When the city of Jinzhou was broken, the Ming army that rescued it was ten miles away from Songshan, and it was also defeated again.

The Qing army intercepted reinforcements outside Xingshan City, and after being repelled by the Sichuan army's guns, under the lead of Wang Pu's pursuit, Gao Qiqian ordered the whole army to pursue, and the Ming army pursued all the way, but only ten miles away from Songshan, encountered another interception by the Qing army.

This time, the tide turned.

The Qing army had its back against a trench, and many artillery pieces had already been placed on the hillside on the side.

Facing the Ming army that was chasing like a swarm, the Qing artillery fired in unison and slammed the Ming army from both sides. The Ming army was in chaos for a while, and at this time, Duoduo led the Qing cavalry to rush out and rush straight into the Ming army.

The two armies were in a scuffle, and Wang Pu, the general soldier of Datong, was the most active when he grabbed the credit, and he was the first to escape. His escape triggered the defeat and flight of the rest of the Ming army. Although Qin Liangyu resisted desperately, all the troops were defeated, and even Gao Qiqian turned around and ran, and finally Qin Liangyu fought and retreated, and was the only soldier and horse who still maintained the formation, and finally managed to keep Gao Qiqian and others and retreated into Xingshan City.

50,000 reinforcements, after this battle, the loss of troops was defeated, and Wang Pu and others ran all the way back to Ningyuan. Of the 50,000 soldiers and horses, most of them were lost, and many of the defeated soldiers ran away without a trace.

After Wu Sangui and Zu Dashou of Songshan heard the news of this defeat, they couldn't sit still anymore.

After discussing with Zu Dashou, he led his troops out of the city to break through the siege on the same day. Duoduo led his troops to intercept, but this time Ning Jin's soldiers and horses broke out with great combat effectiveness in order to escape for their lives, and the main force of the Qing army was still attacking the city under Jinzhou City at that time. Duoduo couldn't stop it, so he let Ning Jinjun fight all the way out of the siege and fled back to Xingshan.

However, although it was killed, the casualties of Ningjin's soldiers and horses were also very large, and only more than half of the 60,000 soldiers and horses in Songshan finally broke through into Xingshan.

As soon as Wu Sangui fled into Xingshan to join his godfather Gao Qiqian and Qin Liangyu, the general soldier of Sichuan, he heard even worse news.

Jinzhou was broken, and the deputy general Xia Chengde secretly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and Kaicheng led the Qing army into the city. The 50,000 Jinzhou defenders were all wiped out, and none of the five general soldiers, including Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting, the second governor of Sun Chuanting, and Yang Guozhu escaped, and all of them were captured.

Later, worse news came back, Hong Chengchou and others refused to surrender to the Qing, and Dolgon slaughtered more than 40,000 Jinzhou Ming troops in a fit of rage, and slaughtered more than 20,000 Ming people in the city.

Dolgon is leading his army to Apricot Mountain.

"Xingshan can't be guarded." Gao Qiqian shouted in horror.

Wu Sangui looked at Zu Dashou, and his uncle nodded slightly at him.

Just as he wanted to agree to retreat westward, Qin Liangyu, the commander-in-chief of Sichuan, resolutely opposed the retreat. She believes that now that Jinzhou Songshan has been lost one after another, Xingshan cannot give up.

However, her words could not change the minds of Gao Qiqian, Wu Sangui and others. Tower Hill is just a small town. Now the Qing army has many cannons, Jinzhou was broken in only two days, and Xingshan can't hold it.

In the end, the result of their discussion was to take advantage of the fact that the Qing army had not yet surrounded them, and immediately retreated westward, and did not return to Tashan, but directly withdrew to Ningyuan, relying on Ningyuan's Chenggao Chengjian to defend, and at the same time collecting the defeated troops, and waiting for reinforcements there.

There are still more than 50,000 soldiers and horses in Xingshan City. At this time, they abandoned the city and retreated, and when they left, they burned up many of the grain and grass equipment they could not take away. They retreated in such a hurry that they didn't even care about the people of the city. He only cares about his own retreat, and allows the people to follow in fear and helplessness.

However, to the surprise of Wu Sangui and others, they withdrew all the way from Xu Yuan and did not see the pursuit of the Qing army. One day, two days, three days. None of the Qing troops pursued.

Wu Sangui retreated all the way into Ningyuan, but did not see the pursuit of the Qing army.

"Why didn't the Tartars chase after them?" After retreating into Ningyuan City, Wu Sangui was relieved. While he was relaxed, he couldn't help but wonder. When did the Tartar still be so kind, such a good opportunity to pursue, and he gave up?

The Qing army was not kind-hearted, but in the same panic and anxiety as Wu Sangui at this time.

Just after Wu Sangui broke through Songshan, Dolgon captured Jinzhou, and then Dolgon was preparing to take the opportunity to attack Xingshan and annihilate Wu Sangui's troops and horses, Dai Shan suddenly returned.

As soon as Daizen saw Dolgon, he immediately asked him to wave back and then said a word to him.

"The emperor was ambushed by Liu Jun in Liaohe, 5,000 soldiers and horses were gone, and the emperor died in battle."

Then, Dai Shan said another sentence, "Haoge broke through from Liaoyang and returned to Shenyang, Liaoyang has been lost and captured by Liu Jun." ”

Dorgon was so shocked that he didn't say a word for a long time.

After a long time, Dai Shan broke the silence.

"Liu Jun now occupies Liaoyang, the east can attack Shenyang, and the west can intercept my retreat, now we should negotiate peace with the Ming court and stabilize the situation first."

Now the war situation of the Ming and Qing dynasties is quite complicated, in western Liaoning, the Qing army can be said to have turned defeat into victory, and now it has the upper hand, the 200,000 soldiers and horses of the Ming army in western Liaoxi have been completely defeated, although there are still about seventy or eighty thousand people in Ningyuan, but these are already defeated soldiers, and there is no need to worry at all.

After the Qing army captured Jinzhou, Songshan, and Xingshan, the next step was already ready to reach Ningyuan City, and even approach Shanhaiguan.

But when they were advancing vigorously in western Liaoning, their hometown in eastern Liaodong was also attacked and broken by the Ming army all the way. Now not only the southern Liaoning prefectures such as Jin, Fu, Gai, and Hai have been broken, but even the important city of Liaoyang is gone.

If you only lose a few cities, that's acceptable. But now, the emperors are dead, and that's the big problem.

"At this time, if peace is negotiated, the good situation in Liaoxi will not be able to be maintained." Dolgon said.

"If we don't stop and return to the division, we will lose Shenyang if we don't do it." Dai Shandao.

Liaoyang.

The weather was getting colder day by day, the Liao River was already frozen, and the sailors had to retreat to the sea.

Liu Jun is now also faced with a choice question, whether to continue to advance eastward, attack the Tartar capital Shenyang, and smash its lair, or rescue Liaoxi.

How to choose, made Liu Jun hesitate.

There are quite a few generals who shouted that they would take advantage of the victory to attack Shenyang and go straight to the Tartars' lair. However, Liu Jun was also worried, Shenyang was indeed empty at this time, but it was freezing at the moment, and it was not convenient to march. Especially in Shenyang, it is deeply rooted in the heart of the Jurchens, once Duoyanggon and Dai Shan lead the army back to help, then they may be blocked under the city of Shenyang, and at that time, it will be quite dangerous.

But if you go to Liaoxi to rescue Jinzhou, there is also a great risk, the biggest trouble is that the sea and waterway can not go, they can only go to reinforcements by land, not to mention the long distance, and they will also face the problem of a decisive battle with the main force of the Qing army.

After the first battle of Liaohe, Liu Jun understood more and more that although the Chu army had the advantage of guns, it could fight in the field, and if there were no city defenses and fortifications, in the face of the Qing cavalry that came and went like the wind, there was not much advantage, and even with the same strength, it was far from being the opponent of the Qing army.

The original plan was to attack the enemy and save Zhao, besiege Wei to save Zhao, and now Huang Taiji has also been killed, and Liaoyang has also been captured, but the Qing army has not moved.

"Governor, I think we should still fight Shenyang, Shenyang is only more than 160 miles away from Liaoyang, we now occupy Liaoyang City, we can attack and retreat. Once the main force of the Tartars comes back to help, we can withdraw to Liaoyang City, if we can capture Shenyang, then the two cities of Liaoshen will defend it, and there is no need to be afraid of the Tartars. ”

"But what if Jinzhou can't hold it?" Liu Jun asked, under normal circumstances, the Ming army is still relatively strong in defending the city, especially in Jinzhou City, there are veterans like Hong Chengchou and elite border troops. However, the Qing army received a large number of artillery, and now the siege capacity has increased greatly.

Just when they were hesitating and discussing with each other, an urgent report from the Military Intelligence Department of the General Staff Headquarters came back from Liaoxi.

"There are rebel generals in Jinzhou City who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, opened Jinzhou and led the Qing army into the city, Jinzhou City was broken, and Hong Chengchou and other governors and soldiers were captured."

"Dolgon slaughtered the city in Jinzhou, and more than 40,000 soldiers and more than 20,000 people were slaughtered."

"The high potential rate of 50,000 soldiers and horses rescued Songshan, but was defeated by Duoduo and retreated to Xingshan, losing more than 20,000 soldiers."

"Wu Sangui Songshan broke through and withdrew into Xingshan, losing 30,000 soldiers and horses."

"Gao Qiqian, director of Guan Ningjin, Wu Sangui, governor of western Liaoning, Qiu Minyang, governor of western Liaoning, Zu Dashou, chief soldier of Jinzhou, and Qin Liangyu, chief soldier of Sichuan, evacuated Xingshan and retreated into Ningyuan. The imperial court originally had eight cities in western Liaoning, but now there is only one city left in Ningyuan, and the 200,000 lost horses in western Liaoning are left, and only 80,000 defeated soldiers are gathered in Ningyuan. ”

One by one, the news was transmitted back to Liaoyang City.

The Chu army was stunned by this successive changes.

Liu Jun invited Fu Zonglong, Fan Zhiwan, Li Chunjiang, Qu Shiyun, Wang Kun and others and informed them of the news. All those who heard the news were heavy and shocked.

At this time, Liu Jun was not so hesitant.

He glanced at everyone and said, "Jinzhou was lost, Songshan was lost, Xingshan was lost, Tashan was lost to the entire Liaoxi, and now only a lonely city in Ningyuan remains." ”

After a pause, he continued, "I don't think it's necessary to go to Liaoxi at the moment. There was nothing to save in Liaoxi, and I decided that we should continue north and attack Shenyang. If the Tartars have taken away our Liaoxi and broken our Songshan in Jinzhou, then we will break the Liaoyang and Shenyang of the Tartars and take their lair. ”

Fan Zhiwan asked, "The Tartar Liaoxi broke the city one after another, and the soldiers were sharp, and we are now a lone army." Now that the sea is frozen, other reinforcements from all walks of life in the Central Plains cannot come, so if we go to Shenyang at this time, will we fall into the mouth of the tiger? In case the Tartars come back to help, won't we be surrounded, and it will be a real adventure to go deep alone, and please be cautious. ”

Governor Fu Zonglong also has this concern, now that the Qing army in western Liaoning is no longer contained, he went to Shenyang at this time, but he was alone in the depths.

Fu was the general of the Chu army, but they all supported Liu Jun. This is not only because they have always trusted Liu Jun, but also because they are not afraid of the Qing army. The Tartar emperors were all killed by them, and the princes of the Tartars were all frightened by them and abandoned the city, what is there to fear.

Anyway, with Liaoyang City in hand, you can attack and retreat, but you can't defend it, and you can't withdraw it. The Tartars are still hundreds of miles away in Liaoxi, and they won't be able to come back for a while.

"I support the Overseer." Li Chunjiang spoke.

The overseer Yu Shi Qu Shiyun also said, "I also support the overseer. ”

Chief eunuch Wang Kun and governor eunuch Lu Weining glanced at each other, and said in unison, "Our family also supports Duke Chu." ”

Fu Shan, Wang Qian, Zhang Shan, Cao Duan and other Nine-headed Bird generals naturally unanimously expressed their support for sending troops to Shenyang.

"Then it's decided, send troops north and attack Shenyang!" (To be continued.) )

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