When the Eight Banners entered the customs, there were a total of 230,000 troops before and after, of which there were 120,000 real elites of the Eight Banners, and the rest included the Liaodong Han Army, the Tin Foil Department, the Mongolian Departments, the Kazakhs, the Mingat, the Dahaner, the Oroqen, and the Evenki tribes of the servants and horses, and then with the expansion of the scale of the war and the expansion of the front, tens of thousands of soldiers and horses were successively transferred from outside the pass to enter the customs, but even so it still could not meet the needs of the war. After Emperor Shunzhi ascended the throne, he had no choice but to start forming a green battalion, and at the same time issued an edict, stating that "those who wish to enter Manchuria will enter the banner", and a large number of Han generals and warriors were selected to enter the Eight Banners of Manchuria, and the lack of troops can be seen.

At the same time as mobilizing troops to enter the customs on a large scale, the Manchu Qing Dynasty also dropped the Manchu and Han people from outside the customs to enrich the Guannei, but due to the outbreak of war outside the Guanguan and the gradual severity of the situation inside the Guan, they finally had to stop, and by the time the Qing court had to evacuate from the Beijing Division, in fact, the people outside the Guanwai who had moved into the Guannai had reached more than 400,000.

And this time, after the great change in Beijing, Dolgon hastily decided to return north, which was to abandon all the hundreds of thousands of people of various tribes and leave them to the Ming army for disposal. Even the families of generals and officials have stayed in the Beijing Division, in his opinion, this is also a last resort, the old and weak women and children and the common people stay in the army, which can only slow down the march of the army, in order to save some seeds for the Eight Banners, he also has to break the arm of the strong man.

The Qing army that returned north totaled 100,000 people, except for the concubines and harem ladies of Huang Taiji and Shunzhi, the rest were almost all men. Dolgon's original standard, "all men from fifteen to fifty-five years old should join the army", in fact, had to break through this limit, and the Qing army was full of eleven or twelve-year-old boys and nearly sixty-year-old men, who had been forcibly conscripted, even if the combat strength was negligible. But at least it can be used as cannon fodder to fight for the space for the real elite to survive.

Two days after the withdrawal of the Beijing division, the soldiers and horses of the various tribes had dispersed, including the Mongolian Horqin tribe and the Mongol tribe in southern Mongolism, which were closely related to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and they had lost all confidence in the Qing army, besides. Today's Mongolian steppe is also full of smoke, and they are still thinking about their own people and territory, so they can't wait to leave the Qing army and quickly retreat to the northern grassland.

On the fifth day after leaving Beijing, the number of Qing troops plummeted to 80,000. The food and grass of the accompanying army were also exhausted, and the cities controlled by the Qing army along the way could not supply the daily consumption of such a large army.

Along with the retreat of the Qing army, there were also some subordinates of the original Chongzhen court. Headed by the university scholar Feng Quan. Feng Quan is fifty-three years old this year, and his body is not as good as before, but the experience of first descending and then descending to Qing has made him have no way back. Since defecting to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Feng Quan has been highly regarded by Dolgon, not only ranking high among scholars, but also being ordered to revise the history of the Ming Dynasty. After the Qing army withdrew from Beijing, Feng Quan and others were afraid that they would be punished by the Longwu court if they stayed in Beijing, so they had to follow the Qing army back north.

There was a shortage of food in the Qing army. Feng Quan's degraded officials didn't even bring out their families, and the daily supply was naturally not in the scope of key considerations. Dolgon and other noble ministers did not have time to think about their survival. These days. Several elderly vassals could not bear the hardship and hunger, and died on the way back to the north.

The original meaning of Dolgon was to pass through Shunyi and Huairou, go through Miyun and Luanping, enter the area of the original Duoyan Sanwei, and then march through the grassland to the homeland of Terin and Asugul Jurchen. But the news came out from the forward Tanma that Li Dingguo's department was after taking Jinzhou. The Mongol tribes have been ordered to outflank the area from the northwest to the north of Zhili, including the Korean cavalry under Li Dingguo and the 20,000 armored cavalry under the command of Cao Bianjiao of the Ming army. If you continue to follow this route, you will inevitably have to confront a large number of cavalry, and the supply of the army is already very difficult at this time, and it will reach the old land of the Mongols such as Duoyan Sanwei. The supply is even more unimaginable. Therefore, at present, we can only move closer to the front line of Shanhaiguan, collect the soldiers and horses of the Qing army from all over the country, gather grain and grass, and find the opportunity to break out of the encirclement before the two armies of Li Dingguo and Zhu Ping'an are encircled.

Therefore, at present, Dolgon can only advance towards the front line of Yongping Mansion, at least there are remnants of the Qing army to support along the way. After arriving in Jizhou, the army rested for a while, and although the defenders in Jizhou City tried their best, they could only supply about 1,000 stone of food, which was far from meeting the needs of the entire Qing army.

At nightfall, the hungry soldiers could not bear it anymore and began to raid the city to plunder the food and wealth of the people, and the soldiers and horses deployed outside the city did not even say hello to the surrounding villages.

The Dolgon brothers and other relatives and nobles also turned a blind eye to this, everyone knows that there is a shortage of grain and grass now, and the soldiers have their own ways to get food for their stomachs, and they will naturally not stop it, the rivers and mountains of the Central Plains no longer belong to the Qing Dynasty, these people are still the people of the Ming Dynasty, and they are no longer the people of the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing army can naturally return to the state and style of the original autumn hunting south every year before entering the customs, burning, killing and looting, and doing everything.

Jin Zhijun, the right attendant of the military department, was only in his thirties, and he went out for a long walk with a few younger Han officials, but he still came back empty-handed. Feng Quan and others live in the cross-courtyard behind the yamen of the Jizhou prefect, this courtyard has not been used for many years, and it has long been barren and grassy, but there is chaos outside, and everyone does not dare to go out, so they can only take refuge here for a while. The original servants and family members were all taken away by the Qing army and used as soldiers, and everyone was used to eating and drinking, but there was nothing to be done at this time.

Feng Quan, Chen Zhilong, Zhou Boda and others found a fairly intact wing room to live in, moved some hay in, and finally got a bed, and a few people sat on the ground, staring at Jin Zhijun and them back, but they didn't expect it to be a disappointing result.

In the dark room, there was not a single light, only the light of the fire outside reflected the faces of everyone, and after a sigh, everyone leaned against the cold wall, although it was still summer, but at the same time felt a chill to the bone.

Footsteps sounded, and Hu Quan, the eunuch in the palace, hurriedly came in, his body was wet, his clothes were still dripping, but his face was full of joy. "Gong Feng, ladies and gentlemen. There is a pond in this backyard, the water and grass are luxuriant, and the small one found some lotus roots in the silt, as well as two fresh fish, which is enough for us to satisfy our hunger! ”

In the darkness, there was a burst of cheers from the crowd at the same time. They all got up and ran in front of Hu Quan, but they looked at the lotus root wrapped in silt and the fresh fish full of fishy smell, and they were stunned one by one. Gongshun Hou Wu Weihua didn't care so much, snatched a lotus root from Hu Quan's arms, opened his mouth and bit it, but it was a silt entrance, and before he tasted the taste of the lotus root, he was already vomiting.

Hu Quan couldn't cry or laugh, "Hou Ye, Hou Ye." You slow down, this hasn't been washed yet, how can you eat it? And this fish, you have to wash and peel it, boil it in a pot of boiling water, and then you can enjoy it! ”

Everyone looked at each other, but for a moment no one would handle the ingredients.

Feng Quan was still sitting in place, looking at everyone and couldn't help but snort coldly, "Physique, physique." You are either well-educated or noble. Where has all this system gone? ”

Everyone was silent, and in the silence, a voice whispered: "We, the thieves and the captives, the face of the ancestors has been lost, where else is there any decency!" ”

Feng Quan trembled with anger. pointed at everyone, but could not refute a word.

Seeing this, Hu Quan hurriedly came out of the round, "Gong Feng, everyone, this is all a trivial matter for cooking. It's enough to have a small one, so wait a minute, these things will be ready to eat after a little cooking! ”

Hu Quan reflexively went out, and he didn't know where to find a broken marching iron pot, found some dry firewood, raised the fire, and after a while, he cooked the lotus root and fresh fish, took a big bowl, and sent it to Feng Quan first.

Watching Feng Quan sigh and drink the soup slowly, everyone couldn't wait to eat and drink. After a while, the lotus root and fish in the pot were swept away.

There was food in my stomach, and I regained some strength and energy. Qingyang Bo Chen Zhilong and Guining Bo Zhou Boda are both the original Dashun Dynasty's named Ningxia Jiedu envoy and Gansu Jiedu envoy, born in the army, they didn't care about talking, the two glanced at each other, came to Feng Quan's side, and said softly: "Feng Gong, it's not a way to go on like this!" These days, we have followed the soldiers and horses to the north, and we have heard a lot of news, and now even ordinary soldiers know that this army is going to the Jurchen homeland in the far north. Not to mention whether you can break out of the Ming Dynasty's encirclement on all sides, it is the hardships and ...... along the way, and I'm afraid it's not something that our people can bear! Along the way, the big guys have also seen that in their eyes, we are already superfluous people, either civil officials, or we are old, they wish we were left to fend for ourselves! ”

The more Chen Zhilong spoke, the more his voice inevitably raised, and Jin Zhijun hurriedly motioned him to be quieter.

Feng Quan didn't speak, just sighed vigorously, the layers of his face were twisted together, his eyes were hidden in the ravines, and no one could see what he was thinking.

Jin Zhijun was younger after all, so when he heard this, he sent one of his colleagues to the door to watch the wind, and he came over and asked in a low voice: "Dare to ask the two Hou masters, do you have any plans in your heart?" You might as well say it for everyone, now our lives are hanging by a thread, if we have been going north, everyone knows that it is a dead end, and now we can only work together to come up with a solution! ”

In the past, a group of civil officials who didn't look at themselves in the past begged in front of them in a low voice, which made Chen Zhilong inevitably feel a little proud. peeked at Feng Quan, but the old guy had already opened a slit in his eyes, revealing a sense of inquiry.

"Brother Zhou and I went out to investigate today, and now the Qing army is also in chaos, because there is no food and grass, the soldiers are all out of the city to loot, and the city is also full of swords and soldiers, each department is doing its own thing, as long as you can find food, no one will say anything. We found that the guards near this imperial camp are very lax now......! ”

"You're ......!" Feng Quan exclaimed in surprise, and then lowered his voice, "What do you two want to do?" ”

Chen Zhilong and Zhou Boda couldn't help but hold down the handle of the knife in their hands, and a hideous meaning flashed on their faces, "If you don't do it, it's a death anyway, it's better to sacrifice your life to fight, if you can take down the heads of a few Eight Banners and send them to the Ming Army's account, maybe the dead road will become a living road!" (To be continued......)