Li Guoying stopped talking when he saw Deng Ximing agreeing, and Deng Ximing went to urge the grain and grass. Li Guoying waited in Dingyuan for five days and did not see Deng Xixian and others come with troops, so Li Guoying had to send people to urge. However, there has already begun to be a shortage of food and grass in the army. Li Guoying immediately called Deng Ximing and said: "Why is it that it has only been a few days, and the grain and grass in the army have begun to be insufficient?" ”

Deng Ximing said profusely: "Your Excellency Governor, I don't know what's going on, and the messenger sent to the rear to urge food has not returned." Yesterday, I had already asked Dingyuan Zhi County to immediately raise the grain and grass for the army for three days and send it as soon as possible. Hearing Deng Ximing say that the grain and grass in the rear did not come, Li Guoying was also startled and said: "What, then have you sent someone to urge again, there are still a few days of grain and grass in the army?" ”

Deng Ximing said: "Three waves of messengers were sent today, and now the army only has five days of grain and grass, so I asked Dingyuan County to immediately send three days of grain and grass." Li Guoying said: "No, send a messenger immediately, no, I'll send someone." After saying that, he asked his guards to go with a small flag to inquire about the news.

After Zhu Dashan set off in Song Gaoju, he took Pingyuwei, Dingluwei and Jingluwei to Kaixian, entered Shunqing Mansion through Dazhou, and arrived at Nanchong along Pengzhou after capturing Yingshan. Zhu Dashan marched all the way and arrived at Nanchong in five days, which happened to be the third day that Gou Xingwang led the army to recapture the south. Zhu Dashan was angry when he saw the army brought by Gou Xingwang, and said: "I know about the affairs in the south, you have handled those prisoners very well, only if we can quickly stabilize the morale of the army, is what a general should do, don't think about the rest so much." Gou Xingwang saw that Zhu Dashan agreed with his punishment of the prisoners, and he was also very happy: "Actually, this is Liu Yingnan's attention, I have this method there." At that time, I looked at the more than 3,000 captives, and I didn't know what to do. ”

Then Gou Xingwang said the matter in the south again, and then said: "Brother Cheng Dequn is gone, this is all the fault of Wu Yiding's dog thief, I will keep him, and then when I return to Baoning, I will avenge Brother Cheng Dequn in front of everyone." Zhu Dashan said: "Revenge must be avenged." But this incident also found a lot of problems for us, Cheng Dequn actually did not find signs of Lu Guangzu's attack in advance in the south, indicating that he did not arrange the scouts himself, and the Qing army entered the city later, and he could not organize forces in time to drive the Qing army out of the city, so that he missed the opportunity and let himself die. ”

Gou Xingwang heard Zhu Dashan say this, although he agreed with Zhu Dashan's statement in his heart, he was still a little unhappy in his heart. The brothers who came out together died, and Zhu Dashan only cared about the gains and losses of the army and the city. didn't speak on the spot, just listened to Zhu Dashan alone. Zhu Dashan also noticed Gou Xingwang's change and said: "Do you think I don't care about the life or death of Cheng Dequn's brothers at all?" Gou Xingwang said angrily: "Isn't that it? Since you became a Hou Ye, you have become more and more different from before. became more and more cold-blooded, and became less and less enthusiastic about everyone being together. ”

Zhu Dashan looked at Gou Xingwang and said: "It's not that I don't care about Brother Cheng Dequn, I feel uncomfortable in my heart, can I feel uncomfortable if the south is slaughtered?" Huang Boyuan was the first person to help us, can I not be sad? Gou Xingwang said: "Then why don't you care about them at all now, you care about their life or death." Zhu Dashan said a little lowly: "You said that you are fighting against the Qing Dynasty, how many people will die?" How many people have died? ”

Gou Xingwang said: "Who knows, I don't know how many people will die, and no one knows how many people will die." Zhu Dashan said: "Yes, we don't know who will die today, and we don't know who won't wake up tomorrow, but we can do something that can make the living alive live, and try to let the living live." This is what we need to do now, if we can drive the Manchus away, then we can then grieve for our brothers who lost halfway, and do something to make future generations remember them. If we are now only concerned with sadness, and do things that are not good for us, causing us to fail, who will say a word for them? They will only be said by the Manchus to be bandits, murderous demon kings. ”

Gou Xingwang also knew Zhu Dashan's mood at this time and said: "Hou Ye is right, if we fail, they will splash all the dirty water on us." It's like Zhang Xianzhong, who has only been dead for a few years, and the Qing soldiers slaughtered the Sichuan people on his head. Zhu Dashan said: "It's good that you know, but Wu Yiding is a dog thief, and he is still with Wu Hongrong." Both of them are going to be sentenced in Baoning Ming, and I have already informed Zhou Dazhu to let him detain Wu Hongrong, and we will dispose of them both when we defeat Li Guoying. ”

Gou Xingwang said: "By the way, Master Hou, this time Li Guoying has 80,000 troops, how can we fight?" Zhu Dashan said: "There are 80,000 there, and now Lu Guangzu was killed by you in the south, Du Xue and others who came from behind, it's okay to let them fight a tailwind battle, you have to let them fight a tough battle, don't think about it." There is also the fact that Li Guoying has gathered 30,000 troops in Dingyuan, and the grain and grass all rely on Chongqing to transport grain. Do you think Chongqing is a granary? Didn't he want Deng Xixian and the others to bring him food, but were they willing? Gou Xingwang said: "I definitely don't want to, they don't have much food and grass in the first place." ”

Zhu Dashan said: "Yes, but now Li Guoying wants to forcibly requisition grain, and they can't refuse to give it, and they will be resentful." Therefore, Li Guoying seems to have 80,000 troops, but in fact he only has his own 30,000 troops, or 30,000 troops who are short of food. Gou Xingwang said: "But we want Li Guoying's army to run out of food, I'm afraid it's a little difficult, they will directly grab the food, and if they eat..."

Zhu Dashan said: "I also know, but we have to wait for a while now, and wait for Song Gao to completely cut off Li Guoying's back road." Gou Xingwang said: "I don't know where Song Gao lifted them to?" But we can't wait, if we continue like this, I'm afraid that the morale of the soldiers will be affected. Zhu Dashan listened to Gou Xingwang's words, and suddenly said: "Yes, we can do a good job of publicizing the evil deeds of the Qing army on this matter in the south, and I set up the deputy post for this matter." Gou Xingwang said: "I have always asked what is the use of this deputy position, those deputy positions in the army do not know what they do at all, and they also mislead the soldiers to obey the command of many people, and there are already two main and deputy positions of power struggle." ”

Zhu Dashan said with a smile: "It's also to blame me for not making it clear, and Kuidong's affairs were urgent at that time." As we have time today, we will convene the principal and deputy positions to determine their responsibilities. Gou Xingwang said happily: "That's exactly how it should be." ”

Immediately, Zhu Dashan summoned the principal and deputy generals who had arrived in Nanchong and came to the open space in front of the big tent. Looking at these people, Zhu Dashan said: "Last time, we reorganized the army and installed a deputy position for the generals of more than 100 households, and everyone knows what this deputy position does. Then Zhu Dashan arranged the matter of the deputy post with reference to the functions of the political commissar of later generations, so that everyone knew that the original deputy post was not to divide the rights of the main post, but to have other things to do, although everyone did not know whether these things had any effect.

With the operation of the lieutenant and deputy positions of the Restoration Army, the morale was not affected, but it was the great propaganda of the affairs in the south, and the hatred and anger of the officers and men of the Restoration Army towards the Qing Army were even higher, and the fighting mood of the soldiers was even higher.

Three days after Zhu Dashan and the Restoration Army were stationed in Nanchong, Li Guoying was still not seen heading north. At this time, Zhu Dashan couldn't wait and discussed with everyone: "It's not a way to wait like this, we only have two places to supply the army, although the Qing army is not rich, but it is not ruled out that the Qing army will take risks and rob food, but we can't rob it." Now it seems that we can only attack the Qing army first. ”

Hao Yongzhong said: "If we attack first, our grain route will be stretched a lot, which is very unfavorable to us." Liu Tichun also said: "Yes, if we ignore the battle, we will not even have a place to retreat, and the rear will be a barren, and then the army will be in trouble if there is no food." ”

Gou Xingwang said: "But we and the Qing army are consuming it here, and we don't have much food." We're still going to run out of food. Cheng Deyi only said one sentence: "Kill the past and take revenge." "Cheng Dequn and Cheng Deyi are two brothers of the same sect, and it is very happy to have a brother in this troubled world, but now that Cheng Dequn is dead, Cheng Deyi has very few words during this time, and he only wants to take revenge. Now I heard that Zhu Dashan was discussing Li Guoying's military situation, and he was about to fight him directly.

Zhu Dashan understands Cheng Deyi's mood very well, but now the Restoration Army is really unable to consume it in Nanchong, so he can only attack Li Guoying first. Although Hao Yongzhong and Liu Tichun were opposed, looking at the grain and grass that was almost running out, Zhu Dashan had to lead his army south.

When Li Guoying heard that Zhu Dashan led the army south, he thought that he was angry at the lack of food for the army just now, and now Zhu Dashan actually sent it to the door, and when he laughed: "It seems that not only do we have no food, but this Zhu Dashan also has no food, otherwise he would not be in a hurry to go south, it seems that we will still guard him in Dingyuan for a few days." Waiting until he has no food to retreat and then wave a large army to cover up and kill, wouldn't it be a sure victory. ”

Deng Ximing, who was on the side, was just scolded by Li Guoying for the matter of grain and grass, and now when he heard that things had changed like this, he immediately smiled and said: "This is all the Governor Hongfu Qitian, and now this Zhu Dashan has fallen into death, and it is not far from wanting to pacify Baoning." ”

Li Guoying immediately ordered: "Immediately start strengthening the city wall and defend it with all your might." Wait until Zhu Dashan's grain is exhausted, and the army will cover it. ”

Zhu Dashan camped outside the city of Dingyuan, and looked at the Qing army that was constantly increasing and strengthening the city, and knew that Li Guoying wanted to fight with him. But Li Guoying didn't know that Song Gaoju had taken Hezhou City, and Deng Xixian and others, who had transferred Li Guoying, had been blocked in the south, and they could not go north to join Li Guoying. Song Gaoju's battle report on Zhu Dashan Street was also very unexpected, but he didn't expect Song Gaoju to take Hezhou City in one fell swoop, and his casualties were not large. Zhu Dashan asked the soldiers who came to deliver the battle report, only to know that Song Gaoju actually used the disguise of the march. Taking advantage of the dark night to raid Hezhou, the soldiers of the town guards were dressed in camouflage, and the Qing soldiers defending the city were frightened. The Restoration Army easily captured Hezhou, and at the same time occupied the Diaoyu City on the Diaoyu Mountain, completely breaking the Qing Army's desire to use the Diaoyu City to confront the Restoration Army. Moreover, Cao Chunzhong, the general soldier of Luzhou, who had rushed to Hezhou, and Hao Chengyi, the deputy general of Jiading, were killed, and Song Gaoju recruited nearly 8,000 people in the name of receiving ghosts and gods in Hezhou. In other words, now Song Gaoju has 20,000 horses under his command.

After Zhu Dashan received Song Gaoju's battle report, he immediately deployed a plan for Li Guoying to attack. At the same time, Song Gaoju used 6,000 soldiers to put on the uniforms of the Qing army and galloped from Hezhou to aid Dingyuan. In the face of Zhu Dashan's strong attack plan, the generals were very puzzled. But Zhu Dashan said: "We don't have much food and grass, if we can't rush to break Dingyuan City, we don't even have time to return to Baoning, so we can only break the cauldron and sink the boat, let go and break Dingyuan City, not only can we get supplies." We can also break Li Guoying's attack in one fell swoop, so that we can gain a foothold in Sichuan. ”

After listening to Zhu Dashan's words, Liu Tichun saw that the siege was inevitable, so he also echoed: "Ping Yuhou is right, if we can't defeat Li Guoying, our family in Sichuan will be threatened at all times, and we won't be able to achieve a big thing, and the best result is to go back to Kuidong to live a hard life." Gou Xingwang said: "Yes, think about what we are doing now, if we fail, who will survive." Will the Qing court let us live? People like Li Guoying will only exchange our heads for his official position. In that case, we will fight with them, and we may not know who will die. ”

Zhu Dashan said: "Don't think so badly, we still want to restore the Ming Dynasty, and then enjoy this glory and wealth together." So as long as we work together, what is Li Guoying? He is just a general who defected to the enemy, if he is not afraid of death, what will he do if he surrenders, we are not afraid of death, will we be afraid of him? ”

Cheng Deyi said: "Yes, catch him Li Guoying and cut off his dog's head directly." With the encouragement of Zhu Dashan and others, the morale of the Kuidong generals present was also high, and everyone was not pessimistic about defeating Li Guoying.

The next day was the date agreed by Zhu Dashan and Song Gaoju, and the atmosphere of war outside Dingwu City became more and more obvious, and Li Guoying in the city also continued to arrange defense.