Baoning and Sichuan and Shaanxi Governor Li Guoying are preparing to go south to Chongqing.

A few days ago, accurate news came that Deng Ming had returned to Fengjie, and Wanxian lost it again. Now the Ming army has shown an attack on Chongqing**.

"I have long said that Deng Ming was a former Ming royal family and a confidant of the court, but his loyal words were unheard of the word." Li Guoying sighed. Tan Hong, after Tan Yi was defeated, Li Guoying predicted the danger of Deng Ming to the Qing court, but Beijing believed that Li Guoying was sensational and aimed at shirking responsibility - this was not wrong. As a result, in the past year, Deng Ming had shown his power in Yunnan and Huguang, and finally opened his strength to the city of Nanjing, shaking half of the country.

After the end of the Battle of Nanjing, Li Guoying often received inquiries from Beijing, asking him to report in detail about Deng Ming's situation. But no matter how Li Guoying used his strength, he could not detect any of Deng Ming's experience in the Chongqing Battle. Seeing that Beijing was urging him over and over again, the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi had to use his imagination to make up. However, in addition to the random stories, the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi did not have any real evidence. After taking down Wanxian, he obtained several pictures of the palace scenery painted by Deng Ming. Because Li Guoying himself had never seen the palace, he did not know whether it was true or not, so he asked someone to deliver one of the pictures with the Jinshui Bridge to Beijing.

In addition to the pictures of Jinshui Bridge, there are also pictures of palaces, but Li Guoying felt that the quality was very poor, and most of them were fake and inferior. Although Li Guoying had never been to Beijing, he had heard from the boss Zuo Liangyu that the gate of the Beijing Imperial City was called "Chengtian Gate", which was very majestic and also a symbol of imperial power. In the pictures confiscated by Wanxian, the three words "**" were held next to the gate of the Imperial City. Although Li Guoying did not destroy these obviously fake things out of caution, he did not surrender them.

As a result, just over a dozen days later, the Beijing envoy arrived in Baoning and asked Li Guoying to quickly release the righteous man who presented the map to Beijing without delaying it for a moment. Beijing had to interrogate the person in person. Li Guoying could feel the panic of the Qing court from Beijing's orders, but the righteous man who presented the map could not be discharged from Beijing. Those righteous men were all Xiong Lan's subordinates. Now they have been sent back to the Ming army and kidnapped more than a thousand soldiers under Governor Li.

Although there is no righteous man to hand over, Li Guoying still has a few pictures in his hand, so he couldn't hand over them, so he had to hand over them with them. This time, the leader of the Beijing envoy was a general of a vanguard battalion. Li Guoying hesitated for a moment and showed the ** pictures to the guard in front of the imperial guard.

Originally, Li Guoying thought that the imperial guard would look disdainful, and as he did, he immediately concluded that the pictures were all fakes. But to Li Guoying's surprise, the Manchu officer's expression became extremely serious after reading it. Especially when he read the three words "**", the Manchu man's voice trembled, and he immediately asked the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi to hand over all the pictures about the imperial city without falling down.

Li Guoying was shocked when he saw this and couldn't help but feel suspicious: Did you say everything from Zuo Liangyu to other scholars wrongly? Or is there another nickname in Chengtian Gate?

The imperial guards said that they could not fully judge the pictures of the palace. Although he had entered the palace, he had never been to many places. However, from the places he had been to, Deng Ming's paintings were not wrong. With these important information, the officers of the Forward Battalion hurriedly returned to Beijing. Before leaving, these Beijing envoys also asked Li Guoying whether he had any knowledge of Deng Ming's identity.

When Wanxian surrendered to the Qing army, many people called Deng Ming the third prince. Although Li Guoying was skeptical, there was no evidence to the contrary, so he told the messenger Deng Ming was Zhu Cihuan. After hearing that Deng Ming was the origin, the people in the Forward Battalion became even more nervous, and the appeal of the third prince Zhu was extraordinary. As for why it was not made public, Li Guoying also said that it was not true, but he guessed that it might be related to the camp.

After the Beijing envoy left, Li Guoying prepared to personally lead Baoning troops to the south. Now Chongqing is guarded by Wang Mingde. There are 3,000 armored soldiers in the city, with a total force of more than 10,000, but these forces are obviously not enough to resist the Deng Ming army that came to take advantage of the victory. Fortunately, after Li Guoying's year of operation, the supply capacity of the Jialing River waterway has been greatly enhanced, and it can supply more than 20,000 Qing troops to be stationed in Chongqing. At present, there is still some savings in Chongqing city, so there is no problem in deploying 30,000 troops in the short term.

"If Deng Ming conquered Chongqing, he would be able to connect the east and west rivers, and there would be a stronghold to invade the Jialing River waterway." Li Guoying repeatedly considered the troops he had at hand. After leaving the necessary defensive forces in Baoning, Guangyuan and other places, the troops that could reinforce Chongqing would be very limited, with only about 2,000 armored soldiers and more than 8,000 auxiliary soldiers. After continuous victories in Huguang and Nanjing, Li Guoying estimated that Deng Ming could mobilize more than 20,000 soldiers: "I don't know when the reinforcements of King Pingxi will arrive?"

The attack on Chengdu also occupied a considerable part of Li Guoying's troops. The Qing army attacked western Sichuan had nearly 4,000 armored soldiers and 7,000 auxiliary soldiers. Li Guoying felt that if this force was put into Chongqing, the deadlock in Sichuan would be difficult to open, so even if he learned that Deng Ming had returned, Li Guoying still insisted on the original plan. Now Li Guoying's plan is to bet that he could use more than 20,000 troops to hold Chongqing for a period of time and strive for the time to pacify western Sichuan.

In Li Guoying's opinion, this is not completely impossible. Even if Deng Ming can mobilize 20,000 or 30,000 armored troops, these troops will need a large amount of auxiliary troops to support, which will consume a large amount of supplies from the Ming army, and it will take a long time to assemble. Li Guoying knew that relying on the output of Kuidong, Deng Ming was completely unable to support such a huge army, and could only consume the materials seized from Huguang. As long as it could delay for a period of time, Li Guoying felt that Deng Ming would find it difficult to persevere, and might also feel that the loss was not worth it and take the initiative to retreat, turn around and attack Hubei, which could provide him with a large amount of supplies.

Li Guoying looked at the Chengdu location on the map again. He ordered Gao Mingzhan to return to Guangyuan to lead the troops and launch an attack on western Sichuan as scheduled: "As long as Chengdu is captured, Deng Ming will probably withdraw his troops, right?" Li Guoying judged that the reason why Deng Ming showed his intention to attack Chongqing was that he felt that Chengdu still had a certain value and could at least help him support the troops. So once the news of Chengdu's loss came, Deng Ming should immediately lose the reason to continue the attack. There were no man's land between Chongqing and Chengdu. If the Ming army barely marched, the food and grass would consume too much. Even if he could advance to Chengdu, Gao Mingzhan could burn all the seized food. Li Guoying could not see what benefit Deng Ming could do to retake Chengdu.

"I deserve to take Chengdu and Chongqing, even if I am the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, I have to cross the mountains from Jianchang to Chengdu, and the Western thieves should not be very interested. Well, I will have no worries in this way. Neither Kuidong nor Jianchang will be interested in me anymore. I can calmly accumulate strength. In the future, whether King Pingxi will attack Yunnan again or the imperial court mobilized heavy troops to siege the Three Gorges, I may get some credit." Not long ago, Gao Mingzhan passed by Baoning,

Li Guoying once discussed the battle situation in Sichuan with him. After learning that Deng Ming led the army back, Gao Mingzhan seemed very nervous. Li Guoying tried hard to cheer up the deputy, saying that he would hold down Deng Ming's main force and let him take Chengdu as soon as possible, and then move to Chongqing to meet him: "It is enough to stick to it for a while. Gao Mingzhan should not take long to take Chengdu. If the reinforcements of King Pingxi can arrive in time, he will be even more at ease."

...

At this time, Gao Mingzhan had arrived at Jiange. Before the internal strife of the Three Kings, Liu Wenxiu was under great pressure on northern Sichuan. The Qing army only regarded Baoning as an outpost, and the focus of defense was in Hanzhong, so there was no interest in attacking Jiange. After the internal strife of the Three Kings, Wu Sangui mobilized all the forces of Ganzhou and Shaanxi to attack Yunnan and Guizhou, and of course he would not look at Jiange, the Ming army stronghold, which was insignificant.

Li Guoying's first idea of ​​attacking Chengdu was after Tan Yi surrendered. At that time, he planned to spend a few months to stabilize Wanxian, and then send troops around June and July to attack Chengdu on Jiange and Jiangyou. However, the two Tan were defeated one after another and failed to obtain Wanxian, so Chongqing was still threatened, so this matter was delayed. Although he had no strength to launch an attack, Li Guoying did not stop the investigation and surrender activities in Jiange and other places, so Gao Mingzhan knew the strength of Jiange well.

Although he knew that there were only more than 1,000 peasant militias and hundreds of women and children in Jiange, no more than half of them had weapons, and few had armor, Gao Mingzhan was not careless. In addition to bringing 3,500 armored soldiers, he also brought ten cannons. After the main force secretly completed the assembly, Gao Mingzhan ordered the entire army to go out together and set off at full speed towards Jiange. He hoped that the powerful military appearance could completely destroy the fighting spirit of the defenders and successfully convince the Ming army of Jiange to surrender. If the Ming army refused to surrender, Gao Mingzhan would use the cannons to launch a fierce attack on the same day.

But before Gao Mingzhan could arrive, the spy in front of him reported that Jiange was empty. He inspected the Ming army barracks near Jiange, and without exception, they had been abandoned.

"The thieves left about twenty days ago." Gao Mingzhan personally inspected the Jiange and made such a judgment. At that time, he had just begun to assemble troops: "In more than a year, no thieves from the Jiange have been found to come out to investigate once. The surrendered soldiers who surrendered over even said that they had not conducted a reconnaissance on Jialing River for more than two years. How could it be so coincidental that they came out to investigate after I assembled? Could the news leak? "

However, Gao Mingzhan's doubts flashed through his mind. He felt that this was unlikely. Not many people knew that the Qing army had the intention to attack Chengdu. After the assembly here, Gao Mingzhan had been banning soldiers from leaving the camp at will. As far as he knew, this order was well implemented. Moreover, the Ganzhou-Shaanxi soldiers and the Ming army in Jiange did not have any friendship, so why did they go to inform us? Even if there was, how could it be so unaware of it? As for whether it was leaked from Chongqing, Gao Mingzhan had no doubts at all: First of all, almost no one in Chongqing knew about this. Although a few senior generals such as Wang Mingde knew about it, they would definitely not say it out, and the communication between the Ming army in western Sichuan and eastern Sichuan was not frequent.

"I'm really bad luck." After thinking about it, Gao Mingzhan finally decided that it was the Ming army of Jiange who suddenly came out for some reason and accidentally discovered his actions.

Gao Mingzhan had already regarded the more than a thousand Ming troops stationed in Jiange as his auxiliary soldiers, and planned to recruit all of them to his army to assist in the transport. Unexpectedly, the more than a thousand people escaped from his palm. Not only did the Ming troops escape all the time, they also moved all the winter grains away. After Gao Mingzhan saw the empty warehouses, he knew that the food needed for this expedition would be more than the plan.

"It seems that the surrendered soldiers cannot be believed," the two surrendered soldiers who defected to the country last year died of illness and the other died in the Chongqing Battle. Gao Mingzhan remembered that they said that the morale of the Jiange army was not high: "We can retreat immediately and retreat together, and we can control the army, and no one defected."

Of course, Gao Mingzhan didn't know. After receiving the Chengdu news, the Jiange defenders immediately closed the pass, and then teams retreated separately, which was much calmer and orderly than he thought: "But they escaped about twenty days ago, so they didn't know how many troops I concentrated."

At that time, there were only about 3,000 Qing troops that had completed the assembly. It was not surprising that these forces scared away the Ming army in Jiange, but the Ming army probably would not think that the Qing army would use 3,000 troops to attack Jiangyou.

"Haha, Jiange's natural danger. If the thieves seized the danger, it would still be a big problem for our army. Now the thieves fled in a hurry and gave in to the natural danger. I concluded that they were no longer able to fight." Although they could not capture the Ming army to replenish their military strength and seize the stored food of the Jiange's defenders, Gao Mingzhan still smiled and boosted morale.

After hearing the commander's words, the Qing soldiers also cheered. Although the Ganzhou Green Camp did not take more than a thousand peasant militias to heart, it was impossible for them to be nervous at all. Now the Qing army was relieved without fighting.

"Continue to move forward and march towards Jiangyou." Gao Mingzhan ordered.

During the march, Gao Mingzhan, who was unwilling to give up, ordered a careful search on both sides of the road. He still hoped that the Ming army in Jiange did not escape, but hid nearby with a lucky mentality. However, the Qing army's search team found nothing, and there was no sign of human activities on both sides of the road. In the end, Gao Mingzhan had to give up: "Forget it, maybe he really ran away to Jiangyou. Anyway, when you get there, just catch them with Jiangyou's people."

There were not many pedestrians on the road over the years. Neither Jiangyou nor the Ming army in Jiange had the intention to sort out the road. It was already overgrown with weeds, and some areas had even merged with the dense forests on both sides. The failure to capture the prisoners caused the Qing army to have extremely lack of a guide familiar with geography. When Gao Mingzhan and his subordinates were angry with the Ming army in Jiange all day long. When the Qing army felt that Jiange was near Jiange, Gao Mingzhan discussed with several confidants. After capturing the defenders in Jiange, they must find fault and kill one or two officers to vent their hatred.

The Qing army had a much worse understanding of Jiangyou than that of Jiange, and could only make some indirect understanding through the surrendered soldiers of Jiange and some Ming army documents intercepted. Jiangyou's reports to Fengjie were much less than those sent by Chengdu, so the Qing army had a less understanding of it than Chengdu, and only knew that there were about two thousand peasant soldiers near the city.

After learning that Jiang You were in sight, his morale had declined due to the hard marching for several days, especially the Qing army responsible for dragging artillery, and everyone was even more excited. These days, several of the dragging artillery trucks, gunpowder and projectile horses were exhausted. Gao Mingzhan could not add the cavalry's horses to the artillery, so he had to use more auxiliary soldiers to pull them. The Qing army yelled, saying that the hard days were coming to an end, and a group of strong men would soon do the heaviest work, so they could relax; the armored soldiers were also happily preparing for the pre-war preparations, encouraging each other to conquer Jiang You, seized the Ming army's warehouse and had a good meal, and then had a good night's sleep.

But the scout soon returned, and Jiangyou was already empty.

"What?" Gao Mingzhan jumped up in surprise and immediately rushed to Jiangyou with the scout.

As the scout saw, Jiang You, who is said to have as many as two thousand people, is not a single figure now. Most of the houses in the city seem to have not been inhabited for many years, and it looks like they may collapse at any time. Outside the north gate, there is a piece of ashes, which looks like the camps and warehouses used by the Ming army.

Gao Mingzhan and his personal soldiers searched back and forth in the ruins, suddenly bent down and picked up a handful of ashes, spread them in their palms to look carefully.

"It's been burning for about ten days. When they started burning the camp, we hadn't attacked Jiange yet." Gao Mingzhan stood up straight, lowered his hands and scattered the ashes to the ground. His face was filled with unconcealed disappointment, and there were some suspicion: "Did they know we'll attack here early in the morning?"

Gao Mingzhan waited for a long time in the empty Jiangyou, but the army behind him had not arrived for a long time. Until the impatient Sichuan governor sent someone to investigate, he learned that the news of Jiangyou being abandoned had spread in the army. The Qing soldiers who were already wearing armor took off their armor and threw it on the ground without waiting for the order. The auxiliary soldiers also complained. Many people were already lying down on the side of the road, saying that they would not fight anyway, so let's just take a break.

Gao Mingzhan was angry when he heard this, but then he thought about it and agreed to the army's request. At the same time, he asked his personal soldiers to summon important assistants from this trip to see him.

The Qing army did not notice that in the dense forest around Jiangyou, several pairs of eyes were watching their movements.

...

Chengdu.

After seeing Xiong Lan and his gang appear in front of him, Deng Ming said in surprise: "Mr. Xiong is really here in the capital?"

Deng Ming originally thought Xiong Lan was just finding an excuse to avoid Wen Anzhi, Yuan Zongdi and the others, but he didn't expect that he would come to Chengdu without hesitation.

"He came here to serve the admiral." Because there were no horses, Xiong Lan took the risk of leading the team to sneak across Chongqing at night and took a boat to western Sichuan. But even so, he had been away for a month longer than Deng Ming and others. Now he and his men have lost a lot of weight and almost all the food has been eaten up.

"Thank you for a hard time, hurry up and have a good meal and take a day off first." Deng Ming's words were not completely polite. Xiong Lan and others were torn clothes, almost the same as the savages. However, after Longquanyi sent the number of people yesterday, Deng Ming found that few people were behind, and he didn't realize that Xiong Lan was quite righteous at some point.

"As for orders, it means that the villain's subordinates are still behind."

"Mr. Xiong County, don't worry, I have sent someone to send them food and clothes."

"Thank you, Admiral. I wonder if the thief Gao is coming soon?" Xiong Lan asked again: "I am willing to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy."

"Mr. Xiong County is not so anxious. There is no news yet." Liu Yao left scouts in Jiangyou and Mianzhu, and established several strongholds to store grain and forage. Deng Ming has not heard the news yet.

After letting Xiong Lan go to rest, Deng Ming rushed to inspect the military training situation. Now Chengdu has built a lot of wooden weapons and shields, and has also woven some vine armor.
Chapter completed!