On the first day of the first month of the first year of Qiongyuan, outside Tongguan.

"Boom, boom, boom——!"

The Guancheng of Tongguan was filled with smoke and dust, and at a distance of 500 paces in front of the Guancheng, the Runing Army gathered 21 artillery pieces of more than 6 pounds and bombarded the walls of Guancheng in a concentrated manner.

When the smoke cleared a little, an officer of the Daping Army said to Xue Yong: "General! This wall is solid. With so many iron bullets going up, there are only a few craters, and it looks like it's going to hit for a while. ”

Xue Yong said with a smile: "It's just like this, sooner or later it will collapse." What are you anxious about? This is the New Year, you should be thinking of firing guns. Such a big cannon, you didn't let it go during the Chinese New Year before! ”

"Haha——!" The officers and soldiers around them burst into laughter.

When Li Zicheng and other Dashun leaders received the news that the Daping Army occupied Shanxi, they took it for granted that the next offensive target of the Daping Army would be northern Shaanxi, so all the attention of Li Zicheng and others was focused on strengthening the defense of northern Shaanxi.

In the winter of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, the Dashun army continued to transfer north in large numbers. It is necessary to block the southward pressure of the Daping army from Shanxi. But at this time, they obtained new information: the troops of the Daping Army in Shanxi were continuously transferred to the Tongguan area. This made it difficult for Li Zicheng and others to judge the direction of the main attack of the Daping Army.

According to the reason: Tongguan is the world's Xiongguan, and the Dashun army has heavy troops. The Daping army moved long distances and did not hide their actions, so the difficulty of attacking Tongguan was definitely much higher than crossing the Yellow River and attacking the hinterland of Shaanxi from northern Shaanxi. However, the Daping Army mobilized so many troops to Tongguan, so the two Daping armies in Shanxi and Tongguan. Which way is the main attack? Which way is a feint? Even, will these two roads be the main direction of attack?

So Li Zicheng and others, who were caught in the dilemma of attacking the north and the south, began to hesitate. Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and others. After leading the main force of the Dashun Army from Xi'an to Luochuan County, he stayed for ten days. Obviously, it was the situation of the Daping army attacking from both sides, so it had to stay still for the time being, and it was necessary to wait for further news before deciding where to reinforce.

In this way, the strategic assumption that the Dashun Army was originally preparing to meet the Daping Army in northern Shaanxi had to be changed as the situation changed. made Li Zicheng and others completely passive in the battle situation. Moreover, because Quandashan in Shanxi was also stepping up the integration of miscellaneous troops, and had to wait for news to cooperate with the attack in the direction of Tongguan, the march was slow. However, the news of Tongguan became more and more tight, so after reaching the last point, Li Zicheng finally decided to lead reinforcements with Liu Zongmin and others to rush to Tongguan.

On the twentieth day of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen. The Battle of Tongguan begins. Facing the army of the Daping Army, which was camping dozens of miles outside the city. It is impossible for the Dashun army to turn a blind eye, otherwise it will be completely suppressed by the artillery fire of the Daping army. And until now, Li Zicheng and others still don't know what to say: Which way is the main attack of the Daping Army? So Liu Zongmin led his troops out of the customs to fight, wanting to determine the "quality" of the Daping Army on this road.

In the face of Liu Zongmin's attack, Xue Yong and the others were under no pressure. In this Daping army, as the core troops, the original Runing Army and the Heiyun Army may have some difficulty attacking and besieging the city, but it is more than enough to defend against the attack of the Dashun army. So Liu Zongmin's first battle was unfavorable.

Five days later, on the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month. Liu Fangliang led the troops to fight and suffered another setback. Then. Li Zicheng personally led the horse infantry to resist the battle, and was also counterattacked by Xue Yong's Daping army, and the Dashun army lost again. In this counterattack, the power of the Daping Army's counter-charge was brought into full play, so that the infantry of the Dashun Army who went out of the pass this time basically did not flee back.

If the frontal battle can't work, Li Zicheng and the others want to make a surprise. On the nights of the 26th and 27th, the Dashun army continued to attack at night, but it was ineffective. It was not until the 29th of the lunar month that the Daping army transferred the sharp weapons of attacking the fortifications - the artillery of more than six pounds in the army and the captured general artillery and the general artillery, and forced it to the Tong Pass and placed it in place, that the Dashun army stopped the battle out of the pass, dug a heavy trench in front of the Guancheng, and erected a strong wall to block the Daping army from attacking Tongguan.

Watching his artillery firing round by round, Xue Yong was calm. The reason why the siege was officially launched today was also because Xue Yong wanted to present a gift for the new establishment of the Daping Dynasty and Wu Shigong's enthronement.

Xue Yong looked at several noisy officers in front of him. And these officers are also very relaxed, they are betting - the Dashun army will only rush out of the gate to counterattack after a few rounds of shooting?

"Stop talking nonsense! The thieves have come out! ”

Suddenly, Xue Yong saw that the gate of Tongguan had been opened, and saw a group of cavalry of the Dashun Army rushing out of the gate, so he immediately interrupted the officers' bet: "Let the boys keep their eyes open, don't capsize at the last moment, and beat the thieves back." ”

"No!" The officers immediately took the order.

The number of cavalry of the Dashun army that rushed out of Tongguan was not large, only more than 3,000 horsemen. As soon as they left the city and stepped through the remaining passages between the trenches, the cavalry of the Dashun army did not have time to line up, so they wanted to rush towards the artillery positions in a swarm, to overturn these heavy artillery pieces that posed the greatest threat.

However, the defensive firepower arranged by the Daping Army on both sides of the artillery position was also the most powerful. Under the fire of small cannons and firearms, the cavalry of the Dashun army did not rush at all, and they gave up the charge on the artillery position.

However, the officers of the Dashun Army who led the team still did not give up their efforts. Under his orders, the cavalry of the Dashun army was divided into two teams, and they wanted to make a detour to the rear of the Daping army and assault, trying to turn the tide of the battle.

However, the Daping Army in the rear had long been ready for battle. On the road where the Dashun army might charge, they had already arranged horses and carts as obstacles, and when the cavalry of the Dashun army approached, they fired fiercely at these cavalry. Even some of the cavalry of the Dashun army were lucky enough to avoid the rain of bullets, but when they rushed to the rejection of horses and carts, they also had to slow down their horses.

Seeing that the momentum of the cavalry of the Dashun Army was blocked, the cavalry of the Daping Army also launched a counter-charge in a timely manner. The cavalry had no speed, and its power was even inferior to the infantry, so under some slashing, the remnants of the cavalry of the Dashun army also fled back to Tongguan in a panic.

Seeing that the battle was going on so easily, a Yuan Ming general, who had just surrendered, came up to Xue Yong, and he laughed and said, "General! The main forces of the rebellious relatives are so vulnerable, this Tongguan looks like it is just around the corner, and the general prince Wandai is just around the corner! ”

Hearing this, Xue Yong smiled modestly: "It's going to take a while." It's too early to say that. I just don't know how the mountain is fighting? ”

……

On the same day, Yulin.

Seeing that the Dashun army at the head of Yulin City was like a great enemy, the whole mountain frowned, a little helpless. Because the heavy artillery in the army was transferred to Tongguan, in the face of Yulin, a fortified city in northern Shaanxi, there was no good siege strategy for the whole mountain.

But at this moment, several scouts came galloping, and they said to the whole mountain: "My lord! No enemy troops were found in nearby Hengshan and Mizhi, and according to the capture office, only Yan'an still had more than 4,000 thieves, and no other thieves were found in the rest of northern Shaanxi. ”

"Oh?" The eyes of the whole mountain lit up all at once. He pondered in his heart for a moment, and then immediately ordered: "Chief Jiang! You led 15,000 troops to besiege this Yulin. If the people and thieves abandon the city, they can flee west and south, but they must not be let into Shanxi! ”

"No!" first surrendered Dashun, and then surrendered to Daping, the former Ming Dynasty Datong general Jiang Xuan led the order.

"The rest of the generals will go to Xi'an with my boss. If the people and thieves in Yan'an do not come out of the city, then they can leave an army to guard them; If they go out of the city to fight, we will destroy them in one fell swoop! ”

"No!"

"The eldest husband's meritorious service is at this time, let me wait to copy the rebellious lair!" Jeon raised his right arm and shouted.

"Good!" The generals immediately let out thunderous cheers.

Before the New Year of the first year of Qiongyuan, Quan Dashan led 70,000 Daping troops to cross the Yellow River from Baode Prefecture in Shanxi Province and enter northern Shaanxi. The first encounter with Yulin, which was garrisoned by 10,000 heavy troops of the Gao Yigong Division.

However, when the whole Dashan found that the Dashun army in northern Shaanxi was empty, and the main force of the Dashun army moved to Tongguan, he immediately turned a feint attack into the main attack, accelerated the pace of the attack, and pointed directly at Xijing-Xi'an of the Dashun army. So Quan Dashan left Jiang Jiu and other surrendered generals to lead 15,000 troops to besiege Yulin, and he himself led his troops south.

On the second day of the first month, the Daping army occupied Li Zicheng's hometown of Mizhi, and then advanced to Xi'an. And Li Zicheng in Tongguan, when he learned that the Daping army on the north road was attacking, he understood that under the two-way attack of the Daping army, the fall of Shaanxi was a foregone conclusion, so he was forced to withdraw to Xi'an with the main force and gave up the defense of Tongguan.

On the third day of the first month, Wushan Boma Shiyao, the general of the Dashun Army guarding Tongguan, surrendered with more than 7,000 people, and the Daping Army officially occupied Tongguan. However, that night, Ma Shiyao sent an envoy to deliver a secret letter to Li Zicheng, which was intercepted by the Daping Army and sent to Xue Yong.

The next day, Xue Yong pretended to be hunting, ambushed the army at the Jinpen Pokou, ten miles southwest of Tongguan City, and Xuan claimed to hold a banquet to disarm all the horses and equipment of Ma Shiyao's army. Then an order was issued, ambushes broke out, and more than 7,000 soldiers of the Dashun Army were killed.

And the time for the Daping army to really attack Tongguan was only three days. And this world-famous dangerous pass, in the war at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was no fierce battle at all, and it was repeatedly captured. This was true of both the Ming army and the Dashun army. It's really impressive: the defeat is like a mountain!

As a result, the east and north roads of Xi'an were wide open, and they were directly attacked by more than 170,000 Daping troops. Li Zicheng knew that there was no hope of holding Shaanxi, so on the day of his withdrawal to Xi'an (the fourth day of the first lunar month), he decided to abandon Xi'an and go south through the Lantian and Shangluo areas. (To be continued......)