials of the Lord and the faction, Jin Jin had to change his tune and said that he would fight the Houjin army to the end. So under some public opinion, everyone decided that Shen Qiyuan would lead people to guard the west gate, Jin Shangxian would guard the east gate, Yin Huang would guard the south gate, and Jin Jin would guard the north gate.

After Shen Qiyuan and Kim Sang-heon stepped out of Changdeok Palace, the two agreed to repay the country with death today, and let Hu Lu know that North Korea is not unmanned.

However, when Shen Qiyuan took 600 private soldiers to reorganize the defense at the West Gate and was confronting the Jurchen troops outside the city, a great noise suddenly came from the north of the city, which made all the troops in the West Gate suspicious for a while.

A moment later, an official rode up and shouted to Shen Qiyuan: "So, the north gate has been broken, Hu Lu has entered the city, the leader of the council does not know life and death on the north gate, Hanyang City is no longer guaranteed, hurry up and go out of the city with me to pursue Your Majesty..."

Shen Qiyuan couldn't care about the soldiers around him after hearing the news, and they all began to be confused, he hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed the reins of the other party, asking the whole story.

It turned out that after Jin Jin went to the north gate, he asked the soldiers to go out of the city and fight with their backs to the city wall, trying to frustrate the spirit of the Jin army. He also issued orders to behead those who retreated without orders. But Jin Jin himself and his henchmen refused to go out of the city to command, and only refused to control remotely from the city gate.

The officers and soldiers of Hanyang were already negligent in training, and they had followed Wu Sangui out of the city to exterminate the Jurchen vanguard, which was less than half of their own number, and they had not completed all their efforts in occupying the geographical advantage, so we can see how weak the combat effectiveness of this army was.

However, although the combat ability of the officers and soldiers of Hanyang is low, there is still no lack of courage to fight, after all, their families are also in the city, and the murderous reputation of the Jurchens has long spread throughout Korea.

Therefore, as long as it relies on the city wall to garrison, and there are a few more reliable officers to command, it can still be held for a while.

But Jin Jin's adventurous command completely buried this unit. Hauge was originally a little worried that there would be a lot of damage in the siege battle, but the Korean officers and soldiers actually went out of the city to meet the battle, and the queue was chaotic and there was no morale, so he naturally would not let go of this opportunity.

Hauge ordered two groups of Mongol cavalry to charge in an evacuation column, and he himself charged in three columns with yellow flags. The Mongol cavalry in front attracted a round of fire from the Korean soldiers, and they took the opportunity to rush into the ranks of the Korean army and engage in hand-to-hand combat.

Hauge's strategy was so successful that even if the Korean officers reiterated their orders, it would be difficult for the musketeers, who had not been trained for a long time, to calmly obey the orders of their superiors under the frontal charge of such cavalry.

Before the Mongol cavalry could rush to the firing range, there were already soldiers who couldn't help but open fire, one shot and a hundred shots. * The roar of the ignition completely overwhelmed the officers' orders, and the North Korean soldiers suddenly lost their cool and pulled the trigger in unison.

The North Koreans still used arquebuses and were not armed with bayonets. Once command is lost, it is difficult to form an alternate firing sequence. When the Houjin cavalry rushed into their ranks, it became a one-sided massacre.

The North Korean army did not even block the first round of Houjin's attack outside the northern gate, and after paying nearly a quarter of the casualties, they scattered in all directions. At this time, the city gate had not been closed, so the Jurchen cavalry rushed into Hanyang City.

Shen Qiyuan's face turned pale after hearing this, and his heart was full of despair. If the royal capital can't hold even half a day, then where else can the Korean kingdom resist the attack of Houjin? In despair, he immediately wanted to draw his knife and commit suicide, but the official who reported the news caught him in time and said: "Then calm down, Your Highness is still outside the city at the moment, as long as Your Highness does not fall into the hands of Hu Lu, we still have a chance to recover Hanyang." At present, only by relying on reinforcements from the upper country can these Hulu be driven out of Korea..."

Shen Qiyuan finally came to his senses, he gritted his teeth and said: "Yes, we still have Daming to rely on, as long as we keep Your Highness, we can keep the sect."

Come, rush to the east gate with me, rush out of Hanyang with the Jin Jushu and the army, and go to find His Highness..."