Ten days ago.

Anle City, De'an Prefecture, Huguang (formerly Anlu).

Liu Zongmin hurriedly ran into Li Zicheng's "palace" and said excitedly: "Your Majesty, I'm reporting back. The city of Suizhou is empty. The Qing captives have indeed retreated!"

Li Zicheng was originally staring at a marching map on the table to study. Hearing this, he couldn't help but asked: "Is Suizhou City empty?"

"There's a vacuum!" Liu Zongmin geared up and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, can we quickly send troops to capture Suizhou?"

Li Zicheng looked at Song Xiance and asked, "What does the military advisor think of this matter?"

Song Xiance frowned, "It's really strange for the Qing captives to retreat, but if they say it's a fraud, they won't even give up Suizhou."

Niu Jinxing said from the side: "Everyone knows what you said, so it doesn't mean you are saying it in vain."

Li Zicheng was also a little impatient and said: "The military advisor asked me whether we want to take this Suizhou forehead?"

Song Xian pondered the strategy and said: "We can send thousands of people to get it first, and at the same time send more scouting horses to find out where the Qing captives are.

If possible, it would be best to capture a few more Qing captives to find out why they suddenly withdrew their troops."

This idea was probably similar to what Li Zicheng had in mind, and he immediately began to deploy his troops accordingly.

Since the Shun army fled into Huguang, they first tried to cross the river to attack Wuchang, but were severely defeated by the Ming army.

Later, they were defeated one after another by the Qing army who pursued them, and they lost the city and the territory.

After fighting so many defeats, even though the Shun army was mainly defeated and fled most of the time, and they had rich experience in fleeing, they still lost a lot of troops.

Generals under Li Zicheng, such as Zhao Hou Zuo Guangxian, Liu Shijun, Wang Youjin, etc., all died in the battle.

There were also those who were captured by the Qing army and then surrendered, such as Li Zicheng's third brother Wuyangbo Li You, general Ruoyi Taipingbo Wu Ruyi, and Liu Guochang, etc.

There were also those who had liaison with the Qing army and rebelled against them in battle, such as Bai Wang's mighty general Wang Tizhong.

This person was originally a subordinate of Ge Liyan He Yilong. Li Zicheng annexed the fifth camp of Ge Zuo and killed He Yilong who was dissatisfied with him. Wang Ti was assigned to Bai Wang's command.

Because the king is brave and good at fighting, Bai Wang relies heavily on him.

In fact, He Yilong saved Wang Tizhong's life, and Wang Tizhong had always held a grudge against Li Zicheng because of He Yilong's death.

Li Zicheng had already become a leader, so he could only hide his hatred in his heart.

But now Li Zicheng's power has been greatly reduced, and he is trapped in the north of Hubei by the Qing army and the Ming army. Seeing that his destruction is a foregone conclusion, he secretly contacted the Qing army, betrayed him in a battle, and helped the Qing army to annihilate them.

Bai Wang has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under his command.

As for others who colluded with the Qing army or rebelled against the Ming army, there were some, but their general positions were not as high as those of Wang Ti Zhong, and the impact and losses they caused to the Shun army were not as great as those of Wang Ti Zhong.

However, speaking of it, this matter is also of some benefit to Li Zicheng.

In April, Li Zicheng, who had lost Xiangyang, was defeated by the Qing army in Zhongxiang. He fled in embarrassment, and even his team was cut into east and west groups by the Qing army.

A small number of soldiers and horses retreated to Jingxi under the leadership of General Ren Guangrong, General Guo Yi, Party leader Su, and Mighty General Liu Tichun.

Most of the remaining troops followed Li Zicheng, Tian Jianxiu, Liu Zongmin and others withdrew to De'an Mansion.

However, De'an Mansion was the home base of Bai Wang's Beijing Camp for two or three years. In addition, Bai Wang was the commander-in-chief of the Shun Army in Hubei and had many troops under his command. Li Zicheng immediately felt threatened.

Originally, Li Zicheng was still thinking about how to weaken Bai Wang's strength, which was quite troublesome.

But after Wang Tizhong rebelled and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Li Zicheng's worries disappeared.

Not to mention that Bai Wang lost tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in the battle where Wang Ti was betrayed, the occurrence of this incident greatly reduced Bai Wang's prestige, and there was no longer any possibility of threatening Li Zicheng's position...

Less than a day after Li Zicheng sent troops to Suizhou, another messenger came to report that the Qing captives in Chengtian Prefecture were also retreating, and even the county seat of Jingshan was abandoned.

Only then did Li Zicheng and others realize that the Qing captives were afraid of withdrawing from Huguang.

After discussing with Tian Jianxiu, Song Xiance and others, he sent troops and horses to capture the cities abandoned by the Qing army such as Jingshan and Zhongxiang, and on the other hand, he sent more detective horses to increase the intensity of investigation.

On the third day, we finally caught a few Qing army spies and learned a piece of definite news - the Qing army had indeed been ordered to withdraw from Huguang.

As for why, the status of the tongue is too low, so I don’t know.

To this end, Li Zicheng once again held a meeting with his important generals and advisers to discuss the matter.

This time Song Xiance quickly gave his judgment.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid it has something to do with the Ming army at this time - we have all seen the combat effectiveness of the army under the command of Princess Supervisor of the Ming Dynasty before, it is very strong.

After the First World War in Wuchang, she went to South Zhili and probably fought with Qing captives in the east.

In addition, his troops were still fighting the Qing army in Shaanxi.

Therefore, I suspect that it was probably the Ming army under the command of Princess Jianguo that made the Qing captives feel the pressure, so they withdrew their troops from Huguang so that they could allocate troops to support the war in the east or Shaanxi."

After listening, Li Zicheng frowned.

He was really not very good at judging the overall situation with the whole world as a chessboard, so he couldn't judge how correct Song Xiance's words were, so he looked at Niu Jinxing and asked, "What did Prime Minister Niu think?"

Niu Jinxing's brain is actually a mess when it comes to the overall situation, but he has always been trusted by Li Zicheng and has his own skills.

He glanced at Song Xiance and said: "I think the situation is probably as the military advisor said. After all, apart from us, the Ming army is the only one in the world that can make the Qing captives go to war."

"Then what should we do now?" Li Zicheng asked again.

Liu Zongmin, who heard this, was the first to say: "Do you still have to think about it? Of course I will take the opportunity to collect Xiangjing."

Xiangjing, also known as Xiangyang City, was one of the deputy capitals of Dashun designated by Li Zicheng.

Tian Jianxiu also spoke at this time: "Before, the Ming army watched us fight with Qinglu, but now Qinglu has taken his hands to beat them. It is time for us to take advantage.

Going north, we can take Xiangyang, and even enter Henan and even Shaanxi.

Going south, if the Ming army in Hunan is transferred elsewhere and the number of troops decreases, we can also consider crossing the river south again."

Li Zicheng's one eye shone brightly when he heard that, he patted the table and said: "What Zehou said is right, when the Qing captives and the Ming army are fighting, it's our turn to take advantage of Dashun!"

Later, I gave the order for all armies to attack and try to occupy all the territories abandoned by the Qing Dynasty!"

Hearing this, most of the people participating in the meeting became excited.

They had lost too many battles before, had been resting on their laurels in terms of troops, money and food, and their morale had hit rock bottom. Now they finally had the opportunity to take advantage and make a fortune.

Just when all the generals were gearing up and preparing to do something big, even carrying the banner with the word "Shun" across the north and south of the Yangtze River, Song Xiance spoke again: "Your Majesty, there is another situation that we have to guard against."

"What's going on?" Li Zicheng frowned, feeling that Song Xiance shouldn't say anything to stir up trouble at this time.

It took a lot of effort to boost everyone's morale.
Chapter completed!