On the fifth day of the first month of the thirteenth year of Yongli, Kunming

Yesterday, the Qing army marched into Kunming, which was already undefended, and seized tens of thousands of stone of military rations and countless cloths from the warehouses, and when the Ming army withdrew from Kunming half a month ago, they neither took away nor burned a large amount of materials stored in Kunming, and now they fell intact into the hands of the Qing army along with the warehouses.

"I heard that it was an order from the Ming Lord," a partial general reported to Wu Sangui, of course the Qing army would not use the word Yongli in the official report, but in rì Chang's words, they all Yongli Tianzi still had basic respect, and even the soldiers and generals in Wu Sangui's army thought that he was the lord of the Southern Dynasty, and although he was an enemy country, he still had a noble status and dignity that could not be abolished. After entering the city, Wu Sangui was very surprised when he saw the mountains of savings in the warehouse, so he immediately asked people to find out what was going on, and after some understanding, his subordinates reported to him: "The Ming Lord said that he was afraid that we would plunder the people of Kunming, so keep the grain in the warehouse and don't move." ”

This answer made Wu Sangui laugh, shook his head again and again, and didn't know how to evaluate it, and finally just smiled: "Li Dingguo didn't burn the warehouse because of this sentence?" ”

Without waiting for his subordinates to answer, Wu Sangui said again: "Li Dingguo Liukou Ben xìng attack, Yunnan seems to be pacified. ”

In the past few years, the Ming army has been confronting the Qing army in Sichuan, Huguang, and Guangxi, and the Qing army has been unable to move forward for several years. At that time, Wu Sangui's main work in Hanzhong was also to prevent Liu Wenxiu, the king of Shu, from attacking Shaanxi, and had no intention of attacking Sichuan. But suddenly, Nanming caught fire in the backyard, Qin King Sun Kewang intended to usurp the throne, Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu rescued him, and the three kings of Qin, Jin and Shu fought together, and finally Sun Kewang was defeated and fled to the Qing court, telling Nanming all the virtual and real deployments.

From Sichuan to Guangxi, on this thousand-mile-long front, the Ming army was crushed in every place, not only was the Hunan front, which had been difficult to make progress for several years, quickly broken by the Qing army, but even the invasion of Guizhou, which had been the inland territory of the Ming army for several years, was also easy. A large number of officers and soldiers of the former Xiying defected and surrendered after seeing the handwritten letter sent by Sun Kewangtong Guò from the Qing army, and the Qing army broke through Guiyang faster than Li Dingguo came from Kunming to reinforce the city.

After a large number of Qing troops continued to enter Guizhou, Li Dingguo began to retreat non-stop, and seemed to have completely lost the courage to fight, and before marching to Kunming this time, Wu Sangui thought that he would encounter firm resistance from the Ming army under the city, and did not expect that all the defenders had left as early as half a month ago.

"The only thing to worry about is that Li Dingguo will protect the Ming lord and retreat to Sichuan, and now Sichuan and Shaanxi are empty," Wu Sangui muttered to himself, and the generals around him nodded approvingly. Li Dingguo's constant retreat was obviously to preserve his strength, and Wu Sangui knew that the people from Xiying and Chuang Ying had a rather different way of thinking from the Ming army, and the rebel generals often valued the latter more between territory and army. In the past, the strategy of breaking into the army and attacking the western camp was to constantly avoid the real and attack the weak, but now the Qing army invaded Yunnan and Guizhou with the whole country, and the local troops left behind in the rear were quite unreliable in combat effectiveness. It seems that Li Dingguo is going to repeat his old tricks again and start a large-scale mobile war. Wu Sangui would rather fight a decisive battle with Li Dingguo than chase after him, he knew that Li Dingguo was very good at this tactic, it was difficult for heavy troops to catch up with Li Dingguo's main force, and if the division of troops showed flaws, it was easy to be bitten by the other party.

"Don't worry about it." When everyone's faces showed worry, a military general came out, it was the deputy general Zhao Liangdong, Chongzhen 17 years of the Qing army into the customs, he ran to the front of the Azig army to serve, to assist the Qing army in Shaanxi to protect the armor, kill the rest of the Dashun, because of outstanding achievements and all the way to the top, repeatedly awarded by the Qing court. When Hong Chengchou passed through the lake and Guangzhou, he named Zhao Liangdong to listen to the tent, this time he attacked Yungui, Zhao Liangdong was controlled by Wu Sangui, he fought bravely, and repeatedly broke the resistance of the Ming army, at this time the Qing court's new commendation order and the order to promote him to the general army were already on the way.

Deng Ming, who was in Wanxian County, also heard the name Zhao Liangdong from Zhou Kaihuang's mouth, and he felt that this name was quite familiar at that time, and after thinking for a while, he remembered that he seemed to be the righteous brother of the protagonist of Lu Ding Ji, but he could see Zhou Kaihuang's narration of Zhao Liangdong's gnashing of teeth when he killed the military dependents of the Shun army in Shaanxi and Ningxia, and he didn't feel like it - because Deng Ming remembered reading the novel that said that when Zhao Liangdong was excavated from Tianjin by Gonggong Gui, he was still a sesame petty official who didn't know how to slap horses.

This can only be blamed Deng Ming for not knowing anything about the history of the early Qing Dynasty, Zhao Liangdong was indeed good in Tianjin during the Kangxi period, but he was already a dignified Zuodu Governor, Tianjin General Army, and Zhengyipin Military Attaché, and Zhao Liangdong was enabled during the rebellion of the three feudatories. Han Zhao Liangdong at the age of twenty-two into the Qing army, from the beginning of the Great Shun Army to the end of the Great Zhou Army, he fought with all the Han armies that rebelled against the Qing court, eliminated every Han resistance army that met him, the southern expedition to the north for the Manchu Qing court suppressed the resistance of the Han people nationwide, has the reputation of "the first good general in the early Qing Dynasty", and was awarded the "Manchurian first-class jīng Qini Hafan", after the death of Ningxia, Kangxi ordered the eldest son of the emperor to go to mourn, and the royal pen wrote a couplet: recalling the past Eagle Yang Neng Baisheng, every thought strategy crowned the three armies.

"The master of the Ming Dynasty can not be compared with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong." Zhao Liangdong said to Wu Sangui, although Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong used this tactic to drag down the Ming Dynasty, Zhao Liangdong was not worried about this at all: "Boss, please see, since Li and Zhang were ambushed, can their henchmen still play this trick?" ”

Wu Sangui was stunned for a moment, then laughed, and pointed at Zhao Liangdong with his hand and said, "The general is really good." ”

"The handsome man has won the award," Zhao Liangdong knew that Wu Sangui had understood what he meant, and bowed respectfully and humbly said: "The last general is just a fool." ”

But except for Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong, the other generals were still confused, and someone asked: "Please also make it clear to the marshal." ”

Wu Sangui waved his hand and asked Zhao Liangdong to come forward to explain, the latter was humble at first, and then reincarnated and said to everyone: "The two armies are facing each other, and the generals and colonels below are looking at the generals no matter where they are; Like this, although we are out on the expedition, we still look at the Beijing division and the imperial court, and these Ming troops naturally also look at Kunming. ”

Everyone understands this truth, if the flag is shaken, it will not be far from the rout of the whole army, if the Beijing division is in danger and the imperial court is overturned, then the army will naturally become a plate of scattered sand, but everyone still doesn't understand what this has to do with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong mentioned in Zhao Liangdong's question just now.

"Li and Zhang are fierce and stubborn, they are the first soldiers, where the army is, they are there, although they have no fixed place but the morale of the army is not falling, but now Li Dingguo They are the Ming army, and the Ming lord fled away as soon as he heard the war. For example, on the battle array, although the flag is shaken, but it is moving forward, and the officers and soldiers are looking forward, then naturally not only will not be defeated but will closely follow, if it is just the other way around, the soldiers turn back one step at a time when fighting, and watch the commander flee a few miles away all day long, then what else is there to fight in this battle? ”

After listening to Zhao Liangdong's explanation, all the generals also felt that what he said was reasonable, and everyone had a smile on their faces.

"Besides, in the opinion of the last general, Li Dingguo may not go to Sichuan." Zhao Liangdong said to Wu Sangui again.

"What the general said is very true." Wu Sangui secretly put himself in Li Dingguo's position just now, imagining how to use troops if he faced such a crisis situation, but after being clicked by Zhao Liangdong just now, where can he not understand, Yongli's skills are far from being compared with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, in the past, the officers and soldiers chased after them for many years, and the two of them still ate and slept soundly, if they encountered the current situation, they would definitely go towards the empty Sichuan, but Yongli saw that the Qing soldiers came from the north, lest you flee not far, where do you dare to go behind the Qing army? Since Yongli is not going, Li Dingguo can't go even if he wants to, he is now the king of the Ming Dynasty and Jin, not the prince of Daxi.

Looking around at the surrounding generals, seeing that their faces showed more dazedness, Wu Sangui shook his head slightly, and secretly sighed in his heart that there were few heroes, but when he looked back at Zhao Liangdong, he felt quite a sense of heroic sympathy.

……

Nu River, Li Dingguo's camp.

"Your Majesty," looking at the messenger who came back from the forbidden camp, Li Dingguo's voice was a little hoarse: "Still refuse to come back?" ”

The envoy nodded silently, and then said, "The emperor said that His Royal Highness can act cheaply. ”

"Stand down." Li Dingguo said helplessly, seeing that the Qing army was strong in Guizhou, he had the idea of letting the city go, and now that most of China has fallen, Li Dingguo does not plan to fight a war of attrition with the Qing court, because this is simply impossible to consume. In the past, whenever this time came, Zhang Xianzhong would lead the army to start moving, avoiding the main force of officers and soldiers who were concentrated, and then looking for fighters when they dispersed.

After returning to Yunnan from Guizhou, Li Dingguo persuaded the Yongli court to abandon Kunming, not only persuaded the Son of Heaven and set a plan to go to Sichuan through Jianchang, and even ordered Sichuan and other places to prepare to welcome the Son of Heaven. But just before leaving Kunming, Ma Jixiang, a close minister in front of the Son of Heaven, and others came to Li Dingguo and said that they could not go to Sichuan no matter what, but to southern Yunnan.

In a panic, Li Dingguo reluctantly agreed, and at that time he also wanted to gather the troops in southern Yunnan, and then try to bypass the main force of the Qing army, but he didn't expect to be unable to hold back the order, and the Son of Heaven fled Kunming with the Praetorian Guard, and then there were soldiers and horses from all walks of life, one by one, fleeing from Kunming, lest they fall behind. After leaving Kunming, the Son of Heaven ran all the way south, and after escaping the Nu River, it was still insufficient, and he escaped for hundreds of miles before stopping to take a breath.

When Li Dingguo, who arrived later, called for the gathering of soldiers and horses from all walks of life, many generals held up signs to protect the Son of Heaven and refused to come back and join Li Dingguo's division.

"Your Royal Highness," Li Dingguo's old comrade-in-arms Bai Wenxuan walked into his military tent, holding several letters of persuasion in his hand, all of which were sent by the Qing army, and then handed over to Bai Wenxuan by the recipient: "All of them were written by Sun Kewang himself." ”

Now Li Dingguo's hatred in his heart is probably his former sworn brother Sun Kewang, who finally won two big victories, killing Kong Youde and Nikan, breaking the myth of the invincibility of the Qing army, re-inspiring the hope of the people of the world, and greatly improving the prestige of Xiying. As a result, Sun Kewang actually wanted to usurp the throne! Brother Yi, he really wants to usurp the throne immediately!

Li Dingguo has never understood how the righteous brother who seems to be quite smart and is quite good at internal affairs can be stupid to this point, Xiying, no, to be precise, the progress of the Ming army in Hunan and Guangxi is very large because the local gentry warmly welcomed, prepared grain and grass for the Ming army, inquired about news, and helped the Ming army raise food and salaries - they were helping the Ming army, not Xiying! If Sun Kewang usurped the throne, Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu, who were leading the troops, would immediately be beaten back to their original form, and they would immediately change from the Ming Dynasty to the Western Thief.

Don't talk about the help of these gentry who are oriented to the Ming Dynasty to the army, your Sun Kewang really usurped the throne, Wen Anzhi of Sichuan, as well as the Qianchuang camp in eastern Sichuan and northern Hubei, and the Sichuan army in Jianchang and Chengdu, who else will listen to your Sun Kewang? Not to mention Zheng Chenggong in Fujian and Zhang Huangyan in eastern Zhejiang, they have already separated from the imperial court because of the problem of supporting Tang and Lu, and they are very vigilant against the western camp that supports King Gui. There will never be even a strategic restraint again.

So only to drive away Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu immediately reached a consensus, even if the internal strife hurts the vitality, although there are many people in the middle and lower classes of Xiying who are puzzled by this, wondering why Li Dingguo is so loyal to a court that once resisted, but Li Dingguo understands very well that if he destroys the banner of Yongli, then Xiying will immediately become the target of public criticism, and the anti-Qing alliance that was finally formed will immediately collapse.

At that time, Li Dingguo already felt that the stupidity of his righteous brother was unimaginable, but it turned out that he still overestimated Sun Kewang, and there is a saying that "rely on the mountains to eat the mountains, rely on the water to eat the water." "Xiying was able to have such a big momentum a few years ago because he was eating the Yongli Imperial Court, Sun Kewang smashed his own rice bowl once, but even if he fled to the Qing Court, he was still eating the food of the Yongli Imperial Court - if there is no Yongli Imperial Court, what is the Qing Court doing with you, a Sun Kewang who has no soldiers and no power?

As long as Xiying is still there and the Yongli court is still there, Li Dingguo knows that the Qing court will have to wait for Sun Kewang in order to learn more about the situation in Xiying, and also to show the Qing court's leniency to the officials in the Yongli court. In the future, if the Qing court sees an unfamiliar young man on the battlefield, they may call Sun Kewang to ask about this person's background, Li Dingguo feels that Sun Kewang can rely on this job to ensure that he will not starve for the rest of his life.

But Sun Kewang actually smashed his job for the second time!

This time, Sun Kewang did his best for the Qing court, and wrote one after another to Xiying's old letters of persuasion, and I don't know how many people rebelled against the Qing army, led the way for them, and betrayed the intelligence of the Ming army to them. Although he hated this former brother-in-law, if Sun Kewang was in front of him, Li Dingguo would definitely ask a good question: "How can you be so stupid?" Even if we turn our faces and become enemies, you are still eating the food of the West Camp, the West Camp was destroyed, why are the Tartars still raising you, the king who has no soldiers? ”

In addition to Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo also needed to have a headache with other fools around him, so Lu Guisheng was ashamed to build that he went north alone, ignoring the Yongli Emperor and the imperial court.

Before Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan discussed how to reward the generals who took the initiative to hand in the letters, Lu Guisheng came to Li Dingguo again, he had heard how Yongli replied to the envoy, so he came to persuade Li Dingguo to go north first, not to put the main force of Xiying in a dangerous situation where it was impossible to advance or retreat for this cowardly prince.

"I have decided to fight a battle here," Li Dingguo vetoed Lu Guisheng's proposal without thinking, and he ordered the generals to be summoned and came up with a battle plan: "We have not fought a battle in a month, and presumably the Tartars are now so arrogant that they have decided that we dare not fight." ”

"Mopan Mountain!" Li Dingguo had already reconnoitred the surrounding terrain and selected an ambush location: "If Wu Sangui chases after him, we will set up an ambush here and send him to see Kong Youde and Nikan!" ”

"Your Highness not!" Lu Guisheng was shocked when he heard this, and immediately objected: "When we withdrew from Kunming, we decided not to fight, if we want to fight, why do you want to give up Kunming Jiancheng?" Now that Kunming has been abandoned, there is no regret about fighting again. Besides, what good is it to win this battle? ”

If he won the battle before giving up Kunming, he still had a chance to keep central Yunnan, but now the Qing army is pouring in large numbers, even if he can eliminate Wu Sangui, but there is Hong Chengchou behind him, and the Ming army is fighting one less one. If it can't win, it will be even more unimaginable, even if it is a draw, the Qing army can return to Kunming to recuperate, and the Ming army, which lacks food and clothing, is even more troublesome to take care of the wounded in this poor mountain and remote area.

"It's about boosting morale." Li Dingguo's admitting that the objection was not unreasonable, but only a victory could bring back the frightened emperor, and only to convince the imperial court that Xiying had the strength to defend it, and as long as the Son of Heaven returned to the army, Li Dingguo could begin to carry out his strategic plan.

But Lu Guisheng still objected, believing that staying one more day would be dangerous, and it would consume valuable military rations, and even said that he should not take care of the cowardly court at all.

"Drag him out and beat him with twenty sticks!" Li Dingguo couldn't help but scream, if he had other solutions, would he be willing to drag it in this place without dying? It was precisely because what Lu Guisheng said was not completely unreasonable that he was even more angry.

But! In any case, it is impossible for Li Dingguo to leave the Son of Heaven, if there is no Yongli Son of Heaven and the imperial court, even if he can go to Sichuan, what is it? Li Dingguo can think of the propaganda of the Tartars: the western thief abandoned the Son of Heaven and returned to be a rogue. In that case, not only will the gentry doubt themselves, but I am afraid that even Wen Anzhi, the Sichuan army, and the rest of the camp will no longer be friendly forces.

After the guards dragged out Lu Guisheng, who was shouting injustice, Li Dingguo calmed down and continued to explain his ambush plan to his subordinates.

"As long as this battle can be won, the Son of Heaven will return to the army." Li Dingguo thought in his heart, he felt that the shape would still be stronger than the period of his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong, after all, the gentry were hostile to him at that time, and now the banner of the Son of Heaven can not only win a large number of responses, but also in addition to Wu Sangui, a desperate Manchu lackey, it has a great deterrent effect on the local Qing army.

"It would be nice if the Son of Heaven I supported was willing to go into battle, if only I could see the Son of Heaven flag fluttering on the battlefield......" Li Dingguo couldn't help but fantasize: "Even if you don't dare to go into battle, as long as you don't see the enemy coming, you can run away." ”

……

Lu Guisheng, who was beaten with twenty military sticks, lay on the bed, as a jinshi, he had never received this kind of treatment after taking refuge in the Jin Palace, Li Dingguo had been very polite to him before, and helped him obtain the position of Guanglu Siqing, before he secretly hoped that the King of Jin would be able to replace the son of Yongli, and also regarded the King of Jin as the first object of allegiance.

"If the king of Jin does not listen to his advice, he will be defeated."

Lu Guisheng howled on the bed, the more he thought about it, the more he hated, he secretly gritted his teeth, and thought: "Li Dingguo would rather die to protect the court, I can't die with him!" ”

……

Wanxian,

"The messenger of the Inspector of Wen? Please. ”

Deng Ming politely led the person into the hall, took the letter to him and unfolded it, the tone of the letter was very affectionate, and asked Deng Ming, the clan, to go to Fengjie to talk about it, and asked him to report his life experience quickly, and Fengjie would report to the court immediately. Seeing the letter, Deng Ming frowned slightly, thinking that he really needed to go to Fengjie to explain to Inspector Wen.

There's no draft, I'm rushing out now, it's late, forgive me.