A steamship slowly approached Beitang, and the cannon on the ship pointed toward the shore like a salute.
For Wu Sangui¡¯s troops, the appearance of this steamship was simply a nightmare.
They had originally fled here and had lost their courage long ago. The appearance of the steamship meant that the pursuers had also arrived!
Wu Sangui¡¯s prepared words to impress the generals were interrupted by the sound of the whistle. After he was stunned, he ran forward quickly without hesitation, grabbed his own horse, and got on his horse.
"Walk!"
He shouted, then spurred his horse and fled.
"General, I'll stay behind and leave quickly!"
The general shouted loudly, and then led his men towards the place where the whistle sounded.
As the saying goes, a hero can be known only by strong winds and rough grass. At this time, there are actually people who are willing to fight to the death for Wu Sangui. This person's loyalty and righteousness are really soaring into the sky, which is admirable.
Wu Sangui was grateful in his heart and shouted from a distance on his horse: "Don't worry, I will treat your wife well when I return to the capital!"
You can still hear the first sentence, but when it comes to the second sentence, the sound is as misty as smoke and you can¡¯t hear it clearly. It's not that he fled far away, but because a large group of people followed him and fled, and the sound of horse hooves and footsteps completely muffled his voice.
The remaining general looked back at Wu Sanguijun's back, then turned around and saw that there were only about a hundred people around him. Hundreds of people looked at him with confused eyes, and he himself snorted coldly.
"Be careful!" He looked around: "Hurry up and collect all the flags and other things here, and collect all the discarded ordnance!"
Seeing that the sampan had been put down on the steamboat, and dozens of Chinese troops were rowing to rush to the beach, he was not thinking about how to organize the defense line, but he wanted to collect things. All the troops were surprised.
But he is a general. The soldiers naturally had no choice but to obey orders, and those who didn't obey also ran away, but only for a moment. There were only thirty or fifty people left around him.
"Idiots, they are all idiots." The general snorted again. Then he led the remaining subordinates: "Let's go, follow me!"
He first carried a musket and headed towards the coast. When he saw that the Chinese army was less than a hundred meters away, and the other side began to raise their guns to take aim, he raised his hands and his knees softened: "Everyone kneel down!"
The soldiers behind him followed suit and knelt down.
"Surrender, surrender, we surrender" the general screamed loudly. The loyalty and courage shown just now are gone now.
What came up was just a group of marines. Their mission of transporting and covering the landing of Wang Haoran's troops was over. After staying in Qinhuangdao for a few days, they were preparing to return. Naturally, they had to get close to the coast to show off their power along the way. Saw this group of people on the shore. Seeing that he had lost his battle by throwing away his armor, he came to check it out. The landing Marine company commander saw these Wu Sangui men begging loudly for mercy, ordered them to drop their weapons and followed them: "Who are you and why are you here?"
"Reporting to the general, we are Wu Sangui's subordinates"
"Wu Sangui?" The Marine Corps commander repeated the name. This was just his personal habit. But to the ears of these Wu Sangui's subordinates, it became clear that he had never heard of Wu Sangui.
Among the officers and soldiers of the old Ming Dynasty, this situation was very common. The soldiers did not know the name of their own general or the name of their enemy's commander. Anyway, they would just follow the brothers to charge or escape. Therefore, Wu Sangui's general added: "Is he the Marquis of Zhennan of Jianlu?"
The company commander really didn¡¯t know Wu Sangui¡¯s title of Marquis of Zhennan, so he curled his lips and said, ¡°What is Marquis of Zhennan?¡±
General Wu Sangui was helpless and could only say: "We are traitorous subordinates"
"Oh, it turns out they are traitors." The company commander stared at them warily: "Where are those people who escaped just now?"
Wu Sangui¡¯s general was a little confused just now. Then he woke up and said loudly: ¡°The villain wants to make meritorious service, the villain wants to report, the villain wants to lead the way, that¡¯s where Wu Sangui is, and Wu Sangui escaped over there!¡±
"Ah, Wu Sangui?" When the company commander heard this, he immediately realized that he had lost a big fish, and he stamped his feet and said: "Come here, come here, report to the captain quickly, say that Wu Sangui has been found, and wait for his pursuit order!"
Wu Sangui fled Beitang and did not dare to stay any longer. He fled towards the west Beijing Division. But when I arrived at Baodi, I saw that there were civilians everywhere - he and Jianlu went south to fight, and the total number of civilians recruited was close to one million. Now that they were defeated, naturally there was no one to restrain the civilians, and they all seemed to be running away. Want to escape home.
At this time, Wu Sangui had only a thousand cavalry beside him, and he learned from the civilians that a section of the Chinese army had gone north along the canal and arrived at Xianghe first. ?However, the capital has not been lost yet and is still in the hands of his subordinates.
"Tian Boguang and Gu Jiaming have limited troops. Even if they seize Xianghe and Tongzhou, they don't have enough troops to occupy the capital. We have to enter the capital before them. Only in this way can we escape"
At this point, Wu Sangui didn't care much anymore. He brought Qianqi with him, which would lead to pursuit. The only way was to pretend to be a civilian, because he learned from the civilians that the Chinese army did not conduct detailed checks on these civilians. Just capture the defeated troops.
Having made up his mind, Wu Sangui had no time to think about it, so he asked a general to lead a large group of troops to the north. He only said that he wanted them to seize Shanhaiguan to preserve the escape route to the north. He only took a dozen people with him, changed into civilian clothes, rode on the unattractive-looking horses he picked out, and began to march towards the capital.
Sure enough, they were stopped by the Huaxia Army in Baodi. During the interrogation, Wu Sangui lied that he was a civilian from the capital and was going back to the capital. The Huaxia Army did not stop him, but just stuffed a piece of paper into him: "Enter." After the capital is over, distribute this leaflet on the streets for us, just don¡¯t worry, if you¡¯re afraid, you can just throw it outside the capital.¡±
It was already dusk at this time. Wu Sangui took the leaflet and looked at it in his hand. It contained some requirements, such as that people in the capital should guard their doors, that troops should not disturb the people when they break up, and that officials at all levels should seal up warehouses and supplies, especially Mentioning that the capital city is the ancient capital of several dynasties, all kinds of cultural relics must be properly protected. Those who can do so will have made meritorious service to China, and will be rewarded after the army enters the city.
After reading this flyer, Wu Sangui could only smile bitterly. Yu Guozhen thought so carefully that he had even prepared this flyer in advance.
¡°At least one good thing about having this leaflet is that the several Chinese Army patrols they encountered later did not make things difficult for them, and there were also kind-hearted Chinese Army soldiers who gave them some dry food.
Eating the dry food called "biscuits" distributed by the Huaxia Army and drinking water, Wu Sangui was silent, lowered his head and hurried on. When he arrived not far from Tongzhou, it was still dark, and he saw the light of a large torch in front of him, and it seemed that more than a thousand people were marching.
"Who is that?" Before they got close, they heard someone shouting in the distance.
"Common man returning home, general!" A close confidant of Wu Sangui answered loudly. They had been through many such cross-examinations along the way, and they were no longer nervous at all at this time.
"Stay away from the troops and don't interfere with the march. You still have horses, which is good."
Wu Sangui and the others were riding horses. Although they were not running at a gallop, they were still slightly faster than soldiers on foot. There was envy in the tone of the Chinese soldier's voice, and Wu Sangui knew in his heart that if his subordinates or Jianlu, even former Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers, saw such common people with horses, they would definitely want to seize the horses for him to ride, and they would be cruel. Some of them may even kill people and seize wealth. But the Chinese soldier just clicked his tongue in envy, and then stopped paying attention to them.
In terms of military discipline, the Chinese army is hundreds of miles ahead of any army at this time. This is not only due to strict discipline, but more importantly, the sense of honor and treatment belonging to the military. If the ruler regards the army as lackeys, then the army will naturally do things that dogs do. On the contrary, if the ruler can treat the army as his children, then of course his own children will risk their lives to face the difficulties when their own family is in trouble.
They followed the Chinese army for a while, and suddenly they heard an officer walking beside ask: "Are you all tired?"
"Not tired!"
"Do you still have the strength?"
"have!"
"Can you sing?"
"able!"
"Then let's play "The Great Chinese Song", I'll start, get ready - sing!"
"The illustrious Huaxia established the East, the first ancestors of humanities were counted in the Yanhuang Dynasty, the Three Sovereigns and the Five Emperors left great virtues, and the Xia and Shang Dynasties expanded their territory in two weeks.
The ancestors of the dragon unified the country, and the Han Dynasty fought fiercely on all sides. The romance of the Wei and Jin Dynasties still exists today, and the spirit of the Tang Dynasty has not yet ended. Cangjie wrote and ghosts and gods cried, while Cai Hou made paper and the world moved. Confucius and Mencius, Mo Han and Sun, a hundred schools of thought contend and a hundred flowers bloom"
The majestic "Hehe Huaxia Song" was sung immediately, first by the team to which the officer belonged, and then, the entire team of a thousand people sang loudly. Every soldier who sang this song held his head high and his chest high, as if the exhaustion of running hundreds of miles did not exist at all.
Wu Sangui once heard someone mention this song, and even saw the lyrics of this song in a newspaper. At that time, he thought it was just a literati trick and had no meaning. But now, he heard thousands of people around him singing in unison, and a terrifying aura echoed in the singing, giving him goosebumps.
He couldn¡¯t help but feel proud of it!
But when he heard the sentence "It is difficult for a barbarian to have a hundred years of luck, but there are heroes and heroes in his generation, Han Dao is prosperous", he was horrified, he couldn't just take refuge?Hulu?
Although he once wanted to surrender to Yu Guozhen but failed, before that, didn't he surrender to Jianlu first? Although he could use the situation to defend himself against others, how could he hide it from himself?
"Let's hurry up." He said in a hoarse voice.
Amid the majestic singing, they left in panic. Seeing that they were about to overtake the Chinese army, the singing paused. Seeing them catching up, an officer asked curiously: "Where are you going?"
"General Qi, we are returning to the capital. We were originally driving carts in the capital, but we were dragged away from home. Now, thanks to the blessings of all the generals, we can finally go home."
"I see, no wonder we are in such a hurry and miss home so much." The officer smiled heartily and said: "Go back and tell your neighbors that our Chinese Army is under the command of Commander Yu. It is a majestic and benevolent army. Don't I¡¯m afraid, with a little more time, everyone¡¯s life will be easier!¡±