The next day, it was already bright when Deng Ming opened his eyes, and it was almost noon. In the past two days, he was always very nervous. He felt a little relaxed yesterday and fell asleep. He didn't wake up until now. Deng Ming did not realize that Yuan Zongdi had checked his clothes. While putting on the Ming army's uniform, he thought in his heart:

"It seems that I think too complicatedly that the people of the Ming Dynasty are. The people of this era are simple and there should be very few liars. They believe whatever you say and don't know how to doubt others. This is probably the so-called ancient style? I responded to their problems in a panic yesterday, but I thought it was full of loopholes. These people believed it deeply! Well, they really respected scholars. I slept until this time, and they did not wake me up."

After walking out of the camp, Deng Ming found that there were two guards at the door. After seeing him get up, the two guards smiled and said, "Did Mr. Deng sleep well? Duke Jingguo invite you."

At this time, Yuan Zongdi was patrolling the Qing army's position in front of Chongqing City. For Deng Ming, he had already given the other party a playboy without hesitation - he could sleep until nearly noon in one breath, obviously because he was used to enjoying his happiness and had never done much work.

The guards brought Deng Ming to Yuan Zongdi, and next to him were Zhou Kaihuang and Li Tianba. Li Tianba was an envoy sent by the Yongli court. Yuan Zongdi intended to get first-hand information so that he could report to the court in the future. A person who might be a noble relative appeared out of thin air. In the future, the emperor and the court would definitely ask about the detailed situation.

Yuan Zongdi explained the situation in front of Deng Ming, and was determined to let the clan's family see his beauty.

Chongqing City is located at the intersection of the Yangtze River and the Jialing River. Yuan Zongdi led his army up the Yangtze River, while Tan Wen, who had joined him, led his boat troops up the Jialing River. After the two Ming troops met, they each camped on the shore behind Chongqing City.

"In this way, we can completely cut off the contact between inside and outside the city, and we can prevent the ships of the Barbarian Division in advance from attacking." Yuan Zongdi said: "If we are stationed in the lower reaches of Chongqing, the virtuality and reality of our army can be observed in the city of Chongqing. Once the Barbarian ship appears in the upper reaches and goes downstream from the upper reaches, it will be a great threat to our army."

There were many Ming soldiers in front of Chongqing City. Deng Ming looked from a distance and saw them holding shields and waving axes and destroying some wooden stakes standing on the ground. The outside of the Chongqing city wall was densely filled with these wooden stakes, just like a small forest.

"What are these wooden stakes?" Deng Ming asked strangely.

"This is called plum blossom stake." Zhou Kaihuang explained to Yuan Zongdi: "The layers of arrangement and standing in front of the city can prevent ladders, rushing cars and ladders from approaching the city walls. The army of Wen and several generals were already on the road and were about to arrive. We must clear these wooden stakes before they arrived, so that Chongqing could go down in one go." The Wen stakes mentioned by Zhou Kaihuang were Wen Anzhi, the governor appointed by the Yongli court.

Facing the Ming army's pile sweeping team, guns and cannons kept coming from the top of Chongqing city. Deng Ming looked at the large piece of wooden stakes under the city and asked in surprise: "How much time did they take to bury so many wooden stakes?"

It was Zhou Kaihuang who solved Deng Ming's question again: "In July this year, we learned that the Wu thieves were invading Yunnan, and our army came to besiege Chongqing. When we could break through Chongqing, the Wu thieves returned to Chongqing to rescue them. Our army had to retreat to Kuizhou when they had a bad battle. However, the Wu thieves were unsuccessful invasion. In order to ensure that the retreat was worry-free, he strengthened the city defense in Chongqing day and night. The 180,000 troops of the Wu thieves went to the end of October. These wooden stakes were buried by them until November. The Wu thieves left Chongqing again."

Deng Ming learned from these people that Wu Sangui had almost all the mobile forces of the Qing court when he sent troops this time. Not to mention the elite forces in Shaanxi and Shanxi, even the Qing army field troops in Huguang were originally under the command of Hong Chengchou, but at present, all of them were under the control of Wu Sangui. The Qing court obviously wanted to make a contribution to one battle and annihilate the Yongli regime in Yunnan in one fell swoop. In order to go on this expedition, the Qing court also transferred a large number of navy and boats from Jiangnan, and continuously transported the downstream troops and supplies along the Yangtze River to Chongqing for use by Wu Sangui's army.

"If it were in the past, the Wu thieves' army invaded Yunnan by more than 100,000 troops, the barbarian court would not dare to rely solely on the Yangtze River to transport troops and supply supplies." Speaking of this unprecedented attack, Zhao Tianba, who was born in the Western Army, also looked worried: "Sun Kewang surrendered to the enemy and rebelled. He knew the inside story of our Ming army, where the population was dense, where there was granary, which road was good, and which fortresses were disrepaired for so long. He must have provided a lot of information to the Wu thieves to choose the route of attack."

Sun Kewang was originally an old subordinate of Xiying, and has been responsible for specific internal affairs construction in Yunnan for many years. In the past, the Qing Dynasty was disgusted with the deployment of the Ming army in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, so the Qing army did not dare to enter the territory of the Ming army rashly. However, Sun Kewang had an internal conflict with Li Dingguo, and then Sun Kewang surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, so the Qing army knew the roads, warehouses and defenses in the rear of the Ming army in the southwest. What's more fatal is that many local officials and generals of the Ming army in the southwest were promoted and appointed by Sun Kewang. Sun Kewang surrendered to the enemy. Li Dingguo cleaned up Sun's old subordinates. These people were resentful for a long time. The Qing Dynasty attacked the Ming court this time, carrying a large number of letters written by Sun Kewang to officials in the southwest. There were five counties and more than 30,000 troops in Guizhou alone surrendered without fighting, resulting in the rapid collapse of the defense line of the Ming army in the eastern part of the Ming army.

Zhao Tianba firmly believed that King Jin would be able to repel Wu Sangui's attack, but he knew the difficulties, otherwise the court and King Jin would not have ordered him to escort several eunuchs and angels to Kuizhou. The purpose of these eunuchs representing the court and Zhao Tianba representing the King of Jin was the same - to do everything possible, even if both soft and hard, friendly forces in Sichuan and Huguang would fully support the battles in Yunnan.

In July, Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichun cooperated to attack Chongqing to achieve good results, forcing Wu Sangui to return halfway, giving Jin King Li Dingguo a few months of preparation and deployment time. During this period, the troops stationed in Guangxi returned to Yunnan to prepare for the war. After learning that Wu Sangui once again commanded the army, Wen Anzhi, the commander of the Yongli court, immediately sent an edict to Liu Tichun, Yuan Zongdi, Hao Yaoqi, Li Laiheng, and Santan, stationed in Wanxian - Tan Wen, Tan Hong, and Tan Yi, immediately gathered together to siege Chongqing again.

Zhao Tianba would think of some things in his heart, but he would never say them verbally. He could see clearly the situation of the E Ming army during these two mobilizations in Sichuan: Sichuan, the E Ming army had to resist Wu Sangui's army alone for their own safety, but for the court far away in Kunming. Last time he attacked Chongqing, the Ming army here suffered losses and lost generals. Although he gathered again this time, if Wu Sangui returned to the army again, these friendly troops would inevitably suffer great losses.

"Once, twice, three times, this place is far away from the court, and it is difficult for the court to support it except for rewarding official titles. They rescued the court again and again but got nothing. I am afraid it is not a long-term solution." Zhao Tianba was a little worried, and he couldn't help but think of the advice given to the court by King Liu Wenxiu before he left - to enter Sichuan with the main force of the Ming army in Yunnan and use Chengdu as a base. Liu Wenxiu's view was: In this way, if the Qing army invaded Yunnan in the south, the Ming army had direct troops to take the lead in the battle, and friendly troops in Sichuan and Hubei would not have any complaints, and they could defend the enemy from Yunnan and prevent the other party from approaching Yunnan, the most important material production base. However, Li Dingguo was worried that the army would have another incident from far away from the court, and he believed that Wu Sangui did not dare to ignore Sichuan, so the Hubei Ming army invaded Yunnan, so he did not adopt Liu Wenxiu's opinion and remained in Kunming.

This time, Wu Sangui ignored the threat from the Ming army on his side and marched straight into Yunnan. The situation immediately became very urgent as Liu Wenxiu said. Due to the long journey and inconvenient information transmission, Zhao Tianba and the others did not know that Li Dingguo had retreated step by step at this time, and the Qing army approached Kunming.

Although they had not been in contact with Yuan Zongdi and others for a long time, the information they provided was crucial to Deng Ming, which gave him a clear understanding of the situation in front of him. Now Deng Ming has no doubt that he was seeing the last moment of the Han people's resistance in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. Faced with the step-by-step advancement of the Qing army and the camp, the former "rebels" of Xiying were struggling for the survival of the Ming Dynasty. The Han people who were unwilling to be slaves of the country in front of him did not care that they had belonged to different camps, or even hostile camps, and they were standing side by side to resist the invasion of foreign races. After so many years of Ming and Qing tug-of-war between the Qing and the Ming army in the western region had a large-scale counterattack against Huguang not long ago, Yuan Zongdi and other battalion generals still had fantasies about the battle situation and felt that the current situation was acceptable. But Deng Ming knew that the Anti-Qing War would take a quick and sharp turn, which made him secretly think about what he should do next.

Tan Wen's unit in the upper reaches of the Jialing River is also doing the same job as Yuan Zongdi's unit. Although Yuan Zongdi stammered, Deng Ming had already understood that Tan Wen, Tan Hong and Tan Yi, who were stationed in Wanxian, were all direct descendants of the Ming army. To be honest, Deng Ming never figured out what Yuan Zongdi mentioned to him.

Although both sides had common goals, Deng Ming also noticed that Tan Wen's troops and Yuan Zongdi's troops were clearly separated. Their fronts were not connected, and there was a clear gap between the two armies. The Qing army in Chongqing seemed to turn a blind eye to this. It could be seen that there were only a few surveillance troops in the junction of Yuan and Tan's troops on the city wall, and it seemed that they were not worried about them joining together to attack.

"Would Mr. Deng go over there to see?" Although Yuan Zongdi was very reluctant, he had long told Deng Ming that Tan Wen was different from himself. He was the direct line of the official army of Miao Honggen. Whether it was Wen Anzhi, the governor sent by the Yongli court to the Sichuan-European area, or the escaped royal family members such as the King of Han, who always valued these imperial families more. No, to be precise, they were much more biased. Since it was judged that Deng Ming might be a descendant of the royal family, Yuan Zongdi naturally could not hold him in his camp.

"Me?" Deng Ming was extremely surprised by this question. He positioned himself as a scholar who joined the army. He thought to himself: "If we follow the 21st century, I am just an applicant who submitted a resume to Yuan Zongdi, right? Although I just applied for a resume casually, I wouldn't have the idea of ​​changing jobs during the interview. Besides, this is not the future. No matter how simple and kind the ancients were, they could not be as open-minded as the future, right? At this time, wasn't it important to die for those who were close friends? What does Yuan Zongdi mean by this question?"

Deng Ming, who had enough sleep, quickly turned his mind and came to his own conclusion: "Yes, this must be Yuan Zongdi who was testing me. The ancients were more straightforward and did not understand psychology, the art of language, and the weaknesses of human nature. Yuan Zongdi treated me very well, showed respect and trust, and provided me with food and shelter. He was testing me now to see if I was a fickle person."

Since he understood this, Deng Ming said firmly: "I was willing to serve the Duke of the State, how could I join another person?"

Both Deng Ming's attitude and what he said made Yuan Zongqi stunned, and he was shocked: "If you are really a royal family, then who dares to let you serve? How could you serve a certain minister? Oh, yes, although I know he is a royal family, and most of it is the third prince of Emperor Lie, he doesn't know that I already know, so he is still pretending to be here. Well, yesterday I put the beads back intact, and the third prince probably thought I didn't see it."

Yuan Zongdi, who suddenly realized, changed his mind and immediately realized: "Although the group of people in Xiying were all rebels before, after all, Emperor Lie was not forced to death. If this highness was the closest relative of Emperor Lie, although so many years have passed, he still may have hated the King of Chuang. I have to explain quickly. I didn't get involved in the things in Beijing back then. And now the explanation is better. Your Highness still doesn't understand that I have guessed his true identity. Now the explanation can seem more sincere than to treat people."

Yuan Zongdi thought of it and sighed slowly: "I followed King Chuang and had the idea in my heart to eliminate the villains around the late emperor and assist Emperor Lie in the fight against the Northern Barbarians. What I thought so in my heart was also the agreement with King Chuang. Later, King Chuang sent me to Xiangyang. When King Chuang entered the capital, he was bewitched by the evil villain Niu Jinxing, and he actually had the intention of being unjust. Unfortunately, I was not around King Chuang at that time, otherwise I would have been able to persuade King Chuang to stop the horse."

Deng Ming was surprised when he heard this. He stared at Yuan Zongdi's face for a long time, but he didn't realize his rudeness. In a flash, countless thoughts flashed through his mind: "Are you loyal to Chongzhen? Yuan Zongdi, you lied to the ghost... Looking at his sincere appearance, is there really an unknown secret? No, I was almost deceived by him. He said this because he has accepted the title of the Ming Dynasty, so he has to be loyal to outsiders. Just as Li Zicheng did not go when he entered Beijing, he is now trying hard to wash his brush.

I should praise him a few words?... But it may not be good to say it according to his meaning. He must have no intention at all. If I follow his words, he probably knows that I am not sincere. If I don’t use words, he might even think that I am sarcastic. Well, there are no outsiders around me anyway. I should praise the righteous act of breaking into the camp. This is what he really likes to hear, and it also seems that I am indeed on his side. Now that I am joining him, I can’t make mistakes in the superiors and inferiors.”

"The students disagree with what the Duke said." After a moment, Yuan Zongdi stopped lying on Deng Ming's reaction. The latter felt that the other party wanted to examine his tendency, and immediately said: "During the Chongzhen period, the people were not busy with their lives, and the people changed their children to eat... King Shun responded to the heavens and the people's sentiments. Besides, this magical artifact was unavailable, so what was wrong with King Shun taking it? It's a pity that the thief Wu Sangui led the enemy's troops into Shanhaiguan, destroying the great rivers and mountains of our Han family."

Deng Ming's words made Yuan Zongdi, as well as Zhou Kaihuang and Zhao Tianba behind him, shocked. Now they are no longer Li Zicheng's subordinates, they are all Ming soldiers and generals, so this kind of rebellion is of course not to mention either. Especially when it comes to the mouth of a clan like Deng Ming, it obviously means that he does not intend to forgive these former rebels at all, so when he hears Yuan Zongdi's self-defense, he speaks sarcastic and sarcastic.

"I was really confused back then. I didn't know that Emperor Lie loved the people as much as my son, and there were indeed a few villains around Emperor Lie..." Yuan Zongdi was shocked and hurriedly continued to defend himself, and proposed a reason that Deng Ming could not refute - there were treacherous ministers around Emperor Chongzhen.

"I heard that there were the kings of Yao and Shun first, and then there were the ministers of Yao and Shun." Deng Ming first did not understand why Yuan Zongdi defended Chongzhen so wholeheartedly, and then thought: Maybe it was because he had not had a close relationship with the other party, and the other party was worried that saying bad things about Chongzhen was not in line with Yuan Zongdi's current status as the Duke of the Ming Dynasty, even if he just agreed with Deng Ming's statement. In order to further gain trust, Deng Ming also took his time, and then said: "During the Chongzhen period, corrupt officials emerged one after another, but the emperor still trusted and used these ministers. The court was simply corrupt, and the officials were very cruel to the people... It was like a bandit nest that did everything evil, and their mountain king was a saint. Is this possible?"

This time it was Zhao Tianba and Zhou Kaihuang's turn to hear it, and his eyes were almost glaring out. Zhou Kaihuang agreed with Deng Ming's words, but the key problem was that this should not be what a subject of the Ming Dynasty should say, nor should it be what a general should say, especially Deng Ming might be a clan, maybe the third prince of Chongzhen - is there any son who scolded me like this? Zhou Kaihuang's eyes at Deng Ming were becoming more and more suspicious: "Is this man really the orphan of Emperor Lie?"

After the initial shock, Zhao Tianba gradually calmed down and sighed in his heart: "Mr. Deng is indeed the prince of Emperor Lie. I didn't believe it yesterday. Since Emperor Lie died for the country, who else can say something bad about Emperor Lie? Except for his legitimate son, which royal family dares to say such words, wouldn't the backbone be poked?"

Yuan Zongdi also returned to peace at this time. Deng Ming was undoubtedly Chongzhen's legitimate prince. Other Ming Dynasty relatives were not qualified to criticize an emperor who died for his country. Who would dare to say anything to the emperor if he was not a legitimate royal family? Although it was a great rude for his son to blame me, this was an attitude, a very clear attitude of not being pursued, and only Chongzhen's prince could show this attitude. Yuan Zongdi couldn't help but think that if Deng Ming still maintained this attitude in the future, the court would probably not pursue the crime of the old generals in the camp. The other party probably realized that he had learned his identity, so he made his attitude unconcealed - Chongzhen's orphans' attitude of not prosecuting the soldiers in the camp.

"The son will not talk about his father's fault." Yuan Zongdi said softly, which was not only a sign of his gratitude to Deng Ming, but also a sign that he already understood the other party's attitude and did not need to continue discussing the right and wrong of the past.

Yuan Zongdi's words made Deng Ming stunned again. He thought to himself: "I don't tell my father's fault? This means that my son shouldn't say bad things about me, right? But Yuan Zongdi is obviously not Chongzhen's son, what does this mean? Why can't I listen... Oh, I understand, it's a minister who shouldn't listen to others' bad things about kings and fathers. Now, after all, he is a minister of the Ming Dynasty. As for me, in theory, I am a minister of the Ming Dynasty."

"Well, what the Duke of the Kingdom said is that we should not talk about the previous emperor as ministers." Deng Ming was not very sure, so he said tentatively.

"Not bad." Yuan Zongdi nodded.

"What's going on?" Deng Ming saw that the other party was indeed the same, and he couldn't help but look down on Yuan Zongdi a lot: "No wonder he respects scholars so much, and he really has no knowledge. The ministers have said a lot about the emperor, especially in the Ming Dynasty, when officials scolded the emperor too much, and they were not afraid of the emperor's sticks, the emperor was not afraid of hitting a board."

Yuan Zongdi thought to himself: "Does the Third Prince really think I have no knowledge at all? Of course, there are many ministers in the dynasty who dare to scold the emperor, but why did he explain the sentence "The son will not tell his father's fault" like this? Well, I guess the Third Prince is an attitude, which shows that although he guessed that I knew his identity very well, he still didn't want to reveal it and asked me to continue to call him Mr. Deng. Moreover, the Third Prince insisted on not going to Tan Wen's camp, which was to express his trust in me to me."
Chapter completed!