Daming: I help my wife be the empress

This group of scout horses seized the scout horses of the Shun army as "tongues" and brought them back.

Li Dingguo was too surprised by the news of Li Zicheng's death, so he interrogated himself.

"I heard that the Northern Route Army led by King Chuang and Marquis Ru was defeated in an ambush by the Qing army in Xinyang Prefecture. Marquis Ru was captured on the spot. King Chuang retreated to Zhenlei Mountain, but was killed by the mountain people."

I don't know if this Shun army scout was born afraid of death, or he had no hope for Dashun, so when he saw Li Dingguo, he told him what he knew.

Li Dingguo and his generals were surprised when they heard the news, and they couldn't help but sigh with emotion when they recovered.

Wang Xianbi, an older battalion commander who joined the Peasant Army almost at the same year as Li Zicheng, sighed, "I never thought that a hero like Li Zicheng would die at the hands of the mountain people."

Xu You shook his head and said, "He died so uselessly, he might as well die in battle with the Qing captives."

Qi Sansheng, another battalion officer, said with a smile: "It is estimated that Li Zicheng did not expect to die at the hands of the mountain people. He probably thought that he would survive by fleeing into the mountains."

Tong Shuo is a newly promoted battalion general, and he used to be an official army not a peasant army, so he didn't comment on this matter.

Li Dingguo continued to interrogate, "Did you leave the city after hearing the news of Li Zicheng's death? What are you going to do? How many defenders are there in Xiangyang City? Who is the general?"

Shun Jun explored the horse and said: "King Chuang died, let him avenge him, Yihou and others led the troops to Xinyang Prefecture, and Zehou gave them 3000 people..."

Li Dingguo frowned when he heard this, and interrupted: "Don't use your hypocritical titles, just name people."

"Yes." Shunjun Tanma responded, and continued: "Zhang Nai, Luo Hu, Hao Yaoqi and others are going to Xinyang Prefecture to avenge King Chuang, it is said that Tian Jianxiu first disagreed, and had no choice but to give 3000 people.

Now the main general in Xiangyang City is Tian Jianxiu, and there are also Dang Shou Su, Zhang Shijie, and He Lan.

There are more than 5000 soldiers, and there are also more than [-] militiamen who have been trained by the party leader Su for more than ten days. "

There are still more than 5000 civilians?
Li Dingguo exchanged glances with several generals under his command, and they were quite surprised.

In their view, Xiangyang has suffered from wars in a short period of time—first, the Qing army came to attack in March, and the Qing army withdrew not long ago. With the virtue of the Qing army, it is good that the city of Xiangyang has not been completely destroyed. Why? Can you still come up with Minyong?
"Where did Minyong come from?" Li Dingguo asked again.

Shunjun Tanma said: "Before the Qing army occupied Xiangyang, many people fled into the mountains. When they learned that we had taken Xiangyang back, they came back."

Hearing this, Li Dingguo could only lament that Pseudo-Shun's ruling foundation among the people of Xiangyang is really good. After the Ming Dynasty regained Xiangyang, it might not be so easy to govern.

But this is not what he should worry about as a general.

He said again: "Do you have any other important news to report? If there is, it will be counted as your crime and meritorious service."

Shunjun Tanma was speechless for a while, thinking: I said so much before, is it not a crime or a meritorious deed?
He didn't dare to negotiate conditions with Li Dingguo, so he said again: "I also heard a piece of news that I don't know whether it is true or not. It is said that before the death of King Chuang, he ordered everyone to listen to Zehou, um, listen to Tian Jianxiu. In the future Join Li Guo, a tiger, and let Li Guo inherit the Dashun throne."

Hearing this, Li Dingguo's eyes flickered brightly, and he said with a smile: "This is indeed very important news, and you will be considered a crime and a meritorious service."

After finishing speaking, he asked someone to take the Shunjun scout horse down.

Then he asked the generals around him, "What do you guys think?"

Wang Xianbi said: "The 5000 people who have been trained for more than ten days are nothing. If you bombard them with bright cannons for a few rounds, you may be able to knock them down.

So I feel that without waiting for reinforcements, the Xiangyang city can be taken down. "

Qi Sansheng said: "We all looked at it from a distance. Xiangyang City should have been bombarded by the Qing army's Hongyi cannons before, and the gaps in many places have not been repaired. It is not very difficult for us to attack."

"What do you think of Zhaoxian (Tong Shuo's word)?" Li Dingguo looked at Tong Shuo.

"I think we can try to persuade them to surrender." Tong Shuo murmured, "Xiangyang City is still a strong city, even if we have a considerable advantage, we will still suffer a lot of casualties in a fight.

Now that Li Zicheng is dead, Qushun is at the end of the road. I believe that many people in Qushun understand this, so it is possible for us to succeed in persuading him to surrender. "

After listening, Li Dingguo made a decisive decision, "Then we will persuade you to surrender first, and if it fails, we will fight again!"

···
The situation in Xiangyang City is actually worse than Li Dingguo and others expected.

Although the Qing army did not destroy Xiangyang City when they withdrew, they also took away everything that could be looted. It can be said that not a single grain was left behind.

Now there are about 3 or [-] people who have returned to the city.

These people didn't bring much food, not to mention that they couldn't supply the Shun Army with food and grass, and they might need the Shun Army's help—if the Shun Army was willing.

The food and grass brought by the Shun army was also not much.

It is estimated that after ten days and a half months, if there is no more food and grass, the city will be short of food.

Compared with the food shortage crisis, what is more serious is that the Northern Route Army was defeated and the news of Li Zicheng's death has spread, and the morale of the army and the people have been weakened.

Fortunately, Tian Jianxiu has always been the top three figures in the Shun Army, he can even be said to be the chief logistics officer, and the leader of the party is also a veteran general, and they are all quite prestigious in the army, so they can barely win over the soldiers and civilians in the city.

In the original Xiangjing "Palace" that was only half burned by the fire, Tian Jianxiu and the party leader Su sat opposite each other, with their brows tightly wrapped.

Seeing that Tian Jianxiu was silent for a long time, the leader of the party said: "Marquis Ze, we can't stick to Xiangyang City like this, we have to find a place to collect food.

Otherwise, if the lack of food leaks out, the hearts of the army and the people in the city will be completely lost. "

Tian Jianxiu sighed: "It's not that I disagree with the harvesting of grain - we now only have more than 3000 soldiers, and we have found traces of the Ming army scouting horses nearby, and it is very likely that there is a Ming army nearby.

In such a situation, how dare you divide the troops to take them out for you?Aren't you afraid that if you go out, you won't come back?

What's more, the tens of miles of Xiangyang are almost all white land, where are you going to collect food? "

The leader of the party said in a muffled voice: "I know what you said, but staying in the city is definitely a dead end. If you are lucky, you can find a way out."

Tian Jianxiu wanted to say more when he saw a flag officer running in panting, saying: "Master Hou, a Ming army has come from outside the city."

Upon hearing this, Tian Jianxiu stood up and asked, "How many people can you tell?"

"It is estimated that there are more than 1."

Tian Jianxiu wanted to ask again, but Su Bian, the leader of the party, said: "Zehou should go to the city wall to stabilize the morale of the army first, and then call the people to support the city wall."

At this time, Tian Jianxiu didn't bother to care about the party leader Su's next move, nodded and walked quickly to the west wall with the flag in hand.

"The fourth town of the border guards?"

Seeing the flags of the Ming army, Tian Jianxiu frowned even tighter.

Through Li Zicheng's previous battle against Wuchang, and several subsequent battles between them and the Ming army in Hubei, the Shun army has roughly figured out the new military system of the Ming army. points.

Among them, the border guards are not only well-equipped, but also have high-quality elite soldiers, which can be called an elite division.

The fourth town of the border defense army was established obviously earlier, and it may be stronger.

'It seems that Xiangyang City can't be defended anymore. '

Tian Jianxiu sighed in his heart, feeling extremely at a loss.

Dashun has come to this point, he really doesn't know what to do.

At this time, a group of cavalry came out from the Ming army and came to a hundred steps in front of the moat.

Immediately the leader among them took out a strange horn and made a loud sound.

"Listen up, the pseudo-shun soldiers and civilians in the city, we are the fourth town of the Daming Frontier Army, and we have learned of Li Zicheng's defeat.

At the same time, I would like to tell you another news that Huguang Governor Du Yinxi will soon lead hundreds of thousands of officers and troops northward.

It can be said that you have reached the end of the road. If you resist in the corner, you will perish together with the pseudo-shun.

Surrendering today will not only save your life, but if you can be integrated into the army, you will also have the opportunity to be rich.

Give you an hour to think about it, if you don't surrender, we will attack the city with cannons. "

After shouting, the Ming army on horseback retreated.

Afterwards, Tian Jianxiu saw that the Ming army formed a formation, and a cannon reflecting the sunlight was pushed out, and they were lined up one or two miles away from the city wall. There were twenty of them.

Tian Jianxiu, a new type of artillery that is suspected to be made of fine iron by the Ming army, heard Li Zicheng say that its power is comparable to that of the Hongyi cannon of the Qing Dynasty. It has a longer range and a faster rate of fire. .

Seeing this formation, Tian Jianxiu felt that Xiangyang had no chance of defending.

He looked at the scattered Dashun soldiers on the left and right walls, and found that many of them showed expressions of fear and panic.

Tian Jianxiu knew that these soldiers had been terrified by the artillery of the Qing army before, but now they wanted to run away when they saw the artillery.

Otherwise, they would not have been chased by Azig's 4 people before and lost again and again, just like bereaved dogs.

Thinking of this, Tian Jianxiu only had one thought in his mind - this battle is impossible to fight, it is better to surrender.