In the late autumn of October, it was not only Pang Yue and others who couldn't fall asleep. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Kunming Pingdong Palace, a house in the depths of the light is still the same, Sun Kewang in front of the window, his eyes are as deep and distant as the vast stars in the night sky, allowing the past to emerge in his mind, or flash, or stop for a long time, just like yesterday.

His real name is Sun Kewang, he devoted himself to Xiying in his early years, and was accepted as a righteous son by Zhang Xianzhong, the eighth king, and changed his surname to Zhang. There are four righteous brothers, he is the longest, and there are three righteous brothers below: Li Dingguo, Ai Nengqi, and Liu Wenxiu. The four brothers fought all year round under their father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong, and they experienced tragic battles and countless corpses and blood. And in this series of bloody and cruel killings and eliminations, he and his three righteous brothers also quickly grew up and became Zhang Xianzhong's right-hand man, a general who can take charge of himself.

The experience of those years is something that Sun Kewang can never forget, Xiying and various officials and soldiers come and go, and they win and lose each other. Sometimes it was the Xiying who defeated the official army and captured the flag, and sometimes it was the official army who chased the Xiying all the way like a rabbit, and the dead bodies pillowed and bleed on the road. In short, killing is the eternal theme, and anyone who has lived this kind of life for too long, even sleeps with one eye open.

Zhang Xianzhong once led the western camp to accept the surrender of the Ming court, but soon restarted. There were also several times when the western camp was pursued and suppressed by the officers and soldiers and fell into a desperate situation, and most of the men and horses were lost. However, due to the corruption of the imperial court and the misery of the people everywhere, Zhang Xianzhong raised his arms every time he got out of danger, and he was able to quickly replenish the team.

The two sides stopped fighting, you chased after me, and saw everywhere, Xiying was repeatedly hit hard, and there was not one old brother who started the incident. However, he dug up the ancestral grave of the Ming Emperor and hunted down many imperial families from all over the country, including Yang Sichang, the most active scholar in Xiying, who could not escape revenge after his death. Calculate carefully. No one took advantage.

This kind of days lasted until the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong was loyal to Xiangyang to formally establish the title of king, the establishment of the Daxi regime, and then waved the army into Sichuan, repeatedly defeated the official army, and gradually controlled most of Sichuan, and in November of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, he was called the emperor in Chengdu, the founding name of Daxi, and the change of Yuan Dashun. At that time, Emperor Chongzhen had already burned himself from the coal mountain. The central rule of the Ming court collapsed, and the scattered Ming army and local governments lost their backbone, and the threat to the western army was minimized.

That period. Sun Kewang finally breathed a sigh of relief, and finally gained a firm foothold after fighting everywhere and wandering for many years. He had even thought of the grand blueprint of the Great West going east to the Central Plains and competing for the world with Li Zicheng and other heroes.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for the Qing army to capture Shaanxi. Li Zicheng completely lost his last base. The northern provinces soon came under the Manchu dynasty.

At the beginning of last year, the Qing court appointed Prince Su Haoge as the general of Jingyuan, and led the army with Wu Sangui and others to conquer Sichuan, and rushed to the Great Western Army from north to south. At the same time, Wang Yingxiong, a scholar of Ming University, and Fan Yixing, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, led the Ming army of eastern Sichuan and western Guizhou to attack from east to west, and even Kexuzhou, Chongqing and other places, and advanced to Chengdu. Zhang Xianzhong, who was caught in a two-sided attack, had no choice but to repel a large-scale offensive of the Ming army. Abandoning Chengdu and leading the army north to deal with the Qing army in the south, he was finally killed by a secret arrow shot by the Qing army on the Xichong front line in November.

After the death of his father-in-law Zhang Xianzhong. Sun Kewang took over the leadership of the Great Western Army, collected the defeated army and transferred to Guizhou, and then killed Wang Zhaoling, the prime minister of the elbow army, with his brother Li Dingguo and others, and took all the power, and changed back to his original surname, and implemented the deacon system of four generals, and Sun Kewang, who was the eldest brother and literate, was naturally in the first place.

Sun Kewang, who had seized power, was enjoying the pleasure of power while trying his best to find a way out, reforming the system, boosting the morale of the army, and cultivating vitality while waiting for a turning point. At the beginning of this year, Sun Kewang figured out the reality of Yunnan, and after discussing with the three righteous brothers, he decided to take advantage of the Shadingzhou rebellion and the Ming army to take care of themselves to lead the army into Yunnan.

In March this year, the Great Western Army officially entered Yunnan under the banner of revenge for the Mu family, all the way like a bamboo, smashing the Shadingzhou rebels like slaughtering pigs and sheep, and occupied Kunming in April, while the troops were divided into multiple routes, while continuing to pursue the Shadingzhou rebels, while attacking the Ming army that refused to surrender. It didn't take long for good news to spread.

Sha Dingzhou's seizure of the throne was not correct, and his soldiers and horses naturally lost their hearts, and they were defeated all the way and had no power to fight back, which was better than the dog in the water. On the Ming side, because the Mu family has guarded Yunnan for generations and has an extraordinary prestige, the military and civilian gentry from all over the country obey it, and it may be difficult for the Western Army to completely solve the problem if it only uses force.

In August, taking into account the current situation, in order to collect the hearts of the officers and soldiers of the Ming gentry in various parts of the territory, the situation was stabilized as soon as possible. Sun Kewang decided to negotiate with Yang Weizhi and other Ming government officials in Jincang to reach an agreement, cancel the name of Daxi and use the Ganzhi era instead, in exchange for Yang Weizhi and others to be attached. In September, he asked his fourth brother Liu Wenxiu to lead the army to Yongchang Mansion, and reached an agreement with Mu Tianbo on the condition of "restoring the country after the Ming Dynasty" to win Mu Tianbo's surrender.

By the end of last month, with the exception of Ami Prefecture and Mengzi still in the hands of Shadingzhou, almost all of Yunnan Province was under the actual control of the Great Western Army. The leadership system is still the co-deacons of the four generals, Sun Kewang is called the king of Pingdong, Li Dingguo is called the king of Anxi, Ai Nengqi is called the king of Dingbei, and Liu Wenxiu is called the king of Funan.

Although the status of the four brothers was roughly equal in name, because Sun Kewang was the oldest and most educated, and the successful capture of Yunnan by leading the army also made his personal prestige rise and reach a peak, so he naturally became the recognized leader of the alliance and presided over the military and political affairs of the whole Yunnan.

Sun Kewang, who was in power, also gradually showed his ability to govern the army. In government affairs, reform the old system of the Ming Dynasty and punish corruption; Economically, he changed the radical policy of Zhang Xianzhong's period, collected the military land of the former Ming Dynasty guards and some civilian land, set up barracks, implemented the military cantonment system, gave up the unconditional plundering of the landlords and gentry, and changed it to reduce the amount of land rent to reduce the burden on the peasants. protecting all kinds of free trade among the people, issuing copper coins, strengthening control over the salt industry, etc.; militarily rectify military discipline, strengthen military training, and improve military supplies; At the same time, it paid attention to the unity with the landlords and gentry and the local surrendered Tusi, protected religious facilities, and rectified local public order.

The implementation of the new policy has not been obvious because the time is still short. But it is also rave reviews. Sun Kewang believes that as long as time passes, the whole of Yunnan will surely present a new situation.

Sitting on the land of a province. In charge of 100,000 elite soldiers, with an order to die for tens of millions of people, Sun Kewang at this time can not be said to be unspirited, and the haze in his chest that had been suppressed for a long time was swept away, and the dark clouds were cleared and the sun was clear.

But he has not forgotten to say that he is prepared for danger in times of peace, and he is always paying attention to the changes in the situation in Yunnan and even the world.

Needless to say, the situation in the outside world is self-explanatory. The situation is unpredictable and unpredictable. Today, the Manchu Qing Dynasty occupies the entire north of the Yangtze River, including Zhejiang, Fujian and other places south of the Yangtze River. It has the potential to sweep the world. At the beginning of this year, the Longwu court of the Southern Ming Dynasty, which had retreated to the south of Huguang, also repelled a large-scale southern expedition of the Qing army, and then recovered Liangguang, with a vague state of revival. Next. How will the general trend of the world develop? How will Yunnan be affected? No one can say well.

Moreover, in Yunnan alone, the actual situation is not as calm as it seems. Sun Kewang knew very well in his heart that although the former Ming officials and gentry were attached on the surface, they were still secretly thinking about contacting the Longwu court in Hengzhou all the time. Even his three righteous brothers have their own subordinates and forces, although they are currently obedient to their eldest brother. Who can guarantee what will happen later?

There are all kinds of situations in all aspects, and they are in their hearts. Sun Kewang didn't dare to slack off, and he was thinking about ways to break the situation all the time.

"The King?" The voice of the captain of the guard rang out from the side.

"Huh?" Sun Kewang returned to reality from his contemplation.

"The Second Highness has arrived."

"Oh, the second brother is here, please let him in."

"Yes."

After a short time, the captain of the guard respectfully ushered in a young man in civilian clothes.

I saw that the young man who came in was about twenty-seven or eighteen years old, more than eight feet long, with broad eyebrows and sharp faces, although he was only dressed in civilian clothes and had a gentle face, like a scholar, but he had a faint majesty.

This is Sun Kewang's righteous brother, Li Dingguo, the king of Anxi, who can fight well, and has a benevolent temperament, is humble and courteous, and is known as the king of Xiaochai and the little lieutenant Chi.

A few months ago, Li Dingguo led his army to annihilate the main force of the Shadingzhou rebels in Lin'an Mansion and approached Shadingzhou's old nest Amizhou. Just when they were waiting to take advantage of the victory to pursue and complete their achievements in a battle, they had no choice but to raise troops to attack the rear of the Great Western Army from the former Ming Kunyang Zhizhou Leng Yangchun and Jinning Duan Bomei. Li Dingguo had no choice but to withdraw his troops and return to the division, first quelled the uprising of Leng and Duan, and recently has been assisting Sun Kewang in handling military and political affairs in Kunming, and at the same time preparing for the reconquest of the remnants of Shadingzhou.

"Big brother."

"Second brother doesn't have to be so polite, sit down. Sending someone to go late at night for my brother must have disturbed my second brother's rest, right? Sun Kewang said with a smile, his face full of brotherly simplicity and concern.

In fact, the relationship between Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo has not been very good, far from reaching the point of intimacy. Needless to say, when Zhang Xianzhong was still there, Sun Kewang, who was jealous and jealous, gave his righteous brother eye medicine and beat the side drum in front of his father-in-law, and he didn't know how many tricks he had used.

After Zhang Xianzhong's death, Sun Kewang took over the main leadership of the Great Western Army, perhaps because of the promotion of his status, his jealous characteristics and corresponding practices are no longer as explicit and eager as before, and he gradually has the heart and bearing of being an eldest brother on the surface. In addition, there are common enemies outside, and he really needs the support of a capable talent like Li Dingguo, so the relationship between the two has improved a lot.

can be improved to improve, Sun Kewang's vigilance against his righteous brother Li Dingguo, and even the secret exclusion and suppression, have never stopped. Li Dingguo is not a dull person, and he can naturally see it, but he focuses on the overall situation in everything, as long as his good big brother doesn't go too far, he shouldn't know.

In this way, at least in front of outsiders who don't know the inside story, the relationship between the two is like brotherhood and intimacy.

"The eldest brother can command anything at any time, why do brothers need to see each other like this?" Li Dingguo said with a smile, "Actually, there have been a lot of affairs in the army recently, and the younger brother hasn't slept tonight, so I can't talk about disturbing him." ”

"Oh, that's good!" Sun Kewang smiled and nodded, "If there is no important matter, the elder brother does not want to disturb the second brother." It's just that this matter is really important, and I have to find someone to discuss it as soon as possible. ”

"What's the matter? Please also ask the eldest brother to speak clearly. ”

"The envoy of the Ming Emperor has arrived in Kunming and is staying at the post house at the moment." (To be continued.) )