On April 22, when it was just dawn, in the vast area in front of Shanhaiguan, the sound of troops moving, the sound of standing formations, the sound of horse hooves treading on the ground, and the sound of weapons rubbing into each other, indicating that a war is coming again.

Yesterday, after the Crown Prince Zhu Cixuan and Wu Sangui's father Wu Xiang failed to persuade him to surrender, the two sides had fought for a long time. Wu Sangui defended the city tightly, and the rebel army attacked four times from the west and north sides. The last time, he almost attacked the auxiliary city from the north wing. It was the Wu general Gao Dejie who sacrificed his life to lead two hundred iron-armored soldiers to counterattack, and then drove the rebel army that had already climbed the city down again.

If yesterday's battle was still tentative, then today's rebel army was fully launched. Li Zicheng made up his mind to deal with Wu Sangui within today.

This time, Wu Sangui did not retreat from the beginning to defend, but instead used his Guanning army as the center and right wing, and Gao Di's 10,000 people as the left wing, leaving the city and lined up along the Shihe River to challenge the rebel army.

Li Zicheng was not surprised. After all, the army under Wu Sangui was known as the Guanning Iron Cavalry and was good at field battles. From the beginning, he expected that Wu Sangui would not always be huddled in Shanhaiguan and wait for death.

It was not the same, Li Zicheng thought to himself that Wu Sangui was dead, but the only difference was whether it was earlier or later, whether it was inside or outside the pass.

Outside the main city of Shanhaiguan, there are four auxiliary cities connected to the main city, the north and south directions are called North Wing City and South Wing City, and the east and west directions are called Xiluo City and Dongluo City. The south wing is connected to the sea, the north wing connects the Great Wall, Dongluo City leads to Ningjin, and Xiluo City faces the rebel army directly.

Li Zicheng's arrangement was also very straightforward. He sent Bai Guangen's 6,000 people to meet with Tang Tong's 8,000 people on a stone, and went around to the back of Shanhaiguan, attacking Dongluo City, and at the same time cut off Wu Sangui's escape to Liaoshen to prevent him from surrendering to the Qing Dynasty. He sent Ma Chongxi's 5,000 people and Jiang Xiang's 3,000 people to join forces to siege Beiyi City.

The area in front of Xiluo City was a front battlefield. He sent Liu Zongmin's 18,000 Zhongquan's personal army to attack Wu Sangui's right wing, Li Guo's 24,000 people to attack Wu Sangui's central army, and Liu Fangliang's 21,000 people to attack Wu Sangui's left wing.

Li Zicheng himself was escorted by three thousand battalion cavalry commanded by Zhang Nai, standing on an unknown high hill, looking at the entire battle situation, and being able to mobilize commands at any time with banners and commanders.

Just in case, he also kept four reserve teams, including Yuan Zongdi, He Jin, Zhang Tianlin and Liu Xiyao, with a total of 45,000 people, and could be put into the battlefield at any time.

He soon discovered how correct this decision was. As the sky brightened, looking from west to east from Guancheng, you could see that on Huanxi Ridge on the east side of Guancheng, there was a cavalry of tens of thousands of people at some point. Hundreds of flags of various colors were inserted on the hillside, fluttering with the north wind blowing from time to time.

The Northern Bing is really here.

Li Zicheng was not panicked. According to his judgment, this cavalry team had no more than 50,000 people. Judging from their appearance on the slope of the horse, they should have arrived shortly after they were still breathing. They did not look like they were coming to support Wu Sangui, but more like they were sitting in the mountains and watching tiger fights.

In his mind, he always believed that Wu Sangui's Liaodong army and the Qing Dynasty fought each other for decades, which was a feud, and Dashun and the Qing Dynasty had never celebrated a festival, so even if the Tartars came to steal the world, they would not be able to help Wu Sangui's side.

I just want the fisherman to benefit, so let you see my methods.

Under such a situation, he decided to fight quickly and deal with Wu Sangui as soon as possible, shocking the Qing army that came from afar, so that they dare not act rashly.

The only strange thing is that why did Tang Tong and Bai Guangen, who were circling outside the pass, have no movement?

However, this was not enough to shake Li Zicheng's determination. With the wave of the flag, the battle immediately began.

Wu Sangui's general Wu Zhimao led 12,000 people from the right wing, Wu Sangui personally led the central army and the elite Yi people Ding 15,000 people from the elite Yi people, and Gao Di, the general of Shanhaiguan, led 9,000 people from the left wing, and fought fiercely with the old soldiers of the King of Chuang, who were twice as good as him.

Before Xiluo City, the sound of cannons was like thunder and arrows were like rain. In the gushing north wind, the infantry and cavalry of the rebel army rushed towards the three formations of the left, center and right of the Wu army, and the Wu army was as tenacious as a hard reef. Relying on the support of the cannons on Xiluo City, they successively smashed the attacks of each wave of rebel army.

After two hours of hard fighting, both sides suffered heavy losses, but the numerical advantage of the tide of the treasury army finally began to play a role. The third-level front half surrounded the Guanning army on the battlefield below Guancheng. Hu Guozhu, the general under Wu Sangui, had been killed on the spot, and there were only less than two thousand elite servants around Wu Sangui, and the sound of cannons on the Guancheng began to drop, which was obvious that gunpowder and cannons were consumed too much.

At this time, another northwest wind broke out in front of the pass. The wind was quite strong. Although it had not reached the level of flying sand and stones, it was a whirlwind. The dust rolled up greatly hindered the sight of both sides on the battlefield, and the intensity of the battle could not help but eased.

Li Zicheng, who was watching the battle and commanding above Gaogang, had difficulty giving new orders for a while. He could only order to maintain the front line and the encirclement and not let the Wu army break through with the wind.

Such winds often occur in the north, and the battlefield filled with dust gradually became quiet. Both sides were taking a breath, holding their weapons tightly, consolidating their formation, and just waiting for this gust of wind to pass, they would start fighting again.

Half an hour passed, the dust finally settled, and the hostile sides appeared in front of each other again, so the shouts started again, and the waves of attacks of the rebel army rushed towards Wu Sangui's central army and right wing.

Li Zicheng judged the situation and felt that it was time to add a handful of firewood and burn the fire a little more vigorously.

"Then the command of Yuan Zongdi's right camp to penetrate from the direction opposite Nanshuimen, divide the left wing of Wu's army and the central army, give him a wedge, and then encircle them to both sides to separate their contact with Nanshuimen!"

"No!" The messenger immediately took the order and left.

"Sent He Jin to take his old Gate Battalion to surround the right wing of the Wu army and cut off their contact with Beishuimen!"

"promise!"

The two reserve teams had been ready for a long time, and they received the order and immediately waved their flags to move forward.

The investment of the new force immediately changed the balance of power that the Wu army struggled to maintain on the battlefield. The rebel army penetrated between the Wu army and Guancheng and attacked the Wu army from behind. The connection between the Wu army's center and the two wings and the connection between the Guancheng was cut off, and they fell into a dangerous situation where they might be divided and surrounded and defeated each.

According to Li Zicheng's experience, even the most powerful official army would collapse immediately under such a situation. However, he was surprised to find that although the formation maintained by Wu army was gradually compressed inward and turned into three isolated circles, with less than ten thousand people in each circle, they were still struggling to support, with no signs of distraction or collapse.

At this moment, Zhang Nai beside him pointed to the distant Huanxiling and exclaimed: "Father, look."

Li Zicheng looked up at the distance. Sure enough, after seeing the dust dissipated, although there were still flags on Huanxi Ridge, after closer inspection, it turned out that the place where the troops were stationed had become empty, and the tens of thousands of Tartar cavalry I saw in the morning were gone.

A chill in his heart and an ominous premonition arose.

"Immediately send orders Yuan Zongdi and He Jin to leave Guancheng!" He ordered loudly, "Tell Liu Xiyao and Zhang Tianlin, prepare to move to stabilize the front!"
Chapter completed!