In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the fourth day of the second month.

Tong Kuixing did not disgrace the mission of Li Yutian, the governor of Liaodong, and reached a new peace agreement with Dolgon, and hurriedly returned to Shanhaiguan.

He also brought the latest movements of Dolgon's troops, so that the Guanning Ming army could be convinced that Dolgon did not go directly south from Tashan, but simultaneously detoured west to Jimen.

When this news arrived, Wu Sangui and Li Yutian finally breathed a sigh of relief: for the time being, there is no need to worry about being attacked from both sides, and the materials and people who retreated to the gate after the temporary fortification of the clear field will not be damaged by copying, and they can settle down and focus on guarding the pass.

"Tong Tongzhi can speak well, live up to his mission, and should be worshiped by the last general." After listening to Tong Kuixing's report, Wu Sangui, who had been looking blue in the past few days, also forcibly squeezed out a smile.

said that he was worshiped by him, but in fact, the iron armor was on his body, and he couldn't bow fully, that is, he arched his hand to signal.

Tong Kuixing didn't dare to hold it up, so he politely asked a few words about the war and military situation in Shanhaiguan, and exchanged blows with Wu Sangui.

Wu Sangui was asked about the battle situation, his face became a little colder again, and he said worriedly: "At present, the offensive of the army can still be resisted, but Li Zicheng's combat power is indeed above my estimate."

The day after you left, the vanguard of thieves arrived at Shanhaiguan, and the siege began one day later, without much preparation, which was really beyond my expectations. The army didn't need to build siege weapons, so they directly bombarded the wall with Hongyi cannons.

Presumably, after he took Beijing City, he obtained the arsenal around the Beijing Division. The first emperor was able to hold the city of Beijing when there were still so many Hongyi cannons around the Beijing Division, alas, it can be seen to what extent the three major battalions have been eroded! ”

Tong Kuixing roughly calculated that he went to see Dolgon, walked for three days before and after, and returned faster, so he was in a hurry to report the news, so he only walked for two days, and the negotiations took two or three days. So counting the days, the army has been besieging the city for five full days.

While they were chatting, they could hear the faint sound of scattered cannons, far and near. Thinking of the farther is Li Zicheng's siege artillery fire, and the sound is closer is Wu Sangui's counterattack artillery fire.

And Dolgon's troops, because of the long detour, it will take at least two days to go around the Jimen Great Wall to enter the customs (there is still nominally under the control of Wang Yongji, but in fact it is also under the orders of Wu Sangui, and some of Ma Ke's generals have also been rebelled by Wu Sangui)

After entering the customs from Jimen, Dolgon must also make a slight repair, and will not rush straight to the side of the Shanhaiguan battlefield in one go, so as not to make the troops in a bad state. So leaving three more days for the cavalry units to maneuver is absolutely necessary.

As for the 20,000 or 30,000 Han soldiers in the Qing army, the movement will be even slower. If Dolgon had to divide his troops to protect his infantry artillery, leaving some cavalry of the Mongol Eight Banners as a response, then the cavalry that could rush to the frontal battlefield at the first time might be 50,000 people.

In other words, Wu Sangui had to defend Shanhaiguan alone for at least five days before he could get the flank attack of Dolgon's first batch of 50,000 cavalry reinforcements. If we wait for another three or four days, it will be possible to get the follow-up all-out general attack of more than 10,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry artillery.

If it had been a field battle like the Battle of One Stone in the same period of history, Wu Sangui would have been finished long ago in the past ten days. But fortunately, now he can rely on Xiongguan to defend the city, which makes everything seem quite possible.

After hearing this, Tong Kuixing couldn't help but sweat for Wu Sangui, and was concerned about the combat power invested by the army, wanting to see how sure Wu Sangui was.

Wu Sangui didn't hide it from him, and roughly analyzed the strength of the enemy: "At the beginning, the thieves sent Liu Zongmin to attack the city with about 60,000 or 70,000 soldiers.

By the time Dolgon arrived, I am afraid that there would be at least more than 100,000 troops on the front line, alas, it is all to blame on those spineless thieves! The army can gather such a number of people, how many of them are the soldiers of the original Ming Dynasty! ”

In order to whitewash Li Zicheng's defeat at a rock, many historical sources often describe Li Zicheng's available forces relatively little.

Some say that they only brought 60,000 main combat troops to a stone, while others say that they only brought 80,000. He also said that although Li Zicheng claimed to be "600,000 soldiers of the Great Shun Heavenly Army," in fact there were only 100,000 combatable soldiers in his entire regime, and the rest were all braggart and exaggeration, or the number of logistics was counted by the old and weak.

But this figure is obviously underestimated.

At this time and space, when Li Zicheng got rid of Sun Chuanting, and when he raised troops from Shaanxi and Henan, there were actually more than 300,000 people, including the old and weak logistics.

The veterans may indeed only be 60,000 or 70,000, counting the more than 100,000 new soldiers, the total number of combatable soldiers should be between 15 and 200,000.

However, in the process of going all the way north, in addition to the Ningwu Pass, there was also a campaign to attack the city of Beijing, and the casualties of the invading army reached more than 10,000 people.

And Li Zicheng also likes to use the old and weak as cannon fodder to share the firepower when attacking the city, such as ordering the old and young women and children to carry the soil to fill the moat and fill the moat, and each person picks three loads of soil and pours it into the moat, so that the follow-up combat obligations can be pardoned.

If he was shot to death in the process of transporting these three trips, then even if his life was not good, he would have no chance to resist Li Zicheng's order, and those who survived would only feel lucky, and they would not have to take any more risks in the follow-up anyway, and they would not bother to resist.

Under the differentiation of such a gamble of luck, Rao was forced by Li Zicheng to take risks for more than one million people, but because of his uneven heart, he felt that he had escaped by luck and there was no need to resist, so he let Li Zicheng keep making it bigger.

After attacking so many cities, the losses of the old battalion and the elite soldiers of a hundred battles are not large, and there is always a steady stream of cannon fodder to share the firepower.

It can only be said that Li Zicheng's level of wool is still good, he didn't catch a flock of sheep like Chongzhen, he knew that after risking his life three times, he would let the other party go and replace it with a group of old and weak people. In the end, with the Han people's ability to endure and more things than less, there was no obvious resistance.

When the army that came all the way from Shandong and Hebei finally arrived in Beijing, the core combat strength was still very well preserved.

Before and after the killing of Jun Chongzhen, the surrender of the Ming army in the north brought Li Zicheng a huge amount of temporary combat power, which further strengthened his confidence in facing Wu Sangui and Dolgon now-

Tang Tong's Miyun soldiers were swallowed by Wu Sangui as in the same period in history, but Ma Ke and Bai Guangen's soldiers and horses, Wu Sangui only abducted about half of them, and half of them were about 30,000 people, and now they are still following Li Zicheng.

In addition, in the Shanxi Ming army, only Zhou Yuji's men and horses fought to the death and did not surrender. But Xiong Tong, who was supposed to fight side by side with Zhou Yuji, surrendered directly with most of his combat power.

Before, when the city of Taiyuan was broken, the governor Cai Maode was martyred, but Cai Maode's improper employment and harsh criticism forced Zhang Xiong, one of the Taiyuan defenders, to surrender to the enemy as an internal response, and also brought a lot of Shanxi soldiers.

】

Lin Lin finally came down, Shanxi and Hebei provinces, each province fell, at least 30,000 Ming troops directly surrendered to the enemy,

There were slightly fewer people who surrendered to the enemy on the Shandong side, because only two prefectures were occupied by Liu Fangliang, Li Zicheng's Southern Route Army, and there were far fewer people along the way, and Liu Zeqing's main force of the Shandong Ming Army chose to retreat.

Finally, adding the number of the three major battalions of the Beijing Division to the enemy, it is not an exaggeration to say that Li Zicheng has recruited at least 80,000 local troops of the former Ming Army in the past few months.

It's just that the combat effectiveness of these Ming troops can't be guaranteed, they are extremely erosive when they are under Chongzhen, and only Bai Guangen and Ma Ke's people have some combat effectiveness. After Li Zicheng returns, he will not immediately turn into a bull, and the equipment situation will not be improved, and it is impossible for Li Zicheng to conjure weapons out of thin air to arm these newly attached troops.

Therefore, as of the beginning of February of the 17th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng's Dashun regime actually had nearly 200,000 peasant soldiers, including about 60,000 or 70,000 elite veterans. The Ming army surrendered 80,000 troops, and the total combat force was actually as high as 280,000.

If 60,000 pioneers can't take down Shanhaiguan, then continue to increase troops! It is entirely possible to pull the old 80,000 Ming Army, plus some relatively young and strong men, to the front line.

Wu Sangui estimated that he might eventually have to withstand the attack of more than 100,000 troops. As for the 280,000 Quanshang, it is impossible, Li Zicheng will definitely leave some fish belly to defend Beijing City, and also ensure that Tianjin Weidagu Pass and other key nodes along the line will also occupy more than 100,000 people.

The poor logistical supply capacity of Li Zicheng's army did not allow them to directly pile 200,000 people to the front line of Shanhaiguan.

Hundreds of thousands of people relied on self-transportation of food, which was impossible to transport, and they needed to keep slaughtering the die-hard people in the city who did not meet the supply of supplies.

The defense area between Shuntianfu and Yongping Mansion was cleared by Wu Sangui to a considerable extent, and the grain stocks around Shanhaiguan could not be grabbed, which was also a blow to Li Zicheng's military investment.

Li Zicheng also knew that he had to fight quickly, and in the end, his biggest reliance was only the pile of Hongyi cannons that he got after the destruction of Beijing.

In the original history, in the late Ming Dynasty, among the various forces, the largest number of Hongyi cannons, but the Manchu Qing Dynasty, it is said that to Chongzhen 17 years, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has more than 200 Hongyi cannons, who let Huang Taiji be in power for more than ten years, is too attached to the Hongyi cannon, too willing to spend blood.

After the Manchu Dynasty, the Zheng family was originally the second most powerful force in the Hongyi cannon, and the third was the turn of the Ming court. And now in this time and space, the force with the most Hongyi cannons in the world is, of course, Zhu Shuren in the south, he has been farming for many years, and the number of Hongyi cannons has been more than that of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which can make up more than 300 guns, and the quality is better than that of the Ming and Qing armies.

In the Ming Dynasty, the nine-sided defenders accounted for more than half of the Hongyi artillery stock, and Wu Sangui was the top priority, accounting for half of the scale of the nine-sided artillery, about thirty.

And Li Zicheng took the arsenal around Beijing, as well as the equipment of the surrendered border army in Hebei and Shanxi, plus the original accumulation of the army for many years, and also had more than 60 Hongyi cannons.

On the battlefield of Shanhaiguan, dozens of Hongyi cannons bombarded each other every day, and the scene was spectacular.

The majestic wall was also crumbling under the repeated bombardment of solid iron bullets, and many places were covered with stones and rammed earth, and the east of the city wall was missing a piece and the west collapsed.

Li Zicheng's vanguard general is Liu Zongmin, Li Zicheng himself has not yet rushed to the front line to personally supervise the battle, but Liu Zongmin is also burdened with the responsibility of killing the king, so it is very clear that Wu Sangui must not be allowed to turn the tables, and it is very hard to urge the superintendent to attack the city.

Whenever he saw a collapse in the wall of Shanhaiguan, even if it was only a rammed earth that had fallen to form a gentle slope of the mound and had not completely collapsed, he would order his soldiers to fight bravely from the gentle slope regardless of life and death.

Groups of officers and soldiers of the Dashun Army, including the cannon fodder of the Ma Ke Department of the Ming Army who were brought in, attacked like a walking corpse against the ferocious shooting of Wu Sangui's army.

Wu Sangui also had to send batch after batch of people who dared to die to block the mouth, and fought hand-to-hand at the top of the half-collapsed wall.

"Kill the thief! Avenge the Emperor! The Wu family shouted slogans, the sound of killing shook the sky, the waist knife flew over, the spear stabbed indiscriminately, and the charge of the invading army was pushed down again and again.

In the fierce battle, some of the former Ming army soldiers under Ma Ke saw that their former allies had become so brave, and they were also imposed.

In particular, Wu Sangui's iron cotton armor for these melee soldiers has been processed in advance, either by selecting the armor stomach with a white cloth surface, or by temporarily processing an additional layer of white cotton cloth in the past ten days, which really plays the "weeping six armies" to the extreme.

In this life, Wu Sangui didn't know Chen Yuanyuan at all, and he insisted on resisting only for the interests of the family group and for the interests of the generals of Liaoxi, and declared to the outside world that it was only for him to be loyal to the first emperor and loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

Not to mention, let him publicize it like this, the Ming army of Shanhaiguan was also packaged as a righteous army and a revenge army that seemed to be comparable to Liu Kun's ancestors. Ma Ke's subordinates were fighting, and many soldiers felt ashamed and wanted to die, and fled after collapsing in batches.

The troops sent by Liu Zongmin to supervise the battle could not be stopped, and they were afraid of further intensifying the contradiction between the surrender of the army and the old camp of the army, so they could only select a few leaders to kill Liwei for a while, and did not dare to punish them too much.

It was another several days of fierce fighting, and on the evening of the eight or seven days of the siege of Shanhaiguan, even Li Ziben himself finally arrived at Shanhaiguan in person with tens of thousands of reinforcements.

Seeing that Liu Zongmin spent fifty Hongyi cannons attacking the city and didn't take it for eight days, he was also quite annoyed and couldn't help but hold him accountable:

"Even though Shanhaiguan is majestic, there are so many Hongyi cannons bombarding the wall, it should have been smashed a long time ago, why can't it be taken!"

Liu Zongmin was also helpless: "King, Wu Sangui's trilogy is really brave!" I don't know why they suddenly became so loyal to Chongzhen.

Our army's Hongyi artillery has opened several gaps before and after, but Wu Sangui's soldiers and horses can break the wall without retreating, sending thousands of dead soldiers to block the mouth, fighting hand-to-hand with our army at the gap, and they are all white helmets and white armor to Chongzhen to hang filial piety,

I originally wanted to mobilize Ma Ke and Bai Guangen's old department to fight hand-to-hand and consume people's lives, but who knew that Ma Ke and Bai Guangen's old department almost collapsed and mutinied, so they didn't go down for a long time. ”

Li Zicheng was as anxious as a beast, and Song Xiance next to him was also full of melancholy:

"This is amazing, the scout has come to report, Dolgon's Qing army has broken through the pass from elsewhere, the scout is three or four hundred miles a day Pegasus returns, I don't know how many days Dolgon can get here. The king should be ready for a field attack, and beware of being flanked by Dolgon and Wu Sangui. ”

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ps: After all, it is a scene where there is no protagonist force to appear, it is purely a dog-eat-dog by the other three warlords in the world, and it can only be passed quickly. However, the changes in the strength of all parties must also be taken into account, so as not to be too abrupt when the results are reached, so it is dealt with like this.

I also blame that there are too many butterfly effects in writing books, and the forces of all parties have changed too much compared with the same period in history.