Li Zicheng had already given birth to the idea of withdrawing the army, not to evacuate Shanhaiguan, but to abandon the entire Beizhili.

Lack of food!

Even if he was able to repel the Manchus in this battle, Li Zicheng would be completely out of food. Once the food is cut off, not only will the army have to fry the pot, but most of the people in Beijing will starve to death, what is the meaning of this kind of emperor?

It is better to withdraw from the vortex of Beizhili, take the army to other places to get food, and then kill it back when the food is sufficient.

Even if you want to retreat, you have to kill the Manchu cavalry in the pass, otherwise it is likely to retreat until the whole army is scattered.

When Hauge and Dolgon came again with cavalry, Li Zicheng also led cavalry to battle, but this time the equipment of the Dashun cavalry changed.

Do not carry bows and arrows, especially quivers, several quivers are dead.

The inner armor was also removed, and only the cotton armor used to defend against bows and arrows was worn, and even the armor pieces in the cotton armor were removed.

All for the sake of lightening the weight of the cavalry.

The surviving Children's Army is also equipped with this set.

Dashun Xiaoqi and Dashun Children's Army, adding up to only 10,000 people.

Hauge and Dorgon still wanted to play routines, but they were scattered into countless mounted shots, and the formation was so scattered that it was outrageous.

The Dashun cavalry didn't care about anything, they even threw bows and arrows at Shanhaiguan, and under the leadership of Li Zicheng, they divided into several units and rushed directly against the rain of arrows.

It is to exchange life for life, after the Dashun cavalry loses weight, they can quickly catch up with the Manchu cavalry who put armor on the key parts of the horse.

This time, it was replaced by Hauge and Dolgon, because the formation of the Manchu cavalry was too scattered, after the cavalry of the two sides engaged, a Manchu cavalry was often surrounded and killed by several Dashun cavalry.

Of course, the Dashun cavalry was not having a good time, each enemy was scattered and few, and after killing, they had to find the next one. And in the process of pursuit, they will be killed by a rain of arrows.

The entire battle process can be simply divided into two links -

The Dashun cavalry pursued and was shot dead by the Manchu cavalry.

The Dashun cavalry caught up and killed the Manchu cavalry.

After a battle, Dolgon and Hauge could not bear it anymore and immediately ordered the cavalry to assemble.

After the assembly was completed, Li Zicheng did not dare to rush again.

Because they can't rush, the Manchu cavalry is better equipped, and they also have the advantage of bows and arrows, and once they are assembled, they can hang the Dashun cavalry after weight loss.

Li Zicheng directly ordered the withdrawal of the troops, and they were now fast on horseback, and the Manchu cavalry could not catch up.

In this battle, both sides suffered more than 1,000 casualties, and almost fought a one-to-one record.

Huang Taiji was outside the Shanhai Pass, still shelling frantically, and after the shelling, he ordered the Han army to attack the city.

In the afternoon of the same day, the cavalry engaged again.

This time, Li Zicheng brought bows and arrows, and the two sides used traditional cavalry tactics.

Fighting, Hauge and Dolgon played tricks again, and Li Zicheng ordered the whole army to throw away the quiver, and the inner armor and cotton armor iron pieces were not worn at all.

It was another life for life, the Manchu cavalry did not dare to play, regrouped to fight, and Li Zicheng withdrew to Shanhaiguan again.

Dorgon and Hauge are so scared!

20,000 cavalry rushed across the Great Wall, and after several cavalry battles, only more than 14,000 were killed. Although Li Zicheng's cavalry died more, how many Manchu soldiers were there?

In the next three days, although the Manchu cavalry still had to come, they did not dare to approach Shanhaiguan at all, for fear of being caught up by Li Zicheng and exchanging their lives for their lives.

In fact, the Manchu cavalry could slightly adjust their tactics to crack Li Zicheng's style of play, and exchange their lives with Li Zicheng with their equipment advantages - although they still exchanged lives.

That night, in the name of discussing military affairs, Li Zicheng booby-trapped Ma Ke, who was pondering surrender.

Then in the middle of the night, with the elite of Dashun, quickly evacuated from Shanhaiguan, except for the grain transporters (there was not much grain left), the rest of the troops were all left behind.

The next day, when they encountered the Manchu cavalry, the foot soldiers cautiously withdrew, and Li Zicheng personally led the cavalry to expel Dolgon and Hauge.

After bypassing Funing, because there was no enemy in front of them, and because Li Zicheng abandoned Shanhaiguan, the elite of the Dashun army began to fall off a cliff. Especially those old thieves, they knew that if Shanhaiguan was lost, Beijing would definitely not be able to defend it, so they looted along the way, and even insulted women to vent their desires.

Li Zicheng turned a blind eye to this, and the Dashun army, which had not committed any crimes in the autumn, once again became a traditional rogue.

……

Niu Jinxing, who stayed in Beijing, had already received the news in advance and quickly organized people to transport goods.

Li Zicheng did not dare to go to Shandong, even if he defeated Shandong, he was afraid of being attacked by the Manchu Qing and Zhao Han. He wants to retreat to Shanxi, and then take Shaanxi as well, and perhaps an alliance with Zhang Xianzhong.

In the past few dozen days of fighting with the Manchus, Li Zicheng's elite was only more than 50,000, and the number of cavalry was sharply reduced to several thousand.

Sun Chuanting took the initiative to assist in organizing the transfer, got two horses pulling the cart, and then quickly ran back to his residence: "Hurry up, immediately go south with the coil!" ”

"Good!"

Tian Guifei brought a bag of coarse grain, three catties only, and they only had so much grain, because the officials' rations were also rationed.

There was a lot of silver, Li Zicheng was so poor that he only had silver left, and Sun Chuanting served as the left squire of the military government, and immediately received a settlement fee of ten taels of silver.

Those civil officials who were sent out to take over the prefectures and counties also had silver to receive.

Li Zicheng couldn't afford to give food, so he could only give out more silver.

The elite of Dashun has not yet returned, and the city of Beijing is already in chaos, Tian Guifei is riding a horse with her child in her arms, and quickly flees under the leadership of Sun Chuanting.

The royal courtiers, who had been blocked out of the city because the city gate was closed, also rushed into the city with their cavalry. Their families were all in Beijing, and they quickly went home, leaving immediately with their relatives, and Cao Bianjiao also came over with cavalry to join them.

Wang Tingchen and Cao Bianjiao, although they can't enter the city these days, they are not sitting outside the city and waiting.

They snatched a few large ships, all of which were merchant ships docked in nearby towns after the canal was blocked, and by the way, they also recruited a group of shipwrights with grain.

As for where the food came from, of course, it was to go to the gentry's house to borrow grain, could it be that the people of Beizhili still had food to grab?

After Li Zicheng occupied Beijing, the gentry who were a little far away from the capital were not liquidated, and even enjoyed the treatment of not paying grain - Li Zicheng initially propagated that he would not pay grain, and when he ascended the throne, he said that he would not pay grain for five years, and finally he would not pay grain for three years.

Ride a horse and take a boat and leave quickly.

Wang Tingchen and Cao Bianjiao now have a good relationship, one only has more than 200 cavalry, and the other only has more than 100 cavalry. They had to huddle together to keep warm, and Cao Bianjiao even waited for many days to help Wang Tingchen go into the city to pick up his family.

When he arrived at the boundary of Xianghe County, he suddenly chased after him and shouted at the cavalry team: "But Chief Cao and General Wang are in front of each other? ”

The man was stopped by the cavalry and shouted, "I'm Sun Chuanting!" ”

There was a commotion, Wang Tingchen and Cao Bianjiao came over to check the situation, and said in surprise: "It's Inspector Sun?" ”

"Are you going south?" Sun Chuanting asked.

Wang Tingchen and Cao Bianjiao glanced at each other and asked, "Where is Inspector Sun going?" ”

Sun Chuanting tentatively: "How about voting for Zuo Liangyu?" ”

Cao Bianjiao smiled and said: "Inspector Sun, don't want to trick me, how can Your Excellency take refuge in Zuo Liangyu, I'm afraid that you will go to Nanjing to join that King Wu." ”

"What about the two generals?" Sun Chuanting did not deny it, nor did he admit it.

Wang Tingchen said: "Zuo Liangyu is unreliable, we have a grudge against the Liukou again, so we can only go to Nanjing." Even if you can't lead troops in the future, you can live a peaceful and stable life. ”

"Then let's go on the road together," Sun Chuanting beckoned to the rear, and Tian Guifei rode over, "This is the widow of the deceased, can you let her get on the boat?" ”

Wang Tingchen smiled: "Please take care of yourself." ”

The crowd continued to walk towards Yang Village, and found that there were more pedestrians along the way. And it's very weird, these people dragged their families and fled to the north.

Go to the north to eat dirt?

Sun Chuanting rode forward, and was about to inquire about the situation, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of the corpse beside the road, and replied in shock: "Don't come into contact with the living, there may be a big epidemic ahead!" ”

"The pandemic?" Wang Tingchen and Cao Bianjiao were both frightened and inexplicable.

Not only is there a major epidemic, but the plague is spreading from Shandong to the surrounding provinces along with smallpox.

The family members on the ship did not dare to disembark again, and the cavalry did not dare to make contact with people, so they cautiously advanced all the way. Only occasionally disembark from the boat to extract water from the well, and it is necessary to repeatedly check whether there are any bodies in the well.

Fortunately, they were not short of food for the time being, and borrowed a lot from the gentry before.

When passing through Tianjin, the city gate here was wide open. The Tianjin officials appointed by Li Zicheng had fled in fright due to the spread of the plague.

When they arrived in Cangzhou, they were running out of food and had to venture into the city to borrow food.

Cangzhou is a heavy land, the city is high and the pool is deep, but there is no defense at this time, and the city is already in chaos. Hundreds of cavalry rushed into the city and found that the houses were closed and there were very few pedestrians in the streets.

After tossing and turning for a long time, he finally borrowed grain from a grain merchant and fetched a lot of well water from a rich family.

The closer they got to Shandong, the more serious the epidemic became, and Sun Chuanting and the others could only bite the bullet and go south.

It was precisely because of the epidemic in Shandong that the checkpoints along the canal were relaxed, and Zuo Liangyu's soldiers hid and did not dare to go out. Similarly, Zhao Han did not dare to send troops to Shandong, but only set up checkpoints to block the people going south.

In the face of a terrible plague, any military plan must be nullified.

At this time, swallowing Shandong is purely looking for death, even if he didn't fight with Zhang Xianzhong, Zhao Han would not go to Shandong to take risks.

When the team reached the boundary of Yutai County, what Sun Chuanting was worried about happened.

One family member contracted smallpox, and two cavalrymen contracted the plague, and Wang Tingchen and Cao Bianjiao reacted quickly.

The family disembarked, the cavalry left, and they were left to fend for themselves with two sacks of miscellaneous grain.

By the time they reached the boundary of Pei County, the number of people infected with the plague had increased to double digits, and the entire team was in a panic.

But there was nothing they could do but abandon the sick and did not even dare to leave alone.

The team finally came to Xuzhou, but was blocked on the other side of the Huai River and was not allowed to come.

Every day, there are Datong sergeants and soldiers, rowing boats to patrol the river, and drive people who try to cross the river back. This is extremely inhumane, but it is necessary, and the plague must not be allowed to spread south.

"I have a way, maybe I can try it." Sun Chuanting said.

Cao Bianjiao asked, "What's the way?" ”

Sun Chuanting finally told the truth: "There is a prince on our ship, let's see if the other side will let him go." ”

Two merchant ships sailed to the center of the river, and soon the Datong army came by boat.

The soldier raised his firearm and shouted: "Go back immediately, dare to cross the river again, and the artillery on the shore will wait!" ”

Tian Guifei hugged her young son who was having a fever, knelt on the deck and said loudly: "Emperor Tian of the Ming Dynasty, take the prince and ask King Wu to take him in!" ”

The soldiers did not dare to slack off, and went back to report to the officials.

Fei Ruhe discussed with the governor of Xuzhou and agreed to let these people cross the river, but they must be isolated by the river for a month.

Not only Tian Guifei, but also the rest of the smuggled people were also dealt with in this way.

There are always people who take advantage of loopholes to sneak across the border, can they all rush back? Some of Zhao Han's territory is not blocked by rivers, so it is easier for people to run over.

The boundaries of the jurisdiction, the villages and towns of the counties, the grassroots officials and the peasant associations have become operational.

Mobilize the people to defend the group, and once a stranger enters the village, immediately drive them to the outskirts of the village, and order these people to quarantine for at least a month.

After waiting for a month before they became ill, they were asked to boil water and boil their clothes, and their whole bodies had to be washed several times so that they could take refuge in the village.

Shandong has already exploded, Beizhili is about to explode, and after the Manchus enter the customs, they will find that they have come to a plague land.

(Although the third watch is late, I ask for a monthly pass.) ）