Liaocheng is really not a famous city, and the city defense is not very high, but Li Zicheng attacked for five days in a row, but he failed to advance an inch.

In the past five days, he experimented with a variety of tactics, from ant possession to pig protrusion, and even the concentrated artillery that Li Yan taught him to bombard. The city wall of Liaocheng did appear to be broken in this attack, but although the city wall was broken, the city defense was still there. The superiority of the breech-loading rifled gun in range and rate of fire made Li Zicheng's numerical advantage a joke.

Now, this ruined but not lost city is in front of him.

Li Zicheng has been fighting horses for many years, most of the time he is chased and beaten by officers and soldiers, until the past few years, with the help of Li Yan, Niu Jinxing and others, he started in Hanzhong, became a force in Ganshan, and gradually swept the Central Plains. His war experience is not inferior to Yu Guozhen, and in his long military career, his intuition has saved his life many times.

When he thought of Li Yan, he immediately turned around and returned to his original tent.

Liu Zongmin is in Jingluo Hanzhong, Niu Jinxing is raising grain in Kaifeng, and the generals around him are headed by Tian Jianxiu. Summoning Tian Jianxiu, Li Zicheng said: "Immediately send an order to the army, the whole army retreats, and after the palace, what do you think?" ”

Tian Jianxiu was shocked: "Your Majesty, the outcome has not yet been decided, why retreat?" ”

"Yu Guozhen has defeated Zu Kuan, Gao Jie and Liu Liangzuo, and it is estimated that he will reach Liaocheng within three days at the latest." Li Zicheng was a little tired: "The fighter plane has been lost, if you don't retreat at this time, I'm afraid it will be difficult to retreat." ”

"Your Majesty, why did you say this, you really can't talk about the city, and you can also rule by drawing a canal with Yu Guozhen." Tian Jianxiu was worried: "If you can't use the canal as the boundary, Yu Guozhen will occupy the entire mountain, and he will send troops from Yanzhou, and he will be able to attack Kaifeng City within two days!" ”

"Therefore, after I returned to the army, let Yigong defend Kaifeng, and I left him 50,000 horses...... As long as Yu Guozhen can be delayed for two more years. ”

Li Zicheng's words were obviously lost, which made Tian Jianxiu even more shocked: "Your Majesty, why did you say this Now that I am under the rule of Dashun, the territory is vast, several times that of Yu Guozhen, the population is large, and it is also several times that of Xinxiang. ”

"In the past few days, you have also seen that the firearms of the Xinxiang army are sharp, and non-human beings can defeat us in attacking the city for five days, and the daily casualties are more than 1,000. Unless casualties are not avoided, it is impossible to break through Liaocheng quickly. The number of defenders in the city is about 10,000, and we are still helpless, if Yu Guozhen's army arrives again, and the inside and outside will become a flanking attack, we are only afraid that we will end up with Gao Jie! ”

"Your Majesty......"

Tian Jianxiu didn't want to say anything, his heart was full of unwillingness, if he could win this battle, his status in the army would be almost close to Liu Zongmin's, and it would even be possible to supervise the mountain's east.

"Go and order the preparations." Li Zicheng took a deep breath: "There is always a time to make a comeback!" ”

Just when Li Zicheng ordered the preparation for the withdrawal of the army, Yu Guozhenren had already arrived in Dong'e. After several days of rapid marching, the tiger guards were exhausted, and more than half of the 20,000 armed militiamen who came with him were left behind, so he had to station here and send cavalry to reconnoiter the military situation.

After learning the news that the army had withdrawn from Liaocheng on three sides, Yu Guozhen knew that he was still a little late.

In other words, Li Zicheng saw that something was wrong early on, so he immediately stopped and never delayed at all.

"Do you want to pursue?" Tian Boguang asked.

"Since Li Zicheng dares to attack us, he must be taught a lesson, how can he not chase us?" Yu Guozhen grinned: "But he saw the opportunity early...... Since he saw the opportunity so early, he must have sent a lot of spies, right? ”

Tian Boguang frowned: "According to the official's will?" ”

"Let's go into Liaocheng immediately, and then hold a banquet in Liaocheng, invite my uncle and others, well, we can also send someone to invite Li Yan." Yu Guozhen said: "Let's just say that we are celebrating the victory, and at the same time discuss how to deal with Li Zicheng." ”

From Dong'e to Liaocheng, the road was less than 100 miles, and a gallop road was built, so Yu Guozhen's troops rushed to Liaocheng on the third day of Li Zicheng's withdrawal.

At this time, the city was already full of jubilation, and when the people learned that Yu Guozhen was coming, they also flocked to the streets to witness the demeanor of this legendary figure.

"Nanhai Hou, Nanhai Hou!" Yu Guozhen entered the city, and a white-haired old man greeted him and offered a glass of wine: "Nanhai Hou, please drink a full glass, Liaocheng villains are poor, and they can't be respected, just this glass of water and wine, expressing the heart of the people of Liaocheng to Nanhai Hou!" ”

Of course, the old man had arranged it, and there was absolutely no problem with the drinks he served. Yu Guozhen picked up the cup, but did not drink it immediately, he saw that the people around him were looking at him with all their eyes, so he smiled and said on the horse: "Liaochengfu has suffered from the military disaster, and Yu is ashamed." The people did not blame Yu for this, but treated each other with wine, and Yu was even more guilty. In order to talk about the inch, but also to celebrate the support of the people, we held Liaocheng, repelled the thieves, today I am a new Xianghuwei funding, and you drink bitterly, not drunk! ”

There was a thunderous roar of joy all around.

The army did not enter the city, and they were all hoarded in the east of the canal, so the canal was immediately busy, the pontoon bridge was erected, cartloads of food were pushed into Liaocheng, huge military pots were propped up, and at least hundreds of mouthfuls were cooking at the same time. Such a lively scene, of course, also fell into the eyes of those who care. At this time, the city wall of Liaocheng collapsed in many places, so some people quietly went out of the city, went to the forest about two miles west of the city, met with their companions, and then galloped towards the army sixty miles away.

Li Zicheng has nearly 100,000 people, and their withdrawal is not an easy task. In order to prevent Yu Guozhen from sending troops to pursue, he adopted a step-by-step strategy, Gao Yigong and Liu Fangliang, the second general, took turns to be the queen of the palace, and he personally led the Chinese army to retreat westward. Naturally, the speed of such a march was not very fast, and it was only more than 30 miles in one day and night. Li Zicheng was also not satisfied with this speed, but it was much safer to retreat like this than to retreat with the whole army.

"Tanma said that Yu Guozhen had entered Liaocheng, with more than 20,000 troops, but they were all camped on the east bank of the canal and did not enter the city, but only sent a man-made pontoon bridge to transport wine and meat to reward the people and soldiers of Liaocheng."

Hearing the news, Li Zicheng breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't really fight against Yu Guozhen, but he suffered a loss in Liaocheng, and he had a first-hand experience of Huwei's combat effectiveness.

"See Xiu, I can finally sleep peacefully tonight." He smiled and said to Tian Jianxiu: "It seems that Yu Guozhen found that we were well guarded and there was no gap, so he gave up the idea of pursuing. ”

"I heard that Yu Guozhen also sent someone to Jinan Mansion to summon Zhang Bingwen, and at the same time sent someone to see Li Yan." Tian Jianxiu was not so relaxed: "I don't know what this means, especially on the side of General Zhengdong, Yu Guozhen sent a messenger to ...... Is it a surrender? ”

"No, it's to stabilize Li Yan." Li Zicheng smiled: "If it weren't for that, I wouldn't dare to let go of this." Yu Guozhen's actions have always been retribution, this time I took advantage of the fact that he was besieged by the three towns of Jiangbei to pick up the cheap, and he broke the three towns, so he will definitely come to me for revenge. Zhang Bingwen presided over the affairs of Shandong's east and summoned Zhang Bingwen to come, presumably to ask him to be in charge of logistics, and Yu Guozhen was afraid that he would conquer the Central Plains. ”

"What then?" Tian Jianxiu exclaimed.

Although he regretted giving up the capture of Liaocheng, he also knew that as long as the difference in strength between the two sides was not too great, the Dashun army would not be the opponent of Huwei at all. Therefore, when he heard that Yu Guozhen was coming to conquer the Central Plains, he felt fear.

Think about it, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of tiger guards, armed with muskets with long and accurate range and extremely fast shooting speed, rampage across the land of the Central Plains, that kind of scene made Tian Jianxiu feel desperate and frightened.

"I didn't know in the past, but now I understand why Li Yan is so jealous of Yu Guozhen. But Yu Guozhen is not invulnerable, he has a big weakness, perhaps he himself does not understand. Li Zicheng said: "He is the dog of the household." ”

"What does Your Majesty mean by this?"

"It's that he won't leave his own territory, if I had his strength, I would have swept the world a long time ago, but he just guarded his own one-third of an acre. It is the east of Liangguang and Shan'dong, and it is only the opportunity of Chongzhen's death that the world is ownerless to occupy carefully. Therefore, if he enters the Central Plains, it will be his end. When the time comes, I will abandon Kaifeng and Ruzhou, and lure him to Luoyang City. Although his tiger guard equipment is excellent, it relies too much on ammunition supply, so when we defended Liaocheng, for example, during our five-day attack, the firearms in the city fired more shells and guns than our 100,000 people consumed! By that time, hundreds of miles of supplies would stretch for me, and I would cut off his food routes with a small troowe......"

When he said this, Li Zicheng couldn't help but feel a little proud, and he laughed with his beard.

"Your Majesty is really smart, although Yu Guozhen has good soldiers in his hands, but his own military strategy is insufficient, he has first-class training in the world, and his soldiers are only second-rate." Tian Jianxiu touted.

Because of the news that Tanma brought back, Li Zicheng was relieved, but this did not mean that he had completely given up his guard. That night, he still ordered the battalion to take strict precautions to avoid possible accidents. Before going to sleep, he couldn't help but drink two glasses of Di Gong wine from Xinxiang, the burning sensation of this strong liquor was very helpful to the old wounds on his body.

Two glasses of wine only made him a little drunk, but not drunk. After falling asleep in a daze, it was about the third watch, and because the weather was too hot, he still woke up.

Just as he was urinating at night, he suddenly heard a gong sound.

It was the sound coming from the watchtower at the four corners of the camp, and Li Zicheng was so shocked that he couldn't even pull out his urine. The company camp of nearly 100,000 people stretched for two or three miles, and his big tent was surrounded in the center, and with the sound of this gong, it suddenly became a mess.

No matter how Li Yan trained these invading troops, he couldn't change that the main generals among them were from rogue backgrounds, and some of the accumulated habits of these generals were also inherited by their soldiers. Therefore, on the surface, they are strictly disciplined, but when the real thing comes to the end, the real discipline and false discipline will be judged. If this is just a false alarm, the relieved general of the army can quickly control the situation, but the key problem is that this is not a false alarm.

"Boom!" In Li Zicheng's anger, the cannon rang out. (To be continued)