Guo Puxia had just returned from Yunyang Prefecture. To be honest, it was not peaceful along the way.

When he went there, in order to prevent the Qing army from conducting detailed investigation, he got off the boat in Wuling County, located in the Shunjun controlled area, and then traveled through mountains and rivers for several months. Under the escort of some elite soldiers sent by the Zuoying to pick up, he walked forward with difficulty and circled a big circle before finally arrived at Fang County, where Liu Zhonggui's camp was located. Of course, his actions were reported to Li Laiheng Changsha in advance. But I wonder if he thought that the East Bank was unhappy for his private contact with the generals in the command of the army, Li Laiheng never came over in a few words. He neither agreed nor opposed it, and was just so vague and strange.

Of course, it was inappropriate for people from the East Coast to contact the generals of Shunguo in private, but the problem has been like this for so many years. When Li Guo was in power, he was in danger because of the difficult situation. In addition, he was elected by Liu Fangliang, Yuan Zongdi, Gao Yigong and other veterans of his father, so he gave each battalion great independence and autonomy, and he controlled the central camp and the back camp alone.

At that time, many of the aid supplies from the East Coast people were transported to the Hubei front line by ship and directly distributed to the battalions. This was not wrong during the war. However, after the years of life and death, the aid methods of the East Coast people seemed a little eye-catching, because it was easy to be understood as inviting people to win people's hearts. However, when Li Guo was in power, he was quite kind and didn't say anything about this. But now that Li Laiheng ascended the throne, some things seemed a little different.

But so what? With Guo Puxia's proud personality, he disdains to consider what the people of Shun would think. In his opinion, a country like Dashun is completely supported by the people of the East Coast, otherwise the grass on the grave would be tall. What the people of the East Coast want to do, have given you enough politeness. Could it be that if you have to wait for the approval of your Changsha court to take shape?

The people of the East Coast were so "rude", so Liu Zhonggui from Zuoying naturally could not do it. After all, he was nominally a minister of Dashun and really had no objection. He was just a little domineering, so he sent some envoys to Changsha to take a grand ceremony and explain to the new king a little, although only God knows how much effect this will have.

Fang County is the old nest of Zuoying, facing the military pressure from both sides. On the left is the Wu Sangui Group entrenched in Sichuan, and on the right is the Xiangyang Camp of the Qing army. It is not easy to mess with either side, so it is extremely difficult to defend. Of course, from another perspective, Yunyang Prefecture occupied by more than 70,000 troops in the left camp of Dashun, some areas of Kuizhou Prefecture were nailed between the two major groups of the Qing army, and the overall advantage was split. This strategic benefit is immeasurable. Therefore, the Dashun court's support for the Zuoying (including He Zhen and his son who were active in the Shangluo Mountain area) was quite strong, just to allow them to continue to create threats on the flanks of the Qing army.

It was already the spring of 1669 when Guo Puxia arrived in Fang County. The market in this small mountainous county looked quite calm. At least more than half of the residents had accents of Shaanxi, Gansu, Hunan, and He*nan. It was obviously the physique, complexion and dressing of Shunjun's family. These were indicators that could intuitively reflect the living standards of a place.

Of course, the good living standards in Fang County do not mean that this is true in all places under the rule of Zuoying. This is also impossible. In fact, with Yunyang Prefecture controlled by the Shun Army and hundreds of thousands of people in more than ten counties of Kuizhou Prefecture, it is quite difficult to support an army of up to 70,000 (sometimes it has to provide nearly 20,000 people in He Zhen’s troops who were settled in Shangluo Mountains). It is almost impossible to rely on external support alone on food, medicine, military equipment, cloth, daily necessities, etc.

However, due to the painful transportation conditions of Zuoying in Yunyang Prefecture and Kuizhou Prefecture, the transportation of external materials is quite depleted. Over time, Changsha also has a bit of pain. Therefore, many times, Zuoying still has to rely on Zuoying to tap its own potential, improve productivity, and reduce its dependence on external materials at least to reduce the amount of food transportation that is most consumed.

So, you can see that in the always mountainous areas of Yunyang Prefecture and Kuizhou Prefecture, Zuoying planted a large number of potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn and other grains cultivated by the Dabo Botanical Garden of Sakhalin Island, and used a lot of land that was completely unavailable in the past. This is extremely important in mountainous and hilly areas. After all, in Yunyang and Kuizhou, plains are relatively valuable and must be used to grow staple food, but the mountainous areas except the plains are even more vast, and it is a pity not to use them.

In the past, locals could only grow some beans, vegetables, etc., which had a low utilization rate, which seriously affected grain production. However, in the Liguo era, potatoes adapted to the eastern climate were introduced from the east coast (the potatoes adapted to the eastern climate when traveling). After American crops such as sweet potatoes, a lot of land was also used, which greatly increased the grain production in the Zuoying area and thus increased the population in the controlled area, so that it could support the long-term battle of a large number of troops, although it still needed to import a lot of grain and other materials from the outside world.

However, although foreign crops were introduced and a lot of unusable land was used, the daily life of the people in most prefectures and counties under Zuoying was still not very abundant, and it could even be said to be difficult. After all, the expense of supporting more than 90,000 troops (including nearly 20,000 people led by He Zhen and his son) was extremely amazing. In the middle of the Tang Dynasty, more than 20 counties in Weibo Town, which was in the separatist era of Tian Chengsi, was only 80,000 soldiers at first. Later, it was difficult for the people to support them and they were laid off to 40,000, which shows the difficulty of raising soldiers.

Yunyang Prefecture and Kuizhou Prefecture were controlled by the Shun Army, and the land and population were not as high as Weibo Town, located in the North China Plain. Even if the productivity was higher than that, it was limited. Therefore, even after a large number of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn were introduced, it was difficult to support it with the size of hundreds of thousands of local people. Therefore, the armed group Liu Zhonggui and He Zhen still relied on the support of the Changsha court. Perhaps this was the reason why they had no objection for many years. Of course, it was one thing to cooperate with foreign funds, and their own settlement was another thing. More than half of the more than 90,000 troops under the Liu and He armed group were classified as reserve troops. In addition to training, they also had to farm and open up land, just like the military camps in ancient times to reduce the consumption of food and food.

Guo Puxia traveled all the way, through Jianshi, Wushan and Dachang counties controlled by Shunjun, I felt that the lives of the local people were indeed difficult, with delicious faces and thin people everywhere. According to the veterans of the left camp of Shunjun, Wu Sangui's jurisdiction next door was also very cruel to exploit the people. Everyone's life was a little harder to kill Shunjun. I don't know whether it was true or false, so I guess it was almost the same.

Because, Guo Puxia also vaguely heard that the young emperor Kangxi of Beijing recently issued frequent edicts to urge Wu Sangui to rectify his troops and strive to make a breakthrough in the south. Otherwise, he would stay in Sichuan all day long and use some good news such as "destroying the thief army and beheading dozens of them" to fool people, and then ask for money, food and equipment. What do you think? Are you a fool in the court?

Therefore, Wu Sangui, the old turtle, has been unable to withstand it recently and plans to move. Moreover, he is older and pursues things like empty name more and more. I heard that Kangxi promised that once he conquered Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, he would give all the jurisdiction of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces and restore the title of King Pingxi. Such generous rewards made Wu Sangui quite moved. After all, for many years, what he pursued was to separatist and be called a widow?

As for rebellion and proclaiming emperor, it is a joke. Wu Sangui himself actually had no meaning in this regard. If Kangxi had not forced himself too quickly in history and did not give the "old cadres" face, how could Wu Sangui rebel? What's more, although the current Qing court has not been able to unify the world, it is still strong enough. Wu Sangui is not sure to defeat the Qing court, which claims to have millions of troops. Even though he suffered from disasters for many years and frequent floods and droughts, many elite troops stationed in Nanjing, Xiangyang, and Shaanxi and Gansu areas have not been moved lightly. Wu Sangui really has no confidence to be a direct stalemate with the Qing court. Therefore, it is better to be a free King of Pingxi, assuming that the little Emperor Kangxi can really keep his promises and can also make legitimate achievements.

Based on this consideration, after the autumn harvest in the second half of last year, Wu Sangui sent a large amount of donations to pay taxes in Sichuan, recruiting soldiers, raising food and grass, and making sufficient preparations for the war, which made his neighbors very nervous. It is reported that Wu Sangui originally had 50,000 troops, many of which were from Liaodong's former headquarters and the troops of Gao Di, the general of Shanhaiguan, who had annexed. Later, he used the excuse to annex many Shaanxi-Gansu Green Camps who went south to support Sichuan. Overall, he was good at fighting equipment, had good morale, and had considerable combat power.

Once mobilized this time, it would be no problem to double the size of the army with the prosperity of Sichuan. Although the combat effectiveness may be reduced, it should not be too difficult to deal with the crooked and scattered people in the South Ming Dynasty. The only variable is probably that after the Southern Ming Dynasty accepted the exile forces of the Daxi Army in the past, the army directly under the court, except for the local Ming army, is almost all the "Western thieves". The combat effectiveness has been greatly improved compared to a few years ago. It is hard to say whether Wu Sangui can achieve the expected victory in the Southern Expedition.

Furthermore, it is said that Zhang Xianzhong's godson Rusun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and others are all outstanding people at the moment. Now the situation of the broken ship in the Nanming is very critical, and everyone has nothing to fight for. Therefore, with the efforts to work together, bringing the 60,000 to 70,000 troops that were rectified, supplemented by tens of thousands of Ming defenders in the local area, it may not be a big loss. Once Wu Sangui cannot win quickly, with the Ming Dynasty's legacy that has been deeply rooted in the southwest for 300 years, the local chieftains with a large number of cow-haired chiefs will almost certainly jump to the Nanming side. At that time, Wu Sangui will not backfire and be attacked into southern Sichuan. This is not impossible. The uncertainty of the war has always been extremely great!

Such a major change in the situation in the southwest is also the main reason why Guo Puxia came to contact the people of Shunguo this time. Although this news is still only rumored, the possibility is very high. Many of the exercises sent by the Zuoying to Sichuan have given a clear signal that Sichuan is currently planning a war, and the spearhead is not known where to point and how the scale is, but the possibility of attacking Yunnan and Guizhou is extremely high, that is, it is necessary to take action against the Nanming!

To be honest, the Qing army's actions were a bit confusing. Of course, with Wu Sangui's ability and the capital accumulated over the years of operation in central Sichuan, the determination to fight the Southern Ming Dynasty should be quite good. Even without the large-scale assistance of the Tartar court, it is impossible to have no assistance at all. The three thousand Manchu and Mongolian Banners stationed in central Sichuan would go to the front line to supervise the war. In addition, Shaanxi and Gansu might also send 20,000 to 30,000 green camps to the south. But the question is, is the old thief of Wu so easy to talk to? This guy has been playing the trick of raising bandits for many years, and has cheated countless food, salary and equipment from the Qing court, and is essentially in a state of separatism.

How could such warlords work so kindly for the Qing court? It's a bit puzzling.

But whether you can understand it or not, it is a fact that the old thief of Wu mobilized in Sichuan. The Zuoying, which confronted the Wu army on the front line of Kuizhou Prefecture, felt pressure from the top and bottom. Not only were some elite soldiers and generals beginning to transfer west to Fengjie, but even Liu Zhonggui himself would lead his headquarters to Fengjie in the near future. Looking at the situation, the troops stationed in Badong, Xingshan and the junction of Yunyang Prefecture and the Qing army could not withdraw because they were actually restrained by the Xiangyang camp of the Qing Kingdom. Although the Qing Kingdom seems to be busy with disaster relief, there is no time to take care of him.

Guo Puxia arrived at the jurisdiction of Zuoying under such a background. With him, there were five hundred new 32-C Flintlock rifles and several small army light cannons (the cannons could not be transported from afar due to their weight). As a gift to the soldiers of the Zuoying from Liu Zhonggui, they encouraged them to continue to stick to the front line, not to be pessimistic, and not to be discouraged. They should believe that the Qing army did not have enough strength to defeat them. Anyway, they were fooling them to continue to work hard for China's balanced policy on the east coast.

Since Liu Zhonggui led his troops to Gucheng area to deter the Qing army a few days ago, he had not yet returned to Fang County, the person who came out to receive the envoys of the East Coast was Liu Guochang, a general from Zuoying, who was also an old acquaintance on the East Coast. This man was angry with Li Guo's "revisionist" policy and offended people with big mouths, so he was kicked to the East Coast people in Ningbo Prefecture for training and helped the East Coast people guard the border for many years. He fought fiercely with the Qing army in Ningshao area and later participated in the large-scale battle of Huai'an Prefecture, which was also rich in experience.

After the war in Huai'an Prefecture ended, Liu Guochang and others led their troops back to Dashun. Due to the large number of their troops (the number of troops was recruited in the Huai'an Prefecture area, the troops quickly expanded from more than 4,000 to more than 20,000), good equipment and novel tactics. Therefore, after returning to the Zuoying system, it also became a small hill in the big mountain of Zuoying, with a very large status, so it would be elected by the left-behind generals to receive Guo Puxia and others. (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!