After such a day's delay, on the third day of the first lunar month in 1646, Yang Lin led a large group of men and horses to cross the Enyang River, and after a day of rapid marching, they arrived at Ba County at dark.

When they arrived in Bazhou City, they reported that after hearing that the volunteers had defeated Huanglong and Hu Jiusi one after another, they were fighting with Yang Bingyi's West Route Army, and everyone fled to Nanjiang County in the north to fight with Yuan Tao, the king of heaven.

In this way, only the remote Nanjiang County of the three counties in Bazhou was still in the hands of the enemy, Yang Lin was overjoyed and ordered the troops to be expanded, and each unit participating in the battle increased by 1-2 brigades according to the size of the battle.

Considering that the local rioters had occupied Bazhou for a long time, and the place had already been dilapidated, the plan for now was to restore order, and immediately appointed Wang Guangxian, the magistrate of Qu County, as the governor of Bazhou in the name of participating in politics in northern Sichuan.

Feng Youqing's 7th Battalion was left to garrison Ba County, while he personally led the escort battalion, the 2nd Battalion of Long Zhijiao, the 6th Regiment of Jing Keqin, and the Buning Cavalry Battalion to approach Nanjiang County.

In the face of the two-way army, Yuan Tao, the king of heaven, did not want to sit still, and led his troops to kill, trying to encircle and annihilate Yang Bingyi's East Route Army.

But at that time, the local rioters were panicked, and the volunteers had already arranged secret agents along the way, so the news was discovered by Yang Bingyi, so it was decided to plan it.

The 9th Battalion led by Ma Mingluan walked in front and deliberately entered the ambush position, and then after the local rioters were killed, Yang Bingyi led his troops to attack back and forth, and the local rioters were defeated, Yuan Tao and hundreds of cronies fought their way out of the encirclement, and fled all the way to Baoning Mansion, which was controlled by the Great Western Army.

Since then, it has only taken less than ten days for the volunteers to occupy the territory in one fell swoop, and the tyrants have been entrenched in Bazhou's lair for three years, opening the door to enter Hanzhong.

In just 17 years, Sichuan has changed from a province with a large population to a hell on earth infested by tigers and wolves, and the number of Sichuan people has changed from tens of millions to less than 80,000.

Sichuan folk spread Zhang Xianzhong slaughtered various legends of Sichuan, but from Zhang Xianzhong into Sichuan has been more than a year and a half, although Zhang Xianzhong slaughtered the Shu royal family, killed Chen Shiqi, Liu Zhibo and other Ming officials, killed people loyal to the Ming Dynasty, although the Western Army forced labor in various places, plundered livestock, and destroyed local production, but compared with the bureaucratic rule in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, compared with the various atrocities in the history of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong is still not a person who kills indiscriminately.

Sometimes it makes people feel that Zhang Xianzhong is doing his best to maintain his rule, and he feels Zhang Xianzhong's simple love for the people.

For example, when he entered Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong was under the banner of opposing excesses and miscellaneous taxes and opposing bureaucratic rule.

After entering Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong ordered a three-year exemption.

Although the anti-Onishi forces were surging in various places, and in some places many magistrates were killed one after another, the Onishi Army did not take out the anger of the people.

This made Yang Lin feel confused, could it be that Zhang Xianzhong was a good person, could it be that Zhang Xianzhong Tuchuan was a basin that the Manchu Qing Dynasty buckled on his head?

After repelling the attack of Zhang Dingguo's subordinates, Yang Lin has been pondering this problem, thinking about how to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy, and after thinking about it, he decided to lead his troops to block the barbarian Qing into Sichuan.

Manqing is located in Shaanxi, Huguang, there are two roads to go into Sichuan, one along the Yangtze River upstream, through the Qingqing into the four Chuan.

The other is to enter the four chuan through Hanzhong.

Historically, Haoge, the prince of the barbarian Qing Dynasty, entered Sichuan through Hanzhong, and then beheaded Zhang Xianzhong to Xichong County.

Now that Dashun will surrender He Zhen to occupy Hanzhong, so to avoid the recurrence of the tragedy, it is necessary to enter Hanzhong and block the Barbarian Qing into Sichuan.

This is also the main purpose of Yang Lin's march this time, although he knew that the direction of Shunqing Mansion was unstable, but in the name of exterminating the Liukou, the troops entered Bazhou and controlled the Micang Road, so as to threaten Hanzhong and avoid a recurrence of the tragedy.

Standing on the wall of Nanjiang County, looking at the mountains and greenery outside, the deep primeval forest, and seeing a few families during the embellishment through the monoculars, Yang Lin shook his head secretly looking at all this.

Compared with the previous life, although there is a lot of development in the plain area and the Pingba area, in some places the number of people is not much rarer than in the 21st century when young and strong people go out to work.

But that is only the Pingba area, if the population of the plain Pingba area can reach 20% or 30% of the 21st century, then the hilly area is sparsely populated.

Because high-yield crops such as corn and sweet potatoes have not yet been introduced, the people mostly grow rice, wheat and other crops, and there are wild beasts in the mountains from time to time, which is very unsuitable for people to live in the hills of the Ming Dynasty.

In the hilly areas, a flat land is often developed in the middle of the forest, or terraced fields or dry land are developed in the middle of the ravines, which are not only not highly productive, but also not fully developed.

In this way, many places in the hilly areas of northern Sichuan were still very inhospitable and undeveloped in many places at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and their population was less than 10% of the rural population in the 21st century.

In the hilly area of northern Sichuan, Nanjiang County is close to the remaining veins of the Qinling Mountains, with mountains and primeval forests.

In order to resist tigers, leopards and beasts, everyone does not dare to scatter all over the place, and four or five families form a village to live, and often it can only be found within a radius of several miles, which can be said to be sparsely populated.

Looking at the mountains in front of me, the population of the county is simply counted, and the area of 3,400 square kilometers is only 50,000 people, which is less than that of Inner Mongolia in the previous life (20 people in Inner Mongolia), and it cannot become a stable logistics support base at all.

Yang Lin calculated the most economical grain transportation channel, and the grain from Shunqing Fucheng and Guang'an Prefecture was transported to Nanjiang County through the Qujiang River, and the river spread for more than 800 miles.

Pengzhou and Dazhou collected people's grain and grass to transport to Nanjiang County, reaching more than 300 miles.

Then it will be transported to Nanzheng through the 500-mile warehouse road.

Unlike other gallop roads, which are convenient for horse-drawn carriages to walk, the Micang Road road is very narrow, which is not convenient for large carts to pass through at all, and to transport grain to Nanzheng, it is necessary to pass through horse gangs.

From Hanzhong to Bazhou, there are several caravans passing by every day, these caravans are in groups, a caravan has more than 20 mules and horses, they shuttle through the thousand-year-old road, from Hanzhong to transport salt and cloth to Bazhou, or from Bazhou to transport tea and white fungus to Hanzhong.

In addition, there are hundreds of second brothers every day, and they carry more than 100 catties of items one by one, shuttling through the ancient road

If you rely on the mules and horses of the horse gang and the shoulders of the second brother, it will be even more difficult to transport the grain and grass to Hanzhong.

Only now did Yang Lin understand why the army in history chose the Golden Bull Road instead of the Micang Road, and only now did he understand the difficulty of entering Hanzhong through the Micang Road.

If you lead your troops into Hanzhong, you need to break your oath, that is, 6 liters of rice per mu in fertile land and 6 liters of wheat per mu in dry land.

Although Yang Lin knew the possible negative effects, he decided to try, or change the name?

Just as Yang Lin was in deep thought, the Hanzhong guard sent an envoy to ask for an audience.

He Zhen, the former general of Dashun, who was originally named the general of Hanzhong by the Barbarian Qing Dynasty, claimed to be the general of Fengtian Advocacy (a title used by Li Zicheng) in December last year, and had already led 20,000 troops into Shaanxi through the plank road when Yang Lin led his troops to capture Bazhou.

Now that Yang Lin led his troops to capture Bazhou, and his vanguard reached Micang Mountain, Guo Dengxian, the deputy general who stayed in Hanzhong, was shocked and hurriedly sent an envoy to negotiate.

Hearing that He Zhen was against the Qing Dynasty and restored his sights, Yang Lin was overjoyed in his heart, and now that Hanzhong is back under the control of friendly forces, at least there is no pressure to immediately enter Hanzhong.

Although the Volunteers adopted the strategy of elite soldiers, they now control no more than 15 counties (nine in Shunqing Prefecture and six each in Bazhou and Dazhou), with a population of only 1.4 million (the territory is equivalent to the current Nanchong City, Guang'an District, Dazhou Region, and Bazhou Region, with a population of more than 20 million).

The field force was only 8,000, the garrison force was 1,000, and the local militia group was 4,500, with a total strength of nearly 14,000.

Although the expenses of the opposing militia are relatively low (6 cents of silver per day for one month of training every year, and 5 cents of silver per day for performing tasks), and the garrison troops are relatively low, this is also the limit of the current troop expansion, and if it is expanded, it will be difficult to ensure the military needs of the troops.

The most important thing to do now is to expand your own strength, so that you will have sufficient strength to resist foreign humiliation when you enter Sichuan in the future.