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

"Ladies and gentlemen, the reason why the thieves' grain depot was burned down is that they saw three gaps in our city wall and wanted to break in and seize our grain. Today they will gamble all their capital, as long as we block their final blow, we will win, and Chongqing will be cleared. ”

The Manchu generals swept away the gloom of the previous few days, everyone's faces were full of hope, and many people secretly clenched their fists to cheer themselves up and get through this hurdle.

Li Guoying spread out his palm and showed a pill to everyone: "This medicine is in the mouth to see the king of Hades." As a minister of the imperial court, this official will definitely not be captured by thieves; For the sake of insurance, it is said that firewood should be piled up in the warehouse, just in case......" After showing the poison to everyone, Li Guoying put his palms together and asked loudly: "But do you think that this official needs to prepare fire in the warehouse?" ”

"No, I don't." Wang Mingde and the others replied loudly.

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

"No, you don't!" The Eight Banners of the Manchurian Banner and the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, together with the generals of Shaanxi and Shanxi, shouted in unison.

"Just listen to the ranks!" Li Guoying shouted, waved his hand and threw the pill far away, turning into an arc and flying into the courtyard: "Let's go and prepare, in six hours, we can set up a wine to celebrate the success and report the victory to the imperial court." ”

Everyone applauded in unison. After all the generals left, Li Guoying called a personal servant: "Go to the courtyard and look for it, see where my ginseng pill is, it was given by the emperor, and you can eat it after washing." ”

……

In July of the sixteenth year of Yongli, Deng Ming, the Duke of Baoguo, returned to Xuzhou, where he learned of the defeat of Kuidong's army in Chongqing.

In the last battle of the last day, Li Laiheng, Liu Tichun, and Yuan Zongdi's elite rushed into the city to attack the Qing army, and Li Guoying had already planted a strong wooden fence behind each gap and sent the real Han Eight Banners to fight.

Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun braved the dense guns and cannons of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, 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 Yamen and Li Guoying's official office. But here, the Ming army was no longer able to advance. The Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty knew that once the army was defeated, the jade and stones would be burned, and the Eight Banners soldiers would never be spared, and the Ming army, which had suffered heavy casualties, would never be merciful, so they all resisted desperately like crazy.

In the northernmost section, Yuan Zongdi also encountered one defense line after another. While the rest of the troops were exhausted, Yuan Zongdi sent his main battalion into battle—he still firmly believed that a complete victory could be achieved if he threw in the last of his forces.

Braving the dense firecrackers 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 depot, and started hand-to-hand combat with the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty and the Green Battalion. But at this time, Yuan Zongdi received a report that Li Guoying dispatched a cavalry of more than 1,000 people, consisting of 400 soldiers of the Eight Banners and 600 soldiers of the Governor's Standard Battalion, to drive the exhausted troops of Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun out of the city, and if Yuan Zongdi did not want to be surrounded, he had to withdraw immediately.

After the assault was frustrated, the Ming army no longer had the ability to hold on, and Li Laiheng and others could only retreat from Chongqing to the west of Futu Pass, and then board a ship and return to Wanxian downstream. At this time, the Qing army in Chongqing was also on the verge of collapse, and after Li Guoying used the Manchu Eight Banners and the Governor's Biaoying to counterattack Li Laiheng and Liu Tichun's troops out of the city, he didn't even have the strength to restore the defense of the city wall. When Yuan Zongdi withdrew from the city, Li Guoying only watched him leave - if Yuan Zongdi did not leave, then there was no need to say that he had to fight again, since Yuan Zongdi himself left, the Qing army really could not raise the strength to continue fighting.

Although the Chongqing offensive and defensive battle was not long, the Qing army paid the price of more than 3,600 killed and seriously wounded, while the Kuidong army lost as many as 8,700 men, almost one-fifth of the army. In less than ten days of fighting, the two armies suffered more than 10,000 casualties.

Watching the Ming army's fleet sail downstream and gradually disappear, Li Guoying mentioned western Sichuan again: "If there is no Deng Ming, we can make Kui Dong thief never turn over in this battle, right?" ”

Many of the people around him nodded silently. Li Guoying looked at the dilapidated Chongqing, where three shocking gaps were still placed, and fierce battles and repeated battles had taken place on various streets in the west of the city, and the ground was full of stumps and broken arms; There was no strength to repair the city walls, and even the corpses and blood stains everywhere could not be cleaned up, and there were even wild beasts that sneaked into the city at night through the guò gap, dragging away the corpses of the soldiers of the Ming and Qing armies.

"It's time to withdraw from Chongqing." At the same time as Li Guoying reported the victory, he once again repeated the old words and asked the imperial court to approve his withdrawal to Boryeong. In the past, because there was no water division in Chongqing, he couldn't do anything, but now that he has gone one step further, that is, there is a water master, and Li Guoying feels that he has nothing to do. This time, the Kuidong Army's strong combat effectiveness made him quite afraid -- as long as Western Sichuan could continuously provide Kuidong with grain and equipment, the Kuidong Army alone would be able to gnaw Chongqing down, let alone Deng Ming's Western Sichuan Army. The Qing army can't even withstand the Kuidong Army, can it still be expected to carry the Western Sichuan Army?

Now the Shanxi generals look at Li Guoying's expressions are completely different, and Sun Sike and Yuan Jiawenbi's eyes are also full of admiration and admiration. Therefore, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi is not afraid that telling the truth will hit morale: "We can't afford to win such a battle a second time." If we do it again, even if we are lucky enough to win, I'm afraid we will all die. ”

……

"Tiger Shuai's mistake this time...... Well, it's too strict. After listening to the detailed report, Deng Ming wanted to use "unforgivable" to evaluate, but when the words came to his lips, he took it back. Now he also knew that the relationship between the other members of the committee was a bit delicate, and if he was not careful to use words at this time, he was afraid that it would not have a good effect if they reached the ears of others; And Deng Ming asked himself in his heart, when he had the upper hand, he might not underestimate the enemy, and he might not make the same mistakes. However, the auxiliaries in western Sichuan are more dignified, and it is probably impossible for the Qing soldiers with makeup to kill people indiscriminately. Li Guoying's trick can only be used once, and the Ming army will not be fooled again in the future.

Deng Ming remembered the conversation he had with the guards on the post road in Dongchuan Mansion in the past, when everyone thought that a gendarmerie similar organization should be established to be responsible for the screening work in the army, and Deng Ming had always wanted to prepare for the establishment of a "special equipment and special training unit", but he was busy all year round, and he always had no time to complete everything he wanted to do.

After discussing his ideas with his subordinates, Zhao Tianba and the other standing army officers decided that training such troops was not a top priority. Rather than specially preparing for this kind of "special training unit", it is better to rely on experience sharing to avoid similar situations: first, introduce the course of the Chongqing Campaign to all officers, and compile it into Chengdu's military textbooks, so that every soldier knows that Li Guoying has used such tactics; In addition, Zhao Tianba mentioned that Li Guoying's use of the Green Battalion to disguise himself as the Eight Banners should also be written into Chengdu's military textbooks - whether it is the Ming army or the Qing army, they do not attach much importance to experience sharing at present, and the military experience of the generals can only be accumulated step by step through personal conquest.

The defeat of the Eastern Army was largely due to the fact that the Ming Army was a mixed army. In the future, Deng Ming is likely to fight side by side with the allies, and Deng Ming has already made up his mind that if he encounters such a situation, then someone must be responsible for the distribution of grain and grass -- even if Deng Ming is not in charge, it cannot be like Li Laiheng, where everyone is busy fighting on the front line and has no special person to take care of logistics.

After learning that Yuan Zongdi had lost thousands of soldiers, Yuan Xiang of Xuzhou was very sad, and he told Deng Ming that the generals of Kuidong were probably all in Wanxian, and after the defeat, they would return to Yuan Zongdi's territory to discuss their next move.

"I originally wanted to report to the Imperial Diet on my expedition to Burma first," Deng Ming and Yuan Xiang talked for a while, and realized that the Parliament seemed to be out of shape, just like Xiong Lan trained cashiers as soldiers at the beginning, and many things that the Council did were very different from Deng Ming's mind: "But I'd better go to Wanxian first." It just so happens that I'm going to Fengjie too. I have just received news from Myanmar, Li Ge Lao said that the three sons of Inspector Wen have escaped safely and are 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 that he had misheard. He also believed that the Imperial Diet was nothing more than a subordinate branch of the Senate, and that the role of the Parliament was to propose bills that the Senate had figured out. That is, in a place like Xuzhou, where there is no Senate, the Xuzhou branch of the Imperial Parliament has a little use.

"It's the Imperial Council." 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 personnel, it will take some time to gather, take advantage of this time I will go to Wanxian and Fengjie to do business, and then go to Li Guoying to say hello when I pass through Chongqing; I'll be back in a month, well, and let the members of the Imperial Assembly assemble on the fifteenth of next month. During the Lantern Festival, I reported to them the details of this expedition to Burma and King Qin. ”

"Yes." Yuan Xiang knew that Deng Ming would not return to Chengdu immediately, and that the auxiliaries who followed him on the expedition would immediately disband and return to their long-lost home. But the standing army does not have this right, they will continue to follow Deng Ming until Deng Ming officially disbands the army - and Xuzhou needs to provide Deng Ming with some sailors and auxiliaries, to Wanxian and Fengjie are all by water, and it is the territory of friendly forces, Deng Ming has no combat mission, but does not need many horses.

The next day, Deng Ming boarded the ship with the standing army and went to Chongqing.

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