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

Chapter 230 Li Zicheng conquers the Western Regions (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

After Li Dingguo led the Western Army southward, the Ming army quickly recaptured Chengdu.

After occupying Chengdu, Zhang Zhiji, the governor of Sichuan, was able to start the governance of Sichuan.

The situation in Sichuan is very complex, with different ethnic groups and a large number of chieftains.

The work of reforming the land and returning it to local people has a long way to go.

In fact, it is still a question of people’s livelihood.

Just like the Shili Xuanwei Division, if Li Xianzhong could not make the people here self-sufficient in food, how could they pay central taxes?

Even if Qin Liangyu and Ma Xianglin supported the Ming Dynasty, it would be difficult for them to give up their hereditary missions and become exiled officials.

This matter cannot be rushed. We must first improve the people's livelihood in Sichuan.

Fortunately, there are still chieftains in Sichuan who support the central government, such as Shili Xuanweisi and Youyang Xuanweisi.

In the future, they can be used to set an example, and Li Xianzhong can even give Ma Xianglin a hereditary title, as long as they support "reforming from the soil and returning to Liuli".

In fact, compared to transformation, killing is the most direct method.

Li Dingguo's Daxi Army burned and killed many chieftains' villages.

The chieftains in these areas were killed. As long as the imperial court immediately dispatched officials and provided sufficient support policies to the local people, these hereditary chieftains could be directly replaced by floating officials appointed by the central government.

Bring those areas under central jurisdiction.

Although it may be difficult for these places to generate income in the short term, and the court may even need to continuously subsidize money.

But for the sake of long-term peace and stability, Li Xianzhong was willing to spend the money.

Before the world is in chaos, Shu will be in chaos. If the world is at peace, it will be difficult for Shu to be at peace!

Governing Sichuan is far more difficult than conquering Sichuan!

This is a great test for Zhang Zhiji, who has grown a lot by his side this year.

Fortunately, young people are still very enterprising, and Zhang Zhiji is also a benchmark set by Li Xianzhong to transform traditional nobles.

Mu Tianbo, Duke of Guizhou in Yunnan, also expressed his surrender to the Hongguang court under pressure.

However, the situation in Yunnan is probably more complicated than that in Sichuan.

Mu Tianbo, the "Tu Emperor", actually did not have that strong control over Yunnan Chieftains.

It may take several years to completely solve the problems in the Southwest.

For the time being, the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan have formed a situation where the Mu family, Li Dingguo, and the Ming Dynasty each control one province.

Of course, the separation between Li Dingguo and Mu Tianbo is only temporary.

It will take a certain amount of time to "return" the areas in Sichuan that were raided by Li Dingguo.

After these areas were digested, the Xuanwei Division in Guizhou was basically taken care of by Li Dingguo.

Then Li Xianzhong would let the Daxi Army enter Yunnan and completely solve the problem of the Mu family's long-term separatist rule in Yunnan.

The strategy for the southwest region has been formulated, and now it’s just a matter of time.

At this time, there are still issues in the northwest that need to be resolved.

After Dashun voluntarily abandoned Henan, all the main forces retreated to Shaanxi.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Shaanxi Chengxuan Government Envoy Department had a very large area under its jurisdiction, with 8 prefectures, 21 prefectures and 95 counties under its jurisdiction.

In addition to today's Shaanxi Province, it also includes most of Ningxia, Gansu and even Qinghai.

Almost all of the northwest region of the Ming Dynasty was included.

Li Zicheng, who retreated into Shaanxi, still has 18 troops and controls a vast land.

Although the Ming army has not yet entered Guanzhong, their life is not easy.

This year Dashun has been defeated repeatedly, not only losing Shanxi, but also the entire Henan.

Prime Minister Zhong Guangdao said: "Now we only have 30 dan of grain left in stock, and we can last for another month and a half at most!"

Zhong Guangdao's words shocked everyone.

Dashun killed ten vassal kings of the Ming Dynasty in succession and stole a large amount of money and food.

How long has it been since then, and only this little food is left?

Now the gentry on the ground in Shaanxi has long been robbed, and there is no more wool to harvest!

Li Yan said with relief: "This year Dashun has issued a field tax order, and the grain will be harvested after the autumn harvest!"

“Fortunately, the autumn harvest is now just over a month away, so we should be able to get through it!”

Although he said it lightly, Li Yan knew that this month was not going to be easy.

Now that the Ming army has occupied Chengdu, Li Dingguo's Daxi Army has been defeated.

Li Xianzhong no longer has any worries, he will definitely have Dashun surgery next!

Sure enough, a few days later, the Ming army in Henan began to bombard Tongguan!

Tongguan is the gateway to Guanzhong, so Li Zicheng naturally did not dare to neglect it.

In addition to the 2 elite troops of his nephew Li Guo, he also asked Yuan Chonghuan to lead 2 troops to station in Huayin to support Tongguan at any time.

If Hanzhong was not lost, then they could indeed effectively block the Ming army by guarding Tongguan.

But now Hanzhong has been lost, and even Dashan Pass has fallen into the hands of the Ming army.

In this way, Fengxiang Mansion became extremely important. Baoji under Fengxiang not only strangled Chencang Road, but also served as the retreat channel from Guanzhong to Longxi.

Once Fengxiang Mansion is occupied by the Ming army, Li Zicheng will be trapped in Guanzhong by the Ming army.

Therefore, Li Zicheng did not sit in Xi'an, but led an army of 3 to personally guard Fengxiang!

He also asked his general Liu Zongmin to lead 2 people to defend Baoji south of Fengxiang.

Just as Li Zicheng mobilized the main force on the southern front to prevent the Ming army from entering Hanzhong, something happened on the northern front.

Although most of the land in Shaanxi is in Li Zicheng's hands, he has lost two of the most critical places.

One is naturally Hanzhong in the south, and the other is the four Great Wall towns of Yulin, Guyuan, Ningxia, and Gansu in the north.

Now that the Dashun Army is confronting the Ming Army on the southern front, the Ming Army in the north will naturally not miss this good opportunity.

Under the command of Xiong Tingbi, the Ming army moved south from Yulinwei and captured Suide and Yan'an, the important towns in northern Shaanxi.

Dashun's troops and horses left behind on the northern front were not many, so they were naturally no match for the elite Ming army from all nine sides.

Except for some resistance from the defenders in Suide and Yan'an, other prefectures and counties almost surrendered. In just ten days, the Ming army reached the Wei River.

Li Zicheng was shocked when he heard the news and hurried back to Xi'an.

His troops had just left Fengxiang thirty miles away when they received news from Liu Zongmin.

Zuo Liangyu of the Ming Army led 2 troops out of Dashan Pass and was attacking Baoji.

Li Zicheng was in a dilemma at this time.

If he goes to rescue Xi'an at this moment, Liu Zongmin may not be able to defend Baoji and Fengxiang will be captured by the Ming army.

In this way, his retreat to Longxi was blocked by the Ming army.

Even if Xi'an is saved, it will definitely be trapped in Guanzhong by the Ming army.

But if he withdraws from Fengxiang, it means giving up Xi'an.

At this time, the only people left in Xi'an were the more than 10,000 second-line troops commanded by Prime Minister Zhong Guangdao. Once the Ming army crossed the Wei River, the fall of Xi'an was almost inevitable.

Once Xi'an is lost, the tens of thousands of his main troops left on the front line of Tongguan and Wuguan will be "made dumplings" by the Ming army.

Not only that, he also lost the most fertile Guanzhong Plain. After that, he could only retreat into the mountains of Longxi to deal with the Ming army.

Even the always bold Emperor Li Zicheng of Dashun had no idea at this moment.

Li Zicheng could only turn to Li Yan and Song Xiance for help. He said, "Mr. Li, Mr. Song, how should we advance the army?"

Song Xiance said: "The Ming army had already arrived at the Wei River a few days ago. Fengxiang is nearly 300 miles away from Xi'an. It will take us three or four days to arrive at the earliest."

"Even if we go back, we may not be able to stabilize the situation."

"But once Fengxiang falls, we will become turtles in the urn. Guanzhong is now surrounded by enemies on all sides, and we can no longer hold on. Before the Ming army surrounds Guanzhong, order all ministries to quickly move closer to Fengxiang!"

"It is more important to defend Fengxiang at this time than to return to Xi'an."

Although Li Yan had a wife very early, after meeting the red lady outside Kaifeng city, the two fell in love with each other at first sight.

Although he was very worried about the red lady who was still in Xi'an, he still had to focus on the overall situation at this time!

Li Yan also agreed with Song Xiance's view and suggested that Li Zicheng quickly shrink his troops and abandon Guanzhong.

After Li Guo learned that the Ming army was marching south to the Weishui River, he quickly joined forces with Yuan Chonghuan of Huayin. Now that the Ming army has reached the Wei River, holding on to Tongguan is not of great significance.

As soon as they discussed it, leaving 3 people to defend Tongguan, they led an army of people and headed straight for Xi'an.

Li Guo and others hurriedly and slowly arrived in Xi'an three days later!

There are not many defenders in Xi'an, but fortunately the banner of Dashun is still on the city.

After seeing Prime Minister Zhong Guangdao, the two of them finally calmed down.

Li Guo also had a cavalry force of 5,000 men. At this time, the Ming army had already arrived in Xi'an, so Li Guo chose to camp outside the city to monitor the surrounding Ming army.

And Yuan Chonghuan led the army to Xi'an first!

Yuan Chonghuan entered the city accompanied by Zhong Guangdao and did not notice the surrounding situation at all!

The sergeant beside Zhong Guangdao suddenly took action and drew his sword to kill Yuan Chonghuan's guard.

When the knife was placed on his neck, he realized that Zhong Guangdao had rebelled.

At this time, half of his soldiers had entered the city.

Suddenly, ambush troops appeared on the city, and bows, arrows and fire cannons were constantly fired at the Dashun army who followed Yuan Chonghuan into the city.

This sudden scene directly stunned the Dashun army entering the city, and soon there was a bloody storm in Wengcheng!

The soldiers who had entered the city were attacked by the Ming army's cavalry and the Lumi guns on the city.

Although many people didn't realize what happened and went straight to see the Lord of Hell!

But their survival instinct still forced them to run out of the city.

This was exactly the purpose of the Ming army. The cavalry in the city took advantage of these broken troops to attack the formation of the Dashun army outside the city.

Li Guo was also dumbfounded by this sudden scene.

A large number of Ming troops actually rushed out of Xi'an city.

Just as he was about to lead his cavalry to fight, there was a sudden shaking near the camp.

A large number of Ming cavalry appeared on both sides of his camp.

There is no need to think that they must be the elite of the Nine Sides of the Ming Army.

Li Guo quickly led his cavalry to fight against the enemy.

The cavalry under him are not from the old camp of the Chuang Army. Both the equipment and the quality of the cavalry are far behind the Ming army.

Coupled with the hasty response, they were defeated the moment the two sides came into contact.

The cavalry of the Dashun Army were constantly being killed, and the Ming Army took the opportunity to tear up their formation.

The infantry outside the city had long been defeated and became the target of the Ming cavalry to chase and kill them.

Li Guo knew that the situation was over, so in the end he only led more than a thousand cavalry to break out of the encirclement.

Yuan Chonghuan was terrified at this time. He had betrayed Li Xianzhong before, and this was the second time he was captured.

Now that Li Zicheng's defeat has been decided, the world belongs to Li Xianzhong.

Yuan Chonghuan knew that Li Xianzhong would usurp his own will sooner or later, and he would never end well if he repeatedly stood on the wrong team.

But he never dreamed that Zhong Guangdao, Li Zicheng's most trusted prime minister, would stab Li Zicheng in the back at this time.

You must know that Zhong Guangdao is a veteran of the rebel army. In the early years of the Baishui Wang Er uprising, he was one of the leaders of the rebel army, and he provided advice to the rebel army all year round!

Zhong Guangdao seemed to have noticed Yuan Chonghuan's doubts.

He said: "Years ago, I was ordered by the prince to organize a peasant uprising in northern Shaanxi, so I just brought order to the chaos and it is not considered a betrayal!"

"Your Majesty gives you two ways!"

"If Governor Yuan is willing to surrender, the prince will arrange you to be in Nu'er Gandusi!"

Li Xianzhong was mocking himself. He had spent so much effort to save himself, but he was back to the starting point.

He didn't want to go back to that world of ice and snow where there was no sky and no hope!

He said: "I choose the second way!"

Zhong Guangdao shook his head helplessly and said: "It seems that Governor Yuan is still unwilling to be used by the prince. In this case, the prince will have no choice but to execute you Lingchi for treason!"

Zhong Guangdao originally thought that Yuan Chonghuan would change his tune.

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Yuan Chonghuan, instead of being frightened, laughed loudly and said: "What a crime of treason. The biggest rebel in the world is probably not Li Zicheng or Zhang Xianzhong, but Li Xianzhong himself!"

"Sooner or later, this rebellious minister will usurp the truth and stand on his own feet!"

At this time, Li Xianzhong suddenly sneezed!

It seemed that someone was speaking ill of me behind my back. He asked, "How far are we from Qinzhou?"

Chen Qiyu on the side said: "We have already left Qishan Road, and across the Wei River we will reach Qinzhou City!"

Li Xianzhong's route out of Hanzhong this time was actually the same as Zhuge Liang's first northern expedition.

The main force passed through the Qishan Road and went to the Longyou area.

The only difference is that Zhuge Wuhou sent Zhao Yun out of Xiegu Road as a suspect to contain the enemy.

This time Li Xianzhong sent Zuo Liangyu out of Chencang Road to threaten Baoji.

It is said that Zhuge Kongming failed to regain Guanzhong during his six expeditions to Qishan. Today, Li Xianzhong does not believe this evil!

Qinzhou was the original Tianshui.

Li Zicheng focused all his attention on the Guanzhong area, so the area in Longxi was naturally empty of troops!

Soon the Ming army captured Qinzhou City.

At the same time, the Ming army stationed in Guyuan Town also took advantage of the situation and went south to capture Pingliang Mansion.

At this time, Li Zicheng was in dire straits. Zhong Guangdao's betrayal meant that the entire Guanzhong area had fallen.

The loss of Qinzhou Tongpingliang Mansion meant that he was besieged in Fengxiang by various Ming armies at this time!

Although Liu Zongmin fought hard to save Baoji, and after reuniting with Li Guo's remnants, they still had 5 people, but they no longer had much food.

Even if the Ming army doesn't attack, they will be trapped for ten days and they will run out of food!

At this time, the sergeant came to report that Zhong Guangdao was visiting!

Li Zicheng was furious and said, "This traitor still has the nerve to come see me, but he's gone!"

At this time Li Yan said: "Now that we are at the end of our rope, we might as well listen to what Zhong Guangdao has to say!"

In the end, Li Zicheng suppressed his anger and met with Zhong Guangdao.

Looking at these former colleagues, Zhong Guangdao didn't feel too embarrassed.

He briefly talked about his experience!

Everyone, including Li Zicheng, was dumbfounded. They did not expect that Li Xianzhong had started the layout many years ago.

It turns out that his Dashun is just a chess piece in Li Xianzhong's hands!

Li Zicheng said: "Now that Shaanxi has fallen into the hands of Li Xianzhong, my chess piece is already useless. I wonder what Li Xianzhong is going to do with us?"

Zhong Guangdao smiled and said: "Your Majesty is too humble. You are still useful to the prince. The prince is willing to give you a way out."

"Shaanxi has been restored, but the Hami Guards are still under the rule of the Yarkand Khanate."

"The prince can let you go west and even provide you with some supplies, but Dashun must recapture the Hami Guard within 3 months and hand it over to the Ming Dynasty!"

"Now that the Black Mountain Faction and the White Mountain Faction in the Yarkand Khanate are in the same situation, it will not be a problem to use Dashun's military power to eliminate the Yarkand Khanate and occupy the South Tianshan Road!"

Li Yan said: "Li Xianzhong is really good at calculating. There is insufficient food in the Western Regions. When I enter the Western Regions with Dashun, I will inevitably compete with the local Yarkand people for resources, and mass killings are inevitable."

"Li Xianzhong first asked us to do these things of killing people and stealing goods, and then he took the opportunity to eliminate us. He will definitely gain the support of the local tribes!"

After Li Yan finished speaking, everyone reacted.

This Li Xianzhong is indeed vicious and completely uses them as tools.

Zhong Guangdao did not deny it.

Said: "It is naturally impossible for my prince to engage in loss-making business. The first batch of food and military supplies given to you is to be used in exchange for Hami Guards."

"Then if you need food and military supplies, you can use Turpan or other places to exchange them."

"As for how much to change, it's up to you!"

The last few people discussed it. Although Li Xianzhong was ambitious, this was their only choice at the moment!

The Western Region is the traditional territory of our Han family. It would be a good thing if they could take it back from the Mongols.

As long as their territory is large enough, it might not be a bad idea to give some of it to Li Xianzhong in exchange for food and armaments.

Maybe they can carve out a world in the Western Region like Yelu Dashi did back then!

Supply in the Western Regions was very difficult, and even Li Xianzhong could not provide them with much food.

Therefore, Li Zicheng and others eliminated the old and weak, and took 30,000 elites to embark on the Western Expedition.

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(End of this chapter)