The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 100 Variables (4k)

Fengxiang Mansion and Shuiluo City.

September [-]th.

Shuiluo City is located at the junction of Pingliang and Gongchang prefectures, standing between Guanshan River Road.

There is Shuiluo River outside, which flows around the city and connects the two prefectures. In Song Dynasty, it was an important pass for the Song army to fight against Xixia.

But since the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army has continuously expanded its sphere of influence and regained the old land.

This once important border city has now lost its original function and has become an ordinary city in the interior.

Only the scars on the city wall allow people to recall how much wind and rain this city has experienced.

At this time, the city gates of Shuiluo City were closed tightly, and a large number of strong men with weapons stood on the city walls.

The soldiers and civilians guarding the city all set their eyes on the official road not far away.

Just outside the city, an army in chaotic armor was slowly advancing towards the southwest along the broken official road.

There were more than [-] bandits outside the city. Although it looked like they had suffered a defeat, the guards of Shuilio City dared not leave the city at all.

The entire Shuiluo City has a thousand soldiers, but there are actually only more than three hundred people, and there are not enough weapons, so what do we use to fight?He only hoped that this group of plague gods would leave the boundaries of Shuluo City as soon as possible, and not rush to attack Shuluo City in a flash of enthusiasm.

Li Guo didn't know what the waterfall city guard was thinking.

But even if it is clear, it is of no use to Li Guo.

Let alone 300 people, even 30 people, he would not go to the city.

Because less than twenty miles away behind him, a Ming army hung behind him like maggots on the tarsus.

At this moment, Li Guo was already in a state of distress, and the brocade robe on his body had been lost somewhere.

The high-topped helmet on the head has been replaced with a hat, and the original high-topped helmet has been left on the battle formation.

A body full of fish scales and bright armor is already covered with wind and dust and is in a state of no time to take care of it.

Now that Li Guo thinks about what happened a few days ago, he can't help feeling chills all over his body.

He wanted to lead the army to Fengxiang Mansion, but on the way, he was ambushed by the Ming army in Luomen.

The Ming army that ambushed them had only a total of more than [-] cavalry, and the former army suffered a big loss when they were caught off guard.

The horse army was scattered, and the army formation of the hungry soldiers was also broken.

He gritted his teeth and led Jingqi to rush forward, but he fell directly into the disadvantage after just a face-to-face encounter, and even he himself almost died in the battle.

Looking back now, Li Guo can't help but feel a little scared.

Li Guo saw with his own eyes that the general and school of the officers and soldiers killed two people in a row just before handing over horses, breaking apart for a while.

At that time, the first person Li Guo thought of was Cao Bianjiao.

However, Cao Bianjiao usually wears brocade robes and red armor, which can be said to be the only one in the entire Ming army and is very easy to identify.

If it weren't for the fact that the leading generals of the officers and soldiers were not wearing red armor, Li Guo would have thought that this person was Cao Bianjiao.

The cavalry under the command of the officers, soldiers and generals are all fully armored, all of which are fine armor and sharp blades, and one can tell at a glance that they are the elite of hundreds of battles.

Those fine cavalry from the frontier army under his command were slaughtered like chickens and dogs.

I just don't know why, those officers, soldiers and cavalry didn't take advantage of the victory to pursue too far in the end, allowing him to escape alive.

Li Guo didn't think much about it at that time, he just rejoiced that he escaped successfully, and led his troops to escape in the direction of Gongchang Mansion.

What really made Li Guo aware of the strangeness was what happened afterwards.

He planned to pass through Zhangjiachuan in Gongchang Mansion, and then go to Fengxiang Mansion from Zhangjiachuan.

Walk the road that Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong have walked before.

But this time, the cavalry of officers and soldiers blocked their only way forward like ghosts. This time there were even more than 2000 infantry.

After a tentative attack from the Zongbing, Li Guo directly led the troops and withdrew.

Then Li Guo recalled everything that happened before, the behavior of the officers and soldiers in Luomen was extremely strange, as if they deliberately let him go.

And it was the same in Zhangjiachuan. The officers and soldiers stopped after only a few miles.

Now the officers and soldiers chasing him were hanging about twenty miles behind him, neither far nor near, and kept this distance all the time.

Li Guo now felt that his brain was not enough, he couldn't understand what the officers and soldiers hanging behind him were thinking.

It was obvious that he could be wiped out easily, but the officers and soldiers were hanging far behind, and it seemed that they had no idea of ​​killing him at all.

The two interceptions seemed to mean that he didn't want him to go to Fengxiang Mansion, but wanted him to go in the direction of Qin An in Gongchang Mansion.

The detectives sent out finally heard the news the day before yesterday.

The scouting horses and cavalry of the officers and soldiers retreated on their own, and directly gave them the observation position.

The news they heard was also the news given to them by the officers and soldiers.

The number of officers and soldiers chasing them was nearly [-], with complete armor, banners and banners, and the formation was extremely strict.

The officers and soldiers divided into two groups at the fork in the road, and continued to hang behind them all the way to pursue. There were about [-] people on this route.

And the other way is to go directly south, marching in the direction of Zhangjiachuan, all of them are infantry, about [-], all of them are infantry.

Li Guo has a map of Gongchang Mansion, and he knows exactly what the troops marching towards Zhangjiachuan are doing.

All the way south to Zhangjiachuan is Qingshui, and going south from Qingshui is the east of Qin'an.

Combined with the two previous actions of officers and soldiers to intercept him leading troops to Fengxiang Mansion, the purpose of this army of officers and soldiers is obvious, which is to intercept the official road east of Qin'an to prevent him from escaping towards Fengxiang Mansion.

Li Guo's face was embarrassing, his face turned red, he now felt like a mouse being played by a cat.

It doesn't feel good to have everything in someone else's hands.

The news reported by Tan Ma was obviously the generals of the officers and soldiers telling him to stop thinking about going to Fengxiang Mansion, and to honestly go to Qin'an and Qinzhou.

Li Guo has now completely put out his thoughts on continuing to Fengxiang Mansion.

It's already September [-]th, Guanzhong is probably a mess.

The battles that should be fought and the ones that should not be fought have all been fought, and now it is probably at the end of the war, it is too late for him to rush over now.

Fengxiang mansion can't go, Guanzhong can't go, he has to find another way out now.

Looking at the map of Gongchang Mansion that had started to turn yellow in front of him, Li Guo only felt a splitting headache.

There is only one road in front of him, and that is to go south after passing through Shuiluo City, and go straight to Qin'an and Qinzhou.

Then continue to go deep into the hinterland of Gongchang Mansion, heading south.

"Are you really going to Sichuan?"

Li Guo looked at the place bordering Gongchang Mansion on the map, and felt dizzy again.

To the west of Gongchang Mansion are Lintao Mansion and Minzhou Guard. Lintao Mansion has a military town, Minzhou Guard also has a battalion stationed, and there are many Qiang soldiers.

Going west is to catch offerings on the table of the King of Hades—court death.

Naturally, there is no need to consider the north. To the north of Gongchang Mansion is Jingluwei and Pingliang Mansion. He came from the north. If he fled north, he would really have a brain problem.

To the east of Fengxiang Mansion, the officers and soldiers have already set up defenses, and it is difficult to fly even with wings.

The only option now is to go south, and the south of Gongchang Mansion is connected to Sichuan Province and Hanzhong Mansion.

"Can't go to Sichuan..."

Li Guo's expression froze, and he categorically rejected the idea in his mind.

You can't go to Sichuan anywhere.

Those Sichuan soldiers were all lunatics, and they fought more ruthlessly than the frontier soldiers in all towns.

Especially those chieftain soldiers with white spears were even more terrifying.

In the sixth year of Chongzhen, they joined forces with tens of thousands of people to besiege and kill Ma Fengyi, chieftain of Shijie, Sichuan.

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong led troops to capture Kuizhou, an important town in eastern Sichuan, and gathered more than [-] troops.

In the end, he was overtaken by Qin Liangyu, and he threw away his helmet and armor, and returned with only a thousand riders remaining.

Then I heard that Sichuan soldiers arrived, and there was no one in the 36th Battalion who was not timid.

The eighth king Zhang Xianzhong came out of the army, originally a battalion soldier from Yansui Town, so he gathered a lot of deserters and dead troops under his command, and his combat power was second only to Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang among the tribes.

Li Guo was very aware of his abilities, there was a reason why no one dared to invade Sichuan for so many years.

One is because of the terrain, the road to Shu is often not opened by one man.

The second is because the Sichuan soldiers are brave and brave to fight, and their combat power is amazing.

The third is that Sichuan soldiers are different from those officers and soldiers recruited from various places to carry out campaigns in Shaanxi and Henan, and they have a negative attitude towards the campaigns.

Sichuan soldiers are all locals, because they defend their homeland, they have a high fighting spirit and are tenacious.

Zhang Xianzhong didn't believe in this evil, and was beaten to the point of throwing away his helmet and armor.

Li Guo's eyes wandered towards the southeast, and he would never go to Sichuan Province.

So the only way in front of him now is to go to Hanzhong Mansion.

Li Guo's expression was gloomy and his eyes flickered, he didn't know who was chasing him behind him.

But it seems that the general of the officers and soldiers wanted him to go in the direction of Hanzhong Mansion.

But why?
Why didn't the general of the officers and soldiers directly destroy him, but instead carried him to the direction of Hanzhong Mansion.

What is his purpose, and what are his benefits?
Li Guo pressed his temples and slowly raised his head.

The dazzling sunlight shone on him and made him feel extremely uncomfortable. He only felt dizzy and dizzy, and he almost couldn't stand still.

No matter how he thought about it, he couldn't understand it, and no matter how he thought about it, he didn't have any clue.

But he didn't have any choice, he had to go down this path.

Because only by going on like this, will there be a glimmer of life, and all other roads have been blocked.

……

Li Guo naturally couldn't think of Chen Wang's thoughts.

Because now except for Chen Wang, no one knows what will happen in the future.

Tell others now that Chongzhen has only 17 years in total.

In the 17th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng would occupy the northwest, establish Dashun, and lead an army of hundreds of thousands to capture Beijing.

Then Li Zicheng was defeated by the Qing army, and he was defeated by a stone. He directly left Beijing and fled all the way, losing a large area of ​​land in a few months.

Finally occupying the Central Plains and unifying the world is the Qing court in the North.

These are the original histories, but no one would believe them if they were told now.

Even the most visionary would laugh out loud in disbelief.

The Houjin of the North has indeed grown into a confidant.

But the Great Wall defense line is still there, and the nine sides can still support it.

The entire Houjin people are only a million, and the soldiers have just reached [-].

The Ming Dynasty has two capitals and thirteen provinces, hundreds of millions of people, and millions of soldiers.

How powerful was Wala in the past, and once came to the city of Beijing, but what about now?
In the past, Altan Khan was powerful in Mobei and famous in Monan. All tribes in Mongolia were controlled by him and once had the upper hand, but what about now?
Although Hou Jin has now defeated Mongolia and incorporated many Mongolian ministries, at best it is nothing more than a new Altan Khan.

And the rogues in the mainland are just a disease of ringworm and scabies. Although they seem to be powerful, when the recruits enter Henan, they can be completely locked up in Henan and Shaanxi.

The rogue bandits are unbearable to fight, but they are difficult to destroy because they are roaming around, and it is absolutely impossible to prosper.

These ideas are the mainstream ideas of most civil servants and generals in the Ming Court today.

It's perfectly normal for them to think like this.

It's just that no one knows that Daming's building is not only riddled with holes on the outside, but more seriously, its foundation.

In invisible places underground, the foundation of the Ming Empire has already been eaten away by countless moths and dilapidated.

The afterglow of the Wanli period is fading.

No one realizes that rogue bandits are not a military problem, but a political and people's livelihood problem.

Continuously increase the distribution and ask for salary, and even eat the food without money.

In areas with severe disasters, it is not true that there is no relief. After reporting and verification, the imperial court will more or less send ministers to provide relief or exempt certain taxes.

However, after the state and county officials received tax exemption or relief, they still supervised the payment of taxes to the people and continued to require them to pay taxes.

Many places suffered from military famine and lost crops, but local officials still made the people pay taxes and grains as usual for the sake of political achievements.

The people fled, the land was abandoned, and the local officials not only did not repent, but worsened.

They put the tax backlog of the fugitives on the rest of the people who have not yet fled, which is called "Denpay owes".

The officials persecuted them so urgently that many people simply abandoned their cultivated fields, and fleeing became common.

How can the wildfire be extinguished, and how can the rogue bandits be completely wiped out?

Chen Wang led the horse and slowly moved forward along the official road.

The two interception battles were extremely beautiful, and he also relied on bravery and tactics to win the hearts of the army.

The current rogues are heading south along the path he marked.

Chen Wang held on to the horsewhip with a deep expression on his face.

For the way of generals, first cure the heart.

Mount Tai collapses in the front without changing its color; the elk rises in the left without blinking.

Chen Wang has already learned to hide his emotions and emotions.

Panic will only make the three armies panic.

With a well-thought-out plan, you can stabilize the morale of the army and stabilize the morale.

The plan was not all smooth sailing, but Chen Wang did not reveal it.

Because many things only need to be known by the master and general.

Gongchang Mansion sent a military newspaper.

Gongchang mansion is not without bandits as mentioned before.

In the present Gongchang Mansion, there are still bandits entrenched, all of them came from Fengxiang Mansion at the beginning of September.

Among them, there are two bands with the largest number of thieves.

One is located in the southeast of Qinzhou, in the north of Sizhong Mountain. Its leader is the Four Heavenly King Li Yangchun, and there are about 5000 people in the tribe.

The other is near Gaoqiao in the south of Qinzhou, and is located in the south of Sizhong Mountain. Its leader is Climbing King, and there are about [-] followers.

The two ministries stood on the back of Sizuka Mountain and used them as strongholds to plunder surrounding counties and counties.

If Li Guo merges with the two of them, things will become extremely difficult...

(End of this chapter)