Dashun Yongchang

Hearing the remarks of these white flag generals, Azig's expression was quite ugly, but he was not as furious as before. At this time, he did understand that his subordinates did not want to waste time and life in Chenzhou City.

However, for the sake of his own face, he was unwilling to withdraw his troops for no reason, so after pondering for a while, he said: "Then send someone to Suizhou to see if the troops besieging Suizhou want to help, and Chenzhou It is more important than Suizhou after all. If it is to take down Suizhou, it is not a bad idea to let go of Chenzhou's attacking forces first."

After hearing this, Subai breathed a sigh of relief, and he hurriedly said: "Then why not start tomorrow and let the Han army adjust, so that they can recover some morale, so that when they go north to attack Guide City, they There won't be too many complaints.

In addition, Wu Sangui's army can't keep him free for a long time. Now that he has decided to go north, he should be called back to the camp, and the food and fodder collected will be handed over, and the big account will distribute it to the troops. "

Azig was silent for a longer time this time, and Subai and the others watched Azige with bated breath. For a while, the tent was quiet and the sound of the burning tallow candles erected in the tent could be heard. Afterwards, Azig finally stood up and said, "Then let's do it this way. After the messenger from Suizhou returns, the main force of our army will return to the north, leaving a small number of troops to continue besieging Chenzhou City. I'm tired too, so let's stop here today."

After finishing speaking, Azig left the generals in the tent and turned to leave.Seeing Azig's back disappear behind the leather curtain, Ming Andali and Jueluo Guoke straightened up, and said to Subai excitedly: "This is great, as long as we leave Chenzhou, I will The army can maintain the ability to maneuver again, and the Shun army can't trap our army on such terrain anyway, and whether the war will depend on me or not."

Subai was not as optimistic as the two of them. He had been with Tianming Khan when he was 15 years old, and his seniority in the army was quite old. Manchurian generals who were older than him almost no longer came to the front line in person.Having been with two generations of Khans, he is actually worried about entering the customs this time, because no matter whether it is Tianming Khan or Tiancong Khan.When launching a war, there is a very clear goal, but this time the goal of entering the customs is actually quite unclear.

At least he doesn't think that defeating Li Zicheng can win the world of the Han people. After all, Li Zicheng is just one of the countless rebels in the Ming Dynasty. The little thief was suppressed and turned into a big thief.So the Nine Kings said that as long as Li Zicheng was defeated, the Qing Dynasty would be able to enter China. Except for those low-level soldiers, generals like him actually had doubts in their hearts.

In fact, if they tried their best to defeat Li Zicheng, if another character similar to Li Zicheng came out, the Manchus would have no other choice but to retreat to the customs immediately, because the population of the Manchus was too small.They can try their best to fight against the Shun army, but it is impossible to suppress it with all their strength again and again. In the end, it will only bring disaster to the Manchus. The Dajin who destroyed the Liao Kingdom at the beginning moved to China. Is it genocide?

Thinking of this, Subai could only let out a long sigh and said to the two colleagues beside him: "The most important thing now is where the main force of the Shun army is. Judging from the resistance of the soldiers and civilians in Chenzhou, Li Zicheng is indeed the leader in the hearts of the Han people." The backbone of China, as long as we cannot defeat Li Zicheng, the resistance of the Han people everywhere will not cease.

We still need to call back Wu Sangui's army as soon as possible, and join forces to go north to Germany.With our two armies together, even if we encounter the main force of the Shun army, we don't have to worry about anything.But if the two armies are separated like this, the Shun army may have an opportunity..."

Wu Sangui, who was missed by Su Bai, was sitting in a big room with his subordinates drinking and having fun. After breaking away from the Qing army, Wu Sangui immediately became an authoritative and self-reliant military commander, even the few Eight Banners who watched him General, he was also polite when facing him.

Of course, at such a banquet, several Eight Banners generals showed their faces and withdrew with prostitutes. After all, Wu Sangui's army is a self-contained military town. What the Manchus now need is for these Ming warlords to fight for themselves, and Not to destroy their independence.On this issue, the Manchus are actually quite experienced. After all, the Eight Banners military system was established under the independent armed forces that eliminated the various Jurchen tribes.

Therefore, Huang Taiji can tolerate King Sanshun maintaining his independence, but only restricts them from expanding the size of the army, but the Ming Dynasty can't even tolerate a single Dongjiang town. This army fell to the Manchus in an all-round way.In fact, after Dongjiang Town was dismantled, not only did the Liao pay in the Ming Dynasty not decrease, but the Liaodong Army Town completely lost control. The second Dongjiang Town.

In contrast, the Manchus' control over independent warlords can be said to be far beyond the reach of the Ming Dynasty.Therefore, in the Ming Dynasty, the army could only eat and wait to die, but when it came to the Qing Dynasty, it had the desire to fight.The reason is very simple. Although the Manchus are wary of the military power of non-Manchu generals, they will not treat an army as the object of wariness.

Under the military merit system of the Manchus, the Han army who surrendered to the Manchus can still get a fairer military merit reward.Relying on this relatively mature reward and punishment system for military merit, these Han soldiers who surrendered felt that fighting for the Manchus would not shed their blood in vain.

Therefore, these Eight Banners generals who served as supervisors in Wu Sangui's army were not so much monitoring Wu Sangui as they were taking over the military rewards and punishments of Wu Sangui's army.Since Wu Sangui had invited them to the banquet, they quickly got up tactfully, making Wu Sangui and his subordinates happy.

Chapter 362 Chen Zhou Seven

After drinking for three rounds, Wu Sangui saw that everyone was almost drunk, so he proposed to end the banquet and let his subordinates choose a woman to go back to enjoy. During the war, it fell into the hands of these local tyrants and became a domestic prostitute for them to enjoy themselves.

If it was a peaceful time in the past, this kind of practice of plundering officials and serving as domestic prostitutes would probably cause local shocks, but in this war-torn era, Wu Sangui hardly asked about the background of the female music sent by these local tyrants. He would ask, and to put it bluntly, if she was not a woman from an official family, how could she be able to get into the eyes of his subordinates.

Girls from ordinary families, even if they have a bit of beauty, are quickly ruined by the hard life. Only those daughters from well-to-do families can cultivate temperament and A good-looking lady.The so-called Yangzhou thin horse is actually a way to cultivate ladies, but the old bustard has taught more ways to please men.

If he had the idea of ​​a moral gentleman and didn't treat the wives and daughters of scholar-bureaucrats as prostitutes and humiliate him, then Wu Sangui probably wouldn't have to stay in the army anymore.Although there were a few in the Liaodong Army who wanted to gain fame, they definitely did not include Wu Sangui.Using women's sex and property to make friends with his subordinates and keep this army firmly in his hands is Wu Sangui's only way to control his subordinates.

However, although the big banquet is over, soon several of Wu Sangui's confidantes were quietly led to a warm room in the backyard, where another table of light food and wine was cleaned up. This is what Wu Sangui really wants to talk about today. place.With the big banquet in front as a cover, these people sitting here talking now will not attract the attention of others.

Accompanied by Fang Guangchen and Yang Shen, Wu Sangui walked into the conservatory. He watched the generals in the room stand up and salute him. I lost Hu Liang, Xia Dengshi, Wu Guogui and the others, and my heart is full of grief. You have been fighting with my father and son for many years, and it is time to make contributions. I sincerely hope that everyone can share wealth with me and support each other to go on."

Hu Xinshui quickly responded: "Of course we will follow the prince. With the prince leading us, we can make great achievements, isn't it..."

With Hu Xinshui starting, Xia Longshan, Dong Yongxian, Gao Dajie, Wu Yingqi and others also expressed their loyalty to Wu Sangui, expressing that they are only willing to obey Wu Sangui's order, as long as Wu Sangui gives an order, they will go in the water if they are in the water , In the fire, go in the fire.

Hearing these words of loyalty from his confidants, Wu Sangui's mood immediately improved. Of course, he didn't realize that the words used by these subordinates to swear allegiance to him have become more and more fixed recently.

Of course, this is not the problem of these subordinates. No matter who they are, every time they see the same person, they have to express their allegiance.For example, like those religious people, the closer they are to God, the less humble they are towards God. On the contrary, members of grassroots religions who are far away from God still have some piety towards God.

After losing the authority imposed on him by the Ming Dynasty, Wu Sangui actually felt uneasy, because he knew that he did not have such a great personal prestige, and let the Liaodong Army completely obey him.The reason why the Liaodong Army obeys itself now is actually just the habit of holding groups left over from the Ming Dynasty.

Ever since it realized that the Ming court would adopt a policy of killing those generals who had no strength, and would only persuade those warlords who supported their own self-respect, the Liaodong Army naturally developed a mentality of supporting their own self-respect.Yuan Chonghuan, who entered the capital alone, was executed, and Zu Dashou, who fled back to Shanhaiguan with his troops, was promoted to rank, which made the military leaders in Liaodong even more reluctant to give up their power.

The first surrender to Dashun and then rebellion, to be honest, was caused by the emotional outburst of the leaders of the Liaodong Army who did not want to lose their independent status.This sentiment was not eliminated even after switching to the Qing Dynasty, so Wu Sangui became their elected representative.But this kind of position elected by the military leader is actually not very reliable, because the lower-level soldiers may not necessarily think the same way. The lower-level soldiers only care about whether they can pay the army in full and in time.

If you, Wu Sangui, can pay the military salary in time, then of course you are the one and only King Pingxi, but if you can't even pay the military salary in time, who is willing to work for you?You are now the subjects of the Qing Dynasty, not your subjects of King Pingxi.

Wu Sangui was able to raise three thousand families by embezzling the military pay of the Ming Dynasty. Now the Qing Dynasty will not be so demanding by the Liaodong Army. Even under the division of the Qing Army, the Liaodong Army was divided into the Gaodi Department and Wu Sangui Department. The major general was also transferred to the Han Army Banner.

The Qing court choked up the payment path, and the generals below were divided by the Qing army. Although Wu Sangui won the title of Pingxi King, this title is now just a false name, because the Qing court did not give Wu Sangui the area where he founded the country.

Before he had his own territory, if Wu Sangui wanted to win over his subordinates, he could only rely on money and sex and keep testing these people.No matter what they think in their hearts, now that everyone can express their loyalty to him on the surface, it still gave Wu Sangui a little confidence, so although he himself felt a little nauseous every time he heard his subordinates swearing allegiance to him, but It's still hot.

After everyone sat down at the wine table again, Wu Sangui personally held the pot and poured wine for all the generals, and said: "Today, I called everyone to have a gathering, not only to meet you, but also to communicate with you. Here is my opinion on this southward battle."

Hu Xinshui, who was in charge of intelligence work for Wu Sangui, immediately said: "Although our army went south this time, we did not encounter much resistance, but this also shows a problem, that is, the main force of the Shun army is not in our army's advance. On the route. What we are facing are local tyrants who are vacillating. No matter how many of these tycoons surrender, the weakening of the Shun army's strength is still limited, and we cannot completely trust them..."

After listening to Hu Xinshui's brief introduction of the current situation facing the army on this route, Xia Longshan followed suit and said, "This time we followed General Jingyuan to fight south. The hard work of building bridges is not less, and now our army is divided into two divisions, one is attacking the city in Suizhou, and the other is coming to Chenzhou with the general, the soldiers in the army are also quite tired.

Now, although we got a grain requisition mission to rest in the surrounding area of ​​Chenzhou, but after the soldiers were scattered to the surrounding areas, the hearts of the people were also scattered.If they were allowed to stay in the country for a longer period of time, it might be difficult to return to the state they were in when they left for the expedition.Judging from the current situation in Henan, it is actually quite dangerous for our army to go on like this, because the main force of the Shun army has not been wiped out, but our soldiers have lost their fighting spirit.Once the battle situation is repeated, we may have to worry about how to return to the north. "

Following the speeches of the two confidant generals of Wu Sangui to set the tone, Dong Yongxian, Gao Dajie, Wu Yingqi, Yu Yongshou, Zhang Jian and others also echoed their views, believing that the army should not be so long-term during combat. Once the soldiers are accustomed to the current peaceful life, it will not be a matter of a day or two for them to switch back to the mentality they had during the war.

Hu Xinshui then talked about the movements of the local tyrants in Henan, especially the movements of Liu Hongqi in the most detailed way. He finally concluded: "Although Liu Hongqi kept saying that he was willing to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, he was wary of our army. It can be seen. And his so-called persuasion of Zhang Jinyan to surrender is now gone.

Liu Hongqi was stationed in Nanzhao Town, Fangjiaji, and Taohuadian in Ruhe River, just opposite our army.In addition, Li Hao of Xincai and Liu Xuan of Shangcai are to the west. Once the situation in Henan changes, these forces will surround our army with the forces of the Shun army in the east and southeast. The only way out for our army.

From this point of view, our army has indeed gone too far south this time. If there are any changes in Zhengzhou, Luoyang and other places, our army may not be able to return in time.If the Shun army cut off our army's return to the north, the land of the Central Plains would actually become a cage.Our army has neither the strength to go deeper into the south, break through the Shun army's line of defense on the Huaihe River, and it is also difficult to confront the main force of the Shun army in the Central Plains for a long time. At that time, will the local tyrants in Henan obey us as they do now? "

The opinions of the generals gradually tended to be unified, thinking that the current Shun army still has the power to fight, and it is not appropriate to disperse the army to collect food at such a moment. It's time to retreat to the north, and not let the Shun army have the opportunity to cut off their retreat.

After listening to the opinions of the generals, Wu Sangui also made up his mind and planned to write to Azig about the dangerous situation the army is currently facing.After communicating with these close generals and exchanging tactics and discussions, Wu Sangui had these generals be taken down separately and let them rest in the surrounding rooms.

But in the end, Hu Xinshui, Xia Longshan, Fang Guangchen, and Yang Shen were left in the room. At this time, Wu Sangui said to Yang Shen: "The ones left now are all our own people. Let's talk about it, Shunjun's side What news did I give you?"

Yang Shen swallowed nervously, and then said to several people in the room: "Last time in the battle of Huangtuzhuang, some members of our army were captured by the Shun army. This time, I heard that our army is also Among the troops going south, Yong... Li Zicheng sent them to bring a letter to the prince, they are all subordinates of the humble official, so they first found the humble official..."

Wu Sangui interrupted with some displeasure: "There is no need to talk about these, just talk about the content of Li Zicheng's letter."

Yang Shen had no choice but to pause for a moment, and after taking a breath, he said, "Li Zicheng said that if the prince can do whatever he wants, the title of King Pingxi can be retained, and he can also establish a kingdom in Guangdong, Guangxi or Yunnan."

This news immediately shocked the other two people in the room, except for Hu Xinshui,

Outside Xialong Mountain, the other three people actually already knew the news.

Chapter 363 Chenzhou Eight

Xia Longshan, who is mainly in charge of military affairs, has a relatively straightforward temper. He just hesitated for a moment and objected: "Li Zicheng has no good intentions, and the prince must not be confused by him. If Li Zicheng really wants to be the prince and establish the country, Then it should have been raised at the beginning, instead of waiting until today due to the situation to say such a condition to the prince. During the Three Kingdoms period, although Lu Bu had the courage to be unworthy, he was hated by the world because of his repeated changes. Li Zicheng is a poison Ah, my lord."

Although he knew that Xia Longshan was thinking of himself, Wu Sangui felt a little displeased when he heard that the other party compared him to Lu Bu, because now he especially taboos the word "three-surname domestic slave", no matter what the meaning of the person is. , he couldn't help but think about whether the other party thought he was a family slave with three surnames.

Wu Sangui's mentality was completely stimulated by Shunjun's propaganda offensive.Although Shunjun's performance on the battlefield was mediocre, it had begun to show an overwhelming advantage in public opinion propaganda, because the newspapers run by Shunjun had begun to become the main platform for obtaining news and various news from all over the world.

In the past, the news and public opinion dissemination of the Ming Dynasty only relied on two methods. The palace newspaper run by the court and the literary conference held by the scholar-bureaucrats. The former was regarded as official news, but few people paid attention to it except the scholar-bureaucrats, because the content of the palace newspaper was almost the same as that of ordinary people. It doesn't matter, the latter is considered a private press conference. Although it can guide public opinion, the speed of transmission is extremely slow.

The newspaper run by Shun Jun just made up for the shortcomings of these two news dissemination methods. The newspaper not only contains various official policies, news and price information from various places, but also reviews articles and serialized novels by literati.At first, the literati and bureaucrats were not interested in a vernacular newspaper run by thieves, thinking that there would be no truth in it, and the vernacular was too vulgar to be elegant.

However, the emergence of newspapers was quickly welcomed by businessmen and urban residents, because newspapers brought timely news to businessmen. The most important thing for business in this era is the transmission of news. A special person will be assigned to monitor the price changes in one place. Small merchants do not have this condition, so every long-distance sale is a gamble. The emergence of newspapers allows small merchants to obtain the same news channels as big merchants, which is naturally very popular with them.

As for the love of newspapers by urban residents, it is because the entertainment industry in this era is too underdeveloped. Although the life of urban residents is better than that of farmers, there is almost no entertainment.Although the nightlife in the city is rich, it mainly revolves around eating, drinking, women, and gambling. There are not many entertainment items suitable for ordinary people. Newspapers have obviously become an extremely cheap entertainment item, just like storytelling in teahouses.

When the audience of newspapers expanded, the control of public opinion began to slip from the hands of the scholar-bureaucrats. In the past, the source of scholar-bureaucrats’ control of local public opinion was that they had access to information channels. Ordinary people could only obey the scholar-bureaucrats because they could not obtain information. remarks.

However, the source of news for the scholar-bureaucrats is nothing more than the palace newspapers, friends, and letters from the same year, but now the newspapers have destroyed the scholar-bureaucrats’ control over information, and the writers of the commentary articles on the newspapers are more knowledgeable than the average scholar-bureaucrats. Sophisticated, this makes the opinions published by newspapers often more reasonable than those of ordinary scholar-bureaucrats in the local area.

This is like the change of the Chenzhou Council. When the gentry were still immersed in the authority of the past, the common people who had obtained the right to information no longer wanted to blindly follow these past local leaders, but regarded them as traitors And the betrayer, because the civilians who got the information realized that what these local figures called protecting the city's living people was actually sacrificing these civilians to the Qing army to protect themselves.

As a result, the voice of the Marshal's Mansion began to be directly transmitted to the ears of the common people through the newspapers, and there was no need to spread word of mouth through scholars from all over the country. You can express your views by writing to the newspaper.

Not only did the civilians under the rule of the Shun Army begin to like reading newspapers, but the Manchus also began to regard newspapers as a channel to understand the Shun Army. The writing seems to be more practical, and the level of education of the Manchus is generally not high, and the vernacular is easy to understand, which is much easier to understand than the writing of those scholars.

Shunjun’s newspapers not only contain news, but also some miscellaneous articles, including a series of articles commenting on the warlordization process of the Ming army in Liaodong. It's a piece of history, which amuses some Manchurians.

After reading these articles, some Manchu relatives and nobles felt that the authors who wrote these articles were more talented than the Han Chinese who surrendered to them now, and they were not even much less knowledgeable than the scholar Fan. People are invited to Beijing, continue to tell them stories, no, run a newspaper.

A particularly impressive article is about comparing Wu Sangui and Lu Bu. The article says that although Wu Sangui is not as brave as Lu Bu, he is far faster than Lu Bu in changing his court.The family slave of the three surnames was placed on Lu Bu, and Wenhou felt a little wronged, but it seemed that it was not enough to describe the eventuality when placed on Wu Sangui.

Because of this article, the Manchus began to call Wu Sangui privately, "the slave with the three surnames".The Manchus used this title to refer to Wu Sangui out of dissatisfaction with Wu Sangui's title of king, because in their opinion, Wu Sangui's achievements were not enough to be crowned king.But this is very harmful to Wu Sangui's reputation, because these Manchus don't mind rumors, so the generals of the Ming army who surrendered to the Manchus soon heard about it.

Wu Sangui borrowed his teacher to enter the customs, and he created a character for himself as a loyal minister and filial son. For the sake of the Ming Dynasty, he even ignored his father who was trapped in the Shun army camp.Moreover, his personality as a "loyal minister and filial son" still came from Chongzhen's approval during his lifetime. Under the propaganda of those great scholars and bureaucrats, he can confuse some ordinary people.

However, under the ruthless exposure of the Shunjun newspapers, and under the contemptuous eyes of the Manchurians, the status of "loyal minister and filial son" that Wu Sangui created for himself has become synonymous with the family slave of the three surnames.Due to the simultaneous contempt of the Shun army and the Manchus, some Liaodong soldiers were greatly disappointed with Wu Sangui's image, which also greatly disintegrated the internal cohesion of the former Liaodong Ming army.

It is impossible for Wu Sangui not to be aware of such a situation, and it also caused him to be allergic to the words "Lv Bu, a slave with three surnames, and a loyal minister and filial son". As long as someone mentions these three words around him, his heart will be filled with malice .

As Wu Sangui's intelligence director, Hu Xinshui still understands Wu Sangui's psychology, and he doesn't want Xia Longshan to be hated by Wu Sangui because of this trivial matter. After all, they grew up together with Wu Sangui, and their relationship is different from other people. The two sides support each other. It is the guarantee of sharing wealth with Wu Sangui.

So Hu Xinshui carefully observed Wu Sangui, and said tentatively: "Actually, the success or failure of the war between Shunqing and Shunqing has not yet been completely determined. I think we don't need to reject Li Zicheng's proposal. It can leave a way for everyone. Secondly, I can use this opportunity to learn more about the reality of Shunjun. Of course, being humble does not mean that I have to accept Li Zicheng's request. After all, everyone's family members are still in the west of Liaoning, so it is impossible to surrender to Shunjun..."

Yang Shen took a look at Hu Xinshui, thinking that the other party didn't say anything, but he didn't dare to show off too much at the moment. After all, he couldn't explain some things clearly in the battle of Huangtuzhuang. Now Li Zicheng sent someone to conduct the battle with Wu Sangui through him Contact, can't but arouse Wu Sangui's doubts about him, so it's best for him to keep silent now.

After hearing Hu Xinshui's words, Wu Sangui's inexplicable irritability eased a lot. To be honest, what he thought was what Hu Xinshui said now, do nothing, wait for the Shunjun and the Manchus to decide the outcome first, and then consider the next position .

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but said with emotion: "Emperor Yongchang released my father and family members in the chaos that day. As far as this matter is concerned, this king has no choice but to accept his kindness. There is no personal enmity between me and Li Zicheng, only national hatred , so how can we forget the enmity between the emperor and father just because of the feudal town of a country? Xianting, how do you think I should reply to Li Zicheng?"

Fang Guangchen looked at the other people in the room, and then at Wu Sangui, knowing in his heart that Wu Sangui had actually made a decision in his heart, and now he just hoped to be affirmed by others.After a little thought, he said smoothly: "What Zong Bing Hu said is right. At present, the outcome between Li Zicheng and the Manchus is undecided. Our army is caught between the two sides. , so that we can advance and retreat freely. In the final analysis, this world is either surnamed Li or Aixinjueluo, why should we be buried with one of them? But..."

Wu Sangui immediately asked: "But what? If Xian Ting has something to say, he might as well just say it, here are all his own people, there is nothing not to say."

Fang Guangchen pondered for a few breaths and then said: "However, Li Zicheng actually proposed such a suggestion to the prince at this time, or when the Shun army was on the brink of extinction, Li Zicheng wanted to grab a life-saving straw, so any kind of promise would be accepted." To the prince. But judging from the current information, neither the ten kings nor our side seem to have made any progress, and the Shun Army naturally cannot be in a desperate situation.

So there is another possibility left, which is that Li Zicheng has completed a certain big plan. He wants to stabilize the prince and does not want the prince to contribute to the Manchus. Looking at it this way, maybe our army along the way has already fallen into danger. "

As soon as Fang Guangchen said this, the four people in the room fell into aphasia, Xia Longshan quickly reacted, and said to Wu Sangui: "My lord, what Mr. Fang said is right, we were not at the big banquet just now. Have you ever guessed this? Now it seems that the possibility of the northern back road being in danger is really high."

Wu Sangui's face finally changed, but he still calmed down and said to his subordinates: "It seems that this king is going to write a letter overnight to warn the general, Xianting, come and write for me...

Chapter 364

At noon on January 500th, the south gate of Yifeng was opened wide, and the lieutenant general Guo Guangfu and general Hao Shangzhou stationed in Yifeng led more than [-] officers and soldiers stationed in the city to sacrifice the city to hundreds of cavalry of the Shun army outside the city.

Wu Guogui, who was recently promoted to the captain of the regiment, was really relieved when he watched the guards take all the officers and soldiers out of the city to line up. He believed that this was not a false surrender, but a real surrender.

Wu Guogui did not expect that his luck would be so good. His task was actually to monitor the movements of the officers and soldiers in Yifeng City, and not allowing them to leave the city would be regarded as the completion of the task.But what he didn't expect was that less than a day after his alliance appeared outside Yifeng City, the guards in the city sent someone to contact him, expressing their willingness to submit to the Marshal's Mansion.

Wu Guogui took a squadron of cavalry and ran to the surrendered army outside the city, and together with Guo Guangfu and Hao Shangzhou, inspected the surrendered officers and soldiers. He quickly said to Guo Guangfu, "General Guo can surrender on his own initiative. You will be greatly relieved after hearing the news, if General Guo has any request, you can raise it, and I will forward it to His Majesty one by one for you."

Although he is a deputy general, Guo Guangfu looks like an old farmer on the outside. He was originally from the guard army in the farmland, and he spent more time in farming than training in the army, so he is indeed no different from an old farmer in the countryside.

He still has some affection for the Ming Dynasty. This is also after Li Zicheng invaded Beijing, he did not present the token of surrender to the Dashun court in a timely manner like those colleagues.After the Qing army entered the customs under the banner of helping the Ming Dynasty to suppress the thieves, Guo Guangfu also accepted the proclamation issued by Wu Sangui, announcing that he had responded to Wu Sangui's army's rebellion.

It was just that after the Qing army occupied Hebei, Guo Guangfu suddenly realized that the Manchus were not helping the Ming Dynasty to suppress the thieves, but simply occupied Beijing and did not intend to leave.The people who could not escape from around Beijing brought the news of the Manchu enclave. After hearing that the good people in the whole village had been turned into slaves by the Manchus, Guo Guangfu and his colleagues were very disappointed in the Manchu Qing.

Facing Wu Guogui's question, Guo Guangfu glanced at his subordinates who were shivering in the cold wind, and replied with a low eyebrow, "Actually, old and useless people like me don't have any big ambitions. To stabilize the world and let us people eat a few mouthfuls of peace, what else am I not satisfied with?"

Although Guo Guangfu kept his posture very low, Wu Guogui could feel that what the other party said was indeed the truth, instead of deliberately lying low in front of him and being a small person. As far as he could tell, the old farmer-like lieutenant general of Ming Dynasty in front of him was obviously not the kind of person who tried to take risks to win wealth.

But for Wu Guogui, such a person also has an advantage, that is, he no longer has to worry about any repetitions on Yifeng's side.After checking the list of defenders in Yifeng City, Wu Guogui entered the city with Guo Guangfu and others, and continued to check the savings of various warehouses in the city, and then let his subordinates enter the city, and wrote a letter to Li Zicheng .

It took Wu Guogui's messenger more than four hours to arrive at the Shunjun camp three miles northeast of Kaocheng at dusk. Shang Kexi was firmly surrounded.

When Wu Guogui's messenger arrived at Northeast Daying, Li Zicheng had just arrived in the camp and was listening to Zuo Guangxian and Ma Bao's story of the early confrontation with the Qing army in the city.

Ma Baodao: "Yesterday morning, our army just appeared in the southwest of the city. A group of about 600 Qing cavalry rushed out, trying to attack our army's position. I immediately led the first cavalry regiment to intercept it. The two sides fought for about half of the time. Two hours later, the Qing army saw my rear team arriving, and finally retreated back into the city without support.

Zuo Guang first said: "After Commander Ma drove the Qing cavalry back to the city, I set up a large camp in the east of Kao City yesterday afternoon. Our army kept surveillance on the Qing army in the city, and found that although the Qing army sent messengers to the city, He went to Suizhou, but he had no intention of leaving the city, so according to His Majesty's instructions, the ministers did not intercept the messengers sent from the city, but hurriedly established the east camp and surveyed the surrounding terrain of the city.

This morning, Bai Bangzheng arrived with follow-up troops, and the minister ordered Bai Bangzheng and Ye Yunlin to set up a battalion in the northeast and south of Kaocheng. And Mr. Ma repelled them one by one.By noon, the Qing army in the city did not move any more, and seemed to have the intention of sticking to Kaocheng..."

At this time, Wu Guogui's courier arrived, and Li Zicheng asked the courier to submit the letter. After he opened the letter and read it, he immediately said to the people in the big tent with a smile on his face: "It seems that we are lucky. When I first came here, I heard the good news that Yifeng's defenders revolted, and now Yifeng will not only not be a thorn in our back, but a barrier for us."

Hearing this news, the generals of the Shun Army in the big tent also had expressions of disbelief, but soon someone congratulated Li Zicheng: "It's all thanks to your majesty's great blessing, so wherever your majesty comes, evil spirits will be eliminated..."

When the generals calmed down, Li Zicheng raised the letter paper in his hand and said to his subordinates: "In addition to the 500 people from Shang Kexi's headquarters stationed in Kaocheng, there are more than 500 real Manchurian soldiers. Yue Tuo's eldest son Luo Luo Hong is also in the city, and the remaining four or five thousand are just the former Ming army who surrendered after the Qing army entered the customs, this time we have to settle with Yue Tuo's son for his old account of killing the Han people."

Hearing that there were less than 40 Qing troops in the city, the generals of the Shun army in the big tent couldn't help but feel refreshed.The total number of their troops along the way is about [-]. Although [-] auxiliary soldiers are distributed on the road from Feng County to Kao City, thus forming a well-protected military station transportation route, the number of troops arriving at the city has exceeded Considering the total number of Qing troops in the city, not to mention that they have a heavy artillery division with as many as [-] red cannons, it is impossible for a small city like Kaocheng to withstand the concentrated bombardment of these many red cannons.

Zuo Guang first suggested to Li Zicheng eager to try: "I see that the heavy artillery division has been transported to the camp in the east. It is better to set up artillery positions tomorrow, and then start to attack the city, and strive to break through the city within three days. I will capture Luo alive for your majesty." Luo Hong, to repay the hatred of Yue Tuo for killing our people."

The generals of the First Division echoed Zuo Guangxian's suggestion one after another, trying to take the capture of Kaocheng as the division's first achievement since its establishment.During the Battle of Cao County, the Guards Cavalry Division stole the limelight, and the First Division only took credit for cleaning the battlefield, which was not satisfactory to the selected generals of the First Division.

In their view, the First Division enjoys such good treatment, if they can't produce some results, it may be difficult to convince the public.Moreover, the Marshal's Mansion is considering setting up a standing army and reducing some troops that cannot fight. Naturally, the first division hopes to be the first army to enter the standing division.

Seeing the high morale of his subordinates, Li Zicheng was also very happy, but he quickly restrained his smile and said: "Where the artillery positions should be set up is determined by the staff and the artillery staff, but the left division commander must send The army protects our artillery positions, and we must beware of the Qing army in the city jumping over the wall in a hurry."

Zuo Guangxian naturally agreed, and he replied to Li Zicheng: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will definitely protect these cannons like my eyeballs, and I will never let the Qing army go out of the city to raid our artillery positions."

Li Zicheng then continued: "Today is about the No. 11 day agreed with the soldiers and civilians of Chenzhou. That is to say, after today, the Azig army may wake up at any time and return to the north to guard their rear. .

So we really need to capture Kao City as soon as possible, annihilate Shang Kexi's troops in the city, and cut off an arm of Azig's army.However, Azig's army has two other arms, namely, the one that besieged Suizhou, the Wu Sangui's troops around it, and the local local tyrants who had recently surrendered.

Therefore, we can't just focus on the eight or nine thousand Qing troops in Kaocheng, but also take this opportunity to mobilize the Qing troops from Suizhou to help, so that Liu Zongmin has the opportunity to eat that part of the reinforcements halfway, so as to prepare for the next stage of encirclement and annihilation. The Qing army around Suizhou was ready.In addition, we must not only be prepared to besiege the Qing army who is defending the city, but also beware of the Qing army abandoning the city and fleeing.

For the Manchus, the real Manchurian soldiers and Shang Kexi's troops in the city were their core force, while other armies that had recently surrendered were nothing more than insignificant branches and leaves.Therefore, we must make a preparation first. When the Qing army flees from Ximen, let Liu Zongmin intercept it in front, and our army will chase after it. It is necessary not to let the main force escape.

In this case, the most important thing now is to determine Liu Zongmin's location, and discuss with him the plan to ambush the Qing army in Suizhou and intercept the Qing army in Kaocheng.The second is to disrupt the trust between the newly surrendered army in the city, the Manchus and the Liaodong Han army.The last thing is to hit the confidence of the Manchus in the city in defending the city.

Therefore, the official siege should start the day after tomorrow. The main work tonight and tomorrow is to monitor the movement of the Qing army in the city, publicize our preferential treatment policy to the Qing army in the city, and contact Liu Zongmin's department.

Zuo Yi and Li Bingdao, you two are in charge of liaison with Liu Zongmin's department; Fan Shoude, you lead the other staff to formulate a siege plan; Wan Rui, you are in charge of propaganda to the Qing army in the city, and you can let Yifeng Guo Guangfu Come to Daying and ask him to help you speak to the city; Deng Qiannan, come and check the quantity of all the supplies accompanying the army, and then give me a report.