Shanhaiguan.

When Nanjing was in a uproar because of the support of the new emperor, the thieves and Wu Sangui fought fiercely in a stone for five days.

Six days ago, Li Zicheng led 100,000 elite thieves to Yongping, and Li Guo and Li Yan's more than 10,000 remnants of the army, and then the troops were divided into two routes, with his nephew Li Shuangxi leading 20,000 to feint at Shanhaiguan, while he himself personally led nearly 100,000 troops to storm a stone.

A piece of stone is the pass of the Great Wall in the north of Shanhaiguan, Li Zicheng is an old thief who has experienced a hundred battles after all, and he is extremely experienced in tactics, his tactics are very simple, that is, to break through a relatively weak stone pass first, and then form a two-sided attack attitude towards Shanhaiguan from outside the pass, this move is undoubtedly very powerful, because the thief has an absolute advantage in military strength.

However, Wu Sangui is not a good stubble, through the observation of the thieves in the front of Shanhaiguan, he accurately judged the intentions of the thieves, and gathered the heavy troops in a stone pass, and came to a needle point to Maimang, and the thief army launched an attack on Shanhaiguan and a stone pass at the same time, but was attacked by the Guanning army.

After five days of fierce fighting, both armies suffered heavy casualties, although the Guanning army has the Great Wall natural danger can be evidenced, but at this time the army of thieves is not what it used to be, these 100,000 thieves are not only experienced in a hundred battles, but also extremely well-equipped, the lineup has cavalry, archers, pikemen, sword and shield men and other perfect configurations, and even pulled more than a dozen Hongyi cannons from Yanjing City.

The gate of a stone pass was soon smashed by the Hongyi cannon, the army of thieves swarmed up, the two armies launched a desperate fight in the cave of the city gate, five days down, the corpses inside and outside the city gate were nearly 10,000 bodies, the corpses of the soldiers of the two armies almost filled the entire gate, and the stench emitted by the rotting corpse was disgusting thousands of steps away.

"Boom, boom, boom......"

After more than a dozen cannon sounds, followed by a violent shaking of the earth soul mountain, the corpses that blocked the city gate were blown up by the solid iron bullets fired by the Hongyi cannon in an instant, and the simple city wall that the Guanning army piled up along the city gate overnight was also blown into ruins, and dozens of officers and soldiers of the Guanning army who stayed under the city wall were buried alive under the broken wall in an instant.

Amid the deafening shouts, an army of thieves swarmed in and launched another onslaught on a stone pass!

On the battlement of a stone pass, Wu San Guiyuan stared at the blood-red eyes, staring viciously at the surging thieves like a tide, almost crushing his steel teeth, he hadn't slept well for six days, and he hadn't slept a single night since the army of thieves killed a stone!

However, Wu Sangui is not sleepy, on the contrary, he still feels a perverted euphoria!

The strength of the thieves far exceeded Wu Sangui's expectations, as early as three or five years ago, this gang of thieves was just a group of vulnerable rabble, at that time, any Ming official army could beat them to the ground, and the Guan Ning army was the strongest in combat effectiveness among all the official armies of the Ming Dynasty, what were the thieves at that time?

However, it has only been a few years, and the combat effectiveness of the thieves has made a qualitative leap! In a vicious battle in a stone city gate cave, the most elite Guan Ning army of the Ming Dynasty actually suffered a big loss from the thieves! After five days of fierce fighting, the thieves only lost more than 4,000 people, while the Guanning army lost more than 8,000 people!

The Guanning army relied on the Great Wall, but the proportion of casualties was twice that of the thieves, Wu Sangui held the battlements in his hands, and sighed secretly in his heart, if only the ten Hongyi cannons on the Shanhaiguan could be transferred to a piece of stone, if there were these ten Hongyi cannons, would the thieves still dare to swarm up so unscrupulously?

"The thieves are coming!"

"Brethren, cheer up!"

"Damn it, hurry up and lift that pile of stones to the top of the city!"

"Say you, don't fucking lie on the ground and pretend to be dead, be careful that Lao Tzu kicks your balls!"

The wall was noisy again, and the people who had been recruited by Wu Sangui to assist in defending the city began to nervously carry the wooden rolling stones to the wall, and the archers of the Guanning army were still hiding in the caves of the hidden soldiers and did not come out, while the pikemen and sword and shield men calmly sat behind the battlements, trying to keep their bodies close to the battlements.

Several family members hugged up, blocked Wu Sangui with their bodies, and raised the big shields in their hands one after another.

Before the family members raised their big shields, Wu Sangui saw that a "flying locust" had risen in the sky in the distance, and it was roaring towards the pass, of course it was not a "flying locust", it was a rain of arrows shot by the thief archers! Wu Sangui never thought that the damn thief would have so many archers.

In these five days of fierce fighting, it was this group of thieves and archers who made the Guan Ning army suffer enough, and most of the more than 8,000 people killed died under the rain of thieves' arrows.

"Whew......"

"Ahaha......"

In the overwhelming roar, thousands of thieves rushed like beasts smelling blood, and hundreds of elite thieves wearing heavy armor directly launched an attack on the city gate cave, and collided with hundreds of elite Guan Ning soldiers who were guarding the city gate cave first.

The narrow hole in the city gate has become the bloodiest meat grinder!

Here, the thieves and Guan Ningjun don't have to think much about it at all, and they can't help thinking about it, they only have time to make one move, that is, to stab the steel knife and spear in their hands at the opponent, after doing this action, no matter how strong you are, it will be difficult to have a chance to survive again.

This is completely a life-fighting style, and the competition is the spirit and will of the two armies, and it depends on who is more afraid of death! If one side can't stand this kind of killing without a chance of survival and has a mental breakdown, then it is not far from a rout, but so far, neither the thieves nor the Guan Ning army have collapsed.

In addition to launching a fierce attack on the city gate cave, the thieves also used hundreds of simple ladders to attack the walls of the Great Wall at the same time, while the thieves attacked, the archers' arrow rain did not stop at all, and still poured on the wall one after another, and the Guan Ning army on the wall often just emerged, and was soon shot into hedgehogs.

But even if they were shot into hedgehogs, Guan Ningjun didn't dare not take their heads, the thieves had already rushed to the city wall, and the ladder had been erected, if they didn't fight back again, let the thieves kill on the city wall, then there would be no need to fight this battle, once a stone pass was lost, Shanhaiguan would definitely not be able to hold it.

The battle has been white-hot from the beginning, and Li Zicheng has his own logic as a grass coward.

The thieves may be too accustomed to being poor, and they are afraid of being poor, so once they have a strong and elite archer, they will use it happily, and they have no intention of stinging with arrows at all, and the thieves' disregard for life has also reached an outrageous point, and there are several city walls where the thieves have climbed to the top of the city, but the rain of arrows of the thieves and archers is still covering indiscriminately!

Many thieves fell under the rain of arrows from their own people, but even more Guan Ning troops fell.

Seeing Guan Ningjun fall one by one, Wu Sangui was full of grief and anger, and slammed his fist on the stone bricks of the battlement, in his opinion, this way of playing by thieves is completely nonsense, and there is no discipline at all.

If Wu Sangui commands the army of thieves to attack, he will let the archers and infantry attack alternately, so that the killing effect will be better, and the casualties of his own people will be smaller, and at the same time divide the army into several echelons, each attack only puts one echelon, there is a feint in the middle, there is a strong attack, the feint can paralyze the will of the defenders, and the strong attack can kill the defenders by surprise, so the attack effect will be better.

But the thief is not this style of play at all, this thief is a non-stop onslaught, there is a posture of killing the Guanning army in one breath, and there is no mercy for the soldiers who died under their own arrows, but it is this kind of undisciplined way of fighting, but Wu Sangui's Guanning Pass was beaten to the point of losing soldiers and suffering heavy casualties.

"Ugh."

Wu Sangui let out a long sigh and looked back at the direction of Liaodong, thinking that if Jiannu didn't come again, he and Guan Ningjun would really have to confess in a stone pass.

■■■

The vanguard army of 60,000 Jiannu led by Dolgon has entered Shaheyi, which is less than 100 miles away from Shanhaiguan and a stone, but Dolgon still keeps an eye on it, Dolgon did not completely listen to Wu Sangui, he can't help but take precautions, if Wu Sangui and the thieves collude to put on a good show, then he Dolgon will not only lose the 60,000 elites of Jiannu, but also the future and fate of the Qing Kingdom.

Therefore, the army stopped when it reached Shaheyi, and Dolgon decided to wait for the arrival of the follow-up army before continuing to advance, and at the same time sent a large number of scouts to spy in the direction of Shanhaiguan to see if there was a fierce battle there.

The scouts sent out came back that night, claiming that there were killing sounds in the direction of Shanhaiguan and a stone pass, especially in the direction of a stone pass, and the sound of killing was shocking, and a scout horse also risked death to climb a hill near the pass, and found that there were two armies fighting fiercely in the pass, with many casualties, not like acting.

Dolgon, who got the news, was excited, it seemed that Wu Sangui had really turned against the thieves, which was undoubtedly great news for the Qing Kingdom.

[Statement: Huang Taiji has ascended the throne as emperor during his reign, and changed the name of the country to "Qing", so the Jiannu in the text calls himself the Great Qing. 】

What made Dolgon even more overjoyed was that Wu Sangui only rushed to Shaheyi with a dozen cavalry soldiers that night, and handed over the "letter of state" to Dolgon, and officially invited the Qing army to enter the pass in the name of the Ming official to suppress the thieves.

However, it doesn't matter whether the letter is true or not, what matters is that the Qing army finally has a reason to enter the customs, and with the invitation of Wu Sangui and Guan Ningjun, the Qing army has become a "benevolent and righteous army" to exterminate the thieves and avenge Emperor Chongzhen, and it is no longer a barbarian army that entered the customs and plundered like the previous few times.

Once there is the hat of "the teacher of benevolence and righteousness", the resistance of the Qing army after entering the customs will be much weaker, and the Dingding Central Plains is no longer a distant dream.

In Dolgon's view, Han culture is a sick culture, and they attach too much importance to the so-called "three outlines and five constants, etiquette and shame" such formal things, and in this regard, the Han people have always behaved in a calculating manner, not giving an inch, and often appearing generous to some practical interests.

For example, those corrupt officials in the Ming court will quarrel for many years over whether the Qing Dynasty is a subject country of the Ming Dynasty or two equal countries, and they have to fight for a master's subordinate, so they do not hesitate to fight a war of words for more than ten or twenty years, but looking back, the Qing army entered the pass and plundered hundreds of thousands of Ming people and a large amount of property, but they can turn a blind eye and be at ease.

Dolgon despised this sick Han culture.

In Dolgon's view, no matter which nationality or culture, it should be like a wolf, whoever is strong is the king, a Ming Dynasty, even the people of his own country and his own nation can't protect it, and he still fights for the title of a big country? Even if you win the title of a great power, without the backing of strong force, people will invade if they want to, and what is the use of a bird?

However, Dolgon also understood that the Ming Dynasty was a huge empire, far larger than he imagined, and the Han nation was also a huge nation, and the number of Han people was thousands of times that of the Manchu people.

Because Wu Sangui represented the position of the Ming Dynasty, with Wu Sangui's "official" invitation, the remaining group of Shilin gentry of the Ming Dynasty would not psychologically reject the Qing army, because in their opinion, the Qing army at this time was no longer an invader, but a benevolent and righteous army for the Ming Dynasty to go to the country, which laid the foundation for the Manchu Qing to rule the Central Plains.

■■■

Inside a stone pass, there is a camp of thieves.

Li Zicheng is convening his subordinate Li You, Li Tong, Liu Zongmin, Ma Weixing, He Zhen, Xiao Yunlin, Song Xiance, Gu Junen, Tian Jianxiu, Li Guo, Li Yan and other civilian and military generals to discuss the matter.

Li Zicheng swept over the civil and military generals in the tent with burning eyes, and asked in a deep voice, "What do you think?" ”

"Good thing." Liu Zongmin said loudly, "Wu Sangui, this grandson, can't stand it, and wants to beg for a good time." ”

The rest of the generals nodded one after another, expressing their agreement with Liu Zongmin's opinion, and only the subordinate general Li Yan put forward a different opinion: "Great King, Wu Sangui suddenly proposed to retreat ten miles back to fight a decisive battle with our army, and there must be fraud in it!" ”

"Fraud?" Li Zicheng asked in a deep voice, "Tell me, what tricks can Wu Sangui play?" ”

"That is, what tricks can Wu Sanguihua play?" Liu Zongmin echoed, "He doesn't even guard a stone pass, what tricks can he play?" Ambush? Lure the enemy deeper? Then he has to have this strength, just with his remaining 20,000 or 30,000 remnants of the defeated soldiers, what tricks can he play? ”

"The King." Li Yan ignored Liu Zongmin and said to Li Zicheng, "Don't forget that there are Jiannu outside the gate!" ”

"Jiannu?" Liu Zongmin sneered disdainfully, "A group of barbarians, how many people can there be, and how much combat power can they have?" ”

"The king must not underestimate Jiannu." Li Yan said, "The last general had a fight with Jiannu in Datong, more than 50,000 troops, less than half an hour by Jiannu less than 10,000 cavalry rushed to pieces, if it was not for Datong general Wang Pu sent troops to rescue, the Shaanxi Righteous Army should have been wiped out!" ”

"So what?" Liu Zongmin said, "Later, in Datong, wasn't it still cleaned up by Wang Pu's 5,000 people? Besides, what kind of army was your Shaanxi rebel army at that time, it was called a rabble! What kind of army is the king's army today, it is called the elite division, can it be compared? ”

Li Yan said: "In short, the last general thinks that the king should be more careful, Jiannu is not good at attacking tough battles, but the field battle is extremely powerful." ”

"Deputy Division." Li Zicheng's one-eyed turned to Song Xiance and asked, "What do you mean, is it possible for Wu Sangui, the gray grandson, to take refuge in Jiannu?" ”

"It's hard to say." Song Xiance said, "If Wu Sangui really dares to take refuge in Jiannu, then he will have to leave a stench for 10,000 years and bear the infamy of Han Annihilation forever, but if he doesn't take refuge in Jiannu, then he will definitely die, and it is really difficult to make a conclusion whether he cherishes his life more or cherishes his reputation more." ”

Gu Junen, a confidant of his staff, suddenly came out and said: "King, my subordinates think that it is impossible for Wu Sangui to collude with Jiannu. ”

"Oh?" Li Zicheng said, "Tell me your reasons." ”

Gu Junen said: "It has only been more than a month before and after my Dashun army entered Beijing, and it has been less than ten days since I turned against Wu Sangui, in such a short time, how could Wu Sangui hook up with Jiannu?" Prior to this, Wu Sangui and Jiannu had always been in a hostile relationship, even if Wu Sangui had the intention to surrender to the thief, Jiannu still couldn't believe it. ”

Gu Junen's analysis has a certain amount of truth, according to common sense, it is indeed the case, even if Wu Sangui has the intention to surrender the thief, first send someone to contact Jiannu, and then Jiannu will send someone to reply, first establish political mutual trust, and then establish a cooperative relationship militarily, this does take a while, and it will never be reached in a hurry.

But this is just common sense, there are many things in the world that cannot be measured by common sense, especially those who have courage and skill, and all the things they do cannot be measured by common sense!

But Li Zicheng was obviously persuaded by Gu Junen and Liu Zongmin, or he was overconfident in the 100,000 elite thieves under his command, he was like a nouveau riche who had been poor for most of his life, and then exposed overnight, thinking that the two money in his hand could take everything in the world, Li Zicheng really didn't take the Jiannu outside the gate in his eyes.

■■■

The next time, the Guan Ning army really retreated ten miles back and lined up according to the agreement.

Wu Sangui put the remaining less than 40,000 Guanning troops into more than a dozen rectangular phalanxes, and arranged a long snake formation along the Great Wall, the middle of the long snake formation is a mixed phalanx composed of pikemen and sword and shield hands, the front three rows are pikemen, the back is sword and shield hands, and the two phalanxes on both wings are Guanning iron horses.

Convinced that the Guanning army had all withdrawn from the pass, the army of thieves began to cross the Great Wall.

With the help of the city gate hole and hundreds of ladders at the pass, nearly 60,000 rogue infantry all crossed the Great Wall in less than two hours, and at noon, the remaining nearly 20,000 rogue cavalry also passed through the pass, and nearly 80,000 rogue cavalry troops opened a larger long snake formation along the Great Wall, the two wings are also cavalry, and the middle is also pikemen and sword and shield hands, but there are still 20,000 archers in the back of the thief!

After the three-way drum, Li Zicheng in front of the battle immediately pulled out his waist knife and led it forward, and the army of nearly 80,000 cavalry suddenly swept towards the Guanning army like a flood that broke the embankment.

It stands to reason that the best tactic to crack the Guanning Army's one-word long snake formation should be to contain the two wings and then gather superior forces to break through from the middle, or gather superior forces to defeat the enemy's wing first, but Li Zicheng did not follow these classic tactics, regardless of 3721, it is a fierce attack on the whole front.

This is also the consistent style of thieves, if you win, you will be beaten to lose your armor and urine, and if you can't win Lao Tzu, you will run away.

However, with the rich combat experience of the rogues, and the large number of recruits turned into veterans, coupled with the improvement of equipment, there are few armies that can withstand the onslaught of the thieves.

In terms of the quality of individual soldiers, Li Zicheng's thieves and Wu Sangui's Guanning army can be said to be comparable, and the Jiannu outside the gate may be stronger, but the advantage is not obvious, the combat effectiveness of these three armies is basically at the same level, but in terms of equipment, the Guanning army is the worst.

In addition, the thieves have twice the advantage of troops, and the fierce battle is less than half an hour, and the Guan Ning army begins to feel unbearable, although the long snake formation is long enough to defend the front, which increases the difficulty of the thieves' detour flank, but because the formation is too long, the strength of each phalanx is less, and it is already on the verge of collapse under the onslaught of the thieves.

The Guan Ning army was on the verge of collapse, but Jiannu still didn't make any move, Wu Sangui was anxious and angry, and greeted the eighteen generations of Dolgon's ancestors in his heart, of course he knew what Dolgon's idea was, Dolgon's wishful thinking was to let the Guan Ning army exhaust the thief's spirit, and then reap the benefits of the fisherman!

In fact, the 60,000-strong army of Jiannu led by Dolgon had already quietly moved behind the mountain beams on the left flank of the Guanning army.

Seeing that Wu Sangui's Guanning army was about to be unable to support it, Dolgon gave an order, with the 5,000 iron cavalry of the Zhenghong Banner and the Zhenglan Banner as the vanguard, and the 20,000 Korean Eight Banners and the 20,000 Han Army Eight Banners as the main force, launched an attack on the cavalry corps on the right flank of the thieves.

Dolgon's wishful thinking was loud, first using 5,000 iron cavalry with the red and blue banners to break the cavalry legion on the right flank of the thieves, and then using 40,000 Korean Eight Banners and the Eight Banners of the Han Army to detour the flank of the thieves, and cooperate with the Guanning Army to launch a counterattack and defeat the thieves in one fell swoop, so that Dolgon could exchange the greatest victory for the smallest cost.

The cavalry on the right flank of the thieves was about 8,000 cavalry, and the leading leaders were Li Guo and Li Yan.

Although it has been fighting with the 2,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry for half an hour, the main force of the rogue cavalry is still alive and the spirit has not been lost, and the 5,000 cavalry of the Red Banner and the Blue Banner are prominent, and they have a rather sudden surname in tactics, but to Dorgon's disappointment, the rogue cavalry on the opposite side did not collapse at the touch of a button!

In fact, the confidence of the thief cavalry who was killed skyrocketed, not only did they not collapse at the slightest touch, but also in turn the 5,000 cavalry who fought the red and blue flags only had the ability to parry and had no power to fight back! The follow-up 40,000 Korean Eight Banners and the Eight Banners of the Han Army were unable to attack because the cavalry blocked the front, and because the two armies were mixed together, they could not support with bows and arrows, so they had to line up in the rear and stare at each other.

Dolgon was taken aback at this time, and quickly adjusted his deployment, ordering the Eight Banners of the Korean Army and the Eight Banners of the Han Army to support the Chinese army of the Guanning Army, and then used the other five banners of white, white, yellow, yellow, and red with a total of 20,000 iron cavalry to launch a Taishan-like attack on the thief's right-wing cavalry corps!

In addition, Dolgon ordered the Mongol cavalry to harass the cavalry legion on the left flank of the thieves, making it difficult for them to deal with each other.

Li Guo and Li Yan saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly asked Li Zicheng of the Chinese army for help, Li Zicheng hurriedly sent archers to support, but unfortunately the battle line was too long, and the archers were slow to move, and when the 10,000 rogue archers arrived, the cavalry corps on the right flank of the rogue had collapsed, and the 10,000 rogue archers who had lost their protection were quickly slaughtered by the Jiannu iron cavalry.

The right wing cavalry corps was defeated, and the left wing cavalry corps was entangled by the Mongolian cavalry and could not respond, and the thief infantry in the middle line immediately fell into the front and rear of the Guanning army and the Jiannu banner soldiers, barely supporting a small half an hour, and finally did not support the rout, which showed the ruthlessness of Wu Sangui's retreat ten miles back and the thieves' decisive battle, because the Guanning army took the initiative to retreat ten miles, and the battlefield of the decisive battle was outside the Great Wall.

In the end, Li Zicheng only led more than 80 cavalry and more than 2,000 remnants of the defeated generals to escape the pass, and the rest of the thieves were either killed in battle, or captured, or driven into the sea to drown, or fled into the deep mountains and old forests to become savages.

Li Zicheng retreated to Yongping after converging with Li Shuangxi's more than 10,000 thieves, and before the thieves could take a breath, under the persecution of Dolgon and the Jiannu army, Wu Sangui took more than 20,000 remnants of Guanning and 20,000 Han Army Eight Banners to follow, and Li Zicheng was furious and fought a decisive battle with Wu Sangui in Yongping.

Just when Li Zicheng was about to win, Dolgon's army of Jiannu was killed again, and the thieves were defeated again.

After this defeat, Li Zicheng no longer had the intention of fighting, so he handed over the remaining nearly 10,000 thieves to Li Yan, and after leaving the break, he took Liu Zongmin, Song Xiance, Gu Junen and other cronies to Yanjing directly.

The impact of these two defeats on the morale of the thieves was fatal, and from then on, against the Han annihilation army of Wu Sangui, the thieves could always play a decent record, but once they encountered the army of the Eight Banners of Jiannu, the thieves would be timid before fighting, and even as long as they heard the hooves of the Jiannu cavalry, they would flee in the wind.

■■■

Nanking.

After Wang Duo, the speaker of the East Palace, testified in person, the Nanjing officials no longer doubted that under the auspices of Shi Kefa, the fourteen-year-old prince Zhu Cihong, who was only 14 years old, succeeded in the throne, but the official enthronement ceremony needed to be held by the Ministry of Rites, so the current Zhu Cihong was only a prisoner in name and still used the Chongzhen era name.

With Zhu Cihong's succession, the redistribution of power was inevitably put on the agenda.

Politics has always been the dirtiest game, and politicians are the dirtiest players, there has never been any warmth between politicians, some are just naked (naked) interests, because of the merit of saving and escorting, Sun Chuanting, Wang Pu and his son have become the biggest vested interests of the crown prince's heir, and the redistribution of power is naturally dominated by the two.

There are four main forces involved in this distribution of power: the northern forces represented by Sun Chuanting and Wang Pu and his son occupy a dominant position; The Ming bureaucracy headed by Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying, and Gao Hongtu, as well as the local warlord forces represented by Liu Zeqing, Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo, and Zuo Liangyu, were also participants in this power struggle; The southern Shilin forces represented by the Donglin Restoration Society have a deep foundation, but due to Zhou Bi's bad performance of reversing black and white in the lobby of the military headquarters, the reputation of the Donglin Restoration Society has been greatly damaged, and it has become the biggest loser in this power competition!

The question before Sun Chuanting-Wang Pu and his son is how to dominate this distribution of power?

It is obviously unwise to ignore the other three forces to monopolize power, and the Sunwang group's roots and connections in Jiangnan are still shallow, and they do not have the strength to hold power alone, so the wisest choice is to win over one or two of them and fight and divide the other one or two.

Sun Chuanting is a loyal minister, a capable minister, and a Zhengchen, but he has never been an outstanding politician, because he is not shameless and vicious enough, Zhen Youcai is shameless and vicious enough, but he does not have much overall vision and lacks strategic foresight, so neither of these two people can help Wang Pu.

Just when Wang Pu was thinking about how to distribute the rights behind closed doors, Chen Yuanyuan took Liu Ru into his signing room.

(To be continued)