The second letter asked Deng Ming to summon all the senior officers in Xuzhou to discuss.

"The report stated that the Jialing River Navy launched a large-scale move, as if it was to sweep downstream Tongluo Gorge and other places."

After listening to Deng Ming's narration, his senior generals all looked in disbelief.

"Li Guoying wants to lure our army to launch a large-scale operation and consume our food and ships, right?" Ren Tang immediately responded, and this reaction was no different from Deng Ming's yesterday.

"I thought so yesterday." Deng Ming took out the first letter and handed it to the officers for a look. The second letter was also sent by the escort army to send a ship back. The above also reported that they were protecting the merchant ship cut off by Chongqing and returning to Qijiang to establish a base so that the cargo ship could be parked.

It is meaningless for Li Guoying to sweep Tongluo Gorge and other places, because as soon as the Western Sichuan Navy arrived, he had to return to the Jialing River obediently. No matter how many territory he occupied had to be re-pun. Since the Qing army would return to the Jialing River sooner or later, the possibility of Ren Tang's statement was obviously very high, and Li Guoying was just interfering.

"Is there a Qing army's water camp in Zhongxian?" Zhao Tianba made another opinion: "Does Li Guoying want to station a small number of naval troops in Zhongxian and extend the route of our army's escort?"

"Duke Jingguo carefully reconnaissed Zhong County, and there were only hundreds of armored men in it, and there were no water camps. Even if there were strong water camps, could hundreds of armored men protect it? If military recruits were recruited, would civil servants use civil servants to transport grain to Zhong County all year round? How many troops should be stationed? How many civil servants should be sent?" Zhou Kaihuang's retort made Zhao Tianba speechless.

In the end, everyone thought that Deng Ming’s guess yesterday should be the truth, and Li Guoying was dispatched in full force just to better attract the Ming army to attack. When the Ming navy arrived in a hurry, the Qing army had already fled back.

"Li Guoying may know that we don't have a post station, but he must also know that the number of days of the speedboat from Chongqing to Xuzhou is only a few days. If the wind is strong, it will be only five days, and it will only take more than one day to go down the current, so he only has seven or eight days of safe time." Mu Tan felt that the navy did not need to be dispatched at all. He inferred that the Qing army had returned to the base and the shipping had been completely restored: "If we go, then the Qing army can come out again after a period of time. We are exhausted, and even if we don't go, they have to go back honestly and block the Jialing River to prevent our army from killing in; this is futile. In the future, they will come out again and again to harass our navy again and again, and each time they will not attract our navy. After a few days, they will go back uninterestedly by themselves. In the end, Li Guoying will be distracted. If Li Guoying delays longer and longer, we can find an opportunity to go out and catch his navy all in one place."

"Well." Although Deng Ming felt that the information was a bit strange, his subordinates' views were consistent with him. In about ten days, Deng Ming would launch a battle to harvest crops in Chongqing. Li Guoying's time to dispatch made him feel very uncomfortable. If the army was dispatched, it would affect his offensive and mobilization. If someone was captured, it would also lead to the exposure of Deng Ming's plan. After determining the plan for the autumn offensive, Deng Ming reduced his reconnaissance around Chongqing in order to keep it confidential. When the mobilization in Xuzhou became more and more obvious, Deng Ming's reconnaissance of Chongqing had been completely suspended to prevent spies from falling into the enemy. Although the Ming army had an absolute advantage in the river surface, the scouts had been responding to him, and no one had been captured for a long time, but this matter was not foolproof.

...

"We have about three days left," Li Guoying got up from the hospital bed and summoned the generals to discuss the matter: "I have been observing the wind these days. It is not very good for the ships going against the wind. About two or three days ago, the alarm from Chongqing had been sent to Xuzhou. If there was a post station between Xuzhou and Chengdu, the first alarm should have been placed on Deng Ming's desk. Today or tomorrow, the second alarm should also be in Deng Ming's hands. I hope the enemy will be lenient, even if Deng Ming has seen it today."

The navy in Wanxian was slightly stronger than the Jialing River naval division. The Qing army had the advantage of being able to move smoothly. In addition, the powerful army coordinated, it was still not a big problem to deal with Yuan Zongdi. However, the navy had been exposed on the Yangtze River for almost ten days, and the navy began to be nervous, fearing that they would suddenly see the powerful western Sichuan navy appear behind them. In that case, they would have to burn ships and retreat by land to Chongqing on foot.

"Deng Ming will definitely suspect that I was just harassment. How many days will he take to consider it, and four days will be fine. That is to say, he will understand the day after tomorrow, and then order the Chengdu Navy to prepare for war and then dispatch it." Li Guoying carefully calculated the time. As long as Deng Ming ordered, some warships would be prepared in three or four days, and then he could take the navy to set off. If the action was quick, the forward would be able to arrive in Chongqing in three days. Therefore, Li Guoying had to withdraw his troops within three days, and it would be best to leave tomorrow.

"Pack the food and grass and vanguard soldiers onto the ship. The ship was as close as possible to Wanxian, and then the empty ship returned to Chongqing at full speed." Li Guoying looked haggard, and was so angry that he could not get up for a day that he could not get up. It was also our only chance. He would not be so slow next time and give us such a long time to move freely."

Yuan Zongdi was so powerful that Li Guoying no longer had any hope of conquering Wanxian. He had to transport the super cannons transported to Wanxian back to Chongqing intact. However, in order to weaken Yuan Zongdi, Li Guoying had to go to Wanxian to destroy all his military camps, which would relieve a lot of pressure on the Chongqing defenders, making Yuan Zongdi unable to support Deng Ming effectively within a year, and many things might have happened in a year.

After deploying the mission, Li Guoying called Zhang Yong, Wang Mingde and others to the front of their bedside and said with great sincerity: "The enemy is in front of you, everyone must cooperate sincerely!"

Li Guoying took all the responsibility on himself. This defeat was not the blame for the generals. He was not responsible for reconnaissance and had a misunderstanding of Yuan Zongdi's strength. In fact, even if there was a misunderstanding, the strength of the front army sent by Li Guoying was still not below the strength of Wanxian's military.

Under Li Guoying's kind-hearted persuasion, Zhang Yong and Wang Mingde swore to give up their past grudges in front of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and they will definitely be as close as a family in the future and help each other.

"I am so pleased that the two generals are so careful about the overall situation. You can prepare first. I am already in good health and can go with the army tomorrow." Li Guoying smiled and nodded repeatedly. The generals blessed again, and then retreated from Li Guoying's tent.

"Give up past grudges?" After other generals were taken away, Li Guoying's Bian Battalion Guard asked in confusion: "Governor General Zhang, can Wang Shuai and others help each other?"

"Of course not. They will become more and more serious in the future." Li Guoying curled his smile and smiled bitterly: "But I have to mediate, at least I can't let them kill each other."

In this first battle with Yuan Zong, Li Guoying asked himself that if he was on the battlefield, he would be able to command in the middle and would not have such serious consequences. In other words, Yuan Zongdi's biggest advantage is that he was present and his subordinates dare not be lazy when the commander came to the battlefield. Unfortunately, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi was unable to do anything, and he had to take care of too many things. As a result, he made such a big mistake when he failed to go to the front line: "I recommend Zhang Yong as the general of Shaanxi military affairs, just to help him establish his prestige and help me share my worries when I am not here in the future."

Originally, Li Guoying had high hopes for Gao Mingzhan, but Governor Gao first abandoned his subordinates and the city and fled during the war in Chongqing, which caused his prestige to be ruined in the minds of Wang Mingde and others. Later, in order to cultivate him, Li Guoying sent him to attack Fujian with Tan Yi, hoping that Gao Mingzhan could restore some reputation and also took the opportunity to cultivate some feelings for Tan Yi's comrades. As a result, Gao Mingzhan was captured, his entire army was destroyed, and Tan Yi was also killed, and Li Guoying's plan was completely lost.

Seeing that Gao Mingzhan could not be trained, Li Guoying turned his attention to Zhang Yong. This person had a good relationship with Zhao Liangdong and Wang Jinbao, and his temper was not as bad as Zhao Liangdong. He could get along with his colleagues. Moreover, Zhang Yong was of a seniority, which could convince Wang Mingde and others, not to mention that he had real talents and knowledge, and had rich experience in the battlefield and could be entrusted with important tasks. No matter how you look at it, they were all very good candidates for the commander-in-chief of the former army.

I don’t want this incident to happen again this time. Let alone let Zhang Yong command Wang Mingde and others in the future. If Li Guoying is not present, he might be able to make a move behind each other. In this battle in Wanxian, he wanted to stay in the rear to deal with the traffic line affairs, and there was no one to send Li Guoying, so he had to go on the stage to command himself. He was so angry that he couldn’t get out of bed and was delayed for another day.

No one was left unattended to be responsible for the affairs of the transportation line. Li Guoying thought about it and finally wrote a copy of the book to Sun Sike. Sun Dutong commanded the Three Thousand Han Eight Banners. He was a celebrity in front of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor. His prestige could suppress everyone. Li Guoying recommended a few of his staff to assist him. As long as nothing unexpected happened, Sun Sike would not have any big trouble when he handled the documents left by Li Guoying.

"I'll set off for Wanxian early tomorrow morning." Li Guoying drank another bowl of medicine. He still felt a little uncomfortable, but there was not much time left for him: "Hurry up and burn Yuan Zongdi's field, and then come back to command the retreat. Deng Ming will arrive at as soon as five or six days later. I should have time to come back and take the power back from Sun Sick."
Chapter completed!