Dashun Yongchang

However, Chen Yongfu also knew that with his army mainly composed of local tyrants, it really wouldn't be of much help if he went out of the city now.So he suggested to Liu Zongmin that more than a hundred family members around him should also be incorporated into the troops leaving the city, which can be regarded as a little bit more capital to fight against the Qing cavalry.

Hearing this suggestion, Liu Zongmin took a fixed look at Chen Yongfu. The other party did not avoid his gaze, but looked at him calmly for a moment.To be honest, since Beijing went south, Liu Zongmin's temper has also calmed down a lot, and he is not as arrogant as before. If in the past, a latecomer like Chen Yongfu negotiated terms with him, he would have opened his mouth and scolded him.

In the past, in Liu Zongmin's heart, the old brothers ranked first, then the Shaanxi Township Party, and then other brothers who were from the rebel army. He didn't like those who were from the government in the past.However, the journey from Beijing to the south was not only a journey of Shunjun's internal system reform, but also a journey where he was often beaten by Li Zicheng.

Facing Li Zicheng, whose prestige is getting higher and higher among the military and civilians, Liu Zongmin also gradually lost the courage to sing against him in the past, because Li Zicheng's actions are becoming more and more incomprehensible to these old brothers.It doesn't matter if you don't understand, the things Li Zicheng has done have been proved to be beneficial to the entire Dashun, which has led to Li Zicheng's reputation among the army and the people is getting higher and higher.

In the past, Liu Zongmin dared to sing a naysayer in front of Li Zicheng, on the one hand, to protect Li Zicheng's interests, and on the other hand, to protect the interests of his old brothers.

But now, Li Zicheng keeps talking about the interests of the people, which makes it difficult for Liu Zongmin, who wants to protect his old brothers, to speak up, although he has never seen any people, only individual people.

In the face of those specific people, Liu Zongmin can naturally ignore them, as long as the old brothers can support him, but in the face of a general reference to the people, even Liu Zongmin dare not publicly say that the interests of the old brothers should be above the people.Even if he dared to say that, those old brothers would not dare to stand up and support him.

As Li Zicheng went south to occupy the Jianghuai River and forced Emperor Hongguang of the Nanming Dynasty to resign himself to the throne. His prestige will be so high that it cannot be increased, and then he will be the real master of Dashun, not just the master of Shunjun.

Facing such a lord, Liu Zongmin also had to change, no longer trying to cling to the small circle around him.Although Chen Yongfu was an official army who joined the rebel army later, he never fought in the wrong position during the Qing army's southern expedition, which is indeed much more reliable than the one hiding in Luoyang now.

Thinking of the great personnel changes that would occur in the Marshal's Mansion after the war, Liu Zongmin finally nodded to Chen Yongfu, and asked Chen Yongfu's servants to fight with him, which was also a gesture of goodwill to him.

Just as Liu Zongmin in the city was busy arranging the troops out of the city, the battle between the Shun army and the Qing army outside the city also reached a fierce stage. After Zuo Guangxian ordered the dispatch of grenadiers, the situation on the battlefield changed again.

The Grenadier is a branch that the General Staff proposed to Li Zicheng after referring to the results of a series of landmine-throwing battles.Although the Marshal's Mansion produced landmines that could be used for throwing, they only used this weapon as a defense tool at the beginning.Because cannons cannot shoot at the enemy at the foot of the city wall, that is to say, once the attacking enemy approaches the city wall, the defenders will only have traditional defense equipment such as boiling oil, gold juice, rolling stones, and rolling logs.

According to the opinion of the General Staff, these traditional defensive equipment either take too long to prepare, are not too manpower-intensive, and have low attack power. Being defended, the effect is much better than traditional defense equipment.

However, as the use of landmines was expanded by the infantry, the General Staff found that landmines did not necessarily have to be used when defending the city. As long as the size of the production was appropriate, small landmines also worked well in dense crowds in field battles.

When this proposal was sent to Li Zicheng, Li Zicheng immediately understood the advanced nature of this proposal.The performance of the current cannons is too backward and cumbersome, so if you want to use cannons to bombard the enemy in the wild, you must first of all not run away, and obediently play regular battles with you.This kind of opportunity has appeared before, such as in Shanhaiguan, but the Shun army did not bring cannons at that time.

In Tianjin City, the Shun Army had used cannons once, but that kind of combat environment was actually very difficult to replicate, so cannons became useless for field troops.When you want to use cannons, the cannon troops are still behind, and when the cannons arrive, the enemy has already fled.However, due to the problem of the chamber pressure of the tiger squat gun and the Franco machine gun, the power of the shell is too small, and the solid bullet needs a large-caliber gun to be full of power.

At this time, the small landmines that can explode have become a beneficial supplement to close-range firepower.It can be thrown by human hands and kills the enemy with explosive fragments, which is equivalent to the grenade of this era.So Li Zicheng quickly ordered the formation of the

Grenadier, this new arm.

Chapter 395 Battle Eight

Some generals expressed doubts about how useful the new arm of the Grenadier could be. After all, in their view, even the Gunners could not protect themselves in field battles, so they could not fight alone. The Grenadier This kind of soldier who can only throw small landmines is even more powerless to protect himself.

In addition, the firecrackers do not have high requirements for physical fitness, but the grenadiers require high physical fitness. Almost all of them can be described by the elite selection criteria. After all, people with poor physical fitness cannot put more than 10 A small landmine that weighs a kilogram can be thrown tens of feet away, and at least 30 feet is the safe distance for explosion. In a chaotic battlefield, it must be thrown at least 40 feet away to ensure that the explosion will not harm the comrades around you.

Therefore, the first batch of soldiers who were selected as grenadiers were all men with big arms, round waists, and burly bodies. Some generals thought it was a pity to let these people be grenadiers. After a little training, these people could become elite warriors who assaulted the enemy. up.In addition, they didn't quite agree with the results of the data analysis by the General Staff, and believed that the war was not calculated by those scholars in the room.

However, with the support of Li Zicheng, the First Division still formed a grenadier company in each regiment, preparing to use actual combat to test whether this new force is effective, or how effective it is.Zuo Guang first ordered at this time to let

The Grenadier Company came forward, also realizing that in the current melee situation, the small artillery has lost its effect, and the gunfire soldiers do not have much shooting space, so they can only use the Grenadier to disrupt the attack of the Qing cavalry, and then Buy some time for the reserve troops to step forward and strengthen the defense line.

Even Zuo Guangxian, who knew a lot about firearms, did not regard the grenadier as a decisive force at this time, but regarded it as a function similar to that of the tiger squatting gun, although it was not very lethal , but it can disrupt the rhythm of the enemy's attack, thus giving the army time to mobilize troops to reorganize the defense line.

Therefore, after Zuo Guang first gave the order for the grenadiers to attack, he focused his energy on the thinking of the reserve soldiers to fill those gaps. The deformation on the west side is the most severe. The original character-shaped square array has not only been flattened, but is also being sunken inward.

Of course, by this time, the impact kinetic energy of the Qing cavalry was almost exhausted, and now they could only rely on the condescending advantage of the cavalry itself to attack.Zuo Guang first thought about it, maybe he should set up a defensive circle in the inner circle, and then send some cavalry in to destroy it, and then close the gap and push the front line back. His only worry is that this part of the cavalry will enter the inner circle , Will it lead to the collapse of the entire defense line.

But when he was still thinking about this plan, a series of explosions startled him, Zuo Guang opened his eyes first.I saw that under the diffuse white smoke, the cavalry of the Qing army was in great chaos.He immediately realized that this was an excellent opportunity, so he asked his confidant to briefly explain his plan to him. The confidant immediately ran towards the reserve soldiers who came up from the rear and quickly took over. Take command of this reserve company.

At this time, Ming Andali, who was attacking the last few infantry formations under the headquarters, was also stunned by the sudden explosion. He didn't see Shunjun's cannons at all, but there were explosions in his own ranks. Sound, although the place where the explosion occurred did not affect him, but even two of the soldiers who had been guarding him fell down. The troops, which were difficult to command in the first place, have completely lost their effective command.

The horses that were injured or frightened by the explosion fragments had completely lost control at this time, and kicked things around them wildly. The Shunjun infantry who stopped in front of the horses suffered additional damage, but the ones who suffered the most Or the Qing cavalry themselves.As a result, the cavalry who were struggling to kill the inside of the Shun army formation were suddenly disrupted, and the cavalry began to appease their mounts one after another.

At this moment, the cavalry team of the Qing army, which had been huddled together and could not move, suddenly flowed in one direction again.

Ming Andali was also coerced, and followed the team to flow. When he came back to see the surrounding situation and tried to stop the team from advancing, he and the thirty or forty riders around him had already been put into an open space. It is a circular array of spearmen lined up in two rows.

Ming Andali's reaction was extremely fast, and he quickly raised the scimitar in his hand and shouted at his companions: "This is a trap, get out, get out, don't give them a chance to encircle us..."

However, before his words fell, the spearmen opposite him suddenly squatted down, revealing more than a dozen musketeers who lit matchlocks and pointed their guns at him and the surrounding cavalry.Seeing this scene, Ming Andali pulled the reins subconsciously and wanted to escape, but he was trapped in the circle and had nowhere to hide. At this time, the soldiers around him were rushed to the side by the flow of people, and there was nothing they could do. He blocked the gun.

After several gunshots, Ming Andali's mount fell down with a mournful cry, and Ming Andali never got up after falling to the ground. At this time, the spearmen of the Shun army around began to attack the remaining Qing troops in the circle. The cavalry carried out a sweep, completely ignoring that one of the people who fell on the ground was the chief general of the Qing army attacking from the west.

Faced with the bombs thrown by the Shun army and the disappearance of Ming Andali, the Qing cavalry attacking from the west quickly lost their courage to fight. As the first Qing cavalry turned around and fled the battlefield, the second, The third and the whole cavalry began to flee.

Han Shangliang, who was leading his subordinates to resist the attack of the Qing cavalry, immediately felt that the pressure on his company was reduced.At this time, the battalion commander Zhang Dan walked up to him with a person and instructed him: "Take your company and go with Staff Officer Xu, and go to the east to reinforce the brother troops."

Han Shangliang accepted the order, then pulled out two platoons of people and followed Staff Officer Xu sent from above to the east. During this process, he noticed that the Qing cavalry in the west had almost fled, and his regiment was cleaning the battlefield. Restore the line of defense.And he also inadvertently discovered that his younger brother was carefully avoiding himself with a backpack specially designed for grenadiers.

The Grenadier is actually a very dangerous unit. Not only is it easy to be retaliated by the enemy, but it is also easy to kill yourself.So Han Shangliang refused to let his younger brother join the Grenadier.But obviously, the younger brother Han Shangyi was more interested in throwing bombs. After avoiding his gaze, he still picked up the bombs and fought.

Considering that it was difficult to reprimand the younger brother at this time, Han Shangliang could only stare at his younger brother, and decided to deal with him after the war.When they rushed to the east, the distance between the two fronts was less than a hundred steps. The Qing cavalry in the east were also dizzy and disorganized by the bombs, but they led the Qing army to attack He was obviously a veteran, and he immediately organized his troops to retreat after realizing the disadvantage. It seemed that he wanted to leave the battle.

However, the luck of the Qing army on this road was a little bit bad. After repelling the Qing army from the west, Zuo Guang first turned the west and reserve troops to the east, so the Qing cavalry attacking from the east could not leave quickly. During the battle, although the general of the Qing army could run on his own, he was obviously unwilling to throw his subordinates to the encircling Shun army infantry, so he rushed into the encirclement of the Shun army infantry again, trying to rescue his subordinates.

However, it is actually difficult for cavalry who have lost their speed and organization to escape under the siege of superior infantry.In particular, among the infantry of the Shun army, there were firecrackers and grenadiers attacking the dense cavalry of the Qing army from a distance, constantly disrupting the organization of the Qing army.Omoktu, known as "Batulu", failed to rush out of the encirclement of the Shun army infantry after all.

Jue Luo Guoke, who attacked the Shunjun phalanx from the south, was young, but he was not reckless. After the attacks on both sides of the east and west were abnormal, Jue Luo Guoke knew that this time the attack had failed, so he also They adopted a method similar to that of Omoktu, breaking away from the contact with the Heshun army, and then wait and see the situation.

His luck was better than that of Omoktu, because all the reinforcements from the Shun army went to deal with the troops of Omoktu, so his troops were successfully withdrawn, but only less than 200 cavalry were withdrawn.It wasn't until Jueluo Guoke withdrew his troops a stone's throw away from the Shunjun infantry that he discovered that the Shunjun brigade in the city to the north had already left the city. The army cavalry was also driven away by the Shun army cavalry.

Hearing the signal of retreating troops, Jueluo Guoke retreated to the southwest with his men unwillingly.At this time, although Subai and Yibai blew the horn to withdraw the troops, they had no confidence in their hearts, because they fought too badly in this battle. Not only did they not shake the morale of the Shun army, but they let the Shun army lose their momentum. Out.

Now that the Shun army brigade was leaving the city, five or six thousand cavalry in their hands alone was far from enough. Unless Azig ordered the whole army to press up and start a decisive battle with the Shun army immediately, otherwise the battle would no longer be possible.

Azig, standing on the soil bag, looked at the troops of the Shun Army brigade that kept coming out of the city. At this moment, the anger in his heart finally began to disappear. He failed to eat the other party, and now that so many Shun soldiers are leaving the city, can he really put all his capital on it?

In Azige's mind, the ten thousand Manchurian cavalry in his hands were the core force of his Southern Expedition Army, and other troops could be replenished if lost, but every death of these Manchurian cavalry was one less.Just now he took out half of this core force to attack the Shun army out of the city, hoping to use victory to deter the Han people around him, so that they would not dare to have the idea of ​​​​resisting the Manchus.

However, it failed in hell. Although Azig knew that there were actually many reasons for the failure of this battle, it cannot be said that it was only caused by the commanding ability of the leading general.But the failure to show force in front of the Han people made it even more difficult for him to trust the Han people around him.Especially Wu Sangui standing behind him, who not only holds three thousand cavalry in his hands, but also his subordinates in the camp. Does he want to bet that this three-surname domestic slave can remain loyal to the Qing Dynasty until death?

When he had enough strength to suppress the Han people, Azig could still show some trust in the Han generals. Anyway, even if they betrayed him, he could use his power to quell these rebellions.But when he noticed that the strength in his hands was not enough to suppress the Han people around him, Azig was full of doubts about whether the Han people would continue to be loyal to the Qing Dynasty.

Chapter 396 Battle Nine

Faced with the Shunjun horses pouring out of the city continuously, Azig's originally hesitant heart became even more hesitant.Although he still had eight or nine thousand cavalry and tens of thousands of infantry in his hands, under the premise of losing for a while, he was suddenly confused when he put all these troops into a showdown with the Shun army.

Azig knew that he had no other cards other than the strength in his hands, but besides these troops in the city, didn't the Shun army have any other cards?If the Shun Army had other reinforcements coming towards Suizhou, then now that he was desperately using all his troops to bet against Li Zicheng, it would be like sending meat to his door.

As the formation of the Shun army leaving the city gradually took shape, Azig finally gave the order to withdraw troops to the guards around him, avoiding the decisive battle with the Shun army.Subai, Yibai and other Manchu generals breathed a sigh of relief after receiving Azig's order, but their hearts were too heavy to speak.

Before Azig's order was conveyed, the initial losses of the Qing army had already been counted. The combined losses of the two attacks exceeded a thousand, and the most important were dozens of backbones below Ming Andali and Omoktu. None of the generals survived. Although Jueluo Guoke came back, at least half of the elite cavalry he led had been lost.

In other words, although the Qing army only attacked twice, the loss of troops was equivalent to the loss of a big battle, and the losses were basically the elite of the Eight Banners, not the servants who could be replenished at will.

Faced with such a loss, although these Manchu generals are angry, they will not completely lose their courage to fight. After all, the Manchus have fought wars for decades since the founding of the country, and their hearts are not so weak.However, the perception of the Manchu generals towards the Shun Army has changed from being roughly a bit stronger than the Ming Frontier Army to being slightly worse than the Eight Banners.

Although they think that this unexpected battle should not continue, it doesn't mean that it can't be fought, but that they need to prepare properly before going to war against such a Shun army. It's not good for yourself.

However, it was right to end the battle, but it seemed a little reckless for Azig to directly order the retreat. It seemed that he hadn't gotten over the anger he had just been provoked by the Shun army before he gave such an order.If it were the former Azig, it would be impossible to make such a direct concession to the Shun army, because this is tantamount to declaring that we have lost this battle.

It's just that the current Manchu generals are not interested in talking to Azig anymore, because they are beginning to worry about one thing, that is, if the Shun army wants to leave the city at the risk of being besieged by cavalry, what will happen next? Can the operation still go well?A team that dared to fight against the Qing army was by their side. Without support, how could they get rid of the pursuit of the Shun army and withdraw everyone to the Yellow River?

At this time, the Manchus no longer thought about how to complete the mission of the southern expedition. The failure of the cavalry to attack the infantry just now made them come to a conclusion that it was impossible for them to complete the combat mission of going south. Now they can obey Their new goal is not to be surrounded by the Shun army on the south bank of the Yellow River.

Azig's order only deepened the generals' acknowledgment of the failure of the southern expedition mission.Of course, Azig did not expect that his subordinates had already begun to consider the consequences of the failure of the Southern Expedition. Seeing the return of generals such as Subai and Ibai, he suddenly scowled and reprimanded the group of Manchu generals: "Our country's general affairs Entrusted to everyone, this is how you repay the trust of your country?"

Except for Subai and other Manchu generals with two white flags, the others just knelt on the ground in silence, and no one even opened their mouths to explain anything to Azig.On the contrary, Subai, who was kneeling on one knee at the front, honestly replied to Azig's words: "Our army's defeat in this battle is entirely due to the ineffective command of the last general. The last general is willing to be punished, and please calm down the general."

Hearing what Subai said, the other Manchu generals also said: "The defeat in this battle depends on me..."

Seeing his subordinates admitting their mistakes one after another, Azig's complexion improved a little.He really didn't want to take the blame for the failure of the battle, and he besieged less than [-] infantry with five or six thousand cavalry, and he really didn't believe that the cavalry would be able to command. If that's the case, let the cavalry generals take responsibility .

However, Azig also knew that the reason for this battle had nothing to do with him, so he reprimanded his subordinates a few words, shifted the responsibility for the defeat to them, and then got on his horse angrily and headed towards the Liangzhuang camp. up.

The Manchu generals left behind by Azig didn't dare to get up and call his subordinates to retreat until Azig was far away.But Wu Sangui and his generals, who were standing aside and obeying orders, were a little dazed watching this scene.For example, Chen Junji said to Zhang Qilong and Guo Tianchun beside him: "I thought that Manchus were all heroes, but now they look like Da Ming. We voted for Manchus, is it true?"

Zhang Qilong and Guo Tianchun couldn't answer Chen Junji's words, but Guo Tianchun said to Chen Junji wisely: "Whatever, we just listen to General Xiao Wu anyway."

Although these words can stop Chen Junji's mouth, they cannot stop the mouths of the soldiers below.These soldiers were still loyal to the Ming Dynasty, and their loyalty to Wu Sangui had not been fully established. Of course, there were also a small number of people who saw the momentum of the Manchus after entering the customs, and there were not many people who really wanted to join the Qing Dynasty.

However, after the death of Emperor Chongzhen, the soldiers of the Liaodong Ming Army were loyal only to their own interests, and they didn't care much about Wu Sangui, Li Zicheng, and the Manchus. Whoever gave them military salaries, then they were willing to take orders.

Of course, the Liaodong Ming army was not the kind of loyal and chaste women. Even if they received the military salary of the Ming Dynasty, they did not wholeheartedly serve the Ming Dynasty.Facing the powerful Qing army approaching Shanhaiguan, they threw away their weapons and surrendered, and did not show that they were working for Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, for this frontier army that has just broken free from the shackles of the Ming Dynasty, as long as the Manchus are strong enough and can pay their food and salaries on time, then they will continue to be loyal.But if Manren doesn't seem that strong, everyone has to think about the way out.

Although the true strength of the Manchus could not be seen in such a battle, Azig withdrew his troops just like that, and tried to get his generals to take the blame for him, which made these Han soldiers look down upon him a bit.With more than 2 soldiers and horses in his hands, he didn't want to fight back against the Shun army, but vented his emotions to his subordinates. From this point of view, the fact that he forced his mother to death might really be true.

The former Liaodong Ming army under Wu Sangui had some opinions on the Manchus. Similarly, the local tyrants in Henan who stood in front of the Liangzhuang camp and watched the battle lost most of their trust in the Manchus.They took refuge in the Manchus mainly because of the strength of the Manchus, so they wanted to stand on the side of the winner in advance.

But in today's battle between cavalry and infantry, it was not the infantry who went out of the city to form a formation that suffered, but the cavalry under Azig's command. Just thinking of this scene, these local tyrants in Henan have already begun to think about how to plan their way out.

On the other side, after Liu Zongmin led the cavalry to disperse the rangers of the Qing army between the south gate and Li Zicheng, he ran directly into the phalanx to protect Li Zicheng.Li Zicheng was very happy about Liu Zongmin's arrival. He also praised: "Jiexuan came at the right time. If it is too early, the Qing army will not be educated; if it is too late, our army will suffer heavy casualties. At this time Just right."

Seeing that Li Zicheng was safe and sound, Liu Zongmin was also very happy to reply: "It is all thanks to the emperor Hongfu that we were able to defeat the Qing army, which severely dampened their spirit. I think that after the Qing army suffered this defeat, they should not dare to fight." Take the initiative to fight with our army again."

Li Zicheng still agrees with Liu Zongmin's judgment, so he nodded slightly and said: "Azig has called for gold to withdraw his troops at this time, and it will not be so easy to make the soldiers obey their orders next time. But this is also good, if this kind of battle continues, We also lost a lot."

When Li Zicheng said this, he sighed and looked at the wounded and corpses being carried down. Although more than a thousand cavalrymen of the Qing army were wiped out in this battle, the Shun army also paid for the death and disability of more than a thousand soldiers.Li Zicheng also realized that if he had met these Qing cavalrymen on the march, he would have been captured long ago.

After this battle, Li Zicheng had given up the idea of ​​keeping Azig's entire army behind. If tens of thousands of cavalry were forced to fight with him, Li Zicheng felt that even if he could win, the new army would be disabled.Therefore, find a way to drive these cavalry away, eat the infantry in their ranks, and then go after the cavalry, perhaps the casualties will be greatly reduced.

At this moment, Zuo Guangxian also came over. After paying respects to Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin, he advised Li Zicheng again: "Your Majesty, I see that the cavalry of the Qing army has begun to withdraw, and the possibility of a major war in the future should not be very high. Shall I go back to the city first? You are here, and I always feel a little uneasy."

Li Zicheng looked at the soldiers on the left and right, and then said: "Let the wounded and martyrs go back to the city first. They were the ones who protected me before, and now I will naturally be the rear guard for them. This is where morality lies. I still hope that next Set up a big camp here, so that the Qing army can't think that we can only sleep under the protection of the city wall."

Facing Li Zicheng's new order, Zuo Guang pondered for a few breaths, then nodded and accepted.When he turned around and ordered the staff around him to pass on Li Zicheng's order, Liu Zongmin also suggested to Li Zicheng: "I'm afraid it is not enough to set up a battalion outside the city. I think that at least a few battalions should be set up outside the Qing army camp, and then Connected with each other, when Mianhou's troops arrive, we can launch a general attack on the Qing army camp."

However, Li Zicheng did not accept Liu Zongmin's suggestion. He looked at the receding Qing cavalry in the distance, and said in his mouth: "The current strength of the Qing army is still too much. We can't eat it all at once. We should divide them again. It is best to let them Leave those infantrymen behind and run away, then we can easily wipe out half of the Qing army..."

Chapter 397 Battle Ten

Liu Zongmin still wanted to have a detailed discussion with Li Zicheng on this issue, but Li Zicheng said to him: "It's too early to talk about this now, let's discuss it in detail after returning to the city after the troops are withdrawn. Alright, you will preside over the Chinese army for me, and I will go send the wounded..."

Watching Li Zicheng get off his horse and walk towards the team of wounded who were about to return to the city, Liu Zongmin had no choice but to take over Li Zicheng's responsibility and command of the army outside the city. Unlike Li Zicheng just standing here as a mascot, Liu Zongmin now wants Taking charge of all the deployment of the army going out of the city, although there are staff officers to help share a lot of workload, it is still a rather cumbersome job.

As for Li Zicheng, he stood by the passage leading to the city, chatting with the passing wounded, checking their wounds, and asked the escorts to take care of them.Faced with this scene, some soldiers who were terrified of being injured were finally relieved. What they worried most after being injured was that the army would abandon them.

The worries of the wounded soldiers are not groundless. Except for those generals with status, after most ordinary soldiers are injured, they can return to the army as long as they recover from minor injuries, but those soldiers who are seriously injured and disabled and can no longer fight are more miserable. Go home to see if your family will take care of you. If you don't even have a home, you can only be a beggar.

This is not just the case of the rebel army, it is also the case in the Ming army.Only the servants around the generals will be adopted by the generals when they are injured and disabled in order to protect the generals. Life after retiring from the army will not be so bad. Soldiers who sacrificed for the country, they will naturally go to the generals who can guarantee their lives.

Of course, according to the national laws of the Ming Dynasty, soldiers who were injured, disabled or old and retired from the army would be taken care of, but these regulations, like Zhu Yuanzhang’s edicts, only existed on paper and had not been enforced by local officials for a long time.

Li Zicheng's actions gave the soldiers of the Shun Army a little more confidence in the Marshal's Mansion. Since Emperor Yongchang would not even forget the wounded and the victims, obviously the living meritorious ones would not forget them even more.After all, compared with those wounded and victims, they are stronger. Abandoning the weak for the sake of the strong is the norm in this era, and vice versa is relatively rare.

After looking at many wounded, Li Zicheng found that most of the wounded were not injured because they couldn't beat them. They were almost all injured by the Qing cavalry after losing their strength.Indeed, from ninety o'clock in the morning to two or three o'clock in the afternoon, no matter how strong a soldier is, it is difficult to maintain his physical strength. A soldier without physical strength is a piece of wood in such a cold weapon battle.

Li Zicheng couldn't help but took the time to say to the staff next to him: "Record it, let the logistics department consider the small food for replenishing physical strength during the battle, or jerky, or toffee. We can't expect soldiers to eat on time during the battle. Starving soldiers cannot be expected to fight..."

The accompanying staff carefully wrote down some of Li Zicheng's requests. It was the first time to participate in such a battle, which made these young staff very excited. In the previous few battles, the accompanying staff was mainly responsible for planning, and they were not so active in going deep into reality. On the battlefield, it is the generals who mainly implement and organize the battle plan.

But this time following Li Zicheng out of the city to fight, as the organizer of the coordination army formation, the accompanying staff also played a big role in it.Judging from the results of this battle, the staff department can not only plan wars, but also organize and implement combat plans.

Although officers at all levels demonstrated their commanding abilities in battle, they basically did not exceed the phalanx defense combat regulations drawn up by the staff.That is to say, if someone can familiarly remember the infantry phalanx defensive combat regulations, then switching positions with these officers, the result of this battle should not change much.

It can be said that this battle has also greatly strengthened the staff's confidence in their work, and they no longer regard their work as an unrealistic move on paper.

While Li Zicheng was exchanging his views on the battle with the accompanying staff officers, the wounded soldiers and corpses sent to the city were finally shipped out. At the same time, the meals prepared in the city were finally sent out, so Li Zicheng and the first After the division's soldiers finished their meal, they returned to the city slowly.

When Li Zicheng returned to the south gate, Chen Yongfu had already stood on both sides of the street with the city's Chinese and military officials and representatives of the people, welcoming him back to the city after victory.The officials in the city, who had been cautious about Li Zicheng before, became more submissive after witnessing Li Zicheng's record of blocking the attack of thousands of cavalry just outside the city.

Li Zicheng has been busy with military affairs since he arrived in Suizhou, and has not had any communication with the officials and people in Suizhou. Seeing these local officials and representatives of the people now, he felt in a good mood, so he said a few more words. In addition to local support for the army, he also asked casually: "I think this war will end soon, so I would like to ask all the elders, what should be the top priority of Suizhou after the war?"

Li Zicheng raised this question in essence to reconcile

The people of Suizhou got closer. Restoring social order after the war is always an unmistakable answer, and local officials and gentry also expressed this meaning.

However, some of the students in this city said loudly to him: "Your Majesty's words are wrong. Your Majesty should care about the most important tasks of the whole world, not the ones of one place at a time. If the world is safe, Henan will Just be safe, when Henan is stable, Suizhou will naturally be stable. You don’t want the rule of Henan, the rule of the world, but the rule of Suizhou, isn’t this putting the cart before the horse?”

Li Zicheng looked towards the place where he made his voice in surprise. He didn't think that someone would dare to stand up and challenge him at this time after returning with a big victory. On the contrary, he might be more likely to use big words to attract his attention. After all, he is now He has already shown the ability to defeat the Qing army, so it is not likely that no one will want to board his boat.

Faced with Li Zicheng's gaze, several other students gave way subconsciously, letting out one of them, a young man in his 20s.Li Zicheng glanced at him, he looked like an ordinary scholar, and he didn't look outstanding, but he suppressed the smile on his face, and said to the other party with a straight face: "I only heard that if you don't sweep a house, how can you sweep the world? I haven’t heard that you have to clean the world before you can clean the room. Well, since you dare to speak out, you must have something to teach me, so let’s talk about how to make Henan settle down.”

Zhang Taisheng, who was born in Suizhou Jinxiang Academy, was also quite nervous when facing Li Zicheng's questioning, but he didn't want to give up this opportunity.Although Jinxiang Academy has a long history, in this war-torn era, it cannot allow students to study with peace of mind, and his family background is not good, so he can no longer continue to deviate from practice and bury his head in his study.

In other words, if he doesn't want to find a way to become an official, he may have to go back home to work in agriculture or become a private school teacher, then he will not be able to embark on an official career, because he knows that his reading ability is only average, and it is not a bad idea. Wizards of Forget.

For the gentry, Li Zicheng was indeed a target of verbal criticism, especially the Henan gentry hated Li Zicheng. After all, the main area of ​​Li Zicheng's rebellion was still in Henan, and there were quite a lot of well-dressed clans in Henan that were wiped out due to the war.

Zhang Taisheng also hated Li Zicheng in the past, but he mainly wanted to conform to the children of the gentry. After all, Henan was dominated by the gentry, and without the support of the gentry, he couldn't get ahead, even if he was a scholar.However, after Li Zicheng opened the Marshal's Mansion in the capital and ordered the Prince of Ming Dynasty to preside over the Wenhua Palace, scholars' views on Li Zicheng finally divided.

They hated Li Zicheng in the past because Li Zicheng cut off their progress.In terms of Li Zicheng’s method of punishing corrupt officials, almost all officials could not escape the fate of being ransacked. Everyone has been studying for more than ten years, not just wanting to gain glory and wealth, but Li Zicheng trampled on the dignity of officials How can everyone still be willing to do things for it?

However, after the Prince presided over the Wenhua Palace, the channel for scholars to go up was opened again. At this time, the anger towards Li Zicheng was much less. There are not so many complaints, except for those officials' families who are directly victimized.

But for scholars like Zhang Taisheng who came from a poor family, it was actually a joy to see these rich and powerful families being unlucky, because they were also the targets of bullying by the local rich and powerful families.Because Henan has a large number of Wangzhuang and well-dressed clans, land annexation is the most powerful area in the world.

Big fish eat small fish, and small fish eat dried shrimps. This is the most true portrayal in Henan.Ordinary people in Henan can’t survive in times of disaster. Those small landlords in Henan who are not covered by officials also face the plight of being oppressed by big landlords. The small landowners who are favored by big landlords mainly refuse to sell their land, not because of lawsuits. The whole family was killed by bandits.