The three armies from the east of Zijing Pass, Daoma Pass and Tumen Pass, totaling 50,000 horses, were all wiped out in the Wenyu River. Nearly 40,000 people since Gao Yigong surrendered.
If Li Zicheng saw this scene, he would probably feel regretful in his intestines.
Was my head kicked by a donkey? Why send troops if nothing happens?
Is it not good for Shanxi and Tongguan, which rely on the mountains and rivers inside and outside, to hold on?
However, Li Zicheng did not know the news at this time.
Even Li Yan, who led the southern route, did not know the news.
At this time, Li Yan had led an army of 30,000 troops to the vicinity of Jining Prefecture.
Along the way from Linqing to Jining, both sides of the canal could be said to be extremely prosperous. Li Yan had been here several times before surrendering to the army. There were endless water boats in the river, rows of shops on both sides of the river, as well as the ship lock bridge and the bustling streets at both ends.
The traders and lackeys all left a deep impression on the young Li Yan.
However, at this time, all that could be seen along the way was ruins.
The endless stream of canals has disappeared, leaving only the canal still flowing.
Rows of shops were reduced to ruins, and bustling towns and villages were reduced to ruins.
The bustling traders and footmen have all disappeared. The lock bridge and the stone street are already covered with knee-deep wormwood. People and horses often scare pheasants or hares when they pass by, creating a scene of the end of the world.
There is a weird iron road.
Li Yan couldn't help but feel a little sad. The prosperous Shandong has turned into this?
This result is not what Li Yan wants. He just hopes to overthrow the Ming Dynasty so that the people can live a good life. Who would have thought that it would end up like this? What a pain!
At this moment, Li Yan was really filled with self-blame.
Li Nian looked at his brother with some worry.
Ever since he passed Linqing Prefecture, there was no trace of a smile on his face.
Li Nian knew that his brother must be blaming himself for not being able to save the world and help the people.
"Brother, I don't blame you for this." Li Nian advised, "The disaster in Shandong was not caused by our Dashun Army, but was caused by the Ming Army and Jiannu's repeated attempts to seize control of Henan."
"Is the decline of Shandong really not related to our Dashun Army?"
Li Yan shook his head and sighed: "I'm afraid that's not necessarily the case. The reason why the people of Shandong are suffering today is that our Dashun Army is also one of the culprits."
"But these must be endured." Li Nian said, "If you don't destroy, you cannot establish. If you want to overthrow the Ming Dynasty and rebuild a bright world, you have to pay a price. There is no way to avoid it."
"Overthrow the Baoming?" Li Yan said quietly, "Is it really the Baoming?"
"Brother, what are you talking about?" Li Nian suddenly changed his expression and asked, "Isn't it?"
Li Yan did not answer and asked: "Second brother, do you still remember the two meetings with Chongzhen in Chahar and Tongzhou? Do you think Chongzhen is a tyrant?"
"It doesn't look like that." Li Nian shook his head and said, "He doesn't look like a tyrant at all."
"In fact, it's not true." Li Yan said, "Today's Nanming is prosperous under the governance of Chongzhen, and the situation is much better than our Dashun."
Li Nian was immediately speechless.
Dashun and Mingting were not separated.
Every year, many merchants enter Nanming to do business.
So Li Nian and the others had heard to some extent about what happened in Nanming.
After a long while, Li Yan sighed and said, "Maybe we were really wrong."
Li Nian really wanted to ask, what next? So do we want to switch to Mingting?
Just when Li Nian couldn't help but want to ask this question, Li Mou came back.
"Brother, big brother, big brother!" Li Mou shouted as he came to Li Yan and said loudly, "We found a Ming army in front, about 10,000 people!"
"Ming army?" Li Yan's expression became tense.
Today's Ming army is not the Ming army of the past and should not be underestimated.
"Send my order to the general." Li Yan shouted immediately, "The whole army lines up and speeds forward."
After dozens of cavalrymen galloped away, Li Yan ordered Li Mou again: "Third brother, lead the scout cavalry to increase the search area and ensure that there are no Ming troops ambushing within twenty miles."
Li Mou retorted: "Brother, this is all flat land without cover."
"Idiot, have you forgotten how Jiannu was defeated in the battle of Guting Town?" Li Yan suddenly turned black, "Look at the sagebrush on both sides of the canal. You can also ambush troops on the plains!"
"Take the order." Li Mou shuddered and quickly led the scout cavalry to disperse.
Li Nian rode up to follow Li Yan and asked, "Brother, do you want to eat this Ming army?"
"Eat them if you have the chance." Li Yan nodded and said, "We are in urgent need of food and grass now. This Ming army has tens of thousands of horses and should be able to carry a lot of food and grass."
…
However, this time Li Yan miscalculated.
This Ming army did not carry much food and grass.
Because this Ming army was a student army led by Wang Jiayan and Jin Xuan.
Wang Jiayan and Jin Xuan did not expect that they would encounter puppet troops near Jining Prefecture, and they were also cavalry.
By the time the scouts of the puppet army were discovered, it was already too late, and it was too late to retreat to Jining Prefecture City to hold on. Therefore, Wang Jiayan sent his horse to Xuzhou for help, and at the same time ordered the canal to be closed on the spot.
defensive array.
The only good thing is that there are many retired soldiers in the North Prison, and there is also a guard of 300 people. The members of the guard are all veterans who have retired from the New Army. Although they have physical disabilities, they do not prevent them from shooting.
.
"Line up, everyone line up!" The person in charge of directing the students was Jin Xuan, who was arranging the students to form a team.
The students were obviously in a panic, either getting out of formation or running into the formations of other classes.
Jin Xuan spent a lot of effort to organize nearly 10,000 students with dozens of retired soldiers.
However, Jin Xuan did not think that these students could withstand the impact of the hypocritical cavalry. Even the scholar battalion was vulnerable at the beginning and did not grow until after experiencing the Battle of Xuzhou.
These student soldiers in front of me are worse than the original scholar camp.
What's worse is that there are no fortifications to hold on, so it's over.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Therefore, Jin Hyun does not know how this battle will turn out in the end.
But even so, they had no choice but to fight to the death with the enemy.
Jin Xuan placed the three hundred guards from the North Prison in front of the formation. He and Wang Jiayan stood at the front of the formation. Nothing else. They just hoped to inspire the courage of the students through their own example.
However, courage is not so easy to inspire.
Time passed bit by bit, and a faint thunder suddenly sounded in the sky.
Immediately, the ground beneath my feet began to tremble slightly, as if there was an earthquake.
Everyone couldn't help but turn their eyes to the north, and saw a black line on the horizon. Needless to say, it must be the hypocritical cavalry.
】
Wang Jiayan and Jin Xuan raised their telescopes at the same time.
After seeing clearly the hypocritical cavalry formation, both of them felt their hearts sink at the same time.
Looking at this formation, there are at least 20,000 hypocritical cavalry attacking!
…
Li Yan was still very cautious. He was still thousands of steps away from the Ming army's formation, so he stopped his cavalry. Even if he did not see the Ming army carrying cannons, Li Yan did not want to get too close.
The Ming army was cunning, what if they hid the Hongyi cannon?
After stopping the army, Li Yan took out the monocular telescope from his leather bag.
Li Nian also took out a telescope from his leather bag and pointed it at the Ming army's formation.
For General Dashun, monocular telescopes are still a luxury item, and only high-ranking generals can equip them. However, Li Nian's telescope was captured.
After observing for a moment, Li Nian suddenly let out a light sigh.
"Brother, this Ming army looks a bit strange, using wooden sticks as weapons?"
Li Yan had also seen that except for the generals and a few soldiers in front of the formation, the Ming army held short blunderbuss and bird blunderbuss, and the tens of thousands of infantrymen lined up behind them actually held wooden sticks in their hands.
How could there be such a poor Ming army? They don’t even have swords?
At this time, Li Nian suddenly let out another sigh.
"No, brother, look, most of the Ming soldiers are wearing t-shirts!"
"襥shirt?!" The expression on Li Yan's face suddenly condensed. You can't wear a 襥shirt casually. You must have a reputation! Could it be that the Ming army opposite was actually a scholar camp?
But that’s not right, the scholar camp has already become a climate.
Each of the more than 6,000 scholars who were ordered to serve the king by Chongzhen's edict became either generals or officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Now they have become the backbone of the Ming court, so how can they be here?
What's more, there are not as many scholars as ten thousand in the scholar camp.
Li Mou made another discovery: "Brother, this Ming army did not carry any baggage, not even a carriage, and what they carried on their backs did not seem to be sacks, but looked like bedding."
Li Yan's brows had turned into a knot. There was something strange about this Ming army.
Li Nian said: "Brother, don't worry about it for now. We'll kill them later."
It should be easy to destroy such a Ming army that doesn't even have iron weapons.
"Don't act rashly." Li Yan stopped Li Nian and said, "It's better to find out the origin of this Ming army first, so as not to hurt innocent people."
"Innocent people?" Li Nian said, "Everyone in the Southern Ming Dynasty is an enemy, so how can there be innocent people?"
"Nonsense!" Li Yan sternly rebuked, "Our enemies in Dashun are only the Ming court and Chongzhen, not the people of Nanming, let alone the scholars of Nanming."
Li Nianwei didn't dare to say more.
Li Yan immediately led the guards and rode forward.
When there were still 500 steps left from the Ming army, another cavalryman was sent forward to deliver the message.
After a while, a Ming army general from the opposite side came up to him alone.
When he got closer, Li Yan realized that the Ming army general who came was actually an acquaintance.
It was Jin Xuan, whom we had met several times in Chahar and Tongzhou. He was the head of the Ministry of War at the time, but now I don’t know what his position was. In short, he should not be low.
"It turns out to be Mr. Jin." Li Yan bowed on horseback.
"It turns out it's you." Jin Xuan also bowed in return and said, "This is really a place where we meet again in life."
"Farewell to Tongzhou, I miss Master Jin very much." Li Yan smiled, then pointed to the student phalanx in front of him with his back to the canal and asked, "Master Jin, what's going on with these students?"
