The remnants of the Ming army who came to defect to the Taiping army were cut off by the Qing army after Li Dingguo's retreat and had to be scattered near Xinhui. Speaking of which, this Qi Hao is not a southerner, but a person from Fengyang Mansion, and he is still a very big person, and he has a lot to do with Zhang Xianzhong.

In the ninth year of Chongzhen, when Zhang Xianzhong led the army to break through the central capital Fengyang, Qi Hao, who was only eighteen years old at the time, could not live because of hunger, and saw that the peasant army was strong, and even the ancestral tomb of the Ming Emperor was dug up. Because he was young and learned a few kung fu skills when he was young, he not only did not die in the past few years, but gradually rose out in the army.

In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong changed Wuchang to Kyoto after capturing Hubei, and called himself the king of the Great West, and his peasant army was also called the Great Western Army, and Qi Hao, who was already 25 years old, also became an officer in the Great Western Army, and he was in charge of hundreds of people, which was not a big or small figure. Later, Zhang Xianzhong saw that Li Zicheng had occupied Beijing, so he decided to enter Sichuan to establish his own foundation, and ordered the Great Western Army to march to Sichuan.

In August of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the Great Western Army attacked Chongqing, and Qi Hao took the lead in killing Chen Shiqi, the governor of the Ming Dynasty, and made great contributions to the camp of the pro-army around him by Zhang Xianzhong. After the Great Western Army occupied Chengdu, Zhang Xianzhong changed Chengdu to Xijing, formally established the Great Western Kingdom, changed the Yuan Dashun, took the seventeenth year of Chongzhen as the first year of the Great Shun, placed the cabinet and six ministries, and appointed the former Ming Toushun officials, with Wang Zhaoling as the cabinet scholar and the left prime minister, and Yan Ximing as the university scholar and the right prime minister.

After the establishment of the Onishi regime, Zhang Xianzhong began to run Sichuan, recruit displaced people, and resume production. He severely suppressed the former Ming gentry and landlords in the tyrannical areas, and within the Great Western Army, he strictly restrained the soldiers and soldiers, forbade lewdness and plunder, and punished those who violated discipline from "tying up" to "showing off". At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong also ordered the release of prisoners in Qianming Prison. The treasury gold and silver of each prefecture and county were donated to the displaced people. Zhang Xianzhong's measures enabled the people of Sichuan to settle down in a short period of time, and the slaves who had been oppressed by the former Ming gentry and landlords in the past either rebelled in response to the Great Western Army, or reported the crimes of the late masters to the local government of the Great Western regime, so that they could be punished.

In the same year, Zhang Xianzhong reformed the military system of the Great West. Each department of the Great Western Army was set up as 120 battalions, and each battalion had a general army. Qi Hao was personally named by Zhang Xianzhong as one of the 120 chief military officers, and his immediate boss was Ai Nengqi, the righteous son of Emperor Daxi and the general of Dingbei.

During the period when the Great Western Army was running Sichuan, the Great Shun Army led by Li Zicheng had been gradually defeated under the attack of the Qing army. After the Qing army occupied the provinces in the Yellow River Valley, it divided its troops and moved south. In the second year of Shunzhi of the puppet Qing Dynasty, the Qing court sent people into Sichuan to surrender to Zhang Xianzhong, but Zhang Xianzhong refused to accept himself as a Han man, and convened civil and military plans to resist the Qing Dynasty and restore the Central Plains.

In August of the third year of Shunzhi, the prince of Qingsu Haoge commanded the army to enter Langzhong after the Sword Pavilion. When Zhang Xianzhong heard the news, he personally led the main force of the Great Western Army to meet the attack, to the Phoenix Mountain in Xichong, the Qing soldiers arrived suddenly, because of negligence, the Great Western Army did not have time to enter the battle for a while, and the result was in the chaos, Zhang Xianzhong, who personally inspected the enemy, was killed by the Qing army's bow and arrow.

After Zhang Xianzhong died in battle, in the face of the advance of Haoge's army, the Great Western Army had to retreat to the south without a leader, at this time the Great Western Army was behind the Qing army that was in pursuit, and in front was the Southern Ming army held by the Yangtze River. The Great Western Army was almost at the end of its rope. At that time, the morale of the army was chaotic and morale was low, and many soldiers recruited by the Great Western Army in Sichuan deserted one after another, and even a few officers absconded with money. Facing this crisis. Qi Hao firmly believed that the Great Western Army would not be defeated, and he tried his best to restrain his subordinates, making his troops one of the few battalion leaders without soldiers fleeing, which was praised by Ainengqi.

In order to deal with the crisis, Zhang Xianzhong's adopted grandson Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi unanimously decided to execute Empress Zhang Xianzhong and Minister Wang Zhaoling, who interfered with the command of the Great Western Army, and the four of them also restored their original surnames at the same time. The Great Western Army was formed under the leadership of the four generals. Among the four, Sun Kewang's original status and prestige were relatively high, he was a little older, and he was literate, so he was jointly promoted by Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi to become the supreme commander of the rest of the Great Western Army.

After solving the internal troubles, the remnants of the Great Western Army, under the leadership of Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi, concentrated on Qijiang, Sichuan, collected and dispersed, and reorganized the ranks. In this reorganization, the 120th battalion set up by Zhang Xianzhong was abolished, and Qi Hao's headquarters was directly transferred to the command of Ainengqi. Subsequently, under the command of Sun Kewang and others, the reorganized Great Western Army broke the Southern Ming General Army Zeng Ying's department in one fell swoop, Zeng Ying fell into the water and drowned, and the troops fled, and the Great Western Army crossed the Yangtze River and entered Zunyi. As the troops sent by Haoge, the prince of Qingsu, tracked down, the Great Western Army continued to retreat south, entered Guizhou, and successfully occupied the provincial capital Guiyang.

According to the Ming Guizhou envoy Zhang Yao, the political secretary Senator Zeng Yi, and the commander Chen Ruizheng fled to Dingfan Prefecture, and cobbled together a group of soldiers and horses to stubbornly resist the Great Western Army. Sun Kewang then sent the Dingbei general Ai Nengqi to lead his troops to attack the remnants of the Ming army. In this battle, Qi Hao was appointed by Ai Nengqi to take the lead in conquering Dingfan on February 12, and captured Zhang Yao, the envoy of Guizhou. The area occupied by the rear is dilapidated, everywhere is barren, and the army cannot receive food, so Ai Nengqi was forced to lead Qi Hao and others back to the division.

During the period when the Great Western Army was reorganized in Guiyang, the Tusi Shadingzhou rebellion occurred in Yunnan, which caused Mu Tianbo, the Duke of Qianguo of the Ming Dynasty, to flee Kunming, and Sun Kewang sent troops to Yunnan in the name of revenge of the Duke of Qianguo. The Great Western Army marched into Kunming, and the four generals jointly called the king, Sun Kewang was called the king of Pingdong, Li Dingguo was called the king of Anxi, Liu Wenxiu was called the king of Funan, and Ai Nengqi was called the king of Dingbei. The original kings were still under the direct control of the kings.

In the fourth year of Shunzhi, Sun Kewang sent Liu Wenxiu to conquer southern Sichuan, and in the same year, the Great Western Army and the Yongli court of the Southern Ming Dynasty launched negotiations to jointly resist the Qing Dynasty.

In May of the second year of Yongli (the fifth year of pseudo-Shunzhi), Ai Nengqi led Qi Hao and other generals to go out to fight against the Dongchuan Tusi rebellion, and as a result, the soldiers and horses entered the Dongchuan Mansion thirty miles, and suddenly encountered the attack of the Lu soldiers on both sides of the ambush road.

After the death of Ainengqi, Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu were furious, and sent additional soldiers and horses to attack Dongchuan again. Completely occupy Dongchuan and its nearby counties.

Not long after the Battle of Dongchuan, the generals under Ainengqi were faced with a major choice in their lives, they had to choose one of the three princes to be loyal to Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, and Liu Wenxiu, because Sun Kewang was the king of Pingdong. The prestige and power are the greatest, so many of the generals under Ainengqi chose to submit to Sun Kewang.

But Qi Hao defected to Sun Kewang because there were too many generals, and the soldiers and horses under Sun Kewang were also the strongest. If you vote for Sun Kewang, you may not be as reused as you were under Ai Nengqi in the past, but you choose to defect to Li Dingguo or Liu Wenxiu, which is beneficial to your future development. With this in mind, Qi Hao expressed his wish to return to the military officials sent by Sun Kewang, and Sun Kewang did not stop him after learning of his decision, but he was also dissatisfied with Qi Hao.

After being transferred to Li Dingguo's command, Qi Hao was not reused by Li Dingguo as he thought in advance, but he was not excluded, but he was not as close as Li Dingguo's original cronies and generals, and the treatment of other soldiers was not favoritism, which made Qi Hao a little relieved while disappointed.

In the years that followed. Qi Hao participated in the Battle of Hengyang and the Battle of Guilin under Li Dingguo. In the Battle of Hengyang, Qi Hao's Department did not fight with the Qing army head-on, but undertook the task of transporting logistics grain and grass. However, within a few months, because the main force of the Qing army in Hunan was not greatly damaged by the killing of Nikan, Sun Kewang did not provide enough support to Li Dingguo, but secretly dragged Li back, causing the Qing army to make a comeback after respite.

Faced with the superior strength of the Qing army, Qi Hao, who had only more than 2,000 soldiers and horses, had to abandon Hengyang. Return to Wugang. Although this was not Qi Hao's fault, Li Dingguo still punished him for the crime of abandoning heavy land without a battle, cut him off from his post as general soldier, and replaced him with the rank of general. When Li Dingguo deployed the Battle of Guilin. Qi Hao led his troops to the Chinese army to obey orders and participated in the capture of Quanzhou, and then continued to engage in logistics grain and grass transportation tasks to ensure the supply of grain and grass for the army attacking Guilin.

Others are all doing the majestic things of charging into battle and capturing the flag, but their own family is always doing the logistics of escorting grain and grass. The credit is someone else's, but the guilt is his own, after a long time, Qi Hao inevitably has no opinion in his heart, and although Li Dingguo is a rare general, he has a rejection of the soldiers and horses who are not his descendants, which makes Qi Hao regret his original choice. One day after drinking, he complained a few words, but unexpectedly he was reported to Li Dingguo, and although Li Dingguo did not treat him well, he did not use it more heavily from now on.

In the seventh year of Yongli (the tenth year of Shunzhi), Li Dingguo was forced by Sun Kewang to move to Guangdong, and led the army to attack the important town of Zhaoqing. In the following year, Li Dingguo fought in Guangdong, bypassing the important town of Zhaoqing, and the soldiers pointed directly at Xinhui. After besieging the city for several months without success, Li Dingguo ordered Qi Hao to lead his troops to respond to the sailors of Linghai's general Chen Qice into the Xijiang River and capture Jiangmen. In this battle, Qi Hao cooperated with Chen Qice's troops to kill Gai Yipeng, the commander-in-chief of the Qing Guangdong Naval Division, control the mouth of Guangzhou to the sea, and cut off the passage between Xinhui and Guangzhou. Seeing that the situation was critical, the Qing military authorities in Guangdong personally led troops to Jiangmen to strengthen the defense of the south and west of Guangzhou, but they still did not dare to fight a decisive battle with Li Dingguo's main force.

On the third day of October, Li Dingguo's pro-unified army claimed to be 200,000 to launch a general attack on Xinhui, and the Ming army successively adopted tactics such as digging the ground, bombarding the city with artillery, and logging and filling trenches, but was repelled one by one by the stubborn Qing army defending the city, and the attack was not successful. During this period, Qi Hao led his soldiers and horses to be stationed in Jiangmen, and conducted small-scale contact with the Qing army in person, each with its own victory or defeat.

In December, Zhu Mala, the general of Jingnan of the Qing Dynasty, led the Qing army of the Manchu and Han Eight Banners from Beijing to Guangzhou, and with the courage of the Manchurian soldiers, Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao also sent the main force of the Qing army in Guangzhou to cooperate with Zhu Mala to launch an attack on Xinhui. Due to the dyeing in the army, the Ming army and the Qing army fought fiercely for four days, and the whole line was defeated and retreated.

After the main force of Li Dingguo's army retreated, the rest of the Ming army scattered in the prefectures and counties near Xinhui to cooperate with the army suddenly fell into a dilemma, except for the Linghai general Chen Qice who relied on the sailor to go to sea safely and withdrew, the rest of the Ming army that went deep into the vicinity of Xinhui were cut off by the Qing army, or the whole army was annihilated, or most of them were annihilated, and the rest were scattered. Among them, the heaviest losses were those righteous teachers who responded to the city wall of the Ming and Liangguang governors, and almost most of them were wiped out by the Qing army.

Qi Hao only knew that he had become a lone army on the fourth day after Li Dingguo's army withdrew, and at first he also tried to lead his troops to break through, but the Qing army had blocked the roads to the west, and the Manchu and Han Qing armies with superior forces attacked everywhere, and the news of the annihilation of the Ming army came everywhere. After two failed forced breakouts and half of his subordinates were lost, Qi Hao had no choice but to order his subordinates to disperse and break through, and he led dozens of old brothers to sneak into the mountains to wait for the Qing army to end the blockade before retreating westward.

This was more than half a year, during which Qi Hao and others had been fantasizing about the army of King Anxi marching eastward again, but all they were waiting for was the continuous search of the mountains by the Qing army, and half of the dozens of brothers who had sneaked into the mountains together were also dead.

Hiding in the mountains, without food or drink, without even a place to sleep, today does not know what will happen tomorrow, and no one knows when he will die. Gradually, Qi Hao's heart also cooled down, forced by his livelihood, he had to take his brothers to do some banditry, staining the lives of innocent people, if it wasn't for the Taiping army suddenly occupying Xinhui, I'm afraid they would really fall into the grass from now on. (To be continued.) )