When Fang Yuan and the Zheng family were fighting in Zhejiang, the general trend of the world changed dramatically.

Qin Liangyu, a female general who had guarded Bashu for decades, died in the spring of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, and Zhang Xianzhong, who had been attacking Kuizhou without progress, finally found an opportunity to enter Sichuan.

Zhang Xianzhong, who did not have a major breakthrough in Henan and Jiangxi, decided to change his previous strategy of fighting in the Central Plains, and instead took the route that Liu Bei had achieved the emperor's career in those years, first based on Sichuan and Huguang, and then Xu Tu to forge ahead. If it is not good, it can also be divided into Sichuan and become a soil overlord in Sichuan.

Zhang Xianzhong raised an army of 300,000 to first capture Chongqing, an important town in northern Sichuan, and then ordered Sun Kewang, the head of the four righteous sons, to stay in Huguang, and assigned the other three sons Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi to lead an army of 100,000 people on each road, and marched into Sichuan in three ways.

The three-way army was overwhelming, and it took only a month to capture Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, Zhu Zhishu, the king of Shu of the Sichuan domain, and Zhu Zhilu, the king of Taiping, committed suicide, and Long Wenguang, the governor of Sichuan, was captured, resolutely refused to surrender, and was killed.

After the capture of Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong had monopolized the two provinces of Huguang and Sichuan, and his power increased greatly, attracting the fear of neighboring warlords, Li Zicheng in Henan and Zuo Liangyu in Jiangxi.

Although Zhang and Li both came from the peasant uprising and cooperated in the past, they had old feuds and excessive mergers.

If Zhang Xianzhong gets Sichuan and Huguang, he will become the only big warlord who has two provinces in addition to the Ming court, and the next target may be to direct the army to Zuo Liangyu in Jiangxi or Li Zicheng in Henan.

Henan, where Li Zicheng is located, is in the worst situation because it is sandwiched between the five major forces of the Gyeonggi Ming Army, the Qin Army, the Jin Army, Zhang Xianzhong, and Zuo Liangyu, and it is necessary to think of ways to make a strategic breakthrough.

Li Zicheng once tried to break through to the north, but was blocked by the Qin army and the Jin army south of the Yellow River. The only way to break through the strategic predicament is to break through to the south, preparing to take advantage of the opportunity of Zhang Xianzhong's elite soldiers and strong generals to enter Sichuan in a big way and attack Huguang and expand their forces.

Li Zicheng first sent people to reach a secret agreement with Zuo Liangyu, the great warlord of Jiangxi, that he would take Zhang Xianzhong's Huguang and Zuo Liangyu would take the three prefectures of Anqing, Luzhou, and Fengyang in Nanzhili, and would not interfere with each other.

After reaching a tacit agreement with Zuo Liangyu, Li Zicheng was worried that the north would be attacked by the Qin army in Shaanxi and the Jin army in Shanxi, so he sent someone to the imperial court to make a secret attack, citing Zhang Xianzhong's unauthorized attack. He was willing to crusade against Zhang Xianzhong, who was not a minister, and asked for the nominal support of the imperial court.

The two giants in the past wanted to kill each other, and the imperial court was of course optimistic. The cabinet was willing to recognize the legitimacy of Li Zicheng's expedition, but only put forward one condition, that is, after Li Zicheng occupied Huguang, he must return the five prefectures of Zhangde, Huaiqing, Weihui, Kaifeng, and Guide to Henan Province.

These five prefectures are actually the five prefectures in the north of Henan, among which the three prefectures of Zhangde, Huaiqing, and Weihui are north of the Yellow River, and Li Zicheng, who lacks the guidance of the water division, has a weak ruling power over these three prefectures, as long as the Gyeonggi Ming army and the Jin army go south, the three mansions will definitely not be able to hold it. I can't digest it if I occupy the three mansions, so it's better to sell my face to the court and return it happily.

Kaifeng Mansion is a big mansion, and it also ran out of military strength two years ago, and it took three marches to capture Kaifeng. But after the perennial baptism of war, Kaifeng City has long been dilapidated, and Kaifeng is a great plain that has no danger to defend, so it is not suitable to hold at all. Forcibly garrisoned, there is a terrible price to pay.

Moreover, Kaifeng Mansion is conducive to cavalry assault, and the five battalions of elite cavalry under Li Zicheng are very fierce, and if they are willing, they can take Kaifeng again at any time.

As for the Guide Mansion, close to the South Zhili, once Kaifeng is gone, the Guide Mansion is a lonely house, and there is no difference between it and not.

If these five mansions can be exchanged for Zhang Xianzhong's Huguang, it will be a cost-effective deal.

After repeatedly arguing with the pros and cons of the military advisers Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance, Li Zicheng also approved the plan proposed by the imperial court.

Li Zicheng ordered his nephew Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu to stay in Henan, with the general Liu Zongmin as the vanguard, Li Yan as the rear army, Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance as the strategists, and led an army of 200,000 to attack Huguang in an all-round way.

When Zhang Xianzhong first entered Sichuan, there were still many rebellious Ming troops in various places, and the main force in Sichuan was quelling the rebellions in various places in Sichuan, and it was not at all time necessary to send troops to Huguang to rescue.

In the face of Li Zicheng's onslaught, Sun Kewang barely supported it for three months, then declared that he was not supported and fled back to Sichuan. The vast part of the lake fell and fell into Li Zicheng's pocket.

Zhang Xianzhong, who originally occupied the two provinces, was sweet first and then bitter, became Liu Bei's second, won Sichuan, lost Huguang, and made a wedding dress for Li Zicheng. He hated Li Zicheng to the core, but because of the continuous resistance of the Ming army in central Sichuan, he did not dare to go out of Sichuan to compete for Huguang easily, so he could only swallow his anger for the time being, first thoroughly digest Sichuan, and then think of going out of Sichuan to compete for power.

After Li Zicheng attacked Zhang Xianzhong, he immediately made a concession to the imperial court, demanding that Zhang Xianzhong be deprived of his post as governor of Huguang and handed over to him instead.

The imperial court immediately issued an edict and once again canonized Zhang Xianzhong as the governor of Sichuan, and Li Zi became the governor of Huguang and Henan, maintaining an impartial and neutral attitude among the second-rate coquetts. He also admitted all the territories captured by the second-rate Kou, but strongly urged Li Zifa to cede the five northern prefectures in Henan.

Li Zicheng avoided multi-front battles, so he returned the ruling rights of the northern five prefectures of the imperial court according to his promise, and ordered his nephew Li Guo to garrison 200,000 troops in Runing Prefecture to confront the northern five prefectures.

Sun Chuanting of Gyeonggi and Zhou Yuji of Shanxi received the will of the imperial court and sent troops to take over the northern five prefectures of Henan. Among them, Kaifeng and De were stationed in the second government, and Sun Chuanting, the governor of Jingji; Zhangde, Weihui, and Huaiqing were garrisoned by Zhou Yuji, the governor of Xuantai. Two governors were appointed, and the prefects of the five prefectures went to the local area to gather the displaced people and began to plant sweet potatoes in the five prefectures to satisfy their hunger and restore the people's livelihood.

In the big war in the direction of Sichuan and Shu and the Central Plains, Zhang Xianzhong lost Huguang, but won Sichuan, which is considered to be no profit or loss, but the strategic situation is still better than before, and it can be regarded as a small surplus.

Li Zicheng occupies Huguang, half of Henan, and has a sphere of influence of 1.5 provinces, obviously making a lot of money than before, and has become one of the winners.

And the imperial court did not move a single soldier, and only issued a few worthless edicts to recover the five mansions in Henan, becoming the biggest winner.

The tripartite forces began to die down, began to digest and consolidate the strategic achievements, and for a time the situation calmed down.

The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River are also in great war.

Zuo Liangyu took advantage of the bloody battle of Fang Yuan and the Zheng family in Zhejiang, and Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in Huguang, and led the army to capture Anqing and Luzhou without any worries, as well as Chuzhou and Hezhou in Jiangbei, and the troops pointed directly at Fengyang Mansion and Nanjing City south of the Yangtze River.

Ma Shiying, who had lost two of the three prefectures, was frightened, and immediately sent a request to Shi Kefa in Nanjing, Liu Liangzuo in Chizhou, Huang Degong in Huizhou, and even Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu in Yanzhou, Shandong, to form a coalition army to fight.

In the face of the menacing Zuo Liangyu, the five forces finally reached an agreement on joint operations.

Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu, sent 30,000 Lu troops to Fengyang Mansion to consolidate the defense of Fengyang Mansion.

Shi Kefa and Huang Degong, with a combined army of 50,000, held the waterway of the Yangtze River, and from time to time sent troops across the Yangtze River to attack the left army in Luzhou Mansion.

Liu Liangzuo crossed the river from Chizhou Mansion to attack Anqing Mansion and contain Zuo Liangyu's military operations in front.

Zuo Liangyu fought fiercely with the five forces for half a year, but he was still unable to capture Fengyang Mansion, but under Huang Degong's counterattack, he lost the previously occupied Hezhou and Chuzhou.

Zuo Liangyu was angry and anxious, which caused a serious illness, so he could only temporarily rest his army, leaving the general Jin Shenghuan to garrison Anqing and Luzhou, and he went back to Jiangxi to recuperate.

At this point, the war in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River has also come to an end, and all parties have ceased their troops and recuperated.

In the direction of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Dolgon, who became the emperor, was constrained by Hauge and Zilharang. wanted to enter the customs and rob again, Haoge, who was yellow and incarniated with yellow flags, and Zilharang, who was inlaid with blue flags, were reluctant to send troops, and Dai Shan, who had always been with mud, also flickered.

The only thing that Dolgon can be transferred into the customs is the two flags of Zhengbai and inlaid white, and more than 100 cattle records. But the situation in the rear is so delicate, lend him a courage, and he doesn't dare to transfer Zhengbai and inlaid white flags to leave Liaodong, otherwise it is estimated that he will repeat the mistake of completing Yanliang's southern expedition to the Southern Song Dynasty, but there was a fire in the backyard.

Dolgon could only choose the strategy of first inside and then outside, and it took more than half a year to annex the Zhenglan Banner that belonged to Huang Taiji before, and the eight banners controlled the three flags of Zhengbai, inlaid white, and Zhenglan, and the number of cattle reached one hundred and thirty, more than the sum of the other flags, and others dared to be angry but did not dare to speak.

In the direction of the Wa Kingdom, Shimazu Mitsuhisa received material support from Fangyuan, as well as firearms funding from the Britons and Portuguese, recruited 100,000 ronin samurai and began to hang up the banner of anti-Tokugawa Shogunate, and called on all the princes who opposed the Tokugawa Shogunate to attack it en masse.

The Shimazu army captured the whole of Kyushu without much effort, and Tokugawa Iemitsu immediately transferred back Matsudaira Nobutsuna, who was still in the Ming Dynasty, and together with the old middle Sakai Tadakatsu, called on the princes loyal to the Tokugawa shogunate in various places, and gathered an army of 150,000 troops to go to Kyushu Island to suppress the rebellion.

The two sides fought several battles, and with the support of Portuguese and British warships and firearms, the battle on Kyushu Island was a dead score. The Tokugawa shogunate tried its best to conquer the east, but it still couldn't take the Shimazu family, and the shogunate's face could be regarded as a loss. The princes who had surrendered before in other places also began to move.

The general trend of the world, after the first round of reshuffle, the most powerful is still the central court of the Ming Dynasty, with Gyeonggi, Shanxi, Shandong, and the five provinces of Henan and North China, a total of 3.5 provinces.

It is followed by Fang Yuan and Li Zicheng, each with a territory of 1.5 provinces.

Again, it is Zuo Liangyu, who has a territory of one province and two provinces, and 1.25 provinces.

The rest are Zheng Zhilong, Zhang Xianzhong, King Qin, King Qing, and King Su, which have 1 province.