On the night of the first battle of the siege, the city of Chengdu was filled with gloom and misery.
Because the city of Chengdu is too vast, and the waterway troops of the government army came from the direction of Minjiang River in the southwest of the city, and the land troops came from the direction of Longquanyi in the southeast of the city,
Therefore, in the initial stage of the siege, the official army has not yet completed a comprehensive encirclement in all directions. The current situation is still a typical encirclement of three and one missing, leaving the north of the city empty.
But Zhang Xianzhong and several of his main generals understood that the officers and soldiers put up this posture, which was most likely intentional. The purpose of leaving the retreat north of the city was to make the defenders less willing to fight and see that there was still a way to survive.
It can be moved and thus shaken.
It was precisely this situation that made Zhang Xianzhong reluctant to leave Chengdu a while ago. He was reluctant to part with Chengdu's property and strong men. He always felt that "the encirclement has not been closed yet, which shows that the army's strength is not enough. If there is real danger, we will not leave."
It’s too late to leave.”
Who would have thought that Zhu Shuren would actually lay out a siege network on a large provincial map, allowing Chongzhen to allow Cao Bianjiao to enter Hanzhong from Guanzhong, directly blocking the north entrance of Jinniu Road from Chengdu to Hanzhong.
This encirclement is large enough. If all this is true, even if Zhang Xianzhong fled to Mianzhu, then to Jiangyou and Jiange, and defended by danger, it would be absolutely in vain——
Although Jiange is a world-famous place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, even if the Jiange is defended, going north from the Jiange to Jiameng Pass, along the long Jinniu Road in the middle, there are basically barren mountains and rivers. There is only one dangerous valley, which is nothing.
The population also has no resources, money and food, and will starve to death sooner or later.
The officers and soldiers blocked both ends of Jinniu Road and there was no need to attack. They just waited for Zhang Xianzhong's remaining troops to kill each other without food.
…
Everyone around Zhang Xianzhong also knew about these situations, so the atmosphere at the late-night military discussion was so heavy.
"Everyone is mute? Who thinks we should withdraw our troops or continue to fight to the death with Shen Gouguan! I'm afraid this city won't be defended for long. It won't take three days to fight like this, and the city wall will be blasted open!
The king decided to divide his troops and leave the city's stronghold from the north of the city, and become at odds with the people in the city. If the army starts bombarding the city wall like this tomorrow, let the troops outside the city take a circuitous route and attack the army's Hongyi artillery position from the flank!
Our army has a large number of soldiers and horses, but the number of officers and men is less than 100,000, which is several times the advantage of our army in terms of numbers! At this point, the only chance is to fight in a chaotic war!"
Zhang Xianzhong took the lead in explaining his views to the generals.
He is also considered to know some soldiers. Although he was defeated in a field battle with Zhu Shuren last year in western Hunan, he knew that if he ran away, these strong men would still be lost, so he might as well fight, even if he lost in the end, anyway
Also try to kill tens of thousands of people on the other side!
Bai Wenxuan had died in the battle (actually he surrendered, but Zhu Shuren promised Bai Wenxuan to declare his death in battle to prevent Zhang Xianzhong from killing his family). Liu Wenxiu was sent to Jiangyou, so there really weren't many people around Zhang Xianzhong who could talk to him.
Already.
He first asked Feng Shuangli, the commander-in-chief of the Left Army, to express his position. Feng Shuangli could only say:
"What the king has seen is quite consistent with the art of war. Most of our soldiers have not been drilled. Once there is a gap in the city wall, the whole army will probably collapse immediately and they will not have the courage to fight in the streets with the officers and soldiers.
If the troops are divided, one side defends the city, and the other side sends people out of the city to attack flanking the city. Seeing that the city is still strong and there is still a way to retreat, the attacking troops may dare to use their lives for a while, but this kind of morale cannot be maintained for a few days. One or two
If there is no field battle left, the morale of the whole army will be exhausted."
Zhang Xianzhong's cheek twitched, but he refused to comment, and turned to ask the lower-level generals such as Di Sanpin and Qi Sansheng. These people were not even governors, but now they had the opportunity to participate in military discussions of this level.
The two of them looked at each other, then looked at Li Dingguo, who had been treated coldly for a long time, and were a little afraid to speak out.
At this time, Li Dingguo, regardless of the fact that he had lost the trust of his adopted father, boldly expressed his position: "Father, why don't you think about how to withdraw your troops? At the beginning, our army took the initiative to attack under Hengzhou City, and the result was already known to everyone. Our army could only take advantage of the danger and retreat."
Defend and fight while hiding from Zhu Shuren's troops. There is really no way to defeat the enemy in the field.
If you leave early, you can still have time to take away more belongings, so that you won't lose half of them in a hurry like Hengzhou City did."
Zhang Xianzhong was angry and slapped the table: "If you withdraw early, you can certainly take away your belongings, but what about these Sichuan soldiers who were finally pulled up? Are they still willing to die for Gu? After eating Gu's military pay for three months, they should be
Live to stay!
Ten lives can be exchanged for the life of one dog officer and soldier! Otherwise, if you let them submit to the dog officer after eating for nothing, I will not be able to help Shen Gou officer feed the people for three months by paying for them!"
Zhang Xianzhong's meaning was very clear, and he knew he couldn't beat him, but he just didn't want the people who had eaten his food and taken his money to live in vain without dying for him.
After eating him and taking his money, he had to squeeze the bones and suck out the marrow to squeeze out the last bit of value. If the person who took his money was still alive and left his control, he would be scratching his head and losing his heart.
After hearing these words, Li Dingguo also realized that Zhang Xianzhong had been trapped in a fight and was forced to lose his mind. Unfortunately, his identity could not be betrayed, so he had to change his perspective and finally said:
"Father, we are trying to evacuate now. We have to preserve our belongings, and we can still retreat slowly by land and go to Jiangyou to find our third brother. Hanzhong may not really be occupied by Cao Bianjiao sent by Chongzhen. We are fleeing to the north of Sichuan, and there is still a glimmer of hope.
These gold and silver treasures can also attract people elsewhere. If we can sneak into Guanzhong, or bet that Li Zicheng can win Guanzhong, the worst we can do is join him. For the sake of these treasures, we may be able to retain some favor.
The people of Bashu are not of the same mind as us at all. They are sent by force. Their troops and horses have no fighting ability at all. They have not been harmed by the hard days of Chidi thousands of miles away. Their hatred of the government is not as fierce as our Shaanxi people.
If we don't withdraw now, we have to fight this last field battle, or even wait for the official army to severely damage us and get close to encirclement. If we withdraw by land then, the cavalry will not be able to bring much property with us.
At that time, we can only bet that the rumors spread by the army are false and that the big brother is still waiting to meet us at Dadu River. We rush to the Minjiang River, seize the boat and take the waterway, so that we can transport the property out."
Whether Sun Kewang had reached a tacit understanding with the government and the army, and whether Cao Bianjiao had occupied Hanzhong, these two points were temporarily publicized by Zhu Shuren today in order to lower the morale of the rebel army.
From the standpoint of Zhang Xianzhong and Li Dingguo, neither of these points can be confirmed.
It's just that the former point has more clues and rumors before, and it seems more real. The latter point, there is no warning at all, and I just heard about it suddenly today.
Therefore, Li Dingguo felt that the probability of Sun Kewang being independent was higher, and the probability of Cao turning into a dragon in Hanzhong was even lower. But his identity and position prevented him from saying this conclusion in front of Zhang Xianzhong. Who made Sun Kewang his sworn brother?
, if he said that Sun Ke was more likely to surrender to the enemy, it would be jealous.
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Sure enough, although Li Dingguo didn't say it clearly, Zhang Xianzhong rolled his eyes for a moment and thought of something: "You still have the nerve to talk about your eldest brother! You really want your son to abandon his father, and then you can inherit the entire army.
Bar!
Wang'er is not this kind of person! I have trained him for many years, how could he be so ungrateful? We have decided to stay in the city and have a final fight with the officers and soldiers! If the Sichuan soldiers are too seriously injured and unable to fight anymore, we will try our best
Go to Xinjindu to break out of the siege, open a hole, and forcefully walk south of the Minjiang River to escape and break out of the siege!
There is a fleet available, and the property can be taken away. Even if the army has warships, and they are sailing down the Minjiang River at full speed, the army can still block it!"
Li Dingguo knew that he could no longer persuade him and could only let him mess around.
…
The next day, the army continued to attack the city, and Zhang Xianzhong divided his troops and set up camp from the north of the city in preparation. After a day of fierce fighting, Chengdu was not broken so quickly, but several city walls were clearly unable to hold up, and the gaps could almost be stepped on.
Tupo rushed in. Zhang Xianzhong could only use his most direct brothers from Laoying to fight hand-to-hand and fight for their lives to block him.
Although the city was not defeated in the end, the casualty exchange ratio of Zhang Xianzhong's army became increasingly tragic, and the army was almost on the verge of collapse.
On the third day, when the army attacked the city again, Zhang Xianzhong finally asked the troops who set up camp in the north of the city to circle around and attack the army's artillery formation. The troops leaving the city were led by Feng Shuangli and consisted of tens of thousands of troops, mainly local Sichuan men and cannon fodder.
Zhang Xianzhong did not expect these people to return alive at all. As long as the army's artillery positions were destroyed, Zhang Xianzhong would not regret it even if all these tens of thousands of people died.
However, when the officers and soldiers saw that Zhang Xianzhong's troops finally dared to go out of the city to fight in the field, they came up with a very terrifying trump card, which almost broke the morale of Zhang Xianzhong's army on the eve of the outbreak of the field battle.
Just before the rogue troops were about to charge against the official army formation, Zhu Shuren suddenly had a row of prisoners tied up in front of the formation and asked them to shout to Feng Shuangli's troops.
The leader shouted: "Brother Feng, it's me! I didn't die in Chongqing. Fortunately, the second general was upright and persuaded Zhang Xianzhong to let my family go. We have come to this point. If you follow Zhang Xianzhong, you will definitely die. He just knows that he
If you can’t survive and want to drag a few more brothers to support you, what’s the point of working for such a person?”
As soon as these words came out, Feng Shuangli's troops immediately became confused. Although the words were relayed by the scolding players and dozens of people amplified the loudspeakers, they could be heard by most of the enemy soldiers. However, Feng Shuangli's sharp eyesight could only rely on the initial sound and the response to the enemy soldiers.
From the observation of the other party's appearance, we could still vaguely see that the other party was Bai Wenxuan, who was said to have died when Chongqing fell.
Feng Shuangli had a good relationship with Bai Wenxuan, but when he encountered this scene, he was a little at a loss. There were some informants and strategists who were loyal to Zhang Xianzhong around him. They quickly threatened him and protected the master: "Captain Feng! It's not good enough.
Fire arrows to kill all the scolding players on the opposite side who are deceiving the crowd with their lies! Charge! Charge quickly!"
Feng Shuangli had no choice but to believe it just because of these few words, so he gritted his teeth and asked the archers to step forward and release arrows.
When the officers and soldiers on the opposite side saw this, they also fired their guns. Taking advantage of the gap between the two rounds of firing, a prisoner suspected of being Bai Wenxuan shouted: "Brother Feng, don't doubt me! I am the court who killed Pan Duao and surrendered! The Ming Dynasty has no shortage of capable people."
Scholars! Even if you kill these dog-headed military advisors, you will be exempted from crime!"
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of the supervisory counselors around Feng Shuangli and Zhang Xianzhong's undercover agents suddenly changed. However, Feng Shuangli did not express his position, and they did not dare to attack. The entire army fell into a terrifying central stagnation, and no one dared to give random orders again.
, the troops had no choice but to rely on inertia to charge forward.
It turned out that when Bai Wenxuan was captured and surrendered, and after killing Pan Duao as a witness, he originally agreed to Zhu Shuren and sent his confidants back to Li Dingguo to intercede, asking Li Dingguo to find a way to use the news of his death to release his family.
But in the end, when it came to the implementation level, Zhu Shuren played some tricks. He didn't let the people who were put back tell Li Dingguo that "Bai Wenxuan was still alive." He only asked those people to tell Li Dingguo after they went back, "We broke out from Chongqing. We only broke out from Chongqing."
"Please bring out the news that Governor Bai died in the city", and then let Li Dingguo use his subjective initiative to find an excuse to release Bai Wenxuan's family.
Zhu Shuren arranged this for three purposes:
First of all, if these people who were released did not help Bai Wenxuan to tell the truth directly to Li Dingguo, or even reported to Zhang Xianzhong, the result would be that the news of Bai Wenxuan's surrender would be leaked, and Bai Wenxuan's whole family would be killed.
Zhu Shuren has already made rescue efforts, but no one knows how the process failed. Bai Wenxuan also commanded to hate Zhang Xianzhong more and more, and followed the court wholeheartedly to avenge his family.
Secondly, if the person who was released was reliable and obeyed the orders completely, and Li Dingguo also had compassion and worked hard to release Bai Wenxuan's family, then the truth would be revealed in the future and Li Dingguo could be dragged into the water.
Finally, if the person who was put back was reliable but Li Dingguo did not help, then there is no one to blame. It can only be said that this is also a test for Li Dingguo. If Li Dingguo is determined to be loyal to Zhang Xianzhong, he will not care about the life and death of his other brother Pao Ze.
, If you follow the path of a single man and go to hell, you will have to be charged with a serious crime in the future if you win, and there is no way to reverse it. Zhu Shuren can only save his life because he has resisted in history.
Fortunately, Li Dingguo did not choose this path in the end. He did seem to have some humanity and helped free Bai Wenxuan's family. Then Zhu Shuren could take advantage of this and suddenly attack the rebel army when the final battle was about to begin.
morale.
He didn't have to worry about whether Zhang Xianzhong would kill Li Dingguo directly after hearing this, because this matter was not a crime worthy of death, and Zhang Xianzhong would not kill his adopted son just because of a trivial matter.
Secondly, Li Dingguo himself may have been deceived by Bai Wenxuan. Zhang Xianzhong could not prove that Li Dingguo deliberately betrayed him. He would also worry about whether this was a counter-intentional plot by the government and the army to induce him to kill an adopted son. Naturally, he needed to consider the long term.
Zhu Shuren's series of outrageous maneuvers completely destroyed the morale of the field troops sent by Zhang Xianzhong. Without any follow-up fine-tuning from the command center, the troops blindly rushed forward relying on the initial instructions.
Some units had low morale, were out of touch, and had no one to care about them. Halfway through the charge, the formation disconnect between the various units was already serious.
Under the fierce array of muskets and spears fired by the officers and soldiers, the scattered rebel soldiers who rushed forward were vulnerable to a single blow, and were quickly defeated one by one, with overwhelming force.
In the midst of the chaos, Feng Shuangli only thought about how to protect himself and how to prove his innocence. In the end, he got into trouble with Zhang Xianzhong's supervisors and confidants.
Finally, when the defeat was approaching, the atmosphere between the two sides became increasingly tense, and a gunfire broke out. In order to protect himself, Feng Shuangli had no choice but to strike first and let his close soldiers kill the supervisor and Zhang Xianzhong's confidants.
Then he reluctantly dropped the knife and surrendered.
Zhang Xianzhong sent tens of thousands of troops outside the city, which only caused very small casualties to the officers and soldiers before completely collapsing.
After the old camp was defeated, at least 80% of the remaining Sichuan local peasants trembled and dropped their crude weapons and knelt down to surrender.