On the same day, Zhu Dashan took the Fuming Battalion all the way to chase the Qing army, and took advantage of the situation to capture Nanchong County, the soldiers of the Fuming Battalion entered the city to take a look and found that although this Nanchong County is the capital of Shunqing Mansion, but the houses in the city collapsed, the population was extinct, and the weeds were overgrown, and there was a city there. Finally found a few people, and seeing that the soldiers of the Fuming Camp were also dodging and not daring to speak, Zhu Dashan asked the one-year-old man: "Old man, why is this Shunqing Mansion's mansion like this, what about the original people?" ”

The old man didn't dare to speak when he looked at Zhu Dashan, and when he saw that the guards around Zhu Dashan were in a hurry, he knelt on the ground in fright and just kowtowed, and he could still say half a sentence there. Zhu Dashan had no choice but to give up when he couldn't ask anything, and ordered the soldiers of the Fuming Battalion not to harass the people in the city, and then led the army to chase the Qing army in the direction of Chongqing Mansion.

Zhu Dashan and the others chased them all the way to Ji'an Town, and seeing that they were about to enter the boundary of Chongqing Prefecture, a messenger hurriedly came from behind to ask Zhu Dashan to quickly return to Nanchong County. Zhu Dashan didn't know what the situation was, so he had to give up the Qing army and return to Nanchong.

It was already dawn when Zhu Dashan walked back, and there were more than 300 Qing soldiers scattered in the middle of the road along the way. By the time Zhu Dashan returned to Nanchong, it was close to noon, and when he saw Liu Yingnan anxiously waiting for him at the city gate, he said: "I just chased the Qing soldiers, and there is nothing to worry about, look at what kind of urgency you have become." ”

Liu Yingnan was overjoyed when he saw Zhu Dashan coming back, and when he heard Zhu Dashan say this, he hurriedly said: "Master Hou, something big has happened." Zhu Dashan said: "What can happen to make you rush like this?" Could it be that the Qing army broke through the Sword Gate? ”

Liu Yingnan was sweating profusely and said: "The defenders over there in Chengdu have surrendered, and the two dog thieves of Luojiang, Zhao Youyan and Pang Zhiyong, wanted to deceive Mianzhou, but they were discovered by the Sun Bin brothers, and the two dog thieves took Yang Youcai, Cao Changzuo, Yan Ziming and Yan Xici of Chengdu to attack Mianzhou, Sun Bin did not hold it, and retreated to Qinglinkou with Tao Yuanyou and Yu Dai. At that time, there were only 300 people who retreated from Mianzhou, and Zhao Youyan and others did not chase Sun Bin after entering the city. But the people who escaped later said that Zhao Youyan and others slaughtered the city in Mianzhou, and there was not one out of ten people in the city. ”

Zhu Dashan said angrily: "You shouldn't have believed them at that time, they are just beasts." One day I will kill them alive myself. Liu Yingnan said again: "Just now Deng Shigan sent a messenger in Tongchuan to say that Zhao Youyan and others only stayed in Mianzhou for one day, and marched to Tongchuan Mansion, they had no humanity to attack the city with the people, Deng Shigan had no choice, so he had to give up Zhongjiang and prepare to defend Tongchuan, who knew that Hu Jing, the Tongchuan garrison who had surrendered to us, secretly collaborated with the enemy and opened the gate of Tongchuan Prefecture, and the Qing army took advantage of the situation to enter, Deng Shigan had to retreat to Yanting with the remnants. After we heard the news, we had to quickly inform you to withdraw, if Deng Shigan was defeated and retreated at Yanting, then our back road would be cut off by the Qing army. ”

Zhu Dashan said: "Now it seems that we can only retreat to Baoning, how could Chengdu Mansion suddenly surrender to the Qing soldiers?" It's clear that we're in a good situation. Liu Yingnan said: "I don't know this, but in order to prevent the back road from being broken, we have to retreat to Baoning as soon as possible, not far from Xichong There is a Phoenix Mountain, we can set up a village there to defend, and then send people to hold the west as a way to block the Qing soldiers, even if these two places are broken, you can also retreat in the direction of Baoning." ”

Zhu Dashan said: "Your arrangement is reasonable, just do what you arranged." Saying that, he and Liu Yingnan went to Nanchong City together. Just as Zhu Dashan was about to arrive at the mansion, a group of people suddenly rushed out of the street and knelt down to Zhu Dashan and the others from a distance. Seeing this, Zhu Dashan hurriedly stepped forward to help the people up and said, "What are you doing?" We won't hurt you, we are the Great Ming King. ”

When the people heard that it was the army of the Ming Dynasty, they immediately began to cry. An old man said, "General, do I think you want to leave?" Zhu Dashan was shocked, and when he saw that it was the person who didn't dare to speak to him last night, he said: "How does the old man know, you can rest assured that even if we want to leave, it will not hurt you." ”

The old man cried and said: "The general is a benevolent and righteous person, and it is better to be the king of our Ming Dynasty, but you don't know, general, even if you don't hurt us, we won't live for a few days." Zhu Dashan said strangely: "Old man, what are you talking about?" The old man said: "The general doesn't know, you look at the capital of Shunqing Mansion, now there are no 3,000 people in the whole city, and this Shunqing Mansion was a full 200,000 people when it was in the Ming Dynasty." ”

Zhu Dashan said: "Old man, I'm also wondering, why is this dignified city uninhabited." The old man seemed to remember something, and the old man said with tears: "Fourteen years ago, the prince of the Qing Dynasty came to Sichuan with Qing soldiers and defeated the Eight Kings in Phoenix Mountain in Xichong, and then killed people all the way. The Jialing River next to this side has been red for half a month, and finally the Qing soldiers have passed, and it didn't take long to say that the Qing soldiers were defeated again, and we thought that we were defeated, as long as Nanchong County was not a battlefield, the Qing soldiers could not kill people anymore, and as a result, the Qing soldiers returned to say that we were the enemy, and they were killing people in the city, and they were robbing things, how many women were killed, and how many children were taken away. But in the end, the Qing soldiers left, and as a result, a governor came from the Qing Dynasty, who came from time to time to kill and kidnap people away. Some time ago, it was said that there were some chaotic people in the south, and the governor was going to fight, and the prefect took away our only rations, and now if the general leaves, we will have no rations, maybe this Qing soldier will come back, and we will still be able to survive there. ”

Zhu Dashan said: "You don't have rations, I can give you some, you can go into the mountains and run for your life." The old man said: "General, we didn't come to beg you for rations to flee for your life, you fled today, what about tomorrow?" We want to beg the general to take these children away, they are still young, it is enough to let them live. We're all old and immortal, and we've lived enough. If the Qing soldiers come and want to kill people, let them kill them. ”

Zhu Dashan said: "Old man, how can you think like this? Why don't you go to Boryeong, we still have an army there, and Boryeong City is still there. The old man shook his head and said: "No, I don't want to move when I'm old, I'm talking about running around for more than ten years, the Ming Dynasty will recover, and the Qing Dynasty will occupy it." I'm tired of running" and other older people echoed: "Yes, I thought that after the Ming Dynasty recovered, we would be able to live in peace, but who knew that we would leave again in two days." We are all used to it, let's kill the Qing soldiers if they want to. ”

Zhu Dashan originally wanted to return to Boryeong directly, at most to guard the south, and never thought of guarding Nanchong, but now after listening to the old man's words, Zhu Dashan seemed to feel that this was wrong, but now he didn't think about it so much, and when he saw that the old man was unwilling to go, he said: "Since everyone is unwilling to leave, I will still give everyone some rations, and you go into the mountains to hide." ”

The old man just nodded faintly, leaving behind some children and younger people and gone. Zhu Dashan didn't think much about it because of the urgency of the military situation at this time, so he asked Liu Yingnan to bring these children with him. When Zhu Dashan entered the mansion, he saw that all the officers of the Restoration Battalion were there, and everyone seemed to be ready. Zhu Dashan was not verbose, and immediately ordered to withdraw to the southern county, and then asked Liu Yingnan to take 1,000 soldiers and horses to defend in Xichong, Cheng Dequn to take 1,000 soldiers and horses to meet in Phoenix Mountain, and Zhu Dashan to retreat to the south with 2,000 men and 3,000 prisoners.

Two days later, Zhu Dashan came to Nanfang County with the captives, and found that Deng Shigan was already in Nanfang County, Zhu Dashan hurriedly asked: "Deng Shigan, why did you get to the south?" Didn't you say retreat to the salt pavilion? Deng Shigan said ashamedly: "Master Hou, the salt pavilion has also been lost, and now Zhao Youyan and they are like crazy, don't rush to die, there are many of them, and the salt pavilion will be lost after a day." Zhu Dashan was shocked: "How could it be, when we were in Mianzhou, the defenders of Chengdu didn't even dare to fight the Qing army, where did they get the courage?" ”

Deng Shigan said: "I didn't know first, I thought I could hold on to the Salt Pavilion, but when they arrived at the Salt Pavilion, the people who surrendered to the past would be like dying." It's not like the previous Chengdu defenders at all. Later, I saw that I could not hold on, so I had to retreat to the south with my men. But on the way to the south, I met someone who had escaped from Tongchuan Prefecture, and I didn't know why. ”

Zhu Dashan hurriedly said: "Why? Deng Shigan didn't know what to say. Zhu Dashan hurriedly said: "You are here to say." Deng Shigan then said: "The man I met escaped from Tongchuan Prefecture, he had worked in Zhang Xianzhong's army before, and he said that it was because the Qing army would slaughter the city." Zhu Dashan said strangely: "How can this massacre be related to the bravery of the Chengdu defenders?" The slaughter of cities is the work of beasts. Deng Shigan said: "I said the same at the time, but the man said that the Qing army slaughtered the city and had a rule, that is, those who participated in the massacre could share the property found in the city, and the soldiers and the Qing court would divide it in half." That is to say, the soldiers can get half of the property they loot after slaughtering the city after it is broken. ”

Zhu Dashan said: "Just for this little bit of wealth, you will become fearless to death?" Deng Shigan said: "Yes, because in our Ming Dynasty in the past, the seized property was either handed over or taken away by the officials, so the soldiers had no desire to attack, but the Qing army now let them rob, and half of the robbery is theirs, of course these soldiers are willing to rob and attack the city." Zhu Dashan said calmly: "Then why didn't we rob it, and we didn't share the property, how could we defeat so many cities and defeat the Qing army?" ”

Deng Shi said dryly: "That's because Master Hou and you share weal and sorrow with us, and you didn't take those possessions, and Lord Hou is the same for all of us." But now that the Qing army has become like this, we can't hold it, the Qing army is simply rushing to die, and the brothers are afraid to see it, there can still be a fight. Zhu Dashan listened to Deng Shigan's words and fell into deep thought, and couldn't come back to his senses for a long time, how could this be? How can the weak will of the soldiers to resist the Qing Dynasty be that they have no money? The fighting strength of the Qing army was boosted by the robbery of money and food.

In fact, Zhu Dashan did not know that the Qing army's attack on the plundering was the only magic weapon of the Qing court, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty had been looting and massacring the cities, villages, and bazaars of the Ming Dynasty since the beginning of Nurhachi's army, so that the Han people outside the pass were sharply reduced, and when the Ming Dynasty wanted to crusade against Manchuria that was still the Later Jin, the taxes and grain collected outside the customs could not support the consumption of the army at all, and could only transport grain from the Guannai thousands of miles away. Later, the Houjin invaded and occupied the Guanwai, and began to enter the customs to burn, kill and loot the Gyeonggi area for a long time, and the entire northern Gyeonggi region changed color, and a large number of people moved south. Only then did the Qing soldiers run away and stake their land after entering the customs and surrender to slavery. And the revolt of the whole North became weak. In the south, in order not to shave the law and make it easy to obey, almost all the cities and cities rebelled, and the villages resisted.

When Hauge entered Sichuan at that time, it was only a few months before he announced that Sichuan had been pacified and returned to the Qing Dynasty, but when the Qing court sent officials to govern Sichuan, it was found that they had defeated only Zhang Xianzhong in Chengdu. For a time, all Sichuan was anti-Qing, and Wu Sangui, Li Guohan, and Li Guoying, who were sent to Sichuan by the Qing Dynasty, were almost desperate to flee back to Hanzhong.

In the end, due to the mistakes of the Ming army itself, the Qing army could not be driven away, and what the Qing army did in the following years allowed these Ming troops to see the sweetness of the Qing army's looting, so some scum in the Ming army took the opportunity to surrender to the Qing army. On the other hand, due to the oppression of the Ming army and the restrictions of the imperial court system, the soldiers had no motivation to fight. This shows that the combat strength of the Ming army is low.

What Zhu Dashan didn't know was that the Qing court used this trick to directly let the Qing Dynasty rule China for 300 years, and later Zhou Pei Pingping Dingsan Domain, Kangxi pacified Jungar, Shi Lang attacked Taiwan, and Zeng Guofan pacified the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the late Qing Dynasty All used this trick.

Zhu Dashan now has no way to change the Qing army, does he want to use silver to boost morale? But where did you get so much silver? You can't let your own soldiers rob it. But no matter whether Zhu Dashan has a way or not, he must fight now, because the Qing army coming from Chengdu has already passed through Yanting, and it will reach the south in two days at most. And I don't know when Li Guoying from the south will arrive.

Zhu Dashan thought for a while and said: "Send someone to tell Cheng Dequn that he will return to Xichong immediately and defend Xichong with Liu Yingnan." Without my order, we must not take half a step back, and delay time for us to repel the Qing army coming from Chengdu, otherwise it will be impossible for us to hold Baoning when the two Qing armies converge. "There was a herald behind him, and he immediately went to the direction of Xichong to give the order.

Then Zhu Dashan said to Deng Shigan again: "You go and organize your soldiers and horses quickly, if we can't defeat Zhao Youyan and others, we will die without a place to be buried, you have to make it clear to the soldiers, if you don't fight hard now, we all have to die." Deng Shigan also knew that the situation was critical now, so he hurriedly went to organize the army.

Zhu Dashan quickly returned to the county office, checked the nearby terrain, and thought about how to defeat Zhao Youyan and others.