Just when the township test was being held in various parts of the Ming Dynasty, in the distant Suzhou, Li Guozheng, the general of the Shun army, was frowning and looking at the snow-capped Qilian Mountain.

Under the pressure of the Ming army on three sides, the Shun army could not gain a foothold in Guanzhong at all, and had to retreat all the way to the west.

The Shun army, which was composed of ordinary poor people, could not compete with the elite Ming army at all, and the Ming army's guns and artillery were too powerful, and the two armies did not wait for the short soldiers to meet, and the Shun army had already suffered heavy casualties and could not fight at all.

In Li Guo's heart, the current Ming army is far from the Ming army of a few years ago. A few years ago, when he followed the king to conquer the world, he always killed the Ming army and fled, and when the army crossed the Yellow River to attack Beijing, whether it was the local Ming army or the Xuanda border army, which dared to match the Shun army? It's not like they're shouting surrender one by one.

However, in just a few short years, the situation has changed dramatically. Li Guo thinks that the combat strength of his subordinates is no worse than that of the past, but the problem is that the combat strength of the Ming army has increased too much, and it is very different from the Ming army of that year.

However, even if the city cannot be defended, the Ming army seems to have mastered the Five Thunder Dafa, and the strong city wall can be easily breached.

There was no way, Li Guo could only flee west with his subordinates, and fled all the way to Suzhou.

Looking at the snow-capped Qilian Mountain, Li Guo suddenly thought of the situation when he met Chen Yue, the king of Ming Qi, more than half a year ago, and suddenly the two sides were Chen Yue's words, at that time Chen Yue told himself that there was still a vast world in the Western Regions, and suggested that he lead the army to the Western Regions to gain a foothold. At that time, I scoffed at Chen Yue's words, but I didn't expect that it was about to become a reality now. Could it all be that all this is out of Chen Yue's conspiracy?

"Father-in-law!" The righteous son Li Laiheng walked up to Li Guo and said, "Father-in-law, the children have been counted, and there are 28,100 soldiers who have followed them to Suzhou, and there are more than 30,000 family members. His Majesty and his entourage are still in Ganzhou, and they are reluctant to go west. ”

Since the westward advance, the road has become more and more desolate, sparsely populated, the wind is howling, the wind and sand are everywhere, and the environment has become more and more bad, so that the Dashun soldiers and their families are miserable. There was no choice, Li Guo could only personally lead the army as the vanguard all the way to the west to open the way for the brigade.

Three years ago, when Dashun's military power was at its peak, Li Zicheng sent a large number of troops to attack Xining and Hexi, and these territories successively belonged to Dashun. With the defeat of Dashun, the troops were transferred, and this area fell into the hands of the Qing army. After the Northern Expedition of the Ming Army, the Qing army withdrew from Guannei, and the Shun army advanced into Guanzhong and regained its rule over these places.

So all the way west, I didn't encounter any enemies, the only enemy was the increasingly harsh environment.

Li Guo led 30,000 troops and their families all the way west, and more than 1,000 soldiers died on the road, and their families lost even more. One of the reasons for this is the harsh climate, and the other is the lack of food. It is no wonder that Emperor Li Zijing refused to come.

"Won't come? I'm afraid I can't help him! Li Guo sneered. The conspiracy of Chen Yue, the king of Qi in the Ming Dynasty, was already obvious, that is, to drive the Shun army to the Western Regions, so the Ming army would never allow Li Zijing to stay in Ganzhou for a long time.

"Father-in-law, the emperor is so ignorant of the general situation, how can he be worthy of being the emperor!" Li Laiheng said indignantly. For a long time, Dashun has been able to have today all thanks to his father-in-law, and Li Zijing is only Li Zicheng's younger brother, and he can't even understand the words, how can he be worthy of being the emperor of Dashun!

"Shut up!" Li Guo glanced at Li Laiheng angrily and reprimanded. No matter how unbearable Li Zijing is, he is also his uncle, and the country of Dashun is still the Li family. Why Li Zijing is the emperor You still don't know, the generals of the Shun army are not unified, and only Li Zijing Dashun can barely maintain chaos.

"Father-in-law, what shall we do?" Seeing that Li Guo was angry, Li Laiheng didn't dare to say much, but asked about his future plans, "The army has been entrenched in Suzhou for several days, consuming countless grains every day, and if this continues, I'm afraid we won't be able to advance into the Western Regions." Father-in-law, if we just fight with the Ming army, it will be better than the barren land in the Western Regions! ”

"You know what? Fight, if you can fight to win, you still need to say? Li Guo reprimanded, "What's wrong with going to the Western Regions?" No matter how barren the Western Regions are, it is better than staying in Daming and waiting for death. With our current strength, there is no problem in conquering the countries of the Western Regions, since we can't stay in Daming, we will expand our territory outside the territory and build Dashun again! ”

Seeing that Li Guo was angry, Li Laiheng didn't dare to say more.

"Don't wait, we will cross Jiayuguan into the desert early tomorrow morning and head for the sandbank!" Li Guo said resolutely.

Early the next morning, nearly 30,000 troops, 30,000 family members, and more than 60,000 people replenished food and fresh water, left Jiayuguan, and entered the vast desert. The direction they are heading is Shazhou, which is located in the desert.

From Jiayuguan to Dunhuang more than 700, most of the middle is desert. The wind-blown and sandy climate here is far from being comparable to that of northern Shaanxi, and most of the soldiers of Ren is Shun Army are hard-working peasants, and they can't bear it all the way.

In the desert area, the temperature changes too much between day and night, the sun is hot during the day, and it is cold to the bone at night.

The most important thing in the desert is to drink water, because it is difficult to find water in the desert, at first some people do not pay attention, they drink too much water during the day when they are thirsty, and then they have no water to drink for a few days, and finally they are forced to urinate with livestock.

The most suitable livestock for walking in the desert is naturally camels, and the soldiers of the Shun army did not have camels, only mules and horses, and the mules and horses that ran like flies in the plains were caught blind in the soft desert, without much forage, without extra drinking water, and after less than a few days, the mules and horses fell down one after another, and could only be cut for food.

Without the loss of mules and horses, the baggage and materials carried by men had to be carried by men, which made the march even more difficult.

When he came to the eighth day, looking at the empty kettle, Li Guo also had despair at this time, perhaps, the desert could no longer get out.

"Father-in-law, look!" At this moment, Li Laiheng, who was covered with wind and sand and chapped lips, pointed to the distance and shouted in surprise.

Li Guo looked fixedly, and saw that in the yellow sand in the sky, a city appeared in his eyes, and Shazhou Wei finally arrived!

Shazhou is located in the desert and is one of the few territories of the Ming Dynasty in the Western Regions, with a sandbank guard stationed in this territory. However, after more than 200 years, the garrison here has been very lax, at this time the Western Regions is no longer the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Silk Road has long been in decline for many years, and there are not many caravans in the Western Regions passing through Shazhou in a year, without the Silk Road, even the Mongols are unwilling to come to Shazhou to rob.

After more than 200 years, the military households have fled seriously, and now there are only a few hundred families left, plus some naturalized Mongolians and natives of the Western Regions, there are more than 500 soldiers in the entire Shazhou, and the total number of people is less than 10,000. And in this Western Regions, this is already a relatively large force, because at this time, the total population of the entire Western Regions east of the Green Mountains is hundreds of thousands.

The rebellion of the thieves in the interior and the invasion of the Qing army had little impact on Shazhou, and at this time Shazhou was still under the banner of the Ming Dynasty, and the defender was the hereditary commander of Shazhouwei, Feng Yan.

However, looking at the overwhelming Shun army, the commander made Feng Yan's face full of bitterness. Although there were more than 500 soldiers in the Acropolis of Shazhou, there were tens of thousands of thieves coming out of the desert. And Shazhou City, which has experienced more than 200 years of wind and sand, has long been dilapidated, how can it withstand the attack of so many people?

"My lord, what should I do?" Commander Tongzhi Niu asked in horror.

"Didn't it mean that the Ming Dynasty had recaptured Beijing and defeated the thieves, how could so many thieves come to Shazhou, what are they doing here in this yellow sand?" Feng Yan asked with a wry smile.

In the Western Regions of the yellow sand, what is there to grab?

"My lord, do you want to fight?" Niu Liu continued to ask.

"What's the fight?" Looking at the overwhelming thief army in the distance, and then at the panicked subordinates in the city, Feng Yan muttered.

Finally walked out of the desert and saw the oasis, the spirit of tens of thousands of Shun troops suddenly recovered, and Li Guo began to transfer his subordinates who still had combat effectiveness to prepare to attack Shazhou City.

However, before he could start attacking, the gate of Shazhou City was opened, and the defender Feng Yan led his team to surrender, which made Li Guo very happy.

Feng Yan's surrender was quite wise, although the arrival of the Shun army was a catastrophe for the people of Shazhou, but because he chose to surrender, a killing was avoided.

But some things can't be avoided at all, and the food and fresh water have long been exhausted along the way by the Shun army, and they can only be replenished in Shazhou. As a result, countless soldiers of the Shun army rushed into the homes of the people and looted their grain. In the end, Li Guo simply ordered that all the 10,000 people in Shazhou be taken into the army

The army repaired in Shazhou for half a month, recovering its strength, and while waiting for the arrival of the follow-up army. However, half a month passed, and the follow-up army did not appear at all. Li Guo had no choice but to leave an army of 1,000 people to garrison Shazhou, and continued to advance to the northwest with a large group of men and horses, to attack Hamiwei.

After occupying Shazhou, hundreds of camels and more than 1,000 war horses were captured, and Feng Yan and others, who were familiar with the desert, were guided, and both roads and water sources could be easily found, and the way to Hami was much easier.

And when Li Guo led the vanguard of the Shun army all the way to Hami, Suzhou, a big battle was underway.

The farther west it went, the more barren it became, and most of the Shun army soldiers lamented that Tian Jianxiu, Dang Shousu and other Shun generals did not want to move forward at all, but fooled the Dashun Emperor Li Zijing to stay in Suzhou.

Dashun saw that the defeat was imminent, rather than fleeing to the barren Western Regions, it was better to simply surrender to the Ming Dynasty, even if it was a farmer to go home and farm, it was better than dying outside the territory, and many people fought with this idea.

And Li Zijing himself is an ignorant peasant, who usually can't even speak, and he doesn't have the ability of his brother Li Zicheng at all. was fooled by some generals, coupled with the greed for enjoyment and fear of marching, he really stayed in Suzhou and did not give the order to continue the march.

At this time, the Ming army, seeing that the Shun army was approaching the Hexi Corridor, Yu Feng, the general of the expedition to the west, saw that the strategy was about to be realized, so he did not rush to continue the march. His plan was to give the Shun army some time so that he could be fully prepared before entering the desert, and there was no need to push too much. Who knew that this Shun army would stay in the Yongchangwei area of Suzhou and not leave.

Shameless, Yu Feng was angry, so he ordered to continue the march and force the Shun army to move west. And at this moment, the generals such as Shun Thief Dang Shousu secretly sent people to surrender to the Ming army.

Want to surrender? Yu Feng sneered, if surrender was so simple, why did he bother to drive Baal all the way to the siege on three sides?

Yu Feng immediately said to the comer, it is okay to surrender, ordinary soldiers can surrender and forgive, but the generals of the Shun army have done many evils, and none of them can be forgiven!

Hearing the return of the people sent, Dang Shousu and the others were shocked, but they didn't expect that the commander of the Ming army was unwilling to surrender. It's not even possible to sacrifice Li Zijing, the emperor.

There was no choice but to continue to escape.

However, the speed of the Ming army's march was too fast, and before the Shun army could assemble and leave Suzhou, the Ming army's forward had already driven over.

The Shun army gathered 50,000 troops to meet the battle in a hurry, but was defeated by the Ming army's advance of less than 5,000, and fled west in a hurry to abandon their armor. And on the way to escape, even Emperor Shun Li Zijing didn't know where he was lost.

When he fled from Suzhou to Ganzhou in a hurry, seeing that the Ming army did not chase after him, the generals of the Shun army breathed a sigh of relief, counted the men and horses, and the total number of troops in his hands was more than 10,000 people, and his family members were even lost.

What to do? Yuan Zongdi, Gao Yigong, Dang Shousu and other generals of the Shun army gathered together and couldn't come up with a way to discuss for a long time.

Li Guo also left some people in Ganzhou and told the generals the news that Li Guo went to Shazhou. In desperation, the generals could only lead the remaining more than 10,000 people to follow in the footsteps of Li Guoxian's vanguard and advance into the desert.

Suzhou, looking at Li Zijing, the Dashun Emperor in front of him, who was wearing a yellow robe, with a dark face like an old peasant, kneeling on the ground and trembling, Yu Feng almost laughed. Just like a person in front of him, he can also be an emperor, no wonder the thief is declining more and more!

It's just that thousands of forwards have defeated the Shun army, and countless prisoners have been captured, and Yu Feng doesn't know what to say.

It was ordered that the prisoners be screened, and all the generals of the Shun army would be beheaded, and the ordinary soldiers and their families would be taken into custody, and these people would be sent to various parts of the Guannai to work as farmers. As for the Dashun Emperor Li Zijing, he was escorted to Beijing as proof of his victory. An army of 100,000 labored on an expedition, costing countless amounts of money and food, and there must always be a definite result.

And now that Shaanxi Province has been recovered, Emperor Shun Li Zijing has been captured, which is the final merit of this battle, and with this, the King of Qi is enough to explain to the imperial court.

As for Yu Feng himself, his task is far from over, the general of the expedition to the west, how can it be so simple to recover Hexi in Shaanxi, he wants to lead the army into the Western Regions and recover the territory of the Han family in the Western Regions for the Ming Dynasty.

Recovering the Western Regions and crossing the Green Mountains into Central Asia, this is the strategy of the Western Regions formulated by Chen Yue, the Shun army is just the first march, and when the Shun army destroys the forces in the Western Regions, it is the time for Yu Feng to advance to receive the results!

The general of the expedition to the west is to attack all the way to the west!