On the one hand, Zhao Liangdong's anger was for himself. Because Deng Ming humiliated Wu Sangui with an open letter, the civil and military officials in the Qing court and the world all doubted Wu Sangui's ability, and this momentum would also exaggerate Wu Sangui's failure. After such a major impact, the Qing court could not fail to hold Wu Sangui responsible for his crimes, to show the Qing court's principle that the Qing court believed that rewards would be punished. Of course, the punishment of Wu Sangui would make Zhao Liangdong unlucky with him. If Wu Sangui was forced to be impatient, he might push the responsibility to Zhao Liangdong in order to reduce the responsibilities.

On the other hand, Zhao Liangdong was very worried about the situation in Yunnan. After the Qing army suffered this major setback, the morale of the people was greatly hit. If Wu Sangui was blamed or demoted at this time, it would easily make the Yunnan Qing army feel more defeated. Looking at the overall situation, Zhao Liangdong believed that Wu Sangui's attack on Yunnan and Guizhou was completed very well. Although the chaos in Kunming was caused by Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong's carelessness, there were other accidental factors, and it was not necessary to completely blame Wu Sangui.

Not many years after Zhao Liangdong joined the Ajige army, he raised the flag because of his contribution. His love for the Eight Banners came from the heart. The successive victory of the Qing Dynasty made him feel happy and satisfied. In Zhao Liangdong's opinion, Li Dingguo was only one breath away. The most urgent task of the Qing court is to quickly send support to Kunming, especially the food and grass that the Yunnan Qing army urgently needed, and sent it quickly from Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou and other places at all costs. At the same time, do not hold Wu Sangui accountable - of course, don't hold him accountable, appease the emotions of the Qing army in the southwest, and give Li Dingguo a final blow.

Wu Sangui seemed much calmer than Zhao Liangdong. When he heard Deng Ming's fraudulent order to "do things cheaply", he felt that this kid was not old but was quite ruthless. The open letter strengthened Wu Sangui's impression: If Deng Ming wrote a proud and publicized the results of the war, then the first reaction of the Qing officials in the local Qing court was to instinctively doubt. However, the first half of Deng Ming's letter was just a few words, saying that many actions were presided over by him, and he did not mention the results of the war. The second half also implied that these actions were all successful, which made the people who received the letter feel curious and inquiry.

"The envelopes are all written as 'open letter'. This person was not intentionally deceiving it, and I didn't think too much." Wu Sangui looked calm. It was not surprising that the content of Deng Ming's article was so amazing that it was widely spread. In addition, even if it was not spread to the people, it was just known to the officialdom, which was bad for Wu Sangui: "With the lessons of Kunming, I was so careless about him, which is really unreasonable."

Wu Sangui felt that from a military perspective, the war situation in Yunnan had become irreversible. If he wanted to reduce the losses, the best way was to temporarily give up Yunnan and let the army return to Guizhou to eat. Of course, before leaving, he would have to completely destroy Yunnan. Any people who were unwilling to move away should be treated as enemies, so that Yunnan would lose the ability to support the Ming army. The Qing army had been raising energy in Guizhou for a few years and attacking Yunnan again could defeat the Ming army again.

However, the military perspective is not the only perspective to look at the problem. Before this expedition to Yunnan and Guizhou, the Qing court repeatedly told Wu Sangui that as long as the Yongli court could be eliminated, Yunnan and Guizhou would be handed over to him in the future, so that he would become a vassal king similar to the King of Korea. When the military operation was progressing smoothly, the Qing court reiterated this reward many times, allowing Wu Sangui to continue his efforts and get the territory of the vassal kings he deserved as soon as possible.

Therefore, Wu Sangui has already regarded Yunnan and Guizhou as his own property. Yongli and Li Dingguo are the enemies who compete with him for family property. During this period, the Yongli court also came to lobbyists and wanted to persuade Wu Sangui to "raising the Southern Ming to respect himself" with the reason of "dead rabbit and dog cooking", but Wu Sangui disdained these lobbyists. First of all, the Qing court had a good credit, and Wu Sangui had to share this reward with many Han generals. He felt that the Qing court would not offend many generals in the southwest in one breath; secondly, as long as Yongli and Li Dingguo were still alive, they would continue to harass Yunnan. For this expedition, the Qing court had already taken out a lot of resources. In the future, the expedition against Yongli and Li Dingguo mainly relied on Yunnan and Guizhou's efforts. In Wu Sangui's eyes, who had already regarded Yunnan and Guizhou as his own, raising the Southern Ming means paying out of his own pocket and unable to get more military expenditure from the Qing court. This loss-making business would definitely not be done by Wu Sangui.

It is precisely because of this mentality that Wu Sangui had always hoped to solve the problem of the Southern Ming as soon as possible. After conquering Kunming, Wu Sangui had tried to bomb the reinforcements from Guangdong and Guangxi. He did not want these tourists who would leave Yunnan and Guizhou to continue to stay on his future land for free. Wu Sangui also expected that they would not treat local people well. It was indeed as Wu Sangui expected that the generals who would share the territory of Yunnan and Guizhou with Wu Sangui in the future were most concerned about local people's livelihood and had the best military discipline, while those tourists who would definitely leave plundered the local areas. The reinforcements from Guangdong and Guangxi, with the worst military discipline, harmed the places all the way. After being bombarded by Wu Sangui, they forced the people of Yunnan on their way back. Wu Sangui didn't know if this was the instruction of their master Geng Jimao.

There are also the visiting army led by Zhao Liangdong and others. Wu Sangui is also eager for these troops to leave Yunnan as soon as possible. The Yongli court was eliminated, so there is no reason for Zhao Liangdong and others to continue to stay in Yunnan and not leave. Until the Kunming fire, Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong's goals were still the same, and they couldn't wait to eliminate Yongli and Li Dingguo. Not only that, Wu Sangui is also preparing for a military operation against the Shuixi'an clan, exerting pressure from multiple parties, and is determined to force the An clan to rise up and respond to Can Ming and Li Dingguo. Wu Sangui has made up his mind to wipe out these chieftains who have been entrenched in Yunnan and Guizhou for thousands of years once and for all, ensuring that he will be the only master of this territory in the future.

However, in the past few days, Wu Sangui became hesitant about whether to immediately eliminate the Yongli court and Li Dingguo. He estimated that the Qing court would punish him for the Kunming fire, but how heavy would this punishment be? After careful consideration, Wu Sangui found that he might not have much trouble. He did not believe that the Qing court would deprive him of all his power and positions. Wu Sangui was a great hero to the Qing court more than ten years ago. With this contribution, the Qing court could not punish him too severely, let alone Wu Sangui also had subordinates in the army. As long as the military power is in control and the old achievements of Xianshan Customs back then, Wu Sangui would not be too miserable even if he was asked to be guilty, and would not have no room for a turnaround.

But I dare not say whether the promised Yunnan-Guizhou finite countries can be preserved. Since the death of Kong Youde and Nikan, the Kunming fire was the biggest failure of the Qing court. Wu Sangui felt that the Qing court might deprive its vassal state in anger, or subtract one province from the fiefs of Yunnan-Guizhou provinces. If so, what was Wu Sangui's desperate attack on Yongli and Li Dingguo?

Two days ago, Wu Sangui was still hesitating. He had two choices, either hoping that the Qing court would not deprive the vassal states or reduce fiefs, conceal the blame, keep the position of commander of the southwest army, and continue to attack the Yongli court; or retreat as advance, and take all the blame first. When the Qing court was relieved, he felt that the Yongli court could not be punished without Wu Sangui's attack, so when he reiterated the rewards of Yunnan and Guizhou, he would work hard to attack the Yongli court, which was in Wu Sangui's greatest interests. But he was worried that if he retreated and others equated the Yongli court, the position of the vassal king would fall into someone else's pocket.

However, Deng Ming's open letter made Wu Sangui no longer have to continue to be confused. Things could no longer be turned into small matters. Wu Sangui was already thinking about which step he should take to retreat to. The only thing he had to plan was that when he was keeping his strength, he must do his best to ensure that others could not destroy the Yongli court, so that the Qing court would sooner or later have to re-reward the rewards of his vassal kings.

Of course, Wu Sangui did not intend to make this clear statement to Zhao Liangdong, a loyal dog of the Qing Dynasty. From a military perspective, when retreating from Yunnan, the scorched earth policy should be adopted, kill all the people who refuse to retreat, and burn all the materials and facilities that cannot be transported, just like Wu Sangui planned to do to Jianchang. However, Wu Sangui was still planning to include Yunnan in the future. Carrying a scorched earth policy in Yunnan is equivalent to burning his own property. Wu Sangui would rather leave it to Li Dingguo - as long as it is taken back in the future, Li Dingguo would not carry out scorched earth resistance in Yunnan.

Seeing that Wu Sangui didn't support him, Zhao Liangdong scolded Deng Ming alone and turned the topic back to the military: "The last person thinks that he should ask for food from Guizhou and Guangdong and Guangxi as soon as possible to quell the chaos in the province."

"In another five days, the army will be out of food." Wu Sangui has lost interest in quickly eliminating Li Dingguo. If the latter is likely to be eliminated by others, it is even hard to say what Wu Sangui will do: "Even if the grain from Guizhou is transferred, it will not last long. As for Guangdong, will King Jingnan and King Zhennan (Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao) lend me their military rations?"

"During this period, please reopen the Yangtze River shipping, and conquer many places from Jiangnan to replenish our food and fodder." Zhao Liangdong admitted that the Qing army in Yunnan was in difficulty at present, but Li Dingguo was also in difficulty. It was difficult for him to grit his teeth and persevere. It was difficult for anyone to stand it first.

But Wu Sangui still shook his head: "The distant water cannot save the near fire. If the food and fodder in Guizhou are exhausted and the food in Jiangnan has not arrived yet, the situation in the southwest will be out of control."

"The commander-in-chief means withdrawing from Guizhou?" Zhao Liangdong was of course very dissatisfied with Wu Sangui's plan, and giving up land in a province is not a minor crime.

But Wu Sangui estimated that the Qing court would not punish him to death. With the upper limit of punishment, it would be more beneficial to him to concentrate all the crimes and solve them at one time: "It is not difficult for the army to retreat to Guizhou first to eat, and it is not difficult to attack Yunnan when the food and fodder in Jiangnan arrives."

Neither Wu Sangui nor Zhao Liangdong could convince each other, so he had to agree to discuss it tomorrow, and then all the generals were summoned to discuss the current military situation in Yunnan.

Before the plenary meeting was held, Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong went to persuade other generals. Without the support of another Hong Chengchou, who was loyal to the Qing court, Zhao Liangdong's work was very unsuccessful and could hardly find an allied army to support him. Wu Sangui was different, and his direct descendants had common interests with him. Wu Sangui was unwilling to use his direct descendants to fight for his life, and they themselves were not willing to spend all the capital on profits in troubled times before they could see the reward; even those who were not in the direct descendants who wanted to stay in Yunnan and Guizhou also agreed with Wu Sangui's opinion: If you support Wu Sangui now, you can expect to get Wu Sangui's reward in the future. Wu Sangui doesn't want to fight all his old capital, so they are the same; there are also a group of people who are going to leave Yunnan in the future. Seeing that Wu Sangui doesn't want to fight, how could they expect them to fight desperately?

At the military meeting the next day, Wu Sangui easily defeated the lonely Zhao Liangdong without any effort. The latter's plan was indeed not convincing. Hong Chengchou may force the two lakes and Guangdong and Guangxi to supply military rations urgently, but Zhao Liangdong could not have the ability. Everyone agreed to leave and return to Guizhou before the military rations were completely exhausted, and some people even suggested to Wu Sangui to keep Zhao Liangdong to guard Kunming. Wu Sangui could say that he did not completely give up Yunnan and transferred a considerable part of the responsibility to Zhao Liangdong. Everyone took away the army and military rations. It would be strange that Zhao Liangdong could stay alone and be able to defend Kunming. If he refused to defend at that time, he would have to escape back to Guiyang.

However, Wu Sangui didn't do things so well. Anyway, there must be a limit on the punishment he received, and it doesn't matter if he takes over the responsibility of giving up Yunnan. Now he needs Zhao Liangdong and himself to help each other in the Kunming fire. In the future, he may also use Zhao Liangdong's talents when invading Yunnan again. Even if Zhao Liangdong is not used, he may need the assistance of other guests. Wu Sangui is happy to do a favor.

In the letter to the Qing court, Wu Sangui admitted that Kunming suffered great losses and that the army was about to run out of food. In order to save more troops, Wu Sangui ordered the Qing army in Yunnan to retreat to Guizhou for the time being. He said that the generals and subordinates in the southwest were all on orders and he was willing to take the responsibility of giving up the decision of Yunnan - since they wanted to sell favors, just sell them to their pleasure - that was what Wu Sangui planned.

If more than 100,000 Qing troops retreated to Guizhou, it would definitely not be able to support it by relying on one province alone. After the Qing army gave up Yunnan, Li Dingguo would probably come back, and of course the momentum was far from being compared with before the loss of Yunnan. If the remnant Ming had the intention of making a comeback, then the Qing court would certainly not allow Wu Sangui to pay for the Ming army out of his own pocket, and would definitely allocate more food and military pay.

With the support of the Qing court, Wu Sangui felt that he could bear it for some time. After the Qing court reassured his status as a vassal king and the territory of Yunnan and Guizhou, Wu Sangui could launch an attack again. He first took the Qing court's food and salary for several years, which was to allow Beijing to share some of the losses of the Kunming fire for him. If the Qing court attempted to let other generals compete for the credit for the enthronement of Yunnan and Guizhou, Wu Sangui would be in Guiyang and would definitely make all his competitors unable to bear it.

Most of the Qing troops in the peripheral defense circle were not Wu Sangui's direct confidants. After Wu Sangui made the decision, he immediately informed those trusted troops who were not in Kunming as quickly as possible, and those non-confidants would naturally be a little later. If Li Dingguo failed to react quickly, everyone should be able to withdraw safely. If Li Dingguo reacted quickly and non-direct troops were cut off, Wu Sangui's trusted generals could lead the entire army back to Guizhou.

...

On the way back to Jianchang, Deng Ming and his stroll were not fast. At this time, they did not know the full results of the Kunming fire and how much impact it would have on the Jianchang army. Deng Ming decided to walk slowly and leave time so that the news could reach Jianchang first. He himself had to observe Feng Shuangli's reaction before making a decision.

During this period, Deng Ming not only summed up his experience and lessons, but also spent some time every day to teach Zhou Kaiyuan, Li Xinghan and others to learn to read. When they dig out the grain buried on the way south, they found that the grain had been moved and the reduced amount exceeded one person's appetite. Everyone was very happy. It seemed that Liu Jinge and Yuan Xiang were both safe and sound.

Before Deng Ming and others returned to Xingdusi, Sichuan, the news of the Kunming fire was like wings, spreading on the southwest land, and also spreading Deng Ming's open letter. Long before the Xiying army heading north arrived in Jianchang, Feng Shuangli learned about the general situation of the incident and quickly sent someone to inform Di Sanxi, who was still entangled with the Qianzong of the Qing army, and Yuan Xiang and Liu Jinge were currently being offered food and drink in the camp by Di Sanxi.

The vanguard of the Xiying North Force had already stepped into the territory of Xingdusi, Sichuan. The envoys they sent to Jianchang were ordered to ask Feng Shuangli about Deng Ming's life experience and resume - now the Xiying troops believed what Wu Sangui said, but they did not turn back. They surrendered and rebelled again. They killed Wu Sangui's people under Kunming City. Surrender again would probably not have a good end. Moreover, these people also developed a strong interest in Deng Ming. The Kunming fire made many people who were originally desperate again feel like the Qing army, and they could be disrupted by more than a dozen people.

After receiving the good news, Di Sanxi felt happy. Di Sanxi, who used to not mention Deng Ming, now talks about Deng Ming all day long, talks with his subordinates, and talks with the newly surrendered Qing soldiers, for fear that someone would not know about Hong Chengchou, Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong also suffered a great loss under Deng Ming. Every time he advocates Deng Ming, Di Sanxi still can't forget to add a sentence: "I was defeated by Mr. Deng and nineteen people in Jianchang."

How about it? Nineteen! Two more people than Deng Ming used to deal with the three guys in Kunming. And after these star athletes came on the court, Di Sanxi suddenly realized that it would not be a shame to participate in this game. Maybe his name as a good general could spread all over the world. Di Sanxi's attention to Deng Ming is similar to that of Hong Chengchou, Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong, and they all have to deal with it personally.

The only drawback is that the good general Di Sanxi still failed to capture the first Qing army stronghold in Dongchuan Prefecture. I wonder if there is a hunting expert in the camp opposite. The Qing army can always hunt large animals such as deer, and a few days ago, and even caught a wild boar. Since most of the Qing soldiers have surrendered to Di Sanxi, the Qing army stronghold on the opposite side has relied on this one, and the two large preys continue to survive. Di Sanxi has too much mouth to eat in the camp, and the main energy must be focused on hunting, and it cannot interfere with the other party's hunting with all its strength.

However, Di Sanxi no longer intends to continue to drag on like this. He is determined to take advantage of the east wind of Kunming's victory to launch a thunderous offensive against the Qing army camp and end the protracted offensive and defensive battle of Dongchuan Prefecture in one fell swoop.
Chapter completed!