Sun Kewang's Onishi was very different from the Ming Dynasty and the Jin State in terms of political structure.

Both the Ming Dynasty and the Jin Kingdom were held to a certain extent by the gentry and aristocracy, while Onishi was a bunch of mud-legged men.

Sun Kewang's reforms in Yunnan dealt a serious blow to the gentry, so that while he enriched himself by plundering the gentry's wealth, he also won the support of the people at the bottom, and his strength grew rapidly.

In Sun Kewang's view, the biggest bottleneck in the development of his strength is population.

Zhang Xianzhong killed a lot of scholars in Sichuan, and also destroyed a lot of wealthy families, so the Western Army was not popular with the Sichuan gentry, and Bai Wenxuan and others were not wrong to worry.

However, Sun Kewang is not relying on the gentry now, the gentry are only a few people, he wants to mobilize the people at the bottom, and Onishi is still a peasant power in essence.

Historically, Sun Kewang relied on the two poor provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou to raise 200,000 soldiers, mainly because he suppressed the landlords and gentry and mobilized the enthusiasm of the people at the bottom.

It's just that in history, because he had Yongli in his hand and pulled the banner of the Ming Dynasty, although the gentry were suppressed, there were still many scholars who took refuge in him for the ideal of recovering the Han Dynasty, so that he had enough talents to implement his policies and govern the place according to his policies.

Now the situation is different, Sun Kewang has no reputation, and he cracked down on the gentry, so a large number of scholars fled into the Ming Dynasty's ruling area, resulting in an urgent shortage of talents in Daxi.

Sun Kewang is very clear about this, but he doesn't intend to curry favor with the gentry, and even if he pleases, it won't have an effect, his current foundation is still the people at the bottom, and it is not yet time to be feudalized.

Only after the strength reaches a certain level, there is the potential to divide one side, or even fight for the world, will there be gentry willing to take refuge, and then it will be the best time to protect the interests of the gentry from safeguarding the rights and interests of the peasants.

For the urgent shortage of talents, Sun Kewang also took some measures, that is, in Yunnan to open a branch to take a scholar, everything in the exam, immediately issued three hundred taels of silver, he greatly reduced the difficulty of the exam, and also attracted some people who had repeatedly failed the list before to serve him.

Although these people are uneven, they are barely able to maintain the operation of Onishi at present.

He can have such an achievement in just two or three years, which should be enough to make people sigh, but he is not satisfied.

A small country, between the two powers, the best way to survive is to please both sides, and neither of them will be offended, but Sun Kewang does not believe in fate, is not willing to be just a vassal, he has his ambitions.

Within three months, the reinforcements of the Ming army will enter Guizhou, Sun Kewang is no longer profitable in Guizhou, although the south and west of Sichuan are poison, but the huge population, but he is salivating.

Those who dare not gamble will never win.

After receiving He Tengjiao's letter, Sun Kewang ordered the troops to withdraw and diverted to occupy southern and western Sichuan, in order to suppress the gentry in the two places as soon as possible, mobilize the poor people, and stabilize his foundation.

In addition to coveting the wealth and huge population of Sichuan, and the guarantee of the alliance between the two parties, the most important point is Zhang Xianzhen's threat at the beginning, the Ming Dynasty has the strength to destroy him, and he is afraid of the Ming Dynasty's retaliation.

Guangxi, Guizhou and Yunnan in the Ming Dynasty are too similar, it is precisely because of the similarity, coupled with the strong national strength of the Ming Dynasty, really crushed over, he will not be able to resist, even the United Jin State, can not resist, on the contrary, the area controlled by the Jin State and Yunnan, not only has the difference between the north and the south, but also the terrain difference, and he dares to grab food, to a large extent, it is the strength of the Jin State that did not destroy him.

In late November, Sun Kewang led his troops to leave Annanwei, but despite He Tengjiao's assurance, he still put down 10,000 people, and then transferred another 10,000 people from Yunnan to the Yunnan-Guizhou border, so that Bai Wenxuan led 20,000 people to guard against the Ming army in Guizhou, and he led 40,000 people to march to southern Sichuan.

When the Western Army appeared in southern Sichuan, the Zhenwu battalion had already withdrawn to eastern Sichuan, and southern and western Sichuan were already in a state of anarchy.

Before Li Dingguo and Fan Yixuan withdrew, they naturally communicated with the gentry of the two places, and some of the gentry followed the Ming army to retreat eastward, but there were still a large number of people who were reluctant to have their family business and chose to stay.

The gentry and wealthy families who stayed behind had no good impression of the Western Army, and Sun Kewang's reform in Yunnan was to cut the flesh of the gentry, and if anyone wanted to kill Sun Kewang, these gentry would raise their hands in favor, and even contribute money and grain to support.

This phenomenon is not only in Sichuan, Liangguang near Yunnan, and even the gentry in Huguang are more afraid of Sun Kewang, and many wealthy families and merchants in Liangguang have begun to lobby the officials in the court, so that the government can strengthen the defense of Liangguang, so that the court can destroy Sun Kewang as soon as possible.

This kind of dislike for Sun Kewang and the Great Western Army comes from the difference in class and is planted in the bones.

The gentry and wealthy families who chose to stay in southern Sichuan and western Sichuan had almost the same attitude towards Sun Kewang, some of them formed a village to protect themselves and did not cooperate with Sun Kewang, and the other part even directly found the Jin State and led the way for the Jin army, so that they could quickly occupy western Sichuan and southern Sichuan.

Why this part of the gentry chose the Jin State, is because after the sinicization of the Jin State, it has essentially become a regime that protects the interests of the Han gentry, unlike the Manchu Qing massacre and plunder, and the interests of the Eight Banners, the Han nationality within the Jin State is strong, practicing Han law, wearing Han clothes, using Chinese characters, and some gentry out of their own interests, would rather the Jin army occupy southern and western Sichuan than see Sun Kewang rule them.

It's just that although they want to lead the way for the Jin army, the Jin army is now lacking in energy.

At this time, the main force of the Jin army was in the east of Sichuan, although there were gentry to lead the way, there were not too many troops to occupy southern Sichuan and western Sichuan, and not all the gentry were willing to take refuge in the Jin country.

In Guizhou, after finding out that Sun Kewang had indeed transferred to southern Sichuan, He Tengjiao finally relieved himself and still ordered Chen Youlong to guard Guizhou, while he led 20,000 elite soldiers from Guiyang to support eastern Sichuan.

Haoge's raid on the Ming army in eastern Sichuan can be said to have been very smooth at first, the Jin army lured Yuan Zongdi to Hezhou, Wu Sangui made a surprise attack on Wanxian County over the mountains, and then outflanked Yuan Zongdi's back road, and defeated Wang Yingxiong, the governor of Sichuan in the Ming Dynasty, who rushed to support, forcing him to commit suicide in defeat.

At this time of the war, for Haoge, it was basically a general trend, and he only needed to surround Yuan Zongdi, and the whole Sichuan was within reach, but he didn't expect that Wang Deren actually rushed to Chongqing.

When Wang Yan sensed that the Jin State might break the treaty, he urgently transferred Wang Deren's troops into Sichuan to strengthen the defense of the Ming army in Sichuan.

Originally, the Jin army only needed to surround Hezhou and wait for the food in the city to run out, even if the main force of the Ming army in Sichuan was eliminated, but Wang Deren's 30,000 people provided Yuan Zongdi with the possibility of getting out of trouble.

For a time, Haoge could only change the original siege plan, on the one hand, he ordered his soldiers to storm Hezhou day and night to annihilate Yuan Zongdi, and on the other hand, let Wu Sangui hold the Fotu Pass and prevent the Ming army from breaking the siege.

(Thank you Zimo for your farewell, Wallace, and Yunqi's tips, thank you for your monthly passes, recommendations, and subscriptions.) I just got home yesterday, and I found that I forgot to pull out the power for a few days, and the computer may have been damaged by lightning and could not be turned on. ）