When the night of April 28, the third year of Dashun Yongchang, fell on the battlefield on both sides of the Hudu River in Gong'an County, Jingzhou Prefecture, Li Zicheng, the emperor of Yongchang, felt that he had a chance to win!
The Ming army that was still resisting on the battlefield had changed from the original three groups to the current one, which was the group that stood firm in Tangjiashan.
The battle at Lotus Temple ended when Shen Shi was about to pass! After suffering hundreds of casualties (mainly injuries from arrowheads, most of which could be treated), the warriors of the Dashun Army finally broke through the Ming army's defenses and rushed into the temple. After a brief but fierce fight, Li Zicheng's large banner with the word "Chuang" flying high over the Lotus Temple - Li Zicheng himself has now moved to the Lotus Temple, waiting for the news that Tangjiashan has been conquered.
In the northeast corner of the battlefield, more than 10,000 large shun infantry cavalry commanded by Liu Zongmin also won the battle and drove Jin Shenghuan and Qiu Lei's troops, who were twice their number, to the west bank of the Hudu River. However, Li Zicheng did not let Liu Zongmin return, but ordered him to continue to lead his troops to pursue him!
Half of Liu Zongmin's troops were cavalry, and chasing down Jin Shenghuan and Qiu Lei's infantry was as easy as chopping melons and vegetables!
Li Zicheng, who has been fighting for a long time, knows very well that in a real confrontation between the two armies, when you come and I go back and forth, you won't be able to kill many people. Especially when both sides of the confrontation are relatively formal, and the soldiers are all wearing armor to protect their lives, it is not easy to hack someone to death. Even if you hit him with an armor-piercing blunt instrument, it would still take a lot of effort to knock a living person to death - that's the enemy! How can I be so honest and let you knock me, but I can't resist it with a shield? It's going to come back all the time.
But once the winner is determined and one party starts to flee in a hurry, it will be easy to kill people, and it will be a one-sided massacre. The hunted party will lose its armor and lose its armor, and there is no way to form a strong formation. And if the chasing side has a lot of cavalry and pursues them, they can chase down tens of thousands of enemies alive.
How could Li Zicheng, who was the best at using cavalry, let go of such an opportunity? Therefore, after learning that there were about 20,000 to 30,000 Ming troops crossing the tiger across the river and fleeing to the west, Liu Zongmin was immediately ordered to lead his troops to pursue them. Now it has been chased twenty or thirty miles away!
In addition, the one or two thousand Ming Army armored cavalry who had been active on the edge of the battlefield since the morning have now retreated to Xi'an across the Hudu River to rest.
However, they were not repelled by the Dashun Army's cavalry, but were forced to retreat after being exhausted. However, they did not retreat far and remained in the lower reaches of the Hudu River, occupying several villages along the river as support points.
Due to their bravery in the daytime battle, they defeated thousands of Dashun's cavalry one after another, killed or captured 700 to 800 people, and captured 600 to 700 war horses. Therefore, their withdrawal made the Dashun Army knights on the Tangjiashan battlefield breathe a sigh of relief - these iron-clad murderers were finally gone! Go away, no more gifts!
Since they are not sent away, of course no one will disturb their rest... There are more than a thousand people in total. With or without them, the outcome of today's battle in Tangjiashan cannot be changed.
"Your Majesty, the red thieves on Tangjia Mountain still refused to surrender! And they were so stubborn that they killed Hao Xiaozhong who was sent to the mountain to persuade him to surrender!"
Second Military Advisor Gu Junen came in from outside the main hall of Lotus Temple in a hurry, saluted Li Zicheng who was happily eating meat buns, and then reported the result of persuading him to surrender.
When Li Zicheng heard that Hao Xiaozhong was killed, he didn't pay much attention. He just snorted: "Looking for a coffin with a better mouth to restrain Hao Xiaozhong."
"Your Majesty," Gu Jun'en said, "I only sent you back a body, but no head!"
"No head?" Li Zicheng smiled, "Then make a shorter coffin."
"According to the order." Gu Junen responded, but did not move to send it to Hao Xiaozhong. He also wanted to give advice to Li Zicheng!
"Your Majesty," Gu Jun'en said, "there are at most more than ten thousand people on Tangjia Mountain... In this battle, we killed at least twenty to thirty thousand red thieves, and captured thousands alone. What a great victory!"
He only said half of what he said, and the other half should be stopped as soon as it's done!
With this victory at the bottom, Zhu Cihong should not dare to send troops to follow Dashun's army into Sichuan.
In addition, the elite Ming army trapped in Huya Mountain should also be mobilized. As long as they can be attracted to the public security and Shishou areas, Li Zicheng can return to Huya Mountain.
Moreover, in this battle at Tangjiashan, tens of thousands of Zhu Cihong's miscellaneous troops were defeated, which must have frightened all the miscellaneous military leaders who obeyed Zhu Cihong. Without them to help Zhu do his evil deeds, it would be good to be able to digest Huguang with Zhu Cixi's direct lineage alone, but it would be too tight to enter Sichuan.
Li Zicheng nodded and laughed: "It is indeed a great victory... If we fight for another day, we should be able to capture Tangjiashan. The Zhu family's thieves in Tangjiashan are elite. If they are destroyed, Zhu Cixiang will be really injured." vitality."
King Chuang had been fighting with the Ming army for a long time, and he knew that the ordinary Ming army was just a make-up, and the servants were the ones who really had fighting power. If the servants cannot be eliminated, it will be of no use how many ordinary Ming soldiers are killed.
The Ming army on Tangjia Mountain was so stubborn and capable of fighting. Most of them were composed of generals and servants, so Li Zicheng wanted to strike while the iron was hot and destroy them in one fell swoop!
.......
At the same time, the public security county town less than thirty miles away from the Tangjiashan battlefield was completely under martial law and prepared for war.
Zhu Cixiang, who was sitting in the Gong'an County town, also became nervous. He had no idea that Zhang Yong, Qiu Lei, and Jin Shenghuan's 50,000-strong army would be defeated after only one day in the face of the Dashun Army, which was about the same number as them. . Now only Tangjiashan, where Zhang Yong and Zhu Cizhao are stationed together, are still resisting... Tangjiashan's small area can probably accommodate more than 10,000 people.
The remaining armies were either wiped out by Li Zicheng or are being wiped out...
Li Zicheng's army is so capable of fighting!
"Master Qiansui, Master Qiansui, you, you will give your slaves five hundred people, and your slaves will take them to charge into the battle. They will either rush to Tangjiashan or die in the Ming Dynasty!"
In addition to Li Zicheng on the Tangjiashan battlefield giving Zhu Cixiang a headache, there was also a nagging eunuch named Wang Chengen in his ear!
Wang Chengen has been protecting Zhu Cizhao for the past two years, assisting him responsibly, and wants Zhu Cizhao to grow into a pillar of the Ming Dynasty like Emperor Chongzhen.
Unexpectedly, Prince Zhu Cixiang was so ruthless that he sent his own brother to the battlefield and besieged him on Tangjia Mountain, where he was about to die...
Wang Chengen originally wanted to "die" with Zhu Cizhao, but Zhu Cizhao was worried about Zuo Mengmei and asked Wang Chengen to follow him, which delayed Wang Chengen from dying.
And Zhu Cixiang really didn't have much to do with Wang Banban - he was the prince who must pay his debts! And he still owes Wang Chengen a huge debt...Wang Chengen owes the most to him to be where he is today!
Therefore, Zhu Cixi could only persuade him kindly: "Wang Banban, don't be anxious... How could I just watch my fourth brother die? I have asked Yan Yingyuan to organize the army. At dawn tomorrow, I will Gong is going to take the eight thousand elites in the public security city to fight Li Zicheng!"
"Really?" Wang Cheng'en didn't quite believe Zhu Cixiang - this Zhu Cixiang liked to lie too much!
"Of course it's true! Xiaobao, hurry up and take Wang Banban to the school grounds to watch Yan Yingyuan organize his troops!"
Huang Xiaobao, who was standing by, quickly stepped forward and dragged Wang Chengen away.
Yan Yingyuan is really mobilizing troops. What Zhu Cihong and Wang Chengen said is not completely lies. The part about Yan Yingyuan mobilizing troops is true.
In order to defend the Public Security City when necessary, Zhu Cixiang had temporarily established a Guards Division of the New Army to overcome difficulties, which was to combine his own guard battalion with three newly formed regiments (Ma Jiaolin's old regiment) to strengthen control.
With the garrison of more than 8,000 people in three regiments, the public security county town and the large amount of supplies stored in the city can rest easy.
As for Li Zicheng, who was besieging Tangjiashan outside the city, he could only ask Wu Guoyong's infantry to run faster.
