In the early morning of the seventeenth day of the twelfth month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, the fog was thick, and there was no one outside the three zhangs.

In the afternoon, the fog clears and the sun shines, bringing some warmth to the winter land and a good omen for the upcoming year-end battle.

Two centipede boats picked up Zhu Pingjin, Liao Daheng and their staff at the wharf outside the east gate of Hezhou, and traced up the Jialing River.

Zhu Pingjin and Liao Daheng's destination today is Laitan Town in the upper reaches of the Qujiang River (Note 1).

In order to allow the boat to reach Laitan Town quickly, and in order to save the physical strength of the oarsmen, Dong Kezhi arranged a team of slender men to pull the boats every ten miles on the bank of the river, and each team had more than 100 people. Yu Dajiang's sailor ship and the Qiu family's military ration ship were pulled up step by step by these slender men a few days ago.

There are many people, the boat is light, and the boat is very fast.

Dong Kezhi, who was accompanying him, reported to Zhu Pingjin that these slender men on the Qujiang River were the main force of the Hezhou regiment's military training. They are disciplined, respect for superiors, able to endure hardships, and act in a coordinated manner, and they are all good soldiers. If it weren't for the prince's willingness to include them in the Protector Army, then after the Tyrants were defeated, he would have to disband these regiments. Although he is personally rich, he is not an official government after all, and he has no ability to raise these soldiers forever. Even if he was willing to endure it, the other gentry were not necessarily willing. But as soon as the regimental training is disbanded, what should we do if the officers and soldiers and local thugs come to harass again?

Dong Kezhi's words caused Zhu Pingjin to think deeply, and he connected the recent new situation with a series of phenomena this year in his mind.

Song Zhenzong said that this time, the Third Regiment not only dispatched all the Fourth and Fifth Battalions, but also dispatched three companies of Zhang Baoheng's Sixth Battalion. His wishful thinking with He Youyi was that since the 4th and 5th battalions of the 3rd Regiment were going from Luzhou to Hezhou and passing through Rongchang, Dazu, Tongliang and other counties in western Chongqing, it was just right to occupy them along the way in the name of preventing thieves and expand the territory of the Shu Wangfu.

When the fourth battalion successfully occupied Rongchang County, Kuaima sent back the news that Tao Xiansheng had occupied Dazu County first. He Youyi immediately led the three companies of the 6th Battalion to divert the route down the river. a company occupied Yongchuan; After the 2nd and 3rd Companies occupied Jiangjin, they continued to advance towards Bishan. However, yesterday Zhu Pingjin received a report from He Youyi that the important cities of Jiangjin and Bishan had been successfully occupied, but the Sixth Battalion and the First Company had been closed under Yongchuan City.

At the end of last year, thieves attacked Sichuan, and Dai Xiaoyun, the county governor of Yongchuan, fled from the wind. The Yongchuan students spontaneously organized a regimental exercise, and resolutely refused to let the officers and soldiers enter the city, and it was useless to explain anything. He Youyi asked whether to attack the city, and it seems that he was provoked by the Yongchuan scholars.

In addition to the Yongchuan members whom He Youyi met, there were also Qiao Wenyuan and Dong Kezhi who Zhu Pingjin personally met, and since the beginning of this year, there are also Huaikou gentry Yao Yulin, southern officials Li Junying, Li Juncheng, Zhou Wenzheng, and Li Kun, and Wang Guangxing, a member of Yingshan (Note 2), who have met Chen Youfu and Luo Jingyun on their way to the expedition; Qin Mintang, the magistrate of Rong County, whom Tian Qian met; Li Sixian met Fan Mingshan and Chen Huaixi, a member of Nanchong; Jiang Ding Town met Xichong Zhishi Yushi Li Wan; Feng Ruhu met the brothers of Dazhu Wusheng and Wang Ping; He Qiukou met An Yue, Jinshi, Dou Kejin, Wang Qi'e and so on.

These gentry were all highly influential and influential local officials, scholars, large landlords, and big businessmen. When faced with the direct military threat of rebellion, local riots, or official troops, they no longer had the scruples of being constrained in the past, and began to raise troops without hesitation to defend their own interests and those of the locality. Therefore, whenever thieves or thieves attack the city, there are always those scholars who are powerless at the head of the city.

In the summary of the situation just reported by Liu Mingsheng, it was said that when the city of Quxian was broken, the gentry of Quxian County fought with the local thugs in the streets, and there were all dead and wounded. Li Hanyi (Note 3), the right attendant of the military department who was registered with Ding Wei, was executed with all his strength, scolded the thief and died, and his death was extremely heroic. When Pengzhou and Yingshan were besieged by local rioters, the students and scholars of Yilong County, who had fled to these places for refuge, were the most active, and they all went to the city with their families and almost no need for mobilization.

Qu County, another Renshou! Zhu Pingjin thought. When Renshou City was broken, in addition to Liu Sance, the magistrate of the county, was killed, Jia Zhongdou, a filial piety, and Liu Shikai, a student, were also martyred. When collecting the body, the county residents found that Liu Shikai had more than ten large and small wounds on his body, and he was still holding a broken sword in his hand.

Could it be that these gentry will wake up when disaster is coming, and they will be in the same boat with themselves?

No, Zhu Pingjin denied it. There are always a few people who are blind, and most of the gentry are still sober! The publication of Fuxing Bao made more Sichuan gentry see the current situation. They are not like Wang Yingxiong, Yang Shen and others, when the world is in danger, they are still stupid and do not let go of vested interests. In the real history, when Sichuan was plagued by thieves and thieves, after the pigtailed army entered Sichuan, most of the gentry and people in Shu did their best to resist.

For this, they almost paid a devastating price!

Why did the spontaneous resistance of the gentry fail? Is it a lack of weapons or manpower, or a lack of determination to resist the enemy? Neither, Zhu Pingjin shook his head secretly.

He used the historical materialism in his mind to analyze and came to the only conclusion: that is, the lack of strong leadership, the lack of a recognized leadership core! Everyone thinks that they have the strongest troops, the most food, the highest official position, and the hardest backstage, and the result is a plate of scattered sand, each fighting for itself. In the context of the era of warlordization of warriors and the power of civil ministers, they were finally defeated one by one by the pigtailed army, which was smaller in number and weaker in strength, but had a unified command.

There is no doubt that the ending is the death of the country and the family!

In the face of the chaos in the world, the landlords and gentry in Sichuan have been gradually alerting and acting, I must believe in them, encourage them, and purify them! But they also need a core of leadership. And only I am qualified to be the core of this leadership!

Zhu Pingjin thought confidently, at most one more wife.

Zhu Pingjin was confident for a minute, and then he was a little drummed in his heart. The land has taken the initiative, what should the farmers do? Can they stand with me and form a united front against thieves and captives? Without the support of the peasants, the gentry would have failed on their own.

The crux of the struggle is two things: policy and strategy.

……

After traveling for about ten miles, the two boats turned to the right at the intersection of the Jialing River and the Qujiang River (Qujiang Tsui) and entered the Qujiang waterway.

In the middle of winter, the canal river has little water, the flow rate is slow, and the waterway is not wide. Although it is conducive to the ship going upstream, it is not conducive to the maneuver of the warship.

Dong Kezhi enthusiastically introduced to Zhu Pingjin that there is a huge difference between the amount of water in the flood season and the dry season of the canal river. The river surface can reach 250 zhang in the wet season, and only 70 or 80 zhang in the dry season. The water transportation conditions of the Qujiang River are very good, from Qujiangzui to Sanhui Town a total of about 600 li, although it is 200 li longer than the land route, but because the sand content of the river is not very large, there are not many shallow sand dunes in the river, even in the dry season, it can drive 300 stone boats.

To the north of Sanhui Town, the Qujiang River has two important tributaries, one is the Zhou River in the direction of Dazhou; One is the Ba River in the direction of Bazhou.

Through the Zhou River and its tributaries, the 30-stone boat can be traced back to Dazhou, Dongxiang (now Xuanhan County) and Taiping (now Wanyuan County), and even to Chengkou Town (now Chengkou County), which belongs to the Mingtong Inspection Division of Taiping County at the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi.

The water transport conditions of the Ba River and its tributaries are worse than those of the State River. The boat can go straight to Jiangkou Town, Bazhou (now Pyeongchang County). However, further up it can only be transported in sections, because there are several places in the upper reaches of the Ba River, which cannot be crossed by boats. He suggested that in order to control Bashan, the channel of the canal river and several tributaries must be firmly controlled. Zhu Pingjin nodded yes on the spot, and ordered Shu Guoping, who accompanied him, to immediately understand the situation in detail, make a map, and draw up an anti-combat plan.

Laitan Town is on the right bank of the Qujiang River, at the junction of Yuechi and Hezhou counties, and is more than 100 miles away from Hezhou and Guang'an Prefecture. Because it is an important water wharf, Laitan Town also used to gather merchants and prospered for a while. However, two days ago, when the Tusi cavalry arrived at Laitan Town, they found that the houses on the bank of the river had been burned down by the White Lotus bandits who had come to loot them. More than 1,000 people in a town are all crowded around the upper hall of the two Buddha Temples, a thousand-year-old ancient temple built by the mountains outside the town.

The two Buddha temples are built on the mountain, the upper hall is built on the top of the Eagle Peak that is backed by Laitan Town and overlooks the Qujiang River, the terrain is very dangerous, and the Buddha Shakyamuni, Maitreya and Guanyin Bodhisattva are enshrined in it; The lower hall is on the mountainside of Eagle Peak, and there is a cliff statue of Shakyamuni Buddha more than three zhang high outside the hall. Perhaps it was because of the love of incense, the White Lotus bandits did not attack the Second Buddha Temple. If there is a local tyrant who does not respect ghosts and gods and does not care about life and death, the bodhisattvas and people in these two Buddhist temples may suffer greatly.

Because of the convenience of supplies, Laitan Town became an advance base for the attack on Guang'an. Yesterday, the National Protector Army's infantry, cavalry, naval divisions, and logistical support units have all arrived, and then they are on standby. Today, Zhao Ronggui's troops will also arrive in Laitan Town.

From Laitan Town to the north, ten miles away is the right bank of the Qujiang River occupied by the White Lotus Bandits - Zhuan Shan Fort, Jianshan Fort, a few miles after the two forts are Baohe Village and Shunliang Village, and then more than ten miles after is Biaozi Mountain (Biaozhi Mountain), and the upstream of Biaozi Mountain is not far from Luodu. Luodu is a large town, which used to be the county seat of Xinmin County (later changed to Xinming County) in the Tang and Song dynasties. After taking Luodu, the fortress on the right bank of the Qujiang River was basically cleared, and the city of Guang'an could be forced by land and water at the same time.

There are also several cottages on the left bank of the Qujiang River, which are occupied by the local thugs under the forced anti-king Liu Weiming. Zhu Pingjin and Liao Daheng did not intend to attack Liu Weiming, the rebel king on the left bank. They unanimously agreed that a swift capture of Guang'an, an important town on the right bank of the Qujiang River, was the most effective way to expel the local rioters. If the rebel king Liu Weiming was forced to stay in the area on the left bank of the Qujiang River between Guang'an and Hezhou, then when the official army crossed the Qujiang River from Guang'an and blocked the narrow passage between the Qujiang River and the Huaying Mountains, Liu Weiming would not be willing to fight a decisive battle with the official army, so he would have no choice but to burrow into the Huaying Mountains and consume the precious grain they had left in the deep mountains.

……

On the morning of the 19th of the lunar month, the 4th Battalion of Tan Sigui, the vanguard of the Protector Army, set out from Laitan Town and began the attack on the right bank of the Qujiang River.

The 4th Battalion was fully manned, and in addition to commanding four companies in the formation, it also reinforced a company of firearms. Gao Qingxi, commander of the 5th Battalion of Tianquan Tusi, He Chengjun, commander of the artillery battalion, and Wei Gan, commander of the baggage battalion, were the avant-garde, and followed up after the 4th battalion. Two cavalry battalions and the Shizi Guard Battalion were the central army, which followed after the avant-garde. As for the reinforcement camp led by Zhao Ronggui, they followed the Protector Army for 30 miles.

Liao Daheng heard that Zhao Ronggui had already let his generals speak in the camp: he had come out for the sake of the prince giving him food. But if you don't get to Guang'an City, you don't want to use his soldiers to attack the mountain and climb the fortress. When he arrives in Guang'an City, he can go into battle, but Liao Fu wants to give him Guang'an City and grab it for three days!

At noon, the striker Tan Sigui reported to Zhu Pingjin that the White Lotus Sect bandits in Zhuanshan Fort and Jianshan Fort had all retreated, and no trace of the enemy was found. The scouts approached a few local villagers and inquired, and the villagers said that the White Lotus Sect had withdrawn two days ago, and they did not know where they had withdrawn. Zhu Pingjin and Liao Daheng could not judge the intentions of the White Lotus bandits, so they had to agree to Song Zhenzong's suggestion to continue the attack.

At dusk of the same day, Tan Sigui's battalion reported again that Baohe Village and Shunliang Village were also occupied, and neither the enemy nor the people were found. He estimated that he would not be able to find the enemy's trace until he reached Biaozi Mountain on the outskirts of Luodu.

The enemy's retreat on all fronts must be related to the large-scale offensive of the Protector Army. Song Zhenzong judged that the enemy had shrunk to Luodu Town, so he ordered the fourth and fifth battalions to camp in Baohe Village and Shunliang Village to prevent the enemy from attacking at night. Early tomorrow morning, a company of the Tianquan Cavalry Battalion will disperse to reconnoiter the enemy situation in the area of Biaozishan and Luodu. The four battalions followed, and attacked immediately when they encountered the enemy. If the enemy is indeed defending Luodu, the 5th Battalion should give full play to its advantage of being good at climbing mountains, quickly seize the key points between Luodu and Guang'an City, Lion Rock and Laojun Mountain, and cut off the connection between Guang'an City and Luodu. Yu Dajiang and He Gui's sailors went out to clean the water surface of the Qujiang River and attack Luodu with their cameras.

According to the information provided by Dong Kezhi, the city wall of Luodu is an earthen wall, which has long been soaked by rain, and now it is just a high ridge of earth that is uplifted, and people and horses can pass through it without ladders. Therefore, Zhu Pingjin and Liao Daheng also decided to divide labor:

Liao Daheng went ashore and walked by land and followed Song Zhenzong;

Zhu Pingjin continued to walk by water, and got on the boat on the river to watch the battle;

As for the Chongqing prefect Wang Xingjian, he was still with Zhao Ronggui and fell last in the entire offensive formation.

Note 1: The brick and stone city wall of Laitan Village was built by the Taiping Army in the Qing Dynasty, and there should be no in the Ming Dynasty.

Note 2: Wang Guangxing, a member of Yingshan, has the same name and surname as Wang Guangxing, a local tyrant, but they are not the same person. This person died fighting Zhang Xianzhong and left his name in history.

Note 3: Li Hanyi, a native of Qu County, a citizen, was a member of the Jiaxu Branch (1634) in the seventh year of Chongzhen. Among the 33 Ming Dynasty Jinshi in Dazhou, the ranking is second only to Tang Jinzhou (second and fifth). There are historical sources that say that Li Hanyi was the Langzhong of the Ministry of Rites, and this article is based on the official position recorded on Li Hanyi's table (there may be posthumous awards).