In mid-July, Li Zicheng swore an oath from Beijing and led more than 100,000 Dashun troops to the north of Shanhaiguan, preparing to annihilate Wu Sangui in one fell swoop and pacify the battle in the north of the capital.

In order to appease the officials and people in the capital, Li Zicheng ordered a notice to be posted in the capital, stating: "The days of the Ming Dynasty are not exhausted, and the people think of loyalty, and the East Palace is scheduled to be established as the emperor on the 30th of this month, and the first year of Yixing will be changed." ”

Because Wu Sangui had tens of thousands of elite Guanliao troops in his hands, Li Zicheng still had the idea of recruiting An, so he specially brought the crown prince Zhu Cihong and Wu Sangui's father Wu Xiang with the army.

Wu Xiang's head was wrapped in bandages, riding in a donkey cart, disheveled, embarrassed, haggard, in order to protect the Wu family's property he once had an argument with the Dashun generals who copied the family, saying that his son was Wu Sangui, but the result was beaten violently, and it was really pitiful.

As soon as Li Zicheng left Chengshan Customs, Wu Sangui got the news and immediately summoned the generals to discuss and discuss countermeasures.

Due to the severity of the battle, there was silence in the council hall, and the generals were silent.

The regent of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Dolgon, had already led an army of 100,000 troops into Ningyuan City, because Wu Sangui took most of Ningyuan's troops, so there were only a few thousand defenders left in Ningyuan City, how could it be the opponent of the Qing army.

Huang Taiji has died of illness in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, with the support of Da Beile and Prince Li Daishan, Huang Taiji's nine sons Fulin succeeded to the throne, changed the Yuan Shunzhi, and Rui Prince Dolgon was the regent, in charge of the Manchu military and political power, and enjoyed unlimited glory.

This made the Ming army in Shanhaiguan suffer from the enemy, the Qing army in the north, and the Dashun in the south, which became an out-and-out sandwich biscuit.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this time you are going against the odds, is it war or peace?" Wu Sangui glanced at the generals on the scene and asked in a deep voice.

"Your Excellency, we all listen to you, and we will do what you say?" Hearing this, a general looked at Wu Sangui and said in a deep voice.

"Yes, the chief soldier will do whatever he says!" The generals on the scene immediately opened their mouths and agreed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the situation is critical now, even if we defeat the rebellion, then we will definitely suffer heavy casualties, and once Jiannu attacks, we can only be captured."

Wu Sangui pondered for a while, and then looked at the people present with a serious expression and said in a deep voice, "As the saying goes, the lesser of two evils, now I have rebelled and killed the emperor, and I am the enemy of the Ming Dynasty, so I am ready to avenge the emperor and unite with Jiannu to fight the rebellion." ”

Hearing this, the generals on the scene couldn't help but glance at each other, although everyone was a little shocked in their hearts, but they had to say that this was the only feasible way now.

Although the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing were at war for many years, the Manchus did not enter the capital and kill Emperor Chongzhen like the Dashun army, so in the face of the two enemies of the Manchu Qing and the Dashun, everyone was more hostile to the Dashun.

"This is a letter written by the general army to the regent of Jiannu, uniting him to fight the rebellion." Seeing that there was no objection at the scene, Wu Sangui took out a letter from his arms and said with a serious expression.

"Humble and willing to be the head of the horse, go to the soup and go to the fire, and do not give up." The generals glanced at each other again, then arched their hands and said to Wu Sangui in unison, ready to fight with the Dashun army.

Wu Sangui couldn't help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief when he saw this, he also thought that the generals would oppose the United Manchu Qing, but now it seems that he was wrong, since the incident of chasing stolen goods and helping salaries, the Ming army has no hope for the Dashun army.

When Dolgon of Ningyuan City received a letter from Wu Sangui to surrender to the Manchu Qing Dynasty and hoped that Dolgon would send troops to Shanhaiguan to help him attack Li Zicheng's Dashun army, he immediately convened the senior generals of the Qing army to discuss the matter, wanting to know what everyone thought about this matter.

In the face of Wu Sangui's surrender table, the generals of the Manchu Qing Dynasty said that they should sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, take advantage of the chaos of the Ming Dynasty to run Ningyuan, occupy the place outside the pass to recuperate, and let the civil strife of the Ming Dynasty continue.

In the eyes of the Manchu generals, the battle between Wu Sangui and Li Zicheng belonged to the affairs of the Han people and had nothing to do with the Manchus, and the Manchus should take the opportunity to preserve their strength and occupy the Guanwai.

After all, the Manchu Qing's current limited strength is not enough to get involved in the affairs of the Ming Dynasty, and it will be the Manchus who will be injured at that time.

Dolgon also had this opinion, he believed that the Manchus should now take advantage of the civil strife in the Ming Dynasty to operate outside the Guan, and there was no need to help Wu Sangui to fight Li Zicheng, which would inevitably cause Li Zicheng's jealousy and then turn against him.

In the final analysis, although the city of Beijing was captured, most of the Ming Dynasty was still under the rule of the Ming court, and even if the Manchu Qing defeated Dashun, then it was only a wedding dress for the Ming army in the south.

However, regarding Wu Sangui's demotion table, Fan Wencheng, a scholar of the Inner Court, held a different opinion, believing that the current situation of the Ming Dynasty was like Qin losing its deer, Chu and Han chasing it, and the Ming Dynasty was finished, and the opponent of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was not the Ming Dynasty but a rogue like Li Zicheng, and advocated that the Manchu Qing Dynasty take advantage of this opportunity to send troops to enter the Central Plains.

Not only that, Fan Wencheng also proposed that "the battle must be won, the attack must be taken, and the thief is not as good as me; Conform to the will of the people, recruit the people, I am not as good as a thief", hoping that Dolgon can restrain the Qing army, change the previous policy of slaughter and looting, strictly prohibit soldiers, and do not commit any crimes in autumn.

Very simply, if you want to enter the Central Plains, you must not only change the practice of not defending the city strategically, but also win the hearts of the people tactically.

After all, Dolgon was not an idle person, and was finally persuaded by Fan Wencheng, regardless of the opposition of the Qing generals, and was ready to take advantage of the opportunity of Wu Sangui's invitation to enter the customs and chase the Central Plains.

At this moment, Li Zicheng did not know that Wu Sangui had surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and he still had the intention of recruiting peace, and constantly sent people to lobby, so that the march was slow, and he arrived at Shanhaiguan after a few days, and confronted Wu Sangui's troops on the west bank of the Shihe River.

Due to the capture of the capital and the superiority in troops, the morale of the Dashun army was like a rainbow at the beginning, and the battle was brave, and at the beginning it won several battles, and Wu Sangui was embarrassed.

Two days later, when Li Zicheng commanded the Dashun army to fight a decisive battle in front of Shanhaiguan and gain an advantage on the battlefield, the Qing army, which was resting outside Shanhaiguan, entered the pass under the order of Dolgon, and attacked the Dashun army in the fierce battle from behind, so that the position of the Dashun army was immediately dispersed.

"What's going on? Where is this reinforcement for the Ming army? ”

When Li Zicheng was standing on a hill to observe the battle situation of a stone, he suddenly found that there was an enemy army attacking the rear of the Dashun army, and he was taken aback, and hurriedly asked people to go to check, in his impression, no one should dare to come to the aid of Wu Sangui.

"Your Majesty, it's a group of soldiers with braids on their heads, as if they are Jiannu." Soon, a general hurriedly came to report it.

"Jiannu?" Li Zicheng was shocked when he heard this, could it be that Wu Sangui had taken refuge in the Manchu Qing Dynasty?

The combat effectiveness of the Qing army was already strong, but this time there were many people, and the Dashun army had already fought with Wu Sangui's Guan Liao army for two days and was already showing fatigue, so after holding out for half a day, the Dashun army finally collapsed, and the soldiers fled to Beijing in a hurry.

Li Zicheng restrained the troops, but the defeat was like a mountain, where could he stop the soldiers who fled for their lives, and the general Liu Zongmin was injured in the battle, so that Li Zicheng had to lead the army back to Beijing.

In the face of the joint efforts of Wu Sangui and Dolgon, Li Zicheng knew that the capital was difficult to hold, if the people still supported the Dashun army before the recovery of stolen goods, then Li Zicheng could hold on to Beijing and wait for reinforcements from the northwest.

Li Zicheng was worried that the people in the city would rebel to welcome the enemy army into the city, so he decided to evacuate Beijing and return to Xi'an, and the northwest was the territory of Dashun.

The day after arriving in Beijing, Li Zicheng held an enthronement meeting in the Taihe Palace, officially announcing to the outside world that he was the Emperor of Dashun, and then led the army to withdraw from the capital and flee to Xi'an.

Before leaving, Li Zicheng ordered the killing of the crown prince Zhu Cihong, as well as the king of Ding and the acting king, and Wu Sangui's family of 34 was also killed.

The soldiers of the Dashun army burned and plundered, killed and set fire to them before evacuating, and they would not come back in the future anyway, so naturally they could make as much oil and water as they could.

"The Ming army is coming, the Ming army is coming!"

Just when the soldiers of the Dashun army evacuated the capital, a force under the banner of the Ming army but wearing strange military uniforms arrived in the dust and chased the retreating Dashun army, and the battle was extremely brave, making the soldiers of the Dashun army flee for their lives in a hurry.

"The Ming army is coming?" Li Zicheng was taken aback after receiving the report from his subordinates, could it be that Wu Sangui chased after him, according to the description, the military uniforms of those Ming troops were very strange, different from ordinary Ming troops.

"Your Majesty, it should be the sailor of the Ming Army, and the minister has heard that the uniforms of the new army of the Ming Dynasty are different."

For this Ming army that suddenly appeared, the generals of the Dashun army were also confused, and they didn't know where they came from, Li Yan reported to Li Zicheng after some thought, which was the only possibility in his opinion.

"Sailor?" Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and the others showed puzzled looks on their faces, and some did not believe that the sailors dared to land and fight, did they not know that the capital was already the world of Dashun.

"Your Majesty, according to those Ming officials, Emperor Chongzhen had previously issued an order to Taishi Li of the Ming Dynasty to lead the sailors into Beijing to escort him, and it should be Taishi Li who led the army to arrive."

Li Yan groaned majestically, and explained with a serious expression, he had thought that Li Hongyu would not come, but he didn't expect that Li Hongyu would really lead the army to the capital.

"You mean Li Hongyu is here?" The look on Liu Zongmin's face was even more surprised, could it be that Li Hongyu is a madman, and he doesn't know how dangerous Gyeonggi is now.

"Although the minister is reluctant to admit it, judging from the current situation, Taishi Li is indeed here, he is a loyal minister, and he will definitely obey Emperor Chongzhen's order."

Li Yan smiled bitterly when he heard this, and said helplessly, judging from Li Hongyu's previous style of acting, there is indeed such a possibility.

The red lady stood aside, and a complicated look appeared on her face, she never imagined that Li Hongyu would dare to come to the capital, and this courage was too big.

"Who wants to stay behind and stop the enemy?" Since he didn't know how many people the water division came this time, Li Zicheng pondered for a while, and said expressionlessly, if the water division is not blocked, then the Dashun army will suffer heavy losses.

Hearing this, including Liu Zongmin, all the generals of the Dashun Army fell silent, Li Hongyu was already famous, and now he has come to the capital again, he must be well prepared, and no one is confident that he can defeat Li Hongyu.

Besides, everyone has made a lot of windfalls in the capital, plundered a lot of young and beautiful beauties, and is ready to enjoy it, who wants to stay and fight hard with Li Hongyu?

Li Zicheng glanced around at the generals, and couldn't help showing a look of disappointment on his face, he didn't expect that none of those generals would be willing to block the attack of the Ming army's naval division.

"Your Majesty, the minister is willing to stay and lead the army to block the Ming army." Just when the generals were silent, the red lady groaned, stepped forward and arched her hand to Li Zicheng, and said loudly.

"Your Majesty, the ministers are also willing to stay." Li Yan's face changed when he saw this, and then he also stepped forward to ask for battle.

"Your Majesty, Lord Li is a civil official, and the minister and the Ming army sailor have to fight each other in short quarters, Lord Li's strategy will not be useful, and it will distract the minister, so the minister begs to take Lord Li away!" The red lady knew Li Yan's intentions, but she couldn't hurt Li Yan, and then bowed to Li Zicheng and said.

"I'm right."

Li Zicheng nodded when he heard this, now is the critical moment when the two armies are desperate, Li Yan is a burden to follow the Red Lady without the strength of the chicken, and then solemnly said to the Red Lady, "Sister, I am waiting for you in Xijing, and I will give you a banquet to celebrate your success." ”

"Your Majesty." The red lady bowed to Li Zicheng, led her generals to leave quickly, and went to intercept the pursuing Ming army sailors.

Li Yan looked at the back of the red lady in the distance, and the corners of his mouth squirmed and wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say it, his face was full of loss and worry, and he was secretly worried about the red lady.

(End of chapter)