Since Deng Ming returned to Chengdu, with the support of the Western Sichuan Navy, the Ming army's shipping became busier, and almost every day the fleet passed through Chongqing to transport Sichuan's salt downstream.

The firearms in Chongqing now mainly include muskets, and there are more than ten cannons, which can be used to defend against city walls and bombard enemies who want to approach the city gates. They can also cooperate with the navy of the Jialing River to block the surface of the Jialing River, but they are completely helpless against the Yangtze River. Soon Li Guoying blocked the Jialing River with an iron lock. Although the Ming army continued to mobilize ships to escort, the Qing navy could not kill even if the number of escort warships was reduced.

In Li Guoying's view, the Qing army had only two functions to occupy Chongqing, either as a forward base to attack Chengdu, or as a means to cut off the connection between Chengdu and Fengjie. Now neither function can be done. Chongqing has no other use except to consume a large amount of materials from Ganzhou and Shaanxi. If it is necessary to say that it has a role, it will prevent the Ming army from establishing an outpost in Chongqing and saving the Ming army's warships.

Because of the court's insistence, Li Guoying could not give up Chongqing, so he could only think about how to make things difficult for Deng Ming. In the end, he chose to build a cannon between building a stone thrower and a cannon.

The Ming army's navy had an absolute advantage, and the army seemed to be not weak either, so Li Guoying's generals believed that the artillery could not be very large and they must be able to run quickly with horses. If the Ming army landed, they would rescue the cannons back to the city so as not to be given to the Ming army. After all, the cannons were all made of copper.

However, although the cannons that can be pulled by several horses are highly mobile, they are limited in weight. Not to mention the other side of the river, even the heart of the river cannot reach them. Since Li Guoying refuses to go to the other side of the strait for military adventures or dies, then if you want to harass and scare the Ming army's ships, you need larger cannons.

For this reason, Li Guoying specially ordered several firearm masters to be transferred from Baoning. A month later, these Qing armament experts arrived in Chongqing and shook their heads after hearing the request of the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi. They said that if they wanted to threaten the Ming army, they needed cannons with a range of thousands of meters across the river, and the Green Camp had never built cannons with a range of one mile before. Even the most experienced Sanshun King troops were used to bombard the city walls, and that kind of cannons did not require precision. Even if the Sanshun King, who claimed to be able to cast powerful artillery, the bombardment of the city walls would have far exceeded the tactical significance. If the defenders were determined, the Sanshun King would have to be besieged for a long time.

Li Guoying could not tolerate sitting in Chongqing city every day doing nothing, and counting how many Ming army ships passed through the Yangtze River. Under the coercion and temptation of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, the cannon casting master had to agree to make an unprecedented cannon. They probably wanted to meet the request of the governor. This cannon must be at least seven or eight times heavier than now. The 15,000-pound cannon may meet Li Guoying's expectations.

Considering the accuracy issue, it doesn't make any sense to have only one cannon. At least ten cannons are needed to have the chance to cover the Ming army's ships. Otherwise, the Ming army fired a few empty cannons when passing by, purely to pay tribute to the other party. However, such a large cannon would definitely not be dragged back to Chongqing by horses. If it was placed by the river and the Ming army landed, the 200,000 kilograms of copper would be given to people in vain.

It is not realistic to build a cannon on the riverside for such completely inmovable cannons. In order to protect this precious weapon, it is necessary to build a permanent fortress that is strong enough to withstand the attack of a large number of infantry in the Ming army. But even if the Ming army does not come, the Yangtze River will still come. Every year when the river rises, it will flood the city walls of Chongqing. Build fortresses outside. The cannons are not given to the Ming army, but they have to give to the Dragon King.

Thinking of this, Li Guoying was a little discouraged and turned to re-study the feasibility of building a super catapult. However, the production of catapults across the river is no less difficult than that of cannons, and even higher.

If anyone else had given up, he might have given up at this point, but Li Guoying was determined to overcome all difficulties and would cause trouble for the Ming army. He decided to cast cannons in Chongqing City. This increased the range requirement by several hundred meters. The master believed that if he did not build a 20,000 kilogram cannon, it would not be possible to meet the requirements of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi. Now there is no such thing as an outsider or an insider. On such a big issue of artillery, Li Guoying, his staff, generals and these artillery-making masters are all outsiders.

After some discussion, Li Guoying decided to collect eight thousand kilograms of copper first, scale the existing cannon, and make a sample cannon. If this cannon can hit five hundred meters, then it will be scaled three times in proportion, and create a 24 thousand kilogram cannon block the river surface. If this cannon can hit eight hundred meters, then it will be scaled twice in proportion and create a 16 thousand kilogram cannon. There is no scientific theory now, only experience (it may not be correct yet). Governor Li's view was agreed by the cannon-making masters, and the Qing army in Chongqing began to prepare for casting sample cannons in full swing.

...

In early May of the fifteenth year of Yongli, Kunming.

During the heyday of the Southern Ming Dynasty, Sun Kewang was in the middle, with Li Dingguo in the east and Liu Wenxiu in the north, and Kuidong's camp and the old Ming army faction. Even if Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan were not counted, there were hundreds of thousands of troops, of which more than 100,000 were armies. Although the territory was small, the Southern Ming also had the advantage of concentrated troops. A large army that should not be underestimated and the commander of famous generals, the Ming army could maintain the advantage of strategic offensive on all fronts, which made the Qing court repeatedly consider cutting land for peace. Even the toughest Hong Chengchou did not dare to speak easily, but spent huge sums of money to build a five-thousand-mile defense line. When the conflict between Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang was resolved, even Hong Chengchou resigned in disgrace and asked the court to reconsider the peace talks.

But the situation is completely different now. After returning to Kunming, Li Dingguo worked hard to govern, but until now, he has not healed the trauma of war in Yunnan. The loss of land in Guizhou, Hunan and Guangxi is far away. Sichuan is hostile and the cracks are constantly deepening and difficult to make up for.

During the period when Sun Kewang was in charge of Yunnan, he adopted a thorough military garrison system in the territory, and the output was considerable. However, at this time, Li Dingguo was not as cold-blooded and cruel as Sun Kewang. Li Ding regards the people of Yunnan as his people in his country, which makes it difficult for him to implement Sun Kewang's harsh military garrison system; secondly, the Xiying was strong in the past, which was enough to deter and suppress the dissatisfaction of the people. After the Kunming fire, although Li Dingguo gathered the troops of Ma Bao and others, Kunming's strength was still only more than 50,000 people, of which the armored soldiers were only about 20,000, which was much worse than the Xiying's peak. Finally, Wu Sangui was in Guizhou. If Sun Kewang's system continued, a large number of people would probably flee.

Wu Sangui, who was entrenched in Guizhou, greatly threatened Kunming. Although Wu Sangui sent a group of unaffordable foreign troops back to his hometown, the Wu army in Guizhou was still as high as 100,000, twice the strength of Li Dingguo. The Wu army's equipment and war horses were much better than the Ming army. As long as Wu Sangui could obtain enough supplies to launch another attack, Li Dingguo still had to face the arduous battle - perhaps Li Dingguo could defend Kunming, but Yunnan was already devastated. If the war always burned on Yunnan's land, the Ming army would sooner or later fall out.

Fortunately for Li Dingguo, Wu Sangui had strong military strength, but he was unable to launch an invasion. Zheng Chenggong and Deng Ming attacked Jiangnan for two consecutive years, which made the Qing court unable to take action to support Wu Sangui in Guizhou.

"I wonder if there will be new wars in Jiangnan next year?" King Jin felt this idea in his mind after reading this year's Tianmu report. Yunnan's people were in trouble, but the Ming army had no time to recuperate. The generals adjacent to the Guizhou border asked for more reinforcements, equipment and food and grass day after day, but Kunming could not meet their requirements. Forces, food and grass? In order to save food and grass, Li Dingguo left Bai Wenxuan, Ma Bao and other elite soldiers in Kunming, and only retained the most basic surveillance force on the border, which could reduce a lot of transportation losses. As for equipment, even the elite troops of Kunming's Xiying cannot guarantee the newly produced equipment. Li Dingguo and Bai Wenxuan's armored soldiers had to continue to use aging equipment, not to mention other Kunming troops. As for the guard troops on the border, the priority of supplementation and repair is obviously the lowest.

If Wu Sangui obtained enough supplies from Huguang and Jiangnan and launched a new round of attacks, Li Dingguo estimated that the border guards would collapse in a short period of time, and half of Yunnan would be involved in wars. Li Dingguo could only hope for a success, relying on Kunming's defensive counterattack, strive to annihilate Wu Sangui's troops and use the capture to make up for the losses. However, after the Battle of Mopanshan, Li Dingguo suspected that Wu Sangui would become more smooth and would not give Xiying a chance to fight an annihilation war. Once it became a war of attrition, then Kunming's failure was just a matter of time.

"If any of Zheng Chenggong and Deng Ming's trip to Jiangnan this year, Wu Sangui will still not be able to launch an attack next year." Li Dingguo sighed lightly. He did not like to pin his destiny on others, and even so, he still could not reverse Kunming's predicament. What Yunnan needs now is light taxes and encourage fugitives to return to their hometowns to produce, but in order to maintain military strength and maintain basic self-defense capabilities, Li Dingguo knew what he should do but could not do it.

"Father!" Li Siye, the prince of Jin, broke in: "An urgent matter!"

Obviously it was an urgent matter. If it was an ordinary matter, no matter how important it was, the guards would come to report it, and Li Siye, who was in charge of Kunming's city defense, would not come here in person.

"What's the matter?" Li Dingguo's heart suddenly rose. Could it be that Wu Sangui attacked?

"Zhao Tianba is back!" Li Siye had just met Zhao Qianhu, the Jinyiwei, and immediately ran to report to his father: "Admiral Deng is coming to Kunming and is almost here."

Deng Ming first stopped in Jianchang for a few days, and then continued to march towards Yunnan despite the opposition of everyone. Now there are still no people in Dongchuan Prefecture, so neither Jianchang nor Kunming, who are guarding against each other, did not station a large army on the border of Dongchuan Prefecture. Deng Ming led Zhao Tianba and others to Yunnan and met the post of King Jin. Zhao Tianba immediately rushed to Kunming at full speed and arrived in Kunming with the messenger of the border post.

Li Dingguo stared at his son seriously for a while, and suddenly asked, "Where is Zhao Qianhu?"

"The son has brought him, right outside the father's door."

"pass!"
Chapter completed!