Li Laiheng defeated Nanjing from Huguang and then returned to Huguang from Nanjing. Now he is extremely powerful among the generals of Kuidong. His soldiers have reached more than 12,000, and all kinds of military supplies are available. Deng Ming and Li Laiheng agreed in advance that all the seizures were divided equally. Deng Ming felt that he had taken a great advantage because almost all the war soldiers and auxiliary soldiers were provided by Li Laiheng. Because of this, the seizures along the way when he returned from Nanjing were handed over to Li Laiheng; most of the income obtained when he was sieging cities and plundering land in Hubei was not distributed to the Zhejiang soldiers directly under Deng Ming, but belonged to the Kuidong Army responsible for monitoring. At that time, Deng Ming's reason was to pay tuition fees - because Li Laiheng sent instructors to guide and train Zhejiang soldiers, and he should be compensated.

But Li Laiheng's views were different. He felt that he had obtained a large amount of supplies without paying much, and always felt that he was in debt to Deng Ming. Li Laiheng heard that Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichun had their sons and nephews to serve Deng Ming. Li Laiheng's son was still young this year and could not send him to Deng Ming. However, if there was no long-term contact, Li Laiheng felt that his relationship with Deng Ming would gradually become distant.

You must have someone you own around Deng Ming!

For the purpose of gratitude and maintaining relationships, Li Laiheng rectified the members of the three walls, and some of their children and some of the Xingshan New Generation who had a deep relationship with him, formed a team of 200 people to Deng Ming's army. A year ago, the Xingshan army was short of horses, but now the wealthy Li Laiheng can also equip these 200 riders with horses, and each of them also gave a brand new armor - essentially, this is a gift to the superior. Although Li Laiheng is honest, he is not stupid, and he is very clear that he cannot seem too shabby.

Deng Ming was naturally very happy to have such a cavalry thrown into his own command. However, raising a cavalry cost a huge amount. The maintenance cost of 200 horses was at least equivalent to 1,500 infantrymen. Moreover, the horses were delicate and difficult to replenish. The war horses of Kuidong and Sichuan were almost entirely seized from the Qing army, and the Ming army had no ability to raise them.

Although Deng Ming supported the people in Chengdu to set up the Maxing Company at all costs, he probably won't have any results within a few years.

However, with this cavalry team, Deng Ming could start to cultivate his own cavalry unit. Although there are some captured horses and riders in the Zhejiang army, there are no cavalry officers.

Deng Ming gave them higher military ranks to this group of cavalry who had just arrived.

Deng Ming tried to introduce the military rank system when he was in Huguang. As a student of the Academy of Fine Arts, he didn't know what the benefits of the military rank system were, so when Li Laiheng asked about the role of this system, Deng Ming couldn't tell the reason. However, since more and more troops used the military rank system since the beginning of the Black Powder War, and it was not cancelled until the era of nuclear war, this system would definitely stand the test of the battlefield and time. Deng Ming believed that he would probably not see a war model that surpassed the level of nuclear war in his life.

So Deng Ming appointed Qian Zheng as the rank of captain, and then the ranks of lieutenant and second lieutenant. There were soldiers below the lieutenant and were awarded to the leaders of each team, just like the lieutenant, ranging from sergeant to corporal according to qualifications and years of service. As for soldiers, it is still the difference between armored soldiers and auxiliary soldiers. The officers and non-commissioned officers who were awarded military ranks also received special ornaments - metal epaulettes.

The Zhejiang soldiers felt that this reform in the army was very fresh, and whether it was Li Laiheng or Yuan Zongdi, they thought this was Deng Ming's personal interest - it didn't seem harmful anyway, so Deng Ming would do it.

After arriving in Chongqing this time, Yuan Zongdi also asked about the military rank system. Deng Ming explained that with the epaulette recognition system, soldiers on the battlefield could know whose orders they should obey.

Yuan Zongdi praised this, but he was completely dissatisfied with it. The officers and soldiers stayed together for many years, so could they still not know each other? After several simple discussions, Yuan Zongdi and Li Laiheng came to the same conclusion that this system was completely a whim of Deng Ming. Anyway, making those epaulettes doesn't seem to be too troublesome, and they won't consume any military resources, and Yuan Zongdi did not intend to interfere.

In addition to this inexplicable system, Yuan Zongdi felt that other aspects of Deng Ming's direct troops were good. In addition to the thousands who had already rushed to Chengdu, there are now Deng Ming's eight thousand soldiers and 16,000 auxiliary soldiers outside Chongqing. These 24,000 troops are quite friendly to each other, and there is no ordinary military soldiers bullying auxiliary soldiers. At least it has not been formed yet. The equipment is good, and the armor on the warriors and the weapons in their hands were made by the new governor of Huguang Zhang Changgeng. Because the buyers are not easy to mess with, Governor Zhang and Prefect Zhou have always attached great importance to the quality of weapons and regarded it as a top priority.

This army had carried out some siege battles in Hubei, and the experience of capturing Huangzhou and other prefectures gave these soldiers a basic battlefield experience. However, Yuan Zongdi believed that their biggest problem was that their army was too short, they were not tacit and familiar enough with each other, and the prestige of the officers was not established. Yuan Zongdi felt that perhaps this was the reason that led Deng Ming to establish a military rank system that had no practical purpose.

...

The copper plate in the air rotated rapidly and fell onto the battlements. Just as the copper coins were about to touch the wall, they suddenly stretched out a hand and grabbed it violently.

Li Guoying held the copper coin steadily in his hand and kept looking at Jiang's eyes opposite. His previous hesitation almost completely disappeared, and his face was full of determination.

He held the copper coin for five seconds until the last hesitation completely retreated. Li Guoying suddenly waved his arm hard and loosened his hand, allowing the copper coin to fly into the distance: "How can the life and death of tens of thousands of troops be determined by a copper coin!"

"Come here." Li Guoying shouted loudly.

A guard came forward to take the order immediately, and Li Guoying whispered a few orders in the ear of the Biaoying Guard. After hearing the order, the Biaoying Guard showed a look of surprise on the face. The Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi could not wait for him to respond and urged impatiently: "Why don't you go quickly?"

"Zha." Several guards of the Biaoying reacted and saluted the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi together, retreated from the city. They went to the yamen to get the governor's arrows and set off from Chongqing.

At this time, some generals had already walked behind Li Guoying and suggested to him to take this opportunity to retreat from Chongqing, but Li Guoying refused them: "This Governor predicted that this was a thief's plan to lure the enemy."

Li Guoying said as he stretched out his arm and pointed to the mountains on the south bank: "I saw this mountain, and there was murderous aura behind it, soaring straight into the sky. It must be the army of Deng thieves commanding the army ambushing behind, just waiting for our army to give up the city."

Seeing the generals' faces showing suspicion, Li Guoying raised his face and asked: "I have been in war for decades, why? Can you believe in this Governor's qi-seeking technique?"

Seeing that his subordinates were reluctant to retreat, Li Guoying sighed in his heart: "Now I can suppress them with authority for a while, but this is not a long-term solution."

After letting the generals return to their respective posts to lead the army, Li Guoying still stood at the top of the city for a long time and stared at the other side.

"Deng Ming, I bet you didn't send a partial army out of Jiange. Now, and I don't dare to do it in the future, because you don't know if I left troops behind. You did guess that my rear was empty, but you didn't dare to bet, and you didn't dare to use the life-and-death bet of tens of thousands of soldiers. You guessed it right, because you didn't have the capital at all. I also have confidence. I did not make any mistakes in my deployment here in Chongqing. I may not know that you took dozens or hundreds of people to Chengdu, but I would never have noticed it.

"So you want to trick me out of the city. But I am different from you. Behind me is the court. The court is rich in the world, with millions of soldiers. You can't figure out my reality at all. As long as I don't reveal my flaws here, you can't know how many soldiers and horses can be sent to Baoning and Guangyuan. Even if you're not going to die when you attack Guangyuan, as long as I act as peace of mind, you won't be able to have this courage to test."

Li Guoying thought silently in his heart, feeling that the confrontation between him and Deng Ming was a bit like when Zhuge Liang used an empty city strategy to deal with Sima Yi in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". But in his heart, of course, Li Guoying was undoubtedly Zhuge Liang: "The more calm I act, the less Deng Ming dared to take risks. The more I stick to Chongqing, the more I can protect the empty retreat."

The biggest problem for Li Guoying now is how to boost the morale of the Chongqing defenders and let the generals stay with him to stay in Chongqing. After watching his Biaoying guards ride out of the city and head straight for the upstream, Li Guoying turned his head and looked south: "When will the reinforcements of King Pingxi arrive?"

...

Li Guoying didn't know that the reinforcements he had been thinking about day and night were just about to leave Guiyang.

After Wu Sangui was constantly squeezing, Zhao Liangdong finally couldn't stay anymore. After he and Zhang Yong and Wang Jinbao assured Wu Sangui that he left, the King of Pingxi immediately became intimate with Zhao Liangdong and the others. Not only did he provide high-quality rations again, he also promised to provide them with enough military rations to ensure that they could arrive in Chongqing safely.

However, Wu Sangui did not intend to provide too many auxiliary soldiers. The road from Loushan Pass to Chongqing from Zunyi was less than a year ago, Wu Sangui had just walked through the army of 180,000. The King of Pingxi, who had been through the battle for a long time, knew very well that Zhao Liangdong and the others could almost never raise food and grass halfway. When food and grass were in short supply, the generals would sacrifice auxiliary soldiers without hesitation to ensure the supply of armored soldiers. In the end, the soldiers arrived safely, but more than half of the tens of thousands of auxiliary soldiers had to cross the roadside. Therefore, Wu Sangui told Zhao Liangdong that they could borrow some auxiliary soldiers from other generals from other provinces, but Wu Sangui could not provide too many Guizhou strong men, and the auxiliary soldiers owned by the direct troops of the King of Pingxi could not lend them.

Zhao Liangdong's personal military camp had 1,000 people, Zhang Yong had 800 people, and Wang Jinbao had 500 people. In addition, there were several other Shaanxi generals who were also excluded by King Pingxi to be unable to stay away. This time, there were more than 3,800 soldiers from Ganzhou Green Camp, and the 6,000 auxiliary soldiers who were forced to get from Wu Sangui.

The King of Pingxi was not too stingy in terms of food and grass. He provided a lot of food for these 10,000 soldiers, which was enough for them to eat and be rich in Chongqing. Moreover, Wu Sangui also gave Zhao Liangdong a warrant, asking the prefectures and counties along the way to cooperate and replenish their food and fodder. If any auxiliary soldiers fled, they were not allowed to shelter them and would be returned to Zhao Liangdong and others for disposal.

Today, Zhao Liangdong and others led their troops to set off. Wu Sangui wanted to send him out of Guiyang, but was persuaded by several generals. After the two sides bid farewell to tears, Wu Sangui returned to his temporary palace happily. Zhang Yong and Wang Jinbao also immediately changed their faces and cursed: "The Wu thief who has lost his son and grandson! I will not be a human being if I don't avenge this revenge!"

However, although Zhang Yong and Wang Jinbao cursed fiercely, they were just verbally enjoying themselves. The other party was the powerful King Pingxi, holding heavy troops and a province of vassals, and the court's favor was unparalleled.

For example, the mandarin and Han Dynasty's rule of intermarriage is not even Zhao Liangdong who carries the flag, but Wu Sangui is not a bannerman. His son can marry a Manchu girl, and his surname is Aisin Gioro, the granddaughter of Emperor Taizu (Nurhaci), and the cousin of the current emperor. It is difficult to find Wu Sangui to seek revenge, and it is even more fantasy to make him lose his son and grandson. His grandson is Nurhaci's granddaughter, and even in Deng Ming's previous life, no one could think of the future of Wu Shifan and Xuanye's cousin in the future.

After the generals squirted hard, they stopped cursing and planned to continue the march. Most of the other people who saw him off were from the Pingxi Palace. They had just gone back with the Pingxi King, and now only one general who saw him off was still there.

The general was named Sun Sike, who was a bannerman of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, just like Zhao Liangdong, and the two had good relationships on weekdays. However, Sun Sike's identity as a bannerman was different from Zhao Liangdong. Zhao Liangdong earned himself with military merits, and Sun Sike's father was Sun Degong, a guerrilla in Guangning back then. Sun Degong betrayed the 130,000 troops of Wang Huazhen and Chen Qu to Nurhaci, and helped Nurhaci kill these 100,000 comrades in Shaling. In Deng Ming's previous life, until 120 years after the Battle of Shaling, when the Korean envoy passed the battlefield, he could still see skeletons and bones all over the mountains. The remains here were loyal and brave soldiers of the Ming Dynasty and good men in Liaodong who defended their country. They were once Sun Degong's comrades-in-arms, and were harmed by him, so that the bones could not be buried a hundred years later.

After the Shaling War, Sun Degong controlled Guangning City again and dedicated all the people in the city to Nurhaci as slaves.

With this achievement, Sun Degong became a bannerman, and Sun Sike inherited this identity from his father. His brother-in-law's identity was even more amazing. He was the Baoyi of the Aisin Gioro family. His sister often went to the palace to serve the queen, which was very favored by the queen and made her the nanny of the third son (Xuanye).

Because of his father's great contribution, Sun Sike's status was prominent. He was young and had monitored the Han people's war in Shaanxi and other places. This was also the beginning of his personal friendship with Zhao Liangdong. Although Hong Chengchou lost 130,000 troops, he had never done anything to betray 130,000 comrades. He knew that the Qing court's trust in Sun Sike might never catch up with him in his life. So when he attacked Yunnan and Guizhou, Hong Chengchou asked Sun Sike to follow the army and supervise the actions of Han generals like King Pingxi. Wu Sangui did not dare to offend Han army bannermen like Sun Sike, and kept them in Guiyang with delicious food and drink. He was waiting for the court to call him back one day and sent him out for gifts.

"If the road ahead is difficult, maybe I will return to Guizhou." The auxiliary troops in my hand were insufficient, and the military rations were not very rich. If the road was delayed, it would be very likely to encounter the danger of food being cut off. Zhao Liangdong could not help himself in advance: "If the King of Pingxi is not happy, please help me to speak a few good words in front of the King of Pingxi."

But Sun Sike did not agree to Zhao Liangdong's request, but said, "I heard that the court had the intention of asking me to go back to Beijing and then sending me to Xi'an again. If Brother Zhao returns halfway, I might no longer be in Guizhou. Besides, what's good about Guizhou? Brother Zhao is so heroic, why should I stay here to see the face of King Pingxi? Let's go back to Shaanxi." As he said, Sun Sike clasped his fists at Zhang Yong and others and said, "When I arrive in Xi'an, I will drink and chat with you all the generals."

"But, this..." Zhao Liangdong heard that Sun Sike could return to Beijing at any time, and his face suddenly showed disappointment. After losing this bannerman buddy who even Wu Sangui was unwilling to mess with, it is conceivable that life in Guizhou will become more difficult in the future. It is naturally the best to be able to return to Shaanxi, but if the food and grass are not enough, will you starve to death if you don't go back to Guizhou?

"Brother Zhao is really a mystery to the authorities." Seeing the confusion on Zhao Liangdong's face, Sun Sike smiled slightly: "Since he was legitimately sending troops to reinforce Chongqing, then the generals should of course replenish food and fodder before leaving Guizhou and recruiting heroes to join the army."

Sun Sike's words made Zhang Yong and his friends' eyes wide open, and they understood that the other party suggested that they could plunder the local area and then force the people of Guizhou to act as auxiliary soldiers. As for the animals, they would get as many vehicles as they could, so there was no need to save face for Wu Sangui.

"But..." Zhao Liangdong fell into deep thought just after he spitted out a word. He was not unaware of Sun Sike's implication, but if he really did this, even if he broke up with Wu Sangui, he would never be able to return to Guizhou in the future no matter what the situation was. Although Wu Sangui wanted to drive them away this time, he still gave them enough food and grass, and he also greeted the prefectures and counties along the way. Zhao Liangdong felt that the retreat had not been completely blocked.

Zhao Liangdong expressed another concern: "If you go deep into the enemy's territory, no one can say that I did something wrong, but if you act in Guizhou, these are the emperor's people; and if you stop them, what should you do? Will you do a rough move to the imperial court?"

"Hahahaha!" Sun Sic laughed to the sky, as if he had heard the ridiculous joke.

"Brother Zhao, Brother Zhao." After laughing for a long time, Sun Sike said to Zhao Liangdong with a grudge: "Guizhou is the vassal of King Pingxi. How can it be said that it is the emperor's people? Even if it is, it is a layer of separation. Is the emperor going to break his promise and take back the vassal state? Besides, the officials here are all subordinates of King Pingxi, so what does it have to do with the court?"

Looking at Sun Sike's smiling eyes, Zhao Liangdong felt a cold sweat seeping out of his back: "The General of the Imperial College understands that the General of the Imperial College is leading the imperial army, and he only knows how to kill the enemy for the imperial court, not anything else."
Chapter completed!