Li Chengdong's Ninth Army was an elite army of the Shun Army. It not only had a large number of cavalry, but also had a large number of firearms. When the Privy Council formulated the deployment of the two major battles of Jingxiang and Pingchuan, in order to strengthen the attack power of the Shun Army entering Sichuan, he asked the artillery army admiral Hong Bao to lead the artillery town to Sichuan to assist in the war. He also pieced together more than 100 fire-strengthening Ninth Army from the 11th Army and the Shaanxi garrison.

The Ninth Army went south from Xi'an to Hanzhong on May 13th, and entered the Baoning Prefecture from Hanzhong Pass on the 17th. Previously, the two prefectures of Baoning and Shunqing had been captured by Liu Wenxiu's troops, and more than 200 Ming army ships were seized.

In order to speed up the marching, Li Chengdong personally led the main force of the infantry and cavalry to march towards Chongqing through Shunqing, and on the other hand, he ordered his son Li Yuanyin to lead the artillery team to transport it to Chongqing via the Jialing River.

The artillery town led by the artillery army admiral Hong Bao and more than 14,000 troops stationed in Shaanxi were only set off through Xi'an on the 17th, which was several days slower than the Ninth Army.

When Li Chengdong's troops arrived in the area of ​​Qu County in Shunqing, they sent general Hu Maozhen to lead troops Ding Liuqian to Dazhou suddenly north, and contacted the Yaohuangtu bandits in Wanxian and Liangshan, locking the Ertan troops of the Ming army in Kuizhou, Liu Tiren, Hu Daoming and other troops in Wushan, thus ensuring that the Ming army forces in Kuizhou and northern Chongqing could no longer pose a threat to the Shun army besieging Chongqing.

Meng Qiaofang, the governor of Ganzhou and Shaanxi, and Zhang Guozhu, the governor of Shaanxi, also increased his efforts to persuade the Ertan brothers in Kuizhou. The Ertan brothers, who were already afraid of the misfortune of Shun's army, were greatly damaged after being attacked by Hu Jiusi. He also heard that Li Xiao, Yang Zhan and others were all defeated by Shun's army, so on May 22, accepted the conditions of Meng Qiaofang, the governor of Ganzhou and Shaanxi.

Ertan's rebellion made the Ming army Liu Tiren and Hu Daoming in Wushan and Fengjie areas become isolated, but Liu and Hu generals did not surrender to Shun like Ertan, and still insisted on resisting Shun in the Kuidong area. However, the two troops were limited, and the Kuidong area was extremely poor. Even if the two generals were unwilling to surrender to Shun, they would not have much effect on the entire Sichuan battle situation.

Yao Yulin, the deputy general entrenched in the Liangshan area, was afraid of being attacked by Ertan, and had to retreat into the stone pillar through Zhongxian, and received support from Qin Liangyu.

Li Chengdong originally intended to drive Ertan and send elite troops into Shizhu to encircle Yao Yulin in one fell swoop, occupy Shizhu, and seize Fuling, an important town in northern Chongqing. However, Yan Xi, the former right prime minister of Daxi who followed the army, was now the pacification envoy of Dashun Southwest, said that the emperor had sent people to Shizhu to persuade Qin Liangyu to surrender to the marquis as a condition, and highly praised Qin Liangyu, saying that everyone in Chinese women would learn from Qin Liangyu, so they should focus on pacification of Qin Liangyu. They should not easily move troops to Shizhu until the end.

After hearing this, Li Chengdong calmed down his mind to march into Shiquan and instead attacked Fuling from Changshou. Yan Ximing also sent someone to Shiquan again as the Southwest Pacifier of Dashun to persuade him to surrender.

After receiving Yan Ximing's letter of persuasion, the 73-year-old veteran Qin Liangyu summoned his clan members to say to them: "My brothers and both died in battle. I was a woman who was favored by the country for twenty years. Now that the country has reached this point, I am still irreconcilable with the thief!"

Qin Liangyu was determined to lead troops to rescue Chongqing, but in the past twenty years, Shifu soldiers either fought with Dongnu in Liaodong or bloody battles with bandits in the pass. His own losses were huge. It can be said that Shifu almost every family was filial.

Qin Liangyu's two elder brothers Qin Bangping and Qin Banghan were both killed in the Battle of Hunhe, and his younger brother Qin Minping also died in the Battle of She'an. His son Ma Xianglin died in Xiangyang and his daughter-in-law Zhang Fengyi died in Houjiazhuang.

When the Western Army invaded Kuizhou in the 16th year of Chongzhen, Qin Liangyu led the remaining Shiquan army to fight, but was defeated by the Western army. This battle caused most of the adult Shiquan man to lose. Therefore, even if Qin Liangyu wanted to fight Dashun to death, Shiquan could only use two or three thousand soldiers.

At that time, Sichuan Governor Ma Gan did not agree to Qin Liangyu's participation in the northern aid to Chongqing. Apart from considering that Qin Liangyu was old, there were no soldiers available on the side of Shifu.

Therefore, even if Qin Liang and Yu Ning died, she would not be willing to surrender to Shun, so she could only divide her troops to guard Shiquan and could not pose a threat to Shun army that was besieging Chongqing.

On June 1, Li Chengdong's Ninth Army conquered Fuling. In this battle, Ertan brothers, as the vanguard, made great efforts.

On the seventh day, the Ninth Army gathered at the city of Chongqing. After a short rest, the Ninth Army replaced the 12th Army, which had been besieged Chongqing for more than two months, and began to attack the city.

On the 13th, the artillery army commanded by Hong Bao arrived in Chongqing by boat through the Jialing River. At this point, the Shun army outside Chongqing city had more than 70,000 troops and more than 600 artillery garrisons.

After inspecting the terrain of Chongqing on the spot, the artillery army admiral Hong Bao personally deployed artillery bombardment, concentrated 48 heavy artillery pieces and more than 200 medium-sized artillery pieces to attack Tongyuan Gate, Chongqing, which had been blown up.

The shelling lasted for two days, and the throwing machine was used to throw a large number of explosive King Breaking Bags, which forced all the Ming troops on Tongyuan Gate to remove the city wall at one point.

The isolated Zeng Ying could only place his hope in the second rescue operation organized by Sichuan Governor Ma Gan.

However, the Shun Army did not give the Ming army a chance. After Liu Wenxiu and Li Chengdong and Yan Xi were determined to discuss, they decided to draw an elite town from each of the two armies as the vanguard, cooperated with the surrendered Ertan, Hu Sanjiusi and other troops, and Li Laiheng unified the command of the attack from Fotu Pass to Chengdu. This made the Ming army lose the opportunity to organize rescue of Chongqing and collapse one after another before the powerful offensive of the Shun Army.

The commander of Neijiang County, Wen Shun's army, was so scared that they took out the money from the warehouse to recruit people to defend the city, and announced that as long as the defenders were to help the city, they would give fifty taels of platinum. As a result, all the rascals recruited were rogues in the city. As soon as these rascals received the rascals, they took fifty taels of platinum, and then ran away with money.

Li Laiheng paid great attention to military discipline on his way to Chengdu, imitating Yue Fei's slogan that he would starve to death and not rob grain, and not demolish houses if he was frozen to death, which made the people of Sichuan along the way very support the Shun Army.

Due to the "massacre" strategy of gentry and landlords during the operation of Sichuan, once the Ming army was defeated or fled, the local area could not form a spontaneous resistance force. In addition, the heads of the Ming army from Sichuan took self-protection measures in the face of the large-scale attack of the Shun army. It can be said that they fled and heard the news, which led to the vanguard reaching Ziyang in just seven days.

Sichuan Governor Ma Gan and General Yang Zhan and others defended Ziyang City, but the left and right said that Ziyang could not be defended. Ma Gan said, "I will die when I encounter an enemy!"

He also refused Li Laiheng's persuasion to surrender and said to Yang Zhan and other Ming generals: "Since ancient times, ministers who have been granted the border should die, and I will die here."

Although Yang Zhan was blocked by Li Laiheng at Fotu Pass, his troops suffered huge losses, but Li Laiheng did not get any advantage at that time.

Although Ziyang is a small city, the city has sufficient food and grass, and Yang Zhan still has 14,500 troops, so it is difficult for Li Laiheng to capture Ziyang City before he receives reinforcements.

Sichuan Governor Ma Gan personally took charge of Ziyang, which also inspired the morale of the Ming army. No matter from any perspective, the battle of Ziyang must be a fierce battle.

But at this critical moment, Yang Zhan was killed by his own people.

The person who killed Yang Zhan was Wang Xiang, the general who came to Ziyang under the order of Ma Gan. His original territory was Shunqing Prefecture. During Shunqing's garrison, he was fishing in the waters. In order to find a way to get money, he received taxes for the 20th year of Hongguang.

After the Shun Army captured Baoning, Wang Xiang was afraid that the Shun Army would lead his troops to escape to the Tongchuan area. He had previously heard that Li Xiao was defeated and hurriedly withdrew his troops, which led to Yang Zhan becoming an isolated army all the way.

There was a conflict between Wang Xiang and Yang Zhan.

Last year, Wang Xiang intended to expand his territory to Guizhou, so he secretly asked Yang Zhan to help him. As a result, Yang Zhan not only did not help him but also sent troops to attack Wang Xiang, which gave rise to the two of them. When Wang Xiang withdraws his troops in a hurry, he may not have wanted to use the Shun Army to destroy Yang Zhan, but unfortunately he failed to do so.

Yang Zhan also has great problems with his character. He is arrogant and does not want to pretend to be powerful. Another wise general Yuan Tao once had an internal conflict with Li Zhanchun. Since Li Zhanchun was Yang Zhan’s friend, Yang Zhan has always helped Li Zhanchun, which made Yuan Tao even more dissatisfied. Therefore, he formed an alliance with Wang Xiang in private and asked Wang Xiang to lead the army to Ziyang. He and Yang Zhan’s general Li Gande were willing to get rid of Yang Zhan.

But Wang Xiang could not come to Ziyang for no reason. At this time, Ma Gan was worried that he would not be able to defend Ziyang and issued a transfer order to Wang Xiang, as if someone was sleepy and handed a pillow.

Although Yang Zhan had resentment towards Wang Xiang, he still took the overall situation into consideration. He planned to defeat the Shun Army after receiving reinforcements from Wang Xiang, so he did not stop the matter.

On the night when Wang Xiang led his troops to Ziyang, Li Gande held a banquet to greet him and invited Yang Zhan to the banquet. Yuan Tao's wife Yu had an affair with Yang Zhan in private, and perhaps because she knew something from her husband, she hurriedly sent a slave to tell Yang Zhan that there was something change.

However, the arrogant Yang Zhan did not believe that anyone dared to harm him on his territory, so he brought 300 personal soldiers to the banquet. As a result, he was killed by Li Gande and thousands of troops beneath the banquet.

Yang Zhan's death caused Ziyang City to be in chaos.

When it comes, the world and the world work together, and the heroes are not free.
Chapter completed!