"Sir! Let's quickly send an envoy to the Qing Regent's army and ask him to enter Bingshan Pass as soon as possible!"
"But Master Chitose told us to stick to Shanhaiguan and prevent the Qing troops from entering...Shanhaiguan is the most powerful pass in the world. Even if there are 200,000 rogue bandits, they will not be able to defeat them in a hurry. As long as the Qing army is ready When Zhou and Miyun enter the pass, the bandits will definitely retreat."
"But what to do with so many civilians and family members accompanying the army in Shanhaiguan? The several gates in Shanhaiguan are not large and cannot accommodate so many people."
"Then transfer out of seclusion."
"Leaving the customs? The Qing army is also coming to Shanhaiguan! Are the families of the soldiers going to be given to the pro-army as slaves?"
"Yes, we can't ignore the families of the soldiers! In addition, the salary and silver are not enough! We don't have a penny of the millions of starting salaries we asked the court for. Once the army goes to war, we have to pay for pensions and silver rewards, which is a huge amount of money. Flowing water! The city of Shanhaiguan is indeed strong, but we must have money to defend it! The imperial court is pointing out that our Guan Ning Army is going to fight, so we have to give money!"
"Let's let the Qing soldiers come in! I heard that the Qing soldiers have arrived at 100,000, and with our troops and horses, we have 150,000. We can defeat Li Zicheng no matter what... Once Li Zicheng is defeated, we might as well go to Shanxi , it doesn’t matter if you go to Beijing, where is it better than being stuck in Shanhaiguan?"
In Wu Sangui's mansion, there was a commotion among the staff and generals. These people in the Guan Ning Army can fight, but they have to be coaxed with gold and silver.
If they really wanted to fight Li Zicheng's army, they would have to be rewarded with hundreds of thousands or millions of taels of silver!
But Zhu Cixi didn't have that much money to squander, so he didn't send any money to Wu Sangui. Now Guan Ningjun's military salary is supported by Wu Sangui's money that he had embezzled before.
But if he has expenses but no income, he won’t be able to sustain it for long! How much would it cost to really fight Li Zicheng's 200,000 troops under Shanhaiguan for a month? Even if Wu Sangui was willing to give it up, he wouldn't!
In addition, the hundreds of thousands of people who evacuated into Shanhaiguan gave Wu Sangui a headache - to be honest, it would be better to evacuate these people into Ningyuan than stay in Ningyuan!
If the families of these common people are now in the castles and surrounding forts such as Ningyuan Guard, Ningyuan Zhongyousuo, Ningyuan Zhongzuosuo, Guangning Zhongyousuo, Guangning Zhonghousuo, Guangning Qiantunwei, Guangning Zhongqiansuo, etc. Stay.
Wu Sangui can really wait and see what happens now. Even if Li Zicheng captured Shanhaiguan, he would have nothing to worry about. It was impossible for Li Zicheng to go out and compete with Wu Sangui in western Liaoning, city by city. After fighting this way, Dorgon won even Shaanxi, let alone Beijing.
If Guan Ning's army entered the Pass after the Songjin War and settled in Yongping Mansion and Jizhou Town, then there would be no matter that Li Zicheng broke the capital.
As long as Guan Ning's elite troops go to support Datong and Xuanfu, the defenders there will not surrender, and Li Zicheng cannot even touch the edge of Shuntianfu.
However, Emperor Chongzhen issued the decree to abandon the cities of Ningyuan and move the people into the customs on March 6, a dozen days before the fall of Beijing. It was better not to issue this bullshit decree!
Without this decree, Wu Sangui would still be staying at Ningyuan Guard!
It's great now, Dashun and Qing are stuck in Shanhaiguan! It is really impossible to advance or retreat. Now it is impossible to go back to Ningyuan!
Dorgon's army has probably crossed the Liao River. Will Wu Sangui be allowed to retreat to Ningyuan?
Wu Sangui is so worried!
Chongzhen's imperial edict deceived him, Dorgon's Qing soldiers forced him, and Li Zicheng, the thief, took the wrong medicine. Instead of going to Dagukou to hunt down the emperor, he came to Shanhaiguan instead! There is also a prince who robbed his own girl and deceived his father and brothers. He actually regarded the clever plan to lure Qing soldiers into the pass as a bad idea!
But having said that, it is easy to attract Qing troops, but difficult to send them away! Maybe it will be self-defeating, and the Tatar regent Dorgon will force him to surrender to the Tatars...
At this time, the people below were still noisy and noisy, and the sound was getting louder and louder. Wu Sangui's forehead was throbbing with veins, and finally he couldn't bear it and yelled: "Stop making such a fuss!"
The sound was so loud that everyone in the capital hall was startled and no one dared to speak.
Wu Sangui's eyes swept over the generals and staff under his command one by one, and all he saw were expressions of helplessness.
His group puts emphasis on martial arts over culture, and there is no shortage of men who can fight and kill. There were no advisers who might plan strategies for him, and even if there were several civilian staff, they were only at the level of clerks.
Just when he was disappointed, he suddenly saw a strange expression on a strange black face, as if he had some thoughts.
This person is... Wu Sangui thought for a while and remembered that this person was the guard brought by Chen Yuanyuan, named Liu Sheng. It seems that he had worked with Sun Chuanting, and he knew the bandits better, and he also knew a few words, so he was appointed a minor official and placed among the staff.
"Liu Sheng, do you have something to say?" Wu Sangui asked.
Liu Sheng nodded and said, "Sir, you have forgotten Prince Ding."
This black-faced and vulgar person is actually Juren! And the level is not low. If it weren't for the chaos of war, it would be a matter of time for a middle school scholar to become a civil servant.
As a preparatory civil servant, Liu Sheng certainly knew how to take the blame.
"Yes, yes..." Wu Sangui slapped his forehead, "I almost forgot about the great god His Highness Prince Ding! Tell me again, how should I make good use of this great god?"
Liu Sheng smiled and said: "Didn't the Lord borrow troops from the Manchus in the name of King Ding? Now we might as well continue to use the banner of King Ding to deal with the Manchus on the one hand; His Highness King Ding has borrowed 100,000 Manchurian soldiers and will counterattack Beijing in the near future. If the rebels retreat after hearing this, then we will not open Shanhaiguan and release the Manchurian soldiers."
"Hahaha," Wu Sangui laughed, "I didn't expect that a crude idiot like you would have such a plan...Okay, okay, let's do it! I am just the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, with thistle on it. Governor Liao, and His Highness Prince Ding of the Ming Dynasty! I am a very loyal minister, so of course I must listen to the words of the Governor and His Highness Prince Ding!"
...
Li Zicheng left Beijing on April 13th to begin his expedition to Shanhaiguan, one day later than Dorgon left Shenyang. The distance from Beijing to Shanhaiguan is about the same as the distance from Shenyang to Shanhaiguan, both seven hundred or eight hundred miles. However, Li Zicheng's journey was harder than Dorgon's.
Dorgon's army marched on Qing land before entering Ningyuanwei's territory. Not only do you not have to worry about being attacked, but the government along the way will also organize people to provide food and drinks. The morale of the soldiers of the Eight Banners was also very high, and almost everyone was eager to enter the pass and capture the city of Beijing.
However, Li Zicheng's army was marching in "enemy territory", which surprised him very much. The so-called enemy territory does not mean that the land east of Beijing to Shanhaiguan is still under the firm control of the Ming Dynasty. But the gentry and common people along the way regarded the Dashun Army as intruders!
This situation was completely opposite to what he encountered when he marched towards Beijing. At that time, everyone was welcoming King Chuang, and wherever the army passed by, people were eating pots of pulp to welcome the king's troops. King Chuang's army did not even need to prepare military rations. It could march all the way with the supply of the people along the way.
But now, no one can be seen when the army passes by! Not to mention military rations, I can't even find anyone to ask for news!
After entering the territory of Yongping Prefecture, not only was there no one on the roadside, but the Kaiping Acropolis and Luanzhou City were also empty. All the officials and civilians were gone. The only thing that greeted Li Zicheng's army was a notice posted at the city gate.
"Your Majesty, look."
Outside Luanzhou City, Li Shuangxi, who was in charge of the imperial camp, handed a notice that had just been taken off to Li Zicheng with both hands. Li Zicheng took it and took a look, and his thick eyebrows knitted together unconsciously.
"Grand Military Advisor, Second Military Advisor!" Li Zicheng called Song Xiance and Gu Junen forward and handed the notice in their hands to them. After they read it, he asked calmly: "What do you think?"
