After seeing Liu Tichun, Deng Ming immediately told him: "The defeat of Li Shixun has seized many people. General He has left five hundred sets of armor for each of you. Now it exists in his camp. General Liu can send someone to take it."

Liu Tichun immediately showed surprise and glanced at Yuan Zongdi who had arrived first. The latter nodded: "I did get five hundred pairs, although they are all very old."

"This He Zhen..." Liu Ti was pure and wondered why He Zhen changed his sexual desire. Suddenly he realized it and looked at Deng Ming: "It was the Admiral who assigned it to us? It's just that He Zhen has temporarily existed."

"No." Deng Ming denied: "This battle is entirely up to General He's troops. Why can I get 1,500 armor? General He has so many armors now. After getting Li Shixun's things, his Daning soldiers could not wear them even if they wear two sets of clothes."

Although Deng Ming did not admit it, Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi both suspected that the thousand-five armor belonged to Deng Ming, and he divided it into three parts to the other three. They saw that many prisoners were stripped by He Zhen and were almost naked. Some of them did not even have many cloth strips on them, and they were covered with bark and grass skirts. He Zhen did not even let go of cloth clothes. Can he let go of armor? Even if it was old armor.

The two of them guessed that they were not wrong. After the war, Deng Ming pointed out that He Zhen's plan did not work completely, and his assault still played a considerable role, so Deng Ming made a justifiable request to obtain part of the capture. He Zhen felt very sad when he saw that Deng Ming had to have only a small half of his armor. Although as Deng Ming pointed out, his armor could not be worn even if it was piled up in the warehouse, He Zhen felt that it would be good to watch it even if it was piled in the warehouse. After all, this was a rare resource. Although there were not enough reliable Daning soldiers now, soldiers were easy to obtain, and armor was difficult to build.

However, the role played by Deng Ming was undeniable. Deng Ming said that these equipment would be handed over to Hao Yaoqi and others in his name, and He Zhen finally reluctantly agreed. Of course, the rest of the seizures were given: silver, copper coins, cloth, and grain, and Deng Ming were all handed over to He Zhen alone.

Afterwards, He Zhen scolded his son fiercely for this. If his son followed Deng Ming to launch a surprise attack and part of Deng Ming's contribution, he would have reason to give Yuan Zongdi and the others less armor. This prodigal son not only lost 600 sets of armor at once, but also missed a good opportunity to get Deng Ming together. When He Zhen said that he was angry, he wanted to whip his son two whips, but he held the whip in his hand. He still couldn't bear it, so He Zhen put it down again and cursed He Daoning to finish the matter.

Since the war, Deng Ming's turn to intervene in the management of the military camps of various armies. Only when others were not in Zhong Xiang would Deng Ming make his own opinions on matters of all sizes and never issued any mandatory orders to the subordinates of the generals of Kuidong. Only Deng Ming had the final say on how these prisoners were managed. These prisoners had been in Zhong Xiang for several days and worked every day to earn food and clothing. In the evening, Deng Ming also organized some opera and storytellers to perform in the prison camp.

Originally, Liu Tichun had an indifferent attitude towards Deng Ming's handling of the prisoners. After hearing about this, he became curious again, so he ran to the prisoner camp to take a look.

What surprised Liu Tichun even more was that Deng Ming actually took action and spoke stand-up crosstalk to the prisoners around him on one of the stages. Seeing the third prince depreciating himself so much, Liu Tichun felt like he was in a dream and felt that his worldview and values ​​for more than 30 years were subverted.

Among the guards who followed Liu Tichun, two of them had been stationed in Zhongxiang for a while. They were not surprised by Deng Ming's actions. After hearing a few sentences, the two of them looked disappointed: "I have heard of the old joke."

"What have you heard?" Liu Tichun became even more surprised and asked quickly. Although he had vaguely guessed what his subordinates meant, he still couldn't believe it.

"The admiral has suggested several times. If the soldiers are idle, they can go and listen to books and watch the play..." The subordinate's answer confirmed Liu Tichun's guess. Zhongxiangcheng is not big and there are not many artists. Deng Ming personally took the initiative to speak stand-up crosstalk to Mingjun. By the way, Deng Ming also helped his subordinates to practice their ability to read and read. Over the past few months, Li Xinghan and others have known a lot of words. Deng Ming wrote the crosstalk book on paper, asking them to listen to themselves while reading, to see if they can understand a rough idea.

Before, Zhong Xiang had few defenders, each with his own positions, and the rules in the camp were also followed by the old methods of Liu Tichun and others. Therefore, although Deng Ming had a celebrity effect, he was not as busy as he is now. He had to randomly find a table to talk about it almost every day.

Deng Ming dressed as a storyteller, holding a yardstick and a fan on the stage to tell stories to the audience around him. Most of the people on the side of the stage sat cross-legged on the ground, wearing tattered clothes given by He Zhen or homemade bark and grass skirts. They all grinned with big mouths and smiled happily, obviously they were very fascinated by hearing it. When Deng Ming was shaking his bags, the prisoners around the stage were all slapped on their thighs and laughed wildly. Liu Tichun saw that there were still many people rolling around and tears were sprayed out.

The guards who followed Liu Tichun also listened with smiles and shouted with other listeners from time to time, but Liu Tichun did not listen to Deng Ming's story very seriously. He kept observing the crowd around him. It was not until the earth sank into the night that Deng Ming ended his performance. When he walked down from the stage, he also held a basin in his hand, imitating other gentlemen or actors, shouting loudly: "If you have money to support a money field, if you don't have money to support a personal field." He walked past the crowd, and the captives threw copper coins into Deng Ming's basin. The performances on other platforms were almost over. The crowd sighed with unsatisfactory sighs and began to walk back to the prisoner camp.

Carrying a full pot of copper coins, Deng Ming walked to Liu Tichun with a smile on his face. He had seen Liu Tichun coming on the stage just now. After the performance, he walked straight over and raised the basin to show off to Liu Tichun: "Look, this admiral has earned no less than others."

Many of these prisoners' daily work income, except for the remaining money spent on food and drink, were given to these artists. Liu Tichun looked down at the money bowl, without any praise for the fun, but signaled Deng Ming to talk alone. Put the copper coins in his pocket and put them in his arms. Deng Ming and Liu Tichun walked side by side, and the two guards followed far behind.

"Does the admiral plan to put all such prisoners back?" Liu Tichun asked straight to the point.

"These people, yes," Deng Ming nodded and replied without hesitation: "They were all identified by General He. They were all personal soldiers of the Tartar Generals, or they were old and young in their hometown, so they would not be at ease with us. After Hu Quancai withdrew, I released them all, just like last time."

Liu Tichun pondered for a moment. After he came back, he asked several subordinates and knew that Deng Ming had arranged a remuneration arbitration department, which was specifically responsible for coordinating the financial conflict between prisoners and Zhongxiang's residents. In the past, soldiers might have been strong, but now these Qing soldiers are all prisoners. Zhongxiang's residents felt that under normal circumstances, their lives were not guaranteed, so it was inevitable that someone wanted to bully them and rely on their wages. Deng Ming established arbitration institution that did not favor the residents, but tried hard to protect the prisoners from getting the wages they deserved.

"If the admiral doesn't want to win their morale, why should it be like this?" Liu Tichun asked his doubts. When he saw Deng Ming walking through the crowd just now, although he knew that these prisoners had absolutely no courage to be detrimental to Deng Ming under the control of the Ming army, even if there were some madmen Deng Ming's guards, they were enough to subdue them. However, this was still a gesture of showing trust. Liu Tichun felt that he would only appear when trying to win people's hearts: "If the admiral doesn't want these prisoners, why bother with such an effort."

After asking, Liu Tichun looked at Deng Ming's expression seriously and waited for the other party's answer.

Deng Ming sighed softly. These prisoners were his enemies. Deng Ming had also seen their hideous faces on the battlefield. At that time, most of these people's faces were fierce expressions. However, when Deng Ming was speaking crosstalk, he saw simple joy on the faces of the people around him. The joyful appearance of these people made Deng Ming feel warm and kind. When he walked past these people with a bowl of money, Deng Ming could also feel their gratitude and friendship.

"Many of them were peasants, but they were captured by the Tartars and then joined the army to fight with us. Some of them became personal soldiers for a long time in the Tartars, wearing armor, and some shorter ones were auxiliary soldiers. But a long time ago, they were all Han people. They said the same words and ate the same things, would miss their relatives, and love their children." Deng Ming said calmly as he walked: "They are all humans."

"So what if they are all humans?" Liu Tichun was a little puzzled by Deng Ming's feelings and asked.

"I thought that since they were humans, they should be paid for their labor. When they were hungry, they should be able to find something to eat, when they felt cold, and when they were full and drunk, they could feel happy." Deng Ming seriously told Liu Tichun what he thought people should be treated: "When on the battlefield, I will not be ruthless to the enemy, but on the battlefield, I would rather treat the prisoners as humans, not insult them, so that they can get entertainment after work."

"So that's what the admiral thought." Liu Tichun also sighed softly, without any evaluation of Deng Ming's persuasion, there was no more problems.

After breaking up with Deng Ming, Liu Tichun went to Yuan Zong's camp again. The latter came back half a day earlier than Liu Tichun and already knew what Deng Ming did to the prisoners. However, his speculation was similar to that of Liu Tichun, but Deng Ming might have moved his mind to take some of the prisoners for his own use.

Liu Tichun denied his speculation and repeated what Deng Ming said to him to Yuan Zongdi. When the latter was stunned, Liu Tichun suddenly patted Yuan Zongdi on the shoulder hard: "Brother Yuan, you are a very good person. The third prince is a kind and virtuous person. He will treat us well after the revival in the future."

...

Hao Yaoqi also rushed over with his troops soon after, but when Hao Yaoqi arrived, Hu Quancai's army was still far away from Zhong Xiang.

"What are the Hu thief doing?" Hao Yaoqi rushed along the way, fearing that he would not arrive in time, but he did not expect that Hu Quancai's actions were so slow that he still couldn't arrive within a few days.

"The Hu thief's army walked almost the same as turtle crawling. Every day, the rear camp moved forward and turned into the front camp, and then defended on the spot. The next day, the camp behind it rolled forward and could not walk a few miles a day." Liu Tichun and the others had already investigated Hu Quancai's situation very clearly. The Qing army seemed to have no fighting spirit. Judging from the morale they showed in their march, they had already returned home under normal circumstances.

After interrogating prisoners these days, the Ming army also knew quite well about the situation of the Qing army. Basically, Hu Quancai was the main battle alone, and the civil servants, staff, and generals who accompanied him were unwilling to take risks for the desperate bets of the governor of Huguang. If it were placed in the past, the Ming Dynasty would have dispersed. However, the Qing Dynasty had just founded the country and the laws were strict. Hu Quancai's subordinates were afraid of Beijing's punishment, so they had to bite the bullet and attack Zhong Xiang with Hu Quancai.

"Maybe they were hoping that the Tartars would be relieved of Hu Quancai's position so that they could go home quickly, so they were rushing hard on the road." Yuan Zongdi analyzed: "Well, there is another possibility that they hope to scare us away. The Hu thief brought more than 60,000 people, more than 20,000 armored people, and the navy. They came over step by step, hoping that we could see that there was no gap to take advantage of, but we were not sure about fighting, so we retreated ourselves."

"This idea is good, most of the Tartars think so." Hao Yaoqi felt that Yuan Zongdi's last guess was closer to the truth. Shunzhi in Beijing was not a fool. He probably couldn't do it before changing the coach at the last minute. Moreover, the news of Li Shixun's miserable defeat would not be spread to Beijing so quickly. Hu Quancai would definitely try his best to cover it up. Even if someone else exposed it, it would take a long time to wait until Beijing figured out what was going on.

After defeating Li Shixun this time, He Zhen felt that he was almost full of food. If there was no other reason, He Zhen would definitely agree to withdraw his troops. He Zhen had already made this suggestion before Hao Yaoqi arrived. Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi also felt that this expedition gained a lot, and returning to the base area to train soldiers was indeed a safe and good idea.

But just a quarter of an hour before Hao Yaoqi returned to Zhong Xiang, a Ming army envoy felt that Zhong Xiang had sent Li Laiheng and a letter, which immediately changed his mind.

Liu Tichun shook the letter he had just received in front of Hao Yaoqi, and Deng Mingnian gave it to him.

"Little Tiger (the nickname for Li Laiheng) has arrived from Jiangling?" Before Deng Ming finished reading, Hao Yaoqi screamed. Yiling and Jiangling defense line were as solid as a slap. The Ming army in Kuidong hit the heads and bleeding several times, but the letter said that this time the Ming army got the two places without any effort. Li Laiheng suffered no losses at all. After learning that Hu Quancai concentrated his main force to attack Zhong Xiang, he set out from Jiangling and prepared to come to meet Liu Tichun and the others.

"You haven't finished listening yet." Liu Tichun smiled and said, "Governor Wen has also returned to his hometown."

After learning that the Qing army in Hubei was defeated and Yiling had been captured by Li Laiheng, Wen Anzhi could no longer sit still in Fengjie. He hurriedly led Fengjie troops to the downstream. When Deng Ming was still in Fengjie, he reminded Wen Anzhi many times to eat more meat and not to always eat vegetarian food. At first, Wen Anzhi said that he was old and had a bad appetite. However, Deng Ming retorted that it was because the elderly had poor absorption ability that they had to eat more fish. Meat, a nutritious thing, is rich in protein and trace elements, is also easier to absorb. Although he was skeptical about Deng Ming's health theory, Wen Anzhi had indeed greatly increased the proportion of meat and vegetables in the recipe under Deng Ming's repeated persuasion.

When he left Fengjie this time, Wen Anzhi stewed two pieces of meat for himself to practice, and he also had to eat a fish every day on the way. He encouraged himself in his heart: "I want to eat fish and meat. The young Tang King said that this would make you strong. I must live to ninety. Seeing the revival of the Ming Dynasty and restore the two capitals!"

Li Laiheng received the news that Wen Anzhi had arrived in Yiling and was preparing to supervise the eastern expedition. At the call of Wen Anzhi, other Ming troops in Kuidong also sent troops to join the storm against Yiling and Jiangling. It was precisely because of the worries that Li Laiheng could lead the entire army out of Jiangling.

While sending an envoy to contact Li Laiheng's army, the Ming army intensified its investigation of Hu Quancai's movements. After finding that the other party was still crawling towards Zhong Xiang at speed, Liu Tichun commented contemptuously: "The Hu thief does not know how to live or die."

...

Wusongkou.

After learning about the fire in Kunming, Zheng Chenggong waited for Deng Ming to come to his army more urgently. Such a heroic royal family would definitely greatly encourage his military morale. Because he waited for the young Tang King, he delayed some departure time. Seeing that Deng Ming was unable to arrive for a long time, Zheng Chenggong finally set off from Xiamen and brought the army to Zhoushan to meet with Zhang Huangyan.

Zhang Huangyan, who was already a little impatient, complained when he saw Zheng Chenggong, blaming him for not following the appointment. If the news leaked, the Qing army was wary of it, it would be troublesome. Zheng Chenggong did not dare to reveal his little plan, so he could only say that there was a typhoon in the South China Sea, and he had to stay for a few more days in order to shelter him.

On the way, Zhang Huangyan also talked to Zheng Chenggong about the Kunming fire and mentioned Deng Ming's royal family rumors with interest. Zheng Chenggong tried to divert the topic several times: If Zhang Huangyan knew that Deng Ming was the young King of Tang, the other party would immediately understand Zheng Chenggong's intentions. He was afraid that Zhang Huangyan would know too early that this matter would cause trouble. After all, Deng Ming has not arrived in his army safely yet. Zheng Chenggong knew that Zhang Huangyan was a loyal Ming minister, but he thought it would be better to be careful when it comes to supporting the matter.

After taking Nanjing, when Deng Ming received the testimony from Wen An, Zheng Chenggong would support Deng Ming and the country. When the rice was cooked and the Ming army in Kuidong echoed, he felt that Zhang Huangyan could not make any waves, but now if he pretended to know nothing and pretended to be confused and guessed Zhang Huangyan's identity with Zhang Huangyan, Zhang Huangyan would think that Zheng Chenggong was too bullying and was not conducive to the future cooperation between the two families.

Nearly 200,000 Ming troops and thousands of ships gathered outside Wusongkou. Zheng Chenggong showed off his military strength for a long time, so that the defenders could clearly see their strength, and then sent envoys to send a manifesto and a letter of war.

"What does Ma Fengzhi say?"

After the envoy returned, Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan asked together.

"I was scared out of my courage." The envoy smiled and reported to the two great men: Ma Fengzhi, the general of Wusong, dared not accept the letter of war at all, and the intention of begging for mercy was very obvious.

"Okay, I'll send a message again, saying that as long as he doesn't stop the ship on the river, I won't attack his camp." Zheng Chenggong said with a loud laugh.

After the envoy took the order and left, Zheng Chenggong ordered the entire army to prepare to enter the Yangtze River. Zhang Huangyan thought for a while and made a suggestion to Zheng Chenggong: "You might as well order Ma Fengzhi to surrender. If he refuses to do so, we will attack him first. If we see our offensive fiercely, we may surrender completely. If he still does not surrender, the so-called general is the leader of the army. Now he is both heartbroken and cannot stop our thunder attack."

Zheng Chenggong thought for a while and shook his head and said, "Ma Fengzhi has three thousand cavalry under his command. It is the largest horse army in the south of the Tartars. If you fight with him, you will definitely be damaged. Besides, there is another saying: Pojun is the best, and the whole army is the best. Let's go to Nanjing first. I don't believe that he will not surrender, and it will make him guilty and become our forehand."

Wusong Admiral Ma Fengzhi accepted Zheng Chenggong's ultimatum, and Ma Bu was not allowed to go out of the camp. Lianjiang defense fortress voluntarily gave up, and all the defenders retreated to his camp.

At the same time, Zheng Chenggong sent a letter to the Chongming Island guardian Liang Huafeng, advising him to surrender.

Liang Huafeng was in charge of the Qing Dynasty Su and Song Navy, and like Ma Fengzhi, they were all key generals in the Yangtze River defense. After seeing the boundless Ming Navy, he was also as shocked as Ma Fengzhi. Now Chongming Island is surrounded by the Ming Navy, like a lonely boat in the vast ocean, as if a wave of big waves will capsize.

"Who said Zheng Ni is focused on Fujian?" Liang Huafeng was furious in the camp of Chongming Island. Since he had never expected Zheng Chenggong to appear suddenly at the estuary of the Yangtze River, the Su and Song Navy were not ready for war at all, and the shore defense turrets did not reserve enough gunpowder and projectiles. If the Ming army launched a fierce attack, the turrets lacking ammunition would probably not last long. The weak Su and Song Navy would be quickly eliminated by the Ming army.

Liang Huafeng, who had no choice but to attract Zheng Chenggong's envoy to him.

Holding Zheng Chenggong's letter of persuasion to surrender, Liang Huafeng felt bitterness in his mouth. Although he was determined to refuse, he did not dare to spit out the word "no".

"If General Liang cannot decide for the moment, then the king can be given a few days of gratitude."

Liang Huafeng did not expect that the Ming army envoy spoke to relieve the siege for him. Zheng Chenggong's strategy to deal with Liang Huafeng was the same as that of Ma Fengzhi, which was to allow the other party not to surrender for the time being, as long as the other party showed enough sincerity. Zheng Chenggong needed Ma Fengzhi to say that he was to abandon the Jiangfang Fort at Wusongkou, while Liang Huafeng needed to put away all Susong Navy and not interfere with the Ming army's military operations.

"The king is magnanimous, how dare you not obey the order?" Liang Huafeng quickly agreed and sent an order to the entire army in front of the envoy, asking the Qing army warships around Chongming Island to unload all the sails and tie them firmly in the port, and no one is allowed to board the ship.

After receiving Liang Huafeng's reply, Zheng Chenggong became better. He said to Zhang Huangyan: "When you break through Nanjing, let Liang Huafeng be the pioneer and take his Su and Song Navy to Jiangxi to recover Nanchang for the court."

After taking over these dangerous passes, Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan's army sailed into the Yangtze River and drove towards Nanjing in a mighty manner. The Qing army along the way saw that the river was full of warships with red flags, and they were all stuttering.
Chapter completed!