Since the Northern Expedition, Li Zicheng has been fantasizing every moment that he has captured Beijing!

After the city gates were opened, all officials bowed their heads and the people came to welcome them.

He sat on the dragon throne in the Huangji Palace, giving orders about the country!

However...at this moment, Beijing city is right in front of us!

The towering city walls, sharp artillery, and brave soldiers and civilians kept him out of the city.

The feeling of being so close is too uncomfortable!

He was so uncomfortable that he scratched his ears and cheeks!

When Li Yan said he had a plan, Li Zicheng couldn't help but say, "Sir, please tell me!"

"The first is a false surrender plan. Before the siege tomorrow, arrange for more than a thousand civilians to wear Ming army armor and surrender. If the Ming army shoots them, we can use this incident to tell the Ming army that has surrendered to our army that the Ming court is lying."

"If the Ming army lets these people into the city, they can just let them cause chaos in the city. Even if some of them sincerely surrender, it will not cause any loss to our army."

Li Zicheng nodded, quite satisfied with this strategy.

"The second strategy is to persuade people to surrender!"

"who?"

"Wu Sangui!"

"Wu Sangui?"

As Li Yan read out these three words, the entire central military tent fell into a brief silence.

Niu Jinxing frowned and asked back: "Wu Sangui has 50,000 Guanning troops under his command, all of whom are the elite among the elite. Will he surrender? Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

Li Yan smiled faintly: "Excuse me, Lord Zuo Fu, when did Wu Sangui arrive at Shanhaiguan?"

"It is said that they arrived at Shanhaiguan five days ago!" Niu Jinxing thought for a while.

"Shanhaiguan is only 600 miles away from Beijing! In the second year of Chongzhen, it took Yuan Chonghuan four days to reach Jizhou from Shanhaiguan. He was slow enough. Wu Sangui took five days and was still lingering near Funing."

"What does it mean?"

"It means he is waiting and watching!"

"Wait and see?" Li Zicheng was a little puzzled.

"Yes, if Wu Sangui wanted to come, he would have come a long time ago! He is waiting to see who will win this battle that concerns the life and death of the Ming Dynasty! If we fail to capture Beijing for a long time, he will come to Beijing to defend the emperor when our army is exhausted; if we capture Beijing, he will surrender."

"However...whether to surrender to Dashun or Jiannu depends on how sincere the emperor is!"

The central army tent fell silent again.

After a moment, Liu Zongmin spoke, "Your Majesty, the most urgent task is to capture Beijing. As for persuading Wu Sangui to surrender, we need to consider it in the long run."

As Li Zicheng's direct descendant brought from Shaanxi, Liu Zongmin would not let this topic continue.

His current title is Marquis of Ru, and he also holds the post of Left Military Governor.

Wu Sangui was conferred the title of Pingxi Earl. If he had surrendered to the Shun army, Li Zicheng would have at least given him the title of marquis.

In this way, Wu Sangui was on equal footing with him!

How could a surrendered general be qualified to be on equal footing with him?

So Liu Zongmin decided to avoid this topic for the time being and talk about it after he captured Beijing.

Li Zicheng nodded and asked, "Do you have any good ideas for attacking the city tomorrow?"

Everyone looked at Liu Fangliang in tacit understanding.

Liu Fangliang suddenly felt overwhelmed.

He said under everyone's gaze: "Tomorrow we will still use the collapse method to attack the city, but I have two other plans."

"I learned from asking the soldiers who were attacking the city that the smoke produced by the explosion of the things thrown down by the Ming army from the city walls was very pungent. Before the attack tomorrow, have everyone prepare a piece of thick cloth and use it to cover their mouths and noses after soaking it in water. It may work."

"The other plan is to target the small Ten Thousand Enemies thrown by the Ming army. They burn violently and are extremely difficult to extinguish. So I plan to have the civilians pry bricks with wet quilts on their heads. Not only can the wet quilts not ignite, but they can also resist firearms. It's a two-birds-with-one-stone move!"

Li Zicheng looked at Liu Fangliang in disbelief and couldn't help asking, "Did you come up with all these ideas yourself?"

"Your Majesty, no! It was Mr. Li who thought of it and just said it through my mouth."

"Military advisor?" Li Zicheng looked at Song Xiance.

Song Xiance didn't have any good ideas, so he could only nod and say, "Your Majesty, I think this method is feasible."

"Okay!" Seeing that no one objected, Li Zicheng made the decision and said, "Xiyao (Liu Xiyao), to prevent our army from attacking the Ming army in Shanhaiguan and Tianjin, you will take your troops to Tongzhou to station there."

To be on the safe side, Li Zicheng decided to divide his troops.

Otherwise, if the Ming army attacked suddenly, the consequences would be disastrous.

"Fang Liang will arrange for a thousand civilians to pretend to surrender tomorrow, and then lead all the soldiers under his command to attack Xibianmen and Guang'anmen!"

"Zongmin, take 30,000 civilians and 20,000 infantrymen to attack Fuchengmen and Xizhimen!"

"The rest of the generals will lay siege to the city and make a feint attack. There must be no mistakes!"

"Yes, sir!" everyone responded in unison.

Li Zicheng stood up and continued with a serious expression:

"Since the Northern Expedition, our army has been invincible! Now that we have finally surrounded Beijing, you must fight bravely! The Ming army's loyal army, Wu Sangui is in the east, and Liu Wenyao is in the south. They are all eyeing us covetously!"

"If we are not careful, there is a risk of annihilation of the entire army!"

"Only by taking Beijing as soon as possible can we establish ourselves in the Central Plains! Only then can we follow the will of the people, obey the will of heaven, and achieve hegemony!"

"This battle needs to be resolved quickly!"

"Long live the emperor!" Everyone kowtowed in unison.

Li Zicheng nodded with satisfaction and ordered: "In order to prevent the Ming army from attacking at night, Fangliang should work harder and arrange for people to patrol at night! It can be regarded as making up for one's crime with merit!"

"I obey the decree!"

That night.

More than 300 assassins descended to the ground along ropes from the city wall next to the west gate.

The long logs in the moat that the Shun army used to cross the river had already been dragged into the city and either made into logs or chopped into fire.

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