In this regard, Lu Xunzhi also expressed his agreement. He nodded unconsciously and said, "What the governor said is very true. Shao Futai's deployment of troops in this way may not be appropriate. ”

But today's Qin Liangyu is full of words to confide in his heart. She then pointed the muzzle of the gun at Yang Sichang, the prime minister of the five provinces. So Qin Liangyu continued: "Besides, the superintendent is a Chu person, and he doesn't want a thief to be in Chu, so he uses all his strength to force the thief to the west, which is tantamount to beggar-thy Shu." The inspector is so attentive that even a three-year-old child knows it. Shao Gong did not take advantage of this time to fight for the mountain and seize the land, so that the thieves did not dare to come to attack me, but waited to be beaten, this is really the way to bring about defeat! ”

At that time, the Sichuan gentry all thought that Yang Sichang was a Chu person, so they deliberately drove Zhang Xianzhong into Sichuan. Regardless of whether Yang Sichang's heart is like this or not, it can be seen that the Sichuan gentry have strong dissatisfaction with Yang Sichang, so the entire action of encircling and suppressing the peasant army has actually cracked.

Lu Xunzhi thought deeply of Qin Liangyu's words, but he was afraid that his persuasiveness was not enough, so after agreeing to go back, he conveyed Qin Liangyu's opinion to the governor, Lu Xunzhi tried to ask: "What Madame said is not only the future of Shao Futai, but also the safety of Shu. Can you please go to Chongqing in person and have a face-to-face discussion with Futai? ”

Unexpectedly, Qin Liangyu immediately refused: "The old woman is busy training in preparation for a battle, and she really can't restrain herself." Sir, please convey your contempt. ”

Qin Liangyu is a very proud person, she attaches great importance to etiquette, and she is quite sensitive to her identity as a woman. Back then, Wu Shigong inadvertently called her "old woman!" was picked up by Qin Liangyu with an eggplant color. Therefore, any act of ignoring her identity is Qin Liangyu's rebellion.

In late April of this year, Qin Liangyu and Shao Jiechun both arrived in Kuizhou, and when Qin Liangyu visited Shao Jiechun, the governor did not return to worship. She galloped back to the defensive ground with her own soldiers, and did not even resign. So at this time, the old lady was still angry in her heart.

Therefore, Lu Xunzhi is now very worried that after Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai join forces, they will cross Kuizhou to the west, causing the hinterland of Sichuan to suffer from the war, so he must do his best to persuade this famous female general to make serious efforts so that Zhang Xianzhong and others cannot cross Kuizhou one step.

So Lu Xun changed the arrogance of the civil official in front of the military attaché, and bowed to compliment: "Lord Zongzhen has made great achievements in his life, and he is famous in the sea. Sichuan is the state of adults and mulberries. From the imperial court, down to the foolish man and the foolish woman, all pay attention to the direction of the adult's banner, and regard the adult as the eastern Sichuan Ping Domain, the whole Shu dry city. Thousands of Qin troops led by He Renlong have been clamoring in Kaixian. Running to Shaanxi, do you have any smell? ”

Qin Liangyu replied: "I only received the Tang report last night. ”

Lu Xunzhi said: "The superintendent and Futai are in the offering and Cao two thieves join forces. The situation of the Wu army is very urgent. He Zhen was stationed between Kuizhou and Dachang, thinking that Zhang Yingyuan's Chu army was backing. Unexpectedly, the soldiers of Hezhen returned to Qin because of unpaid wages, resulting in a thin defense in eastern Sichuan. So whether it is possible to block the two thieves of Xian and Cao from going deep into Sichuan today, but Mrs. Tan and General Zhang Ling are two strong troops. ”

……

The two of them were so polite. The sedan chair carried people, and when they arrived at Zuihou, Qin Liangyu also had to give Lu Xun face. So she agreed: "If Shao Gong is willing to send the old woman and General Zhang Ling to Kui and Wu to attack the enemy first, the overall situation of Sichuan will not be eroded, and the superintendent's idea of 'beggar-thy Sichuan' will also be frustrated." ”

After Lu Xunzhi returned to Chongqing. Immediately report Qin Liangyu's strategy to the governor. It happened that Yang Sichang's supervisor Wan Yuan Ji sent an urgent letter of 100,000 yuan from Kuizhou, urging Shao Jiechun to quickly station heavy troops in Kuizhou to prevent Zhang Xianzhong and Cao Cao's joint troops from "fleeing west", and criticized him for wanting to disperse his troops by trying to hold various passes in Dachang at the same time.

Wan Yuan Ji also conveyed to him a few very weighty words from Yang Sichang in the letter: "Today, the thieves entered the nine shares of Sichuan, and successively appeased the seventh, but the two thieves of Weixian and Cao fled between Wushan and Dachang, cramped and poor mountains, like wandering spirits. If the remnants peep into Yunyang and go to Xiangyang, Zuo Shuai Liangyu deserves it; Peeping at Yiling, going to Jingzhou, I deserve it; Peep at Kuiguan, go to Sichuan, and Shu Fu deserves it. Annihilate the giants, in one fell swoop. The country's closure is related, and all towns and towns must not be negligent! ”

After careful consultations with his cronies, Shao Jiechun personally went to Qin Liangyu's camp the next day to work in the army, and discussed with Liangyu the date of the start of the stone soldiers. Because of the difficulty of food and salary, neither the Shi Yan soldiers nor Zhang Ling's Sichuan soldiers could be mobilized immediately. It was five days before the two detachments set out from near Chongqing. On the morning of the same day, Zhang Xianzhong suddenly launched a fierce attack on the military stronghold on the east bank of the Bawu River......

In the early morning of 25 August, Zhang Xianzhong led 2,000 infantry to suddenly appear on the east side of the land ridge, and hid most of his men and horses in the dense forest behind a mountain. Zhang Yingyuan and Wang Yunfeng, the generals of the Chu army who defended the land ridge, had fought many battles with Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai, and were more experienced and brave; After receiving the report, immediately discuss the strategy of dealing with the enemy.

Zhang Yingyuan and they all knew that Zhang Xianzhong was cunning with soldiers, and there was also a Xu Yixian by his side, who was scheming, guessing that Xianzhong must use a part of his troops to attack the land ridge from the front to contain the official and army forces, and when the fierce battle was in full swing, he used a part of the troops to rush to cross the Bawu River, as long as he captured the crossings on both sides of the Bawu River, the land ridge not only lost its importance, but also the back road was also cut off.

According to this estimate, Zhang Yingyuan and the others decided to send the deputy general Luo Wenyuan and the staff general Hu Rugao to lead 1,000 elite soldiers to defend the ferry, and the main general Zhang Yingyuan led 300 elite soldiers and 2,000 recruits to guard the land ridge and command in the center, while Jiang Yunfeng led 1,700 elite soldiers out of the village to meet the enemy. The officers and soldiers relied on condescending positions, first occupied the land, and had been stationed here for nearly 50 days since the beginning of July.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Xianzhong first divided 1,500 men and horses into two teams and attacked in turn, so that the officers and soldiers could not rest. Then, while Zhang Yingyuan's soldiers were tired and the gong was sounding to withdraw the troops, he sent the 20-year-old Li Dingguo to seize the small hill of the majestic pass where the officers and troops relied and made meritorious contributions in a battle.

Zhang Xianzhong's purpose in breaking through the land ridge was not to occupy this place, nor to cross the Bawu River immediately, but to first eliminate an important part of the official army, break Yang Sichang's military deployment, dampen the little remaining spirit of the official army, and at the same time greatly boost the morale of the peasant army.

Zhang Xianzhong also hoped that a big victory in one fell swoop could strengthen Luo Rucai's confidence in following him deep into the interior of Sichuan. After breaking through the Land Ridge, his goal had been achieved, so he immediately ordered to stop the rush to cross the Bawu River to avoid more casualties.

Then, Zhang Xianzhong took a three-day truce in the land ridge, transported away a large amount of grain, mules and horses and various military materials he had captured, and then he himself returned to the mountains at the junction of Dachang and Wushan, and sent a cavalry to meet Luo Rucai on the border of Guizhou. Although Luo Rucai had listened to his advice and vowed not to surrender again, Zhang Xianzhong did not dare to fully believe Luo Rucai, so he had to quickly take Luo Rucai back, and before Yang Sichang came to Kuizhou, they rushed to northern Sichuan together, looking for an opportunity to return to Shaanxi, so as not to be surrounded by the mountains between Kui and Wu.

But when Luo Rucai arrived ten days later, Zhang Xianzhong unexpectedly got a report from the official army intercepted by Luo Rucai. In this Tang newspaper, Zhang Xianzhong and the others learned that Qin Liangyu personally led 30,000 Shiqi soldiers from Chongqing to the east tonight to help Dachang and Kuizhou, and they could arrive on the 22nd.

In September, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's peasant army attacked the key Chongzhu mushroom flat in Daning, and Qin Liangyu and Zhang Ling led their troops to intercept it. Zhang Ling was killed by an arrow, and his troops were defeated; Qin Liangyu's white pole soldiers fought to the death and almost all of them were wiped out.

The old lady fled back to her hometown with a few remnants, and since then she has stuck to her homeland and no longer sent troops to fight. After the defeat of Qin and Zhang, the rest of the Sichuan army was even more vulnerable. Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai traveled west through Dazhou (present-day Daxian) and Bazhou (present-day Bazhong), crossed the Jialing River in mid-November, conquered the important towns of Jianzhou (present-day Jiange) and Zitong in northern Sichuan, and then turned south to Chengdu.

Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai flowed into Sichuan, causing chaos in the Ming Dynasty. Yang Sichang had to leave the Xiangyang base camp and personally entered Sichuan in August to pursue him. However, his camp and his standard were heavy and redundant, with a large number of personnel, and his progress on the muddy mountain roads of Sichuan was slow, and he could not catch up with the peasant army that was as fast as thunder and lightning, and the Sichuan army, which was responsible for intercepting everywhere, was powerless to resist.

The peasant army drove straight into Sichuan, as if passing through no one's land, and made up a ballad that said: "There was Governor Shao (Shao Jiechun) before, and he often came to the troupe to dance; Later, Liao joined the army (Liao Daheng of Sichuan Supervisor Army), and he followed me without a fight; It's a good Yang Pavilion Department, three days away from me. On the one hand, Yang Sichang complained about the incompetence of the Sichuan army, "the brittleness of the Shu soldiers, the stupidity of the generals, and the unspeakable", and on the other hand, he urgently transferred troops from Huguang and Shaanxi into Sichuan.

However, Zuo Liangyu had the idea of not losing his strength, refused to carry out eight orders in succession, and later simply led his troops into Xing'an (now Ankang) in Shaanxi, avoiding the peasant army from afar. Shaanxi's He Renlong and other troops also dragged their feet and did not want to fight in Sichuan. Zuihou was forced to finally enter Sichuan, and after several defeats, he no longer dared to make direct contact with the peasant army.

However, the Sichuan officials and Sichuan magistrates in the imperial court wantonly slandered Yang Sichang for Zhang Xianzhong's entry into Sichuan, saying that he deliberately drove the enemy into Shu in order to protect his hometown (Yang was a native of Wuling, and belonged to Huguang Province in the Ming Dynasty) and beggar-thy-neighbor.

Yang Sichang ran around the mountains for days, but all he got was the bad news of the continuous defeats on the front line and the bad words of the Sichuan gentry, which was really infuriating. He blamed the defeat on the officials and troops in Sichuan, Shaanxi and other places, and impeached them for their ineffective suppression.

For this reason, Emperor Chongzhen, who had absolute trust in Yang Sichang, arrested Shao Jiechun and punished him, and Zuihou beheaded him in Xishi. Zheng Chongjian, the governor of Shaanxi, was dismissed from his post and later charged with capital crimes. However, when the Ming Dynasty was in chaos, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai captured Luzhou, an important city in southern Sichuan, in early December, including Keshifang and Longchang, and other counties in central and southern Sichuan. Then he returned to the north, broke Renshou, forced Chengdu, trapped Deyang, crossed the Jialing River in the east of northern Sichuan, took Bazhou and Tongjiang at the beginning of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, and Zuihou triumphantly went out of Sichuan along the north bank of the Yangtze River and returned to Hubei. (To be continued......)