When the news sent by Luo Yuanbin reached Nanjing, Nanjing Zhengfu had just officially announced that Shang Yi would become emperor, and the ceremony was scheduled for October 18th, which was about two months away. Therefore, the news that the Great Western Army surrendered to the Chinese Army and handed over the entire Yunnan area to the Chinese Army also sent a gift to the news that Shang Yi would become emperor.
However, the surrender of the Daxi Army and the peaceful recovery of Yunnan are of great significance, which means that Guizhou, the two southwestern provinces in China, have been officially included in the territory of Nanjing Government.
In this era, the two provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan were generally similar to those in later generations, except that some details were slightly different, with a total area of about 600,000 square kilometers. During the Wanli period, the registered population was: 43,450 households in Guizhou Province, 299,72 households, 135,560 households in Yunnan Province, and 147,6692 households.
However, the accuracy of these numbers is not high, because at this time, the two provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou were areas with relatively concentrated ethnic minorities. The Ming Dynasty established quite a few local administrative agencies such as Xuanwei Office, Xuanfu Office, Fufu Office, and Chief Litigation Office, which was equivalent to the ethnic minority autonomous region. Therefore, there are considerable loopholes in the statistics of population and household registration. Otherwise, with the population base of more than 1.4 million in Yunnan, it would not be able to provide more than 100,000 troops.
But no matter what, the recovery of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces also expanded the territory of Nanjing's government again. The entire southwest region and the entire southern region were only Sichuan.
Shang Yi first ordered the inner cabinet to immediately start sending officials to Yunnan and Guizhou provinces to establish local administrative agencies, and emphasized that there are many ethnic minorities in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces. Therefore, local officials from the two provinces must pay attention to handling relations with ethnic groups, respect the customs and traditions of each ethnic minority, and do not discriminate against them, and do not be allowed to serve the strong and bully the weak.
In fact, the Han people are generally a very inclusive nation. Most ethnic minorities can accept and get along well with them. Many ethnic minorities have completely integrated with the Han people.
Moreover, all dynasties in China also attached great importance to dealing with relations with ethnic minorities. Therefore, at this time, most ethnic minorities and Han people were generally very friendly and lived in peace. Of course, there would be local officials of the Ming Dynasty and the heads of ethnic minorities and chiefs of ethnic minorities to deceive the civilians of ethnic minorities. In addition, there were also a small number of ethnic minorities ambitions, stubborn or extreme nationalists who used these things to make trouble, triggered the disagreement between ethnic minorities and Han people, and even gathered people to rebel, proclaimed themselves as kings, etc.
Therefore, Shang Yi also formulated three principles for dealing with ethnic customs: strive to unite pro-Chinese elements among ethnic minorities and strive for the centrists among ethnic minorities as much as possible; but we must never be ruthless against a few stubborn elements and resolutely eliminate them to serve as a warning to others. At the same time, the Jiangxi Military Region is temporarily stationed in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces to help local officials stabilize the situation in the two provinces as soon as possible, restore social order and agricultural production.
At this time in Sichuan, the front-line commander Duan Peng and Li Mou jointly sent people to pass the resolution of Nanjing Zhengfu to Wu Sangui. Regarding Wu Sangui's conditions for surrender, Nanjing Zhengfu's reply was: Wu Sangui must accept unconditional surrender. Except for the safety of Wu Sangui's life, Nanjing Zhengfu could not agree to all other conditions. He could only wait for Nanjing Zhengfu to accept the handling of Nanjing Zhengfu after Wu Sangui surrendered, and asked Wu Sangui to reply within a specified time limit.
After receiving this resolution, Wu Sangui regretted and hated, regretted why he was so profitable and denied. He rejected the generous conditions proposed by Nanjing Government, which made him desperate and could only wait for death. He also hated Shang Yi for being too unreasonable and was completely showing off his strength and suppressing the weak. Relying on the strong military force of the Chinese army, he did not even leave a way out for himself, and forced himself to surrender unconditionally and hand over all life and death to others. This is too bullying.
However, Wu Sangui was very clear that his resentment towards Nanjing Zhengfu was unreasonable. After all, he refused first. Nanjing Zhengfu was obviously preparing to take action against him this time and warned other existing forces that Nanjing Zhengfu would not give anyone a second chance. If he rejected the conditions offered by Nanjing Zhengfu, he should first think about whether he was able to bear the consequences of the rejection.
But Wu Sangui was also in a very difficult situation. He would definitely not be able to defeat the Chinese army. However, if he surrendered unconditionally, he would have no power to resist and a few prisoners could take his life. Although the Nanjing government also guaranteed Wu Sangui's life safety, Wu Sangui did not dare to believe this guarantee. Moreover, even if he saved his life and became a civilian in the new dynasty established by Shang Yi, he had nothing to do and lived his life in such a mediocre manner, and Wu Sangui was a little unwilling to accept it.
Therefore, Wu Sangui thought about it all night, and finally his hair turned gray. He finally made up his mind that if he wanted to live his life in an ordinary way, he would rather die than surrender.
So Wu Sangui immediately recruited Prime Minister Xia, Ma Bao and other confidant generals, first handed over the resolution of Nanjing Zhengfu to watch, and then told them that he had surrendered to Nanjing Zhengfu in this way, and he was unwilling to give up, so he decided to defend Chengdu and fight to the death with the Chinese army. If he was lucky, the Chinese army would have been able to surrender under certain conditions after a long attack on Chengdu. However, the possibility of such a result was not great, and the greater possibility was that the Chinese army would break through Chengdu and survive and die with the city. However, Wu Sangui expressed his wish to the generals and did not force him to stay or leave.
These generals followed Wu Sangui's former subordinates of Guanning Army when Wu Sangui was stationed in Shanhaiguan. Because the Guanning Army was originally an army built up by fellow villagers, most of these generals were a little bit related to Wu Sangui. Now seeing Wu Sangui's desperate situation, he felt that the resolution of Nanjing political fu was too much. In addition, he felt that Wu Sangui's decision was too much. Of course, the generals of the Sichuan Army were not good, so they all felt that they shared the same hatred for the enemy. Since the Chinese army relied on its powerful force to suppress others, he was not willing to surrender so much. He fought with the Chinese army. At worst, he could die.
Therefore, all the generals expressed their willingness to fight to the death with Wu Sangui. Even if they are not as good as the Chinese army, they will die in a vigorous battle and will never surrender cowardly.
After hearing this, Wu Sangui felt a little comforted, so he didn't feel energetic and immediately started to arrange things.
In the previous stage, the Sichuan Army voluntarily gave up the Chongqing Prefecture and the area around Kuizhou Prefecture. Now Wu Sangui still has Tongchuan Prefecture, Jiading Prefecture, Meizhou, Qiongzhou, Yazhou, Lizhou Fushi, etc. with Chengdu Prefecture as the core. There are about 100,000 people, of which the Guanning Army, who had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty with Wu Sangui, had about 6,000 people.
Of course, Wu Sangui also knew that with the current strength of the Sichuan Army, there was no way to compete with the Chinese Army. If it was against other troops, it was allowed to take control of the city and use danger as a barrier to defend the dangerous city and resist at all levels. However, this move was not good for the Chinese Army, because the firearms of the Chinese Army were too powerful and had broken the tactical rules of this era. It was a dead end to defend the city.
Therefore, the tactic used by Wu Sangui was to give up at other passes and intersections, concentrate most of his own forces, and guard Chengdu. He sent dozens of small troops, three or five hundred people in a group, scattered to the areas around Chengdu Prefecture, either divided or combined, attacking the Chinese army's logistics, supply lines, small troops, and sabotage activities in other areas occupied by the Chinese army. It made it difficult for the Chinese army to take care of the beginning and end, and the small troops sent by each branch were not evenly enough, and everything was solved by itself. To put it bluntly, it was to steal the people.
Since the Chinese army's military operations in Sichuan were very smooth in the previous stage, the Chinese army was somewhat careless at this time. After the time limit for the reply stipulated by Wu Sangui, Duan Peng and Li Mou joined forces, divided into two routes, north and south, and launched a full-scale attack on Chengdu Prefecture, and both routes successfully entered the Chengdu Prefecture area and approached Chengdu.
The Chinese army was very optimistic, including Duan Peng and Li Mou, who believed that it would take only a few days to capture Chengdu. Once Chengdu was broken, Sichuan would be generally stable and the war in the south would basically end.
But at this moment, the two of them received news in succession that many Chinese army's grain transport teams were attacked by the Sichuan army, and a temporary warehouse on the front line was successfully attacked by the Sichuan army, and all the food and food in the warehouse were burned out.
After receiving the news, the two did not pay much attention to it, believing that this was just a normal counterattack method of the Sichuan Army. Attacking the supply line was a method that Ren He's army would use. Therefore, they also ordered the strengthening of the protection of the grain transport team and the various supply points, so that the solution could be solved.
In the following days, the Sichuan Army's attacks in the hinterland of the Chinese Army became more and more intense. The Chinese Army strengthened its defenses against the grain transport team and supply points. The Sichuan Army's sneak attack did not achieve much results, but the attack team targeted the small county town and the small troops of the Chinese Army.
Therefore, two county towns were attacked by the Sichuan army. The temporary designated magistrates and administrative personnel of the Chinese army were killed by the Sichuan army, and their bodies were hung on the city wall for public display. More than twenty villages were looted by the Sichuan army, with casualties reaching more than 3,000 people. Five or six Chinese army teams were attacked, and the army suffered more than fifty casualties.
At this time, Duan Peng and Li Mou realized that something was wrong, so they began to pay attention to it and sent troops to encircle and suppress these Sichuan Army attack teams. However, for more than ten days, the results were not great. They only annihilated a small Sichuan Army team, and the Chinese army itself suffered more than one hundred casualties.