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Chapter 33 Orphan Bet (Part 2)

Seeing the Ming army shipped an unprecedentedly powerful lineup outside the city, Li Guoying immediately summoned the Chongqing generals and told them that today would be the last day of the Chongqing offensive and defensive battle.

"Everyone, the reason why the thief's grain warehouse was burned is that they still relentlessly saw three gaps in our city wall and wanted to make an invasion to seize our food. Today they will bet on all their capital. As long as we block their last blow, we will win and Chongqing will rescue it."

The Qing generals swept away the worries of the past few days, and everyone's face was full of hope. Many people secretly clenched their fists, so they must survive this level of encouragement.

Li Guoying spread his palms and showed a pill to everyone: "This medicine is to see the King of Hell when it enters his mouth. As a minister of the court, I will definitely not be captured by the thief; for the sake of safety, it is said that firewood should be piled up in the warehouse just in case..." After reading the poison to everyone, Li Guoying closed his palms and asked loudly: "But do you think I need to prepare fire in the warehouse?"

"No need." Wang Mingde and others replied loudly.

"Does this official still need this pill?" Li Guoying continued to ask.

"No need!" The Eight Banners of Manchu, the Eight Banners of Han, and the generals and assistants from Shaanxi and Shanxi shouted in unison.

"I'll hear you all!" Li Guoying shouted loudly, waved his hand and threw the pill away, turning into an arc and flew into the yard: "Everyone, let's prepare. In another six hours, we can hold a drink to celebrate the achievements and report the victory to the court."

Everyone cheered in unison. After all the generals left, Li Guoying called a personal servant: "Go to the yard to find out where my ginseng pills have gone. It was given by the old emperor, and you can still eat it if you wash it."

...

In July of the 16th year of Yongli, Duke Deng Ming of Baoguo returned to Xuzhou and learned about the defeat of Kuidong Army in Chongqing here.

In the last fight on the last day, Li Laiheng, Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi's elite troops came out together and rushed into the city to attack the Qing army. Li Guoying had already laid a solid wooden fence after each gap and sent the real Han Eight Banners to fight.

Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun braved the dense guns and cannons of the Han Eight Banners, and broke through the three fences set up by Li Guoying in the morning and rushed to a place only one step away from the Chongqing prefect's office. But here, the Ming army was no longer able to advance. The Han Eight Banners knew that once the army was defeated, they would be burned, and the Eight Banners soldiers would never be spared. The Ming army, which suffered heavy casualties, would never be ruthless, so they all fought to the death like crazy.

In the northernmost section, Yuan Zongdi also encountered one line of defense after another. When the other troops were exhausted, Yuan Zongdi sent his main battalion to the battlefield - he still firmly believed that as long as he invested the final force, he could achieve a complete victory.

Riding the densely packed muskets of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, Yuan Zongdi's main battalion broke through the wall of the Chongqing warehouse, broke into the hinterland of the grain warehouse, and launched a hand-to-hand battle with the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty and the Green Camp. But at this time, Yuan Zongdi received a report that Li Guoying dispatched a cavalry of thousands of people, composed of 400 soldiers of the Eight Banners and 600 soldiers of the Governor-General Battalion, and drove Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun's exhausted troops outside the city. If Yuan Zongdi did not want to be surrounded, he had to retreat immediately.

After the strong attack was defeated, the Ming army no longer had the ability to persevere. Li Laiheng and others could only retreat from Chongqing city to the west of Futu Pass, then boarded the ship, and returned to Wanxian. The Qing army in Chongqing was almost exhausted at this time. After Li Guoying used the Manchu Eight Banners and the Governor-General Battalion to counterattack Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun's troops out of the city, he had no strength to restore the defense of the city wall. When Yuan Zongdi retreated out of the city, Li Guoying just watched him leave - if Yuan Zongdi did not leave, there was no need to say that he had to fight again. Since Yuan Zongdi left himself, the Qing army could not raise the strength to continue to fight.

Although the Chongqing offensive and defensive battle was not long, the Qing army paid the price of more than 3,600 people killed and seriously injured. The Kuidong Army reduced its personnel by as much as 8,700, almost one-fifth of the army. After less than ten days of fighting, the two armies suffered more than 10,000 casualties.

Seeing the Ming army's fleet moving downstream and gradually disappearing, Li Guoying mentioned western Sichuan again: "If there were no Deng Ming, our battle would have made the Kuidong thieves unable to turn over again, right?"

Many people around him nodded silently. Li Guoying looked at the broken Chongqing, and three shocking gaps were still there. Fierce battles and repeated struggles occurred in various streets in the west of the city, and the ground was full of broken limbs and broken arms. He had no strength to repair the city wall, and even the corpses and bloodstains everywhere could not be cleaned up. At night, wild animals even sneaked into the city through the gaps and dragged away the bodies of soldiers of the Ming and Qing armies.

"It's time to withdraw from Chongqing." While Li Guoying reported the victory, he again raised the old words and asked the court to approve him to withdraw from Baoning. In the past, Chongqing could not do anything because there was no navy in Chongqing, but now he went further. There was a navy in Li Guoying felt that he had nothing to do. This time the powerful combat power of the Kuidong Army made him quite scared - as long as western Sichuan could continuously provide food and equipment for Kuidong, the Kuidong Army could chew Chongqing alone, and if Deng Ming's Western Sichuan Army came, there was no need to mention. The Qing army could not even stand the Kuidong Army, could it still be expected to withstand the Western Sichuan Army?

Now the generals in Shanxi see that Li Guoying's expressions are completely different, and Sun Sike and Yuan Jiawenbi's eyes are full of admiration and admiration. Therefore, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi is not afraid that it will hurt morale by telling the truth: "We can't afford to win such a battle for the second time. If we do another battle, even if we can win by chance, we may all die."

...

"Hushang's mistake this time... well, it's too serious." After listening to the detailed report, Deng Ming originally wanted to use "unforgivable" to evaluate it, but he took it back when he spoke. Now he also knew that the relationship between other members of the committee was a bit subtle. If he didn't use words carefully at this time, it would probably have a bad effect. Moreover, Deng Ming asked himself that when he had the upper hand, he might not underestimate the enemy, and might not have made the same mistake. However, the auxiliary soldiers in western Sichuan were more dignified, and it would be impossible for the Qing soldiers wearing makeup to kill people without asking. Li Guoying could only use this trick once, and the Ming army would not be fooled again in the future.

Deng Ming remembered the conversation he had with the guards on the post road of Dongchuan Prefecture. At that time, everyone thought that an organization similar to a military police force should be established to be responsible for the identification of the army. Deng Ming also always wanted to build a "special equipment and special training unit", but he was busy all year round and had no time to complete every thing he wanted to do.

After discussing his ideas with his subordinates, Zhao Tianba and other officers of the standing army believed that training such troops was not an urgent task. They felt that Deng Ming used the most frequently to use makeup sneak attacks. Instead of specially preparing for this kind of "special training troops", it is better to rely on experience sharing to avoid similar situations: first, introduce the process of this Chongqing battle to all officers, and compile it into the military textbooks in Chengdu, so that every soldier knows that Li Guoying had used such tactics. In addition, Zhao Tianba mentioned that the fact that Li Guoying used green camp soldiers to make up the Eight Banners soldiers must also be written into the military textbooks in Chengdu. Whether it is the Ming army or the Qing army, they do not attach much importance to experience sharing at present. The military experience of the generals can only be accumulated step by step through personal battles.

The Kuidong Army suffered such serious defeat, largely because the Ming army was a mixed force. Deng Ming would likely fight side by side with the Allies in the future. Deng Ming had made up his mind that if he encountered this situation, someone would have to be responsible for the distribution of food and grass. Even if Deng Ming was not responsible, he would not be like Li Laiheng, everyone was busy on the front line of war and there was no dedicated person to take charge of logistics.

After learning that Yuan Zongdi had lost thousands of soldiers, Yuan Xiang of Xuzhou was very sad. He told Deng Ming that the generals in Kuidong are probably in Wanxian County. After the defeat, they returned to Yuan Zongdi's territory and discussed the next move.

"I originally wanted to report to the Imperial Parliament on my trip to Myanmar first," Deng Ming and Yuan Xiang talked for a while, and realized that the parliament seemed to be out of shape. Just as Xiong Lan treated the cashiers as soldiers to train, many of the things the parliament did were very different from those in Deng Ming's mind: "But I'd better go to Wanxian first. I also happened to go to Fengjie. I just received the news from Myanmar. Mr. Li said that the three young masters of Governor Wen had escaped safely and were on their way back to China."

"Is it the Senate or the Imperial Parliament?" When he first heard Deng Ming's words, Yuan Xiang thought he had heard it wrong. He also believed that the Imperial Parliament was just a subordinate department of the Senate, and the role of the parliament was to propose the bill that the Senate wanted to pass. That is, in places like Syrian state where there is no Senate, the Imperial Parliament's branch has some use.

"It's the Imperial Parliament." Deng Ming reiterated. He felt that there was no time to go back to Chengdu to rest, so he asked Yuan Xiang to convey his convening order: "Anyway, they are not permanent staff, and it takes some time to gather. I will go to Wanxian and Fengjie to do business during this time, and then go to say hello to Li Guoying when I pass by Chongqing. I will definitely come back in a month. Well, let the members of the Imperial Parliament gather on the fifteenth next month. During the Lantern Festival, I will report to them the specific details of the expedition to Myanmar and the king."

"Yes." Yuan Xiang knew that Deng Ming would not return to Chengdu immediately, and the auxiliary soldiers who followed him to fight would immediately disband and return to their long-lost home. But the standing army did not have this right. They would continue to follow Deng Ming until Deng Ming officially disbanded the army - and Xuzhou needed to provide Deng Ming with some sailors and auxiliary personnel. They were all water routes to Wanxian and Fengjie, and were the territory of friendly troops. Deng Ming had no combat mission, so he did not need many people.

The next day, Deng Ming took the standing army to the direction of Chongqing.

When Yuan Xiang was about to send Deng Ming's order to Chengdu, he realized that Deng Ming used a very puzzling word: "The admiral said that he was going to 'report' to the Imperial Parliament! Is it a 'report'?"
Chapter completed!
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