Ming Empire

Chapter 196
When Cao Yue led his fleet to reach the mouth of the Yangtze River and was about to go upstream, he received the northern battle report sent by Cao Jie with great painstaking efforts.

After Cao Yue read all the battle reports with a solemn face, he stood at the bow of the ship without saying a word, and stayed there for a long time.

One thing that reassures Cao Yue is that all the battle reports sent from Beijing to Nanjing were intercepted by Cao Jie. Judging from the news from Cao Jie and other channels, the soldiers and civilians in Nanjing don’t know that Beijing has fallen into the hands of bandits for the time being. .As for the news from Nanjing, there were no reports of turmoil. Although there were some rumors, they were quickly quelled.

This is what made Cao Yue gratified, but other news made him worried, because everything happened as in the original history. Wu Sangui joined forces with Dorgon and fought with Li Zicheng on a piece of stone. In the end, Li Zicheng personally led the The bandits were defeated, and the leader of the peasant army led the remnants back to Beijing, abandoned Beijing, and fled back to Xi'an.How history will develop next, he has no way of predicting.But he knows that everything in the future is closely related to what he does, and what he does may directly affect the direction of history.

Cao Yue felt a heaviness he had never felt before, and he felt a psychological burden.But soon, he was full of fighting spirit, a sense of pride and responsibility to change history and completely change China's destiny, which made him want to do something as soon as possible so that everything would develop as he wanted.

The situation in the north is like this: After Wu Sangui knew that his old father was imprisoned by Li Zicheng and almost all his family property was confiscated by the rogues, he changed his original intention and completely dispelled the idea of ​​surrendering to the rogues and building the Dashun Dynasty. Under the banner of revenge, he returned to Shanhaiguan. After borrowing troops from Dorgon and getting a clear reply, he led the army to attack Tang Tong, the former Miyun general who had surrendered to the bandits.

Tang Tong hurriedly asked Li Zicheng for help. After Li Zicheng received Tang Tong's emergency rescue letter, he immediately called the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs to discuss countermeasures, and finally decided on a strategy of both conquest and appeasement.

The war was urgent, Li Zicheng ordered General Liu Zongmin to lead 5 troops, and then ordered Li Guo to follow up with 5 horses, and he himself led [-] horses to the rear, preparing to capture Shanhaiguan in one fell swoop.Of course, Li Zicheng did not give up recruiting Wu Sangui, he took Wu Sangui's father, Wu Xiang, with the army.

Li Zicheng didn't know that Wu Sangui had borrowed troops from Dorgon, Jiannu was going south with all his strength, and he didn't launch a quick attack on Wu Sangui's troops, and all the horses and horses moved very slowly. They arrived at Shanhaiguan several days later and confronted Wu Sangui's troops on the west bank of the Shihe River. trend.

After a small loss in the first battle, Li Zicheng ordered Liu Zongmin's troops to attack the two cities of Dongluo and Beiyi, but no results were achieved.

On the second day, Li Zicheng decided to launch a full-scale attack on Shanhaiguan. He ordered Liu Zongmin's [-] main force to attack from the west of Shihe, and another [-] people from Tang Tong to attack from a stone, preparing to attack Dongluo City in Shanhaiguan by detouring outside the pass. , Xiluo City, and Beiyi City, he himself led the army to attack Shanhaiguan from the front.After a whole day and night of fierce fighting between the two sides, Wu Sangui's army was already on the verge of collapse, and a part of the northern wing city was guarded and surrendered to the rogues.

However, the main force of the Guanning Army still defended the strong city. Wu Sangui strictly ordered his troops to fight to the end.

After several days of fierce fighting, both armies suffered heavy casualties. Although Wu Sangui's Guan Ning Army had the Great Wall's natural danger as evidence, the combat effectiveness of the rogue bandits was also very strong, and their strength was overwhelming, and the Guan Ning Army was gradually exhausted.Wu Sangui knew that the situation was critical. If the battle continued like this, Shanhaiguan would soon be captured by bandits. In desperation, he personally led some soldiers and local gentry to rush out of the gate, and asked Jiannu to join the battle immediately.

Dorgon accepted Wu Sangui's request, and led his slaves to station less than ten miles away from the Shanhaiguan Pass, and easily defeated the Tang Tong Department.

After the Tang Tong tribe suffered a disastrous defeat, they gave up resistance and surrendered Jiannu.

When Dorgon led his troops to Weiyuantai, Huanxiling, which was only two miles away from Shanhaiguan, he summoned Wu Sangui in person.He said to Wu Sangui: "You are willing to avenge the old master. The righteousness is commendable. I will lead the army to make it perfect. The current affairs of the former emperor need not be said today, and I can't bear to say it. But it was an enemy country in the past, but now it is a family. Our troops marched in. Guan, if you touch a plant of grass or a grain, you will be put to death by military law. You and the others tell the residents, big and small, not to panic."

He also ordered Wu Sangui: "When you come back, you can order your soldiers to use white cloth to tie their shoulders as a title. Otherwise, how can we distinguish the same Han people? It may cause manslaughter."

Subsequently, Dorgon ordered his men and horses to attack the bandits led by Li Zicheng with all their strength.

Prince Azig of England commanded more than 2 cavalry and entered through the North Water Gate; Prince Yu Duoduo commanded more than [-] cavalry and entered through the South Water Gate.Dorgon led the main force of more than [-] cavalry to the rear and entered through the Guanzhong Gate.Dorgon was not completely sure of defeating the rogues led by Li Zicheng. He knew that the rogues were not weak in combat power and were equipped with red cannons, so he left a way out for himself and ordered nearly [-] people to be stationed in Huanxiling.

After Jiannu entered the customs, he saw the army of rogue bandits lined up in a long snake formation from Beishan to the sea. Overjoyed, Dorgon immediately ordered the army of Jiannu to line up along the sea, and ordered Wu Sangui's army to line up on the right side of the array, ready to pour Attack Li Zicheng's troops with all their strength.It was also God who helped Jiannu. When Jiannu launched an all-out attack, the strong wind blew up dust all over the sky, and the rogues didn't even notice that Jiannu joined the battle.

When the dust was rising all over the sky, Dorgon yelled "God help me too", and personally the Eight Banners cavalry stormed Li Zicheng's troops.Jiannu, who was defeated several times by the Ming army and suffered huge losses, was holding back his energy to take revenge, and picked an opportunity to attack while taking advantage of the situation, how could he let it go?Whether it was the Jurchen Eight Banners, the Mongolian Eight Banners, or the Han army and the Korean army, they all burst out with powerful fighting power, roaring and rushing towards the rogues.

Although the rogues resisted desperately, they were already exhausted after fighting with Wu Sangui's army for days and nights. How could the opponents of Jiannu, who were waiting for work, be overwhelmed by the rogues in a single encounter.The morale of the Jiannu who successfully charged into the ranks of the rogues was greatly boosted, and the rogues who were caught off guard suffered heavy losses.Liu Zongmin was injured in the battle. After he was injured, his troops were quickly defeated, which caused a chain reaction, and the bandits were defeated across the board.
Li Zicheng, who immediately supervised the battle on Xiaogangfu, saw that the defeat was already settled, so he had no choice but to order a retreat.Before announcing his retreat, Li Zicheng, who was furious, beheaded Wu Xiang in front of his horse, and hung his head on a high pole for public display. After returning to the capital, he killed 38 members of the Wu family, both young and old.After returning to Beijing, Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor in the Forbidden City. The next day, Li Zicheng led his troops to flee Beijing in a hurry and retreat to Xi'an.

On the day of the Battle of One Stone, Dorgon named Wu Sangui the Pingxi King of the Qing Dynasty and ordered him to be the forerunner, chasing and killing them all the way to the capital.

Wu Sangui, who originally didn't want to surrender to become a slave, was already riding a tiger. Seeing his old father's head hanging high in front of the battle, he became more and more angry, and finally accepted Dorgon's enfeoffment, and began his career as a slave. .When the rogue bandits retreated in the direction of Beijing in a hurry, he personally led the Guan Ning army to follow and pursue them.

(End of this chapter)