After Sun Kewang was recovered by the official army in Leshan, he retreated in Emei County, frantically reinforcing the defense every day, waiting for the official army to launch a new offensive after crossing the Minjiang River.

He even thought that if the official army really wanted to encircle Emei County on all sides, then he would abandon the city and flee before the encirclement was completely completed, or at least cross the Dadu River north and withdraw to Jiajiang County first.

If the official army first encircled Jiajiang County on all sides, then he would gather the main force in Emei County, and he would definitely not be really stupid to the point of being completely surrounded.

He asked to divide his troops to block the attack this time, he had already fought for his life on his own, where could he fight for his father-in-law who already seemed to have no future.

However, Sun Kewang held and strengthened Emei County for four or five days, but did not wait for Zhang Huangyan to continue the attack.

After the limelight subsided a bit, he sent out scout sentries, who returned with shocking news:

After Zhang Huangyan took Leshan County, he didn't care that Sun Kewang was still on the flank, and continued to march along the Minjiang River, and within a few days, he had arrived at Meishan County, the next important town along the Minjiang River.

The defenders of Zhang Xianzhong's army in Meishan had no strength at all, and the city of Meishan was also very unfortunate, so under the bombardment of Hongyi artillery, it changed hands within a day.

In fact, this kind of county town has entered the edge of the Chengdu Plain, and the defense facilities have been similar to those that have not been repaired since ancient times. The warlords in Sichuan have never had the idea of defending the city after entering the Chengdu Plain.

In addition, a little look at the map of Sichuan shows that there are a lot of small counties around Chengdu, which are very dense and dense. A little bit of meaning is enough.

Zhang Huangyan's department arrived at Meishan, Fang Kongzhi arrived in Jianyang with Qin Liangyu, this day is only the fourth day of the first month of March, so far the periphery of Chengdu has been opened.

In addition to leaving the troops to defend the city, Zhang Xianzhong could only divide his troops and block the mouth.

In order to cope with the advance of the official army's waterway army, Zhang Xianzhong let a part of the garrison troops go to Xinjin Wei (now Xinjin District, Chengdu) at the Minjiang ferry southwest of Chengdu.

In order to cope with the advance of the land army of the official army, Zhang Xianzhong let another part of the troops be stationed in Longquanwei (now Longquanyi District, Chengdu), which developed from Longquan Town, which is a valley mouth on the Longquan Mountains in the east of Chengdu, and is also the watershed between the Chengdu Plain and the hills in central Sichuan.

If the officers and soldiers want to fight to Chengdu City, the last natural geographical barrier that must be passed through is this Longquan Mountain. After turning over Longquan Mountain, the west side is under the city wall of Chengdu, which is a fertile plain.

Even if you don't know much about geography, seeing this situation, you can probably understand Zhang Xianzhong's current predicament - the county towns he is stationed in now are no longer counties, but some districts in Chengdu, which shows that the distance from the old city is really not far.

However, after the arrival of the official army, because the defenders temporarily occupied the position, they could not break through within ten days and eight days. Moreover, the officers and soldiers have never understood much about the combat effectiveness and scale of Zhang Xianzhong's troops, and at this point, they should also fight down steadily, find out the enemy's situation first, and then plan and then move-

The reason for this is not that the officers and military have done too poor in intelligence work before, or that they have not attached importance to intelligence. It is entirely because Zhang Xianzhong's strength on the opposite side has fluctuated too much, and there are too many cannon fodder temporarily absorbed and co-opted, so it is difficult to estimate an accurate number before the real decisive battle.

More than half a year ago, when Zhang Xianzhong was defeated and fled in Xiangxi, the old battalion troops of his lineage that he took with him once fell below the 20,000 mark. However, at that time, Sun Kewang stayed in Wuxian and Zigui's rear army, and Liu Wenxiu's men and horses left in Changde, the losses were not large.

Therefore, after the tripartite convergence, the total number of veterans of Zhang Xianzhong's army can still be restored to between 40,000 and 50,000.

In the next half year, he robbed houses everywhere in Qianzhong Dao, and used the gold and silver property looted in Hunan to buy barbarian soldiers, Zhang Xianzhong scattered at least two or three million taels of gold and silver property at the most critical moment, but also in exchange for the troops and equipment to be reluctantly replenished, and also raised an additional one or two thousand horses.

When Zhang Xianzhong rushed into the Sichuan basin from Banzhou, his total strength should have been less than 70,000 men. During the attack on Chongqing, the battle was very bloody, and the troops suffered losses of more than 10,000 people, mainly because a lot of cannon fodder was used, and the total strength was weakened for a time.

However, after Chongqing won and slaughtered more than 200,000 people and looted a large sum, Zhang Xianzhong also coerced many extremely poor people in Sichuan to be homeless and strong men for a while, and directly pulled up a team of more than 100,000 people, but the quality of these teams is very doubtful, and they can't fight tough battles.

After that, Zhang Xianzhong's veterans lost thousands of dollars when they tried to attack the Kuizhou Mansion where Qin Liangyu was stationed, and then they were stranded in Wanxian County and were reluctant to leave, and the troops in a dilemma were annihilated by thousands of veterans, and the two batches combined were nearly 10,000 people.

Chongqing lost Bai Wenxuan and surrendered, and a total of 10,000 veterans were lost, and finally more than 10,000 old battalions were taken away by Sun Kewang to the southern line to intercept, before and after, Zhang Xianzhong went out of the middle of the Guizhou Road when the 70,000 veterans, left in his hands, no more than sixty percent, that is, barely 40,000 people.

In addition to these 40,000 people, there are only more than 80,000 displaced people he pulled up when he was in Chongqing, and now they are pulled to Chengdu, and then there are more than 100,000 people who have been temporarily pulled up around Chengdu.

So, in early March, in the battlefields around Chengdu, Zhang Xianzhong had a total of more than 200,000 troops, but in fact, only 40,000 were veterans.

Moreover, among these 40,000 people, there are less than 30,000 who are really old thieves for more than five years, and more than 10,000 are barbarians who slaughtered various Tusi in Qianzhong Province, captured prisoners and forcibly filled the army.

The remaining 200,000 are all Sichuan locals, some are poor and really want to get a vote, and some are purely coerced.

Among them, only about one or two percent have military experience, such as the guards of the Ming Dynasty, because after the city was broken, they followed the commander to surrender to the thief.

There are at least 1780,000 such people, and so far they have not even been equipped with official and military equipment, and the armor rate is almost non-existent, and only half of them are equipped with regular knives and guns, and a small half of them are still sickles, hoes, and forks.

In addition, for the leaders of the peasant army, bluffing was certainly inevitable.

Zhang Xianzhong has really pulled up 2.3 million people, even if the cannon fodder is as high as eighty percent, he still wants to declare 500,000 mercenaries to the outside world to strengthen his momentum.

When Zhang Huangyan and Fang Kongzhi had just advanced to Meishan and Jianyang, they were almost startled at first glance, and after a few days of reconnaissance, they calculated squeezing out the water before they roughly figured out the actual number of Zhang Xianzhong. Although there must still be an error of about two or three percent, it is not bad.

And if the officers and troops on the opposite side are compared to the total number, they will definitely be at a disadvantage.

Zhu Shuren and Qin Liangyu's troops will not be like Zuo Liangyu next door, frantically grasping strong men and expanding the number of people regardless of quality.

Historically, when Zuo Liangyu Town Wuchang, it was the same as buying road money, after Chongzhen's death, he set up cards along the river, and all those who passed through Wuchang Mansion from the Yangtze River could collect as much as two or three percent of the heavy taxes, which was at least five times higher than the gold that Zhu Shuren had legally changed the law to win before.

Then Zuo Liangyu relied on this kind of expropriation and extortion to blindly expand the quantity, regardless of the quality, before the Qing army went south, Zuo Liangyu claimed to have expanded to 800,000 people, in fact, it was estimated that there were at least 500,000 people.

Zhu Shuren is famous for his division and strict management of the army, and the combat troops he brought with him in Sichuan totaled 70,000 people, Qin Liangyu's 20,000, and the Fang State Security Department and the local armed forces in Kuizhou added up to about 10,000, and the total strength was actually close to 110,000.

Considering that the official army had also suffered losses in previous battles, and that the rear of Chongqing still had to be guarded by troops, the advance bases in Luzhou, Yibin, and Leshan should be divided into at least two or three thousand backbone soldiers to clear the localities and maintain the grain routes.

So in the end, the troops on the battlefield of Armageddon were about 80,000 people. If Leshan doesn't have to watch out for Sun Kewang, then it can be pulled up by more than 10,000, reaching 90,000.

But in that case, Sun Kewang's partial division may also return to fight side by side with Zhang Xianzhong, and the rebels can also add another 10,000 veterans and a number of strong cannon fodder, which may not be a good thing for the official army.

In the current state, the only state that is most beneficial to the official army is that the official army's troops in Leshan can be transferred to participate in the decisive battle, but Sun Kewang from Zhang Xianzhong's side cannot come.

In this way, a situation similar to the Battle of Waterloo was formed, where Blucher on the side of the coalition army came, but Grouchy on the Napoleonic side could not.

In the process of preparing for the war, Zhang Huangyan will of course try his best to promote the emergence of this situation, which is also the direction of Zhu Shuren's efforts when he replied to him for the second time before.

Zhang Xianzhong, on the other hand, will inevitably try to avoid this situation.

……

In this way, the two sides pulled and tried to fight a few small battles between Meishan and Xinjinwei, Jianyang and Longquanyi, while making run-in preparations, and the time also came to mid-March.

Zhang Xianzhong's troops initially had a fluke mentality, but soon found that although they had a numerical advantage of more than three times that of the officers and soldiers, the nearly 200,000 recruits were really not good in field battles.

So after a few days of contact, Zhang Xianzhong didn't get anything, so he lost more than 10,000 people in vain, but fortunately, the old camp and old thieves almost didn't lose.

The process of these battles is really nothing to write about, and it tastes like chewing wax. When many recruits heard the dense and continuous sound of muskets, they did not dare to rush forward at all, and they did not dare to fight any field battles.

After being frustrated, Zhang Xianzhong naturally became more and more anxious, so he sent a small number of elite cavalry to Emei County in a roundabout way to order Sun Kewang to make some positive moves.

Zhang Xianzhong's envoy said that this is nothing more than this: "Zhang Huangyan dares to ignore our soldiers and horses west of Leshan, and reaches Meishan, between Leshan and Meishan, one hundred and forty miles of the river, where can Zhang Huangyan cut off the grain road?" Why are you so cowardly that you don't even dare to rob food! Could it be that you have a different heart?! ”

Of course, the specific wording is not so straightforward, there must be some modifications, if it is so straightforward, are you not afraid of directly forcing Sun Kewang back.

After Sun Kewang felt the pressure, he had no choice but to try to poke his head out of the shrinking Emei County, look at the time, seize the opportunity to transport grain to the Meishan army next time, and send troops to harass.

Sun Kewang prepared dozens of fireboats, hoping to take advantage of the fact that when the official and military fleets were going upriver and passing through the mouth of the Dadu River, they would rush down the river from the upstream and ignite at the same time, burning all Zhang Huangyan's grain ships.

At the same time, the other soldiers hid in ordinary warships, taking advantage of the fireships to disrupt the enemy formation and open up the situation, they followed up from the breakthrough to cover the killing, and jumped to fight the gangside battle.

The idea is very good, but unfortunately, once he enters the actual battle, Sun Kewang once again realized the gap between the landlubbers under him and the soldiers of the Shenjia Water Division under Zhang Huangyan.

Zhang Huangyan's grain fleet was not fully loaded with grain, but each time it divided several percent of the transportation capacity to transport escort soldiers, and also prepared a large number of tough old bamboo poles with iron on the head on the ship to support the incoming fireship in the event of arson-

This trick must not be considered innovative, Li Guangbi of the Tang Dynasty used it when he used it against Shi Siming's rebels and burned the pontoon bridge with arsonist boats. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, it was already the basic operation of a high-quality sailor general.

Zhang Huangyan is also a national hero who has been able to deal with the Qing army in the Zhoushan Islands for nearly 20 years in history, and his military talent is still good. After following my uncle and cousin for several years, I have already practiced the basic skills of sailor command.

Because of the rapid flow of the Minjiang River, Sun Kewang, who was not good at controlling the direction of the boat, was soon pushed away by the bamboo pole and rushed downstream.

There were even a small number of Franc cannons on the official ships, which directly diveted at the approaching rogue fireboats, and as long as they hit, it was directly a big hole in the bottom of the ship, and the water was overrun in advance.

After a fierce battle, three or four grain ships were attacked and burned by saturated fireships, and it was too late to evade the block.

But this level of loss was completely acceptable to Zhang Huangyan, and he still had enough sampan ferries to rescue the sailors on the burning boat.

Sun Kewang on the other side can't afford it at all, every wave of losses is a real casualty, as long as the ship is destroyed, it is basically equivalent to death, and there is no way back.

After the First World War, Sun Kewang retracted and licked his wounds, but the house leak happened to rain overnight, and Zhang Huangyan quickly drew inferences from each other and arranged a series of tricks-

The conscience of heaven and earth, the last two tricks were completely played by Zhang Huangyan himself, and they had nothing to do with Zhu Shuren. Zhu Shuren is 700 miles away, and it is impossible to remotely control micro-manipulation at all.

It turned out that the day after Sun Kewang obviously failed to rob the grain and burn the ship, Zhang Huangyan pretended that Sun Kewang had succeeded, and asked the officers and troops who had gone out of Meishan County to Xinjinwei to retreat, posing as if they needed to shrink because of the lack of military food.

Zhang Xianzhong himself is not so easy to be tricked, but the troops under Zhang Xianzhong's command are not all under his personal command. He himself is located in the city of Chengdu, and on the side of Longquanyi and Xinjindu, there are naturally other generals who are responsible for the front-line command.

When Liu Wenxiu was also sent abroad and Li Dingguo was refrigerated, Feng Shuangli was sent to Longquanyi again, and Zhang Xianzhong really couldn't come up with any famous generals to be in charge of Xinjindu.

So the guards here at that time were just Di Sanpin, who abandoned the city and fled back after the recovery of Hezhou.

It is not surprising that this kind of nameless general, who has not been able to leave any record in history, was deceived by Zhang Huangyan's weak and false retreat.

He also thought that the opportunity could not be lost, and when he saw Zhang Huangyan retreating, he pursued downstream, but was defeated in the middle of the ambush, and the lost troops turned back, and easily sent away one or two thousand old battalions and nearly 10,000 strong cannon fodder.

After Zhang Huangyan turned around and fought back, he also took the opportunity to spread rumors, saying that Sun Kewang had reached a tacit understanding with the official army and was willing not to help Zhang Xianzhong in exchange for escaping and avoiding death.

Di Sanpin, the disaster star, was lucky to survive again, and he inevitably brought the rumors back.

Of course, Zhang Xianzhong would not believe it, but Zhang Huangyan quickly revealed the news that "the official army has spread this message and rumor to Zhang Xianzhong" to Sun Kewang.

Sun Kewang fell into great fear, and at the same time, he also heard something different from the rumors spread by Zhang Huangyan: the officials and soldiers framed him, saying that he was willing to not help Zhang Xianzhong in exchange for avoiding being hunted down......

Doesn't that mean that the commander of the official army thinks that this is a reasonable condition, and if he accepts it, the father-in-law will not feel strange?

Zhang Huangyan was originally not good at sending an envoy to negotiate with Sun Kewang, but after this indirect communication, Sun Kewang saw sincerity and feasibility.

He finally decided to send someone to secretly contact, leave a letter, and then withdraw from the camp to the west and escape by the Dadu River.

……

After the operation was delayed, and after all the work was completed, the time also entered the second half of March.

And Zhu Shuren, who was in Chongqing in the rear, also waited for good news from the rear before the final battle: Chongzhen's will to promote him to the governor of Huguang had been sent to Chongqing by the prince.

Zhu Yuchan, the small county lord of Luwangfu, whom Chongzhen gave him to marry, had also visited the high hall in Hefei, and was sent to Chongqing by Zhu Shuren's stepmother Xu to complete the final ceremony.

On the day the mission team arrived in Chongqing, the city of Chongqing was lit up with lights, and the crowd was inevitably excited. The subordinates who followed Zhu Shuren also further realized the immeasurability of the country's surname, and following him definitely had a great future.