After passing through Wuchang, the Ming army fleet landed on the north bank and met with the female battalions of the arrival of the former army. Then they turned north to the Han River and returned to Zhongxiang in a mighty way. It was said that they were returning, but most of the people in the Ming army actually came to Zhongxiang for the first time, with more than 100,000 men and women, of which only 8,000 Li Laiheng's old subordinates set out from here.

The huge army could not take all the boats, so Deng Ming ordered that male soldiers be allowed to walk, women take boats, and women who were not loaded on board also arranged vehicles as much as possible. Although Deng Ming tried his best to take care of women, the bumps along the way still made the women with small feet in the Zhejiang Army's family miserable. According to Deng Ming's standards, these were disabled people, and the long journey made many people sick halfway. Fortunately, the number of disabled people was not large, only more than a thousand. All the people in Hubei who were willing to enter Sichuan with the Ming army were poor. Whether their wives, sisters or daughters had to go to the ground to work, so they were all Tianzu. Li Laiheng's troops were born in a camp, and the long-term mobile battles made them pay more attention to the mobility of the women's camp, so the girls they married were all big feet.

Speaking of Li Laiheng's female camp, these girls who have not yet passed the family had a lot of complaints. When Li Laiheng told his subordinates about marriage in Anqing, Wuhu and other places, he also had a pseudonym of the deputy general of Yuezhou. The parents of these girls thought they betrothed their daughters to the officers and soldiers of the Green Camp rather than the bandits in Sichuan and Hubei, so most of them only wanted a betrothal gift. After these girls discovered the true face of their fiancé, they no longer had the chance to repent. Although marrying chickens with chickens, it was impossible for them to be worried and panic in their hearts. Many people were muttering that Li Laiheng was a cheating marriage, and his fiancé's betrothal gift was also reduced, so it should be doubled at least to make sense. However, since entering Huguang, Deng Ming has been taking special care of his daughter.

The camp and transportation were arranged as much as possible, and the food was never short. These women who left home who had no relatives felt that the Ming army was actually good, and this complaint gradually subsided, and the remarks that tended towards the Ming army began to become popular, probably: Although they had not passed the door, they were no longer girls at home but the daughter-in-law of Ming soldiers. If they gave more brides, it would not be good for their husband's family - of course, the daughter-in-law should put the interests of their husband's family first. The girls who were originally petty also turned and muttered: It would be great if they had given less brides at the beginning. If they gave these silver directly to their fiancé, they would have bought a lot of more household items when they came to Kuidong.

Among the 40,000 female military families, there were only more than 1,000 disabled people. Deng Ming was very satisfied. However, unlike him, others felt that the little feet were more in line with their aesthetic views. Although they saw that the husbands of those disabled had many inconveniences, other soldiers were still envious, thinking that these Zhejiang soldiers were the best-class wives. Deng Ming heard that in the women's camp, the little feet were also admired. In order to take care of the disabled, Deng Ming also formulated some preferential treatment systems, which made the big feet even more envious. Many people said that they hope that their husbands will have a future and that they will not need to work.

After passing Wuchang, Deng Ming contacted the left-behind troops. After walking along the Han River for a few days, Zhong Xiang ruled out the troops and came to welcome Deng Ming and Li Laiheng. There were only 8,000 people when they left, but when they returned, there were already 60,000 people. The left-behind officers were also overjoyed.

After seeing Li Laiheng, the left-behind officer proudly showed the officer the Zhongxiang warehouse full of cotton coats, quilts, blankets, food and grass, cloth piled up like mountains, and a large number of livestock and ships, not to mention a large number of weapons.

"There is no need to pay back the money." After seeing these supplies, Deng Ming immediately said to Li Laiheng: "But I have half of these things."

Deng Ming's words made the left-behind Xingshan officers very dismayed. They had already regarded all these goods as their own. Not only them, but even Li Laiheng felt sad. When he was inspecting the warehouse just now, Li Laiheng also mistakenly thought that all these were his things. However, Li Laiheng did not let negative emotions affect him for too long. He happily divided the things in the warehouse with Deng Mingping, and then summoned his subordinates to discuss the material allocation plan.

Soon, Li Laiheng distributed most of his cotton coat, armor and weapons, and then trained the troops outside the city for two consecutive days. Looking at the tens of thousands of soldiers wearing brand new clothes and holding bright swords and guns, Li Laiheng's joy was really hard to describe in words: "It's really a brand new look." Li Laiheng liked it more and more, and planned to continue to rehearse the army tomorrow.

Deng Ming had not yet figured out how to distribute these materials. He planned to transport them back to Fengjie first. Now Jiangling and Yiling are all in the hands of the Ming army, so transporting these materials is not a difficult task.

After arriving in Huangzhou, Deng Ming learned that a new war had occurred in Sichuan. The Qing army seized Wanxian and accumulated thousands of armored soldiers there. Wen'anzhi, who had already arrived in Yiling, rushed back to Fengjie because of this. Deng Ming had already sent someone to Fengjie to report to Wen'anzhi about his situation, and at the same time began to inquire about the further development of the situation in Sichuan.

When Ren Tang hurried to meet Deng Ming today, he saw three people standing outside the tent and secretly peeking inside.

"What are you doing?" Ren Tang lowered his voice and asked softly when he saw Li Xinghan, Zhou Kaihuang, Wu Baoping and the other three sneaky.

"Shh!" Li Xinghan put his fingers in front of his lips and mysteriously made a move to silence Ren Tang.

"Sir seems to be painting." Zhou Kaihuang said in an almost inaudible voice.

Usually, Deng Ming always stays alone in his tent. If his subordinates have something to do, they come to him. If they have nothing to do, they will keep a diary and do other work. Now Deng Ming has almost no time to paint.

Just now, after Li Xinghan completed the teaching tasks of the team he was in charge, he came to Deng Ming to report his work. Before entering the house, he suddenly found Deng Ming was lying on the desk and was drawing something. Li Xinghan did not go in and disturb Deng Ming, but lurked outside the tent, intending to rush in and grab one after Deng Ming finished painting.

After a while, Zhou Kaihuang and Wu Baoping also came. After learning that Deng Ming didn't know what to draw, they also joined Li Xinghan's team. The last time Deng Ming was painting in Wanxian, his works were snatched away by everyone. The three of them had reached an agreement. If they got good things, no one was allowed to tell them.

Seeing that Ren Tang was coming, Deng Ming still had not finished painting. The three of them were shocked and anxious, fearing that more and more people would come, and there would be fewer pictures in the end. However, the so-called part of the person who saw him, Li Xinghan wanted to pull Ren Tang into their offensive and defensive alliance: "Mr. Deng's painting is not allowed to be told to anyone!" Last time in Wanxian, it was because Li Xinghan couldn't help but show off that he was looted. This time he decided to keep his mouth shut and used himself to speak out: "If others know about it, even if he is as brave as Zhao Qianhu, he can't keep a few pictures."

"Where is the time to play this with you?" After understanding the idea of ​​these three guys, Ren Tang was angry and funny. He lifted the tent and walked in on his own, shouting at Deng Ming: "Admiral, Fengjie's messenger is here."

"Ah, come in quickly." Deng Ming, who was concentrating on painting, quickly threw down his pen and ink, put the semi-finished product in his hand aside, and stacked it on the finished stack of works.

Deng Ming sent an envoy back to Fengjie to break up with him at the junction of Huguang and Jiangxi. Deng Ming had not seen Zhou Peigong yet, and he dared not say how long it would take to return to the Han River Basin safely. Wen Anzhi was naturally very happy after learning about the battle in Nanjing from the envoy. Although some of the news had already reached Sichuan, Wen Anzhi did not know the specific results and could not figure out Deng Ming's movements. Now that the dust has settled, Wen Anzhi asked the envoy to rush back to report to Deng Ming: The battle situation in Sichuan has stabilized, so Deng Ming feels at ease and there is no need to rush back to Fengjie.

"Wanxian Xiong Lan surrendered as soon as she saw the Tartars," the envoy said angrily when he reported the war: "There was no idea of ​​resistance at all, and he surrendered without saying a word."

"This capricious thief is really worthy of being raised by a maid." After hearing the surrender of Wanxian, Li Xinghan cursed and said, "I really regret not killing him with one knife."

"But didn't he warn Yun Yang?" Deng Mingdao was not as excited as the other people, and said to the messenger calmly: "Didn't you just say that Xiong Lan did not keep us in trouble, and did he hand over all the ships to them?"

"This guy has a little conscience. When I catch him, I can give him some fun." Zhou Kaihuang said.

Deng Ming smiled unanimously and said to the messenger: "Continue to talk."

"After Wanxian surrender, Wang Mingde arrived first, Gao Mingzhan arrived later. After rectifying the troops in Wanxian for a few days, he wanted to attack Yunyang. Fortunately, our people brought all the ships from Wanxian, and the two thieves' ships were going to return to Chongqing to transport grain, and they could not be dispatched for the time being. After they prepared the food and grass, our army gave up Yunyang and retreated to Fengjie."

"Look, Xiong Lan's conscience is a little more." Deng Ming did not give his subordinates a chance to refute, and after the evaluation, he said to the messenger again: "Continue."

"It seems that the thieves wanted to raid Fengjie, but they didn't find a grain in Yunyang, so they had to continue to return to Chongqing to transport grain. At this time, General Wen had already received the news and rushed back to Fengjie from Yiling..." Although Wen'anzhi felt that the situation in Huguang was very good, Fengjie must not be missed, because if Fengjie was captured by the Qing army and controlled the vicinity of Kuimen, it would be equivalent to blocking the entrance of the Three Gorges. Although it was difficult for the Qing army to take advantage of the situation to attack the Three Gorges, it was extremely difficult for the Ming army to go upstream and rush out of Kuimen to regain Fengjie.

The envoy also told Deng Ming that after Wen Anzhi decided to rush back to Fengjie, he immediately sent letters to Yuan Zongdi and He Zhen, asking them to send reinforcements. Now, in addition to the two thousand armored soldiers directly under Wen Anzhi, Fengjie also has more than a thousand war soldiers sent from these two routes. Fengjie's troops are now strong and cannot be easily seen by the Qing army.

"General Yuan and General He have not sent troops to reinforce Fengjie?" Deng Ming asked immediately after hearing this.

"Neither of them knew the Supervisor's intentions," the messenger felt that Deng Ming seemed a little dissatisfied, so he repeated Wen Anzhi's meaning to Deng Ming: "The two generals were training soldiers. At that time, the General Wen was in Yiling. They didn't know if the General Wen wanted to capture Huguang with all their strength, so they did not immediately send reinforcements. Later, after seeing the General Wen's proclamation, they immediately sent five or six hundred elite soldiers to Fengjie day and night, almost arrived with General Wen."

"So no one will go to save Wanxian," Deng Ming sighed softly: "If Mr. Xiong Qian asks for help, I'm afraid no one will send him reinforcements."

Ren Tang's eyes widened when he heard this: "What does the Admiral mean? Does the Admiral think that the Bear Slayer surrenders to Xiancheng is not a crime that deserves death, but is it understandable? If the Admiral thinks this way, where are the soldiers who swear to resist to the death?"

"I didn't say that I was wrong to resist to the death, nor did I say that I would spare Mr. Xiong Qian." Deng Ming waved his hand and said that he didn't want to discuss this issue: "I just think that the Tartars captured Wanxian and threatened Fengjie this time. There is really a big reason why we didn't think carefully and had poor communication, which gave the Tartars such an opportunity."

Since Fengjie was temporarily worried, Deng Ming felt relieved and continued to transport supplies and troops to Kuidong step by step.

At this time, Ren Tang's eyes turned to Deng Ming's stack of sketches. Looking at the curved lines on the top piece of paper, Ren Tang asked curiously: "Is the Admiral drawing a map?"

Ren Tang leaned closer and stared at the picture and looked at it seriously: "It seems that it is not the Yangtze River, oh, I don't know how the upstream is heading. What about this crossing line? Is it the Han River?"

Deng Ming laughed loudly, stopped laughing after a long time, shook his head and said, "It has nothing to do with military affairs, I just drew it."

Ren Tang’s question also led to a question from Deng Ming. He asked the four guards and the messenger around him: “Do you think women’s little feet look good?”

Ren Tang was stunned, while Zhou Kaihuang and Li Xinghan looked at each other with a smile in their eyes: Although Mr. Deng is both wise and brave, he is still a young man with strong spirit after all. Being able to put down his figure and discuss the issue of such a man with us shows that Mr. Deng trusts us.

"Of course," Wu Baoping replied: "Women's toes look good only if they have short toes."

Everyone said that although Ren Tang was a scholar, he was still a young man in his early twenties. He also smiled and said, "That's right, it's very color, at least three points on his pointed feet."

"Oh." Deng Ming nodded. He heard that Zhong Xiang's foot binding cloth was selling well these days, and the price had increased several times. Due to the demonstration role of the family members of the Zhejiang Army's small feet, many Ming army officers complained in Li Laiheng's ears, which led to Hushuai purchasing a large number of such luxury goods, intending to distribute it to his subordinates after returning to Kuidong. After hearing this news, many women from the female camp also asked about the use of this luxury goods. Deng Ming certainly did not agree with this behavior of creating disabled people, but he asked himself that he could not take care of the homes of senior Ming army officers. Now, due to the need for marching and the tradition of breaking into the camp, Deng Ming probably wouldn't have many women become disabled. But if he didn't want to find a solution, as the strength of the Ming army increased, the base area became more and more stable, and the treatment of officers became better and better. Deng Ming knew that sooner or later a large number of women would be victimized.

After talking for a while, Deng Ming's time to inspect the army was up, so he got up and left the tent, and several guards followed him out.

...

"What exactly is this painting sir?" After the patrol, Li Xinghan, Zhou Kaihuang, Ren Tang and Wu Baoping gathered together to study the pictures they stolen from Deng Ming's table. Li Xinghan looked at it for a long time and shouted in despair: "I can't understand at all."

"It's definitely not a ship," Zhou Kaihuang said. When he saw this thing just now, Wu Baoping recklessly concluded that it was a pointed boat: "Look, this pole is underneath, do you think it is a mast? Whose mast is under the boat? If it is a rudder, it can't use such a long pole? Let's talk about where to put the sail?"

"Then what did you say?" Wu Baoping could not resist Zhou Kaihuang's questioning, so he asked back: "If this is not a canoe, what did you say?"

"I don't know, it's not a canoe anyway. What do you want this pole to do? Besides..." Zhou Kaihuang pointed to the painting on another picture and shouted: "These two are almost the same, but the bottom of this boat... no, the bottom of this thing like a boat is a pointed wedge, and your canoe also has a wooden wedge?"

"This is a military boot!" After thinking hard, Ren Tang, who had not spoken, finally stopped silent and said confidently: "Yes, this is a new military boot."

"Oh?" The other three people came over to look at it again, and had to admit that what Ren Tang said seemed to make some sense.

"Sharp-toe boots? There are no boots yet?" Wu Baoping was still a little reluctant to leave the canoe.

"The pointed toes are just for kicking people." The more Ren Tang looked at them, the more confident they were: "There is no boots to save materials. We are still poor now! The poor have to be poor."

"What are the nails and wedges behind?" Zhou Kaihuang gestured with his hands: "If it were boots, the pointed wedges would have to be several inches long, right? Isn't it easy to walk?"

"This is for shocking the enemy," Ren Tang was confident and showed a smile on his face that everything was in control: "Wearing such boots, it looks much taller. When we see that we are all men like towers, the legs of the Tartars will be a little softer."

...

Yuyao.

When they heard the shouts of "City Break" coming from the street, everyone in Hu's mansion was surprised. The Zhejiang army had just set up camp at the city yesterday, but they didn't expect that the Ming army would be able to break the city in one go today.

The panic shouts gradually subsided, and soon new shouts came, which was the announcement of the Ming army's peace.

The one who led the troops to attack Yuyao this time was Zhang Huangyan. Everyone in the city knew that Zhang Shangshu's military discipline was strict. After the Ming army completely controlled the city, they quickly walked out of the house and returned to the street market. Soon, the servants of the Hu family also found out the news, indicating that the army was moving very quickly and dug up the city wall to the east in the morning.

"Oh." Hu Jinshen nodded and ordered to pack up his luggage, intending to take the whole family to the countryside to take refuge, and wait for the Qing army to recover Yuyao and stop washing the city before coming back.

After sunset, the old servant who was guarding the door saw Hu Jinshen walking over alone and asked, "Master, is there anything wrong?"

"You go down first, I'll wait for an old friend here." Hu Jinshen sent the door away and sat alone in the doorman with a candle.

Waiting until midnight, Hu Jinshen suddenly heard a light knock on the door. He hurried to the door, put down the door bolt and opened a thin gap. In the darkness, a familiar voice came:

"Brother Hu." The visitor confirmed softly.

“Come in quickly.”

Hu Jinshen put the man in black into the door, and the two worked together to close the door and lower the door bolt. Then they hurried to the back house, one after another, and came to a side house. Everyone in Yuyao knew that the kind-hearted Mr. Hu took in a down-and-out scholar who wandered here a few years ago, and later recruited him to marry into his family. This side house was the residence of the scholar named Wang Shiyuan and Miss Hu.

Although it was in his own home, Hu Jinshen acted like a thief and gently tapped the door of his son-in-law's room. The door opened with a "ah" sound, and Hu Jinshen and the man in black flashed in.

Inside the house, Wang Shiyuan, who was dressed in neatly, looked at his father-in-law and the man in black with a serious face.

After turning around and closing the door carefully, the man in black turned around and stood facing Wang Shiyuan.

As if he had guessed the other party's upcoming action, the young man hurriedly took two steps forward and whispered: "Shangshu Zhang doesn't have to be too polite."

But the man in black turned a deaf ear and still bowed down a lot of worship, calling out: "My minister Zhang Huangyan, come to see the king."
Chapter completed!