Yunnan Political Envoy Division. In the southern area of Mengzi County, Lin'an Province, the main road stretches on the hillside. When people look around, they can't see the towering mountains, but the extremely wide and long gentle slopes rise and fall between the heavens and the earth, and the four fields are barren, full of only wild grass and gravel. Except for the army grain trucks, which were not visible in front and behind, there was not a trace of human habitation.

Suddenly, a shout came from the hillside: "The enemy cavalry is coming!" ”

There was an uproar in the convoy. At the top of the slope in the distance to the west, sure enough, figures on horseback climbed over the hillside and appeared in people's sight. The sound of horses' hooves suddenly sounded, and the horses rushed straight in!

"Prepare for war!" The officers and generals shouted loudly.

On the long snake-like road, the soldiers who followed the grain truck shouted in unison, with a strong momentum!

"Rumble Rumble......" enemy cavalry rushed down from the western mountain, and then attacked from the back!

In the distance, there was the sound of crackling strings, and screams followed. Then the smoke gradually filled the hillside, and many grain carts started fires. Mules, horses, and donkeys ran in fright, and the fireworks were all over the mountain. Immediately the wilderness became noisy, and screams and shouts could be heard everywhere.

Here, a few officers and soldiers with guns and shields were standing behind the two mule carts swinging horizontally. Suddenly, there was a string sound, and the mule screamed miserably, and it struggled forward! A moment later, the two horsemen roared side by side, and rushed diagonally from the side of the officer-sergeant, and the spear immediately stabbed diagonally from the side. "Ahh An officer and sergeant screamed and fell on his back.

A clay pot stuffed with an oilcloth, soaked with oilcloth ignited by a torch, was thrown onto the grain cart, and with a "clang" it burst open, and the oil inside burned on the grain bag at once!

After a while, the sound of horses' hooves finally sounded in the northeast direction, and a group of officers and cavalry rushed over shouting. At this moment the whistle sounded from the rebel cavalry, and the men and horses turned around and ran westward, running quite fast, and in a moment of smoke they went down the slope of the mountain.

Smoke was everywhere on the long hillside. A group of cavalry of the official army rushed to the top of the slope to the west, and the angry officer and military general scolded loudly: "Peace, you birdless coward!" ”

Unexpectedly, a response came from afar: "Don't be ignorant, grandpa is teaching you how to use cavalry!" ”

The generals of the official army were so angry that they were about to vomit blood, but they did not dare to chase too far, for fear of an ambush, the generals strangled their horses and looked at the back of the Ping An Army, so they had to scold.

People were frustrated and busy fighting fires and saving people, and the hillside was in shambles.

After a long time, Zhang Fu, a general in a red cloak, came to this place with a team of men. Zhang Fu asked, "Ping An has been here?" ”

A military general dismounted and hugged his fists and said: "Yu Dashuai, the last general shouted the name of Ping An and scolded the formation, and someone replied, and I couldn't confirm whether it was Ping An or not." ”

He lowered his head again and said, "The last general should be damned, the baggage grain team is walking halfway up the hill here; The last general sent scouts to inspect the road in front of and behind them, as well as the nearby hillside, and neglected the hill opposite to the west. Unexpectedly, the rebels drilled a basket right here! It's really strange, why did Ping An know that we were transporting grain at this time? ”

There was a general next to Zhang Dashuai who said: "The local Yi people." ”

The general who simply said one sentence was the general Huang Zhong who was fished out of the edict by Zhang Fu.

"Drive!" Zhang Fu shouted, kicked the horse and ran along the hillside to the top of the mountain to the west. When I went to the top of the mountain, there was a big hillside in front of me, and I couldn't see anything, and the rebels had long since disappeared without a trace! Zhang Fu reined in his war horse, still looking into the distance.

Huang Zhong's voice said: "Peace seems to be everywhere! How many horsemen did he have, ten thousand, fifteen thousand? ”

Zhang Fu turned his head and glanced at Huang Zhong, "The main force of the Han Wang's army is in Sichuan, and it is difficult to say whether the entire rebel army has a total of 15,000 cavalry." ”

Huang Zhong shut up, and after a while, he muttered and complained: "The handsome can fight well, but he was transferred to this mountain, and he was surrounded by elusive rangers and a group of wild men all day long, and he didn't know the idea of 'Bian'?!" "He usually speaks Mandarin, but his accent is very strong, with the tone of Liangguang's side.

Zhang Fu ignored him, still thinking about his own situation.

Zhang Fu set out from Thang Long City (Hanoi) in the political envoy of Cochinbu in early November, and he received the military order from the imperial army headquarters a little earlier. At that time, Zhang Fu believed that once the main force of the Ming army was transferred, there would be a rebellion in the western capital of Annan, Thanh Hoa.

Therefore, he first handed over the power of Thanh Hoa and other places to the surrendered Annamite, and ordered all Han Chinese to migrate to Thang Long City; The remaining defenders of the Ming army, officials and civilians will rely on the defense of Thang Long and the reinforcements of the Liangguang Fujian Naval Division on the Great River (Red River) to shrink the defense line and hold the plastered land of the Red River Plain.

On the one hand, he was edicted to prepare for the expedition, and on the other hand, he wrote to the imperial court to detail the local situation, intending to oppose this strategy. There is a very important reason why Zhang Fu is reluctant to immediately march north and attack Yunnan: he feels that the time is not right!

The main factor influencing this timing is food.

Due to the fact that the "Jiaozhi Political Envoy Division" had just gone through the war, it was not long ago that it reluctantly established a government office to govern all localities; And due to the consumption of more than 200,000 people of the Ming army a few months ago, the treasury of the cities of Jiaozhi has been exhausted! Zhang Fu demanded that the military rations be transferred from Guangxi, but the transportation was insufficient, and the grain stocks were far from enough for the army to go on the expedition. But last month, the military order of the Imperial Military Department was: Immediately send troops from Cochin Province!

Zhang Fu found a way to send people to establish three granary strongholds along the way, and transported the collected military rations to the north in batches.

One is in Qin Station, one is on the north bank of the Yuan River in the south of Mengzi County, and one is in Mengzi County...... A warehouse under construction is in Amizhou (Kaiyuan City). Zhang Fu is also trying to deploy and establish a grain route from Tiandong in Guangxi to Amizhou; However, the roads were complicated, the mountains were high and the roads were long, and so far they had not succeeded, and the soldiers and civilians were harassed by the Heian cavalry and the local barbarians, and they were often damaged.

It was through this kind of stronghold that Zhang Fu traveled less than 1,000 miles in more than a month. The further north you go, the more difficult the situation becomes!

…… In the mountainous areas of southern Yunnan, most of the places are barbarian areas, and the government's paper decrees are ineffective, and what is even more ridiculous is that there is not a single literate person in some tribes who cannot read or understand the decrees. The defenders of Yunnan also fortified the walls and cleared the wilderness, and transferred all the grain and grass from the treasury along the way, or burned it! Zhang Fujun had no choice but to attack the barbarian tribe, and it was very difficult to collect grain and grass.

The grain and straw transported from Annan for a long distance, from the Yuanjiang warehouse to the Mengzi warehouse, were constantly harassed by the Ping'an cavalry, and the losses were very large. There are also various barbarian tribes with strange names, who sent envoys to scold Zhang Fu for not understanding the rules; Then they colluded with the rebels everywhere and attacked the officers and soldiers together.

Zhang Fu also wants to understand the rules, but so many people want to eat, who can still take care of the rules?

The situation is dire. Zhang Fu has ordered the three divisions of the "Jiaozhi Political Envoy Division" to make every effort to increase taxes and collect grain, urging Guangxi to immediately transfer a large amount of grain and grass to the Yuanjiang warehouse as soon as possible.

At present, Zhang Fu's army has arrived in Mengzi County, Lin'an Prefecture, and has completely built the granary and fortifications, and is trying to continue to establish the granary of Amizhou in the north.

But after many successful attacks by Ping An, Zhang Fu wanted to change his strategy. That is, give up building warehouses!

First retreat to the north bank of the Yuanjiang River, reduce the loss of grain and grass transshipment, wait for a period of time in the Yuanjiang River, and wait for enough grain and grass to be transported from the Jiaozhi Political Envoy Division. then carried the January military rations with the army, gave up the grain route to supplement the military supplies, and advanced directly to Kunming; Then get supplies from the direction of Guizhou.

However, there is a problem with this strategy, the civil and eunuch eunuchs in the army, and even secret agents, will definitely pass on the news and return to Beijing.

If the news is added to the fire, the DPRK and China may be misunderstood...... It is said that the King of Han has gone around Sichuan, and you Zhang Fu walked to Mengzi County, and then retreated to the border of Yunnan, where he did not move! You have so much military power, but you can't even get a little food in Yunnan, is it deliberate?

"If I am a general of Pinghan and have full authority to control the military and politics of the southwest, why should I be teased by that little bit of peace?" Zhang Fu couldn't help but sigh.

Huang Zhong immediately agreed: "The brothers all want to be a handsome general of Pinghan!" How can the chaotic strategy of the court compare to Zhang Dashuai's insight? ”

Zhang Fu glanced at him, suddenly remembered a sentence, and blurted out: "Only when they see a huge failure and can't afford it, will they really know that they are wrong." ”

Huang Zhong hurriedly said seriously: "The handsome man is really a wise man!" ”

Zhang Fu said: "I'm paraphrasing other people's words. ”

He said that he sat down on his horse and bowed his head in contemplation, and his face was quite bad. Zhang Fu has never expressed dissatisfaction, but he has already scolded thousands of times in his heart: when he won over Lao Tzu, he spoke better than he sang; Lao Tzu just broke off the back road, and immediately turned his face to play this set?

Although Huang Zhong is a bit vulgar, what he said is very right! He|mother|, trapped in this wilderness far away in the sky, Zhang Fu is quite unhappy.

"Anyway, in the strategy of the Ministry of War, we are not put in an important position, don't worry, don't worry, can you blame us for not having food? Wait to see what their gang is capable of! Huang Zhong said indignantly.

"If I only have this little heart, I'm still Zhang Fu?" Zhang Fu said coldly, "The person who leads the troops, one person is related to the lives of hundreds of thousands of brothers, what is the hurdle that cannot be overcome?" No matter what the reason, there must be no dereliction of duty! ”

He lifted the reins, turned the horse's head, and said categorically: "Withdraw to Yuanjiang immediately!" Urge the transfer officials of Jiaozhi and Guangxi provinces to send grain and grass to Yuanjiang within a month, otherwise they will be washed and wait for death! Don't blame me Zhang Fu for cutting first and then playing! ”

"Dashuai!" Huang Zhong showed respect on the one hand, and worried on the other.

Zhang Fudao: "The strategy of the imperial court is also reasonable, if you can rely on Guizhou City to lead the main force of the Han King to the city, then this battle is promising." We should do our best to cooperate with the general plan of the military department and rush to Kunming as soon as possible. ”

He thought for a while and said: "You ask the civilian officials in the army to write a letter immediately, report to Huguang Changde Mansion urgently for eight hundred miles, and ask Jin Zhong, the secretary of the military department, to find a way to transfer enough military food for me." ”

"The last will be ordered!" Huang Zhong saluted.