I

Yicheng, which was captured by the Datong Army, was easily recaptured by Liu Fangliang, because there was no defender in the city, not even officials, peasants or soldiers were sent.

However, there were three thousand peasant soldiers stationed in Quwo to the west of Yicheng.

Liu Fangliang camped on the outskirts of Yicheng, waiting on the spot for more troops to gather. Hongdong County in the north was also recaptured by the Datong Army, but it was stuck in Linfen and unable to go south.

Yicheng.

Xie Yinglong went to find Tian Hu in the tent: "Uncle (Earl), the situation is not good."

"Oh, I know, the morale of the military is fluctuating." Tian Hu was helpless.

Ren Guangrong, Ren Jirong, Tian Hu, and Xie Yinglong, the four of them joined Li Zicheng together at the beginning, and they were all from the Ming Dynasty army.

Now, the Ren brothers have run away, leaving Tian Hu and Xie Yinglong in an awkward situation.

Although Liu Fangliang continued to express trust, he was vaguely defensive. After recapturing Yicheng, the troops sent to defend the city were all Liu Fangliang's confidants, while Tian Hu and Xie Yinglong were prohibited from entering the city.

Of course, Liu Fangliang was afraid that going too far would force Tian Hu and Xie Yinglong to rebel, so he personally led his troops and stationed them outside the city.

The reason is that the people cannot be disturbed. Yicheng is too small and too many troops entering may cause chaos.

Liu Fangliang's vigilance is normal, because Tian and Xie's troops not only have many people from Henan, but also many people from the Ming Dynasty official army. When the soldiers learned that the Ren brothers had led troops back to their hometown, they had already been talking about it, hoping that their general would also return to Henan.

Xie Yinglong whispered: "Now that we are on guard, how can we still fight? Brother Tian, ​​you are also a man who knows soldiers. Do you think you can win the war now?"

Tian Hu muttered: "Your Majesty treats us well, don't have any thoughts. As for the officers and soldiers in each battalion, just be patient and comfort them."

Xie Yinglong sneered.

It is indeed not bad. Ren Jirong, who led the troops to escape, and Tian Hu in front of him were both named General Guoyi, and they both got a count.

But what about Xie Yinglong?

He was just a general, a mere baron dismissed.

This made Xie Yinglong extremely dissatisfied. The Ren family brothers and Tian Hu were only low-level officers of the Ming Dynasty. Xie Yinglong, on the other hand, was a general's personal soldier, and the firearms troops under his command were extremely powerful.

Xie Yinglong and Tian Hu, who had brought a firearms battalion together with many muskets and artillery, rebelled and dedicated the city to Li Zicheng.

Why did Tian Hu rise to power so quickly, and why did he become Tian Hu's general?

"Then I will go and comfort the soldiers." Xie Yinglong said.

Tian Hu said: "I will go there myself."

Liu Fangliang's military camp is in the north of the city, and Tian Hu and Xie Yinglong's military camps are in the east of the city.

Tian Hu took Xie Yinglong to the camp to comfort the soldiers. It just means that when the Dashun Army conquers Henan, everyone will be able to return home in glory.

It was of no use, and instead made the soldiers resist.

Civil servants lack a sense of belonging to the Dashun court, but do lower-level soldiers have it?

Li Zicheng's army was at its most ambitious when it first entered Beijing, but it plummeted after being defeated by the Manchus. Their idea was very simple. The Tatars defeated the Datong Army, and the Datong Army defeated the Tatids, so the Datong Army must be more powerful, and Emperor Zhao occupied a large territory.

If you can't fight, why should you fight and die?

After inspecting the military camp and comforting him, Tian Hu went back to his tent to rest.

However, Xie Yinglong called several officers over: "I have tested it out. General Tian does not want to return to Henan. He is thinking of Emperor Dashun's kindness."

"Hey, Li Zicheng was kind to him, but he was unkind to us." The speaker was Wang Chengzhong. Like Xie Yinglong, he was a soldier of the Ming Dynasty general Luo Dai.

Another Henan officer, Xie Zhun, said: "Uncle Tian doesn't want to leave because he is greedy for his title. We don't have a title, so why should we stay? Emperor Zhao occupies half of the country, sitting on the land of wealth in the south of the Yangtze River, and the Datong Army Very powerful. Li Zicheng couldn't even defeat the Tatars, how could he destroy Emperor Zhao and take over the world?"

After some discussion, Xie Yinglong said: "Everyone goes back and gathers troops quietly. We will leave tonight, light the fire and fire the cannon as a signal, disrupt the military camp and run to the southwest together!"

midnight.

"Boom boom boom!"

Without warning, the artillery camp rang out cannon fire, and then each camp lit up fires one after another, and the tents suddenly burned.

Tian Hu suddenly woke up: "Where are the cannons being fired?"

"I don't know." The soldier rushed over and said.

Tian Hu walked quickly outside the tent and found that there were fires in each camp, and there were shouts of soldiers everywhere.

Tian Hu shouted: "The enemy is attacking the camp, gather your troops quickly!"

They couldn't get enough together, every camp was on fire, and everything was in complete chaos.

The army led by Tian Hu, including the temporary expansion of troops, has a total of more than 8,000 people. Although there are less than 2,000 Henanese, 90% of the officers are from Henan.

This is normal, because its prototype was the Henan official army, and Li Zicheng threw in some Henan peasant troops. Even though they were replenished many times in different places later, the main generals were all from Henan. Of course, when promoting officers, priority should be given to fellow countrymen.

More than a thousand soldiers from Henan took advantage of the chaos and ran southwest, leaving behind six thousand soldiers from Shanxi and Shaanxi at a loss.

These Shanshan soldiers did not understand the situation at all and thought that the Datong Army was really coming to kill them. When they heard the sound of cannons and saw fire everywhere, they fled like headless flies.

Most of the people ran into the mountains and would definitely return to their hometowns after they dispersed. Tian Hu's army would be doomed.

Tian Hu was surprised and took a few soldiers to ride towards the north of the city. Liu Fangliang's military camp is very quiet. It must not have been "night attacked" and it will be safe after passing there.

Of course, Liu Fangliang was also awakened by the sound of cannons. He ordered the camp to be strictly guarded and the soldiers were not allowed to run around. It took half an hour to calm down the chaos.

"Don't shoot arrows. I am Tian Hu, and I was attacked by the enemy at night!"

Outside the camp, Tian Hu, who was shot back by several arrows, shouted in frustration.

After a while, Tian Hu was brought in.

"How many enemy troops are there?" Liu Fangliang asked.

Tian Hu shook his head: "I don't know."

Liu Fangliang asked again: "Can the enemy come after us?"

Tian Hu said: "It seems not."

Liu Fangliang was furious: "You have suffered a defeat, how come you don't know anything?"

Tian Hu said: "I was woken up at night. There were fires everywhere. The military camp was in chaos. I couldn't even close the troops. How could I know the situation at night?"

Liu Fangliang could only suppress his anger and let his soldiers continue to be on guard. He did not lead his troops to the east of the city to check until dawn.

The military camp in the east of the city was in a mess, and even the place where grain and grass were stored was burned.

Fortunately, Liu Fangliang was prepared and provided military rations every ten days. There was not much food in Tianhu camp.

Liu Fangliang looked at the intact artillery, then reached out to touch the inside of the barrel, rubbed the residue on his fingertips and said, "These artillery must have fired last night, and the barrels were not even cleaned."

Tian Hu was silent, he probably understood.

Liu Fangliang sneered: "You are indeed loyal to His Majesty, but the soldiers under your command don't think so. You don't even know that you have been ignored by your own generals?"

Tian Hu sighed: "I am not strict in running the army and I am willing to be punished."

Liu Fangliang shook his head: "Among the Dashun army, you and Ren Jirong have the highest military rank and title. Ren Jirong ran away with his troops. If I punish you again, I am afraid that all the soldiers in Henan will be forced to rebel. I cannot bear such a big responsibility."

Neither of them spoke anymore.

The Henan officers under Tian Hu fled with the Henan soldiers, but the commander-in-chief Tian Hu was kept in the dark. what does that mean?

This means that both officers and soldiers have no confidence in war and are not willing to fight the Datong Army at all!

Many officers and soldiers of the Dashun Army were not only afraid of war, but also had a desire to avoid war. Such an army cannot fight, and even if it fights, it will definitely lose.

Liu Fangliang understands this truth, and the person involved, Tian Hu, naturally understands it even more.

One of them is a marquis and the other is an earl, and they have every reason to die for Li Zicheng. But ordinary generals don't have it, and even lower-level soldiers don't have it. These soldiers just want to survive.

But it was said that Xie Yinglong led his troops to defect to the Datong Army, and they were all gunmen, and there were also some artillerymen who had lost their artillery. Liu Zhu was very happy to learn about the situation.

When the war was about to begin, Liu Zhu sent someone to deliver a message and discussed with Jiang Liang on the south bank of the Yellow River. He decided to temporarily retain Xie Yinglong's establishment and ordered these fire rifle soldiers to garrison Jiangzhou.

In southern Shaanxi, Li Guo led his troops towards Xi'an. When he was more than a hundred miles away from Xi'an, a fast horse galloped after him.

"Zhang Luo, the governor of Hanzhong, collaborated with Wang Guangen and Wang Guangtai to rebel and has occupied the city of Hanzhong!"

Li Guo was shocked and at a loss.

He had just led his troops to leave Hanzhong, and Hanzhong actually rebelled?

Brothers Wang Guangen and Wang Guangtai were originally Zhang Xianzhong's generals, but were later recruited by the Ming court. Historically, they also fought with Li Zicheng and later surrendered to the Manchus.

Due to factional conflicts, Wang Guangen was killed by the Qing Dynasty. Wang Guangtai immediately launched an army against the Qing Dynasty and became one of the thirteen families in Kuidong.

In this time and space, due to the excessive power of the Ming Dynasty, the Wang brothers did not choose to fight vigorously when facing Li Zicheng, but instead led their troops to defect to Dashun collectively.

Liu Fangliang and Li Guo both went to Tongguan to fight, but both of them got into trouble.

The hearts of the Dashun court are scattered!

Li Guo's head was a little down. He didn't know whether he should go to Xi'an first or go back to Hanzhong to quell the rebellion.

The Battle of Tongguan decided the ownership of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces.

But if they don't return to Hanzhong, Sichuan's Datong Army will march straight in from Hanzhong.

There is really a Datong army over there. Huang Yao is the only one left in Guizhou. Fei Yinggong leads his troops north to contain the Datong army in Hanzhong.

After much thought, Li Guo decided to return to Hanzhong.

But just two days after he returned to the army, he received urgent news again: the defenders of Yangping Pass were attacked from both sides, the officers and soldiers guarding the pass surrendered collectively, and the Datong Army had entered Hanzhong.

What to do? What to do? What to do?

Li Guo was distraught and anxious, and fell ill in the army.

Xi'an and Hanzhong were both occupied by the Datong Army. Their general became ill again, and the entire army was suddenly confused.

Lieutenant General Gao Yigong could not be restrained at all.

Gao Yigong is the son of Gao Yingxiang and the cousin-in-law of Li Zicheng. His fighting ability can only be considered mediocre, and he cannot bear the heavy responsibility of taking orders in times of crisis.

After that, there were deserters every day. After a few days, one-eighth of Li Guo's troops fled.

All fools know that Shaanxi is definitely gone, and if we continue to fight, we are not far from death.

If they were Tatars, they might still work together, but the Datong court is also Han Chinese, so why should they continue to fight hard?

Seeing this situation, Li Guo's general Zhang Neng left the camp with his army overnight and ran to Hanzhong to join the Datong Army, taking a third of the soldiers with him.

When the news spread, there were more deserters, and in a blink of an eye there were only 2,000 people left, and the entire army was in vain.