Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 465: Attack Wu

After Wu Sangui entered Kunming, he found that there was not a single grain of food in the treasury. After a quick investigation, he found out that all the food in the treasury had been distributed to the people of Kunming by Li Dingguo.

Wu Sangui was somewhat unwilling to accept this, so he asked Fang Guangchen for advice: "Tingxian, if I collect the grain released by the western bandits..." Just as he said this, Wu Sangui saw Fang Guangchen's surprised look and hurriedly added: "Of course, I can keep half of it at my discretion, and the people in the city only need to return half. What do you think, Tingxian?"

Fang Guangchen shook his head and said sternly, "No, if Your Majesty only wants to occupy Kunming for a while, you should confiscate all the money and grain in Kunming City. Otherwise, you should not touch the people at all. In addition, Your Majesty should issue a notice to tell the people in the city to reassure them that Your Majesty will never try to distribute grain to Li Dingguo."

Wu Sangui felt somewhat melancholy and sighed, "Alas, what a pity!"

Wu Sangui, who did not get any food in Kunming City, was extremely angry at Li Dingguo for squandering the grain in the storehouse. Therefore, after capturing Kunming, he did not stop pursuing him. After hearing that Yongli was already in Li Dingguo's army, he mobilized his entire army to pursue and kill him with all his might.

The presence of Emperor Yongli in the army restricted Li Dingguo's actions, so Li Dingguo set up a defense line in the Yuxi area and sent Jin Tongwu with 600 elite soldiers to escort Emperor Yongli to Yongchang to accommodate the emperor, palace, court officials, etc.

At the same time, Li Dingguo, in the name of the imperial court, issued an order to Li Chengdong, who was still in Nanning, and Zheng Chenggong in Fujian to support the king.

………………

Beijing city.

That night, the streets of Beijing were pitch black, with only torches lit on the city walls.

Because the capital had just been recovered, Yang En and others were worried that there were still Qing spies in the city who would cause trouble in the capital. Therefore, Yang En implemented a strict curfew, and people were not allowed to walk around freely after dark. The city would not become lively until the curfew was completely lifted.

It was the fifth watch at this time, the Yin hour was almost over, and it was almost dawn, but the city was still silent. Only soldiers were patrolling back and forth on the streets. Today was the same as yesterday, without any abnormality.

At this moment, a burst of hurried horse hoof sounds came, and a small group of messenger cavalry rushed to the Donghua Gate. The leader pulled the reins and shouted: "Military information, extremely urgent, open the gate quickly!"

The defenders on the city wall were a little surprised. Is there anyone in the world who dares to challenge King Zhou's power? However, the defenders did not dare to delay. They first lowered the hanging basket, checked the pass, and then hurriedly opened the city gate.

There was only a small hole in the city gate that was big enough for two people to walk side by side. After the messenger drove his horse through the hole, he galloped in at full speed.

The sound of horse hooves hitting the ground, "da...da da", woke up the people on both sides of the street.

The cavalry galloped all the way and rushed to the palace gate in one breath, only to be stopped by armored soldiers with guns.

The leading cavalryman jumped off his horse, held up the military report and ran towards the palace gate, shouting, "The military situation is urgent, report it to the king immediately!"

Since the capture of Shanhaiguan, the Qing court was still licking its wounds. Meng Jun's military pressure in the north was suddenly reduced a lot, and as for the forces in the south, except for Wu Sangui who was a little troublesome, people like Li Chengdong and Zheng Sen could no longer influence the situation in the world.

The pressure on Meng Jun when facing various forces has been greatly reduced. He no longer has to worry day and night like he did in Jiangnan. Meng Jun has had some free time these days, especially with the arrival of officials such as Yang En and Li Weitai, which has also made Meng Jun's government affairs more relaxed.

Therefore, in the past few days, Meng Jun slept until he woke up naturally, which helped to relax his tense mind that had been tense for many years.

It was only the fifth watch, and Meng Jun was still asleep. At this moment, Yu An called out softly from outside the door: "My king, there is a military emergency!"

He shouted twice, waking Meng Jun from his dream. Meng Jun sat up and said, "Bring it in."

Then Meng Jun stood up, put on a thin outer robe, and took the military report handed over by Yu An.

When he unfolded the video, Meng Jun was slightly stunned. Wu Sangui had invaded Kunming?

Meng Jun quickly finished reading and frowned. Wu Sangui entered Kunming and Yongli fled again. The specific direction of escape was still unknown, but this showed that the ruling foundation of the Yongli court in the southwest was already crumbling.

Once Wu Sangui captured the southwest, his strength would inevitably increase greatly. Although he certainly could not be compared with the Qing court at the time, it would at least add some trouble to Meng Jun's road to unifying the world.

Meng Jun asked Yu An who was standing beside him, "Did the Qingluan Guards in Yunnan area report anything?"

Yu An immediately shook his head and said, "There has been no report in the past two days, but Commander Meng has already entered Kunming."

Meng Jun nodded, then asked Yu An to leave. It seemed that they could not delay any longer and they had to attack Wu Sangui immediately. They could not let Wu Sangui concentrate on conquering Yunnan and Guizhou.

At dawn, before it got bright, the lights in the Council Hall were on. At this time, the ministers in the hall were discussing what was going on.

Li Weitai walked up to Yang En and asked in a low voice, "Lord Yang, the king is calling you urgently. What is it for?"

Yang En was the first person in the civil service group and was more informed. He said in a deep voice, "I don't know what exactly happened, but it should be related to the military report that was just sent into the city."

Everyone around pricked up their ears, and when they heard the word "military report", they all had some guesses in their minds.

The general situation is currently on Meng Zhou's side. Since it is a military report, everyone's first reaction is to know which force the Zhou army has begun to attack.

Everyone guessed that the most likely person was Wu Sangui, because the five firearms troops formed in the Huaibei area some time ago were transferred to Huguang. Now the commander of the Huguang camp, Lin Shiqi, had an army of 140,000 people, and a large amount of military food was also being stockpiled. All this was the prelude to the war.

However, there is also a possibility that Lin Shiqi led his troops south to capture Changsha and the cities to the south in Huguang that were still under the rule of the Ming army.

As everyone was discussing, a guard shouted, "The king has arrived!"

"Silence!" Yang En said in a low voice, and then led everyone to stand in line. In the past, Meng Jun and the shogunate were just a makeshift team, and since they took over the capital, the civil servants began to consciously rebuild order.

Meng Jun was in the main seat and said to all the ministers: "I just received a military report that Wu Sangui has invaded Kunming. Although Li Dingguo was not defeated on the battlefield, from a strategic point of view, Wu Sangui has already gained an advantage. I am worried that if we do not curb him, Wu Sangui may become more powerful!"

The reactions of Yang En and other civil officials to the matter of unifying the country were completely different from when they first heard that Meng Jun wanted to attack Luzon.

Yang En immediately stepped out and said, "Your Majesty, Wu Sangui opened the gates to welcome the invaders. His crime was heinous. We should attack him in accordance with the will of heaven and the people. I agree to send troops south!"

Li Weitai said with full vigor: "Your Majesty, the autumn grain has been collected. If you send troops to the south, I can guarantee that there will be no shortage of food and wages."