Chapter 154: Discord (Going on the Paid Shelves—Please Subscribe!!)

In terms of the march, after Chen Qiyu and Dong Qi took Baoding with a surprise attack, they immediately began a forced march to seize the Gu Pass.

Perhaps because of excessive haste, Chen Qiyu suffered heavy losses when he fell into Liu Fangliang's ambush due to a momentary lapse in judgment, but fortunately he adjusted his state in time, realized that Liu Fangliang was all thunder and no rain, and decided to stay and fight to the death.

Compared to Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng, who were known as scholar-generals, Chen Qiyu was a genuine civil official who took up the sword and mounted his horse, but he did not disappoint the Chongzhen Emperor in the capital, nor did he flee before battle like those Donglin civil officials.

Although Chen Qiyu remained in the formation and did not contribute much to killing the enemy, he stabilized the army's morale far better than Dong Qi fighting at the front, and could be considered to have rendered great service in atonement for his crimes.

Besides Governor-General Dong Qi of the regiment camps leading from the front, the bravery and fighting spirit of the Jiazi camp soldiers was also a reason for the victory—these so-called criminals were, in fact, mostly innocent men who had been wronged.

Even those who had truly committed crimes had basically done so out of the helplessness of survival—ask yourself, when even the most basic food and clothing cannot be satisfied, who still cares whether something is against the law or not?

Many of these people had originally lost all hope, but were suddenly released from the great prison by the Chongzhen Emperor, told that after performing meritorious deeds they would be treated the same as everyone else.

At first many did not believe it—after all, there had never been any precedent for such a thing in the past. A criminal's entire family would be held hostage against him, and this kind of good fortune had always been the exclusive privilege of those young masters from powerful families—how could it ever fall upon a common nobody with no connections like themselves?

But later, after the Chongzhen Emperor richly rewarded the first batch of meritorious officers and soldiers from the Battle of military pay and provisions, they discovered that all of this was real, and many people were completely transformed, going from criminals to men of merit in an instant.

So what more was there to say? Even if they had to stake their very lives, they would fight for themselves and their families—at worst, death was all that awaited them, and if they died, they would enter the Shrine of Loyal Martyrs, at least washing away this criminal label!

Under their leadership, the Ming army actually turned defeat into victory and annihilated the several thousand Dashun bandits lying in ambush outside the Gu Pass.

When this news reached Ningwu Pass, the Ming army inside the city and the Dashun army outside had actually already gone a full half month without exchanging a single blow.

The Dashun army had been blocked at Ningwu Pass for nearly half a year. Ningwu Pass was backed by the Xuan and Da garrisons, enjoying an inexhaustible supply of resources—the Ming army only grew stronger the longer they fought, and the longer the stalemate dragged on, the more advantageous it was for them.

For Li Zicheng's side, it was exactly the opposite—every additional day of fighting saw the army's morale drop another notch, and their already scarce grain and military pay dwindled further still.

By now, eighteen valiant generals under Li Zicheng's command had already died outside the city walls, and in addition, two more had been killed by him in a fit of rage.

Although he regretted it immensely afterward, Li Zicheng, now in his lofty position, offered not a single word of apology.

According to the calculations of Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, and others, the dead and wounded soldiers in the army together numbered fully seventy to eighty thousand. As soon as one stepped outside the camp, one could hear the wails of lamentation filling the entire encampment, day and night without cease.

The faces of passing Dashun soldiers no longer bore the excitement they had shown at the start of the northern expedition—everyone wore a gloomy, worried expression, and one could say the mood was one of panic and dread.

The reason no fighting had occurred in the past half month was that Li Zicheng truly did not dare fight anymore, and could not fight anymore.

As early as two months ago, the Dashun army had already exhausted the grain and military pay they had brought with them. After that, Li Zicheng divided up and stripped clean every great household and landlord he could find, barely managing to hold on for a few more days.

In the half-year-long bitter struggle at Ningwu Pass, the Dashun army's weakness of having a single source of grain supply and insufficient provisions was exposed completely. Li Zicheng scraped together resources from every direction, even sending dedicated personnel to collect grass roots and tree bark from various places—only thus did they barely manage to hold on until now.

"How much longer can the army's grain supplies last?" Li Zicheng sat in the main tent, his face no longer bearing the spirited radiance he had shown when he proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an and commanded a million troops.

Liu Zongmin was still the first to speak without hesitation, "Big brother, I said it long ago—we should have listened to Military Advisor Li and marched straight east through the Gu Pass!"

As he spoke, Liu Zongmin seemed to carry some reproach toward Li Zicheng, snorting coldly: "If big brother had done that earlier, the brothers would have reached the capital by now, drinking wine from big bowls and eating meat in big mouthfuls—how could we have fallen to such a state as this?"

Li Zicheng looked carefully at Liu Zongmin, but Liu Zongmin stared back without the slightest weakness. Seeing this, Li Zicheng let out a sigh, turned his head away, and said no more.

Only after Liu Zongmin finally finished speaking did Song Xiance dare to speak up in a small voice: "Dashing King, the army's grain will only last five more days. In my view, we should temporarily retreat to Xi'an and plan for a comeback."

Before Li Zicheng could reply, Liu Zongmin suddenly slammed the table hard, "Hmph! It's you, this cow-nose Taoist, who said that the eighteen children would wield the sacred vessel, and that with a fierce assault, Ningwu Pass could be taken within half a month!"

"Half a year has passed, and Ningwu Pass is still standing there just fine! And now you still dare to suggest retreating? I say we should use you, this cow-nose Taoist, as a sacrifice to the banners!"

"How can General-in-Chief speak like this?" Song Xiance naturally knew how formidable Liu Zongmin was, but thought to himself that with so many eyes watching, he probably wouldn't dare do anything, and so replied with a trembling voice.

But no one expected that Liu Zongmin would only get more worked up—he stepped forward two paces, lifted Song Xiance up like a child, and roared with spittle flying:

"I'll speak however I damn well please! Believe me, I'll cut you down right now!"

Gao Yigong and Li Guo saw this and quickly stepped forward to intervene, but before they could finish a single sentence, Liu Zongmin casually waved his hand and pushed them back several steps. The two exchanged glances, both at a loss.

"Enough!" Li Zicheng's face was dark and gloomy. Though his voice was not loud, it still reached everyone's ears with perfect clarity: "Zongmin, stop making trouble."

Liu Zongmin glared angrily at Li Zicheng a few times, snorted coldly again, then threw Song Xiance to the ground and waved his hand as he walked away, shouting: "You all discuss it then—I'm not going to serve you anymore!"

"General-in-Chief, General-in-Chief!"

"General-in-Chief, you... this..."

Seeing Liu Zongmin about to leave, everyone could no longer sit still and rose one after another to urge him to stay, but Liu Zongmin gave no one any face whatsoever—he strode out the door in a few steps and vanished from sight.

"Zongmin has always had this temper—letting him go out to calm down is for the best." Li Zicheng secretly breathed a sigh of relief, speaking as if he had no worries at all, but in truth he had always been extremely wary of Liu Zongmin.

The other Dashun generals had long known about this matter as well—they all saw through it but said nothing.

Liu Zongmin was the universally acknowledged number one fierce general in the Dashun army. The number of troops under his command was roughly equal to Li Zicheng's own, and in ordinary times he virtually stood on equal footing with Li Zicheng. Whenever any major decision came up, as long as Liu Zongmin did not nod his head, even Li Zicheng did not dare press too hard.

If Liu Zongmin was in a good mood, he would give Li Zicheng a bit of imperial face, but if he was in a bad mood, he would speak plainly and directly, not caring about anyone's face at all.

In response, Li Zicheng mostly chose to smooth things over and let it go, after all, he needed Liu Zongmin to conquer the realm.

Although Liu Zongmin was somewhat overbearing, he still held immense admiration for Li Zicheng in his heart, and would generally execute Li Zicheng's orders without the slightest hesitation.

With the hot-tempered Liu Zongmin gone, everyone relaxed and began offering all sorts of suggestions that had been bottled up in their hearts.

"Dashing King, we should retreat immediately!"

"Yes, the brothers have no heart for battle—we cannot fight any longer!"

"Dashing King..."

Sitting at the front and listening quietly for a while, by the end Li Zicheng understood—now everyone, including Gao Yigong and Li Guo, truly did not want to fight anymore.

But even so, he was still unwilling to accept it in his heart. He was just about to say something more when suddenly an old camp soldier rushed in frantically, clasped his fists, and shouted loudly: "Dashing King, disaster! General Liu has fallen in battle!"

These words immediately stirred up an uproar in the main tent. With no news for so long, many people had long suspected Liu Fangliang was dead—Li Zicheng was among them—but unexpectedly, he had still been alive all this time.

Hearing his words, Li Zicheng quickly rose and asked: "Why didn't Liu Fangliang come to find me earlier? What other news is there?"

"This... Dashing King, forgive me, this lowly one does not know..." The soldier suddenly found himself facing the gaze of all the great figures in the entire tent and became hesitant and stammering, only managing after a long while: "There is also that the Gu Pass has fallen, and the southern route army has been completely wiped out..."

"Then do you know who it was that killed Liu Fangliang?" Li Zicheng gnashed his teeth.

"This... this lowly one does not know..."

"Then what use do I have for you!" Li Zicheng directly kicked the old camp soldier over, "You know nothing when asked about anything—then why did you come back at all? Why didn't you just die out there!?"

The old camp soldier had taken a heavy kick to the chest and immediately felt his stomach churn. After getting up, he was even more ashamed and mortified, hanging his head with a red face, unable to speak.

"Dashing King, calm your anger." Niu Jinxing, seeing that no one else had stepped forward to stop him, let out a light sigh and said: "It is not his fault. Liu Fangliang refused to return, presumably because he felt he had no face to face the Dashing King."

"As for the one who killed him and took the Gu Pass, that is also quite obvious—among the surviving Supreme Commanders in the Central Plains, apart from Chen Qiyu, no one else possesses such far-sighted vision, and no one else has the prestige to mobilize other imperial troops."

Li Zicheng nodded and waved his hand to dismiss the old camp soldier. With a 'bang,' he punched the wall, muttering: "This Chen Qiyu again—one day I will take his life to honor the fallen soldiers and generals of my Dashun!"

Niu Jinxing waved his feather fan, speaking with great confidence: "Dashing King, do not worry. This is certain—the corrupt Ming is doomed to fall by the mandate of heaven. How could Chen Qiyu possibly resist it with mere human effort?"

The fall of Guguan, the annihilation of the entire southern army, and Liu Fangliang's death in battle—this string of news made Li Zicheng completely abandon his hopes for the northern expedition, and the rest of the Dashun generals fell silent upon hearing it.

For the first time, the main tent of the Dashun army was so quiet; everyone was waiting for Li Zicheng's final decision.

Li Zicheng clenched his fists. The words were already on the tip of his tongue, but he simply could not bring himself to say them. In his heart, he knew full well that under the present circumstances, withdrawing the troops back to Xi'an to rest and recuperate was clearly the best choice.

After a moment, Li Zicheng turned his back and gave the order in a low voice:

"Withdraw the troops—back to Xi'an!"