Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 228 Li Dingguo

Just as Jin Shengheng and Li Chengdong were expanding their military forces and preparing to attack Meng Jun, Li Dingguo in Quanzhou reorganized his military forces and then continued to march north.

In this turbulent era, Li Dingguo was like a bright star, crossing the sky at high speed, and the Huguang battlefield was his highlight moment.

On the day the army left Quanzhou, there were more than 50,000 infantry and cavalry, with flags fluttering and a formidable momentum. Li Dingguo led his army and headed straight for Yongzhou. In less than a day, they broke into Yongzhou, rested for a day, and then headed north again, conquered Qiyang, and killed Ma Yang, a general under Kong Youde, who was guarding Qiyang.

Without waiting for the enemy to catch their breath, Li Dingguo led his army to successively capture Qidong and Hengyang cities. The garrison commander of Hengyang was the surrendered general Song Rong. Seeing Li Dingguo's aggressive momentum, he was frightened and fled to Hengshan city. Li Dingguo's troops entered Hengyang without a single casualty. The victory report was delivered to Anlong Prefecture every day. Li Dingguo's reputation became an astonishing sensation. People all said that Li Dingguo was a famous general in the world and a pillar of the country.

Emperor Yongli and his ministers were overjoyed, and generous gifts and rewards were sent to the Huguang front from time to time. Sun Kewang was unhappy when he heard the news.

Li Dingguo had only sent scouts to Hengshan City, but Song Rong was so frightened that he abandoned the city and fled to Zhuzhou, leaving behind an empty city.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the garrison commander of the neighboring Hengdong City surrendered and expressed his allegiance to Li Dingguo. At this moment, Li Dingguo's reputation reached its peak, and his army was like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, invincible and unstoppable.

As Li Dingguo won victory after victory, his reputation rose rapidly, like the blazing sun in the sky, and his prestige gradually surpassed that of Sun Kewang, the leader of the Western Army.

Whenever battle reports came, Li Dingguo's name was like a dazzling light that pierced Sun Kewang's heart. Sun Kewang's subordinates talked about it, saying that the King of Jin only knew to send victory reports to Anlong Mansion and had no regard for the King of Qin.

Although Sun Kewang refuted the remarks of his generals, when he looked at the battle reports and the words of praise from the world, the flames of jealousy began to gradually emerge in Sun Kewang's heart. Once the seeds of jealousy are planted, they will take root in the heart and will be difficult to eradicate.

When Li Dingguo was preparing to march straight to Changsha, Sun Kewang used the excuse of insufficient food and grass to order Li Dingguo to stop advancing and temporarily stay in Hengshan City. Li Dingguo's reply to Sun Kewang in a letter was too radical, saying that this was the time for a decisive battle and the army must not stop.

Afterwards, Li Dingguo collected military supplies on the spot and then led his troops north. In Zhuzhou, his general Li Yangxing and Song Rong who had fled there defended the city. Li Dingguo arrived at the city and besieged it for two days. Song Rong killed Li Yangxing, opened the city and surrendered.

When Kong Youde saw that Li Dingguo's troops had arrived at Zhuzhou, he sent a series of letters asking for help to Hauge's troops, who were still in Sichuan to suppress the Ming army. In Sichuan, Hauge had already pacified Zunyi, Kuizhou, Maozhou, Rongchang, Longchang, Fushun, Neijiang, and Baoyang counties.

The situation in Sichuan had gradually stabilized. Due to the continuous wars in Sichuan, social production had almost completely stopped and the supply of food and wages could not be solved. Hauge had to stop there and wanted to lead the Manchu and Han armies back to Beijing via Shaanxi, leaving only Wang Zuntan, Li Guoying and other surrendered generals to garrison Sichuan. When Hauge was preparing to withdraw his troops, he received a letter from Kong Youde asking for help. Although the army had been fighting for more than two years and the soldiers were exhausted, Hauge was still determined to leave Sichuan to help the Huguang battlefield.

Changsha was an important city, Kong Youde did not abandon the city and flee, but decided to defend Changsha. After Li Dingguo arrived in Changsha, he surrounded the city from all sides. Faced with the dense Ming army under the city, Kong Youde was desperate and drove all the people in the city to the city wall for defense to strengthen his momentum. The few remaining troops in his hands were responsible for guarding the key areas of the city defense, trying to hold on and wait for reinforcements.

After three days of fierce attack, the morale of the people in the city was low. Kong Youde saw that the situation was irreversible and prepared to escape from the city. However, Li Dingguo's troops were surrounded on all sides, and Kong Youde had no chance to escape. It was not until he heard that the south city gate had been breached that Kong Youde fled back to the government office. In the inner hall, he gathered all the property he had obtained and then set himself on fire.

After conquering Changsha, the situation eased a bit, and Li Dingguo held a banquet to celebrate the victory. He said to the attendees: "The loyalty and magnanimity of Wen and Zhang (Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie) are enough to glorify the history and add glory to the world, but we do not want such a result for the country." He regarded Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie as his role models.

After receiving Li Dingguo's letter, Sun Kewang flew into a rage. At this time, Li Chengdong's memorial requesting to be crowned king arrived at Anlong Prefecture. After discussion, Emperor Yongli and his ministers decided to agree to Li Chengdong's request and confer the title of King of Zhennan on Li Chengdong. This further irritated Sun Kewang. Until Changsha Prefecture was conquered and Kong Youde committed suicide by burning himself, Sun Kewang could no longer bear it.

Afterwards, Sun Kewang led his army back to Anlong Prefecture, killed more than ten Ming officials, and took control of the government. He waved the banner of the Yongli Emperor and "held the emperor hostage to command the princes." Sun Kewang quickly seized the power of the Yongli court and became the de facto military and political leader. The Wu and Chu parties, which were extremely fierce in the Yongli court, were silent at this time because Sun Kewang really knew how to kill people.

At this point, even if Meng Jun agreed to give up Nanjing, Sun Kewang would never agree. After taking control of the court, Sun Kewang took the Yongli court hostage and retreated to Kunming, Yunnan, intending to use Yunnan as his base to realize his own ambitions.

After arriving in Yunnan, Sun Kewang decided to implement land reforms in Yunnan. In the past, the landlords' policy towards the people was that they would take six points of the harvest from the fields, and the people would take four points. After Sun Kewang came, this situation changed. The Dashi Army would take four points, but the people could take six points. If you were a tenant, you had to give one point to the landlord.

The only ones who suffered heavy losses were the landlords, but no one dared to resist under the butcher knife of the Western Army. If anyone resisted, the entire family would be massacred. After Sun Kewang's troops occupied a large area of land in Yunnan, he began to vigorously reorganize military affairs and announced that wherever the army passed, it would be ensured that no one would be alarmed.

Anyone in the Western Army who took something from the people would be beheaded immediately. But if the people did not report it, they would be held responsible for the same crime as the soldier. Even local officials would be implicated.

Moreover, Sun Kewang did not allow his subordinates to kill innocent people in Yunnan and guaranteed fairness, which made the Dashi Army gradually gain the hearts of the people in Yunnan.

The fact that Sun Kewang kidnapped Emperor Yongli and moved the capital to Kunming caused a lot of discussion in various parts of the south. Many gentry said that Sun Kewang had evil ambitions. The situation in the world was so good, but he actually moved the emperor's capital to the southwest, which was a reckless act. However, no amount of discussion could change the facts that had already been established.