Sun Kewang was defeated and died. The news spread to Yunnan, and the guards of various prefectures and counties in Yunnan surrendered without a fight. When the Western Army invaded Yunnan, the local Ming army and chieftains of Yunnan surrendered one after another. Now that Sun Kewang has been defeated, these chieftains and All civil and military officials took the initiative to return to the Longwu court. Only some old troops of the Western Army fought hard to break out and withdrew from Lijiang Prefecture in northern Yunnan to Sichuan to join Li Dingguo, the only remaining one of the three kings of the Western Army. Zhou Guodong and Liu Tichun chased these Western troops who broke through for a while, and then allowed them to retreat to Sichuan. Their main focus was still on chasing Yong Wang Zhu Cihuan. Yong Wang Zhu Cihuan was led away from Kunming by some Western troops. The Chu army has been poor. He pursued him relentlessly and finally fled to the Xuanfusi area of ??Nandian in western Yunnan. He was protected by the local chieftain and temporarily lost his trace. Zhou Guodong knew that he was hiding in western Yunnan, but the terrain in western Yunnan was complicated and the chieftain was very powerful. , when it was not convenient to use force, he set up a dragnet around him, and at the same time used a gentle policy to recruit and surrender the local chieftains, as well as the civil and military officials and gentry of the former Ming Dynasty. After some hard work, Zhou Guodong entered the city alone and finally persuaded the famous Duke of Guizhou, Mu Tianbo, to surrender. The two became brothers with different surnames, which became a legend. After Mu Tianbo surrendered, he set a great example for those who were still waiting to see the situation. The chieftains, big and small, and civil and military officials all surrendered. Zhou Guodong quickly controlled the entire territory of Yunnan without losing a fight. Seeing that the overall situation was decided, the chieftain of Xuanfu Division in Nandian offered the Yongwang Zhu Cihuan, but was immediately charged by Zhou Guodong with impersonating the late emperor's prince. , beheaded in public on the streets of Yongchang. In order to maintain the legitimacy of the Longwu court, Zhou Guodong knew that the Yongwang Zhu Cihuan was the real prince, but he still regarded a deer as a horse and eradicated it. As the news spread, the Western Army's rule in Guizhou, Sichuan and other places also collapsed. A large number of state and county guards surrendered to the Chu army. Tan Xiao, Yuan Zongdi and others worked together to besiege Feng Shuangli. Feng Shuangli lost consecutive battles and his troops ten times. On July 8th, the remaining troops also fled into Sichuan and went to Li Dingguo. Li Dingguo withdrew from Hubei to Sichuan, following Liu Bei's marching route in the Battle of Yiling during the Three Kingdoms period. Liu Bei could not defeat Soochow's powerful navy, so he only took the overland route out of Sichuan to attack Jingzhou. The journey was long and supplies were difficult. Strategically, he was already at a disadvantage. At a disadvantage, there was even a subsequent disastrous defeat. Thousands of years later, this road was relatively easier, but only relatively. After Li Dingguo returned to Sichuan, he was already depleted of men and horses, but he suffered the loss of Kunming one after another, Sun Kewang was defeated and killed, Yongwang Zhu Cihuan was killed, etc. Waiting for a series of bad news, seeing that Zhou Guodong had controlled the entire territory of Yunnan, the morale of the Western Army was extremely low. Under such circumstances, they did not dare to launch a counterattack rashly, so they had to stop in Sichuan, divide their troops to strictly guard the key passes in Chongqing and southern Sichuan, and temporarily separate themselves from one side. At the same time, Zhou Guodong, who had just occupied Yunnan, and Tan Xiao, who had occupied Guizhou, were busy digesting the large occupied areas and were not in a hurry to launch an attack on Sichuan. Liu Fangliang, Dang Shousu and He Zhen in Guangxi took advantage of the frequent reports of the Chu army's successes to sweep through various state capitals in Guangxi. The Western Army was disintegrated, lost consecutive battles, lost troops and lost ground one after another. The remaining troops retreated to several cities such as Guilin and were captured. Liu Danghe divided and surrounded them, and they were destroyed in a matter of seconds. The war in the southwestern provinces was gradually coming to an end. Wang Kefan ordered Tan Xiao, Liu Danghe and other troops to launch a general attack on the remnants of the Western Army in Guilin and other places in order to end the war as soon as possible, and then mobilize more troops to cross the river to launch a final attack on the Manchus. A battle! ¡ ¡ Tan Tai was defeated and died. When the news reached Beijing, the Eight Banners nobles were as frightened as a bereaved dog and fell into great panic. Just when they thought the situation was already dire, a bigger piece of bad news came: our Qing Dynasty¡¯s Dinghai Shenzhen, the emperor¡¯s father and regent Dorgon died suddenly. Dorgon's health was not good to begin with, and he felt like he was running out of energy in the past two years. As the battle situation on the frontline worsened rapidly, Dorgon suffered another stroke. He passed away that night after the onset of the disease. Before his death, he left behind After his death, the Qing court immediately sued for peace from the Longwu court, then evacuated Beijing and exited the customs. When Dorgon was about to die, he saw clearly that the Chu army was unstoppable, and the Qing government would definitely not be able to stand in the pass. If it continued to stay in Beijing, it would inevitably end in genocide, so it must cease war with the Chu army at all costs. , if you return to the outside of the pass as soon as possible, you can still keep the land of Longxing and make a comeback in the future. According to Dorgon's plan, everything outside the pass can be abandoned. As long as he has enough people and material wealth, he still has great hope of gaining a foothold in Shenyang. However, he missed one thing. The little emperor Fulin is facing He was already full of deep-rooted hatred. Before Dorgon's body was cold, he couldn't wait to carry out a bloody purge of his remaining party. It was clear that the building was about to collapse, but he was still busy with internal fighting, and pinned all his hopes on Wu Sangui, hoping that he could stop the Chu army. Wu Sangui was busy negotiating with the Chu army, bargaining to get the maximum benefit. Wang Kefan's answer was simple. Three hundred thousand Chu troops crossed the river in large numbers, plus 100,000 Yuyuan troops and other anti-Qing rebels. At the same time, they attacked Hefei and Su'an. and other places launched a fierce attack. In just one month, theThey annihilated tens of thousands of Wu Sangui's elite troops across the Jianghuai River, captured Hefei and Su'an one after another, and directed their troops towards Xuzhou. Wu Sangui panicked and took the initiative to change his banner. Anyway, the entire army of 100,000 soldiers cut off their braids overnight and changed their hair to the Ming army. Before the Chu army reached Xuzhou, he took the lead and marched north, massively attacking Shandong and Zhili, and captured After Jinan, he sent an envoy again to beg Wang Kefan for surrender, expressing his willingness to be the vanguard of the king's army, expel the Tartars, and fight to Shanhaiguan again. "Wu Sangui made a bunch of conditions to me last time, but don't you want them now?" Wang Kefan said with a smile: "Wu Sangui is the Pingxi King of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Anyway, Gui Ming still wants to be the king. It's understandable, but his king's title needs to be changed. After changing it, remove one word from the front and add a few words from the end, and from now on it will be called King of Siberia. " "King of Siberia?" The messenger was stunned. "Siberia is the land thousands of miles north of Nurgandusi and even the far north." Wang Kefan roughly drew the scope of Siberia on the map, extending from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Transxinganling Mountains in the south, the Ural Mountains in the west, and the Pacific Ocean in the east. In terms of area, it is indeed a vast area of ??thousands of miles. "This, this is not outside Beishan (outer Xing'an Mountains), how is it different from the exile of the army?" The envoy was surprised and frightened. "Wu Sangui has committed an unforgivable crime by inviting a wolf into his house. By doing this, I have already given Wu Sangui a way out." Wang Kefan said calmly: "Go back and tell Wu Sangui that there is no place for him in our territory of the Ming Dynasty. Unless he can do it for Only by opening up territory in the Ming Dynasty can we forgive the previous serious sins. Within a year, he must wipe out Jianzhou, drive Jiannu out of Nuergandusi, and then lead his troops north to Siberia. Otherwise, my army will go north to Nuergan. The time of the capital is when Wu Sangui will be crowned" "Wang Kefan intends to use Wu Sangui to kill the Manchus. Of course, if the Manchus have fled to the Arctic Circle to become Eskimos, or climbed over the Ural Mountains to harm the Russian polar bear who is about to rise. , with the current strength of the Chu army, it is indeed beyond their reach, so they can only let them go. After the envoy left, Wang Kefan reorganized his troops and prepared to personally lead the army in the Northern Expedition. At this time, the seriously ill Emperor Longwu improved slightly and once again made a request to Wang Kefan, wanting to accompany the army in the Northern Expedition. Wang Kefan agreed to his request. "I have done a lot of things that go against my heart in my life. Let me be willful this time. The imperial doctor has said that His Majesty has at most two months to live. Even if he returns to Beijing, what does it matter? "Wang Kefan said to the civil and military officials who tried to dissuade him: "Everyone, the war will end soon, and a new era will come. The world's trend is so vast that those who follow it will prosper, and those who go against it will perish. No one can To stop this trend, you should be more generous. Don't worry about this or that. After His Majesty's death, no matter how high your prestige is, what does it matter" Wang Kefan has endured the humiliation and burden for these years. Until now, he finally has enough capital to do what he wants. As his power and status increased, he had fewer and fewer friends. Only Emperor Longwu was still his spiritual equal. Since he wanted to bring a happy ending to his life, Wang Kefan tried his best to satisfy him.