Li Guoying planned to wait for two days, and the morale of the army was slightly stable before starting to withdraw his troops step by step, but Deng Ming and Yuan Zongdi did not know what Li Guoying thought. What they saw was that the Qing army was as safe as a rock, even if it did not retreat even an army of thousands of people.

"Probably, there are many left-behind troops from the Qing army in the Guangyuan area," Deng Ming and Yuan Zongdi analyzed after waiting for two days without any movement: "So Li Guoying is not too worried about the retreat. Just sending a few envoys back and calling the police."

"If this is true, we will not be able to scare Li Guoying away." Yuan Zongdi admitted that this analysis made sense, but Yuan Zongdi felt that Li Guoying insisted on retrenchment, and perhaps there were other reasons: "Maybe Li Guoying didn't believe us at all, thinking we were bluffing."

"If that were the case, they would not withdraw their troops. Once they saw through the bluffs we were bluffing, they would even defend Chongqing."

"The last general thinks that the admiral might as well come to the army in a few days." Yuan Zongdi put forward a new suggestion. Although Deng Ming had arrived at the Ming army camp with his guards and prisoners for two days, he had not shown his flag. The news has not been fully disclosed. Yuan Zongdi thought that he could continue to scare Li Guoying: "Li Zhe may be lucky now, thinking that we are deceiving him, or thinking that the admiral defeated Gao Mingzhan but also suffered a considerable loss, and was unable to attack Guangyuan for a while. So the admiral might as well suddenly raise the flag. When Li Zhe saw that the admiral had indeed arrived, he would think that the admiral's army might arrive at any time. It would be too late if he didn't leave at this time."

"Well, then give it a try." Deng Ming knew that if the Qing army in Chongqing was not worried about the future, they would not be scared away. Now they can only count on Yuan Zongdi's judgment to be correct. Li Guoying was just lucky. However, Deng Ming thought there was no need to wait a few days later: "No need to delay, let's arrange this, I will call out the banner tomorrow."

"Okay." Yuan Zongdi nodded: "If the Tartars really pretend to be calm, it would be best to scare them while they are still in shock."

"There is another more important reason. We cannot miss the farming time." The Chengdu Plain has a long frost-free period, and crops can be ripe twice a year, and the first planting of wasteland takes longer: "It's already February. We quickly scare Li Guoying away and take him to Chongqing. Then I have to take people back to the Dufu to clear the land and sow seeds. This year, we must hurry up and plant grains, at least harvest our own food. If we take Chongqing one day earlier, we can start farming one day earlier. If it is delayed for too long, the farming work will be delayed."

The next day, Li Guoying climbed the city early and carefully observed the Ming army's positions. In the past two days, he had deployed the task of retreating in batches, and the artillery was secretly transferred to the rear to block the Jialing River to prevent the Ming army from entering after the naval division was withdrawn. The first one was of course Wang Mingde. He was of course very happy after getting this task, and there were many dissatisfied people. Many people asked to act with Wang Mingde. Li Guoying took a lot of effort to convince them to stay.

Today, another batch of Ming army ships came from the downstream, and more than 10,000 Zhejiang and Chu soldiers arrived. Now the number of Ming soldiers on the other side has exceeded 35,000. At first glance, the camp is connected to the sky and the earth. The Qing generals who had to stay looked at the Ming army positions on the other side, all of them were in a heavy mood, standing beside Li Guoying and silently stood silent.

Li Guoying observed the Ming army's flag and figured out the intentions behind Yuan Zongdi's various deployments. He felt that the Ming army did not seem to have a good chance of pursuing, and he might not be able to detect the Qing army's retreat at the first time. Of course, Li Guoying did not think that he could hide his mobilization in front of Yuan Zongdi for a long time, but the later the Ming army noticed, the longer they would react. After Wang Mingde left, Li Guoying would start to withdraw the Qing army upstream in batches, alternately covering each other to prevent the Ming army from pursuing. Of course, he would be in the last batch. Li Guoying felt that only in this way could the Qing army avoid the refusal to obey the order of rotation and perseverance, but instead rush to escape back to Baoning.

But there was a new movement on the Ming army, and it seemed that countless people began to shout loudly. The shouts were so loud that they kept floating across the Yangtze River from the camp to the west of the Ming army and reaching the head of Chongqing.

"What's wrong with the thief?" Li Guoying looked to the west with some confusion. There seemed to be a commotion in the Ming army there.

The commotion quickly spread eastward along the Ming army camp, and the shouts of soldiers on the other side of the river became louder and louder. Soon Li Guoying made a judgment: "This is the thieves cheering, they are cheering like crazy, why?"

No one on the left could answer Li Guoying's questions. All eyes on the head of Chongqing were attracted by the source of the commotion. It was a high flag of generals, as if a small team of cavalry were holding this flag to inspect the Ming army camp.

As the flags get closer, soon after, an officer from the riverside sent someone to report: "Governor General, it seems that Deng Ming and Deng are here. The thieves across the river are shouting the word "Admiral"."

"Yes." Li Guoying's face was heavy and nodded slightly. Soon, the warm cheers of Mingjun could be clearly seen on the top of Chongqing city.

"It turns out that Deng Ming has arrived." Li Guoying thought to the young man who suddenly appeared but was afraid. At that time, this man led a group of defeated soldiers under Chongqing city and defeated Tan Hong, who was waiting for battle, and wiped out Tan Yi, who was pursuing Tan Yi, and made a big fool of the Sichuan and Shaanxi Governor-General. Fortunately, Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong's poor performance overshadowed Li Guoying and eliminated the image of laughing stock for him. After Hu Quancai was defeated and died, no one thought that it was ridiculous to be defeated by Deng Ming. After the news from Nanjing came, the Sichuan and Shaanxi Grey Camp completely changed their views on Tan Hong and Tan Yi, thinking that it was strange that they were undefeated.

If Deng Ming was just a good field battle, perhaps Li Guoying and his subordinates would not be so afraid of him, but Deng Ming swept Hubei like a tyrant, making everyone realize that this person's siege ability is also very powerful. Anyway, Li Guoying asked himself, it was absolutely possible to use Yuan Zongdi, Liu Tichun and other four men to break through the Hubei defense line so easily.

After enjoying the cheers of the soldiers, Deng Ming ordered the navy to dispatch again to make out the banners he brought from Gao Mingzhan, some small ceremonial supplies, and the green flags of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Green Camp, and simply shot across the river with the powerful crossbows on the ship. Although the Qing army already knew that Gao Mingzhan's entire army was destroyed, Deng Ming felt that they might still have fantasies, hoping that the Ming army would exaggerate it. Now that the evidence is revealed, it is possible to break the Qing army's last lucky mentality.

These evidences did achieve the effect of Deng Mingxiong. After seeing the banner of Gao Mingzhan's troops, the Qing army, which was already low in morale, became even more depressed. In the past two days, rumors that the retreat was cut off and Chongqing had become an isolated city. When these iron evidence appeared in front of us, the somewhat desperate soldiers even started to cry, thinking that everything was over.

After seeing the Qing army flags sent by his subordinates, Li Guoying's face became extremely gloomy. He walked down the city without saying a word and returned to the yamen in Chongqing.

Wang Mingde waited for a long time, but he did not wait for the order of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi to start retreating. Finally, he couldn't help it and ran to the governor's temporary yamen to ask for a meeting. When Wang Mingde entered, many Qing generals were waiting outside, and many people planned to beg Li Guoying again and agreed to their actions with Wang Mingde and the navy.

After a while, Wang Mingde ran out of the yamen with a red face. When he saw the people outside the door, he shouted in anger: "The Governor said he would not withdraw again!"

"What?" Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

"The Governor General said he would defend Chongqing to the death." Wang Mingde shouted hatefully: "The thieves have come again to reinforce, Deng Ming has also come, but the Governor General has changed his mind."

Everyone was stunned for a while, and their emotions erupted together. They rushed to the yamen and shouted at the guards: "We want to see the Governor!"

Seeing so many generals running towards him in a fierce manner, even the guards of Biaoying at the door were afraid. He bit the bullet and stopped the generals: "Sir, please be anxious, please don't be impatient, so I'll inform the Governor."

"Quick, hurry!" Everyone urged impatiently.

A guard of the Bianbat ran in and ran out of it without asking everyone to wait for a long time: "Governor General, please come in."

Everyone was waiting for this sentence, and rushed in without hesitation. After entering, they saw Li Guoying sitting upright behind the table in the lobby.

After seeing the serious look of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, the anger that was aroused by anxiety in everyone's heart was suppressed and they saluted Liu Guoying one after another: "Governor General."

"You are planning to withdraw your troops, right?" Li Guoying asked calmly, looking around the generals who were pouring in.

"Yes, Governor General, Deng Ming has arrived. His army will definitely arrive in the near future. If it doesn't leave, it will be too late."

Li Guoying waved his hand to signal everyone to step forward. After everyone walked up, they saw Li Guoying spread a map on the wide tabletop, and there was a stack of handwritten warrants next to it. Both the map and handwritten warrants were still not dry. It was obviously Li Guoying had just finished writing it. Li Guoying did not start talking immediately, but asked the guards to summon all the generals who had not arrived to the yamen. It was not until the people came that Li Guoying began to speak slowly.

"This is the deployment and warrant for alternate retreats," Li Guoying explained his plan carefully to everyone, but most people didn't listen too much. Everyone was concerned about when it was his turn to leave.

Although Li Guoying took everyone's impatientness into his eyes, he still patiently continued to talk, and his plan also included some counterattack methods to deal with the possible pursuit of the Ming army.

After saying everything, Li Guoying pushed the map and the command aside and said calmly: "But I don't plan to let you perform these deployments."

When everyone heard Li Guoying’s statement just now, they thought that the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi had agreed to withdraw his troops. Now Li Guoying’s words undoubtedly poured down a bucket of cold water, extinguishing everyone’s fire of hope.

"I don't think you will do as planned at all, and no one will be willing to stay and persevere as soon as I order, but run back to Baoning and Hanzhong as quickly as possible." Li Guoying said coldly: "The current situation reminds me of the Songshan Battle between Taizong and Hong Jinglei. Emperor Taizong was able to kill Hong Jinglei's 130,000 troops in a blink of an eye because Hong Jinglei agreed to withdraw his troops."

Li Guoying's words left speechless to everyone present.

"When Hong Jingluo's army retreated from Songshan, it was killed by Emperor Taizong in just a few days. However, the people who did not retreat were still in Songshan for half a year." Li Guoying paused for a moment and continued: "Except for the King of Pingxi who started to escape first, almost no one can return to Ningyuan alive. From Chongqing to Hanzhong, the road we have to take is longer than from Songshan to Ningyuan. There are no residents on the road. Who do you think you have the luck of King of Pingxi? Can you go back alive? If your troops are lost, do you think the court will not be punished?"

"But staying here will lead to death." Finally, someone couldn't help but refute.

"But you can die at least a few days late, and you can kill a few thieves to avenge yourself. As long as the army is not in chaos, we still have a chance to retreat together." Li Guoying shook his head and said, "Didn't you see the situation in the camp just now? If I asked you to leave now, would you dare to say that the soldiers would obey orders honestly and control your subordinates?"

"Then...why will the Governor show us this?" Wang Mingde pointed to the map on the table and the warrants that Li Guoying had just written.

After just now, Li Guoying realized that the morale of the army was extremely unstable and his generals were on the verge of a mutiny. He did not know that his current situation was very similar to what Hu Quancai had encountered. However, what Li Guoying was better than Hu Quancai was that he immediately thought of a strategy to deal with it.

"I think withdrawing troops is no different from suicide at this time, but as long as we stick to Chongqing, we still have a chance to survive. There are three months of grain reserves in the city. We control a large area. We can fish, hunt, and save food. There should be no problem for persisting for half a year. Many things may happen in the past six months, and the court also has the opportunity to mobilize reinforcements to help us rescue us. We even have the opportunity to save ourselves. The enemy may not have enough military rations, so we will relax our vigilance and give us a chance to break through." Li Guoying first gave everyone some hope, and then his face darkened: "I have been in charge of troops for many years and will definitely not seek death, so as long as I am still alive, I will not order the withdrawal of troops." As he said that, Li Guoying drew out his sword and put it heavily on the table: "If you are determined to run away, kill me, and then report to the court that I died in the chaos."

"The Governor is so serious." The generals were shocked and pushed them away two steps: "How dare the last generals have such evil intentions?"

"If you must withdraw, then after killing me, you will act according to my deployment, and your chances of escaping will be much greater," Li Guoying seemed to have not heard everyone's words, but still said to himself: "But I think you will definitely not be able to help each other, but will run away from their own lives. In the end, they were chased and killed by thieves like dogs. At that time, I dared to conclude that you will regret it. Why don't you stay in Chongqing, and at least you can kill two thieves to give yourself a backbone!"

There was silence in the lobby. After waiting for a while, Li Guoying shouted in a deep voice: "Wang Mingde!"

"The last one is here." Wang Mingde, who was thinking, shivered and hurriedly responded: "What are the instructions of the Governor?"

"Are you going to leave me and your brothers, and escape alone?"

"Mr...." Wang Mingde felt anger surge, overwhelming the fear in his heart, and suddenly thrust his chest: "Mr. I am willing to live and die with the Governor."

"Okay." Li Guoying nodded, turned his head and pointed the name of another military general, and asked him the same question as Wang Mingde.

"We will be a good man in Shaanxi at the end. We northwest men will never leave our brothers and escape!"

"Okay." In this way, Li Guoying asked everyone one by one, and everyone gave Li Guoying a satisfactory answer.

"I did not say that I must defend myself, but the morale of the army is not stable at the moment, so I must not leave Chongqing." Before letting everyone leave, Li Guoying reiterated again: "As long as you can gather the morale of the army and make the soldiers no longer so nervous, and if the retreat has not been cut off, I will still order the retreat. But the withdrawal must be in order and must not repeat the mistakes of Hong Jinglei."

...

After waiting for a few more days, seeing that there was still no movement in Chongqing, Deng Ming and Yuan Zongdi pondered for a while, but could not come up with a better solution.

"Why is Li Guoying so steady?" Yuan Zongdi said in confusion: "It is impossible for him to know that you, the admiral, have not sent troops out of Jiange."

"Maybe that's what I said. He has a large army in Guangyuan and Baoning, so he is not afraid at all." Deng Ming thought about it now and felt that this possibility is very high, and he can also explain the actions of the Qing army.

"If Chongqing's city is strongly attacked, the losses will be huge." Yuan Zongdi thought for a while and had to move out his original plan again: "Our army is about to arrive. After the last batch of troops arrive, we will act separately. The admiral is here and will lead his troops to surround the upper reaches of the Jialing River."

"If Li Guoying had a large army in Baoning, General Yuan might be attacked by him on both sides." Now Deng Ming suspected that Li Guoying still had considerable strength in the rear, so it would become very dangerous to divide the troops.

"Even if there is, he wouldn't dare to use it. Li Guoying always has to beware of the admiral's side troops leaving Jiange." Yuan Zongdi felt that even if this strategy could not scare Li Guoying away, it would not be completely in vain.

"But if Jialing River is about to be cut off and the Jiange has not seen our army come out yet, would Li Guoying ignore the current crisis in order to prevent the danger that he would not know when?" Deng Ming shook his head: "If I were him, he would definitely dispatch troops to attack General Yuan, and overcome the current difficulties first."

"Oh." Yuan Zongdi sighed, no longer insisting on his plan to divide his troops: "How come Li Guoying has so many soldiers?"

After a while, Yuan Zongdi suddenly had an inspiration: "Admiral, do you think it's because we are pressing too tightly? So Li Guoying dared not leave?"

"What are General Yuan's opinions?"
Chapter completed!