Shanhaiguan.
"Your Majesty, the heavens bless and protect us. The Ming Dynasty will be forever stable. Everyone, you will be conferred the title of marquis today. Kill, kill a wife and children. Kill, kill a duke and marquis for ten thousand generations!”
Wu Sangui shouted.
At this moment, he was standing on the Gate of Greeting at Shanhaiguan City. The huge brick wall under his feet stretched to both sides. Behind the greenish-gray parapet, countless soldiers were firing non-stop outside the city. The smoke from the cannons and muskets filled the sky. In this smoke, countless sharp arrows drew an arc and fell. The cannonballs shot from outside the city whistled past. Even the Shun soldiers had begun to appear on the city wall. The Ming soldiers guarding the city were fighting fiercely with them.
Outside the city wall, there were countless soldiers rushing over like a tsunami. They pushed the scaling ladders and lifted the flying ladders, climbing the city wall like ants, constantly surging up.
This was the same bloody battle.
Just as Li Daoxuan and Wang Yongji had expected, Li Zicheng's attempt to surrender failed again after his arrival. Immediately after, he attacked with all his might. In fact, it was a 150,000-strong Shun army that charged towards Shanhaiguan. Bai Guangen in the north attacked Weiyuan City and Dongluo City with 20,000 Ming troops. Li Zicheng personally commanded the main force to attack Beiyi City and Shanhaiguan City. Liu Zongmin led another Shun army to attack Nanyi City and Ninghai City. At this time, both the north and south wing cities had been captured. The navy of the Dragon Martial Battalion had abandoned Ninghai City and fled to the sea, leaving only Weiyuan City and Shanhaiguan City.
Wu Sangui had no other choice but to engage in a bloody battle.
"Uncle Chang!"
At this moment, a shout came from behind him.
"Lord Wang, why are you here?"
Wu Sangui turned around and said to Wang Yongji.
"At this time, can I still sit down?”
Wang Yongji said with a bitter smile.
At this moment, a servant beside him suddenly raised his shield, and then an arrow pierced the shield. At the same time, a cannonball whistled and hit the gate tower of the Gate of Greeting Grace. The falling bricks made a scream behind him. Wu Sangui then realized that there was a large group of local gentry behind Wang Yongji. These landowners and rich people were so scared that they quickly raised their shields above their heads.
"Fire!"
Wu Sangui turned around and shouted.
The four cannons on the city wall that had just been loaded roared in an instant. The upper half of the ladder that had just been pushed out of the city was blown away by the shrapnel along with three Shun soldiers lying on it. However, at this moment, flying ladders were put on the city wall. Wu Sangui could not care less about Wang Yongji. With a wave of his hand, a large number of servants immediately came forward. The strong men wanted to run away, but a few of them were chopped up by the servants. The rest hurriedly turned around with spears in their hands. The soldiers of the Shun Army had already appeared and were stabbed down by the spears.
Of course, this was only the beginning.
More and more ladders and flying ladders were set up on the city wall, and then more and more soldiers appeared on the city wall. The bloody battle between the two sides became more and more intense.
"Kill, follow me to kill the thief!"
Wang Yongji pulled out his sword and roared.
The gentry behind him also urged the servants beside him to join the battle.
Both sides engaged in a bloody battle at the Gate of Grace.
At this time, there was only a bloody battle. Both sides had already fought with hatred. The corpses of the Shun army outside the city meant that once the city was broken, they might be slaughtered. Li Zicheng had done this kind of thing many times. Even if he did not massacre the city, he would beat up the local tyrants. Because of the Emperor's call, most of the local tyrants and evil gentry of Jidong had run to Shanhaiguan to take refuge. For the gold and silver treasures they brought, they would also fight. Many gentry even took spears to make up the numbers.
Fortunately, a group of reinforcements, especially a group of Wu Sangui's slaves, arrived one after another. After a bloody battle, they finally suppressed the Shun army.
In fact, such battles could be seen everywhere on the Shanhaiguan Pass wall. Because only Gongchen Gate had been built in Xiluo City, the other city walls were not built at all. Therefore, Wu Sangui had given up on Xiluo City. All the Ming army had retreated to Guancheng and Dongluo City. He was in charge of Yingen Gate. On Dongluo City, Gao Di was in charge. On Weiyuan Gate to the north, Gao Zhongxuan was in charge. On Wangyang Gate to the south, Leng Yundeng was in charge. There were still 70,000 messy defenders in the city who relied on this wall to defend.
However, among these 70,000 soldiers, only Wu Sangui's family slaves could be considered elites. There were indeed tens of thousands of Guanning soldiers. However, not all of them were Wu Sangui's family slaves. Most of them were Wei Suo soldiers. The Shanhaiguan guards were also Wei Suo soldiers. The rest were forced able-bodied men. How could these people have any combat power?
Li Zicheng had 50,000 to 60,000 truly elite veterans under him.
Therefore, Shanhai Pass was quite dangerous.
Fortunately, the fortress itself was strong enough. The Emperor had miraculously won a series of great victories. In addition, there was hope for reinforcements. The gentry were afraid that Li Zicheng would attack the local tyrants. All of these combined allowed the city to work together and barely withstand Li Zicheng's attack.
In the end, Li Zicheng's army was not on the same level as the Eight Banners Army.
"This challenge is nothing more than this!"
Wang Yongji stood in a pool of blood, holding a bloodstained sword, looking at the temporarily retreating Shun army and said boldly.
However, his legs were also trembling.
"I wonder how His Majesty is doing?"
Wu Sangui looked into the distance and said faintly.
There was the main camp of the Shun Army. In front of the camp, a large flag with the word " Chuang " was particularly eye-catching. He could vaguely see the figure under the flag. It was the powerful legend who had swept across the world and even beaten the emperor out of Beijing. Of course, this was just an illusion. In reality, he could not see Li Zicheng under the flag at all. However, the latter was looking at him through binoculars. This pair of opponents, who were originally very legendary in history, were looking at each other from a distance of more than two miles.
At the same time, another group of opponents looked at each other in the same way.
"How f * cking sinister."
Li Daoxuan stood on the Yongning Gate in the west of Ningyuan City and looked at the distant Ningyuan River.
The thing he was most worried about had finally happened. Dorgon, who was dressed in white armor and covered with a yellow handle, was standing there on his horse. Behind him was a huge formation of 10,000 cavalry. Behind these elite cavalry of the Manzhou Province were a large number of busy slaves. They were cutting wood and building a pontoon bridge on the Ningyuan River. Although the river had risen a lot since spring, the Ningyuan River was still only a few dozen meters wide. It was estimated that this small pontoon bridge would be built in less than two days.
And then…
"Your Majesty, we don't need to worry about them. Even if the Tartars go south from Ningyuan, they probably won't attack Shanhaiguan. Chuangni is already there. Even if we take Shanhaiguan, it will only benefit Chuangni.”
Tang Yu said.
Dorgon's move was to force the defenders out of the city. He knew that there was no hope of attacking. All the cannons were useless, and the siege weapons could not block the Ming army's cannons. No one could stop Li Daoxuan from throwing gunpowder bags. There were only a few hundred thousand people in the Eight Banners. If tens of thousands of people died in order to attack Ning Yuan, it would be troublesome. Since that was the case, he might as well force Li Daoxuan out. Fighting in the wild was the home ground of the Eight Banners. No matter how powerful Li Daoxuan was, tens of thousands of cavalry were enough to drown him.
However, Dorgon was not that cheap to attack Shanhai Pass.
Li Daoxuan understood this point.
But he didn't dare to bet on Wu Sangui's loyalty.
Dorgon didn't need to attack Shanhaiguan. He just needed to drive tens of thousands of Eight Banners over and put on a stance to join forces with Li Zicheng. Then, Wu Sangui could only choose one side to surrender. For the sake of the Great Ming Dynasty being attacked from both sides, he would definitely not do something like defending Shanhaiguan. If he surrendered to Li Zicheng, then Li Daoxuan would not feel too bad. But if he surrendered to Dorgon, then Bai Guangen, who was outside Shanhaiguan, would definitely run away without hesitation in front of the Eight Banners Army. Then, he would be a piece of rock. In Li Daoxuan's opinion, Wu Sangui was most likely to choose the latter. After all, those gentry preferred the Qing army.
"Your Majesty, your safety is the most important."
Li Yutian said.
He was vaguely reminding Li Daoxuan that if necessary, Wu Sangui could be sacrificed. Anyway, as long as Ning Yuan was in his hands, the most important thing now was to ensure that the reinforcements arrived. As long as they retreated and defended, the Qing army would definitely not be able to break through Ning Yuan. At that time, even if Shanhaiguan was gone, they could just abandon Liaodong and go south. As ministers, Wu Sangui and the others should sacrifice themselves to protect the Emperor, not the Emperor risking his life to protect them.
"What if it was you guys at Shanhai Pass? Zhen had promised Uncle Chang that zhen would not let a single tartar behind his back. Zhen had also said that we would live and die together with the Ningyu soldiers and civilians.”
Li Daoxuan said lightly.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty is supreme. Your safety is related to the world. Since ancient times, only subjects have died for the king.”
Li Yutian knelt down and said.
"Die? Aren't you looking down on me too much?"
Li Daoxuan said.
Tang Yu and Cao Youyi, who were kneeling together with Li Yutian, looked at him blankly. These days, they knew the upper limit of the Emperor's combat power. Although it was comparable to those legendary wargods in ancient times, it was obvious that he could not take on nearly 80,000 enemies by himself, even if there were less than 2,000 cavalrymen in the city. There was no need for more. 10,000 Eight Banners would be enough to kill them. If they went out like this, wouldn't they die? It was useless even if they added the remaining infantry. They did not only have 10,000 cavalrymen, but they also had 65,000 soldiers. If one person threw a stone, even if the Overlord was alive, he would still be crushed to death.
"Pass down the decree, I want to leave the city to fight!"
Li Daoxuan said.
"Your Majesty, please reconsider!"
Li Yutian said.
"Do you want to defy the imperial edict?"
Li Daoxuan said fiercely.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty has disobeyed orders. We can't follow the imperial edict. Even if it's an imperial edict with a jade seal, as the assistant minister of the cabinet, I have the right to return it. Your Majesty is related to the country, so how can you act willfully? If Your Majesty doesn't abandon the people of Shanhaiguan, can you abandon the people of the world?”
Li Yutian said.
"Uh, you have guts!"
Li Daoxuan said speechlessly.
After saying that, he turned around and jumped down from the city wall.
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