Zhang Xianzhong was under heavy pressure from several directions and had to go south to western Hunan, where he tried to penetrate into the hinterland of Hunan.
This decision is not wrong from a strategic point of view, because at the moment he really has no better option but to be the taller one among the dwarfs.
Li Dingguo, who had just carried out a three-month killing mission and was somewhat numb from the killings, did not raise any objections after thinking about it for a while. He just reminded him out of his humanity that had not yet been extinguished in the end:
"My father wants to march into Hunan, and I dare not object. In fact, there is no other way. Relying on the chieftains of Shizhou Guard and Yongshun Xuanwei Division in Western Hunan to maintain the army is indeed not a long-term solution.
However... our army has been killing too hard in Shizhouwei and other places recently. Soldiers are being lost every day, but the supply of troops cannot be replenished. We have to fight to the death with the locals.
Originally, our army fought on the territory of the Han people. At any rate, we only killed rich households and dispersed the money. We could recruit poor people to join the army, so that we could support the war with war. If we can go out of the mountains and enter Yuezhou and Changde this time, please ask my father.
Restoring the military discipline of the past can also help expand the Latin army."
Li Dingguo's words cannot be said to be "loving the people and benevolent". After all, he is now a thief. This is not to discredit him or to cleanse him. This is the most real state.
He advised Zhang Xianzhong to kill less people for the time being after returning to the Han Dynasty, not because he couldn't bear it, but because he knew that indiscriminate killing would not last long, and the number of troops would decrease as the fighting continued.
Moreover, the Han people are different from the Miao people. The Miao people are isolated and illiterate. News is basically passed on by word of mouth. If a chieftain tribe is massacred in one place, even if it is exterminated, another Miao tribe hundreds of miles away may be killed.
No one knows that the next time Zhang Xianzhong's army moves there, the local people's desire to resist will not be much stronger than that of the previous tribe.
However, the literacy rate of the Han people is high, and the pressure of public opinion is strong. If they massacre a county or a prefecture, the news can spread far, and no one will become a soldier in the future. It is generally more beneficial to only kill the rich and rob them, and win over the poor.
Because Li Dingguo later resisted, many people in later generations have been beautifying his life experience, which is obviously not in line with the character arc.
This is a complex world.
Everyone's human nature will grow. In his early years, Cao Cao only wanted to be a general in the Western Conquest. There are good people who have been good for a long time and are no longer safe in old age, and there are also shameless people who have been good in old age.
Of course, no matter what Li Dingguo's motives were, he persuaded Zhang Xianzhong to restore the original relatively loose murder policy after returning to Han Dynasty. From the actual results, it was indeed relatively better and could avoid the deaths of hundreds of thousands of additional innocent Han people.
Zhang Xianzhong also has a good brain. He could figure out this truth immediately after being asked about it, so he decisively made a wish:
"That's natural. I love my people as my own sons. As long as I attack Yuezhou and Changde, I won't kill the people living outside the city as long as their fields are less than one hundred acres.
Wealthy households with more than 100 acres of land, or those who live in the county, or even have shops in the city, will be killed, and all their money and grain will be used as military supplies and recruit new soldiers."
The corner of Li Dingguo's mouth twitched slightly, but he did not object again. Instead, he agreed with excitement: "Since the father has decided and can guarantee not to kill innocent people indiscriminately, I also feel that this matter should be taken sooner rather than later.
Once the military discipline of the army is ruined, it will kill everyone on sight, and it will be difficult to recover it after a long time. Now there is too much killing in Shizhouwei and other places, and the profits are decreasing day by day. It is better to move into Changde quickly and use the sacred land to support the army."
In the past few months, the reason why he worked so hard was because he knew that his father was giving him a chance to test him.
Since the sneak attack on Xiangyang last year, we won first and then lost.
From the beginning, they obviously relied on the intelligence around Yang Sichang to find out in advance that Xiangyang was empty, took the opportunity to falsely open the city gate, and entered the city to massacre everyone.
But in the end, Shen Shuren's troops were defeated. Because they returned to the army and passed through Xiangyang without Yang Sichang's control, our own careful work did not detect this. As a result, the cavalry troops were hit by Shen Shuren, and more than a thousand cavalry were annihilated.
The fourth brother Ai Nengqi was sent to the capital to be chopped into pieces.
Although Li Dingguo escaped from Tanxi on horseback, he was indeed suspected by his father for a period of time. His eldest brother Sun Kewang and his third brother Liu Wenxiu did not say anything weird on their faces.
But in private, many people in Zhang Xianzhong's army secretly gossiped: "Why was Ai Laosi fell into the dog officer's trick and was captured? Why did some people come back alive? It is the king's subordinate who is responsible for contacting Yang Sichang's confidants. I don't know.
What news?"
Among Zhang Xianzhong's adopted sons, Li Dingguo's educational level was not high.
Among the other three, the deceased Ai Nengqi was the most famous for his lack of brains. Liu Wenxiu was relatively average. The eldest son, Sun Ke, was famous for being well-educated. Zhang Xianzhong also valued him the most and put his brains first.
Leave everything to him.
Therefore, it was Sun Kewang's responsibility to collect and analyze the intelligence lurking around Yang Sichang.
Since then, Zhang Xianzhong has thought about a question many times:
The Xiangyang sneak attack failed miserably and Ai Nengqi was killed. Was it an accident? Or was there a problem with the intelligence work? Or was it that the troops executing the order were out of shape and ineffective during the execution, and they betrayed their teammates on the spur of the moment?
From a motive point of view, if Sun Kewang kills Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi at once, then only Liu Wenxiu will be left, and he will never be able to compete with him, both civil and military. In the future, Sun Kewang will inherit all Zhang Xianzhong's positions and completely
Stable.
If Li Dingguo just wanted to kill the brainless Ai Nengqi, it would be of no use.
But if this can be used to criticize Zhang Xianzhong's army's intelligence chief for having problems, implying that he cheated on others and tripped up Sun Kewang, it would definitely be a huge profit once and for all.
Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong really couldn't make a conclusion at that time.
Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo also occasionally realized that their father was worried about this issue, but they didn't say it explicitly or show it.
The army maintained harmony on the surface, but Zhang Xianzhong secretly gave them opportunities to prove himself for more than a year.
In the past few months, it was actually part of Zhang Xianzhong's test to let Li Dingguo desperately attack Badong County, Shizhou Guard and Yongshun Xuanwei Division to see if he could send most of the captured grain and grass supplies back to Zigui after his victory.
There was a tacit understanding between the two parties. In order to avoid suspicion, Li Dingguo was not merciless in killing people. He slaughtered all the chieftain tribes wherever he went. Except for enough rations for his troops to eat for more than ten days, all the other seizures were transported back to Zigui. After a few months, finally,
It is to prove yourself.
Zhang Xianzhong personally went south this time, leaving Sun Kewang to guard his home, which might also be part of the test. Zhang Xianzhong just wanted to see what Sun Kewang would choose when all the food and grass for the army were in Sun Kewang's hands.
At present, it seems that Li Dingguo supports his plan and urges him to hurry up, so Li Dingguo should be fine.
…
Zhang Xianzhong spent another day or two to understand the situation at the front, and immediately went back to urge Sun Kewang again, asking Sun Kewang to cross the river south in batches as soon as possible and bring all the food reserves needed for the troops to fight.
However, this order was slightly discouraged by Sun Kewang after it was sent back to Zigui.
Sun Kewang himself did not go south to cross the river, but sent a general to serve as a food security officer. When he took the main force of the Chinese army and food and grass south, he made a face-to-face confession to Zhang Xianzhong.
The general's name was Feng Shuangli, and he was an old subordinate who had followed Zhang Xianzhong's army for many years. Zhang Xianzhong saw him coming with food. He checked the amount and found that it was a little less than what he asked Sun Kewang for. He was a little unhappy and immediately took it.
Feng Shuangli was escorted into the big tent for interrogation and training.
"Why are the military rations and troop assembly so slow? Didn't Wang'er try to transport the grain reserves in Zigui as much as possible?"
Feng Shuangli kowtowed fearfully and stated: "Your Majesty, there are few ships and it is slow to cross the river. General Sun is afraid that you will not be able to wait, so it is just the first batch of reinforcements. As soon as the food crosses the river, the last general will bring it back. The next few
The day will come. In addition, General Sun has something to say and wants to persuade the king..."
Zhang Xianzhong raised his eyebrows, touched his nose fiercely, and said calmly: "Tell me!"
Feng Shuangli kowtowed again: "General Sun said that the king wanted to enter Hunan, and what he saw was the same as the three generals. It seems that he had found out the strength of the troops in front, and he felt that he should enter.
However, in the remote and remote areas of the mountainous areas, it was difficult to transport grain and grass, and the losses were huge. Our army originally raised grain for several months, grabbed grain in the south of the Yangtze River, and finally transported it back to Zigui to stockpile it. Now it is a pity to transport it back to the south of the Yangtze River.
It is better to kill a few more chieftain tribes in Yongshun Xuanwei Division, support war with war, and wait and see more about the actual strength of the official army to see if the main force of Shen Shu's army is really going north, and whether there is any new military information in Henan.
The news came.
General Sun also said that for the king's plan, if Li Zicheng has the advantage on the Henan side, then our army does not need to be anxious. We only need to kill more barbarians to raise food. If we can't eat meat, we will have to endure it for a while. The longer Li Zicheng survives, the greater his advantage will be.
, Yang Sichang will mobilize more troops from Chen Shuren to go north.
If it turns out that Li Zicheng failed to attack and the army stabilized the situation, it is possible that the longer the army waits, the more prepared it will be, and our army will have to fight quickly - specifically, General Sun has a secret letter for your Majesty, please read it.
"
Zhang Xianzhong received Sun Kewang's letter of admonishment. The letter was roughly the same as the plea conveyed by Feng Shuangli, but added two more points.
One is that Sun Kewang has little confidence in the current meticulous system of Zhang Xianzhong's army. Especially after last year's surprise attack on Xiangyang and the death of his fourth brother, he felt that Shen Shuren might often act on his own without obeying Yang Sichang's orders.
However, Zhang Xianzhong's army has always been unable to place himself beside Shen Shuren. All of Shen Shuren's subordinates have been close confidants for many years, or because they followed Shen Shuren in getting promoted and made a fortune quickly, everyone is grateful to him and thinks that he treats the corporal with courtesy and promotes and employs people.
It's very fair. I can't find anyone who is resentful and willing to be a traitor because he is not rewarded for his meritorious service.
As a result, Zhang Xianzhong's army now has to rely on the surveillance of Yang Sichang to obtain all intelligence sources for Shen Shuren's department. If Shen Shuren did something that Yang Sichang didn't know about, and even his superiors hid it, Zhang Xianzhong
The army was caught blind.
Therefore, Sun Kewang hoped that Zhang Xianzhong would be more cautious and not be anxious. Although he could not provide evidence, he always felt that he had a bad premonition.
The second point that Sun Kewang emphasized in his letter of remonstrance was that he hoped that once Zhang Xianzhong decided to relax and take things slowly, he would not worry about the problem of military rations - the big deal would be to continue the crazy slaughter in the Tusi Miao area and fish from the lake, and he would always be able to hold on.
Stay for a while.
Everything is coming to an end, not less than this month and a half. We have survived the harshest winter and the lean spring period. Now it is summer, and we can always find something to eat. Even if the food is not yet mature, the vegetables are always ripe.
, there should be a lot of wild vegetables too.
It would be best if we could wait and see for a while until the time when we send troops to Hunan, which is about to be harvested in autumn, or at least when summer grain needs to be put into warehouses. It would be absolutely stable.
Finally, Sun Kewang also said that Zigui's grain reserves should not be transferred too completely, nor should plans be made based on the assumption that "if we succeed in Hunan, all the troops from Zigui will be transferred south".
The Zigui side was at least a back-up left by Zhang Xianzhong's army. If things went wrong on the Hunan side, there was still a way to enter Sichuan. Nian Xiang.
This statement is in line with Sun Kewang's usual personality. He is more rational and calm than Li Dingguo. After following the gangsters for so many years, his heart has become so cold that he will not calculate how many people to kill, as long as it is beneficial.
Therefore, killing a few more chieftains and Miao tribes was nothing in Sun Kewang's eyes. As for the troops being raised to become more bloody, it would not matter if military discipline could not be restored in the future.
However, if it were normal times, it would be easier for Zhang Xianzhong to listen to Sun Kewang's reasoning. However, at this juncture, the situation is quite different.
"Wang'er actually didn't suggest that I immediately put all my troops in a desperate situation? Why does he want to stay in Zigui? If our army succeeds in Hunan and the officers and soldiers counterattack, cutting off the communication between the troops and horses left behind in Zigui and the troops transferred to Hunan, wouldn't he?
Do you want to fight alone?"
In Zhang Xianzhong's heart, his suspicion of Sun Kewang has deepened. Now the balance in his heart is gradually leaning towards trusting Li Dingguo more.
However, what Sun Kewang said does make sense, and Zhang Xianzhong would not fall out with his adopted son just because of this suspicion.
Therefore, he selectively accepted the opinions of both parties: he listened to Sun Kewang in terms of layout, and he listened to Li Dingguo in terms of timing.
It allowed Sun Kewang to leave a way out and deal with Fang Kongzhen well to prevent being taken to his old nest. But he did not accept Sun Kewang's point of "waiting and watching carefully, asking more about the battlefield news in Henan, and delaying the summer grain storage before entering Hunan".
He chose to work with Li Dingguo to immediately attack Yongshun Xuanwei Division at any cost and casualties, and then from there along the north and south of Tianmen Mountain, he divided his forces into two groups to attack Yuezhou and Changde!
After the order was issued, Zhang Xianzhong's army moved quickly. In just three to five days, they attacked and captured several chieftain tribes in Yongshun Xuanwei Division.
Zhang Xianzhong did not seek to wipe out all the tribes in the large ravines in Yongshun Xuanwei Division. As long as he grabbed some food and corpses, enough for the troops to consume along the way, and dug a route to Changde, that would be enough.
enough.
On the third day of June, Zhang Xianzhong's army penetrated Yongshun Xuanwei Division and arrived at a dangerous place equivalent to the "Zhangjiajie Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area" in later generations. After passing Tianmen Mountain and walking out of the mountainous area, in front of them was the Hunan plain around Dongting Lake.
Zhang Xianzhong made a plan and divided his forces with his adopted son Li Dingguo.
Li Dingguo led an army to the north of Tianmen Mountain and followed the Lishui River to attack Yuezhou in order to seize the mouth of Dongting Lake. After preventing the officers and soldiers from reacting, they went south via the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake waterways to reinforce Hunan.
He himself was responsible for the main attack, taking the south of Tianmen Mountain and along the Yuan River to attack Changde. He planned to capture Changde and then attack Changsha.
To put it bluntly, he was responsible for personally conquering the sacred land, enclosing the land, robbing and recruiting young men, while Li Dingguo did the hard work of blocking attacks and blocking official and army reinforcements.
The plan was implemented smoothly. Just three days later, when Zhang Xianzhong's army came out of the mountains, several counties in Yuezhou and Changde did not organize effective resistance at all and almost looked away.
After surrendering, the rich and landowners were also slaughtered.
An urgent report like snowflakes was quickly sent to Fang Kongzheng and Shen Shuren Yutou.
Shen Shuren was not alert to the movements here at all, and could not be alert at all - but this was not because Chen Shuren was incompetent, but because his official position was too small.
His jurisdiction only extends to Wuchang Prefecture, and he cannot cross the border to Yuezhou Prefecture further south, and it is difficult to arrange detailed operations and sentinels in advance, let alone arrange military patrols.
If he goes too far, the laws of the Ming Dynasty will impeach him to pieces.
Therefore, it can only be said that Chongzhen was wary of his ministers and could not trust a famous minister like Shen Shuren, who was both civil and military, capable and loyal, without any unconditional and unlimited trust, which led to all this.
To take a step back, if Shen Shuren had been appointed as the governor of Huguang earlier, and the imperial edict had clearly given him the power of all life and death in the Huguang area, wouldn't these troubles have stopped?
——
ps: It's a little late, but this update is almost 5,000 words long. The enemy's reaction must also be described, otherwise it will only be written from the perspective of the protagonist, and you will not know how the situation reached this point.
The deductions in my book are relatively high-end. The enemy does not follow history, so I have to waste words and ink on deductions. Don't be dissatisfied.
Only those books whose enemies are not disturbed by the butterfly effect and have always followed historical inertia do not write about changes in the hostile camp.