But this is an opportunity.

The flickering just now not only fooled Li Yan, but also strengthened the image of the "knowing soldier", so he just took this opportunity to propose the next plan to the group of noble officials under him.

Zhu Gaoyuan said as he rode his horse slowly: "When it comes to the use of soldiers, there is a problem that we must consider. ”

Wang Jiayan said: "Is the saint worried about the bandit garrison and the Ming rebels on the road from the north to the south?" ”

"Yes." Zhu Gaoyuan said, "Now that Henan, Shanxi and Shandong have basically fallen, and some thieves are marching towards Lianghuai, we will inevitably meet thieves from all over the country when we go south." ”

The expressions of Kim Hyun, Oh Linzheng and other officials immediately became serious, which is a very real problem.

Zhu Gaoyuan said again: "It's just other thieves, we don't necessarily have to be afraid of them, but the thieves of Liu Fangliang's department in Baoding and the first department of Yuan Zongdi in Henan not only have a large number of troops and are veterans of a hundred battles, but also the number of cavalry is not a few. ”

Wang Jiayan frowned and said: "However, Beizhi, Henan and Shandong are vast, and there are many routes to choose from, and our army may not meet these two bandits in a narrow way." ”

"No, the art of war is cloudy and the enemy is lenient, and we can't make such optimistic assumptions." Zhu Gaoyuan waved his hand and said, "What's more, in the past few decades, I have levied three salaries in the Ming Dynasty, and I have demanded too much from the people of the world, so that the people's hearts have almost been lost, so the people along the way will not only not help, but will rush to leak our whereabouts to the thieves." ”

Wang Jiayan was speechless for a moment, because what Zhu Gaoyuan said was objective facts.

Jin Xuan had already heard the sound outside the strings, and said solemnly: "So the Holy One means to divide the troops?" ”

"Yes, divide the troops." Zhu Gaoyuan did not hide it in the slightest, and said directly to Wang Jiayan, "Wang Aiqing, you will lead three thousand cavalry all the way south along the canal, and you will be suspicious soldiers with great fanfare. ”

Wang Jiayan asked, "What about you?" ”

Zhu Gaoyuan said: "I personally led a thousand Yiding, and traveled south from other roads day and night!" ”

Well, saying that it is a division of troops is actually a broken tail to survive, that is, at the expense of Wang Jiayan and the other 3,000 cavalry, in exchange for Zhu Gaoyuan and 1,000 Yiding arriving in Nanjing safely.

This was actually planned by Zhu Gaoyuan a long time ago.

It's just that when he just broke out of the siege from Chaoyangmen, Zhu Gaoyuan planned to use a cavalry of about 500 people as a false target, and he himself fled south with a family of about 100 people.

Now the false target turned into a cavalry of three thousand people.

The accompanying family also expanded to 1,000 yiding.

This has undoubtedly greatly increased the success rate of escaping southward.

"That's the best policy!" Wang Jiayan agreed without thinking.

As the right attendant of the military department, Wang Jiayan felt that it was his duty to cover the emperor's escape from Nanjing.

Zhu Gaoyuan turned his gaze to Hu Xinshui again, and said: "Hu Qing, although Wang Qing knows the soldiers, he is a civil minister after all, so he still needs a military general to assist him, and I will entrust you with this important task." ”

"The last will obey." Hu Xinshui's face was bitter.

Do I dare to resist the decree? A thousand Yiding have been abducted by you.

Hu Xinshui not only did not dare to resist the order, but even had to honestly assist Wang Jiayan, because his eldest son Hu Guozhu was also taken away by Zhu Gaoyuan, if he dared to defect halfway, wouldn't it hurt his son?

Zhu Gaoyuan's eyes turned to Wu Linzheng and other officials and nobles: "You follow me." ”

"Wait for the order." Wu Linzheng and other officials responded respectfully and honestly followed behind Zhu Gaoyuan.

It must be admitted that Zhu Gaoyuan's hand was really beautiful to survive, and he directly played Liu Fangliang, the commander of the left battalion of the Dashun Army, and Yuan Zongdi, the commander of the right battalion.

……

Nine days later, the clock was on the twenty-eighth day of April.

Four major events happened in the land of China on this day.

The first major event, Chongzhen took a thousand Yiding to march more than 1,000 miles in nine days, an average of more than 100 miles a day, and lost a circle of war horses, and finally entered Henan and went straight to Defu.

The second major event, Lu Jiude, the eunuch of the Fengyang garrison, secretly connected Gao Jie, Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo, and then persuaded Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, to lead the troops to escort the Fuwang Zhu Yousong to Jiangpu, and officially had a showdown with the Donglin Party headed by Shi Kefa, demanding that Zhu Changshu, who was supported by the Donglin Party, be replaced and Zhu Yousong would be in charge of the country.

The inertia of history is really still extremely huge, and it is still Zhu Yousong who is in charge of the country.

The third major event, Gao Jie grabbed all the way from Shanxi to Henan, and from Henan all the way to Nanzhi, he was still not satisfied, and he would set his greedy eyes on Yangzhou again, and he had already surrounded Yangzhou with his army.

The fourth major event, which is also the most impactful, Li Zicheng fled back to Beijing.

It's just that the 100,000 old soldiers who followed Li Zicheng's eastward expedition to Shanhaiguan lost more than half, and the tens of thousands of Ming Dynasty troops who accompanied the eastward expedition were even more scattered, and the Dashun army suffered a decisive military defeat.

This is not the worst, the worst is that Wu Sangui's Guan Ning army and the 50,000 iron cavalry led by Jiannu and Shuoyu Prince Duoduo are like maggots attached to the bones, biting the Dashun army to chase to the Xianghe, only more than 100 miles away from Beijing, although the broken troops are desperately resisting relying on the canal, but everyone knows that it can't be supported for too long.

Sitting on the throne of the Qianqing Palace, Li Zicheng's eyes were a little confused.

Regret it? Of course he regretted it, Li Zicheng even regretted his intestines.

I knew that Jiannu would also send troops, so I should have been more prepared at the beginning, not to mention anything else, at least Liu Fangliang's 20,000 elite soldiers should have been brought along, and Wu Sangui should not have been given such a long time to think about it, and on the day he arrived at Shanhaiguan on the 18th, he should have annihilated it with lightning speed.

If Wu Sangui is eliminated first, the Dashun army can not only win three days of rest and recuperation, so as to defeat Jiannu with leisure and labor, but also avoid the dilemma of one enemy and two enemies, and gain a military advantage over Jiannu, and then even if the field battle is lost, it can still rely on the strong Guancheng of Shanhaiguan to fight a protracted war.

It should be said that God still gave the Dashun army a chance to win.

It's a pity that the Dashun army failed to seize this precious opportunity, and it is too late to say anything now.

Thinking of the 60,000 veterans who were lost on the battlefield of Shanhaiguan, Li Zicheng was really heartbroken, these were all veterans who followed him all the way from Henan, and they were all elites of a hundred battles!

Liu Zongmin, Niu Jinxing and other civil and military officers also lost the spirit when they went out.

Liu Zongmin even bare his right shoulder, and the white cloth wrapped around it was oozing blood.

Seven days ago, Liu Zongmin was wounded by an arrow, and he didn't even have time to bandage it properly along the way, and it was not until he fled back to Beijing this evening that he finally bandaged it properly.

When Li Yan walked into the Qianqing Palace, what he saw was roughly this scene.

"Lord ......" Li Yan made a big salute, and was about to ask what was going on, when Li Zicheng swept over with a complicated look, and Li Yan swallowed back the words that came to his mouth.

Li Yan couldn't help but think of Tian Feng's story.

At that moment, I didn't dare to ask about the battle of Shanhaiguan,

so as not to cause Li Zicheng to misunderstand that he was watching his joke.

Li Yan turned to report on the pursuit of Chongzhen: "The lord, the subordinates are incompetent, Chongzhen is ......"

However, Li Zicheng was no longer interested in asking about Chongzhen's news at all, and waved his hand and said: "Let's not talk about Chongzhen first, since you are back from the Right Army Division, let's participate in the discussion of what to do next." ”

"Dare to ask the Lord, how many troops are left to withdraw to Beijing?" Li Yan asked.

"More than 30,000." Li Zicheng said, "There are more than 5,000 people on the east bank of the canal to block the pursuers. ”

Song Xiance sighed lightly and continued: "And they are all foot soldiers, and the cavalry has been exhausted in order to cover the retreat of the main force. ”

Liu Zongmin said hatefully: "If you want me to say that we still have 50,000 people, including 20,000 elite soldiers in Lao Gu, with Beijing Jiancheng, we can fight against Jiannu and Guanning Army." ”

"No, never." Song Xiance hurriedly dissuaded.

"At present, the people in Beijing are in turmoil, and the former Ming officials and gentry all have different aspirations, once the news of our army's defeat at Shanhaiguan spreads secretly, the situation may be even more turbulent, so Beijing City must not be defended!"

"It's not just in Beijing." Li Yan said, "The whole of Gyeonggi is reversed. ”

"The whole of Gyeonggi is reversed?" Li Zicheng said, "What's going on?" ”

Li Yan said: "My subordinates have just returned from Daxing, and they went to Daxing to suppress the rebellion of the puppet Ming army, but as a result, the rebellion in Daxing has just been suppressed, and the puppet Ming army in Changping, Zhuozhou, Shunyi, Wuqing and other places has launched a rebellion, and now the entire Gyeonggi is already full of flames, and it can't be suppressed at all." ”

"These damn repeat villains." Li Zicheng said hatefully.

After a pause, he sighed again and said: "It seems that Beijing really can't hold it, so give it up." ”

"Beijing City can be abandoned, what about the treasures in the treasury?" Liu Zongmin said with a dark face, "Throw it away too?" ”

More than 70 million taels of silver, as well as gold, jewelry, and a large number of rare antiques, thousands of carts could not be loaded, such a large fortune, it would be a pity to throw it away, and it had to be taken away.

"Of course you can't throw away treasures." Li Zicheng said sullenly.

Liu Zongmin breathed a sigh of relief, and Li Yan opened his mouth to speak, but in the end he didn't say anything.

Because whenever he wanted to advise, Chongzhen's words would ring in his ears, Li Zicheng is not a big-minded person, so you need to be cautious in what you say and do.

Song Xiance said: "In this case, we must leave an army behind to buy time." ”

Li Yanxin said, seeing the broken tail to survive again, Chongzhen just escaped to Henan with the broken tail to survive, and the lord is also going to stage a broken tail to survive? It's just that this broken tail is not the other broken tail.

Chongzhen's severed tail survival is to save the precious elite troops.

The Lord broke his tail to survive, but he gave up his precious elite troops to keep his treasure.

Compared with the two, Li Yanxin couldn't help but feel a first-class frustration.

"Let Lao Gu stay behind." After Li Zicheng finished speaking, he said to Liu Zongmin, "Lao Liu, you hurry up and pack up, load all the cars that you can take away, and burn everything you can't take away, and you can't leave it to Jiannu." ”

"Okay, I promise that no one will stay." Liu Zongmin turned to leave.

Li Zicheng turned his head and asked Li Yan again: "Right Army Division, is the enthronement ceremony ready?" ”

Li Yan hurriedly said: "Back to the Lord, everything has been prepared." ”

"Okay." Li Zicheng bowed, "I will be crowned tomorrow." ”

At this time, Li Zicheng still wanted to be the emperor.