Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 335 Southwest War
In fact, since Zhang Xianzhong occupied Sichuan and established the Daxi regime in the 17th year of Chongzhen, the battle between the Ming Dynasty and the Daxi regime has never stopped.

Zhang Xianzhong captured Chengdu in August of the 17th year of Chongzhen.

At that time, Zhu Youjian had just moved south to Jiangnan not long ago.

Because Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian was busy rectifying the south of the Yangtze River and training troops, he had no troops to rescue Sichuan, so he could only watch Sichuan being occupied by Zhang Xianzhong.

Shu Wang Zhu Zhishu and Taiping Wang Zhu Zhilu committed suicide.

Sichuan governor Long Wenguang, inspector censor Liu Zhibo, and deputy envoy Zhang Jimeng were killed.

Of course, Zhu Youjian did not do nothing.

At that time, Zhu Youjian also decreed to appoint Fan Yiheng as the left servant of the Ministry of War and the right deputy capital censor governor of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces, and organized the rebel army to resist the bandit soldiers going south;

At the same time, Wang Yingxiong, a cabinet scholar who has retired, was appointed as the supervisor to supervise the soldiers and horses of the five provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Xunyang and Guangxi to resist the eastward advance of bandits.

Although one governor and one superintendent seem to have duplicated functions and powers, in fact, it was Zhu Youjian who let the two organize local landlords' armed resistance in eastern Sichuan and southern Sichuan for convenience.

Fan Yiheng is from Yibin, Sichuan, a big landlord in southern Sichuan, so he is naturally in charge of southern Sichuan.

Wang Yingxiong is a native of Ba County, Sichuan, a big landlord in eastern Sichuan, so he is naturally in charge of eastern Sichuan.

Zhu Youjian's purpose was actually to let these landlords who supported the imperial court organize landlords to resist Zhang Xianzhong's offensive with armed forces.

Fan Yiheng and Wang Yingxiong, as local eunuchs, have strong appeal and money and food resources in Sichuan, and they are essentially opposed to the peasant army like Zhang Xianzhong. On the military side, Zhu Youjian believes that these armed landlords will do their best.

As expected by Zhu Youjian, since August 17 in Chongzhen, the two landlord armed forces represented by Fan Yiheng and Wang Yingxiong have been actively organizing local armed forces to resist Zhang Xianzhong in southern and eastern Sichuan. The two British generals.

In the 18th year of Chongzhen, General Yang Zhan, who was born as a Wu Jinshi, recruited refugees to cultivate wasteland in Pengshan. At the same time, he recruited troops and bought horses. With the cooperation of Fan Yiheng, Wang Yingxiong, Ma Yingshi, Yu Chaozong, etc., the entire territory of Xuzhou Prefecture was recovered, and almost the entire territory of southern Sichuan was recovered at one time.

However, the main force of Zhang Xianzhong, who had conspired to seize the land of Hanzhong before this, returned to conquer southern Sichuan in the second half of the 18th year of Chongzhen after he was defeated by the bandit He Zhen. Retreat to abide by righteousness and benevolence.

Later, Yang Zhan and Pi Xiong regained Yongning City, the prefecture of Xuzhou, joined forces with 19 soldiers at Yufu Pass, sneaked into Hejiang City, returned to Jiading, and defeated Zhang Xianzhong's Liu Wenxiu in the [-]th year of Chongzhen, and regained it again. Jiazhou, Meizhou, Yazhou, Qiongzhou and other places defeated Zhang Xianzhong's [-] main force in Pengshan, forced Zhang Xianzhong to flee back to Chengdu, and confronted Zhang Xianzhong's troops in Hanzhou.

According to the original history, Zhang Xianzhong would have to mobilize the main force to go north because of the battle of the Manchu Haoge tribe going south to Sichuan, and then Yang Zhan took the opportunity to recover Chengdu and march into Baoning.

However, in this life, because the Manchu Qing did not destroy the Ming Dynasty as scheduled, and lost more than 19 horses in the Huaiyang and Huguang battlefields, they did not go south to attack Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan in the [-]th year of Chongzhen.

This gave Zhang Xianzhong the opportunity to mobilize Ai Nengqi and Li Dingguo's troops back to rescue them in the 19th year of Chongzhen, and forced Yang Zhan to retreat to Jiading.

And Zeng Ying also took advantage of Zhang Xianzhong's main attack on northern Sichuan and Yang Zhan in southern Sichuan in the 18th year of Chongzhen, and took the opportunity to regain Chongqing Mansion, and even captured Suining and Kuizhou Fengjie at one time, defeating Liu Wenxiu's troops.

In other words, Sichuan in the 18th year of Chongzhen was not completely occupied by Zhang Xianzhong.

The landlord armed forces of the Ming Dynasty still controlled Jiading Prefecture, Xuzhou, Chongqing and other places in southern Sichuan and eastern Sichuan.

But right now, after Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, and Ai Nengqi, the three most combative sons of Zhang Xianzhong, returned from northern Sichuan, Yang Zhan and Zeng Ying were defeated by Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang.

Zeng Ying also had to retreat to Chongqing.

Now even Qijiang in Chongqing and even Zunyi Mansion have fallen into the hands of Zhang Xianzhong.

From the 18th year of Chongzhen to the first half of the 19th year of Chongzhen, Zhu Youjian thought that relying on the armed forces of Sichuan landlords would be enough to recover Sichuan, at least to resist Zhang Xianzhong's offensive going south to Yunnan and Guizhou.

But now it seems that these landlords' armed forces cannot resist Zhang Xianzhong's real main force.

Qujing Mansion is close to Yunnan Mansion and governs Kunming, that is to say, once Qujing Mansion also falls, then Yunnan will lose its northern gate, and the whole of Yunnan will be completely reduced to Zhang Xianzhong's hands.

Zhu Youjian didn't know what the front line was like. The only thing he could hope for now was to stop Zhang Xianzhong's northern expedition as much as possible, and more importantly, to stop Zhang Xianzhong's eastward advance. At least when Jiannu went south again, Zhang Xianzhong could not be allowed to attack Daming's rear formed a deterrent.

It can be said that Daming is about to face the fate of being attacked from both sides.

On one side is the Daxi Army of Zhang Xianzhong's department, and on the other is the Qing Army of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

It can be said that since Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian succeeded to the throne, the deteriorating situation of the Ming Dynasty was not unrelated to the fact that the Ming Dynasty was facing a two-sided attack from the peasant army and the Jiannu army, which made the entire Ming court tired of dealing with the two enemies.

Now, Zhu Youjian never thought that he would have to face such a situation.

Zhu Youjian also knew that he still couldn't take it lightly, and couldn't make a wrong move, otherwise, it would still be difficult for him to change Daming's fate.

"The only one that can be adjusted now is the Fifth Guards Army of Gao Jie's Department, with a total of more than [-] troops. This army is the old army of the robbers in the past, and its combat effectiveness is still good. In addition, it can also come from Guangxi, Guangdong and other places mobilize troops and horses to help Yunnan and Guizhou, and at the same time, the extermination army also needs to be alert to Xunyang, Shizhou, Changzhou, Baoqing, Jingzhou and other places to prevent Zhang Xianzhong's western troops from advancing eastward and threatening our Daming Huguang hinterland!"

At this time, Ma Shiying, Minister of the Ministry of War, said something.

Zhu Youjian became thoughtful, and after listening to the opinions of the officials of the Grand Marshal's Mansion, he also had a basic plan.

The first thing to do is to identify the Supreme Commander.

Now, judging from the information provided by Jin Yiwei and the report from the Ministry of War, Yang Zhan and Zeng Ying are undoubtedly the best at fighting. Now that Zeng Ying has died in battle, only Yang Zhan is available.

For the rest of the Ming army generals such as Li Zhanchun, Wang Xiang and others, they fought fiercely, but they have not had any record to boast about since Chongzhen 18 years ago.

Zhu Youjian decided to transfer Wang Xiang, Li Zhanchun, Yuan Tao and other Sichuan Ming army generals to garrison Dali, Chuxiong, Yao'an and other prefectures to defend the western frontier of Yunnan. Guangxi, Guangnan and other Yunnan prefectures and the military affairs of Guizhou.

At the same time, Zhu Youjian decided to appoint Gao Jie as the commander-in-chief of Guizhou to lead the Fifth Army of the Guards to prevent Zhang Xianzhong from advancing eastward.

At the same time, Fan Yiheng was appointed as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and he dispatched food and grass from Guangdong and Guangxi to help Yunnan and Guizhou.

However, Wang Yingxiong was transferred back to the capital to serve as Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing and Deputy Envoy and Counselor of the Grand Marshal's Office.

(End of this chapter)