Chapter 183: Golden Arrow

The outcome of a war depends on strength, and in the face of absolute strength, the outcome will soon be decided. On the side of the rogues, there are not as many soldiers as the officers and soldiers, and all kinds of equipment are not as good as the officers and soldiers, and there is no way to compare the backup, grain and grass, etc.

In the face of the devastating attack of the official army, the rogues defending the city became more and more untenable in the city, and with the gradual increase of the number of officers and troops attacking the city, the artillery bombardment under the city stopped, and the brigade of men and horses frantically poured towards the city.

At the Mianzhu Pass, the two sides fought to the death, both of which kept throwing in troops, and you fought for me. In a fierce battle, fought from noon to evening, the troops under the command of Gao Yigong and Liu Fangliang were indeed tenacious, resisted desperately, and never retreated.

Yue Su's army was even more impossible to retreat, and the drums urging the battle were endless, going forward one after another. The two sides fought another bloody night, and finally because Gao Yigong and Liu Fangliang died in battle, the official army won the victory and captured Mianzhu Pass.

In this bloody battle, the officers and soldiers also suffered a lot of casualties, Sima Qiaoyu's soldiers and horses suffered thousands of casualties, and the surrendered army suffered more than 10,000 casualties. The same is true of the rogues, with more than 10,000 dead and wounded, and the rest either fleeing or surrendering. Yue Su used both grace and power for the surrendered Liukou soldiers, still distributed silver, allocated land, and sent troops and horses to Shaanxi and Henan.

Losing Mianzhu Pass, Li Zicheng was shocked, he originally wanted to be the king of Sichuan, but now it seems that there is no such opportunity. Although Shu Road is difficult and it is not easy to conquer, it is also necessary to divide when. Historically, Zhang Xianzhong could rely on his geographical advantages to entangle with the Tartars for many years, that is because the opponent is the Tartars, and the people will stand on Zhang Xianzhong's side. But the current opponent is the imperial court, and the common people can see that they will really die if they go up and fight hard, but if they surrender, the court will give them silver, divide the land, and let them live a peaceful life.

Lord Yue, who leads the army, is famous all over the world, no better than other officials, that is really the same. War and danger, surrender is happy, and the will of the rogue has begun to loosen. They followed Li Zicheng to rebel at the beginning, so that they didn't have something to eat, and now the court can give them to them, so why continue to rebel. To fight a war is to die.

The soldiers had no will to fight, Li Zicheng was a little anxious, the officers and troops advanced steadily, and it would not take long to reach Chengdu. Li Zicheng understood that if he supported the troops and defended them, once Chengdu was surrounded, he would no longer be able to get out, he would not be able to sit in one place, and he would have to make use of the terrain, avoid the real and the false, and wait for an opportunity to engage the official army.

Li Zicheng has also been marching for many years, and knows very well that he is advancing and retreating, and at the moment, he divides his troops into five routes, only telling the generals to disperse and hide, and meet the battle carefully, there are many officers and soldiers, and the consumption of grain and grass will be large, as long as he persists for a few months, he will definitely be able to achieve the final victory.

These five roads have 50,000 soldiers and horses on each road, one of which is personally commanded by Li Zicheng, and the other four roads are led by Li Guo, Hao Shaoqi, Yuan Zongdi, and Zhang Hualong.

After the arrangement was completed, the army immediately dispersed and acted separately. The five-way army and the fourth-way army are all Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses, and only Zhang Yuanhua is Zhang Xianzhong's person. Zhang Hualongbu, leaving Chengdu, moved in the direction of Dujiangyan in the northwest, it can be said that when you arrive at Dujiangyan, you can go to the northwest, there are all mountainous areas, and the road is extremely difficult.

However, Zhang Hualong did not drill into the mountains, but set up camp in the Dujiangyan area, and then sent his cronies and soldiers to the direction of Mianzhuguan.

Zhang Hualong, Wang Shuangli, Yan Ximing, and Wang Zhaolin are all diehard loyalists of Zhang Xianzhong, and after learning the news of Zhang Xianzhong's surrender to the imperial court, they have secretly sent people out to inquire to see what the situation is. Later, it was determined that Zhang Xianzhong had indeed surrendered, and he also got an official position and went to Beijing to enjoy happiness. Since the court is not to blame in the past, what is the point of the big guy continuing to rebel, and these people have the intention of surrendering to the court. A few days ago, someone came to deliver a letter, they knew Zhang Xianzhong's handwriting, and when they saw their master, they let themselves surrender with him, and they were even more determined. Right now, the official army Mianzhu Pass, Li Zicheng's destruction is just around the corner, and it happened that Li Chuang divided his troops and let them lead a team. A few people summed it up, first pretended to transfer, and as soon as they arrived in Dujiangyan, they sent a letter to Yue Su, expressing their willingness to surrender. …,

Yue Su's army had arrived in Shifang, and as soon as he set up camp today, someone came to report that someone outside the camp wanted to see the marshal, saying that there was a confidential matter. Yue Su immediately received the messenger, and the messenger presented the secret letter, Yue Su read it, his heart was overjoyed, and he asked about the situation in Chengdu, so that the messenger went down to rest and waited for the reply.

The messenger retreated, Yue Su turned his head to look at Jiang Jie, who was sitting with his hands down, and said, "Sir, we are not far from recovering Sichuan. ”

Jiang Jie smiled slightly and said: "The marshal led the army into Sichuan, Li Chuang is no more than a tile dog, and his demise is only in the morning and night." Right now, Zhang Hualong, these generals, are willing to be even more gods. ”

"Yes...... Yue Su nodded and said: "Li Zi divided his troops into five routes, each with five horses, and wanted to take advantage of the terrain in central Sichuan to fight with our army. Sir, please see this letter from Zhang Yuanhua. After Yue Su finished speaking, he handed the letter to Jiang Jie.

Jiang Jie got up and stepped forward to take it, and then returned to his seat to watch, and when he finished reading, he heard Yue Su ask: "Sir, at this moment, how do you think we should fight the enemy." The terrain in central Sichuan is tortuous, and Li Zicheng is like a loach, and this terrain is just right for him. Although our army can win in the end, I am afraid it will take a lot of time. Every extra day is consumed, so many soldiers and horses have a lot of food and grass. ”

"If there is no Zhang Hualong and they surrender, we will do it step by step, step by step, it will indeed take a lot of time, but now with Zhang Hualong and them, it will be easy for us to eliminate Li Zicheng. When the subordinates saw the messenger coming in, they had already thought of a strategy for the commander to break the enemy. Jiang Jie said calmly.

"Oh? Please speak, sir. Yue Su hurriedly said.

"Li Zicheng is divided into five routes, we can divide the troops into four routes, and take Zhang Yuanhua's men and horses as the leader to divide and destroy Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses. Li Zicheng and his generals must not know that Zhang Hualong has surrendered now, let's send a letter to Zhang Yuanhua, ordering Zhang Hualong, Feng Shuangli, Wang Zhaolin, and Yan Ximing to each lead an army, pretend to be defeated by our army, scatter and flee, and defect to Li Chuang's various armies respectively, and the four-way soldiers and horses led by the marshal pretend to pursue in the rear. Just wait for Zhang Hualong and other troops to converge with Li Zicheng and others, and then join forces inside and outside, killing them by surprise, and Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses will naturally be wiped out. Jiang Jie said with a smile.

"Wonderful, really wonderful...... It's just ......" Yue Su hesitated, and then said: "I'm afraid that Zhang Yuanhua and the others are surrendering by fraud, and as soon as the strength of our army is dispersed, he will separately introduce the main force of our army into the rogue ambush circle, then it will be bad." ”

"The handsome man is worried, Zhang Hualong and they are sending the letter now, it can be seen that they are sincerely obedient, and Zhang Hualong did not take the initiative to propose this plan, I don't think he thought of this layer at all. If you are worried, we can be safe and cut them off one by one. Jiang Jie said.

"Hmm...... You can't be anxious about anything, just like the gentleman said, cut them off one by one. It's just that if they come one by one, the news will not be easy to leak, which will hinder future actions, so that the rogue will be on guard and will no longer be tricked. Yue Su said again.

"This doesn't matter, the terrain in central Sichuan is dangerous, the contact is inconvenient, and the soldiers and horses that Li Ziji has formed cannot be very close, let's find out where they are hiding now, and then make the final arrangements, it's too late." Jiang Jie said.

"According to what Mr. said, Ben Shuai immediately sent out scouts to find out where those rogues were hiding."

Four people, five on each road, no matter where they go, they are very eye-catching, and they don't have any trouble finding their whereabouts.

Before Yue Su arrived in Chengdu, he first searched around, and when he arrived in Chengdu, the whereabouts of Li Zicheng's various units had already been found. Li Guo's soldiers and horses are entrenched in the mountains around Dayi County; Hao Shaoqi's soldiers and horses hid in the mountains around Baoxing County; Yuan Zongdi's soldiers and horses ran to Mount Emei; Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses are still marching to the west of Yue. …,

Ordered someone to take a map of Sichuan, Yue Su and Jiang Jie analyzed the terrain in detail, and quickly came up with a plan. Li Zicheng goes far, so don't move him first, deal with his minions, and then it's too late to clean up the last.

Yue Su wrote to Zhang Hualong, ordering him to act according to his plan, and granted him an official position, and the first four people were all governors and governors, and promised that as long as they helped the imperial court and exterminated the liukou, there would be a reward. Lord Yue was also happy, and directly promised the title of General Wude.

Zhang Hualong and the others have all decided to return to the imperial court, and Lord Yue's plans are seamless, obey orders, and pick up a martial arts general to come back, why not. As a result, Zhang Hualong divided his troops into three routes, each with 17,000 people, and moved to Dayi County, Baoxing County, and Emei Mountain.

Yue Su also sent out three routes of soldiers and horses, except for Cao Bianjiao, who went to Dayi County, the other two roads were all rogue people. Originally, Yue Su planned to let the generals go to these three roads, and promised to take the rank of Wupin Xiao cavalry captain, but Cao Bianjiao and Li Zicheng had a deep hatred, so they had to ask Ying to fight, so Yue Su pushed the boat down the river, fulfilled his thoughts, and allocated Sima Qiaoyu's soldiers and horses to him.

The order of sorties was like this, Dayi County was the closest, Cao Bianjiao pretended to defeat Zhang Hualong's troops, and drove Zhang Hualong's soldiers and horses in the direction of Dayi County. Zhang Hualong pretended to be embarrassed and went to Li Guo, explaining the strength of the official army and letting Li Guo escape quickly. Anyway, no matter whether you Li Guo runs or not, that night, Zhang Hualong will suddenly make a move, set fire to the army, and lead Cao Bianjiao's soldiers and horses to attack, and the inside and outside should cooperate to kill Li Guo.

Li Guo has the courage and no strategy, how do you know that it is a plan, he was concealed by Zhang Hualong, and at night, Zhang Hualong suddenly moved, Li Guojun was caught off guard, and suffered heavy casualties. Immediately after, Cao Bianjiao led the army to kill, and the Liukou was even more unable to resist, and in the melee, Li Guo was killed by Cao Bianjiao himself, which can be regarded as revenge for Cao Wenzhao. Li Guo's men were either killed or surrendered, and the battle of Dayi County ended.

The first battle was won, and the other two also launched operations, He Yilong and Wang Yiyong chased Feng Shuangli's soldiers and horses towards Baoxing County, and Liu Xiyao and Hui Dengxiang chased Yan Ximing and Wang Zhaolin's soldiers and horses towards Mount Emei. They walked very fast, and they left ahead of schedule, and Li Guo's soldiers who escaped with their lives were too late to report the news.

The specific process of the battle, needless to say, is the same as defeating Li Guo, it is all defenseless at night, and the inside and outside should be together.

After defeating Li Zicheng's wings, it can be said that the Sichuan region has been basically recovered, Yuesu Zhang Bang reassures the people, strictly enforces military discipline, and distributes land to the people and the displaced people who surrendered. For the people who already have land to plant, if there is no land deed, since you have planted it, the land is yours, Yue Su directly issues the land deed, and if there is no land, Yue Su will distribute the idle land to them, and also issue the land deed, and even give silver. Not only that, Yue Su even told the people that Zhang Xianzhong's previous policy was to free food for three years, and the imperial court would still implement it, and there would be no need to pay food within three years, and he would live a good life.

A series of measures to benefit the people made the people in central Sichuan thunderous, and they all chanted the name of Yue Qingtian.

In addition to appeasing the people, Yue Su had to send troops to clear the remnants of the Liukou, however, there was really no remnant of the Liukou in Sichuan, those who fled the Liukou before, as soon as they saw that the court was so generous, they simply took the initiative to come and return to Shun, Yue Su not only treated them equally, but also gave preferential treatment to the generals who led the army, and even gave them official positions.

This time, there were more rogues who surrendered, and there was almost no fighting, and the territory of Sichuan was too peaceful, and all that remained was Li Zicheng's family. Without wings, Li Zicheng can be described as a water dog, and those rogue generals don't dare to do anything with Li Zicheng on weekdays, but now, everyone is willing to do the thing of beating the water dog.

Many generals took the initiative to ask for help, wanting to capture Li Zicheng, but Yue Su agreed one by one and asked them to go and arrest him. It's a pity that Li Zicheng was worthy of being a guerrilla fighter, and the speed of his escape was not ordinarily fast, and he soon escaped out of Sichuan and fled to Guizhou, and according to Niu Jinxing's suggestion, he wantonly wooed the natives of Guizhou to attack the city and plunder the land. …,

Yue Su did not supervise the military of Guizhou, and if he crossed the border to raise troops, even if he suppressed bandits, it would be a big crime. Therefore, Lord Yue can only ask for advice in advance. Unexpectedly, the reply given by the imperial court disappointed Yue Su.

"Love has worked hard and made great achievements, and has successively recovered Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan and other places, which has made the domestic jumping beam slump, and I am very relieved. Now many rogues have surrendered, Li Zicheng alone is not worried, this thief fled into Guizhou, more like a turtle in the urn, I have issued an order, so that Mu Tianbo, the prince of Qianguo, led the army into Guizhou, to exterminate Li Zicheng, it is expected to be a great success. All parts of the Central Plains have been poisoned by the rogue for a long time, and they urgently need to be appeased, and the top priority of the Qing family is to stabilize the Central Plains, implement the policy of reassuring the people, and eliminate the remnants of the Central Plains rogues. The contribution of the Qing family is really ancient and unprecedented, and it is really an example of hundreds of officials, and it does not live up to the weight of trust, and it is the first person in Zhongxing in the Ming Dynasty. It is now specially decreed to be crowned as the secretary of justice, and the hereditary replacement. ”

The will is very clear, the bandit suppression has come to an end, and there is no need for you Yue Su to continue to fight, and the current Qianguo Gong Mu Tianbo will lead the army. Mu Tianbo has already explained in the previous article that he is Lord Yue's brother-in-law, Mu Qiyuan's son, when Chongjing was three years old, Mu Tianbo died, because it was too far away from Beijing, and Lord Yue had a lot of things, so he didn't go to Yunnan to worship.

Let's talk about the official position of this Zhengzhi Shangqing, this is a second-grade rank second only to Zhuguo, and his status is high. Now it is given to Yue Su, which can be said to be well deserved.

Lord Yue listened to the holy decree, smiled helplessly, received the decree of thanksgiving, and then wrote an excerpt of thanks, and asked the eunuch to take it back to the capital.

There was no need to continue the battle, Yue Su began to reorganize his troops and horses, and sent part of the army to Shaanxi and Henan to clear out the remnants of the Liukou. To tell the truth, Lord Yue gave such a big sweetness to the homeless, and a few of them were willing to be cowards, and basically all places were quiet, and the difference was just to recuperate.

As the commander of the first army, he won the battle, and his generals also had to give some sweetness. Yue Su continued to go to the top, asking for credit to his generals, whether it was a general of the imperial court or a demoted general, at least one level must be promoted, depending on the size of the merit, it is inevitable to reward some hereditary loose officials, and all the previous promises must be fulfilled.

In the past two months, in addition to handling official business in Sichuan, Yue Su has also been keeping an eye on the situation in Guizhou. Once something happens to Mu Tianbo, he, as a brother-in-law, can also pull it up as soon as possible. However, Mu Tianbo did not disappoint the imperial court, and fought two battles with Li Zicheng, beating the rogue to cry his father and mother, and fled in embarrassment. Now I'm running everywhere, and I don't know where I've fled.

On this day, when I was dealing with official business, a guard suddenly came to report, saying that someone outside the gate asked to see him, saying that he was an old acquaintance of the marshal, and that he had urgent matters to say to the marshal face to face.

Hearing that it was an old acquaintance, Yue Su wondered, and asked some about the person's appearance, but he didn't seem to have any impression. However, since the people who came said so, Yue Su also saw that there were many guards around him, so he was afraid that someone would assassinate him.

After a while, the guards brought a middle-aged man to the back hall, and when this person saw Yue Su, he immediately knelt on the ground, and said excitedly: "Villain Fang Ji, knock on Yue Qingtian." ”

From the moment this person entered the door, Yue Su kept looking, and in his impression, he didn't know this person, but looking at this person's expression, it didn't seem to be contrived. So, Yue Su said kindly, "Get up." Your name is Fangji? ”

"Thank you, sir......" Fang Ji stood up and said, "Yes, my lord, the villain is Fang Ji, don't you remember the villain?" ”

"Ben Shuai really can't remember, I don't know ......"

"My lord, you forgot, the villain is Fang Ji of Fangzhai in Tongren Mansion, my lord, when you were the prefect of your colleagues, you also tried the wrongs of our people." Fang Ji said excitedly.

"I remember, you are Fang Ji, Fang Ji of Fang Village. By the way, is your current patriarch Fang Cai'er okay? Yue Su immediately remembered and said loudly. …,

"Our patriarch, it's fine now, it's just ......" This time, Fang Ji's face showed embarrassment.

"What's the matter, what's going on in the clan, everyone is a friend, if you encounter any difficulties, just talk to me, as long as I can do it, I can't give up." After all, when Tongren was surrounded by rebels, Sanmiao helped him, so how could Yue Su not return it.

"There is indeed an accident in the clan, a few days ago, a man named Li Zicheng led people to our village, hoping that our Sanmiao could cooperate with him to fight against the official army. The patriarch of my family ostensibly agreed, and when he was drinking with that Li Zicheng, he drugged him in the wine, poured him down, and captured him alive. I didn't want to, and then Qian Guogong called and asked us to hand over Li Zicheng. The patriarch refused to hand over the man, and told the Duke of Qianguo that if he wanted to return Li Zicheng, unless he asked you, my lord, to return the golden arrow of Fangzhai. Otherwise, even if the jade is burned, Li Zicheng will not be traded to the official army. Qianguo Gong didn't pay attention to it at all, and immediately sent people to surround the village, fortunately, the head of the Gou family came in time, so that the villain hurried to Chengdu to report to the adult, and asked the adult to think of a way to save Fang Zhai......"

It turned out that Li Zicheng's life in Guizhou was very difficult, although he entangled some natives and wanted to run rampant in Guizhou, but as soon as Mu Tianbo arrived, after two battles, Li Zicheng was beaten and embarrassed, and was betrayed by some of the natives and was almost captured alive. Fortunately, Li Zicheng's husband was high, so he did not let the natives succeed, and fled to Tongren Mansion with the remnants. Mu Tianbo was in a hurry, and Li Zicheng had no choice but to run to Fangzhai and ask Sanmiao to help him. Who knows, Li Zicheng's matter is already known to the whole world, and Yue Su's order to suppress bandits is also known to the whole world. Fang Cai'er thought of Yue Su, and Li Zicheng was the person Yue Su wanted to arrest, so she couldn't help but have a plan, and promised Li Zicheng on the surface that when everyone was drinking, Li Zicheng was drugged and arrested, and Song Xiance was captured along with Li Zicheng. When Niu Jinxing learned of this, he heard that Mu Tianbo was approaching with his troops, so he simply took the remnants of Li Zicheng and surrendered to Mu Tianbo. In this way, all the rogues in Guizhou can be said to be wiped out, and only the culprit Li Zicheng is missing. Mu Tianbo asked Fang Zhai to hand over people, where was Fang Cai'er willing to hand over people like this, and he didn't even want a reward from the court, only said that he would let Yue Su return the Miao family's golden arrow.

Regarding the entanglement between Yue Su and Fang Cai'er, how did Mu Tianbo know, he thought that his brother-in-law had robbed other people's things, so he simply planned to shield his brother-in-law and destroy Fang Cai'er together. That's why he ordered to surround Fang Zhai, but fortunately, the head of the Gou family came early, so he sent this Fang Ji to report the news.

After listening to Fang Ji's story, Yue Su was shocked, he and Fang Zhai also had some origins, how could Mu Tianbo calm Fang Zhai. Hurriedly said: "Fang Ji, don't worry, I'll write a letter now and ask someone to send it to Mu Tianbo, asking him not to do it." Come on, get a pen and paper. ”

For such a major event, Yue Su could not be ambiguous, and when he brought the pen and paper, he wrote it immediately. The content of the letter is very simple, that is, I hope Mu Tianbo will not do it, if there is anything, let's talk slowly.

After writing the letter, Yue Su was still not at ease, and asked Tong Xuan to take Li Haoquan and a hundred cavalry with Fang Ji to leave now, so as not to cause an uncontrollable result.

Fang Ji hurried for days, although he was very tired, but he knew that the matter was important, how dare he delay, thanked Yue Su, and set off immediately with Tong Xuan and Li Haoquan.

The group was all fast horses, and they also brought spare horses to change on the road. Tongren Mansion is more than 900 miles away from Chengdu, nearly 1,000 miles away, all the way non-stop, according to the speed of 600 miles, it took two days to arrive.

The big guy was tired enough, when he arrived at Fangzhai, it was already dusk, and around Fangzhai, there was indeed a military camp, looking at the posture, there were no less than sixty or seventy thousand soldiers and horses. The tents are continuous, and it is impossible to see how the surrounding village is.

Before Tong Zhou led people to the Zhaimen, the soldiers guarding the camp saw that Tong Zhou was also wearing official and military uniforms, and Tong Zhou and Li Haoquan were still in the clothes and armor of the generals, so they asked very politely: "I don't know where the two generals came from?" ”

"I'm here from Sichuan Yue Dashuai, and I have something urgent to see the Duke of Qianguo, so please pass it on quickly."