At this time, the situation in Guangdong was becoming more and more decadent.

In the spring of the fourth year of Yongli (1650 AD), Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming occupied Nanxiong and Shaoguan, and then led the army to besiege Guangzhou, and Li Yuandong, the deputy general, and now Du Yonghe, the governor of Guangdong, led the troops to garrison the city of Guangzhou.

In the face of the tall city wall of Guangzhou, Geng Zhongming adopted the method of besieging the city after the siege was unfavorable, digging trenches while recruiting pirates in an attempt to break the city.

Emperor Yongli, who had retreated to Wuzhou, liquidated the Dongxun group to consolidate his rule, while sending reinforcements to illustrate the siege of Guangzhou.

In Zhaoqing, those heroes who followed Li Chengdong anyway, such as Yuan Pengnian, Liu Xiangke, Ding Shikui, Jin Bao, Meng Zhengfa and others, because they used Li Chengdong's power to control the government (because there were more Chu people, they were called the Chu Party), and those who supported the Yongli Emperor (because there were more Wu people, they were called Wu Party), Li Chengdong was still alive in the past, and everyone was still living under the wing of Li Chengdong's army in order to endure the criticism of the Chu Party.

Now after escaping from Li Chengdong's sphere of influence, Wu Zhenyu, Wan Ao, Cheng Yuan, Zhang Xiaoqi and others of the Wu Party went up to impeach Yuan Pengnian and others, calling Yuan Pengnian "tiger head", Liu Xiangke "tiger skin", Jinbao "tiger teeth", Ding Shikui "tiger tail", Meng Zhengfa "tiger claw", Emperor Yongli immediately ordered Liu Xiangke and others to be arrested and brought to justice, and all of them were exiled after being violently beaten and angry.

Of course, when dealing with it, Emperor Yongli also took care of Li Yuanyin's face, and Yuan Pengnian, who had a good relationship with Li Yuanyin, was only exempted from his post and never hired.

After punishing the Five Tigers, Emperor Yongli actively sent the leader of the Wu Party, Du Yinxi, to lead the loyal battalion to the east to relieve the siege of Guangzhou, but Du Yinxi's eastward expedition had a dispute with Li Yuandong's group.

Li Yuanyin was worried that Gu Yinxi would rely on the loyalty camp to grab his own territory, while on the other hand, Chen Bangchuan, another powerful boss of the Wu Party, was unwilling to fund food at all.

In the process of preparing for the Eastern Crusade, Li Chixin, the loyal battalion master, adopted the strategy of the golden cicada to get out of the shell, and went out to become a monk by defrauding his death.

After Li Chixin cheated to death, he asked for money, no money, no food, and finally died of state affairs in November of the third year of Yongli.

After He Tengjiao died in battle, Emperor Yongli promoted Qu Shiyun, who supported him, to replace He Tengjiao as the governor of Huguang, in order to restore the situation in the south of Hu, but after seeing that Emperor Yongli fled from Zhaoqing to Wuzhou, the generals were leaderless, and the warlords in various places fought for power and profit.

After losing the backer of Guanyinxi, the loyal battalion was discriminated against by the warlords of Liangguang, and it was difficult to replenish food and salary, Gao Yigong and Li Laiheng sent people to contact the volunteers on the one hand to contact the matter of returning to Shun, and led their troops to the north on the other hand, but in Xiangxi they were attacked by Peng Chaozhu, the Tusi who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and Gao Yigong died in battle.

After hearing the news, the Gui (state capital commanded Li Dingguo to command the post department to encircle and suppress the local Tusi, after half a month of fierce fighting, Xiangxi Tusi Peng Chaozhu was killed, and the volunteers changed the county to return to the river.

In July of the 4th year of Yongli (1650 AD), after nearly 5 months of trekking, Li Laiheng, Yuan Zongdi and others led their troops to Shizhou, but there were only more than 20,000 people, including many old and weak women and children.

Yang Xuan sent people to inspect the ministry on the one hand, and sent people to send money and grain for compensity, after half a month of reorganization, Li Zicheng left the remnants of Dashun reorganized into a kind of town, the number of the department is the 15th town, appointed Li Laiheng as the general soldier, Yuan Zongdi, Wang Guangxing as the deputy general to lead the troops and horses.

At the same time as the reorganization of Li Laiheng's department, in order to evade the investigation of the Tartar spies, Yang Xuan secretly rushed to Chong (Qing) in the name of inspection to prepare for the Eastern Expedition.

After half a year of preparation, the volunteers now have sufficient food (3 million taels per year) and sufficient silver (although there is no deficit of 140,000 taels of silver, but it is sufficient at present). ）

The time has come to rush to the east again, and actively move the palace of the Shu Wangfu to Chong (Qing) to carry out the eastward plan.

Before this, Zhu Rongfan lost the role of cutting off the ears and eyes of the Tartars, when Liu Weiming Town entered the Kuizhou Mansion at the end of the third year of Yongli, Zhu Rongfan, who claimed to be the prisoner of the country, had already betrayed his relatives and left, and Zhu Rongfan, who wanted to be Liu Bei, was killed by his general Tan Wen, and the volunteers recovered the territory of the seven counties to which Kuizhou belonged in less than three months.

On this day, the governors of the provinces were all commanding envoys, and the general soldiers and deputy generals of the towns hurried to Chong (Qing), and now the Tartars are besieging the Liangguang area, and now Yang Xuan summoned them, and everyone intuitively felt that the counterattack was imminent.

In the months of the truce, as the advantages of the four-wheeled carriage became more and more obvious, and as the flintlock pistol was gradually used, the troops and horses prepared for the Eastern Expedition to the North.

At the grassroots level, the most important change in the battalion and below was the large-scale use of flintlock pistols and bird guns, and the gradual deployment of rickshaws and two-wheeled carriages to various squads, squadrons, and brigades.

Now each squadron is equipped with 2-3 two-wheeled carriages and rickshaws, and the number of rickshaws and two-wheeled carriages in each brigade exceeds 10 to transport pots and pans, grain, tents, armor and other heavy objects, and reduce the load of the soldiers, so that the normal marching speed can reach more than 60 miles, and the forced marching speed (pots and pans and grain tents are transported by the gang squad in the back, and the infantry marches with a small amount of three-day rations and weapons) can reach more than 100 miles, which is much higher than the daily march of three or four miles in the past.

Because bird guns and flintlock pistols can be loaded with guns and thorns to fight in close combat, each brigade is now generally organized into 2 firearms squadrons and 1 fighter squadron, and the proportion of firearms in the whole army is more than 6 percent.

In terms of regiments, brigades, and divisions (towns), due to the superiority of four-wheeled carriage transportation, each regiment abolished the baggage battalions equipped with two-wheeled carriages in the past, and replaced them with a baggage brigade equipped with four-wheeled carriages.

At present, the regimental establishment is: 3 infantry battalions (530 people) 1590, with the regimental headquarters and its direct units.

The regimental headquarters includes 1 guerrilla general, 1 sub-supervision army, 1 chief of staff, 8 staff officers, 6 personal guards, 5 heralds, and 8 service soldiers (30 people).

The units directly under the regimental headquarters include: 1, a Fran machine gun brigade (60 people), 1 escort brigade (116 people), 1 baggage brigade with 120 people, a field branch (30 people), and a cavalry squadron (30 people)

Among them, the biggest change is the transport brigade, which used to be a baggage battalion equipped with two-wheeled carriages, but now it is mostly four-wheeled carriages dragged by two horses, and the whole brigade has a total of 40 four-wheeled carriages, which are transported by mules and horses.

A four-wheeled carriage with two horses or mules, driven by a coachman, and a chariot with a guard, forty four-wheeled carriages with a total of 40 coachmen and 40 guards, and if you add the grain keepers, registration personnel, horse keepers, etc., such a baggage caravan has a hundred men.

The big change is the Fran cannon brigade, which includes 4 artillery squads and an escort squadron (30 people) and the personnel of the brigade headquarters (including the group leader, the secretary general, the observer, etc.).

In the past, two mules used to carry two large Franc cannons, but now they are four-wheeled carriages.

Now four men look after a large Furlong cannon, and every three guns form a Furlong cannon squad.

It was transported by a mule and a small four-wheeled carriage, in which there was a gun commander, a groom, and two gunners, and the coachman was responsible for taking care of the mules on the battlefield, and the gunner and gunner were responsible for firing the cannons.

There are 5 medical officers and 10 nurses in the medical center, who are mainly responsible for saving lives and caring for the wounded.

Ordnance has a master team, including a firearms team, an weapons team, and a vehicle team, which is mainly responsible for repairing damaged muskets, weapons, and vehicles.

The establishment of the brigade (association) has not changed, and it is mainly composed of two regiments, with a brigade headquarters (10 people) and a guard squadron, a reconnaissance squadron and a military police squadron directly under the brigade headquarters.

The town (division) is the largest combat unit of the Volunteer Army, which is divided into three types of formations: A, B, and C, with a strength of 11,800 people, 9,000 people in B town, and 7,000 people in C town.

Among them, the first type of town (division) includes the town headquarters and two units directly under the association, with a total of 11,800 people.

There are about 30 people in the town department, including 1 general soldier, 1 supervising army, 1 adjutant general, 1 chief of staff, 11 staff officers (2 in charge of intelligence, 5 in charge of operations, 2 in charge of logistics, 2 in charge of military administration), and 15 miscellaneous officers.

The units directly under the town include:

Supplementary regiment (1600 people), Guard Division or battalion (300 people), Cavalry Battalion (200 people), Artillery Battalion (3 2-pound artillery brigades, 300 people), Baggage Battalion (500 people), Reconnaissance Brigade (100 people), Field Hospital (70 people)

Yang Xuan made a large sand table, marking the main cities, major rivers, friendly forces, and Tatar garrisons one by one, so that everyone could look at the map and discuss.

Zhao Ronggui stood up and concluded: "Generals, this is the posture of the enemy and our armies, after the Jiang Pai rebellion was suppressed, the Tartars have unified northern China.

In the south, Lu Jianguo, led by Zhang Mingzhen, the Marquis of Dingxi, returned to the Zhoushan Islands and used it as a base to harass the coastal areas of the Manqing Dynasty.

In fact, Shanglu Jianguo had already been cornered, and he once surrendered to the Zheng Department in southern Fujian, because Zheng Cai transferred a bag to him and did not become a prisoner of the Tartars.

After that, Lu Jianguo lived under the wing of Zheng Cai for a long time, and later, with the help of his general Zhang Mingzhen, first annexed Zheng Cai's armed forces, and then merged Huang Binqing's armed forces (Zhang Mingzhen's own family), and occupied the Zhoushan Islands in the previous year (1649 AD) after performing the play of Lin Chonghuo and Wang Lun.

In Fujian, although Zheng Chenggong successively annexed Zheng Cai, Zheng Hongkui and other armed forces when Jin Shenghuan and Li Chengdong opposed the Qing Dynasty, supported more than 100,000 people, and relied on smuggling to gain a lot, but the territory occupied was only a few county towns such as Tong'an County.

In Guangdong, Shang Kexi and Geng Zhongming had already led their troops into Guangdong, and were now besieging the remnants of Li Chengdong, and Du Yonghe, the governor of Guangdong in the Southern Ming Dynasty, led his troops to hold the city of Guangzhou.

In the western region of Guangzhou, Kong Youde has already led his troops to capture Quanzhou, and his troops are now attacking Guilin City.

In order to support Guilin City, Emperor Yongli ordered Chen Bangchuan, Sun Kewang and others to lead troops to aid Guilin City, Chen Bangchuan was very negative, and Sun Kewang has no movement at present.

On the Tartar side, Dolgon took Hong Chengchou as the envoy of the six provinces, and sat in Nanjing to direct the counterinsurgency in Jiangnan.

Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, commanded 80,000 soldiers and horses, including Wu Sangui's 50,000 Guanning soldiers and horses, and Li Guohan commanded 2,000 Han troops with blue flags, and Doma garrisoned Guanzhong and He(south, and established the northern battalion to prevent the volunteers from entering Guanzhong and Xiangyang.

In the north of the lake, Zeduo led 100,000 soldiers and horses, including more than 10,000 people from the Manchurian Zhengbai defeated banner and the Mongolian Eight Banners, and Cai Shiying, the governor of the north of the lake, commanded 60,000 green battalion soldiers and horses to garrison the lake (North Wuchang, Xiangfan, Jingzhou, Yichang and other places, as the Jiangdong battalion, in order to block the volunteers from leaving the Three Gorges.

In the south of the lake, there were 880,000 soldiers and horses under the command of Jierharang, including Manchuria with blue flags, Liu Zhiyuan's Han army with yellow flags, Barbarian Qing to continue Shungong Shen Yongzhong's troops, and Xu Yong's troops with green battalion soldiers and horses.

Kong Youde's command is attacking 30,000 soldiers and horses in the west of Guangzhou.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have 260,000 Tartars in front of us, and their soldiers and horses are far stronger than our army. ”

After listening, everyone discussed, Li Dingguo shook his head and said: "Let's not let others have the ambition to destroy their own prestige, I only rely on its cavalry to observe the Tartars, and the soldiers and horses of the Tartar Green Battalion are not to worry."

As long as our army is killed, the Tartars will be defeated at that time. ”

Yang Xuan said with a smile: "The pride of Dingxi Hou is commendable, if everyone has the pride and courage of Dingxi Hou, why worry about the injustice of the Tartars." ”

Li Laiheng shook his head and said: "Lord Wang, Dingxi Hou defeated the Tartars twice, but that was in the mountains, and besides, the Tartars didn't know that Dingxi Hou had elephant soldiers, so the Tartars were like a mountain, and Luck Dehun would be killed."

But the war elephant is not a war horse after all, if the Tartars find the weakness of the war elephant and strike a counterattack, then our army is in a worrying situation. ”

As soon as Li Dingguo heard that he was about to attack, Yang Xuan pulled Li Dingguo with one hand and Li Laiheng with the other and said: "The big war is imminent, and the two generals Li must not have a dispute because of this."

Ladies and gentlemen, since the start of the war between our army and the Tartars, General Ning Yu has made outstanding achievements, and it is indeed gratifying.

General Xiao Li claimed that the war elephant had shortcomings, and I think it is impossible for General Ning Yu not to know about it, and he will also take all kinds of precautions. ”

Li Dingguo looked at the crowd: "What the prince said is reasonable, we are all veterans of soldiers, of course we know that it is powerful, prince, can you tell me how to fight?" ”

Yang Xuan nodded, and next to him, Zhao Ronggui picked up the baton, and said while pointing: "Everyone, Yunguichuan and Hanzhong are the foundation of our army, and after consolidating the foundation, this king decided to divide the army into four ways to crusade against the Tartars.

On the first road, Liao Qifang led the 2nd town to wait for the opportunity to make troops into Longdong Guanzhong and contain the soldiers and horses in Tartar Guanzhong

On the second road, the 8th town led by Yunyang Admiral He Zhen, the 11th town of Wang Zhibang, the 1st regiment of the Machao cavalry, and Wang Fuchen's naval army went down the Han River to contain the army commanded by Wu Sangui and wait for an opportunity to occupy Xiangfan.

The third road, commanded by General Li Dingguo, the governor of the south of the lake, led the 12th town, the 7th town of Feng Youqing, and the 14th town of Hao Yongzhong to Changde and Baoqing respectively, in order to contain the Jierharang group and wait for the opportunity to recover the lake (the whole territory of the south.

The fourth road, led by Wang Ye himself, this road is the main force of the eastward advance, including Guard Town, Guo Chonglie's 3rd Town, Liu Weiming's 6th Town, Jin Tongwu's 7th Town, Cao Xun's 9th Town, Liu Wenxiu's 13th Town, Li Laiheng's 15th Town, Chen Huaixi's Naval Army, Ma Mingluan's Artillery Regiment, Dujigui Cavalry Second Regiment, and Chen Huaixi's Naval Army, a total of 70,000 people as the main force of the eastward march, the troops went out of the Three Gorges, and after solving the Duoduo Group, they either went north to solve the Duoduo Group, or went south to solve the Zierharang Group.

Now Guo Chonglie's 3rd town and Liu Wenxiu's 13th town have captured Yiling, and now they are trying to march to Yiting.

Fan Mingshan's 1st town was stationed in 4 (Sichuan), Yao Zhijiao's 4th town was stationed in Yun (Nan), and Yang Bingyi's 5 towns were stationed in Gui (Zhou) to support the armies in front. ”

The generals who were pointed stood up one after another, claiming yes, and when they heard that the generals who needed to stay behind, they all showed a trace of loneliness on their faces.

Everyone's expressions were clear at a glance, and Yang Xuan stood up and said, "Everyone, just like on the battlefield, as long as the other party shows a flaw, we can find the other party's flaw and give the other party a fatal blow."

We are waiting for this eastward advance, whether it is to attack the towns, cooperate with the towns, or stay in the towns, everyone is equally important, only when everyone plays a role, can the Tartars not be able to connect with each other, so that everyone can fight handily.

Everyone, we all know the truth of one drum and then three declines, Zhuge Liang's most promising is also the first time, in order to recover my Han family, including myself, all the soldiers who go out to fight must write a suicide note, and everyone needs to have the courage to advance and retreat, in order to fight to the death with the Tartars.

Of course, I never hesitate to reward, as long as I can restore the Han family, I will definitely play the court at that time, and it is not impossible for a meritorious soldier to be crowned the Marquis of Wanhu.

Ladies and gentlemen, do you have any different doubts about this expedition? ”

When everyone heard this, they all claimed that there was nothing, Yang Xuan immediately asked people to bring wine and food, everyone drank wine in a big bowl, ate meat, and sang "Man Jianghong" at the same time, and the scene was very warm.