Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 464: Changes in Yunnan (5)

In Kunming city.

Meng Bian didn't expect that a simple move would cause Li Dingguo's logistics to be in chaos. Whenever he thought of this, Meng Bian sighed: "The original intention of Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty to use low-level censors to curb high-ranking officials has changed beyond recognition now!"

When Li Dingguo began to retreat, Meng Bian had already begun to prepare for the internal affairs of the Kunming Palace. He was making the final arrangements. If Yongli failed to escape, then Meng Bian would never let Yongli fall into the hands of Wu Sangui.

However, the personnel had just begun to hide, and some key palace servants were bribed and controlled by the Qingluan Guards. Just when everything was going in the direction planned by Meng Bian, Yongli had already fled Kunming.

Meng Bian was stunned when he heard the news, and asked Zhou Zhuo anxiously, "Why didn't the palace send any news?"

Zhou Zhuo was sweating profusely, and replied in disbelief: "Reporting to the Lord, the emperor escaped without taking any palace servants with him. He only took the emperor's seal, the empress dowager, the queen, the prince, more than ten attendants, and more than a hundred Jinyiwei and ran away like that!"

Meng Bian thought that the Ming court was like a sieve. When Wu Sangui entered Kunming and there was chaos in the city, he would send the capable Qingluan Guards to sneak into the palace and carry out this great plan. By then, Wu Sangui would be covered in mud and would be as good as shit.

However, Meng Bian never expected that Emperor Yongli had such a great talent for escaping. Before he could take action, Yongli did not even tell a single official in the court. He first vowed in the court that he would defend Kunming to the death. He just said it yesterday, but he regretted it at dawn and ran away first. Who could have guessed this?

Thinking of this, Meng Bian couldn't help but smile bitterly and said, "What a pity!"

At the beginning, Li Wendao and Meng Bian conspired that the best option would be to let Yongli die in Kunming on the day Wu Sangui entered the city. The second best option would be to surrender to Zhou's army. However, Yongli and Meng Jun were currently separated by either Wu Sangui or Li Chengdong. Therefore, Li Wendao suggested letting Yongli flee to Burma.

It was obviously impossible for Yongli to die in Kunming now, so Meng Bian would never allow Yongli to escape to Li Chengdong's territory.

Afterwards, Meng Bian urgently ordered the Qingluan Guard to immediately find out the direction in which Yongli fled, whether he was heading towards Guangxi?

Although Yongli's entourage was small, there were still more than 200 people. After Meng Bian mobilized spies in Yunnan and Guizhou, they quickly found out the whereabouts of Yongli's carriage. Emperor Yongli was indeed heading towards Guangxi and had already reached the Kuishan area. Several court officials had already caught up with the emperor's carriage.

How to stop Emperor Yongli has now become Meng Bian's biggest concern. Meng Bian thought for a moment, then wrote a letter and sent two assassins, each with three horses, to rush to Kuishan.

Although Yongli ran very fast, he was still no match for the galloping knight. On the third day after Yongli left Kunming, the fast horse caught up with Emperor Yongli.

As soon as they met, the two assassins pretended to be patriots who cared about the Ming Dynasty. They said that there was urgent intelligence in Nanjing City that they had to present to the emperor.

Emperor Yongli then ordered his trusted eunuch to read the letter, which contained only a few words: "Prince Meng of Zhou has organized his troops and is preparing to march south to Guangxi, aiming to destroy Li Chengdong. He said that Chengdong killed the previous emperor and his crime is unforgivable."

Yongli was shocked and doubtful when he heard the letter. He was unwilling to believe it and was also a little scared. At this time, Liu Chengyin said, "Your Majesty, Meng Jun is very ambitious. If you say that he wants to attack the Prince of Zhennan, I believe it! So I suggest that Your Majesty temporarily stop the procession and do not make a hasty move that will lead to irreversible disaster!"

At this time, Li Dingguo's troops were about to withdraw to Kunming. Although they were surrounded and blocked by Wu Sangui, the losses of Li Dingguo's troops were not too great.

When Li Dingguo heard the news that Yongli had escaped from Kunjing, he sighed deeply and felt a little sad and angry. He was in adversity, fighting hard and fighting on the battlefield for the emperor, but the emperor was so cowardly.

At this time, Jin Weixin said to Li Dingguo with a serious expression: "Your Highness, the emperor has abandoned his army and fled. Once this matter is leaked, the army will surely be demoralized. Moreover, our army has just retreated all the way. If we fight with the Wu bandits at this time, I am afraid the outcome will not be optimistic!"

Li Dingguo said slowly: "I am worried about this matter, but now that it has come to this, how should I deal with it?"

Jin Weixin stroked his beard and pondered for a moment before saying, "As of now, Kunming is no longer defensible. Once the emperor leaves, the people's hearts are scattered and the army's morale is unstable!"

Li Dingguo heard this and did not make a clear decision. He just let Jin Weixin leave first and left him alone. Li Dingguo watched Jin Weixin's back disappear and thought to himself: "The emperor has failed the country, but I will not fail the emperor!"

Afterwards, Li Dingguo led more than 42,000 of his troops and stationed in Kunming. As soon as they entered the city, Li Dingguo sent people to seal the city gates and take inventory of the treasury.

You wouldn't know this until you check. Once you check, you'll be shocked to find that the military rations left over from the time of Sun Kewang were still in the Kunming treasury. The food in there was enough to supply Li Dingguo's troops for three years, and even more.

The generals in his army were furious. When Li Dingguo heard about it, he was also deeply saddened and angry. He even said: "Although Wang is domineering, if he still governs the country, how can such absurd things happen!"

As soon as Li Dingguo withdrew his troops, Wu Sangui sent his general Sun Wenhuan to march quickly and try to launch a surprise attack on Kunming. However, Sun Wenhuan arrived late when Li Dingguo had completely controlled Kunming. Sun Wenhuan's troops had only more than a thousand cavalrymen, and seeing that the city gates were closed, they could only sigh in despair.

Li Dingguo thought it was Wu Sangui's vanguard cavalry and was shocked. He never expected that Wu's army was so fast. Li Dingguo ordered scouts to investigate Wu Sangui's main infantry force, and at the same time sent cavalry to disperse the enemy outside the city.

After dispersing Sun Wenhuan's troops, Li Dingguo immediately loaded the grain in the city onto vehicles and prepared to transport it away with the army. However, even so, there was still a large amount of grain that was difficult to transport. Li Dingguo acted decisively and distributed all the grain that could not be transported from the treasury to the people in the city.

For a time, everyone in Kunming was grateful for the kindness of Prince Jin, but they were also worried about the news that Prince Jin was leaving with his troops and Wu Sangui was about to enter the city, but they could do nothing about it.

Just when Li Dingguo began to withdraw from Kunming, Yongli sent an edict to rescue him.

It turned out that Emperor Yongli was unwilling to believe the words of the two messengers, but after interrogating them separately, they were still impeccable. The two swore that they were righteous men with the Ming Dynasty in their hearts. In the end, Emperor Yongli gave up his plan to flee to Nanning.

However, after receiving the news that Li Dingguo had abandoned Kunming, Yongli was worried that he would encounter Wu Sangui's army on the way, so he hurriedly sent an order to ask Prince Jin to send troops to rescue him.

After hearing the order to rescue the emperor, Li Dingguo looked up to the sky and sighed. He then ordered the main force of the infantry to continue to withdraw to the Yuxi area, while he personally led 2,000 cavalry to rescue the emperor.

On October 11, the fourth year of the Yongli reign, Wu Sangui's troops captured Kunming without bloodshed.