*****

Yan Gaofei hurriedly rushed into the side hall of the General Staff and whispered to Qin Mu: "My lord, our people just found out a news, there is something very strange, Li Zicheng's queen Gao Guiying did not go all the way with him, but in Li Guojun. ”

"Oh?" Qin Mu thought about it, and felt that this matter was indeed a little strange, according to common sense, Li Zicheng wanted to run away, and his family members were all brought with him, there was no reason not to bring his wife, you must know that once the queen of a country has a mistake, it will have a great impact on morale, "Say it quickly, what else?" ”

"My lord, Gao Guiying led half of the old battalion of the Dashun army, first Li Zicheng left Xi'an, but did not take the road of Shangluo, but went west to Tianshui, and then went south to Hanzhong, and then waited in Hanzhong for Li Guo and Gao Yigong to withdraw from Yulin in northern Shaanxi through the western line to converge;

At this time, Gao Guiying already had sixty or seventy thousand elites in his hands, and it was said that there were no more opponents for them along the way, but they did not choose to take the shortcut from Yunyang and Baokang to join Li Zicheng. And would rather detour to the east of Sichuan and come to Xiangyang through Taiping, this way is obviously deliberately avoiding something. ”

Qin Mu listened, walked to the sand table, and asked Yan Gaofei to point out Gao Guiying's marching route, indeed, there are many unreasonable places in the tortuous route chosen by Gao Guiying;

It is said that Gao Guiying will not go with Li Zicheng, and it will be okay to wait for Li Guo and Gao Yigong's troops, but after that, he should join Li Zicheng as soon as possible to enhance the strength of the Dashun army.

Although Li Zicheng claimed to have 200,000 horses around him, half of them were family members and the old and weak, and the most troops that could really be put into battle were 100,000.

In this case, Gao Guiying's army of 60,000 should join Li Zicheng as soon as possible. However, they gave up the shortest and best route from Hanzhong to Yunyang and Baokang, and instead took a long detour to Xiangyang via Taiping, so that they missed the opportunity to join Li Zicheng in Xiangyang.

The internal reasons for this are indeed intriguing.

Yan Gaofei thought for a while and said: "There is not a single old and weak woman or child in Gao Gui's British army, but there are many wheelbarrows, this kind of wheelbarrow is pulled by donkeys and horses, and it can also be pulled by manpower. ”

"How many cars?"

"Our people only said that there were a lot, but the specific number was not reported."

"Tell me to go down and find out as soon as possible what is on the wheelbarrow. Keep an eye on the whereabouts of these goods, and there must be no mistakes. ”

"Yes, sir."

"Report!" At this time, another messenger rushed in and shouted, "My lord, there is a message from Director Zhao who was sent to Li Zicheng's army. ”

Qin Mu took the letter and tore it open, looking at it at a glance.

"How's it going, sir?" Sima An and the others couldn't help but come up and ask.

"Li Zicheng has agreed to join forces with us to fight against the Qing army." Qin Mu said calmly, "However, Li Zicheng hopes that we will let his army cross the river first. After Zhao Han vetoed it, Li Zicheng proposed to let him enter Hanyang City and join forces with us to defeat the enemy. ”

"He's dreaming!" A staff officer named Lu Mingjiong blurted out.

Sima An said lightly: "Wait, we can afford to wait." I'm afraid that Li Zicheng can't afford to wait. ”

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Yunmeng County is located in the north of the Jianghan Plain, four miles are flat and wide, boundless, and the highest place in the county is Fengzigang in the northeast of the county. It's only about 20 feet high.

In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, when Li Zicheng was king in Xiangyang, he changed Yunmeng County to Guzhou. It means that his regime is stronger. It's just that it was later changed back to Yunmeng by Qin Mu.

Half deep, Li Zicheng couldn't sleep, and there was a faint whisper of the guards outside, although he couldn't hear what he said, but Li Zicheng could guess what they said.

With a heavy heart, he tossed and turned for a long time, simply put on his clothes and got out of bed, thinking of the people who had not been able to wait for the queen in Xiangyang, and now his whereabouts are unknown, thinking that the Manchurian soldiers were in hot pursuit, and he fled in embarrassment; He deeply regretted that he did not listen to Li Guo's advice at the beginning, first run Guanzhong, Shanxi, Henan and other places, and then take Yanjing after the foundation is solid.

Thinking of this county seat, which had been renamed Guzhou by himself, Li Zicheng felt that it was really a great irony, because this county town was only settled in by Qin Mu who took the initiative to give up on him.

The bleak future and desperate predicament made him feel a sense of powerlessness, and he sat down on the chair, looked up at the beams of the house, and sighed: "Oh my God! Oh my! In the vast China, there is no place for my Dashun Dynasty! ”

At this moment, there was a rapid sound of horses' hooves outside the county office, and soon a personal guard came in with a messenger to report to him: "Your Majesty, General Tian said that the Qing army is attacking the city day and night, and Suizhou may not be able to support it for long, please make preparations as soon as possible." ”

When evacuating Suizhou, Li Zicheng stayed in the field to see Xiu and led 5,000 elites to stick to Suizhou, but he didn't expect Suizhou to be in danger soon, Li Zicheng hurriedly ordered: "Quickly pass on the prime minister and others to come to discuss matters." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The guards rushed away, and soon Song Xiance, Niu Jinxing, Gu Junen, Yu Shangyou, Yuan Zongdi, Liu Fangliang, Hao Shaoqi, Liu Tichun, Zhang Nai, Wu Ruyi and other civil and military generals rushed to the county office.

There are a few oil lamps lit in the hall of the county government, which are blown by the wind and shake, making the whole hall full of shadows and shadows, looking like a ghost domain.

This is also a helpless thing, when Qin Mu gave up Yunmeng County, he implemented the strong wall and cleared the wilderness, and the things were very clean, and there was not even a lantern left, so that the emperor of the dignified Shun Dynasty fell to the point of staining the lamp grass, which made people feel desolate.

And what makes people feel even more bleak is that in the past, there were many civil officials in the Manchu Dynasty and there were many talents, but now there are only about a dozen people left in front of them.

Needless to say, those ministers who were attached to Shanxi and Beizhili had already escaped when they withdrew from Yanjing.

After evacuating Xiangyang a few days ago, one or two hundred people, including Song Qijiao and Zhang Xuanran, who were the official government officials, also fled one after another, leaving the Dashun Dynasty empty.

Since Xiangyang called the king of the ministers, only Gu Junen and Yu Shangyou are still following, feeling the loyalty of the two, Li Zicheng also specially rewarded the two of them with a lot of property during the day.

It's just that Gu Junen and Yu Dayou stayed, and it can't hide the bleak scene of the trees falling and scattering on the whole.

This bleak scene is constantly disintegrating the morale of the Dashun army, causing the number of sergeants to flee sharply.

Li Zicheng knew very well that he had to find a place to settle down as soon as possible, otherwise if the Qing army was allowed to chase after him like this, he would not have to fight, and his soldiers would escape.

As soon as Li Zicheng said the news from Tian Jianxiu, the faces of the civil and military ministers in the hall became ugly.

Gu Junen first said: "Your Majesty, once Suizhou is lost, I'm afraid Anlu won't be able to hold it for long, most of the Manchurians are cavalry, and the Pingchuan around Yunmeng is very beneficial to the Manchu cavalry, we must transfer as soon as possible, otherwise let the Manchu cavalry embellish, the consequences will be unimaginable." ”

Li Zicheng forced his composure, nodded and said, "Where to transfer is the best policy, all the ministers can talk about it." ”

According to the previous Jihua, it was to let Tian Jianxiu block layer by layer to buy time for the main force to capture Wuchang, and now the time is pressing, and it must be carefully reconsidered, otherwise I am afraid that the Qing army will chase after Wuchang before it is captured.

Yuan Zongdi asked, "Prime Minister, how did you talk to Zhao Han?" ”

Zhao Han was the envoy sent by Qin Mu, and Prime Minister Niu Jinxing was in charge of negotiating with him, before Zhao Han vetoed the possibility of letting the Dashun army cross the Yangtze River first.

Niu Jinxing said: "I proposed to let our army enter Hanyang, and the two armies were backed by joint defense, Zhao Han began to strongly oppose it, and later agreed to send someone back to Wuchang to ask Qin Mu, but there is no reply yet." ”

Zhang Nai said with some indignation: "It's really not good, let's first talk about moving the army to Hanyang to negotiate nearby, and wait for the opportunity to cross the river after capturing Hanyang." ”

Liu Tichun immediately objected: "No, the Qin army is well-trained, brave in battle, by no means comparable to other Ming armies, this move is impossible, Qin Mu does not agree to us to cross the river, it can be seen that the heart of defense is very heavy, let's go, not only can not capture Hanyang, but I am afraid that we will be blocked under the city of Hanyang, when the Qing army chases, Hanyang is a horse and a flat river, we are difficult to resist the Manchu cavalry, so the consequences are worrying." ”

Yuan Zongdi also immediately echoed Liu Tichun's statement, he and Liu Tichun led the right battalion to attack the rest of Zuo Liangyu, and had fought fiercely with the Qin army in Jingmen, and suffered a heavy defeat, and he had a deep understanding of the combat power of the Qin army, but the rest of the Dashun army never believed it.

Song Xiance, the great teacher, said at this time: "Now that the chasing army is coming, it is indeed inappropriate to tear his face with Qin Mu again, Your Majesty, it is better for us to retreat to Huangzhou first, or according to the trend of Dabie Mountain and Qin Mu becoming horns, to resist Manchu together; Or wait for an opportunity to seize Anqing and Jiujiang and enter Jiangxi. ”

Li Zicheng was silent for a while before nodding silently

(To be continued......)