Li Zicheng led the defeated soldiers all the way south to Baoding.
At this moment, Baoding had been looted by the Revolutionary Army and was already in ruins.
The one guarding the city was Li Zicheng's confidant, Liu Fangliang, and the deputy general was Guo Zhongjie, the deputy general of the captured Ming Dynasty minister, Li Jiantai.
Back in Beijing, Li Jiantai, the minister of the court, proposed to recruit local soldiers to kill bandits. Chongzhen was very moved and even personally hosted the military dispatch ceremony for him.
Unfortunately, this guy was not thinking about loyalty to the country, but about living an ignoble life.
In the end, before he could open the city gate for Li Zicheng, his subordinate Guo Zhongjie beat him to it and locked him in prison, offering up Baoding.
Baoding Prefecture Tongzhi Shao Zongyuan, prefect He Fu, strictly adhered to the ancient precepts of "loyal to the Lord and filial piety, for the country to save the people, filial piety should do their best, loyalty should do their best".
Swear to the death to resist, and when the city falls, die for the country.
"Long live, hurry!"
Liu Fangliang called out to his subordinates and quickly welcomed the Great Shun Emperor.
At this moment, the news of Li Zicheng's defeat had spread like wildfire across the land of China.
After entering the large tent outside the city, Li Zicheng asked,""General Guo, do you have any water?"
Li Zicheng had not dismounted for the entire night and had sprinted for more than 200 miles. Now, it could be said that he was exhausted.
The smug look from before was now in a sorry state.
"Your Majesty, wait a moment. I'll be right back!”
Seeing Guo Zhongjie go down, Li Zicheng said to Liu Fangliang,""General Liu, is Baoding City safe?”
"Your Majesty, the city is still there, but the Ming army's cannons have been destroyed. The rations were enough for tens of thousands of people to defend for a period of time.”
"We can't stay here for long. We need to turn south.”
Hearing that Li Zicheng wanted to head south, a general said,""Your Majesty, we should head west and return to Shaanxi!”
"No! We've lost too badly, we need some victories to boost our morale. Moreover, I'm not willing to go back like this!”
Liu Fangliang had always listened to Li Zicheng. This time was no exception.
"How many people do we have left?" Li Zicheng turned his gaze to his brother-in-law, Gao Yigong.
"We still have about 8000 people.”
After hearing Gao Yigong's words, Li Zicheng looked around at Li Jin, Dang Shousu, Liu Tichun, Yuan Zongdi, Niu Wancai, and the others. His best friends were still around.
"Haha, good!" Right now, our Great Shun Army still has close to ten thousand soldiers. Although Brother Liu Zongmin has died, the other brothers are still here.
Ever since I, Li Zicheng, started my army, I've lost more battles than I won, but in the end, I still became the Great Shun Emperor.
Brothers, you all followed me out of Shangluo Mountain.
Compared to that time, we have a strong army now! Haha, a comeback is still unknown!”
A big man with a square face and heavy eyebrows said,
"Big brother, don't worry. Our main force is here. If it wasn't for Chongzhen's sneak attack, we wouldn't have been in such a situation.”
This big guy was Liu Tichun, another valiant general under Li Zicheng.
"Brother Liu is right!"
"Big brother, let's kill our way back! We will definitely be able to defeat the Ming army!"
The few of them were ignited by Li Zicheng's impassioned words, and their passion surged.
"No! We can't go back to Beijing now. At this moment, that cavalry is in the limelight. We should avoid their edge.”
"Then why are we going south? It's good to go back to Shaanxi." Liu Tichun asked, his tone filled with unwillingness.
"Back to Shaanxi? Yan 'an Prefecture? Haha, Brother Liu, you're too petty.
"Now, we have ten thousand soldiers. When we recruit more soldiers, we will have another two hundred thousand. If that's the case, we might as well go south and attack Xu Prefecture.”
"Attack Xuzhou?"
The generals were stunned.
Back at the Xingyang General Meeting, Li Zicheng's theory of dividing troops had helped the uprising, which had fallen into a low point, regain its strength.
At that time, his words had shocked everyone. Today, Li Zicheng had a new idea.
"Your Majesty, can we attack Xuzhou? Although a few years ago, Jinan Prefecture was massacred by the Qing army, it was still a tall city with a deep pool.
There are still a few thousand defenders. There's no time to recruit. We don't have enough people either!”
"Haha, Brother Liu, you just don't study. Do you know about the Battle of Jingnan?"
"Big brother, most of us are rough people. If there's anything, just say it."
Li Zicheng didn't keep her in suspense and said,""We won't attack Jinan. This place is not far from Dingzhou.
We will first go to Dingzhou to rest and reorganize. Then, we will bypass Tough City Jinan and head straight for Jining Prefecture. Xu Prefecture was right in front of them.”
"Big brother! Good plan!"
Liu Tichun, Gao Yigong, and the others all jumped up in joy.
At this moment, these people looked at Li Zicheng and forgot about last night's failure.
They felt that victory was beckoning to them. Xu Prefecture, no, Yingtian Prefecture, had already become their spoils of war.
Just as they were about to finish their lunch with their dreams in mind…
"Your Majesty!" A spy ran in. Ming cavalry found fifty miles away!"
"What?"
Hearing this news, everyone fell into panic again.
"How many people are there?"
"I can't see clearly. There are about a few hundred people. They are all cavalry. It's that kind of cavalry."
What kind of cavalry? Iron Futu, of course!
From the looks of it, the only group that dared to chase after the main force of the Great Shun Army with just a few hundred men was that iron armored cavalry.
"Are they rushing over now?"
"No, Your Majesty. They set up camp with their backs to the mountain.”
These iron pagodas were sent by Zhu Youjian to follow Li Zicheng.
Ever since Li Zicheng escaped, Zhu Youjian had not relaxed his search for this guy.
When a scout reported that Li Zicheng had gone to Baoding, Zhu Youjian made a judgment on Li Zicheng's marching route after careful consideration.
Thinking back to a few years ago, when Li Zicheng attacked Anqing for the first time, the marching route was exactly the same as when Zhu Yuanzhang conquered Yingtian.
According to this routine, this guy would definitely pay his respects to Zhu Di, the founder of the Jingnan Battle, and follow the route of Zhu Di's attack back then.
Therefore, Zhu Youjian came up with a bold idea-to pursue and not eliminate them.
That's right, he now had the power to annihilate Li Zicheng in one fell swoop. However, there were two problems that gave Zhu Youjian a new idea.
The first one was grain. Although there was no problem with the loyalty of the summoned Iron Pagoda.
However, with a few thousand troops in pursuit, it was not easy to provide food.
The second reason was that Zhu Youjian wanted to use Li Zicheng to achieve his goal of guarding the south for a period of time.
Previously, Zuo Liangyu had also released Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.
Their goal was to make use of the bandits to gain self-respect. Without the bandits, naturally, the troops that were sent to suppress the bandits would be useless.
Today, Zhu Youjian wanted to do the same, but his plan was even bigger.
He wanted Li Zicheng to run around. That was until this guy arrived at the place Zhu Youjian wanted him to go-Xuzhou.
This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]