April 22, the first year of Dashun Yongchang.

Inside Shanhaiguan.

"The Tartars are coming! The Tartars are coming!"

From the stone river beach in the south to the stone mountain pass in the north, the entire battlefield suddenly erupted with huge shouts like a mountain roar and a tsunami, full of panic.

Accompanied by this shout, there were also shouts of "Wow! Wow! Wow!" and a sudden strong wind blowing from the sea in the south. I don't know if it was God who was causing trouble, or it was the Shanhaiguan area near the sea that is so hot in summer.

There are so many hurricanes.

Anyway, the strong wind that was blowing sand and rocks and darkening the sky suddenly arose just when Dashun's army and Guan Ning's army were fighting to the point of being difficult to break up on the Shihetan battlefield, and the 3,000-horse attack that Li Zicheng had finally organized was completely defeated.

break.

Just when Li Zicheng, who was commanding the troops in a bloody battle for most of the day and had already deeply felt the hand of Wu Sangui's Guan Ning Army, was thinking about whether to withdraw his troops and return to the camp to rest. The cavalrymen of the brigade, whose flags, uniform colors, and hats were all different from those of Guan Ning's army, suddenly

Appears on the east side of Shihetan battlefield!

Then they took advantage of the wind and launched a charge together with Guan Ningjun, who was accustomed to the windy weather at the seaside!

Before the Manchurian soldiers appeared, Dashun Army and Guan Ning Army had been fighting on the battlefield west of Shanhaiguan for two days, and they were exhausted. Especially since the decisive battle between the two sides started early this morning, it was even more difficult. The 60,000-strong army

Under the personal supervision of Li Zicheng, the Shun army launched round after round of fierce attacks on the Guan Ning army, which had less than 30,000 troops. The two sides fought repeatedly on the river beaches on both sides of the fordable Shihe River, and the corpses were laid out layer by layer.

On the first floor, blood flowed into the shallow stone river, almost dyeing the water red.

On the side of the Dashun Army, those who died were not just some random gangsters, but the elites of Yishui's old battalion!

Because this time Li Zicheng was on an expedition of 700 miles and was in a hurry. He wanted to capture Guan Ning's army before the Manchus invaded. Therefore, he did not bring the rabble who were dragging his feet and wasting food, but all the old soldiers.

He just wanted to use the strong fighting power of the old camp soldiers to take down Guan Ning's army in one fell swoop!

Before sending troops, he had studied the terrain of Shanhaiguan with his generals and found that the strength of Shanhaiguan was from the outside (east). The walls facing the inside (west) of several Guancheng cities were very thin, and trenches were dug.

It is very shallow, and there are no defensive facilities such as city towers and tiger falls.

Even with easy-to-carry light artillery bombardment, several gaps can be opened, and it would not be difficult to attack the city again.

But on April 21, when the two sides had a tentative battle on both sides of the Shihetan, Li Zicheng already discovered that something was wrong.

The combat effectiveness of Guan Ning's army was much stronger than he thought! He originally thought that Guan Ning's army, like most of the Ming army, was just a small number of servants who could fight. But once they fought, he discovered that Guan Ning's army had certain combat capabilities.

Even ordinary soldiers are quite brave. This shows that Wu Sangui and his servants did not go south, but were here in Shanhaiguan!

What shocked Li Zicheng even more was that his old battalion soldiers had actually become weaker! In the first battle on the 21st, they showed weakness. There was no longer the usual momentum of everyone competing for the lead and everyone fighting bravely.

On the night of the 21st, Li himself had to summon his generals to cheer them up, and also gave rewards to the soldiers who participated in the battle. This boosted the morale of the troops a little more, but that was all.

Before Beijing, Li Zicheng's old soldiers thought that they had a share in Dashun and that they were the founding heroes, so they were full of energy, high morale, and proactive in fighting wars.

But now everyone is working for money and working as hard as they can, and they are almost as good as the elite of the Ming army.

Without that sense of ownership, Dashun's old battalion soldiers were not very strong and their numbers did not have much advantage. Therefore, when Guan Ning's army left the city and fought in the field with Dashun's army, they actually fell into a bitter battle.

Of course, although the Dashun Army could not cheer up, the Guan Ning Army also did not have high morale. After all, Beijing fell, and the officers and soldiers of the Guan Ning Army had just abandoned their hometown and became rootless soldiers. If Li Zicheng had not been there,

The news of Beijing's torture and forced pay made the officers of Guan Ning's army feel the danger. They all helped Wu Sangui to spread the word in the army about how ferocious the bandits were and would kill Guan Ning's family members. Maybe the soldiers of Guan Ning's army would be killed.

It collapsed because of low morale.

In this way, the two most powerful and elite Han armed forces started a brutal fight in Shanhaiguan even though their morale was not very high. As time went by, the casualties on both sides became heavier and heavier, and their strength also weakened.

The more they were consumed, the more they became a tired army.

If the Manchu soldiers led by Dorgon hadn't suddenly joined, the Dashun army would have won the victory in the end.

But just around the end of April 22nd, Dorgon selected 20,000 elite troops from the 100,000 Eight Banners army, passed through Xilao City in Shanhaiguan, and appeared in the center of the Shihetan battlefield.

.

Dorgon had been watching the battle on Xilao City since the morning. He had seen it very clearly and found that Li Zicheng's troops were not as large as the legend said. Moreover, the formation he deployed was too wide, from Beishan all the way to the seaside. He could not resist it at all.

The Eight Banners cavalry can’t resist the fierce charge!

As long as enough cavalry is invested to break through the middle of the Dashun Army in one fell swoop, they can be split into two halves.

When the sudden strong wind stopped, Li Zicheng, who was supervising the formation at the height of the red tile shop, happened to see the four-color Eight Banners cavalry rushing towards the stone river beach like a flood, rushing from the east bank to the west bank, crushing them like a torrent.

The Dashun Army in the center of the formation. Then one Dashun Army camp located on the west bank of Shihetan started a fierce battle with the Dashun Army guarding the camp. The other one rushed straight towards the Hongtile Store.

Li Zicheng was stunned when he saw it. Suddenly a horse came galloping towards him and reported to him: "The Tatar soldiers are coming. Ruhou (referring to Liu Zongmin) please ask the emperor to get out of here!"

Song Xiance on the side also panicked and said: "I didn't expect the Tatars to really come. Shanhaiguan is no longer accessible. Please leave as soon as possible!"

Li Zicheng was not willing to leave his brothers on the battlefield and run away. He gritted his teeth and said to an imperial camp general: "Immediately send an order to Ruhou and Liu Fangliang, and the army will fight and retreat!"

However, as soon as the general who delivered the order left, the vanguard of the Eight Banners soldiers rushed to the front of Li Zicheng's imperial camp and was blocked by the imperial camp soldiers led by Li Shuangxi.

At this time, on the west bank of the Shihe River, the Dashun Army had been divided into many places by the Eight Banners Soldiers and Guan Ning Army. Melees broke out everywhere and the fortresses were breached. However, when the Dashun Army was forced into a desperate situation by the Eight Banners Soldiers, the Dashun Army also showed

He showed combat effectiveness that surprised Dorgon.

They were clearly a tired force. When they fought against Guan Ning's army before, they didn't show much strength. Now they actually withstood the charge of the Eight Banners cavalry. They resisted desperately everywhere, and they were inextricably matched with the Eight Banners soldiers.

The Eight Banners soldiers caused a lot of casualties.

If it were the Ming army that Dorgon knew well, even the Guan Ning army would have collapsed long ago after fighting like this!

"These rogue bandits are not weak!" Dorgon, who was standing on the Xilao City supervising the formation, said to himself, "Did they hold back their hands when fighting Guan Ning's army before?"

Hong Chengchou, who was standing next to Dorgon, was also a little dazed. In his impression, the bandits should be very weak. Even if they are much stronger now, they should be defeated at the first touch when they encounter the Eight Banners Heavenly Soldiers!

But now there is no collapse! Hong Chengchou said in his heart: Fortunately, Li Zicheng only brought about 60,000 to 70,000 people. If he really brought in 200,000 rogue bandits, the battle at Shanhaiguan would have really hurt both the rogue bandits and the Tatars.

In addition, Zhu Cixiang, the prince of Fujun in the Ming Dynasty, seems to have defeated 20,000 rogue bandits in Tianjin Guards... How did this rebellious son who imprisoned his father and killed his younger brother do it?

While Hong Chengchou was thinking wildly, Dorgon was already issuing an order: "Send the order to Duoduo, Tan Tai and Obai, and let them lead a brigade with two white flags and two yellow flags to attack! We have many people today, even if we use people to pile up,

We want to kill Li Zicheng!"

"twitter!"

As the large groups of troops with two white flags and two yellow flags entered the battlefield through Xilao City, Shanhaiguan, the situation on the battlefield became even more unfavorable to the numerically disadvantaged Dashun Army. However, under the command of Liu Zongmin and Liu Fangliang, the resistance of the Dashun Army remained

Tenaciously, they dragged the battle until nightfall, and then retreated westward under the cover of night.

Because they were retreating under the cover of darkness, and Dorgon was unwilling to pursue the bandits fiercely and cause too much damage to the Eight Banners soldiers, he only sent Wu Sangui and more than 10,000 Guanning Army cavalry to follow them.
Chapter completed!