The wind was blowing hard, and the snowflakes were flying in the air like torn cotton wool, falling aimlessly. The left and right sides of the path were filled with piles of swept snow, as if they had two wide edges for the muddy path in the middle.
.
There were only a few pedestrians passing by in a hurry on the street, and occasionally there was a two-person sedan. Facing the cold wind and snow, they showed a flinching look. More and more snowflakes were falling, and the ground was covered with white.
In the sky, it falls in all directions, on the umbrella, on the top of the sedan chair, on the sedan chair bearer's hat, and on the faces of passers-by...
Li Zicheng and Li Yan were walking on the streets of Shuanghong Town. They were each wearing thick cloaks and large bamboo hats on their heads. Behind them were more than a dozen soldiers.
Looking at the snowflakes falling all over the sky, Li Zicheng's mood at this time was as bad as the hazy weather. Since November, Liu Zongmin, who is fighting in Jiangxi, has been receiving bad news. Liu Zongmin's offensive in Jiangnan has been met by the Jiangnan gentry class.
The stubborn resistance caused the 70,000-strong army to suffer heavy losses. In the end, they had to retreat from Jiangxi with less than 30,000 remaining soldiers in embarrassment and return to Hunan to inflict wounds.
After being defeated, Liu Zongmin continued to scrape land in Hunan while sending people to ask Li Zicheng for help. After receiving Liu Zongmin's letter asking for help, Li Zicheng also became embarrassed.
After walking for a while, Li Zicheng stopped and turned to Li Yan and said: "Master Li, Jiexuan's life is very difficult now. He has suffered heavy losses in troops and horses. Considering that he has less than 30,000 troops and horses, I think it is
It’s difficult to defend Hunan.”
Li Yan shook his head with a heavy face, "King Chuang, I know what you are worried about, but Shaanxi and Hunan are thousands of miles apart, with Sichuan in the middle. We really don't have the ability to provide assistance to General Liu through the mountains.
"
Li Zicheng sighed softly and was speechless for a while. When they came to Shaanxi, they arrived directly from the Hubei plain. But now Hubei is Pang Gang's territory. If they want to rescue Liu Zongmin who is far away in Hunan, they can only go through Sichuan, not to mention Sichuan.
Now it was Zhang Xianzhong's territory. Even if Zhang Xianzhong didn't stop them, they would have passed through the mountains and rivers of Sichuan and reached Hunan, which would have almost driven Li Zicheng to death.
Li Yan pondered for a long time. Then he slowly said: "King Chuang, how about we ask General Liu to withdraw to Shaanxi. After all, Hunan is already being attacked from both sides at this time. If Pang Gang launches an offensive against General Liu from Hubei again, I'm afraid that
....."
Li Zicheng's face suddenly turned ugly. Liu Zongmin's situation was already very bad. At this time, he had just been severely beaten by the gentry from the four provinces of Jiangnan. If he was beaten again by Pang Gang from Hubei, he would probably be in serious trouble.
.
Li Zicheng slapped his thigh fiercely and sighed: "Why. Every time the territory we conquer has to be given away to others, that guy always takes advantage!"
Li Yan was also very speechless. In recent years, the Chuang army seemed to have been in bad luck. Every time, they suffered defeat at the hands of Pang Gang. The Chuang army worked hard to build a territory, and after just plundering it, Pang Gang's army
They would hang behind him like a hungry wolf. As long as he showed the slightest flaw, they would pounce on him without hesitation. Li Yan could be sure that if Liu Zongmin retreated from Hunan, Pang Gang's soldiers would have just left.
The horse will soon enter Hunan. Is there anything more depressing than this in the world?
Thinking of this, Li Yan and Li Zicheng looked at each other depressedly. They shook their heads helplessly. Li Zicheng said angrily: "We still have to discuss this matter with everyone. After all, Hubei has been lost. If Hunan is lost again,
I’m afraid the army’s morale will be shaken.”
Although Li Zicheng said so, Li Yan also knew that this was just because Li Zicheng couldn't lose face for a while. Sooner or later, Liu Zongmin's troops would have to withdraw to Shaanxi to join the main force, otherwise what awaited him would only be the Ming army and Pang Gang.
Soldiers and horses eat it.
When the two of them were relatively speechless, the sound of creaking footsteps sounded from behind. Li Yan turned around and saw that it was Niu Jinxing walking quickly from behind.
"Chuang Wang, Chuang Wang, great joy, great joy!" Niu Jinxing trotted all the way to Li Zicheng. Although the weather was cold, Niu Jinxing was still panting and sweating profusely, which showed his eager mood at this time.
Although he was in a bad mood, when he saw Niu Jinxing panting, Li Zicheng couldn't help but joked: "Oh, what kind of happy event made Niu Junshi run in such a hurry? Could it be that Niu Shuan brothers are interested in him again?
Which girl is this?"
"What the hell, King Chuang is laughing." Hearing Li Zicheng's joking words, Niu Jinxing's old face turned red. This precious son of his didn't even forget to take more than a dozen wives and concubines with him when he escaped last time.
A batch of grain, grass, gold, silver and jewelry were given to Pang Gang's Qingzhou Army for nothing, including people and goods. This incident is still a laughing stock among the Qingzhou Army, although Li Zicheng did it for the sake of Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance and Li Yan.
There is no investigation, but people still make fun of it from time to time.
"Okay, Commander Niu came here in such a hurry. There must be something important. Let's sit down here and talk about it later." Seeing Niu Jinxing's nose turning red with embarrassment, Li Yan, who was afraid of embarrassing his friend, changed the topic at the right time.
.
After hearing Li Yan's words, Niu Jinxing glanced at Li Yan gratefully and said: "King Chuang, good news. I just received the news that the armor-removing equipment sent by the Jurchens has arrived in the town. Now Mr. Song is leading people to inspect it.
Where’s the goods?”
"What? The batch of equipment has arrived?" Li Zicheng and Li Yan looked at each other in surprise. They didn't care to talk and ran towards the center of the town in a hurry.
When Li Zicheng and Li Yan hurried to the center of the town, they saw a large row of motorcade parked in the town. The motorcade was very long, with more than 200 large vehicles. Song Xiance was leading hundreds of people.
The soldiers were busy unloading the goods.
Seeing King Chuang and others approaching, Song Xiance walked over on crutches and said with a smile: "King Chuang, Mr. Li, it seems that those Jurchens are quite trustworthy. They said they would deliver the goods before the Chinese New Year.
It’s really delivered.”
"Well..." Li Zicheng nodded, "But we still have to trouble Mr. Song to inspect the goods. Don't let those Jurchens bring some scraps of copper and iron to stall us."
"Don't worry, Prince Chuang. The Tatars are a little too young to play this trick with us." Song Xiance couldn't help laughing when he heard what Li Zicheng said. He raised his left hand and stroked the long beard under his chin and said proudly:
"I have inspected these weapons and armors, and they are all of good quality. However, I am not familiar with these guns and guns. However, I have heard that Mr. Li has a lot of research on firearms. How about letting Mr. Li come to check them out?"
As he spoke, Song Xiance glanced sideways at Li Yan, with an unfathomable smile in his eyes.
Li Yan did not refuse, walked up with a smile and said: "This is what students should do, but I don't know where those blazing guns are now?"
Song Xiance winked at the soldier beside him. The soldier walked to a large cart and used an iron bar to pry open a box, revealing a box full of firearms. Li Yan's eyes lit up and he walked quickly
He walked forward, picked up a firecracker, and looked at it carefully.
This is a brand new fire gun, about four and a half feet long and weighing about twelve kilograms. Its trigger, faucet, casing, and fire door cover are all made of copper. After Li Yan looked at it carefully, he said to Li Zicheng with satisfaction: "
King Chuang, this is a standard bird-beak gun, and it seems to be very exquisitely made. I never thought that the Manchus could make such a standard fire gun now."
Li Zicheng was overjoyed and said: "This is very good. Now our army also has firearms, so we won't be afraid of Pang Gang."
Li Zicheng lived a very miserable life. After Pang Gang occupied Hubei, although he only left 20,000 soldiers and horses in Hubei, apart from the 20,000 soldiers and horses, there were five or six thousand soldiers and horses living in the Shizhouwei area on the border with Sichuan.
In addition, most of them were hoarded in the Hanzhong Prefecture area at the junction of Hubei and Shaanxi. In addition to maintaining pressure on Shaanxi in the Hubei area, Pang Gang also hoarded more than 10,000 troops and horses from the Henan area in Pingyang Prefecture, Luoning Prefecture.
The government put pressure on Li Zicheng from two directions, causing Li Zicheng not to have a good sleep for a long time, and almost suffered a neurasthenia.
The biggest headache for Li Zicheng is that Pang Gang's troops are completely different from the Ming army he has dealt with before. Once the two sides come into contact, they will never engage in hand-to-hand combat with you, but will shoot at you from a distance.
You can't even reach the gun even if you try hard to fight with them, so much so that the intruders got scared when they saw those musketeers.
"Come on, let's take a look at the power of this gun first." Li Yan was not as happy as Li Zicheng, but took out the gunpowder lead bullets and match rope from the cart and began to prepare for firing.
It has to be said that Li Yan knew a lot about firearms. He was ready in a few seconds and placed a two-finger-thick wooden board fifty steps in front. When the sizzling match rope burned out,
The gun made a loud bang. After the smoke passed, everyone came forward to look. They saw that the wooden board had been deeply embedded by the lead bullets, and the originally round lead bullets still changed into a strange shape.
"Okay, okay!" Seeing this situation, Li Zicheng rubbed his hands excitedly and walked in front of the target, "With these muskets, we no longer have to be afraid of Pang Gang. We can also
It’s a firearm for him to contend with.”
Different from Li Zicheng's excited expressions, Li Yan and Niu Jinxing Song's expressions of offering advice were a little solemn. Li Yan sighed and said: "King Chuang, these blunderbuss are certainly good, but they are still a bit inferior to those of the Qingzhou Army.
.”
Seeing Li Zicheng's puzzled look, Li Yan explained: "Don't forget, Pang Gang's bird cannon can shoot three hundred steps away, and its range is several times that of ours!"
"Uh, that's right!" Li Zicheng then remembered that although the quality of these cannons was good, they were still far behind those of Pang Gang's soldiers.
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