"Dashuai, what should we do?"

Jiang Pai ordered that the troops who originally went to He Baodao's side and pretended not to set off, the Datong soldiers began to turn around and march towards their own camp, Jiang Pai did not leave but stayed next to the battlefield with his personal guards, he asked a confidant general to take charge of the camp affairs, and he had other important things to do: "After the battle is over in a while, I will go to see the general." ”

Today, according to Jiang Ping's observations, the Shun army suffered at least four or five casualties, while the new army, although it was almost defeated, also lost more than one-tenth of its troops before it lost its offensive ability. For Jiang Zhuang's 40,000 army, one-fifth is 8,000 people, and he knows that his army will face defeat in the field, not to mention the loss of 8,000, even if it loses 1,000 or 800.

"Whether it is for the Shun army or the new army, we are insignificant pawns, and when we meet the general, we must not forget this." Jiang Jian continued to watch the battlefield while reminding his staff and subordinates.

……

The commander of the Dongsen battalion, who had just dispatched the cavalry of his own battalion to confront Liu Zongmin, committed suicide by swallowing his gun, and the other battalion officers who had always retained their elite cavalry quickly left the battlefield under the protection of their own cavalry.

The sight of thousands of cavalry galloping away was as exciting as the attack of the same number of cavalry, and the abandoned infantry even had the idea of fleeing to be shattered by this blow, and they threw down their weapons in large numbers and surrendered to the approaching Sirui battalion. To the left of the Sirui battalion was the Xifeng battalion, which met with weak resistance from the direct guards; On the other side of the Xirui battalion was the Xishou Battalion, which was located next to the Guards Battalion and the Fire Battalion, and now there was no hostility between the two battalions of Shunming, which it monitored.

The Xiliu and Taishan battalions had withdrawn from the battlefield, and the envoys of these two battalions had arrived in front of Xu Ping's general banner and began to discuss the surrender with him. Xu Ping understood that the generals of these two battalions did not want the news of their collusion with the Shun army to spread in advance, so they had to withdraw from the battlefield first so that they could act like they had surrendered in a desperate situation.

Like these two battalions, Jiang Jian also had similar plans, but he really did not collude with the Shun army in advance, and indeed waited until the situation was irretrievable before deciding to surrender.

Thousands of cavalry protected the battalion officers of the New Army from the battlefield, and until this moment Zhou Dongtian was still looking at the direction in which they disappeared, and couldn't help but sigh: "I never thought that the New Army would have such a day. ”

"Following Huang Hou, he has never lost a battle, and he never needs to surrender, so at the beginning, he was high-spirited and vowed not to surrender, since everyone did not surrender, he never thought of surrendering or escaping." Chen Zhe no longer assisted Yu Shenhe in commanding the troops, but returned to Xu Ping's side, and after hearing Zhou Dongtian's words, he smiled and said: "I lost one battle after another, and my morale became worse and worse, and I finally tried to escape, but the result was fine." Everyone figured it out at once: running away is actually just that, and there's nothing to lose people. ”

"That's what Brother Chen said." Zhou Dongtian responded, Xu Ping didn't speak but listened quietly.

"I don't know what happens now, anyway, when I leave, a squad officer will have to ask for a few hundred taels of silver, and a squad officer will have to pay a thousand taels or even a few thousand taels. Who is willing to die if they spend so much money to buy an official? How can you earn your capital back when you die? As for the people above, they are even richer, and of course they are even more reluctant to die. Chen Zhe said sarcastically: "It's already very unexpected for me to be able to fight like this today, there are still a group of officers who joined the army three years ago in the new army, their positions are not bought with money, although they may also get rich, but they still have a little fighting spirit in the past, and it is these people who are fighting to the death today; And the generals, in the final analysis, are also Huang Hou's subordinates for decades, no better than us, although they are reluctant to die this and that, but Huang Hou's orders will still be carried out. ”

Now the Ming army that remained on the battlefield still had the firefighting battalion left, standing face to face with the guards battalion, while the Xishou battalion no longer monitored the firefighting battalion but drove to the other side to attack the 3,000 battalion and the Changqing battalion where the battalion officer had already taken away the cavalry. The Shun army of Niuweizhuang also came out and cooperated with Li Dingguo's troops to encircle the scattered Ming soldiers.

"General Wang asked to surrender to King Shun, and he stressed that this was one of his demands in advance," Yu Shenhe kept sending heralds to inform Xu Ping of the progress of the negotiations: "General Wang refused to surrender to the general. ”

"What is not in advance," Chen Zhe ran back to Xu Ping because he couldn't listen to the content of the negotiation to take a breath, just now he yelled at Wang Qinian's envoy and was blamed by Yu Shenhe, and now he yelled at Yu Shenhe's envoy - it is safe and there will be no adverse consequences, and he also vented his anger against Yu Shenhe: "Now we have an absolute advantage, and the fire battalion will destroy it if it does not surrender!" ”

"That's it, if the Xiying hadn't arrived just now, wouldn't the fire battalion really fight us?" Zhou Dongtian also accosted on the side: "The posture just now seems that they are going to really fight, not like they are pretending." ”

"General Wang said that the reason why he chose to charge with bayonets was like delaying time, and the farther away from He Baodao's control, the more sure he was of controlling the troops to defect." Yu Shenhe's envoy relayed the content of the negotiation, which sounded like he was defending Wang Qinian.

"Does he have evidence that he won't fight us?" Chen Zhe sneered: "If General Wang has no ghost in his heart, we can send someone to ask whether his order to stop the battle is before or after the Xiying, and it is already a very generous condition to allow him to continue to lead the troops." Chen Zhe said to Xu Ping: "General, the morale of the firefighting battalion has collapsed, we are in full advantage, Wang Qinian will destroy him if he does not surrender to you." ”

"Forget it, you don't have any evidence that he will definitely fight with us if he doesn't see Xiying, after all, he really didn't kill us today." When the armored battalion was weak and weak, the fire battalion only used bayonets to drive them away instead of bombarding them, Xu Ping waved his hand to stop Chen Zhe and Zhou Dongtian from continuing to oppose: "I promised General Wang that the fire battalion could surrender directly to King Shun, and I did say so, I can't break my word." ”

Xu Ping asked Yu Shenhe to bring the messenger of the firefighting camp to him, and told him the final decision: "The firefighting battalion can be an independent battalion, keep the military flag, I will not interfere with General Wang's authority and decision, the firefighting battalion should stay near my camp, General Wang will take it a little, and King Shun will arrive within two days, and I will send someone to escort General Wang to meet King Shun, and before that, General Wang can continue to use the banner of Zhu Ming." ”

"General Xie, the general is really a man of his word." The White Feather Envoy happily kowtowed to Xu Ping, and then ran down to inform the battalion officer of the good news.

……

He Baodao killed himself after the defeat, and Yang Huaizu, the commander of the direct guard who insisted on resisting, was injured and fell into a coma and was captured by the Shun army.

"With the addition of the new army of the thirteenth battalion of the direct guard, three defected, one was captured, and one committed suicide, and the rest ran out." Zhou Dongtian laughed and said: "These battalion officers insist on refusing to lend the cavalry to He Baodao for unified use, which can really be called a clever plan. ”

"Yes," as the war continued, the new army expanded rapidly, and the quality from top to bottom declined sharply, Xu Ping ordered: "Send a doctor to General Yang to take a good look at his wounds, don't hurt his life." ”

The final resistance carried out by the direct guards caused dozens or hundreds of casualties to Li Dingguo, and Xu Ping estimated that Li Dingguo would not take such a small hatred to heart: "The war is over, there is no need to die anymore." ”

On this small battlefield near Niuweizhuang, more than 4,000 Shun officers and soldiers were killed today, and a considerable number of seriously wounded Shun soldiers are still struggling on the line of life and death at the moment. On the opposite side, at least more than 6,000 Ming soldiers were killed, and as for the wounded, there were countless wounded, and Xu Ping was full of the remains of the war dead.

"General," after Yu Shenhe settled the troops, he also returned to the general flag to report to Xu Ping: "Isn't the general really going to dismantle the firefighting camp?" ”

"The fire battalion doesn't even have the courage to fight, what else is there to fear?" Xu Ping did not plan to include the firefighting battalion in his own pocket, but was willing to let Wang Qinian surrender directly to Li Zicheng: "Our losses in this battle are not small, and the deterrence of the Jin army may have declined. Xu Ping smiled at Yu Shenhe: "Besides, I already promised General Wang in my reply last night, didn't I?" ”

"My lord kept his promise, but if I were an adult, I wouldn't let the fire camp continue to exist," Yu Shenhe shook his head slightly, he felt that the fire camp was completely worth Xu Ping's reneging on his promise: "The last general is worried that if I let them go today, the guard camp will have to fight with it one day in the future." If the adults are ruthless, kill them all......"

"No, I think the war is over." Xu Ping interrupted Yu Shenhe's suggestion, he looked at the mountain of corpses and blood on the battlefield in front of him, and sighed softly: "There is no need to die anymore. ”

……

Five days later, Li Zicheng finally arrived in Taiyuan, and the fire battalion officially surrendered to King Shun and changed into a black Dashun military uniform.

In addition to the three defected new military camps, Jiang Pai also surrendered to King Shun with 40,000 Datong soldiers, and at present, there is still no surrender or no envoy sent to express his willingness to surrender in Shanxi, only Zhou Yuji, the general soldier of Daizhou, is only one person - he has no more than 10,000 men and horses, most of them are local troops, and no Shun army general regards it as a threat.

In addition to the tens of thousands of Ming troops who defected, 30,000 soldiers of the New Army were captured in the First Battle of Niuweizhuang.

"The new army only ran a few thousand cavalry of the eight battalion officers," Xu Ping introduced to Li Zicheng: "More than 63,000 new troops, this battle lost almost 60,000, and the fleeing new army cavalry is estimated to not necessarily return to Zhili, it is likely to flee to Shandong to wait for changes, or follow Hou Ye south to Nanzhili." ”

Not long ago, the Ming court had just announced that the respected Zhendong Hou Huangshi would inspect Jiangnan and be responsible for urging the south to pay taxes, and at the same time shouldering the mission of forming a new Qinwang army in Jiangnan, which had not been devastated by the war.

"It took a year of work for Hou Ye to raise more than 60,000 new troops, which were thrown clean by He Baodao in Shanxi, the new army has not lost battles before, but it has never been so miserable, this time Hou Ye may not be able to recover for two or three years, not to mention a year." Xu Ping felt that the new army not only suffered heavy losses in this battle, but also that what little morale and fighting spirit they had were also exhausted, and with the current state of the new army, Xu Ping felt that they had no possibility of recovery. Li Zicheng at least treated the new army that defected to the three battalions well, and even if the new army was rebuilt, it was estimated that it would surrender like the rest of the Ming army.

"General Xiao Yang has woken up, and if the king doesn't object, the last general plans to let him go back." After Yang Huaizu woke up, Xu Ping went to see him, and after seeing Xu Ping, Yang Huaizu scolded him for bullying his teacher and destroying his ancestors, and actually wanted to send someone to assassinate Huangshi.

"Brother Jin is indeed a little reckless." Whether it was Yang Huaizu or the three battalion officers of the defective New Army, they all told Xu Ping that if it were not for the rebellion of the Shanlan battalion, Huangshi would indeed have the intention of fearing war; It is not that they do not know that the emperor is mediocre and the world is miserable, it is precisely because of this new army of the three battalions that they decided to defect, but the reason why they went to the battlefield to fight with the Shun army before was not because they were dissatisfied with Li Zicheng, but out of righteous indignation that Xu Ping sent someone to assassinate his master Huangshi. Jin Mancang, the culprit who instigated Wei Landu to assassinate Huangshi, has been executed, and the other party understands Jin Mancang's details very clearly, and he has guessed the agreement with Xu Ping, and Xu Ping has nothing to say about it.

"But it wasn't your order, Brother Xu, right?" Niu Jinxing thinks that this matter can be completely pushed away, and he just arrived and didn't know why Xu Ping wanted to carry this black pot down: "Brother Xu just needs to bite to death and not admit that he knows Jin Mancang, won't he have it?" One bite is sure that it is the infighting of their new army. ”

"There are too many people on our side who know his details, I can't say I don't know him, besides," Xu Ping felt that although Jin Mancang was reckless, stabbing Huangshi did cause him to be unable to lead the army, resulting in a big defeat and loss for the new army: "Yes, Hou Ye said that he would go south, but we don't know if he will come to Shanxi in person." Brother Jin sacrificed his life to make such a miraculous feat for Dashun, and it was not good to erase it with a clear conscience, so as not to let the name and courage of Brother Jin spread. ”

"It is indeed a miracle," Li Zicheng also admitted that the current situation was unexpectedly favorable to the Shun army, and all this seemed to be due to the change in the capital planned by Jin Mancang: "But in this way, Brother Xu and Huang Hou can be regarded as a blood feud, and the Jin brothers even killed the husband of Huang Hou's only daughter." ”

"Yes, but it's a blood feud anyway, and more or less is nothing." Xu Ping had long been well aware that his feud with Huangshi had no possibility of resolution, and he said to Li Zicheng again: "The last general hopes that the king will agree to put General Xiao Yang back and let him persuade Huanghou to surrender." ”

"Persuade Huang Hou to surrender?"

"The last general thinks that the king might as well promise to Huang Hou, and the treatment given to him by the Ming court will remain unchanged in our Dashun." Xu Ping originally wanted to suggest that Li Zicheng continue the agreement with Huangshi, but after thinking about it, Niu Jinxing would not agree to this suggestion today when the new army had been destroyed, so letting Yang Huaizu persuade Huangshi to surrender was the only reason to do it.

"Lord Yang, you treated the last general well, and many people here were good, so this can be regarded as a favor for all of us." Xu Ping thought in his heart.

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