When the Northern Shu Route Army defeated Wang Zhaoyuan's troops and captured Jianzhou, the 10,000 Houshu reinforcements led by the crown prince Meng Xuanzhe and Li Tingqi were still on the way to Mianzhou, and there were still fifty miles away from Mianzhou City.

Chengdu is more than 200 miles away from Mianzhou, even if the roads in Shu are difficult to travel, the speed of the troops marching is not comparable to that of the Central Plains. But for the soldiers of the Shu army who live here all the year round, such a distance of six days is enough to complete. What's more, this trip to the north is reinforcements, as the saying goes, "saving soldiers is like fighting fires", even if you can't walk 60 or 70 miles a day, gritting your teeth and walking 50 miles is not an impossible task. It can be said that if the generals are attentive and the soldiers are hard, this support army has every chance to rush there to join Wang Zhaoyuan before the Zhou army besieges Jianmen, so as to enhance the strength of the Shu army and strengthen the confidence of the soldiers, and the Shu army may not lose so badly in the battle of Jianmen. It's a pity that one of the reinforcements this time is the crown prince Meng Xuanzhe, who only knows how to play, and the other is the one who has not fought for many years, and has long been corrupted by the flattering environment and extravagant hedonism in the court.

As a result, on the way to reinforcements, one of them played with his concubine and the group of servants day and night, and the other accompanied him around, showing his flattery and ability to slap horses, not only indifferent to the battle ahead, but also ignored and did not care about the problems that needed the commander's attention, such as the march, camping, logistics supply, and supply of grain and grass for the soldiers and horses of the headquarters. In addition, this support army was originally recruited from Chengdu City on a temporary basis, lacking the necessary training and no combat experience. As a result, when the reinforcements set out from Chengdu, they had no elite soldiers, and when they entered the countryside, without the guidance of the gentry and the common people, their military discipline became even more sloppy. Compared with the fierce and powerful Zhou army, I am afraid that even some bandits and grass bandits and green forest armed forces that have become climates are not comparable. If it weren't for the banner of the official army, it is estimated that people along the way would have reported to the government that there were bandits who had come down the mountain and wanted to rob their homes.

Such a general and such a soldier may not even be qualified to suppress bandits, let alone confront the strongest army in the world. Therefore, when the defeated and fleeing Shu army from the front received the news that Jianzhou had been lost, Wang Zhaoyuan and Zhao Chongtao had been captured, and the entire army of 30,000 horses and horses under his command had been annihilated, Meng Xuanzhe, the crown prince who had just arrived in Mianzhou, and Li Tingqi, the servant, immediately decided to withdraw their troops back to Chengdu.

Although it is not the demeanor of a general to retreat before even seeing the figure of the enemy army, whether it is Meng Xuanzhe or Li Tingqi, they are not real generals, and there will not be much psychological burden to do this kind of thing of running away. Second, if Meng and Li really used the new army led by them, which had only been formed for a few days, to confront the Zhou army, they were afraid that the defeat would be worse than that of Wang Zhaoyuan's troops, and that the more than 10,000 people would be wiped out and no one would survive. Therefore, the retreat from the battle was a good thing for the generals of the new army - although the reputation was not good, at least it saved their lives. In a sense, the order to avoid the war and withdraw troops may be the most valuable and correct order issued by Meng Xuanzhe and Li Tingqi since Chengdu went north.

It's a pity that unreliable people like Meng Xuanzhe and Li Tingqi will never act according to common sense. I don't know if it's the wrong nerve in my head, or if I drank too much and didn't wake up the night before, or if I was afraid of retreating without a fight, and if I withdrew to Chengdu without even seeing the shadow of the enemy, I would be reprimanded by the lord and the Manchu civil and military, and would be scolded by the gentry and people in Chengdu, so at the same time as issuing the order to retreat from the war, Li Tingqi, who originally only knew how to blindly flatter sycophants, suddenly took the initiative to admonish Meng Xuanzhe.

Li Tingqi pointed out that the Zhou army had traveled a long way here, and the road into Shu was rugged and difficult, so it was extremely difficult to transport heavy grain and grass in logistics. There has been no war in Shu for many years, the subjects live and work in peace and contentment, and the people are abundant, and there are a lot of grain stocks in both the government and the people's homes. Once these grains and grasses were taken away by the Zhou army, they would inevitably greatly alleviate the difficulty of the Zhou army's grain and grass transfer, which was by no means a good thing in Dashu. Rather than leaving these grains and grass for the enemy, it is better to burn them down while the Zhou army has not yet arrived, and clear the wilderness. At that time, the Zhou army could not raise grain in Shu and feed the war with war, and it was difficult to sustain the heavy grain and grass, so its momentum would not last long, and finally it could only withdraw from Shu and withdraw from Shu. In this way, not only can the crisis of the imperial court be solved, but if it is properly arranged, it may be possible to take advantage of the opportunity of the panicked retreat of the Zhou army to cover up and kill again, so as to avenge the revenge of Xingzhou and Jianmen.

And Meng Xuanzhe, who has always done his own thing and acted recklessly along the way, this time he didn't know whether he wanted to fight for a reputation of being kind and humbly accepting advice, or whether he also had the purpose of covering up his fear of the enemy and avoiding war, and not only accepted Li Tingjue's construction in its entirety, but also added a clause for himself, ordering that while burning the grain and grass, even the people's houses, government offices and other buildings were also burned, so as to delay the offensive of the Zhou army with a scorched earth policy. If they are not left with a grain of grain or a house, they must be left with no food to eat and no house to live in, and at the same time, they must always be on guard against the local Shu people who have lost their food and shelter to take their food and their tents.

With the order to retreat and burn houses and destroy grain, the Houshu reinforcements hurriedly set up camp. At the same time, the city of Mianzhou and the road from Mianzhou to Hanzhou, the northern gateway of Chengdu, are also thick smoke, fires are soaring to the sky, houses are burned and grain are destroyed, full of devastation, mourning is everywhere, and many cities and counties, market towns and villages along the way have turned into pieces of scorched earth one after another, like purgatory on earth.

As the saying goes, "where there is oppression, there will be resistance", Meng Xuanzhe and Li Tingqi acted so perversely, not only failed to stop the Zhou army's troops, but instead angered their own gentry and people. As a result, some market towns and villages soon organized young people to protect the towns and villages, and confronted the officers and soldiers who came to burn houses and destroy grain, and defended their homes; Soon, some state and county officials and guards ordered the city to be guarded, pleading guilty and accepting punishment from the imperial court afterwards, rather than refusing to enter the city by the so-called imperial court officers and troops passing by; In addition, there are some people whose homes have been destroyed and who have no food and clothing to go north angrily, and go to join the Zhou army that is surging forward, or lead the way for the Zhou army, or ask to enlist in the army, in order to take revenge on those murderers who have ruined their families - the support army of Hou Shu is timid and afraid of war in the face of the Zhou army, and does not dare to resist, but it is not merciless in the face of the unarmed people of Shu, and does not spare the steel knife in his hand at all.

For the initiative of the gentry and people of Shu, the Northern Route Army of Shu naturally couldn't ask for it. After some screening and review, some Shu people who were familiar with the geography of mountains and rivers and the roads of prefectures and counties were arranged to serve as guides in the vanguard to supplement the missing and wrong maps of the Zhou army; After a brief training, some of the physically strong and powerful ones were given weapons and organized into two special independent regiments of the "Security Army" to participate in the operations of the Zhou army and act as the vanguard of the Shu rush. In addition, in order to prevent the emergence of a wave of displaced people due to famine, which would affect public order and local stability, Tang Chao and Muttel sent some "security forces" to assist the local government in maintaining law and order, and at the same time, they also took out some military rations and tents to distribute to the local government, so that they could help the local gentry who had no food to eat and no houses to live in, and to help them survive the most difficult period of time. scorched earth anti-week". But the problem is that the grain, grass and tents used by the Zhou army to help the local gentry and people all came from the capture of Shu land and the Shu army, and did not have any impact on the supply of the Zhou army itself. I don't know how Meng, Li and Hou Shu Junchen will feel after knowing this truth.

More importantly, the evil deeds of Meng Xuanzhe and Li Tingqi also made the Later Shu monarchs and ministers completely lose the hearts of the people. If it is said that at the beginning of the Zhou army's invasion of Shu, most of the gentry and common people in Shu were still interested in the Shu court, and they would help the Shu army to confront the Zhou army, and they would also be hostile to the "outsiders" who invaded their homes and robbed their own land. Then, after witnessing and experiencing the bad behavior of Meng Xuanzhe and Li Tingqi and others who "burned houses and destroyed grain" and "scorched earth to resist Zhou", the gentry and people of Shu were extremely disappointed with the Emperor of Later Shu, the military generals of Later Shu, and the entire Later Shu court. Even if the gentry and the common people who did not suffer directly from it may not directly defect to the Zhou army, serve the Zhou army, or even turn around to fight against the Shu army like the people in Mianzhou and other places, they no longer continue to trust and support their own court and army, but hold the attitude of sitting on the wall and watching or even being happy to see it, waiting to see how the Later Shu regime will perish step by step in this inevitable war.

It was under such a change in the people's hearts that the North Route Army of Shu, which was temporarily stationed in Mianzhou for rest and to help the local people get through the difficulties, and the messenger of the East Route Army of Shu, who was temporarily stationed in Suizhou for rest, established contact with each other, and according to the original plan, it was agreed that the two sides would meet on March 20, the fifth lunar calendar of Jianlong, and jointly attack Chengdu.