Li Dingguo, a late Ming dynasty national hero, a native of Yulin (or Yan'an), Shaanxi, followed Zhang Xianzhong in his early years to participate in the peasant uprising. Because of Li Dingguo's extraordinary military talent, when he was seventeen years old, he had become a beloved general under Zhang Xianzhong. When Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan, Li Dingguo already had 20,000 elite soldiers under his command.
In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Dingguo was ordered to lead an army to attack Xiangyang. In this battle, Li Dingguo captured the King of Xiang and made a great contribution. After Zhang Xianzhong became the ruler, Li Dingguo was appointed as the general of Anxi, and his position in the Great Western regime could be called "two people below, above ten thousand people". Compared with Sun Kewang and Zhang Xianzhong, the two superiors, Li Dingguo has a brighter future.
You must know that This year's Li Dingguo was just twenty-four years old, and there is still a great future waiting for him. Li Dingguo, who became famous at a young age, relied on his hard strength to gain a firm foothold in the army, and soldiers in the army liked to privately call him "Little Lieutenant Chi" and "Ten Thousand Enemies". After Zhang Xianzhong's death in battle, Li Dingguo followed Sun Kewang to Yunnan and Guizhou, and established the "Four Generals" regime in Kunming.
At that time, Li Dingguo had become the king of Anxi and became the sole leader of the regime. Although Li Dingguo already had the capital to stand on his own, he still endured humiliation and burdens, and was willing to submit to the people and serve Sun Kewang. The reason why the "Four Generals" regime was able to take root in Yunnan was due to Li Dingguo's contribution. When he first arrived in Yunnan, Li Dingguo spent three months leading his troops to suppress the rebellious State of Shading in Yunnan, bringing a brief period of tranquility to Yunnan.
It can be said that it is precisely because Sun Kewang has such talents as Li Dingguo under his command that the "four generals" regime has the family foundation to compete with the Southern Ming and Manchu Qing dynasties.
Li Dingguo's political views are relatively clear, compared with the Southern Ming, the Manchu Qing is the primary enemy of the Han. Therefore, Li Dingguo proposed to Sun Kewang to join forces to resist the Qing Dynasty, and advocated that Sun Kewang advance into Bashu and drink the Yangtze River. However, Sun Kewang was not a ming lord, he had always only considered his own vested interests, and he was even more jealous of Li Dingguo, who had achieved great success.
During this time, Sun Kewang used other trivial matters as an excuse to wantonly beat Li Dingguo. Considering the importance of the overall situation, Li Dingguo did not turn his face to him. Later, the lianming resistance to the Qing dynasty had become the trend of the times, and at this time, Sun Kewang still did not forget to open his mouth to the Southern Ming privately, hoping to make the Southern Ming Emperor crown himself the King of Qin.
In the face of such a lord, Li Dingguo was quite dissatisfied. Therefore, in the third year of the Yong calendar, Li Dingguo led his own troops to sweep through Guizhou, making Yungui into a front, and Li Dingguo also became famous for this expedition.
In the sixth year of the Yong calendar, the Qing army invaded the south on a large scale, and Kong Youde, the king of Dingnan, was assigned by the Qing court to lead an army from Guilin out of the river pond to attack Guizhou. On the other hand, the Qing court appointed Wu Sangui to attack southern Sichuan from Jiading. The Qing court's move was undoubtedly to attack from both sides and completely destroy the Great Western Army, which was a thorn in the eye. Faced with this crisis situation, Li Dingguo immediately sent a letter to Sun Kewang, asking him to see the situation clearly in front of him and asking him to lead his troops out of Huguang to break the situation of encirclement and suppression by the Qing army.
At this moment, Sun Kewang was in turmoil, so he agreed to Li Dingguo's proposal and decided to send Liu Wenxiu and Li Dingguo to lead a force to deal with the encirclement and suppression of the Qing army. The Northern Route Army was an elite army commanded by Liu Wenxiu and with Bai Wenxuan and Wang Fuchen as deputy generals; the Eastern Route Army was a surprise attack army with Li Dingguo as the commander and Ma Jinzhong and Feng Shuangli as the generals. As for Sun Kewang himself, he led the main force of the "driving front army" to stay in Yungui. Since then, the Great Western Army and the Qing Army have fought two major armies.
In order to win the hearts and minds of the Great Western Army, Li Dingguo established five military laws with his soldiers before going to war:
One is not to kill;
The second is not to commit adultery;
The third is not to rob;
The fourth is not to kill cattle;
Fifth, do not set fires.
At the request of Li Dingguo, his soldiers had strict military discipline and did not make any mistakes against the people of the prefectures and counties.
In May of the sixth year of the Yong calendar, Li Dingguo took the prefectures of Yuan, Jing, and Wugang in a short period of time, which made the Qing soldiers feel frightened. Shen Yongzhong, who was frightened by Li Dingguo, rushed to Kong Youde for help, and Kong Youde drew an army from Guilin to meet Li Dingguo. Before the enemy's large aid arrived on the battlefield, Li Dingguo marched rapidly at Maple Ridge and quickly captured Baoqing, annihilating more than 5,000 enemies.
In June of the sixth year of the Yong calendar, Li Dingguo sent an army to attack Qiyang, preparing to use this as a springboard to capture Quanzhou, the gateway to Guangxi, and completely annihilate Kong Youde's army in Guilin. In order to achieve this strategic goal, Li Dingguo divided his army into three routes:
A route led by Feng Shuangli directly took jeonju;
One route led by Zhang Sheng to attack Yanguan;
He himself personally led the attack on Kong Youde's outlying strongholds.
The three great western armies agreed to jointly attack Guilin after the fact. In the campaign to attack Guilin, Under his leadership, Li Dingguo's troops were extremely brave and adopted the blitzkrieg tactics of quick battle and quick decision, which caught the Qing army by surprise and captured Jeonju and other places in a very short period of time. On this occasion, Li Dingguo issued another order to keep Feng Shuangli's men and horses from entering Jeonju and advance with his troops toward Yanguan. The use of this tactic paved the way for the Great Western Army to achieve the Great Victory in Guilin.
On June 30, a fierce battle broke out between the Qing army and the Great Western Army at Yanguan, "elephants also burst into battle, Wang Shi rushed, death was incalculable, and corpses were everywhere." Only a day later, Kong Youde's reinforcements came to kill, "the soldiers did not surrender but like the front of the line, the strong pawns were surrounded by mountains, the dust and sand covered the sun, the horses smelled and the elephants were all upside down, and the people of Youde rushed to cover up the great defeat." Except for Kong Youde, the rest of the Qing army was annihilated by Li Dingguo's forces. The Great Western Army marched all the way to the city of Guilin, encircling the city and surrounding it.
Subsequently, Li Dingguo's forces took only four days to capture Guilin. During the siege, Kong Youde saw that the general trend had gone, so he "gathered his treasures to play in one room, hand blade Aiji, closed the house, and self-immolated." ”
Since Kong Youde surrendered to the Manchu Qing dynasty and came all the way from Shanhaiguan to the southwest, during which the Ming army could not defeat its front, and the famous Southern Ming general He Tengjiao died at the hands of this person. No one expected that Kong Youde, who was invincible on the battlefield, would actually fold his sword and sink into the sand after meeting Li Dingguo, and was forced by Li Dingguo to have no way to retreat. It is said that before his death, Kong Youde warned his son not to join the army and not to enter politics.
After the Great Western Army had won a great victory in Guilin, it was only a matter of time before the entire territory of Guangxi was recovered. Because Li Dingguo's army had strict military discipline and won the hearts of the people in the people, in some areas, before Li Dingguo's army could be killed, the local people spontaneously expelled the Qing army and defected to the Great Western Army. After pacifying Guilin, Li Dingguo feasted on the Seven Star Rock to celebrate this hard-won victory. During this period, Li Dingguo said to Liu Yuansheng, a Southern Ming Shangshu who was in different camps:
"Wen and Zhang Zhugong are loyal and heroic, and they are enough to illuminate the history of the qing dynasty and make a difference for the heavens and the earth, but for the country, they do not want to have this result."
From these words, we can see Li Dingguo's patriotic sentiments and integrity. He wanted to become a well-known patriotic general like Wen Tianxiang and Zhang Shijie, and he was also willing to spend his life recovering the territory occupied by the Qing army and restoring the orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty.
In August of the same year, Li Dingguo arranged for the Southern Ming To patrol Xu Tianyou to defend Guilin, while he continued north with his main army, intending to restore Hunan. During this period, Li Dingguo successively conquered Jeonju and Yongzhou. Only a month later, Li Dingguo's army marched to Hengzhou, and the local Qing defenders abandoned the city and fled. When the Inspector of Changsha heard the news, he also fled. "The soldiers have not arrived, and there is no one in a thousand miles."
Li Dingguo's prestige made the Qing army feel frightened, so he carried out repairs in Hengzhou in an attempt to advance north. During this period of repair, Ma Bao under Li Dingguo marched eastward in Guangxi and successively captured Yangshan and Lianzhou. Feng Shuangli continued to move north, occupying Yuezhou and Changde. "Soldiers out of July, fu county sixteen, state two, the land will be three thousand miles."
In just seven months, Li Dingguo laid down three thousand miles of land, shocking the world. The Qing court was shocked, and the courtiers recommended Hong Chengyu to rush to Changsha through Huguang, Yungui, and Liangguang. In November of the same year, the Qing court, in order to seek insurance, appointed Prince Nikan as the general of Dingyuan and attacked Changsha with 150,000 troops.
In the face of a powerful enemy, Li Dingguo did not dare to be sloppy, and he immediately made a decision: the Great Western Army avoided its sharp edge and led the main force of the Qing army to the Xiang River. Feng and Ma's two troops lurked in Gaoshi, and as soon as the Qing army crossed Hengshan Mountain, Li Dingguo launched a surprise attack from Steaming Water, and Feng and Ma's troops responded. The three armies attacked in a sharp angle, which was bound to completely annihilate the main force of Nikan.
Originally, Li Dingguo's plan was very meticulous, but unfortunately, Feng Shuangli revealed the news to Sun Kewang before the war. Fearful of his head and tail, Sun Kewang, believing that "he did not want to determine the success of the country, but thought of the defeat and death", secretly ordered Feng to withdraw from the battlefield. Ma Jinzhong, seeing the situation, did not want to risk his life, and also withdrew from the ambush circle.
On November 19, Nikan arrived in Hengzhou as Li Dingguo had expected. According to the agreement, Li Dingguo launched a surprise attack on steaming water, and after achieving certain results, he turned to the north of the city and fought with the Qing army without distinction between victory and defeat. Five days later, the two sides were once again in a fierce battle, and Li Dingguo was defeated and led the Qing army all the way to Yanwuting.
Subsequently, Li Dingguo's troops turned their horses to kill the Qing army, and Li Dingguo, who was a pioneer, hacked the commander Nikan to death with a knife. The Qing army was leaderless and returned in defeat. Li Dingguo fought such a big victory, and only then did he find that Feng and Ma had not ambushed the reservation location as agreed. At this point, Li Dingguo finally realized that he was alone and could not expand his achievements on this basis.
In desperation, Li Dingguo had no choice but to lead the army to move the strategy to Wugang and consider the long term. After the end of the First World War in Hengzhou, Li Dingguo ordered people to print portraits of Kong Youde and Nikan and post them in Chu, Guangdong and other places, announcing that the Great Western Army had completely restored Guangxi and Hunan.
It can be said that Li Dingguo was the absolute talent who saved the building at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Unfortunately, Li Dingguo failed to serve the Ming Lord, so that he was subject to many restrictions and could not fully display his ambitions.
After Li Dingguo's death, the two departments of King Gui and King Min each had thousands of people who did not surrender, and gathered in the east hundred miles of the Ava River, known as the "Gui Family" and "Min Family". The people of all ethnic groups in Mengla also worshipped Li Dingguo as a god and worshipped them all over the tomb of the King of Jin. And in the back of the mountain to rebuild the "HanWang Temple", every year during the Spring Festival to carry out a solemn sacrifice.
At present, the people of Yunnan still regard Li Dingguo as the backbone of Dianzhong, the late Qing revolutionaries revolted, Cai Yi and others still follow li Dingguo as an example, Zhang Binglin said: "May my Dian people not forget Li Dingguo!" ”
If Li Dingguo had chosen the lord of the wise and divine martial arts, it would not be known whether he could rewrite the history of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Resources:
[Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Volume 224, Biography of Li Dingguo, Biography of Li Dingguo, Huailing Liukou Always Record, Jiashen Assassination, Yongli Shilu, Biography of Li Dingguo]