The second letter asked Deng Ming to gather all the senior military officers in Xuzhou for discussion.

"According to the report, the Jialing River sailors made a large-scale move, seemingly to sweep the downstream Tongluo Gorge and other places."

After listening to Deng Ming's narration, the senior generals under him all had expressions of disbelief.

"Li Guoying wants to lure our army into a big move to consume our grain, grass and ships, right?" Ren Tang immediately reacted, and this reaction was no different from Deng Ming's yesterday.

"That's what I thought yesterday." Deng Ming took out the first letter and handed it to the officers for review, and the second letter was also sent back by the escort army, which also reported that they were protecting the merchant ships cut off by Chongqing and returning to Qijiang to establish a base so that the cargo ships could berth.

It was pointless for Li Guoying to sweep Tongluo Gorge and other places, because as soon as the Western Sichuan Naval Division arrived, he had to obediently return to the Jialing River, and no matter how much territory he occupied before, he had to vomit it out again. Since the Qing army will return to the Jialing River sooner or later, the possibility of Ren Tang's statement is obviously very high, and Li Guoying is just interfering.

"Is there a water camp for the Qing army in Zhongxian?" Zhao Tianba put forward another opinion: "Does Li Guoying want to station a small number of naval divisions in Zhongxian County to extend the escort of our army?" ”

"The Duke of Yasukuni has carefully reconnoitred Zhongxian, and there are only hundreds of armor inside, and there is no water camp, even if there is a strong water camp, can hundreds of armor protect it? If you are conscripted, will you use the people to transport grain to Zhongxian all year round? How many troops are to be stationed there? How many more people will be sent? Zhou Kaihuang's rhetorical question made Zhao Tianba speechless.

In the end, everyone felt that Deng Ming's guess yesterday should be the truth, and Li Guoying was only going to better attract the Ming army to attack, and when the Ming army's sailors arrived in a hurry, the Qing army would have fled back long ago.

"Li Guoying may know that we don't have a post station, but he must also know that the clipper from Chongqing to Xuzhou is only a few days' work, if the big tailwind will arrive in five days, it will only take more than a day to go downstream, so he only has seven or eight days of safe time." Mu Tan felt that the sailors did not need to be dispatched at all, and he deduced that now that the Qing army had returned to the base, the shipping had been fully restored: "If we go, then the Qing army can come out again after a period of time, we are just exhausted, and even if we don't go, they have to go back honestly, and then block the Jialing River to prevent our army from entering; In this way, their efforts were in vain, and in the future, they came out again and again to harass, and each time they could not attract our sailors, and after a few days, they were bored to go back by themselves, and finally Li Guoying was not interested. If Li Guoying's time drags on longer and longer, we can find an opportunity to dispatch once and wipe out all his sailors. ”

"Hmm." Although Deng Ming felt that the information was a little strange, his subordinates had the same opinion as him, and in about ten days, Deng Ming would launch a battle to cut crops in Chongqing, and Li Guoying's timing of the dispatch made him feel very uncomfortable, if the army was dispatched, it would affect his offensive and mobilization, and if any personnel were captured, it would lead to the exposure of Deng Ming's plan -- after determining the plan for the autumn offensive, Deng Ming also reduced his reconnaissance around Chongqing in order to keep it secret, and when the mobilization here in Xuzhou became more and more obvious, Deng Ming's reconnaissance of Chongqing had been completely suspended, so as not to let any of his own spies fall into the hands of the enemy -- although the Ming army had absolute superiority in the river, and the scouts were all answered by river boats, and no one had been captured for a long time, this matter did not dare to be said to be foolproof.

……

"We still have about three days to go," Li Guoying got up from the hospital bed and summoned the generals to discuss the matter: "These days, the official has been observing the direction of the wind, and it is not very good for the retrograde boat, about two or three days ago, the alarm in Chongqing has been sent to Xuzhou, if there is a post station between Xuzhou and Chengdu, the first alarm should have been placed on Deng Ming's desk; Today or tomorrow, the second alarm should also be in Deng Ming's hands, and the enemy is expected to be lenient, even if Deng Ming has seen it today. ”

The naval division of Wanxian County is slightly stronger than the naval division of the Jialing River, and the Qing army has the advantage of being in line with the water, coupled with the strong coordination of the army, it is still not a big problem to deal with Yuan Zongdi, but the naval division has been exposed on the Yangtze River for almost ten days, and the sailors are beginning to be nervous, for fear of suddenly seeing the powerful western Sichuan naval division appear behind them - then they may have to burn the ships and retreat back to Chongqing by land on foot.

"Deng Ming will definitely suspect that I am just harassment, he needs a few days to consider, count it as four days, that is, he will understand the day after tomorrow, and then order the Chengdu Navy Division to prepare for war, and then dispatch." Li Guoying carefully calculated the time, as long as Deng Ming ordered, it would take three or four days to prepare some of the warships, and then he could set off with the sailors, and if he moved quickly, the forward could rush to Chongqing in three days, so Li Guoying must withdraw his troops within three days, and it is best to leave tomorrow.

"Load the grain, grass and pioneer soldiers onto the ship, unload the things as close to Wanxian as possible, and then return to Chongqing at full speed empty." Li Guoying looked emaciated, and was so angry by Daniel Zhang and Wang Mingde that he couldn't get up one day and delayed his precious time for a day: "This time we are a surprise attack, Deng Ming is completely unprepared, and it is also our only chance, he will not be so slow to react next time, give us such a long time to act freely." ”

Yuan Zongdi's strength is so strong, Li Guoying has no hope of capturing Wanxian, and the super cannon that has been transported to Wanxian County will be transported back to Chongqing intact. But in order to weaken Yuan Zongdi, Li Guoying must go to Wanxian County to destroy his military cantonments, so as to relieve a lot of pressure on the defenders of Chongqing, so that Yuan Zongdi will not be able to effectively deal with Deng Ming within a year, and a lot of things may happen in a year.

After deploying the mission, Li Guoying called Daniel Zhang and Wang Mingde to his hospital bed, and said bitterly: "At present, everyone must cooperate sincerely!" ”

Li Guoying took all the responsibility on himself, and the defeat in this battle was not the fault of the generals, but because of his poor reconnaissance and misunderstanding of Yuan Zongdi's strength -- in fact, even if there was a misunderstanding, the strength of the former army sent by Li Guoying was still not under the strength of the Wanxian army.

Under the persuasion of Li Guoying's kind words, Daniel Zhang and Wang Mingde vowed together in front of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi to give up their past suspicions, and they would be like a family and help each other in the future.

"The two generals are so concerned about the overall situation, this official is really pleased, you go and prepare first, this official is already in good health, and he can set off with the army tomorrow." Li Guoying smiled and nodded, and the generals blessed again, and then withdrew from Li Guoying's camp.

"Donate your past suspicions?" After the other generals left, Li Guoying's standard camp guard asked suspiciously: "Do you think that Admiral Zhang and Wang Shuai can help each other?" ”

"Of course not, they will be even more desperate in the future." Li Guoying restrained her smile and smiled bitterly: "But I have to mediate, at least I can't let them kill each other." ”

In the first battle with Yuan Zong this time, Li Guoying asked himself if he was on the battlefield and would be able to command in the middle, and he would not let this kind of merit-grabbing behavior lead to the consequences of being so strict, that is to say, Yuan Zongdi's biggest advantage was that he himself was present, and his subordinates did not dare to be lazy when the commander was on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi lacked skills, and he had too many things to manage, so he made such a big mistake when he couldn't go to the front line in person: "I promoted Daniel Zhang as the chief military officer of Shaanxi to help him establish his prestige and help me share my worries in my absence in the future." ”

Originally, Li Guoying had high hopes for Gao Mingzhan, but Governor Gao first abandoned his subordinates and the city in Chongqing during the First World War and fled, and his prestige was discredited in the eyes of Wang Mingde and others, and later Li Guoying sent him to attack Fujian with Tan Yi in order to cultivate him, hoping that Gao Mingzhan could restore some prestige and also take the opportunity to cultivate some comrades-in-arms with Tan Yi. As a result, Gao Mingzhan was captured, the whole army was annihilated, Tan Yi was also killed, and Li Guoying's plan was completely frustrated.

Seeing that Gao Mingzhan could not be cultivated, Li Guoying shifted his attention to Daniel Zhang, who had a good relationship with Zhao Liangdong and Wang Jinbao, and his temper was not as bad as Zhao Liangdong, and he could get along with his colleagues; Moreover, Daniel Zhang has old qualifications, and he can also convince Wang Mingde and others, not to mention that he has real talent and practical learning, rich battlefield experience and can be entrusted with important tasks, no matter how you look at it, he is a good candidate for the commander-in-chief of the former army.

I don't want to make this incident again this time, let alone let Daniel Zhang command Wang Mingde and them in the future, if Li Guoying is not present, they can stab each other in the back. In this battle of Wanxian, Li Guoying, who wanted to stay in the rear to deal with the affairs of the transportation line, had no one to send, so he had to take command in person, and he was so angry that he couldn't get out of bed and was delayed for another day.

The affairs of the transportation line cannot be left uncharged, Li Guoying thought about it, and finally repaired a copy to Sun Sike, Sun Du commanded the three thousand Han and Eight Banners, and was a celebrity in front of the Empress Dowager and the emperor, and his prestige could suppress everyone, and Li Guoying recommended a few of his own staff to assist him. As long as there are no accidents, Sun Sike will not be in much trouble if he follows the rules left by Li Guoying.

"Leave for Wanxian early tomorrow morning." Li Guoying drank another bowl of medicine, he still felt a little uncomfortable, but there was not much time left for him: "Hurry up and burn all the fields of Yuan Zongdi, and then come back to command the retreating troops, Deng Ming will arrive in five or six days at the earliest, I should have time to come back and take the power back from Sun Sike's hands." ”

"I need a deputy, otherwise these people won't be able to reassure people if they are too busy. Gao Mingzhan and Daniel Zhang disappointed me too much; Wang Mingde also lacked courage from Deng Ming's appearance when he came to Chongqing last time, and he was captured three more times! Of course, I can hide it from the court for him, but the prestige in this army cannot be saved. Do you have to use Zhao Liangdong? His temper is so bad that Daniel Zhang and Wang Jinbao, his friends, can't stand his temper. After arriving in Chongqing, he almost scolded everyone, can everyone listen to his command? Unconsciously, Li Guoying thought about it for a long time and couldn't fall asleep.