Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 226 Gao Jie fell in love with Li Zicheng (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

Although giving up Badong means that the road back to Sichuan is completely blocked.

But at this time Zhang Xianzhong had to choose to retreat. Even if he could capture Badong now, he would still be blocked by the Three Gorges ahead.

He will still be attacked from both sides by the Ming army, and retreating to Xiangyang becomes his only choice!

After the fall of Jiangling, the Ming army captured Yiling immediately and quickly moved toward Badong.

In order to buy time for retreat, Zhang Xianzhong left 5 people to defend Zigui.

Now that De'an Mansion and Chengtian Mansion in Huguang have been completely occupied by the Ming army, it is only a matter of time before Jingzhou Mansion is completely lost.

He only had two houses left, Xiangyang and Yunyang.

Fortunately, there are still a lot of troops.

When Zhang Xianzhong retreated to Xiangyang City, there were still 12 troops in Xiangyang.

At this time, "Cao Cao" Luo Rucai said: "Although our road from Huguang to Sichuan is blocked by the Ming army, we can still use Hanzhong to return to Chengdu. We might as well borrow the road from Li Zicheng!"

Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng have always been at odds with each other.

As early as Gao Yingxiang's period, Zhang Xianzhong was the main leader of the rebel army. At that time, Li Zicheng was only a general under Gao Yingxiang!

Zhang Xianzhong became leader and emperor earlier than Li Zicheng. He was naturally unhappy when he saw Li Zicheng taking over as a latecomer.

But now he is about to be made dumplings by the Ming army, naturally it is not because he can't let go.

Zhang Xianzhong said: "Li Zicheng is not a fool. He will definitely not agree to the fact that more than 100,000 of us use Hanzhong."

If Zhang Xianzhong's remnant troops retreated into Hanzhong, Li Zicheng might be able to help him, and more than 100,000 of the main force would use the way, but he would not agree if it were him.

He begged Li Zicheng in a low voice, but was ridiculed and rejected by him. Naturally, Zhang Xianzhong was unwilling.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong's national advisor Zhang Jiao returned to Xiangyang!

Now they also wanted to know what was going on with Li Zicheng, so Zhang Xianzhong asked: "National Preceptor, did Li Zicheng send troops?"

Zhang Jiao said: "The situation in Dashun is not optimistic either. Zu Dashou's general Wu Sangui defeated Li Guo last month and captured Huaiqing Mansion north of the Yellow River; and Lu Xiangsheng's troops also set out from Guide Mansion to march towards Kaifeng. "

"Now Li Zicheng's Luoyang and Kaifeng are both threatened by the Ming army, but King Chuang still thought that we were both rebels and sent a partial army from Runing to attack Luzhou."

If Li Zicheng's army attacked Luzhou half a month ago, it would indeed threaten the rear of the Ming army and force the Ming army in the direction of Huangzhou to withdraw.

But at this time, most of Huguang has fallen, and Li Zicheng's partial army may not pose much of a threat!

Zhang Xianzhong said: "It seems that King Chuang still cares about some old friendships. Now that Kuizhou has fallen, our passage to Sichuan has been cut off by the Ming army. I would like to see if King Chuang can allow me to pass through Hanzhong through Daxi?"

Zhang Jiao said: "Your Majesty, the reason why Li Zicheng came to help is because I, Daxi, have restrained Li Xianzhong's 100,000 main force."

"If we return to Chengdu via Hanzhong, it will be equivalent to giving up Xiangyang and Huguang. In this way, Li Zicheng's Henan will be surrounded by the Ming army on three sides."

"The next step for the Ming army must be to capture Li Zicheng's Henan, so he will never agree to our borrowing the road to Hanzhong!"

Luo Rucai was still unwilling to give up. He said, "What if we don't give up Xiangyang, but just ask Li Zicheng to allow us to transport grain to Xiangyang through Hanzhong from Chengdu?"

Zhang Jiao said with a smile: "Li Zicheng has many advisers around him, how could he not see this trick of 'destroying Guo by false means'?"

"If Li Zicheng agrees to transport food for us, but only asks us to deliver the food to Hanzhong, will you do it or not?"

"Don't forget, Li Zicheng's side is also short of food now!"

In the final analysis, there is no sense of trust between Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

Even though the two sides were forced to stick together when they were in trouble in the Dabie Mountains, they parted ways within a short period of time!

Li Zicheng was afraid that Zhang Xianzhong would take advantage of the opportunity to "falsely destroy Guo" and occupy Hanzhong, and Zhang Xianzhong was also afraid that Li Zicheng would attack him in Hanzhong.

Just when everyone was feeling disappointed, National Preceptor Zhang Jiao said with a smile: "It will definitely not work to ask Li Zicheng to borrow a way to Hanzhong, but the guard of Hanzhong is Gao Jie, we can make a fuss about this person!"

Zhang Xianzhong said: "The Imperial Guard does not know that Gao Jie is a fellow villager of Li Zicheng and is deeply trusted by Li Zicheng. It is impossible for him to let us cross the border behind Li Zicheng's back."

Zhang Jiao looked around at this time and said: "Your Majesty, a fellow countryman of Weichen used to work under Gao Jie. This time I met him in Luoyang. According to him, Empress Xing of Li Zicheng often inspected armaments and distribution In the name of food and grass, I went to Hanzhong to have a private meeting with Gao Jie."

"The two of them are often alone, and they seem to be doing something evil!"

After hearing this, Zhang Xianzhong laughed so hard that he rolled over and said, "Gao Jie is indeed a good-looking guy. I didn't expect that he would dare to cuckold Li Zicheng!"

"I really want to see Li Zicheng's expression when he learns about this!"

Zhang Jiao said: "Before Wei Chen returned to Xiangyang, he had sent people to Luoyang, Xi'an and other places to spread the news of Xing's affair with Gao Jie. Li Zicheng must have known about it by now!"

Luo Rucai also couldn't believe it. He said, "Is this thing reliable?"

Zhang Xianzhong said: "Li Zicheng's aunt Xing has been in charge of material distribution for Li Zicheng for a long time. This is not impossible!"

Zhang Jiao said: "Wei Chen has sent people to find out. After Li Zicheng became emperor, Queen Xing did go to Hanzhong several times. Even if she personally inspected armaments and distributed food and grass, the frequency of her visits to Hanzhong was too high!"

"Unless someone was caught raping him in bed, no one can produce solid evidence. The key is whether Li Zicheng believes it or not."

"If Gao Jie really has an affair with Queen Xing, then besides leading his 5 men to join Daxi, is there any other way out for him?"

"Not only will we be able to return to Chengdu smoothly, but we will also get Li Zicheng's 50,000 troops and the land of Hanzhong out of thin air. Wouldn't we make a lot of money?"

Zhang Dingguo said: "Father, we need to be cautious about this matter! If we accept Gao Jie, Li Zicheng will definitely turn against us and lead his army to attack Hanzhong."

"Now the Ming army is watching eagerly. If we and Li Zicheng start fighting among themselves again, wouldn't it be an advantage to the Ming army?"

At this time Zhang Kewang said: "The third brother is too worried. After we get Hanzhong, as long as we give up Xiangyang, Li Zicheng's Henan will be surrounded by the Ming army on three sides."

"At that time, the Ming army will definitely attack Li Zicheng in Henan. If he has no time to take care of himself, how can he still have the energy to attack Hanzhong?"

"Even if Li Zi divides his troops and comes to attack Hanzhong, Hanzhong is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and Yangping Pass is dangerous. Are we still afraid of him?"

Zhang Dingguo said: "Xiangyang is the foundation of Daxi in Huguang. How can we give up so easily?"

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong said: "It is still unclear whether this matter can be accomplished. It is too early to give up on Xiangyang!"

Then he said to Zhang Kewang: "Kewang, you lead 3 people to guard Yunyang Mansion, and you must ensure that the road between Xiangyang and Hanzhong is smooth!"

Li Zicheng often went out to fight, and his wife Xing was responsible for managing military supplies, distributing military rations and weapons every day to supply battles.

One day, Gao Jie went to the Xing family's tent to check in. Xing family saw that Gao Jie was handsome, so he took the initiative to have an affair with Gao Jie.

Later, under Xing's recommendation, Gao Jie was often responsible for staying in the camp.

After Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor, Gao Jie was sent to garrison in Hanzhong, and the Xing family's contact with him was interrupted for a while.

However, Li Zicheng was stationed in Luoyang for a long time, which made Queen Xing, who was guarding Xi'an alone, feel empty and lonely again.

Fortunately, Queen Xing had been responsible for the distribution of military supplies for a long time, so she took advantage of this opportunity to patrol and inspect.

From time to time I would go to Hanzhong to renew our friendship with Gao Jie.

As time goes by, some rumors will inevitably spread. However, there was no evidence for this kind of thing after all, and no one dared to spread it to Li Zicheng's ears.

Even if Li Yan, Song Xiance and others had heard some rumors, they just pretended not to know.

If you go remind Li Zicheng to be careful of cuckolding, not only will he not be grateful to you, he might even hate you and even kill you!

Therefore, even if Zhang Jiao ordered people to spread rumors in Luoyang, the matter still did not reach Li Zicheng's ears.

But Queen Xing in Xi'an panicked.

If Li Zicheng raises an army to investigate, her fate can be imagined.

So she took the opportunity to inspect armaments and came to Hanzhong!

At this time, Gao Jie was also very anxious. When he saw Queen Xing coming, he became even more anxious and said, "My aunt, our matter has been widely spread outside. How can you still dare to come to Hanzhong?"

Although Empress Xing was a female, she acted decisively, otherwise Li Zicheng would not have left the rear to her.

She said: "The Nu family is already pregnant with your child. We originally wanted this child to inherit Dashun's family, but now it seems that this is not possible!"

"The only solution now is for us to have a showdown with Li Zicheng!"

Gao Jie hugged Queen Xing and said, "Don't worry, I won't leave you two alone!"

"Zhang Xianzhong has just sent someone to contact me. He wants to take a road back to Chengdu from Hanzhong. I will directly surrender to Zhang Xianzhong with the land of Hanzhong and 5 troops. He will definitely not treat me badly."

In fact, Queen Xing originally wanted Gao Jie to surrender to the Ming Dynasty. In her opinion, neither Li Zicheng nor Zhang Xianzhong could succeed in the end.

Unfortunately, the timing is not right now, and the Ming army cannot reach Hanzhong. If they declare their surrender to the Ming army, Hanzhong will definitely be attacked by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

In this case, Gao Jie could only seek refuge with Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi, taking it one step at a time.

At this time, the Ming army was approaching Xiangyang, so Zhang Xianzhong naturally did not dare to hesitate for a moment in order to stabilize Gao Jie.

He directly canonized Gao Jie as the King of Hanzhong in Daxi and gave the land of Hanzhong to Gao Jie.

Naturally, he did not dare to stay in Xiangyang any longer.

But he was reluctant to give up Xiangyang.

After all, this is where his roots lie.

In the short term, abandoning Xiangyang can indeed lead the Ming army to Henan to defeat Li Zicheng.

However, once the barrier of Xiangyang is lost, the Ming army can fully regain Huguang and must attack Sichuan.

Now that Kuizhou is in the hands of the Ming army, Xiangyang cannot be lost again.

In the end, Zhang Xianzhong did not listen to Zhang Kewang's advice and abandoned Xiangyang, leading the Ming army to Henan.

Instead, Zhang Dingguo was ordered to lead 3 elite troops to defend Xiangyang.

He himself led Luo Rucai, Zhang Kewang and others as well as 9 troops to retreat into Hanzhong, and even Yunyang Mansion gave up!

As soon as Zhang Xianzhong retreated to Hanzhong, he received news that Li Zicheng personally led 15 people south to conquer Hanzhong.

When Li Zicheng learned that his queen, Xing, had an affair with Gao Jie and surrendered to Zhang Xianzhong with 50,000 troops from Hanzhong, he was even more furious!

It was time to raise an entire nation's troops to attack Hanzhong.

Although Li Yan and others tried hard to persuade him, saying that Hanzhong was easy to defend but difficult to attack, now that the Ming army was pressing down on the border, it was really not appropriate to fall out with Zhang Xianzhong again.

But what man can bear this big hat? Not to mention that Li Zicheng was the Emperor of Dashun. Even after Wu Dalang learned that his daughter-in-law Pan Jinlian had been slept with by Ximen Qing, why did he still want to seek justice from Ximen Qing?

There's no way he wouldn't respond to this!

Although there are many passages into Sichuan from Xi'an, except for Yinping Road in the west and Ziwu Road in the east, several other roads lead to Hanzhong.

Li Zicheng had an army of 15, so the Yinping Trail and Ziwu Road were naturally not suitable for a large-scale march.

Therefore, the only three passages he could take were Baoxie Road, Chencang Road, and Qishan Road.

No matter which way he took, he could not bypass Nanzheng, the capital city of Hanzhong.

After Zhang Xianzhong and Gao Jie joined forces, they had an army of 14, which was not a disadvantage in terms of strength.

Therefore, he did not need to guess which road Li Zicheng would advance from, but directly sent troops to block these roads.

The passages into Hanzhong are very narrow, and it is almost impossible to break through from here. The Dashun Army, which suffered successive defeats, did not make any progress.

This also made Li Zicheng, who was furious, extremely depressed.

It seemed that a forceful attack from the front avenues would not work, so he could only hope for Liu Zongmin's sneak attack.

At this time, 2 elite troops led by Liu Zongmin were carefully crossing Ziwu Road.

The reason why Ziwu Road is famous is probably due to Wei Yan's Ziwu Valley Strategy.

Wei Yan did not go through the Ziwu Valley, but Cao Zhen went through the Ziwu Valley in his expedition to Shu and wandered in the valley for more than half a month. Then the advance failed due to rain.

Later, the powerful minister Huan Wen of the Eastern Jin Dynasty also sent Sima Xun through Ziwu Valley during the Northern Expedition, but Sima Xun was defeated miserably.

Ziwu Valley is definitely not a good passage for troops to enter.

The road is very difficult to travel. Even if they can cross the Ziwu Valley, the troops are already exhausted and unable to fight anymore.

Liu Zongmin and others also complained endlessly.

But Gao Jie had an affair with his eldest brother Li Zicheng. How could he, a brother, not stand up for Li Zicheng? What was even more unfortunate was that Liu Zongmin encountered the same problem as Cao Zhen, which was heavy rain.

This is really a leaky house, and it rains all night. The Ziwu Road was originally extremely difficult, and now it is even more dangerous.

When Liu Zongmin and others arrived at the exit of the southern section of Ziwu Road, they were already exhausted!

They were disheveled, covered in mud, and looked like an army. They were clearly a group of beggars!

What is even more unfortunate is that Zhang Xianzhong's main force has long been waiting for work at the mouth of the valley.

With the sound of artillery, the ambushing Daxi Army rained down arrows.

There was also the sound of "bang, bang, bang" firecrackers.

The Dashun army in front fell in pieces.

Liu Zongmin sighed: "My life is at an end!"

If the Daxi Army from Taniguchi breaks out at this time, all of his 20,000 horses will have to be handed over here!

Fortunately, the Daxi Army did not kill them all, and soon Zhang Xianzhong sent an envoy to deliver a letter.

Zhang Xianzhong said that at this time, the Ming army was pressing forward. Even if they could not join forces to defend the enemy, they could no longer attack each other!

I also hope that Liu Zongmin will go back and persuade Li Zicheng not to act out of anger!

When Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng fought in Hanzhong, Li Xianzhong's army had already surrounded Xiangyang City!

When he learned that the person guarding Xiangyang was Li Dingguo, he ordered that Li Dingguo must be captured alive.

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(End of this chapter)