This man's name was Li Dingguo. At first, he was just a poor peasant child, after the outbreak of natural disasters in his hometown, the people were displaced, Li Dingguo also had no home, wandered around, and finally joined Zhang Xianzhong's rebel army. The year was chongzhen's third year (1630 AD), and he was only 10 years old. Because of his extraordinary appearance, Li Dingguo became Zhang Xianzhong's righteous son.
Zhang Xianzhong had a total of 4 righteous sons, and Li Dingguo's performance made him very satisfied. With the help of Li Dingguo, Zhang Xianzhong won a great victory in Xiangyang, and the morale of the rebels was immediately high. However, after the Qing army entered the customs, Zhang Xianzhong changed his attitude, and before he went north to resist the Qing, he instructed the righteous sons that after his death, they must submit to Daming, unite with the Ming to resist the Qing, and not forget their responsibilities.
In the fourth year of Shunzhi (the first year of the Southern Ming Yong calendar), Li Dingguo and three other brothers led the Great Western Army to Yunnan, persuaded the descendants of the Mu Dynasty in Yunnan to cooperate with them, and shouted the slogan of "Gongxiang Qinwang and restore the great tomorrow". However, there were differences between Li Dingguo and his brother Sun Kewang, who was bent on hegemony and forgot his original intention of restoring the Ming Dynasty.
Li Dingguo struggled to finally unite the Great Western Army and the Southern Ming Court. He trained his army in Yunnan, encouraged production, pacified the people, and prepared for future battles. On the other hand, the Qing court could not sit idly by and watch the power of the Restoration grow, and in the ninth year of Shunzhi (1652 AD), the Qing court sent Kong Youde and Wu Sangui to lead 100,000 troops thousands of miles south, intending to attack the Great Western Army and win in one fell swoop.
Strong troops suppressed the border, but Li Dingguo was not in a hurry. He quickly made a strategic layout, ordered other generals to divide their troops to resist the main force of the Qing army, and then led 80,000 steps to ride out on his own. Li Dingguo successively took Hunan and other places, marching forward in triumph, and Guangxi, which was guarded by Kong Youde, was suddenly surrounded by the Great Western Army Regiment, and Li Dingguo's troops divided into three roads and directly approached Guilin, and to lay siege to Guilin, Yanguan was a place that must be seized.
The Qing army naturally refused to give up yanguan, and Kong Youde refused to defend it in an attempt to force back the Great Western Army. Originally, Kong Youde thought that strict passes were easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the soldiers and horses he led were all elite, and it was not difficult to win, but he never expected that when the two armies faced the enemy, the most terrible opponent encountered by the Qing army was not a person at all, but a group of elephants that were menacing and unstoppable everywhere they went!
It turned out that Li Dingguo was familiar with military books and made good use of strange soldiers, he knew that there was a "fire bull array" in ancient times, and when he saw that there were elephants in Yunnan, he secretly trained an elephant army, which finally came in handy this time. As soon as the Qing army's position was set up, the elephant army on the opposite side directly swooped over, the Qing army horses were frightened and screamed, the soldiers were also frightened and scurried around, and the Great Western Army took the opportunity to attack and kill the Qing army.
Kong Youde fled to Guilin, where he was surrounded by the Great Western Army pursuing him, and eventually committed suicide. Li Dingguo made a list of an anthem, celebrated the victory, and publicly showed his determination to resist the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty. However, although Li Dingguo once caused the Qing court a great headache, the Southern Ming court was eventually destroyed by Wu Sangui's army, and the Yongli Emperor died. After Li Dingguo heard this, his eyes shed blood and tears, and he wept bitterly: "I am sorry Daming, I have no face to face the people of the world!" Soon, Li Dingguo died of illness, and on his deathbed he instructed his son: It is better to die in the wilderness, and the daming boy will never surrender.