Wang Mingde's army and the 1,000 Han Eight Banners moved along the road opened up by Zhang Yong, without having to overcome all obstacles and scouts. Not only did the marching speed be much faster, but the officers under his command were also much easier. Of course, Zhang Jing and his officers had horses. After leaving Chongqing, if the officers of the Han Eight Banners were sick or exhausted, Wang Mingde would immediately use his mount to make up for it. Li Guoying even specially ordered a batch of war horses for Wang Mingde to spare - these horses were not allowed to be ridden, but were prepared for the officers of the Han Eight Banners.

The treatment of the Manchu Eight Banners who followed Li Guoying to act together was of course superior. Only officers here guaranteed horses, while the Manchu Taijun had mounts regardless of their official position. Fortunately, only one hundred people followed Li Guoying to fight. If thousands of Manchu Taijun really participated in the war, it would probably affect the actions of the army in order to prepare mounts for them. Even the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi who have always strictly governed the army, had never had any requests for the Manchu Taijun. If they wanted to eat meat, there were live pigs that followed the army, and if they wanted to eat fish, they would immediately send people to the river to catch them. As long as Li Guoying could do it, they would definitely be satisfied.

"Three years ago, Deng Ming brought Yuan Zongdi, Tan Wen, and Tan to attack Chongqing. When Governor Gao saw Deng Ming coming in full force, he went to Baoning to ask the Governor for help, and asked me to stay and defend Chongqing alone..." Wang Mingde had long described the Chongqing defense battle where Deng Ming had appeared as Commander Deng Ming, and of course he was a hero who defeated the strong enemy. The Chongqing defense battle three years ago was portrayed by Wang Mingde as thrilling, and the war was full of twists and turns.

"General Wang is indeed well-known." The deputy general of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty praised. However, although he was commanded by Deng Ming, from the two years of confrontation in Jiangnan, Deng Ming was obviously good at field battles but not good at siege. As long as he encountered a strong city where the Qing army was heavily deployed, Deng Ming would be helpless. However, no matter what, the Chongqing defense battle led by Wang Mingde was the most embarrassing battle for Deng Ming. Tan Wen was killed and Yuan Zongdi fled, and he was almost captured alive. Afterwards, the defeated two soldiers showed their style, but this could not conceal his incompetence before. The only controversy in this matter was that some people believed that Deng Ming was just a royal observer sent by Wen'an to Yuan Zongdi's army and did not possess any military power. It was this battle that began to make him stand out. However, this statement was firmly opposed by Wang Mingde.

Everyone was wearing black boots in a thousand Han Eight Banners, and 200 of them were carrying muskets. They were also equipped with special transport personnel to these ten Niulu tiger squat cannons. In order to ensure that these cannons could keep up with the team, Li Guoying also specially prepared ships and carriages. Wang Mingde took good care of the boats and chariots along the way, and sent more subordinates to help from time to time. Unlike ordinary green camps, they were Eight Banners soldiers and were central military forces directly under the imperial court.

...

Yuan Zongdi's scout bluffed and slowly retreated, while Yuan Zongdi also retreated to the front to avoid the Qing reinforcements that had been searching for. Now he could only hope that his actions could make Zhang Yong react later and mobilize the entire army to fight towards his troops later, giving himself more time to reorganize.

The "Yuan Thief" could no longer be heard on the front line, and the "Yuan Thief" was shouting. Hu Wenke was almost retreating to the starting position where he had just launched the attack. Although there was terrain to rely on, Hu Wenke began to retreat step by step without even holding on for a quarter of an hour. Now the armorless soldiers on both wings have collapsed and fled. Behind are the Ming army chasing them, and the morale of the personal soldiers around them is also low. In order to avoid being surrounded, they retreated again and again with Hu Wenke, many people walked and disappeared in the forest as they walked.

He failed to grab Yuan Zongdi's old hen, and his troops were instead swept away a large number of them. Hu Wenke felt frustrated. He knew that if the terrain had not covered up part of his embarrassment, this retreat order would have been maintained.

Although he knew he would lose, Hu Wenke tried to save a few more soldiers:

"Duke Yuan! You and I have no grudges in the past and no grudges today, why are you trying to force each other?"

After holding his feet in front of a small hill, Hu Wenke asked dozens of his subordinates to shout in the possible direction of Yuan Zongdi. As long as Yuan Zongdi was willing to slow down his pursuit a little, Hu Wenke's army would not completely collapse, and he could gather more defeated soldiers - whether it was armored or unarmed, they were Hu Wenke's precious property.

...

In the south of the battlefield, Zhang Yong was still advancing along the shore. The shouts from the north made him turn his head and watch. The battle there had been a while ago, but Zhang Yong still didn't know the specific situation.

"This must be the ambush of Wanxian." Zhang Yong made such a judgment just now. Excluding Hu Wenke on the flank, Zhang Yong had two thousand armored soldiers and four thousand auxiliary soldiers around him. Wang Mingde and Yuan Jiawenbi were coming quickly. In such a small area, there were nearly four thousand green camp armored soldiers and one thousand Eight Banners soldiers, and there were already a large number of auxiliary troops to support, which made Zhang Yong very relaxed. Even if Wanxian was right in front of him, such a powerful force could make Zhang Yong not have to worry about anything.

In Zhang Yong's opinion, Yuan Zongdi probably misunderstood the Qing army's strength, and perhaps sent troops to ambush and delay the Qing army's pace. However, no matter which situation, Zhang Yong judged that the strength of the Ming army was at most one thousand armored soldiers and three thousand auxiliary soldiers. With such forces, it is unlikely to quickly defeat Hu Wenke in complex terrain. If Yuan Zongdi only sent hundreds of harassing troops, Hu Wenke himself would have the strength to defeat them. The war in the north is likely to be Hu Wenke chasing and searching for the Ming army's defeated soldiers.

"I wonder how many thieves are there?" Zhang Yong thought to himself. It seemed that the Qing army was very lucky. If Hu Wenke had not discovered these Ming army, they might harass Zhang Yong's troops and affect his advancement speed. Now the Ming army slowed down Hu Wenke's pace, so that Zhang Yong had the opportunity to rush to the city of Wanxian first and get the biggest spoil.

So far, Zhang Yong has only sent three hundred armored search troops to the north. Wangshan ran to the death horse. Although the battlefield was not far from the riverside, Zhang Yong had no intention of commanding the entire army to turn without knowing the enemy situation, searching for the Ming army harassing troops that might have only a few hundred people. If this is true, it would have fulfilled Yuan Zongdi's intention. After a trip back and forth and searching the mountains, today's time and the soldiers' physical strength will be consumed.

If the strength of the Ming army exceeds that of a simple harassing force, then Zhang Yong felt that there was no need to directly reinforce Hu Wenke. There were also a lot of troops under Hu Weishou's 1,500 troops. Even if half of the Ming army in Wanxian could not defeat them in the short term. Zhang Yong continued to advance east along the riverside, and then a light rotation could cut off the retreat of these Ming army and cooperated with Hu Wenke to catch them all in one place. If Yuan Zongdi really went crazy, he sent half of his strength to Wanxian dozens of miles here.

If Zhang Yong ambushed, Zhang Yong would not mind taking some time to capture all these Ming troops in one place. If so many Ming troops were eliminated, Wanxian would have a chance to take it down quickly. At that time, there would be no place for the Western Sichuan Navy to go to Wanxian, and Deng Ming's advantage on the river would be severely weakened; and after he severely damaged Yuan Zongdi, Deng Ming would need to use new strength to protect Yunyang and Fengjie, which is also a kind of restraint, which will help reduce the pressure on the navy in Chongqing.

"Have the news been heard back yet?" Zhang Yong's main force was still advancing eastward. Now he was becoming more and more convinced that Hu Wenke was only harassed troops, and the Ming army simply wanted to delay. Zhang Yong's army continued to move forward. Now the battlefield was already west to the north, and Hu Wenke and those unknown enemy troops were being left behind by him.

"No, sir." A personal soldier replied. Until now, the three hundred armored envoys sent out to encircle have not sent back any messengers for help, which shows that they have not encountered any resistance worth mentioning.

"It turns out to be so." Zhang Yong had long concluded that this was the most likely situation. A small number of Ming troops fled in front of Hu Wenke's pressure, and of course they could not gather their strength to resist Zhang Yong's encirclement army. Zhang Yong confirmed his prediction.

"Continue to move forward." Zhang Yong ordered that if he really encountered strong resistance from the Ming army, he would reexamine it, but now he could not see any need to let the entire army run north for a detour.

...

Although the personal soldiers shouted at the top of their lungs, the Ming army did not respond at all. The Ming army in front paused for a moment and seemed to be just waiting for the encirclement of the two wings. Soon Hu Wenke saw the figure swaying on his side, and he and the last few hundred people beside him were already attacked from three sides. If he was driven away by the Ming army like this, Hu Wenke knew that the entire army would collapse soon and his subordinates would scatter into the forest. I don’t know how much time it would take to gather, nor how many people would be able to gather together.

"Mr. Yuan, stay on the front line and meet again in the future!" Hu Wenke shouted in despair, and his personal soldiers opened their throats and shouted, saying that they still had some money, Yuan Zongdi might as well take it away and stop chasing them.

Although Hu Wenke was so pitiful that Yuan Zongdi turned a deaf ear. After the Ming army came up from three directions, Hu Wenke also realized that Yuan Zongdi was definitely not a good person like Deng Ming, so he threw down a bag of silver and drove into the final gap. During the breakout, Hu Wenke's subordinates completely disintegrated and scattered into the forest.

"No need to pursue." Yuan Zongdi's subordinates picked up the bag of silver that Hu Wenke had thrown, but Yuan Zongdi stopped chasing Hu Wenke and searched for Hu Wenke not because of the money left by the other party, but because they did not want to lose the big picture because of the small amount.

The unknown Qing army in the east was already very close. Yuan Zongdi didn't know how strong the Qing army was. Whether there were 100 or 1,000 people, nor did he know whether it was an isolated army or a vanguard of a large number of enemy troops.

Yuan Zongdi issued an order to gather the troops at full speed. He had explained to his subordinates before not chasing Hu Wenke without restraint, because once the pursuit is released in this terrain, his troops will not be able to gather in time.

"Let's go back and fight!" Since the troops around you have begun to gather again, the front army that remained lurking can start to act. Yuan Zongdi loudly inspired his subordinates, and the victory is right in front of him. After annihilation of these thousands of Qing troops, Wanxian's strength will rise to another level: "Capture Zhang Yong alive!"
Chapter completed!