A month after the assassination, at the end of September, Brother Hao's soldiers came to Hezhou City, announcing that the Ming Dynasty and the Jin State had maintained a tacit understanding for three years, and officially broke down.

The two battlefields of Sichuan and Yangzhou started almost at the same time, but because of the geographical location, the news spread was a little slow, so the Yangzhou war was over, and the Ming Dynasty was still unclear about the situation in Sichuan.

If it weren't for Wu Sangui's raid on Wanxian, the Ming army could have sent people down the river to the east, and the news could be sent to Nanjing in half a month, but Wanxian was raided by the Jin army, which cut off the connection between the Ming army and Chudi, and the news was naturally slow.

In fact, the two wars were fought almost simultaneously, but Yangzhou was provoked by the Ming army, and the war in Sichuan was broken by the Jin State.

The Ming army in Sichuan has not fought for three years, but the Jin State has used troops every year in the past few years.

When Hao Ge led the army out of Lychee Road and appeared in Hezhou, the Ming army was already prepared in Hezhou, Yuan Zongdi asked the deputy general Wu Yi to lead 10,000 horses to guard Hezhou, but Brother Hao immediately transferred 20,000 people from Chengdu, so that the Jin army camped for forty miles under the city of Hezhou, which gave Wu Yi great pressure.

Hezhou is a place where the strategic position in Sichuan is very important, especially when the north and south of Sichuan are tug-of-war, it can be said to be a battleground.

The topography of Sichuan is surrounded by mountains, and in the interior of Sichuan, there are many mountains and rivers, except for the Chengdu Plain, other places are not particularly flat.

Hezhou is located in the east of Sichuan, between the Chengdu Plain and Chongqing Prefecture, the east and west sides are mountains, the Jialing River, the Qujiang River, the Peijiang River three rivers converge, not only the terrain is dangerous, easy to defend and difficult to attack, but also the water and land transportation to rush.

If you want to avoid the mountains and forests, and travel between the Chengdu Plain and Chongqing Prefecture, Hezhou is the best choice. Because he is flanked by mountains on both sides, and he is still at the confluence of three rivers, it can be said that whoever occupies the initiative will take the initiative.

Meng Yuan defeated the Southern Song Dynasty, around Hezhou fought for decades, the last Sichuan and Shu War, the goal of the Ming Army's West Route Army was also to take Hezhou, cut off Brother Hao's route into eastern Sichuan, and finally Ding Kuichu lost Hezhou, and almost made the battle to aid Sichuan failed.

The importance of Hezhou is self-evident, so Yuan Zongdi learned that Brother Hao was camping for forty miles and the main force was gathered, so he judged that the Jin army wanted to take advantage of the Ming army's ability to react, with superior troops, to go down to Hezhou first, open the route into eastern Sichuan, and then push all the way to the front line of Chongqing.

After Yuan Zongdi discussed with the generals, everyone thought that they should rely on Hezhou to defend against the enemy and prevent the Jin army from going deep into eastern Sichuan, so he requisitioned 15,000 elite men and horses and went to Hezhou to defend the enemy in person, but he didn't want Wu Sangui to surprise his troops and outflank his back road, so that the main force of the Ming army was all surrounded in Hezhou City.

The Ming army immediately asked for help in the direction of Chongqing, but the Jin army surrounded the point to send reinforcements, and the Sichuan governor Wang Yingxiong, who came to the rescue in a hurry, suffered an ambush by Wu Sangui, and almost all the 10,000 horses were wiped out, and the Sichuan governor killed himself.

Haoge immediately asked Wu Sangui to send the Daxu banner of the governor of Sichuan, as well as Wang Yingxiong's body, and put them under the city for the Ming army to see, persuade the Ming army in the city to surrender, and promised Yuan Zongdi and others a generous reward, but Yuan Zongdi categorically refused.

The surrender failed, and the Jin army did not attack the city, but temporarily besieged Hezhou, waiting for the enemy to surrender, but did not want the Ming Dynasty to enter Sichuan so quickly to send reinforcements, and suddenly changed the comparison of the strength of the Ming and Jin armies in Sichuan, and the number of the Ming army was very close to the Jin army, so that the Jin army no longer had a huge advantage in strength.

Brother Hao could only let Wu Sangui block the reinforcements of the Ming army, so that he could continue to maintain a relatively superior force in Hezhou, and then attack Hezhou as quickly as possible, in order to solve Yuan Zongdi as soon as possible, and then drive the Ming army to the south of the Yangtze River with a great victory.

Beginning in mid-October, after Brother Hao surrendered several times to no avail, 60,000 horses began to prepare to eat Hezhou City.

The Jin army cut off the internal and external communications of Hezhou, set up artillery trucks, built all kinds of equipment, and transported ten red-coated cannons from Chengdu, which was bound to take Hezhou.

The defeat of the Sichuan Governor was a great blow to the morale of the Ming army in Hezhou, because they did not know that Wang Deren had entered Sichuan, but they knew that after the death of the Sichuan Governor, there were basically no reinforcements in eastern Sichuan to come to Hezhou to relieve the siege.

After the breakthrough was fruitless, the Ming army could only stick to Hezhou to wait for help, Yuan Zongdi said to the soldiers, if Hezhou is lost, the east of Sichuan will be in danger, and if the east of Sichuan is lost, the southwest door of the country will be opened, and Chu is vulnerable to the danger of the Jin army.

To put it more seriously, the Ming Dynasty finally gained the strategic initiative and will lose it, becoming very passive.

If Sichuan is lost, the situation of the Ming Dynasty is like being put on the waist by a sharp knife, and the Northern Expedition will be far away, because the Northern Expedition will inevitably attack at the same time, and once Sichuan is lost, the Ming army in Huguang will not dare to move, and the Jianghuai Ming army will go north alone, and it will undoubtedly only be violently beaten by the Qing army.

If the two roads go out together and the army goes north, then the south of the Yangtze River is empty, and if the Sichuan Jin Army goes down the river, isn't it just a stab in the waist of the Ming army.

Yuan Zongdi's decision to live and die with the city, and the sudden change of the Jin army from a siege to an attack also made him aware of whether something had changed outside.

The brutal Hezhou offensive and defensive battle began immediately, and the Ming army continuously repelled the Jin army's attack, causing a large number of casualties to the Jin army every day, but at the end of October, the Ming army was also a little unbearable.

Sichuan is known as the land of abundance, rich in grain, but not every place is rich in grain, Sichuan's grain production area is mainly controlled by the Jin army, and the eastern part of Sichuan is mainly hilly and mountainous, food is very limited, the army's grain is transferred from outside into Sichuan.

The road into Sichuan was difficult, so the grain brought in by the Ming Dynasty was very limited each time.

Originally, there were 10,000 people stationed in Hezhou, and there was food for three months, but after Yuan Zongdi came over with men and horses, there were more people, and the food was naturally not enough to eat.

From the end of September to November, the grain in Hezhou City was quickly consumed, and Chongqing was unable to transport grain to Hezhou, and the situation of the Ming army immediately became critical.

Hezhou is a strong city, but since the appearance of artillery, the strict sense of the strong city does not exist, just when the city fell into a food crisis, after more than a month of shelling, Hezhou Xicheng was finally destroyed by the Jin army.

For a time, Hezhou immediately suffered internal and external troubles, and after Hezhou was besieged for more than two months, the city had reached the point where killing people and eating, demolishing houses and cooking. The situation of the soldiers and civilians in the city was very difficult, and many people escaped from the gap in order not to starve to death.

At this time, Haoge had already received news from Wu Sangui, knowing that He Tengjiao had arrived at Fotu Pass and Sun Kewang had gone to southern Sichuan, he immediately felt that time was pressing, and the two-month siege had already cost him 20,000 soldiers, and the Jin army's bearing capacity was almost to the limit.

At this time, Han Chaoxuan, a scholar who accompanied him, immediately suggested that Brother Hao surrender again and treat the soldiers and civilians who fled from the city well, and Hao Ge adopted the advice, gave food to the people who fled from the city, and asked them to write a letter and shoot into the city, or shout under the city to call their relatives in the city to come out.

On November 25, when the city fled from the people to the army, a thousand households in the Zhenwei battalion took advantage of the night to lead 300 people out of the city to surrender to Haoge, and were immediately awarded the post of guerrilla.

On the 28th, Tongzhi of the Fengyi Battalion took advantage of the fire in the city and took more than 100 people out to surrender.

Yuan Zongdi saw that the food in the city was exhausted, the rats were all eaten, the army's heart had been eroded, and the reinforcements did not arrive for a long time, so on the night of the 30th, they broke through again.

As a result, only Jiang Tianyi and other very few people escaped, and Wu Yishan, the commander of the Zhenwei battalion, was shot dead by Aobai, and the army retreated to the city.

The next day, Haoge launched a general attack, and the Zhenwei battalion rebelled with Chen Ke to sacrifice the city, and the Jin army swarmed in, and Hezhou was lost. The deputy general Wu Yi was hit by three arrows, retreated to the palace, self-immolation and died, Yuan Zongdi broke through to the south gate, the Jin army blocked the city gate, he led the troops to rush and kill three times, killed 100 people, but the soldiers could not get out, and were hacked to death by random knives.

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