After reading the autographed letter sent by Bai Wenxuan, Sun Kewang was so angry that he tore it into pieces. Sun Kewang certainly understands these superficial tactical principles mentioned by Bai Wenxuan, but when fighting a war, we cannot just look at the moment or the part, but we must consider the overall strategy from an overall perspective. Sun Kewang is a strategist. Local victory or defeat is not important to him, and the casualties of hundreds of people each time are even more insignificant. The price paid now is to win greater victory in the future. As long as he can keep Yuezhou, In the big cities of Changsha and Hengyang, after Liu Wenxiu eliminates Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong, and then leads his troops back to Huguang, he can defeat Wang Sheng in one fell swoop. "If we follow Bai Wenxuan's suggestion and concentrate our forces for a decisive battle with Wang Sheng now, we will inevitably have to abandon the defense of big cities such as Yuezhou, Changsha, and Hengyang. So what benefits did the Western Army gain by spending such a high price to invade Huguang? Could it be that the strategy of attacking Huguang was wrong from the beginning? At first, Li Dingguo advocated going north, but Sun Kewang strongly advocated going eastward. For this reason, he did not hesitate to go to war with the Chu army. After the war, the Western Army suffered heavy losses. After Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong advanced thousands of miles into Guizhou, even the backyard was on fire. If they had to give up in the end Changsha, giving up Hengyang, Yuezhou and even Changde, or even withdrawing from Huguang will be a fatal blow to Sun Kewang's personal prestige, and it will be difficult to convince Li Dingguo in the future. We cannot withdraw our troops! Don¡¯t shrink your defense line easily! The difficulties at hand are only temporary. He gritted his teeth and got through it. Sun Kewang believed that Liu Wenxiu would soon regain Guiyang and return to Huguang! With firm belief, Sun Kewang returned to the old path of dividing his troops everywhere and defending everywhere. Although he now has a certain number of mobile troops, they are all huddled in the big cities of Yuezhou, Changsha, and Hengyang. If the Chu army If the distance was too far, he would not dare to attack, for fear of being ambushed or being surrounded by the Chu army for reinforcements, which would cost him his last capital Wang Sheng began to encroach on his territory bit by bit, specializing in attacking the outer strongholds of the Western Army. , gradually separated Yuezhou, Changsha and Hengyang. Sun Kewang saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart. He anxiously waited for the good news from Guiyang every day, completely unaware that he had missed the best opportunity to retreat On the battlefield in Guangxi, Liu Fangliang, Dang Shousu and He Zhen pointed out Attacking the east and west brought great trouble to the Western Army. The Western Army has relatively few troops in Guangxi, and one part was transferred by Liu Wenxiu to attack Guiyang. The remaining troops could only shrink their defense and focus on protecting the supply line from Guilin to Quanzhou in northern Guangxi. Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong made a big fuss in Guizhou. The Qingshui River waterway and several other grain roads were either cut off or their transport capacity was greatly reduced. Liu Wenxiu's army returned to Guizhou from Huguang all the way, and the road traffic between Guizhou and Huguang was even worse. Therefore, most of the food supplies Sun Kewang needed were transferred from Guilin. In order to ensure the safety of this supply line, the Western Army deployed heavy troops on the Guilin-Lingqu-Quanzhou-Lingling line and did not have enough power to launch an attack on Liu Danghe. , we can only let them do whatever they want in Guangxi. After Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong led the Western Expeditionary Army to leave Guangxi from Jiuwanda Mountain, Liu Fangliang, Dang Shousu and He Zhen continued to besiege Liuzhou. Sun Kewang had originally planned to abandon Liuzhou, but Liu Danghe had no intention of attacking the city and suddenly withdrew his troops after more than ten days of siege. Head east to attack Pinglefu and Wuzhoufu to open up the connection with Guangdong. Under Wang Kefan's strict order, Su Guansheng of Guangdong sent a large amount of food supplies to Liu Danghe to ensure the supply of this army. After Liu Danghe received the blood transfusion, he sent his troops south and recovered large areas of Wuzhou Prefecture, Xunzhou Prefecture and other areas occupied by the Western Army. He then turned northwest and attacked Liuzhou for the second time. After encountering a slight setback in the siege, he immediately circled the city and invaded western Guangxi. He successively captured Yishan, Hechi and other counties, and directed his troops towards Yelang in western Guangxi. Ancient Road, prepared to invade Guizhou and join forces with Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong in Guiyang, frightened the nearby state capitals into panic. The Yelang Kingdom in ancient times has long been submerged in the long river of history, but the idiom of Yelang's arrogance has made people in later generations remember their names. The core area of ??Yelang Kingdom is in the Guizhou area. It is connected to Guangxi by the "Yelang Ancient Road". It passes through the Zangdao River waterway, passes through the heavy mountains in western Guangxi, passes through the Baise area, and enters the hinterland of Guangxi. The downstream of the Zangdao River is the Hongshui River, the downstream of the Hongshui River is the Qianjiang River, the downstream of the Qianjiang River is the Xunjiang River and the Xijiang River, and the downstream of the Xijiang River is the Pearl River There are many large and small rivers along the way, some are navigable, and some are not. It became an obstacle that blocked traffic, but in general, as long as they were well prepared, tens of thousands of troops could enter Guizhou through the Yelang Ancient Road. At the same time, the Western Expeditionary Army of Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong captured Guiyang. Guizhou could no longer transport a grain. The supply line from Guilin to Quanzhou was actually cut off. The Western Army in Guangxi now had no burden. He freed up his hands to gather tens of thousands of troops and pursue Liu Danghe westward. (The logic of this paragraph)?It¡¯s a bit complicated. Let me explain. Yunnan has only had two major roads connected with the outside world since ancient times. One is the West Yunnan Road leading to Sichuan, and the other is the East Yunnan Road leading to Guizhou and Hunan. In other words, the Western Army is in Huguang. For a long-term war, all the grain and grass needed must be transferred from Guiyang. After the Chu army captured Guiyang, it was equivalent to cutting off the Western Army's supply line from upstream. ) Seeing that the Western Army was pursuing them aggressively, Liu Danghe gave up his plan to enter Guizhou from the Yelang Ancient Road, quickly turned southeast, passed through the Liuzhou Basin, and returned to the plains of eastern Guangxi. The western part of Guangxi is on the edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and is also a sparsely populated mountainous area. The Chu soldiers are unfamiliar with the place and go deep alone, which is very risky. Therefore, Liu Danghe broke out first, backed up Guangdong, and then turned around to prepare for the battle. The Western Army also wanted to eliminate Liu Danghe as soon as possible, but tens of thousands of troops turned around and rushed over again. The war was about to break out. At this time, Wang Kefan sent an urgent order to commend Liu Danghe, and at the same time warned him earnestly that the Chu Army and the Western Army had arrived. At the critical moment of the all-out decisive battle, the battlefield in Guangxi affects the whole body. Liu Danghe's first task is to bite the tens of thousands of Western troops and prevent them from supporting Guizhou or Hunan. There is no absolute certainty of victory, so it is not appropriate to fight with them for the time being. The enemy faced a decisive battle So, before the war broke out, Liu Danghe suddenly became timid again. They retreated in several groups, but they were not in a hurry to retreat into Guangdong. Instead, they stayed with the Western Army. The Western Army immediately launched a pursuit. By accident, there was a slight disconnect between the various groups. Liu Fangliang led more than 10,000 Chu troops to break through and charged again. Entering the Liuzhou Basin and attacking Liuzhou three times, Dang Shousu and He Zhen also gave full play to Chuangying's advantage in mobile combat. Taking advantage of the opportunity when the Western Army was pursuing Liu Fangliang, they jumped out of the encirclement one after another and feinted to attack Guilin all the way to the north and to Xiangzhou all the way to the south. , and started a cat and mouse game with the Western Army. The Western Army in Guangxi was busy besieging Liu Danghe, constantly deploying troops from Guilin and Quanzhou, and gradually lost touch with Hunan Several provinces behind the Chu Army also entered the climax of full mobilization at this time. Dorgon and Sun Kewang both said that Wang Kefan was aggressive and aggressive, and they were not wrong. In fact, the Chu army has been fighting non-stop in the past few years since the rise of Huguang. Most of the time, it is not because they want to fight, but because the situation is compelling. He had to fight, but eventually he couldn't hold back anymore, so he had to fight one battle after another. For example, in the early days of the Battle of Nanjing, Wang Kefan's original intention was just to harass Jiangnan and weaken the Qing government. However, the battle became more and more intense. After the complete annihilation of Jierhalang, the Chu army took advantage of the situation and captured Zhejiang, Fujian, Nanjing, and even counterattacked to the city of Nanjing. In Jiangbei, half of the country was recovered in one fell swoop. Wang Kefan did not expect this before the war. After the Battle of Nanjing, Wang Kefan also wanted to slow down the pace and lay a solid foundation, so he ordered the main force to rest and reorganize, and only sent second-line troops to cross the Yangtze River for the Northern Expedition. Tian Jianxiu's First Northern Expedition Army, Wang Jincai's Second Northern Expedition Army, Jiao Lian's Third Army of the Northern Expedition set out one after another. Although it was huge, it actually did not invest much. Wang Kefan's main focus was on internal integration and digesting the vast territory he had just occupied But at this time, the Western Army suddenly rebelled. Immediately after attacking Huguang, the Qing army also took advantage of the situation and launched a counterattack. The Chu army was dragged into a life-and-death battle and had to carry out full mobilization to deal with this war. Due to successive years of fighting, the Chu army's manpower, material and financial resources were greatly consumed, and it was difficult to be attacked from both sides by the Qing army and the Western army. So they resisted and retreated, giving up Hubei and Hunan one after another. However, they secretly accumulated strength until they were exhausted. After exhausting the offensive momentum of the Western Army, they suddenly sent the Western Expeditionary Army to advance thousands of miles into Guizhou, turning the tide of the war in one fell swoop. With the war reaching this point, Wang Kefan felt like he couldn't hold back anymore. After Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong captured Guiyang, the Chu army had implemented a large-scale counter-encirclement of the Western Army, and the situation was extremely favorable. At this time, if Sun Kewang was allowed to withdraw from Huguang and withdraw to Yunnan, it would be a real delay in fighting. Wang Kefan deliberately ordered Wang Sheng, Liu Fangliang and other troops slowed down the pace of the counterattack and did not push the Western Army too hard. At the same time, they carried out full mobilization in the rear and prepared to kill Sun Kewang in one fell swoop. To fight a war, you must first have money, but Wang Kefan did not have much money. His solution was simple and crude. He temporarily imposed a one-time war tax on the provinces of South Zhili, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi and Guangdong, and started printing money at the same time. Machines were used to manufacture large quantities of silver coins and print military stamps to make up for the huge financial gap. In order to avoid social unrest, Wang Kefan implemented military control in southern Zhili, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and northern Fujian after announcing the full mobilization. He also adopted a high-pressure policy towards Wan Yuanji and Su Guansheng, strictly ordering them to complete their tax tasks within a limited time, otherwise Severe punishment will not be given. Jiangnan area is the richest in the world, much richer than the northern provinces. Wang Kefan imposed a temporary war tax. Although it caused public resentment, the people can actually bear it. Wang Kefan also made it clear that this is a one-time temporary tax increase. From now onAfter paying the war tax, regardless of whether it was civil servants, farmers, industry or commerce, you could use the receipts to deduct the tax for the next two years. Using both carrots and sticks, most people had no choice but to accept the reality and pay the money honestly.