Zhang Xianzhong's whole army collapsed and fled frantically.

Zhu Wenzhen chased for a long time on the first day, and finally because of the lack of physical strength and horsepower of the Ming cavalry, he only chased a few scattered stragglers who fell behind because they were carrying too heavy property.

But Shen Shuren would not allow him to give up the pursuit because of this, after all, Zhang Xianzhong on the opposite side also had to eat, drink and sleep, and from Hengzhou to the west, he had to pass through at least two state capitals all the way before he could leave the Huguang boundary.

Since the other party also has to sleep and rest, Zhu Wenzhen's cavalry will regroup and continue to chase after recovering their strength, and it is possible to expand the results of the battle, and they will not be able to give up until the last moment.

Especially the remnants of the soldiers on the opposite side may each have a lot of property on them, and they can make a fortune by chasing one, how can they miss this kind of good opportunity to expand the results of the harvest stage.

Even if there are many mountainous areas along the way and the roads are difficult to navigate, the troops of the Shenshu people should try their best to continue to chase until they are out of the Huguang boundary. In this way, you can maximize your own interests and maximize your prestige, and at the same time, you can avoid falling into the middle of the court.

Shen Shuren's pursuit of Zhang Xianzhong and the recovery of the state capital that was temporarily broken and fallen by Zhang Xianzhong were all based on the authorization of Yang Sichang, who was the military affairs of the six provinces of the governor, and it was Yang Sichang who asked him to chase and let him fight, and he came to chase and fight, not on his own.

The "six provinces" in the title of "Military Affairs of the Six Provinces of the Governor" on Yang Sichang's head do not include the Yunnan-Guizhou region, and in the southwest direction, the scope of Yang Sichang's control is also bounded by Huguang and Sichuan.

The reason why Yungui is not included is also because in the last years of Chongzhen, the southwest was changed to land and returned to the stream. In such troubled times, local Tusi rebelled and became self-reliant from time to time, and the imperial court could not control it at all, nor did it establish effective rule, let alone go to those places where there was no rule to pursue the thieves.

If Zhang Xianzhong fled from the southernmost part of Huguang to the west, it would be impossible for him to flee directly into Sichuan, and he was destined to temporarily enter Guizhou first.

At that time, even Yang Sichang, the military affairs of the six provinces of the governor, had no authority to continue to pursue. The Ming Dynasty's control over military generals and military ministers was so strict in legal theory.

Therefore, as long as he catches up with that step, even if Zhang Xianzhong is not destroyed, Shen Shuren is already benevolent and righteous, and he is infinitely worthy of the Ming Dynasty and Emperor Chongzhen.

It's not that we don't want to do more for Chongzhen, with the selflessness of Shen Shuren, he originally intended to burn himself and illuminate Daming, but Chongzhen didn't let him!

At that time, he could only be like Yue Wumu, who received the twelve gold medals from Zhao Gou, and resolutely returned to Wuchang.

Zhu Wenzhen was a little incomprehensible to Lord Futai's decision at first, but later fully unified his thinking and clearly understood the situation, so he let the troops rest and take a nap for a while with high morale, and then continued to chase after him, preparing to fight a protracted battle that lasted ten days and eight days.

And at this moment, the logistical preparations made by Shen Jiajun some time ago finally gave full play to their effects-

Originally, the escape path chosen by Zhang Xianzhong was very unexpected. This road led to the pursuing officers and soldiers, and the logistics were difficult to guarantee, and at the same time, Zhang Xianzhong himself was able to bear more losses, so that the number of troops who could break through and keep up was greatly reduced, which was regarded as "hurting others and hurting himself".

The reason why I say this is because I originally fled west from Hengzhou, and I should have chosen to go up the Xiangjiang River, first to the southwest into Yongzhoufu, and then try to turn to the northwest, and slowly move over the mountains to the north of Guizhou. In that way, the front section of the road can march along the valley of the Xiangjiang River, and the infantry is not easy to fall behind, and the road is easy to walk.

And Zhang Xianzhong chose to break through to the northwest and go to Baoqing Mansion, so it led to this breakthrough battle out of the city, and the direction of the battlefield was a little unexpected by the officials and soldiers at the beginning. He thought about it from the beginning, "If you can't beat it, you don't care if the main infantry of our army can keep up with it, just choose a shortcut over the mountains."

On this road, Zhang Xianzhong and Zhu Wenzhen's logistical supply will be very difficult, and the officers and soldiers have no waterway to transport grain, so Zhu Wenzhen's cavalry, all the grain, grass, and ammunition they need have to be carried on horseback, and they bring their own supplies, and the baggage vehicles and ships cannot keep up.

At this time, the benefits of the canned food in the porcelain jar prepared by Shen Shuren before were apparent, allowing the troops to march directly with more nutritious and high-calorie cooked food without cooking.

Originally, I was reluctant to eat preserved meat, condensed milk, dried green beans, and meat and vegetarian combinations, so that I didn't have to go into the hills and jungles like the low-level soldiers of Zhang Xianzhong's army, and I could only hunt and even eat people-

Unless Zhang Xianzhong dared to stop halfway and spend time attacking Baoqing Mansion, or at least rob the remote counties of Baoqing Mansion to get supplies, Zhang Xianzhong's troops would definitely not be able to escape the logistical dilemma of cannibalism.

After all, the limited transportation capacity can give priority to carrying gold, silver and jewelry, who will bring more food. How much grain is worth, and how much is the same weight of gold and silver worth?

Ordinary soldiers without foresight, even if they know that the future is uncertain and it may be difficult to obtain supplies in the future, will not be willing to divert the physical strength of carrying an extra bag of silver to carry an extra bag of dried meat.

Zhang Xianzhong's army had no choice but to find villages and towns with mountain people all the way to slaughter and rob food, but the mountain people in Baoqing Mansion (Shaoyang) and other places in Xiangxi were fierce, and they would find ways to resist when they encountered thieves.

Although he is certainly not Zhang Xianzhong's opponent, he can also delay Zhang Xianzhong's trip before being slaughtered, creating an opportunity for the official army to chase and kill.

After Baoqing Mansion, there is a Chenzhou Mansion in the west, and you can only enter Guizhou after Chenzhou Mansion. And there are not only more mountainous areas on the border of Chenzhou Mansion, but even there are very few Han people, almost all of them are Miao people, and Zhang Xianzhong has to fight against all kinds of poisons.

In the end, Zhu Wenzhen's troops couldn't withstand the jungle in late summer and early autumn to fight against the poison of Miaojiang, so they had to collect their troops and come back after chasing them to Chenzhou Mansion.

The entire pursuit lasted for about ten days, and they successively killed the two or three thousand stragglers left behind by Zhang Xianzhong's troops, and recovered more than two million taels worth of property.

Zhang Xianzhong's infantry was almost all killed, and only 6,000 cavalry retreated to Chenzhou Mansion.

For Zhang Xianzhong, the only good news now is that his troops are not the only ones he carries with him.

The eldest son he left in Zigui and Wuxian was in the hands of Kewang, and there were still 20,000 or 30,000 people guarding the family. In the hands of the third son, Liu Wenxiu, there are also more than 10,000 people.

While he himself fled all the way to the west, he was also trying to contact Liu Wenxiu and others, so that they would abandon the base area between Sichuan and Hubei without fear of hardships and dangers, turn to the southwest, and try to meet him so that they could make a detour into Sichuan in the future.

Considering the difficulty of the Qianzhong Road, Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu will definitely have losses along the way, so more than 40,000 people and horses may not be able to reach all of them. The number of people who killed and fell ill all the way is estimated to exceed the 6,000 people around Zhang Xianzhong.

Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong's troops, before he sent troops in June, claimed to be more than 110,000, and when they arrived in Changde and Yuezhou, they relied on catching strong men, and the peak once reached more than 1230,000.

Now, after two months of bloody battles, more than two-thirds of the cumulative losses have been lost, and those who can reach Guizhou alive are counted as these 40,000 people.

Although Shen Shuren failed to completely annihilate Zhang Xianzhong, it can be regarded as a very remarkable result. Basically, Zhang Xianzhong was beaten back to the level of two years ago, and Zhang Xianzhong's development and expansion in the past two years came to naught.

After all, before the war, although Zhang Xianzhong's strength could not exceed the sum of the original five battalions of the left battalion, it could at least exceed the sum of the five battalions of the left after the strongest Ma Shouying and the other four battalions combined.

Shen Shuren had spent two full years in order to annihilate the four weaker warlords in the Fifth Battalion of the Revolution. Now, even if the shotgun is replaced, it can't be done in one battle.

The main force that can bring Zhang Xianzhong by his side and annihilate most of them is already very remarkable. Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu's two partial divisions are destined to have no energy to deal with it for the time being.

……

Zhu Wenzhen did not catch up with Zhang Xianzhong himself in the end, but his achievements have been fully affirmed by Shen Shuren.

Moreover, his pursuit, after all, seized millions of taels of gold and jewelry for the Shen Shuren, and greatly weakened Zhang Xianzhong's development potential when he relied on the property looted by Huguang to recruit troops in other provinces.

Of course, a considerable part of the property obtained by Zhang Xianzhong from the massacre of cities in various parts of Huguang was not taken with him, so he stayed in Hengzhou City. It was mainly copper coins, silk and some silver, and light things like gold and jewelry were not left behind.

This is also the reason why Shen Shuren couldn't personally ask when he separated Zhu Wenzhen's partial division to pursue Zhang Xianzhong. Because he had to sit on the battlefield of the siege of Hengzhou and stare at the main force of the Ming army to get Hengzhou City back.

It is said that Zhang Xianzhong himself has run away, and the defenders of Hengzhou City should also have no fighting spirit, and it is easy to surrender directly to the imperial court.

But in this process, there are still some problems that cannot be bypassed, resulting in Shen Shuren having to spend more energy to make preparations, and besieged for ten days and eight days before it can be completely completed-

Among them, the main problem is that the guards who were sold by Zhang Xianzhong and stayed in Hengzhou City include the original Changsha commander-in-chief Yin Xianmin and Hengzhou commander-in-chief He Yide.

The two of them also negotiated with Shen Shuren at the beginning, hoping that Shen Shuren promised that after they returned to the imperial court, they could pardon their crimes and not blame the past.

Yin Xianmin He Yide also hastily believed, "If there is chaos today, Hong Chengchou has been cleared, the elite of the Ming border army has been lost, and Chongzhen is no longer able to control the place." As long as Shen Shuren has the same heart as Zuo Liangyu, he can keep anyone who wants to protect him. If the Tree Sinking People are willing to protect them, they promise to work for the Tree Sinking People in the future."

But how could the Sinking Tree people protect these two spineless wastes? Now Chongzhen's control over the place has indeed been greatly reduced, if Chongzhen wants to deal with him Shen Shuren, then he will definitely be able to "listen to the tune and not listen to the announcement, and not be subject to the chaos of His Majesty after being bewitched by the traitors of the court."

But what kind of thing is Yin Xianmin He Yide? They also deserve to let the Shen Shuren disregard their reputation to protect themselves?

Besides, the great changes in the south of Huguang in the past few months, someone must always take responsibility for the imperial court, these two generals when Zhang Xianzhong arrived, they didn't even hold out for three days and directly surrendered to the thieves, and they must be the first evil! Otherwise, how will Shen Shuren lead the team in the future?

Therefore, he decisively rejected Yin Xianmin He Yide's surrender conditions, and would rather drag the army for ten or eight more days!

But at the same time, he did not give up dividing and disintegrating the more than 10,000 Zhang Xianzhong troops who finally fled back to the city. The Sunken Tree Man made his own conditions and let the soldiers shoot into the city with arrows:

It means that those who were originally in Zhang Xianzhong's army at or above the brigade level will not be pardoned, those who are above the rank of general in the Ming army will not be pardoned, and those who want to be pardoned by guerrillas, capitalists, and garrisons in the Ming army can kill the surrendered officials above the general level and lead the team to vote.

In the final analysis, what the Shenshu people need to fight the most is the unity within the thieves. Just as he likes to reuse the most, that is, the thief who killed his father-in-law and later surrendered,

Anyway, Shen Shuren himself would never accept a righteous son in his life, and he didn't think that this kind of means of specifically destroying the relationship between righteous father and son would be harmful to him.

The troops in Hengzhou City, although there are no generals who accept their subordinates as Yizi, but the reason is the same. Anyway, Shen Shuren will not accept unconditional exoneration and surrender directly, if you want to surrender, you will kill Shangguan to surrender! Kill the bigger thief chieftain and sacrifice the head to the tent!

Under the combined use of the civil and military forces of the Shen Shuren, the defenders of Hengzhou resisted for a few days, but because the army was uneven and the dragons were leaderless, they suffered heavy losses.

In the end, under the repeated catalysis of the battle situation, several officers at the first level of the garrison finally rebelled against the old boss, and took advantage of the fact that these two people did not dare to close their eyes, turned around in person to personally supervise the battle and defend the city, and fell asleep tiredly, Yin Xianmin He Yidesheng was captured and sent to Shen Shuren's tent.

That scene is exactly the same as Song Xian Wei and Hou Cheng in the White Gate Tower, tying up Lu Bu Wuhua and sending Cao Cao.

After Shen Shuren learned that the two boneless soldiers were kidnapped, they were also overjoyed, and personally went out to watch the results of their battles.

"It's a good life, and if you send it to the capital and cut it again, it will also make Your Majesty more dissipated. It's a pity, it's been a bad month for a while, why are you so thin, you won't be able to cut many knives when the time comes. ”

Shen Shuren simply looked at Yin Xianmin and He Yide's physique as if he were inspecting livestock,

When encountering thieves who surrender without a fight, what kind of responsibility should there be, Shen Shuren is too lazy to talk to them, let them talk to Chongzhen.

……

After taking Hengzhou City, Shen Shuren also had the opportunity to count how many battlefields were captured in the main force that eliminated Zhang Xianzhong this time.

When Zhang Xianzhong slaughtered Changsha City before, he got millions of taels from King Ji's Mansion alone, more than he got by killing King Xiang in Xiangyang last year, and Changsha City was rich, and all the gentry and wealthy merchants in the city were slaughtered, and the sum was no less than King Ji's Mansion, so that the entire Changsha City squeezed out at least more than 10 million taels of oil and water.

This Hengzhou city is economically underdeveloped, and there are few rich people, but the wealth of King Gui's Mansion far exceeds that of King Rong's Mansion, who made their family Chongzhen's own uncle.

To be a vassal king, either it is the kind of old brand that has been passed down for more than 200 years, relying on the wealth accumulated over time, or it is close to the emperors of recent generations, and the magistrates do not dare to care about them to accumulate wealth, and the food is even more ugly. Fuwang is a typical example of this type.

Although King Gui is far inferior to King Fu, after all, he is also Chongzhen's uncle, and the relatives are so close, and he should be rich. In the end, Zhang Xianzhong received more than seven million taels from King Gui's mansion.

In the entire Huguang area, Zhang Xianzhong traveled all the way, squeezing out the balance of money, close to 20 million taels!

Zhang Xianzhong himself has desperately taken it away, but unfortunately he is still only a small head, and he has kept more than six million taels. There are more than 12 million taels, all of which are cheaper than Shen Shuren.

Of course, Shen Shuren didn't take this in vain, after all, he led fifty or sixty thousand regular troops to fight for two or three months, and the military expenditure was also very huge.

This 12 million taels is, of course, what the people of Shenshu deserve.

The boss is often an empty shelf, every day when he opens his eyes, the army of 100,000 people is small, he has to serve him for eating, drinking, and Lazar, and finally falls into his mouth, how many mouthfuls can be left?