Although because of the butterfly effect of Zhu Shuren, the situation in the north of the Ming Dynasty after Chongzhen's death has been stirred up a lot of chaos, and all parties have been drained of blood and taken away a considerable part of their strength.

But Li Zicheng, Wu Sangui, and Dolgon's respective states of existence doomed them to have such a decisive battle.

Compared with the same period in history, it is nothing more than that the course and situation of the decisive battle will change - from the original short decisive battle of only one day to a semi-protracted battle that will last at least ten days.

The total strength of Li Zicheng's side is somewhat weaker than that of the same period in history. The number of troops was already less than 30,000, and they were still under the fortified city of Shanhaiguan for many days.

The exchange ratio of siege warfare will obviously be much more tragic than that of field warfare. Li Zicheng, as the attacker, in the ten days of bloody battles, was almost a five-for-one battle loss ratio, Wu Sangui's side only suffered a few thousand casualties, but Li Zicheng's side had at least twenty or thirty thousand casualties, morale was also low, and many of the original Ming army's surrendered troops fell back into instability.

However, the prolongation of time has also made up for Li Zicheng's initial underestimation of the enemy in history-

In the history of the stone war, Li Zicheng's investment was really insufficient, obviously there were hundreds of thousands of troops, but he felt that Wu Sangui was not enough to worry, considering the difficulties in logistics and supply, he refused to press all the main forces, and the lion fought the rabbit with all his strength.

Now, after the initial battle with Wu Sangui was unfavorable, Li Zicheng has successively increased his troops, so that his combat strength on the front line of Shanhaiguan has increased by at least several percent compared with the same period in history.

Of course, this troop build-up is not without cost. As mentioned earlier, the logistics of the invading army are really sparse, and a large number of troops to the front line will inevitably exceed the logistical load and cause more chaos.

Some of the second-line troops and the strong men of Xinla will inevitably go hungry and have a full meal, and they may not be able to eat on time, which is really miserable.

On the other hand, after the Shanhaiguan front line has increased its troops, once the Chuang army suffers a comprehensive fiasco, it will be more difficult for them to gain a foothold on the Hebei Plain in the future, and they may be pushed back by the Qing army or Wu Sangui more and more "like a bamboo".

These troops gathered at Shanhaiguan are the hardest "bamboo joints", and when these bamboo joints are cut off, they will naturally "be solved after a few knots".

Finally, these butterfly effects have an additional effect: this time, it is unlikely that Dolgon will be able to surprise Lee Zicheng on the battlefield. Li Zicheng is fully prepared for Dolgon, who came by the detour, even if he fights, he will deal with it in a dignified manner, and he will not be caught off guard.

……

The wheels of history rolled over, and the bloody battle of Shanhaiguan was finally dragged on to the ninth day of February, and the 50,000 cavalry of the Qing army of Dolgon's front army finally arrived at the battlefield.

Li Zicheng, who had been unable to break through the bloody battle for many days, had to give up attacking the fortification half a day in advance and turned into a state of attack. He still has 140,000 soldiers left, including 50,000 veterans, 50,000 surrendered Ming troops, and 40,000 cannon fodder strong men.

In terms of numbers, at least sixty percent of the fighting forces of Hebei, Shanxi, and Shandong have been transferred to this battlefield.

And if you calculate it from the perspective of combat power, the proportion will only be higher, because more than eighty percent of the elites of the old battalion are here.

In addition to the 140,000 combatable soldiers, there were also 10,000 wounded soldiers in Li Zicheng's battalion, all of whom had been lost in the past ten days of tackling key problems, adding up to a total of 150,000 people.

Opposite him were 50,000 Dolgon cavalry from the northwest flank, including 30,000 Manchurian Eight Banners and 20,000 Mongol cavalry.

Wu Sangui's nearly 50,000 horses have lost thousands of people by this moment, and the rest is barely about 40,000.

90,000 to 140,000, this is the comparison of forces before the final Armageddon.

"Dolgon is here after all, for the sake of today's plan, what can I do, do you fight quickly or hold the camp and wait for Dolgon to attack?" On the eve of Dolgon's arrival, Li Zicheng also hurriedly gathered all his henchmen and advisers and had an urgent discussion.

Niu Jinxing, who he regarded as the prime minister's talent, stayed in Beijing City, so the people he could mobilize in front of him were Liu Zongmin, Liu Fangliang and Song Xiance. Yuan Zongdi was also left in the rear by him to be responsible for defense.

Among the three, Liu Zongmin, who has the most reckless temper, is also quite aggrieved these days, so he suggested Li Zicheng to fight quickly:

"King, it's better for our army to turn around first and concentrate on defeating Dolgon, or to knock on the mountain and shock the tiger to Wu Sangui, who is shrinking. If it is delayed for a long time, I am afraid that the morale of our army will be even lower, and the grain route will be easily threatened by Dorgon's cavalry! ”

Li Zicheng did not immediately express his position, he felt that Liu Zongmin's "quick battle and quick decision, while the morale is not yet low" is correct, but "defeating Dolgon can knock Wu Sangui and shock the tiger and deter the other party", Li Zicheng did not believe it at all.

If Dolgon is defeated, I am afraid that Wu Sangui will be even more arrogant, feeling that the strong enemy will lose both, and he will be better and better to reap the benefits!

Liu Fangliang on the other side saw that the king was silent, and he also estimated that Li Zicheng did not fully agree, so he had the courage to point out several other risks:

"Don't be reckless, O king! The Qing army came and went like the wind, and we asked for war, but we might not be able to win the battle, maybe on the contrary, I would advance and retreat from the enemy, and we would be exhausted by the dispatch.

Our army has a strong camp to defend, so why not attack and defend and change the situation, so as to take the opportunity to observe the relationship between the Qing army and Wu Sangui?

For example, if our army gives up the way for Dolgon to enter the pass, if Wu Sangui dares to open the city gate and let Dolgon enter the pass, Dolgon will inevitably slowly take away Wu Sangui's authority after entering the pass, and the two thieves will inevitably be discordant, and a gap will gradually arise.

If you don't dare, the two thieves will also have suspicions, and the Qing army still has to rest and recuperate, and has to camp outside the pass, so our army can take advantage of the fact that its camp will become unsuccessful, so as to take advantage of its failure!

After all, the Qing army is all cavalry, and if we haven't camped yet, we take the initiative to attack, and they can still escape. If the camp is already a little bigger, and we rush forward, they will have to choose to fight, or abandon the unfinished camp. Our army can't kill many of Dorgon's men and horses, and if we can capture half of its camp, it can also severely damage the morale of the Qing army and boost the morale of our army! ”

Liu Fangliang's words really made Li Zicheng a little fooled. He didn't expect that this kind of old rough military general also knew a little about strategy, so he couldn't help nodding secretly: "This sounds quite reasonable......

The mobility of the Qing army is very strong, although Li Zicheng has not fought with the Qing army, but he also captured so many former Ming Dynasty border army generals, from the communication with these people, how much can understand the strength of the Qing army.

The strongest of the Qing army is cavalry archery and mobile pulling, if the camp is not erected, they may not be able to catch up with their own pursuit and battle. However, if the wooden piles and tents of the camp are built a little, and the fortifications are not yet completed, and the fortifications are not yet visible, if the Qing army runs again, it will lose a lot of tents that are too late to take away, and even some canes, cattle and sheep supplies, and the probability of the Qing army choosing to run will be greatly reduced.

This style of play, which is temporarily weak, is really useful!

But Li Zicheng didn't know that these insights were so clever, naturally it was not Liu Fangliang who thought of it, but when the army was here to tackle key problems and wait for Dolgon, when Liu Fangliang chatted with Song Xiance, Song Xiance had already subtly analyzed a lot with him.

When the matter came to an end, Liu Fangliang combined his own insight and military aircraft, added oil and vinegar to the secondary processing and said.

Song Xiance did this, in fact, he didn't want to make more enemies - since Liu Zongmin killed Chongzhen, Song Xiance didn't deal with Liu Zongmin in some previous strategies, and the relationship between the two sides became worse and worse. Song Xiance estimated that Liu Zongmin would definitely choose the most radical style of play if he was so reckless, and he tried his best to persuade him, but he didn't want to be a bird, so he pushed Liu Fangliang out.

Liu Fangliang lacked strategy, and originally didn't have much opportunity to show his face in this regard, so he was willing to be a pawn.

Li Zicheng pondered it again and felt that it was feasible, so he finally checked and filled in the gaps, and asked Song Xiance: "What does the military advisor think?" ”

Song Xiance pretended to be a bowl of water and thought about it fairly for a long time, as if Liu Fangliang had heard these words for the first time, and he had not prepared in advance, so he said after a long time:

"What General Liu said is that he has won the art of war. It is better for our army to temporarily defend the camp to show weakness, give way to the road, observe the movement of the Qing army, induce it to set up camp, and then take advantage of the instability of its camp to attack!

However, there is another point that needs to be noted: although our army can show weakness and observe changes, it should not wait too long. Chen Suwen Since Huang Taiji, the Qing army has changed the tradition of using Manchu people as soldiers when the old slave (Nuer Hachi) was in power, and he likes to use the rebellious Han people as cannon fodder.

Now in such a bloody battle, how could Dolgon really only use full troops to fight for the main battle? There must still be men and horses of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty who fight hard battles, and the cavalry of the Eight Banners is only responsible for fighting and picking up leaks!

At present, the infantry of the Tartars has not arrived, and it is only a long detour from Jimen, and the Han army flag is marching slowly. If it is delayed for another three or four days, and the whole army of the Tartars is gathered, this battle will be difficult to fight. Therefore, even if you wait and see weakness, it will only be in a day or two at most. ”

When Li Zicheng heard this, he felt more and more reasonable, so he ordered to go down, first hold on to each other for a day, and show weakness to be proud of the enemy.

And Liu Fangliang next to him didn't realize that he was being used by Song Xiance, and thought that Song Junshi could finally add these points, it was completely because Song Junshi was extremely resourceful, and he thought of so many things temporarily.

As everyone knows, Song Xiance has completely pushed the responsibility: it is not him Song Xiance who is showing weakness and waiting for change, on the contrary, Song Xiance just advised Li Zicheng not to wait and see for too long, so as not to merge the enemy army.

When this strategy works, it is Song Xiance's seconding of the decision.

If it really dragged on and harmed the Qing army, he Song Xiance had already reminded him of the risk first. It's that Liu Fangliang's original version has a poor foundation, and he Song Xiance "changed the bug on the Shishan code, and it was already very good to be able to do this step by tinkering".

It can only be said that people who have been fortune tellers for many years like to be ambiguous and leave a way out everywhere. When he fooled people, he was stunned, and if things didn't work, he couldn't bite him to be responsible.

……

The Qing army left more than 20 miles outside the pass to go down to the village, and Wu Sangui also provided enough supplies.

But then, in just one day, the situation changed dramatically - Li Ziguo chose to let the Qing army rest for a day according to Song Xiance's plan, and then set up camp that night and launched an attack unsteadily.

】

Dolgon's Qing army was quite well guarded, and a large number of cavalry patrolled the night in batches, so it was impossible to be sneak attacked, and Li Zicheng's night attack troops were still halfway before they were discovered by the Qing army.

But the sudden attack also made Dolgon very depressed: it was late at night, and Wu Sangui definitely did not dare to rashly open the gate of Shanhaiguan and come out to answer the enemy situation when the enemy situation was unknown.

And Dolgon came this time, he had made up his mind, to take advantage of the cavalry mobility advantage of the Qing army, the enemy advanced and retreated, and the enemy was tired and I fought, how could he be willing to let the Qing army play the main force to resist damage when Li Zicheng's army was still sharp, and finally let Wu Sangui pick up the cheap?

If Dolgon was really determined to fight to the death, his 50,000 Manchurian cavalry still had a good chance to push Li Zicheng back, but he had no motive and was unwilling to bear this damage.

After a tragic and short offensive and defensive battle, Dolgon decisively chose to temporarily abandon half of the camp that Wu Sangui had just subsidized and funded him, and retreated to the northwest with the main cavalry force, further widening the distance, in order to fight again.

In a bloody battle, the Qing army also suffered one or two thousand casualties, and the intruding army attacking the camp suffered more casualties, I am afraid that it was close to four or five thousand people.

In terms of exchange ratio, the invasion army suffered more than twice as many casualties in the sneak attack and robbery of the camp, which really cannot be regarded as a good fight. However, he captured half of Dolgon's camp and obtained a lot of supplies, as well as some grain, wine and meat that Wu Sangui had just allocated to Dolgon this morning, which greatly boosted the morale of Li Zicheng's army.

Dolgon and Wu Sangui, no one wants to be the character who resists damage in front!

This mentality can be regarded as being grasped by Song Xiance with insight. Li Zicheng's only chance in theory is to take advantage of the selfishness of Duo and Wu who want to beggar-thy-neighbor!

……

However, after all, Dolgon is a big family, and if he loses a night battle for the time being, he will not lose a batch of camps and supplies, and he will not be hurt at all.

In fact, he also chose to retreat because he was reluctant to die more descendants, and the next day when the sky was bright, the Qing army regained its footing, counted the men and horses, and the losses were not much.

Coming and going like the wind like this, retreating without dying too many people, it also shows that the military discipline of the Qing army is terrible, which is far more rare than winning a battle with a tailwind.

After stabilizing his position, Dorgon also gathered his advisers and main generals to discuss the next step of the battle.

Fan Wencheng, a Han cultural officer who accompanied the army, also gave him some decent ideas in time:

"Lord Wang, it's better for our army to slowly figure it out, wait for the rear army infantry and artillery to arrive, and fight again together. In addition, the thieves came from afar, and the food supply was not good, even if they temporarily robbed a battalion of our army, they would not be able to last for a few more days.

The cavalry of our army is strong, and the grain routes in Ningwei, Changli County and other places along the western Liaoning corridor are cut off, but in half a month, Li Zicheng will inevitably retreat. When the time comes, then cover up and kill, and you can win all!

We can also send a messenger to question Wu Sangui, and agree with him that our army will cut off the thief's grain route, and when he is tired, order Wu Sangui to send troops out of the customs and pursue the thief head-on! If Wu Sangui is cowardly again, it will be a betrayal of the alliance! When the time comes, don't blame me for sending another army from the rear of the northeast to flank and take Shanhaiguan! ”

When Dolgon heard this, he felt that it made sense, and immediately ordered the armies to recruit them.

was reminded by Fan Wencheng like this, and he also realized that when things came to this point, he had more chips for Wu Sangui than at the beginning-

When Wu Sangui first negotiated with him, the reason why he was able to insist on moving the town without fear was because Li Zicheng would attack Shanhaiguan at any time, and Li Zicheng was closer to Shanhaiguan than Dolgon. Once Dolgon's treachery angered Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui could escape directly by sea and sacrifice the danger to Li Zicheng.

But now, Dolgon has personally led his troops from Jimen to enter the customs and make a detour to rescue Shanhaiguan. In the future, if Li Zicheng's grain road can be cut off, Li Zicheng can be forced to retreat, and Li Zicheng's threat to Shanhaiguan can be lifted, then the bargaining chips that Wu Sangui relied on will disappear together.

At that time, Li Zicheng's army was hundreds of miles away from Shanhaiguan, and Wu Sangui just wanted to dedicate it to Li Zicheng, but he couldn't do it! The east and west directions of the wall are Qing troops, and Wu Sangui is the turtle in the urn! I can only listen to him Dolgon!

Therefore, Wu Sangui wanted to be opportunistic and preserve his strength, so he let him be rampant for half a month at most, and when Li Zicheng turned into retreat, it was when Wu Sangui's chips were exhausted!

Dolgon was not prepared to stick to his peace agreement with Wu Sangui for a long time, and just wanted to wait for the other party's use value to be squeezed dry, and then he would directly gain an inch.

It can only be said that in the Northeast Battlefield in February of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, all forces were shameless villains who did not intend to abide by their promises! Everyone is ready to stab an opponent who has signed an armistice at any time!

……

After Li Zicheng won a small victory in the camp, he was immersed in joy for a while, and he was also proud of the capture of the camp and some supplies.

But there were also sober people around him, and Song Xiance soon realized that if the Qing army could be defeated without being damaged, and only retreated in an orderly manner, the threat to the invading army would be too great.

Early the next morning, he met with Li Zicheng and pointed out that he should beware of the Qing army cutting off the grain route with cavalry.

The western Liaoning corridor is within the Shanhaiguan Pass, and there are 100 miles of narrow and barren land, which is easy to be cut off everywhere along the coast, and has to be guarded against.

After Li Zicheng heard this, his mind turned solemn and he had to take it seriously. He doesn't have a good way, now that Dolgon has arrived, it has become a corner, and he has to break through the barrier again, there is not much hope, and the more they hold each other, the more disadvantaged it will be.

After weighing, Li Zicheng chose to make a false shot again, and sent the front army to approach the newly established camp after Dolgon's temporary retreat, and show off his might to fight a decisive battle with Dolgon.

Dolgon wanted Wu Sangui to consume first, so naturally he would not fight, but he was also boosted by the invasion of the army.

Who knows, Li Zicheng still flaunted his might during the day, and at night, suddenly the whole army gradually withdrew from the camp in batches.

Dolgon was angry and anxious, and the next day he hurriedly asked the cavalry to sentry around to intercept and kill, blocking Li Zicheng's retreating forward troops. Li Zicheng could only walk in formation slowly, like Li Ling retreating from the Huns, and could only travel twenty or thirty miles a day, keeping on guard and retreating.

The two sides fought several fierce and modest scout battles. Whenever the cavalry of the Qing army seized the opportunity to slacken the army, they rushed up and shot and killed. When the left and right sides of the intruding army were encircled, the Qing army left dozens of corpses and retreated. If it was more than a dozen times, it made the army exhausted up and down.

And at this point, Dolgon also got enough chips and sent people to force Wu Sangui to pursue with elite soldiers! Otherwise, it will be regarded as a betrayal! The Qing army has captured Shanhaiguan!

Wu Sangui also found that as Li Zicheng retreated from Funingwei and retreated to Changli County, he was surrounded by Dolgon in all directions, except for directly abandoning the pass and crossing the sea to escape, he really didn't have any chips to use.

He also had to cautiously send 15,000 elites, including 10,000 veterans of the Guanning Army, as well as 5,000 old troops of Tang Tong and Bai Guangen, to set out from Shanhaiguan and follow Li Zicheng in pursuit.

Wu Sangui still has 40,000 soldiers and horses, but the more than 20,000 newly recruited strong men are unbearable for field battles and can only defend the city. Therefore, Wu Sangui must leave all the recruits and thousands of veteran backbones behind to guard his home, and the elite field troops he can draw out are only 15,000 people.

After many days of tugging, the two sides finally broke out a decisive battle near Changli County.

After many days of pulling and cutting off food, the morale of the breaking army gradually fell and the state was not good.

Since entering the city of Beijing, the newly attached troops in the army who surrendered from the Ming army on the three sides of Hebei have also been mostly disturbed by the plague epidemic in Beijing.

The Qing army on the opposite side was less damaged by the plague because of the characteristics of the nomadic cavalry. As for the troops who came from Shanxi and Henan, the damage to the plague was not too great, mainly because they had lived in the local area for many years and already had a certain immunity.

The plague in the last years of Chongzhen was originally spread from Shanxi in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, and it spread to Henan and other places in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen.

Therefore, as long as the Shanxi and Henan soldiers are still alive, they have already carried a wave of infection and have a certain degree of immunity, and only the Hebei soldiers were released just a few months ago to be centrally infected, and their combat effectiveness is low.

But in any case, even if only the Hebei soldiers were infected in large numbers, it was a considerable weakening of the overall combat strength of the Chuang army, and these days, the combat effectiveness of the Chuang Army has at least dropped by more than one percent.

All factors are at odds. On 14 February, on the way to continue to retreat eastward from Changli County, the Chuang army finally suffered from the pursuit and harassment of Wu Sangui, and turned back to kill back, trying to fight a bloody battle with Wu Sangui's troops chasing out of the pass.

Wu Sangui also didn't expect Li Zicheng to suddenly give up and continue to retreat, because he had been paralyzed for many days, he followed a little too closely, and he was finally entangled and had to fall into bloody grinding.

On both sides of the Hulu River in the southwest of Changli County, the two armies engaged in hand-to-hand combat with earth-shattering sounds. The reason why the Chuang army was able to return to the fight was also due to the fact that they had already put on a posture of crossing the Hulu River.

And Wu Sangui saw that this was the first time that the enemy army was slowly retreating and the Wu army was chasing after him from afar, so he bit it tightly, and originally wanted to eat Li Zicheng's rear army crossing the river at the end of the palace.

Most of the soldiers were able to muster up their courage for the time being, and the few who tried to wade and escape were either cut down by their own men who supervised the battle, or were killed by the Dolgon cavalry who had already squatted on the southwest bank of the Hulu River in advance.

The bloody battle lasted for most of the day, and Wu Sangui's 15,000 elite soldiers suffered thousands of casualties, and the elite of the Guanning army could not withstand six or seven times the number of attacking troops.

But Dolgon obviously would not let Wu Sangui fall, and in the afternoon, seeing that Wu Sangui had already carried the main damage and consumed all the physical strength of the intruding army, Dolgon seized the opportunity and let his tens of thousands of cavalry take turns to flank and kill.

The only fly in the ointment is that both sides are in a war of movement, and the Hongyi artillery of this era has not been brought into play in this kind of field battle because of its difficulty in movement and slow deployment.

There are only a few fast-moving Franc machines, as well as old-fashioned tiger squat cannons, and all kinds of bird guns and fire guns, roaring and killing the sky dark.

A bloody battle between the two sides, which combined with more than 200,000 people, finally lasted for a whole day on both sides of the Hulu River.

When the remnant sun was like blood, the surface of the Hulu River was blocked by corpses.

In the middle of the second lunar month, the flood in the north has not yet arrived, and the rivers in western Liaoning have not completely thawed, and the width and depth of the river channel with water flow is less than half of the summer wet season. The remnants of the invading army gradually lost their support, and they were able to directly step on the corpses to cross the river and retreat.

Li Ziyuan personally led the troops to fight a bloody battle for a whole day, and at night, he saw that his army of more than 100,000 people was cut into countless small pieces in this kind of bloody struggle, and he did not know whether he was alive or dead, and he was also dazed and desperate, and finally Liu Zongmin and Liu Fangliang were put on horseback with their lives, like a walking corpse stepping on the corpse to cross the river and break through in the dark.

As for how many of his 140,000 people will be able to return to Beijing, no one knows.

——

ps: Dog-eat-dog, which doesn't have a starring role, is over like this. At the beginning of the next chapter, I can finally write about the Southern Court.

How Dolgon seized Shanxi, Hebei, and part of Henan and Shandong, I don't know how to write in detail, and the next few sentences will be deduced, and the bad news will be reported by visiting Malaysia.