Before hanging himself, Chongzhen lifted the table

Chapter 200 Qualified for a duel

Zhang Tianxiang could not defend Kuizhou Prefecture alone, so he asked Chongqing Prefecture for help several times.

Finally, Ma Gan sent his most capable general Zeng Ying to personally lead his troops to Kuizhou Mansion for rescue.

Watching the fleet go down the river, the guards of Chongqing Mansion became much weaker.Seeing that the officers and soldiers guarding the city were all worried, Ma Gan said loudly from the top of the city: "Why have the rebels attacked so fiercely recently? There is no other reason than that, because the imperial reinforcements are coming soon! Soldiers, hold on until the imperial reinforcements arrive. , that’s when the bandit army will be defeated!”

His personal guards heard this and shouted along the top of the city to pass on his words.

Previously, Sichuan East Councilor Feng Liangmo went to ask for help with great fanfare, and many people saw it.When I heard Ma Gan's words, I naturally felt that they made sense, and immediately cheered up.

However, Ma Gan was very worried in his heart, but he just didn't show it.

According to the information received, the elite of the imperial court indeed defeated Li Zicheng's army, but later the elite of the imperial court withdrew to Nanjing to rest.If Feng Liangmo went to rescue, he would have to rush to Nanjing. Then it would take several months to organize his troops and horses, collect provisions and come to the rescue.

Zhang Xianzhong obviously knew this, and therefore, he launched an attack with all his strength, thinking of driving the imperial troops out of Sichuan before the reinforcements arrived, and not giving the imperial reinforcements a chance to rescue them.

This time difference, at least in Ma Gan's estimation, is really beneficial to Zhang Xianzhong.

According to the current attack intensity of the bandit army, it is really difficult for the imperial army to defend eastern Sichuan without any changes.

Thinking of this, Ma Gan made up his mind again. Even if Chongqing is lost, he must keep Kuizhou, the entrance and exit of the Yangtze River, in the hands of the imperial court!
But there is another problem. Once Chongqing is lost and the bandits move down the river, it will be difficult to save Kuizhou Prefecture!

The situation is really difficult!

Weighing these in his mind, he decided to send another person to the Bozhou Xuanwei Division to ask for help, hoping that they could strengthen their offensive and defeat Zhang Kewang's troops in front of them, so that they could force Zhang Wenxiu and other troops who were besieging Chongqing to deploy troops to deal with the flanks. Attacking can relieve the pressure on Chongqing.

However, the last time I went to Bozhou Xuanwei Division to ask for help, the reply was that there was insufficient food and grass to launch an effective offensive!

Thinking of this, Ma Gan found it difficult!
………………

Compared to him, Zhang Xianzhong is obviously better than Ma Gan.

He personally led the old battalion, which was the personal guard he named the Yulin Army, and attacked Kuizhou Prefecture together with Zhang Dingguo. They advanced step by step and surrounded the city of Kuizhou Prefecture.That is to say, there is no naval force. Otherwise, the imperial officers and soldiers can be blocked in the city, which is equivalent to locking the entrance to the Yangtze River.

In Zhang Xianzhong's camp outside the city, a young general rode into the camp. He didn't get off his horse until he reached the Chinese army's tent. Zhang Xianzhong's guards around him were not surprised. Obviously, this young general had the privilege to ride into the Chinese army. military.

When one of Zhang Xianzhong's personal guards saw the young general arriving, he quickly stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty has been waiting for His Highness for a long time!"

This young man was none other than the famous Li Dingguo in later generations, but he was called Zhang Dingguo at this time. He was the adopted son of Zhang Xianzhong and was named King of Anxi. He was eight feet tall, handsome in appearance, measured in his actions, and famous for his tolerance and kindness in the army. famous.

After hearing this, Zhang Dingguo nodded, with a serious expression, and walked into the Chinese military tent. When he saw Zhang Xianzhong looking at the map, he immediately clasped his fists and said, "Father, there is still no news from Shaanxi."

Zhang Xianzhong sent three groups of messengers to Shaanxi to form an alliance with Li Zicheng.This shows his eagerness.Even before that, he specially sent Zhang Dingguo to check on the situation.

Hearing the conversation at this time, Zhang Xianzhong slapped the map with his palm and said in a hateful voice: "Huang Lai'er married a messy wife. Now that the imperial government and the army are powerful, even if our two families cannot deal with each other again, we should unite." It’s better to get up, can’t you even see this?”

Of course he knew that Li Zicheng was not here, but his wife Gao Guiying was.

Unlike him, although women have married many, they are not given power; Gao Guiying over there is in charge of the logistics of Dashun Army and the family camp, so she has power.

Three batches of messengers were sent there, but there was no response. It was obvious that they did not want to go back, that is, they did not form an alliance with him, Zhang Xianzhong. How could he not be annoyed by this?

If an alliance can be formed, as long as he captures Kuimen, he will be less stressed.Let Li Zicheng continue discussions in places such as the Central Plains or Shanxi, and he will be able to reap the benefits.

Thinking about this, he became angrier, and immediately said angrily: "When we turn back, I will lead the troops to capture Xi'an, and deal with that girl named Gao, so that she dare not reply to my letter!"

Zhang Dingguo stood there, silent.

He had followed Zhang Xianzhong in the war since he was a child, and of course he knew the whole process of the feud between Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng.From his point of view, the two families now founded their own countries. If they were still attacking each other before, they would soon cooperate again. If Li Zicheng did not make the decision, who would dare to make the decision without authorization?
At this time, seeing that he was silent, Zhang Xianzhong asked him angrily: "It was previously confirmed that the imperial officers and soldiers had withdrawn to Nanjing to rest?"

Upon hearing the question, Zhang Dingguo said respectfully: "The news is absolutely true. I sent someone out to Sichuan to find out the truth before reporting back."

After hearing this, Zhang Xianzhong breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Then it's alright. We'll besiege Kuizhou Prefecture first. Chongqing will definitely send troops to rescue us, and then we'll encircle them for reinforcements!"

After hearing this, Zhang Dingguo immediately replied: "My subordinates have already been deployed on the bank of the Yangtze River. Once Chongqing sends troops to rescue them, the fleet will go down the river and they will be hit head-on!"

Zhang Xianzhong heard his arrangement, nodded and said: "You are careful enough in fighting, I can rest assured!"

While they were talking, they suddenly heard the sound of artillery and shouts of death in the distance.

As soon as Zhang Xianzhong heard where the voice came from, he cursed again: "Damn it, it's coming as soon as it comes. It must be reinforcements from Chongqing. Kill!"

After Zhang Dingguo heard this, he immediately clasped his fists and left in a hurry.

But they didn't expect that Ma Gan would send his most powerful general Zeng Ying over.This Zeng Ying was really fierce. He personally charged into the battle and rushed in front of the battle. He led his subordinates Li Ding, Yu Chong, Hu Mingfeng and others. They all took the lead and attacked fiercely as soon as they came.By the time Zhang Xianzhong and Zhang Dingguo arrived with reinforcements, Zeng Ying had already led his men to the water gate of Kuizhou Fucheng and met up with the guard Chen Tianxiang.

Seeing this, Zhang Xianzhong looked at the extra "Zeng" flags on the city wall and couldn't help but cursed: "Why couldn't I have used more force and hacked this pretty boy to death!"

In the previous battle at Wangjiang Pass in Fuzhou, Zhang Xianzhong won the battle. He chased Zeng Ying and slashed Zeng Ying, leaving a permanent scar on Zeng Ying's face.To say that Zhang Xianzhong must have struck hard when he slashed, it can only be said that Zeng Ying's helmet was of better quality and blocked most of the force, preventing him from splitting his head with a knife.

It can be seen from this that their fighting styles are actually similar, that is, leading their men to the front.Zhang Xianzhong's style of being on the front line was eventually shot to death by Hauge's sharp archer in the original history. His death was not worth it!
Now I wanted to gather around to call for help, but it turned out that what came was a big fish and I couldn't eat it.There was nothing left to say, so Zhang Xianzhong immediately ordered an all-out attack on the city.

However, the Kuizhou Prefecture had added new troops, including fierce generals like Zeng Ying. Even if Zhang Xianzhong ordered an all-out attack on the city, he would lose troops and generals, but could not break the city.

In fact, what Zhang Xianzhong is good at is not this kind of offensive warfare, but guerrilla warfare.The main force under his command is "horse seven steps three".

Basically, the main force "everyone has a good rider or a pair of horses", "the horses are well equipped, they come and go like the wind, and they can travel hundreds of miles a day and night."Everywhere they go, the most important thing in the team is the mules and horses, and they don't care about the others.

Now, in order to fight for the Sichuan territory, seize Kuimen before the imperial reinforcements, and cut off the road to Sichuan, he had to use a combat method that he was not good at. It was strange that it went smoothly.

Three days later, the furious Zhang Xianzhong immediately ordered that all the people captured in other places in Kuizhou Prefecture be escorted to the front of Kuizhou Prefecture.

After receiving this military order, Zhang Dingguo hurried to the central military tent and persuaded: "My father regards Shu as our Daxi territory, and the people are all Daxi people. I'm afraid it's inappropriate to kill the people in front of the battle!"

When Zhang Xianzhong heard this, he said angrily: "That's what's bad about you, you always have the kindness of a woman! In today's world, Taoists cannibalize and compete with each other to see who is cruel! I have taught you many times, but you can't remember the most. live!"

After he entered Sichuan, he killed many people and massacred cities. For example, when he captured Chengdu, and Baoning, he ordered the massacre of cities twice.Most of his other men obeyed his orders, but Zhang Dingguo could not bear to do so and violated Zhang Xianzhong's orders many times. Therefore, he was famous for his tolerance and kindness among the people and soldiers. In Zhang Xianzhong's eyes, that was a woman. So benevolent.

That is to say, Zhang Dingguo can fight and is a good helper for him, so he tolerates this of Zhang Dingguo.

At this time, he saw that Zhang Dingguo came to persuade him again, so he scolded Zhang Dingguo again, then left the camp in person and went to the city to scold him.

On the top of the city, Zhang Tianxiang turned pale when he saw this scene, and said to Zeng Ying: "Commander, this Butcher Zhang is going to kill someone again!"

One of the reasons why Zhang Xianzhong could not gain a foothold in Sichuan was that he massacred officials and gentry and people related to them.As mentioned before, when he knew that his right prime minister's family was the richest family in the local area, he killed his right prime minister and his entire family.

And he was the one who dug up the imperial tomb in Fengyang.More than one or two died in the hands of his vassal king.When Wuchang was captured, he killed the King of Chu and shared his flesh with his subordinates.

In short, in the eyes of future generations, he is definitely not a normal person.There are records that he even killed his wife and children in the original history.

At this time, Zeng Ying naturally saw it, and immediately became furious. He pointed at Zhang Xianzhong and yelled: "Zhang Xianzhong, what kind of skills do you have in massacring people? If you have the guts, let's fight!"

When Zhang Xianzhong heard this, he immediately laughed and said: "I am the emperor of the Great Western Kingdom. Who do you think you are? You are worthy of fighting me in a duel?"

At this point, he suddenly remembered the previous rumors, and shouted again: "Didn't I say that the dog emperor is very powerful? He is challenging this one and that one. If he is capable, let him come to me to challenge him. , I will accompany you!"

After hearing this, Zeng Ying naturally cursed: "You are a thief who proclaimed himself emperor, and you want to challenge the current emperor? Who do you think you are? If everyone proclaims himself an emperor like you, then he is qualified to compete with the current emperor. The emperor wants to challenge each other? I’m an officer and you’re a thief, it’s that simple!”

Zhang Xianzhong was not angry when he heard what he said. Instead, he said proudly: "Why, I have proclaimed myself emperor. Do you dare? Now I am the emperor of Daxi Kingdom. This is a fact. If you have the ability, you can also proclaim yourself emperor. Then I will I’ll challenge you to a duel. If you don’t have the guts, don’t shout there! I am the emperor, so I will only accept the emperor’s duel!”

Hearing his words, Zeng Ying was extremely angry, but speechless.

He is a member of the imperial court, how could he proclaim himself emperor and challenge Zhang Xianzhong to a duel!
Seeing him speechless for a moment, Zhang Xianzhong was even more proud.

The biggest opponent he has encountered since entering Sichuan is this pretty boy Zeng Ying.Of course, he had slashed his face before, so now he can no longer be considered a pretty boy.This time in front of the two armies, he was speechless. It was considered that he had won a victory, and he felt comfortable!

"Everyone in the city listen to me and surrender the city as soon as possible. Otherwise, these are your examples. Come on, chop them down!"

Zhang Xianzhong actually knew that people in the city would definitely not surrender if Zeng Ying was there.But that didn't stop him from killing these people, just to show them to the people in the city and dampen their morale.

This trick is actually useful.In the original history, Li Dingguo suffered this loss, which caused him to fall short and lose the opportunity to join forces with Zheng Chenggong.

At that time, the Manchu and Qing massacres were so effective that the people were afraid of the Manchus but not Li Dingguo, and tried their best to help the Manchu and Qing troops defend the city. In the end, Li Dingguo returned without success.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong ordered to kill people. The hundreds of people who were taken to the city were so frightened that they cried and begged for their lives.And the defenders on the top of the city all showed unbearable expressions.

These people were all from the surrounding areas of Kuizhou City, and most of them were related to the people in Kuizhou City.

Zeng Ying was furious when he heard this. Although he knew it was useless, he shouted again: "Zhang, you are a loser. If you have the guts to challenge me, what is your ability to bully the people?"

Zhang Xianzhong felt very proud and replied: "I said, I am the emperor, and the one who is qualified to challenge me can only be the emperor. Are you?"

After saying that, he ordered his men to kill people.

But at this moment, I heard a loud roar coming from the river: "I am the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, am I qualified to fight in a duel?"

(End of this chapter)