Wu Mengming blushed and bowed against the wall. He was startled by the cool breeze that shook his spirit. He raised his hands and let out a long whimper towards the outside of the city. He looked particularly relaxed and happy. Chang Yu looked at him and chuckled silently.
"It was unexpectedly difficult, but there were unexpected gains." Wu Mengming couldn't hide his excitement. Chang Yu chuckled: "Xungui, all of you are like pigs and are not afraid of boiling water. They want to take advantage of them." It's not that easy to get money out of pocket, but Mr. Wu looks like he is enjoying it. Although money is not easy to make, the popularity and reputation are enough."
Wu Mengming laughed loudly: "To be honest, I never thought that one day my reputation would be so famous and praised by everyone."
He spent all his money to donate money to the court to fight against the Tatars. He called on the nobles of the capital to raise donations in his own name. He spoke fiercely and even cursed those worms who could eat the emperor's salary and be disloyal to the emperor. He once even led the people to come to the house to besiege and force donations, causing an uproar in the capital. , and the people all praised him for his righteousness, Ling Ran, being loyal to the emperor, patriotic and not afraid of power... It can be said that he has a great reputation and rave reviews. In addition, he naturally wins the favor of Emperor Chongzhen. Of course, his share of the raised funds is also indispensable. It can be said that he has achieved both fame and fortune in one fell swoop. receive.
"You've got all the good things, so just do your best." Chang Yu smiled slightly. Wu Mengming couldn't calm down for a while, and he was even more excited because of his drunkenness. He talked nonsense for a long time, saying that those nobles really didn't see the coffin. In tears, Chang Yu listened for a while and then interrupted him: "The Tatar soldiers will besiege the city tomorrow and I can help you."
Wu Mengming trembled violently: "The Tatars are coming to the city tomorrow? Why so soon... Factory Supervisor, do you think the Tatars will invade?"
"It's impossible to break in, but you must let them fight. At least you have to make a show of fighting, otherwise you will still make money. You also know that those nobles will not shed tears without seeing the coffin. In this case, let them see it. coffin".
Wu Mengming exclaimed: "Mr. Factory Superintendent, are you sure that the Tatars will attack the city tomorrow?"
"Definitely! The governor has already smelled Dorgon's scent." Chang Yu nodded slightly, his eyes drifting far to the north. The night was thick, and there were no stars or clouds.
Shunyi County is more than sixty miles away from the capital. Even if Dorgon had body odor, Chang Yu couldn't smell it, but he was really here. In the evening, Dorgon personally led more than 10,000 troops south, ten miles away from Shunyi County. While I was resting, I suddenly heard that Tan Ma had arrived. A large Ming army had appeared twenty miles away to the south, and thousands of them were hunting Tan Ma.
If it were normal, Dorgon would either ignore it or send a team of troops to fight, but since his defeat outside the pass, he has become cautious. After all, he only has so much capital. If he loses again, there will be no hope of turning around, so he has to careful.
According to previous intelligence, the Ming Dynasty had no troops in the Gyeonggi area. After he entered the pass, thousands of Ming troops in Changping in the west were easily defeated by Azige and returned to Changping City. However, Tang Tong's troops traveled from Jizhen to Pinggu and met Nikan and Wa. Keda avoided fighting and retreated into the city.
So where did this Ming army from the south come from?
The Manchu and Qing Dynasties were hiding numerous spies in the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming court was suppressing thieves in Baoding Prefecture. The empty information in the capital was sent by these spies. The second day after he entered the customs, he learned that the Ming army in the south was hurriedly returning to the capital.
So who is the Ming army twenty miles away? Are they the defenders in the capital or reinforcements from the south? Dorgon was unsure for a moment. Of course he had heard about the behavior of the Ming army in the Beijing camp. He was usually frightened by the Qing army. Now he had the courage to go out of the city and confront them? And most of them are infantry.
Only the perennial field troops have the courage. For example, Wu Sangui's Guan Ning Army, perhaps the reinforcements led by the young eunuch returned to Beijing, but how could it be so fast!
Dorgon, who was unsure, decided to test it out. Just when he was about to send Duoduo to lead 5,000 cavalry, he came to report that the Ming army was leaving. According to observation, it should be the troops from the Beijing camp.
Hold!
Dorgon gritted his teeth and regretted that he had hesitated before and missed the opportunity to beat the Ming army. Was he a little too cautious and lost the opportunity to fight?
Regretful, he vented his anger in Shunyi County, and ordered the army to besiege the city and capture it before dark. He had built some simple siege equipment when breaking through the dense clouds, and it was just in time to use it.
I thought it would be easy, or even self-defeating without attacking, but I didn't expect that although there were only a few hundred defenders in Shunyi County, they refused to surrender and the people in the city came to the city to help in the battle. Without artillery and heavy siege supplies, the Qing army attacked for nearly an hour. Returned without success.
Dorgon was furious, but he didn't want to waste his manager's time in a small broken city, so he ordered plundering, but found that the surrounding villages and towns had already been empty, and the income was very little. Unwilling to do so, he ordered the army to go south. They want Chen Bing to attack the Ming Dynasty's capital city, plunder and humiliate the Ming court wantonly.
He had already made up his mind and planned to surround but not fight. If you leave the city, I will beat you. If you don’t come out, I will go around burning, killing and looting. He can enjoy himself and leave at the same time. Even if reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty arrive, he will not be afraid. What a big deal. After leaving, he didn't believe that the Ming army dared to chase him and fight him!
In this social night of spring and summer, many people could not sleep late at night. The young eunuchs in the imperial capital climbed the city wall to blow the wind, and Dorgon, due to the north, rode his horse and whipped his whip to march at night.
Hundreds of miles away in Ren County, Shunde Prefecture, Gao Jie was drinking and chatting with Liu Zeqing. At least on the surface, it seemed like that, but in fact, the situation was getting tense. What do you mean?
It’s just an uneven distribution of the spoils.
It is said that late the night before yesterday, Li Zicheng gathered his army and decided to forcefully break through the checkpoint. Gao Jie fought with more than 10,000 troops. He did not have an advantage in strength, but his morale and physical strength were not comparable to that of the thieves. More importantly, he bet that reinforcements would arrive soon, even if they did not. He can come and leave calmly.
The two armies fought bloody battles on the banks of the Li River. The sky and the earth were dimmed without the light of the stars and the moon. After half a stick of incense, Gao Jie's troops were defeated and were about to retreat. Suddenly they heard a loud killing sound from the north. Liu Zeqing and Li Chengdong led their troops to kill. The morale of the officers and soldiers was greatly boosted. Gao Jie, who wanted to retreat, gritted his teeth and fought again.
Liu Zeqing and Gao Jie's troops, which numbered about 30,000, were slightly inferior to the rebels, and they were exhausted from pursuing them all the way. They were not at their peak, but they were evenly matched with the rebels. This was mainly because the rebels were flanked from the front and rear and the night battle was unclear in the complex environment. The morale of the army was in great confusion and they had no desire to fight.
But officers and soldiers are different. Although they are tired, they are full of fighting spirit. The reason is very good. These two troops are not good people. They are rushing to kill people and buy goods. They all know that if they defeat the bandit army in this battle, they will get rich and reach the pinnacle of life.
However, the bandit army was also anxious to jump over the wall, knowing that if they did not fight a bloody road, they would die. After relying on their superior strength and fighting fiercely for nearly half an hour, they finally broke out of the jam and were unable to escape. Gao Jie and Liu Zeqing led their troops to pursue them for several miles. In the end, they gave up because they were exhausted. In fact, both of them were careful. After all, the rebel army left a lot of baggage behind and they had to go back to harvest it quickly.
The bandit army left, and the two people who were fighting side by side just now were about to fall out. Gao Jie said that I had fought hard for many days and naturally got the big head. Liu Zeqing rolled his eyes and disagreed. I chased him down from Zhending Mansion non-stop without closing his eyes, beating him while chasing him. It's so difficult. If I hadn't come to help you just now, you would have fled with your tail between your tail and not a hair. Of course, I took the big head.
Gao Jie yelled, "If I hadn't stopped you from catching up, I probably wouldn't be able to touch the horse's butt now. Besides, the reinforcements are not yours, and it's the work of his general Li Chengdong. You are so shameless." Take it upon yourself.
Neither of them was a good quarrel, and they refused to give in to each other and even faced each other until dawn. Both sides were exhausted and could not hold on any longer, so they each took a step back and transported their gains to Ren County to rest and discuss again.
When Ren County was resting, Gao Jie did not forget Li Zicheng. In terms of personal grudges, he wanted to beat up the drowned dog, so it was best to kill him. In terms of public affairs, Chang Yu ordered him to intercept and pursue him, not to mention that he was thinking about the supplies Li Zicheng had looted, which were countless. The income of the government.
So he ordered his general Liu Cheng to lead 3,000 cavalry to keep an eye on the bandits, and ordered all the troops in Fucheng to go south to pursue the bandits. As for him and Liu Zeqing, they slept soundly in the city for a day and night, and began to argue.
Peace means win-win for both sides, but division means both sides lose. Liu Zeqing was very resourceful and finally took a step back. Gao Jie used what he had gained previously, and what he gained the night before was divided equally between the two.
Gao Jie thought for a while and felt that what he said was reasonable. The bandits currently had fifty or sixty thousand troops. No one of them could match him in a one-on-one fight. However, although they could not devour the bandit army at once after joining forces, they could still bite them one by one. It can't kill it, but it can bite off a big piece even when it reaches the Yellow River.
After reaching a consensus, the two men were about to dispatch troops to chase the thieves. However, at this moment, soldiers came to report and captured a big figure, King Qin Zhu Cunji (history mistakenly thought he was his eldest brother Zhu Cunshu).
How could Zhu Cunji be in the bandit army?
Gao Jie and Liu Zeqing looked confused, but in fact they didn't know that when Li Zicheng captured Xi'an, the King of Qin surrendered, and Li Zicheng won over him and instead of harming him, he made him General Quan.
General Quan has the highest rank among the thieves, and is the first person under the thieves, such as Tian Jianxiu and Liu Zongmin. It can be seen that he also spent money to win over the King of Qin and stabilize the people of Xi'an.
Historically, Li Zicheng ordered the King of Qin to accompany him during the Eastern Expedition. Later, he was defeated in Shanhaiguan and fled from Beijing. He killed Zhu Cunji on the way. It was around this time. However, history changed. This time, Zhu Cunji did not die but was captured.
After all, he was the vassal king. Gao Jie and Liu Zeqing did not dare to neglect him. They hurriedly welcomed him into the city and entertained him well. They also asked people to report to the capital how to deal with it.
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