The Ming army, without any scruples, built a large number of wooden rafts upstream of Wanxian and then began to cross the Yangtze River.

Only Deng Ming, who was completely unfamiliar with the hydrological geography near Wanxian, felt a little worried. Other Ming army officers were full of confidence and determined that there were no enemy soldiers nearby that could threaten their army. And their judgment was not wrong. The Ming army successfully crossed the Yangtze River without any interference.

After more than 1,500 soldiers successfully crossed the river, they no longer waited for the follow-up troops, but drove straight to Wanxian according to the prior plan. In the plan, the remaining Ming army was responsible for monitoring the prisoners and protecting materials, and did not need to set off to Wanxian immediately. Unless the front line was necessary, they would ask for the rear to increase troops, so there was no need for the vanguard troops to continue to wait for those still on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

At this time, Deng Ming, who was still standing on the south bank, was very moved when he looked at the crossing the river. He was very moved. Not only were the weapons, armor, but also a large number of flags seized from Tan Hong. Now there was no trace of the defeated army from the Ming army on the other side. The flags were flying in the army, the soldiers were dressed in a clear armor, and they also had a momentum of winning the army. This powerful army drove away in a mighty manner under the gaze of Deng Ming and the remaining people.

It took several more hours for the troops on the south bank of the Yangtze River to pass through. When Deng Ming set foot on the north bank, the first messengers had rushed back to report military information to their left-behind companions.

As many officers had expected, Wanxian now had no ability to defend themselves. Wen Anzhi's tens of thousands of troops passed through this place. When they returned to Fengjie, they not only demolished the city gates of Wanxian, but also destroyed a section of the city wall. Obviously, the Ming army had gone for nothing, and had nowhere to vent their anger, and used all their strength to Wanxian. If the Ming army had not been exhausted and the army would not have been delayed for too long, it would have been a bit ugly.

After hearing this news, Deng Ming was relieved first, which meant that the Ming army did not have to engage in a fierce siege. Judging from the envoy's excited tone and expression, it was obvious that the Ming army would not miss the great opportunity to get it and would definitely launch an attack on Wanxian. Seeing the quilts and food piled on the shore after transporting the river, Deng Ming suggested that the left-behind officers organize people to pack up these things and build a simple camp.

"What are you doing to build a camp?" asked a left-behind officer. It sounds like you can enter Wanxian soon. Why is it still costing this time? Although the main job is for prisoners, there is always some workload that will spread to him. Besides, Mr. Deng is always kind-hearted. Every time he asks the prisoners to work, he will use this as an excuse to increase food for the prisoners.

"This... isn't it a good habit to set up camp carefully?" Deng Ming was not familiar with ancient tactics and modern tactics. However, he remembered that he had read some biography of Ming generals before, and seemed to be very attentive to the construction of camps. Any camp that had exceeded a short stay would dig trenches or something: "What if you can't hit Wanxian? Where will the soldiers rest tonight?"

"The defeated soldiers in Wanxian are at most only more than one thousand," Zhao Tianba was still guarding Deng Ming's side today without going to the front line. Hearing this, he hurriedly defended the officer: "The city gates have been demolished, burned, and a large section of the city wall has been stripped off. The thieves are determined not to resist. It is estimated that Mr. Zhou Qian and the others have already rushed into the city at this time. Mr. Deng, although Zhuge was cautious all his life, it is indeed useless to build a camp here, and he can only waste the soldiers' physical strength in vain."

Many soldiers in Tan Hongbei Camp were actually auxiliary soldiers, not to mention armor, and even swords were not equipped. Li Xinghan and other Wanxian people made it clear that Xiong Lan, who led the troops, not only did not have the ability to fight, but was not favored by Tan Hong. If she was an important confidant officer of Tan Hong, she would not have been alone to resist the task of Wen'an's army. This guy's reputation of being incompetent and timid was spread to Tan Wen's army. Obviously, an incompetent person with no prestige led a group of old, weak and disabled soldiers. Facing the Ming army's new victorious army, Zhao Tianba could not see any possibility of the Ming army's failure.

When Zhao Tianba stated why Wanxian could be easily taken down, the other officers all expressed their consent. Deng Ming, who was a student of the Academy of Fine Arts a month ago, often warned himself to be self-aware and that he had no extraordinary insight or voice on military issues. Seeing that the left-behind officers disagreed with his opinions, Zhao Tianba even publicly refuted, and Deng Ming no longer insisted. Although there was no fault in being cautious, the opponent was full of warriors with extraordinary courage, and he might be too whispering.

Shortly after Zhao Tianba finished speaking, as if to prove his correct judgment, the new messenger rushed back to the ferry. The man seemed even more excited and rushed over and reported loudly: "Mr. Deng, Wanxian has surrendered to us!"

After hearing this news, Zhao Tianba was happy but did not show it. Instead, he glanced at Deng Ming. He prevented Deng Ming from going to the front line to prevent Deng Ming from gaining more reputation. Although he achieved his goal in Wanxian's battle, the other party might wake up and understand his intentions when he saw it so easy. However, Zhao Tianba didn't have to worry about this. After all, Deng Ming had no choice but to return to Fengjie immediately. Will Wen Anzhi, the governor of the court, disagreed with the ambition to suppress a person who covet the throne?

Deng Ming really didn't see Zhao Tianba's intention, because he was not a clan of the royal family and did not covet the position of Emperor Yongli. On the contrary, he felt that Zhao Tianba's judgment of military information was accurate: "I am worried about it, or is it that Brother Zhao is right."

After receiving the good news, the troops left behind began to move towards Wanxian. Today they could live in a solid house in the city. The soldiers were very happy. Zhao Tianba carefully observed Deng Ming and found that the other party did not doubt that he was at all satisfied, but his guilt also increased: "Third Prince, you, a person who doesn't understand the world, aren't it good to be a prince of Taiping? When you return to the court in the future, I will definitely say a few good words to Your Highness, hoping that the court can give you generously."

Before the rear guards entered Wanxian, Li Xinghan happily brought a group of people to welcome Deng Ming. After seeing Deng Ming, Li Xinghan loudly reported: "There are 2,300 thieves in Wanxian Town, and they have all surrendered to us!"

"So much?" Deng Ming was shocked.

According to previous reports from the prisoners, Tan Hong's troops stayed in the North Bank camp were only more than 2,500, including either the elderly, the weak, the sick or the coolie auxiliary soldiers. According to the Ming army's prior analysis, it would be good to be able to organize thousands of people to flee back to Wanxian, but they were almost all brought back.

"Xiong Lan is quite good at bewitching people's hearts. I have never heard of him having this ability before." Li Xinghan smiled. Although the other party was able to win over the morale of the army than he had imagined, this ability was only meaningful when he was willing to resist the Ming army. Xiong Lan was still a waste after all, and if he didn't shoot a single arrow, the greater the benefits he could bring to the Ming army.

Behind Li Xinghan was a group of people. In addition to the Ming soldiers escorted, there were also some bare hands and standing respectfully with their heads down, obviously the officers of the Wanxian garrison who had just surrendered. One of them was tied up and fell to the ground when he was taken to Deng Ming.

Seeing that this man was about the same age as Li Xinghan and was tied up tightly, Deng Ming pointed at him and asked, "Who is this man?"

"This thief is Xiong Lan!"

Xiong Lan has an aunt who is Tan Hong's concubine. Because of this relationship, his father was able to serve under Tan Hong. However, as his parents and aunt passed away one after another, Xiong Lan became less and less popular in front of Tan Hong. This time, the camp was on the North Bank. Although she was responsible for the task of almost scapegoating, Xiong Lan did not complain. Instead, she took advantage of the mentality that everyone in the North Bank camp dared to be angry but did not speak out, and got close to the people in the camp in charge and won over the relationship.

After learning that Tan Hong was defeated, the Beiying almost scattered, but Xiong Lan convinced everyone to act together: if more than 2,000 people could join forces and occupy Wanxian and present it to the Qing court in the future, then the credit that originally belonged to Tan Hong would be the everyone; if everyone left and Tan Hong was no longer there, then there would be no position in the future. It is hard to say whether they could eat military rations with peace of mind under the Qing court.

Everyone admitted that what Xiong Lan said made sense, but many people were still worried about being attacked by the Ming army. However, Xiong Lan continued to convince them: If everyone acted separately, a small number of scattered soldiers would be more likely to be treated as soft persimmons, fall into the water, and be beaten.

After Xiong Lan's explanation, Beidaying did not scatter and returned to Wanxian to station. In Xiong Lan's calculations, the Ming army probably would not arrive soon, so he has been trying his best to win over the hearts of the people in the city and rectify the troops, planning to turn this defeated army into his own force and use it to sell it to the Qing court in the future. Xiong Lan's biggest weakness is that he has no foundation in the army. He plans to spend some time to strengthen his control, and then take some people to the north of Wanxian to avoid the limelight - if the Ming army comes, he will not be unlucky; if the Ming army does not come, he can come back even if he leaves the city, so that the merits of the city will not be stolen by others.

Unexpectedly, people's calculations were not as good as God's calculations. The Ming army did not waste time along the way. Before Xiong Lan had time to establish a reliable force, the Ming army rushed to the city of Wanxian. If Xiong Lan abandoned the city and fled, as he said to other colleagues before: he would have to dig food in the soil in the next life.

If you escape, you have nothing, and Wanxian has even lost a piece of the city wall. The defense is obviously a death sentence. Xiong Lan persuades her colleagues to surrender - we must survive this level, and it is best to convince us to stay and defend Wanxian, so there will be a chance to sacrifice the city in the future. If we fail to get Wanxian, then follow the Ming army to Fengjie, at least we can join the army and eat food.

After convinced everyone, Xiong Lan took a group of accomplices to surrender, and everyone's ropes were untied, only he was tied up. After Zhou Kaihuang and Li Xinghan knew the situation of Beidaying, although they seemed to be indifferent on the surface, they were actually a little afraid of Xiong Lan's ability to bewitch people. However, although both of them had the idea of ​​being unfavorable to Xiong Lan, first of all, Xiong Lan surrendered without fighting, and the winner despised him very much, which helped Xiong Lan; the second week, no good excuses were found for the time being, after all, Wanxian surrendered without fighting, and killing people was still a bit reasonable. Out of this contradictory mentality, Li Xinghan brought Xiong Lan over to see Deng Ming - Deng Ming's soft heart, they felt that Xiong Lan would not die.

After hearing Li Xinghan talk about the causes and consequences, Deng Ming felt that it was inappropriate to tie Xiong Lan and refused to let go. He immediately ordered: "Since he is sincere in surrendering, why don't you loosen the Xiong?"

"Can't let go!"

Just as the soldiers were ordering to loosen Xiong Lan, Zhou Kaihuang suddenly heard the roar of Zhou Kaihuang, followed by the sound of people. Zhou Kaihuang rushed to Deng Ming like a whirlwind, staring at Xiong Lan kneeling on the ground with murderous aura in his eyes.

"Is there anything?" Deng Ming asked in surprise.

"Hehe, this thief!" Zhou Kaihuang sneered twice, and then told Deng Ming the discussion about whether Xiong Lan could stay in Wanxian so that she could sacrifice the city in the future when she discussed the surrender.

Because Xiong Lan has no foundation and no one has his own best friend, after surrendering, a county guard who had no loyalty to Xiong Lan was betrayed Xiong Lan in order to show his loyalty to Zhou Kaihuang.

After finishing the conspiracy I just learned, Zhou Kaihuang's face became more murderous. His eyes swept across the faces of other Wanxian officers who had just surrendered: "These are all complicit conspiracies! They are all thieves who want to deceive us into rebel against the court!"

When Zhou Kaihuang told their plan, Tan Hongyu's faces had changed color. When he heard Zhou Kaihuang's murderous conclusion, a group of people in Wanxian who had just been able to loosen their ties immediately fell to the ground, and the timid and incompetent began to beg for mercy loudly.

One or two more wise men suddenly pointed at Xiong Lan and shouted loudly: "General Zhou Mingjian, the lowly ranks are just echoing the bear thief. We didn't want to do this, but if we didn't agree to the bear thief at that time, he would fight to the death."

Everyone quickly reacted, so everyone said: Only Xiong Lan, the guy in Wan County, had repeated ideas, and the others were loyal to the court with a heart. Just to deceive Xiong Lan, a villain who held great power in Wan County, had to follow Xiong Lan and deceive him so that he could surrender to the Ming army. Now the stupid, evil, and greedy Xiong Lan has fallen into the hands of the Ming Dynasty's King's Army, and everyone asked the Ming army to execute him immediately.

Listening to the shouts of killing around him, Deng Ming asked Xiong Lan without saying a word: "What else do you have to say?"

Just now, Xiong Lan was observing her words and expressions. He had already discovered that Deng Ming was the central figure and had the final say. Now when Deng Ming asked, Xiong Lan asked in a deep voice: "How dare the sinner ask what the general calls him?"

"Just call me Mr. Deng." Deng Ming thought for a while, and felt that there was no more suitable title.

Since you need a pseudonym, this identity must be amazing!

Xiong Lan thought in her heart, and did not hesitate: "The army in Wanxian is the old subordinate of Tan Hong, including sinners. When she heard that Mr. Deng's army was coming, people were different, and there were many people who were worried that they would be killed by the king's army. In panic, some people would inevitably have the idea of ​​resisting stubbornly. It would be fine if such people died. If they caused damage to the king's army, wouldn't the sinner be punished? Even if there were not many people who dared to resist stubbornly, some people might escape from Wanxian and might go to the Tartars. Sinners often think that although Tan Hong did evil, the country still needs to employ people now. As long as the sinners change their minds, the court will still use us a lot. Being able to leave one more person is to contribute to the court."

"Just!" Xiong Lan said in a stressed tone: "Mr. Deng must also know that the criminals have no foundation in the army. They can only try to be a lobbyist and cannot order the army. So they came up with this statement, trying to trick the entire army into surrendering to the royal army first. They said that they could be offered the city in the future. This is just my plan to serve the court, not my real idea."

Zhou Kaihuang sneered several times in the middle and wanted to interrupt, but Deng Ming stopped him. After finally waiting for Xiong Lan to finish speaking, Zhou Kaihuang immediately scolded: "Do you say you don't think so? Do you think we are all fools?"

"The sinner dare not." Xiong Lan looked up at Deng Ming's expression. Although Zhou Kaihuang looked disdainful, Deng Ming had no bad expression on his face, so he continued to plead for himself and said, "Mr. Deng clearly understands that no matter what kind of rhetoric the sinner uses, he still brought more than 2,000 soldiers to serve the husband and the court. If the husband kills me today, how can he persuade others to surrender in the future?"

Zhao Tianba noticed that Xiong Lan put Deng Ming in front of the court, and snorted gently and waited for Deng Ming's reaction beside him.

Regarding Xiong Lan's statement, the accomplices who surrendered with Xiong Lan were stunned for a while and opened their mouths to express their opposition, because Xiong Lan's subtext was that if they did not use this plan to surrender to the enemy to tempt, they would not surrender. If Xiong Lan's defense was established, then they might be guilty.

Xiong Lan also retorted without hesitation and sweared to Deng Ming that if she didn't use this kind of temptation, then the ten ten members of Tan Hongyu who were present would not surrender honestly.

Xiong Lan's words certainly further angered his accomplices. They turned up Xiong Lan's old account and promised Deng Ming that he knocked on the widow's door at night, and digged out the graves of the dead households. He was a real scumbag, and repeatedly strongly demanded that Xiong's scumbag be executed immediately.

Amid the internal strife, Zhao Tianba was still waiting quietly, waiting to see if Deng Ming would open the door to this person just because Xiong Lan put him in the court.

Although Li Xinghan thought Xiong Lan was good at speaking, he knew in his heart that Xiong Lan was already a dying person. He offended many colleagues and officers, and Deng Ming must make some statements to appease this surrendered army. Xiong Lan's head was ready-made. Compared with the importance of a person's importance to a group of officers... Li Xinghan believed that Deng Ming still knew which one was more important.

Just now, Zhou Kaihuang was determined to kill Xiong Lan, but now he suddenly had another idea: Xiong Lan had offended all the people around him. If Deng Ming expressed his belief in Xiong Lan, he could use this as an excuse to kill these surrendered officials. Even if they were not killed, they could seize their military power. Xiong Lan had no support anymore and could only work hard for Deng Ming, so that he could completely take over the surrendered army in Wanxian for his own use. This result made a group of surrendered officers continue to control the surrendered army... Zhou Kaihuang believed that Deng Ming could easily see the pros and cons.

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Chapter completed!