On the second day of June, Ningwuguan City.

Zhou Yuji, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi Province, looked at Xiong Tong, the former deputy general in the hall, and snorted contemptuously. Then he took pictures of the big case and shouted loudly: "I have been favored by the imperial court, how could I follow you guys who are despicable and shameless?"

You are just as rebellious as the others! You command two thousand soldiers and horses, but instead of stopping the bandits, you act as a lobbyist for the bandits?"

Then Zhou Yuji loudly ordered to his soldiers: "Come here! Behead this traitor in public."

As Xiong Tong screamed and begged for mercy, a group of wolf-like soldiers immediately stepped forward and dragged Xiong Tong down...

When Dashun's army crossed the Yellow River eastward and entered Shanxi, they immediately divided into two groups: one was led by Li Zicheng to attack Taiyuan, and Datong was approaching Juyongguan; the other was led by Liu Fangliang and led by Liu Fangliang to go north toward Daming, Zhending and other places.

The north and the south jointly attacked the capital.

As Li Zicheng's Dashun Army approached, Shanxi General Zhou Yuji prepared to deploy river defenses along the Yellow River, strangle the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and requested additional troops from the court. At this time, the Ming court could no longer mobilize any mobile troops, and the Ministry of War only dispatched

Lieutenant General Xiong Tong led 2,000 soldiers to come to aid. So Zhou Yuji ordered Xiong Tong to defend the Yellow River, and then he hurried to Daizhou to establish a blocking defense line.

But at this moment, the situation suddenly changed. Pingyang guard Chen Shangzhi surrendered to Li Zicheng and persuaded Xiong Tong to surrender. Li Zicheng also asked Xiong Tong to persuade Zhou Yuji to surrender. However, when Zhou Yuji saw Xiong Tong, he was furious and immediately ordered Xiong Tong to surrender.

Tong beheaded him, and ordered his subordinate Yang Zhirong, the governor of Ditang, to send his head to the capital, and continued to request the imperial court to send more rescue troops.

As a hindsight, if the imperial court had withdrawn the Ming troops from Fengtai Camp and Tongzhou Camp into Beijing at this time, and then mobilized the Guanning cavalry from Liaodong and the Ming troops from the cities near Beijing to support them, it might not be able to stop Li Zicheng's Dashun Army.

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When the Qing army and the Runing army fight to the capital and engage in a "Three Kingdoms melee" with Li Zicheng's Dashun army, the Ming Dynasty may not be able to survive. Although this means giving up all other cities in Beizhili, after all, the city of Beijing

If it is saved, Emperor Chongzhen can still be safe and sound. With the nominal legitimacy of the Ming Dynasty, there is at least a chance for a comeback.

In fact, there were also such insightful people in the Ming Dynasty at this time.

When news of Dashun's army arriving in Taiyuan reached the capital, Wang Yongji, governor of Jiliao, and Yang He, governor of Shuntian, discussed: "It is better to evacuate the four cities outside the pass and guard Shanhaiguan alone, and mobilize Wu Sangui's troops to guard the capital."

A joint petitioner put forward this suggestion.

However, when Emperor Chongzhen showed this memorial to cabinet ministers Chen Yan, Wei Zaode and others, Chen, Wei and others felt that the matter was serious and did not dare to express their stance rashly. After withdrawing, the two secretly said in private:

"The emperor was anxious and wanted to do this. What if this matter is settled and he regrets it again and kills us for abandoning the land?"

Finally, the cabinet proposed a buffer plan: inviting Wu Xiang, the father of Wu Sangui, to come to Beijing to serve as the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Army. The emperor would summon him to discuss strategic plans. Of course, the results of this discussion have been described above. Because he could not raise food and salary, he

End without illness.

Then came the quarrels between the ministers of the imperial court, the capital's boycott of donations, and the organization of escapes. However, such discussions went back and forth without reaching a decision, and it was a waste of time for the brave general Zhou Yuji and the thousands of people he led.

Soldiers.

Zhou Yuji was a guard from Jinzhou, Liaodong. He was good at riding and shooting, and rarely joined the army. He was promoted step by step from a soldier to a guerrilla leader of 3,000 troops by virtue of his numerous military exploits. At that time, many of the generals in the Beijing camp were officials who obtained their positions through connections and connections.

Some of the disciples could not even ride a horse, let alone lead troops to fight. But they still looked down upon Zhou Yuji, who came from the grassroots ranks and had a loyal and upright character.

Zhou Yuji persuaded them: "You are all spoiled dandies. How can you shoulder the mission of defending the capital when the enemy is at hand? Why should you enjoy the salary from the imperial court in vain and not seize the time to practice martial arts so as to achieve future results?"

Should the country make preparations as soon as possible?" However, his sincere words only attracted ridicule from his colleagues.

After that, Zhou Yuji accompanied Zhang Fengyi, the Minister of War, to fight continuously with the Qing soldiers. He made great contributions to the defense of the capital. He was promoted to the second rank and promoted to the deputy general of the forward battalion commanding 7,000 troops. Later, he followed Sun Yingyuan, Yang Sichang, Liu Yuanbin and others to fight in the north and south.

, repeatedly made military exploits. Because of his hard work and meritorious service, he was granted the title of Prince Shaobao and Left Governor by the imperial court, so he was known as the "war general".

Since Xu Dingguo, the former commander-in-chief of Shanxi Province, was executed for committing crimes in the 15th year of Chongzhen, the imperial court appointed Zhou Yuji to take over this post. After Zhou Yuji took office at the time of crisis, he eliminated the old and weak soldiers, repaired weapons, trained troops, and prepared for war.

The combat effectiveness of the Shanxi army has been greatly improved.

Ningwuguan is where the official office and family residence of Shanxi Commander-in-Chief Zhou Yuji are located. Together with the famous partial passes and Yanmen on the Great Wall line in the Ming Dynasty, they are collectively known as the three outer passes, so they are commonly known as the "Phoenix City". On the top of the hill outside the city, the beacon tower

Taiwan is densely covered with stars, Guanshan, beacon fires are incessant, and the barriers are tight. Heavy troops are stationed here to defend Yanmen in the east, to support Pianguan in the west, and to respond to Yunshuo in the north. Covering the ground will gain advantage.

Therefore, after Li Zicheng passed through Taiyuan, Dashun's army continued to move northward, and even went down to Licheng, Linjin, Lu'an, Xinzhou and other cities. In a moment, they arrived at Daizhou City on the Great Wall defense line of Shanxi Town under the jurisdiction of Zhou Yuji.

So Zhou Yuji relied on the strong city to block Li Zicheng's Dashun army, and sent troops to sneak out of the city and fight bravely, killing thousands of Dashun troops one after another. However, after holding on for several days in Daizhou, they were unable to fight because of the lack of food and reinforcements.

He led his army to break through the encirclement and retreated to Baoningwuguan, and the Dashun army followed closely behind. Thus, a fierce defense battle of Ningwu began.

On the fifth day of June, the Dashun army approached Ningwu Pass. However, at this time, the Dashun army had swept across the entire northwest. After setting off from Xi'an, it swept north again, sweeping thousands of troops. It was overwhelming and became increasingly arrogant. So when Li Zicheng and others

Seeing that Ningwu was just a pass on the Great Wall, not dangerous and dangerous, and with few troops, I thought it would be easy to conquer.

Zhou Yuji, who was at Ningwuguan, trained his troops day and night, obtained nearly 8,000 warriors, and took the lead. He took the initiative to leave the pass for a surprise attack before Dashun's army settled down and set up camp.

This raid was completely taken advantage of, and they succeeded by surprise, annihilating tens of thousands of the elite vanguards of the Dashun Army. However, although the forward of the Dashun Army was frustrated, they still did not stop attacking. After several confrontations, they were able to get close to the city of Ningwuguan.

But even at this time, Zhou Yuji did not defend passively. Instead, he turned his passivity into an initiative and took the initiative to line up his troops outside Guancheng to defend by fighting. At night, he withdrew his troops into the city and used the parapet wall to bombard those who climbed the city.

The Dashun Army's casualties were even more severe.

Seeing that he could not attack for a long time, Li Zicheng became angry and angry. He sent a message to Guancheng: "Anyone who does not surrender within five days will massacre his city", hoping to use a propaganda campaign to force Zhou Yuji to surrender.

Some generals also tried to persuade Zhou Yuji to change his strategy and not fight blindly, but he flatly refused. Zhou Yuji said: "We fought fiercely for three days in a row and killed more than ten thousand people. What else do you have to fear? If we win this battle,

The whole army in Shanxi Town is said to be loyal and loyal; if we cannot hold on and are defeated, just tie me up and offer it to Li Zicheng, and you will be safe and sound."

So there is an old saying: a tiger general, accompanied by a group of tiger and wolf warriors, is the most reliable danger.

However, as the battle progressed, the gunpowder of the official cannons ran out, which allowed the Dashun army to carry the cannons to attack the city. However, the official reinforcements did not arrive for a long time, and they could not think of any good way to deal with it. At this moment,

Zhou Yuji was so anxious that he secretly ordered his warriors to ambush in the streets and alleys, and opened the door to lure the Dashun army into the city. When the Dashun army entered the city with more than 10,000 people, he immediately lowered the city gates and ambushed the army, killing the Dashun army.

Killed and wounded four of Li Zicheng's elite generals.

At this point in the battle, although the Dashun Army had only lost more than 20,000 people, most of these soldiers were old soldiers and horses that Li Zicheng relied on. So after seeing Zhou Yuji's tenacious resistance, Li Zicheng was ready to give up on attacking Ningwuguan.

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It was Liu Zongmin and other generals who believed that the official army had reached the end of their strength, so they encouraged Li Zicheng to persist. So the Dashun Army launched a fierce attack on Ningwuguan again. Under the bombardment of artillery, the pass city continued to collapse, and the front line of the Dashun Army's charge was

The first team was killed in the battle, and the rear team immediately followed up and took over, besieging the city continuously for four days and nights. Until June 10th, when the official army was outnumbered and outnumbered, Ningwuguan finally fell.

When the Dashun army invaded Guancheng, Zhou Yuji continued to direct the street fighting. After falling off his horse, he jumped and fought hard, killing dozens of people with his own hands. Until he was caught by the Dashun army after being hit by several arrows, Zhou Yuji

He still kept swearing, refused to bow his head, and vowed to die. So the Dashun army tied Zhou Yuji all over his body, hung him on the flagpole of the teaching ground, shot him to death with random arrows, and then cut his body into pieces with random knives.

The soldiers and civilians in Ningwuguan City were also moved by Zhou Yuji's spirit of sacrificing his life for righteousness. They spontaneously participated in street fighting and killed countless Dashun soldiers. Even children and women, not one of them surrendered, and they were all brutally slaughtered afterwards.

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On that day, the guards of the General Army Yamen went out to fight one after another, and all of them were killed. Zhou Yuji's wife, Liu, was brave and fearless. She personally led the women in her family to climb to the roof and shoot arrows at the rebels. Each time an arrow was fired, one person was killed, which made the Dashun army

She didn't dare to get close. When she couldn't hold on anymore, she ordered the fire ring to be set on fire. Zhou Yuji's mother, Liu family and dozens of people in the house were all killed in the flames.

Such a tragic battle at Ningwu made Li Zicheng waver in his determination to go straight to the capital. After capturing Ningwu Pass, Li Zicheng convened the leaders for discussion and said: "Although Ningwuguan has been breached, the casualties of our soldiers are also considerable.

After arriving in Beijing, we have to pass through Datong, Yanghe, Xuanfu, Juyong and other important military towns, all of which are heavily guarded. If they all resist Zhou Yuji's tenacity, will there be one person left in our army? Why don't we leave it for now?
Chapter completed!