In the 17th year of Chongzhen, in late September, the first year of the Empress of the Ming Dynasty.

He was appointed as the general of the Ming Empire, the commander of the Beijing Guard and the governor of the Governor of the Five Army, and the admiral of the East China Sea Admiral Li led the Li family's elite musketeers equipped with the Flintlock Minnier rifles, more than 100 cannons unloaded from the warships, and more than 30,000 auxiliary soldiers of various types, fighting thieves under the city of Xi'an, his private Dashun Kingdom.

At this time, the pseudo-Dashun traitor army, which had been defeated in Huaiqing and Pingyang, did not leave the door and prepared to clear the country in advance, as if they wanted to force the Ming army to retreat?

“…”

At this time, in the palace in Xi'an City, Li Zicheng, who claimed to be the emperor of Dashun, was wearing golden armor and sitting high on his imperial dragon throne, watching the generals present silently.

Looking around, the generals of the Dashun Kingdom standing on both sides of his throne were: General Yuan Zongdi, General Liu Fangliang, General Liu Zongmin, Ru Hou and the left governor, Li Laiheng, Tian Jianxiu and other confidants were all listed. In addition to them, there were other generals of the Dashun Kingdom.

At present, they are discussing a good way to get rid of the enemy in the palace!

but……

The Ming army's firearms were fierce and sharp. The kind of fire guns could even be put to death thousands of steps outside, and thousands of people fired together, making the sound so terrifying that even the people could not get close to them?

In addition to that kind of terrifying musket, the Ming army's cannons are also very terrifying!

Because their range is said to be several miles and extremely accurate?

Therefore, although the generals of Dashun Kingdom were determined to kill the enemy, they were still unable to make up for the future. In the end, there was no good way except for the lonely city of Xi'an and the strategy of having to go to the solid walls and clear the fields.

"Tell me!"

"Speak quickly!"

"What should we do next?"

"Can I be trapped to death in this city of Xi'an by the Ming army of only 30,000 to 40,000 yuan?!"

Previously, after being defeated by Wu Sangui and Jiannu at Shanhaiguan, Li Zicheng hurriedly proclaimed himself emperor in the Forbidden City, and then fled all the way back to Xi'an and back to his base camp.

Since then, he has begun to regard himself as an emperor, and usually claims to use the words "I" and other words to demonstrate his identity.

“…”

“…”

Hearing Li Zicheng's question, the ministers of Dashun Country looked at me and I looked at you. In the end, Liu Zongmin stood up and saluted him slowly and said:

"His Majesty!"

"The city defense of Xi'an City has been transformed and managed by us for many years. The walls are high and the trenches are deep, so it is not something that can be attacked by 30,000 or 50,000 people."

"Besides, the nearby autumn harvested grain and village food were all harvested in advance by us and transported to the city. This time, the Ming army came from afar, and definitely could not bring much food and grass. In addition, the northern region has almost been grainless in recent years, so it is expected that it will not last long!"

"I think it's as long as three or two months, and as long as half a month, the Ming army cannot stand up and will definitely withdraw!"

“At that time…”

"We wait for our leisure to work, and then go out of the city to cover the killing. Maybe we can still win something?"

Liu Zongmin said with a shaking head.

Anyway, in his opinion, Xi'an City is definitely not so easy to be broken. After all, there are nearly 100,000 defenders in the city. Although they will definitely not be able to win the field battle, they will not dare to go out to fight against the enemy that is very different from the previous Ming army. But in his opinion, there will definitely be no problem if they defend the city.

Even if you put yourself in your shoes, if it were the Ming army led by Liu Zongmin, which was 30,000 or 50,000, there would be no good way to use the towering walls and deep trenches of Xi'an City.

"General Quan said so much!"

"That's right!"

"Your Majesty, let's just guard the city with delicious food and drinks, and let the official troops attack us!"

"Just! I'm afraid of him!"

"It's extremely!"

"As the saying goes, Sun Tzu's Art of War says: If you have ten, you will surround it, if you have five, you will attack it, if you have multiples, you will fight it, if you have fewer, you can escape it, if you have less, you can avoid it. Therefore, the strongness of a small enemy is the capture of a big enemy?"

"Now, my Dashun Kingdom defends the city at least three times that of the Ming army, and there are strong cities as a basis, but he only has more than 30,000 people to attack, so what can he do to me?"

"Okay! General Right said it well!"

"Also! The northwest is about to begin winter. Let's eat delicious food and drink spicy food in the city, so that the Ming army can drink the northwest wind outside and freeze them to death!"

"Hahaha!"

After Liu Zongmin finished speaking, soon the solemn atmosphere of the right camp, Yuan Zongdi, Liu Fangliang, Li Laiheng, Tian Jianxiu and others burst into laughter and laughed loudly, and they discussed it in words and words. The solemn atmosphere just now disappeared in an instant.

Although these people are indeed a little afraid of the Ming army and even more afraid of the other party's terrible muskets, now they are defending the city, and they just need to hide behind the city wall. No matter how sharp or powerful the Ming army's muskets and cannons are, they always have to attack the city, and the siege is always close. At that time, once the other party approaches the city wall, even if their defenders change one by one, they will be able to replace the Ming army with only 30,000 people in a few days!

“…”

Li Zicheng didn't speak, he was not as optimistic as his confidants.

However, after a series of ridicule and discussions by Liu Zongmin and those fools, his face finally looked a little better, and his confidence in defending Xi'an City was a little more intense.

“Hmm?”

"What's the matter?"

"Is it the Ming army that siege the city?"

Suddenly, Li Zicheng turned his head and looked at the hall gate. Because at this time, he saw a general rushing towards this place quickly.

"Report!"

"Your Majesty, the government troops outside the city send us a letter!"

As he said that, the general handed over a document he held in his hand, but he still couldn't change his verbal habits, so he subconsciously thought that the Ming army was an official army and still called him so habitually.

"read!"

His face narrowed, but Li Zicheng did not mean to send someone to present it, but instead signaled that he would read it out directly.

"this……"

Unfortunately, the general suddenly became a little hesitant and embarrassed. He held the letter but did not open it. Instead, he looked around and didn't know what to do.

Because, he doesn't know a few big words at all!

The reason why he ran back to report the letters sent by the Ming army under the city was that he wanted to show his presence in front of their King of Rebellion and the current Emperor of Dashun, so that he could be kept in the heart of the emperor. It was really a bit embarrassing to him if he really read it.

"Take it!"

"Get out quickly!"

Liu Zongmindao obviously saw the embarrassment of the general, so he simply walked over and snatched the letter from the other party, and then signaled the other party to retreat before the emperor was not angry.

“Um…”

"His Majesty."

"That's what the letter is written..."

After looking at the contents of the letter, hesitated and Liu Zongmin had to grit his teeth and read it out:

"Xin Cheng Chuang, the thief... the thief chief Li Zicheng..."

"I heard that after you entered the capital, you searched out the treasury from the palace, "37 million ingots of silver, 10 million ingots of gold, all 500 taels of ingots, and the words "Yongle" were engraved?"

"I also heard that you entered the capital from March 27, 17th year of Chongzhen, and began to torture Ming officials and search their homes everywhere. The amount of money assisted was '100,000 yuan in the middle hall, 70,000 yuan in the imperial court, 70,000 yuan in the imperial court, 530,000 yuan in the Ministry of Personnel, 321,000 yuan in the Hanlin, and 30,000 yuan in the subordinates, and 10,000 yuan in the subordinates, 10,000 yuan in the same amount as each of them, "

"So..."

"Now, ordering you to surrender and then to hand over 10,000 ingots of silver and 2,000 ingots of gold and 500 ingots of ingots in three days, no mistakes are allowed!"

"If not, the day when the city is broken in three days will be the time for you to be awarded the title!"

"The General of the Ming Dynasty, the commander of the Beijing Guard and the governor of the Five Army Governor's Office, Li, the Admiral of the East China Sea..."

After reading, Liu Zongmin subconsciously touched the cold sweat on his forehead.

Because he knew that this letter of surrender was meaningless. Although they had indeed obtained a lot of gold and silver when they were in the capital, most of the things had been distributed long ago. Now even if they wanted to take them, they could not easily get so much!

Besides, the Ming army looked down on people too much and didn't even start fighting, so they asked them to surrender and pay compensation. That was too much despised people. Neither their generals nor the King of Chuang would accept it.

Bang!!

"I will prepare when I go back, three days later..."

"Just let him attack the city!"

Sure enough, he slapped the table suddenly, and Li Zicheng stood up directly from his dragon chaise long. After saying this expressionlessly, he left with a grudge.

Three days later...

He was appointed as the general, the commander of the Beijing Guard and the governor of the Five Army Governor's Office, and the admiral of the East China Sea Admiral Li led his army to attack the East Gate of Xi'an.

More than a hundred cannons blasted the city gate and walls at the east gate for more than an hour. Under the blast of a large number of flowering bullets and solid bullets, "there was a sea of ​​fire on the top of the city, and the people and animals turned into powder. The defenders suffered heavy casualties, and there was almost no one on the top of the city'.

Subsequently, the city gate and the city walls near the city gate collapsed. Immediately afterwards, under the precise shooting cover of the Li family's musketeers and the fierce attack of the gun raft, 20,000 Ming army auxiliary soldiers swarmed in without any effective resistance. In less than half a day, Xi'an City declared the city to be broken. The King of Rebellion Li Zicheng led tens of thousands of defeated troops to flee in a panic, passed through Lantian, Shangzhou, went to Wuguan, and retreated into the Xiangyang area.

Subsequently, the manifesto of the Northern Ming official army destroying the pseudo-Shun Kingdom in one battle and recapturing Tongguan and Xi'an soon spread throughout the Ming Dynasty. The Nanming, who received the manifesto and intelligence, was of course in an uproar, and the world was shocked!

...

However, the changes in the Ming Empire at this time were not known by the Li family fleet and admirals who were far away in Europe or the New Continent of the Americas.

For example, now, in this huge bathtub in the Mediterranean, five huge ships of the Li family fleet led by a careless little girl, are slowly sailing on the sea surface of the Mediterranean.

The fleet had just set off from Istanbul three days ago and is now sailing towards Athens. Because it was a headwind, the fleet's speed was not too fast. It would probably take at least one or two days to reach the Greek port of Athens, which was also under the control of the Ottoman Empire.
To be continued...