Lu Ming

Soon, as the smoke dissipated, seeing the collapsed Northern Expedition Army soldiers above the city gate, their roars went straight into the sky.

Accompanied by cheers soaring to the sky, the four cannons that were adjusted to shoot at Zhuyuan were fired one by one.

In this round of shooting, two of them were aimed at the corner tower of the east gate.Amidst the shocking bang, only one cannonball smashed down the turret that had been in disrepair for a long time, and the collapsed bricks and stones immediately buried the sacrificial flag Ding.

Homing, clearing the chamber, applying medicine, and lighting the fire.

Soon, in less than 3 minutes, the second round of salvo appeared again.

This round of volleys completely broke the confidence of the defenders at the top of the city: the red cannons in the hands of the people, due to the lack of a reset system and a standardized shooting process, the interval between two launches is usually more than half an hour.

Next, hundreds of small-caliber artillery began to straddle the city.The infantry soldiers under the city also shot at the city head one after another, joining the artillery chorus.

A thunderous salvo of heavy artillery fired, and it lasted twenty rounds.The east gate city wall, which had been smashed by [-] iron eggs, collapsed in many places in less than an hour.

The defenders in the city had nowhere to go, so they could only endure huge casualties and hide in Tibet.

What the defenders didn't expect was that after only half an hour, the four heavy artillery that had cooled down roared again.If so, when the time came to the afternoon, the east wall of the Santun camp was abruptly smashed by shells, and there were many gentle slopes that could allow cavalry to cross.

At this time, Azig, who was covered in armor, rode on a horse with a long knife in his hand, and shouted at Abatai, the second person who entered the customs this time: "Let's go, take the son-in-law with you. Juyong, Baotou, Zhangjiakou... …No matter where you are, you can go out of the customs.”

Hearing this, Abatai gritted his teeth and took a last look at Azig, who was determined to fight to the death, then turned his head and led all the cavalry out of the west gate, heading straight for Zunhua.

Accompanied by Azig's roar was the last round of cannonballs deliberately smashed on the city gate.

The next moment, the already dilapidated east gate collapsed.The long-prepared three thousand heavy armored cavalry rushed into the city like a tank.Followed by them are the cavalry of the Flying Tiger Battalion with four lances stuck upside down on their horses.

After that, there are soldiers of the Northern Expedition with high morale.

The final blow of the main military forces of the Great Yan State against the remaining main forces of the Qing Dynasty began here.

The massacre-like battle did not come to an end until the sun set.

It was a service, and the whole army of Ding Ding, who entered the pass in the Qing Dynasty, was wiped out.Due to the excessive killing of the Dongjiang generals, less than [-] Qiding captives were finally rescued, and all the rest "died in battle."

In this battle, more than 40 Manchu generals were killed in battle, and none of them escaped their lives since Jin entered the general commander and Wuying County King Azige surrendered.

So far, of the 14 Manchurian and Mongolian troops that entered the customs, except for 12 Mongolian cavalry and less than [-] Eighth Banner cavalry who fled temporarily, the remaining about [-] infantry were all trapped in the Ming Dynasty.

It is no exaggeration to say that no matter how many of the [-] elite can escape back to Shengjing in the end, in this plane, the newly established Qing Dynasty has actually completely collapsed and lost its "national status".

History has completely changed.

Of course, no matter how you say it, the poor bandits still want to chase them... Just want to run after pretending to be tough?How can it be so easy!

After the battle that day, Han Xiaobo ordered the cavalry of Dongjiang Town and Feihu Camp to take a rest and set off early tomorrow morning to pursue the enemy steadily... Those who escaped for their lives lost their baggage, and the speed would slow down soon.

However, Han Xiaobo finally warned: Regardless of the outcome of the battle, everyone can return after seeing the Ming army, and don't reveal the strategic purpose of the next stage.

After all, according to the latest information, Brother Chuang Wang has already crossed the Yellow River at this moment.Therefore, it is not a good time to expose the armed forces of the Great Yan Kingdom, and they must withdraw to Tianjin in time for standby.

In other words, the one who has done such a great good thing without leaving a name since ancient times must belong to the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Chapter 727 History ([-])

Time: October [-]th, seven days after the Northern Expedition broke through the three camps.

Location: Beijing.

The traumatized Beijing city finally ushered in a day of relief today.Since the morning, the fifteen gates surrounding the capital, including the four outer gates of Fucheng, Chaoyang, Zuo'an, and You'an, have finally been opened, and the flow of materials and people from inside and outside the city has begun.

As for the rest of the city gates...the Desheng and Anding gates facing the north will definitely not be able to open in a short time. After all, no one can tell what is going on with Jianlu.The remaining ones will be observed and observed in the next few days, and they will be opened one after another according to the situation.

To be honest, it would be impossible not to open the city.Although there are food and fodder reserves in Beijing, the siege for more than a month has exhausted the supplies in the city after all.Especially for the impoverished families in the city, many of them can no longer afford the daily price of grain and urgently need to replenish supplies.

Fortunately, Jianlu finally retreated a few days ago.

At the beginning, although they saw the Jianlu army hastily withdrawing troops, the Ming army guarding the city did not believe it.After all, the day before was still a hot fight, and suddenly they were ruthless... There was a lack of transition in the middle, which always made people feel like a trap.

After that, suddenly the people who had been carried away returned.

The garrison of the capital, who was still in shock, breathed a sigh of relief after detailed investigation: Jianlu had indeed left behind the hostages in an emergency, and even had some belongings, and hurried back to Zunhua.

People and wealth are the fundamental purpose of Jianlu's entry into the customs.No matter what happened in the direction of Zunhua, since Jianlu left the stolen goods, it must not be fake.

In this way, I observed for another two days in panic.It wasn't until a large number of people returned one after another that the four gates of the capital that confirmed the news were finally opened on the [-]th.

Early in the morning, as soon as the gate of the city was opened, there were first the highest priority Titang officials of the imperial court, and then messengers on horseback from all walks of life.

Next, the impatient people began to flock out of the city after a rigorous investigation... The surrounding area of ​​the capital, after hundreds of years, the area has spread, and it may not have been out of the second ring long ago, and the number of residents is huge.

This time, the surrounding areas outside the city were in catastrophe, so as soon as the city was opened, many people rushed out to find relatives and friends.There are also those who hid in the city early, and came out immediately to check whether their homes were safe.

During the extraordinary period, people from all walks of life were arranged at the gate of the city, and all people entering and leaving the city would be closely searched and interrogated, so the gate of the city was in good order.

Like the bus, when you arrive at the station, you have to get off first and then get on.After the people in the city were released, vehicles transporting supplies from outside the city began to enter the city.

These materials were urgently dispatched from the south of Tongzhou.Although many cities around Gyeonggi suffered from war this time, the stability of the capital is the most important thing after all.The courier sent out a few days ago has urgently ordered the governments of various prefectures and counties to urgently organize the transportation of materials to the capital.

In the afternoon, seeing supplies trucks representing stability entering the city, and all the people guarding the city gates, they finally breathed a sigh of relief: From this moment on, the Bingzi Jianlu war that lasted for more than a month The disaster is over.

In the days to come, there will no longer be that precarious feeling.

It might be a little early for people to be happy.

The next situation seems to be developing in a good direction.

First of all, information such as battle reports and memorials sent from various places to the capital, which had been blocked for a long time, began to pour in like a flood.The backlog of all kinds of information soon filled up with the official cases of officials at all levels in the capital.

Among these pieces of information, some of which I knew in bits and pieces before, are now beginning to be pieced together.For example, the detailed process of the battle between Lu Xiangsheng, Hong Chengchou and others that took place in Henan.

There are also scary news that pop up out of nowhere.For example, the thief Cao... the trilogy of a general soldier surnamed Cao "helped defend" the three towns of Wuhan... The imperial court has not yet publicly announced that Cao is a traitor.

In just two days, the real-time/expired information gathered in the capital from all over the world has become a massive existence.

Fortunately, the capital city, which was in an isolated state before, has a huge bureaucratic system that is very eager for outside information.In addition, there is a labor model Emperor Chongzhen who is diligently chasing Qin Shihuang, so in the past few days, the bureaucratic system in the capital can be regarded as a power for love. .

Just when Shang and Xia breathed a sigh of relief and were about to free up their hands to deal with several messes in the country, on October 17th, a historic sad news was urgently transmitted six hundred miles from Fuchengmen in the west. Come in: Li Zicheng's main force captured Jinyang during the daytime on the [-]th.

The subtitle of this news is: Jinyang did not have much resistance at the time.

In real history, Li Zicheng finally led his troops into Shanxi, and encountered resistance from some defenders on the way.But at that time, Daming, who was dying, had no strong troops in Shanxi, and resistance was futile.

Anyway, it's still the trick.At that time, Li Zicheng entered Shanxi with great fanfare, and many frontier soldiers and bankrupt farmers who were owed wages also came to defect, which made up for the battle losses.

But in this plane, Li Zicheng, who was much stronger than in history, took heavy cavalry and explosives all the way, relaxed and happy, and occupied Jinyang, the capital of Shanxi, without much effort.

After the news reached the capital, the whole city was shocked.Emperor Chongzhen immediately summoned the officials above the second rank in the court to discuss countermeasures.

I never thought about it, before the monarchs and ministers discussed it and came up with a one-two-three. On the 2.0th, the historical bad news version [-], from Fuchengmen, entered the Six Departments of the University: Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor in Jinyang, the name of the founding country was "Dashun", and the Yuan was changed to "Yongchang" , The meritorious officials were awarded the fifth-class title.

At the same time, Li Zicheng set up the government organization, changed the cabinet to the Tianyou Hall, set up the state affairs of the University Scholars Pingzhang Army, and set up the posts of State Teacher, Minister, Minister, and Jiedushi.

On the same day, Li Zicheng, Emperor of Dashun, issued an imperial edict: To conquer the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

In real history, Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor in Chang'an before leaving Shanxi.

But in this plane, because everything came so smoothly, Li Zicheng was in a hurry the whole time, and he was always on his way and dealing with the sudden expansion of internal affairs, so he had no time to proclaim himself emperor.

In the end, after entering Jinyang a few days ago, Li Zicheng was able to hurry up and declare himself emperor.In this regard, Li Zicheng's imperial edict did not state that the capital is Chang'an as in history... This is a clear trend of quickly attacking Beijing and then directly setting the capital in Beijing.

In the past few days, since the detailed information of the Henan battlefield has been obtained, the capital has just figured out Li Zicheng's true strength.

Before Shang Shangxia could recover from the astonishment, the news of Li Zicheng's personal conquest really came down like a catastrophe, blasting the entire capital into a charred mess.

What to do, this is Li Ni, who has wiped out the only second field corps of the Ming Dynasty, with a serial armored horse and explosives!What to do, wait online, urgent!

……

Time: Morning of October [-]th.

Location: In front of the Huangji Hall in the Forbidden City.

Characters: the emperor, officials of the sixth rank and above in Beijing, and all the relatives and ministers in Beijing.

The most memorable temporary court meeting of the Chongzhen Dynasty began.

It seems to be God's last omen for the Ming Empire.Today's sky is covered with thick black clouds, which are so heavy that they seem to fall down.

Coordinating with this were the silent ministers of Daming.At this moment, the sky is slightly bright.Puppet-like crowds lined up in the square in front of the Emperor Palace.Accompanied by the bone-piercing cold wind, the atmosphere was suppressed to the extreme.

The Zuosi Chancellor of Honglu Temple, Master Feng Jingjie, stood at the end of the line in his spare time, and the old god was there.Although the weather in Little Ice River was extremely cold in mid-October.But Mr. Feng was wearing pure cotton thermal underwear inside, wool long johns and a sweater outside, and cotton leather shoes on his feet.The current Master Feng is not afraid of the cold, and he can play freely.

Everything is still the same, and the topics at the court meeting basically have nothing to do with Master Feng, the soy sauce party.This meeting is speaking in front of Majesty Dan, Zhang Jinyan, Minister of the Ministry of War.

The content of Zhang Jinyan's report is: During this period of time, the imperial court has sent troops to take over the comprehensive intelligence feedback of front-line passes such as Jizhen, Zunhua, and Santunying.

This summary of the situation is the first topic of today's Great Court Meeting, and it is also a topic of concern to many people: To solve Li Zicheng, we must first figure out the movement of the army that built the captives into the customs.Then, what is the situation on the front line of Santunying, we must first figure it out.

Glancing sideways at Zhang Jinyan, the Shangshu of the Ministry of War who was speaking loudly in front of Majesty Dan, Master Feng raised his head to the sky, looked at the thick and indissoluble dark clouds above his head, and murmured inaudibly: "It's changed! Really? Dead!"

What caused Master Feng to change his words was an ominous omen today: for the first time in history, Emperor Chongzhen sat in the dragon chair on Majesty Dan ahead of time, waiting for the arrival of his courtiers.

To be honest, Master Feng understands the emperor's anxiety.

Shanxi urgent reports received from the capital are usually two or three days late.Counting from today's [-]th, the main force of Li Zicheng's department has most likely set off from Jinyang for more than three days.

Jinyang is only [-] miles away from the capital... In other words, Li Zicheng's cavalry vanguard should have left Taihang Mountain today.

After leaving Taihang, it is a map of Pingchuan.Li Zicheng can reach the foot of the capital by lifting his legs on the official road of three or four hundred miles.Maybe tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow, maybe... it shouldn't be more than the day after tomorrow.

This kind of simple arithmetic problem, even if Master Feng is not working in the Ministry of War, he will not make a mistake.So he understands the emperor's mood very well at this moment... Anyone who can only sit on the dragon chair for three days is anxious.

Master Feng, who was filled with emotion, glanced again at the Shangshu of the Ministry of War who was still chattering.Fortunately, after a while, Zhang Jinyan finally finished speaking.The officials who participated in the Great Court Meeting can be considered to have figured out the current situation of the Yanshan Corridor in the north.

According to Zhang Jinyan's report, the imperial soldiers and horses have now taken over Jizhen, Zunhua, and Santun without damage.Including the Tianxian Xifeng Pass, there were no captives along the way, and the imperial court had "recovered" all the passes.

In addition, according to the latest military newspapers from Juyongguan, Zhangjiakou and other places, the imperial court was convinced that there were small groups of Mongolian and Manchu cavalry of varying numbers who forced their way out of the pass.

In summary, it can be inferred that the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia that entered the customs before have all withdrawn from the border of Ming Dynasty.

Zhang Jinyan finally mentioned a piece of information, the content of which was that the officers and soldiers found traces of fierce fighting in Santunying: the east wall of Santunying had collapsed.

This piece of news, for the few people who know the inside story, they know who smashed the wall.

For example, Master Feng.

In addition, for some people with relatively strong reasoning ability, they may also be able to estimate part of the truth.

And for most of the courtiers who are confused, isn't it reasonable and logical for Santun to collapse a wall? ...Jianlu invaded, the officers and soldiers of the three camps fought hard, and finally Jianlu destroyed a wall and was able to occupy the city.

……

Yes, as of today, the imperial court still has not received the exact battle report about the Northern Expeditionary Army.

This is the seventeenth century, an era of extremely inefficient information.Due to the strong blockade in the direction of Tianjin, the capital has been unilaterally transparent about Tianjin.

Although some Tianjin businessmen have privately sent people to detour in the past few days to communicate news to relatives and friends in the capital, but this kind of information cannot be displayed at the Great Court Meeting: what the court wants is military newspapers/reports from official channels that have been officially confirmed , not a chaotic joke passed around in private.

In fact, in the current capital city, there were three surprises overnight.All kinds of folk rumors about Jianlu, Li Ni, and Cao thief have spread to the sky, and no one's version can be believed.

In the direction of Santunying alone, there are versions of rumors about Ning warriors, living Cao Cao's fake Daoist attack on King Guoqin, Huang Taiji's sudden death, Azig's return to the teacher and seizing the throne, and so on.

However, the report from Tianjin, which the imperial court had been waiting for, did not appear for a long time.Whether it is the Tianjin civil service system, the Jinyiwei system, or the military and security system, since the relocation of the Dongsan Prefecture, it has been like a mud cow entering the sea, completely without information.

As for sending people to investigate... In just a few days, people who went from the direction of the capital were either driven away by men in black who could not prove their identities with muskets, or disappeared after entering Tianjin.

"Is there a military newspaper from the Three Eastern Prefectures?"

After listening to Zhang Jinyan's report, after an awkward silence, Gao Ju, who was sitting on the dragon chair, asked this question intentionally or unintentionally.

Zhang Jinyan, who knew what the emperor wanted to know, honestly said: "To the east of Santunying, there are ten rooms and nine empty areas in Dongsanfu, and there are no bandits."

"Also." Probably because he was afraid that the emperor would be too depressed, Zhang Jinyan finally told the good news: "The Wu Sangui Department of Shanhaiguan has already communicated with the imperial army."

When Zhang Jinyan said this, he immediately shut up.

Following Zhang Jinyan's silence, the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty looked at their noses, their noses, their noses, their noses, and their hearts, not to mention saying a word, expressing their support for the Minister of War with silence.

Now, it's time for Chongzhen to express his position.

What's your attitude?Tianjin!

The content of this passage just now is actually very simple: the emperor tried to bring out topics such as Tianjin and the Cao family, and then the officials discussed to find a solution.

And the reply just now by the Minister of the Ministry of War has already hinted at his own and the attitude of the Ministry of War as much as possible: I will not mention the matter of Tianjin.Your Majesty, Li Zicheng is coming to kill you, can we just pretend that Cao Cao doesn't exist?

Then, the officials expressed their desire not to talk about the Cao family in an extremely impolite silence.

The match between the monarch and his ministers cannot be left in the cold.However, today's big court meeting has been cold twice in a short period of time.

After a long time, when Master Feng Jingjie at the end of the team was speculating like a joke about whether the irascible emperor would go mad, the emperor on the dragon chair finally spoke in a cold tone: "Since the captives have retreated, Pass the decree, seal Wu Sangui as Ping Xibo, and lead the three guards into Jingqin King!"

"The minister obeys the order."

After another two breaths, seeing that the emperor had no new orders, the officials finally breathed a sigh of relief: the situation is stronger than others, and the emperor has clearly distinguished the priorities in the face of tremendous pressure.