After Zhu Shuren fully released the last round of smoke bombs through the prince, the intelligence deception work he could do was almost done.

The follow-up part can only be handed over to the providence and to the natural progress of the other counterparties.

For example, if Chongzhen suddenly changed his temperament, became timid and cowardly, and admitted that a certain part of the territory of the Ming Dynasty could be given up, then Zhu Shuren had no choice but to admit it, and temporarily change to be a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty for the rest of his life, and Xu Tuhou would wait for the day.

For another example, if Li Zicheng suddenly earns his temperament and becomes no longer cowardly and picks soft persimmons, but is as tough as Chongzhen to the end, then Zhu Shuren's plan will also be greatly affected, and he will not be able to do it for the time being.

However, human nature is not so easy to change.

Chongzhen's three views that are too stiff, and Li Zicheng's three views that are too flexible, these two points seem to be brought out in the womb of their mothers, and they are deeply rooted in their respective bones.

……

Everything that should be done in terms of deception work has been done, but a busy person like Zhu Shuren will definitely not waste time by waiting.

Therefore, after dealing with the prince, he quickly shifted his focus to defending Dasanguan and Baoji County, striving to lure the enemy into depth, and fighting for a year of peace in Hanzhong in the first war.

Zhu Shuren knows very well that so far, Li Zicheng on the other side still doesn't know that Zhu Shuren has arrived in Hanzhong, and he probably thinks that there is only one Cao Bianjiao in Hanzhong, and Cao Bianjiao may not come to Dasanguan in person.

This can't be blamed on Li Zicheng's poor intelligence work, but the road to Shu is difficult, and in the case of the side occupying Sichuan, it is difficult for the warlords who occupy the pass to know the recent situation in Shuzhong-

For example, during the Three Kingdoms, after Liu Bei's death, Zhuge Liang chose to close the customs and not trade with the Wei people. After Chen Cangdao, Wei didn't know the situation on Ji Han's side for several years, and thought that Zhuge Liang would always be self-contained, which was the suddenness of the first Qishan later.

Now Zhu Shuren has only blocked the news for two months, which is not long at all, and it is not difficult to talk about it.

It's just the basics.

Such a poor information made Li Zicheng still very confident, and the first war fought for Guanzhong for several years to keep the southern front peaceful, preventing the land of Guanzhong from being harassed by the officials and troops out of Sichuan at all times.

Compared with the benefits of this strategic goal, even if there are 30,000 or 50,000 casualties temporarily, as long as it is not an old elite soldier, but a strong cannon fodder in Xinla, Li Zicheng feels that it is completely acceptable.

As early as July 24, Li Zicheng sent one of his henchmen, Yuan Zongdi, to besiege Baoji County.

Yuan Zongdi mobilized forty or fifty thousand soldiers and horses, of which more than 10,000 were old battalions that came back from the Henan battlefield last year (some of the old battalions were not very old, but they could come back alive from Henan, even if they were upgraded to "new and old battalions"), and the rest were the strong men of Xinla after the Henan War.

Among the major generals under Li Zicheng's command, Liu Zongmin is still the most powerful, but Liu Zongmin has other uses, Li Zicheng needs him to further develop in the direction of Shanxi, and ensure that the forces of the official army are completely driven out of the Fen River valley.

In this way, Li Zicheng can ensure that the northeast direction of his territory is completely safe, occupy the place of Shanxi, retreat can be defended, and further try to break through the Taihang Eight Mountains and enter the Hebei Plain.

Therefore, the battlefield in Baoji County in the southwest corner of Guanzhong can only be ranked second at most in Li Zicheng's priority, and it is good to be able to send Yuan Zongdi to be in charge.

In last year's Battle of Henan, among the top generals under Li Zicheng, his nephew Li Guo and his subordinate general Tian Jianxiu were all confessed to the battlefield of the decisive battle in Chen County. Therefore, in history, only Liu Zongmin, Liu Fangliang and Yuan Zongdi were the generals who could achieve the level of governor of the five armies under Li Zicheng.

Liu Fangliang's headquarters also participated in the Battle of Chen County last year, but he himself did not suffer any casualties, but the losses of his troops were definitely not small.

In contrast, Yuan Zongdi, who was defeated by Huang Degong in Shangqiu before the decisive battle last year, was considered a blessing in disguise, although he was killed and captured by Huang Degong and dispersed more than 10,000 parts, but he escaped the Battle of Chen County.

In the end, when Li Zicheng withdrew to the west of Hujiao Pass, he counted the men and horses, and Yuan Zongdi's troops had surpassed Liu Fangliang in size and combat power, ranking second among the generals under Li Zicheng.

In addition, while Liu Zongmin and Yuan Zongdi went out together, Li Ziben himself was still stranded in Xi'an until the end of July and early August, and the soldiers and horses of his headquarters, plus Liu Fangliang's soldiers and horses, were also stationed in the vicinity of Xi'an, Tongguan and Heluo.

Li Zicheng was instigated by Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance to consider the matter of the founding of the country, so he had to stay in a big city like Xi'an for a while.

Historically, Li Ziwei should have begun to consider the matter of the founding of the country when Chongzhen entered the winter of the sixteenth year, and it was officially announced on the New Year of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen.

It's only July or August now, so I started thinking about it a month or two earlier than the same period in history. This seems to be a bit of a big deal, but it is actually reasonable - because Sun Chuanting's defeat and death were also about two months earlier, and for Li Zicheng, he began to have this idea a month and a half after Sun Chuanting's death.

In his opinion, Chang'an and Luoyang, which are more than the ancient capitals of the Six Dynasties, and the two capitals in history are now in his hands, so it's not too much to build a country name, right?

It is not necessary to be in a hurry to be called the emperor, but it is necessary to set the name of the country first and prove that he wants to change the dynasty and not be a thief.

When Chen Sheng and Wu Guang started to do it, Chen Sheng didn't dare to call himself the king of Chu at first, but the name of "Zhang Chu" was established first.

Li Zicheng's current thoughts are similar, so he stayed in Xi'an, and was not in a hurry to personally fight in all directions, keeping the main force of the Chinese army, and reinforcing his subordinates on all fronts at any time.

……

After Yuan Zongdi's troops initially besieged Baoji County at the end of July, they spent three or five days preparing siege equipment, digging siege camps and fortifications, and then organized a tentative attack.

Guarding Baoji County is a guerrilla under Cao Bianjiao, named Ma Guanglie, who is unknown in history, but he has been fighting with Cao Bianjiao for many years, and he has worked hard to get to this point.

He only has 3,000 veterans under his command, and there are 2,000 newly replenished troops after Cao Bianjiao returned to Taiyuan last year, a total of 5,000 people, and it is still a bit difficult to resist Yuan Zongdi's 40,000 or 50,000 troops, including cannon fodder, so he can only choose to defend the cage city, and it is absolutely impossible to go out of the city to counterattack.

After killing Sun Chuanting, the Chuang army also slightly captured a batch of firearms of poor quality and in disrepair, so when attacking Baoji County, the number of Franc machines was barely enough to make a noise-

At the end of the Ming army, the armament was lax, so before Sun Chuanting's death, the firearms of his Shaanxi official army were originally of poor quality, otherwise they would not have been so easy to defeat the battle. Li Zicheng doesn't do anything about production, and only relies on robbing Sun Chuanting to use it, of course, it will be lowered by a grade.

The defenders of Baoji were also a little worried when they heard that the thieves were attacking the city with artillery, but Ma Guanglie soon found that the quality of the thieves' firearms was not good, so he asked the defenders to counterattack with the firearms reinforced by Cao Junmen before.

The firearms allocated by Zhu Shuren to Cao Bianjiao's various departments to defend the city are also not of high quality, but they are still much better than those of Sun Chuanting and Li Zicheng, it is nothing more than a little old, but they will be overhauled and confirmed before they are sent to the front line, and those that are easy to explode will be directly destroyed in the furnace, and they will not pit their own people.

Moreover, most of the old-fashioned firecrackers in Zhu Shuren's army have been eliminated, so they don't feel distressed at all when they are given out, and the quantity is enough. There are more than 2,000 guns under Ma Guanglie's command, and there are dozens of Franc machines.

Every time Yuan Zongdi launched a charge, it was a dense volley of guns that fired in turn, so that the siege cannon fodder couldn't raise his head.

Baoji County has always been a military stronghold, that is, the ancient Chencang fortress, the city is not big but strong, the terrain is very advantageous,

The city is sandwiched at the corner of the intersection of the Qinling Mountains and Longshan, and there is also one side of the Weishui, and the other side is close to the Weishui that is injected into the Weishui at the eastern foot of Longshan Mountain.

High mountains on both sides and rivers on both sides, such a terrain has been easy to defend and difficult to attack since ancient times, and Hao Zhao, the defender of Wei during the Three Kingdoms, blocked Zhuge Liang's offensive several times here.

Although Ma Guanglie is just an ordinary general, he is not as good at defending as Hao Zhao, but Yuan Zongdi's offensive method on the opposite side is far inferior to Zhuge Liang's ten streets. The official army also had the advantage of firearms, which put Yuan Zongdi in a quagmire.

The war of attrition was fought until the beginning of August, that is, when the prince of Hanzhong had just met Zhu Shuren and finished delivering the decree. Yuan Zongdi finally asked Li Zicheng for instructions and changed his tactics.

He chose to besiege Baoji County with 20,000 people, and then led more main forces south, entered the valley mouth of Chencang Road, blocked the Dasanguan, and prepared to try to attack the Dasanguan instead, while Chencang was slowly exhausted by the idea of encircling but not fighting and consuming its supplies.

What did Yuan Zongdi think: If the official army has more defenders left in Baoji County, and the troops and firearms of Dasanguan are insufficient, it will be best if they can directly take Dasanguan.

If the defense of Dasanguan is also tight, it is also difficult to capture, as long as the army blocks the valley mouth north of Dasanguan and camps strongly, then the official army will have to forcibly break through the camp of the army if they want to support Baoji County.

At that time, the offensive and defensive situation will also be reversed, and the offensive will change from an offensive by an army to an offensive by an official army.

The road into the Qinling Mountains into Sichuan is steep, and it is obvious that whoever plays the attacker will suffer a great loss, and the battle pressure will be greatly reduced if the army changes from offensive to defensive. If the officers and soldiers do not save for a long time, then sooner or later, the defenders of Baoji County will have gunpowder and food shortages, and they will collapse without a fight.

Of course, Yuan Zongdi is also a bit of a general, and he also knows that if the official army wants to reinforce Baoji County, there is not only one road on Chencang Road - a little to the east, there are plank roads such as Baochuan Road and Fu Luo Road.

But the plank road is definitely several times more difficult to walk than the Chen Cang Road, and the officers and soldiers who dare to drag the long snake formation into the Guanzhong from those roads will definitely suffer. Yuan Zongdi will also divide his troops to block the two valley passes, and he is absolutely confident that he will be able to wait for work.

After changing his thinking, on the sixth day of the eighth month, Yuan Zongdi officially began to launch a tentative attack on Dasanguan.

It's still the same routine, first dig a ditch and set up a village, build a flying ladder, and rush the car. Digging wooden donkeys.

Dasanguan is located in the valley and the terrain is relatively high, so there is no moat, and the moat bridge car is also saved.

The defenders only had some dry ditches, covered with camouflage, and there were bitter bamboo guns inserted in them, and these traps did not use trench bridge cars, as long as they got some cannon fodder, the old and weak carried sacks of soil, and even used flat poles to pick up the soil, and threw them into the pit to fill in a road.

In the past few years, when Li Zicheng was fighting the cities of the official army, he had always had the trick of temporarily pulling the local homeless people who were about to starve to death, and "promising each person to pick up three trips of soil to the city wall, and then give them ten days and half a month to eat."

Generally, Li Zicheng will also fulfill his promise, anyway, several percent of these cannon fodder may die under the city, directly fill the corpse into the ditch, and will not be able to eat the military rations that were distributed after the war. The existence of cannon fodder can also greatly disperse the firepower of the officers and soldiers, so that the pressure on the soldiers of the old battalion is greatly reduced.

In the land of Shaanxi, after so many years, almost a living person who can eat enough can not be found, and after a few days of full food, enough people can already be bought to take risks.

Yuan Zongdi repeated his old tricks and quickly solved all the traps outside the Dasan Pass, and the cost was only thousands of Shaanxi lives who were about to starve to death.

After the ditch was resolved, the siege weapons of the invading army began to approach the wall, and the firearms team and the crossbow team also fired bloodily at the defenders on the wall.

The battlefield roared loudly, and the number of muskets accounted for less than one-third of the long-range weapons, but the momentum was very amazing, covering the many more bows and crossbows, and intimidating the morale of the troops on both sides.

On the first day of the attack, Yuan Zongdi observed coldly, and felt that he had still gained a few points of information.

"It seems that the defense of this Dasanguan is not as tight as that of Baoji County! At least I didn't see a few Franc machines, and there were no Hongyi cannons, but if the firecrackers were fired, the rattan firecrackers might not be able to withstand it.

But another day, digging holes with wooden donkeys and burying a few coffins of gunpowder should be able to blow up a few dirt slopes. This wall is also made of rammed earth, and there are no bricks, let alone bluestone ......."

After carefully observing the strength and weakness of the defenders, Yuan Zongdi secretly planned in his heart and continued to adjust his tactics in the next few days.

He didn't know that this was Cao Bianjiao's troops, and he had already been instructed: The troops in Baoji County should try their best to open fire as soon as they encounter a strong attack, and strive to scare the enemy away as soon as possible and divert the target. And the troops on the side of Dasanguan, because they have no worries about the back road, can completely show weakness at the beginning to lure the enemy, seduce the intruding army and feel hopeful, and invest more troops into this meat grinder.

This is also what Zhu Shuren took care of Cao Bianjiao before the outbreak of the battle. After all, it is possible that Baoji County will be completely surrounded by the enemy, and it will not be able to withstand the long-term fierce attack and consumption, and Dasanguan can replenish supplies at any time.

The other party didn't know that Zhu Shuren himself was here, and he didn't know the material support of the Huguang official army for Dasanguan, so of course he had to take this opportunity to make them misjudge.

Yuan Zong's first attack on the first day, more than 1,000 people were killed in the battle, and there were more wounded, some of which were temporarily brought by the hungry people, once they were seriously injured, they didn't plan to treat them at all, so they just threw them aside as consumables and left them to fend for themselves.

Beginning the next day, Yuan Zongdi concentrated the gunpowder in the army, filled the amount of seven or eight coffins, and dispatched a full thirty hardwood, bark-covered and wet mud wooden donkeys on the slope top, and pushed them to the Dasanguan wall under the cover of a few Franc machines in the army.

The officers and soldiers continued to lose rocks, but the musket bullets were completely useless when they hit the wooden donkeys, and the rolling logs that fell were also bounced off by the "inclined armor" ricochets on the top of the slope.

Only a very heavy boulder can directly hit the wooden donkey on the top of the hardwood slope to collapse the city, but most of the stones prepared by the city guards are sheep's head stones that smash people, and there are very few boulders of more than 100 catties.

"When you dig deep enough, you can bury gunpowder in it. Although Cao Bianjiao is a famous general, Sun Chuanting is dead, the dog court lacks weapons and ammunition, and the armament is all greedy by those dog civil officials! They deserve to be defeated! ”

Yuan Zongdi's heart became more and more eager. When he thought of those corrupt officials in the Ming Dynasty, he couldn't stop hating.

Although King Chuang also kills people indiscriminately, after all, there are more dog officials, as long as anyone kills the dog official, he will hold this tone and fight with whomever he wants.

——

ps: This week will write about Chongzhen's last moments...... It's not a spoiler, it's just that a book friend asked about the progress of the writing in a private message, giving everyone a promise.