Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 465 Confrontation of Famous Generals ([-])

"I have ordered Jin Yiwei to cooperate with him. You only need to hurt Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo. As long as you repel them and return to Sichuan, you can have a temporary truce! But the current situation is that Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo may not be willing to give up easily. Occupied land, at least will not give up Zunyi, after all Zunyi is the gateway to southern Sichuan."

It’s midsummer in July right now, and Guizhou, like Sichuan, is mostly basins and hills, with plenty of rain, so it’s already raining heavily outside at this time, the wooden windows are blown by the strong wind, and there’s a rapid thumping sound from the roof tiles. The sound, and the sound of bamboo breaking from the valley.

In such an environment, after Zhu Youjian finished speaking, he couldn't help but look outside a few more times.

It is afternoon now, but the sky is already very dark.

Generally speaking, if the rain starts in the afternoon, the rain will last longer.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian is not sure whether if this continues, the roads will be muddy due to continuous rain for several days, or even landslides and mudslides will occur, making it difficult for the army to move forward.

Zhu Youjian was worried that his goal of repelling the Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo tribes of the Daxi regime before the Northern Expedition would come to naught because of the weather.

Gao Jie, the commander-in-chief of Guizhou, has seen His Majesty's worries. He is the actual commander of the battle. He naturally knows how difficult it is to march in such a mountainous area with abundant rainfall. If it were not for this, the Southwest War would not have dragged on like this. It won't be long, and it won't wait until the end of the battle of the Manchus going south, and the southwest war is not over yet.

But Gao Jie didn't have any solution. He was a Qin man who followed Li Zicheng to fight the world in his early years. He was good at fighting on the plains. A musty smell came from the porch.

"How many times have there been such heavy rains this month?"

At that time, Jin Yiwei commanded his affairs, Wang Zide, and ordered someone to light the lamp, which made the dark main hall much brighter.

Zhu Youjian also sat down, lifted his ankle to the desk and rubbed it, eunuch Lu Jiude hurriedly knelt down on one knee and rubbed Zhu Youjian's ankle.

Perhaps it was because of the trek all the way when he moved to the south and then many trips to Beijing. Zhu Youjian didn't know that he also suffered from arthritis, or maybe it was related to the genes of Zhu's ancestors. On the heavy rainy ground, the ankles became sore and swollen from time to time.

I am a person who exercises regularly, but I can't bear the miasma in the jungle and mountains in the southwest, not to mention civil servants like Ma Shiying and Li Yan, even military officers like Gao Jie, might not be able to adapt to such a humid place. Fatigue and dizziness are trivial matters, but what is more worrying is fever.

Most of Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates are now Sichuan soldiers. Even if he is not a Sichuan soldier, he has fought many times in Sichuan with Yang Sichang, Xiong Wencan, Qin Liangyu, etc. in the mountainous areas of eastern Sichuan, Hubei and Shaanxi. The prosecutor had to admit that Li Dingguo's Daxi soldiers were more adapted to this environment.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, since the beginning of summer this year, it has not been sunny for five consecutive days. It is also because of the frequent rain. Neither my court officers nor Li Dingguo and other bandits have made great progress. Now it is estimated that they can only We have to wait a month or two before we can find a chance to repel this Li Dingguo's troops."

Li Yan, governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, answered Zhu Youjian's words.

"It won't work for a month or two. You can't miss the whole Northern Expedition just because of the bad weather! It is Yan Yingyuan's Department, the Second Corps of the Seventh Army of the Guards, who is confronting Li Dingguo's department now. Tell Yan Yingyuan to order him to act cheaply and seek opportunities. Recover the Zunyi Military and Civilian Mansion within half a month! If he, Yan Yingyuan, has any requests, the main force of our army will definitely cooperate."

Zhu Youjian was not sure whether Yan Yingyuan could repel Li Dingguo's troops within half a month and force him to return to Syria and give up Zunyi.

But now he can only count on Yan Yingyuan, because among the generals of the entire Ming Dynasty in the southwest, only Yan Yingyuan, Weng Zhengchun, Liu Zhaoji, etc. have not fought against Li Dingguo. The one with military talent is Yan Yingyuan.

However, in the original history, Yan Yingyuan was just a small canon. The biggest highlight of the history was the fight against the water bandit Gu Sanmazi and the defense of Jiangyin. The only main force closest to Li Dingguo.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian can only count on Yan Yingyuan now.

He hoped that Yan Yingyuan could prove himself and prove that he was no worse than Li Dingguo.

What's more, behind Yan Yingyuan, there is the main support of the entire Ming Dynasty in the southwest.

The summoned cavalry galloped through the muddy official road in the heavy rain, and finally passed the order jointly signed by the governor Ma Shiying, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou Li Yan, and the commander-in-chief Liu Zhaoji to Yan Yingyuan.

Yan Yingyuan couldn't help frowning when he saw this Jun Order. He didn't need to guess to know that the Jun Order must have come from His Majesty's order, and he also guessed that the longer the Southwest War dragged on, the greater the impact it would have on the Northern Expedition.

But he didn't expect that fighting in this mountainous area would be so difficult. You can't ride horses and cannons. You don't know if the road built today will be washed away by mud and rocks tomorrow, and you don't know if the bridge built yesterday will be destroyed today. When the mountain torrents are submerged, it is almost impossible to march quickly. Even if the city is sieged, it can only be filled with human lives.

"Return to the order, the next official will act according to the order, and we will win Zunyi within half a month!"

Yan Yingyuan didn't dare to disobey the will, he could only accept the orders and arrangements from above, and then called the commanders of the battalions and the generals directly under the corps to discuss how he could regain Zunyi within half a month.

"According to common sense, if we want to take back Zunyi, we need to go northward on the official road from Guiyang to Zunyi, take Wujiang Pass, and then cross the Xiangjiang River to reach Zunyi City. But now the road is muddy, and Wujiang Pass is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Even if we take it Wujiang Pass still has to cross the Xiangjiang River, and along the way, Li Dingguo can use many tactics to stop us."

"So this commander thinks that we can also send out surprise troops, and lead the elite to take the Guanghe River and cross Huangshadu without taking the official road, then go north into Dalou Mountain, take a small road to occupy Zunyi, and at the same time, my main force will rush along the official road to seize Wujiang Pass , he, Li Dingguo, will definitely save Wujiang Pass."

When Yan Yingyuan said this, the battalion commanders also expressed no objection.

And Yan Yingyuan began to issue orders because of this: "The first battalion of the infantry and the second battalion of the infantry will be led by the commander in person to cross the river with light clothes. In addition, Zhang Zhiwu leads an artillery association with only one hundred three-jin cannons with the commander. Commander Xia Wanchun advances along the official road, but must arrive at Wujiang Pass within five days and launch a general attack on Wujiang Pass.”

(End of this chapter)