When Zhang Lei was in Datong, the materials he provided to Li Zicheng included not only food, clothing, and tents, but also a batch of light artillery and 5,000 three-eyed guns. Not only that, Zhang Lei also promised to provide 5,000 three-eyed guns every time he provided supplies. Eye blunderbuss and fifty thousand rounds of ammunition.
With these equipment, Li Zicheng has the confidence to continue fighting against the Manchu and Qing Tatars, and if time goes by, all his armies will be equipped with three-eyed blunderbuss. This is the most tempting thing for Li Zicheng. force thing.
With these new equipment, Li Zicheng formulated a number of new disciplines, the most stringent of which was the escape and shooting rule. After this rule came out, no one dared to sneak away anymore.
On this day, in the afternoon, Li Zicheng ordered to set up camp, but unexpectedly, the scouts in front suddenly came to him and reported: "King Chuang, there is a Tatar team twenty miles ahead and is coming this way."
Li Zicheng was shocked. He did not expect to meet the Tatar soldiers so soon. He hurriedly asked: "How many people did they come and what equipment did they bring?"
The scout said: "There are only about a hundred of them. They all seem to be carrying long guns and no firearms. I don't know what they are here for."
Hearing that there were only a hundred people, Li Zicheng felt relieved. If there were more people, it might still be a hard battle. If there were only a hundred people, even if they were one against ten, they would not be opponents. So he said: "Keep a close eye on their movements and report to the king at any time."
"Yes, King Chuang." The scout went out again, and Li Zicheng began to wonder, what were these more than a hundred people doing all of a sudden? Of course not fighting. I thought that no matter how stupid Huang Taiji was, he couldn't call a hundred people out to fight. After thinking about it, I didn't have any clue, so I simply gave up.
The distance of twenty miles was too short. In less than an hour, Li Zicheng could already see a team appearing on the grassland on the horizon. It was naturally the Manchu Tatars. Just in case, Li Zicheng ordered the army to stay in place and prepare for battle.
The leader of the Tatar army was a burly general. He was in his prime, holding a long sword and looking majestic. His horses were also extremely strong. Wearing a dark blue patchwork suit with a red tassel on his head, he seemed to be a high official.
He stopped when he was only a few feet away from Li Zicheng and the others. The man first introduced himself and said: "I have heard of the name Chuang Wang for a long time, but it was not until today that I got a glimpse of his true appearance. It is really not easy. I'm sorry. Ergon is the leader of the Zhengbai Banner of the Qing Dynasty."
Li Zicheng¡¯s first reaction was to rush forward and kill him.
Of course, he actually did not do this. After listening to Dorgon's self-introduction, he said: "It turns out that he is still a big shot. Why did you come to me? There are only a hundred people. Aren't you afraid that I will do something bad to you?"
Dorgon laughed loudly and said: "You will definitely not do this, you are a sensible person. I heard about you being framed by Zhang Lei before, and I have been complaining for you in my heart. I heard that he You were driven here, so I came to greet you personally to show my sincerity.¡±
"Haha, this is really the funniest joke I have ever heard. You have to know that I set out this time just to fight you, and you still want to come to greet me? This is like a cat going to catch a mouse. Isn't it the most ridiculous thing in the world for a mouse to come to your door by itself?"
Dorgon said seriously: "Of course cats and mice are good, but you also have to figure out who is the cat and who is the mouse. Secondly, you are the king of the world. Who is Zhang Lei? ? You are just a pretty boy who relied on the princess to gain the appreciation of your emperor. Are you really willing to be driven away by him? "
¡°You¡¯re here to recruit me, right?¡± Li Zicheng said suddenly.
Dorgon was stunned for a moment, and admitted frankly: "It's not impossible if you say that. But we need to talk about the details again, what do you think?"
"You said, if I surrender to you, can you be a prince for me?" Li Zicheng said with a smile.
Dorgon said without thinking: "This is naturally impossible. At that time, I was able to protect you as a high official. If you make a great contribution to the Qing Dynasty in the future, it will be even more beneficial. Our Qing Dynasty has the ability to And those who have made contributions are never stingy with rewards.¡±
Li Zicheng then said: "Then can you let me take hundreds of thousands of troops out to fight?"
Dorgon said: "As a Han Chinese, you are very familiar with the situation in the Central Plains. When our Qing cavalry goes south, we will need you to provide accurate information." What this means is that Li Zicheng is only a military officer, and other If you want to lead troops, I'm afraid you won't be able to.
Li Zicheng sneered: "Then I am King Chuang now.I still have hundreds of thousands of troops under my command. You can't give me either of these things. Then tell me, why should I surrender to you, the Tatars? I am a Han Chinese, how can I become your Tatar servant? Isn¡¯t this ridiculous and generous? "
Dorgon's ancient and calm face finally had something strange. He said in a dark voice, "You are teasing me."
"You are the one who is teasing me. As the saying goes, people go to higher places and water flows to lower places. I don't expect to get a higher status and greater freedom from you than I do now, but you don't even have the most basic equality of status. If I can't do it, my status will become humble when I go to your place. Then tell me what benefits will it gain me to endure the scorn of the people in the world and follow you?" Li Zicheng will naturally not be afraid of these hundreds of people. , so I have nothing good to say about the owner of the Zhengbai Flag.
"So you are not willing to surrender to the Qing Dynasty? You have to think that Zhang Lei is targeting you everywhere now, and your emperor also regards you as an enemy and wants to kill you, and if you After the Qing Dynasty surrendered to me, these will not be problems." Dorgon followed the instructions.
Li Zicheng replied: "You have seen my present, but you have not seen my future. If I follow you, I will become your vassal. What will I do when you bully me? Now they bully me I can still resist. If I follow you, I will probably die in confusion if I are killed by you someday. Besides, if I surrender to you, wouldn¡¯t the emperor want to kill me even more? What else? the difference?"
"Then you mean you rejected me?" Dorgon said with eyes wide open.
Li Zicheng said proudly: "Yes, we are still enemies. For the sake of what kind of banner leader you are, I will give you a chance to escape. Now you can take your people and leave before I change my mind. Don't wait until I want to If I kill you, then you won¡¯t be able to run away.¡±
"You rejected me today. There will be a time when you will regret it in the future. When that time comes, just kneel on the ground and beg me." Dorgon said, then he turned the horse's head and led the people along the original road. Returned.
After Dorgon and his men walked away, the deputy general asked: "King Chuang. Since we don't agree to him, why don't we just kill them all? He is the leader of the Zhengbai Banner, but he is a very high official. , and he seems to be the biological son of the Tatar Emperor.¡±
"It's because he has a prominent status and can be regarded as a relative of the emperor, so he let them go. Now he sees that my troops have surrendered, and he wants me to be used as cannon fodder for them to go south. Don't you see this? ? How could I, a Han Chinese, sacrifice my life for the Tatars?" Li Zicheng said.
"Then why did the distinguished King Chuang let him go? If he were to be killed, then we would have lost one of his generals before we even met. Wouldn't that be a good thing? It could seriously frustrate them. Such spirit." Naturally, the deputy general still didn't understand Li Zicheng's thoughts.
Li Zicheng explained: "Don't be ridiculous, if I kill him, will Huang Taiji let me go? What will I do when his hundreds of thousands or millions of troops want to seek revenge from me? Do you think I should ask Zhang Lei for help?" Will he help me?"
"That's definitely not possible." Without even thinking about it, if that time comes, it would be considered a kindness for Zhang Lei not to add insult to injury.
"That's it. If I kill this person now, he will definitely fight to the death against me. And if we just go to fight now, there is still Zhang Lei to help us. If he doesn't help us, we are desperate. I might as well surrender to save my life," Li Zicheng said.
So the matter passed like this. Zhang Lei did not know that Li Zicheng had already been in contact with Dorgon, if he knew that such a thing had happened. He had to break out in a cold sweat. This was not a good sign. If Li Zicheng agreed, then history would really repeat itself.
Dorgon came all the way over, wanting to win over Li Zicheng for his own use. He originally thought that Zhang Lei would bully him like this, and as long as he stated some conditions, he would immediately agree. But the result was that I was left speechless by being asked before I even stated my conditions. He thought that this was the first time he had encountered such a situation in so many years. He had always been invincible before. So he was in a very unhappy mood. Therefore, if you cannot get something, you must destroy it, and you must not let other people get it. This is his logic.
After walking for another half month, the time has entered late autumn, and everyone needs to eat more. Only when we are full can we better keep out the cold, so the food consumption is also fast. So before Zhang Lei's second batch of supplies arrived, the people below had already come up to report that the food might not last long, and a batch had to be collected through other means - God knows which one When will Lei's food get here?
On this day, the scouts from the front came to tell Li Zicheng that they had encountered a large number of people in front of them, but they were not Manchu Tatars. They were a large number of cavalry and were rushing towards this place.
Li Zicheng naturally would not think that these people came here to negotiate with him. He ordered everyone to stop advancing and set up a fighting formation on the spot to deal with various emergencies at any time.
The people who came were a cavalry, and their number was about 20,000. The power of 20,000 cavalry charging on the grassland is very great. The sharp scimitar in their hands is a weapon for harvesting human heads. The sharp scimitar coupled with unparalleled speed, no one can withstand it.
The field of vision on the grassland was very broad, so Li Zicheng had already discovered it when the Mongolian cavalry was still far away from him. He saw that the opponent was coming menacingly, so he must have come to fight, so he ordered all the soldiers to be ready to fight at any time. , he followed Zhang Lei's example and ordered all the soldiers with three-eyed guns to be divided into four rows and stand on the front line. The soldiers behind began to operate the cannons, and the others held spears and swords to form a defensive formation with Li Zicheng as the center.
In just a few breaths, the Mongolian cavalry were already close in front of them. They were naturally very surprised to see the people in front of them suddenly producing so many strange equipment, but they could not stop. , the reason why the Mongolian cavalry is invincible lies in the various pressures it puts on the opponent at the moment of charging.
Li Zicheng's first command was a very "modern" war for him. In addition to being excited, he was also a little nervous because no one had ever practiced how to use these firearms. When he saw the Mongolian cavalry approaching, he quickly said: "Launch."
The soldiers who were ready pulled the triggers one after another. The powerful recoil of the three-eyed gun not only shot out the bullets, but also made many soldiers unsteady and fell backwards. The formation suddenly became slightly chaotic.
Those bullets fired are completely irregular and are basically equivalent to the scattering of flowers by a goddess, so it is conceivable how lethal they are. Only the Mongolian cavalry at the front was shot and fell, and none of the people behind were hit at all. However, what made Li Zicheng feel relieved was that the corpses of the people in front and the corpses of the horses together created some obstacles for the people behind, and the charge suddenly became impossible to continue.
"Quick, quick, keep fighting." What Li Zicheng saw about Zhang Lei's team was not like this. Why did they fall apart when he got it? He was a little angry, and seeing the Mongolian cavalry getting closer and closer, he quickly urged.
The cannon behind finally showed its power at this time. Cannonballs were thrown out one after another, falling into the ranks of the Mongolian cavalry and exploding, disrupting their formations. The frightened horses were difficult to control at all. , running around everywhere.
After finally calming down, the soldiers holding three-eyed guns once again loaded ammunition and fired according to the previous procedure. With the previous lessons learned, no one was unable to stand still this time, but this whole set of actions was much slower than Zhang Lei's army. (To be continued.)