In mid-July, Li Dingguo finally suffered because Sun Kewang had pacified the entire territory of Yunnan and jointly attacked it with Wu Sangui.

On that day, Sun Kewang personally led an army of 10,000 into the border of Guizhou, and as soon as he stepped on the boundary of Guizhou, he hurriedly occupied the city of Guizhou, nominally for Wu Sangui to recover the city occupied by Li Dingguo, but in fact Li Dingguo did not occupy a city in Guizhou at all. Sun Kewang is just using this excuse to expand his strength.

Wu Yingxiong had already returned to Wuchang, and they didn't know what Sun Kewang was doing in Guizhou. Wu Sangui definitely couldn't have imagined that he had just fed the wolf and started biting himself so quickly.

The troops mobilized by Wu Sangui from other places had already left for Guiyang at this moment, which relieved Ma Bao's pressure. And a large amount of grain, grass and weapons were brought in. However, Li Dingguo is facing a crisis of food shortage at the moment. Li Dingguo will not rob the people of their food and grass to feed their soldiers. Previously, his source of grain and grass was transported from Yunnan, but now his foundation in Yunnan has been uprooted by Sun Kewang, which means that he has become an army in exile. In the absence of food and grass, he simply could not support it for long.

On July 21, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo fought for the first time, and Sun Kewang was defeated, but Li Dingguo was not much better. These days, Li Dingguo has begun to cut the daily meals of the soldiers, and Li Dingguo's brow is no longer distressed by the battle, but by the grain and grass. Now he has only enough food and grass to sustain him for five days. Five days passed, and the ammunition and food were exhausted.

At that time, the soldiers will definitely be defeated because of this, and without Sun Kewang attacking, the soldiers and horses in his hands Li Dingguo will naturally come to naught.

Then, before Li Dingguo could repair his troops and horses, Ma Bao in Guiyang City led 5,000 troops to attack Li Dingguo's camp on the evening of the 22nd. This time Li Dingguo suffered heavy losses. After dawn, when Li Dingguo gathered his troops and horses, after counting, he found that there were still 13,000 people left. The remaining 18,000 were killed, captured, or fled. Among them, the largest number of people were captured, accounting for sixty percent.

Li Dingguo was defeated and had to withdraw from the Guiyang Prefecture and retreat westward. Ma Bao and Sun Kewang did not catch up, after all, Li Dingguo still had a lot of soldiers and horses.

On 25 July, Li Dingguo settled down in Pingbawei, Guizhou, and bought some grain from the local people with the few silver coins he had left, thus easing his urgent need. However, it didn't take long for Ma Bao to issue an order to the people of Pingbawei, so that they were not allowed to sell a grain of grain to Li Dingguo. He naturally knew Li Dingguo's policy of not disturbing the people, so he believed that even if the people did not sell him food, he would not aim his butcher's knife at the people.

As Ma Bao expected, Ma Bao informed the people of Pingbawei that if anyone dared to sell Li Dingguo a grain of grain, he would be exterminated. So it scared a lot of people. When they saw Li Dingguo's soldiers and horses, they took refuge. Li Dingguo suddenly fell into danger.

Ma Bao thought that this would make Li Dingguo's soldiers and horses self-defeating, but he ignored one person.

Because of this person, Li Dingguo's soldiers and horses were not disbanded due to lack of food, but instead possessed a large number of new weapons.

This person is Liu Xia, and the scouts sent by Liu Xia have begun to make contact with Li Dingguo. At the beginning, Li Dingguo didn't pay attention to the people sent by Liu Xia. After all, no matter what, Liu Xia also had a part in Zhang Xianzhong's death. What's more, Sichuan was also attacked by Liu Xia at this moment, and all the officials of Daxi were captured by Liu Xia. Including his wife and children, Li Dingguo.

Of course, Liu Xia did not do anything to Li Dingguo's wife and children, but moved him to Luoyang to entertain him.

Li Dingguo is not a person who is willing to be threatened, so from the beginning, Liu Xia did not think of threatening him with Li Dingguo's family. Rather, they want to bring them to obedience with the great righteousness of the nation.

When Li Dingguo was in trouble, Liu Xia's envoy found Li Dingguo again. This time, Li Dingguo did not drive him away. He knew he needed outside support.

So the messenger handed over Liu Xia's handwritten letter to Li Dingguo. After reading it, he was silent for a long time, not knowing what he was thinking. However, in the end, Li Dingguo agreed to Liu Xia's assistance, and at the same time, he also learned that his family was safe and sound, which made him feel relieved.

In order to better receive the grain and grass sent by Liu Xia, Li Dingguo moved west again to Qingshan Division, which is close to the Tusi territory in Sichuan. Due to the war in Guizhou, most of the people here have fled to other places to escape the war.

Although Li Dingguo accepted the grain sent by Liu Xia, he did not agree to submit to Liu Xia, and still insisted on attacking Guiyang, forcing Wu Sangui to hand over Zhang Xianzhong's murderer.

On August 1, Li Dingguo reorganized his troops and horses, brought enough grain and grass to Guiyang again, this time it came very suddenly, so that Ma Bao was unprepared, and almost broke through the Guiyang City Gate, but in the end Li Dingguo still fell short.

On August 2 the next day, Li Dingguo suddenly led his soldiers and horses to attack Sun Kewang's soldiers and horses in Weiqingwei, which immediately caused Sun Kewang to lose more than half of his soldiers and horses, and the 10,000 soldiers and horses he brought with him were less than 5,000 people, and most of them were wounded.

Sun Kewang lost most of the soldiers and horses, and was very anxious, the soldiers and horses were the confidence to speak in this troubled world, if the soldiers and horses were gone, then there was nothing. So Sun Kewang immediately ordered conscription in Yunnan. At this moment, Sun Kewang didn't dare to turn his face with Wu Sangui, so he didn't blatantly recruit troops in Guizhou.

Yunnan has few people, and most of the ethnic minorities are still disobedient, so Sun Kewang can not recruit many soldiers, and his combat effectiveness is not strong. On the other hand, Sun Kewang began to cry poverty to Wu Sangui and asked Wu Sangui to relieve his grain and grass. Yunnan does not produce food, not to mention that it is a troubled time at the moment, and many fields are deserted. If he could not bring food from other places, his grandson's soldiers and horses would starve to death.

After Li Dingguo attacked Sun Kewang, he returned to Qingshan Division to recuperate, and recruited troops locally, with Liu Xia's support, he no longer worried about the problem of grain and grass. Of course, Liu Xia is not unconditionally supportive. At the beginning, it may have been to give Li Dingguo some grain and grass in exchange for his favor. But then there are attached conditions, and the condition is to let Li Dingguo be used by him Liu Xia.

For this reason, Liu Xia also sent a lot of well-spoken Zongheng family to give Li Dingguo clear benefits. In the end, Li Dingguo agreed to join Liu Xia's group in order to support China, and all his soldiers and horses would be incorporated into the Pingbei Army. At this moment, Liu Xia can't make the relationship between Li Dingguo and him public, and now Li Dingguo wants to fight with Wu Sangui, and Liu Xia currently needs to accumulate strength and can't turn his face with Wu Sangui. So he could only secretly support Li Dingguo.

Liu Xia gave Li Dingguo the establishment of a legion, named the Storm Legion. The soldiers and horses of the four guards were temporarily organized, and at the same time, Liu Xia sent many graduates of the armament academy to exercise.

After Wu Sangui learned that Sun Kewang's soldiers and horses had been hit hard by Li Dingguo, he had lost a large number of troops, and the grain and grass had been burned, and now he was living on relief grain and grass transported from Guiyang. So Wu Sangui generously allocated a large amount of grain and grass to Sun Kewang. So that it is out of the predicament for the time being.

With the support of Liu Xia, Li Dingguo expanded the number of soldiers and horses to 20,000, and all four guards were completely expanded. Except for the black uniforms worn by the military uniforms, which are not unique to the Pingbei Army, the other establishments and ranks are made up according to the Pingbei Army. Among them, Li Dingguo is now at the level of Yue cavalry. The four generals under him served as the commanders of the four guards, and their ranks were all Yangwei Schools.

In the next few days, Ma Bao in Guiyang gradually discovered Li Dingguo's unusualness, after all, the soldiers and horses are fighting less and less, but this Li Dingguo is fighting more and more, and there is no problem of grain and grass. He clearly remembered that after Sun Kewang controlled the entire territory of Yunnan before, Li Dingguo's life was very hard. But now there is no shortage of grain and grass, and Li Dingguo's Qingshan Division is a poor place, and it is impossible to have so much grain. The more I thought about it, the more suspicious I felt. So he informed Wu Sangui of this suspicion.

After Wu Sangui in Wuchang got the news, he immediately sent his subordinates to investigate.