A few days later, Liu Tichun also brought many women back to Zhongxiang Mansion City, who were all fiancées he hired for the soldiers.

As soon as Liu Tichun saw Deng Ming and Yuan Zongdi, he shouted loudly: "Have you heard that Hu Quancai transferred all the troops from the two lakes to Wuchang."

The wind in Zhongxiang City was also heard in Wuchang, but Yuan Zongdi seemed to have not heard it, as if nothing had happened.

When they first captured Zhongxiang City, Liu Tichun sent spies to Hanyang area to inquire about the news. They learned that Wuchang and Hanyang were under high alert, and Qing soldiers were covered with sentries, and passers-by would be carefully investigated and interrogated. Because they could not sneak into Hanyang to inquire, the spies of the Ming army returned to Zhongxiang to report to the leader. The Qing army in Hanyang area was repairing fortifications, as if worried about the Ming army going south. Liu Tichun and other generals of Kuidong felt as expected. They had long believed that neither Ming and Qing armies had the ability to attack the other side. The Qing army repaired fortifications fortifications fortifications fortifications fortifications fortifications, and Hu Quancai probably overestimated the strength of the Ming army.

When the four generals of Kuidong collected materials and manpower around Zhongxiang, they were always paying attention to the movements in the south. Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi were stationed in the army, and they would come back from time to time to see the situation in the city with their own eyes and help Deng Ming solve some problems.

When the spies came back in recent times, they reported that the blockade line of the Qing army in Hanyang was getting tighter, and the Governor of Huguang was building iron chains day and night. Liu Tichun was a little surprised and thought that Hu Quancai was too much of a problem. However, this was the Qing army's business. Hu Quancai was willing to waste the Qing army's manpower and material resources. He would do whatever he wanted. The Ming army could not control it, just think it was a joke.

However, the news just came was a little strange. It is said that Hu Quancai had ordered the abandonment of Jiang Fang.

After discovering that the Qing army suddenly withdrew overnight, Li Laiheng, who was upstream, hurriedly sent spies to investigate. When he learned that Yiling had indeed turned into an empty city, he immediately sent troops to occupy it without any chance. Li Laiheng thought that the Ming army led by the four generals of Kuidong was still in Xiangyang at this time. When he saw the envoys sent by Liu Tichun to report the victory, he realized that the Ming army had captured Zhongxiang. While occupying Yiling, Li Laiheng asked the envoys to go to Zhongxiang to report the news of victory.

"Yiling is the hometown of the Supervisor, and this time the Supervisor should be happy." Liu Tichun smiled and guessed Wen Anzhi's mood, and even bet with Yuan Zongdi about whether Wen Anzhi would go back to his hometown to see.

"Yiling's encampments retreated to Wuchang. Are they going to attack us?" Deng Ming was a little nervous about this.

"It shouldn't be." Liu Tichun shook his head. During this period, he always paid attention to the information sent back from Hanyang: "Hu Quancai sank several ships into the Han River and blocked the river with iron ropes. This is not an attacking posture, it is obviously a defense against our attack."

"What are we going to attack?" Deng Ming asked. Now the Ming army is thinking about returning to Kuidong from top to bottom. Not to mention insufficient troops, even if the troops are sufficient, the current morale of the army cannot continue to advance.

"That's all!" Liu Tichun said: "Hu Quancai probably overestimated our morale and strength. But this is also information, which shows that Wuchang is even more empty than we imagined. Hu Quancai felt that if he did not withdraw the defenders of Yiling, he would not be able to stop even a tentative attack."

"Hu Quancai should be more clear about our military strength. After our army has been fighting for so long, and has crossed the three prefectures one after another, Hu Quancai still doesn't know how many of us are? He should know that we have no intention of making progress." Yuan Zongdi continued. There were only 14,000 soldiers in the more than 40,000 Ming army, most of which were new soldiers. As long as the Ming general was not blinded by victory, he would not attack Wuchang: "It only means that Wuchang was eating too much salary and had no troops except the three thousand soldiers who supported Zhong Xiang. Hu Quancai did not dare to sing an empty city plan and did not dare to put his bet on us not attacking."

"Why would you eat so much after eating an empty salary? Although the Huguang Green Camp was not very capable of fighting, the number of troops was always full." Liu Tichun believed that Yuan Zongdi's analysis made some sense, but this was inconsistent with the situation of the Qing army in Huguang in his impression.

"Oh, wasn't Hong Chengchou staring at him before? If this huge harm was removed, the green camp in Huguang was no longer afraid and began to eat empty wages." Yuan Zongdi believed that Hong Chengchou was burned to death in Kunming, so the officialdom in Huguang was quickly killed.

However, Deng Ming felt that this statement was a bit far-fetched. Hong Chengchou had only been dead for a few months, and Huguang could be corrupted to such an extent? But there was only one explanation besides that. Deng Ming couldn't help but ask again: "Is Hu Quancai coming to Zhongxiang to hit us?"

"No!" Liu Tichun said confidently, "Give up Jiang Fang and come to Zhong Xiang to beat us. Didn't he lose the watermelon and pick up sesame seeds? Unless he came for the Admiral."

The Ming army could not defeat it, but at worst, they could return all Zhongxiang and other places to Hu Quancai. Besides, there was the threat of Henan Green Camp behind it. The importance of the Han River Basin cannot be compared with the Yangtze River defense of the Yangtze River. Hu Quancai could not give up the river defense in order to bombard the Ming army from the Han River.

Liu Tichun had a stronger reason: "If he wanted to attack, why did he have to sank a ship in the Han River and set up iron chains to block the river?"

Liu Tichun has a prestige among the generals of Kuidong. Deng Ming has experienced this since his expedition. Every time the military analysis before the war was almost done by Liu Tichun, and the other three generals were very convinced of his judgment and plan. For example, a gap had been opened for the blasting of Gucheng. Liu Tichun could actually convince Hao Yaoqi and Yuan Zongdi to stop their siege and carry out several more blasts. Especially He Zhen, Deng Ming knew that he had asked for the first time to attack the city in order to make more things.

Only the wrong judgment of Zhong Xiang's military strength made Liu Tichun feel very embarrassed, but the other people did not think that this was Liu Tichun's mistake. The Hanyang General who guarded Zhong Xiang was really stupid. He blocked the city gate with six thousand armored soldiers and hid in the city, which was indeed unexpected.

"Do we call General Hao and General He back?" Deng Ming asked. After hearing that Yiling was abandoned by Hu Quancai, he was considering whether he should gather the troops to prevent the Qing army.

"No need." Liu Tichun thought there was no need for this: "Hu Quancai would never give up Jiang Fang in order to counterattack Zhong Xiang. There was only one possibility that he suddenly gave up Yiling, that is, he felt that Wuchang might not be able to defend, and he gave up Jiang Fang after being forced to do so. We had overestimated Wuchang's strength. In fact, Wuchang did not have many defenders. Even if the soldiers transferred back to Yiling were still similar to us, they were all more guarded but not enough attacks."

Deng Ming admitted that Liu Tichun was very clear about his analysis, but he always felt something was wrong. Deng Ming suddenly had a strange idea: "Can it be Hu Quancai who read our manifesto and believed that we had at least 200,000 troops, so he transferred all the Jiang Fang troops back?"

Liu Tichun smiled slightly when he heard this and replied politely: "I know that the admiral is to expect the enemy to be lenient and refuses to underestimate the enemy's strength. However, he underestimated the thief Hu Quancai. Although he has not led the army out to fight, he has been by Hong Chengchou for many years and will not know anything."

"Hu Quancai has been the governor of Yunyang for two years." Yuan Zongdi added.

"Yes, he has also been the governor of Yunyang," Liu Tichun agreed loudly: "Maybe he knows only limited knowledge about other places, but Hu Quancai must have known how many soldiers and horses can come out from Yunyang and the Han River, how many wooden rafts and bamboo rafts in his hands, and how many times General Hao has in his hands. He can definitely guess our troops to eight or nine."

Deng Ming smiled ashamedly. Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi were inciting themselves into the village. Hu Quancai had been dealing with the camp for so many years. Of course, he knew Kuidong's strength and would not make low-level mistakes.

Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi were not far from Zhong Xiang. Sometimes they came and left on the same day, and sometimes they stayed in the city overnight. Deng Ming left any mistakes because he had no experience. After getting along during this period, the four generals of Kuidong found that Deng Ming was easy to speak, and would never get angry when they refuted his opinions in person. The two checked in Zhong Xiang and found that everything was normal, so they left their female camp in the city and returned to their respective troops.

Two days later, the Ming army in the south reported that a Qing cavalry was invading. Deng Ming immediately commanded the Ming army in Zhongxiang to be on guard. The Qing army walked around the Ming army for a few times and left in disappointment when he saw no gap.

...

Wuchang, Huguang Governor's Office.

The atmosphere in the Governor's Office in the past two days has been dull and suffocating. More and more investigation information has been sent back one after another, but none of them reflects the existence of the Ming army in Zhong Xiang.

Yesterday, another army from Changsha Prefecture rushed to Wuchang with several cannons.

After the arrival of this army, before they could breathe, they encountered other Changsha Prefecture troops that they arrived before. When they heard the complaints from their colleagues who arrived first, they all said that the so-called 300,000 bandits were completely false, and they might have dreamed of the Governor of Huguang when they were dreaming.

The artillery team worked hard all the way. In order to drag the four cannons, many of them were killed and pulled the horses. Several soldiers were exhausted halfway. Another officer failed to avoid the horse when the horse suddenly fell to death. His legs were broken by the cannon, and he died on the spot. At that time, the military situation was urgent, and the officer in the artillery team dared not stay, so he had to leave the body of his confidant on the road and let the local officials bury it.

After hearing the truth, the leader of the artillery team called out. All the hard work along the way was wasted, and the confidant officer died in vain. If he made military achievements in the defense of Wuchang, he would not only receive a reward, but also report his merits and request pensions for his subordinate who died halfway through. But if everything was the delusion of the governor of Huguang, could the court pay the bill for random command?

When a large number of troops rushed towards Wuchang in a hurry, they were certainly afraid of the strict orders of the Governor of Huguang, but they also looked forward to the rewards after victory. But they found that they had to go back. When they came, they all provided the army with all their strength. The soldiers could eat and drink enough on the way, and when they returned, they would not be treated as meritorious soldiers. Most of the people who plundered the local area would be punished, but how could they be willing to go home honestly?

More rumors were circulating unscrupulously in Wuchang, many of which were spread from the Governor's Shogunate.

For example, when Zhou Peigong was free, he often studied the wars in Yicheng, Zhongxiang and other places with a group of staff. Although Zhou Peigong knew nothing about wars, he was very interested in discussing the gains and losses of these wars and gaining lessons.

How to effectively defend the siege of hundreds of thousands of bandits on the city was the research tone set by the staff at the beginning. Sinking stone ships in the river and setting up iron chains to block the river, Governor Hu's various wise decisions were repeatedly praised by everyone at the initial discussion meeting. Except for one person, everyone recognized Hu Quancai as the jade pillar of Huguang and the magic needle for the sea. The exception was Zhou Peigong and Zhou Juren.

Juren Zhou still insisted that Zhong Xiang's Ming army had a maximum of 40,000 or 50,000 troops. According to him, Governor Hu's initial judgment was correct. The Ming army sent troops from Yunyang was between 20,000 and 40,000. The fencemen turned very quickly. Now the topic of the discussion of the Governor's shogunate has changed from "how to resist the attack of 300,000 bandits" to "Why would so many defenders Zhong Xiang be defeated by Deng Ming in two days?"

Although Governor Hu had already had an opinion on Zhou Juren, he did not immediately kick Zhou Juren out in order to show everyone that he could take a boat in the prime minister's belly.

According to the report of Governor Hu's spy, Juren Zhou even found several generals from Hubei and Hunan to ask for opinions. The generals had just arrived in Wuchang and did not know that the city gate blocked by Zhongxiang's mansion was Governor Hu's instructions, and they said in unison: Although they didn't know why the Ming army could quickly destroy the city wall, blocking the four gates was undoubtedly a major mistake, which led to the Qing army's catastrophe in a very short time. If the city gate was not blocked, the Qing army would not be helpless in the Ming army's attack tactics. Setting up camp outside the city can effectively deter the enemy, and even dispatch excavation troops to annihilate the Ming army; secondly, even if the Ming army still broke the wall, the Qing army could use the city tower to observe the deployment of the Ming army, holding the initiative to counterattack the Ming army from the city or outside the city, and annihilate the Ming army into the city; finally, even if Zhong Xiang was still in the trap, the Qing army would not need to fight to regain the gap, but could easily leave the city gate.

After these Qing generals left the yamen, they talked everywhere about how stupid Zhong Xiang's local officials were and how the late Hanyang generals did not know the soldiers. They were not sure about the soldiers until they were told that the arrangement was to strictly implement Governor Hu's instructions, and they quickly shut up, but the bad impact caused was irreversible. Soon Wuchang knew that Hu Quancai was the culprit for the destruction of Zhong Xiang's entire army.

The Qing soldiers sent out recently went to the reconnaissance cavalry and brought back two prisoners. According to the prisoners' accounts, the equipment of the main combat soldiers in the Ming army is now seized from the Qing soldiers.

The current situation is: Hu Quancai, the governor of Huguang, gave up the Yangtze River defense for 40,000 or 50,000 Ming troops, intercepted taxes and provided military pay and food to Guizhou, and spent a huge amount of time to carry out an emergency mobilization within the two provinces, exaggerating the imperial court and nearby provinces, and insisting on 300,000 Ming troops. Moreover, most of the 40,000 or 50,000 Ming troops were expanded after attacking Hu Quancai's territory. The Ming army now owned 14,000 and 5,000 combat troops, of which 8,000 or 9,000 of the equipment was provided by Hu Quancai. In the end, he was frightened by the enemy and gave up the Yiling and Jiangling Fortress District, which the Qing court had for many years.

"Deng Ming, you're so vicious." After finally discovering that this was actually Deng Ming's series of plans, Hu Quancai felt that the sky had fallen. Once the real situation was learned by the court, he would never give up his own. If he had such a big mess, it would be hard to say whether his family would be implicated.

"Quickly report to the court!" Hu Quancai, like a gambler who was frightened, decided to make his final desperate bet: "Deng Ming, the pseudo-Jiangnan admiral, was investigated in detail by my official, and it was... Shinai."

Li Guoying said that Deng Ming was an unknown pseudo-Ming royal family. Hu Quancai not only agreed, but also had to add some new content to better illustrate his ability. Hu Quancai thought about it again and again and made up his mind: "Deng thief was actually the descendant of the Ming Fu King. When the king defeated Jiangning (Nanjing), he was five years old and was carried by a palace servant named Deng to escape..."

In the report, Hu Quancai said that after Deng Ming captured Zhong Xiang, he cried bitterly in front of the tomb of King Xingxian (the father of Emperor Jiajing and the ancestor of King Fu) and vowed to restore his throne. After the tomb sacrifice, officials were set up in Anlu Mansion and other places to win people's hearts. Therefore, Hu Quancai deeply felt that Deng Ming must be eliminated early, and he must not let him occupy Zhong Xiang and disturb the place, so he must concentrate the troops in the two lakes to clear them up as soon as possible.

After the memorial was handed over, Hu Quancai immediately ordered the whole army to be mobilized and prepared to send troops to Zhong Xiang.

He speculated that after he handed this memorial to Beijing, the court might not take it seriously. It seems that whether he can escape from the crime is whether he can defeat Deng Ming. As long as he can bombard the bewitching Fu Wang royal family from Huguang and keep Huguang's safety, Hu Quancai has made contributions after all, and may be able to ease the thunderous anger of the court.

The only problem now is that Deng Ming is probably not a member of the Fu King's royal family with great influence. But it doesn't matter. Governor Hu can help him create it. He secretly helped Deng Ming build up the momentum and then drove him away. This will make great contributions. While sending the memorial, Hu Quancai secretly ordered his subordinates to go to the four outside to spread the news, so that Hu Guang and even the world know Deng Ming and his identity. Even Deng Ming's sacrificial text to sacrifice to King Xingxian with the orphan of King Fu King, Hu Quancai has already written a copy for him, with both voice and emotion and tears.

When he heard that Hu Quancai was going to mobilize the entire army to attack Zhong Xiang, his aides and generals were immediately in trouble: "What should I do with the navy?"

Hu Quancai glared: "Of course we have to go with us and go along the Han River and the land."

"But there are also iron chains that block the river."

Someone said, and someone else reminded me: "There are still many ships in the Han River, and the navy cannot get through without the iron chain."

"The chain is removed!" Hu Quancai was furious: "Raise the wreck immediately. Do I need to teach you this? I will clear the river at this time tomorrow, otherwise military law will be carried out!"
Chapter completed!