Hearing Niu Jinxing's analysis of the situation, Li Zicheng's anger gradually faded, and his eyes suddenly had a flashing look.

If it could really be as Niu Jinxing said, after the failure of Shanhaiguan, he would attack the fourth town of the Tang army on Xuanfu North Road and completely eliminate the troops, then Li Xiao's forces in the north of the border would be eliminated, and he would have no worries from now on. He could go south with all his strength to concentrate his efforts to wipe out Can Ming.

If the Central Plains is unified and the world is determined, how can Li Xiao, who is in a corner of Shandong, still have the ability to compete with him again?

It should be said that joining forces with the Qing army to attack Xuanfu North Road together was a very good move.

Now Dashun has a total of nearly 500,000 mobile troops. Even if more than 200,000 are distributed to attack Xuanfu North Road, there are still more than 200,000 troops stationed in the capital and in northern Zhili. The number of troops is more than enough to deal with Li Xiao from Shandong.

You should know that the Tang army in Shandong now has the Hongguang pseudo-government that is unsupporting the rules in the south, and the Qing Dynasty and Dashun are eyeing each other in the north. The troops under it are very limited because they are distributed throughout the country and overseas provinces, and they are simply unable to attack the capital. So as long as you arrange your remaining troops, you can attack Xuanfu North Road without any worries.

I think the total number of troops in the fourth town of the Tang army was less than 30,000. If you send more than 200,000 troops to fight, and with the cooperation of the Qing army, you will attack from both sides of the north and south, take down Xuanfu North Road, remove Jintang City, the old nest of the fourth town of the Tang army, and then eliminate the entire fourth town of the Tang army, which is a pity.

Thinking of this, a happy smile appeared on Li Zicheng's face.

"Okay, Niu Dayan, what you said makes sense. If Shanhaiguan can't take over, it would be a good thing if you can take over the entire Xuanfu North Road. Okay, this matter is settled. Go and contact the Qing army and start preparing to attack Xuanfu North Road as soon as possible." Li Zicheng said this, gritted his teeth and looked ruthless: "As for the commander of this expedition, I will take charge of myself. Grandma, I want a fucking imperial commander in person!"

Li Zicheng made the final decision, and the rest of the matter was naturally Niu Jinxing going to work hard to contact him.

After communicating with the Qing court, the two sides agreed that one month later, both sides would gather heavy troops to the north and south of Xuanfu North Road, and then attack the Tang army together, and strive to completely eliminate the troops of the fourth town of the Tang army within a few months.

Time is easy to pass. After nearly a month of preparation and careful preparation, Li Zicheng began to formally send troops to attack Xuanfu North Road.

He arranged for Li Guo to stay in the capital and be responsible for the defense matters between the capital and the northern Zhili. He himself ignited 250,000 elite troops, and Liu Zongmin and Liu Fangliang were appointed as deputy generals and the emperor personally led the army.

This strong army set out from the capital and then attacked Longmen Fort, the south gateway to Xuanfu North Road.

At the same time, in order to avenge the previous shame and to better divide the land on Xuanfu North Road with the bandits, the Qing army also launched a large army to fight.

Dorgon ordered that the troops of Wu Sangui, who were stationed in Guangning, would be temporarily recruited from various Jurchen tribes and Mongolian tribes that depended on Manchuria, and sent out a total of more than 10,000 barbarian warriors within the scope of the recruitment, and a total of 150,000 troops, which was astonishing.

This time, he was the commander himself, and Ajige and Abatai were then appointed as deputy generals. After the entire army gathered in Guangning, he ordered Wu Sangui's troops to be the vanguard and immediately advanced westward, bypassing the Mongolian tribes such as Kalaqin, Naiman, and Dongtumot, and concentrated their forces to attack Dushikou, the gateway north of Xuanfu North Road.

The news that the bandits and the Qing army jointly attacked Xuanfu North Road was quickly reported to Li Xiao, who was in Jinan, Shandong by secret spies from the Tang Army Security Department in the capital.

When Li Xiao received the news, he sneered in his heart.

These bandits and Tartars really don’t give up until the Yellow River. They were slaughtering in Shanhaiguan, so they wanted to find a place on Xuanfu North Road. Humph, it was so beautiful.

I think our Tang army's troops in the fourth town are also an elite army that has been fighting for a long time. With Jintang City, a strong city that has been operating for nearly ten years, even if all other places on Xuanfu North Road are lost, they want to capture Jintang City in a short time and eliminate the elite team of the Fourth Town, which is simply a dream!

But, you should not take it lightly.

After all, the bandits and the Qing army jointly attacked the Fourth Town, which had no reinforcements, with a total of 400,000 troops. Even if they responded flexibly and held on the city, they could hold on for a long time, but if they could not help themselves for a long time, if they had been besieged for a long time, they would probably be inconceivable danger. The final result may be that even if they could be defended, the Fourth Town, the troops would suffer heavy losses.

Is this result a price that you can bear?

In other words, this situation is actually a test of one's own strategic decision, whether to draw south first or north first.

Li Xiao thought for a long time, but finally decided to act as planned and resolve the Hongguang pseudo-government first, and then send troops to the north Zhili to encircle Wei and save Zhao, and force the bandits to retreat.

After all, if the fertile land in Jiangnan is occupied by the Hongguang puppet regime for a long time, it will be a great disadvantage for me. What's more, when I was trained in the two towns, I should not give Hongguang puppet regime a time to survive with a stable situation.

In this way, you need to make a quick decision in this battle to make it happen. The entire strategic goal must be changed accordingly.

Li Xiao's original plan was to not only take down the entire Jiangnan, but also to chase the Hongguang regime as the Qing army destroyed the Nanming in real history, and continue to attack until it was completely eliminated without leaving any troubles.

But now, considering that the pressure on the Fourth Town of Xuanfu North Road is too great, this strategic goal can only be implemented in steps. The primary goal is to first take over the Jiangnan region and then slowly plan for the remnants of the Hongguang puppet regime.

Thinking of this, Li Xiao couldn't help but sigh that the current national situation is so subtle that he can only act as safely as possible. This is the right way to do it.

Therefore, during this period, the soldiers and horses of the fourth town of the Tang army had to bear great pressure alone and deal with the joint attacks between the Qing and Shun armies alone. This approach is considered to make necessary contributions and sacrifices for the national war situation.

After thinking about it, Li Xiao quickly replied to the mayor of the fourth town of the Tang Army, Duan Shiqi Feige, and told him many precautions and related ways of using troops.

Three days later, after receiving Li Xiao's letter from the fourth town of the Tang Army, Duan Shihu, immediately began to arrange the letter as the letter.

At the end of the seventh month of the first year of Chongqing, during this hot summer season, Li Zicheng personally led the army, passed through the left guard of Yanqing, Huailai Guard and other places, and finally arrived at Longmen Fort, the south gateway to Xuanfu North Road.

Seeing the deserted abandoned gate fort in front of him, Li Zicheng couldn't help but frown.

Along the way, he always thought that the Tang army would most likely use the many passes on Xuanfu North Road to defend the fort and snipe his 250,000 troops along the way. However, they did not expect that they would retreat resolutely and thoroughly, throwing all the Longmen Fortress, the gateway south of Xuanfu to himself.

On the way, I could see that the Tang army had withdrawn all the people along the way, and cut off all the immature sorghum in the fields, and a complete solid wall was cleared. The Tang army's decisive retreat was beyond their expectations.

Li Zicheng thought to himself, if the Tang army had really transferred the entire Xuanfu North Road and the people had all moved to Jintang City, then can he drive straight in and attack Jintang City?

However, this approach is too risky.

After all, Xuanfu North Road is quite wide and there are many Guanfu Forts. If you are determined to advance lightly, it would be bad if the Tang army quietly set up an ambush at a Guanfu and caught yourself off guard.

Li Zicheng thought for a long time, but finally decided that for the sake of peace, when the Tang army had already withdrawn, he still had to send a large army to investigate separately to prevent the Tang army from being ambushed. Then, the entire army searched and advanced, and finally came together outside Jintang City, and worked together with the Qing army to attack the city.

After thinking about it, Li Zizhen began to issue orders immediately.

He ordered the entire army to be divided into three divisions, led by himself, Liu Zongmin and Liu Fangliang, and the three troops were supporting each other, searching and advancing together, and finally converging at the city of Jintang.

These three troops led the largest number of troops in the central army, with more than 100,000 troops, Liu Zongmin commanded the left army, and Liu Fangliang commanded the right army with 70,000 troops. After the dispatch of the three troops, they immediately began to take action separately.

Among them, the operation route of Li Zicheng's army was to station in the Longmen Fort area, sweep the entire Nanhe area, and to carry out the nearby Xiaobaimen Fort, Longmenguan Fort, Sanchakou Fort and other places. After the storm and search was completed, the entire army went straight from north to attack Jintang City.

Liu Zongmin's left army crossed the Nanhe River, took the Diao'e Fort, then went north along the left bank of Longmen River, and then took down Chicheng Castle and Zhenning Fort. After joining Liu Fangliang's troops here, the entire army detoured to the northeast of Jintang City, cutting off the retreat route of the fourth town of the Tang army.

After crossing the Nanhe River, the entire army went north along the right bank of Longmenchuan River, and took Dishuiya Fort, Ningyuan Fort, Yangtian Fort, and then crossed the Longmen River in the west, joined Liu Zongmin's troops, and then advanced to Jintang City.

Then, after the entire army arrived at Jintang City, they surrounded them without attacking. After the Qing army wiped out the Tang army north of Xuanfu North Road, they then siege the city with the Qing army. After preparations were made, they launched a full-scale attack, striving to capture Jintang City in one fell swoop and completely eliminate the troops of the fourth town of the Tang army.

Next, the three armies attacked separately. As Li Zicheng expected, the Tang army had indeed escaped. The army marched to various military forts and found nothing. The people were almost extinct. There were only clean and neat sorghum poles left in the fields, sweeping them all the way, and even the shadow of the Tang army had not been seen. Only sometimes, occasionally, I saw a few scattered Tang army whistle cavalry from a distance, but when the bandits wanted to pursue, they had already run away and disappeared.

This is the case with the central army of Li Zicheng's troops, and Liu Zongmin's left army and Liu Fangliang's right army are almost the same.

Seeing that the Tang army was so timid about themselves, and hid like a timid rabbit and dared not see anyone, the bandits were suddenly arrogant and their original caution was gradually replaced by impetuousness and lightness.

As a result, their vigilance began to decline rapidly, and the nature of bandits began to emerge. Military soldiers began to move away from the main formation without authorization. The forces of the three armies began to gradually disperse, and discipline and organizationality gradually relaxed.

Everyone thought happily that they thought that the battle against Xuanfu North Road and the extermination of the Tang army that could fight would be an extremely arduous battle with great sacrifices, but they did not expect that the march now would be easier than traveling.

Therefore, as the entire bandit army was gradually dispersing, it also looked more and more despised the Tang army.

However, what they didn't know was that when they were smuggling and marching around without any scruples, the Tang army had already begun to quietly reveal their sharp fangs.

Five days later, after Liu Fangliang's right army captured the Dishuiya Fort and Ningyuan Fort, one of the troops was about 3,000, and then marched to the right to sweep a small Baihu Fort and Changzhong Fort.

It is close to the remaining veins of Tangshan, and the terrain begins to rise and fall, not as wide as the place where they passed before. Logically, it is appropriate to march carefully and send sentry cavalry to explore forward in such a undulating land. However, since the division of troops from Longmen Fort, Liu Fangliang's right army has not been found in half of the Tang army for several days. At most, they have seen several Tang army cavalry from afar. Their vigilance has long decreased, and their arrogant and underestimated enemy mentality has spread everywhere. Therefore, this 3,000 troops led by a commander did not send sentry cavalry to investigate in advance, but instead advanced all the troops to advance without any scruples and march straight towards Changzhong Fort.

What they never expected was that in an unknown valley ahead, the generals of the A, the Tang Army's Bandit A, led by Liu Wenxiu, deputy mayor of the Fourth Town, had quietly arranged a pocket array, waiting for them to come in like a group of ignorant and fearless stupid pigs.

More than 3,000 bandit soldiers walked into the Tang army's pocket formation on a hot afternoon without any notice.

After all the more than 3,000 people left the valley, Liu Wenxiu, deputy mayor of Tang Jun, who had been hiding in the grass, smiled coldly and issued an order to attack in full swing.

Both ends of the valley were quickly sealed by a large number of Tang army spearmen and tightened their pockets. On both sides of the mountainside, a thousand muskets were fired almost at the same time, with more than 800 poles ringing.

The flames were dazzling, the remaining flames flew, and large groups of white smoke surged, and more than 800 small lead bullets were like dead birds, flying towards the enemy with joy. The first round of volley shots overturned more than 300 bandit soldiers.

Continuous screams sounded from the valley, and the remaining bandits were instantly beaten. When they were running around like headless flies, the second round of volleys began again.
Chapter completed!