Chapter 339 The Transformation of Li Dingguo

In mid-July, Li Dingguo finally suffered a hard time, because Sun Kewang had paced the whole territory of Yunnan and jointly attacked it with Wu Sangui.

On that day, Sun Kewang personally led 10,000 troops into the boundary of Guizhou. As soon as he stepped on the boundary of Guizhou, he hurriedly occupied the city of Guizhou. Nominally, he said that he would recover the city occupied by Li Dingguo for Wu Sangui, but in fact, Li Dingguo did not occupy a city in Guizhou at all. Sun Kewang just used this excuse to expand his strength.

Wu Yingxiong has already returned to Wuchang, and they don't know what Sun Kewang did in Guizhou. Wu Sangui certainly didn't expect that he had just fed the wolf and began to bite himself so quickly.

The troops mobilized by Wu Sangui from other places have now gone to Guiyang, which relieves Ma Bao's pressure. And a large amount of grain and fodder and weapons were transported. At this moment, Li Dingguo is facing a crisis of food shortage. Li Dingguo will not rob the people's food and fodder to satisfy his soldiers. Previously, his food and fodder came from Yunnan, but now his foundation in Yunnan has been uprooted by Sun Kewang, which means that he has become an exiled army. Without food and grass, he can't last long.

On July 21, Sun Kewang fought with Li Dingguo for the first time. Sun Kewang was defeated, but Li Dingguo was not much better. These days, Li Dingguo has begun to cut the daily meals of soldiers. Li Dingguo's eyebrows are no longer worried about fighting, but about food and fodder. Now the food and grass in his hand can only support him for five days. Five days passed, and the food was exhausted.

At that time, the soldiers will definitely be defeated. Without Sun Kewang's attack, the soldiers and horses in Li Dingguo's hands will naturally disappear.

Before Li Dingguo repaired the soldiers and horses, Ma Bao led 5,000 soldiers in Guiyang City and attacked Li Dingguo's battalion on the evening of the 22nd. This time, Li Dingguo suffered heavy losses. After dawn, when Li Dingguo collected his troops and horses, he found that there were still 13,000 people left. The remaining more than 18,000 people were either killed, captured or fled. Among them, the most people were captured, accounting for 60%.

Li Dingguo was defeated and had to withdraw from Guiyang Prefecture and retreat to the west. Ma Bao and Sun Kewang did not catch up. After all, there are still many soldiers and horses in Li Dingguo.

On July 25, Li Dingguo settled down in Pingbawei, Guizhou, and bought some grain from the local people with the few silver coins left in his hand, which eased his urgent needs. However, it didn't take long for Ma Bao to order the people of Pingbawei not to sell a grain of grain to Li Dingguo. Naturally, he knew Li Dingguo's policy of not disturbing the people, so he believed that even if the people did not sell him food, he would not point the butcher knife at the people.

As Ma Bao expected, Ma Bao informed the people of Pingbawei that if anyone dared to sell Li Dingguo a grain of grain, he would destroy it. Therefore, it scared many people. They saw Li Dingguo's soldiers and horses dodge one after another. Li Dingguo suddenly fell into danger.

Ma Bao thought that this could make Li Dingguo's soldiers break by themselves, but he ignored a person.

Because of this person, Li Dingguo's soldiers and horses did not disband because of lack of food, but had a large number of new weapons.

This person is Liu Xia. The scout sent by Liu Xia has begun to contact Li Dingguo. At the beginning, Li Dingguo ignored the people sent by Liu Xia. After all, Liu Xia is also a part of Zhang Xianzhong's death. What's more, Sichuan was also defeated by Liu Xia at this moment, and all the Western officials were captured by Liu Xia. Including his wife and children of Li Dingguo.

Of course, Liu Xia did not do anything to Li Dingguo's wife and children, but moved them to Luoyang for good hospitality.

Li Dingguo is not a person who is willing to be threatened, so Liu Xia did not want to threaten him with Li Dingguo's family from the beginning. Instead, I want to make it submissive with national righteousness.

When Li Dingguo was in trouble, Liu Xia's messenger found Li Dingguo again. Li Dingguo did not drive him away this time. He knew that he needed outside support.

So the messenger handed over Liu Xia's handwritten letter to Li Dingguo. After reading it, he didn't say anything for a long time and didn't know what he was thinking. However, in the end, Li Dingguo agreed to Liu Xia's assistance, and he also learned that his family was safe and sound, which made him relieved.

In order to better receive the grain and fodder sent by Liu Xia, Li Dingguo moved west again to Qingshan Division, a Tusi site near Sichuan. Due to the war in Guizhou, most of the people here fled to other places to escape the war.

Although Li Dingguo accepted the food sent by Liu Xia, he did not agree to submit to Liu Xia. He still insisted on attacking Guiyang and forcing Wu Sangui to hand over the murderer who killed Zhang Xianzhong.

On August 1, Li Dingguo rectified the soldiers and horses and brought enough grain and fodder to attack Guiyang again. This time, it came very suddenly, so that Ma Bao was unprepared and almost broke through the gate of Guiyang, but in the end, Li Dingguo still failed.

On August 2 the next day, Li Dingguo suddenly led his troops and horses to attack Sun Kewang's soldiers and horses in Weiqingwei, which suddenly caused more than half of the losses of Sun Kewang's soldiers and horses, with less than 5,000 soldiers and horses, and most of them were injured.

Sun Kewang lost most of the soldiers and horses. He was very anxious. The soldiers and horses were the confidence to speak in this troubled times. If the soldiers and horses were gone, there would be nothing left. Therefore, Sun Kewang immediately ordered conscription in Yunnan. At this moment, Sun Kewang did not dare to turn against Wu Sangui, so he did not blatantly recruit in Guizhou.

There are only a few people in Yunnan, and most of the ethnic minorities are disobedient, so Sun Kewang can't recruit many soldiers and his combat effectiveness is not strong. On the other hand, Sun Kewang began to cry for Wu Sangui and asked Wu Sangui to relieve his food and fodder. Yunnan does not produce grain, not to mention that it is a troubled time, and many fields are abandoned. If food cannot be transported from other places, his grandson's soldiers and horses will starve to death.

After Li Dingguo attacked Sun Kewang, he returned to Qingshan Division to rest and recruit troops locally. With Liu Xia's support, he no longer worried about food and fodder. Of course, Liu Xia is not unconditional support. At the beginning, he may have given Li Dingguo some food and fodder in exchange for his favor. But then there are conditions, and the condition is that Li Dingguo can use it for his Liu Xia.

For this reason, Liu Xia also sent a lot of speakable Zongheng families to show Li Dingguo's interests. In the end, Li Dingguo agreed to join the Liu Xia Group by helping China, and all his soldiers and horses would be integrated into the Pingbei Army. At this moment, Liu Xia can't make the relationship between Li Dingguo and him public. Now Li Dingguo wants to fight with Wu Sangui, and Liu Xia needs to accumulate strength and can't turn against Wu Sangui. So I can only secretly support Li Dingguo.

Liu Xia gave Li Dingguo a legion, named Storm Legion. He temporarily made four guards, and at the same time, Liu Xia sent many graduates from the military school to exercise.

After Wu Sangui learned that Sun Kewang's soldiers and horses were hit hard by Li Dingguo, he lost a lot of troops and burned food and fodder. Now he lives on relief food and fodder from Guiyang. So Wu Sangui generously allocated a large amount of grain and fodder for Sun Kewang. It made it get out of trouble for the time being.

With the support of Liu Xia, Li Dingguo expanded his soldiers and horses to 20,000, and all four guards were fully expanded. Except for the military uniform, which is not the unique black uniform of the Pingbei Army, the other staffing and grades are compiled according to the Pingbei Army. Among them, Li Dingguo is now at the level of Yueqi. The four generals under him serve as the commanders of the four guards, and the level is Yangwei School.

In the following days, Ma Bao in Guiyang gradually found that Li Dingguo was unusual. After all, there were fewer and fewer soldiers and horses, but Li Dingguo fought more and more, and there was no problem of food and grass. He clearly remembers how hard Li Dingguo lived after Sun Kewang took control of the whole territory of Yunnan. But now there is no lack of grain and fodder. Qingshan Division, where Li Dingguo is located, is a poor place, and there can't be so much food. The more I think about Ma Bao, the more suspicious I feel. So he informed Wu Sangui of this doubt.

After Wu Sangui in Wuchang got the news, he immediately sent his men to investigate.