Last night a friend was in a bad mood and the author was called out for a drink. I didn't update it, and I didn't ask for leave, so I'm sorry.

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In July of the ninth year of Yongli, after Chen Kai strongly inserted into Shaozhou Mansion through the northwest of Huizhou Mansion and captured the capital city of Shaozhou, re-establishing the confrontation between the two armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties along Meiling, Li Dingguo, the king of Xining, led the army westward with the assistance of Guo Zhiqi, a scholar of the Governor University.

The army set out from the city of Guangzhou, passed through Sanshui, Gaoyao, Deqingzhou, Fengkai and other places, traced the Xijiang River, and went straight to the city of Wuzhou, where the eastern gateway of Guangxi is located.

Xijiang is the busiest waterway between Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, and Wuzhou is the key between the two provinces. In the seventh year of Yongli, Li Dingguo once occupied the capital city of Wuzhou when he went south from Huguang, but with the defeat of Zhaoqing, the army retreated into the hinterland of Guangxi, where it was once again regained control by Ma Xiong, the left-wing general of the Dingnan Domain. Last year, Li Dingguo, with the cooperation of Chen Kai, seized a province of Guangdong, but at first he also entered from southern Guangxi through the three provinces of Gaolian Lei in Guangdong, where even the aftermath of the war could not be taken.

This time, it was a thunderous trend after a half-year break. Once the army approached the capital city of Wuzhou, it soon received the news that Ma Xiong, the chief soldier of the left wing of the Dingnan Domain, had led his troops into Guilin, and the remaining Green Battalion soldiers did not hold out for long under the indiscriminate bombardment of the artillery team supported by Chen Kai. Some of the Green Battalion soldiers fled to Guilin, while the rest surrendered directly.

Liuzhou, Nanning, Xunzhou and other prefectures and counties that occupied the capital city of Wuzhou and were still controlled by the Ming army could be connected to the Xijiang River through rivers such as Yujiang, Qianjiang and Liujiang, and the transportation of the two provinces was completely connected.

Next, the Ming army moved north along the Li River and gradually expelled the Qing army's forces in Pingle Fu. In November, the army passed through the city of Pingle Mansion and went straight to the county town of Yangshuo, which was adjacent to Guilin Prefecture, and re-entered the territory of Guilin Prefecture.

This is not the first time Li Dingguo has launched an offensive against Guilin, the victory of Guilin in the sixth year of Yongli, and after the defeat of Zhaoqing in the seventh year of Yongli, he also launched an offensive against Guilin, but in the end it ended in failure. In the final analysis, the engineering methods of the Ming army are still much inferior to those of the Qing army. At least the Qing army has been fighting for many years, captured a large number of Hongyi artillery, and the siege artillery team formed once collapsed the fortified cities such as Yangzhou and Guangzhou, and the main force of the Ming army at this stage has become the former rogue and pirate - the rogue is used to playing ant siege city, anyway, human life is not valuable; Although pirates have artillery, they are basically accustomed to naval battles, and whether it is artillery bombardment, collapse method, or ant siege in land warfare, it is particularly amateurish.

Chen Kai learned the lessons of Zheng Chenggong's attack on Changtai County and Zhangzhou Prefecture, adjusted the collapse method, and achieved mastery of it, and achieved good results in the First Battle of Xinhui. A large number of Hongyi artillery captured in the second battle of Lufeng Fort was also formed into an artillery team, which further enhanced the Ming army's siege ability.

However, not all Ming armies were strengthened by such augmentation. Chen Kai taught Li Dingguo and Zheng Chenggong the secret of the collapse method, and the Hongyi artillery team only lent it to Li Dingguo at this stage, and returned to the team after the Battle of Wuzhou. In the final analysis, it is only Li Dingguo and Zheng Chenggong who have really been promoted, and Chen Kai's troops and horses, who have the strongest siege ability at this stage, are still sitting in Guangdong, standing still.

Since Li Dingguo's army arrived near the capital of Wuzhou, the Qing army in Guangxi has been a rumor. As a matter of fact, due to the clarity of the political struggle between the two factions in Guangdong, the shogunate of Guangxi, southern Jiangxi, and Changsha in southern Huguang all received information one after another, and determined that Li Dingguo's military intelligence on his upcoming expedition was nothing more than where to attack.

In response to this, Hong Chengchou responded to the Qing army in Southern Jiangxi and Guangxi, and he led the Southwest Economic Standard as a mobile force to rush to the aid at any time.

Next, Nangan was attacked first, but the Ming army that attacked there was not Li Dingguo, but Chen Kai. Comparing his heart to his heart, Hong Chengchou quickly figured out Chen Kai's train of thought, and did not directly send reinforcements, because he knew very well that Chen Kai would not go too deep, and even if he sent reinforcements, he would enter Yuanzhou Mansion from Changsha and then go south, and by the time the war was over, it would be more likely to lead Li Dingguo's main force over, which would outweigh the losses.

After years of campaigning, especially the Ming army's counteroffensive in the sixth year of Yongli, the Qing court's rule in Huguang was in jeopardy. Hong Chengchou was ordered to be in danger, and the next thing was naturally a mess that could not be rotten. With his efforts, the situation in Huguang continued to improve, but Guangdong and Fujian were the first to collapse, which undoubtedly made him have a lot more to take care of.

From Yunyang to Baoqing to Guilin, it changed south to east, encompassing the Meiling defense line, and then turned north, along the Wuyi Mountains between Fujian and Jiangxi, to Zhejiang. He was responsible for such a long line of defense, and it was necessary to go all the way to Quzhou for the Eight Banners Army to shoulder the safety of the next line of defense.

Such a large area, but the Huguang Qing army is still being rebuilt, and Jiangxi has always been a province with fewer green battalions, and the Ming army that can block Fujian also relies on the various checkpoints of the Wuyi Mountains and the defense of the Fujian green battalion that has received a death order and has the intention to make meritorious contributions, otherwise this defense line would have been penetrated a long time ago.

As soon as the defense line is long, there must be a distinction between primary and secondary. Previously, Chen Kai's attack on Shaozhou Mansion was seen by Hong Chengchou and he was not in a hurry, but this time it was Li Dingguo who sent troops, with the experience accumulated in the officialdom for a lifetime, Hong Chengchou knew very well that this time it was no longer a political struggle, but a real war. So, he hurriedly took the southwest meridian mark south to Guilin to help in the war, lest the key node of Guilin's long side be pierced by the Ming army.

Guilin was originally stationed in Guilin, where there were two vassal soldiers of the Dingnan Domain's Admiral Line, Guoan, the Dingnan Domain's Right Wing General Army, as well as the Fubiao of Yu Shiyue, the governor of Guangxi, and a series of green battalion soldiers. This time Li Dingguo's army attacked, Ma Xiong, the general soldier of the left wing of the Dingnan Domain, also led his troops to retreat to Guilin, and a group of green battalion soldiers came, carefully calculated, the Qing army guarding Guilin alone was as high as more than 20,000 people, most of which were the soldiers of the Dingnan Domain.

With such a strong strength, it is completely enough to defend Guilin. For example, in the seventh year of Yongli, Hu Yiqing and Li Dingguo, the Duke of Weiguo, launched an attack on this successively, and there was a lesson from Kong Youde's defeat against the enemy.

However, this time is different from the past, Li Dingguo now has Chen Kai as his backing, and with the strong momentum of capturing Guangzhou, Guilin Jiancheng seems to have returned to the six years of Yongli like a wanderer in the wind. Not to mention the strict guard, Hong Chengchou did not dare to take it lightly, and hurriedly led the right town of Jingbiao, the town after the standard, the left and right shrimp battalions, the front camp of the standard, and the camp after the standard, the four battalions went south to aid Gui, leaving only the town in front of the standard, the left town of the standard and the middle camp of the standard to continue to be stationed in the front line of Baoqing and Changde, in case Sun Kewang.

Originally, Hong Chengchou's southwest Jingbiao four towns and five battalions totaled more than 11,000 soldiers and horses, but with the complete collapse of Fujian and Guangdong, Hong Chengchou asked for an order to expand the army, and the Qing court was also busy transferring a large number of Qing troops from the north and south of the Yangtze River to Huguang and Jiangxi, Hong Chengchou took the opportunity to expand the Jingbiao, and now the total strength has exceeded the 20,000 mark, almost doubled. Among them, each of the four towns is divided into three battalions, each with 1,000 soldiers; The three battalions in the front, middle and rear of the standard were upgraded to Xie, with two battalions and a total of 2,000 soldiers, which was already an army of 18,000; The remaining more than 2,000 people, still led by Wang Fuchen and Zhang Dayuan, are for the left and right shrimp camps. This time, Hong Chengchou brought an army of 12,000.

The army rushed south, relying on the roads and ships that the officials and staff of the Changsha shogunate had done their best to repair and build in the past two years, and tens of thousands of troops gathered in various places and rushed to Guilin by different routes. Hong Chengchou personally led the main force to advance at full speed along the line of the Xiangjiang River, passing through Hengzhou Mansion and Yongzhou Mansion and arriving in Guilin.

The main force of reinforcements arrived, and the governor of Guangxi, Yu Shiyue, was a member of the Han army, but he was also a member of the Changsha shogunate. At the beginning of this year, it was Hong Chengchou who single-handedly promoted his person to replace the former governor Chen Weixin, who was dismissed due to illness, and became another governor of the Changsha shogunate after Hu Quancai.

Hearing that Hong Chengchou personally reinforced him, Yu Shiyue waited at the dock early. In addition to Yu Shiyue, the three of Dingnan Domain's Line Guoan, Ma Xiong, Quan Jie and other Green Battalion generals also arrived, looking at the battleships slowly approaching on the Li River, but when they saw Hong Chengchou disembarking, they immediately stepped forward to salute this old scripture.

"No courtesy."

Single-handedly exempted the generals from courtesy, Hong Chengchou directly asked the line Guoan, who was in charge of military affairs, about the current war situation. This is the purpose of his sixty-two-year-old body and bones to come to his aid in person, and it is naturally what he is most concerned about at the moment. However, he soon got a piece of news that made him frown.

"Back to the words of the old man, a few days ago, the old thief personally led a large army to the city, first persuaded to surrender, and then failed to join the ants to attack the city. The officers and soldiers were strictly guarded and repelled the troops of the old thieves one after another. When the old thief saw that the attack could not be achieved, he turned into a siege. But it seems that he has received the news of Lao Jingluo's help, and he has retreated to Liuzhou Mansion with his tail between his legs. ”

Li Dingguo withdrew from the army, which is naturally best for Hong Chengchou. But the problem is that this time Li Dingguo is in an inevitable posture, he doesn't believe that others will be afraid of him, but it is really a little strange to retreat so simply.

"It's just that the ants are attached to the siege city, and they don't use the Hongyi cannon?"

"Nope." Line Guoan shook his head, and immediately explained: "The news that the last general found out said that the Hongyi artillery team attacking Wuzhou Mansion was lent to the old thief by Chen Kai. After capturing Wuzhou Mansion, the Hongyi artillery team returned to Guangzhou. ”

This explanation is reasonable, after all, in these years, it is rare for someone like Chen Kai to be willing to borrow troops, and it is normal to return to the team immediately after running out. However, Hong Chengchou's question has still not been solved, and after thinking about it, not only is the previous question unresolved, but a new problem has been added.

"That's not right!"

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Li Dingguo's army re-entered Guangxi, or Hong Chengchou's reinforcements went south, these are tens of thousands of troops, which will naturally affect the minds of various surrounding forces. Among them, the most important thing should naturally be the Yongli Imperial Court, the system of the family, the safety of the country, and the emperor is naturally the most practical. But it was precisely the Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang who should have paid the most attention to the situation, but here he was the most ignorant of the outside world.

Guizhou's Anlong Mansion, as a prefecture-level unit, has only been a few years, and it has assumed the heavy responsibility of the Son of Heaven at the same time as it was upgraded to a government. However, this place was originally a city of thousands of households, even the most authoritative place in the city, the Yamen of Anlong Thousand Households, is just a dilapidated place, leaking wind and rain or something is commonplace, even if the most imaginative person sees it for the first time, it is difficult to associate it with such a lofty place as the palace.

The Imperial Palace is called the Imperial Palace because of the residence of the emperor, the center of political decision-making in the country. Now Emperor Yongli does live here, sitting on the dragon chair in the main hall of the Yamen of the former Thousand Households, which is now the main hall of the palace, looking at the few ministers left in the main hall and only promised, it is a state of depression.

In March last year, the secret operation of plotting to lure Li Dingguo into the defense to counter Sun Kewang was leaked, and Sun Kewang sent his henchman Zheng Guo to recruit Wu Zhenyu, a scholar of the university, Zhang Yi, the military department, and the Hanlin Academy to review Jiang Qichang, Li Kaiyuan, and Xu Ji, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, Zhao Gengyu, the Shaoqing of Taifu Temple, Cai Ji, the Shaoqing of Guanglu Temple, Zheng Yunyuan, the Marquis of Wu'an, Zhou Yunji, the imperial history of Jiangxi Province, Li Ji, Zhu Yifei, Hu Shirui, the imperial history of Fujian Province, Zhu Dongdan, Zhu Dongdan, Ren Douxu, Yi Shijia, Zhang Fulu, the eunuch Zhang Fulu, and Quan WeiguoFor the crime of "deceiving the monarch and misleading the country, stealing treasures and exaggerating edicts", Wu Zhenyu, the first assistant of the cabinet, hanged himself, and the internal supervisor Zhang Fulu and Quan Weiguo and the Criminal Department executed Zhang Zheng and the three people in the matter, and all the others were executed.

At that time, there were not many ministers who entered Guizhou with Yongli, and officials such as Guo Zhiqi, Lian Chengbi, and Zhang Xiaoqi went to the battlefield in Guangdong, and some officials followed Li Dingguo to fight in the south and north, or changed the court of the Qin Palace. Now, Sun Kewang has killed these eighteen ministers, and there are not many left in the main hall.

There are fewer and fewer people, and the authority has long been taken away by Sun Kewang, the last dynasty has become a formality, knowing that there will be nothing worth discussing, and the more he looks at this empty hall, the more painful Yongli has to let the little eunuch next to him announce his retirement from the dynasty. Unexpectedly, just after leaving the main hall, Pang Tianshou, the chief eunuch of the Admiral's Warrior Battalion, bowed down in front of Yongli, and the etiquette was as thorough as ever.

For this eunuch, Emperor Yongli was extremely disgusted. Without him, the slaves of the heavenly family should have been loyal and serve the Son of Heaven, but his people flattered Sun Kewang that living Cao Cao, betraying the lord and being ungrateful, it is strange not to be disgusted with that.

Seeing that he was like this, Emperor Yongli was originally quite tired. However, now that Pang Tianshou and Wen'an Hou Ma Jixiang exist here as Sun Kewang's eyeliner, it is not only not in line with his temperament to have a face-to-face attack, but he is also worried that he may fall into a worse situation because of this.

"Pang is free of courtesy, can you have something to report?"

The title of Emperor Yongli is still so cordial, hearing this, Pang Tianshou thanked him, but he looked a little impatient, and hurriedly got up and glanced at the little eunuchs who followed Yongli.

"Your Majesty, it's Wen Anhou who wants to meet alone."

Wen'an Hou Ma Jixiang, born in Jinyiwei, has always been flattering, and originally won the favor of Emperor Yongli. But he didn't keep his hands back, and when he saw the decline of the Yongli court, he switched to Sun Kewang's court, and now he is also the identity of Sun Kewang's eyeliner. What's even more hateful is that this Ma Jixiang is the culprit who betrayed Wu Zhenyu and others to Sun Kewang, so that once he heard that this person Yongli's heart was on fire.

Anger, this is inevitable, but the world is like this, but Yongli didn't dare to say anything, nodded and followed Pang Tianshou to a room not far away.

There is no eunuch, palace maid and guard inside and outside the room, this is obviously specially prepared, seeing Yongli walk in, Ma Jixiang is like that Pang Tianshou, and hurriedly bowed to the ground, the etiquette can be described as meticulous, no one can find a mistake.

"Ma Aiqing, please, what is there to play alone."

Hearing the rude words, Ma Jixiang slowly stood up, and then lowered his eyebrows and said to Yongli: "Weichen has just returned to Xingzai, and I have come to see Your Majesty." ”

Where Ma Jixiang went, for today's Yongli, has lost the channel to get news, and it is impossible to know. However, he didn't say anything to ask, just nodded: "Well, Ma Aiqing has a heart." ”

Yongli's words can be described as a pun, Ma Jixiang and Pang Tianshou are both human spirits, how can they not know. But Yongli himself had no need to hide his dissatisfaction, and the two had to listen with low eyebrows.

"Weichen went to Guiyang this time and heard a piece of news and wanted to tell His Majesty."

"Oh?"

This is an extremely rare thing, Ma Jixiang fell down not long after Yongli was placed under house arrest by Sun Kewang, and even pulled Pang Tianshou over. In these years, only Ma Jixiang has monitored Yongli for Sun Kewang, and reported the matter to the Qin Palace, and there was no news from outside to report to Yongli, and Yongli would not be surprised.

Yongli's surprise is normal, if he is not surprised, Ma Jixiang will be suspicious. Seeing this, Ma Jixiang lowered his voice and said to Yongli: "Weichen was in Guiyang before, and I heard about something, saying that in the second half of last year, the Duke of Zhangguo of Fujian recovered Fujian in one fell swoop, and the king of Xining got the help of Chen Kai, the governor of Zhangquan Chaohui Prefecture, and he also won a series of battles, and he has recovered the entire Guangdong!" ”

"What did you say?!"

This news really scared Yongli. Since Mr. Eighteen's imprisonment last year, there has been even the slightest news from the outside world for him.

Originally, An Long was under house arrest, but Emperor Yongli was still able to get some words from various channels. But the prestige of the imperial power, even if there are no soldiers and no bravery, Sun Kewang's jealousy of it has never been smaller, especially that incident, which has made the relationship between the Son of Heaven and the ministers extremely bad. How did he know that in less than a year, the situation in the world had changed so dramatically, which really surprised him.

Hearing this news, Emperor Yongli immediately decided that it was Ma Jixiang's deception, but after thinking about it, it was not necessary at all.

Emperor Yongli, who had been deaf and blind for a long time, changed his complexion from white to red, and from red to white several times, and finally suppressed the ecstasy and suspicion in his heart. And Ma Jixiang observed Yongli's expression with his spare eyes, and did not continue until he returned to normal: "When Wei Chenfu heard the news, he thought it was a false rumor. However, Weichen found out that the Qin Wangfu had already made a decision to canonize the Duke of Zhangguo as the king of Yanping County, and Chen Fujun was directly promoted to the governor of Liangguang and let the company army enter the court! ”