I have a cornucopia

Chapter 318 The Complete Collapse of the Qing Dynasty
The subsequent situation was similar to what Yang Feng had expected.

Jirgalang, who had already arrived in Cangzhou, learned that Wu Sangui had suddenly occupied the capital and controlled Hauge. He took advantage of the fact that several local tyrants in Cangzhou had not yet received the news, and lured them to gather their servants in the name of an inspection. He then killed them all and massacred every family, looting all the wealth he could.

Even the women were taken away.

Then they raided Hejian again.

Also, they took advantage of the fact that several powerful people in Hejian were unprepared, attacked Hejian and looted it again.

Of course, there is not much in these two places. Hejian is at least the rear, and Cangzhou is the front line. More than half of the population has fled. But for Jirgalang, if he doesn't rob now, he will never have a chance in the future. It can be regarded as letting these local tyrants contribute to my Qing Dynasty for the last time. Besides, he has no money and food. If he doesn't lead the looting, his subordinates will probably collapse.

In short, Jirgalang carried out a hasty and brief looting as quickly as possible, then headed north with the wealth and slaves he had gained, and joined the Qing army besieging Tianjin. With a total of 30,000 Eight Banners and Green Banner troops, he ignored the eager eyes of the Qing Emperor and the hostages in the capital, and went directly to Jizhou and fled to Liaodong through Zunhua.

However, they kept fleeing along the way. After all, the Green Flag Army only liked to follow him to plunder, and did not like to run outside the Great Wall. As for the Eight Banners Han Army, most of them were from northern Zhili. They just wanted to rob and find a chance to run back home. In the end, only half of them actually left Xifengkou, but he finally got out of the Great Wall smoothly.

But Ajige was in trouble. He was in Handan, the core area of ​​the Qing Dynasty. Unlike Jirgalang, the vast land and sparse population had long been due to years of war. The vast majority of the population under the rule of the Qing Dynasty was concentrated in several prefectures to the north of him. The local tyrants in these prefectures and counties had expressed their loyalty to Wu Sangui and closed the city gates to defend. It was not the wheat harvest season yet, and it was the most food-scarce time of the year. The rural areas were all eating bran and vegetables. Ajige couldn't even feed his troops.

Of course, he can eat people.

But the problem is that he has no money, and his subordinates are mainly the Green Banner Army and the Eight Banner New Han Army, that is, the surrendered Ming army and the original North Zhili militia after entering the pass...

Of course they supported Wu Sangui.

Liu Fangming, a general under Ajige and the former general of the Liugou Army of the Ming Dynasty, used the excuse that Ajige disobeyed the emperor's order and led his Eight Banners Han Army and Green Banner Army to raid Ajige's camp, triggering a melee among the various armies. Although he was defeated and set on fire by Ajige, it led to the rapid disbanding of the various armies. Originally, Ajige commanded 100,000 troops, but in fact, he only had 70,000 to 80,000 troops. After all, the Green Banner Army was basically on the southern front. As a result, after this melee, only more than 20,000 Eight Banners Manchus, Mongols and old Han troops, plus some Mongolian servants, were left with him.

Others either died or ran away.

To be precise, most of them escaped.

After the Eight Banners entered the Pass, the New Han Army and part of the Green Banner Army fled directly to various cities, were incorporated by local tyrants, and then helped the Qing Dynasty to encircle and suppress the traitor Ajige.

I have to say it is still very magical. A group of Han people encircled and wiped out the Eight Banners Manchus and Mongolians led by a prince for our Qing Dynasty.

There were also some smart ones who simply fled to Taihang Mountains and became bandits.

Although Ajige looted Handan, he was blocked in Xingtai. Although he could have captured Xingtai, after all, there were only the retainers of local tyrants and the 10,000 New Han Army and Green Flag Army who fled to Xingtai. But the problem was that on the second day after he surrounded Xingtai, Dang Shousu's vanguard from Lu'an arrived in Wu'an. On the same day, the Shandong Army advancing westward from Dongchang also captured Guanxian...

In fact, Guan County surrendered.

Now that the Qing Dynasty is in this state, how can there be anyone who would truly defend it to the death?

Although there is a high probability that the surrendered warlords will be colluded by Yang Feng, he will not colluded with ordinary soldiers.

What's more, even for the powerful, as long as Yang Feng was not present in person, but simply his generals, there are plenty of ways to escape. If it really doesn't work, they can just flee and live in hiding for the rest of their lives. Especially the Shandong Army is also made up of gentry, who are not like those bandits, and they really strictly follow Yang Feng's orders.

In this way, Ajige had no time to attack Xingtai and fled directly around the north of the city.

The route goes around the city.

Thanks to the fact that the northern gentry has spared no effort to improve the city defense in order to prevent the Ming army from fighting back, the northern Zhili area is now like the Dutch resisting the Spaniards, with new castles everywhere. Not to mention the prefectures and counties, even the villages are actually fortified, but this also has another very important use, which is to prevent the unruly people from escaping.

There are no scattered villages in northern Zhili now. Instead, the serfs are imprisoned in the strongholds of the powerful.

When they were needed to work, they were driven out, and the servants would ride on horses and watch over them with whips. After the work was done, they would be driven back to the fort and then go home.

It's just like raising livestock.

Otherwise, these unruly people would run away at the first chance. At least several million of them have fled over the years. If they all ran away, who would farm the land for the masters? After all, tens of millions of acres of land have been annexed, what's the use if no one farms it?

But now this mode has protected them to the greatest extent. No matter where Ajige went, it would take time to get money and food, and even many soldiers would be killed and injured in the attack. But now he has no time. More than 200,000 troops from the east, west and south are completing the encirclement of him.

He had to keep moving forward.

Next stop is Zhending.

But Zhang Nai had already left Jingxing before him. Eager to take credit, Zhang Nai went south to fight without waiting for Li Guo's main force. Ajige, who was like a tiger in a plain and bullied by a dog, was completely enraged. After all, he had not really fallen to the point where he could be bullied by a third-rate guy like Zhang Nai. The two sides fought a fierce battle at Huaihe River.

Zhang Nai was defeated and killed in battle.

But Ajige didn't get much advantage. Zhang Nai was Li Zicheng's adopted son, and he was with Li Zicheng's elite imperial camp. Shang Kexi, who followed him, was hit by a bullet and fell off his horse in the melee, and then was trampled by the chaotic cavalry, leaving only a ring on his finger to identify his identity. By then, most of the famous Han generals of the Qing Dynasty were gone. Ajige tried to attack Zhending but was stubbornly defended by the Eight Banners New Han Army in the city. After two days of attacking without any results, he got the news that Li Guo led 100,000 troops out of Jingxing Road, so he had to give up the attack and flee north.

Wu Sangui had already announced in the capital on behalf of Haoge that he and his subordinates were rebels and that any Qing citizen could kill them. He also had no ability to fight all the way back to the capital. At the same time, the Shandong army had already advanced westward in large numbers, and even Huang Fei advanced westward along the Daqing River from Tianjin.

If we go any further we will be surrounded.

In the end, Ajige had no choice but to leave Daomaguan and then flee north from Laiyuan to Xuanfu.

but……

Yanmen Pass.

"Your Majesty, Jiang Ge has arrived in Xuanfu."

The staff officer reported to King Yang on the tractor.

The latter is now very stylish, because he made a huge throne on the tractor, and exaggeratedly made it into an Iron Throne, only bigger. As for the problem of comfort, he just needs to pile up more cushions. Then King Yang, dressed in a dragon robe, sits high on the Iron Throne like a monarch in an ancient painting.

Because the dragon robe is red, it looks enchanting from a distance.

Of course, it’s actually very uncomfortable.

After all, after he raised it, every shake of the tractor would be transmitted as waves in the sea.

But showing off is more important, so King Yang just sat down and moved forward.

After he arranged everything in Xi'an, he immediately rushed to Taiyuan, and then led 40,000 northern expedition troops, plus 20,000 from Wang Yongqiang's army, and another 10,000 from Li Dingguo's army that had just arrived in Xi'an, a total of 70,000 troops to the north, ready to kill Ajige, or to be more precise, to capture Ajige alive and bring him to Xi'an to be used as a sacrifice when Chongzhen was buried...

Dorgon was no longer possible, so his brother had to be used as his replacement.

The Chongzhen Emperor of the Ming Dynasty could rest in peace as he held Li Zicheng's arm and watched Ajige being tortured to death in front of him.

Even Fulin and his mother had been sent to Xi'an.

Of course, they were not sacrifices, they just had to wear prison uniforms, be put in cages, and stay in front of the emperor's tomb for a few days as exhibits.

Then Her Majesty will pardon them.

They even granted them a temple, of course, this temple was to be built in Korchin.

From now on, the mother and son will live out their lives in this temple!

Since Fulin was a monk, it was impossible for him to have any descendants.

Merciful Queen. As for Jiang Ge, he had already surrendered, but he surrendered, and whether Yang Feng would pardon him or not depended on his performance, so Jiang Ge led the generals of Datong, all with their servants, to go to Xuanfu to join the generals of Xuanfu to block Ajige.

"However, Jiang Ge also reported that if Ajige was blocked in Xuanfu, he might not fight to the end, after all, there are many roads eastward from Xuanfu."

The staff officer said.

"Then tell him that I don't care what he does. First, he must defend Xuanfu and not allow Ajige to leave through Zhangjiakou. Second, if Ajige gives up attacking Xuanfu after being blocked, then let him force Ajige to take the route from Suoyang Pass to Dushikou. As long as he does these, he will complete the mission. If he can't, then he and the people on the list I gave him should just wait for me to kill the three tribes!"

I don't care what he does.

He can bribe me with money, that's fine, but I only want these two results."

King Yang said while holding the thermos cup.

"I understand the humble position!"

The staff officer immediately saluted and said.

Then he left to deliver a letter to Jiang Ge, which still had to be sent via the post road.

But time was not too tight, because Ajige had just arrived in Laiyuan.

The latter did not walk very fast.

The main reason was that there was no feed for the horses. They didn't even have enough food for the people. In fact, they were already cannibalizing people. It's just that the people along the way all ran away. After all, it was too easy to escape in the Taihang Mountains. They could just hide in a ravine and the Qing army would not waste time searching for them. So Ajige could only use the excuse that the Han army accompanying him on the Eight Banners intended to rebel, and killed more than a thousand of them, and then used both the people and their horses as military rations.

Isn’t this the tradition of our Qing Dynasty? If there is no food, just kill those who have no food.

Of course, this also led to the escape of the last remaining Eight Banners Han Army.

But war horses need feed after all, and they can't use the Eight Banners Han soldiers to feed the horses, so they can only herd the horses while marching.

"Time is a bit tight!"

King Yang sat there pondering.

Then he picked up the walkie-talkie.

"Go, call that guy called Li Dingguo here, and tell him that I like him and want to give him a chance to make meritorious contributions!"

He said.

Half an hour later.

Li Dingguo looked at the map silently.

"General Li, do you have the courage?"

King Yang said with his head down.

"Your Majesty, I will obey your orders, but I am worried about the lack of troops. The Jianlu have more than 20,000 soldiers. Although my troops are 10,000, most of them are on short horses. They are enough for marching on horseback, but not for fighting in the field. There are only 3,000 soldiers who can fight against the Jianlu. If there are another 10,000, we can be safe."

Li Dingguo said.

Yang Feng asked him to lead his 10,000 cavalrymen to follow King Yang and charge at full speed to Huailai to pursue Ajige.

And without those followers.

Yang Feng's 3,000 followers were assigned to the Northern Expedition infantry, which lacked cavalry, especially cavalry that could really fight. After all, the most important thing for firepower output was to have cavalry cover on the flanks, so the 3,000 followers were divided into ten battalions to follow the Northern Expedition infantry, and the 40,000 Northern Expedition troops were divided into ten brigades. As for Li Dingguo's concerns, this was true. Zhang Xianzhong certainly couldn't really send out 10,000 elite cavalry. It was hard to say whether he could gather 10,000 elite cavalry. This kind of thing was originally symbolic.

But he had no shortage of mounted infantry.

The main reason is that Yunnan and Guizhou are not short of horses.

These were easy for Yunnan horses, and he could even trade horses from the plateau.

But the former are all ponies, with a shoulder height of 1.2 meters or even lower and strong endurance, and are especially suitable for mountain carrying. But it is obviously difficult for them to charge into the battle. It is hard to say whether they can run while carrying a strong man in full armor. If Yang Feng rides on them with a full set of equipment, he will probably be crushed to the ground.

After all, the weight of his full set of equipment has exceeded that of the Dian Horse.

So in order to fool him, Zhang Xianzhong actually only sent 3,000 truly elite cavalrymen to follow Li Dingguo, and the remaining 7,000 were mounted infantry.

Moreover, their equipment is the worst among all the armies.

Even the bow and arrow are the main weapons.

The firearms were also of old style.

For example, the seven-cent musket, the three-barrel cavalry musket and other miscellaneous items. The technological content of the southwest battlefield is basically the lowest. After all, they mainly fight in the mountains, and it is not realistic to ask them to carry turtledove muskets across mountains and ridges.

As for the cannons, let alone the Red Cannon, even the field cannons cannot be used on the mountain roads of Guizhou!
There are many stone steps on that road!
Moreover, they had no experience in fighting the Qing army.

"I only ask if you dare, you don't need to answer anything else."

Yang Feng said.

Li Dingguo pondered for a moment.

"dare."

He replied.

"That's all, go back and prepare. We'll set off in an hour. Tell your brothers that I like those who are not afraid of death in battle."

Yang Feng said with satisfaction.

Li Dingguo bowed and left with a complicated expression.

"My lord, does he think that you want to kill them on purpose? After all, they are Zhang Xianzhong's men.

They don't even think about who the king is, and taking them with them would be giving them credit for nothing."

Wang Yongqiang, who had been watching the fun, looked up and said with a smile.

"How could he think that he can just do whatever he wants? But since he is here, he has to listen to me. Besides, you have all fought for many years. They have been raised in Sichuan for all these years, so it is time for them to do more. Zhang Xianzhong wants to fool us, but we are not prepared to let him fool us."

King Yang said.

(End of this chapter)