Please ask me to be the emperor

"General, ahead is Zhangjiakou Fort." Commander Wan Quan Youwei pointed at the city not far away.

Li Zicheng looked in the direction of his finger and saw a small city surrounded by mountains on three sides and facing a river on one side, standing under the dam.

The so-called "ba" here is not Chinese, but the pronunciation of a mountain in Mongolian.

The Mongols use mountains as dams. The so-called "Bashang" refers to the Bashang grassland blocked by mountains to the north of Zhangjiakou Fort; the so-called "Baxia" refers to the Bashang plain in northwest Hebei.

Zhangjiakou is located at the exit from "Baxia" to "Baxia". The grassland around Shizitun in the north is the place where various tribes live for grazing, so it is a strategic point and a place for mutual trade.

Li Zicheng waited and watched for a long time, then asked Fatty Zhang to go and shout.

The fat man stepped forward on horseback and shouted loudly: "King Shun is benevolent and righteous, and never forgets the past."

"Now that Wanquan Youwei, Ximalin, Xinhekou, Xinkou and Shanfang are all under attack, the general situation is gone. How can you be lucky enough to sit in an isolated city? In this case, why not surrender early and still not lose your position of wealth and honor! "

"How dare you claim the title of king despite being crowned a monkey?" Unexpectedly, as soon as Fatty Zhang finished speaking, the guards of Zhangjiakou Fort shouted loudly, "Now that our Qing army has arrived, you are about to be wiped out in ashes, how dare you bark?"

"If you know the truth, you can quickly join me and still not lose the wealth of the new dynasty!"

"Oh? 'The Qing Kingdom'?" Fatty Zhang couldn't help but sneered when he heard the words, "The right-wing army of the 'Qing Kingdom' was defeated by King Shun long ago. From the famous king Azige to the horsemen and lackeys, not a single one was missed, and they were all wiped out. which one?"

"What?" As soon as Fatty Zhang said these words, the faces of everyone in Zhangjiakou City turned pale with horror.

Everyone knows that after entering the pass, Azige, the "Yingwu Commandery King of the Qing Dynasty", led his army to Taiyuan, Shanxi Province.

Previously, in order to build up momentum, one person was equal to ten, known as the "three hundred thousand army."

As a result, the bigger the cowhide blows, the louder it will explode when punctured.

Although these people had not thought about it carefully when they saw the rebels arriving at Xuan Mansion, they may not have had bad suspicions in their minds.

Now that Fatty Zhang had "confirmed" it, all his anger was immediately released.

"What to do? What to do? Even Yingwu Commandery King Azig and Rao Yubeile Abatai were beheaded. How can we and thousands of other people withstand this wolf-like and tiger-like army of 'shun thieves'?" A man on the city said. The merchants' faces had already turned pale and they all said in frustration.

When the Zhangjiakou fort garrison saw that the situation was not good, he couldn't help but shouted: "A man cannot eat or cook with nine cauldrons. Now that all your wealth and life depend on this, how can you back down?"

"Not to mention, I still have Ba Du'er, Qing Ba Du'er and Heluo Qi to help me, so why should I fear their thousands of troops?"

Despite the loud shouting of the guards at Jiakou Fort, morale became even lower.

Why?

It turns out that this Jiakou Fort has a total of 1,295 soldiers, one Laiyuan Fort, 58 side piers, and 31 Huolu piers.

Among them, there are 300 troops stationed in Laiyuan Fort, ranging from ten to five in each side pier and Huolu pier.

Calculated in this way, the entire Zhangjiakou Fort actually has only 500 soldiers.

For this reason, the merchants in Zhangjiakou Fort contributed money and strength, and raised 800 strong guards.

As for the tribes such as Badu'er, Qingbadu'er and Heluoqi, in fact, because Lin Danhan and Hong Tai successively went westward, they migrated early without knowing where they were going.

However, the Zhangjiakou Fort garrison took the opportunity to recruit three to four hundred men, which was better than nothing.

Not to mention how careless the defense of Zhangjiakou Fort was, and the fat man saw that the people on the city were frightened by him and were speechless. He quickly turned back and reported to Li Zicheng: "'General', the enemy's courage in the city has been broken. Please attack quickly." !”

"Okay, get on the gun!" Li Zicheng was also experienced in military affairs. It made no sense that he couldn't see the flaws that Fatty Zhang could see.

Following Li Zicheng's order, two more cavalrymen suddenly separated from the rebel formation.

A closer look revealed that the two cavalrymen were each towing ten artillery pieces behind them. They were what Zhang Shun called "flying cavalry iron cannons."

Ten cavalry and one cannon were a real luxury for the rebels who were in short supply of war horses.

However, it is easy to use and really easy to use.

For example, Li Zicheng's cavalry army should be the same as the Houjin Azige tribe that penetrated deep into the hinterland of the rebel army.

Although the mobility and impact of the soldiers have been greatly enhanced, their siege capabilities have been greatly weakened. Once they encounter a city that cannot be won by relying on a large number of people, they will be helpless.

"Artillery, where are their artillery!" Just as the two artillery flags of the rebel army were unfurled outside the city, the guards, merchants and soldiers on the Zhangjiakou Fort couldn't help being shocked and shouted.

"The saying that the 'Intruder' is good at attacking, the 'Cao Thief' is good at fighting, and the 'Shun Thief' is good at artillery is indeed well-deserved!" The Zhangjiakou Fort defender was also a little dumbfounded.

"What to do, what to do? Can we still hold on?" Fan, Wang, Jin, Liang and other businessmen suddenly started nagging like ants on a hot pot.

"Don't panic, I will send people to Yangfang Fort and Ningyuan Fort for help."

In addition to Shangxi Road, Yangfangbao and Ningyuanzhanbao are the closest to Zhangjiakou Fort.

However, these two castles are not very big, and the garrison only has two to three hundred people. Where can he mobilize people to help him?

Everyone looked at each other in shock after hearing this, and their morale became even lower.

However, while the rebel artillery continued to destroy the defensive facilities on the city, scouts had already arrived and reported to Li Zicheng: "General, we found another fortress five or six miles north of the city, close to the border wall. I don't know what it is called. Fort.”

"Huh?" Li Zicheng couldn't help but turned to Commander Wan Quan Youwei and asked, "I wonder what kind of fort is this called?"

"Ah?" The guard commander looked at Li Zicheng's expressionless face and responded quickly.

"This is called Laiyuan Fort, and there are three hundred soldiers stationed there. It was originally set up specifically to trade horses with the Tatars after the Longqing Peace Conference."

"The most prosperous among them is Desheng Fort in Datong, and Zhangjiakou Fort in Xuanfu, that's all."

"Oh?" When Li Zicheng and Fatty Zhang heard this, they couldn't help but look at each other and smile at the corners of their mouths.

This guy is dishonest!

"'General Chuang,' you go ahead, I'm going out for a walk!" Fatty Zhang, who guessed that there might be something good in the fort, couldn't help but said quickly.

"Okay, then you go ahead!" Li Zicheng said somewhat helplessly.

In order to fulfill Zhang Shun's promise to him as king, he had tried his best, but he still didn't expect that this fat man would be a "lucky general".

Even though he had worked so hard, he had not yet harvested anything, but he had already achieved the record of capturing three castles. It was really irritating to see how many people were competing against each other.

It's over, it's all over!

When the commander of the guard saw this, he didn't understand what they had guessed, and his face turned pale.

"What's wrong? What's in there?" Seeing this guy's reaction, even Li Zicheng, who had always been taciturn, couldn't help but ask curiously.

"No...nothing..." the guard commander quickly denied.

But when he was halfway through denying it, he suddenly remembered that it was all in vain, and then admitted with a sad face: "Actually, it's nothing, just some war horses... and food."

"War horses and food?" Li Zicheng was stunned when he heard this and couldn't help but wonder.

"Didn't you say that the herding tribes north of Zhangjiakou have been reduced to pieces?"

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, Tiger and Rabbit Khan conquered the Tumote tribe in the west and took away many tribes. Later, Hong Taixi conquered the tiger and the rabbit, and defeated and captured countless tribes.

How many Tatars are there in the Bashang grassland now? Can they have extra horses in exchange for food?