Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 816: Li Zicheng in a Dilemma

The conversation with Johann Adam Schall von Bell lasted for a full hour and a half. After Schall von Bell left, Zhu Shenzui still sat in the chair, concentrating on thinking.

Using Johann Adam Schall von Bell to contact Europe and show goodwill to the Vatican was just a casual move. Although Johann Adam Schall von Bell had lived in the Ming Dynasty for nearly 20 years, and although he was a European and had some status in the Vatican, he was not a real Ming Dynasty person after all.

As the saying goes, those who are not of my race must have different hearts. No matter how highly Johann Adam Schall von Bell was praised in history, in Zhu Shenzhui's view, everything Schall von Bell did was just for the purpose of preaching. In his heart, faith was far above everything else. As for everything else, they were all compromises and adjustments made for the sake of faith. Now he is willing to help the Ming Dynasty contact the Holy See and European countries, also for this purpose.

Johann Adam Schall ...

What is the situation in Europe? What are the relations between the countries? Can we win over some European countries to form an alliance with Ming Dynasty, so as to provoke a war between some European countries and Tsarist Russia to curb the expansion of Tsarist Russia to the East? All these need to be verified.

Moreover, this cannot be achieved in a short time. Even if we start now, it will take at least a few years or even longer. Zhu Shenzhui has no way of knowing to what extent he can achieve it. However, since he has this idea, he must try it after all, and Tang Ruowang is the best introduction.

After arranging Johann Adam Schall von Bell to do this, and privately instructing the Embroidered Uniform Guard to pay close attention to the matter, Zhu Shenzui turned his attention to the north, waiting for news of the war in Moxi.

Two months later, the battle in Moxi finally came to an end. With the reinforcement of Wang Hai's new army, the initiative on the battlefield once again returned to the hands of the Tenger tribe. Although the tactics of the new army were slightly different from those of the Luosha people, both armies were pure firearms armies, and in terms of the advanced level of firearms, the firearms of the new army were even better.

In particular, the Portuguese arquebus, tiger squat cannon and muskets that could fire continuously held by the new army were no match for the firearms held by the Russians.

After consultation, Wang Hai and Burigude set a trap to lure the enemy to attack. When the Russian army appeared in the enemy's army, Wang Hai's new army was already prepared. They used firearms against firearms on the battlefield and defeated the enemy in less than half an hour. These Russians never thought that there was a pure firearms army in the Mongolian army that was stronger than their own, and its combat effectiveness was really unimaginable.

Even the Cossack cavalry, which the Russians relied on for their pride, was blocked by Burigud's elite cavalry. When the Russian firearms troops fled in a panic, leaving behind nearly half of their corpses, the fierce Cossack cavalry could not hold on any longer and simply turned around and ran away.

As the Russians retreated, Chao Ketu Taiji's cavalry also began to collapse. Gushri Khan and Batur Hong Taiji, who had been waiting for a long time, plus the coalition forces of various tribes in western Mo, launched a massive counterattack and forced the enemy to retreat step by step.

A few days later, the coalition forces once again won a great victory over Chao Ketu Taiji's army. They not only recovered the lost territory in western Moxi that had been occupied before, but also completely defeated Chao Ketu Taiji. Even Chao Ketu Taiji himself was killed in this battle. With the death of Chao Ketu Taiji, the Mobei army, without a commander, fled to the north without looking back. After a while of pursuit, the various tribes returned with a great victory, and the battle ended.

After the war, Mobei was defeated and the remaining troops fled back. Due to the death of Chao Ketu Taiji, the newly unified Mobei tribes fell into chaos and contention again. In addition, the Luosha army also suffered heavy losses, with nearly half of them lost in Moxi. As for whether they would continue to stay in Mobei or return to the west after returning, it is unknown.

When the news reached the Ming Dynasty, Wang Hai and Burigude had already returned to Guihua City, and the war in Moxi was completely over. Zhu Shenzhu was relieved after reading the war report sent by Jinyiwei. With the end of this war, both Moxi and Mobei would be able to rest for a while, and there would be no more wars for at least a few years.

As for the reaction of Tsarist Russia, it is not known for the time being. No matter how powerful the Jinyiwei is, they cannot extend their tentacles to the west. However, Zhu Shenzui did not dare to relax his vigilance towards the west and the north.

Time flies, April is coming to an end and May is coming soon.

It has been nearly nine months since Zhu Shenzhui officially became the King of Wu. After he was promoted to the King of Wu, everyone in the court understood that it was only a matter of time before Zhu Shenzhui officially replaced Emperor Chongzhen and ascended the throne, and the throne of the Ming Dynasty would eventually fall into his hands.

During the past six months, with the development of border trade and maritime trade, coupled with the continuous stabilization of the local area, good news about the suppression of bandits continued to arrive.

Especially in terms of encircling and suppressing bandits, Zhang Xianzhong's voluntary surrender meant that Zhang Xianzhong's troops, one of the three major bandits, no longer posed a threat. Not long after his surrender, Zhang Xianzhong came to the capital, was granted a title of nobility and served in the police department. He kept a low profile in the capital on weekdays.

Zhang Xianzhong's four adopted sons and their subordinates were all separated and sent to various units to serve as military officers and lead troops to fight against other bandits. In the past two months, Li Dingguo and others performed very well, especially Li Dingguo, who soon showed his talent in the army. In addition, his direct superior was Gao Jie, who was also a subordinate of Sun Chuanting. Sun Chuanting was both civil and military and did not discriminate against Li Dingguo. As for Gao Jie, it goes without saying that Gao Jie was born a bandit and was naturally close to Li Dingguo. In addition, Li Dingguo was extremely capable and knew how to behave, so he soon gained Gao Jie's trust and was entrusted with important tasks.

In the subsequent military operations against Luo Rucai, Li Dingguo also made military achievements and was promoted from a thousand-man commander to a guerrilla, becoming the first of the four to be promoted.

The military operation against Luo Rucai's troops was planned by Zhang Xianzhong, who was familiar with the enemy. Through both winning over and dividing the enemy and military means, Luo Rucai's troops were caught off guard by the internal turmoil caused by the betrayal of Yang Chengzu, a general under Luo Rucai. Yang Chengzu, together with the Ming army, attacked Luo Rucai from both inside and outside, catching him off guard. He took advantage of Luo Rucai's unpreparedness and launched a sudden attack, directly killing Luo Rucai and He Yilong.

After the death of Luo Rucai and He Yilong, the army was leaderless, tens of thousands of troops collapsed in an instant, and finally surrendered to the Ming army. In this way, Luo Rucai's army, who once dominated the world and called himself "Cao Cao", was destroyed. After Luo Rucai was finished, Li Zicheng, who had been struggling to hold on, could no longer hold on. Without Luo Rucai to contain the Ming army, the Ming army had no worries and focused on encircling and suppressing Li Zicheng's army, making Li Zicheng miserable.

Originally, Li Zicheng planned to lead his troops eastward while the Ming army was besieging Luo Rucai and capture Kaifeng first. It would be the best if he could occupy Kaifeng. If he could not occupy Kaifeng, he would cross the Yellow River and head north, run to the north bank of the Yellow River and try to enter Northern Zhili or go east to Southern Zhili.

But how could Kaifeng be so easy to attack? Kaifeng is a big city in the Central Plains, with high walls and thick walls. It is not only heavily guarded but also has hundreds of thousands of civilians. Moreover, Kaifeng is the vassal of the King of Zhou. The King of Zhou is a descendant of the fifth son of Emperor Taizu and has been in Kaifeng for more than 200 years. Although the King of Zhou, Zhu Gongyao, is a vassal king, he is not incompetent. When Li Zicheng led his troops to attack Kaifeng, Zhu Gongyao understood the principle of "the lips and the teeth are cold". He spent all his family wealth to call on the soldiers and civilians in the city to resist, spent a huge amount of money to strengthen the city, and promised a huge reward for killing the enemy.

Because of Zhu Gongyao, the whole of Kaifeng was united and resisted Li Zicheng's siege very tenaciously. Li Zicheng fought for several days but failed to take Kaifeng, and suffered heavy losses. Moreover, after Chen Qiyu's troops dealt with Luo Rucai, they immediately led their troops to reinforce Li Zicheng's fierce attack on Kaifeng. Li Zicheng saw that the situation was not right and he would be killed if he didn't run away, so he had to give up attacking Kaifeng and try to cross the Yellow River instead.

But how easy was it to cross the Yellow River at this time? Because it was near summer and the Yellow River was flooding, and Zhu Gongyao had long been on guard against Li Zicheng crossing the river. Before Li Zicheng besieged Kaifeng, he had people seize a large number of boats near the Yellow River to prevent Li Zicheng from using them.

Li Zicheng did not have enough boats to cross the river. In addition, after the Ming army dealt with Luo Rucai, the various troops rushed towards him aggressively. If he waited any longer, it would be too late. Li Zicheng had no choice but to give up the plan of crossing the river. He led his troops directly west, running along the Yellow River all the way to Zhengzhou, but encountered Zuo Liangyu's troops who had just arrived in Zhengzhou.

If it was just Zuo Liangyu's troops, Li Zicheng would still have a fighting chance. But as soon as the battle started, he learned that Cao Wenzhao's troops were also nearby and were rushing to the city. Li Zicheng panicked instantly. He knew very well that if Zuo Liangyu and Cao Wenzhao joined forces, he would definitely lose. If he was entangled by Zuo Liangyu, the consequences would be very serious. Li Zicheng quickly left one of his troops behind and led the main force to continue westward. He ran to the vicinity of Gongxian without looking back.

When he arrived in Gong County, Li Zicheng heard that Sun Chuanting's troops in Luoyang had arrived, and Lu Xiangsheng and Qin Liangyu's troops in the south had also arrived in Dengfeng. Now the Ming army was approaching from the east, west and south, and in the north was the difficult-to-cross Yellow River. Looking at this situation, Li Zicheng was disheartened and felt unwell.

"Uncle, why don't you take your men away first, and we brothers will stay here to cover your rear. As long as we have the green mountains, we will never have to worry about having firewood to burn!" Li Guo tried hard to persuade Li Zicheng. They had tens of thousands of troops stationed in the north of Gong County, not far away from the Yellow River, while there were Ming troops to the east, west and south. These Ming troops numbered more than 100,000 in total, which far outnumbered them both in terms of numbers and combat effectiveness. They would not be able to win if they were to fight.

"Leave? How to leave?" Li Zicheng said bitterly.

"Cross the river! There is only one way, and that is to cross the river. Once you cross the Yellow River, the soldiers will not be able to catch up with you. At that time, you can go to the northwest or northeast. As long as you keep your life, why worry about not having the opportunity to make a comeback?" Li Guo advised.

"Brother Li Guo is right. Now the only way is to cross the river!" Liu Zongmin nodded in agreement. Instead of waiting here for the Ming army to attack, it would be better to cross the river early. Only in this way can they escape.

Li Zicheng hesitated but couldn't make up his mind. He knew that crossing the river was the way to survive, but the problem was that he didn't have any boats! Because of the Ming army and local government, the boats along the Yellow River had been looted long ago, and even those that were not looted had already gone to the other side of the river. If Li Zicheng could cross the river, would he have waited until today? If he had crossed the river in Kaifeng, why would he have come to Gongxian?
In the past two days, he has been trying to find boats, but after searching for a long time, he only found a few small boats. These boats are not only small but also broken. Although they can barely cross the river, they can't carry many people. At best, one boat can carry three to five people, and two boats can carry a maximum of ten people. Moreover, they can't carry war horses, armor, etc., otherwise it will be useless.

If we were to take a boat like this to cross the Yellow River, how long would it take for tens of thousands of troops to cross?

According to the speed of the Ming army's advance, the vanguard of the Ming army might arrive in Gong County tomorrow. The time left for them was running out. What was the point of Li Zicheng crossing the river by himself? If he crossed, what about his subordinates and troops? Without these, how could Li Zicheng survive in this world?

(End of this chapter)