Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 371 Still Needs to Move

As the saying goes, a penny can make a hero fall.

Zhang Xianzhong was well aware that accepting aid from the imperial court would make Dashi's situation awkward, but the reality forced him to choose the lesser of two evils.

After all, the people's livelihood in Sichuan has been extremely impoverished, so how can they afford such a large army?
"Your Majesty, why not let those gentry who were arrested earlier pay for their crimes with money and grain?"

Seeing Zhang Xianzhong's rather conflicted expression, Sun Kewang thought for a moment and then proposed another plan.

As the eldest of the four adopted sons, he knows the thoughts of the Great Western Emperor better than the others.

Needless to say, when they first started the rebellion, they were just a bunch of bandits. Of course they would rob wherever they went and take advantage of wherever others took them.

Later, the imperial court gradually weakened, while their own forces became stronger and stronger. When they entered Sichuan this time, it was not to avoid being chased by the government troops, but for some strategic considerations.

Under such circumstances, Zhang Xianzhong, as the leader, naturally wanted to sit back and enjoy the glory of being the only one in power.

You reap what you sow.

The last time they entered Sichuan, the army acted without scruples. This time, the people in Sichuan were already afraid of the Eight Kings like tigers. Even though Zhang Xianzhong was slightly restrained in his actions, the army still encountered fierce resistance from all over Sichuan.

In this situation, if we use the trick of buying bones for a huge sum of money, there might still be room for recovery.

But the Eighth King had a rather aggressive temper, and with the instigation of others, the killings committed by the army in Sichuan were several times more serious than before.

In this regard, the four adopted sons, including Sun Kewang, all gave advice or suggestions, either explicitly or implicitly.

But who would have thought that not only did Zhang Xianzhong not listen to a single word, but he also got angry with several people he had always trusted over this matter. Later, he didn't know whether he was killing a chicken to scare the monkeys, and even threw Liu Jinzhong, who had also given advice, aside.

By now, the situation in Sichuan had become increasingly unfavorable, but the prisons in various cities were still overcrowded.

Now that Sun Kewang had found an opportunity to make a comeback, how could he not take the risk of being disliked by his adoptive father and take advantage of the opportunity?

"Your Majesty, I think what General Pingdong said is the way to cause chaos!"

As Sun Kewang finished speaking, Zhang Xianzhong began to think about it, but before he, the Great Western Emperor, could make any decision, Prime Minister Wang Zhaoling stepped forward first.

"Although the Emperor's plan can shake the foundation of our Dashi, it will take a long time for it to succeed. By then, our army will have defeated the Tartars, and the consequences of accepting the help of the Ming court will be eliminated."

Having said this, Wang Zhaoling paused, glanced at Zhang Xianzhong's face before continuing.

"Those imprisoned are either loyal to the Ming court or against our Daxi. If we let them go, it will surely cause unrest in Sichuan, where the talents are stable. How can our Daxi survive the internal and external troubles?"

When it comes to his ability to govern the country, Wang Zhaoling is no less capable than any of Zhu Cilang's civil officials.

In the memorial he submitted to Zhang Xianzhong, he outlined the strategies for maintaining public security in ten thousand words, among which three were the most crucial: the strategy for consolidating Shu was to take Hanzhong first; the strategy for governing the people of Shu was to remove the outdated officials; the strategy for employing people was to develop schools, select the truly talented, dismiss the incompetent, and strictly promote the lucky ones.

It was obvious that he saw Sichuan's geographical weaknesses and the decay of the Ming dynasty's bureaucratic system.

If Sichuan could be governed according to these strategies, it is possible that Dashi could become the backbone of the anti-Qing resistance in the late Ming Dynasty.

But in terms of the means, their cruelty, cunningness, brutality and viciousness were far beyond those of the world at that time.

Among the laws he established for Dashi, beheading was the first, followed by beating, and combined with methods such as collective punishment and secret investigation, it was extremely risky for ordinary people to live an ordinary life.

Take for example an old scholar named Xiong Bing. He was over 50 years old but had not even passed the imperial examination. When the imperial examination was held in Dashi, he responded and won the title of third place.

If one thinks in ordinary terms, this would be an excellent start for Daxi to gain a foothold in Sichuan. However, who would have thought that in the subsequent palace examination, this old Tanhua would make a statement: Western Sichuan is only a small place, and those who travel there are like frogs at the bottom of a well, not capable of achieving great things.

According to his original intention, this was to persuade Zhang Xianzhong to have a broad mind and not to be complacent with his conquest of Shu. However, Wang Zhaoling misinterpreted his meaning as ridiculing Zhang Xianzhong as a frog in a well.

It is not difficult to imagine what happened next. The old scholar was executed by slow slicing, and his family members were sold into prostitution.

Zhang Xianzhong relied heavily on such people with poor qualities. Even if he was very capable, how could he maintain his rule over the land of abundance in Bashu?

But it can be said that justice is clear and retribution is inevitable.

After Zhang Xianzhong died in Fenghuang Mountain, the first decision made by the four adopted sons was "from now on, no one is allowed to kill unless they are fighting." When Wang Zhaoling refuted this with the old rules, Sun Kewang said, "When the old man was in Chengdu, you were the prime minister, but you could not help him govern the country. You only advised him to kill people, which made people fearful and unwilling to submit. The world called us thieves. Now that we are no longer thieves, do you still want us to be thieves again?"

At this point, there was no way this thief could survive. After his four adopted sons killed him, the army's morale, which had been dispersed by Zhang Xianzhong's death, was reunited, which shows how unpopular he was.

However, Zhang Xianzhong was still alive and well at this time, so even if Sun Kewang was dissatisfied with Wang Zhaoling's words, he could only think hard about how to refute them.

But regardless of whether it was correct to use violent means to control Sichuan, there is not much problem with his statement that Zhu Cilang provided support.

So after Sun Kewang thought for a while, he could only remain silent, and Zhang Xianzhong made the final decision himself.

"Permit them to bring some money and food over, and we won't have to bother with anything else."

"Your Majesty is holy."

After he finished speaking, Wang Zhaoling seemed to glance at Sun Kewang who had been defeated again. Then Zhang Xianzhong seemed to have thought of something and said to Sun Kewang who was somewhat unwilling: "Kewang, come with me to the city for a walk."

"Yes."

After responding, the two of them walked out of the room together. After an incense stick of time had passed, the scene outside the city had already come into their sight.

At this time, there were five or six larger forts outside Guangyuan City. Although the soldiers of the two sides had not yet engaged in battle, teams of soldiers were in intense preparation for battle.

Seeing this situation, Sun Kewang naturally thought that His Majesty wanted to discuss battle strategies with him, but to his surprise, the Dashi Emperor's first words were directed at Zhu Cilang.

"Kewang, what do you think of the new emperor of the Ming court?"

When Sun Kewang heard these words, he shuddered even though he was a shrewd man.

He was naturally trusted by Zhang Xianzhong, but the Great Western Emperor had a total of twelve adopted sons, and only four of them were still alive.

Of course, some of those people died in battle, but considering the previous experience, Sun Kewang had to answer carefully.

"Reporting to your Majesty, the young emperor has been judged to be a fake by the Hongguang monarch and his ministers, but I didn't expect it to go this far. It is really a bit unexpected."

"We've won so many battles, it doesn't matter whether it's true or not. Let's talk about something else."

After hearing this, Sun Kewang racked his brains to think about it again. This is not to say that he didn't know the little emperor of the Ming Dynasty at all.

He had been in power for only a year, but he had brought the already declining Ming Dynasty into such a situation. Not to mention Sun Kewang, who was at the pinnacle of power in the Western Regions, even ordinary generals and officials would deliberately inquire about his experience.

But could he praise the Ming Emperor openly in front of Zhang Xianzhong?
In the final analysis, all friendships will wax and wane due to circumstances. Even though Zhang Xianzhong trusted him the most among all the officials in Dashi, how could he possibly lose even a bit of trust over such a small matter?

"Your Majesty, the young emperor seems to be much stronger than his father, but the relationships within the Ming court are complicated, and it may not be possible to stabilize the forces of all parties after the war."

After saying this, Sun Kewang waited for what his adoptive father said, but after waiting for a while, there was no response from the other side. When he couldn't help but have all kinds of guesses in his mind, he heard some words that had nothing to do with it.

"I have sent Dingguo to Hanzhong via a small route. If we can block the Tartars' food supply route, there will be room for a turnaround in Sichuan."

Sun Kewang naturally agreed with what Zhang Xianzhong said.

Although Dashi's situation was extremely passive at this time, as if it was a prey caught between two ferocious beasts, if it could repel the Tatars, there would still be room for it to turn around with the Ming Dynasty.

But why did the topic turn here?
What is your Majesty's attitude towards this reply?

Because of these thoughts, Sun Kewang's answer was a little late, and Zhang Xianzhong did not blame him after seeing his reaction. Instead, he continued talking as if he was talking to himself.

"It's not safe to just put our hopes on Dingguo. It would be best if we could defeat the Tartars head-on."

When Sun Kewang heard the words, who was a little distracted by doubts, he understood the whole thing in an instant.

Although the Tartars in front brought tremendous pressure to Zhang Xianzhong, what really threatened him was the smiling tiger behind him.

First he claimed that he would never take the initiative to attack when Dashi was fighting against the Tatars, and then he tried to provide all the help he could.

Obviously, these were all means used by the Ming Emperor to win people's hearts, and the effects were quite good.

Take Sun Kewang for example. He knew the Emperor Minghuang's purpose very well and also knew that his method was to cut off the source of the trouble.

However, given the current situation, not only could he not come up with much objection to accepting the court's aid, he even secretly felt that the young emperor was a sensible person.

It can be imagined that once this news spreads in the army through the mouths of military generals, ordinary soldiers who cannot see clearly what is going on inside will certainly develop some good feelings towards the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

If Daxi can win then, it will be fine, but if he loses.
Thinking of this, Sun Kewang naturally resolved his doubts about the topic jumping, but at the same time, many puzzles arose in his heart.

It is obvious that at this time, His Majesty has realized the impact of treating the people with brutality will have on the morale of the people, and he even lost confidence in winning the hearts of the military and civilians with the young emperor.

But under such circumstances, he still denied his own opinion and continued to maintain the harsh policy according to Wang Zhaoling's ideas.

Why is this?

As his thoughts turned, Sun Kewang's doubts could not help but surface, but since such matters touched upon the emperor's innermost thoughts, he was unable to open his mouth to ask.

So when Zhang Xianzhong's voice came again, he suppressed all these thoughts and concentrated on thinking about how to respond.

"Kewang, what do you think the chances of robbing the camp are?"

Hijacking the camp?

As soon as these two words came out, Sun Kewang's mind was pulled out of his previous doubts, and after he thought about it, even the vague sense of dejection was swept away.

Under normal circumstances, robbing Hauge's camp was almost an impossible task.

After all, Hauge was not only extremely accomplished in the arrangement of the camp, but the soldiers and generals in the army also fought hard all the way.

A team like this must always be on guard against the enemy. Without special circumstances, any attempt to rob their camp would be in vain.

But isn’t this a special situation?

The two armies had been fighting for two months, and the Tatar soldiers were already quite tired.

There were so many forts outside Guangyuan City, but now only a few are left. The Tartar soldiers will naturally become lazy because the overall situation has been decided.

If we add the cover of the ruins of the fortress, wouldn't it be the perfect combination of time, place and people?
Thinking of this, Sun Kewang immediately came up with several methods of robbing the camp in his mind, and without waiting for the emperor to say anything else, he poured out all of them in one breath.

For later generations, his achievements were, first, formulating the strategy of uniting the Ming Dynasty to resist the Qing Dynasty, and second, suppressing the rebellion of Sha Dingzhou, thus preserving the province of Yunnan for the Central Plains dynasty.

As for other records, they were either about internal strife with Li Dingguo or defeat by the Qing army. It seemed that this commander who had suppressed Li Dingguo in Dashi was just a coward who only knew how to fight among himself.

But how is this possible?

There is no need to say much about the other things, just mention the Battle of Chalukou which was commanded by Sun Kewang himself.

Before this battle, Li Dingguo had already lost Nikan. Feeling the powerful fighting power of the Ming army, the Tatars not only behaved extremely cautiously, but also mobilized all eight banners of Manchu, Mongolian and Han.

However, under such circumstances, the Qing army still entered the preset annihilation battle terrain under Sun Kewang's various tactics.

In this battle, Li Dingguo led his troops away because he heard rumors that Sun Kewang wanted to kill him, and refused to encircle the main force of the Eight Banners.

Although Sun Kewang gained the advantage in battle several times, due to various accidents, this battle, which could have turned the tide for the Ming Dynasty, failed.

Despite this, the Qing army suffered heavy losses after this battle.

According to the "Records of Emperor Shizu of the Qing Dynasty", "In Wuwu, 118,880 taels of silver were distributed to relieve the soldiers who died and were injured at Chalukou, Hengzhou, Hunan."

The same book also records that in this battle, one commander of the Eight Banners Guards, four Meilezhangjing, three guard lieutenants and two academicians were killed.

You must know that since the Qing army entered the pass, there have been few battles in which a large number of Eight Banners soldiers were lost, and the only ones that can be compared with this are those well-known battles.

However, in this battle, Sun Kewang's troops not only killed and wounded a large number of Eight Banner officers and soldiers, but after the defeat, the Qing army's report only stated that they had seized 700 war horses, two war elephants and some equipment. There was no record of killing generals or seizing cannons.

It is obvious that Sun Kewang's level at the tactical level is no worse than the other three. If his vision in domestic affairs is taken into account, he is worthy of Zhang Xianzhong's trust.

"We still have to move, so that the Tartars won't underestimate our army."

As soon as Sun Kewang finished speaking, Zhang Xianzhong's faint voice was heard.

(End of this chapter)