Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1198 The situation is not good
After Mu Tianbo ran to Wuding, he was temporarily out of danger and joined his army in Wuding.

However, Mu Tianbo suffered unprecedented losses during this escape. Not to mention that his 800 elite servants were almost all lost in the Kunming Incident and the subsequent escape, there were only less than 20 people left who followed him to Wuding, and all of them were injured.

You have to know that his 800 elite soldiers are not ordinary troops, but the elite soldiers of the Qianguo Mansion, most of whom are the family sons of the Qianguo Mansion! There are also many children of the Mu family's side branches. The Qianguo Dukes of all generations have been able to sit in Yunnan and suppress the local areas, relying not only on status, power and influence, but more importantly, on the army commanded by these 800 elite family soldiers. Now this elite is completely disabled, how can Mu Tianbo not feel distressed?
That’s not all. Mu Tianbo’s mother Li and his wife Jiao are also gone. Along with them, other elderly and weak family members of the Mu family also committed suicide. These are Mu Tianbo’s closest relatives!
As the Duke of Qian, how could Mu Tianbo have suffered such a disastrous defeat? He himself almost lost his life. When he thought of this, Mu Tianbo gnashed his teeth at Sha Dingzhou and wished he could skin this guy alive.

revenge! revenge!
Mu Tianbo's mind was full of revenge. He wanted to lead his troops back to Kunming and twist off Sha Dingzhou's head and kick it like a ball. However, his remaining rationality told Mu Tianbo that it was far from the point of counterattack. Although he was temporarily safe, he only had 3,000 troops in Wuding, and this army was short of food and fodder, and its weapons were only ordinary. In addition, after a series of changes in Kunming, the surrounding areas of Kunming fell into the hands of Sha Dingzhou one after another, and the morale of the army was not high.

With these people, it would be difficult to defend Wuding, let alone fight back to Kunming. Wuding was originally Wubikui's territory. After Wubikui rebelled, Mu Tianbo gathered troops to repel him. The final battle was fought in Wuding. Wuding suffered heavy losses under the war. In addition, Wubikui's remnants had not been completely wiped out in Wuding. His army in Wuding was not elite, but just an ordinary army responsible for cleaning up the place after the war and eliminating the remnants.

So from a practical point of view, Wuding is not a place to stay for long. If Sha Dingzhou leads his troops to attack, Mu Tianbo has no confidence in defending Wuding with the troops he has and the complicated situation in Wuding.

If Wuding cannot be defended, Mu Tianbo will be unable to escape, just like Wu Bikui, who will only end up committing suicide.

So after Mu Tianbo arrived in Wuding, he gathered his troops and prepared to march to the southwest, which was Chuxiong where Sha Dingzhou originally thought he would go.

Going to Chuxiong was in Mu Tianbo's plan. If it wasn't for getting rid of Sha Dingzhou's pursuers, Mu Tianbo's first choice would be Chuxiong instead of Wuding. Because in Chuxiong there were not only 10,000 elite Ming troops, but also Yunnan's deputy envoy Yang Weizhi.

As long as Mu Tianbo arrives in Chuxiong and joins up with Yang Weizhi, he will have an army of 13,000 people. In addition, the local situation in Chuxiong is much better than that in Wuding. Although Yang Weizhi is a civil servant, he is a man who knows military affairs. He once served under Sun Chuanting and participated in the war between Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou to encircle and suppress bandits. He is both civil and military, a rare talent among officials.

After assessing the situation, Mu Tianbo quickly made a decision and took the initiative to give up Wuding and head to Chuxiong.

It has to be said that Mu Tianbo was lucky. Just as he led his troops to leave Wuding and quickly moved his troops to the west, planning to head west from Wuding to Yuanmou first, and then go south from Yuanmou to Chuxiong, the Sha Dingzhou troops, which had been silent for the past few days, suddenly moved. Sha Dingzhou dispatched nearly 10,000 people, who marched northward from Luoci and attacked Wuding directly.

Halfway through the journey, Mu Tianbo received intelligence from scouts that Wuding was captured by Sha Dingzhou without much resistance. After capturing Wuding, Sha Dingzhou was furious when he learned that Mu Tianbo had escaped, and he quickly mobilized his troops to chase Yuanmou. In addition, Sha Dingzhou's troops in Kunming also began to stir, and it seemed that they were preparing to march westward from Kunming to Chuxiong. It seemed that Sha Dingzhou had determined that Mu Tianbo's destination was Chuxiong.

The situation was critical, and Mu Tianbo did not dare to be careless. On the one hand, he sent people to Chuxiong to contact Yang Weizhi, informing him of his route and position into Chuxiong, and at the same time reminded Yang Weizhi to prepare for war and guard against the two armies of Sha Dingzhou.

On the other hand, Mu Tianbo asked his men to abandon unnecessary baggage and only carry their weapons and dry food and rush towards Chuxiong. A few days later, Mu Tianbo and his men finally entered the territory of Chuxiong and met up with the scouts sent by Yang Weizhi.

Entering Chuxiong and heading south, when passing Dingyuan, Mu Tianbo refused the kindness of local officials to let him go into the city to rest. After a short rest, he continued to rush to Chuxiong. Finally, in the afternoon of the next day, Mu Tianbo arrived in Chuxiong. When he saw Yang Weizhi who came out of the city to pick him up, Mu Tianbo finally breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help shedding tears.

"Master!"

"Lord Yang..." The two met outside the city gate. Yang Weizhi saluted Mu Tianbo respectfully, but before he could finish the salute, Mu Tianbo hurriedly stepped forward and held Yang Weizhi with both hands.

"You are safe now that you have reached Chuxiong. Thank you for your hard work. I would like to invite you into the city to chat."

"Thank you, Lord Yang..." How proud is Mu Tianbo? His official title is much higher than Yang Weizhi's, but now he said thank you in front of everyone, which surprised those who knew him.

But the situation is different now, and everyone didn't think much about it. They welcomed Mu Tianbo into the city first, settled the troops brought by Mu Tianbo, and then invited Mu Tianbo to stay in the backyard of the Chuxiong prefectural government office. Mu Tianbo, who had not had much rest on the way here, did not look very well now. After settling down, he washed up first, changed his clothes, and then he slightly recovered his original appearance.

"Is the master okay? Lord Yang and several other masters are preparing a banquet for the master in the main hall, and asked me to come down and invite him." Just after he finished washing up, someone asked outside. Mu Tianbo answered and asked the other party to wait, and he would come over soon. After calming down, Mu Tianbo tried his best to look the same as usual, then he pushed the door and walked out of the room, heading towards the main hall in front.

When they arrived at the central hall, Yang Weizhi was already waiting there. Besides him, there were several generals including Long Zaitian and Lu Yongming. These people were officials of the Ming Dynasty in Yunnan. Especially Long Zaitian and Lu Yongming were not only powerful generals appointed by the court, but also chieftains and were loyal to the court.

When everyone heard the footsteps, they looked up and saw that it was Mu Tianbo coming, and they quickly stood up to greet him.

Seeing this, Mu Tianbo waved his hand and asked everyone to sit down and talk, but everyone waited until Mu Tianbo sat down at the first seat before taking their seats in turn.

"Now it's different from the past. I can only prepare some light wine. Please don't mind it, sir." Yang Weizhi said, pointing at the banquet in front of him after Mu Tianbo took his seat.

"Lord Yang is thoughtful. This is great." Mu Tianbo said gratefully as he looked at the ordinary dishes on the table. It was great that Yang Weizhi could entertain him like this in such a short time. Moreover, the current situation was different from usual. The enemy was at hand and the situation in Yunnan was difficult. He had fled all the way here, and it was not easy to have such a banquet to welcome him.

Yang Weizhi said politely, stood up to pour wine for Mu Tianbo, and then toasted Mu Tianbo.

Mu Tianbo raised his hand and drank the wine in the glass without waiting for Yang Weizhi to pour more wine. He stood up, took the wine pot, and personally poured wine for everyone present. After pouring the wine, Mu Tianbo said a few words of sincere thanks, and then drank three glasses in a row as a sign of respect.

"Master, please eat some food and drink some wine." Seeing Mu Tianbo's actions, Yang Weizhi couldn't help but sigh in his heart. He already knew the situation in Kunming, and he even heard the news about Mu Tianbo's mother and wife.

Seeing this usually high-spirited and top figure among the Ming nobles now looking so haggard, Yang Weizhi didn't know how to comfort him for a moment.

Nodding, Mu Tianbo picked up the food with chopsticks and ate it. After two bites, he asked, "What's the situation in Shadingzhou? Is there any news from Lord Yang?"

Yang Wei knew: "After the rebels in the north captured Yuanmou, they did not continue to move south. After all, this is Chuxiong, not Wuding. They need to make some preparations if they want to move south. As for the rebels that left Kunming and headed west, they are quite powerful. Today, scouts reported that their vanguard has reached Lufeng. If nothing unexpected happens, they will lead their troops to attack Guangtong. After taking Guangtong, they will attack Chuxiong next."

"How many troops are there from Shadingzhou to Kunming?" Mu Tianbo asked.

"About 20,000 people, which is a large number, and they also carry a lot of artillery and other firearms." Long Zaitian took over the conversation.

"Twenty thousand people, haha, but it's a lot!" Mu Tianbo smiled bitterly and shook his head. Sha Dingzhou's strength was second to none among the chieftains in Yunnan, and he had been preparing secretly over the years. On the surface, Mu Tianbo always thought that the total strength of Sha Dingzhou's troops was only about 17,000 to 18,000 after the annexation of Pu Mingsheng, but it was not until the Kunming Incident that he suddenly discovered that Sha Dingzhou's strength was far beyond his imagination.

Now Sha Dingzhou has nearly 10,000 troops stationed in Wuding, and nearly 20,000 troops have been sent from Kunming. These two forces add up to nearly 30,000 troops. If we add the troops stationed in his old nest and Kunming, I'm afraid the total number of Sha Dingzhou's troops has exceeded 40,000. If we add the other chieftain troops who have surrendered to Sha Dingzhou and are used by him, this guy may be able to pull out an army of 70,000 to 80,000.

Such a powerful military force is far greater than that of Wubikui who rebelled before. Wubikui only claimed to have an army of 50,000, but Sha Dingzhou's actual military strength was close to this number. If others were added, it would be no problem to claim to have an army of 100,000 or even 200,000.

More importantly, Long Zaitian specifically mentioned that Sha Dingzhou's army also carried a lot of artillery, muskets and other firearms. Mu Tianbo knew where these things came from. Sha Dingzhou suddenly launched a mutiny in Kunming and fled in a panic. After he captured Kunming, all the supplies in the city became Sha Dingzhou's spoils of war, and the firearms in the military warehouse were all lost to the enemy. Otherwise, where did Sha Dingzhou, a mere chieftain, get these firearms?

(End of this chapter)