"What did you say?"
Withdrawing all the way east from Xi'an, Li Zicheng was still in a good mood despite losing consecutive battles.
During the seventeen-year-long war against bandits, he had developed an optimistic attitude when facing difficulties.
In Li Zicheng's view, this defeat was no different from the previous one.
In the worst case, just continue to fight on the move, and sooner or later you will find an opportunity to make a comeback.
Until he received desperate news.
"Your Majesty, the Shandong leftists have seized Wuchang and cut off the river. We... have no way to go."
Dashun's monarchs and ministers gathered together, and they were all stunned by the news.
When we retreated from Xi'an, we all discussed it. Along the way, they gathered the troops from all over the country, concentrated their forces, and then moved south along the Yangtze River to seize the south of the Yangtze River.
After seizing the fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River and accumulating enough money, food and troops, he could then deal with the Qing army.
The plan was good, but I didn't expect that it would be intercepted by the empire.
"Zuo Mengeng, you are trying to drive us to death!"
For the first time in his life, Li Zicheng felt despair, and his body began to tremble involuntarily.
He tried hard to calm down and think about how to deal with it.
"The river stretches for thousands of miles. I'm afraid it's hard for the leftist thief to cover everything, right?"
He was still thinking about what might happen.
Yuan Zongdi was very honest and said whatever he had to say.
"I sent troops and horses to attack for more than ten days in succession, looking for a place to cross the river. However, the navy of the Zuo thieves was so powerful that they defeated us with just one warship. This river is really difficult to cross! "
Liu Zongmin had a bad temper and yelled and cursed loudly.
"Are you greedy for life and afraid of death? How can a mere warship block the path of my hundreds of thousands of troops?"
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Yuan Zongdi's face looked very ugly.
"General Liu doesn't know that each of the Zuo thief's warships has dozens of cannons, all of which can fire explosive shells, which can hit far and accurately. As long as our people get close to the shore, they will encounter Attack. Let alone a human being, not even a board can be launched into the water."
Listening to his words, everyone in Shunjun felt cold.
For these people who have been wandering around on land all their lives, the best warships they have ever seen are just water boats in the inner lake.
To actually carry dozens of artillery pieces on one ship was completely beyond their imagination.
Bad news comes one after another.
More than ten days later, Azig led the Qing army to catch up from behind, leaving little time for Li Zicheng and others.
Under this situation, Li Zicheng had no other choice but to break camp and go south, going to Huguang first.
What he didn't expect was that this time Azig's pursuit was very brave and no longer as procrastinating as before.
There is only one reason.
Azig was scolded by Dorgon.
When attacking northern Shaanxi, Azig sent Wanbu to the Mongolian grasslands to extort war horses and grain. Dorgon finally found out about this.
Dorgon warned that Li Zicheng must be eliminated as soon as possible. Otherwise, he will be held accountable for his previous crimes.
Azig was furious and frightened at the same time. No longer daring to neglect, he accelerated his march.
Today, Li Zicheng has long lost his original character as a rogue bandit.
In the past, when he encountered the Ming army's pursuit and interception, he was always able to make up his mind, abandon the old, weak, sick, disabled and baggage, and lead the elite soldiers and horses to leave.
But now Li Zicheng has proclaimed himself the emperor and founded the country, and is very concerned about the emperor's pretensions. Therefore, you have to take everything with you when you are marching.
This undoubtedly slowed down the speed of action and made it easier for the Qing army to pursue.
From Dengzhou, Chengtian, De'an, to Hanyang, there were four consecutive battles, and the Shun army was defeated tragically. Countless baggage was discarded along the way, and casualties could no longer be counted.
Standing on the bank of the Yangtze River, looking at the Imperial Navy warships cruising back and forth on the river, Li Zicheng finally understood that Yuan Zongdi was not lying.
It was the biggest ship he had ever seen.
When the sails are inflated, it looks like a mountain of clouds moving quickly.
The dark muzzles on both sides of the warship were always facing this side. As long as anything dared to appear on the river bank, it would be attacked.
Li Zicheng did not believe in evil and sent someone to try it once.
As a result, when the dozen or so soldiers had just stepped onto the river bank and had not yet pushed the boat in their hands into the water, a cannon rang out three miles away.
The black cannonballs, carrying sparkling flames, struck nearby at an unparalleled speed.
Amidst the deafening explosion, most of these soldiers were killed on the spot, and the few who were still alive ran away.
Seeing the power of the imperial artillery with his own eyes, Li Zicheng completely gave up the idea of crossing the river.
The next day he led his troops from Hanyang and headed northeast.
Since he could not cross the river, he planned to go to the Dabie Mountains first. Take advantage of the complex terrain in the mountainous area to avoid the Qing army's sharp edges.
Wait until you have some rectification before looking for a good solution.
As a result, the weather was not kind and the spring rains came sparsely, making the roads muddy and making walking difficult.
More than 200,000 soldiers were soaked in mud and miserable. In addition, the food and grass had been almost exhausted, and morale had completely fallen to the bottom.
As soon as they reached Huangpi, Niu Jinxing quietly left the team and became a shameful deserter.
But Li Zicheng no longer cares about this.
A greater crisis befell him.
Another group of Qing troops led by Duduo suddenly appeared and completely blocked Li Zicheng's eastward advance.
With pursuers behind and interceptions in front, Li Zicheng completely lost the space to move around.
On the first day of April, Li Zicheng was surrounded by Qing troops in Elong Town.
Macheng is only a few dozen miles away, and the Dabie Mountains are also faintly visible.
But he could never move forward in this life.
Why does Dodo appear here?
It still has something to do with the empire.
After conquering Tongguan, Duduo followed Dorgon's order and returned to Henan and began to sweep all the way.
At the same time, Dorgon also gave Dodo a secret order.
Let Duduo look for opportunities, find the empire's weaknesses, and be ready to take action at any time.
Obviously in Dorgon's view, Li Zicheng's destruction has become a foregone conclusion. The next opponent of the Manchu Qing Dynasty will become the empire.
Based on the principle of attacking first to gain advantage and attacking later to suffer disaster, Dorgon started planning.
After more than ten years of war, the land of Henan has long been in ruins. After Duduo marched, he did not encounter any obstacles, and his advancement speed could be described as rapid.
He set his target on Fengyang.
This is the important town closest to the imperial border in the Huaihe River region, and there are plains all the way east from here, which is very conducive to cavalry maneuvers.
Duduo decided to capture Fengyang and then look for opportunities to see if he could raid Huai'an or Yangzhou.
His arrival put Lu Zhenfei, the governor of Fengyang in the Ming Dynasty, into a desperate situation.
This famous official who took over as governor of Fengyang after Shi Kefa felt powerless in the face of the current situation.
This is not yet the historical Nanming. At least we can still get some support from the south.
Today's Fengyang, with the Qing army eyeing it in front and the empire's Lianghuai Military Region behind, has become a sandwich biscuit.
Lu Zhenfei had no choice.
He didn't want to become a slave of a foreign race, so he simply asked for surrender from the empire.
But this time, the Empire is no longer on the sidelines.
Huang Sanhu gave an order, and Jian Zongan led the Sixth Division and two security divisions to immediately go forward and take over Fengyang's defense.
This smoothed out the concave part of the empire's border, forcing Dodo to stop.
