Aspiration

Chapter 174
In Beijing, Li Laiheng and Lao Jiu sat opposite each other, they were silent for a long time.Zhao Bing, who hurried back, stood behind him, waiting for Li Laiheng's instructions.

Zhao Bing got the news that Li Yan had been killed near Zhengzhou. Although the news was conclusive and Li Yan could not be rescued by going to Funiu Mountain, he still sneaked into Funiu Mountain. At this time, Ma Shiyao had already left, and General Liu Fangliang was gathering troops. Ready to go south.

Ma Shiyao and Liu Fangliang cooperated very closely. As soon as Ma Shiyao arrived at Funiu Mountain, Liu Fangliang led the troops. This only shows that Li Zicheng's deployment was not a temporary arrangement, and they were fully prepared to kill Li Yan.

"Old Jiu, it seems that our strategy of defending Beijing is superfluous. I am worried that Chang'an will collapse soon, what should we do next?" After listening to Zhao Bing's report, Li Laiheng did not think What to say about Li Zicheng's murder of Li Yan, it seems that in his thinking, Li Yan's death is inevitable and destined by heaven.After a while, he asked Lao Jiu such a question.

"Strategy is not my specialty, just listen to your advice, General," Lao Jiu said.

"What information is there in Chang'an?"

Of course Li Laiheng was worried about Shaanxi's military affairs, but he was even more worried about Shaanxi's politics.In recent months, it can be said that Niu Jinxing's governance of Shaanxi has been a mess. Instead of making the people have good expectations for the future, he has made the people disgusted.

Lao Jiu talked about the situation in Shaanxi, and also reported to Li Laiheng in detail about the situation in Chang'an, including the private lives of several major officials.

After listening, Li Laiheng said, don't bother me these few days, I have to think about it.Li Laiheng would only say this when it was very difficult to make a decision. He would spend a few days thinking about the problem without being disturbed, which meant that he was about to make a huge decision.

Li Laiheng doesn't have too many people to discuss important matters now, he has to make up his own mind.Hao Yaoqi, Gu Ying, and Gu Kecheng are all good fighters and have a certain strategic vision, but Li Laiheng is not making an ordinary strategic decision, he is making a major decision that will change history.

Therefore, he must get rid of all distractions and think about a problem wholeheartedly.

In Chang'an, in the imperial palace, Li Zichengcai and Mi Zhi's concubine had been warming for a while, then they were disturbed by the voice of an eunuch.

"Your Majesty, urgent military report!"

Li Zicheng hadn't heard such an urgent report for a long time. Knowing that something serious must have happened, he quickly got up and read the military newspaper on the bed.

"Damn it! Ma Shiyao defected to the enemy?"

He threw the bag heavily on the quilt, accidentally, it just fell on the concubine's snow-white jade peak, causing the beautiful lady to groan in pain.

Ma Shiyao betrayed the enemy?
good.Li Zicheng left 2 troops to Ma Shiyao to receive Tongguan, and the other [-] troops were transferred to the Shangzhou area for defense.Tongguan suddenly fell into anxiety. Tongguan's defense was already very tight. Now at a critical moment, another [-] troops were suddenly transferred, which disappointed the defenders.On the second day, under the coercion of his subordinates, Ma Shiyao surrendered Duoduo.

Why did Li Zicheng have such a trick to "faint" to transfer the troops away?In fact, this mistake happened to be caused by Li Zicheng himself.He moved Li Yan's army from Henan to Hubei, and the empty Henan was immediately filled by Dorgon's troops. At this time, Shaanxi's defense line suddenly expanded, and he had to withdraw troops from Tongguan.Drawing troops from Tongguan, Li Zicheng knew that Tongguan was dangerous, but he never expected that Ma Shiyao would surrender. If [-] elite soldiers stationed in Tongguan to resist tenaciously, half a month to January would be no problem.He originally planned to draw troops from other places to fill the shortage of Tongguan, but before he could deploy, Tongguan fell.

The fall of Tongguan is equivalent to the fall of Shaanxi, and the gate of Xi'an is wide open. Now there are only two choices before us, one is to regain Tongguan, and the other is to evacuate Shaanxi.

There is little hope of regaining Tongguan.

Withdrawal from Shaanxi, where to withdraw?There are two roads, one is Sichuan, but there is Zhang Xianzhong there, and the other is Huguang, where Liu Fangliang's brigade is in Xiangyang, which is the only direction he can choose to retreat.

Therefore, Li Zicheng's next step is to go to Xiangyang.

The court meeting was in a hurry, and they only had about ten days to prepare. After ten days, Duoduo would attack Shaanxi in a big way, and Azig would probably break through Li Guo's defense line and attack Dashun's troops from all fronts.Li Zicheng planned to go south to Xiangyang and separate an area south of the Han River.

Of course, Li Zicheng believed that Zuo Liangyu would cooperate with him. He had [-] elite soldiers. In the future, it would be feasible to establish a country in the land of Jingchu.

On the third day, two things made Li Zicheng hesitate again.

First, a secret letter came from Tongguan. Ma Shiyao wrote a letter saying that he was willing to respond internally and asked the emperor to send someone to attack Tongguan.Ma Shiyao had no intention of betraying Li Zicheng, but he had to consider betraying Li Zicheng because of what happened recently, because he was very entangled in Li Yan's matter, and he knew that Li Zicheng would settle with him sooner or later.Secondly, Ma Shiyao also noticed that since Li Zicheng became emperor in Xi'an, his past style has changed, especially the consistent mistakes in decision-making made people see no hope, so when his subordinates coerced him to rebel, he did not strongly resist.However, once it became a fact, although Duoduo treated him well, his heart was deeply shocked. He had followed Li Zicheng for more than ten years, how could he defect to the enemy when Li Zicheng needed help most?So, he decided to turn against the water again.Many of his subordinates also have this idea, and they are going to cooperate with Li Zicheng to regain Tongguan in the pass.Even if Li Zicheng punishes them, they are willing.

Li Zicheng had the idea of ​​retaking Tongguan.

The second thing is that Tian Jianxiu disobeyed orders again, which made Li Zicheng very uncomfortable.A few days ago, Tian Jianxiu decided to retreat at the grand timing. After Tian Jianxiu was cut off, he finally left Chang'an. When he left Chang'an, Li Zicheng asked him to do one important thing, which was to burn all the grain in the grain depot, so that the grain could not be lost to the Qing soldiers. pieces.However, Tian Jianxiu asked several times to distribute the food in Chang'an City to the citizens, and Li Zicheng was very unhappy.Li Zicheng said that no matter where the food is, it will be looted by the Qing soldiers, and they will not get it unless there is less fire.Tian Jianxiu insisted on his own opinion, he was unwilling to burn the food, he said, if the food was burned, the people of Chang'an would hate our Dashun Dynasty.This sentence hurt Li Zicheng.

Will Chang'an people hate me, Li Zicheng?

Just when Li Zicheng was hesitating, a news came and he was stunned.

There was news from Tongguan that Ma Shiyao and other [-] soldiers were all massacred by Qing soldiers, and Ma Shiyao himself was skinned to death by Qing soldiers' executioners.

There was no longer any hesitation about leaving Chang'an, and the main force of Dashun withdrew southward.

It never occurred to Li Zicheng to kill a Li Yan and lose a Xi'an.In fact, how did he know that he lost far more than one Xi'an.

(End of this chapter)