Two days later, Kaifeng Fucheng.

Within two days, the cavalry battalion of the new army and the cavalry of Chen Yongfu's family continued to attack, searching for the traces of the remnants of the thieves around Kaifeng City, and the battalions of the new army did not collect at night, mainly to the east and south to explore intelligence, and even Wu Guojin and Wang Yang also left Kaifeng City with the people of the Intelligence Department, wanting to search for information on the army of thieves.

In the past two days, all kinds of news have gathered in front of Liu Yan: the defenders left in the cities by the thief army have been dispersed one after another, and there is still no trace of the remnants of Li Zicheng, Li Guo, Li Laiheng and other troops.

Liu Yan sighed, this is the drawback of the late Ming Dynasty. At present, the Ming court's control over the local area has been weakened to a very terrible situation, even in the hinterland of the Central Plains, it is still difficult to control the local control force.

Today's Henan and other places have been beaten into a sieve by the army of thieves, which has aggravated the situation, making it difficult for the various units of the new army to move an inch in Henan and other places, even if they have defeated Li Zicheng's hundreds of thousands of troops, they are still like blind people, and they can't find even the slightest clue for the remnants of Li Zicheng who are dormant.

"The situation is worse than I thought!"

Liu Yan looked at the information gathered in his hand, and had a deep understanding that Henan at this time had actually become a "power vacuum" zone, the army of thieves had withdrawn, and the imperial court was powerless to prevent soldiers and horses from entering in a short period of time, which was very dangerous, as long as Li Zicheng rectified a little, he would be able to make a comeback again!

In the yamen, Xun Jingyun, Miao Shao, Xu Ming, Shen Tuo and other battalions all commanded envoys and commanders, and everyone did not expect it

After the battle, Li Zicheng and other remnants of the soldiers and horses were "missing".

Miao Shao took a piece of music and asked, "Zongzhen, now that the good news has been written, should it be sent to Jingshi immediately?" ”

Liu Yan thought for a moment and said, "Send it, with this good news, the imperial court can stop the troops in the Central Plains and transfer us away." ”

The crowd was dumbfounded.

Xun Jingyun said dissatisfiedly: "Right now, Li Chuang is nowhere to be found, there are still tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of horses, the imperial court should send more money, food and reinforcements, and continue to encircle and suppress together with the general town, why do you want to transfer us at this time?" ”

Liu Yan smiled bitterly, it was normal for Xun Jingyun not to understand, because it was a long story.

"The withdrawal of troops is inevitable, because both the imperial court and the Henan Mansion hope that our new army will be transferred as soon as possible."

"Why!"

The crowd asked questions almost in unison.

Liu Yan said: "The imperial court wants to transfer us away because it wants to go all out to support the Liaodong battlefield. In the eyes of Chen Xinjia and the emperor, Li Zicheng has been defeated, even if he will make a comeback, it is not a matter of a while, the most important thing at the moment is to win the battle of Jinzhou, so the consumption of money and food on the Henan side is best to stop immediately, and it is best for our new army officers and soldiers to return to the battlefield in Liaodong immediately. ”

"As for Chen Yongfu and Gao Mingheng......"

Liu Yan picked up the good news and said: "The great merit of defeating Li Zicheng is ours, Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu are also the merits of the servants, if it is not because of the death of Lu Duchen and Fu Duchen, the two of them will make a merit offset and work in vain." Therefore, they must hope that we will transfer away as soon as possible, and then the two of them will reorganize their troops and horses to continue to chase Li Zicheng and collect this one

Tail work. ”

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, and Xu Ming said coldly: "The two of them think beautifully, but what do they do to continue to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng's rout?" Just with Chen Yongfu's thousands of soldiers? ”

Liu Yan waved his hand, these are no longer things that he needs to consider, with his own considerations, the days for the soldiers of the new army to stay in Henan are numbered.

So Liu Yan said: "All battalions should be ready to be pulled, the ashes of the fallen soldiers of each battalion, as well as the wounded of each battalion, must all be taken away, and no one can be left!" In addition, the money and grain in the Kaifeng City Treasury will also be taken away fifty percent, and the Deputy Department of Xun will inquire about this matter, and load and register as soon as possible in the next few days. ”

The crowd roared into orders.

Xu Ming asked again: "Zongzhen, what should I do with the captured Sun Kewang under my subordinates, and will I send it to Jingshi together with the good news?" ”

Only then did Liu Yan remember that there was still a Sun Kewang in prison, and he was so busy in the past two days that he forgot about it.

For Sun Kewang, Liu Yan did not have such a good impression of Li Dingguo, Li Dingguo insisted on resisting the Qing Dynasty from beginning to end, and in the case of extreme disadvantage, he also led the army to fight, so that the two famous kings and the world were shaken, which was recognized as a national hero.

And what about Sun Kewang? Although this man is brave and called "a wall" by the army, he is also very cunning, and extremely selfish and greedy for authority.

After Zhang Xianzhong died in the battle in northern Sichuan, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo and others led the rest of the Western Army south to capture the Yunnan-Guizhou area. But later, for the sake of authority, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo and others defected to the Yongli Imperial Court, so he used force to hold the Yongli Imperial Court hostage and added an official to himself.

extremely

In order to seek the title of King of Qin, Sun Kewang killed 30 scholars of Nanming University, and later broke out infighting with Li Dingguo, resulting in a significant loss of anti-Qing forces.

In this internal strife, Sun Kewang led troops from Guizhou into Yunnan to attack Li Dingguo, but was defeated by Li Dingguo's troops because of the defection of his generals. Sun Kewang shamelessly surrendered to the Qing army and was integrated into the white flag of the Han army.

Subsequently, Sun Kewang followed Wu Sangui and took the initiative to lead Qing troops into Sichuan and Guizhou, resulting in the Sichuan people being massacrated by the Qing army, and the Qing court had to fill in Sichuan in the future to make up for the lack of population in Sichuan.

For a traitor like Sun Kewang, Liu Yan naturally wouldn't keep him, so he said: "This person doesn't need to offer a prisoner to the imperial court, early tomorrow morning, he will be beheaded outside Kaifeng City, and then the head will be sent to Jingshi." ”

Although everyone was puzzled, they had no objections, anyway, there were many thieves and captives who would be beheaded early tomorrow morning.

As early as the day of the end of the battle, Liu Yan reported to Chen Yongfu and Gao Mingheng that among the many prisoners, ordinary soldiers could cut off their thumbs and leave them alive, but the thieves in the captives, such as the captain, the brigade commander, the department general, the sentry commander, and other officers, all of them were extremely heinous people, and they must not be left behind, and they must be beheaded on the spot.

Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu have no objection to this, after all, no one wants to leave a disaster for themselves.

In a blink of an eye, on the morning of the second day, more than 300 captives, including Sun Kewang, were escorted out of the city, and at the battlefield site west of Kaifeng City, these captives were tied up in one place, surrounded by the guards of the New Army's personal guard battalion.

Around, tens of thousands of people in Kaifeng City flocked to Sun Kewang and other prisoners

Angrily screaming and scolding, he kept throwing clods of soil, tiles and other objects, smashing Sun Kewang and other captives with blue noses and swollen faces, broken heads and bleeding, and even some new army officers and soldiers were implicated, and they found shields to "protect themselves".

Chen Yongfu and Gao Mingheng led the civil and military officials in Kaifeng City to climb the urn city tower at the west gate, and even Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou, also came to the city tower surrounded by a group of Zhou clans.

A group of officials immediately saluted the king of Zhou, and then exchanged pleasantries with a group of Zhou clans.

Then Liu Yan was surrounded by Xun Jingyun, Xu Ming, Miao Shao, Zhang Yi, Wang Bo, Wang Yue and others, wearing armor and also climbed the city tower, whether it was a civil and military official, or a Zhou clan, they all saluted Liu Yan, and even Zhou Wang Zhu Gongyu, Gao Mingheng, and Chen Yongfu also took the initiative to step forward.

At this time, Liu Yan not only had the status of an earl, holding tens of thousands of elite troops, but also the number one hero who defeated Li Zicheng's army of hundreds of thousands, so he naturally had this capital.

However, Liu Yan also took the initiative to salute Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou, and greeted everyone with his fists, and he was not proud of his achievements, which immediately attracted praise from everyone.

"Hehe, Mr. Liu's good news sent out?"

After some greetings, Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu came over, and Gao Mingheng asked in a low voice.

"It was sent out early in the morning, didn't Gao Futai report anything to the imperial court?"

Gao Mingheng smiled awkwardly and said, "Ben Fu and General Chen jointly wrote a concerto, which also praised the exploits of General Liu and the soldiers of the New Army. In addition, it was also suggested that the imperial court transfer General Liu back to rest and recuperate, after all, the army fought bloody battles, and the soldiers were also very tired. ”

Liu Yan sneered in his heart, this is an eviction order

, so he said: "This is a thought of this town, this town in the good news, also mentioned to the Ministry of War, our new army soldiers first fought in Liaodong, and then in Kaifeng with hundreds of thousands of thieves in a bloody battle, now our army is tired." The town has officially requested in the good news to return to Qinglai Town to rest for a while. ”

Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu couldn't believe it when they heard this, Liu Yan actually gave up the credit of continuing to pursue Li Zicheng's remnants, and took the initiative to ask to withdraw?

The two thought that this was Liu Yan testing themselves and wanted to continue to ask, but Liu Yan walked to the arrow stack with a smile and looked out: "Hmph, when Li Zicheng makes a comeback, don't think about begging me." ”

Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu were no longer interested in seeing this, and looked out of the city with everyone.

At the moment, Liu Yan doesn't want to continue to pursue Li Zicheng, but now the money and food transported by the military department are getting less and less, obviously forcing a quick battle on the battlefield in Henan, even if Liu Yan continues to stay and pursue the remnants of Li Zicheng, how to solve this money and food?

Liu Yan is not noble enough to spend his own money and food to do things for others. Moreover, with the style of the imperial court, just encirclement and suppression, ignoring the people's livelihood, could not completely solve the problem of thieves, so Liu Yan did not want to continue to stay in Henan and waste time.

"The top priority now is to rush back to Qinglai Town to reorganize the troops, replenish the troops, and then decide whether to support Liaodong again depending on the situation."

Liu Yan thought about it, and the officers and soldiers of the new army who were in charge of the execution outside the city were all in place. Liu Yan saw a sentry commander of the guard battalion raising the flag, so he questioned Zhu Gongqiao, the king of Zhou, Gao Mingheng, the governor of Henan, and Chen Yongfu, the deputy general

, the three of them all nodded and let Liu Yan order.

So Liu Yan no longer backed down, and said loudly: "Execution!" ”

More than 20 guards of the personal guard battalion next to him roared in unison: "There is an order in the general town: execution!" ”

Outside the city, Sun Kewang never imagined that he had already surrendered, so why did Liu Yan have to kill himself, was it not good to keep himself charging into battle?

"Ahh

Sun Kewang was escorted forward by two soldiers of the new army, accompanied by dozens of prisoners, Sun Kewang suddenly shouted in despair, and roared: "I am Sun Kewang, I surrendered, why do you want to kill me!" Why ......"

Before he finished speaking, Sun Kewang and a group of prisoners were pressed to kneel on the ground, and then the knife and axe hand rose and fell, and the heads of Sun Kewang and dozens of prisoners rolled to the ground.

Then with dozens of people as a team, more than 300 captives were all cut down, and there was another piece of scarlet land outside the city, and the tens of thousands of people who were watching suddenly burst into cheers, venting their fears for these days, shouting for their own family members, the headless corpses captured by the thieves became the target of everyone in a blink of an eye, and as the soldiers of the new army withdrew, countless onlookers rushed up and divided the bodies of the more than 300 thieves......