The Shun army in northern Shaanxi was very dissatisfied with Li Laiheng's decision to abandon the three cities of Yansui. After all, Yuan Zongdi, Wang Yongqiang and Sun Shoufa all fought hard for a month in northern Shaanxi against the Qing army, which had an absolute advantage in strength, and suffered casualties.
It was extremely serious, and the local people also actively supported the Shun army. At this time, if the army left without fighting, it would undoubtedly lose people's support.
But if we insist on fighting the Qing army, Dorgon and Wu Sangui's 80,000 Qing troops have an absolute advantage over the Guanzhong Shun army in terms of quantity and quality. What's more, after Chang'an was burned down, Guanzhong's reserves were all lost, and it would be difficult to regain them.
Maintain a long-term battle.
In Guanxi and Shandong, the Guanxi Valley has been lost, people's livelihood is in decline, bandits, warlords, and township groups have emerged in various places, and the cities are in ruins; Shandong, before the Shun army occupied it, suffered a large-scale raid by the Qing army's plundering troops.
The local people were very hostile to the Manchus during the massacre and plunder. Generals such as Guo Junzhen, Hao Yaoqi, and Gu Kecheng led heavy troops, which were enough to curb Hauge's southward movement and cut off water transportation.
The dilapidated Guanxi and Shandong, which has the lifeblood of water transport, which one is more important is already very clear.
Li Laiheng led hundreds of his own troops directly into Guanzhong, quelled the Chang'an rebels, rescued the Yansui defenders, and moved the people eastward. Coupled with He Zhen's amazing performance in defending Hanzhong, this left a very good foundation for the future restoration of Shaanxi.
situation.
But he also knew that the anger of the generals in northern Shaanxi was difficult to quell, and the people's support in Yansui could not be easily lost. Therefore, he was willing to take extraordinary risks and go out alone to negotiate with Dorgon.
Li Laiheng relied on himself to push others, and of course he expected that after Huang Taiji's death, a bloody and cruel power struggle would take place within the Qing army. Now the main force of the Shun army is fighting against Haoge in Shandong. It is extremely difficult for Haoge to win. Even if he can win, his direct line of troops will not be able to win.
It will also suffer heavy losses, and Dorgon takes Shaanxi without a fight and his strength is intact. This will completely imbalance the power of Dorgon and Hauge, who are originally balanced.
With Dorgon's cruelty and cunningness, he would not fail to understand the meaning of Li Laiheng's words.
For Li Laiheng, it was to exchange the land of Shaanxi for the Qin soldiers and the safe withdrawal of the Qin people. For Dorgon, it was to sit back and watch Li Laiheng's safe withdrawal as a condition in exchange for King Rui and his party to get a complete victory over Hao.
opportunity.
In the great battle of Huolu, three emperors, Li Zicheng, Huang Taiji, and Zhu Youjian, were killed within one day. The aftermath of this decisive battle, unprecedented in scale since the late Ming Dynasty, is still raging. Li Laiheng and Dorgon's
Decisions all come from the source of deer, and both parties have the requirement to integrate their internal affairs and settle into one.
In the 16th year of Chongzhen's reign, under Yan'an City, an extremely strange situation finally appeared.
The Qing army had an absolute advantage in strength, but it stationed troops in Suidezhou and stood still, watching Li Laiheng calmly gather troops from the three cities. Not only that, Dorgon also allowed Li Laiheng to spend more than ten days to send the entire area of northern Shaanxi to follow the Dashun Army.
The nearly 100,000 people who were evacuated were also taken away.
Wu Sangui knew that this was related to the plan of King Rui and his party to compete for central power in Beijing, so he never dared to speak easily. Dorgon's own confidant Xihan asked in disbelief:
"The little Li thief has taken 100,000 refugees with 30,000 to 40,000 horses, and the army and civilians are mixed together. At this time, our army will ride and ravage, and we will definitely win a great victory."
Dorgon narrowed his eyes. Compared with Huang Taiji, who looked like a fox, he was slightly less intelligent than his brother Nai, but more ruthless and more fierce. He was more like a wolf than a fox.
Before Dorgon could make a decision, the Dashun Army sent an envoy to Suidezhou, riding alone, and delivered a personal letter from Li Laiheng to Dorgon.
Xihan spit, raised his sword fiercely, and declared that he would kill the Shunjun envoy directly. However, Dorgon frowned and decided to see the envoy first.
The messenger was Du Chongli, a scribe who was temporarily selected by Li Laiheng. He rode into the Qing army camp alone. He was already stiff. He couldn't even talk, and even dismounted from his horse by several Eight Banners soldiers.
But when he learned that Dorgon was going to meet him in person, Du Chongli immediately thought of what Li Laiheng said before departure:
"This is a great event, and if it is accomplished, it will be the result of thousands of princes."
My heart trembled, and I miraculously developed a courage. With a bang, I rolled up my sleeves and went straight to Dorgon. I generously handed over the letter and said:
"The King of Jin recently received the report of the battle in Shandong. He heard that your army fought three battles with our army and lost 2,000 troops. Now he has gathered his troops and retreated to Dezhou, and will no longer go south to attack Shandong.
When my king heard about it, he thought that this would cause great trouble to the nine kings, so he sent a special envoy to report it, so that the nine kings would not be caught off guard and suffer the disaster of Chu Ying and Amin."
This news greatly surprised the generals of the Rui Party. They went out to Datong for an expedition to Yansui. For a while, they did not know the specific fighting situation of Hauge in Shandong. They were dubious about the military information sent by the Shun Army and could not be convinced.
But if the facts are indeed the same as what the Shunjun envoy said, then it seems that Hauge did not really launch an attack on Shandong, but was conserving his strength and stationed in Dezhou to wait and see the success or failure. Could it be that what Hauge wants to wait for is the Dorgon West Route Army?
After Shaanxi's troops were damaged due to fierce fighting, would he return to Beijing with his entire division to seize central power with preserved strength?
It's just that Dorgon has been with Haug for many years and knows Haug's character very well. He doesn't believe that Haug's bravery can have such a mind.
Du Chongli sighed again:
"I heard that Xie Sheng, who was formerly a great scholar of the Ming Dynasty, surrendered to Haoge in Kaicheng, Dezhou. Xie Sheng had an outstanding reputation in the Ming Dynasty and was a famous scholar in the world. This man surrendered from the city. It seems that your army is not
Nothing gained."
Dorgon snorted, thinking that after Hauge entered the Pass, the number of Han civil servants around him had indeed increased a lot. Moreover, since the Qing army entered the Pass, Dorgon had been fighting near Datong, and Hauge had always followed Huang Taiji.
The two of them had not gotten along for a long time. Perhaps Hauge was influenced by the Han civil servants around him, and his strategy and policy had changed slightly.
Dorgon did not dare to pin the fortunes and lives of King Rui and his party on Hauge's stupidity. Du Chongli said calmly:
"In order to relocate the people to the south, my king has left the remaining troops in the pass and sent 15,000 troops to Yijun County. If the nine kings want to fight for the people of our country, please ride on the long horse and drive to Yijun to fight. Otherwise, then
Our army should retreat slowly."
Gong Adai and Xihan beside Dorgon all unsheathed their sabers upon hearing this, and all the guards in the camp also took a step forward with murderous intent. They were so frightened that Du Chongli became stiff again and could not move. The muscles in Du Chongli's cheeks were beating wildly, and his throat was filled with blood.
I swallowed my saliva wildly and spent a lifetime of courage to barely maintain my standing position without falling to my knees.
At this time, Dorgon said softly "Hmm" and waved his hand to send the envoy off without saying a word.
After Du Chongli left the camp, he realized that he was sweating so much that it had dripped down the hem of his clothes and into the inside of his boots.
But looking at the current situation, Dorgon did not kill him, so he should have succeeded in making him a prince!
Du Chongli was overjoyed in his heart, but the matter was actually simpler than he thought. If Dorgon really wanted to fight regardless of the power struggle within the Eight Banners after Huang Taiji's death, then before Li Laiheng and the Yansui garrison joined forces,
, he should take action.
Now that the Qing army retreated to Suidezhou and watched Li Laiheng take over the Yansui garrison, it completely exposed Dorgon's mentality of not daring to fight even though he had no troops.
Even though Li Laiheng's army now has a large number of civilians, its combat capability has plummeted. However, the strength of Shun's army has increased from nearly 20,000, plus the troops of Yuan Zongdi, Wang Yongqiang, and Sun Shoufa, to nearly 40,000.
Is Dorgon confident that he can defeat the Shun army with only a few casualties?
What's more, the envoys of the Shun Army now threatened him that Hauge had only lost 2,000 troops in Shandong, but on the other hand, they claimed that Yijun County had 15,000 troops as backup.
In these words, Yijun's backup force is probably true, but I'm afraid it cannot be as many as 15,000 people. However, this expresses Li Laiheng's determination to not be afraid of a battle.
The exact amount of Hauge's losses, whether true or false, is not something that Dorgon, who is far away in northern Shaanxi, can confirm in a short time.
When the seeds of psychological warfare fell into the mind of the suspicious Prince Rui, the Qing army had no possibility of pursuing him.
After Du Chongli left the Qing army camp, his legs immediately regained consciousness, and he immediately mounted his horse and ran back to the battle line of the Shun army. He looked at the group of savage braided soldiers getting farther and farther behind him, and he suddenly felt like he was surviving a disaster:
"Damn it, it turns out the Manchus are nothing special!"
He had forgotten that he was almost knocked to his knees by Dorgon just now.