Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

But how can the infantry be a match for the cavalry?

Although Ai Nengqi had 10,000 troops, they had first experienced defeat in Jiangjin, then in Yongchuan, and again yesterday. This series of defeats had made the soldiers fear the government troops like a tiger.

Not long after, the sky in the east began to turn pale.

At this time, the entire army of Guards and White Spear Soldiers surrounded Ai Nengqi. More than half an hour later, Ai Nengqi was stabbed three times and shot by eighteen arrows and died on the spot.

The remaining 4,000 bandits all surrendered, and Qin Liangyu immediately ordered a pursuit of Sun Kewang's troops.

There were too many scouts going back and forth to gather information, and Sun Kewang's troops, which were mainly composed of infantry, had no way of getting rid of the pursuit in a short period of time.

As a result, for the next three days, Sun Kewang's troops were always half a day's journey behind the imperial army. The government cavalry occasionally launched surprise attacks on him, causing his troops to suffer losses.

In desperation, when Sun Kewang arrived in Yazhou, he ignored the opposition of Li Dingguo and Liu Wenxiu and captured more than 10,000 civilians from Yazhou.

When Sun Dasheng attacked again with thousands of cavalry, Sun Kewang ordered his soldiers to drive out the civilians to trap the imperial cavalry.

Sun Dasheng was afraid to act rashly, and this surprise attack did not yield any results.

But as a result, at least two thousand civilians died in this conflict.

Sun Kewang immediately used this plan as a tactic to escape the pursuit of government troops. He passed Yazhou and went to Lizhou, and once again drove civilians to join the war.

In the following days, wherever Sun Kewang went, he would drive the civilians there to stop the enemy. In eight or nine days, at least tens of thousands of civilians died in various conflicts.

On October 22, Sun Kewang led his army to Jianchang. When he was about to drive civilians to join the war again, a conflict finally broke out among the three.

Although Sun Kewang still tried to persuade Liu Wenxiu and Li Dingguo on the grounds of survival, Liu Wenxiu and Li Dingguo could no longer tolerate it.

In the end, the three of them parted ways. Li Dingguo obtained ten days of food and grass from Sun Kewang and promised to buy three days for Sun Kewang.

However, Liu Wenxiu made a decision that surprised Sun Kewang even more. He asked Sun Kewang for some money and withdrew from the army with a dozen of his men.

It is said that he has been tired of running around for so many years and wants to find a place to retire with a few of his men.

Of course Sun Kewang agreed happily. After all, it would be useless to take more gold, silver and jewelry if he couldn't escape.

He gave Liu Wenxiu and several others 300,000 taels of silver notes and gold and silver jewelry worth tens of thousands of taels, and then took more than 10,000 of Liu Wenxiu's subordinates into his pocket.

Li Dingguo stayed behind with more than 16,000 of his men to resist the pursuing troops behind him.

Jianchang is located at the junction of Sichuan, Yunnan and U-Tsang. It is mostly mountainous and forested but has few plains.

Taking advantage of the half day left, Li Dingguo chose his position on the rear side of an uneven hillside.

He estimated that the government troops would definitely not be able to pull the artillery here, and it would be difficult for the musketeers to exert a cluster effect in the mountains and forests.

Although there is a big gap in military strength, as long as we deal with it carefully and block the government troops for three days, we still have some chance of success. At worst, we can fight and retreat, which is better than watching Sun Kewang massacre civilians.

And dozens of miles away, Zhang Shikang was constantly obtaining news about the remnants of Zhang Xianzhong through his scouts.

He was very angry about Sun Kewang's expulsion of civilians, and he was determined to wipe out this group of damn bandits.

An hour later, the scouts brought news again that the remnants of Zhang Xianzhong had split into two groups, one of which seemed to be heading towards Yao'an Prefecture in Yunnan.

The other part set up defenses in the mountains and forests of Jianchang, and the general in charge of the defense was named Li Dingguo.

Zhang Shikang frowned when he heard the news.

He had known this man's name long ago. The name Li Dingguo appeared in almost every time-travel novel about the late Ming Dynasty that he had read.

Li Dingguo, a native of Yulin, Shaanxi, was a famous general who fought against the Qing Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty and a national hero.

This was the information Zhang Shikang obtained when he was looking up a certain subject. According to the normal historical line, after Brother Chongzhen hanged himself in the southeast, the Qing Dynasty entered the pass.

Later, the small Southern Ming court was established. At this time, Zhang Xianzhong had died, so Li Dingguo led his subordinates to surrender to the Southern Ming regime and started his own anti-Qing script.

In the sixth year of the Yongli reign, he sent 80,000 troops to attack Hunan and recaptured half of Hunan's territory. He then attacked Guangxi and defeated the Qing army, forcing the Qing commander, King Dingnan Kong Youde, to commit suicide.

Afterwards, Li Dingguo was unstoppable and took over most of Guangxi for the Southern Ming Dynasty, and headed straight for Changsha.

Dorgon was horrified and sent another 100,000 troops to reinforce, led by Prince Nikan. However, Li Dingguo used a strategy to besiege Nikan's 100,000 troops, attacked from all sides, and defeated Nikan.

In the end, Prince Nikan of the Qing Dynasty was beheaded by Li Dingguo, and his 100,000-strong army was also wiped out by Li Dingguo.

Li Dingguo's victory in the two major battles in Hunan and Guangxi opened up a new situation for the Southern Ming's anti-Qing cause.

However, the small Southern Ming court at that time was in constant internal strife, and the Donglin Party members controlled the court and fought against each other, causing the situation that Li Dingguo had finally opened up to be quickly destroyed by the treacherous people.

In the first year of Emperor Kangxi's reign, Wu Sangui killed Emperor Yongli in Kunming, and the Southern Ming Dynasty was destroyed.

After hearing the news, Li Dingguo became so grief-stricken and angry that he fell ill and died in June of that year. That year, Li Dingguo was 42 years old.

Forty-two years old is the golden age for a man. His knowledge, experience in commanding troops, and various abilities are at their peak. However, due to the internal strife in the small court, his beliefs were shattered. It was a pity.

However, Li Dingguo now seems to be younger than himself, and the Ming Dynasty has not yet fallen, so everything is still in time.

"Governor Qin, this man is not bad. I would like to recruit him." Zhang Shikang said to Qin Liangyu.

This surprised Qin Liangyu a little, because Zhang Shikang had never had a good attitude towards the bandits.

As soon as Luo Wenlong surrendered, he was first interrogated and then imprisoned by Zhang Shikang, and is now still eating dirt in the military camp.

Qin Liangyu naturally understood the meaning of "recruiting", which was just another way of saying "appeasement".

But Qin Liangyu didn't understand why Zhang Shikang valued this person so much.

But as a subordinate, she could not ask too many questions, so Zhang Shikang wrote a letter to Li Dingguo in the name of the Marshal of the Army, persuading him to surrender.

This was the first time in more than two years that he had written a letter to persuade someone to surrender.

The content of the letter was brief, but it was full of sincerity.

Soon the letter was delivered to Li Dingguo by a scout. After Li Dingguo opened the letter, he was a little confused.

But the letter reads:

"Brother Dingguo, I am Zhang Shikang, the Grand Marshal of the Imperial Army.

You should understand that the bandits are doomed and the Ming Dynasty has entered a new era.

Fight for the court, your skills will be worthwhile.

I promise in the name of the Marshal of the Army that I will treat you and your men well."

At the end of the letter, the seal of the Marshal of Army was specially printed.

Li Dingguo handed the letter to his deputy general, who was also shocked.

But it must be said that the letter was written with full sincerity, and soon several of his subordinates advised him to go and meet the marshal.

After all, they only have 16,000 people. Even if the government troops' firearms are difficult to use in the mountains and forests, don't forget that there are white-flag soldiers among the government troops.

The White Spear Soldiers are good at mountain warfare, so they can't gain any advantage.

Sun Kewang left them here to cover the rear and did not care about their life or death.

In this case, accepting the kindness of this military marshal may be the best option.

Li Dingguo hesitated for a while and finally agreed.

The meeting place was chosen on an open space. Li Dingguo brought two personal guards, while Zhang Shikang also brought only two people.

One is Hong Xiucheng and the other is Ma Lingqi.

Zhang Shikang smiled at Li Dingguo from a distance, which made Li Dingguo a little confused.

The strange letter was sincere, but Li Dingguo couldn't figure it out. So, as soon as they met, Li Dingguo said directly:

"why?"

Zhang Shikang seemed to know what the other party was asking, and replied directly with seven words:

"Because you are Li Dingguo."

……

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