Li Ping, who had already entered Sichuan, had no idea about the chaos in Beijing thousands of miles away.

And even if he knew it, it wouldn't be his turn to take care of it.

Besides, Li Ping also has his own troubles now.

Also on the ninth day of the first lunar month, the main force led by Li Ping had arrived at Tongluo Gorge, Chongqing's outermost defense line, and launched an attack that day.

But a full month later, Zhang Xianzhong's army still firmly controlled Tongluo Gorge, while Li Ping retreated to Fuzhou to stay with the support battalion and stopped moving forward.

Originally, the battle was not going well, and I felt very depressed up and down.

It happened that at this time, huge prison camps and support camps also came to join in the fun. Not only did a lot of discordant noises come out, but there were also many incidents of crowds fleeing.

There was even an almost riot in the prisoner camp.

Fortunately, Li Ping knew very well that people's hearts cannot withstand the test, or it could be said that Li Ping and his subordinates had already foreseen this kind of thing, and they all took timely and decisive measures to avoid serious consequences.

.

But such turmoil and turmoil have also made the air in Fuzhou more dull.

Feeling depressed, Li Ping ran to Zhao Lanyue a little frequently. He tried her cooking skills and took a walk together to relieve his stress.

On this day, while Li Ping was enjoying noodles at Zhao Lanyue's place, the door was suddenly pushed open with a loud bang from outside without any warning.

Since this was Zhao Lanyue's residence and the two of them were alone in the house, Li Ping, who had never thought that anyone would dare to be so bold, almost choked on the food in his mouth in surprise and started coughing.

Zhao Lanyue was even more shocked when she encountered this kind of thing for the first time. Her expression suddenly changed, and a cold light flashed in her eyes, ready to explode.

But when the shocked two people saw clearly the person who broke into the house immediately after, Li Ping was stunned and his eyes were glaring. He suppressed the cough behind him and his whole body stiffened at the same time.

Zhao Lanyue also shuddered instantly. Not only did she put out the engine, but she also stood up in a panic and said with a trembling voice: "Sister Gao, why are you here?"

The uninvited guest turned out to be Gao Lei, no wonder he was so bold! No wonder none of the guards and maids outside dared to stop him, and no one had the chance to communicate.

Moreover, Gao Lei's face looked worse than ever before.

Gao Lei who broke into the house ignored Zhao Lanyue, stared at Li Ping angrily and said: "Li Ping, you are indeed here! I ask you, are you deliberately blocked here, waiting for Zhang Xianzhong to kill everyone?

Are you going to pick up bargains again?"

"Sister, why do you think so?" Zhao Lanyue cried out in surprise, and she instantly understood what Gao Lei meant.

However, Li Ping was a little confused and said "Ah".

"Are you still pretending to me?" Gao Lei shouted angrily. "You don't go to fight seriously, but you hide here for leisure. What's your intention? When have you ever been afraid of Zhang Xianzhong's army, how could you not defeat it?

You can't just watch him massacre the people of Sichuan just because you don't want to dirty your hands! Those are all human beings, living people! How can you be so sinister and cruel!"

"Sister, Li Ping is not what you think. He really can't capture Tongluo Gorge or Chongqing at the moment. Please listen to my explanation..." Zhao Lanyue's face turned red and she immediately wanted to defend herself.

But at this moment, Song Baolai suddenly ran in out of breath from outside, and immediately shouted after seeing the embarrassing scene in the house: "It's all my fault, it's all my fault, it's my words

I didn’t make it clear, I was just talking nonsense, Gao Lei, you misunderstood.”

"I didn't misunderstand, you don't have to defend him." Gao Lei glared at Song Baolai with a dark face and said angrily.

Li Ping and Zhao Lanyue looked at Song Baolai with puzzled faces.

The two of them were obviously a little confused.

The timing of Song Baolai's appearance was very strange, and the words he said were also very strange.

"You misunderstood! I really misunderstood. Sit down first, close the door, and let's talk slowly and don't let people outside see the joke." Song Baolai gasped and pulled Gao Lei while he spoke.

Gao Lei started to struggle a few times, but then hesitantly looked back.

Perhaps she realized that although the door was empty, the guards and maids were probably pricking up their ears at this time, so she quickly let Song Baolai angrily drag her to a chair aside and sit down.

She hasn't completely rationalized yet.

However, after closing the door, Song Baolai looked at Li Ping with a guilty conscience and hurriedly explained: "Gao Lei went to my place just now and wanted to ask about the attack on Chongqing. She noticed that we had very few wounded during this period.

I was busy at the time, and without thinking about it, I casually said that I had attacked Tongluo Gorge twice, and the attack was stopped quickly after the attack failed. Naturally, there were not too many wounded. Now most of the troops are

After withdrawing, there were no combat operations, and naturally there were fewer wounded.

Gao Lei asked me in surprise what was going on?

I just joked and said that if the fight is not easy, I won’t fight! Just let Zhang Xianzhong kill more people. It would be better to kill all the officials, gentry and landlords, so that we can save a lot of trouble later. Moreover, Zhang Xianzhong will lose the people’s support.

, not only is it easier for us to fight later, but we can also avoid a lot of losses.

Gao Lei didn't say anything at that time, nor did she ask any more questions, but turned around and left.

I didn't take it seriously because I was busy, and I didn't pay attention to her face. It wasn't until I heard a subordinate who came from somewhere say that Gao Lei's face was particularly ugly, and she was mumbling your name, that I finally realized it.

I quickly chased after him."

"Did he make a mistake? Isn't this the reason why you originally planned to follow Zhang Xianzhong?" Gao Lei followed up with even more anger.

At this time, Li Ping finally had a look of realization on his face, and at the same time he also had mixed emotions.

Since the relationship between him and Zhao Lanyue changed, maybe to avoid embarrassment, maybe because of something else, anyway, Gao Lei found a reason to no longer live with Zhao Lanyue.

And not only that, Gao Lei also reduced her contacts with everyone, especially she would hardly appear in front of Li Ping unless there were special circumstances.

In order not to embarrass himself, Li Ping also would not take the initiative to provoke Gao Lei.

Although Zhao Lanyue has been pretending to be crazy and often harassing Gao Lei, it is impossible to be as casual and talk about everything as before. Matters related to military operations that are too serious and are personally responsible for Li Ping will naturally be agreed upon by the two.

Avoid mentioning it to avoid a cold moment.

As a result, due to lack of communication, Gao Lei knew very little about Li Ping's current military and political measures and purposes, and all kinds of information were also very blocked.

And indeed, following Zhang Xianzhong and directly taking over Sichuan, where all the officials, gentry and landlords were killed by Zhang Xianzhong, was one of Li Ping's first strategies.

Moreover, Li Ping also has a history of treachery.

Under such circumstances, it was inevitable that Gao Lei, who lacked information, would become suspicious and then doubt Li Ping's motives and character.

At first, Li Ping was a little uneasy about Gao Lei's obvious way of avoiding everyone. He had a very uncomfortable feeling that all this was caused by him.

Now that Gao Lei had doubts, she didn't go to him or Zhao Lanyue to find out, but went to Song Baolai to ask around the corner. Li Ping felt the growing gap between them, and felt even more uncomfortable in his heart.

"Can I explain?" Li Ping sighed and said bitterly.

Zhao Lanyue also sighed at this time, looked at Li Ping with complicated eyes, and then at Gao Lei, but in the end said nothing.

She knew it was best not to talk at this time.

"Go ahead! I'll listen." Although Gao Lei's tone was still angry, you could feel that she was trying to calm down.

Especially when she finished saying this, she bit her lip and glanced at Zhao Lanyue, probably feeling uneasy and regretful.

Li Ping knew that in order to win people's trust, he could no longer spend time thinking about how to organize his words, so he immediately started talking non-stop using the simplest way of speaking according to a timeline.

Regarding the current predicament on the battlefield, I really don’t blame Li Ping for not working hard.

After Zhang Xianzhong left Chongqing, he left Li Rujing in Chongqing and left Li Rujing 100,000 people.

Because Li Rujing's army did not participate in the Battle of Baishui, and Liu Wenxiu's army are Zhang Xianzhong's only two remaining elite troops, especially Li Rujing has not experienced the defeat of Daye, and is the only army that still has elite old subordinates.

.

Allowing Li Rujing to guard Chongqing showed Zhang Xianzhong's determination and determination to keep Li Ping out of the hinterland of Sichuan.

Li Rujing replaced Liu Ting, a little-known general in history, to guard Chongqing, which also shows that Zhang Xianzhong attached great importance to and made major changes in following Li Ping into Sichuan.

Although not all of the 100,000 people left by Zhang Xianzhong to Li Rujing were soldiers, they were still 100,000 and included almost all of Li Rujing's original subordinates, and they were still defenders. In addition, Li Rujing was a ruthless character with a reputation.

Under such circumstances, it would not be easy for Li Ping to win with 10,000 soldiers.

What made Li Ping even more cautious was that he had almost determined that Li Rujing was the great figure in history, Li Dingguo.

But Li Ping didn't hesitate at first.

Because according to what he knew, Li Rujing actually didn't have many elites and veterans. After all, they had fought against each other before and had a relatively deep understanding of his details.

So Li Ping initially wanted to see if he could win a battle and use his winning streak and overwhelming psychological advantage to destroy his opponent.

But what he didn't expect was that the steepness of Tongluo Gorge exceeded Li Ping's imagination, and Li Rujing was very ruthless in letting go of at least 10,000 horses, including a large number of elites, on Tongluo Gorge.

As a result, Li Ping, who could not and did not dare to cause huge casualties, failed to organize frontal attacks and sneak attacks on Tongluo Gorge.

At this time, Li Ping naturally wanted to think of other ways.

But something went wrong again. Zhang Xianzhong's method when he attacked Chongqing two months ago was almost superb, to the extent that Li Ping could only look up to him.

Tongluo Gorge is a famous natural barrier with a wall more than 500 meters high and steep cliffs, facing each other along the Jiajiang River. It is a must-pass for entering Chongqing via the Yangtze River.

Since the Ming army also deployed heavy troops at that time and set up iron ropes to block the river at the mouth of the gorge, as well as a large number of artillery and rolling stones and wood on the mountain, Zhang Xianzhong's initial attack also did not go well.

However, Zhang Xianzhong quickly changed his tactics and deployed a large army to contain and continue the feint attack. Then he led his elite overland over the mountains and ridges, directly jumped over Chongqing City, attacked Jiangjin more than 70 kilometers upstream, then took a boat down the river, and suddenly landed behind Chongqing City.

, and then adopted the method of attacking in the east and attacking in the west to capture Fotu Pass, the only land pass on the peninsula surrounded by water on three sides.

Because the back road was cut off, Chongqing City panicked and mistakenly transferred the main force of the Tongluo Gorge defenders back to aid Chongqing City. As a result, the Tongluo Gorge defenders collapsed without a fight.

After Chongqing became an isolated city, Zhang Xianzhong adopted the advice of his subordinates and sent troops to dig graves on the hillside of Guan Mountain and used the hard coffin boards as defense shields. While he was constantly sending troops to attack the city with coffin boards, he also quietly sent people to attack under the stone city wall.

hole and placed a large amount of gunpowder. Finally, they succeeded in blowing down the city wall and invaded Chongqing.

It can be said that in the attack on Chongqing, Zhang Xianzhong used all the available strategies and tricks, making it difficult for Li Ping to innovate any more.
To be continued...