Last night a friend was in a bad mood and the author was asked to go out for a drink. I didn't update or ask for leave. I'm really sorry.

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In July of the ninth year of Yongli, after Chen Kai forcefully penetrated Shaozhou Prefecture through the northwest of Huizhou Prefecture and captured the city of Shaozhou Prefecture, re-establishing the confrontation between the Ming and Qing armies along Meiling, Xining King Li Dingguo supervised Guo Zhiqi, a great scholar.

With the help of the emperor, he personally led the army to march westward.

The army set out from Guangzhou Fucheng, passed through Sanshui, Gaoyao, Deqingzhou, Fengkai and other places, followed the Xijiang River, and went straight to Wuzhou Fucheng, the eastern gateway of Guangxi.

Xijiang is the busiest waterway between Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, and Wuzhou is the key place between the two provinces. In the seventh year of Yongli, Li Dingguo moved south from Huguang and once occupied the capital city of Wuzhou. However, with the defeat of Zhaoqing, the army

Retreating into the hinterland of Guangxi, it was once again controlled by Ma Xiong, the left-wing general of Dingnan Fan. Until last year, Li Dingguo, with the cooperation of Chen Kai, captured Guangdong Province, but at first it was from southern Guangxi via Gaolian Lei Sanfu in Guangdong.

They entered, but even the wind and waves after the war were unable to take advantage of the situation.

This time, it was a thunderous momentum after half a year of rest. Once the army arrived at Wuzhou Fucheng, they soon got the news that Ma Xiong, the commander-in-chief of Dingnan Fan's left wing, led his troops to move into Guilin, and the remaining troops

The Green Battalion soldiers could not hold out for long under the indiscriminate bombardment of the artillery supported by Chen Kai. Some of the Green Battalion soldiers fled to Guilin, while the rest surrendered directly to Kaicheng.

After occupying the capital of Wuzhou and still controlled by the Ming army, Liuzhou, Nanning, Xunzhou and other counties could be connected to Xijiang through rivers such as Yujiang, Qianjiang, Liujiang, etc., and the transportation between the two provinces was completely connected.

Next, the Ming army marched north along the Li River, gradually expelling the Qing army's forces in Pinglefu. In November, the army passed through Pinglefu City, went straight to Guilin Prefecture and Yangshuo County, adjacent to it, and re-entered the territory of Guilin Prefecture.

This is not the first time that Li Dingguo has launched an offensive against Guilin Prefecture. Guilin won a great victory in the sixth year of Yongli. After the defeat in Zhaoqing in the seventh year of Yongli, he also launched an offensive against Guilin Prefecture, but it ended in failure.

.In the final analysis, the engineering methods of the Ming army are still far inferior to those of the Qing army. At least the Qing army has been fighting for many years, captured a large number of red cannons, and established siege artillery teams that once destroyed cities such as Yangzhou and Guangzhou.

The main force of the Ming army at this stage has become the former rogue bandits and pirates - the rogue bandits are used to attacking the city with ants, and human life is worthless anyway; while the pirates have artillery, they are basically all

For those who are used to fighting naval battles, land battles, whether it is artillery bombardment, bombardment, or ant attack, all seem particularly amateurish.

Chen Kai learned the lessons from Zheng Chenggong's attack on Changtai County and Zhangzhou Prefecture, adjusted the method of letting go, and mastered it proficiently, achieving good results in the First Battle of Xinhui. Earlier, in the Second Battle of Lufeng Bastion

A large number of red cannons captured during the defense battle were used to form an artillery team, which further enhanced the Ming army's siege capabilities.

However, not all Ming armies were strengthened by such enhancements. Chen Kai taught Li Dingguo and Zheng Chenggong the secret of releasing Bengfa, and the Hongyi Artillery Team was only lent to Li Dingguo at this stage, and after the Battle of Wuzhou

He rejoined the team. In the final analysis, only Li Dingguo and Zheng Chenggong were truly promoted, while Chen Kai's troops, who had the strongest siege ability at this stage, were still stationed in Guangdong and stayed put.

Ever since Li Dingguo's army arrived at Wuzhou Fucheng, the Qing army in Guangxi has been in turmoil. In fact, as the political struggle between the two factions in Guangdong became clear, the shogunate in Guangxi, Nangan and Changsha in southern Huguang all received news and confirmed that Li Dingguo was about to go on an expedition.

The only thing lacking in military intelligence is where to attack.

In response to this, Hong Chengchou asked the Qing troops in southern Jiangxi and Guangxi to defend to the death, while he led the Southwest Jingbiao as a mobile force to rush for reinforcements at any time.

Next, Nangan was attacked first, but the Ming army attacking there was not Li Dingguo, but Chen Kai. Comparing his feelings, Hong Chengchou quickly understood Chen Kai's thinking and did not directly send reinforcements because he knew very well that Chen Kai

Kai would not go too deep, and even if he sent reinforcements, entered Yuanzhou Mansion from Changsha and then went south, the war would have been over by the time. On the contrary, he would be more likely to lure Li Dingguo's main force there, which would be more of a loss than a gain.

After many years of fighting, especially the Ming army's major counterattack in the sixth year of Yongli reign, the Qing government's rule in Huguang was in danger. Hong Chengchou was ordered to do so at a time of crisis, and what followed was naturally a mess that couldn't get any worse. With that,

With his efforts, the situation in Huguang continued to improve, but Guangdong and Fujian were the first to collapse, which undoubtedly made him have to take care of a much larger area.

The five-thousand-mile long border planned when leaving Beijing has turned into a ten-thousand-mile long border, from Yunyang to Baoqing and then to Guilin, then southward and eastward, encompassing the Meiling defense line, and then turned northward along Fujian and Jiangxi.

The Wuyi Mountains in between stretch all the way to Zhejiang. He is responsible for such a long defense line all by himself, and it will take him all the way to Quzhou before Jidu's Eight Banners Army can shoulder the security of the next line of defense.

Such a large scale, but the Qing army in Huguang is still rebuilding, and Jiangxi has always been a province with fewer green camps. The Ming army in Fujian was able to block the Ming army only because of the various checkpoints in the Wuyi Mountains and the Fujian green camp who had received the death order and were determined to make meritorious deeds.

Defend, otherwise this line of defense would have been penetrated long ago.

Once the defense line is long, there must be a distinction between priority and priority. Hong Chengchou saw Chen Kai's previous attack on Shaozhou Prefecture and did not rush to take action, but this time it was Li Dingguo who sent troops, relying on his lifelong career in officialdom.

From the accumulated experience, Hong Chengchou knew very well that this time it was no longer a political struggle, but a real war. Therefore, he quickly took the southwest meridian south to Guilin to help in the war, fearing that the key node on the long side of Guilin would be

The Ming army penetrated.

Guilin was originally stationed with Dingnan Fan's Admiral Line Guo'an, Dingnan Fan's Right Wing General Army, two vassal troops, as well as Guangxi Governor Yu Shiyue's Fu Biao and a series of green battalion troops. This time Li Dingguo's army attacked, Dingnan Fan

Ma Xiong, the commander-in-chief of the left wing, also led his troops to retreat to Guilin, and a group of green battalion soldiers came. Careful calculation showed that the number of Qing troops guarding Guilin alone was more than 20,000, and most of them were Dingnan Fan soldiers.

Such strong strength is completely sufficient to defend Guilin. For example, in the seventh year of Yongli, Hu Yiqing and Li Dingguo successively launched attacks on it. There are lessons learned from the past that Kong Youde underestimated the enemy and was defeated. From the line of Guoan below

No one dared to be careless anymore. With the city being easy to defend and difficult to attack and the large number of soldiers, he not only achieved the defense of Guilin, but also expanded his power to Pingle Prefecture and Wuzhou Prefecture.

However, today is different from the past. Li Dingguo now has Chen Kai as his backing, and with the strong momentum to capture Guangzhou, Guilin City seems to have returned to the six years of Yongli like floating in the wind. The generals are strictly guarded and cannot defend it.

He said that Hong Chengchou did not dare to take it lightly and quickly led the four battalions of Jingbiao Right Town, Jingbiao Back Town, left and right shrimp camps, Jingbiao Front Camp, and Jingbiao Front Battalion to aid Guangxi, leaving only Jingbiao Front Camp behind.

Town, Jingbiao Zuozhen and Jingbiao Zhongying will continue to be stationed in Baoqing and Changde in preparation for Sun Kewang.

Originally, Hong Chengchou's four towns and five battalions at the southwest coast totaled more than 11,000 troops. However, with the complete collapse of Fujian and Guangdong, Hong Chengchou requested an order to expand the army. The Qing government was also busy sending a large number of troops from the north and south of the Yangtze River.

The Qing army was transferred to Huguang and Jiangxi, and Hong Chengchou took the opportunity to expand Jingbiao. Now the total military strength has exceeded the 20,000 mark, almost doubled. Among them, each of the four towns is divided into three battalions, and each battalion

One thousand soldiers; after passing the bid, the three battalions in front, middle and back were upgraded to the auxiliary, and two battalions were set up, with a total of 2,000 soldiers. This was already an army of 18,000; the remaining two thousand soldiers were still composed of

Wang Fuchen and Zhang Dayuan commanded the left and right camps. This time, Hong Chengchou brought a total of 12,000 troops.

The army quickly moved south. Relying on the roads repaired and ships built by the Changsha shogunate officials and staff in the past two years, tens of thousands of troops gathered everywhere and rushed to Guilin. Hong Chengchou personally led the main force at full speed along the Xiangjiang River.

Advance, pass Hengzhou Prefecture, Yongzhou Prefecture and arrive at Guilin.

The main force of reinforcements arrived. Yu Shiyue, the governor of Guangxi, was a bannerman of the Han army, but he was also a member of the Changsha shogunate. It was Hong Chengchou who personally transferred him to the shogunate at the time when he had been moved to the left due to improper promotion of subordinate officials in Shaanxi, and supplemented the Huguang post salt.

Dao. At the beginning of this year, it was Hong Chengchou who single-handedly facilitated his replacement of the former governor Chen Weixin who had been dismissed due to illness, and became another governor of the Changsha shogunate after Hu Quancai.

Hearing that Hong Chengchou was personally providing reinforcements, Yu Shiyue was waiting at the dock early. In addition to Yu Shiyue, Dingnan Fan's Xian Guoan, Ma Xiong, three people from the whole army and other green camp generals also arrived, looking at the slow progress of the Li River.

When they saw Hong Chengchou disembarking from the approaching warship, they immediately stepped forward to salute the old manager.

"No gift."

Without the courtesy of generals, Hong Chengchou directly asked Xian Guoan, who was in charge of military affairs here, about the current war situation. This was the purpose of dragging his sixty-two-year-old body to come to the rescue in person, and naturally it was also what he was most concerned about at the moment.

.However, he soon received a piece of news that made him frown.

"Returning to the words of Mr. Jinglue, a few days ago, the old thief personally led a large army to the city. He first tried to persuade him to surrender, but when he failed, the ants attacked the city. The officers and soldiers defended the city tightly and repeatedly repelled the old thief's troops. The old thief saw that he could not attack by force.

, it was about to turn into a siege. But it seems that they got the news that the old manager was coming to help, and they have already retreated to Liuzhou Mansion with their tail between their legs."

Li Dingguo retreated, which was naturally the best thing for Hong Chengchou. But the problem was that this time Li Dingguo was in a position to win. He didn't believe that his people would be afraid of him, but he retreated so simply, but it was really

It's a little strange.

"It's just the ants attacking the city, without using the red barbarian cannon?"

"No." Xian Guoan shook his head, and then explained: "The information that the general found out said that the Hongyi artillery team that attacked Wuzhou Prefecture was lent by Chen Kai to his old thieves. After Wuzhou Prefecture was captured, that artillery team

The Hongyi Artillery Team will return to Guangzhou."

This explanation is reasonable and reasonable. After all, these days, it is rare for people like Chen Kai to be willing to borrow troops. It is normal to return to the army immediately after using up. However, Hong Chengchou's question just now has still not been solved. After thinking about it, not only the former

The question is still unsolved, and a new question has been added.

"This is wrong!"

………………

Li Dingguo's army re-enters Guangxi, or Hong Chengchou's reinforcements move south. These are tens of thousands of armies, which will naturally affect the minds of various surrounding forces. Among them, the one who should pay the most attention to this matter is naturally Yongli.

The emperor is naturally the most concerned about the imperial court, the system of the family and the world, and the safety of the country. But it is precisely the Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang who should be the most concerned about the situation, but here he is the one who is least aware of the external situation.

Anlong Mansion in Guizhou has only been a prefecture-level unit for a few years. When it was upgraded to a prefecture, it took on the important responsibility of the Emperor's presence. However, this place was originally a city with thousands of households, even if

It is the most authoritative place in the city - Anlong Qianhu's Yamen is just a dilapidated place. Air leakage and rain leaks are commonplace. Even the most imaginative people will never be able to distinguish it when they first see this place.

It is connected with a lofty place like the palace.

The reason why the palace is called the palace is because it is the residence of the emperor and the political decision-making center of the country. Emperor Yongli does live here today, sitting in the main hall of the former Qianhusuo Yamen, which is now the dragon chair in the palace hall.

Above, looking at the few remaining ministers in the hall who were only submissive, feeling depressed was the inevitable state.

In March of last year, the secret plan to lure Li Dingguo into the army to counter Sun Kewang was leaked. Sun Kewang sent his confidant Zheng Guo to recruit Wu Zhenyu, a bachelor, Zhang Wei from the military department, Jiang Gechang and Li Kaiyuan from the Hanlin Academy, and Xu Ji from the civil service department, and the young master of Dali Temple.

Qing Yang Zhong, Shao Qing of Taipu Temple Zhao Gengyu, Shao Qing of Guanglu Temple Cai Ji, Wu'an Hou Zheng Yunyuan, Jiangxi Taoist censor Zhou Yunji, censor Li Qi, Zhu Yipeng, Fujian Taoist censor Hu Shirui, martial arts doctor Zhu Dongdan, Zhongshu Ren

Eighteen people including Douxu, Yi Shijia, and eunuch Zhang Fulu, all of whom served the country, falsely accused Wu Zhenyu, the chief minister of the cabinet, of "deceiving the emperor and harming the country, stealing treasures to correct edicts" and committed suicide. Zhang Fulu, the internal prisoner, all served the country.

The Criminal Division and the Criminal Division executed the three persons involved in the incident, Zhang Nuo, and all the others.

At that time, there were not many ministers who followed Yongli into Guizhou. Officials such as the academician Wen'an, the governor of Sichuan and Hubei, Guo Zhiqi, Liancheng Bi, and Zhang Xiaoqi went to the battlefield in Guangdong. There were also some officials who followed Li Dingguo in his southern and northern campaigns, or in

The courtyard of Prince Qin's Mansion was changed. Now, Sun Kewang killed these eighteen ministers again, and there were not many left in the main hall.

There are fewer and fewer people, and the authority has long been taken away by Sun Kewang. Going to court has become a mere formality. I know there will be nothing worth discussing. The more I look at this empty hall, the more painful I feel in my heart.

He had no choice but to let the young eunuch around him announce his resignation. Unexpectedly, just after leaving the main hall, the great eunuch Pang Tianshou, who was in charge of the admiral's warrior camp, prostrated himself in front of Yongli, and his courtesy was as thorough as ever.

Emperor Yongli was extremely disgusted with this eunuch. Without him, the servants of the Tian family should have fulfilled their duties loyally and served the emperor, but he was flattering Sun Kewang, the living Cao Cao, betraying his master and being ungrateful. How could he not be disgusted with this eunuch?

Strange.

Emperor Yongli was originally quite disgusted by seeing him like this. However, now that Pang Tianshou and Wen'an Hou Ma Jixiang are here as Sun Kewang's spies, not only is it not in line with his temperament to have an attack in person, but he is also worried that they may be deeply involved.

fall into a worse situation.

"Pang Banban is exempt from the gift. Is there anything you can report?"

Emperor Yongli's title was still so kind. Hearing this, Pang Tianshou thanked him, but he seemed a little impatient. He stood up quickly and winked at the young eunuchs who were following Yongli. These few were newly assigned to the imperial court.

After only half a year, the young eunuchs retreated in fear.

"Your Majesty, it is Marquis Wen'an who wants to see you alone."
To be continued...