Lu Xiangsheng didn't say a word, entered the big tent of the Chinese army, and beheaded Zhu Chunchen, the commander of the three armies, with one sword, which was really shocking, but the Ming army generals who were sitting there were very calm and didn't react, just like seeing Lu Xiangsheng push away the people who occupied his position, that's all. Chongzhen's eyelids moved, revealing a somewhat frightened look, and the horse jumped up with a pale complexion, pointing at Lu Xiangsheng and shouting: "Lu Jiandou, you are so bold!" You want to rebel, don't you?"

Lu Xiangsheng shook off the blood stains on the knife casually, bowed down and said, "Weichen doesn't dare!" ”

"Don't dare, what else do you not dare?"

Lu Xiangsheng didn't explain, and he didn't wait for Emperor Chongzhen to say that he was flat, so he got up automatically, turned to look at the generals in the big tent and said: "Benhou replaced Zhu Chunchen and commanded the three armies, who has an opinion?" ”

Emperor Chongzhen's face was originally full of anger, but now he calmed down, and he found that none of the generals present objected, but showed that this was what it should be.

Emperor Chongzhen understood, he was very good to Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui was promoted very quickly, and in the first month of Chongzhen's sixth year (1633), he was added as the deputy chief military manager. In December, he was appointed governor of Gatu. In September of the seventh year of Chongzhen (1634), the governor of the Central and Canadian Administrations was known from the first product.

You must know that Cheng Shijie recovered the four prefectures in southern Liaoning, defeated Jiannu, and has not yet enjoyed Wu Sangui's treatment, so the question is, what great achievement does Wu Sangui have? He couldn't say it himself.

Then there is Lu Xiangsheng, his promotion is like riding a rocket, in just over five years, from the fourth rank to the current second rank civil official, you must know that Lu Xiangsheng is a second-grade official and civil official, and he has achieved the pinnacle of civil servants.

Wu Sangui is unreliable, and Lu Xiangsheng is also unreliable. Now that he only thinks of Cheng Shijie, he feels even more guilty, he shouldn't listen to slander and misunderstand Cheng Shijie, a loyal minister.

"The last general is willing to obey Lu Shuai's command!"

Seeing that the matter had come to this point, Emperor Chongzhen also hurriedly endorsed Lu Xiangsheng: "I think so, Lu Qing has made outstanding achievements, commanded the three armies, gave Shang Fang a sword, and killed no ministers!" ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

After receiving the handsome seal from the attendants beside Zhu Chunchen, Lu Xiangsheng then held a military meeting here.

"Let's all report on the current situation, how many supplies there are, and how many people!"

Emperor Chongzhen felt that he was superfluous, and he got up and left the big tent.

Lu Xiangsheng didn't seem to notice that Emperor Chongzhen was leaving, of course, he did not notice it, because he had his back to Emperor Chongzhen, but the other generals saw it and pretended not to see it.

This made Emperor Chongzhen even more hurt.

Emperor Chongzhen looked at the generals present with a resentful expression, and counted one of them: "I remember you, wait for Cheng Qing to lead Ning Hai Qin King to rescue him, and when I return to the capital, we will settle the account!" ”

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen was really frightened, he was worried that Lu Xiangsheng, who had killed the red-eyed people, would take him under the knife, so that he couldn't wait for Cheng Shijie to come to the rescue, and he was also worried that Lu Xiangsheng would study Cao Cao and coerce the princes of the world to order the princes.

Of course, I have to admire Emperor Chongzhen's head circuit, he is a loyal minister and immortal......

Lu Xiangsheng later found out that Emperor Chongzhen was gone, and he didn't care too much, if Zhu Chunchen was incompetent and tired to death of the three armies, why wasn't it Emperor Chongzhen who killed the three armies?

Even if Lu Xiangsheng is the commander of the three armies, he is accompanied by Emperor Chongzhen, a guy who doesn't know how to pretend, and he is in the way, what can he do?

It's just that what makes Lu Xiangsheng feel extremely desperate is that the current situation is worse than he imagined, the Northern Expedition army has suffered 50,000 or 60,000 casualties in just a few days, and nearly 200,000 horses, including Minfu, are now only in their early 130,000s, of which Minfu is less than 50,000, and the armies together are still in their early 80,000s.

The casualties are secondary, and the most important thing is that after statistics, they still have thirteen artillery pieces that can be used normally, and there are still some shells, but each cannon only has more than 20 rounds.

There were only sixteen rocket artillery pieces left in the hands of the Tianxiong army, and more than 200 rounds of rocket artillery shells, as for the other artillery, they either ran out of shells, or were destroyed by Jiannu and the Guanning army, or fell directly into the hands of the Guanning army. As the Guanning Army under the command of Zu Dabi, they have drawn a clear line with the Guanning Army, and they now claim to be the Liaoxi Army, with less than 5,000 cavalry left in the whole army, and less than 20,000 horses and horses together.

Of the 8,000 musketeers, there are less than 30 rounds of ammunition per capita, and the average crossbowmen are less than 20 arrows.

Lu Xiangsheng looked at the generals and sighed and said: "It's all Ben Hou's fault, Ben Hou misjudged the situation from the beginning, and all preparations were not done, so he was so passive!" ”

Li Chongzhen said indignantly: "Master Hou, don't say that!" It's all Zhu Chunchen, a fool, if he hadn't commanded blindly and was greedy for merit, why would the army have fallen into such a desperate situation! ”

Lu Xiangsheng shook his head and smiled bitterly, looked around at the generals and said: "We must break through immediately, if we are trapped to death by Jiannu, we don't need to do it without Jiannu, just the wind and snow in Saibei can bury us all!" ”

All the generals looked stunned and asked in unison: "Where to break through?" ”

Lu Xiangsheng said: "Now that the Guanning army has rebelled, cutting off the return route of the army, we can't go back to the south, and Beijing can't even think about it. ”

Lu Xiangsheng pointed to Yutu and said: "We can only take advantage of the fact that the heavy snow is not really everywhere now, hurry into the mountains, as long as we enter the mountains, the cavalry of Jiannu will not be able to use, the most important thing is that we must find a hot spring that can survive the winter, otherwise, we can't stand the cold alone!" ”

"However, we are not familiar with the Sanshen Mountains, and besides, if we break through to the north, we will not respond at all......

Lu Xiangsheng said: "You don't need to answer, just split a bloody alley and kill it!" Lee Chong-jin! ”

Li Chongzhen stood up: "The last general!" ”

Lu Xiangsheng said: "After you command the Tianxiong army to break, before you fall, even if you hit it with a stone or gnaw it with your teeth, you must block the pursuers of Jiannu for me!" ”

Li Chongzhen solemnly bowed his hand: "Obey the general's order!" ”

Lu Xiangsheng's gaze fell on the deputy commander-in-chief of the trilateral army: "You are a Mongolian, this is the birthplace of the Mongolians, be the guide!" I don't think anyone knows the terrain of this area better than you do. ”

Meng Ruhu smiled bitterly: "Master Hou, although the last general is a Mongolian, but the last general can be a Mongolian Tumut department, and he is not familiar with this area!" ”

"Who are you not, who is familiar?"

Meng Ruhu thought for a while and said: "The last general knows one person, Tomamu Timur, he surrendered to the Ming Dynasty with Hu Dawei, and now he is a guerrilla general under General Hu!" ”

"Go get him!"

Fierce as a tiger went to look for Tomaki Timur, but half an hour later, he learned that Tomaki Timur had been killed, but his nineteen-year-old son Beidounu was still alive.

When Meng so brought the Mongolian, who looked like he was thirty or forty years old, to the tent, Beidou Nu held Lu Xiangsheng's boots and gave a kiss to the boots.

"Get up, I heard that you are familiar with Sanshen Mountain?"

"Exactly!"

"Do you know if there is a valley with a hot spring closest to us?"

"Yes, it is far from us, northwest direction, about eighty or ninety miles, and it will take you half a day to get there, there is a big valley, flowing hot springs, every winter, many tribes will go there to spend the winter!"

"Very good, you will lead the way!"

Lu Xiangsheng looked around at the generals and said in a deep voice: "Everyone go back, clean up military discipline, collect military funds and ordnance, all things that can be eaten must be distributed uniformly, and those injured and dead mules and horses will all be slaughtered and cut and distributed to the soldiers!" Hand in your solid bullets and melt them into shotshots and bullets, and face the Jiannu cavalry on the Great Plains, your bronze cannons won't do much, but the shotguns and rifles can give them a fatal blow! After dawn tomorrow, I will lead my men and horses as the vanguard, break through the enemy's defenses, all units must follow up in time, we are competing with God for time, if we can't reach the hot spring valley before our limited ammunition and food are exhausted, we will all die without a place to bury! ”

"Yes!"

All the generals stood up in unison, bowed their hands, and then went down to prepare.

Just after the generals left, Emperor Chongzhen ran over with red eyes: "You can't break through!" ”

Lu Xiangsheng felt that Emperor Chongzhen was sick in the brain: "Your Majesty, if you don't break through, will you wait for death?" ”

"I have already let Wang Chengen break through and ask Cheng Shijie to come to the rescue, Cheng Shijie will definitely not disappoint me!"

"I believe that Cheng Shuai will not disappoint Your Majesty, but even if Cheng Shijie leads the Ning Navy to arrive here, it will take at least more than a month!"

"Ning Haijun is a flying army, they go fast!"

"That's halved with them!"

Lu Xiangsheng was laughed at by Emperor Chongzhen: "So what? Five days ago, the minister met the prince, he is still more than 2,000 miles away from Liaodong, and the Guan Ning army has already rebelled, where do you think he came from to successfully reach Liaodong? There is no way to go to Liaoxi, so you can only pass through the capital and go to Tianjin, and when the prince arrives in Liaodong, it will take at least half a month, right? It takes at least more than a month to come and go, and we only have three days of food, how can we last for more than a month? ”

"And you break through?"

"We are here, not only do we have no food and grass, but also no clothes, cold materials, the weather will get colder and colder, the cold in Saibei is much colder than in the capital, the stones here will be frozen and cracked, there is no way to hold on!"

Lu Xiangsheng pointed to the Sanshen Mountain in the northwest direction and said, "We only have one way, let the army survive!" ”

Another point, Lu Xiangsheng actually didn't say it, although it was very cruel, the Northern Expedition camp now only has more than 3,000 stones of grain and grass, if it is 1340,000 people to eat, it must only be three days, what if the soldiers are a little less? Then hold on longer.

Lu Xiangsheng's real goal was to take Huang Taiji by surprise, and when he came from the south to the north, he observed that Huang Taiji had arranged layers of encirclement in the south, and only symbolically arranged some troops for the north. At least like Lu Xiangsheng leading four or five thousand elite foot riders, he can easily break through.

Emperor Chongzhen was speechless by Lu Xiangsheng, and he could only be secretly angry.

On this night, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Ming Dynasty was nervously preparing. The bulky bronze cannons, which could only shoot solid lead balls, were mercilessly discarded, the shells were pooled and melted by the craftsmen of the army to make foot and scatter bullets, and the men struggled to search for supplies in a pile of ashes, or slaughtered dead and wounded mules and horses, cut off the flesh and roasted it, and divided it one by one.

There was not much left of the tent, and the soldiers were shivering with cold in their arms folded, but they insisted on letting themselves sleep for a while. Guns, bullets, cannonballs, crossbow arrows, etc., scattered everywhere, were carefully collected and sent to the army.

These are all valuable combat strength, which is related to the life and death of the entire army. There are constantly people who fall down due to excessive exhaustion, and this fall has never been able to get up again, but no one complains about anything, everyone knows that only by breaking out of the encirclement can there be hope of living, and those who are dead are dead, and those who are not dead grit their teeth and continue to work!

Early the next morning, Lu Xiangsheng looked at the reports handed in by the troops, and his eyelids jumped, there were more than 136,000 people last night, but overnight, the wounded soldiers could not hold on to death, some froze to death, some died of exhaustion, and some died of starvation.

In the Northern Expedition, the most bitter people were the people, who ate the least and worked the most.

From the Ming army camp did not go out overnight, Huang Taiji judged that the Ming army was preparing to break through, his strength is actually limited, you must know that the camp of tens of thousands of Ming troops is not a joke, the camp stretches for more than ten miles, even with artillery can not be penetrated.

"The Ming army is ready to break through, so all the soldiers are ready"

Huang Taiji judged that the Ming army was ready to break through, but he really didn't expect Lu Xiangsheng to break through in the northwest direction, but judged that the Ming army would definitely break through in the direction of the way, and even in order to create a successful hope for the Ming army to break through, Huang Taiji let the Manchu cavalry be twenty miles due south.

The Ming Army's Northern Expeditionary Army was dominated by infantry, and the distance of twenty miles was just right, as long as the Ming army broke through to the south for twenty miles, they would definitely be tired and sleepy, and when the time came, the Manchu cavalry would rush up, and the Ming army would definitely collapse.

"Attack!"

Lu Xiangsheng took the lead and launched an attack in the northwest direction, and in the first round of artillery bombardment, he quickly defended more than a dozen Mongolian flag Niulu in the northwest direction, and five or six thousand people were defeated.

"Tell the emperor, Minggou is breaking through in the northwest direction, and Wu Keshan's department has suffered heavy losses."

"Northwest direction, this is definitely not the main breakthrough direction of the Ming army!"

Huang Taiji is full of confidence.

"Tell the emperor, Wu Keshan can't hold on!"

"Haoge, you bring 2,000 men and horses from the Xianghuang Banner to support!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Under the bombardment of the Tianxiong army's artillery bombardment, the first encirclement of the Manchu army was officially broken, and Lu Xiangsheng led the Ming army to the northwest like a desperate flood.

It wasn't until he saw Emperor Chongzhen's imperial flag moving in the northwest direction in the telescope that Huang Taiji realized that he had been deceived by Lu Xiangsheng.

Huang Taiji shouted: "Wu Sangui, Zu Dacheng, stop them for me!" Hold on to them and destroy them! ”

Wu Sangui and Zu Dacheng's faces turned slightly pale, and there were 10,000 grass and mud horses roaring past in their hearts...... Isn't this sending them to death! But they didn't dare to disobey Huang Taiji's order, so they had to draw their swords and roar: "Follow me!" ”

Before the words fell, a violent whistling sound rushed in, and there was a large continuous fire curtain in the sky, and the rocket shells turned into strips of fire rain falling from the sky, falling in the middle of the Guanning army, only to see a flash of lightning, and the ground shook like an eight-magnitude earthquake, making people unable to stand at all, and the continuous explosion points turned into walls of flames rising from the ground, and in an instant, they swallowed hundreds of Guanning soldiers.

The rocket artillery of the Ming army was firing, and just one salvo blew up the Guanning army on their backs, I don't know how many people turned into flying ashes, and I don't know how many people's clothes and hair burst out of the sea of fire with fire, hissing and wailing! (End of chapter)