Author's note: The second update today.

There were more than 200 lieutenants convened at this meeting, and both the soldiers and officers in the auxiliary troops received orders to attend the meeting. Although Deng Ming gave the auxiliary troops the same respect and the soldiers, he also established a group for the auxiliary troops and arranged special officers to lead the troops instead of allowing the combat troops to be driven by the combat troops like other troops. Deng Ming had never summoned two types of officers at the same time. If Deng Ming had any training or work needs for auxiliary troops, he would summon the responsible officers, but there was no need to let the officers of the combat troops attend at that time.

"Sit." With Deng Ming's order, more than 200 officers sat on their stools without moving, straightening their backs to look at the commander in the front desk.

The officers present have understood the recent military situation, so Deng Ming did not exaggerate the difficulties of the Ming army. He simply said a few words and immediately went straight to the topic: "In the past few days, I have heard a sound that is to throw down ten thousand prisoners from Guizhou and let them help us drag the Qing army to a few days. I think this idea is unsuccessful. First of all, once these Guizhou people are abandoned, our army's officers and soldiers will know that we have no choice in the Qing army that has been pestering, and neither of us nor the lords here will have confidence in getting rid of the predicament. Today, can we give up the Guizhou people, then will we give up the Huguang new recruits tomorrow? The day after tomorrow, will we abandon the more unimportant auxiliary soldiers as worn-out shoes? No, I will not start this! We must make the soldiers believe that we, as officers, have a way, and will not abandon the soldiers."

Seeing that many people in front of us nodded slightly, Deng Ming continued: "In addition to military issues, this is also about conscience. We are like a group of travelers chased by evil wolves. We still have sticks and strength in our hands. Why should we throw away our companions who cannot move instead of turning around and killing the wolf? I don't know what you think. Anyway, I would rather beat the wolf to death than leave my companions and escape alone."

Deng Ming's words aroused the enthusiasm of many officers, and they all yelled that the reason they joined Zhang Huangyan's Volunteer Army was to fight the Qing army to the end.

"If the Qing army is entangled behind us in such a gloomy way, we may pay a heavy price every time we make a mistake, which is something we cannot tolerate. I think it will be the least loss to fight a war with the Qing army, defeat them and run away. And we have the strength to defeat them. These days, our officers and soldiers have been chased by the Qing army, and everyone is holding their breath, but Li Guoying does not have the courage to fight. His soldiers must have noticed this, and they are all thinking about taking advantage of the situation, and have lost the spirit of pursuit."

Probably no one here opposes fighting a battle with the Qing army. Even if you know that the Qing army behind you is strong, many people feel that it is better to decide the outcome in one battle than to be worried every day. As Yuan Zongdi said, when you are just entangled, the morale of the pursuers will increase, but if you fail to seek war for a long time, you will start to decline.

So what most officers are most concerned about now is whether the Qing army is willing to fight with the Ming army, and some smart people are even more surprised - today's topic sounds like how to fight against the Qing army, which is mainly the work of the warriors; even if the auxiliary soldiers need to cooperate, according to Deng Ming's previous habits, he will convene another meeting instead of letting a large number of auxiliary soldiers sit here and waste time listening to tasks that are not related to them.

"Twenty miles ahead, there are several larger valleys and continuous hills, which are the place to be used." Deng Ming ordered a huge map, which he asked the forward detective to carefully investigate. After seeing this map, many officers also felt that this was a good place for battle, but they were very cautious in pursuing the Qing army. Li Guoying's Biao battalion cavalry never approached the Ming army's brigade infantry; although the strength of the governor Biao battalion was greater than that of the Ming army's cavalry, they had always carefully distanced themselves from the Ming army in order to avoid being stuck. As for the large number of infantry in the Qing army, they marched behind the Biao battalion, not giving the Ming army a chance to encounter.

The main force of the Ming army has been moving very slowly these days, so Deng Ming has plenty of time to collect geographical information. When listening to Deng Ming's careful introduction to the terrain, many officers have a new doubt: "Does the admiral set up an ambush here? But the admiral asked the subordinates of Hushang and General Yuan to teach us various reconnaissance methods. Will the enemy not understand this?"

Especially now that the Qing army knew that the Ming army was right in front of us, they would not march recklessly. Many officers recalled the reconnaissance training they had received, and felt that the possibility of ambushing was not revealed was very small.

"In order to lead the Qing army into the sight, I plan to carry out an unprecedented fraud. Because there is no previous example, I not only need the cooperation of all the people here, but also the efforts of the soldiers of the entire army."

Failure is a very common tactic. For example, He Zhen’s method against Li Shixun is a typical fraudulent defeat, but this also requires the other party to be careless, because experienced commanders have many ways to judge whether the enemy is really fleeing or pretending to be defeated. The easiest thing is to observe the banner. If the flag is not discarded in large quantities, it means that the opponent’s officers at all levels may still recover their control over the army. Be careful at this time; the second is to observe whether the other party still has large-scale established troops. If the opponent can still control many troops, it will be far from failure.

With Li Guoying's prudence, such fraudulent defeat would not be successful. Moreover, the Qing army does not even intend to fight with the Ming army, and there is no chance to cheat the defeat. However, no one asked a question at this time, and it was obvious that Deng Ming had not finished speaking.

"I plan to carry out a long-distance defeat. Our army will be defeated twenty miles from here to the scheduled battlefield." Deng Ming pointed to the map. When he first proposed this plan, Zhao Tianba and the others thought that the admiral was crazy because such a defeat could not be disguised. If he really failed twenty miles, it would definitely turn out to be a complete collapse of the entire army.

But the officers in the audience seemed to have more confidence in Deng Ming than the guards. They did not scream when they heard Deng Ming's beginning like the guards, and most of them listened to Deng Ming's following words attentively.

"No one has ever been able to carry out such a long-distance defeat, because if you can't run ten miles, the system will begin to be in chaos. The soldiers cannot find the officers, and the officers cannot find the soldiers. As for the auxiliary soldiers, they will even think of the headless flies running around." If you want to avoid the chaos in the organization, you must march in an orderly manner, but then the other party can see at a glance that this is not a defeat: "Even if the flags are raised twenty miles away to gather the scattered soldiers, the panicked soldiers will not obey the command, and the scattered soldiers cannot gather the scattered soldiers in one or two days. The pursuers had already been killed, and the soldiers who were already frightened birds would flee in all directions."

If an army is defeated twenty miles away, no commander will suspect that it is a fraudulent defeat. Even if the enemy commander initially has the intention of fraudulent defeat, he will completely lose control of the army at this time.

"In the wars over thousands of years, no army could be defeated and 20 miles before the enemy to lure the enemy, because no army could do it. But we are different from all the armies from ancient times to the present, and we can do it. First, our army did not have strong men. Except for not many Huguang Yishang, no matter the war soldiers, the auxiliary soldiers were all righteous brave men who joined Zhoushan."

Most of the soldiers recruited by Huguang have already gone to Chengdu, and very few are still in the army now.

"We also have a military rank system. Whether it is a military soldier or an auxiliary soldier, we can do without a banner. The scattered marches are led by an officer, which looks like a defeat. The chaos on the road is inevitable, so I need an officer to bring every missing soldier I encounter, regardless of whether he is your subordinate or not. If the soldier falls behind, he must act with the officers he encounters and obey the command of the officer with the highest rank. This is the second reason why we can carry out this deceptive defeat. Our army is not a general, servant, personal soldiers, combat soldiers and auxiliary soldiers hierarchy."

When Deng Ming opened up the land for Zhou and Li Xinghan and others made this reason, his guards also thought it seemed like they could give it a try, but despite this, even if the military rank system could help the Ming army reduce the degree of chaos and shorten the time required to gather the troops, this long-distance fraud was still extremely dangerous.

"Third, in the past, the commander himself was usually the commander himself, and there were a few confidants who knew that the number of bait soldiers sent to lure the enemy was small, or they were abandoned as abandoned to the enemy. But this time, I need everyone here to participate. Not only do you have to participate in this plan, but your soldiers under you also have to participate, and you must be familiar with geography as well as possible before the war. Because of confidentiality, I cannot notify the entire army too early, but in the end every warrior and auxiliary soldier must understand our army's plan and understand how our army will strive for victory."

In the past, this kind of fraudulent defeat was generally notified of every soldier, but Deng Ming believed that if the soldiers understood the commander's strategic determination, it would be very beneficial to eliminate their panic and also help maintain the establishment and morale during the fraudulent defeat. Deng Ming announced that the Ming army would stop advancing from today. From tomorrow, officers would dress up as reconnaissance units in batches, take the soldiers to familiarize themselves with the terrain, and further formulate a more stringent fraudulent plan.

"In the end, the Qing army needs to cooperate." Deng Ming told the officers present that in the next few days, in order to cover the true intentions of the Ming army, Deng Ming will repeatedly challenge the Qing army: "Li Guoying will definitely not agree. When we are ready, let the navy evacuate first, and at the same time release the news that I abandoned the army and abscond the army. The entire army was led by the officers, and scattered the march to the assembly site twenty miles away according to the scheduled route and plan. Li Guoying abandoned the army and escaped twice, and Zhao Liangdong just escaped once a few days ago. Since they have all done this, most of them think that the people in the world will make similar actions in an unfavorable situation. So I think they will cooperate with me, thinking that this is the repeated battle of Songshan, and the army will be launched, and the army will be blocked."
Chapter completed!