Withdrawing all the way east from Xi'an, Li Zicheng was still in a good mood despite losing consecutive battles.
During the seventeen-year-long bandit war, he had developed an optimistic attitude when facing difficulties.
In Li Zicheng's view, this defeat was no different from the previous one.
In the worst case, just continue to fight on the move, and sooner or later you will find an opportunity to make a comeback.
Until he received desperate news.
"Your Majesty, the Shandong leftists have seized Wuchang and cut off the river. We... have no way to go."
The monarchs and ministers of Dashun gathered together, and they were all stunned by the news.
When we retreated from Xi'an, we all discussed it. We would gather troops from various places along the way, concentrate our forces, and then go south along the Yangtze River to seize the south of the Yangtze River.
After seizing the fertile land in the south of the Yangtze River and accumulating enough money, food and troops, he could then deal with the Qing army.
Today, Li Zicheng has long lost his original character as a rogue bandit.
There is only one reason.
Lu Zhenfei had no choice.
On the first day of April, Li Zicheng was surrounded by Qing troops in Elong Town.
Dorgon warned that Li Zicheng must be eliminated as soon as possible. Otherwise, he will be held accountable for his previous crimes.
Today's Fengyang, with the Qing army eyeing it in front and the Lianghuai Military Region of the empire behind it, has become a sandwich biscuit.
"Zuo Mengeng, you are trying to drive us to death!"
Obviously, in Dorgon's view, Li Zicheng's destruction has become a foregone conclusion. The Manchu Qing's next opponent will become the empire.
This famous official who took over as governor of Fengyang after Shi Kefa felt powerless in the face of the current situation.
As a result, the weather was not kind and the spring rains came sparsely, making the roads muddy and making walking inconvenient.
The next day he led his troops from Hanyang and headed northeast.
More than 200,000 soldiers were soaked in mud and miserable. In addition, the food and grass had been almost consumed, and morale had completely fallen to the bottom.
The black cannonballs, carrying sparkling flames, struck nearby at an unparalleled speed.
At the same time, Dorgon also gave Dodo a secret order.
"The river stretches for thousands of miles. I'm afraid it's hard for the leftist thief to cover everything, right?"
Li Zicheng did not believe in evil and even sent someone to try it once.
The plan was good, but I didn't expect that it would be intercepted by the empire.
A greater crisis befell him.
From Dengzhou, Chengtian, De'an, to Hanyang, there were four consecutive battles, and the Shun army was defeated tragically. Countless baggage was discarded along the way, and the casualties could no longer be counted.
This undoubtedly slowed down the speed of action and also facilitated the pursuit of the Qing army.
Azig was extremely angry and frightened at the same time. He no longer dared to neglect and accelerated his march.
Why does Dodo appear here?
It still has something to do with the empire.
Yuan Zongdi was very honest and said nothing.
More than ten days later, Azig led the Qing army to catch up from behind, leaving little time for Li Zicheng and others.
Since he could not cross the river, he planned to go to the Dabie Mountains first. He would use the complex terrain of the mountainous areas to avoid the Qing army's attack.
These people who have been wandering around on land all their lives, the best warships they have ever seen are just water boats in the inner lake.
A ship could actually carry dozens of artillery pieces, which was completely beyond their imagination.
Under this situation, Li Zicheng had no other choice but to break camp and go south, going to Huguang first.
After more than ten years of war, the land of Henan has long been in ruins. After Duduo marched, he did not encounter any obstacles, and his advancement speed could be said to be rapid.
But he can never move forward in this life.
As soon as they reached Huangpi, Niu Jinxing quietly left the team and became a shameful deserter.
It was the biggest ship he had ever seen.
In the past, when he encountered the Ming army's pursuit and interception, he could always make up his mind, leave behind the old, weak, sick, disabled, and his baggage, and lead his elite troops away.
Standing on the bank of the Yangtze River, looking at the Imperial Navy warships cruising back and forth on the river, Li Zicheng finally understood that Yuan Zongdi was not lying.
"For more than ten days, I sent troops and horses to attack everywhere, looking for a place to cross the river. However, the navy of the Zuo thieves was so powerful that they defeated us with just one warship. This big river is really difficult to cross!
"
"Are you greedy for life and afraid of death? How can a mere warship block the path of my hundreds of thousands of troops?"
He was still thinking about what might happen.
After conquering Tongguan, Duduo followed Dorgon's order and returned to Henan and began to sweep all the way.
As a result, when the dozen or so soldiers had just stepped onto the river bank and had not yet pushed the boat in their hands into the water, a cannon was heard three miles away.
Wait until a little bit of rectification is done before looking for a good solution.
Bad news comes one after another.
His arrival put Lu Zhenfei, the governor of Fengyang in the Ming Dynasty, into a desperate situation.
Azig was scolded by Dorgon.
In the deafening explosion, most of the soldiers were killed on the spot, and the few who were still alive ran away.
But Li Zicheng no longer cared about this.
For the first time in his life, Li Zicheng felt despair, and his body began to tremble involuntarily.
Another Qing army led by Duduo suddenly appeared and completely blocked Li Zicheng's eastward advance.
Duduo decided to capture Fengyang and then look for opportunities to see if he could raid Huai'an or Yangzhou.
Let Duduo look for opportunities, find the empire's weaknesses, and be ready to take action at any time.
Macheng is only a few dozen miles away, and the Dabie Mountains are also faintly visible.
But now that Li Zicheng has proclaimed himself the emperor and founded the country, he is very concerned about the emperor's appearance. Therefore, he must bring everything with him when he marches.
In line with the principle of attacking first to gain strength and attacking later to suffer disaster, Dorgon began to plan.
Listening to what he said, everyone in the Shun army felt cold.
This is the important town closest to the imperial border in the Huaihe River region, and there are plains all the way east from here, which is very conducive to cavalry maneuvers.
With pursuers behind and interceptions in front, Li Zicheng completely lost the space to move around.
Liu Zongmin had a bad temper and yelled and cursed loudly.
When attacking northern Shaanxi, Azig sent Wanbu to the Mongolian grasslands to extort war horses and grain. Dorgon finally found out about this.
Yuan Zongdi's face looked very ugly.
Seeing the power of the imperial artillery with his own eyes, Li Zicheng completely gave up the idea of crossing the river.
When the sail is inflated, it looks like a mountain of clouds moving quickly.
This is not yet the historical Nanming. At least we can still get some support from the south.
What he didn't expect was that this time Azig's pursuit was very brave and no longer as procrastinating as before.
"General Liu doesn't know that each of the Zuo thief's warships has dozens of cannons, all of which can fire explosive shells, which can hit far and accurately. As long as our people get close to the shore, they will encounter
Attack. Let alone a human being, not even a board can be launched into the water."
He set his target on Fengyang.
The dark gun muzzles on both sides of the warship were always facing here. As long as anything dared to appear on the river bank, it would be attacked.
He tried hard to calm down and think about how to deal with it.
He didn't want to become a slave of a foreign race, so he simply asked for surrender from the empire.
But this time, the Empire is no longer staying aloof.
Huang Sanhu gave an order, and Jian Zongan led the Sixth Division and two security divisions immediately went forward to take over Fengyang's defense.
This smoothed out the concave part of the empire's border, forcing Dodo to stop.
