After returning to the Sichuan Army camp the next day, Deng Ming called several confidant officers to discuss Li Dingguo's letter with them.

"What King Gong Chang is worried about is that if something happens in Yunnan, it will not be easy for us to return to Sichuan." After learning that the Shuixi'an family had been destroyed, Wu Sangui might have launched a large-scale offensive against Kunming after the autumn, almost all the Sichuan army officers agreed with Bai Wenxuan's suggestion and believed that it was time to consider withdrawing troops.

"Do you all think so?" Deng Ming looked around and found that almost every officer was nodding silently. Most of them thought that as long as they left some of the troops to ensure the survival of the reckless regime, they would be fine.

It has been almost half a year since I left Sichuan, and the soldiers of the entire army were very concerned about the current situation in the capital. In the past, when the Ming army followed Deng Ming to expedition, they sometimes left Chengdu longer than this time, but the Ming army soldiers never felt so strongly homesick. Because this time they were in a foreign country, and at least on their own land before.

Although he did not sweep the occupied areas like Bai Wenxuan, the Sichuan Army also had a lot of income. The Sichuan Army collected a lot of taxes from the occupied areas and confiscated a large number of property of warriors who fought for Mangbai. Awa is the most prosperous area in Myanmar, and there are many manors that Burmese kings gave to high-level warriors. Deng Ming was not polite to these industries. Like Bai Wenxuan, they all regarded them as enemy property and handed them over to the soldiers. Now the soldiers have stored a large number of gems, gold, silver and ivory products in the army.

Moreover, the Sichuan Army also did business with the Yunnan Army. The Sichuan Army explicitly ordered that it was not possible to plunder, but Bai Wenxuan could do it, so the Sichuan Army soldiers exchanged the jewelry they had assigned to the Yunnan Army for an unmarried girl. After hearing this, the Yunnan Army felt very strange. They felt that Deng Ming's rules were too strict and deeply sympathized with the Sichuan Army. They patted their chests to collect some people for the brothers, and only charged a small number of symbolic rewards. A team of Yunnan Army soldiers sent more than a hundred women to the Sichuan Army, but only asked for a glass of wine as a reward. In addition, when confiscating the property of the Burmese samurai, the Sichuan Army soldiers also treated the female slaves and their relatives with the same spoils as gold and silver. According to reports, the soldiers had sent many female slaves and asked them to be transported back to Chengdu, and were willing to bear the freight and the food expenses along the way.

Although Deng Ming disliked this, he could not hurt his soldiers' feelings for the sake of the people of the enemy. In the end, he ordered a high freight charge and announced that if something went wrong along the way, he would not compensate him. Finally, there was another point, that is, after arriving in Chengdu alive, all these women had to go to the factory to work. The soldiers accepted the conditions and hanged a sign around the neck of each female slave, wrote the owner's name and started giving it back.

Therefore, although we had not seen the pure gold pagoda I heard about before sending troops, the soldiers were also satisfied with their income and began to yearn to return home.

"If we retreat now, Manglu cannot persist." The Ming army could leave some people, but it could not be many. If it was only two or three thousand Ming troops, then the newborn Manglu regime would definitely not be able to withstand Mangbai's counterattack for a long time; next time the Ming army attacked Myanmar again, Mangbai's foundation would be much more stable than it is now, and he would also learn from the lessons of this failure: "If the people who cooperate with us were retaliated by Mangbai, if we broke our trust, then no one would believe us again next time, nor would anyone contribute to our army."

The officers of the Sichuan Army admitted that Deng Ming was right, but now the soldiers are ready to return home. If they never look forward to the day to go home, and new companions are killed every day, the Sichuan Army will sooner or later generally complain - especially when they think that the entrusted transportation property may have arrived in Chengdu or are on the way.

"If we retreat, Mangbai will be scruples and dare to be unfavorable to the cabinet and may even kill prisoners of the Imperial Guard." Deng Ming did not mention the security of Emperor Yongli. The emperor's life will not be threatened for the time being. Mangbai will never dare to do anything that completely angers the Ming army before he is confident of resisting the attack of the Ming army.

Deng Ming now doesn't expect to relied on Yongli's safety to stimulate the morale of the Invention Army. Like Bai Wenxuan, he revealed his words to his subordinates afterwards, that is, the edict was true.

Deng Ming felt that what he needed now was a banner that allowed the Anti-Qing Alliance to maintain the status quo, so as not to argue endlessly within the alliance about whom he was the emperor; as long as everyone did not fight in internal affairs, Deng Ming did not care whether the banner was dazzling or broken. He did not want to deceive his comrades in order to maintain Yongli's reputation, so after tearing up the edict, he honestly explained the real situation to the Sichuan Army officers, and did not prohibit the officers from telling the soldiers, and did not stop the spread of this news.

In order to maintain the reputation of the emperor, Bai Wenxuan also told his subordinates not to spread it to the soldiers. Although the fire cannot be kept in the paper, at least he has the intention of respecting the emperor.

Like Bai Wenxuan's soldiers, although the Sichuan Army obeyed the orders and continued to attack Wacheng, they would never be able to sacrifice their lives. When the officers launched the attack, they often put the safety of the soldiers in a forward position. When they received any order, they would carefully consider the risks and costs it might bring. If they did not have this mentality from top to bottom, a powerful general like Zhao Tianba would not have been able to siege the strongholds in Myanmar for three people in one day.

After hearing Deng Ming talk about the safety of the cabinet, the Sichuan Army officers were still not very touched. They were not familiar with the cabinet masters. The emperor was so disappointing that the prestige of the cabinet members was greatly reduced.

"If Myanmar kills our officials and soldiers, we will inevitably go to Myanmar to retaliate again, otherwise it will only make the Burmese people look down on us. Don't forget that we still have troops to harbor in Annan, and Siam is also in ambiguous and has not surrendered to the court for a long time. If we do not retaliate, or if we take revenge too late, others will think that no matter what they do, no matter what they do, we must at least ensure that Annan and Siam do not fall to the Qing court. The support of these two countries will at least help King Yanping.

Assistance can also increase the pressure on the Qing army in Guangxi. Also, if we protect the Chinese in these places, they will be able to provide us with military expenditure and other help in the future." Deng Ming's opponents expressed their bottom line: "If General Bai is really in a hurry to leave, it would be fine if he doesn't defeat Awa; if the emperor really doesn't come back, he may not have to rescue him. Anyway, the Burmese people dare not do anything to him. But we must keep the recklessness and ensure the safety of the Ming and Chinese in Myanmar."

While Deng Ming was thinking about how to achieve his goal, he received a report that Mangbai sent an envoy out of the city to negotiate. Now, every time the envoy left the city, he went straight to Deng Ming's military camp. In Awa City, he already knew who was the key figure.

"This is an opportunity, let's try it." Deng Ming thought for a while and ordered the envoy of Mangbai to bring in.

When the Ming army was embarrassed, the crisis in Awa City became increasingly worse. Since the Ming army cut off Awa's external roads and controlled the surrounding villages, the food stored in the city was about to be exhausted. In order to reduce the consumption of military rations, Mangbai had ordered the reduction of the supply of rations for citizens, and the quota for soldiers was just enough to fill their stomachs. Although strict measures were adopted, according to the calculations of the officials, if the traffic line could not be opened for a long time, then Awa City would be out of food before July.

Mangbai had just seized the throne, and there were many people in Awa City who were dissatisfied, not to mention that there were places in southern Myanmar. Now Awa City is besieged, and the south is almost out of control. Mangbai could not draw troops from the south to Awa City to rescue him. If he dragged on for a while, it is unknown whether there would be rebellion in the south.

This time, the envoy of Mangbai brought many Ming cabinet documents to Deng Ming, all of which were discussion records of Deng Ming by the monarch and ministers of Yongli, as well as the impeachment of his previous actions by the censor. After discovering that Deng Ming was the enemy, the Burmese court began to organize people to inspect the seized Ming Dynasty files and interrogate the cabinet's entourage, but they really dug out a lot of information.

"The emperor is actually very suspicious of the Duke," the Burmese envoy looked bitter and thoughtful: "Please look at the Duke, these are all suggestions written by the Prime Minister to the Emperor, and they are all about to frame the Duke. The Duke is the Duke's enemy. There is also the impeachment of the Censor."

Deng Ming read these documents with great interest. There were indeed many conspiracies against him, but most of them were talking about the war on paper. It was obvious that a group of people who knew nothing about the situation in Sichuan were working behind closed doors.

"It is their duty for the Censor to impeach me; and Yuan Fu is preparing to share the worries of the emperor in advance. How to check and balance the powerful ministers or avoid the appearance of powerful ministers is also Yuan Fu's duty. How can this be called frame-up?" Deng Ming seemed to be not concerned at all, and the old tune was repeated: "If we want us to withdraw our troops, you must release the emperor first."

"The emperor stayed in Awa voluntarily. Didn't the Duke of the Kingdom of China read the emperor's edict?" The Burmese envoy was very disappointed with Deng Ming's indifference.

Deng Ming waved his hand: "The real person doesn't say secret words in front of him. If the Burmese vassal king wants to come up with a result, don't lie with his eyes. Okay, then I'll take a step back. How do you do to return the emperor to us?"

Deng Ming did not ask the Burmese envoy to answer immediately, but asked him to go back to the city to ask Mangbai clearly: "As long as you return it to the emperor, there is nothing that cannot be discussed. No matter what the Burmese vassal king wants and what conditions are there, we can talk about it. We want the emperor and his family, the rest of the cabinet, the censor, and the imperial guards. If you really don't want to return it, you don't want it. Go back and ask clearly and come again, let your master say with confidence that everything is easy to discuss."
Chapter completed!