The night battle at Jingxing that took place on October 13th again ended with Li Zicheng's defeat.
King Li Chuang, who was invincible a few months ago, has now become a frequently defeated emperor. Not only can he not defeat the Eight Banners soldiers, he can't even defeat Wu Sangui's traitor soldiers. Moreover, even when elites such as the Iron Man Battalion and the Boy Battalion were dispatched to attack at night and rush into the Wu Army Camp, they were blocked by the Wu Army officers and soldiers who hurriedly responded. It was delayed until the Yiding cavalry and fire gun teams led by Wu Sangui arrived. They used turtle-footed fire guns and armored soldiers to counterattack, and drove out the elite soldiers commanded by Luo Hu and Liu Fangliang...
After several hours of fierce fighting, Li Zicheng gained nothing except more than 1,500 casualties.
This really made him a little depressed. He is obviously a popular emperor, so why are his soldiers becoming increasingly incapable of fighting?
A total of 4,000 elite troops attacked, and they couldn't even take down Wu Sangui's two camps! If it weren't for Wu Sangui, that thief who didn't know how to fight and was too timid to fight back, it's hard to say whether Liu Fangliang and Luo Hu would have come back.
On the way back to the Guguan Great Wall under the escort of the imperial camp, Li Zicheng obviously felt his morale drop. The old soldiers walking in front, back and left were all dejected and without any energy, as if they had suffered a huge defeat...
Just when Li Zicheng was worried about the increasingly low morale of his men, a rapid sound of horse hooves suddenly came from the front. When he looked up, he was stunned. Because it was military advisor Song Xiance who was galloping over on horseback!
Song Xiance is the person who shakes the goose-feather fan, and he always looks calm and has no plans left. Li Zicheng had been with him for so many years, but he had never seen him galloping a few times.
The last time Song Xiance was like this, it was after Yi Shi's defeat!
"Military advisor, what's wrong?" Li Zicheng felt strange and asked loudly before Song Xiance came forward.
Song Xiance did not answer. He rode on horseback until he was in front of Li Zicheng, then lowered his voice and said urgently: "Your Majesty, it's bad, the Tatar army has attacked Pingxing Pass, Fanzhi County and Daizhou City... ..."
"What?" Li Zicheng was so frightened that he almost fell off his horse. He managed to stabilize himself and asked, "What's going on? How could the Tatars raid Pingxing Pass? Isn't the Lingqiu Ancient Road in the hands of the Datong Ming Army? "
Song Xiance shook his head: "Your Majesty, it must be the Ming army from Datong who let them in... We have been fooled by the crown prince of the Zhu family!"
"This is inviting a wolf into the house!" Li Zicheng gritted his teeth, "Why is the Prince of the Zhu family so confused?"
Song Xiance sneered: "He is not confused...he wants to kill someone with a borrowed knife!"
"Killing someone? Do you want to kill someone?" Li Zicheng's eyes widened with a fierce look.
"It's not about killing the emperor, it's about killing his three brothers!" Song Xiance said, "He is a rebellious son who has taken away the power of his father. What he fears most is the return of his three brothers."
"Hmph! Damn it!" Li Zicheng gritted his teeth, "Well, I can't make it easier for him... What should I do if I offer advice?"
"Your Majesty, we can send King Yong to Wuchang and hand him over to Zuo Liangyu."
"Hit!" Li Zicheng nodded.
Song Xiance added: "It seems that the northern part of Shanxi is unforgivable. Your Majesty, you should take a step back."
Li Zicheng frowned deeply, "Do you still want to defend Taiyuan Mansion?"
"We must defend it!" Song Xiance said, "If we don't defend Taiyuan, how will our army escape?" He paused and then said, "Let the commander-in-chief Chen Yong defend it! He is loyal to the emperor. The Tatars will definitely be held back!"
Li Zicheng gritted his teeth, "I'm afraid Chen Yongfu alone won't be able to do it. We have to let the army lurking in Zezhou move! The Tatar soldiers will definitely follow me to Taiyuan Prefecture. There is nothing behind them. Maybe the situation can be reversed."
...
The news that Pingxingguan, Fanzhi County, and Daizhou City were captured by the Qing army was sent to Datong Prefecture by Tangma sent by the Andong Zhongtunwei on the same day.
At this time, the 30,000-strong army in Datong City has been reorganized and ready to attack at any time!
The armaments of the Ming army in Datong may also have exceeded the expectations of Zhu Cixiang who was far away in Nanjing. Although the 30,000 Ming troops here don't get much pay, the swords, spears, bows and arrows in their hands are all of good quality. As long as they are soldiers, everyone has a cloth-covered iron armor.
In addition, this Ming army also possesses 1,000 high-quality muskets!
In addition to the upgrading of their equipment, the complexions of these Ming soldiers also looked much better. They had obviously eaten well for several months...
The Ming army in Datong can have some good weapons and plenty of food to eat, because they now have a big benefactor!
Their big benefactors are Shanxi gentry and Shanxi merchants!
That's right, those Shanxi businessmen who smuggled outside the customs and helped the Tatars were funding the Datong Ming Army.
This is because Shanxi merchants have now encountered an enemy they hate so much - Li Zicheng!
The targets of Li Zicheng's torture and forced payment in Beijing also included businessmen! Most of the businessmen in Beijing are from Shanxi and Shaanxi. The top management of Dashun Army are all Shaanxi people, so they are naturally more polite to Shaanxi businessmen. And what will happen if the old pit in Shanxi falls into their hands? Everyone from Shanxi doing business in Beijing suffered heavy losses!
Li Zicheng, who withdrew from Beijing, did not go directly to Shaanxi as in history, but stayed in Taiyuan. Now the gentry and businessmen in Shanxi are suffering even more! Although Li Zicheng did not continue to torture in Shanxi, he still implemented the policy of "equalizing land without grain". In the Shanxi territory ruled by Li Zicheng, merchants and gentry not only failed to receive a bushel of wheat as land rent, but even the usury loans they issued were in vain!
In addition, because of the Dashun court's policy of "grain exemption" and not recognizing the privileges of the Ming Dynasty gentry, tax evasion methods such as "guilty mail" and "flying" have also become a pain in the hearts of the Shanxi gentry - guileful mail Some farmers are unwilling to pay the grain, and they also want to terminate the deposit relationship!
As for Feisha—that is, dispersing land on the accounts of poor peasants in order to transfer taxes and apportionments—this caused wealthy businessmen and gentry to lose their land!
That's not all. There are still many "unruly tenants" who went to the government of the Dashun Dynasty to accuse the landlords of treason... and they were all accurate! Even if the defendant, the landlord Lao Cai, is not wiped out by the Dashun Army, he will inevitably lose his entire family!
For the gentry and businessmen in Shanxi, such a life is really impossible... And the one who can save them from the sea of misery is of course the Qing Dynasty who occupied Beijing, and the other is the representative of Datong. Fan.
But now the gentry and businessmen in Shanxi can't see the general direction clearly.
The Qing Dynasty was enclosing land in Beijing, occupying houses, and selling people for money. They looked more ferocious than the bandits... Moreover, the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty were still in peace talks. The Qing Dynasty seemed to want to Be a Liao country.
So a group of Shanxi old men found Li Jiantai, who was living in seclusion in his hometown. He was the former Ming Dynasty scholar Li Jiantai who spent 150,000 taels to buy a "returning certificate" from Liu Zongmin.
At this time, Li Jiantai wanted to take advantage of the Ming Dynasty, so he contacted a group of Shanxi merchants and collected hundreds of thousands of military expenses, thousands of high-quality firecrackers and a large amount of grain, and used Li Zicheng to make peace with the Ming Dynasty. When trade opportunities opened up, all these things were shipped to Datong.
At the same time, Wang Yongji, Jiang Yu, Luo Xiushen, and Gao Di from Datong were also working hard to save themselves.
Not only were all the Zonglu of the old Dai Wang family stopped (this Zonglu was more than the regular land tax of Datong Prefecture), but also the military fields of many guards under Shanxi Xingdusi and the Wang fields of Dai Wangfu were rectified. . All the royal and military fields were redistributed, allowing nearly 40,000 Datong soldiers and generals to get their own land - the land allocation was a bit of a scam, because according to the terms of the peace talks reached between Datong and Beijing, Datong The territory of the mansion is to be exchanged for Taiyuan mansion...
But how do ordinary soldiers know this? Now that they have land, plenty to eat, and good equipment, their motivation will naturally rise!
"The great thing is done, the great thing is done!"
Prince Shi Si Nei, Wang Yongji laughed and said to Luo Xiushen, Jiang Yu, Gao Di and Li Jiantai: "Li Ni is finished... Now it's time for us to send troops! Jiang Zongrong, Gao Zongrong, you guys Which of the two will guard Datong, and who will guard the West?"
Jiang Yan was not interested in Zhenxiwei. What he wanted was Taiyuan. And Gao Di didn't say anything, Fenzhou and Qinzhou were what he wanted.
Luo Xiu Shen saw that the two commander-in-chiefs were silent, so he seized the opportunity to ask for orders, "Let me lead the royal guards to fight the first battle this time!"
