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

Chapter 227 Li Dingguo’s doubts (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

Li Xianzhong tried his best to send Zhang Zhiji to seize Kuizhou, but he did not expect that Zhang Xianzhong eventually ran away.

Fortunately, Zhang Xianzhong, who implemented the "Field Dividing Policy", did not treat ordinary people as bloodthirsty as in history.

In fact, killing can be considered a specialty, and it is not completely useless.

Since Zhang Xianzhong's life should not be terminated, Li Xianzhong decided to adopt the strategy of "driving the tiger and swallowing the wolf" to drive the Western Army to Yunnan, Guizhou and Myanmar.

Use Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi Army to sweep them away, and then clean up the mess yourself.

In fact, the chieftains in the southwest region have always been aloof from the Central Plains Dynasty. Although the Ming Dynasty also wanted to implement "reform the land and return it to the flow", due to financial and military constraints, the court did not take much action.

That is to say, he took advantage of the suppression of Yang Yinglong's rebellion and took advantage of the situation to regain the Bozhou area.

I believe that with Zhang Xianzhong as a "dirty stick", the efficiency of "reforming the land and returning it to the local people" in the southwest will be greatly improved.

As for Li Zicheng, Li Xianzhong planned to drive him west.

Let King Chuang go to the Western Regions to try his luck, maybe he can break into another world.

Although due to the appearance of Gao Jie, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong fought a big battle in Hanzhong.

However, Zhang Xianzhong firmly controlled Hanzhong's geographical location, and Li Zicheng's failure was almost inevitable.

His expedition is more to express his attitude. Men can never be indifferent to "cuckolding".

But what needs to be solved now is Xiangyang.

The reason why Zhang Xianzhong was reluctant to give up Xiangyang was because it was a fortified city.

After all, even the Mongolian cavalry, which was all-powerful back then, could only collapse under the foot of Xiangyang City.

Facing Chen Qiyu's siege, Li Dingguo and others also held on to Xiangyang City for more than a year.

This was also the reason why he dared to trap the isolated city of Xiangyang.

However, their attempt to use Xiangyang to block them for a long time was a miscalculation.

The reason why Xiangyang is difficult to defeat is that it is close to a 200-meter-wide moat.

The Han River is not as wide as the Yangtze River, and warships exceeding a thousand tons cannot sail near Xiangyang, but the 800-ton Galen ship has no problem at all.

Li Xianzhong said: "Xiangyang and Fancheng are a whole, forming a complete Xiangfan defense system!"

"If the attacker does not have a strong navy to block the Han River, then Xiangyang and Fancheng rely on each other and are connected by a floating bridge in the middle. This is indeed an advantage!"

"If the attacker has a powerful navy, he can blockade the Han River and cut off the connection between Xiangyang and Fancheng.

In this way, the defenders in Xiangfan and Xiangfan were separated and could easily be defeated individually! "

"Historically, it took the Mongols six years to form a navy to blockade the Han River and conquer Fancheng in the north of the river, forcing the defender Lu Wenhuan to surrender!"

When he saw the Ming navy appearing near Xiangyang, Li Dingguo knew that Fancheng could not be defended.

It seems that he is a little optimistic. Li Xianzhong is indeed a famous general in the world, and his shots are fast and accurate!

The Ming army quickly burned the pontoon bridge on the river!

Then with the fire support of naval guns, the 2 Ming army led by Zuo Liangyu began to attack Fancheng.

At this time, the naval guns of the Liaodong Navy had been replaced by new rifled guns, and the accuracy and power of shooting were greatly increased.

After several rounds of shelling, a section of Fancheng's east wall was blown down.

Soon the Ming army invaded Fancheng!

There were only 6000 defenders in Fancheng. Facing the 2 Ming army, they were at a clear disadvantage in both strength and equipment.

Zuo Liangyu's 20,000 troops are the old foundation of the Yulin camp. Although some new soldiers have been added, the overall combat strength is much stronger than that of Daxi's peasant army.

The battle in Fancheng did not last long, and it died down in less than half an hour!

After occupying Fancheng, Li Xianzhong sent an envoy to Xiangyang to persuade him to surrender.

Unexpectedly, the envoy was directly killed by Li Dingguo.

This angered Zuo Liangyu, Chen Qiyu and others, and all the generals asked for a fight.

Although very angry, Li Xianzhong still remained calm.

He said: "Li Dingguo's move is just to anger me so that we can attack Xiangyang, but I won't let him do it!"

What Xiangyang City relied on was its moat with an average width of nearly 200 meters. Although the naval warships of the Ming Army on the Han River were powerful, they were unable to sail into Xiangyang's moat.

Among the Xiangyang moats, there is only a very narrow road on the island in the center of the lake leading to the city gate of Xiangyang.

If you attack along this narrow road, you will not be able to deploy your troops at all. No matter how long you attack, you will not be able to capture Xiangyang City.

Therefore, Li Xianzhong did not launch an attack immediately, but placed the artillery position on Yanggu Mountain south of Xiangyang City.

Although it was not that difficult to transport the 18-pound rifled gun from Wuchang to Xiangyang with the advantage of warships, it still took the Ming army several days to transport it from the Han River to Yanggu Mountain.

Before they could attack Xiangyang, Li Dingguo took the lead.

After several days of observation, Li Dingguo mastered the route of the Ming army's patrol ship at the same time.

Hundreds of Daxi troops took advantage of the darkness and secretly sailed into the Han River in small boats.

Tonight, the moon is dark and the wind is high, which provides them with excellent cover. The goal of their trip is the Ming Army's water stronghold near Fancheng in Jiangbei.

The Ming army had an absolute advantage on the Han River, so it did not expect that the Daxi army would make a sneak attack.

By the time they noticed something moving on the river, the Daxi Army's boat was already only one or two hundred meters away from the water village!

Although the Ming army's artillery on the shore and the naval gun on the battleship immediately opened fire on the sneak attack boat.

Soon several small boats were hit by artillery and blown to pieces.

But at this time, the Western Army had already lit the boat and took advantage of the wind to rush towards the Ming Army's water stronghold.

Although the Ming army's warships did not have any iron chain links like Cao Cao did back then, they completely lost their mobility.

But it would be very difficult to be blocked by enemy fireships in the water stronghold. Even if they are not all burned down, they will definitely suffer heavy losses!

At this time, the Galen ship "Hetuala" on the outermost side quickly sailed out of the water village and placed its hull across the front to block the enemy's fire ships!

The 480-ton "Hetuala" is a small ship and is relatively flexible.

Now that the situation is critical, it can only sacrifice itself to block most of the fire ships to prevent the main battleships in the water village from being burned!

Fortunately, there were not too many small boats attacked by the Western Army. The "Hetuala" had a larger hull and could still persist for a long time even if it was hit by a fire ship.

In the end, at the expense of the "Hetuala", the Ming Navy successfully saved the water stronghold.

However, this incident still sounded the alarm to Li Xianzhong, and the location of the water village must be chosen carefully.

It seems that this Li Dingguo is really not simple, but in the face of absolute strength, his resistance is in vain.

The 18-pound rifled artillery installed by the Ming army on Yanggu Mountain soon launched an artillery bombardment on Xiangyang City. The city wall set up by the Western Army on the island in the center of the lake was quickly blown down, and then the southern city of Xiangyang was also bombarded.

The Ming army's artillery had a maximum range of ten miles and completely defeated the Hongyi cannon on Xiangyang City.

Soon the artillery in Xiangyang City was destroyed by the Ming army.

Although the Ming army's artillery completely suppressed the defenders on Xiangyang City, the biggest problem they encountered at present was the narrow passage. Attacking Xiangyang along here would basically lead to death.

In order to quickly lay the channel, Li Xianzhong ordered people to transport a large amount of cement from Wuchang.

Roads in the southwest are difficult to navigate. In order to build roads, Li Xianzhong established a cement workshop in Wuchang in advance to meet the construction needs of Huguang and the southwest.

Under the cover of artillery and Lumi gunfire, the Ming army actually laid a road more than ten meters wide in the moat at the south gate of Xiangyang.

Not only that, but a city wall higher than Xiangyang City was built on the island in the famous lake.

The Ming army's gunmen stood on the city wall and fired from a high position, hitting the Xiangyang defenders so hard that they couldn't even raise their heads.

In the end, the Ming army occupied Nancheng and invaded Xiangyang!

Zhang Xianzhong had already transferred Xiangyang's elite troops away.

In Li Dingguo's hands, only a few thousand of his direct descendants had a certain fighting strength, and the rest were just a mob.

These people can do just fine if you let them hold on to the city, but if they really want to start a street fight, their true colors will be revealed immediately.

In less than half a day, most of the Western Army in Xiangyang City surrendered. Only Li Dingguo led more than a thousand people to defend the original Prince Xiang's Mansion!

It is not difficult to break through Prince Xiang's Mansion, just use artillery to blast it.

However, Li Xianzhong's order was to capture Li Dingguo alive.

This was difficult for Chen Qiyu, so he had no choice but to come and persuade him to surrender.

After all, Chen Qiyu was once the prime minister of five provinces and had dealt with these bandits for many years.

He threatened: "Li Dingguo, the prince has said that as long as you surrender, he will no longer pursue all the Western troops and people in Xiangyang City, and will directly release them!"

"If you don't surrender, I will execute these surrendering bandits in front of you!"

After saying that, Chen Qiyu ordered 500 Western troops to be escorted.

He said: "I will give you another stick of incense to think about. If you haven't surrendered when the time is up, then I will kill 500 people every quarter of an hour until all the Western thieves in Xiangyang City are wiped out!"

At this time, the Western troops around Li Dingguo all advised: "Marquis Zhenxi, don't be fooled! These officers and soldiers have always been unfaithful to their words. Once we put down our weapons, we will be slaughtered by others!"

Li Dingguo said: "Chen Qiyu, I can't trust you, I want Li Xianzhong's personal promise!"

Chen Qiyu said with a smile: "What kind of status does the prince have? How could he come here in person to make a promise to you, a thief and bandit?"

"If it weren't for the prince's general order, I would have fired thousands of cannons and blown you to pieces!"

Li Dingguo knew that Chen Qiyu was telling the truth. The Ming army's artillery was so powerful that even the city wall of Xiangyang could not withstand it, let alone this small Prince Xiang's Mansion!

There is indeed no need for him to trick himself into surrendering here! In the end, Li Dingguo had no choice but to surrender to Chen Qiyu!

When she saw Li Dingguo, Chen Qiyu was shocked.

This Li Dingguo, the Western Marquis of Daxi Town, who had been holding on to Xiangyang for more than a year and leaving himself helpless, was actually only a boy of fourteen or fifteen years old!

Chen Qiyu said: "Tie him up and send him directly to the prince!"

After seeing Li Dingguo, Li Xianzhong was not surprised and signaled his men to loosen Li Dingguo's bonds!

He just said lightly: "Are you Li Dingguo?"

Li Dingguo found it very strange. His original surname was Li, but since he was adopted by Zhang Xianzhong as his adopted son, he has always called himself Zhang Dingguo.

Why did the Ming army keep calling him Li Dingguo?

He said: "I am the adopted son of the Great Western Emperor Zhang Xianzhong, and the Marquis of Zhenxi Zhang Dingguo!"

Li Xianzhong said: "Isn't your original surname Li?"

"This King Zhang Dingguo sounds awkward. You should call your real name Li Dingguo back!"

Li Dingguo was also confused about Li Xianzhong's unreasonable request. Did Li Xianzhong also want to adopt him as his adopted son?

Anyway, my original surname is Li, so Li Dingguo should be Li Dingguo!

At this time, Li Dingguo was attracted by the sand table next to Li Xianzhong. Although he had heard of sand tables, this was the first time he saw it.

This sand table is much clearer than the map they used!

Just listen to Li Xianzhong say: "On the same day that Zhang Xianzhong left, your eldest brother Zhang Kewang took the initiative to abandon Yunyang Mansion and threw you and Xiangyang to me!"

Li Dingguo said: "This is our established plan. My eldest brother is only executing my father's orders. Your Majesty, don't try to sow discord!"

Li Xianzhong said: "Dingguo must have seen my king's plan to outflank Hanyang a long time ago. If Zhang Kewang hadn't personally gone to Zhang Xianzhong to request more troops in Hanyang, how could your tens of thousands of main forces be left there?"

"If he says that Zhang Kewang is not targeting you, do you believe it yourself?"

Li Dingguo said: "My eldest brother and I just have different political opinions. He did not intentionally target me."

Li Xianzhong smiled and said: "Zhang Kewang's suggestion is good. Give up Xiangyang voluntarily. After I capture Xiangyang, I will attack Li Zicheng's Henan."

"Your father and brother have been ready to give up Xiangyang a long time ago. I'm just curious why Dingguo still sticks to this isolated city of Xiangyang?"

Li Dingguo felt a little ashamed at this time. He said: "Dingguo indeed underestimated the strength of the Liaodong Army. He didn't expect that the prince would capture Xiangyang in just a few days!"

"How did the prince know about the suggestion that eldest brother Zhang Dingguo made to his father?"

"Is there an informant from the prince among the senior officials in Daxi?"

Li Xianzhong nodded and said, "Dingguo might as well guess who the spy is?"

The only ones present at that time were myself and Zhang Kewang, as well as the national advisor Zhang Jiao and "Cao Cao" Luo Rucai!

Li Dingguo said firmly: "It must be Luo Rucai! Our adoptive father has been very kind to us, and it must be an outsider who provided information to the prince."

Li Xianzhong said: "Isn't the national preceptor Zhang Jiao also an outsider?"

Li Dingguo said: "The "Field Dividing Policy" proposed by the national counselor Zhang Jiao is my national policy in Daxi, and he brought back the news about Gao Jie to help my father get out of trouble. He definitely cannot be the prince's man."

Li Xianzhong said: "If it weren't for this king's "Field Dividing Policy", Zhang Xianzhong would have been doomed long ago. How could he have come to Daxi?"

"If I hadn't sent Zheng Zhilong to capture Denglai, you might have been wiped out by the army when you were in Henan, right?"

"When Hong Chengchou besieged you in the Dabie Mountains, it was me who relieved the siege for you."

"Whether Li Zicheng or Zhang Xianzhong is just a tool in my hands. Could it be that by calling him an emperor, they really think they are the emperor?"

He originally thought that Zhang Xianzhong was a good man and a man of heaven, and he could turn danger into danger every time. Unexpectedly, the mastermind behind all this was actually Li Xianzhong.

He couldn't help but have a question, why did Li Xianzhong do this?

Thank you to all book friends for your support with monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and follow-up subscriptions!

(End of this chapter)