At that time, Zhang Xianzhong's need to solve the problem of military rations was very urgent, but he did not have many options at hand.

Shao Jiechun in the west could not be defended to the death, and Zhang Xianzhong's troops could only reach Wushan County outside Qutang Gorge. Zhang Ling, a veteran general under Shao Jiechun, has been defending Qutangwei, the capital of Kuizhou, with 20,000 or 30,000 troops for more than a year.

If there is a geography novice who is not familiar with these place names, you can easily understand the danger with a little example - Qutangwei is the Yong'an White Emperor City at the end of the Han Dynasty, when Liu Bei's soldiers were defeated and fled back to the White Emperor City, Lu Xun could not pursue.

Qutang Gorge has always been the first danger of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, the Baiyan Mountain and the Chijia Mountain on both sides of the river, can be 500 zhang higher than the river surface, are the terrain of the cliff cliff directly into the river surface, known as "the sky opens a line, the gorge opens a gate".

Later, the allusions of the "iron cable across the river" in all dynasties also came from here. Whether it was Taishou Wuyan of Jianping County of Eastern Wu at the end of the Three Kingdoms, or Dai Shou, the prime minister of the Ming Yuzhen regime in Sichuan who was destroyed by Zhu Yuanzhang at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, they all pulled the iron rope here to cross the Yangtze River.

Therefore, unless the Sichuan army's own command mistakes reveal flaws, it is impossible to enter Sichuan by storming here.

There was no way to go to the west, so I had to look at the east again.

It's a pity that Fang Kongzhi and Shen Shuren in the east, Zhang Xianzhong can't beat them.

Although the terrain in Yiling and other places is not as dangerous as Qutang Gorge, the army of the Shen Shuren is much stronger than Shao Jiechun, and it is said that the size of the number of troops alone is at least twice that of Shao Jiechun, not to mention that the Shen family army seems to be well-equipped.

Zhang Xianzhong was in a dilemma, and in the end he had no choice but to think of crossing the Yangtze River south between Wuxia and Xiling Gorge in the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, and dividing troops to raise food.

Both sides of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River are treacherous places of mountains, the north bank is relatively better, there are several basins for Wushan County, Zigui and other county towns to exist, and they have also been inhabited by Han people since ancient times - at least as early as the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Bei and Wu can rely on these county towns to camp 700 miles out of Sichuan.

(Wushan County is between Qutang Gorge and Wuxia, and Zigui County is between Wuxia and Xiling Gorge, that is, the gentle area between every two gorges of the Three Gorges, there are basins that can form a county)

The canyon area on the south bank of the Yangtze River is even more treacherous, and there have been few Han people since ancient times, and even in the 21st century, that area is only the autonomous place of the Enshi Tu people in Hubei.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was no "government" level administrative organization in Enshi area, there was only one Badong County, and the rest were some deterrent Tusi guards, such as "Shizhou Wei".

Shi Zhouwei is responsible for more than 20 Xuanfu Divisions and Barbarian Chiefs, to put it bluntly, some Tusi chieftains who nominally submitted to the Ming Dynasty were not completely changed until the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty.

From Shizhouwei to the south, it entered the territory of Hunan in later generations, that is, the territory of the Miao people in Xiangxi, and in the Ming Dynasty, it was still a bunch of Tusi who had not changed the soil and returned to the stream, which was similar to Wulingman.

Zhang Xianzhong was forced in both directions in the east and west, and he couldn't cross the reckless mountains of Shennongjia to the north, so he had to divide his troops to cross the river and go south, fighting bloody battles with these barbarian Tusi, killing barbarians and grabbing food, and solving the problem of food for the army.

Since the end of February, Zhang Xianzhong has already started this operation, sending his third son Li Dingguo to raise food and kill people, and it is still relatively secretive.

The officials and soldiers didn't seem to realize it at first, but it's been two or three months, and even if the news is closed, the officials and soldiers should be aware of it. After all, the Tusi tribe that was attacked and slaughtered by Zhang Xianzhong will always escape alive and will ask the government for help.

It's just that Fang Kongzhi, the governor of Huguang, felt that those barbarians themselves did not return to the king, and they were like self-reliance. Since those official taxpayers who were not the official taxpayers of the imperial court have not yet changed their land and returned to the stream, let them and Zhang Xianzhong consume each other, and the government will not be able to go thousands of miles to go deep into the Miaozhai Mountains to rescue them.

(Note: At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Southwest Yi Tusi were also very serious, after Zhang Xianzhong's army entered Sichuan, he and the barbarian Tusi killed each other for many years, in fact, it also led to the later Qing Dynasty to change the land and return to the stream, because the local people were slaughtered too much by Zhang Xianzhong, and the power and population decreased sharply.)

After Sichuan was killed, the Qing Dynasty "moved the lake to Guangshi Sichuan", in fact, the main move is the Xiangxi Miao and Shizhou Turen, these residents of the Three Gorges area are the closest to Sichuan and the easiest to move, and they are not subject to the control in the mountains, so the imperial court is most inclined to give priority to moving them, after the main population moves out, Xiangxi and Hubei are completely changed and returned to the stream)

Therefore, Fang Kongzhi turned a blind eye to Zhang Xianzhong's fire, and just passed the relevant news back to Shen Shuren, shared information together, and waited and watched.

Now, after the bloody battles in March and April, Li Dingguo basically killed the Tusi tribe in Shizhouwei, and robbed the Tu people of grain to supply military rations.

Beginning in May, Zhang Xianzhong's army further launched an offensive against the Miao District of Xiangxi further south.

Because of the lack of adaptation to water and soil, the rampant miasma in the southern mountainous areas, and the flood of poisonous insects, many soldiers and soldiers under Zhang Xianzhong's command fell ill, plagued, and lost their combat effectiveness.

But he had no choice, so he had to bite the bullet for supplies. Anyway, if you don't grab food, the soldiers will starve to death, so it's better to die in the process of killing.

is the same way to kill so many of your own people, the former way of dying is to die in vain, and the latter way of dying has accumulated experience points for killing.

And these Miao people and Tusi people have no muskets, no sophisticated weapons, and no strong city walls, at most they are good at using quenching weapons, which is still easy to solve at the military level. As long as Zhang Xianzhong is not afraid of the plague and death, and fills in the lives of people, he can always take it down.

The original Ming government could not establish effective rule in Shizhouwei and Xiangxi, because the Ming Dynasty came in line with tax collection, and the cost of long-term tax collection and governance was too high.

Zhang Xianzhong does not have these problems, he is just here to kill and rob, buy and sell with a hammer, and does not need to consider the mess of long-term governance, so it is very convenient.

……

And at the moment when the slaughter of the Miao people in Xiangxi was in full swing, Zhang Xianzhong got two good news almost on the same day:

Early that morning, he first received a report from Li Dingguo that he had slaughtered the tribes by two more barbarian chiefs in Xiangxi, and had grabbed at least enough grain for more than 10,000 people to eat the autumn harvest.

At lunchtime, the detailed work that was lurking on Yang Sichang's side came back to report and informed Zhang Xianzhong: A considerable part of the main force of the Shen Shu people has been transferred north by Yang Sichang, and Shao Jiechun's side, it seems that there is also a force that will be transferred to Shaanxi by Yang Sichang and controlled by Sun Chuanting.

After getting these two pieces of good news, Zhang Xianzhong swept away the haze of more than a year, took a sip of the residual wine in the bowl, smashed the bowl, and relieved the turbidity in his chest.

"There is no end to the sky! Li Zicheng's side has finally opened up the situation! Yang Sichang transferred the main force of the Shen Shu people away! God help me! ”

Zhang Xianzhong thought about it, and quickly asked his relatives to find the eldest grandson, and commanded a few words:

"Let the dick come back immediately! Discuss your next battle plan! No, it's better to let him go back to Shizhouwei first, and I'll personally go south to check with him! In addition, let the third child prepare too! You are responsible for staying behind! ”

"The child obeys." Sun Kewang first promised to express his attitude, and then asked, "I don't know how many soldiers and horses my father needs to prepare when he goes south this time?" The children should also allocate food and grass in advance. ”

Zhang Xianzhong: "You first keep 30,000 people, mainly with the new attached army, and defend Zigui, Wushan, and Badong." The rest may have to be taken away one after another, but it is not certain for the time being, I will go to Xiangxi to understand the recent situation of the battle and the distribution of the enemy's situation, and then I can finally decide, and then let the troops go south in batches.

If the combat strength of the Tusi in Xiangxi is indeed insufficient, and the forces of Shen Shuren and Fang Kongzhi are indeed weakened due to the transfer, the main force of our army will naturally take the opportunity to infiltrate the rich hinterland of Huguang. ”

After Sun Kewang asked clearly, he also stepped back and began to deploy. Early the next morning, Zhang Xianzhong first took the elite of his headquarters to cross the Yangtze River to the south, and went to Shizhouwei through Badong County.

And the outpost messenger he sent naturally traveled hundreds of miles a day to inform Li Dingguo, and Li Dingguo also handed over the battle ahead to his subordinates, and he returned with hundreds of light horsemen to the fortress left by Shizhouwei to greet his father.

Because in the past two or three months, Li Dingguo has been fighting in the barbarian land for a long time, and Li Dingguo's information is not very well-informed, so he still doesn't know that the troops of Huguang Fang Kong Ji and Shen Shu are weak.

Zhang Xianzhong hurriedly came to inspect the army, and he was a little surprised, thinking that his father was not at ease.

After the two met, Li Dingguo gave a few thoughtful gifts, Zhang Xianzhong spread out with him, and he knew that it was the main force of Shen Shuren who was transferred to Henan by Yang Sichang.

Then, Zhang Xianzhong checked the map and chased him for interrogation: "Yesterday, I got the good news you sent back, and broke the Shinan Xuanfu Division and the Gaoluo Pacification Division, plus the Tusi tribes such as the Dongxiang Wulu Pacification Division, the Longtan Pacification Division, and the Jintong Pacification Division, at least seven or eight tribes in Shizhouwei have been wiped out by us."

If you look at the map, there are only two Tusi tribes in Yuezhou Mansion, Zhongtong Pacification Division and Zhongjian Xuanfu Division-how long do you think it will take to take it?

Also, after taking these two toasts, is the terrain dangerous when you climb over Longshan and Baiya Cave from there? If the army only carried food and did not carry heavy vehicles, it should be able to climb the mountains and enter the Yuezhou Mansion, right?

If you don't want to alarm the official army too quickly, you have also considered breaking the Zhongjian Xuanfu Division, continue to go south, attack those Tusi in the territory of the Yongshun Xuanfu Division, and then go east over Tianmen Mountain, whether it is to go north to Lishui into Yuezhou, or to the south to Yuanshui into Changde, and finally you can go straight to Changsha - second, what do you say about this plan? ”

Zhang Xianzhong's remarks can be regarded as a little understanding of geography, and what he said was not a whimsical "map to open up the territory".

Yuanshui and Lishui are the two rivers on the west side of Dongting Lake, and will eventually flow into Dongting Lake, of which the northerly Lishui is the largest river in Yueyang, and the southerly Yuanshui is the largest river in Changde.

In Qu Yuan's poems, there is "Yuan has a stop and there is an orchid, and Si Gongzi does not dare to speak", saying that there are grasses such as orchids growing on the banks of these two rivers, which shows that they are all regarded as the water system of the Xiangjiang River in a broad sense, otherwise they would not have been written into "Mrs. Xiang" by Qu Yuan.

Along these rivers, it was possible to march on a large scale relatively quickly. Even if Zhang Xianzhong's troops originally came from the north over the high mountains on the south bank of the Three Gorges and could not carry vehicles and boats, as long as they temporarily cut wood in the mountains and set up rafts and platoons, they could easily transport personnel and materials.

As for the source of materials, the thieves didn't need to bring too much military rations, Zhang Xianzhong's food in Guizhou had already been eaten, and he was killing people to grab food and fighting to feed the war, so he could directly use the civilian food from Shizhou Wei and Yongshun Xuanwei Division to fight.

The normal route of the official army would be largely restricted by the grain route, but the thieves were much more relaxed in this regard, killing and eating wherever they wanted.

After listening to this, Li Dingguo already roughly understood what his father-in-law wanted to do: "Father thinks ...... Fang Kongzhi has insufficient troops, and has been guarding against Yiling, Jiangling and other places where the Yangtze River exits the gorge, and has neglected to take precautions against the Xiangjiang River and Dongting in the south?

And the jurisdiction of Shen Shuren only went to Wuchang Mansion, and when he was originally a soldier, he was only a 'Hubei soldier in the road' at the beginning, and he did not cultivate cronies in Hunan, so our army should take the opportunity to smash its emptiness? ”

Of course, Zhang Xianzhong wouldn't explain nonsense to Yizi, just nodded casually, and then put pressure: "How, are you sure?" ”