On December 15 of the 11th year of Yongli, only two months after Sun Kewang surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court impatiently issued an edict to assemble a large army to attack the southwest in three ways.

On the first road, Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, was the general of Pingxi, and together with Li Guohan, the guard of Gushan Ezhen Mollegen, led the eight banners of the Han army from Hanzhong in Shaanxi to Sichuan and attacked Guizhou; On the second route, Gushan Ezhen Zhao Butai, who was originally scheduled to garrison Jiangning, was appointed as the general of the expedition to the south, and the troops went south to Hunan, and some Han soldiers were allocated by Jingluhong Chengchou, and the national security department of the Admiral Line under the Dingvassal stationed in Guilin was routed through Guangxi to attack Guizhou in the north; The third way is to rely on Gushan Ezhen Sect Muro Luotuo as the general of Jingkou in Ningnan, together with Gushan Ezhen Ji Xiha and other commanders to Hunan, together with the Han soldiers controlled by Hong Chengchou to attack Guizhou from Hunan.

The Qing army suddenly assembled a large army, making it clear that it was a desperate fight. Judging from the lineup alone, it is also a luxury that can only be compared when you first enter the customs. And at the moment when the old is withering, it is even more difficult.

However, less than a year later, on the ninth day of the first lunar month, due to Hong Chengchou's advice, the Qing court realized that even if he held a grandson in his hand, this lion fought the rabbit with all his strength. Therefore, the Qing court chose to increase investment, appointed Doluoxin County Wang Doni as the general of Anyuan Jingkou, and led Pingjun Wang Luo Keduo, Belle Shangshan, Dulan, Gushan Ezhen Arzin, Basihan, Zhuo Luo, and Gushan Ezhen Yierde, who was still stationed in Zhejiang, to lead a large number of Eight Banners to the south to "take Yunnan".

The first three roads were the forces used by the Qing court to sweep away the Ming army in Huguang, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Guizhou, and they would wait for the arrival of the main force of the Eight Banners Army under the command of Doni. When Doni arrived, he became the de facto commander of the army, leading his men and horses to Yunnan. Prior to this, the two Qing armies that went to Guizhou and Guangxi from Huguang to Guizhou were dispatched by Hong Chengchou, except for Wu Sangui and Li Guohan, who went from southwest Shaanxi.

This exception is precisely the strongest of the first three armies. The people of Shaanxi are fierce, and the grain harvest caused by natural disasters has collided with the Qing court's expropriation, if it were not for the fact that it had almost exhausted its strength at the end of the Ming Dynasty, I am afraid that it would be more difficult for the Qing court to scratch its head than in the south.

Therefore, when the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs at the beginning, while the army pursued and killed the Dashun army that fled westward, it quickly built a defense system in the northwest - with the governors and deputy commanders to guard the localities, and Wu Sangui's Guanning army as the backbone to assist in extinguishing the fire of resistance to the Qing Dynasty everywhere. The Qing court sent the Morgen guard Li Guohan, the most trusted general of the Han army banner of the Manchu royal family, to lead a Han army flag to monitor Wu Sangui. Similarly, to prevent the collusion between the two Han Chinese, Wu Sangui and Li Guohan, the Qing court built a Manchurian city in Xi'an to garrison the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners Army of the Four Banners of the Left Wing in Xi'an, Shaanxi.

For the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the Manchurian Eight Banners were the most trustworthy, followed by the Mongolian Eight Banners, which were also barbarians. The Eight Banners of the Han Army, at most, are more noble than the Green Battalion soldiers, even if the Eight Banners of the Han Army have performed better than the Eight Banners of Mongolia in these years, but the national attributes are placed there, so it is inevitable.

Within the Eight Banners, Manchuria was used to unite Mongolia, and Manchuria and Mongolia were used to control the Han army, which was a national policy, just as the Eight Banners were used to control the green camp and the green camp to town the locality, so as to achieve the fundamental purpose of ruling and enslaving a civilized country with a small tribe of barbarians.

As soon as the Qing court made a move this time, it sent Wu Sangui and Li Guohan, which was to release the tiger and go out. Last time, it was to prevent the Ming army from running Sichuan, the country of abundance, so that it had to be completely bigger. And this time, it was even more necessary to go south from Hanzhong in Shaanxi Province and sweep through Sichuan, completely blocking the possibility of the Yungui Ming army going north and the Kuidong Ming army like Mount Tai pressing the top.

This was the strategy advocated by Liu Wenxiu, and the Qing court naturally saw the pros and cons clearly, and knew that it really made the Ming army do, whether it was entering Huguang or attacking Shaanxi, the Ming court did have a chance to come back to life.

For Liu Wenxiu, Wu Sangui also commented that he was a fierce rival he had never seen in his life after the First World War in Baoning. However, now that the fierce enemy is dead, Li Dingguo is a lone palm, and Wu Sangui does not believe that this person can take care of multiple strategic directions.

The edict was issued, and Wu Sangui and Li Guohan immediately ordered their troops and horses to go south. The edict received in February led to the arrival of the four armies in Boryeong in early March. From the seventh day of the first month, it advanced southward through Nanfang County and Xichong County, and arrived at Hezhou on the 14th.

The Battle of Boryeong in the sixth year of Yongli has been nearly six years ago. After the battle, the defeated Ming army withdrew, and Wu Sangui did not dare to rashly pursue the south under the palpitations. As a result, in the past few years, the Qing army controlled Baoning, and the Ming army occupied Chongqing, Chengdu and other places far away, and a large area of land in the middle became a no-man's land.

"There are only tears in the empty mountain, and there is no milk nest in the remaining house."

The army passed through Hezhou and continued to move south, and the people were cut off along the way, "the thorns are thick, the forest is dense, although the township guide does not know what to follow." But trace the logging, cut a way of wood, and go into a journey." Wu Sangui's copywriting staff Ma Yu walked forward with the army, and he couldn't help but sigh like this.

"When we get to Chongqing, the road should be easier."

Wu Sangui's department, sitting in Shaanxi, one is to suppress the anti-Qing movement in Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia, and the other is to prevent the Ming army in Sichuan from going north, in order to prevent the Ming army from entering this river-shaped resort, and then down the Yellow River, sweeping thousands of miles in the north. As a copywriter, Ma Yu knows more about military intelligence than other colleagues.

When people are cut off, nature will take over again. On the Chongqing side, due to the need to communicate with the Ming army of Kuidong and the Ming army of Yungui, the official road there will not be reoccupied by vegetation, and this suffering can be ended there. Sure enough, in early April, the army approached Chongqing, and the official ruin was still inevitable, but the predicament like before was gone.

"Report to the prince, the thieves abandoned the city and fled!"

"Into the city."

The defender of the Ming army in Chongqing was Du Zixiang, the chief military officer, and on the side of the Ming court, which was a rotten official, the troops under his command were really pitiful. During this time, it was found that Wu Sangui's army was heading south, and he knew that he was invincible, so he immediately abandoned the city and left, without the slightest hesitation. And for Wu Sangui, this was also not unexpected by him.

"Lord Wang, there are still a lot of thieves in Kuidong and western Sichuan, what should our army do next?"

"The imperial court meant to let me wait for the south to join the teacher, so naturally I went straight to Guizhou."

"The thieves of Kuidong and Sichuanxi ......"

"Leave some soldiers and horses here to guard the back roads and grain routes for the army. As for the thieves, let's talk about it later. ”

For many years, Li Guohan has been assisting Wu Sangui in the name of assistance, but in fact surveillance, which Wu Sangui of course knows. During this time, Li Guohan asked about the next step, and Wu Sangui did not hesitate to make clear his position of obeying the will of the Qing court.

The army was exhausted from all the way. As a result, unlike in Baoning and Hezhou, Wu Sangui made an exception to let the army rest in Chongqing for ten days, and then left only Yan Ziming, the chief soldier of Yongning, and Cheng Tingjun, the general soldier of Chongkui, to stay behind, while he and Li Guohan led the army to cross the Yangtze River and continue to march towards Guizhou.

In Sichuan, after the Battle of Boryeong, the operation of the Great Western Army here was mostly concentrated in southern Sichuan. In the hinterland of Sichuan, the main force was composed of the Jiuchuan Army, the former Dashun Army and other anti-Qing forces. The two major towns of the province, Chengdu, the provincial capital in western Sichuan, and Chongqing, the center of Cuba in eastern Sichuan, were respectively guarded by the commander-in-chief Liu Yao and Du Zixiang.

Wu Sangui is thin in Chongqing, and Du Zixiang has led his troops to flee. On Liu Yao's side, one is far away, and the other is the lack of soldiers and horses, and the infant city is okay to defend itself, but it is impossible to send troops on an expedition. The only thing that can be counted on is the Kui Dongming Army.

When Wu Sangui's army moved south, Chongqing was lost without a fight, and Liu Tichun, the closest Duke of Anhui and Hou Ma Tengyun of Tongcheng, the closest Ming army to Kuidong, got the news almost immediately. The Qing army was on the side, and Chen Jiapo, Ba County, where they were stationed, could be said to be the first to bear the brunt, and hurriedly reported to Wen Anzhi, the governor of Sichuan and Hubei stationed in the capital of Jiekuizhou, and asked for help from other departments.

Wen Anzhi got the news as soon as possible, looked at the map, and after thinking about it for a long time, he sighed: "With the strength of the generals, I am afraid that there will not be much chance of winning against Wu Sangui." For today's plan, it may only be to learn from the ancients. ”