Another night passed, and Li Zicheng had been marching eastward for five days.
Li Yan took Gu Kecheng to inspect the city defense early in the morning.
After passing through Chengtianmen Street and arriving at the outer city of Beijing, Li Yan could clearly feel that the atmosphere in Beijing had become even more depressing.
I remember that when the Dashun Army first entered the city, the people in Beijing welcomed them in a crowd, and their faces showed joy from the bottom of their hearts. But now, almost all the people have a cold expression, and many people even turn to them.
A look of hatred.
This is the sequelae caused by the pursuit of stolen goods and subsidies.
People in Beijing no longer trust them and no longer welcome them.
When passing by an alley, a child even threw stones at Li Yan.
"Hey, you little brat!" Gu Kecheng was furious and pulled out his sword with his backhand.
"General Gu, forget it, it's just a child." Li Yan said sadly.
The children quickly ran into the depths of the alley and disappeared, but Gu Kecheng cursed with lingering anger: "These people are really ungrateful. We help them fight corrupt officials and kill subordinate officials so that they can live a good life. They
Not only are we not grateful, but they actually hit us in return, how could there be any sense in this?"
Did the Dashun Army really let the people live a good life?
Li Yan remained silent, not even bothering to argue.
What's the use of talking more when the work is done?
I patrolled all the way to Chaoyang Gate, but nothing happened.
Just as Li Yansong took his breath, a rapid sound of horse hoofbeats came from outside the city.
Looking back hurriedly, I saw a fast horse galloping towards me, and the messenger on the horse shouted from a distance: "It's counterattack, Miyun is counterattack, Miyun is counterattack!"
Li Yan's face fell instantly, Miyun turned against him?
In the past few days, what Li Yan is most worried about is not Beijing, but Gyeonggi.
After all, Beijing still has Gu Kecheng's one-twenty-thousand elite troops, but there are only a small number of Dashun troops stationed in the prefectures and counties of Gyeonggi, and they mainly rely on the puppet surrendered troops to maintain order. This is undoubtedly very dangerous.
In the end, whatever we feared came, Miyun County really turned against it!
Li Yan is even more worried that this is just the beginning, and more states and counties will follow suit.
"What's going on?" Gu Kecheng stepped forward, grabbed the reins of the messenger's horse, and forcibly reined in the war horse.
"General Guo Yi, right military advisor!" The person who came to report the news was also a veteran of the Dashun Army. He recognized Li Yan and Gu Kecheng at a glance, and gasped, "I don't know where a puppet army came from last night.
The cavalry, Wang Yinglong, the former Puppet Mingdu Secretary who stayed behind in Miyun, directly led his troops to rebel."
"A group of cavalry suddenly appeared?" Li Yan's face changed drastically and he asked, "How many people are there?"
"It was dark at the time and we couldn't see clearly." A veteran of the Dashun Army shook his head and said, "But judging from the momentum, there were thousands of cavalry at least! There were pseudo-Ming cavalry outside the four gates of Miyun County."
"Thousands!" Gu Kecheng shouted, "It can't be Chongzhen, right?"
"It must be him!" Li Yan said in a deep voice, "There will be no one else but him!"
"Is it really him? This Dog Emperor really knows how to choose the right moment!" Gu Kecheng said with a dark face, "Right Military Advisor, how about this, you stay in Beijing, and the last general will lead two thousand light cavalry to intercept and kill the Dog Emperor."
The "Shuai Biao" commanded by Gu Kecheng had a total of 20,000 troops, including 2,000 cavalry.
But these 20,000 people are all old soldiers (war soldiers), not including the children who are raising children (logistics), nor the civilian husbands, strong men and their families who are being held hostage.
Shuaibiao is a one-level establishment below the "battalion" of the Dashun Army.
The main general is usually General Guoyi or General Weiwei.
The specific number of troops is not fixed, ranging from tens of thousands to thousands.
"No, you are not his opponent." At this time, Li Yan was not in the mood to care about Gu Kecheng's face, but said bluntly, "You stay and guard Beijing, and I will intercept and kill Chongzhen."
"No matter what happens, don't leave the city while I'm away."
"If the pseudo-Ming officials, gentry and surrendered troops in the city dare to cause trouble, they will be killed without mercy!"
"Yes." Although Gu Kecheng felt uncomfortable, he did not argue with Li Yan.
Li Yan thought for a while and then ordered the accompanying retinue: "Go and bring the false Prince Ming, Prince Ding and Prince Yong, and take them to wait outside Chaoyang Gate first."
Here, the trajectory of history has changed slightly.
Because Chongzhen was still alive, the value of the three Zhu Cixi brothers was greatly reduced.
Therefore, during this Eastern Expedition, Li Zicheng did not take the three Zhu Cihong brothers with him.
Because it would be useless to bring it, Wu Sangui would not change his mind because of the prince.
…
It is about 150 miles from Beijing to Miyun County. The light cavalry can reach it in three hours by marching along the official road through Shunyi County to Huairou County and then to Miyun County.
But Li Yan did not follow the official path.
Instead, we cross the canal from Tongzhou eastward, and then rush north along the east bank of the Chaohe River.
Because his intuition told Li Yan that Chongzhen would definitely lead his army south along the east bank of the Chaohe River.
The reason is very simple, because you can go south along the Chaohe River to Tongzhou, and after arriving in Tongzhou, you can go south along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
Taking the water route is much easier than taking the land route.
Chongzhen's timing was really tricky.
At this time, the main force of Dashun Army had arrived at Shanhaiguan and was confronting Guan Ning Army.
Although Gu Kecheng's commander had 20,000 veteran soldiers, he only had 2,000 cavalry. He had to leave enough troops to guard Beijing. Otherwise, if Chongzhen attacked and recaptured Beijing, the Dashun army would be in trouble.
Facing Chongzhen, I really don't dare to take it lightly, anything can happen.
Not to mention anything else, the public support in Beijing has undergone tremendous changes. At that time, almost everyone in the Ming Dynasty in Beijing shouted for beatings, and the civil and military officials in Beijing almost completely abandoned the Ming Dynasty. But now, the situation has been completely reversed.
, many officials and gentry in the city were thinking about the Ming Dynasty again.
Therefore, Gu Kecheng's 20,000 old soldiers really did not dare to move lightly.
Therefore, the Dashun army who stayed in Beijing at this time basically could only watch Chongzhen move south.
Li Yan took the three Zhu Cixi brothers to intercept and kill him, just to have a last chance.
Just after noon, the Dashun Army had just reached the junction of Tongzhou and Shunyi County. The scout cavalry responsible for exploring the front hurriedly turned back and reported: "The right army division has discovered the pseudo-Ming cavalry!"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Li Yan stopped the war horse and asked: "How many people are there?"
The scout captain gasped and said, "There must be at least four thousand riders."
"What? Four thousand!" Li Yan's heart suddenly froze. How could he conjure up four thousand riders?
Half a month ago at Hala Hetao, the Ming army clearly only had more than a thousand cavalry. Even if it annexed the thousand Yiding troops of Guan Ning's army, it was only more than two thousand cavalry. How come there are two more thousand cavalry?
Could it be said that Chongzhen surrendered the Gongtu tribe?
The question is, how could the Gongtu tribe surrender to Fake Ming?
Unless the leader of the Gongtu tribe is crazy, he will never surrender to the Ming court.
Just when Li Yan was wondering, billows of smoke and dust were already rising on the northern plain.
As soon as he saw the rising dust, he knew that a large-scale cavalry was moving south quickly. At that moment, Li Yan ordered his two thousand cavalry to form a cavalry formation.
…
From the east bank of the Chao River to the north, more than 4,000 mounted Ming troops were marching southward in mighty force.
In fact, these four thousand cavalry are only superficial. There are only one thousand Yiding soldiers who are truly capable of fighting, and the more than one thousand cavalry brought by Zhu Gaoyuan from Beijing can barely fight.
The remaining two thousand cavalry are nothing more than the regular guardsmen of Miyun County.
These two thousand guardsmen are just tenant farmers on horseback. They can pretend to be bluffing, but if they are allowed to go to the battlefield, they will definitely be defeated at the first touch.
The Ming Dynasty's guard army was scumbag in terms of combat effectiveness.
The person riding next to Zhu Gaoyuan was Wang Yinglong, the Dusi of Miyun County.
"Your Majesty, Tongzhou is not far ahead. I would like to lead fifty servants to attack Tongzhou first. Maybe I can grab ten or twenty cannons. In this way, your Majesty will not have to work too hard on the way south."
To be honest, Wang Yinglong was really in a panic at this time because he had a dark history of subjugating thieves.
Because Chongzhen was not a generous emperor, on the contrary, he was very vindictive and unkind, so the probability of being settled by his later wife was very high.
That is to say, I didn't know that Chongzhen was outside the city last night, I just thought it was Guan Ningjun.
If he knew it, Wang Yinglong would rather be chased by thieves for stolen goods and paid than betrayed him, because what he would lose by being chased for stolen goods and paid by gangsters was only money, but betraying would cost his life.
However, once the city gate opened, it was too late.
Therefore, Wang Yinglong was eager to show off his merits and atone for his sins as much as possible.
Of course, Wang Yinglong also had a different thought in his heart, that is, if the surprise attack on Tongzhou failed and the idea of atonement was in vain, he would simply go to Wu Sangui.
Anyway, the world is in chaos now. As long as you have soldiers, no matter who you surrender to, you can make a living.
"I can understand Wang Dusi's mood." Zhu Gaoyuan looked at Wang Yinglong with a smile, his eyes seemed to be able to see through Wang Yinglong's hidden thoughts, and said, "But there is no need to do more, I am not afraid of hard work."
"Ah?" Wang Yinglong was stunned, but his heart was even more panicked. It was going to be over, it was really going to be over.
At this time, Yi Ding's cavalry galloped back from the front without stopping at night and reported to Zhu Gaoyuan: "Your Majesty, there are rogue cavalry found ten miles ahead, about two thousand cavalry."
"I know." Zhu Gaoyuan waved his hand and said, "Let's explore again."
Immediately he turned back and shouted: "Preach my will, spread out your formation, and prepare to fight."
Immediately, the horns and trumpets sounded at the same time, and more than 4,000 horsemen slowly spread out in formation, forming a huge horizontal formation with four rows in front and back, each with about a thousand riders.
The first row is almost a straight line.
The second row is barely visible.
It's completely impossible to see the two rows behind.
The quality of soldiers can be seen from the queue.
After getting into formation and walking south for a quarter of an hour, a black line appeared on the horizon ahead.
As the distance approached, this black line gradually thickened and extended to both wings, eventually transforming into a huge cavalry, but the formation was strict and the swords and guns were neatly arranged.
