Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 386 The Situation in Central Sichuan

Sichuan.

When Sun Kewang and Li Dingci were at war, Liu Wenxiu thought that the two would trigger a protracted civil war, so in order to avoid the fight between the two, Liu Wenxiu asked to go to Sichuan.

When Liu Wenxiu first entered Sichuan, the progress was smooth. Wusa and Zhenxiong prefectures were successively recovered. He then continued to move north, attacked Xuzhou prefecture, and killed Nan Yikui, the Xuzhou general, in Nanxi.

He then led his troops westward and stationed them in Rong County, and ordered Yuan Tao and Wu Dading to go to Rong County to accept Liu Jun's command.

The ones who occupied Jiading Prefecture were Yuan Tao and Wu Dading. Although they were still Ming generals, they had long regarded Jiading as their own private territory. Therefore, they refused to accept orders and instead gathered 20,000 troops to attack Rong County.

When Liu Wenxiu entered Sichuan, his troops had only 30,000 people, but after capturing the three prefectures of Wusa, Zhenxiong and Xuzhou, he gained more than 8,000 Ming troops, rebel troops, and local bandits, and Liu Wenxiu's troops did not suffer too much loss.

Liu Wenxiu saw that Yuan Tao and Wu Dading were coming with great force, so if he attacked head-on, his troops would suffer heavy losses, and the motley crowd he recruited could not be relied upon. Rong County was a small city with no moat, so Liu Wenxiu decided to withdraw from Rong County, but before evacuating, he dug a secret passage inside the city to the outside.

Five days later, Yuan Tao and Wu Dading led their troops to Rong County. Seeing Liu Wenxiu withdraw from Rong County, they were very proud. After entering Rong County that day, they drank heartily and found several beautiful women and partied all night.

Liu Wenxiu sent elite soldiers to sneak into the city through a secret passage. Yuan Tao's troops were not well prepared and there were only a few soldiers guarding the city walls. Liu's army took the opportunity to open the city walls. Liu Wenxiu first rushed into the city with 300 cavalrymen, followed closely by infantrymen.

When Wu Dading heard the news, he fled out of the city without even having time to put on his pants. As for Yuan Tao, his whole body was sore and his legs were shaking. He fell off his horse while fleeing and was captured by Liu Jun.

Wu Dading fled to Jingyan, intending to seek refuge with Zhu Hualong in Maozhou, but was worried that he would not be tolerated by Zhu Hualong for killing Yang Zhan. Liu Wenxiu sent troops to chase him to Renshou. Wu Dading saw that the situation was irresistible, so he surrendered to Liu Wenxiu.

At this point, Liu Wenxiu had basically wiped out southern Sichuan. His entire army, together with the surrendered troops, totaled more than 55,000 people. Liu Wenxiu reorganized his troops in Rong County for ten days, then marched north to Renshou, preparing to recapture Chengdu.

Chengdu was almost a deserted city at this time. Liu Wenxiu easily captured Chengdu. However, the area of Chengdu was sparsely populated and full of tigers and wild beasts. Several members of Liu's army were killed by wild beasts.

Due to the sparse population, it was impossible to support the army. Liu Wenxiu could only leave 200 soldiers in Chengdu, and then turned eastward to seize Tongchuan Prefecture. Along the way, he killed more than ten generals who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Liu Wenxiu's reputation soared for a while, and many counties and prefectures along the way surrendered.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Qing court's Dingxi General Gushan Ezhen Li Guohan, Sichuan Governor Li Guoying and others urgently ordered the Qing troops in various places to "retreat north to ensure safety."

Li Guohan even planned to abandon Sichuan and retreat to Hanzhong. They sent someone to notify the inspector Hao Yu in Baoning to evacuate as soon as possible.

At that time, the Qing army in Baoning had only more than 2,000 soldiers led by General Hui Yingzhao, but Hao Yu refused to leave. He warned Li Guohan and others of the consequences of abandoning Sichuan without authorization by saying, "If you don't die at the hands of the enemy, you will die at the hands of the law."

In order to persuade Li Guohan, Li Guoying and others to change their minds, Hao Yu wrote a letter overnight, appealing to their reason and feelings. The letter said: "Northern Sichuan is the gateway to Hanzhong. Without Northern Sichuan, Hanzhong will be in danger. General, you have been entrusted with a heavy responsibility by the southwest, how can you abandon it? Now the Qin troops are scattered, and the Shu bandits are swarming. If Baoning is lost, Hanzhong will not be safe, and Shaanxi will also be in danger!"

After receiving the letter, Li Guohan immediately called Wang Zuntan and Li Guoying to discuss the matter.

The three men agreed that if they gave up Sichuan without authorization, the court would hold them accountable in the future and they would all be doomed to death. At this time, Zhao Yongping had just sworn to lead the Northern Expedition from Huai'an. In the eyes of Wang, Li and others, the Qing Dynasty was still the strongest force in the world.

Therefore, Li Guohan gathered all the garrisons from various places in Baoning, and there were more than 20,000 defenders in Baoning City.

The invincible situation along the way made Liu Wenxiu underestimate the enemy. He believed that since Meng Jun could defeat Duoduo in Huguang, there was no need to worry about the remnants of Baoning. The recovery of Baoning would be just around the corner.

In order to prevent the Qing army in Baoning from escaping, Liu Wenxiu divided his troops to capture Zitong, Jiange, and control Jiameng Pass, Liangshan Pass and other large and small passes, cutting off all the Qing army's retreat routes. However, this move also further dispersed Liu Wenxiu's superior forces.

After arriving at Baoning, Liu Wenxiu's troops still had 48,000 soldiers. Liu Wenxiu's general Wang Fuchen suggested, "We should surround the three sides and leave one side vulnerable. Our army can concentrate its superior forces to attack Baoning's weak points, and avoid the enemy's desperate struggle. Although we cannot annihilate the enemy completely, we can defeat the enemy and recover the entire Sichuan region."

However, Liu Wenxiu wanted to annihilate all the Qing troops, so he rejected Wang Fuchen's suggestion and ordered the entire army to surround the city on all sides, so that Liu's troops would be dispersed and unable to gain an advantage in any direction.

By the end of October, Liu Wenxiu commanded his troops to attack the city. His troops covered the mountains and went down. The sound of artillery shook the sky. They were lined up for fifteen miles from the river bank in the south to Shagouzi in the north. War elephants were in the front row, followed by cannons, muskets, swords and shields, bows and arrows, and spears. They were layered for miles and swarmed over the city.

The cunning Li Guohan keenly discovered that Liu Wenxiu had a relatively weaker unit, which was the surrendered troops of Wu Dading. Li Guohan then concentrated 4,000 main forces and went out of the city to attack Wu Dading's troops.

Wu Dading was unable to withstand the attack of the Qing army and fled in disarray. The defeated soldiers also threw the neighboring troops of Wang Fuchen and others into chaos.

Li Guohan was overjoyed upon seeing this, and took the opportunity to command a surprise attack on the Qing army in pursuit. The Ming army's formation was in disarray and it collapsed completely. As the pontoon bridge was cut by the soldiers who retreated first, a large number of soldiers were unable to cross the river, and countless soldiers were killed in action or drowned.

Many generals under Liu Wenxiu's command, including Wang Fuchen, General Yao Zhizhen, and Zhang Xianzhen, were killed in the battle, and even Liu Wenxiu's royal seal was seized by the Qing army.

Liu Wenxiu retreated to Tongchuan in a hurry. He was extremely angry at Wu Dading, who was the first to retreat. Moreover, Wu Dading had turned against him and killed Yang Zhan, so Liu Wenxiu beheaded Wu Dading in public.

In this battle, Liu Wenxiu suffered heavy casualties and less than 20,000 troops retreated to Tongchuan. Even if the troops from various passes were withdrawn, Liu Wenxiu's troops were left with only 27,000 men. More importantly, generals Wang Fuchen and Yao Zhizhen were killed, and a large number of elite troops who had marched north from Yunnan were lost.

Therefore, although Liu Wenxiu occupied southern and central Sichuan, he was unable to go north to seize northern Sichuan. The Qing court now focused all its attention on Zhou Jun and Zhao Yongping, so it naturally had no time and no ability to provide reinforcements to Li Guohan and others. The situation in Sichuan once again fell into a stalemate.