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Chapter 336 Li Zicheng's True Strength
In the 17th year of Chongzhen, the fourth day of February.

Tong Kui did not disgrace the mission of Li Yutian, governor of Liaodong, reached a new peace agreement with Dorgon, and hurried back to Shanhaiguan.

He also brought the latest movement of Dorgon's troops, which convinced Guan Ningming's army that Dorgon did not go directly south from Tashan, but detoured westward to Jimen at the same time.

When this news arrived, Wu Sangui and Li Yutian finally breathed a sigh of relief: For the time being, there is no need to worry about being attacked by two sides. The supplies and people who have been temporarily fortified and cleared and retreated outside the pass will not be damaged by raids. You can rest assured and focus on guarding the pass .

"Tong Tongzhi is eloquent and eloquent, fulfilling his mission, he should be worshiped by the last general." After listening to Tong Kuixing's report, Wu Sangui, who had been pale these days, rarely forced a smile.

It is said that it is a bow from him, but in fact, he is in armor and cannot fully salute, so he just bows his hands as a signal.

Tong Kui Xing didn't dare to ask too much, politely asked a few words about the military situation in Shanhaiguan, and exchanged bragging with Wu Sangui's business.

When Wu Sangui was asked about the situation of the battle, his face became more serious again, and he said worryingly: "At present, the offensive of the army can be resisted, but the fighting power of Li Zicheng's dog thief is indeed above my estimate.

The day after you left, the vanguard of the burglars arrived at Shanhaiguan, and the next day they began to attack the city without any preparations, which was beyond my expectation.Chuangjun didn't need to forge siege weapons, he just bombarded the wall with Hongyi cannons,
It must be that after he took Beijing, he got the arsenal around the capital.The late emperor was unable to defend the city of Beijing when there were so many Hongyi cannons around the capital. Alas, it can be seen how corrupt the three battalions have become! "

Tong Kuixing made a rough calculation in his mind. He went to see Dorgon and walked for three days. The return journey was faster, and he was eager to report the letter. He only walked for two days, and the middle negotiation took two or three days.So counting the days, the Chuang army has been besieging the city for five full days now.

While the two of them were chatting, they could hear the faint sound of scattered gunfire, at different distances.The one that came far was Li Zicheng's siege artillery fire, and the one that sounded closer was Wu Sangui's counterattack artillery fire.

As for Dorgon's troops, because of the long detour, it will take at least two days to detour to the Jimen Great Wall and enter the pass (there is currently still under Wang Yongji's control in name, but in fact they also obey Wu Sangui, some of Ma Ke's troops, etc.) The general was also instigated by Wu Sangui)
After entering the customs from Jimen, Dorgon must also make some adjustments, and will not rush straight to the side of the Shanhaiguan battlefield in one breath, lest the troops are in bad condition.Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to leave three more days for the cavalry to maneuver.

As for the 3 or 5 Han flag infantry artillery in the Qing army, their actions will be even slower.If Dorgon wants to divide his troops to protect his infantry artillery and leave some cavalry from the Eight Banners of Mongolia as support, then there may be only [-] cavalry who can rush to the frontal battlefield in the first place.

In other words, Wu Sangui had to defend Shanhaiguan alone for at least five days before he could get the side attack from Dorgon's first batch of 1 cavalry reinforcements.If you wait another three or four days, it is possible to get a full-scale general attack of more than [-] cavalry and [-] infantry artillery.

If it had been a field battle like the one-stone battle in the same period of history, Wu Sangui would have been finished in the past ten days.But fortunately now he can rely on Xiongguan to defend the city, which makes everything seem quite possible.

After Tong Kuixing listened to it, he couldn't help but sweat for Wu Sangui, and he was also concerned about the combat power invested by Chuangjun, wanting to see how sure Wu Sangui was.

Wu Sangui didn't hide it from him, and roughly analyzed the strength of the enemy's situation: "At the beginning of the robbers, Liu Zongmin sent about [-] to [-] soldiers to attack the city. They failed to go down the city for five days, and they added troops every day. .

By the time Dorgon arrives, there will probably be at least a hundred thousand troops on the front line. Alas, it's all due to those spineless traitors!The Chuang army can gather such a force, how many of them are soldiers of my Ming Dynasty! "

In order to whitewash Li Zicheng's defeat in Yiyishi, many historical materials often describe Li Zicheng's available troops less.

Some said that only 60 of the main combat troops were brought to Yiyishi, and some said that only 10,000 were brought.He also said that although Li Zicheng claims to have "[-] soldiers from the Great Shun Heaven", in fact his entire regime has only [-]+ combatable soldiers.

But this figure is obviously underestimated.

In this time and space, when Li Zicheng took care of Sun Chuanting and raised troops from Shaanxi and Henan, including the old and weak logistics, there were actually more than 30 people.

There may indeed be only 20 to [-] veterans. Counting the more than [-] recruits, the total number of combatable soldiers should be between [-] and [-].

However, during the journey to the north, apart from Ningwu Pass, there was also a battle against Beijing City. The casualties of the invading army reached more than [-] people. The other previous occupations were basically bloodless, or at most thousands of casualties level.

Moreover, when Li Zicheng attacked the city, he also liked to use the old and the weak as cannon fodder to share the firepower. For example, he ordered the old, young, women and children to fill the moat with soil.
If you are shot to death during these three trips, then even if your life is bad, you will have no chance to resist Li Zicheng's order, and those who survived will only feel lucky. Anyway, there is no need to take any more risks in the future, and they are too lazy to resist. .

Under such differentiation of gambling luck, more than a million people were forced to take risks by Li Zicheng one after another, but because they were not in harmony, they all felt that they had escaped by luck and there was no need to resist, so Li Zicheng continued to grow.
After attacking so many cities, the direct descendants of the old battalion and the elite soldiers of hundreds of battles did not lose much, and there was always a steady stream of cannon fodder to share the firepower.

It can only be said that Li Zicheng's level of fleece is still good. He didn't catch a group of sheep to death like Chongzhen. He knew that after making people risk their lives three times, he would let the other party go and replace them with a group of old and weak.In the end, with the tolerance of the Han people, one thing more is worse than one thing less, and there was no obvious resistance.

Such a Chuangjun who came all the way from Shandong and Hebei, when they finally arrived in Beijing, their core combat power was still very well preserved.

Before and after Chongzhen, the surrender of the northern Ming army brought Li Zicheng a huge amount of temporary combat power, which further strengthened his confidence in the face of Wu Sangui and Dorgon—

Tangtong’s Miyun soldiers were swallowed up by Wu Sangui just like in the same period in history, but Wu Sangui only abducted about half of Ma Ke’s and Bai Guangen’s soldiers, and the other half, about 3 people, still follow Li Zicheng today.

In addition, in the Shanxi Ming army, only Zhou Yuji's men fought to the end and did not surrender.But Xiong Tong, who was supposed to fight side by side with Zhou Yuji, surrendered directly with most of his strength.

Before that, when the city of Taiyuan was broken, the governor Cai Maode died for his country, but Cai Maode's improper employment and harsh criticism forced Zhang Xiong, one of the guards of Taiyuan, to defect to the enemy and take many soldiers from Shanxi.

Lin Lin finally figured out that in Shanxi and Hebei provinces, each province fell, at least [-] Ming troops directly defected to the enemy.
The number of defectors in Shandong was slightly less, because only two mansions were occupied by Li Zicheng's Southern Route Army Liu Fangliang, and the number of people engulfed along the way was much smaller. Liu Zeqing's main force of the Shandong Ming Army chose to back down.

Finally, adding the number of surrendered enemies from the three major battalions of the capital, it is no exaggeration to say that Li Zicheng has surrendered at least [-] local troops of the original Ming army in the past few months.

It's just that the combat effectiveness of these Ming troops cannot be guaranteed. They were extremely corrupt under Chongzhen's command, and only Bai Guangen and Ma Ke's people had some combat effectiveness.Returning to Li Zicheng will not immediately transform into a powerful one, and the equipment situation will not be improved, and it is impossible for Li Zicheng to conjure weapons out of thin air to arm these newly attached troops.

Therefore, as of early February of the 17th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng's Dashun regime actually had nearly 20 peasant soldiers, including about 28 to [-] elite veterans.The Ming army dropped [-] troops, and the total combat troops actually numbered as many as [-].

If the [-] pioneers can't take down Shanhaiguan, then continue to increase troops!It is entirely possible to draw the former [-] Ming army, plus some relatively young and strong men to the front line.

Wu Sangui reckoned that he might eventually have to withstand the attack of an army of 10,000+.As for the full 28, it is impossible. Li Zicheng will definitely leave some belly to defend the city of Beijing, and also ensure that Tianjin Wei Dagukou and other key nodes along the line will take up 10,000+ people in total.

The poor logistical supply capabilities of Li Zicheng's army did not allow them to directly pile 20 people to the front line of Shanhaiguan.

Wherever the Chuangjun fought before, they ate all the way there. It was impossible for tens of thousands of people to rely on self-transported food, and it was impossible to transport them.

The defense area between Shuntian Mansion and Yongping Mansion was completely cleared by Wu Sangui, and the grain storage around Shanhaiguan could not be grabbed, which was also a blow to Li Zicheng's military investment.

Li Zicheng also knew that he had to fight quickly. In the end, his biggest reliance was the pile of red barbarian cannons he got after the city of Beijing was broken.

In the original history, among the various forces in the late Ming Dynasty, the force with the largest number of red barbarian cannons was the Manchu Qing. It is said that in the 17th year of Chongzhen, there were more than two hundred red barbarian cannons all over the country. Huang Taiji has been in power for more than ten years, and he really attaches too much importance to the Hongyi Cannon, and he is too willing to spend his money.

After the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Zheng family was the second most powerful force in Hongyi Cannon, and the third was the turn of the Ming court.But now in this time and space, the force with the most Hongyi cannons in the world is of course Zhu Shuren in the south. He has been farming for many years, and the number of Hongyi cannons is already more than that of the Qing Dynasty. The army and the Qing army are all good.

In the Ming court, the nine side defenders accounted for more than half of the stock of Hongyi cannons, and Wu Sangui was the most important here, accounting for half of the nine side artillery, about [-] pieces.

And Li Zicheng took down the arsenal around Beijing, as well as the equipment of the surrendered frontier army in Hebei and Shanxi, plus the original accumulation of the Chuang army over the years, he also had more than [-] red barbarian cannons.

On the Shanhaiguan battlefield, dozens of red barbarian cannons were fired at each other every day, and the scene was spectacular.

The majestic pass wall was also crumbling under the repeated bombardment of solid iron bullets. In many places, rammed stones and rammed earth collapsed, and a part of the city wall collapsed in the east and west.

Li Zicheng's vanguard general is Liu Zongmin. Li Zicheng himself has not yet rushed to the front to personally supervise the battle, but Liu Zongmin is also burdened with the crime of regicide, so it is very clear that Wu Sangui must not be allowed to come back, and he must work very hard to urge the supervisor to attack the city.

Whenever he saw a collapse in the city wall of Shanhaiguan, even if it was just a gentle slope formed by the rammed earth avalanche, he would order his soldiers to charge bravely from the gentle slope regardless of life or death.

Groups of soldiers of the Dashun Army, including the cannon fodder of the Ma Ke tribe of the Ming Army who were pulled over, just like walking corpses attacked fiercely against the ferocity of Wu Sangui's army.

Wu Sangui also had to send out batches of daredevils to block the entrance and fight hand-to-hand on the top of the half-collapsed wall. , They are also equipped with iron-coated cotton armor.

"Kill the intruders! Avenge the late emperor!" Wu Jiajia Ding shouted slogans, the sound of killing was loud, his waist knives flew, and his spears stabbed randomly, pushing down the charge of the intruders again and again.

During the fierce battle, some former soldiers of the Ming army under Ma Ke were overwhelmed by seeing their former allies become so brave.

In particular, Wu Sangui's iron-coated cotton armor for these melee soldiers has been processed in advance, either by selecting the armor that was originally covered with white cloth, or by temporarily processing and sewing an additional layer of white cotton cloth in the past ten days. Played "Weeping Six Armies All Su" to the extreme.

In this life, Wu Sangui didn't know Chen Yuanyuan at all. He insisted on resisting only for the benefit of the family group, for the benefit of Liaoxi generals, and declared to the outside world that he was loyal to the first emperor and Daming.

Not to mention, let him make such a publicity, the Shanhaiguan Ming Army has also been packaged as an army of justice that seems to be comparable to Liu Kunzuti's army of revenge.Marko's subordinates fought and fought, and many soldiers felt so ashamed that they collapsed and fled in groups.
The Chuangjun sent by Liu Zongmin to supervise the battle couldn't be stopped, and he was afraid of further intensifying the conflict between the surrendered army and the Chuangjun old camp, so he could only choose a few leaders to kill Liwei at the moment, not daring to punish too much.

After another few days of fierce fighting, until the evening of the [-]th day of the siege of Shanhaiguan, even Li Zicheng himself finally arrived at Shanhaiguan with tens of thousands of reinforcements.

Seeing that Liu Zongmin spent fifty Hongyi cannons besieging the city and failed to take it down for eight days, he was also quite annoyed, and couldn't help but ask for responsibility:
"Even though the Shanhai Pass is majestic, with so many Hongyi cannons bombarding the wall, it should have been destroyed long ago. Why can't we take it down!"

Liu Zongmin was also helpless: "My lord, Wu Sangui trilogy is really brave! I don't know why they suddenly became so loyal to Chongzhen.

Our army's Hongyi cannon blasted several gaps back and forth, but Wu Sangui's soldiers and horses were able to break through the wall without retreating. They sent thousands of dead soldiers to block the gap and fought hand-to-hand with my army at the gap. They were all white helmets and white A pays filial piety to Chongzhen,
I originally wanted to mobilize Ma Ke and Bai Guangen's old troops to fight and kill people, but who knew that Ma Ke and Bai Guangen's old troops almost collapsed and rebelled, so I didn't go down for a long time. "

Li Zicheng was as anxious as a wild animal, and Song Xiance next to him was also full of worry:

"This is amazing. The scouts have come to report that Dorgon's Qing army has entered the customs from another place. The scouts report back by traveling three or four hundred miles a day on flying horses. I don't know how many days it will be before Dorgon arrives here. Your Majesty should prepare for a field battle, and beware of being flanked by Dorgon and Wu Sangui."

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PS: After all, there is no protagonist's power in the scene. It is purely the dog-eat-dog of other three-party warlords in the world, so it can only be passed quickly.However, the changes in the strength of all parties have to be counted, so as not to be too abrupt when the results are drawn, so it is handled like this.

It’s also my fault that there are too many butterfly effects in my book. The forces of all parties have changed too much compared with the same period in history.

(End of this chapter)