August 15th, Chongqing.

Gao Mingzhan held a banquet in the city to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. From the day before yesterday, the urgent report was sent to Chongqing City like snowflakes. Soon the officers and soldiers of the city knew that the battle in Zhongxian had ended. Nearly 80,000 troops under Li Guoying personally commanded were defeated. The governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, the admiral of Shaanxi, and the army had already broken through with some troops. 70,000 troops. Now the remaining one in Zhongxian County is only 5,000 Shaanxi Green Camps, who are under the command of Wang Mingde, and are surrounded by Ming corps in Zhongxian. It is estimated that it will be only a matter of time before it is destroyed.

Such detailed information was mainly revealed by the Ming army. Deng Ming, the admiral of the Yangtze River in the Ming Dynasty, had already landed east of the Jialing River, not far from Chongqing, and cleared out the Qing army's outposts and scattered soldiers along the coast, the Ming army consciously released many Qing army back to report the news.

At first, some people suspected that this was the Ming army's plan to attack, but Governor Gao declared in public: Although Admiral Deng was an enemy, he always believed in his words. Since Admiral Deng said that the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi ran away with thousands of remaining soldiers, he must have run away; since Admiral Deng said that Wang Mingde was surrounded in Zhong County and could not break through, he would not be able to break through for the time being.

This openly echoing the enemy's propaganda certainly caused greater panic. Chongqing City now has few armored soldiers. In addition to the 600 armored soldiers brought back by Deputy General Wang Xincheng, there are also some strong men and a small number of new soldiers from the Ganzhou Green Camp and Shanxi soldiers. All of them are less than a thousand armored soldiers, and their fighting spirit is even more incomparable to the standard camp taken away by Li Guoying.

It was almost a delusion to rely on this thousand-armored soldiers to defend Chongqing. Originally, the three thousand Han and Eight Banners could still be counted on, but at the beginning of the month, when Sun Sike returned to Jialing River, he saw that there was no navy for him to cross the river, so he drove north without saying a word and rushed towards Baoning. Sun Sike sent people across the river to shout, saying that he was going to pick up Zhao Liangdong, and with the soldiers of the Shaanxi Green Camp, and was going to attack one side. But anyone with a discerning eye knew that General Sun was afraid that Deng Mingwei would chase him, so he would be blocked on the shore and could not escape. He shouted to Gao Mingzhan rather than a notice, but rather a shirk responsibility.

Therefore, the city of Chongqing was panicked, and many people were thinking about escaping from this empty city. But Governor Gao showed extraordinary courage at this time, sitting in the yamen in a big manner, and opening the door so that everyone could see that he did not escape. Deputy General Wang Xincheng, who was appointed as the admiral of Chongqing by Gao Mingzhan, was also extremely calm and calm. He looked very relaxed when he took his personal soldiers to patrol the city defense in the past two days, and he talked and laughed with the city defense officers and soldiers.

Seeing the performance of Sichuan Governor and the city defense admiral, thousands of people in Chongqing were no longer afraid. Everyone was talking privately, and they all felt that Governor Gao must have a clever plan to retreat to the enemy. Since Chongqing's chief and deputy officers were confident, the rest of the people were calm and determined to honestly arrange the city defense according to Deputy General Wang's instructions.

However, Vice General Wang’s performance was a bit too indifferent. He neither arranged plum blossom stakes outside the city nor organized manpower to deepen the trenches. Although Chongqing lacked manpower, the so-called “sharpening a gun in the face of battle, if you don’t get too fast” is better than doing nothing, right?

But Deputy General Wang did nothing. Today, the Mid-Autumn Festival, he took his personal soldiers to the yamen to celebrate the festival with Governor Gao. The 600 soldiers under him were the most powerful force and last hope in Chongqing at present, but in the afternoon he also began to slaughter pigs and sheep happily, preparing to celebrate the festival, as if Deng Ming, who suffered a great defeat in Zhong County, was like Deng Ming, not Li Guoying.

"The best time of the year is now. Why are there always some people sad about autumn? What's so sad about autumn?" Gao Mingzhan drank so hard that his face turned red and his ears were hot, and he sighed to Wang Xincheng: "Brother, what I like is autumn."

"That's right, the governor, the same is true for the last time." Wang Xincheng drank less than Gao Mingzhan. On the table in front of him were fresh vegetables and fat fish and shrimps: "Every Mid-Autumn Festival, these fish and shrimps are fat, new rice is also coming, and vegetables are all available. Even women use a wide variety of flowers, which is the time to live as quickly as possible."

Gao Mingzhan laughed loudly, then raised his wine glass toward Wang Xincheng: "Please, General Wang."

"Please, Governor."

The two of them were talking and laughing while watching the moon, while drinking until midnight.

Seeing that he had no more alcohol, Gao Mingzhan finally talked about the important matter. There are no people around him now. Gao Mingzhan said with confidence and boldness: "The Governor's 100,000 army was almost destroyed, and General Zhao's reinforcements were not delayed. Even if Chongqing cannot be maintained, it is not your responsibility. We still have to hold on for a few days, otherwise the court will not look good."

"What the Governor said is very true. In the eyes of the general, General Wang and his team were in Zhong County, which must be the result of peace with Admiral Deng. Most of them sold all the armorless soldiers to Admiral Deng and then they were safe. General Wang and his team dared to assert that after ten days and half a month, General Wang and his team should "break through the siege". At that time, not only did they come out without any harm, but they would still make contributions in the event of success." Wang Xincheng believed that Chongqing should also hold on to it for ten days and give up again after half a month: "This great defeat will be carried by the governor. We will stick to the lonely city until the ammunition and food are exhausted, and we will break through the siege in the end, and there will be no trouble."

"Well, I just don't know how many days Admiral Deng would give us?" Gao Mingzhan said in a deep thought: "This city in Chongqing can be worth thousands of cows, right? Besides, there are many farm tools in our warehouse, all of which are brand new. The Governor originally wanted to build a military camp, but later he gave up this idea. None of these farm tools had been used before."

In addition to agricultural tools, there are also pig iron, grain and cloth in the warehouse. Li Guoying's materials in Chongqing are enough for a 100,000 army to need for several months, which is really a big deal.

"That is, when Admiral Deng crosses the river, we will send people to negotiate peace. If Admiral Deng agrees not to make things difficult for us, we will leave the city and warehouse for him; if Admiral Deng disagrees, we will burn the warehouse and run away. I believe Admiral Deng will not be able to catch up with us."

In addition to supplies, there are many military officials in Chongqing. Gao Mingzhan and Wang Xincheng also plan to sell these valuable hostages to Deng Ming according to the situation, or take them to break through with them to gain favors.

...

However, Deng Ming did not cross the Jialing River as Gao Mingzhan imagined. Through interrogation of the prisoners, Deng Ming knew that Chongqing City was quite empty, so he thought Gao Mingzhan would abandon the city and run away again. However, after staying on the east bank of the Jialing River for two days, the Qing army in Chongqing remained motionless. Gao Mingzhan and Wang Xincheng did not escape, and the defenders did not escape in large numbers.

"Gao Mingzhan doesn't run away, this matter is a bit strange." On August 16th, Deng Mingyao looked at the green flag on the top of Chongqing city and felt a little confused.

Gao Mingzhan planned to wait for Deng Ming to siege the city before sending his confidant out of the city to negotiate peace. Now there are many factions in Chongqing, and he and Wang Xincheng are afraid that they will be discovered when they act too early, so they first vigorously advocated that the army is powerful. When the Ming army drove to the city and were panicked, he asked the envoy to leave the city under the banner of asking for help and go around in circles to find Deng Ming without crossing the river to the enemy camp in full view of everyone.

However, Gao Mingzhan's performance actually played a role in stabilizing the morale of the army. Therefore, the Chongqing defenders who were kept in the dark did not flee in large numbers. If they all escaped all at once, it would not be in the interests of the Sichuan governor.

Deng Ming even had a misunderstanding. In his opinion, Gao Mingzhan was so confident that it was likely that the Qing army's reinforcements were about to arrive, and there might even be ambushing troops hidden in Chongqing. Although Deng Ming also guessed that Gao Mingzhan might want to negotiate peace, he could not let the army take risks based on just one guess.

So Deng Ming ordered that the river estuary on the east side of the Jialing River be controlled first, and then search along the river bank, instead of rushing to approach the fortress in Chongqing with the 7,000-armor troops.

After the Ming army controlled half of the river bank, they soon began to investigate the river and cover the naval forces to enter the Jialing River. For the Ming army, this was the first time they had come into close contact with the Jialing River. Hydrological geography was completely unfamiliar, so the Ming army searched and advanced very carefully, and recorded everything they saw in detail - if they attacked the Jialing River Basin again in the future, they would not have been blinded by the terrain.

After discovering that the Ming Navy began to invade the Jialing River, Wang Xincheng immediately collected the last few Qing army ships back to Chaotianmen Wharf. Now he was a little anxious. If Deng Ming surrounded Chongqing and then negotiated, wouldn’t he have to deduct the redeem fees of the six hundred soldiers? Now Wang Xincheng discovered that Gao Mingzhan had a vision, and the Sichuan Governor did not rebuild his governor’s camp at all. He had no debts. Whether it was direct negotiations or the Ming army surrounded Chongqing and then negotiated, Gao Mingzhan had no burden.

Although the prisoners said they had never seen any military camps, Deng Ming still didn't believe it. He felt that Li Guoying could not let Chongqing's auxiliary soldiers have idle meals, so he continued to search upstream along the Jialing River. This was not only to find Li Guoying's crops, but also to familiarize himself with the geography, and to eliminate the threat of ambush. While advancing carefully, Deng Ming sent people back and urged the rear army to come to Chongqing to support quickly, so as not to be caught off guard by possible enemy ambush.

Deng Ming's actions made Wang Xincheng very anxious. He hurriedly reported to Gao Mingzhan, and then sent his troops out of the city and advanced along the other shore with the Ming army. Wang Xincheng made up his mind that he would not pay a redeem fee for his subordinates this time. He had just paid it once. If he paid it again so quickly, it would be too unfair.

Wang Xincheng's actions caused another fluctuation in Chongqing, and the military subordinates were even more worried, fearing that this was the prelude to Governor Gao abandoning everyone and running away. Therefore, after Wang Xincheng's troops left the city, more people went to the yamen to find out the news. Fortunately, Gao Mingzhan was still sitting in the yamen in a big manner, and Wang Xincheng, who was determined to get a share of the pie, did not follow the troops, and also stayed in Chongqing.
Chapter completed!