Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 445: Changes in Sichuan

Wu Sangui has been having trouble sleeping recently because the news from the north is very bad. At least for Wu Sangui, it is extremely bad news. Even a great victory in Sichuan could not make Wu Sangui sleep better.

Meng Jun's Northern Expedition was smooth sailing. Although it was not as fast as Li Zicheng's entry into Beijing that year, entering Beijing was basically a foregone conclusion. Even Dorgon's personal expedition could not change the situation.

Wu Sangui originally thought that the Qing court had the advantage in cavalry and could at least fight back and forth with Meng Jun on the Hebei Plain. Not to mention holding them back for two or three years, it would not have resulted in such a situation in just half a year.

At this time, after Wu Sangui took over northern Sichuan, he had been fighting with Liu Wenxiu for Sichuan. After Liu Wenxiu was defeated by Li Guohan in Baoning, his military strength declined greatly, and his army of 48,000 people was reduced to more than 20,000 after retreating to Tongchuan.

At this time, Wu Sangui's territories included Xiangyang Prefecture, Nanyang Prefecture, Shaanxi, Hanzhong, and even northern Sichuan. His power had greatly increased, and the troops that entered Sichuan alone had more than 60,000 people. In the battle with Liu Wenxiu in central Sichuan, Wu's army won more victories than losses. By the time Meng Jun besieged Cangzhou, Liu Wenxiu had retreated to Xuzhou Prefecture. Wu's army launched a fierce offensive, aiming at Yunnan.

Just when Liu Wenxiu was defeated, there was a struggle within the Yongli court. Zhang Yanchen was appointed as the commander-in-chief, leading two generals, Bai Wenxuan and Ma Weixin, to enter Sichuan to control the situation in the entire province.

Generals Bai and Ma originally surrendered to Li Dingguo. This strategy of the Yongli court could reduce the power of Li Dingguo and increase the power of the court. It was actually a strategy that killed two birds with one stone.

After Zhang Yanchen entered Sichuan and met up with Liu Wenxiu, the Ming army already had more than 34,000 soldiers. However, Zhang Yanchen, who had just taken control of the military power, felt complacent when he saw the mighty army.

Wu Sangui stationed his troops in the Luzhou area, and Zhang Yanchen, facing Wu Sangui's army, formulated a three-pronged attack strategy overnight, intending to encircle Luzhou from three directions.

As a result, this strategy was strongly opposed by Liu Wenxiu, Bai Wenxuan and Ma Weixin. The three of them firmly stated that they could only hold a defensive posture and attack only when there was a change in the Wu army or an opportunity arose.

However, Zhang Yanchen believed that the three men all had the intention of maintaining a vassal state and intended to preserve their military strength and keep the enemy in their care. Moreover, Zhang Yanchen had finally been appointed as the commander-in-chief, and if he did not make outstanding contributions, how could he face his colleagues in the court?

But now all three of them expressed their opposition, and Zhang Yanchen was helpless. However, Zhang Yanchen also had a way. He wrote to Yongli again and again, and asked for the royal flag and the imperial sword. In the name of the righteousness of the court, Zhang Yanchen forced the three to send troops.

Although Liu Wenxiu, Bai Wenxuan and Ma Weixin were forced to send troops, they marched slowly and defended themselves strictly along the way. However, when Wu Sangui heard that the Ming army was attacking with inferior forces, he was overjoyed and immediately assembled more than 50,000 cavalry and infantry to fight against the Ming army.

After receiving the news that Wu Sangui had sent troops, Liu Wenxiu looked unhappy, as did the two men on Bai Ma. However, Zhang Yanchen was different. He was overjoyed and shouted, "Today is the best time to defeat the bandits!"

Liu Wenxiu and others did not appreciate Zhang Yanchen's passionate words. They thought that instead of defeating the enemy, they would be defeated by them.

Zhang Yanchen continued, "As the old saying goes, 'Misfortune is the root of fortune, and fortune is the root of misfortune. The Wu bandits are relying on their bravery to advance recklessly, but they are actually an exhausted army, how can they last long?'"

Ma Weixin said helplessly: "Commander-in-chief, Wu Sangui's troops have twice the strength of our army. We should maintain a defensive position and not underestimate the enemy!"

Zhang Yanchen snorted angrily and said, "This is talk that will disrupt the morale of the army. I know for sure that the Wu bandits are just a mob and cannot hold out for long. Therefore, I have a better plan. We only need to lure the enemy deep into our territory, divide our forces to attack their food supplies, cut off their retreat, and then surround and attack them from both sides. The bandits will surely become chaotic. By then, we will be able to capture Wu Sangui and make a name for ourselves. Wouldn't that be great!"

Hearing this, Liu Wenxiu felt like he was about to faint. The Wu army had twice the number of troops, and this commander actually came up with a plan to encircle and attack them from both ends. Wasn't this a crazy idea?

Zhang Yanchen made ambitious plans, hoping to take advantage of Wu Sangui's underestimation of the enemy and his reckless advance to stage a good show of capturing and killing the enemy leader.

However, the gap between theory and practice often exceeds Zhang Yanchen's imagination. Before Zhang Yanchen could implement his plan, Wu Sangui's troops took the lead in attacking. Wu's army first used cavalry to monitor outside and harassed the Ming army from time to time.

When the main force of Wu's army arrived, Liu Wenxiu was determined to hold on, but Zhang Yanchen believed that Wu Sangui must be exhausted as he had come from such a long distance, and it was time to launch a large-scale attack.

Afterwards, Zhang Yanchen asked for the royal flag and forced the Ming army to fight. As expected, at the beginning of the battle, the seemingly balanced situation suddenly tilted.

Wu Sangui took advantage of his own military advantage to launch wave after wave of attacks. At the same time, he sent Xia Guoxiang and Wu Zhimao to attack the Ming army from both wings. The encirclement planned by Zhang Yanchen turned into a counter-encirclement.

The situation took a sharp turn for the worse. Liu Wenxiu, Ma Weixin and others witnessed the scene and were extremely anxious. They all went to the front to try to stabilize the front line.

The Wu army was pressing forward step by step. Faced with a critical situation, Zhang Yanchen realized that his previous optimistic estimate was too naive. In frustration, he immediately ordered a retreat.

The order came so quickly that even Liu Wenxiu and others had no time to stop it. The three were still commanding the battle at the front line when the order to retreat suddenly came from behind. Many soldiers looked back and saw that the commander-in-chief's flag had already fled backwards. For a moment, morale plummeted and the entire army collapsed before their eyes.

However, this was just the beginning. After Zhang Yanchen escaped first, Liu Wenxiu, Ma Weixin and Bai Wenxuan each led the remnants to flee, while Wu Sangui took advantage of the victory and divided his troops to pursue, giving the Ming army no chance to breathe.

After several days of pursuit, the Ming army suffered heavy casualties. Liu Wenxiu led more than a thousand remaining soldiers to flee to Yunnan. Bai Wenxuan barely escaped, Ma Weixin surrendered to Wu, and the instigator Zhang Yanchen returned to the Kunming court unharmed.

Faced with such a situation, Zhang Yanchen presented a memorial to the Emperor Yongli. His words were eloquent and his defense talent was like a spring: "I went to the enemy with the ambition to defeat the bandits, hoping to wipe out Wu Chou and restore the sun to the sky. However, although my plan was careful, I did not know that people's hearts were unpredictable, which led to the defeat of the army and the humiliation of the country.

Liu, Ma, Bai and others are in high positions but forget their duties. They do not obey military orders. The soldiers are disunited and each serves his own master. How can we win the battle? Moreover, Ma has been rebellious for a long time. He turned against us in the battle, causing chaos in our army. This is not the fault of me, but the fault of the army. If the soldiers had sworn to serve the country to the death, the outcome might still be unknown. "

Between the lines, Zhang Yanchen showed his skill of shirking responsibility, pushing all the responsibility for the defeat onto others. However, after Li Dingguo heard the detailed explanations of Liu Wenxiu and Bai Wenxuan, he became furious and strongly demanded that Emperor Yongli severely punish Zhang Yanchen.

Upon hearing this, Yongli ordered his ministers to discuss Zhang Yanchen's crime and asked Li Dingguo to send troops to stop Wu Sangui from continuing his southward advance.

Just when the Yongli court believed that Wu Sangui would continue to rush into Yunnan, Wu Sangui stopped after defeating Zhang Yanchen, because Beijing had been captured by Meng Jun and the situation in the world had changed drastically!