Under the first month of the first year of the republic, the Qing army sacrificed to Emperor Chongzhen in Kaifeng, swore to send troops to fight thieves, and at the same time widely issued a document declaring that the Qing Dynasty was ordered by the sky, and the emperor inherited the Ming Dynasty, only killing thieves and not offending the people, but wished to destroy the ugly class to avenge the revenge of the Ming emperor, and all loyal and righteous people should obey the orders of Jing - the township officials and gentry suddenly became active, and they jumped out to be loyal and righteous, and took the initiative to stabilize the place and raise food and salary for the Qing army.

Duoduo proudly told Azig that the Han people were all official fans, but they were a little shy to answer, and they would sell themselves if they found an excuse, and he also sent a letter to Yun Rong, the Qing soldiers only went to please the thieves, and they would fight wherever there were thieves, hoping that the Datong army would not harbor the thieves, and the two families would continue to be good friends, and by the way, a list was also stuffed into the envelope. Yun Rong received the letter, and immediately compared the list of Henan restorationists provided by the Titang Division, and the two were roughly the same, so he took Zheng Daqian to Luoyang to command Titang to arrest people according to the blacklist, and the Qing officials and gentry were arrested one after another, and hundreds of people were labeled as traitors and sent to the gallows, and the Henan restoration forces were hit hard - these people didn't understand until they died, Azig and Duoduo were not Dolgon, and the brothers had always hated the Ming gentry, and it was not uncommon for them to sell themselves and take refuge, and they borrowed knives to kill people and then did personal favors by the way.

Yun Rong killed people in the rear, and the battle had already opened in front - the lineup of the Qing army was very interesting, Duoduo attacked Wei Hui north of the Yellow River, Azig drove Xingyang directly south of the Yellow River, and Wu Sangui became the main general of the thief, but he still led the troops to fight the front, and the Mengman Eight Banners of Cherge and Wu Bai followed behind, and the Han Eight Banners of Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming were on two wings. Wu Sangui was very unhappy to be caught in the middle, and sent Zu Kefa to escort Liu Hongqi, a Henan tokou, to walk in front and lead the way.

Liu Fangliang led 5,000 Shun troops to serve as a guard west of Linying, and found that the Qing army was overwhelmed by the black pressure and hurriedly retreated, but when he saw clearly that it was a group of bandits, he turned around and killed the past with great momentum. Zu Kefa did not show weakness and ordered to meet the battle, the number of Tukou was not less than 20,000, relying on the strength of the people and the Shun army to fight together, the two armies were in full swing, Li Guo, Yuan Zong two departments rushed to reinforcements. Tukou has always bullied the soft and feared the hard, and when they saw that the situation was not good, they threw down the emperor's tablet and ran, they did not have the concept of returning to the team, and this run went back to their respective homes, and Liu Hongqi, an old thief who had been in Henan for more than ten years, also disappeared from then on. Zu Kefa was unlucky, he couldn't stop the bandits, but was squeezed off his horse by the crowd of people who were rushing for his life, and he ran one step slower and fell into the encirclement of the Shun army, and his thousands of men were quickly killed and wounded, and he himself was wounded and captured.

The Shun army was mighty, ended the battle in less than an hour, and then quickly retreated, Wu Sangui arrived only to see a messy battlefield, this guy was mad, gritted his teeth and caught up with the Shun army and beat hard. The Shun army trembled when they saw Wu Sangui's battle flag, but fortunately, Zhang Ding's Xiao Sigui and Su Hai's cavalry came to reinforce in time, so they had the courage to turn around and face the battle. Wu Sangui was taken aback by the appearance of the Datong Iron Cavalry, and hurriedly called for friendly reinforcements, but Cherge and Wu Bai hid behind and refused to move forward, and Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming consciously retreated to their two flanks. The Eight Banners hugged together to watch the excitement, obviously intending to consume the surrender army, Wu Sangui was not stupid, and immediately ordered to stop the pursuit, and the whole army was intensively arrayed to defend, Xiao Sigui and Su Hai accepted it when they saw it, and took the opportunity to cover the retreat of the Shun army. The Shun army won a small victory in the first battle, and the officers and men of the whole army were thunderous and energetic, and returned to the camp to celebrate the victory.

The Datong army and the Shun army went away, and the Eight Banners soldiers came to rendezvous, Wu Sangui did not dare to get angry at Cherge and Wu Bai, and twisted Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming and scolded the two of them for being afraid of the enemy like tigers, and sat back and watched the friendly troops being trapped and did not save them, and they must sue the eight kings and the ten kings.

"Wu Sangui, you still have the face to ask for help, our Eight Banners together are only more than 20,000 people, but you have nearly 50,000 under your command, and you have also incorporated more than 20,000 bandits, and the Datong army and thieves have broken the sky with 30,000, why don't you dare to fight, I think you are afraid of the enemy like a tiger, cowardly and retreating." Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming also have princes, and they also enjoy the treatment of princes, and they don't care about this newly baked King of Pingxi, and immediately ridicule each other.

"Then, then you shouldn't hide behind, who knows how many elites of the Datong Army are behind," Wu Sangui was a little speechless, he had 15,000 elites of the Guanning Army in his hands, including 3,000 family members who ate double salaries, and the generals Bai Guangen and Tang Tong were called into Beijing to carry their naturalization and flag, and more than 20,000 subordinates of the two were also assigned to his command, plus the elite troops collected along the way, the troops were indeed sufficient, and the disadvantage in the first battle was mainly because of the reluctance to be old, but Wu Sangui couldn't admit it, and said viciously, "Your Dongjiang Army has always been afraid of the enemy and cowardly. Opportunistic, it hasn't changed after so many years. ”

"Shameless, did you Guan Ningjun do less to escape and harm friendly troops, we were also harmed back then!" Kong Youde jumped up and pointed at Wu Sangui's nose and scolded, and Geng Zhongming also rolled up his sleeves and prepared to fight.

"Shut up, you are all from the Qing Dynasty now, and the old accounts of the Ming army are not allowed to be mentioned again." The Guanning army in western Liaoning and the Dongjiang army in Phidao had many old grievances, and they had to fight when they opened the lid, Cherge immediately shouted loudly, he was the third son of the five founding ministers of the Qing Dynasty, his status was noble, his hands and eyes were all over the sky, Wu Sangui and Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming blushed and didn't dare to say it anymore.

Wu Bai spoke at this time: "I think so, it is better to move forward with the king of Pingxi as the mainstay, the king of Gongshun and the king of Huaishun to protect the wings from retreating, and we will respond in the back, but the king of Pingxi should not hide it, your thousands of double pay soldiers must go into battle, and there are world-famous Datong soldiers on the opposite side." ”

The Qing army set off again, stopping at dusk thirty miles away from the opponent's camp, Wu Sangui ordered the whole army to set up camp, and sent more sentry posts, buried deer barricades to prevent robbery of the camp, and sent troops to kill thieves early tomorrow morning.

The Qing army lit torches to build a camp, and on a hill in the distance, Ma Guangyuan quietly watched the other party - the Manmeng Eight Banners did not appear, it should be pressed in the back according to the old rules, the Eight Banners Han Army and the Green Battalion seem to have sixty or seventy thousand, and there are really a lot of troops! This battle is strong and I am weak, and it is not easy to fight!

At present, the Datong army only has two dissatisfied old troops in the three towns and eight towns, and there is one assistant in the eight towns in Xingyang, with less than 15,000 strong soldiers, and the other first town of the Chu army and the cavalry of the Chu army have a decent combat strength, but only 14,000 people, and the Shun army claims to have 50,000 troops, but at most 10,000 soldiers, the Shaanxi militia who came from Nanyang to reinforce the city can defend the city and fight in the field. Ma Guangyuan silently calculated his troops, turned back to the generals behind him and said: "It will take five days for our army reinforcements to arrive at the earliest, we must find a way to delay the time, the city wall must be heightened, and more artillery must be set up on the mountain." ”

"Our army built a camp against the mountains of Xiangcheng with its back, and dug three trenches in front of the camp, so that it should be able to resist for more than five days if we hold the danger and wait for work." Zhang Ding thought for a while and said.

"What's the old man's plan?" Ma Guangyuan asked Wang Zhong, the leader of the thief army in the Datong Chamber of Commerce.

"You can't wait to be beaten, you must take the initiative to attack and harass the enemy, and you have to do it day and night, so that the east captives will have trouble sleeping and eating, exhausted, and their legs will be weak when they go to the battlefield." Wang Zhong, the former Shanxi commander-in-chief, clenched his fists and said.

"Good idea, it's just that to disturb the enemy, you must use the elite, our army has too few elites, and we can't afford to lose it!"

"Leave this matter to me, please rest assured Ma Shuai, the old man has a way to make the Qing army even sleep with his eyes open." Wang Zhong patted his chest and assured that in fact, the most elite are the mercenaries of the Chamber of Commerce, and those who dare to eat this bowl of rice are veterans of a hundred battles, fighting and thieves.

Ma Guangyuan laughed and nodded.

Late at night, the burning torches illuminated the camp of the thief army as if it was day, Wang Zhong walked out of the big tent, waved his hand and ordered his subordinates to carry out dozens of large wooden boxes, the boxes were immediately opened one by one, and the white silver flashed so that the eyes of the thief army and the Tukou in western Henan lit up - Wang Zhong now has money, Nanyang just surrendered, he rushed into the city to take over the Shun army's treasury, this time it was a windfall, even according to the military regulations of Sancheng seized to himself, this is also an astonishing amount of money, not to take out a point to serve the federation is embarrassed to go out to meet people.

"Brothers, do you want to get rich?" Wang Zhong asked loudly.

"Yes!" The crowd shouted in unison.

Wang Zhongle said again: "If you want to get rich, you have to dare to play with your life, the Dongyu camp is not far away, I don't care what method you use, drill holes, dig pits, beat stuffy sticks, beat him dogs, whoever dares to go immediately reward five taels of silver, get back a first-class reward of one hundred taels of silver, one hundred taels, the number of places is limited, sign up quickly!" ”

The camp boiled instantly, and everyone shouted and rushed to the big tent to serve the Federation, and after a while, the first batch of more than 2,000 people set off in a gang, and of course the others could not be left out in the cold.

In the camp of the Qing army, Wu Sangui was woken up before dawn, and the family reported that this night was simply evil, more than a dozen sentry posts were touched, and people died in several camps, and some camp tents were inexplicably on fire, and people were sent out of the camp to inspect but were ambushed. Then, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming sent people to report that their camp was also secretly attacked, and although there were not many dead, the other party was too ruthless and cut off their heads, and the soldiers were worried and didn't sleep well all night.

Wu Sangui is also a little stupid, he is not afraid of stealing camps and robbing villages after a hundred battles, but this kind of stealing chickens and dogs has never been encountered, the people over there in Datong are too shameless, and they are doing some crooked ways, but fortunately, the loss is not big, this tone is endured first, take Xiangcheng and then clean them up.

Wu Sangui finished breakfast, waved his hand and ordered the whole army to kill Benxiangcheng, this time Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming arrived on time, and after the three Qing armies met, they yawned all the way to the west, and walked less than five miles, Wu Sangui's camp behind them suddenly heard a series of explosions, and then Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming's camp were also shouting and neighing. Wu Sangui was shocked, this is still a fart fight, hurry back to save the nest, the three of them hurriedly led the troops back to help, someone came to report on the road, the Manchurians and the Mongols broke into the camp to kill and rob indiscriminately, and set fire to the powder magazine before leaving, the officers and soldiers guarding the camp did not dare to fight back, and they were so frightened that they scattered and fled for their lives.

"This must be the Manchus and Mongols in Datong who robbed the camp in disguise, they have done this before." Kong Youde guessed correctly, more than half of the thieves in the Datong Chamber of Commerce were Manchurian and Mongolian veterans, and it was effortless to fool the newly surrendered green battalion soldiers.

"I caught a prisoner last night, a bandit from Nanyang, these guys are more familiar with the terrain and roads than us, they sneak into the camp in groups of three or five, and run away after killing people, it is difficult for us to deal with them." Geng Zhongming immediately added.

Wu Sangui was angry, gritted his teeth and shouted: "Each battalion has strengthened its vigilance, set up more checkpoints, and arrest strangers first when they see them." ”

"There are also braids, the people over there in Datong have short hair, the sons and daughters must check the braids, and they must pull them a few times, don't let them pass the test in confusion." Kong Youde shouted again.

The taste of being targeted by wolves is not pleasant, and if you are not careful, you may be taken away, the Qing army has been soldiers since then, eating and sleeping are scared, and even and pee have to be carried by a few people with knives together, this situation can not fight, Wu Sangui has a sad face and nested in the camp for three days. At this time, Wu Bai came to the door angrily, still carrying a blood-dripping war knife in his hand - it was okay to enter Wu Sangui's camp and be interrogated by the sentry, but someone actually pulled his braid hard, and Wu Bai was so angry that he killed that guy with a knife.

"King Pingxi, what is your intention in holding the army back? Prince Ying is angry and sent a letter urging the war, you can see for yourself. Wu Bai waved his hand to stop Wu Sangui from apologizing, and handed over a letter with a gloomy face.

The Qing court was determined to make a disturbance in Henan, and Dolgon had two intentions: first, the Qing army needed the tacit approval of Datong to destroy the Ming Dynasty, and it was best to give some support, which required a battle to show strength and force Datong to negotiate peace; Second, Wu Sangui's reputation for consecutive victories has been greatly enhanced, and the people of the Ming Kingdom seem to be pinning their hopes on him to restore his homeland, this momentum is very dangerous, and his strength must be weakened as soon as possible - it is not important that Henan wins or loses, but Wu Sangui must be forced to fight to the death, Azig knows this, and he did not try his best to attack Xingyang, except for shooting at the defenders' artillery, he did nothing, but his eyes were always staring at Xiangcheng, and Wu Sangui did not want to play tricks and eat.

Wu Sangui read the letter and replied with a wry smile: "Xiao Wang obeyed the order and went to war two days later. ”

Xiangcheng camp, Ma Guangyuan also got the news, Li Dingguo, Gaertu's eight thousand iron cavalry has passed Yuzhou, Ma Ke, Ma Xianglin two towns reinforcements will arrive in a day later - the elite Bu Yi Town, Bu Er Town, Bu Jiu Town is still behind, but the new army of the two towns arrived first, Sun Shoufa's intentions are quite deep, Ma Guangyuan will smile and make up his mind, the federal senator Tuo Yangkun, the commander of the three towns of the cavalry Zhang Ding, the town commander of the eight towns Ma Jinzhong and the first town of the Chu army Hu Dawei The four Yansui people were quickly called to his big tent.

"I'm going to go to a decisive battle." Ma Guangyuan said expressionlessly.

"It's best to fight right away, lest reinforcements come and share our credit." Hu Dawei said with a big grin, but when he noticed that the other people had strange faces, he quickly closed his mouth.

After a moment of silence, Zhang Ding asked in a low voice, "After this battle, can they get amnesty?" ”

"We jointly petitioned the House of Representatives for amnesty, and I will lead the way." Ma Guangyuan replied affirmatively.

"This battle will surely shed rivers of blood, and even the greatest sin should be resolved, and I will ask for their lives in the Senate." Tuoyangkun let out a long sigh.

"Let's fight, sooner or later there will be an end, we can't leave a legacy for the Federation." Ma Jinzhong hung his head and said.

Ma Guangyuan nodded: "Since you have made up your mind, you can't be soft, whoever disobeys the order will be killed, which of you will supervise the battle?" ”

"I'll go!" Hu Dawei raised his hand and shouted.

On the morning of the 28th day of the first lunar month, there were sporadic snowflakes in the sky, the cold wind blew the military flag hunting, the war drums rumbled and the murderous atmosphere was filled in an open area east of Xiangcheng, the Datong army was in the center with 50,000 Shun troops, Ma Ke and Ma Xianglin were in the wings, Ma Jinzhong and Hu Dawei were dragged back, and slowly advanced to the formation five miles away from the Qing army.

Li Zicheng looked at his team and was almost heartbroken, the banner of the Dashun army was still there and the people's hearts were disobeyed, everything would disappear after this battle, but he had no choice.

"King Chuang, Ma Shuai asks you to come to the back and command the battle together." Zhang Ding quietly walked over and said.

"I'll stay here." Li Zicheng was very dissatisfied and glanced around, but the generals of the Shun army were indifferent.

"Let's go, you're not the opponent of the Wu thief." Zhang Ding smiled and beckoned behind him, Xiao Sigui immediately led a team of cavalry to surround him, and Li Zicheng followed Xiao Sigui helplessly.

Then, Zhang Ding walked up to the soldiers of the Shun army and shouted loudly: "Wu Sangui is a fart, the Yansui people have fought for hundreds of years, and they have never been afraid of anyone, today I will take you to slaughter this dog's day, brothers, this is a shameful battle, no one is allowed to be a coward, after this battle, I am willing to pay three months' military salary to those who go home, and those who are willing to be soldiers are welcome to join the Datong army, and those who are killed and disabled in battle will be paid a bereavement pension according to Datong military regulations......"

"What if Datong doesn't pardon us?" Someone in the Shun army asked.

"Then I will take you to the Western Regions Tuntian, this is a better place than my hometown, the land is fertile, the water and grass are abundant, the women are white and tender, and they are the most able to give birth to babies, many fellow villagers have settled there, I swear to God, there is no lie!"

The soldiers of the Shun army laughed loudly, Zhang Ding waved his hand and said: "Brothers, sing and go forward to kill the enemy, we have won this battle!" ”

"There is a widow Zhang at the head of the village, with a round buttocks, a thin waist, and a pair of big black eyes, which fascinates my brother and I panic......" The northern Shaanxi minor tune sounded, and the soldiers of the Shun army sang and laughed and strode forward.

The Shun army is getting closer and closer, Wu Sangui involuntarily also looked around his wings and back, the Shun army was obviously held hostage by the Datong army, Li Zicheng fell to the same level as him, they are all pitiful worms, they have no ability to resist in front of the two giants of the Datong Federation and the Qing Empire, and can only be slaughtered.

Li Zicheng is a thief, he deserves to be unlucky, I just want to step on him to live-Wu Sangui collected his thoughts, waved his hand and ordered: "Let's start!" ”

The artillery and guns of the Qing army opened fire almost at the same time, but the sparse cannons and guns had little effect.

"Kill the thief!" The drums of war sounded, and the Shun army rushed forward like a tidal wave.

"Kill the thieves!" The Qing army's firearms had limited striking capabilities, so they simply launched hand-to-hand attacks.