The breeze blows, and the water waves ripples. The pale sun reflects in the water, shining.

Zhou Xian withdrew his gaze and said loudly: "In the past, Yuan Chonghuan made a promise to the late emperor to 'five years of pacifying Liao', and this promise eventually hurt him. Today, I have worked hard to reach a five-year agreement with the Southern Ming, the Break Army, and the Longwu Army. I also win over the old Ming generals such as Wu Sangui, Tang Tong, and Bai Guangen to avoid the Qing Dynasty occupying the northern territory. Of course, it is also for pacifying Liao. Within these five years, I will devote myself to regaining Liaodong. Whether it can be successful is difficult for me to guarantee it. It depends on how the situation changes in the future, and more meticulous planning is needed. These all require the assistance of you, the talents."

As he said that, Zhou Xian looked at Zhang Jiayu and said, "Yuanzi, you took the initiative to join the army. In addition to seeking self-protection, you also want to have another way to do this in this troubled world. I have given you the opportunity now, don't let me down."

Zhang Jiayu bowed his fists and said, "I will definitely live up to the entrusted commander of the commander."

Zhou Xian nodded and handed him the half bag of candied dates left in his hand. "The most famous Yan Laihong in Cangzhou is delicious, I'll wait for your good news."

Zhou Xian rode his horse and headed south, which was the direction of Cangzhou. He handed over all the retreat to Yang Yan.

Wu Sangui knew that the self-army was wary of him and could not be unprepared for them. He would not be so stupid that he tried to win through sneak attacks. At this time, Li Guo did not have the strength to turn against the self-army.

It seems dangerous, but at this time it is relatively safe.

Since the matter here has been almost confirmed, it is time for me to return to Shandong. Zhou Xian thought so.

Zhang Jiayu stood there and was stunned for a long time. Several guards stood in the distance and did not urge him. After a while, he took out a green date from the cloth bag and stuffed it into his mouth, and savored it carefully. "It's so sweet."

Two days later, Li Guo led his troops to retreat to Nanpi, and Wu Sangui and others took over Hejian Prefecture.

Luo Yangxing handed over the troops in the city to Wu Sangui and expressed his loyalty and surrender.

Wu Sangui grandly received Luo Yangxing. Although he did not allow him to continue to command the troops, he allowed him to select elite soldiers to be responsible for investigating various information. For this reason, he was given 100,000 taels of silver, allowing him to continue to play the role of his original commander of the Jinyiwei. Luo Yangxing's Jinyiwei hidden in the dark has served Wu Sangui since then.

During this period, Liu Fangliang led nearly 10,000 cavalry to Tianjin to pick up Li Guo.

But on the way, he met Li Nian who was going back to Beijing and heard about the matter in Tianjin. Faced with the agreement between Li Guo and Zhou Xian and Wu Sangui's soldiers who had reached a high battle. He had no intention of fighting with him, so he could only return to the capital to report to Li Zicheng first.

Zhou Xian withdrew all the soldiers back to Shandong, promising that Li Guo would provide food and grass for his soldiers in the army, and took out 100,000 stones of food and grass and some of the supplies from the treasury and sent people to Wu Sangui to deliver them.

After Wu Sangui got these, he reciprocated and sent only a thousand soldiers to Cangzhou to garrison to show that Hejian Prefecture had returned to his own army, but he had no intention of continuing to fight with the rebel army.

After Li Zicheng defeated Dorgon, the main force returned to Beijing, leaving some troops to guard against Dorgon near Changping. At the same time, he strengthened Guguan's defensive power and ordered Dang Shousu and Chen Yongfu to give up Xuanfu and retreat to Juyong Pass.

During this period, some of the Qing troops under Duoduo pursued the Xuanfu, and Dorgon also launched a counterattack from the direction of Miyun. Countless local gentry armed forces continued to attack the rebels stationed in various places.

The rebel army suffered not much loss, but the morale of the army was greatly affected.

Li Zicheng knew that the north could no longer stay, so he ordered Dang Shousu and Chen Yongfu to assist him. He led a large army to leave the capital and evacuate south through Zhuozhou.

As for Li Yan's suggestion that he wanted to lead his troops to stay in the north, he directly refused. He couldn't bear to let Li Yan go, but deliberately asked Zuo Yi, Chen Yongfu and others to surrender to stay in the north.

The result is that Zuo Yi and others will think that Li Zicheng will treat him differently, and his mood will be greatly affected.

Wu Sangui and Li Zicheng secretly communicated that when Li Zicheng had just evacuated the capital, Wang Pingfan led three thousand cavalry into Beijing and raised his Wu-character banner.

This is equivalent to proclaiming to the people of the world that it was Wu Sangui who recaptured the capital.

When Dorgon arrived, he looked at the Wu flag on the top of the city, his eyes were blazing, and immediately ordered his soldiers to prepare for the attack. After Hong Chengchou's persuasion, he barely suppressed his anger and sent a soldier to notify Wang Pingfan.

But Wang Pingfan immediately opened the city gate and said that Wu Sangui had received the news that the rebel army was leaving, so he specially sent him to reinforce. Seeing that there was a chance to seize the capital, he did not inform Dorgon in advance and entered the city. Now that the army is here, he should have welcomed the army into the city.

The etiquette and polite words made Dorgon unable to find any fault.

In the end, Dorgon could only comfort Wang Pingfan with anger for a few words, and then led a small number of soldiers into the city, and the person who officially took over the capital.

The previous victory gave Li Zicheng some time to retreat. As long as the treasury in the capital could be moved away, basically all the treasuries were moved away, and those that could not be moved away would be burned directly.

Wang Pingfan led his troops into the city in advance and looted them again, leaving Dorgon with a mess everywhere.

It is a blessing to have won the capital, but Dorgon was facing the same dilemma as when Li Zicheng first entered the capital. He had nothing to reward the soldiers who followed him to fight.

If it were the past, Dorgon could have let them rob the city, but Li Zicheng's retreat was right in front of him.

Fan Wencheng wrote many times, saying that there were few people in the Manchus, and if you want to occupy the Central Plains, you must rely on the Han people. After entering the capital, you must not rob as you did before, so as not to lose people's hearts.

Hong Chengchou also repeatedly persuaded him to strictly restrain military discipline and asked him to set the rule of "not slaughtering the people, not burning houses, not plundering property, and not committing any violations."

This will win the hearts of the people in the north and let them serve the Qing Dynasty with all their heart.

The capital is the center of the world, and everyone's eyes are staring here. If the handling is not done well, then how can you come in now and how will you go out in the future.

Although Dorgon was not an emperor, he also wanted to establish his own empire. For this reason, he had to consider the suggestions of Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou.

Looking at the old Ming officials and gentry kneeling at the gate of the city, he was scheming and asked Leng Sengji to prepare for the sacrifice and lead the ministers to worship Emperor Chongzhen on his behalf.

At the same time, he asked Hong Chengchou to do his best to assist Leng Sengji in handling the government affairs in the city and to find available people from the ministers.

Shortly afterwards, Feng Quan, Chen Zhiyi, Zhang Xuan and other important officials of the old Ming Dynasty surrendered to the Qing Dynasty one after another, and the order in the capital was stabilized in a very short period of time.
Chapter completed!