In the darkness of the night, a fire dragon that was dozens of miles long was still twisting and rolling on the mountain road in southern Shaanxi.
This is the army led by Wu Sangui, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi Province in the Ming Dynasty, the governor of Hexi Province, the protector of Anxi Province, and the Duke of Liang Kingdom Wu Sangui. When they went south from Dashan Pass, they were a Chinese army plus the army stationed in Shaanxi and Hexi and the army stationed in Shaanxi and Anxi. A total of more than 45,000 troops. But when they passed Malingguan in Feng County, the number of people had exceeded 60,000!
The reason why Wu Sangui's troops became bigger and more numerous was because after the army entered Feng County, people who had been oppressed by the Dashun soldiers and the landlord class and local men from Feng County continued to join the king's army!
These are hard-working young men who are used to walking on mountain roads. They are also familiar with the terrain of Sanguan Road and Jinniu Road. With their joining, Wu Sangui's army will be able to advance on the narrow and rugged Sanguan Road much easier. There is no need to worry about being ambushed by the enemy - Liu Maoxia and Wang Youwen selected a group of brave men from Feng County Ding Zhuang who surrendered, and asked them to lead Wu Sangui's warriors to search in front of the army and in the mountains and forests on the left and right. alert. If Li Dingguo really ambushed his army there, he couldn't hide it from them.
After confirming that there was no ambush ahead, Wu Sangui became more courageous. In order to rush to Lueyang as soon as possible, he joined the former armies of Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun, and also to move the troops to the Sichuan Basin or Hanzhong Basin where food was relatively abundant as soon as possible. , to reduce the pressure on logistical transportation. Wu Sangui ordered his army to march southward day and night.
Sanguan Road is also much easier to walk than Wu Sangui imagined. The wooden pavilion plank road has long been replaced by the stone Qi Road. It not only has a solid roadbed, but also has strong traffic capacity, and can carry two sedan chairs and four horses in parallel. It cannot be compared with the open stone official roads in the southeast, but compared with the rammed earth official roads in the Guanzhong Plain, it is almost the same.
"Commander, the transformation of the abandoned plank road into Qi Road first started in the Tang Dynasty, and it was this dynasty that made its great achievements. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, there was still a wooden pavilion plank road north of Sanguan, and during the Wanli period of this dynasty, Feng There are no plank roads to the north of Caolianglou in the county, and they have all been converted into Qi roads that can run four horses in parallel. After the rogues entered Sichuan, they spent a lot of effort to build Qi roads. Every year, dozens of people were forced to build the roads. Ten thousand, as few as hundreds of thousands, without any interruption for the past thirteen or four years. Nowadays, there is no plank road on the Sanguan Road, and it is all Qi Road. As for the Jinniu Road, which is easier to travel than the Sanguan Road, construction has continued for the past thirteen or four years. So far, thoroughfares have been built... The rogue bandits spared no effort in building construction projects and built so many roads. This was originally for the Northern Expedition to Guanzhong. They didn't want to make it easier for the general's troops to go south today. They are really setting themselves up!"
The person who was talking to Wu Sangui was Liu Maoxia. He was now responsible for managing the civil servants and volunteers together with Wang Youwen. With the help of his work, he also investigated the situation in Shun Dynasty and was more certain that the rogue bandits had lost their support.
"Chu Xuan," Wu Sangui asked, "so many young people have come to vote in the past few days. Is there any fraud?"
Wu Sangui has been fighting for a lifetime, and this is the first time he has encountered a situation where the army is fighting more and more!
He thought for a while and then said: "Even if the people have been living in poverty for a long time, they won't compete to join the army, right? When the Japanese commander was in Ningyuan, he didn't see many Liao people joining the army enthusiastically!"
Yes, there were 2.7 million Liao people who followed Xiong Tingbi into the customs! Later, Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan asked the Liao people to defend the Liao territory, but they only mobilized more than 300,000 people to build a city in Ningyuan. Even fewer Liao people were willing to join the army to fight the Tatars, and the Liao people who joined the army all received first-class pay from the Ming Dynasty.
And now these strong men and volunteers who are following Wu Sangui south don't have a single copper...
"The commander-in-chief doesn't know something," Liu Maoxia said with a smile, "This is also the rogue bandits trying to trap themselves! Sichuan people are not good at fighting, and they are not proud to join the army. But after the rogue bandits entered Sichuan, they took advantage of it and respected the soldiers. In the government, there are no officials or promotions. They can only work hard and never get ahead. Therefore, for the past twenty years, the people of Sichuan have been proud of joining the army, but they have never been able to get it. Today, they can follow the king's army and make achievements, so why not rush to be the first? "
It turns out that the 20-year rule of the Dashun Dynasty in southern Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan and other places has changed the folk customs and values to a certain extent.
Stimulated by the policy of making a profit, the military and warlike atmosphere of the military households inevitably affected the common people - after all, the Dashun Empire was built on the basis of the Ming Dynasty where "all the emperors were servants" . Although there were untouchables and nobles in the Ming Dynasty, their number was very small. The remaining farmers, craftsmen, merchants, military households, etc. were actually relatively equal. Moreover, by the middle and late Ming Dynasty, all households could make a fortune, take imperial examinations, and join the army.
Therefore, the Sichuan people who were ruled by the Dashun soldiers were not willing to admit that they were inferior to the soldiers... The concept of "preferring to be born" cannot be changed in just 20 years.
However, the trend of joining the army and being martial has begun to permeate the territory of the Dashun Empire!
Especially the generation that grew up under Dashun's rule, they all feel that joining the King's Master is an opportunity to change their own class!
Wu Sangui nodded and said with a smile: "It's true that you are trapped in a cocoon... You don't know how to educate the people, and you don't allow them to seek wealth or official positions. They only know that relying on force and oppression will inevitably lead to backlash in the end! It seems that the trend of rogue bandits is over!"
Just as he was saying this, a Chuanqi riding with lanterns came galloping over, found Wu Sangui's central army, and shouted on horseback: "Good news! Good news... The Sichuan border army has captured Lueyang!" "
Wu Sangui laughed loudly when he heard this: "Okay, okay! With a little sunshine, Qishan Road and Hanzhong are both under control... The rogue bandits have exhausted their energy!"
...
"Uncle, the defeated bandits have all retreated towards Yangping Pass! It seems that they are ready to abandon the territory of Hanzhong and Qishan Road and stick to Yangping Pass."
In Lueyang City, Kong Tingxun, who chased the Dashun Army for an entire afternoon, returned victorious with his cavalry only after dark, and returned to Lueyang City, which was occupied by the Sichuan border army in the morning.
Lueyang is the hub of southern Shaanxi, and to the south is Yangpingguan! Anyone who knows a little bit about history and geography will know where that place is. To the west is the Qishan Road. If the Qishan Road is controlled by the Ming army, then the Ming army can advance towards the Sichuan Basin through the Yinping Trail or the Songpan Highlands. To the east is Mian County, the gateway to the Hanzhong Basin. Li Dingguo’s Dingjunshan Camp is located in Mian County. It can be said to be the base camp of Dashun’s Northern Expedition to Guanzhong!
"You said that the rogue bandits would give up Hanzhong?" Shang Kexi was a little unbelievable, "There are Micang Road and Lychee Road from Hanzhong to Shu, and Hanzhong is also located behind Yunyang. Once Hanzhong is abandoned, Yunyang will not be able to keep it, plus Qishan Road The southern part of Gongchang Mansion where we are located will have to lose two and a half mansions at once!"
Kong Tingxun said with a smile: "I don't think it is possible, but the current situation is like this! The rogue cavalry who retreated from Lueyang all went south, retreating to Yangping Pass... and my nephew sent him to Mian County The searching cavalry walked 50 miles southeast before returning, but found no sign of the passing of the rogue army."
"Have you really given up on Hanzhong?"
"We must have given up!" Kong Tingxun said, "After receiving a military report yesterday, Marshal Wu divided his troops to go down from the east of Maling Pass, and ordered three Guards divisions to enter Hanzhong via Ziwu Road, Baoxie Road, and Tangluo Road. .....If we branch off from Lueyang and march eastward, all five armies will advance together. How can Hanzhong be defended?"
"Maybe the rogues are ambushing in the Hanzhong Basin?" Shang Kexi was a little hesitant.
"How is it possible?" Kong Tingxun said, "The rogue bandits are good at fighting in the mountains. The Hanzhong Basin is all flat, which is conducive to war horses galloping. They leave the mountains instead of ambushing their troops and go to the plains to ambush their troops. Aren't they looking for death?"
"That's right..."
"Uncle," Kong Tingxun said, "we might as well select 15,000 elites and march east from Lueyang to Mian County. If we can capture Dingjun Mountain, it will be a great achievement! By then, my uncle can be granted the title of Duke, and so can my nephew. There is a Hou."
Shang Kexi thought for a while and said: "We will search carefully for the 100 miles from Lueyang to Mian County. If there is really no ambush, then we will go eastward!"
