Loushan Pass in a pavilion.

Li Dingguo rested his elbows on the stone table, splashed on his cloak by the heavy rain outside the pavilion, and was silent for about a long time with his hands on his forehead.

Only then did he say a sentence:

"The Ming army is really not what it was back then, the so-called knowing oneself and knowing the other, and not being defeated in a hundred battles, how could the general be careless to this point!"

Although Li Dingguo admitted that the sudden appearance of the Ming army from Loushan was very unexpected, he was not surprised by this.

After all, he had already expected this possibility, but he didn't expect that the opposing general would use the main force to feint and send a small group of elite soldiers to attack, and the leader could recognize it as a second-class military attache of the Ming army at a glance at his armor.

What Li Dingguo didn't expect was that a large number of scouts he sent did not find any trace of the Ming army, which is enough to show that this Ming army is no longer an ordinary elite army, at least both agility and discipline to obey the command are above their own army.

And when he retreated, he saw the Ming army attacking the city, and he also saw the difference between this Ming army, the captain rushed to the front, and the march was quite orderly, the firearms were accurate and the performance was excellent, and the ordinary soldiers were completely superior to their own archers.

Thinking of the previous battles in Guiyang and Anshun, he had to admit that the combat effectiveness of the newly joined Ming army was above his own army.

"Why did the general say that?"

Since Li Dingguo raised troops with Zhang Xianzhong, he has won more than he lost, and even if he was defeated, he took the initiative to retreat, expecting the enemy to be the first and losing little.

Therefore, the officers and soldiers under his command were quite convinced of Li Dingguo, and it can be said that Li Dingguo was their military soul.

Now, Li Dingguo is so depressed and depressed, and his henchman Tang Ming is also a little apprehensive, so he can't help but ask more.

"It's not that the general deliberately disturbed the morale of the army, now we are no longer the officers and soldiers of the past, we must be more cautious in the future, people's firearms and combat effectiveness are stronger than ours, and the tactics are even higher than us, and the Ming generals on the opposite side do not know who they are, they are so good at commanding, using the main force to feint, and surprise troops to attack my back road! Since entering Guizhou, Ben Jiang has indeed been a little careless, and he has ignored the principle of finding out the enemy's situation first and strategizing later! ”

As soon as Li Dingguo said this, Tang Ming, a confidant general under his command, wanted to say that he had reminded him of Li Dingguo before, but at that time, Li Dingguo was a proud and decisive leader and did not listen to his reminder, and now Tang Ming knew that it was meaningless to say more, so he only added:

"The last general has inquired, and on the opposite side is a deputy marshal of the Ming Guards named Yan Yingyuan, who was promoted to deputy commander by the Ming Emperor at the end of last year because he captured Hong Chengchou alive in Henan."

"Yan Yingyuan?" Li Dingguo smiled embarrassedly, he really hadn't heard of this person.

However, Li Dingguo didn't want to dwell on this matter, as a battle-hardened general, he couldn't keep falling because of these setbacks, so he only kept the name Yan Yingyuan in mind, and then asked:

"Did any of our ambushers meet the pursuing Ming army?"

"No, we have set up ambushes in Yamen Pass, Hailong Hoard, and Yong'an Station, but none of the Ming troops appeared, and the subordinates also sent people to Zunyi to investigate the truth, and the Ming army showed no signs of going out of the city to pursue."

After Tang Ming said, there was a sound of footsteps, but it was the Gu Hongchang Department of Li Dingguo's army who was ordered to retreat from Wujiang Pass:

"General, we are back, this is a letter brought back by a brother who captured us by the Ming army."

Li Dingguo hurriedly opened it and took a look, but it was a line of words: "Order, send you and wait to leave the country, if there is another war in the future, the general should remember the emperor's great grace, and there will be no more covetousness, otherwise he will taste the pain of defeat again!" ”

"Humph!"

Li Dingguo snorted, he could see that the other party's generals were more arrogant and confident than himself, which made him very angry.

Li Dingguo, who was competitive for a while, couldn't help but remember that he had also sent elite soldiers to attack Tongren City, and hurriedly asked Tang Ming:

"Is there any news from the direction of Tongren?"

Although Li Dingguo could already guess that since the Ming army had not retreated for a long time, and even sent him out of the country without pursuing him, it showed that his plan was likely to have failed, but he still hoped that he could turn the tables.

"Not yet, the last general has already sent someone to inquire."

As soon as Tang Ming said this, Li Dingguo felt a little uneasy in his heart, but his hope for a comeback was also stronger, so he ordered:

"Command to go down, camp on the spot, the army will rest here for a few days, strengthen the vigilance, and besides, don't disturb the people!"

Li Dingguo thought that since the Ming army had no intention of pursuing, he was not in a hurry to retreat back to Xuzhou, so he waited for a few days at Loushan Pass to wait for news from the direction of Tongren.

At this time, Li Dingguo seemed to be unable to give up without waiting for the news from Tongren Mansion.

After more than ten days, Li Dingguo's Daxi soldiers, who were captured by the Ming army and attacked Tongren, were released back to Loushan Pass, and found Li Dingguo, and informed Li Dingguo of the news of the failure of Tongren's sneak attack.

"The Ming army has long been on guard, saying that it is 200,000, but at that time it was indeed full of Ming troops all over the mountains, and the city was also heavily guarded, we killed and wounded more than 2,000 brothers, and the deputy general Feng also died, and finally had to be taken prisoner, and now the Ming army suddenly let us come back, the reason is just to ask us to bring a letter to the general, it is a letter from Zhu Youzhen, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty."

After a military attache said this, Li Dingguo took the letter from his hand and read it carefully, but after reading it, he threw the letter on the ground in anger:

"What a Ming emperor, dare to separate the relationship between Ben Jiang and his father and brothers, one day Ben will capture you alive!"

After speaking, Li Dingguo squirted a mouthful of blood on the ground, and after his anger was over, he began to think about when this Ming Emperor Zhu Youzhen became so powerful, and actually concluded that he would inevitably attack Tongren and threatened that the Manchu Qing would go south to Sichuan.

Li Dingguo thought calmly for a while, decided not to entangle with the Ming army here, and immediately ordered the army to withdraw to Xuzhou, and at the same time sent someone to deliver a letter to Sun Kewang, saying that he had withdrawn to Xuzhou because of the strength of the Ming army, and now the Ming army will inevitably recover Wusa, Zhenxiong and other places after occupying Zunyi, so as to hope that his brother Sun Kewang will withdraw to Jiazhou as soon as possible to avoid the enemy's edge, after all, he can no longer provide Austrian aid after he withdraws to Xuzhou.

At the same time, Li Dingguo also returned to Chengdu to report in detail on his gains and losses in Guizhou, and at the same time implored his father, Zhang Xianzhong, to pay attention to the Manchu Qing in the north.

Li Dingguo did not lose his mind, and still believed Zhu Youzhen's reminder in the end.

But Sun Kewang was furious after receiving Li Dingguo's letter:

"What a second brother, in the end am I the eldest brother, or is he the eldest brother! Ben will lead the troops to fight, when will it be his turn to point fingers! ”

Although Li Dingguo was kind enough to remind Sun Kewang, Sun Kewang was angry in the end, and he did have the psychology of being jealous of Li Dingguo's military exploits above him in the past, so he was often worried that Li Dingguo would take away his qualification to inherit Zhang Xianzhong's throne.

(End of chapter)