Yu Youming told Deng Ming that the Ming army was still on the south bank when he left. After Deng Ming arrived in Chongqing, he found that the Ming army still failed to climb to the north bank. Yuan Zongdi took Deng Ming to the riverside to see the Qing army's positions. He saw more than a dozen Qing army camps on the north bank lined up along the river bank and connected with Chongqing City.

"The Tartars are not joint camps to the West, but there will be a camp every few miles." Yuan Zongdi pointed toward the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

"I saw it when I came." When Deng Ming arrived with his guards and a small number of Chengdu troops, he discovered the Qing army's surveillance position far from Chongqing: "There are probably hundreds of enemy soldiers in each camp."

"That's right." Yuan Zongdi nodded. As the Ming army arrived one after another, more than 20,000 Ming troops had gathered on the south bank of Chongqing, of which 7,000 were brought by Yuan Zongdi, and the rest were Deng Ming's Zhejiang soldiers and Huguang men.

"Where is the other side of the Jialing River?" Deng Ming looked at the enemy camp on the Yangtze River for a while, and asked Yuan Zongdi again.

"I will take the admiral to see it."

The two came to the intersection of the Jialing River and the Yangtze River again. The Ming army gathered a large number of ships here and built a water camp, always guarding against the Qing navy's sudden attack from the river.

"From here, the Tatars also built a series of camps, not giving us the chance to climb the west bank of the Jialing River." Yuan Zongdi said that due to the existence of Chongqing, the Qing army could see the movements of Ming army ships in the Yangtze River clearly. If the Ming army forcibly attacked the Jialing River, the Qing army, which was waiting for work, would have a great advantage; but on the other hand, the Ming army had no idea about the movements of the Qing army's naval forces, so the Ming army's sailors needed to take turns on duty and always beware of the Qing army's sneak attack: "After the water camp was repaired in the past two days, we were relieved. Although we still had to be vigilant, it was at least much better than the previous few days."

"Why don't you send a soldier to the other side?" Deng Ming pointed to the empty east bank of the Jialing River and asked: "If we set up a camp there, we can send a siege to observe the location of the Qing army's ships."

"The Tartars in Chongqing are probably not fewer than us. If they send people across the river, they will become lonely. It is very dangerous. Moreover, it is easier for the Tartars to cross the Jialing River than to cross the Yangtze River. If Li Guoying dispatched a large army to suddenly cross the river to attack our camp on the north bank, we might not be able to provide timely reinforcements here." Yuan Zongdi sighed softly: "If it weren't for the rebellion of Tan Zhe last year, we wouldn't have had such great trouble today."

"I want to tell General Yuan a good news." Seeing that Yuan Zongdi was a little depressed, Deng Ming told him what had been captured.

"Oh, this is really good news." Yuan Zongdi was overjoyed, and then showed deep hatred: "This thief killed me, Qian Erlang. When the supervisor cut him into pieces, I must watch it carefully."

Affected by this good news, Yuan Zongdi's enthusiasm seemed a little better. He congratulated Deng Ming: "Thanks to the admiral, I was able to revive the situation. The troops brought this time were even more powerful than a year ago. By the way, the last general has not congratulated the admiral yet. The admiral killed the Tartars in Nanjing and brought back so much food and grass. Otherwise, the long besieged Chongqing and did not know where to collect military rations."

"Does General Yuan plan to encircle for a long time?"

"Yes. There are more than 20,000 Tartars in the city. They are camping along the two river banks, and they may not be able to easily take them down. Even if they are now retracted into the city and let us use the admiral's art of breaking the city wall, it is probably difficult to win by street fighting..." While speaking, Deng Ming and Yuan Zongdi heard a horn sound from the other side. Yuan Zongdi stopped talking, squinted his eyes and looked at the edge of Chongqing City. Deng Ming also looked at the other side together when he saw this.

A team of cavalry that looked like ant from afar drove out from Chongqing city and rushed by the Qing army camp.

"This is the Bian Battalion of Li Guoying," Yuan Zongdi told Deng Ming. Almost every day, Li Guoying would lead a team to patrol the camp: "Li Ziying's Bian Battalion is estimated to have at least 800 heavily armored cavalry. This Bian Battalion has been with Li Zi for many years. He has fought with King of Shu (Liu Wenxiu), General He (He Zhen), and Sun Kewang, so it should not be underestimated."

"Yes." Deng Ming looked at the Qing army's cavalry and realized that the existence of this enemy army made the landing more difficult for the Ming army. The Ming army that came off the ship might not have gained a foothold, and this cavalry would be in front of him.

Yuan Zongdi also confirmed Deng Ming's speculation: "Even if we climbed the north shore in the distance, as long as the camp where Li Zhe was set up there, he would be able to bring Chongqing cavalry to the place, so that we could not build the camp."

"So we can't land near Chongqing. How would Duke Jingguo plan to surround Chongqing?"

"There is no people around Chongqing. The food of these tens of thousands of Tartars has to be transported by the Jialing River. We will be patient for another month. After more troops arrive, we will have twice the strength of the Tartars, and then we can set up camp on the east bank of the Jialing River, and then head north to see if the shipping of the Jialing River can be cut off. In this way, the Tartars will be surrounded." Yuan Zongdi was not familiar with the geography of the upper reaches of the Jialing River, but according to his thoughts, such a long river will always have a narrow place, and the Ming army can block it from one side of the shore.

Yuan Zongdi's words made Deng Ming ponder. He didn't know the hydrology and geography of the upstream. After a moment, he asked again: "I guess it's difficult. Li Guoying wouldn't let this move. If there were such a key point in the throat, he might have already been on the defense."

"If there is no or the Tartars guard it very closely, our army can continue to walk north. It is such a long way from Chongqing to Baoning, he can't keep it airtight everywhere."

"But this will make the army divided into two." Deng Ming said: "If our army walks too far along the east coast, it will lose contact with it and may be attacked by Chongqing and Baoning."

"So we need to have twice the strength of Li Zhe. If Li Zhe dispatched troops from the west bank to protect the food route and followed us all the way north, the people here might be able to climb to the north bank."

"After we set up camp on the east bank, can't we let the navy enter the Jialing River directly?" Deng Ming made another suggestion: "As long as the waterway is controlled, will the Tartars' food supply be cut off? Although the Zhejiang soldiers under our command may not be stronger than the Gansu-Shaanxi Green Camp, the water battle should be quite good."

"What the Admiral said is very true, but the Tartars have cannons." Yuan Zongdi smiled bitterly. If there was such a simple and good solution, he would certainly not take the risk of dividing his troops.

"Cannon? I didn't see it." Deng Ming took a boat from Chengdu to Chongqing, but did not see the Qing army deploying artillery towers on the river bank.

"There are many. When I was camping on the north bank, Li Zhe used cannons to bomb our ships, but I asked all the boats to drive close to the south bank. Li Zhe saw that it was difficult to hit, so he no longer wasted his efforts. When he saw that there were more and more soldiers and ships in our army, Li Zhe took all the cannons away from the Yangtze River, and must have been deployed to the Jialing River. We were allowed to use the navy to attack his food route." Yuan Zongdi thought for a moment, then raised his arm and pointed at the Qing army camp on the opposite bank: "Well, it won't be transferred. There should be some hidden in these camps. If we forcefully land, we will carry them out to bombard us."

According to Yuan Zongdi, Li Guoying had at least forty artillery pieces. Although the caliber may not be too large and did not pose much threat to the Ming army on the other side of the Yangtze River, the Jialing River is not as wide as the Yangtze River. Besides, there are Qing army naval troops on the surface of the river. In the Yangtze River, the Ming army can drive close to one side of the river, but if a water war starts, it is obviously impossible to set up such a formation: "Does the admiral know the terrain of the upper reaches of the Jialing River?"

Deng Ming shook his head: "I don't know."

"So I don't know where the Qing army would ambush the artillery. Without launching a navy attack, I could only walk north along the river bank to see if I could cut off the food route of Li Zhe."

"Let's discuss it again." Deng Ming did not immediately agree with Yuan Zongdi's strategy. Although Deng Ming had no good idea, there was still time now and we could consider other countermeasures.

After returning to the camp, the guards under Deng Ming also talked enthusiastically. As Yuan Zongdi's old subordinate, Zhou Kaihuang actually thought that this plan would not work: "Although we seized a lot of food from Nanjing, tens of thousands of troops were stationed outside, and the consumption was too fast; even if Li Guoying's food route was cut off, we didn't know how long he had stored enough food in Chongqing. After three months of surrounding, if the Qing army had not lost food yet, would we still be surrounded? If we didn't surround it, all our efforts would be wasted. If the Qing army continued to surround it, what would happen if the Qing army had not lost food after six months? What if Li Guoying had prepared a year of food for a year?"

Zhou Kaihuang’s statement makes sense, and no one else can refute it.

"The army is stationed here, and it is useless to consume food and grass. Needless to say, it is a year of confrontation. Even if it lasts for three months, the farming season will be delayed." Zhou Kaihuang believed that it should try to land and then attack Chongqing: "Li Guoying is not afraid. His soldiers do not need to farm. The Tartars transported him food from other places, but what about us? We all have to go to Chengdu to clear the land."

"But such a strong city, a strong attack will inevitably suffer heavy losses." Although Ren Tang could not refute the reason why Zhou Kaiyuan was able to defend Chongqing, he believed that a strong attack on Chongqing would be an extremely arduous battle: "Duke Yasukuni said that the Tartars had forty artillery, and we had no one."

"Blast the city wall, then rush in and get bombarded by artillery a few times." Zhou Kaihuang was still stubborn.

"The Ganzhou-Shaanxi Green Camp is not easy to fight, and they have a lot of cavalry." Even the brave Zhao Tianba opposed strong attacks. Li Guoying's Bian battalion had fought many tough battles. They also participated in the battle when Wu Sangui defeated Liu Wenxiu. Zhao Tianba would not underestimate the opponent's strength: "The Zhejiang soldiers have not fought hard battles, and the Chu people are all new recruits who have only joined the army, and the soldiers under General Yuan..." Zhao Tianba glanced at Zhou Kaihuang: "At least half of them are only wearing armor."

"Yes, what if there are heavy casualties? We also hope these people can clear the land in Chengdu." Although there must be sacrifices in the war, Ren Tang did not want to see Zhejiang people suffering heavy casualties under the cannons and cavalry of the Ganzhou Green Camp.

"So we have to wait until we get all our troops. Street fighting is to fight for someone more. If we have twice the strength, we should be able to win. Then we can also capture a group of prisoners..." Zhou Kaihuang said a few more words, and finally felt that he was so desperately opposed Yuan Zongdi's proposal: "Forget it, Duke Jingguo's idea should be very good. If he could force the landing in Chongqing, of course, it would be the best."

"Why don't we camp directly on the east bank of the Jialing River? When we have too many people, we will divide our troops to cut off Li Guoying's food route." Wu Yuewang asked in confusion: "Why should we stay here? In the future, there will be a Yangtze River after we are divided."

Before Deng Ming could speak, Mu Tan said first: "Because Guizhou is south of us, Duke Jingguo must be on guard against it."

"Oh?" Most people didn't react. Except for Deng Ming and a few guards, most people felt that what Wu Yuewang said seemed to make sense.

"Although the road to Loushanguan cannot pass through the army, Wu Sangui may not be willing to care about Li Guoying's life or death. But reinforcements from a thousand people, or even thousands, are still possible. They just need to bring one-way food and quickly come to Chongqing. Anyway, they can eat Li Guoying's food when they arrive." Mu Tan immediately explained: "Duke Jingguo must be afraid that such a small army will suddenly appear. As soon as they arrive, they will cut off the Yangtze River first, and then they can rush to Tongluo Gorge along the south bank. At that time, we will not be able to cut off the grain route of Li Guoying, and our own grain route will be cut off first."

"Well, it should be the reason, so Duke Jingguo set up camp on the south bank so that we can at least block the Tartar navy in the Jialing River and their connection with Chengdu will not be broken," Deng Ming felt that Mu Tan was right: "If Wu Sangui sent a small army to die, they would be blocked by us. Even if Li Thief wanted to support them, there would be an Yangtze River in the middle."

Now the Zhejiang soldiers still implement the system of military division of battalions. After Yuan Zongdi confirmed that Deng Ming planned to transport all these people to Chengdu after the war, he suggested that Deng Ming transport all of these military divisions in advance and not let them cause trouble near the battlefield. Although the camp was very experienced in this system of battalions, it was also a last resort because of no base. Since Chengdu is now a seemingly stable base, there is no need to let his family members follow the army.

Deng Ming certainly agreed with this suggestion. When there were ships transporting their families downstream from Fengjie, the Ming army told these ships not to stop and continued to sail upstream and go directly to Chengdu.

Seeing the Ming army's fleet passing by the city in batches, there seemed to be many women and children, Li Guoying in Chongqing was also surprised. Now Li Guoying didn't know that Gao Mingzhan had defeated Chengdu, but after seeing the Ming army's posture, Li Guoying also felt that the enemy seemed to be very confident in the security of western Sichuan. Otherwise, how could he dare to leave the combat troops to confront him and transport the military's family away in batches?

"Why is there no news from Gao Mingzhan yet?" Li Guoying calculated the days again. He knew when Gao Mingzhan would set out from Guangyuan. Li Guoying believed that Gao Mingzhan should have arrived in Chengdu before the New Year. If Chengdu's troops were indeed as weak as the intelligence said, Gao Mingzhan should have pacified western Sichuan long ago.

The order Li Guoying gave Gao Mingzhan in advance was: Once Chengdu is conquered, he would immediately send someone to Chongqing to report. At that time, Li Guoying ordered the soldiers to shout to the Ming army together, which would probably dispel Deng Ming's idea of ​​besieging Chongqing.

In an instant, Li Guoying even suspected that something happened to Gao Mingzhan, otherwise it would not have been late for almost a month and there was no good news. However, Li Guoying soon gave up the idea again and said to himself: "The earliest fleet of thieves passed by more than 20 days ago, and there were not many ships, so they should not be able to transport many troops."

The earliest fleet that Li Guoying mentioned was Yu Youming's group. At that time, the Ming army began to camp on the north bank, and its troops were still relatively weak. Li Guoying did not think that the enemy would send combat-capable troops away at that dangerous time.

"Maybe Gao Mingzhan encountered the thieves in that fleet? So I feel that western Sichuan has not been completely pacified?" Li Guoying believed that the Ming army could not defeat Gao Mingzhan's 3,500 cavalry and infantry mixed troops: "It's really a mistake. Even if the enemy has not been wiped out, I should send someone to let me know the progress after capturing Chengdu. Could it be that Gao Mingzhan has not captured Chengdu yet? More than 3,500 armored people will be so difficult to deal with tens of thousands of farmers?"

Because Li Guoying was very confident in Gao Mingzhan's journey, his deployment in Chongqing was to make no contribution but seek nothing, and he planned to let Deng Ming retreat. Like Yuan Zong, Li Guoying also did not want to fight a war of attrition. He did not know that Deng Ming had left many armed soldiers in Huguang, but expected the enemy to be lenient and formulated a strategy according to Deng Ming's 30,000 armed soldiers. It was precisely because of this that Li Guoying voluntarily gave up in Zhongxian, Tongluoxia and other places to save troops and at the same time lengthened the supply line of Deng Ming's army.

"The King of Pingxi said that Zhao Liangdong and the others agreed to support Chongqing, so there was no further information?"

...

At this time, in Deng Ming's camp, the Ming army still couldn't come up with any good way to fight quickly. Today, Yuan Zongdi proposed an idea, which was to send troops from Chengdu to Jiange to sneak attack Guangyuan and threaten Li Guoying's rear.

But Deng Ming disagreed. According to the description of the captives, Baoning and Hanzhong still had quite powerful left-behind troops: "There are no guard posts along the way from Dufu to Jiange, and they cannot replenish food and grass. We don't know the reality of Baoning. As long as Li Guoying left thousands of soldiers in Baoning, the Dufu sent troops to die. Once defeated, it would be the same as Gao Mingzhan's fate and there was no way to escape. Moreover, there was no cavalry in the Dufu, and there was a green camp in Shaanxi. They would be able to reinforce Guangyuan from Hanzhong and Xi'an."

Of course, when these prisoners set off, Li Guoying was still in Baoning. Perhaps Baoning, Hanzhong, and Xi'an are all empty now, but the actual situation cannot be determined by the Ming army, so they dare not gamble.

"Since the admiral would definitely not set out from Jiange to attack Guangyuan, there is no need to keep Gao Mingzhan's defeat secret." Yuan Zong failed the first plan and had another plan: "Just release Gao Mingzhan and declare that we are sending a large army out of Jiange to attack Guangyuan. Li Guoying was worried that the future would be incorrect, so he might give up Chongqing. Even if he did not give up, as long as he sent some reinforcements back, our chances would be great."

"I haven't figured out how to defeat Gao Mingzhan," Deng Ming seemed a little hesitant after hearing this: "I have thought about General Yuan's method, but I'm worried that I won't scare Li Guoying."
Chapter completed!