Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 474: 1 Unification (5)

It's another new year, the fourth year of the Yongli reign. The flames of war in the Central Plains finally saw a glimmer of hope at the end of the war, and the war was finally beginning to move away from the Central Plains.

Wu Sangui had a boring New Year in Kunming. Fang Guangchen had not returned yet, but an urgent letter had arrived first. Fang Guangchen described Meng Jun's decision in detail to Wu Sangui.

After reading the letter, Wu Sangui flew into a rage and shouted, "How dare you insult me like this!"

Wu Sangui believed that even if Guanzhong was lost, he still occupied Sichuan, Yunnan and Hanzhong, and had an army of more than 60,000. If it were the Qing Dynasty, he could have chosen any title of king. But Meng Jun was so stingy that he only gave him the title of marquis. According to Fang Guangchen, this was the result of his insistence.

The day after the New Year, Wu Sangui gathered all the generals together and said to them angrily: "Meng Jun is unworthy of being the ruler of a region. I control several provinces in the southwest and have nearly 100,000 soldiers. I want to return him, but he actually deprives me of my title as a reward. How can such a harsh ruler rule the world!"

All the generals in the hall looked at each other in bewilderment. Now that Meng Zhou is at the peak of his power, everyone thought that the world would be peaceful and everyone could live in peace. But why did the prince seem to want to fight again?

General Wei Zhiping looked around inconspicuously, then asked with a stiff upper lip: "My Lord, I wonder what conditions the North has given?"

Wu Sangui looked at him unhappily and threw the letter away. Wei Zhiping hurried forward and picked up the letter. He read it quickly and then passed the letter to the generals.

Zhang Jian, Guo Hongwei, Tong Shisheng, Zhang Guozhong, Fu Wenyuan and other generals gathered together to read the letter for a long time. The letter directly stated that the prince would be promoted to marquis, and the generals would accept the reorganization of Zhou army. All in all, the generals of Wu army were not satisfied with this condition.

After seeing the generals finish reading the letter, Wu Sangui said in a bad tone: "Meng Jun's words are all accusing me of opening the gate, but he doesn't think about it. I am isolated and helpless, and Li Zicheng is aggressive. If I don't go to Dorgon, who else can I go to? Should I go to him, Meng Jun?"

At this point, Wu Sangui became angry again and said, "When I was fighting on the battlefield, I didn't know where Meng Jun was. When I was conferred the title of Ping Xibo, Meng Jun was still a playboy. Well, since you don't want to settle it peacefully, let's just fight!"

Fu Wenyuan stepped forward and advised Wu Sangui: "Your Highness, our army is now confronting the Li thief. If the army returns, the Li thief will definitely counterattack Kunming. Once the army is left behind, regardless of whether Kunming can be defended, even the returning army will not be enough to fight against Zhou's army."

Guo Hongwei also said: "Yes, Your Majesty, the Zhou army has more than 200,000 soldiers in Guanzhong. These are real forces, not just a title. Moreover, Lin Shiqi's subordinates have fought in the Battle of Huguang. We also participated in that battle. It was a very tragic battle. They are not soft persimmons!"

Wei Zhiping also said from behind Guo Hongwei: "Zhao Yongping's army is not weak either. They fought in the Northern Expedition and even drove away the Eight Banners. They are also strong troops!"

"Yes, yes, now the King of Zhou has occupied most of the world, the north, the southeast, Huguang, and we have even lost Guanzhong..."

The generals of the Wu army spoke one after another, implicitly and implicitly talking about the advantages of the Zhou army, as if the chances of winning a battle against them were slim. Wu Sangui's face turned pale and blue after hearing these words.

Seeing the generals getting more and more excited, Wu Sangui angrily slammed the table and cursed, "Enough!"

Everyone was shocked and immediately stopped talking, bowed and apologized.

Wu Sangui said bitterly: "Meng Jun is only willing to reward me with a marquisate, and I am only a small marquisate. What good can you get? If you surrender like this, the army will be scattered and divided by Meng Jun. In the future, whether we are united or not is up to him."

At this point, Wu Sangui looked around at the generals, his eyes were so sharp that they lowered their heads. Seeing that everyone lowered their heads, Wu Sangui said with some satisfaction: "Meng Zhou is powerful, I admit it, but if we surrender without any temper, then Meng Jun will still look up to us. I have decided that we must fight with Zhou Jun and let them see that we are not drunkards!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment. They didn't expect that the prince would really fight. Fu Wenyuan felt uneasy and hurriedly advised: "Prince Zhou is young and successful. If the prince offends him, I'm afraid that he will not be able to surrender when the time comes."

After hearing this, Wu Sangui said angrily, "How outrageous!"

Fu Wenyuan realized that he had said the wrong thing and apologized again and again, saying that it was an unintentional mistake.

Guo Hongwei stepped forward and said, "Of course I know what the prince means, but the gap between the two armies is huge. If we make a mistake, in the future..."

The words were not spoken out loud, but the meaning was naturally heard by everyone. If they lost, there would be no need to say more, whether they were good or bad, they would be at the mercy of others. But if they won, it would not necessarily be all good. It was possible that they could negotiate the conditions, but it was also possible that Meng Jun could not let go of his face and had to fight to the death with the Wu army.

The generals tried to persuade Wu Sangui, but seeing that he looked unhappy, they all stopped talking. Wu Sangui was also a little frustrated when he saw that the generals were demoralized, but he was unwilling to surrender just like that.

While the Wu army, from the commander-in-chief to the generals at all levels, were all uneasy about the return of Zhou, Li Dingguo on the opposite side was not idle.

At this time, the Wu army no longer had much desire to attack Li Dingguo and the Yongli court. Therefore, after the death of General Wu Zhimao, they basically did not attack again and instead maintained a defensive position.

Wu Sangui did not have only one main camp. There were more than ten small camps in the opposing areas, such as Qiaotou Mountain, Leida Mountain, and Xishan, to cover the main camp in the rear.

Just one and a half months after the armies of Wu and Li ceased fighting, on the night of the seventh day of the first lunar month, Li Dingguo led 3,000 troops, divided into six groups, with more than 500 men in each group, and took advantage of the night to raid the Wu camp.

Three camps of Wu's army were careless in their defenses and were broken into by Li's army, while the other three camps were well defended and did not suffer much loss. In just one night, Wu's army lost more than 2,000 soldiers and three camps were burned down by Li's army.

Wu Sangui was furious, not because of the loss of soldiers and camps, but because if Li Dingguo kept harassing the rear, then his desire to fight Zhou's army with all his heart would be in vain.