Ao Bai envisioned attacking Sichuan with 3,000 bannermen and destroying tens of thousands of Ming troops in a surprise attack, but his plan failed to materialize.

After years of continuous expansion and development, the number of banner soldiers of the Manchurian, Mongolian, and Han banners has increased greatly, but the number of people rushing to the front battlefield has continued to decline. Ao Bai planned this trip with the Manchurian Eight Banners as the main force, and he still felt in his heart that the combat effectiveness of the Manchu soldiers was the best in the world. To a strange place thousands of miles away, although the enemy's combat effectiveness is not strong, the geography and climate are enough to make this task very difficult, and Ao Bai believes that only a full army can do it.

To his surprise, all the generals and soldiers in the capital did not agree to this plan. The attack on Yongli in the Southern Ming Dynasty was still dominated by the Han people and the Han army, and the Eight Banners only sent a small number of people to serve as supervisors. Because there is not enough money and food to drive the Han army to fight hard? Although everyone is the emperor's servants, but the minions also have to eat, and if they don't have the money to drive the Han people away, they will be full of people, why?

Ao Bai thought that the matter was urgent, and quickly cleaned up all the resistance forces of the Han people, and then everyone could live a good life together. But the Eight Banners generals didn't think so. First of all, they are now living a good life; Secondly, seeing that the resistance of the Han people has basically disappeared, and everyone will be able to enjoy the peaceful years comfortably, who is willing to go to Sichuan to die on the eve of victory? Most people don't think that Sichuan can still make waves, and the momentum of King Fu and King Tang was so great that they melted cleanly?

Even Shunzhi thought that it didn't matter if he pacified Sichuan slowly, and planned to send a small team of full troops to Sichuan to serve as the supervisor of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Green Battalion. However, the current tax revenue of Sichuan Baoning Mansion is not as large as the expenditure of officials, and no one wants to go to this kind of ghost place where people's livelihood is withering to suffer...... It is not good for public or private. In the end, the Qing court decided to send a group of 100 banner soldiers to Sichuan at a later date, led by an assistant commander.

After the news came out, the mansions of Sony and other Shunzhi henchmen were suddenly overcrowded, and visitors were endless all night. Before entering the customs, whenever there is news of sending troops, many people will come to visit the minions who can talk to Huang Taiji, and these people are here to ask to lead troops to fight in order to win fame and fortune; After crossing the Shanhaiguan Pass and entering Běijīng, this phenomenon of crowding guests before the expedition became less and less, and finally disappeared completely.

In recent years, the atmosphere has changed again, once there is an opportunity to go to Suzhou and Hangzhou to garrison, countless people have stepped through the threshold to grab places; Similar to this kind of errand to serve as a prisoner in a remote area, the visitor, after a friendship and old friendship, will begin to beg not to throw the errand on his head; Even some leaders who have a distant relationship and have no affection for Rì will beg bitterly in front of Sony and others, or beat their chests and feet, or cry bitterly, for no other reason than that their mothers are in the hall, their wives are young, and their children are still young.

When the Qing court was still hesitating about the selection of soldiers, Shunzhi's holy decree had been sent to Guiyang urgently for 800 li.

When the envoy arrived, Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong came out to greet them tremblingly. Although Wu Sangui felt that the Qing court would not punish him too harshly no matter what, he still inevitably felt uneasy when the matter came; And Zhao Liangdong is also very worried, after all, Zhao Liangdong does not have the same great credit as Wu Sangui, and he does not have an army in his hands.

The envoy first read out the holy decree of Shunzhi's accountability, explaining how the emperor was distressed by the Kunming fire, and then about the will of Hong Chengchou's clan. This holy decree made the two responsible persons happy and worried, and the good thing was that the imperial court recognized their statement of shirking responsibility, but among these three people, Hong Chengchou was not guilty, and he fell into such a fate, which inevitably made people feel a little sad about the death of a rabbit and a fox.

Soon the envoy read that Zhao Liangdong was fined fifty taels of silver. After hearing this punishment, not only Zhao Liangdong breathed a sigh of relief, but Wu Sangui's heart was also a big stone on the ground. He asked himself that his responsibility was about several times that of Zhao Liangdong, but even if he was fined a few hundred taels of silver, Wu Sangui would not take it too seriously, and the military salary burned in the Kunming warehouse alone was millions of taels of silver.

But when he read this, the messenger closed the holy decree, and there was no punishment for Wu Sangui.

When everyone present was suspicious in their hearts, the envoy took out another holy decree, opened it and read it, announcing Shunzhi's will to seal Guizhou to Wu Sangui.

I don't know if the order in which the envoy read the edict was deliberately arranged by the Qing court, but it did achieve a very good effect, and everyone in the audience was shocked, and no one expected that the Kunming fire would have such a result. Until the envoy smiled and brought the holy decree to Wu Sangui, the latter was still kneeling on the ground and bowing his head in contemplation, not knowing what he was pondering.

"King Pingxi, take the order." The messenger smiled and whispered a reminder.

"The emperor's grace is vast, and Weichen can't repay it in case of broken bones." Wu Sangui finally came to his senses and paused on the ground.

After accepting the holy decree, Wu Sangui entertained the angels, and then held a banquet and invited all the generals in Guiyang to come and drink.

At the banquet, Wu Sangui enjoyed everyone's compliments and congratulations, and then announced that he would hurry up and take Kunming as soon as the grain and grass supported by Jiangnan arrived. Of course, Wu Sangui would not pin all his hopes on the grain and grass in the south of the Yangtze River, and he ordered the officials in Guizhou to carefully count the household registration and land to prepare for another attack on Yunnan. Wu Sangui stressed to the officials that they must carefully verify the actual situation of the land, and must not be reported as inferior land by the Diao people, and before pacifying Yunnan, no matter how much the officials below want to take, anyway, the king of Pingxi wants to see half of Guizhou's production actually sent to the treasury. If anyone dares to conceal property and resist taxes, he will confiscate his family property and be included in the slave register, and he will not be spared.

Just as Wu Sangui was vigorously fighting and eyeing Kunming, Li Dingguo was trying his best to restore production and replenish the needs of the troops, while continuing to quarrel with the Son of Heaven and Ma Jixiang, the favorite of the Son of Heaven.

Previously, because of the change of the imperial decree of the Yongli court, the defense of Yunnan was in a mess, and now Li Dingguo's situation is still not the slightest better: if he decides to go to Sichuan, he should start to transfer the population, accumulate materials for the march, pick up the Son of Heaven as quickly as possible, and then quickly transfer the troops; If it is decided to defend Yunnan, then it should be fully restored to production, gather the population in central Yunnan, and repair the city of Kunming, which was destroyed by fire.

Even when he was relatively wealthy in the past, Li Dingguo couldn't do two jobs at the same time, and now after the catastrophe, the King of Jin is extremely poor, and in the case of overstretched funds, Li Dingguo doesn't even have the resources to do any of them, let alone do both. However, if the Son of Heaven did not return, then Li Dingguo would have to stay in Yunnan and could not walk, so he had to try to renovate the city wall of Kunming, build strongholds and beacon towers along the road, and equip the troops and stagecoaches that were guarded...... Although he returned to central Yunnan, Li Dingguo's economic situation did not improve significantly, and while his income increased, he also carried a lot of burden.

However, Li Dingguo soon understood that if he wanted to go to Sichuan, he first had to let the Son of Heaven be able to return to Yunnan with confidence; If you want the Son of Heaven to rest assured that you will meet Yunnan, you must try to keep Kunming impregnable—at least it seems that this is what it means, so that the Son of Heaven can be confused. However, with the province of Yunnan and the whole country of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Li Dingguo had little confidence, and if the Son of Heaven thought that Kunming was impregnable, then he would probably not want to go to Sichuan and then turn to the Central Plains to take risks.

It can't go on like this, it can't let the Tartars settle down the place, the Ming army needs to attack non-stop. When Li Dingguo discussed the military situation with the generals in Kunming, everyone looked worried, estimating that before the Ming army could restore production in Yunnan, the Qing court would continue to transport grain from several southeastern provinces to Wu Sangui. In addition, the two lakes and two Guangzhou, which were occupied by the Qing court, production there would soon be restored, and as long as the Ming army did not rush out to fight, it would be crushed by the Qing court sooner or later.

Li Dingguo felt that although the current situation was in crisis, on the whole, it was no worse than when Li Zicheng hid in Shangluo and Zhang Xianzhong hibernating in Gucheng, and now the two armies of Chuang Ying and Xiying still have strength, and they still support the son of tomorrow. No matter where the Ming army arrived, as long as it could occupy a place, it could replenish its troops, and as long as the main force of the Manchu Qing did not come, it could establish its rule - although the world fell to eight or nine tenths, Li Dingguo still did not despair, and was still full of confidence.

Recently, Li Dingguo heard that the Yongli Imperial Court in Burma planned to issue a holy decree to King Lu in eastern Zhejiang to restore King Fùlu's status as a prisoner. It is said that this plan was also supported by the first assistant Ma Jixiang and Mu Tianbo, the Duke of Qianguo, who believed that this plan was brilliant and could greatly reduce the pressure on the Yongli court in exile in Burma.

Li Dingguo was suffering from the fact that he was not by the side of the Son of Heaven at present, so he could only express his opposition through guò songs. He knew that Yongli and Ma Jixiang were thinking about nothing more than two things, the first was to lead the troubles to the east, and publicly show a posture of picking on the son and not doing it, so that the Qing court's attention was focused on the side of King Lu; The second is to stimulate King Lu and Zhang Huangyan, so that the Ming army in eastern Zhejiang feel that things seem to be promising, and make a vigorous scene in the southeast region, which also plays a role in attracting the attention of the Qing court.

Li Dingguo felt that this trick was useless. First, Yongli, the Qing court will not let you go, and besides, you are not completely out of action, but you just threw out the bait of a prison country, and you haven't given up the throne yet, right? Second, Yongli's trick will stimulate Zhang Huangyan, Zhang Shangshu is loyal to King Lu, and he definitely wants to do a big job to create conditions for King Lu to win the throne in the future. However, there is also a Zheng Chenggong in the southeast, he has many places that are similar to Li Dingguo's thinking, Zheng Chenggong will never agree to the King of Lu, who has a great enmity with him, to re-ascend to the position of the prison country, it is estimated that Yongli's holy decree, Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan will turn their faces and cause infighting.

Although the King of Jin never gives up, this internal and external difficult situation still makes him very worried, recently his hair has turned a lot gray, the amount of food is also much worse, and he often tosses and turns at night and can't sleep. But no matter what the Son of Heaven is, since he has been established, he can only admonish and fight to the death, hoping that the timid emperor will one day be enlightened and wise. Now Li Dingguo in Yunnan is the same as Zheng Chenggong in Fujian, even if he wants to change the court, he has no chance, and can only be regarded as a second minister.

……

Myanmar.

After the Son of Heaven and Shoufu fled here, the attitude of the Burmese side was respectful at first, but as the Ming army in Yunnan was defeated and could not hold back, the attitude of the Burmese continued to change. Whether it was Emperor Yongli or Shoufu Ma Jixiang, they all thought that the army's defeat was not something they had the ability to reverse, so they had no choice but to break the jar and break it, led by Shoufu Ma Jixiang, and the court ministers and pro-army generals rì gambled at night, and even had to pull the officials sent by Burma to play together.

The Praetorian Army will have already handed over all their weapons when they enter Burma, and now they are standing empty-handed. The upward and downward effects are also followed by the gambling frolic without rì night. Ma Jixiang's son-in-law, Yang Zai, a bachelor in Yongli, and his gang went to the river to entertain Burmese women who were washing clothes and vegetables in their spare time from gambling.

Yongli's subordinate Wenwu Da's absurd behavior of drunken dreams and death, the liaison officials sent by Myanmar shook their heads again and again, and discussed in private: "I have long heard that the Chinese Son of Heaven is a god descended from heaven, and the important ministers in front of the emperor are all virtuous and respectful, but these old men are acting so absurdly, do they still want to rejuvenate the king and try to dominate?" ”

However, with the return of the Jin King to Kunming, the rìzi of the imperial court was much better, and in addition to gambling, sometimes the first assistant Ma Jixiang also needed to think about national affairs. Yang Zai, a scholar of the university, came to his father-in-law's tent with the music of King Jin, and invited Shoufu, who was shouting five and six drinks, out of the smoky room full of gamblers.

"King Jin still hasn't given up." After a rough reading of Li Dingguo's recital, Ma Jixiang sneered, he thought that he had seen Li Dingguo's intentions clearly at once: "Where is this to persuade the saint to return to Yunnan, it is clear that he still wants to go to Sichuan." ”

When Li Dingguo initially decided to abandon Yunnan and go to Sichuan, Ma Jixiang strongly opposed it. Of course, he was not opposed to escaping from danger, but against going to Sichuan, and in the end he succeeded, not only did he abandon Yunnan, but Sichuan did not succeed.

"Lord Taishan is aware of everything." Yang Zai also thinks the same way.

Although Ma Jixiang and Yang were reluctant to go to the battlefield, believing that it was the duty of the warriors to fight and had nothing to do with them, they were different from the Son of Heaven who was bent on escaping, and the key factor in their resolute opposition to going to Sichuan was because of Wen Anzhi.

Wen Anzhi was nearly eighty years old, with his bare hands, and rushed to Kuidong to take office with only a letter of appointment from the Yongli Imperial Court. Wen Anzhi did not avoid danger many times, and went to the front line in person without avoiding danger, and risked arrows and stones with the old troops who broke into the camp. Therefore, although Wen Anzhi has no soldiers in his hands, he can gain the trust of the generals in the east and give Wen Anzhi face, and he is willing to listen to his mobilization and moderation. For Wen Anzhi, Sun Kewang, who wanted to usurp the throne, was very jealous of him, but Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu, who supported the Son of Heaven, respected him. Sun Kewang personally planned before usurping the throne to capture Wen Anzhi, who was under house arrest; After Li Dingguo took power, he often wrote letters to Fengjie, and his words were eager.

And Ma Jixiang didn't talk about controlling the generals of the West Battalion, he couldn't even command a small soldier in the West Battalion. When Sun Kewang tried to usurp the throne, he did not take action against Ma Jixiang, but directly called Ma Jixiang and asked him to write a letter of persuasion dedicated to Sun Kewang - Ma Shoufu wrote it without saying a word. Afterwards, neither Yongli nor Li Dingguo pursued him for this, probably because they looked down on him and felt that he was irrelevant, right? To be honest, when Ma Jixiang didn't gamble, he looked down on himself a little.

Now Wen Anzhi is just a supervisor, but if the imperial court is really transferred to Sichuan, Ma Jixiang doesn't see any reason for the imperial court not to reuse Wen Anzhi and remove himself at the same time. Whether it is prestige, morality, ability, or for the purpose of encircling the generals, the Son of Heaven and the King of Jin will definitely abandon Ma Jixiang, a dispensable person. This is the reason why Ma Jixiang and Yang Zai have always disagreed to go to Sichuan, and now Wen Anzhi is still there, so they still can't go.

"King Jin also sent a generous gift." With a sneering look on his face, Yang reported to Ma Jixiang that the envoys sent by Li Dingguo to deliver the medals had also brought many gold and silver gifts to their son-in-law and other cabinet members.

"The position of the old man is to be passed on to the virtuous son-in-law, if the position is gone, who will give us a gift?" Ma Jixiang handed Li Dingguo's recital back to Yang Zai, and snorted a sneer: "Wen Anzhi is already seventy-eight years old, how many days can he live?" When he was gone, the old man immediately persuaded the Son of Heaven to enter Sichuan. ”

"Son-in-law understands." Yang Zai hurriedly nodded. He knew that when he went to present the recital, of course he would try his best to render the scene of Guiyang's Wu Sangui soldiers being strong and strong, and Kunming was precarious. The Son of Heaven finally fled into Burma, leaving the Qing court's pursuers far behind, where would he go back when he heard that Kunming was so dangerous? Could it be that the hard work of going back is just to escape again?

Yang Zai also understands that the Son of Heaven is a talisman for them, cabinet ministers, pro-military officers and soldiers, as long as the Son of Heaven is happy, even if the civil and military ministers of King Jin and Wen Anzhi look at them unpleasantly, they will not be able to shake their status, but will flatter them and try their best to let them speak in the ear of the Son of Heaven; As long as they serve the Son of Heaven, even if they have heavy troops such as Li Dingguo, they can't be short of supplies for them. Even the Burmese vassals, as long as they escort the Son of Heaven's chariot, don't they have to provide them with food and drink for nothing?

……

Bongjie.

Running all the way, Deng Ming rushed back to Kuizhou Mansion non-stop.

After entering the city, Deng Ming handed over his mount to the guards and immediately rushed to meet Wen Anzhi. In the past few months, Deng Ming has either been fighting or marching, and he has hardly rested, and he feels that his body is not much stronger than before the crossing, and he does not feel very hard after this long journey.

"Meet the Overseer."

Deng Ming has no official status, and he salutes Wen'an very casually, just holding his fists and bowing, but the latter is not surprised at all.

"Sit down, it's been a hard time." Wen Anzhi asked Deng Ming to sit down and asked the maid to serve tea, his tone was not in a hurry, and he looked unfazed.

However, the servant who served the tea knew that after the news of the Kunming fire was transmitted back to Fengjie, Wen Anzhi was very excited in private. After learning that Hong Chengchou was killed and Wu Sangui had withdrawn from the army, the superintendent was even more excited in the study, raised his arms and shouted: "The prince has the wind of glory and martial arts, and the sky will not die in the Ming Dynasty!" ”