In addition to Hu Maozhen, Li Chengdong's general Du Yonghe, Yan Keyi, and another powerful general of Li Chengdong's army, Hao Shangjiu, died in the Gyeonggi area two months ago.

The Beijing Soldier Government is investigating the list of rebel generals who have been killed in battle with the Ming army since the third year of Chongzhen. Later, the Wuxun Temple will be built in Beijing to pay homage to the fallen generals. Gao Yingxiang, the first generation of rebel king, was the first person on the list.

It is said that the regent once said to Zuo Fu Gu Jun, saying, "These people are not only our ancestors, but also the heroes of the people."

In addition to the leaders of the rebel army and the generals who fell to the battle against Dashun, the governor also had a special edict. The generals of the Ming Dynasty who died in the battle against the Dongnu (Qing Army) since the 45th year of Wanli of the Ming Dynasty will also have incense tributes in Wuxun Temple for generations. The current military government is counting the list of relevant personnel.

After Hao Shangjiu was killed, his son Hao Yaotong took over the unified position of his father during his lifetime. It is said that Hao Shangjiu may be posthumously awarded the position of hereditary position, but the specifics have not been drafted yet.

Hao Yaotong is only 17 years old now, and has shallow military achievements and qualifications, and lacks experience in the war. Therefore, the troops commanded by Hao Shangjiu during his lifetime were temporarily promoted by Li Chengdong, and Hao Yaotong was left by his side to teach him personally.

In addition to Li Chengdong and Hu Maozhen's two cavalrymen, Li Yuanyin, the son of Li Chengdong, also led his troops from Daizhou to Ningwu Pass, and also brought the 20,000 shi of military rations raised by Shanxi Governor Wu Weihua to Ningwu Pass to ensure that his father would not be forced to give up the head of these six passes because of shortage of food.

The original garrison of Ningwuguan was hundreds of soldiers from the Qing Dynasty's Green Camp. As the Shanxi Governor surrendered to Shun, these green camp soldiers naturally changed their appearance and turned into Dashun Army.

After seeing these soldiers, Li Chengdong disbanded them all because Li Chengdong believed that all the soldiers of these soldiers were old and weak, and they were useless at all. It was better to be dismissed and returned home than to stay in the army to waste food and grass.

Fortunately, Li Chengdong arrived in time, otherwise Ningwu Pass would have been captured by the Western Army by relying on these hundreds of old and weak battalions to garrison.

Ningwu Pass had been demolished by Li Zicheng's Shun Army, and there had not been major constructions in recent years. Many places were seriously damaged. Therefore, Li Chengdong ordered all departments to strengthen the pass immediately and repair several arrow piles to cope with the subsequent strong attack of the Western Army.

At this time, the total strength of the Shun Army in Ningwu Pass and the 6,000 soldiers brought by Li Yuanyin, totaling about 17,000 people. Compared with the more than 3,000 remaining soldiers of Zhou Yuji that year, the defenders' forces were more than five times higher.

Although the Western Army was more than three times that of Ningwu Pass, the elite Western Army had only more than 20,000 people, and the rest were mostly surrendered troops from the former Green Camp. Therefore, as long as Li Chengdong defended the pass and kept food and grass, he could completely rely on Ningwu Pass to drag the Western Army across Li Dingguo. More importantly, the second main town of the Old Huai Army was also rushing towards Ningwu Pass.

However, after Li Chengdong went out of the pass to explore the terrain, he believed that he could choose a favorable terrain in front of the pass to ambush the Western Army, so that a large number of soldiers in the Western Army could be killed and damaged, and his morale could be damaged, ensuring that Ningwu Pass would be foolproof.

After discussing with Du Yonghe and others, Hu Maozhen agreed with this proposal. Although they are not as many soldiers as Li Dingguo now, there are 11,000 cavalrymen, and they are all elite soldiers across the north. If the elite cavalry are placed in Ningwu Pass and abandoned the horse and the city, it will undoubtedly be a great waste of their own military force.

Finally, everyone selected the ambush location at Motianling, the only place to pass from Yijing Tunbao to Ningwu Pass.

Although this ridge is called the Heavenly Sky, the highest is only more than 400 meters (one meter and three feet, one meter and nine feet, and the text is easy to measure with rice). However, the terrain is complex, with only one small path passing through to Ningwu Pass. Therefore, if you ambush on both sides of the ridge and suddenly break out when the Western Army passes, the Western Army will definitely be unprepared.

He did it as soon as he said that, Li Chengdong immediately left Du Yonghe and his son Yuan Yin to guard Ningwu Pass, and together with Hu Maozhen, Yan Keyi led 8,000 soldiers to Motianling. Later, Li Chengdong led half of the soldiers to hide in Lingnan, and Hu Maozhen led half of the soldiers to hide in the north of Lingnan.

In order to prevent the sound of war horses from leaking, the ambush made the Western Army be prepared for some defense, Li Chengdong ordered the soldiers to tie the horse's mouth and wrap the horse's hooves with cloth, and fireworks were created on the ridge without Huaihe.

It can be said that everything is ready, just waiting for the east wind.

After resting in Yijing Tunbao for a day, Li Dingguo, who was eager to occupy Ningwu Pass, led his troops to more than 20,000 elite troops, together with the surrendered generals Tang Tong, Gao Xun, Kang Zhenbang and Bai Guangen, nearly 30,000 soldiers heading towards Ningwu Pass in a fierce manner.

Earlier, the horses were explored to the east, and all the people reported that there was no movement in the Shun army. In addition, since Baode set out, there was no Shun army dared to stop them along the way, and the forts and cities all surrendered. Since the Eastern Expedition, the soldiers were also very fast. Therefore, Li Dingguo judged that the main force of the Shun army would arrive in Shanxi as soon as possible, so he did not doubt that there was a large number of Shun army ahead that had set up an ambush waiting for him.

When the Haodanxi Army took the surrendered army as the forefront to Motianling, Li Dingguo saw that the terrain was dangerous and ordered to stop advancing. He Jiuyi, Zhao Desheng, Qi Sansheng and others surrounded him and rushed to the foot of the ridge. He whip and looked around and asked if there were any other roads to pass besides the trail in the ridge.

The Tamma News said that the nearest road would reach the Lugou Mountain area in the south, and if the army diverted the route, it would take more than 80 miles.

"Is the mansion worried about the ambush on this ridge?"

Qi Sansheng, who was speaking, was originally a general of General Liu Wenxiu, Funan, but this time he followed Li Dingguo to the east. Because the Emperor of Daxi ordered Sun Kewang to open the east prefecture and Li Dingguo to open the west prefecture, most generals called Li Dingguo the emperor.

Li Dingguo, 27, nodded slightly and said, "This ridge looks dangerous. Although our army has been progressing smoothly since entering Jin, we must be careful of sailing ten thousand years of ships, and we must also guard against the Shun Army."

After saying that, I rushed to the bottom of the ridge with the generals and looked at it carefully. It seemed that there was no problem along the way, but I found many footprints on the ground somewhere southeast of the ridge.

After careful examination, these footprints were obviously not only human footprints, but also war horse hoof prints. Moreover, the footprints of people and horses were obviously deliberately cleaned up.

"There are people on the ridge!"

Li Dingguo's eyes flashed with light. He looked up at the ridge, but there was silence and silence. There was no sign of birds on the ridge and halfway up.

"Master, I will take people up the mountain to see!"

General He Jiuyi raised his hand and greeted him. A team of elite Western troops in armor immediately turned over from the horse, and lined up the mountain with a knife in his hand and searched carefully.

When I searched halfway up the mountain, I still found no results.

Qi Sansheng guessed: "Maybe the local bandits and bandits heard that our Daxi Army was coming, and they dared not be enemies, and they were afraid that our army would wipe them out and then hid on the mountain."

"Maybe,"

Li Dingguo nodded, and was careful that he would sail the ten thousand years of ship, but if he delayed the capture of Ningwu Pass because of suspicion, it would be more than worth the loss.

At this moment, I wanted Gaoxun's troops to pass through the ridge first. If Gaoxun's troops had nothing to do, the rest of the troops would pass through, even if Gaoxun's troops were in trouble, they would only lose the surrendered troops, and there would be no losses to the Western Army.

Just as the order was about to be issued, the central army came to report that two Ningwu Pass defenders came to surrender, and said that there was a major military situation to report to the commander of the Daxi Army.

"Oh, bring people quickly!"
Chapter completed!