After crossing the Yellow River with the army led by Li Ziyuan, the vanguard cavalry led by Sun Yi'an, the vanguard commander under his command, continued along the official road from Pingyang to Taiyuan.

At this time, the Manchu Qing forces in Shanxi were not empty. In addition to more than 10,000 green battalions in Taiyuan City, there are more than 20,000 green battalions scattered in Shanxi, especially along the Taihang area, there are as many as 20,000 green battalions, after all, Jiang Hao was in Datong anyway, after setting off an anti-Qing wave in Shanxi, although Shanxi's large-scale anti-Qing and Ming restoration movement persisted for a year, and was finally extinguished by the overwhelming Qing army, but there are still righteous troops in the Taihang Mountain area, so most of the green battalions in Shanxi are stationed in the Taihang area. However, these green battalions were scattered all over the place, and they could not be concentrated in one place in a hurry, which was used to defend against the attack of the Ming army.

Perhaps because Li Ziyuan successively recruited and surrendered the Qing captives in Henan, all of them stayed in their original posts, and there was no liquidation, almost as soon as he crossed the river and entered Shanxi, a large number of Manchu officials rushed to surrender the city, and even some local officials of the banner people, after all, the reality that Liu Qingtai remained in the post of governor of Henan after his surrender made people believe that Li Ziyuan was different from Zhu Mingzhong, and he would never liquidate him because of the identity of the surrenderer, although the man who killed the banner was not softer than Zhu Mingzhong. But compared to the latter, at least the former can preserve their wealth.

People are always realistic, at the same time that those puppet officials of the Qing Dynasty have surrendered for their personal wealth, the people of Shanxi from all over Shanxi have been coaxing how benevolent and righteous they are, how strict the discipline of the soldiers and horses under their command is, and of course, more importantly, the word "Ming" on its banner, although the massacre of the Manchu Qing Dynasty almost slaughtered Shanxi, but it did not slaughter the people's Siming heart, for the people of Jin Province, they are all looking forward to the north and north, just waiting for Li Ziyuan's army to surrender as soon as it arrives.

After the Ming army crossed the river, the gentry and common people of Jin Province not only saw with their own eyes that the discipline under their command was indeed strict, but also read the Northern Expedition proclamation issued by it, especially looking at the word "Ming" on the flag. There has been a situation of welcoming and surrendering everywhere in various places. Almost as soon as the Ming army crossed the river and had not yet arrived in Pingyang, the prefect of Pingyang, Wan Yongzuo, surrendered the city, and he was still retained in Pingyang. Then Zezhou was dropped.

It was also in the case of surrendering everywhere that Li Ziyuan entered Shanxi, with 3,000 cavalry in black armor in front of him, and 3,000 cavalry behind him, and these 6,000 cavalry were the pro-army led by Li Ziyuan, who proclaimed himself "recruiting marshal", they were all dressed in black armor from Jiangbei, with neat armor, clear banners, and strong horses. After that, there are 50,000 Chinese troops under his personal command, and among these 50,000 Chinese troops, there are more than 20,000 veterans, which can be said to be the real elite under his command.

Compared with the anxiety when attacking Henan, now after Henan all the way to surrender, before entering Shanxi, Li Ziyuan had expected to surrender all the way. Now that this is the case, the Qing puppet officials in Shanxi have no intention of being loyal to the Manchus at all, and almost all of them are seizing the opportunity - seizing the opportunity to get rid of the traitor status.

"Marshal, now that Pingyang and Zezhou have surrendered, this Shanxi is already in the marshal's pocket!"

Riding a horse and following Li Ziyuan's side, Xu Yuncheng, who was wearing a second-grade civil official robe, had a smug look in his tone.

"Pingyang and Zezhou have fallen, but Taiyuan has not yet fallen!"

Li Ziyuan spoke softly about his worries.

"Taiyuan doesn't fall for a day, how can Ben Shuai feel at ease!"

"Although the marshal can rest assured, once the army passes through Fenzhou, the white Rumei of Taiyuan will definitely fall!"

Xu Yuncheng's tone was extremely confident, he had already expected that there would be no resistance in Shanxi, not because the Qing army here was limited, but because the general trend of the world was like this, of course, it was also because of the people's hearts.

"Bai Rumei's personality is like grass on the wall, now that the world is falling, how can it not fall, let alone ......"

Suddenly, Xu Yuncheng looked at Li Ziyuan in front of him with a smile, and the words of more than ten years ago appeared in his heart.

"Eighteen Sons Master Artifact"

More than ten years ago, when the marshal's family entered Shanxi, the words came out. Although there are three words "Li Jizhu" in that poem, the final development of the situation makes telling the world that this so-called "proverb" is just a lie for the purpose of demagoguery.

Although they knew that the so-called "proverbs" were just to deceive people's minds, but now, in the face of such a sentence, those local officials who surrendered inevitably did not feel that they should have known the destiny of heaven early and became the ministers of the dragon.

Of course, now this is something that can't be said, and no one dares to say it, but it doesn't prevent Xu Yuncheng from thinking about it. And during this Northern Expedition, Xu Yuncheng also discovered the difference between Li Ziyuan and Li Zicheng. At that time, Li Zicheng only cared about moving forward, and generally did not leave troops to garrison various places. It was only to the prefectures, prefectures, and counties that had already surrendered that the county orders of the Great Shun Dynasty were appointed. At that time, it was also to settle the supply and expenses of the army. The newly appointed officials of the prefectures, prefectures, and counties searched for mules and horses from the people on the pretext of supplying military supplies. And Li Zicheng only thought about how to supply the army of the Eastern Expedition, drive into Yan for a long time, and quickly break through Beijing. It is too late to consider how to get the newly appointed officials to adopt some effective measures so that the people can live a peaceful life and recuperate.

However, Li Ziyuan was different, in the place where he surrendered, in addition to the original officials who retained him, he even posted notices, emphasizing that no penny of taxes would be collected, and all taxes would follow the old practice. Of course, this did not mean that he had no way to obtain military salaries, he also sent people to search for the relatives of those puppet officials who had not yet surrendered, and forced them to sacrifice "atonement silver" ranging from tens of thousands of taels to hundreds of thousands of taels as military salaries for the Northern Expedition.

After Li Ziyuan and his entourage arrived in Pingyang, the army rested here for five days, firstly, the officers and soldiers needed to rest, and secondly, they also waited for the grain and grass to be transported from the rear. For a time, he was also very busy in Pingyang, of course, those widows who were summoned by him, all of them were grateful that his "Corporal Lixian" was naturally singing praises to him, and there were even some widows who sent the children of the clan to serve under his account, at this time, the puppet officials were unwilling to give up the opportunity to "anyway", and similarly, those widows would not miss the opportunity to return to orthodoxy.

That is, when Li Ziyuan just arrived in Pingyang, Sun Yi'an, as the vanguard under his command, did not stop, but directly led thousands of cavalry to bypass the Qing army massacre more than ten years ago, hundreds of miles of uninhabited Fanzhou, directly approached the city of Taiyuan, when its forward arrived in Taiyuan, many officials in the city fled, and the cavalry who arrived in Taiyuan did not attack the city, but stationed outside the city of Taiyuan, until a few days later, after the arrival of the 30,000 troops in the front battalion, Taiyuan was really surrounded.

Before the arrival of the Ming army, Bai Rumei, the governor of Shanxi, had already returned to the provincial capital for not guarding the Yellow River, so that the prefectures and counties of western and southern Jin fell without a fight, and had been impeached. However, the imperial court only issued an order to blame, and did not remove him from his post, but ordered him to make meritorious service in office.

On October 18, that is, on the day that Taiyuan was surrounded, Bai Rumei summoned the civil and military officials in the city in Taiyuan, as well as the more prominent figures among the gentry, to discuss the matter of defending the city in the back hall of the governor's yamen.

Almost everyone knew that Taiyuan would definitely not be able to hold on, but no one spoke, after all, Yang Zhenwei was there, and the green battalion soldiers were outside, if they said the wrong thing, they would lose their heads, looking at the silent crowd, Bai Rumei said.

"This official must be overpowered by the emperor's grace, so he has decided to report the emperor's grace with a death, that is, if the thief comes, then as an official of the imperial court, he naturally wants to live and die with the city!"

As soon as Bai Rumei's words came out, the faces of the surrounding gentry officials all turned pale in an instant, they didn't expect that this governor, who was expected to fall, would actually say such a thing, and some people looked at Yang Zhenwei and saw him sitting firmly on the chair, obviously the two of them had already made plans.

Living and dying with the city?

The faces of those officials in other places turned pale because they were worried about their lives, and as for the bloodless gentry, what they had to worry about now was the safety of the whole clan, if this city was really defended, they might have to pay for the lives of the whole clan!

"This city is guarded, you can't be without pay, I invite you to come over today, just to raise money!"

Staring at everyone, Bai Rumei said in a cold tone.

"There is a list here, how much silver each household should take, Bai has already listed it, if it is less than one or two silver, don't blame Bai for being a bandit!"

Such words fell into the ears of those gentry, only to make their hearts tremble slightly, and several of them even opened their mouths, but did not speak, and they didn't know why the governor in front of them didn't surrender, not that he didn't surrender, and Yang Zhenwei didn't surrender, the reason why he didn't surrender was because his reputation was too bad.

Other people can surrender, even if he Yang Zhenwei surrenders, how can Li Ziyuan accept him?

So he will never surrender!

The soldiers are in Yang Zhenwei's hands, if Bai Rumei just chooses to surrender, I am afraid that Yang Zhenwei will ask for his head, and the key to this matter is the surname Yang......

After figuring out the key, Yuan Taoqi asked tentatively.

"My lord, if there is a glimmer of life, why do you need to live and die with Taiyuan?"