Wang Kefan's war tax was linked to the field tax, and the burden on yeoman farmers and tenant farmers was not too heavy, and it was the landlords who owned thousands of acres of fertile land and the gentry who had meritorious fame who really made a big fuss. Wang Kefan clearly announced that at the time of the national crisis, everyone was obliged to pay the war tax, and whether they were talents, juren or jinshi, they were all taxed according to their own land and property, and no longer enjoyed the preferential treatment of tax exemption.

Then, they were brutally suppressed by Wang Kefan.

Raiding the family and filling the army is the standard treatment, the more you make a lot of trouble, the more you will lose both people and money, Wang Kefan's image in Jiangnan Shilin has become a greedy traitor overnight, but no matter what, the money is still collected in full.

In addition to having money, there must be people to fight a war, Wang Kefan used these few months to vigorously expand the army, the original auxiliary soldiers of the Chu army were turned into war soldiers in large numbers, and a large number of strong men were recruited and recruited in several provinces south of the Yangtze River to supplement the baggage troops.

The auxiliary soldiers of the Chu army were all trained according to the standards of soldiers, and using the weapons and equipment captured in the previous wars, a new army of more than 30,000 people was successively organized and trained and sent to the Huguang front. At the same time, the Chu army recruited strong men for the first time in the people, at first it was ten out of ten, and later it developed into five for one, plus voluntary recruitment, a total of more than 100,000 young and strong auxiliary soldiers were recruited, and after several months of basic training, they were also assigned to various troops.

Food, ammunition, weapons, medicines, livestock, vehicles, boats, tents, uniforms, shoes and socks, and even oil, salt, sauce and vinegar...... All kinds of materials were sent to the Huguang front line one after another, and Wang Sheng's strength became stronger and stronger, and while fighting a mushroom war with Sun Kewang, he was ready for a general attack.

Sun Kewang didn't know anything about this, and only pinned his hopes on Liu Wenxiu, waiting for him to return to the division in victory, and then duel with Wang Sheng, but at this time, Guizhou suddenly sent news that the battle of Guiyang ended in a crushing defeat for the Western Army, Liu Wenxiu's soldiers were defeated and died, and the 150,000 army disappeared, Wang Shangli, Lu Mingchen, Bao Shengting and other generals were either killed in battle, or captured, Miao Zhenzong and Zhou Wuding and others defected to the enemy......

Sun Kewang was like being struck by lightning, I really couldn't believe this amazing news, when he returned to the barracks, he actually fell off the war horse and suffered a slight injury, as a veteran of the battlefield, Sun Kewang could even sleep on horseback when he was marching, but now he fell off the war horse in public, all because the consequences of Liu Wenxiu's defeat were too serious, so that he was in a trance, and the gods did not possess his body.

"This must be misinformation, misinformation! Liu Wenxiu won't die so easily! ”

Sun Kewang held a fluke mentality, hoping that this battle report was fake, at least Liu Wenxiu was still alive, and he could also preside over the overall situation of Yunnan and Guizhou, and lead the remnants of the Western Army to hold Yunnan, but Feng Shuangli soon sent a more detailed battle report, which also included the details of Zhou Guodong's coffin autopsy, and after confirming that the news was correct, Sun Kewang locked himself in the house and didn't see anyone for a night.

Early the next morning, Sun Kewang finally opened the door and left the house, and said to the panicked generals: "Our army has been defeated, send orders to all departments, prepare to retreat." ”

The generals had long thought that this would be the result, and they were all silent, but they heard Sun Kewang say hatefully: "Liu Wenxiu is stupid and incompetent, ruining the 150,000 army, and ruining my great cause for thousands of years, how do you think it should be punished?" ”

The generals were shocked and persuaded together, Sun Kewang dispelled the idea of pulling Liu Wenxiu out and whipping the corpse, but he still ordered someone to draft a new war report, and criticized Liu Wenxiu without naming him in the war report, and put the responsibility for the defeat on him.

Although Liu Wenxiu took away 35,000 armor soldiers, Li Dingguo sent a support army, plus a huge number of auxiliaries and baggage troops, the Western Army had more than 100,000 troops in Hunan, and it was divided into various state capitals, and suddenly decided to retreat.

Chu Jun was already tightly touched, and he couldn't leave if he wanted to.

Wang Sheng and Sun Kewang received the battle report of the victory in Guiyang almost at the same time, and then found that the various units of the Western Army were moving frequently, obviously preparing to slip away, and immediately ordered the Chu army to launch a counterattack, pressing the Western Army closely, not allowing them to slip away easily, and at the same time sent Lu Renqing and Teng Shuanglin, two elite main forces, to boldly intersperse the depth of the Western Army and attack Yiyang and Anhua. Wang Sheng also gave a death order to the two of them, they must capture the two county towns of Yiyang and Anhua within five days, and cut off Sun Kewang's retreat, otherwise he would be demoted to become a brigade commander.

How can this be?

is also from the old eighth battalion of the Chu army, Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong have become army commanders, if Lu Renqing and Teng Shuanglin are demoted to brigade commanders, they will simply have no face to see people in the future, the two of them simply made a military order, if they can't complete the task on time, they should not be the brigade commander as a small soldier, and then lead the troops to break through the defense line of the Western Army from between Yuezhou and Changsha, run west for 200 miles, and launch a fierce attack on Yiyang and Anhua (Yiyang is closer, on the south bank of Dongting Lake, only a few dozen kilometers to Xiangyin, and the distance from Anhua is farther, But in this era it also belonged to the suburbs of Changsha, and later it belonged to Yiyang City).

At this time, the Western Army divided troops everywhere, and the defects of defense everywhere were exposed, Lu Renqing and Teng Shuanglin had gone deep into the hinterland of the Western Army, but the Western Army did not have enough strength to eliminate or drive them away, in the three nearby large cities, Changsha was stared at by Wang Sheng's main force, and did not dare to act rashly, Yuezhou was closest to Jiujiang, and during this time it has been fighting fiercely with Jin Shenghuan and other departments, and there are no extra troops to rescue Yiyang, Changde is in the rear, and the troops are relatively empty, because the plug Yinxi is stubbornly defending Changde, and the city wall is also seriously damaged in the fierce battle, Seeing that Lu Renqing and Teng Shuanglin were attacking fiercely, it was still difficult to protect themselves, and they did not dare to send troops to rescue them easily, so they were driven straight by Lu Renqing and Teng Shuanglin, as if they were in a no-man's land, and it only took three days to capture Yiyang and Anhua successively.

At the same time, Wang Sheng led the main force of the Chu army to storm Xiangxiang and Xiangtan, because the surrounding small strongholds have been swept away by the Chu army, so these two lonely county towns did not last too long, and were easily conquered by the Chu army, so that the western army of Changsha and Hengyang was completely separated, in Wang Sheng's words, he is now a porter who picks two cities on one shoulder, one is Changsha, the other is Hengyang, and the two cities are put into the basket by him.

Zhang Jiayu and other troops launched a counteroffensive on the southern front, starting from Leiyang, successively captured Changning, Qiyang and other counties, threatened the capital of Yongzhou Lingling, and separated the western army in southern Hunan from Hengyang.

The counteroffensive of the Chu army was so ferocious, it was once again beyond Sun Kewang's expectations, he and Wang Sheng had fought for more than half a year, and they already knew each other, after Li Dingguo's reinforcements arrived in Hunan, the Western Army was already able to compete with the Chu Army, but where did Wang Sheng get so many troops, and he launched a counteroffensive in several directions at the same time, completing the tactical division of hundreds of thousands of Western Army!

It took several days, as the intelligence from various places was summarized one after another, Sun Kewang figured out the reason, it turned out that Wang Kefan had carried out a comprehensive mobilization in the rear, and expanded more than 30,000 soldiers and more than 100,000 auxiliary soldiers, most of which were sent to the Hunan front, so that Wang Sheng gained a military advantage again.

Sun Kewang felt very desperate, Wang Kefan occupies the rich Jiangnan in the world, the population is very abundant, money and food are very abundant, said that the army will be expanded, and the army can be expanded by more than 100,000 troops in a few months, which is unimaginable for the Western Army, and he should have known the current result, he should have listened to Bai Wenxuan's advice at the beginning, abandoned Changsha, Hengyang and Yuezhou, and shrunk to the western part of Hunan.

There is no regret medicine in the world, Sun Kewang knew that he had made another major strategic mistake, but he quickly forgave himself and put the blame on Liu Wenxiu, if Liu Wenxiu can win the battle of Guiyang, all the problems encountered by the Western Army now will not be a problem, even if Wang Sheng expands the army by more than 100,000, the Western Army can still fight with it.

It's a pity that Liu Wenxiu has been defeated and died, and the rest of the practical problems have to be faced by Sun Kewang himself.

With Wang Sheng's counteroffensive, the situation became more and more unfavorable to the Western Army, and one more day of delay would be more dangerous, because Liu Wenxiu's entire army was annihilated, the morale of the Western Army in Hunan plummeted, and it was impossible to defeat Wang Sheng.

……

In Yunnan, after Qi Sansheng returned to Kunming, he sent 10,000 defenders of Kunming to Qujing as the first line of defense to intercept the Chu army, and at the same time dispatched the western troops of other state capitals to rush to Kunming.

Kunming is located in the northeast of Yunnan, very close to Guizhou, and Pu'an Mansion is only separated by a Qujing Mansion, which is very unfavorable to the Western Army, fortunately there are several natural dangers between Qujing and Kunming, Guan Suoling, Rabbit Pass (also known as Rabbit Ear Pass), are easy to defend and difficult to attack dangerous places, with the arrival of reinforcements from all over the country, Qi Sansheng and Gao Wengui gradually regained their confidence, confident that they could hold Yunnan, and wait until Sun Kewang's reinforcements returned.

Zhou Guodong and Liu Tichun led an army of 100,000 to invade Yunnan, and the required grain and grass materials had to be slowly transported to the front line by land, so they could only march along the ancient post road of "entering the East Yunnan Road".

They first launched an attack on Qujing.

100,000 Chu troops surrounded this city on three sides, a typical siege of three que, spent five days to build siege equipment, and then launched a fierce attack, the Chu army has not much gunpowder in its hands, and now it occupies an absolute advantage in troops, so it still uses traditional methods to launch an attack in a dignified manner.