The next time Zhou Peigong went to the Ming army barracks to negotiate, he did not see Deng Ming. According to the Ming army's reception officer, Admiral Deng had returned to Zhongxiang and urged Liu Tichun and others to carry out the bandit suppression work.

...

After the Battle of Zhenjiang, the wind direction was always unfavorable to the Ming army, or the wind was not strong enough, so it took Zheng Chenggong more than ten days to arrive in Nanjing from Zhenjiang.

The Ming army in Zhejiang used a much smaller ship than the Fujian army, but Zhang Huangyan's troops also needed to use a boatman to drag the ship upstream due to the wind direction. Therefore, the Zhejiang army did not go straight to Nanchang, Jiangxi, but instead recruited surrounding prefectures and counties upstream of Nanjing, strengthening their strength while waiting for a better wind.

The vanguard of the Ming army arrived at the city of Nanjing. Governor Jiang Guozhu, Governor Guan Xiaozhong and others colluded with other Nanjing officials to request surrender from Zheng Chenggong, but they asked for grace.

"They asked to surrender again after thirty days. As long as they could hold on for thirty days, the embattled court would not implicate their family." Zheng Chenggong repeated the conditions in Nanjing to his subordinates to train their judgment. Yu Xin and Gan Hui are Zheng Chenggong's right-hand man, and Zheng Chenggong asked the two to talk about their ideas.

"I have never heard of this," Yu Xin replied immediately: "Our army has fought with the Tartars for ten years. If there is really such a rule, how could I not have heard of it?"

"If they really plan to surrender and save their lives, will they care about their lives?" Gan Hui also believed that this matter must be false. Needless to say, the Qing Dynasty, even the Ming army would never show mercy to the family members of the traitors. Regardless of whether they had fought hard or not, surrendering to the enemy was an unforgivable crime: "If they were worried about their family and valued their family's safety more than their own lives, they would not surrender!"

Many people had similar opinions. Zheng Chenggong smiled and nodded, and then ordered the Qing army envoy to be sent in. In front of the generals, Zheng Chenggong said that he agreed to Nanjing's request and gave the Nanjing defenders a grace to thirty days.

After sending away the Qing envoys who had been grateful, Zheng Chenggong left a group of confidant officers in the camp and explained to his confused subordinates: "The reason for this vassal seems to have been seen in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. When the Eastern Wu attacked Wei, a Wei guru fought desperately for ninety days. After knowing that the city was about to break, he asked General Wu for grace, claiming that according to the laws of Wei, the resistance of more than a hundred days would not be implicated in his family. General Wu believed it, and the Wei soldiers took advantage of the opportunity of the ten-day quit, repaired the city wall, made up the gap, so that the soldiers could rest, and continued to resist after ten days."

"How could General Wu believe it?" Yu Xin expressed his disbelief: "The Eastern Wu and Cao Wei have been fighting for many years. Even if the commander does not know the laws and regulations of Wei, is it that all the generals and staff members of the staff know about it?"

"This is just a storytelling story, but I believe that someone in Nanjing has seen it and believes it is true, so he will use it to fool our vassal." Zheng Chenggong planned to use the trick and use this opportunity to complete the preliminary work of attacking Nanjing without interruption: "The Nanjing Tatars even took out such a strategy, which shows that they are at a loss and try every means to delay time. However, the more this time, the more they must be careful of them being anxious. Our vassal agreed today. The captives in the city must have thought they were able to make plans. In order to pretend to be more similar, they will not go out of the city to counterattack, will not interfere with the landing of the officers and soldiers, and set up camps."

After the Zhenjiang War, Guan Xiaozhong and Jiang Guozhu both fled. Zheng Chenggong felt that if they really wanted to surrender, they would not have fled desperately at that time. If they were afraid of deciding to surrender later, they should have sent a letter of surrender in Zhenjiang, Jurong and other places, instead of waiting until the Ming army vanguard arrived at the city of Nanjing before making such a ridiculous request. This must be a delaying strategy.

While sending people to the back team, Zheng Chenggong urged them to seize the time to rush to the city of Nanjing, while leading the pioneer generals to step on the terrain around Nanjing.

Unlike Zheng Chenggong, many of his generals met Nanjing for the first time. After the Battle of Zhenjiang, Gan Hui also proposed a surprise attack on Nanjing. Today, after witnessing Nanjing's city defense with his own eyes, he couldn't help but be amazed - the Nanjing city wall in front of him was as high as a small hill.

"There are 13 city gates in Nanjing," Zheng Chenggong led his men to walk for a long time, but he could not see half of the Nanjing city wall: "How do you think this city should be attacked?"

Originally, Yu Xin suggested surrounding Nanjing from all sides and blocking the waters, and seizing troops to guard various passages to isolate the traffic connections inside and outside the city, but now he himself rejected his proposal: "The city of Nanjing cannot be surrounded, so he can only attack from one side."

If Nanjing is surrounded by all sides, each city gate will be divided into three thousand armored soldiers and ten thousand auxiliary soldiers. After diluting the troops, the Ming army in front of any city gate will be at a disadvantage compared to the defenders in the city and may be easily defeated by the opponent's main force. Moreover, Zheng Chenggong has no cavalry in his hands, and the infantry will be exhausted and unable to support each other after running around Nanjing for half a circle. Since it is impossible to even encircle, it is even more impossible to isolate internal and external traffic. If the Zheng army intends to siege the city and attack the aid, it will need to spread the troops more scattered and form a two-layer encirclement circle. At that time, they will be attacked by reinforcements and defenders inside and outside. The various infantry units scattered on the two-layer encirclement circle may not only fail to be reinforced, but will be destroyed by the opponent.

"Yes, I will have to attack hard, which is another reason why this vassal agreed to give them thirty days." When he came to Jiangnan this time, Zheng Chenggong brought hundreds of thousands of kilograms of copper, all of which were red copper he bought from Japan. In addition to copper, Zheng Chenggong also had a large amount of gunpowder. Before, Zheng Chenggong hoped to destroy the fighting spirit of the Qing army with a field victory under the city of Nanjing, but he also had to consider how to seize Nanjing if he failed to achieve such a goal.

After capturing Zhenjiang and other places, Zheng Chenggong ordered the collection of artillery from all over the country and all shipped to Nanjing. Zheng Chenggong and his generals observed some terrain, and finally selected several places, and ordered Yu Xin and others to station separately: "This vassal has been thinking about the method of breaking Nanjing many times, and it feels that there is no other way except to use cannons to break the city wall. However, if we want to blast open the city wall of Nanjing, we will definitely not be able to rely on the kind of cannons in our hands. We must have a heavy cannon of tens of thousands of kilograms."

However, such heavy cannons have no means or experience to transport them. Even if they can be transported by ship by sea, it is a problem to load, unload, and drag it from the landing site to the city of Nanjing without any damage.

"Then this time, our vassal did not carry cannons, but brought millions of kilograms of red copper. After the copper material was transported to us, we would cast cannons under the city." The places Zheng Chenggong had just selected were several places that might be used to build turrets. He planned to cast dozens of unprecedented heavy artillery next to the turret and use them to blast the city walls of Nanjing.

Zheng Chenggong planned to send troops to station these places first, and finally choose a place to secretly construct. Before completing it, he used the camp as a cover to avoid the Qing army's eyes and ears. In the battle of Zhenjiang, officials from all over the southeast and Green Camp soldiers lost confidence after seeing the Eight Banners soldiers who were regarded as divine weapons by them were wiped out by the Ming army, and surrendered to Zheng Chenggong. Now Zheng Chenggong felt that the person who supported the Nanjing defenders was the seemingly indestructible Nanjing wall. If he saw the city wall that was regarded as the last relying on suddenly collapsed, the defenders might collapse instantly.

Therefore, the construction must be carried out in secret, and the cannons must be used uniformly after casting, so as to create the greatest shocking effect on the enemy. However, Zheng Chenggong had never cast such a heavy cannon, and he didn't know when it would be successful. He dragged all the cannons around him just in case. If the copper cannon weighing 2 or 30,000 pounds could not blast the 15-meter-thick city wall in Nanjing, he would have to cast more and heavier cannons.

"It takes at least ten days to build a fort, and then to refine copper and cast cannons, which may take ten days." Zheng Chenggong calculated the time and said to his subordinates: "It takes no matter how hard it is to sharpen a knife. The cannons in this vassal will take twenty days to build a batch. Therefore, what's wrong with giving the captives in the city thirty days? It won't be bothered to make trouble and affect the progress of this vassal. Since they knew that they were using a delaying strategy, the vassal did not have to really keep a thirty-day agreement. After the cannons were cast... Well, about twenty-five to twenty-eight days later, the Tartars were thinking about some reason to delay the time. When they thought there were still a few days of peace, the vassal suddenly fired artillery, blasting the city walls and attacking Nanjing."

Before the sea ships carrying copper arrived, ships carrying Fujian military families had already sailed near Nanjing.

Before, Zheng Chenggong sent troops and never brought his family to his soldiers. When attacking Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places, the phenomenon of soldiers returning home occurred. Several times the problems occurred were even more serious. At that time, Zheng Chenggong was leading his troops outside. There were suddenly rumors in the army that the Jinxia base was attacked by Qing soldiers. The Ming army suddenly became disintegrated and asked Zheng Chenggong to return to the rescue in unison.

Sometimes these rumors were intentionally spread by Geng Jimao and other enemies, and sometimes they were fabricated by soldiers who missed their families. Zheng Chenggong was bound to win this attack on Nanjing. He was afraid that similar problems would occur and failed, so he ordered the soldiers of the army to bring them all from Fujian to Nanjing.

In addition to preventing the soldiers from returning home, Zheng Chenggong had another consideration. His eyes were not limited to capturing Nanjing. For him, this was just the first step of his grand strategy. Next, Zheng Chenggong not only had to defend Nanjing, but also tried to attack north and west. Zheng Chenggong knew that most soldiers could not have the same ambition as him. If his family members were not brought to Nanjing, many soldiers might want to loot, make a fortune and then return to Fujian. If they encountered a strong counterattack from the Qing Dynasty, the soldiers might also want to set sail and go to sea and are unwilling to die in a foreign land.

Now Zheng Chenggong has moved all the soldiers' families. In the future, as long as these families are placed in Nanjing, the Fujian army will regard the southeast as the foundation and willingly follow Zheng Chenggong to fight on this land. If the Qing Dynasty threatens the security of Nanjing, the soldiers under Zheng Chenggong will also fight to kill the enemy to defend their relatives.

The new war reports from Huguang were also coming with the soldiers' families. Due to the relationship between the young Tang King, Zheng Chenggong attached great importance to the situation in Huguang, and he would immediately read it once there was a new report. If the seized Qing Dynasty newspaper involves the Huguang war, Zheng Chenggong would also read it at the first moment.

This report is related to Deng Ming's latest open letter. After seeing Deng Ming show his power again and bringing a few guards deep into Hu Quancai's camp to kill him, Zheng Chenggong laughed. While despising Hu Quancai's stupidity and incompetence, he admired Deng Ming's courage and spirit even more.

"The young master is so brave. What else can Zhang Shangshu say in the future?" Zheng Chenggong read the report twice before letting go. When he decided to support this person before, Zheng Chenggong was worried that the young King Tang did not have the courage of his father and uncle, but was similar to the current Yongli Emperor. In the future, the Qing Dynasty would inevitably go south to counterattack. If Zheng Chenggong and the Ming soldiers fought on the Yangtze River, they suddenly heard that the governor of Nanjing had fled, then the battle would not be fought.

The news of the Kunming fire made Zheng Chenggong overjoyed. The battle situation in Huguang this time further showed that the young Tang King had a lot of prestige in the Kuidong army, rather than relying entirely on Wen Anzhi's connections.

"If the Qing Dynasty moves south in the future, the young master will personally visit the front line and set up a royal ceremonial guard before the troops..." Zheng Chenggong thought of this, shook his head and drove this idea out of his mind: "Zhongzhen Camp is single and weak, and it is difficult to fight the Huguang Green Camp. The young master is forced to go deep into the enemy's backbone. However, our army is strong and the navy covers the Yangtze River. How can the young master take such a risk? Will he let others gossip about it and say that I am not doing it by a loyal minister or a filial son?"

The Fujian Army and the Kuidong Army all supported the Shao Tang King. I heard that some of Sun Kewang's old generals and the Sichuan Army also supported the Shao Tang King. Li Dingguo, who supported Yongli, was seriously injured after the war. Zheng Chenggong thought that the Yongli faction had no chance of winning in military affairs. The Yongli Emperor abandoned the country and refused to return, but the Shao Tang King led the way, crossed several provinces to restore Nanjing (Zheng Chenggong has regarded this as inevitable and planned to attribute it to Deng Ming), and was not at a disadvantage in public opinion. Besides, he was just a state-controlled country, and did not blatantly usurp the throne.

He ordered his subordinates to list Deng Ming's achievements in Huguang on a piece of paper. Zheng Chenggong took these achievements and his sacrificial texts to Xiaoling to worship Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding ancestor of the Ming Dynasty.

After leaving Xiaoling, Zheng Chenggong wrote a poem with a big stroke:

The white and simple swear to destroy Hu in the river, and the heroic army swallowed Wu in 100,000. Look at the natural trenches and whip over, and do not believe in the Central Plains and do not have the surname Zhu.

...

Deng Ming's record in Huguang was not only spread to Jiangnan, but also heard from all over Sichuan. The Ming army officers and soldiers around Fengjie were first happy, but then they began to become uneasy. Everyone thought that Deng Ming would not return to Sichuan again. This uneasy mood became stronger after Wen Anzhi left. A small number of Ming soldiers who were left to defend Fengjie felt that the Wen Commander would definitely open the shoveling house in Wuchang this time. Sichuan, which had been traumatized by the war, would gradually fade out of Deng Ming and Wen Anzhi's vision and no longer be valued by them.

Xiong Lan and Qin Xiucai of Wanxian also felt the same sense of loss after their initial excitement. Now Qin Xiucai is already the master of Xiong Qian (because of Xiong Lan's origin, although Deng Ming persuaded him, Wen Anzhi finally gave him the name of Qian Zheng, allowing him to temporarily manage the affairs of Wanxian). Qin Xiucai has always actively managed the military camps of Wanxian with Xiong Lan, hoping to achieve results and make Deng Ming look at him with admiration. But now they feel that this is all vain. With Huguang, Deng Ming will definitely go east, heading straight to Jiangxi and Nanjing, and will never look back, either winning the Northern Expedition, or dying on the road to the Northern Expedition. Even if the Ming Dynasty is revived in the future, will he still remember that there is a Qian Zheng and a master in the remote Wanxian?

The Qing army in Chongqing was also very concerned about the battle situation in Huguang, and even surpassed its interest in Nanjing. At the beginning, Wang Mingde thought this was important good news for the Qing army in Sichuan, because it showed that the center of gravity of the Ming army in Kuidong moved eastward and no longer regarded Sichuan as the direction of development. Wang Mingde thought this was reasonable. Huguang, Jiangxi, Nanjing, the more eastward, the denser the population and rich materials, and if you have the opportunity to get Huguang, who would pay attention to the dilapidated Sichuan?

After Wang Mingde was happy for a few days, a team of Qing troops suddenly came, and the leader was his old boss, the governor of Sichuan Gao Mingzhan.

"Governor." Although he looked down on this coward, Wang Mingde would not lack etiquette. There is news that the court was already pursuing Gao Mingzhan's crime of abandoning the city and escaping, but it was because of the protection of Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, that Gao Mingzhan was not dismissed. No matter what Gao Mingzhan's future, Li Guoying will still be Wang Mingde's immediate boss. Since the governor wants to protect Gao Mingzhan, Wang Mingde will not offend him.

"The Governor has an order to help us immediately try to capture Wanxian."

Gao Mingzhan did not make any polite words to Wang Mingde and soon got to the point. The court sent a hundred Eight Banners soldiers to Sichuan. In order to show their faces in front of these Eight Banners soldiers, Li Guoying decided to launch a new offensive against Fengjie.

Li Guoying also judged that the Ming army would move its center of gravity eastward. He heard that Wen Anzhi had left Fengjie and headed for Huguang, and the strength of the Sichuan Qing army was enhanced compared to a few months ago. While sending 100 Eight Banners soldiers to Sichuan, he also sent 10,000 reinforcements from the Ganzhou-Shaanxi Green Camp. Li Guoying planned to expand the Qing army's control area and continue to squeeze the Ming army eastward.

Taking over Wanxian can make Chongqing safer and control a longer section of the Yangtze River waterway. The Ming army's road to the west will become more difficult. Maybe only Huguang is the only one in his eyes, and the Ming army in Jiangxi will throw away Sichuan as a waste of money.

"Then it's Chengdu." Gao Mingzhan continued.

Li Guoying had long planned to attack Chengdu, but because Deng Ming had successively annihilated Tan Hong and Tan Yi, the Qing army in Sichuan could only defend Chongqing with all their might. Now that the Ming army is advancing eastward, Li Guoying has received reinforcements again, and he once again had the idea of ​​pacifying western Sichuan for the Qing court. This task was handed over to Gao Mingzhan. Li Guoying asked him to make meritorious contributions, first take Wanxian to block the Ming army's retreat to the west, and then take down the entire western Sichuan plain, blocking the Yunnan Ming army entering Sichuan to the south of the Daxue Mountains.

"The governor has an order, how dare the last general do their best?" Wang Mingde was also ready to try. He had already found out that there was only one thousand general and more than two thousand reclamation soldiers in Wanxian County. In the past, they could count on Fengjie's garrison's garrison to reinforce. Now the main force of the Fengjie Ming army has followed Wen'anzhi eastward. Wang Mingde felt that this was really a waste of credit.

...

Sichuan Xingdusi.

All the generals stationed here also learned that Deng Ming had left Sichuan, which also caused a fluctuation in the morale of the army. After Li Dingguo returned to Kunming, he sent people to contact the Yunnan Army of the Sichuan Xingdusi several times.

But these old Qin generals believed that the King of Jin would not treat them well, and that they now have the support of the King of Shu and could fight against Li Dingguo, who was not in charge of the emperor, so they ignored the envoys of King of Jin.

"Today, King Qingyang brought everyone here just to Mr. Deng's entry into Chu." After all the generals sat down, Di Sanxi, who was standing in Feng Shuangli, stood up and said to everyone.
Chapter completed!