"...Everything the official said is true. The emperor and the prince of the Zhu Thief are both in the Tianjin Acropolis! Please send the two generals to quickly send troops to besiege Tianjin so that these two thieves can be captured in one catch!"
Twenty miles west of Tianjin City, Li Guo and Tang Tong listened to Yuan Yuzong's report. They looked at each other and remained silent, with a slightly surprised look on their faces.
Li Guo and Tang Tong now knew that Chongzhen at the Zhengyang Gate in Beijing was a Xibei. The person who brought the news to them was the three thousand reinforcements sent by Li Zicheng, who were also soldiers from the rear army of the old camp commanded by Li Guo. horse. Along with the reinforcements, there was also an imperial edict that strictly ordered Li Guo and Tang Tong to capture Chongzhen and his son!
Not long after the two received the imperial edict to arrest Chongzhen and his son, they learned the whereabouts of Chongzhen and his son. Of course, there was nothing surprising. However, the news that Chongzhen and his son had actually reunited with Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, surprised Li Guo and Tang Tong.
According to the Tang report they had received before, Wu Sangui's army was still in Yongping Mansion. Why did you arrive at Tianjin Wei all of a sudden now?
This is incredible! Wu Sangui's army fought against the Manchus in Liaodong and was famously fierce. Moreover, the Liaodong Army has 80,000 troops on its roster, and its actual strength cannot be less than 40,000.
However, the troops Li Guo and Tang Tong had at hand were only 11,000 and zero. With just a few people, they still have to besiege Tianjin and kill all the enemies in one fell swoop... No matter how you look at it, they are risking their lives!
"Yuan Bingbei," Tang Tong asked with a frown, "Have you really seen Wu Sangui?"
Yuan Yuzong nodded and said: "I saw it! He was the one who rushed into the west gate of Tianjin with the Yi Ding cavalry and overwhelmed the troops of Xiaguan and General Li!"
"The Yi-Ding cavalry?" Tang Tong took a breath, "The Yi-Ding cavalry are all brave men who can be selected from a hundred, and everyone is wearing iron armor!"
"Yes, yes, everyone is very strong!" Yuan Yuzong nodded repeatedly, "Everyone is wearing iron armor and is invulnerable to swords and arrows!"
Tang Tong said again: "The Yi and Ding cavalry often fight in a group of fifty cavalry, and they are extremely fierce!"
Yang Weihan said with a shocked look on his face: "Yes, they are just a team of dozens of riders, forming a group to charge into the battle, they are unstoppable..."
Tang Tong turned to Li Guo and said, "Master Hou, that's right, Wu Sangui has really arrived in Tianjin!"
Li Guo frowned: "Original Bingbei, Vice General Yang, do you know how many people Wu Sangui brought?"
"Perhaps there are three or two thousand." Yuan Yuzong said, "There are also several thousand infantry, called the Kenan Camp, the Tiger Guard Camp, and the Guard Camp. They should have been brought out from the capital by Zhu Thief and his son. There are also some Cao Huachun recruited three or two thousand brave men from Wang Qingtuo."
"How many are there in total?" Tang Tong asked.
"There are more than 10,000 people." Yang Weihan said, "There should be some remaining Tianjin Guard troops, most of them also belong to the Zhuthiers. However, their total number will not exceed 15,000, and the only real elites among them are Wu Sangui's three Two thousand people.”
"That's all?" Tang Tong asked again.
"That's all." Yuan Yuzong said, "If there are more, how will Xiaguan and Yang Shen escape?"
Tang Tong turned to look at Li Guo: "Master Hou, what do you think we should do?"
Li Guo touched his beard: "If there are only more than 10,000 people, we have nothing to fear... so what about the Yi and Ding cavalry? We also have 2,000 cavalry on hand, all elites from the old camp. Just spread out and fight, eh Don’t be afraid of Wu Sangui either!”
Yuan Yuzong said with certainty: "There are only more than 10,000 people. If the whole Liaodong Army really arrived, I would not dare to set up an ambush in Tianjin City!"
Li Guo looked at Tang Tong: "General Tang, how are you doing?"
Tang Tong understood what Li Guo meant, cupped his hands and said, "Master Marquis, I'm going to lead the troops first. You can lead the elite troops to hold the battle, and there will be no mistakes."
Li Guo smiled: "That's it! But General Tang must be careful not to lose his spirit again.
Nowadays, people everywhere in Beizhili are watching the wind and falling, and it is not clear whether the general trend is favorable or not... So we don't need to make a quick decision, as long as we drag the red thieves and prevent them from getting away. If they can really fight, His Majesty will send a large army to attack them! "
Tang Tong said with a flattering look on his face: "Master Hou is so clever and clever, I will admire you!"
Li Guo laughed again.
…
Tianjin Acropolis has gradually calmed down, and even sporadic fighting has stopped. The entire city is completely controlled by Zhu Cixiang's Ming army.
Ming officers and soldiers wearing mandarin duck jackets can be seen patrolling in formations everywhere in the city, and there are almost no Tianjin Guard civilian activities on the streets. The heads of rebels and bandits who had been beheaded in previous battles, as well as those who took the opportunity to cause trouble, were hung everywhere to shock people.
The long street from Ximen to the Tianjin Governor's Office was littered with dead bodies. The headless bodies of Jin Bin and Lou Guangxian fell outside the governor's office. Both of them were captured by their former subordinates, and then led to and beheaded in front of the governor's office. Killed together with them were dozens of children of the Jin, Lou, Yuan, and Yang families. The female relatives of the two families had also lost their official positions, so naturally they would not end well...
There were more than a thousand soldiers who followed Generals Jin and Lou, as well as Yuan Yuzong and Yang Weihan who had escaped, to rebel. Nearly half died in the battle and fled, and five to six hundred others were captured. According to Zhu Cixiang's order, they were all dragged to the main campus in the city and publicly whipped! All the soldiers and generals of the Tianjin Zhenjun had to be whipped a few times.
Those who are still alive after the fight will form a "death barracks" to perform the most dangerous tasks.
Such severe punishment is of course intended to scare the monkeys. Now most of the Ming army on the Tianjin Wei side have uneasy feelings!
As for the group of former Dashun Army warriors who didn't know whether it was a fake surrender or a real surrender, or whether they were deceived or deceived, they were sitting on the ground outside the lobby of the Tianjin Governor's Yamen, drinking wine and eating meat.
And there was a robber prince eating and drinking with them!
"Brothers, I deceived you once on the battlefield before, but don't take it to heart! Soldiers never tire of deceit. On the battlefield, one relies on fighting, and the other relies on deception. But now you are all from me, I. I have always been honest with my own people, so I won’t lie to you..."
Zhu Cihong and Hao Yaoqi sat side by side, holding a broken bowl filled with wine in one hand, and holding a piece of meat in the other. It was dripping with juice and looked a little dirty. It didn't look like a prince was having a meal at all. What's even more outrageous is Zhu Cixiang's words. He actually became brothers with a group of rebels who had just been recruited.
And Hao Yaoqi and others no longer dare to underestimate the prince! Because they already knew that they had been deceived by Zhu Cixiang and let go of Emperor Chongzhen who was about to get hold of him!
In addition, they also saw with their own eyes how Zhu Cixiang got angry, how he ordered hundreds of people to be flogged, and how he ordered the beheading of dozens of large and small rebels and men from rebel families.
This sixteen-year-old young prince looks calm and composed when he deceives people, and he looks like an expert at first sight! His expression was normal when he killed someone, and it was obviously not the first time.
And now, he is fraternizing with more than two hundred surrendered soldiers from Li Chuang's old camp, eating and drinking together... Is this man really the prince of the Ming Dynasty?
Zhu Cihong glanced at the dumbfounded Hao Yaoqi, and said with a smile: "Brother Waiqi, I have just received a military report that has not been collected all night. More than 10,000 rebels are crossing the river, and they will arrive in Tianjin tomorrow. You Do you know which part they are?”
Hao Yaoqi's heart skipped a beat, thinking that he would have to find a chance to leave this unfathomable prince, otherwise he would see through his scheme sooner or later.
He immediately said: "Master Qiansui, those are the rebellious nephew Li Guo and the two Tang Tong tribes who surrendered to the Ming Dynasty... There are about ten thousand people. Most of them are Tang Tong's subordinates, not very elite. I can lead them tomorrow The common people went out to fight with General Wu's Yi Ding cavalry and killed them without leaving a single piece of armor behind!"
"No need." Zhu Cixiang smiled, "Wu Sangui is not in the Tianjin Guard, and neither is the Yiding Cavalry. The cavalry you saw today are Han generals who are pretending to be Han generals, and they cannot fight a tough battle. So we will defend the city and not go out to fight. And there is no need for it. Brother Wagger and everyone go to the city, you can have a good rest in the camp. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but it’s so as not to damage your loyalty. You are all traveling in the world, loyalty is the most important, and what I value is also your loyalty. .
Therefore, I have ordered people to take away the weapons, armor and horses you left in the camp. This way you don't have to choose between King Chuang and me. You can safely go to the camp across the Wei River in Tianjin North City to recuperate. When the ship from Dagukou arrives, you can go south with me. I hereby assure you that when you arrive in the south of the Yangtze River, you will be my heroes in overcoming difficulties! Money, land, and women will all be there! And I won’t let you meet the old brothers with swords and guns... Brother Flag Waver, what do you say? "
Hao Yaoqi's expression changed. Today is the Hongmen Banquet! I thought this prince was easy to deceive, but it turned out that I was the one who got the short end of the stick.
Thinking of this, Hao Yaoqi immediately knelt down in front of Zhu Cixiang: "Thousand-year-old Lord is so righteous and righteous. I wave the flag to admire you. Please accept the wave of the flag to bow!"
