From Zhending Mansion to the west into the Taihang Mountain, until Pingding Prefecture, the mountain slowed down, this middle to pass through the well, Guguan, are very dangerous. Li Zicheng arrived in Pingdingzhou, his mood was a little relieved, first Li Yan's escape, and then the Qing army's pursuers were killed, he even suspected that Li Yan had surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, with them to chase and kill themselves, a group of unmotivated remnants of the defeated generals, simply unable to resist, Li Zicheng was here in a hurry to escape, like a lost dog, very embarrassed, but to Shanxi, he can also breathe a sigh of relief, the Qing army wants to chase after it, must overcome the passes, how easy it is to fix the pass, otherwise he would not choose to detour to Xuanda area, The terrain there is dangerous, and there are 5,000 soldiers and horses to resist, he believes that it can resist the Qing army, after all, the other party is only 30,000 or 40,000 people, after arriving at the boundary of Shanxi, he hopes to rely on the natural danger of Taihang Mountain, stick to Shanxi, and then try to recover, as long as Shanxi is not lost, he will not lose the country, once the regrouping, after the recovery of vitality, you can re-enter Jifu and seize Beijing.

But he can never forget the successive defeats he experienced in the past half a month, which he did not expect before, the battle of Shanhaiguan almost killed and wounded one-third of his soldiers, and the remaining soldiers who fled back with him also became demoralized troops, so when he left Beijing, except for the original Dashun army, not a single Ming army was wanted, it was these people who dragged the soldiers of the Dashun army, resulting in a fiasco of the army in a stone, Li Zicheng himself thought so. Zhending suffered two defeats in a row, and he himself was injured, and the soldiers of the old battalion who had been born and died for many years were killed and wounded, and even his close general Gu Kecheng was also killed in the battle after the break, which made him very sad.

There is another thing that also puzzles him, three months ago, when they went west, the people in Hebei were waiting for him, burning incense to welcome him, and now the people will turn their backs on him and wait for his arrival; Even the wells in the village were filled, and he couldn't figure out why there was such a big contrast in just a few months, and as soon as he arrived in Pingdingzhou, he learned that Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong were all in rebellion, almost out of control. He unconsciously asked, "Am I going to end my great time?" ”

The threat of the Manchu Qing was so huge, but they ignored it, after entering the city of Beijing, they thought that the world had been pacified, and he was also a little dissatisfied with Song Xiance, Niu Jinxing and other civil servants and strategists, why didn't they expect this in advance and offered him advice? If you can take precautions early, you won't lose so much! The Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were so brave and good at fighting, and Wu Sangui also acted as their vanguard, Li Zicheng felt that it was not enough to kill Wu Sangui's entire family, and he couldn't wait to cut Wu Sangui, a two-faced and faithless person.

Li Zicheng did not delay long in Pingdingzhou, and went straight to Taiyuan. Guarding Taiyuan was the Ming Dynasty general Chen Yongfu, who had already used the palace of the former Ming Dynasty Jin King as Li Zicheng's palace. In the early morning of the next day, Li Zicheng held a meeting in front of the palace to discuss the strategy of holding Shanxi. He knew very well that since ancient times, Taiyuan has been a battleground for soldiers, and it is extremely important, and if he can defend Taiyuan, he can protect the land of Shanxi. If Shanxi is safe and sound, he can make Shaanxi Guanzhong safe, that is his base camp, and he must not be threatened, so holding Shanxi is the most critical move.

At present, Li Zicheng has not many soldiers and horses at his disposal, and there are only 30,000 or 40,000 people left behind in Shanxi, including only 10,000 soldiers in the old battalion, which are distributed in Pingyang, Luzhou, Shouyang, Zezhou and other places. Nowadays, there is instability everywhere, and soldiers and horses are needed everywhere to keep Shanxi stable. Chen Yongfu only had 5,000 men under his command, and Li Zicheng had less than 10,000 remnants left in his hands. In addition to Taiyuan, but also to send men and horses to guard Daizhou, Yanmen and other places, the reinforcements from all over the country are only afraid that they will not be able to come up for a while, there are only 5,000 people stationed in Taiyuan City, once there is really a war, I am afraid that it will not be enough.

"Before, many squires in Shanxi said that they surrendered to Dashun, but these people are just grass on the wall, people who stand in line with the wind, and now they see that our army has been defeated and morale has been greatly damaged, so these people are only afraid that they have thought about how to drive our Dashun army out of Shanxi, and this sent troops to kill, and they are flawless, after all, there are only so many people, to strictly guard the dangers everywhere, but also to suppress the thieves, it is already a little stretched."

Li Zicheng listened to the report on the situation in Shanxi, and at the moment he gritted his teeth with hatred and said: "The Manchus are barbarians, such officials and gentlemen, don't they understand what is the great righteousness of the nation, why do they want to make trouble with me at this time?" ”

He forgot what he did back then, when the Ming Dynasty in order to deal with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it was also the whole country that did its best, and it was they who constantly harassed the Central Plains behind their backs, which made the Ming Dynasty's taxes damaged and the troops difficult to mobilize, so that the Manchu Qing Dynasty could take advantage of the opportunity again and again to break into the hinterland of the Central Plains, and now he is facing such a situation, but he has not reflected on this.

Chen Yongfu also took the initiative to speak at the moment: "Your Majesty, please forgive the ministers, although our army still occupies the whole Jin Dynasty, but in the past few months, Shanxi's eunuchs, gentry, big families, and scholars have been waiting to see success or failure, and there are still many people who miss Ming, and as far as his subordinates know, in fact, many businessmen and wealthy families in Shanxi secretly have a lot of friendship with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, when Emperor Chongzhen was in power, many people secretly trafficked the gold and silver silk of the Ming Dynasty to the land of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and also acted as their eyes and ears to inquire about the news. Now, because I saw that I was defeated at Shanhaiguan and lost Beijing, and returned to Shanxi, I thought that my dynasty had lost the world, and I heard that Nanjing had set up a new lord, so such people took the opportunity to rebel and tried in vain to restore the Ming Dynasty. ”

"I decided to go back to Shaanxi first, mobilize heavy troops, and then fight to the death with the Qing army, let them see, in the end, I am strong or he is a Manchu Tartar!" Li Zicheng also said aggressively at the moment.

Li Zicheng fled back to Shanxi, but Dolgon did not continue the pursuit, because Dolgon was still very busy, and he transferred troops, raised food and wages, recruited and surrendered officials, etc., these things had to be decided by him personally, because he was Dolgon, not Li Zicheng, and he needed a buffer time to stabilize the situation, and he would not be as unsighted as Li Zicheng.

After Dolgon entered Beijing, he immediately recruited a large number of ministers of the Ming Dynasty, regardless of whether these people were accused by the Qing Dynasty in the Chongzhen Dynasty, whether they had committed such and such crimes, as long as they were useful to the Qing Dynasty, someone recommended them, after he considered it, he would use them, he knew very well that the establishment of the imperial court, only he Manchurians could not do it, because now they have stepped out of Manchuria and walked to the Central Plains, this is the land of the Han people, and the Han people must be needed to govern the Han people. So now there are a group of courtiers with political experience under him to assist Dolgon in dealing with military affairs, help him stabilize people's hearts, and give advice, Dolgon will rebury Emperor Chongzhen after entering Beijing, and also played the banner of avenging the Ming Dynasty, and soon won the support of the Han people. He also often summoned these Hanchen to discuss how to exterminate Li Zicheng and unify the great cause of the country, these people have been in the officialdom for a long time, and they have some experience and suggestions, and he is willing to brainstorm.

The Yamen of the Ministry of Industry is also rushing to work day and night, and it has almost repaired the palace forbidden garden that Li Zicheng burned down. When Li Zicheng entered Beijing, there was little damage here, but when Li Zicheng left, he also learned from Dong Zhuo in the Three Kingdoms to set a fire, but fortunately he did not suffer much loss, the palace is majestic, the pines and cypresses are forested, the rockery is still the same, and the imperial city of Shengjing is not worth mentioning compared with the Forbidden City of the Ming Dynasty.

However, although he Dolgon was very busy, he was extremely excited, since he arrived in Beijing, the old ministers of the Ming Dynasty have surrendered, in addition to using this group of new Han ministers to govern the Han people, he is even more happy that he sees the servility of the Han people, these people often choose to bow their heads in the face of strength, he believes that the foundation of the Qing Dynasty will never stop here, will continue to extend out, he is planning the great cause of dominating the world step by step, he has proposed to Shengjing to move the capital to Beijing, and this is the capital of the Qing Dynasty, As the foundation of the world.