Bright Spring

Although Mu Sheng's Department is responsible for the rich western Sichuan plain and the important task of managing the defense of northern Sichuan, it must defend Jiannan Pass, advance in Hanzhong, and guard against Shaanxi; however, Zhu Gaoxu and the generals of the governors agreed that the biggest threat to Sichuan comes from Huguang in the east. .Therefore, the heavy soldiers who stayed in Sichuan were in the hands of Qu Neng.

Zhu Gaoxu and others rode into the city, but there was no sign of a great battle at the gate or on the wall.It seems that Qu Neng took the city without much effort.

It is said that at the end of the Song Dynasty, there were many fortresses in Chongqing, which resisted the attacks of the Mongolian and Yuan troops for many years, among which Diaoyu City is the most famous.The complex terrain here did not stop the march of the King of Han's army at this time.

After all, Zhu Gaoxu is not an alien invasion|invasion.The troops in Chongqing Fucheng are empty and the hearts of the people are scattered. The key is that Xue Lu also ran away!

"West Sichuan worships Taoism and Confucianism, and produces literati; here respects ghosts and martial arts, and produces generals." Qu Neng said a few words from time to time along the way, expressing his experience as a military officer in Sichuan for many years, "The terrain is undulating and rugged, yes, I I just love to eat fish, and my favorite is sea fish! I also like the sea, but it’s a pity that it’s just sealed to the farthest place from the sea. You say this... how can people’s wishes be fulfilled in the world?”

Everyone stopped talking about military affairs, and talked about all kinds of food. Both Qu Neng and Liu Ying talked about the food that impressed them the most.All local snacks.

After finishing the meal, Zhu Gaoxu left the table and said suddenly: "By the way, Liu Dudu's infantry formation is quite good. In the Battle of Taiping Field, the column and the horizontal team alternately changed, and when the military order was not delivered smoothly in the evening, let the army I admire it very much.

However, in the defense of eastern Sichuan, I still agree with General Qu's deployment.General Qu is right, you have to take the responsibility on your own; if I interfere too much with you, how can I let you take all the responsibility? "

He paused and then said with a pleasant face: "If the responsibility can be borne by others randomly, who will dare to take it in the future?"

The two generals clasped their fists together in worship.Because we talked about food for a long time and missed our hometown, everyone's anger has completely disappeared, and now there is no longer any dispute.

After eating enough, Zhu Gaoxu walked out of the courtyard again, admiring the riverside scenery at night, watching the lights on the hillside and on the pier, undulating and shining, showing the curve created by the Creator.He couldn't help sighing: "There are so many beautiful mountains and rivers!"

At this moment, Liu Ying walked behind, cupped his fists and said: "The last general is talking too much, please forgive me!"

Zhu Gaoxu turned around, looked at Liu Ying, showed a slight smile, and said: "What's wrong with talking too much? Your opinions are all reasonable. It's not about who is right and who is wrong. Where are the differences..."

Liu Ying said: "The final general would like to hear the details."

Zhu Gaoxu said: "General Qu is someone who has experienced huge failures, but General Liu has not."

Liu Ying's eyes moved upwards, as if thinking about something.

Zhu Gaoxu said again: "I remember saying something to Zhang Fu when I was in An Nanguo. A person with power is easy to inflate himself. Only when he sees a huge failure and is unable to bear it, will he truly understand Know to repent."

Liu Ying bowed deeply and stopped talking.

Miao Jin next to him said: "What the prince said is very interesting."

Zhu Gaoxu said: "It's the same when people are young. For example, if he wants to gamble, his parents can't control him. Only after he has suffered a lot will he understand."

The surrounding fell silent, and Zhu Gaoxu continued to look at the night scene thoughtfully.

Chapter 4 Nineteen

Yunnan chief envoy.In the southern area of ​​Mengzi County, Lin'an Prefecture, the main road extends on the hillside.When people look around, they cannot see the towering mountains, but the extremely wide and extremely long gentle slopes undulate between the sky and the earth, and the surrounding fields are barren, with only grass and sand and gravel everywhere.Except for the military grain trucks that were not visible from front to back, there was no sign of human habitation.

Suddenly, a shout came from the hillside: "The enemy cavalry is attacking!"

There was an uproar in the convoy.On the top of the slope in the distance to the west, figures on horseback turned over the hillside one by one and appeared in people's sight.The sound of horseshoes suddenly sounded, and those horse teams rushed straight!

"Prepare for battle!" the officer general shouted hissingly.

On the long snake-like road, the soldiers following the grain cart shouted in unison to strengthen their momentum!

"Rumble..." The enemy cavalry rushed down from the west mountain, and then attacked on their backs!

There were crackling strings in the distance, followed by screams.Then the thick smoke gradually filled the hillside, and many grain trucks caught fire.The mules, horses and donkeys ran wild in fright, pulling fireworks all over the mountain.The wilderness immediately became noisy, and screams and shouts could be heard everywhere.

A few officers and infantry here are standing behind the two mule carts with gun shields.Suddenly there was a sound of "pa", and the mule let out a scream, and made a "wow" to move forward!A moment later, the two cavalry who came side by side whizzed forward, charged obliquely from the side of the officers and soldiers, and immediately stabbed obliquely from the side with their long spears. "Ah!" An officer and soldier screamed and fell on his back.

An earthen jar plugged with an oilcloth was lit by a torch, and the soaked oilcloth was thrown onto the grain truck. It broke open with a "bang", and the oil inside immediately burned on the grain bag!

After fighting for a while, the sound of horseshoes finally sounded in the northeast direction, and a group of official cavalry rushed over shouting.At this time, the rebel cavalry whistle sounded, and the men and horses turned around and ran westward, running quite fast, and went down the half-hill slope in a short time.

There was smoke everywhere on the long hillside.A troop of cavalry from the government army rushed to the top of the slope to the west, and the angry general of the government army cursed loudly: "Ping An, you stupid coward!"

Unexpectedly, there was a response from a distance: "Don't be ignorant, grandpa is teaching you how to use cavalry!"

The officers and generals were so angry that they were about to vomit blood, but they didn't dare to chase too far for fear of an ambush.

People were busy fighting the fire and people in frustration, and the hillside was in a mess.

After a long time, General Zhang Fu in a red cloak came to this place with a team of troops.Zhang Fu asked: "Ping An came here?"

A general got off his horse and cupped his fists and said, "Commander, the last general shouted Ping'an's name and scolded the battle. Someone replied, but I can't confirm whether it is safe or not."

He lowered his head again and said, "Damn you, the food supply team is walking on the half-hillside here; the general sent scouts to inspect the roads in front and behind, as well as the nearby hillsides, ignoring the mountain opposite to the west. Unexpectedly, the rebels Just at this moment, I got into a basket! It's really strange, why did Ping An know that we were transporting food at this time?"

A general beside Zhang Dashuai said: "The local Yi people."

The general who simply said one sentence was the general Huang Zhong who was rescued from the imperial prison by Zhang Fu.

"Drive!" Zhang Fu yelled, kicked his horse and ran along the hillside to the top of the mountain in the west.When I got to the top of the mountain, there was still a big hillside in front of me, and I couldn't see anything. The rebels had disappeared without a trace!Zhang Fu reined in his horse, still looking into the distance.

Huang Zhong's voice said: "Peace seems to be everywhere! How many horsemen does he have, [-], [-] horsemen?"

Zhang Fu turned his head and glanced at Huang Zhong, "The main force of the King of Han's army is in Sichuan. It's hard to say whether the entire rebel army has fifteen thousand cavalry in total."

Huang Zhong closed his mouth, and after a while, he muttered and complained again: "The commander-in-chief is good at fighting, but he was transferred to this mountain, dealing with erratic cavalry and a group of savages all day long. ?!" He usually speaks Mandarin, but with a strong accent, with the tone of Guangdong and Guangxi.

Zhang Fu ignored him, still thinking about his own situation.

Zhang Fu set off from Thang Long City (Hanoi) of the Cochin Chief Envoy in early November, and he had received the military order from the imperial military department earlier.At that time, Zhang Fu believed that once the main force of the Ming army was transferred away, a rebellion would most likely occur in Qinghua, the western capital of Annan Kingdom.

Therefore, he first handed over the power of Qinghua and other places to the Annan people who surrendered, and ordered all Han people to migrate to Shenglong City; The Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian navy reinforced, shrinking the line of defense to defend the fertile land of the Red River Plain.

On the one hand, he prepared to go out under the imperial edict, and on the other hand, he wrote to the imperial court to describe the local situation in detail, intending to oppose this strategy.The reason why Zhang Fu was unwilling to go north immediately and attack Yunnan in a flank was one very important reason: he felt that the timing was wrong!

The main factor affecting this timing is food.

Because the "Cochin Chief Envoy" had just gone through the war, not long ago, it barely established a government office to rule the various places; and because of the consumption of 10,000+ people of the Ming army a few months ago, the government treasuries of the cities of Cochin have been exhausted !Zhang Fu asked to transfer military rations from Guangxi, but the transfer was insufficient, and the stored rations were far from enough for the army to go out.But last month, the military order of the imperial military department was: send troops from Cochin Province immediately!

Zhang Fu thought of a way and sent people to establish three granary strongholds along the way, and transferred the collected military rations to the north in batches.

One is in Qinzhan, one is on the north bank of Yuanjiang River in the south of Mengzi County, and one is in Mengzi County... A warehouse under construction is in Ami Prefecture (Kaiyuan City).Zhang Fu is still trying to deploy and build a grain road from Tiandong, Guangxi to Amizhou; but the road is complicated, the mountains are high and the road is far away, so far he has not succeeded.

Zhang Fu used this type of food and fodder transfer station as a stronghold, and his nearly [-] troops only traveled less than a thousand miles in more than a month.The further north you go, the more difficult the situation becomes!

...In the mountainous areas of southern Yunnan, most places are areas where barbarians are active, and the government's paper decrees are invalid. What's even more ridiculous is that there is no literate person in some tribes, and they can't understand the decrees at all.The Yunnan defenders also fortified the walls and cleared the fields, transferring or burning all the grain and grass in the treasuries along the way!Zhang Fujun had no choice but to attack the barbarian tribes, and it was very difficult to gather food and grass.

The long-distance transport of grain and fodder from An Nanguo, from the Yuanjiang warehouse to the Mengzi warehouse, was constantly harassed by Ping'an cavalry, causing great losses.There are also various barbarian tribes with strange names, who sent envoys to scold Zhang Fu for not understanding the rules; then they colluded with rebels everywhere and harassed the officers and soldiers together.

Zhang Fu also wants to understand the rules, but so many people want to eat, who the hell cares about the rules?

The situation is dire.Zhang Fu has ordered the third division of the "Jiaozhi Chief Political Envoy" to do his best to increase taxes and collect grain, urging Guangxi to immediately transfer a large amount of grain and grass to the Yuanjiang warehouse as soon as possible.

At present, Zhang Fu's army has arrived in Mengzi County, Lin'an Prefecture, and has completely built the granary and fortifications, and is trying to continue to build the granary of Ami Prefecture in the north.

But after many successful raids by Ping An, Zhang Fu wanted to change his strategy.That is, give up building warehouses!