Chapter 179: Disastrous defeat
Two days later, Baoding was slaughtered, and no one in the city survived. After that, a fire broke out in the city, the houses were destroyed, and the whole city was burned to a white ground.
Every Qing army soldier who followed Dorgon to fight was robbed and his morale was high.
Dorgon issued a manifesto accusing Li Zicheng of setting fire to the city and slaughtering innocent people when he evacuated. After meeting with the Duoduo tribe who had entered Guguan, Dorgon handed over all the troops to Duoduo's unified command and allowed him to continue pursuing the rebel army. He himself led the Qing army of the young troops back to the capital.
Near Changshan in Zhending Prefecture, the Qing army defeated the Dang Shousu and Chen Yongfu's troops behind the palace, and defeated the tens of thousands of rebels led by Liu Fangliang in Xingtai, Shunde Prefecture.
The two armies finally fought on the edge of the Shahe River for two days, and it was difficult to decide the outcome.
Zuo Yi raised a white flag to surrender to the Qing army, and shouted in front of the battlefield to persuade the surrender, which caused a great decline in morale among the rebels. Zheng Jiadong, Niu Chenghu and other generals surrendered to the Qing Dynasty one after another, causing a major gap in the rebels' defense line.
The Qing cavalry took advantage of the situation and attacked fiercely. The rebel army could not resist and was defeated. Dang Shousu, Chen Yongfu, Zuo Guangxian, Lan Yingcheng, Tian Hualong and other generals died in battle.
Fortunately, when the army was defeated, Liu Fangliang led thousands of cavalry to rush straight from the flanks to the Qing army camp, hoping to bring Duoduo off the horse. Although it failed in the end, it caused a brief chaos in the Qing army formation.
The elite troops of the Musket Battalion led by Li Yan and the Zhenshan Camp led by Luo Hu also took advantage of the situation to counterattack, repelled the Qing army, and killed thousands of them. The Qing army forced them to retreat for several miles, temporarily stabilizing the situation.
As night falls, everything is silent.
Li Zicheng led his personal guard camp to cross the river first, and was picked up by the rebels who had been waiting on the other side of the river. Then more than 10,000 wounded soldiers crossed the river through the only few floating bridges.
After both were safely crossing the river, most of the rebels began to operate. A small number of soldiers crossed the river through the floating bridge, while most of the others could only cross the river through the shallow areas of the sand river that they had discovered in advance.
The river water was cold, and not long after, my legs became completely numb and I moved very slowly.
Although the camp was secretly made by the trespasser army and the camp was brightly lit and basically not moved. In the end, the Qing army was still probing, and Duoduo led his troops to attack again.
After a bloody battle overnight, when it was dawn, the Qing army attacked the riverside.
The rebels fought for the road, and the floating bridge broke through, and many people fell into the water. On the river bank, corpses were buried everywhere, and blood flowed into rivers. The river water was dyed red, and floating corpses floated on the oars, and the flowing water was blocked.
Nearly 100,000 troops were gone in vain every once in a while, and all the baggage was abandoned on the other side.
Li Zicheng stood by the river on horseback, looking at the tragic situation on the other side, and was speechless for a long time. Under the persuasion of the generals, he led his troops to Linming Town, where there was a small city for defense.
At this moment, although there were nearly 200,000 troops left by his side, each of them looked sad and had no intention of fighting.
The transported gold and silver from the capital before were mostly gold and silver, while the latter army carried a lot of food and grass, but now they were all thrown on the other side. The rebels now have mountains of gold and silver, but there is a crisis of food and grass.
The main business had sufficient supply and good order. Most of the soldiers in the auxiliary camp were hungry and began to rob the villages around. Li Zicheng could not control the situation and could only pretend to turn a blind eye.
Yan Yingyuan stationed in Guangping just to support him, but he did not expect the rebel army to face such a crushing defeat. At first, when the two armies confronted Shahe River, he suggested to Li Zicheng through Chen Mingxia that he could assist the rebel army to cross the river.
However, the two armies did not trust each other, and Li Zicheng was even more worried that Zhou Xianjun would cut off their way back, so he politely refused. He also ordered Liu Tichun to lead his troops to cross the river in advance and strictly prevent it on the south bank of the river.
It was not until this time that Li Zicheng felt relieved.
Yan Yingyuan quickly led the soldiers of the first battalion to the north, and killed more than a dozen robbery leaders of the rebel army on the road, and returned all the remaining ones to the rebel army.
This aroused the anger of many invaders, but in the end it was suppressed by Li Zicheng.
Through Chen Mingxia, Li Zicheng proposed to buy some food and grass from Daming Mansion.
Yan Yingyuan also wanted to send Li Zicheng, the plague god, out of Daming Mansion as soon as possible, and first sent 10,000 stones. He also promised that when Li Zicheng left Daming Mansion, he would provide another 30,000 stones.
With food and supplies, the morale of the rebel army became much more stable.
Li Zicheng asked Liu Tichun to lead his troops south to explore the road. He also sent people to Hua County to ask Li Mei, who was stationed in the local area, to help him. He stayed in Linming Town and promised the entire army that he would never leave until the last soldier evacuated.
This move greatly stabilized the morale of the rebel army.
Later, he fled from other places to Linming Town, increasing the strength of the rebel army.
But to Li Zicheng's disappointment, Li Yan, Liu Fangliang, Luo Hu, Li Shuangxi and other generals behind the palace did not come back, none of them came back. And there was news that they had all died in battle.
Some Qing army scouts crossed the Shahe River and monitored the rebels outside Linming Town.
Later, Duoduo also led his troops to come, but did not launch an attack. In addition to the loss of the Qing army, he also saw an army of thousands of people holding the flag of Zhou Xianjun to protect the flanks of the rebel army.
Duoduo was a little confused for a moment and did not dare to launch an attack rashly.
After the two armies stalemate for a period of time, it was reported that there was a rebellion in Tongzhou. Dorgon asked him to return as soon as possible. Seeing that there was no chance, Duoduo led his troops north and left troops in Xingtai, leading his army back to the capital.
The situation of the enemy is unclear in the future, and Duoduo dares not lose too much military force here.
Yan Yingyuan provided enough food and grass for the rebel army so that they did not have to worry about it during the evacuation process. However, many people still left the team and fled. It is hard to imagine that this was the rebel army that captured the capital in several months.
Li Zicheng led some elite troops to return to Henan first, and Liu Zongmin led a large army to evacuate slowly. They headed west through Handan and Zhangde to return to Henan.
Later, Li Zicheng abandoned Zhangde Mansion and left less than 20,000 troops in Huaiqing and Weihui Mansions on the north bank of the Yellow River. In this way, he was completely isolated from the Qing army in the north, and Zhou Xian had to take over Zhangde Mansion for the safety of Daming Mansion.
Yan Yingyuan also abandoned Lin Ming Town and withdrew the army back to Guangping City.
Shortly afterwards, Zhou Xian defeated Yan Yingyuan as a guerrilla general and allowed him to recruit soldiers on his own within the jurisdiction. He also added 5,000 troops to Daming Prefecture, allowing him to coordinate and command.
In the next year, the two armies confronted and fought on both sides of the Zhang River.
When the war was at its most urgent, Zhou Xian even transferred 70% of the Second Army's army from Tingtao to Julu, leaving only an empty shell in the rear.
Because of assisting Li Zicheng to withdraw to Henan, the relationship between the two armies was good, so the rebel army led their troops eastward again. Except for one time, the two armies almost had a big battle.
Li Yan and others were blocked north of the Shahe River and could only escape in the east and west directions.
Because most of Liu Fangliang's soldiers were cavalry, he went west through Lu'an and returned to Kaifeng through Zhangde Mansion. That was three months later.
Chapter completed!