Fuchi Town, Xingguo Prefecture, Wuchang Prefecture, is less than 200 miles away from Jiujiang City.

On the northwest side of Fuchi Town is the mighty river, there are hundreds of boats of all kinds moored by the river, stretching for more than 20 miles, and there are continuous military camps on the river bank and the town by the river, and the flag of Onishi is fluttering on the boat and in the camp.

The river bank was rugged and the army was numerous, and the ships in their hands were few and most of them were small boats, and it took nearly ten days to send troops from Wuchang to barely walk more than 300 miles. Zhang Dingguo had to order the army to stop because he heard a "rumor".

"Rumors" said that the army of Zhang Xianzhong, the king of Daxi, had been defeated, Zhang Xianzhong himself had been beheaded by the Ming army, and the army of 500,000 was wiped out.

General Zhang Dingguo will be suspicious of this "rumor", he does not believe that his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong will be defeated so quickly, after all, Zhang Xianzhong has hundreds of thousands of troops in his hands.

But the "rumors" spread with noses and eyes, saying that the grain and grass of the Daxi Army were burned, and the whole army was defeated by the Ming army due to lack of food, and there were even detailed details.

Zhang Dingguo didn't know where the "rumors" first came from, and he sent people to investigate in detail and didn't find out why, but if it was really as the "rumors" said, it was because the grain and grass were burned that they were defeated, then this can be understood.

And if the righteous father is really defeated and killed, the Ming army in Jiujiang can draw out troops to deal with himself, think about the powerful sailors of the Ming army in the intelligence, and then look at the hundreds of warships in the river that are not much bigger than the bathtub, Zhang Dingguo knows that if there is a water war in the river, he will definitely not be able to bargain, and it is very likely that he will be killed.

It was a matter of life and death for the whole army, and Zhang Dingguo had to be cautious, so he ordered to be stationed on the spot, and sent a large number of meticulous works along the Yangtze River, over the mountains between Huguang and Jiangxi to explore the direction of Jiujiang.

However, before the sentinel could bring back the exact news, a large fleet of Ming troops suddenly went upstream, not far from Fuchi Town.

To say "huge" is to indicate the enormity of the warship, which is really as tall as a building, no, taller than a building! Towering like a building, a mast like a forest, and a huge sail like a white cloud in the sky. The number of warships is not too much, in addition to more than 20 such huge ships, there are more than 100 smaller warships, but even the smallest warships are much stronger than the warships of the Western Army.

The Ming ships are huge, they must not be very flexible, here is the Yangtze River and not the sea, at the beginning Zhang Dingguo also sent a small boat to fight with the Ming warships in the way of fire attack. However, when the Ming warships fired a hundred cannons, watching their own boats being smashed like dolls, when the Ming ships still had the spare strength to launch an artillery bombardment on the Western army camp on the shore, and countless shells fell into the camp The soldiers in the camp screamed and ran away, Zhang Dingguo knew that the water battle was far from the opponent of the Ming army.

The Yangtze River operation was a water war, and the water war was not a water war, and the opponent could not continue to march at all. And the Ming army in Jiujiang was able to draw such a large fleet to come, which means that the war in Jiujiang has ended. Then as the "rumors" say, the army of the righteous father was really defeated!

Zhang Dingguo was a decisive person, and after judging the situation he was facing, he immediately decided to withdraw immediately. However, retreat cannot be retreated, the Ming army has the advantage of a naval division, and retreating along the Yangtze River is tantamount to using the Ming army's strong ships and artillery as targets. Zhang Dingguo immediately decided that the whole army should leave the Yangtze River and retreat westward along the Fushui River, which meets the Yangtze River to the east of Fuchi Town.

The commander of the Ming Army's naval division was the chief soldier Lü Tai, and when he saw that the Western Army abandoned a large number of ships and fled ashore, Lü Tai was helpless. He can't order his men to abandon their ships and chase after them!

Along the Fushui River, they soon arrived at Xingguo Prefecture, and in the face of overwhelming thieves, Xingguo Zhizhou abandoned the city and fled. Zhang Dingguo ordered the ransacking of Quanzhou, looted grain as military rations, and then the army continued to the southwest and entered Tongshan County.

In Tongshan County, he met Bai Wenxuan's vanguard troops, and after inquiry, he learned that the two armies of Hao Shaoqi and Zheng Sen had lost their joint attack on Wuchang.

Tongshan County is surrounded by the Mufu Mountains on the southeast side, and Longjiao Mountain on the west, Zhang Dingguo commanded the army to climb over the hills between the Mufu Mountain and the Longjiao Mountain, and entered the territory of Pingjiang County. What Zhang Dingguo didn't know was that he was following the same route he had taken to flee the Yangtze River when the Shun army had been defeated a year earlier.

Wuchang had been occupied by the Ming army, and after Zhang Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan joined forces, they could only choose to retreat to the southwest and enter Tongcheng County.

After a few days of repairs in Tongcheng County, Zhang Dingguo had the opportunity to think about the next move.

The army of his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong was defeated, and even if there were remnants of the army, he could not escape from Jiangxi, after all, Jiangxi was surrounded by mountains. So in fact, Zhang Dingguo's department is already a lone army.

Do you choose to develop in Huguang or what? After thinking about it, Zhang Dingguo quickly made a decision, that is, to return to Sichuan and meet Zhang Kewang. There are still tens of thousands of troops left in Sichuan, and there is still a relatively stable territory, as long as he and his subordinates can return to Sichuan and join forces with Zhang Kewang, at least they can keep the foundation of the Western Army!

It is said that if you go to Sichuan, it is the most convenient way to go to Yiling along the Yangtze River through the Three Gorges, but now that the Yangtze River is controlled by the Ming army, Zhang Dingguo can only choose to take a detour to Sichuan.

To the west of Tongcheng County is the Yuezhou Mansion, which is the vast Dongting Lake, and the Western Army naturally cannot pass through after losing the naval army, and Zhang Dingguo can only choose to attack Changsha to the south.

However, in Changsha, Zhang Dingguo was blocked by the Ming Dynasty, and after a fierce battle, seeing that there was no hope of capturing the city, Zhang Dingguo could only choose to abandon Changsha and enter Baoqing Mansion westward.

The army in the hands of Du Yinxi was far less than that of Zhang Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan, and he was unable to pursue at all, so he could only watch Zhang Dingguo's army leave, and at the same time send someone to send a letter to the Duke of Qi in Jiujiang.

In the following time, Zhang Dingguo attacked Baoqing Mansion and Jingzhou Mansion all the way to the west, and captured more than ten cities one after another.

After Chen Yue learned of Zhang Dingguo's whereabouts, he quickly judged Zhang Dingguo's intentions and ordered Zheng Sen to lead Zheng's naval division westward to recover Jingzhou Yiling and block Zhang Dingguo's road into Sichuan. At the same time, he ordered Hao Shaoqi to lead his troops south, join the troops to block Yinxi, and pursue Zhang Dingguo together.

With the addition of Hao Shaoqi, the troops of Plug Yin Xi were powerful and began to attack the Western Army.

Zhang Dingguo had no intention of occupying the southern prefectures and counties of Huguang, and after being attacked by Plug Yinxi, he abandoned the city he occupied and entered Guizhou westward. Then he went north from Guizhou, trekked between the poor mountains and evil mountains, and only after half a year did he reach Chishuiwei and enter Sichuan, and then crossed the river from Xuzhou into Chengdu Prefecture, and Zhang Kewang successfully joined forces.

From last year's Layue out of Sichuan to Zhang Dingguo's return to Chengdu Mansion, which experienced nearly a year, when he left Sichuan, there were 300,000 troops, and only Zhang Dingguo and Bai Wen returned to Chengdu Mansion with less than 40,000 people, most of whom died in fighting or fleeing along the way.