Hanyang Province

The Han River comes from the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi, passes through Hanzhong, Yunyang, Xiangyang, Zhongxiang De'an Mansion, and joins the Yangtze River at Hanyang Mansion.

Hanyang Mansion City is located at the corner of the Han River and the Yangtze River, across the river from Wuchang on the south bank. Now, Zuo Liangyu's subordinate general Li Guoying led more than 30,000 troops to defend the city of Hanyang Mansion and confront the retreating Shun army.

Although the left army was small in number, it had a strong city to defend and the support of Wuchang behind it, and it was not afraid of the attack of more than 100,000 Shun troops.

There are only three gates in the east, west and south of Hanyang City, and now all three gates are surrounded by the Shun army, but although the number of the Shun army is several times that of the left army in the city, it is too difficult to cross the wide moat and attack the city wall. And now there is the Qing army chasing behind the Shun army, if you stay in Hanyang Mansion for a long time and are attacked by the Qing army, the only way to wait for nearly 200,000 Shun troops is to be destroyed.

Therefore, the Great Shun Emperor Li Zicheng was very embarrassed.

Since the warlock Song Xiance presented the prophecy of "Eighteen Sons Lord Artifact", Li Zicheng firmly believed that he was the true son of heaven, and the Great Shun Dynasty was the act of Shuntian to respond to the people. Therefore, after the inner countryside was defeated again by the Qing army, Li Zicheng ignored Gu Junen's opposition and made the decision to attack Nanjing along the east of the river to occupy a rich place in the southeast.

In Li Zicheng's view, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army is really not worth mentioning, as long as the Dashun army goes, countless Ming troops will definitely fall to the wind, and he is still in the illusion of being invincible when marching from Xi'an to Beijing through Shanxi.

As everyone knows, the south of the Ming Dynasty has not experienced too much turmoil, and the people in the south still have their hearts towards the Ming Dynasty, and the Shun army's "recovery of stolen goods and salaries" in the north has greatly failed the hearts of the scholars, and there are not too many Ming Dynasty gentry and generals who took the initiative to surrender to the Shun army. At least Hanyang's Zuo Liangyu army had no intention of surrendering at all, but relied on the fortified city to defend it.

Only by conquering Hanyang and Wuchang can we recruit enough food and pay to support more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians, and can we collect enough warships to go down the river to realize his plan of capturing Nanjing and occupying the southeast and making a comeback.

The Shun army abandoned all its territory and retreated to Hanyang Province, and returned to the original Liukou mode, with no source of food supplies, so they could only go there and eat there. At the same time as the siege of the city, a large number of troops had to be sent to the nearby villages to collect grain, which was also the reason why the Shun army could not get rid of the pursuit of the Qing army when it was not fast.

Of course, the Shun army could also choose not to attack Hanyang and Wuchang, but choose to march east along the north bank of the Yangtze River, and then choose a ferry to cross the Yangtze River and attack Nanjing. However, first, the riverbank is rugged and difficult to travel, and sooner or later these hundreds of thousands of troops will be overtaken by the Qing army, and second, the food and material materials are now extremely scarce, and they will not be able to go far at all.

Therefore, Li Zicheng's attack on Zuo Liangyu's army in Wuchang was also a helpless move.

Seeing the arrows at the head of Hanyang City raining down, and groups of subordinates falling in pools of blood before crossing the moat, the corners of Li Zicheng's mouth twitched, and he could only give the order to temporarily withdraw from the army, and then think of other ways.

Hanyang's moat is connected to the Hansu Yangtze River, and it is a bit difficult to cross the moat with a few wooden planks, so it is necessary to make a special pontoon bridge. Tomorrow we must capture Hanyang and use it as a foundation to march to the other side, Li Zicheng secretly vowed.

However, it was not only Hanyang City that annoyed Li Zicheng, but also Liu Fangliang's complaint to him, saying that Hao Shaoqi had annexed his subordinates without authorization.

"Where is Hao Shaoqi now?" Li Zicheng patiently listened to Liu Fangliang's words, and then asked.

"According to my subordinates, Hao Shaoqi led his troops from Jingshan to the south, and now he should have arrived in Weiyang Prefecture. Your Majesty, Hao Shaoqi's unauthorized annexation of the army is really a heinous crime, and you must issue an order to punish him. Liu Fangliang shouted.

Li Zicheng glared at Liu Fangliang fiercely when he heard this, "You're embarrassed to say it!" I don't blame you for the defeat of your army, but why did you leave the army and flee alone? ”

Yes! Liu Fangliang blinked his eyes when he heard this, what kind of rhythm is this, how can King Chuang speak to outsiders.

"The whole army is defeated, where can I take care of so much." Liu Fangliang said aggrievedly. If I escaped slowly, I might have been a ghost with a full tartar knife by this time.

"Then Hao Shaoqi collected the army for you, what are you still dissatisfied with?" Li Zicheng reprimanded.

Li Zicheng is now full of thoughts on how to capture Hanyang and cross the Yangtze River, and he doesn't care much about whether the troops are under the leadership of Liu Fangliang or Hao Shaoqi.

"I ......" Liu Fangliang opened his mouth and couldn't speak anymore.

"Your Majesty, I have an idea that I don't know if to say or not?" At this moment, Gu Junen, the servant of the government, said suddenly.

"Qi Hou has something to say, it's all his own family's politeness." Li Zicheng said softly to Gu Junen.

Among the civil officials in Dashun, Gu Junen is a rare strategic talent, and the plan to attack Shaanxi as the foundation, and then attack Beijing through Shanxi was formulated by Gu Junen. However, Gu Junen's personality is too stubborn, which makes Li Zicheng quite disliked, so compared to Gu Junen, he values Niu Jinxing and fortune teller Song Xiance more.

"Your Majesty, our army is in a predicament in attacking Hanyang, and it is not possible to take it in a short period of time to see the current situation, so why not open up another battlefield. Hao Shaoqi led tens of thousands of troops in Canyang, why not let him cross the Yangtze River in Weiyang and attack Wuchang from the south bank. Our army again besieged Hanyang without attacking, and privately collected boats to cross the river from the north bank to attack Wuchang.

Zuo Liangyu has no guts, if he knew that our army had crossed the river, he would definitely not dare to defend Wuchang, and he might immediately abandon the city and flee. ”

"What if Zuo Liangyu doesn't run away? Isn't our army once again in the predicament of attacking Wuchang City? Wuchang City is even stronger than this Hanyang City. ”

Before Li Zicheng could speak, Prime Minister Niu Jinxing took the lead in attacking.

"It doesn't matter if Zuo Liangyu doesn't escape, as long as he crosses the Yangtze River, our army can divide his troops to attack Changsha, Yuezhou and even Jiangxi, and Jingzhou, which is still in the hands of our army, has the entire territory of Huguang. Huguang is familiar with the world, and our army can naturally recuperate and recuperate with the land of Huguang, isn't it better than the land of Nanjing Jiangdong that can be seen and touched! ”

In Gu Junen's view, Li Zicheng's idea of abandoning Huguang in front of him is really ridiculous.

"You dare to question Your Majesty's decision!" Niu Jinxing was furious and pointed at Gu Junen and said angrily, but was stopped by Li Zicheng waving his hand.

"The strategy of dividing troops to attack Wuchang offered by the Marquis of Qi is very good, since this is the case, the Marquis of Qi will go to Hao Shaoqi's army to pass the decree and take full charge of the affairs of the Western Route Army." Li Zicheng ordered.

"This, the minister obeys the order!" Gu Junen was stunned for a moment, he was fully responsible for the affairs of the Western Route Army, and what he said sounded good, how could Hao Shaoqi, who dared to annex Liu Fangliang's army without authorization, listen to himself, but just wanted to drive himself out. However, since Li Zicheng spoke, Gu Junen could only bow down and accept the order.