Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

"Crackling——!"

The firecrackers, bows and arrows of Tang Tongbu also sounded like fried beans.The servants kept falling from the horses.But those servants on the horses did not stop, and killed Tang Tong's army in an instant.

"Boom boom boom!"

A few shots fired, and dozens of servants of Guan Ning's iron cavalry were immediately torn to pieces.But the rest of the servants clamped their heels hard, pierced the spurs fiercely into the belly of the horse, took advantage of the strength of the horse's pain and rushed forward, and smashed the three-eyed firecracker in their hands forward. .

Because of being shot for three consecutive rounds, the cannon fodder standing in front had already loosened their formation, let alone formed a complete gun flower formation.So Guan Ning's cavalry servants rushed into Tang Tong's formation at once.And the flying of the three-eyed firecracker caused the blood and brains of the soldiers who were hit to be splashed. The impact of the tragic scene on the vision far exceeded the effect of piercing with a spear.So the formation of Tang Tongjun's front row immediately collapsed.

The Guan Ning cavalry guards in the next few rows rushed in one after another, beating Tang Tongjun's central army like a sledgehammer.In an instant, the collapse spread.The light cavalry of Guan Ning's iron cavalry also killed at this time, followed by nearly [-] infantry shouting to kill.

At the moment of confrontation, the victory and defeat of the two armies have been divided.Seeing that something was wrong, Tang Tong turned his horse and ran away without hesitation. His soldiers and servants also followed and fled, and the scene suddenly became one-sided.

……

On the first day of the eighth month, Li Zicheng arrived with the main force of the Dashun Army, but he didn't take Tang Tong's defeat seriously. He even held a banquet to shock Tang Tong and comforted Tang Tong and other defeated generals.

For Li Zicheng, 4 soldiers and horses were defeated by more than 1 soldiers and horses of Guanning cavalry.That in itself was to be expected.In addition, Guan Ning's iron cavalry did not dare to chase and kill wantonly, which caused Tang Tong to gather more than [-] routs in the end, without causing unbearable losses, so Li Zicheng at this time also showed generosity beyond ordinary people After all, he still wants to show his favor to Tang Tong, the surrendered Ming army generals.

In addition, Li Zicheng also passed the temptation of Tang Tongjun, which proved that the Qing army was watching from the sidelines.This also made Li Zicheng less worried about being an enemy on both sides, so Li Zicheng believed that the loss of Tang Tongjun was worthwhile and cost-effective.Anyway, those are Ming soldiers who surrendered, and the children of other people's families can't stop dying!

therefore.Instead of convicting Tang Tong and these defeated generals, Li Zicheng handed Tang Tong [-] soldiers and horses to monitor the actions of the Qing army near Dazhongzhuang and prepare for a sudden attack by the Qing army.Of course, although this side division is nominally commanded by Tang Tong.But in fact, the deputy commander Xie Junyou commanded most of the Dashun Army.And the rest of the Dashun Army's troops pressed towards Yutian County aggressively.

Rather oddly enough.Li Zicheng and the others are very excited about the upcoming battle.They all couldn't wait to prepare for a desperate fight with Guan Ning's iron cavalry.

Throughout the Ming Dynasty, the Trilateral Army in northern Shaanxi has always been the number one powerful army in the world, and this is also the pride of Li Zicheng and other Dashun Army generals who were born in the Trilateral Army.But at the end of Ming Dynasty, with Li Chengliang's Liaodong Iron Cavalry rising suddenly, the reputation of the number one strong army has been gradually taken away by Liaodong Iron Cavalry.

So Li Zicheng and others have been very unconvinced.He has always wanted to touch this world-famous Guan Ning cavalry.Therefore, if the Dashun Army won this battle cleanly, then the Dashun Army is truly the number one strong army.

Another thing is also very strange, in the eyes of people like Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui.They all thought that their troops were stronger than Wu Shigong's Runing Army.This is also because the Runing Army has a bad background and is an inland army rather than a frontier army, but the more important reason is that the Runing Army is too rich.

From Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui's point of view, the combat effectiveness of the Runing Army should be inferior to their frontier army.It is only because of the money and equipment of a large number of firearms and sophisticated armor that the combat effectiveness of the Runing Army can be equal to that of the Frontier Army.

But when the Dashun Army was actively preparing for the war, Li Zicheng unexpectedly met a group of six envoys, including Shanhaiguan gentry and Confucian scholar Li Yousong.These envoys were all sent by Wu Sangui, and they greeted Li Zicheng's army with letters of surrender and rewards, expressing their intention to surrender.In fact, Wu Sangui wanted to delay the time and wait for the arrival of the Qing army.

At the same time, Wu Sangui once again sent envoys to the Qing army camp, demanding that the Qing army abide by its promise and come to meet up as soon as possible to jointly fight with the Dashun army.

In this letter of appeal for help, Wu Sangui's basic stance on the major issue of Lianqing's attack on Shun was expressed.In this letter, Wu Sangui repeatedly referred to the Ming Dynasty as "our country" and "our dynasty" and the Manchu Qing Dynasty as the "Northern Dynasty".In other words, Wu Sangui asked for help from the Qing Dynasty as a courtier of the Ming Dynasty. The purpose of asking for troops was to "kill the bandits" and "rejuvenate" the Ming Dynasty, not to allow the Qing Dynasty to rule the Central Plains.

But Wu Sangui also made a certain concession, promising that after the Qing army wiped out the peasant army, it would use "children's treasures" and part of the land as a reward and return for sending troops to the Qing Dynasty.

In addition, Wu Sangui also distributed leaflets everywhere to create public opinion for the restoration, preaching that "the fate of Zhou has not been changed, and Han De can be thought of", "try to see that the heart of Chi County is still the orthodoxy of the Zhu family", and incited the gentry and bureaucrats to mourn for Emperor Chongzhen, and won the nearby The sympathy or support of most of the bureaucratic gentry and even some Confucian scholars in the late Ming Dynasty.In terms of public opinion, they are ready to actively invite the Qing army to fight jointly.

However, Wu Sangui's hard work failed to achieve the slightest result.First of all, when the Dashun Army approached Yumen, Li Zicheng discovered that the envoy sent by Wu Sangui to contact the surrender tried to escape, which immediately exposed Wu Sangui's true intention of falsely surrendering.

Then, on the evening of the second day of August, Wu Sangui personally led a small group of elite soldiers to raid the camp of Bai Guangen's Department of the Dashun Army and won another victory.But this victory aroused the fighting spirit of the Dashun Army.Under Li Zicheng's order, tens of thousands of troops transported cannons to the front line, and then Li Zicheng led an old battalion of more than 6 soldiers and horses to Yumen.

Under such military pressure, Wu Sangui made major concessions to the Qing army.He sent an envoy to promise Huang Taiji: As long as the Qing army sends troops, Guanning cavalry will donate the land of Liaodong including Shanhaiguan.

This is the first time that Wu Sangui has clarified the specific territory ceded to the Qing Dynasty, especially the Shanhaiguan Pass he will donate, which is an important obstacle for the Qing army to enter the pass.It is even more important to point out that without the Ningjin defense line dominated by Shanhaiguan, the Yanyun area would become completely undefended. As long as the Qing army is willing, he can occupy the entire North China Plain including Beijing.Therefore, Wu Sangui's promise showed that he was in a hurry.

For the Qing army, this condition was simply a godsend, and the generals of the Qing army all hoped that Huang Taiji would agree to it.But Huang Taiji had figured out Wu Sangui's psychology, and at this moment, he just wanted to see him.Huang Taiji quickly replied to Wu Sangui, telling them to abandon the previous suspicions, and promised to "confess the homeland and Jin will be the vassal king" and "children and grandchildren will enjoy wealth and honor forever".In fact, the real meaning here has become, let Guan Ning cavalry surrender to the Qing army.

In desperation, Wu Sangui could only vaguely agree to this condition.The Qing army also began to leave Ninghe County and move towards Yutian County.

On the fourth day of August, the Dashun Army launched an attack on the Guanning cavalry in three ways.Because Yumen County is too small, Guan Ning's cavalry can only rely on the county to go out of the city to fight in the field.In the half-day battle, Guan Ning's iron cavalry fully demonstrated the true qualities of a strong army. Wu Sangui personally led the army to block from left to right, resisting the fierce attack of Dashun army.

The three-sided veterans of Li Zicheng's old battalion also performed well. They were evenly matched with Wu Sangui's Guanning iron cavalry. Therefore, in the first battle, the two armies were evenly divided.

However, as the battle progressed, the superiority of the Dashun Army became apparent, and Guan Ning's iron cavalry gradually became unable to withstand the onslaught of the Dashun Army from three sides.When the battle lasted for half a day, after nearly 3000 members of the Guanning Cavalry surrendered to the Dashun Army, the battle situation took a turn for the worse. Wu Sangui could only order the troops to retreat into Yutian County to avoid the fierce offensive of the Dashun Army.

That night, Wu Sangui, who was facing a desperate situation, sent messengers eight times in a row to urge the Qing army to send troops, but they never returned.In desperation, Wu Sangui could only come to the Qing army camp in person, and begged Huang Taiji to send troops.

Seeing Wu Sangui coming in person, Huang Taiji received him warmly and kindly.And Wu Sangui was desperate, and he made a new concession to Huang Taiji, agreeing to cede a large area north of the Yellow River, including Beijing, to the Qing Dynasty.

However, Wu Sangui also proposed: Do not harm the people, do not violate the mausoleum, visit the East Palace and where the two kings are, and set up Nanjing.The Manchu Qing allowed him to support the former prince of the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing and establish Nanming.

Speaking of this, it can be seen that Wu Sangui is still vague about surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.In his heart, he still wanted to be a "Ming Chen" and work hard to restore the rule of the Ming Dynasty.As for the sending of troops by the Qing army, Wu Sangui still believes that it was "borrowing troops from brotherly countries", just like the borrowing of troops from Xianbei in the Tang Dynasty.Wu Sangui was still half-hearted about surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.

But Huang Taiji fully agreed to Wu Sangui's request.However, he said politely to Wu Sangui: Because of the similar appearance of the Han people, it was difficult for the Qing soldiers to distinguish between the enemy and ourselves.In order to facilitate joint operations, all soldiers of Wu Sangui and his Guanning cavalry were required to shave their heads, otherwise the Qing army would not enter the battlefield.

In fact, what Huang Taiji meant was to ask Wu Sangui's Guanning iron cavalry to surrender completely to the Qing Dynasty.But Wu Sangui, who was driven to a dead end, had no choice.After he returned to camp that night, he immediately ordered that the entire army shave their heads.

And with this haircut, Wu Sangui couldn't go back. (To be continued..)