At the end of Ming Dynasty: I, Sun Kewang!Desperate comeback!

Chapter 182 The Shu vassal raised troops

Early the next morning, the civil and military officials of the Yongli court began to organize an evacuation from Kunming.

Li Dingguo issued an order to the people and ordered hundreds of thousands of people around Kunming to flee.

For a time, there was a lot of crying outside the city of Kunming. Many people supported the old and the young and wanted to follow the army and the imperial court.

Li Dingguo felt sad when he saw the scene in front of him.

Although Emperor Yongli was incompetent, he was still kind by nature.

Seeing the situation in Kunming, Emperor Yongli issued an imperial edict asking Li Dingguo not to burn the grain stored in warehouses near Kunming on the grounds that he was afraid that the Qing army would have no food and would suffer for the people.

In order to prevent the Qing army from raiding nearby people.

Li Dingguo also agreed to this plan after receiving the imperial edict.

However, the actions of Li Dingguo and Emperor Yongli would have incalculable consequences.

There was a lot of grain stored in warehouses around Kunming, even if the Ming army and people carried it with all their strength, plus the losses from the Beipanjiang war.

The remaining grain and grass were still enough to feed 10,000+ Qing troops until September of the next year.

As Hong Chengchou said: Nine months have just ended, and there is no need to use silver to buy transportation. It is estimated that a lot of silver has been saved.

The capital of the Sun Kewang period was not used by the Qin soldiers. The Beipanjiang war broke out, and the Yongli court was unable to deliver it to the doorstep.

When they finally hurriedly retreated, they had no time to carry it, but absurdly fell into the hands of the Qing army and used it to aid the enemy.

The grain reserves in Kunming are actually considered conservative if they are measured in millions of dan.

10,000+ Qing troops could feed them for more than half a year, calculated based on army rations.

When 10,000+ soldiers are fighting, each person must eat at least seven or eight shi of food a year, which is far more than the five shi during training.

For this alone, the Qing army's consumption was already around one million shi.

The biggest difference between the Qing army and the Ming army was that they carried many horses and mules with them.

Shunzhi even stipulated that each Eight Banners soldier must carry four horses on an expedition.

Thanks to the large number of horses and mules in his hands, Dhoni alone has tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and there are at least 10,000+ horses and mules in his army.

Counting other Qing troops, the 10,000+ Qing troops carried more than 20 horses and mules.

The horses and mules consume far more food than the soldiers.

In normal times, soldiers can eat more than half a liter of grain a day, but horses and mules, especially war horses, need at least three or four liters of grain and beans a day, plus hay.

If it is wartime, in order to prevent horses and mules from losing weight, the amount of food and grass required will be greatly increased.

The more than 20 horses and mules equipped by the Qing army consumed more than half a year's food, and it was still during war. It is conservatively estimated to be more than 200 million shi of food.

If we take this into account, the Qing army's front line once advanced to the Mopan Mountain area, resulting in huge losses in food transportation during the battle.

The Qing army's military operations for more than half a year consumed 500 million shi of food, which is absolutely certain.

It can be seen from Hong Chengchou's memorial that the grain stocks near Kunming are so huge!

And this is not all of Yunnan’s grain reserves.

After the great rule of Yunnan, the Daxi Army had to temporarily borrow temples for storage due to the small warehouse.

Starting from the eighth year of Yongli Period, Sun Kewang built warehouses in Mengzi, Kaiyuan and other places to store the endless surplus grain.

It can be said that in another time and space, 10,000+ Ming troops escaped into various parts of Yunnan and were able to persist in resisting the Qing Dynasty for such a long time.

It relies almost entirely on the legacy of Sun Kewang's period.

If it were not for the establishment of charity warehouses and grain reserves throughout Yunnan, Nanming's anti-Qing cause, which was lost in Kunming, would not have lasted that long.

Although Sun Kewang is gone, compared to others, the legacy he left behind is the foundation of Nanming.

The millions of grains stored in Kunming alone are an immeasurable resource.

It's a pity that in the end, the soldiers and horses dispersed on their own, and the food was given to the enemy.

Considering that after Mopan Mountain, Zheng Chenggong attacked Nanjing, which actually cut off the Qing army's fragile logistics supply line for several months.

The actions of Li Dingguo and Yongli had an immeasurable impact.

If the grain reserves in Kunming can be burned, after Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan cut off the Yangtze River shipping.

The Qing army may not even be able to gain a foothold in Kunming and cannot advance into western Yunnan at all.

All they could do was to impress themselves, and retaining food and resources for the enemy was a huge failure for the entire anti-Qing cause.

When the Yongli court began to withdraw from Kunming.

In order to fulfill Liu Wenxiu's last wish, Zou Jianchen, Chen Jian and other old members of the Shu clan were still begging Emperor Yongli to go north to Sichuan.

However, their behavior was not only ineffective, but also completely angered Li Dingguo because of the line dispute.

"Prince Jin, Zou Jianchen, Chen Jian and other remnants are working against you!" Ma Jixiang said that night.

The Shu vassal's proposal to withdraw to Sichuan was completely aimed at killing Ma Jixiang.

In this case, Ma Jixiang and Shu Fan are fighting to the death.

"What do you mean?" Li Dingguo frowned.

"Arrest Zou Jian, Chen Jian, Liu Xuanchu and others, and behead them in public to rectify the court's laws! To show the power of the King of Jin!"

Li Dingguo's eyes suddenly widened when he heard this.

After his defeat in Beipanjiang, his prestige was ruined and was no longer what it used to be.

In order to maintain prestige, if there is no other way, the only choice is to exert political power and show one's majesty through establishing prestige.

Sometimes once a person reaches a high status, he cannot bear the slightest offense.

Not to mention people in Li Dingguo's position.

Some people think that even if they only wear an armband and someone says something to them, it is a huge offense and will make them furious.

As the king of Jin, Li Dingguo had his own majesty.

Chen Jian and Zou Jianchen advocated going north again and again, which was contrary to their own. This was obviously a way to die!
"Prince Jin, the people of the imperial court are currently unstable. If the Shu vassal is allowed to stir up trouble, there will be endless troubles. Only by cutting the knot quickly and stabilizing people's hearts with the heads of Chen Jian and Zou Jianchen can we help the world!" Jin Weixin also said.

Li Dingguo thought about it carefully. Now he has lost all his prestige and his people's hearts are unstable.

If Shu Fan is allowed to go against him, others will also have their own thoughts.

Only by using the heads of Chen Jian and Zou Jianchen to establish authority can we intimidate the ministers and intimidate Xiaoxiao!
So Li Dingguo, who thought of this, also decided to make political efforts like Sun Kewang after losing the battle and losing his prestige.

It's just that the person Sun Guozhu tormented after the fork in the road was the Yongli court, while the person Li Dingguo decided to torment after Beipanjiang was his former comrade-in-arms, the former old brother of the Great Western Army.

"Chen Jian, Zou Jianchen and others have repeatedly acted recklessly, and not killing them is not enough to calm people's hearts. I will go to see the emperor and ask for an imperial decree to kill these rebellious officials." Li Dingguo spoke slowly.

Jin Weixin and Ma Jixiang wanted to say something after hearing this, but in the end they did not speak.

In fact, if Li Dingguo wanted to eliminate the Shu vassal, the best way would be to cut through the mess with a quick knife and kill them directly.

But although he had the power to pretend to be a yue, it was only when the army was going out for battle.

Now we are in Kunming, under the nose of the emperor.

When the army goes out for battle, Li Dingguo can use his ax to kill generals and officials.

But now if he directly kills the Shu vassal people in Kunming, it will violate the laws of the court.

Although Sun Kewang didn't mind this kind of thing, Li Dingguo still did.Therefore, although the result has not changed, instructions must be requested, edicts must be issued, and procedures must be followed.

After all, there is a difference between loyal ministers and rebellious ministers, and this is what Li Dingguo is good at.

Jin Weixin and Ma Jixiang also figured out Li Dingguo's character, so they didn't say more.

However, the problem lies in the process.

With the confidentiality of the Yongli court and the infiltration and focus of Jin Yiwei, the results naturally needless to say.

Before the imperial edict came out, Jin Yiwei had already gone to report the news to Shu Fan.

In the palace of Prince Shu, a man hurriedly entered.

"What! Li Dingguo is really going to take action!" Chen Jian and Zou Jianchen were shocked.

"Li Dingguo has already sent out the imperial edict, and the court's angels and hundreds of guards are on the way. I hope the Second Duke will make preparations as soon as possible."

"Hmph! A mere hundred people dared to take over our Shu vassal. Li Dingguo really thinks that our Shu vassal is just a piece of meat for him to slaughter!" In the Prince of Shu's palace, Liu Xuanchu couldn't stop sneering.

"Uncle Guangping, the matter has come to this. There is nothing more to say. Please inform the generals quickly and let Li Dingguo see how powerful our Shu vassal is!"

"Mr. Maoxia, what are you doing?" Chen Jian and Zou Jianchen were startled.

"What else can he do? Li Dingguo is like this. The king's last wish is destined to be impossible to fulfill. Since he is unkind, don't blame us for being unjust. We, the King of Shu, have three thousand elite soldiers! First kill Li Dingguo's hundreds of Jin soldiers, and then burn Kunming. He has been turned upside down! Then he organizes his family members to go south and join the lord of the country!"

"Now let's kill as many of the Gungun princes and Jin vassal generals as we can in the imperial court, so that we can serve as witnesses for the king of the country!"

Liu Xuanchu said fiercely.

Liu Maoxia is a real poisoner and a cruel person.

If Wu Sangui could listen to him, we in the Qing Dynasty would suffer a lot.

But now that Sun Kewang is here, Liu Xuanchu doesn't care so much.

His idea for the Shu vassal was not to escape directly, but to inflict heavy losses on Li Dingguo and the Yongli court!
"Burn Kunming?" Zou Jianchen and Chen Jian took a breath of cold air.

"You Tongzheng, Uncle Guangping, now is not the time to be kind to women. Li Dingguo has decided to attack our Shu vassal."

Liu Xuanchu said in a deep voice: "Only by making the situation more chaotic can we, the Shu vassal, escape safely."

"When a fire breaks out in Kunming, the imperial troops must put out the fire. We will send several more elite troops to attack Ma Jixiang, Jin Weixin, Prince Jin's Mansion, and the Imperial Palace respectively. Li Dingguo will never dare to ignore the emperor and his family."

"He will definitely leave heavy troops to defend the Jin Prince's Mansion and the Imperial Palace. In this way, the court's troops will be more dispersed, and our Shu vassal will be more confident when we withdraw!"

"They actually want to attack Prince Jin's Mansion and the Imperial Palace!" Zou Jianchen and Chen Jian looked at each other.

"You two, the matter has come to this. We, the Shu lord, think that Li Dingguo will not be tolerated by the imperial court. If we don't do this, can we escape safely and gain the respect of the king?" Liu Xuanchu said gloomily.

"Okay!" Chen Jian gritted his teeth and said, "I'm going to prepare now. At this point, I can only disturb the Holy Master and kill a few traitors to avenge the king!"

"That's right. After the chaos breaks out in Kunming, if we, the Shu clan, still have a chance, we can burn as many warehouses as possible. We can leave the grain and grass in Kunming to anyone, but we cannot leave it to the Tatars!"

"With the kindness of Li Dingguo's wife, our Shu vassal can't ruin the plan of resisting the Qing Dynasty," Liu Xuanchu said loudly.

Ye Yingzhen, the Jinyiwei governor who came to report the news, was stunned when he heard Liu Xuanchu's words.

The original purpose of the Jin Yiwei was to organize people to burn the grain stored in the Kunming warehouse.

It's just that millions of stones of grain are distributed in various warehouses, and even setting them on fire will require a certain amount of manpower and materials.

Therefore, Ye Yingzhen came on this trip not only to report the news to Shu, but also to persuade Shu to use three thousand soldiers and horses to burn down the government's grain reserves.

But I had thought that Liu Xuanchu came out with a bang, not only burning food, but also needless to say.

Moreover, even the feat of burning Kunming to the ground, Shu Fan was prepared to do it.

Late that night, the eunuch Li Guoyong and the Duke of Guizhou Mu Tianbo held the imperial edict and came to the door of the Shu Palace with a hundred guards.

"The imperial edict has arrived. Please invite Guangping Bo Chen Jian, Youtong Zhengchen Zou Jianchen, and Shu King's staff Liu Xuanchu... to receive the edict."

The heavy door of Prince Shu's Mansion opened.

Chen Jian went out wearing armor and leading a large number of Shu palace guards.

Seeing Chen Jian like this, Mu Tianbo and Li Guoyong were shocked.

"Uncle Guangping, what do you mean? Where are Zou Jianchen, Liu Xuanchu and others!" Mu Tianbo, Duke of Guizhou, scolded.

"You Tongzheng and Liu's staff have important matters to deal with. Let the Duke of Guizhou declare the decree." Chen Jian sneered.

"This is the holy decree, how dare you be so presumptuous!" Mu Tianbo said angrily.

As he spoke, he moved it to his waist, but found that he didn't have his meteor hammer with him.

As in history, the Yongli court and Li Dingguo thought that they could control the Shu vassal by relying on imperial edicts alone.

I never thought about the possibility of using force.

"Duke Qian, do you declare this decree or not?" Chen Jian said coldly, wearing a fine armor weighing eighty kilograms.

Mu Tianbo winked at the guards, and then motioned to Li Guoyong to declare the order.

"By God's blessing, the emperor issued an edict that the people of the Shu vassal, regardless of the general plan and in vain of the emperor's kindness...are hereby arrested and handed over to the three divisions for trial."

Li Guoyong looked at the large number of armored soldiers behind Chen Jian and finished reading the imperial edict with trepidation.

"Duke Qian, is this the emperor's intention or Li Dingguo's intention?" Chen Jian said gloomily.

"Uncle Guangping, the matter has come to an end, accept the order, I will do my best to protect your lives."

Mu Tianbo sighed: "Don't resist and become a traitor to the court."

"Hahaha!" Chen Jian looked up to the sky and smiled, tears streaming down his face.

"We, the Shu vassal, are dedicated to serving the country. Without us, how could the imperial court be able to gain a foothold in Yunnan!"

Chen Jian gritted his teeth with red eyes and said: "But it's over, His Highness is dead, and we people will end up like this again!"

"Injustice! What a huge injustice!"

Mu Tianbo and Li Guoyong were silent when they heard this.

The contribution of Shu Fan is obvious to all, but they have no choice but to follow orders.

"Soldiers, our Shu vassal is guarding the imperial court. How many soldiers died for the imperial court during the Battle of Jiaoshui?"

"But how did Li Dingguo and the imperial court treat us? After the battle, our Shu vassal was abandoned, and the king was even pissed to death by Li Dingguo!"

"But in the end, we only ended up in vain!"

"Soldiers, do you think the brothers who died fighting for the imperial court in the Battle of Jiaoshui were worth it?"

"Is it worth it for the king who worked hard for the imperial court and formulated a strategy to go north for the imperial court before he died?"

"Now, we are dedicated to serving the country, but we have to be tortured and killed by Li Dingguo and the imperial court. Is it worth it?"

"not worth!"

"not worth!"

"not worth!"

A large number of Shu vassal officers and soldiers, with red eyes, swarmed from around the Prince of Shu's palace and surrounded Mu Tianbo and others.

(End of this chapter)