Chapter 152: Cleaning up the Mess II

"Lord Wang, the army still has the strength to fight." Liu Xuanchu said: "This battle is only two defeats and injuries, with the Luzhou Acropolis, it may not be impossible to hold for several months, and Li Dingguo will inevitably retreat." ”

The Acropolis of Luzhou is the station of Luzhou Wei in the Ming Dynasty.

So, this city, in essence, is a military institution. Whether it is from the selection of his site or the construction, it is all for military service.

Now since Wu Sangui sent troops, it has also been repaired. Therefore, although this Luzhou Acropolis cannot be impregnable, it is by no means a place that can be easily captured.

It's just that Liu Xuanchu doesn't understand Wu Sangui's mind as well as Fang Guangchen.

Fang Guangchen said: "There are no soldiers to help outside, and there is no city to defend inside, and now the morale of the army has been frustrated. And the Xia army is like a rainbow, and it is not a wise move to be the enemy in Zhengrui, and once the Acropolis of Luzhou is besieged. What if the imperial court sends reinforcements into Sichuan? ”

"The prince is not in Chengdu? Who can withstand the pressure of the imperial court. ”

As soon as these words came out, Liu Xuanchu didn't know what to say.

Wu Sangui twisted his beard slightly, and said: "I don't want to the current situation, but my Wu family has this family background, but I can't fight with Li Dingguo, otherwise it's okay to win, if I don't win, Sichuan may not be owned by me." ”

Wu Sangui's Sichuan can't be owned by him, not that Sichuan will definitely be captured by the Xia army, if Wu Sangui's headquarters is weakened, maybe the Qing army will put its hand into Sichuan, and when the time comes, Sichuan will not be Wu Sangui's.

Even if it is a big victory, if it is a heavy victory, such a situation may not happen.

The previous loss had already made Wu Sangui grit his teeth in distress. For Wu Sangui, preserving his strength is more important than a big victory, and now he also feels how strong Li Dingguo is, and knows that even if he wants to defeat Li Dingguo, he will have to pay a great price.

And this price, Wu Sangui just didn't want to pay.

"What if Li Dingguo is pressing forward step by step?" Liu Xuanchu said: "We can't retreat again and again. ”

Wu Sangui said: "I just got the news that the imperial court won a big victory in Korea, and now the southern dynasty is bent on sending troops to solve the crisis in Korea. I don't think Zhang Xuan will fight in Sichuan. ”

Liu Xuanchu said: "Because of this, Li Dingguo can't drag it out. ”

Wu Sangui's voice was a little cold, and he said: "The premise of not fighting in Sichuan is that we have heavy troops in Sichuan, otherwise, Zhang Xuan may not choose Sichuan, after all, what is North Korea compared to Sichuan?" ”

No matter how important North Korea is, for the Xia Dynasty, it is an overseas enclave. What if you lose it?

But Sichuan is different.

If the Xia Dynasty can conquer Sichuan, Wu Tou, Chu Waist and Shu Tail will be complete, plus Sichuan's salt industry, and horses can also be purchased from the west, both in terms of strategic position and economic interests. I don't know how much more important than North Korea.

Wu Sangui thought to himself, if he was in Zhang Xuan's position, he would find that Sichuan had a chance. He would rather give up North Korea than go to Sichuan first. And Zhang Xuan may not want to spread his wings together.

Of course, this is also what Wu Sangui thinks, he is not in Zhang Xuan's position, and he doesn't know how stretched Zhang Xuan's hands are. Of course, he couldn't have imagined that in order to support military spending, Wu Sangui had never treated the people of Sichuan well, and he couldn't have imagined that Zhang Xuan was so conservative financially.

In Zhang Xuan's position, if he lets go of his hands and wants to collect enough financial revenue, he doesn't feel any difficulty.

Liu Xuanchu also heard the impatience in Wu Sangui's heart, so he naturally didn't dare not say anything.

"When I want to come, don't worry, Li Dingguo is pressing step by step." Fang Guangchen said: "The terrain here is undulating, which is not conducive to the battle of the cavalry, once it reaches the Chengdu Plain, our army's iron cavalry can also make it difficult for Li Dingguo to move an inch." ”

Liu Xuanchu opened his mouth and said: "It's because the subordinates are shallow. It's just that where do we retreat? ”

Wu Sangui said: "Let's go to the river first." ”

Under the auspices of Wu Sangui, the Qing army abandoned the Luzhou Acropolis and withdrew north.

It's just that the losses of the Xia army in the last battle were not light, and there were a lot of cavalry under Wu Sangui, so they were afraid of being bitten back, so they didn't bite tightly, and the decisive battle of the main force was no more.

Even when he came to the edge of the Yangtze River, Wu Sangui was not very relieved. He had to consider the Xia Jun's naval superiority.

If the naval division of Chongqing cut off the Yangtze River, it would be difficult for Wu Sangui's tens of thousands of troops to deal with it. Therefore, Wu Sangui only stayed for one day, then retreated across the Yangtze River and entered the city of Luzhou, which could be regarded as stabilizing the position.

And Li Dingguo pressed forward step by step, and also sent a small group of men and horses to recover the cities and Tusi in various places.

Wu Sangui can retreat, but all kinds of toasts can't retreat, their family business is here, if they can give up, as soon as Wu Sangui leaves, these toasts have come to see Li Dingguo and took refuge in Daxia. Li Dingguo did not blame for coming, appeased them greatly, and then asked them to supply the army with food and grass.

Of course, few of these toasts were wealthy, and with their army of food supplies, even if they were forced to rebel, it might not be enough for the army.

In addition, the Xia army also occupied Hejiang, Naxi, Jiang'an, and occupied Xingwen, Changning, and Juexian south of the Yangtze River in Xuzhou. Although Yang Jingxin is no longer a person in the army, he still recruits the common gentry in the name of Yang Zhan.

There is no need to fight in many places, as long as Yang Zhan's name is revealed, they all open the city and surrender.

This area was originally Yang Zhan's lair, Yang Zhan's previous wars, more than 100,000 people protected the people, and these people all remembered Yang Zhan's old feelings. If before the big victory, this old relationship was nothing, but after the defeat of the Qing army, these were annexed.

After they were annexed, they also got some grain and grass from these places.

It is also a source of food and grass.

The remaining source of grain and grass is Chongqing.

After getting the victory in Luzhou, He Hutou reported the victory to Nanjing, and at the same time sent troops to the west, and under the simultaneous advance of land and water, the Tusi and county towns south of the Yangtze River were attached. In this way, Chongqing, Hejiang, Jiang'an and other counties are all connected.

And transported a lot of grain and grass from Chongqing to Li Dingguo's camp.

In this way, the food and grass crisis of the army was solved.

More importantly, the change of means of transportation has reduced the consumption of supporting the army, I don't know how much, so that although the Sichuan army consumes more, the imperial court may not be able to support it, and even speaking, it is a little less than the consumption of these armies stationed in Yunnan and Guizhou.

In addition, Luzhou and Xuzhou have several counties south of the Yangtze River, and the terrain is also very flat, and the grain output is not a lot. As long as we recuperate for a year or two, it is estimated that relying on these counties alone will be able to solve a lot of food problems, which will be of great help to the army's long-term stationing in Sichuan.

Just in case, while stabilizing the area south of the Yangtze River, Li Dingguo put his mind on another matter.

It's salt.

Among the transactions that Wu Sangui relied on with the Xia Dynasty, the largest goods were salt and horses.

Horses generally come from the northwest, and Li Dingguo can't reach them for a while, it's too far, but salt is something that Li Dingguo can reach.

The salt farms in Sichuan are naturally the largest in Zigong. And Zigong is not far north of the Yangtze River, if Li Dingguo can cross the Yangtze River, Zigong will naturally be able to get it, but Wu Sangui will not back down, Zigong represents real money, and he will not give up easily.

However, Sichuan does not have salt farms in other places except Zigong.

It's just that the Xia army only occupies one Chongqing in Sichuan, and it is similar to a lonely city, and the Qing army is not far from the city. Even if there is salt production within the jurisdiction of Chongqing, it can only be left and not mined. Now, after the victory in Luzhou, this situation has changed.

Although Li Dingguo can't afford to fight any war, it is possible to modify the control lines on both sides, strengthen the protection of several salt works, and vigorously exploit them. It would be nice if new salt farms could be opened. Although it may not be possible to replace the position of Zigong salt for a while. But it can also bring financial resources to the imperial court. It was used for conquest in Sichuan.