Half a year ago, Liu Tichun's headquarters was transferred from Badong to Yiling. Yuan Zongdi said that Liu Tichun is currently busy farming and producing grain. Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi are both knights of the Eighteen Cavalry of Shangluo, and their relationship is very good. The attack on Chongqing was proposed by Yuan Zongdi, so Liu Tichun has always been very concerned about the war in Chongqing and has sent people to inquire.

After Yuan Zongdi returned to Wanxian, he also wrote to Liu Tichun and carefully explained the process of the battle in Chongqing. In addition to the large number of troops on the other side, Yuan Zongdi also told Liu Tichun that Chongqing City was difficult to conquer. Unlike several cities in Huguang, Chongqing is a typical mountain city, with a solid mountain under the city wall. Even if the number of Qing soldiers is scarce, it will be difficult for the Ming army to blast the city wall. Besides, Chongqing is located on the narrow peninsula where the Yangtze River and Jialing River converge, making excavation of tunnels more difficult.

"General Liu replied not long ago that although he would eventually defeat the Tartars by street fighting to capture Chongqing, he had a new trick to break the city wall." Yuan Zongdi said to Deng Ming: "General Liu said he had come up with a way to quickly break through the city wall."

Liu Tichun did not say what the specific method was, but Deng Ming would definitely pass by Yiling in the middle of the journey to Wuchang, and you will know it when you ask.

Compared to the war in Wuhan, Yuan Zongdi was more worried about Chongqing. After hearing Deng Ming retelling the information he heard from Gao Mingzhan and others, Yuan Zongdi believed that the situation was already serious.

After pondering for a while, Yuan Zongdi said: "The Admiral can let Xiao Lao Hu, General Liu and others give up Jiangling for the time being; General Hao and General He also retreated from the Jianghan Plain first and concentrate all our troops. We can gather 40,000 armored soldiers in half a year, totaling 200,000 troops, almost taking down Chongqing."

"Why should we give up the Jianghan Plain and Jiangling?" Deng Ming was a little surprised. He asked back: "If we lose these territories, how can we support hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians?"

"It's not too late for us to return to the army after taking Chongqing," Yuan Zongdi said: "If the Tartars accumulate tens of thousands of troops in Chongqing, then it will be difficult to take it down."

Yuan Zongdi felt that as long as Chongqing was in the hands of the Qing army, it would make him feel like a thorn on his back. Therefore, when he besieged Chongqing last time, Yuan Zongdi wanted to attack several times. Although he had to retreat in the end, after defeating Li Guoying's pursuers, the strength comparison between the Qing army and the Ming army in Sichuan had changed, and it was no longer too difficult to capture Chongqing. Unexpectedly, the Qing court actually reinforced Sichuan at all costs.

"Yes, but General Yuan, can the food and grass that feed tens of thousands of troops in Chongqing be solved by the Qing army of Chongqing?" Deng Ming was much easier than Yuan Zongdi. Shaanxi is no longer Guanzhong in the Qin and Han Dynasties. Shaanxi's material resources could not even support all the garrisons of Ganzhou and Shaanxi, but needed help from the outside world. Before Sichuan was destroyed due to the war, Sichuan could bear part of the needs of Ganzhou and Shaanxi, but now Xi'an can only rely on Beijing to transport supplies.

Deng Ming pointed out to Yuan Zongdi that Chongqing has almost no ability to produce materials on its own, and everything must be transported from Xi'an; while Xi'an's materials come from Beijing; as for Beijing's materials, they must be collected from Jiangnan or even Huguang.

"What is likely to happen is that Beijing asked for 10,000 shi of grain from Wuchang, transported back to Beijing 5,000 shi, and then transferred to Xi'an, transporting two thousand shi for Li Guoying. Then Li Guoying sent it all the way to Chongqing. When he arrived at Wang Mingde, there were only one thousand shi left."

In the past, when Wu Sangui was expeditioning in the south, the Qing court had committed suicide by forcing the Three Gorges to transport supplies from Jiangling to Chongqing through the Yangtze River. Although the losses were heavy, the Qing court could still grit their teeth and persevere. But now the Qing army naval forces in Dongting Lake, Jiangxi and Nanjing have been destroyed, and the strength of the Ming army's Yangtze River naval forces has been strengthened ten times, and Yiling and Jiangling have been included in the control. The Qing court has no possibility of using the Yangtze River shipping to support the western battle. That is to say, in order to support 10,000 soldiers in Chongqing, Huguang must support 100,000 less troops; for every 10,000 more troops in the west, the 10,000 people in the east, the less bad it is? The Qing Dynasty was squandering their financial and manpower. The greater the pressure in Chongqing, the smaller the pressure in Yunnan, Guizhou, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangling, the less pressure in Xiangyang Ming army will be.

Yuan Zongdi felt that the loss might not reach 90% of the 10th, but he also admitted that Deng Ming was right. The price that the Qing court had to pay to maintain a large army in Chongqing was far more than the need to maintain the same size army opposite Jiangling: "However, it is not impossible to cultivate military camps around Chongqing and Baoning. Once the Tatar military camps are developed, it will pose a huge threat to the capital."

"Haha, if the Qing court intends to establish a defense line from Baoning to Chongqing, then we really want it. However, the Guanning defense line is not far away, and I am afraid that the Qing court will not be so stupid."

If the Ming army in Chengdu did not interfere at all and watched Li Guoying develop the land on both sides of the Jialing River, then the Qing army in Sichuan could indeed get rid of its complete dependence on Jiangnan materials, but Deng Ming obviously would not look at it.

Deng Ming said: "If you want to develop Baoning and Chongqing, Li Guoying needs to transport at least hundreds of thousands of civilians to become a land. He still needs thousands of oxen and countless rations. If he really does this, then there will naturally be very few materials for raising soldiers. I will attack him every year and harvest Li Guoying's grain. If Li Guoying wants to build military camps and refuses to let me harvest food for him, then there will be too many places he has to defend. Now he only has Chongqing, Baoning, Guangyuan and other strongholds. At that time, he has to defend dozens and millions of acres of land. The army needs at least several times the size of the current ones, right? In order to early warning and protect the garrison, how many bunkers, post stations, and beacon towers he has to build? Where does the manpower need come from? What is the food consumed? That is, can he build the military camps and grow so many things?"

Now the Qing court has to support only tens of thousands of defenders, and simply establishing some military camps does not require too much material - of course, it is hard to say who will be planted for the military camps - but if you want to keep the entire military camp area airtight, Li Guoying needs more than 100,000 armored soldiers, hundreds of thousands of troops, and countless laborers who build cities, forts and roads, Baoning and Chongqing areas have to support hundreds of thousands, or even nearly one million troops.

"The military camp has not been effective for a few years. Under the harassment of the capital, it may not be effective for more than ten years. During this period, Beijing has to allocate supplies to support it. If hundreds of thousands of troops are raised here, Guizhou will definitely give up, and Guangdong and Guangxi may be as empty as if they are not on guard." Deng Ming smiled. He estimated that the Qing court would soon realize the decision-making mistake. Deng Ming even wondered why the Qing court suddenly attached so much importance to the southwest: "If the Qing court wanted to build a Baoning-Chongqing defense line and establish a Baoning-Chongqing brigade, I am very welcome, but I am afraid there are also people in the Qing court who will come back to the scene in one or two years. After the Qing court itself gave up Chongqing, we can take it down without any effort."

As for Chongqing's current threat, Deng Ming believes that it is also within a tolerable range. Although Chongqing is important, its biggest role is to provide a garrison for the Qing Dynasty's navy. Whether it can control the Yangtze River is ultimately not Chongqing, but a navy. If the Qing Dynasty's Jingzhou and Wuyue navy went upstream and drove to Chongqing to station, the traffic between the Ming army in Chengdu and Wanxian would definitely be cut off. But now Jiangling and Yiling are all in the hands of the Ming army, a Qing army's

The boats would not even think of sailing into Kuimen from the downstream, let alone Chongqing. People from the north were good at horses, people from the south were good at boats, and people from the Gansu and Shaanxi Green made some grain ships to transport supplies, or used the terrain to prevent the Ming army from entering the Jialing River. But they were far from able to build a powerful naval force to defeat the Ming army's Yangtze River naval force. A few years later, when the Ming army reconnaissed the hydrological geography of the Jialing River, maybe the Qing army's Jialing River naval force could not even be able to stop the Ming army with the terrain.

Yuan Zongdi had to admit that from the perspective of a national chess game, it would be difficult to explain the pros and cons of the Qing army's increase in troops in Chongqing. Although the pressure on the Ming army in Sichuan increased greatly, it was good news for the Ming army in other places. Yuan Zongdi glanced at Deng Ming again and knew that the young man had never complained about the greater pressure on his shoulders: "Maybe a few years later, after Li Guoying tasted the sweetness from it, he was reluctant to give up Chongqing."

"Yes, I thought so too." If the Qing court devoted its efforts to build Baoning-Chongqing defense line and build Baoning-Chongqing powerhouse, the most profitable ones would of course be the civil and military officials of the Qing army in places like Li Guoying. Deng Ming said: "But General Yuan should also have some understanding of Li Guoying. Although he must have selfish intentions, he was not a person who was overwhelmed by selfish intentions and completely ignored the overall situation. Otherwise, he would not have exchanged all the captives of Wang Mingde and others for cattle. When Li Guoying and Zhao Liangdong and I fought, if they did not trust each other at a critical moment and work together, the Qing army would definitely not be able to escape so easily."

Yuan Zongdi also fought with Li Guoying many times. Knowing that Li Guoying was a person, although he would escape at the last moment, before he was completely desperate, Li Guoying would still stick with all his strength. Yuan Zongdi couldn't help but nodded in agreement: "He is indeed not Yuan Chonghuan."

"So Li Guoying may not desperately ask Beijing for supplies. If he finds that Chongqing is like a useless and military camp is difficult to establish, he will give up Chongqing."

"Then Li Guoying can only place hope in Beijing." Yuan Zongdi said.

"I'm afraid I can't count on it." Deng Ming shook his head regretfully. Although Shunzhi called Chongzhen the eldest brother, Shunzhi's personality was different from Chongzhen and was much more cunning: "If you don't say it far away, just talk about Beijing's handling of Wu Sangui and Hong Chengchou, you can see that Beijing is not incompetent. I don't know why Beijing suddenly became interested in Chongqing and inexplicably invested a lot of financial resources. When Beijing realizes that Chongqing alone cannot trap us, at least it will be a loss, and Beijing will stop such useless actions."

Speaking of this, Deng Ming suddenly felt his thinking a little blurred, as if there was a loophole in his analysis. He carefully reviewed it again. Yes, Shunzhi's personality and skills are difficult to believe that he will go all the way. How big is Chongqing's role? It is estimated that Beijing will see clearly in one or two years. If the Ming army made more noise in Jiangnan and Huguang, Shunzhi might have reacted earlier and stopped investing huge funds into Chongqing's secondary battlefield.

"It seems that there is nothing wrong with my analysis. At most, Shunzhi will realize the mistake in one or two years, and then correct the mistake." Deng Ming sorted out his thoughts in his mind, and vaguely felt that there was a huge loophole in it, which could cause his entire inference to be invalid, but he could not grasp the reason for vaguely refusing to reveal his true face.

Yuan Zongdi also agreed with Deng Ming's analysis. In his opinion, Shunzhi was a little confused by Deng Ming's chaotic punches, angry and annoyed, so he wanted to crush Deng Ming to death. But after the Qing court recovered from his anger, he would definitely restore Hong Chengchou's past old policies, re-establish a stable defense line in the Yangtze River, cut off the passage of the Ming army to threaten Jiangxi and Jiangnan. Next, he would re-enter the competition for farming - accumulating strength - seizing land - continuing to farm.

Yuan Zongdi said: "According to this, the Tartars don't have much time left for the admiral. So hurry up and sell more salt."

Deng Ming was much more optimistic than Yuan Zongdi, but he also admitted that it was a good opportunity to open up the Huguang market, so he no longer had time and the fleet continued to drive downstream.

When the ship arrived at Fengjie, Deng Ming took a team of guards to the shore to pay homage to Wen Anzhi.

The more Deng Ming did in Chengdu, the more afraid he would be to come to Fengjie to pay homage to Wen Anzhi. However, this time he passed by Fengjie's door, he really couldn't find an excuse not to come and ask for a visit.

"I guess Mr. Wen already knows all the things I did in the capital mansion. He is probably full of anger and plans to scold me." Deng Ming thought to himself along the way: "Mr. Wen has always been very careful to save face for me. This time I brought so many guards here, so he will definitely not be able to scold me. If he wants to talk privately, I will put these guards outside the door. When I informed me a while, I said that military affairs are busy and I will leave soon, so Mr. Wen can't scold me for too long, so that my guards can wait outside the door for a long time. I will just give him an ear. Well, I kept saying yes, but if I don't change, what can Mr. Wen do to me? Anyway, he never goes to the capital mansion."

A Wen Anzhi's Biaoying Guard soon came out of Fengjie's governor's yamen and asked Deng Ming to take his guards in with him.

After walking into the yamen uneasy, Deng Ming saw that the guards of the Supervisor Biao camp did not take him to Wen Anzhi's study, but led them to the lobby of the yamen. Seeing this, Deng Ming was even more relieved: "Since the Supervisor wants to see me in the lobby, of course, it's just a few words of encouragement, which is better than I thought."

After entering the lobby, Deng Ming saw Wen Anzhi sitting high in the middle, with many staff members around him, and many Biaoying guards standing on both sides. Deng Ming felt even more at ease, knowing that Wen Anzhi would never speak harshly before public.

First he went up and sang a fat promise, and then Deng Ming briefly reported the battle during this time. As for Chengdu's restructuring, he was like a scholar, like a scholar, Quan Ru and a scholar, etc. of course, he didn't mention it at all, pretending that it didn't happen - Deng Ming felt that he could understand Wen Anzhi's ideas more and more.

When Deng Ming reported, Wen Anzhi listened carefully, but never interrupted, nor did he let Deng Ming sit down. After listening to Deng Ming's words, Wen Anzhi thought for a few seconds and suddenly snorted heavily: "I heard that Deng Ming, you are selling official positions and titles in Chengdu and making fame and fortune. Why didn't you mention this matter?"

"This..." Deng Ming didn't know how to answer.

"Famousness is the famous instrument of the court! How many scholars studied hard and could not get one after hardships. You sold two stones of food for one stone!" Wen Anzhi slapped the table and said furiously: "Do you still have the court in your eyes? Are you deliberately insulting the fame of the court?"

"Super the commander to calm down." Wen Anzhi suddenly became angry. Not only was Deng Ming so shocked that he couldn't speak, but Wen Anzhi's aides were also shocked. Some people had already stepped forward to plead for Deng Ming.

"Don't say too much!" Wen Anzhi waved his hand, stopping the staff member who wanted to speak, then stood up from his seat, walked steadily in front of Deng Ming with a crutch, and scolded Deng Ming again with a heartache. While saying that, he kept knocking on the ground with a crutch, knocking the blue bricks on the ground with a bang.

There were several guards behind Deng Ming who saw Wen Anzhi for the first time. When he watched Wen Anzhi knock on the ground with a crutch, as if he was about to smash the brick surface, the guards muttered in his heart: "This old supervisor has such strong strength in his hands and his legs are very flexible. Does he really need to use this crutch?"

Wen Anzhi walked angrily behind Deng Ming, observed his armor, raised his crutch, and knocked on the thickest position: "You should do it yourself!"

Deng Ming did not explain, lowered his head and said dejectedly. Wen Anzhi nodded slightly with a tiger face, but sneered in his heart: "This boy! He just said that military affairs are busy and he was about to leave when he saw him. He obviously wanted to perfunctory me. He brought so many people into the city, thinking that I would not embarrass him in front of everyone. Humph, I still want to play this trick in front of me, it's too tender!"

"After this boy defeated Li Guoying, he learned about Emperor Gaozu of Han in front of everyone. He thought I didn't know?" When Deng Ming's envoy to report victory came to Fengjie, Wen Anzhi asked the envoy in detail. He heard that Deng Ming lied to the soldiers on the battlefield and said that his foot was injured. He immediately knew who he learned it from: "If this kid gets what he wants in the future, he will write down today's events in history, saying that I scolded Qianlong, with a strong and honest opinion." Wen Anzhi couldn't help but twist his beard again: "He probably just wants to give me an ear, right? He has a big idea, and he promised it verbally, and knew in his heart that I couldn't do anything to him."

"Let's go!" Seeing that Deng Ming was about to step out of the threshold, Wen Anzhi suddenly stopped him again: "I may move to Chengdu in the second half of the year or early next year."

Deng Ming's face suddenly turned pale, and there was no trace of blood on it.

"You are busy with military affairs, go first. When you come back, I will explain this to you." Wen Anzhi did not show his pride, but just shook his sleeves angrily, leaving the lobby before Deng Ming answered, and walked back to his study.
Chapter completed!