But Li Guoying did not agree with Zhao Liangdong's plan, especially the response to the latter situation. Zhao Liangdong said that if Deng Mingjian did not come out and retreated alternately, Li Guoying should lead the main force to detour to the front of the Ming army to block the way of the Ming army, so that the Qing army would be divided into two, and if the rear army of Zhao Liangdong was defeated, then the Qing army in front would also be in danger.

When Li Guoying was silent, Wang Mingde had already preemptively objected, and his worries were the same as those of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi: "Our army has the upper hand, why do we have to divide our troops and take risks?" ”

"If you want to wipe out all the thieves, how can you not take any risks?" Zhao Liangdong said disdainfully.

"But the thief has a large number of ships, and he can escape along the river." Another Li Guoying's subordinate general said.

"How much can you bring? And if his ships are all used to carry soldiers, how can he fight with the ships of our army? "Although the Qing army's naval division was inferior to the Ming army, if the Ming army did not plan to engage and only planned to transport troops to escape, the Qing army could pursue the Qing army, similar to the situation in the first chóngqìng offensive and defensive battle. Zhao Liangdong thought that escaping on the water would greatly damage the vitality of the Ming army, so he had to leave behind many auxiliary soldiers: "Even if the Deng thief makes this move, we can first destroy the troops he threw down, and then let the prisoner pull the fiber and continue to pursue him." ”

Although some people have already secretly understood Zhao Liangdong's plan in their hearts, the general looked at Li Guoying's face and knew that the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi might not agree either. Unlike in Deng Ming's previous life, when the rebellion of the three feudatories was in his previous life, Zhao Liangdong did not have enough prestige and status, and no one would speak for Zhao Liangdong if the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi did not support this plan.

Even Daniel Zhang and Wang Jinbao, who came from Guizhou with Zhao Liangdong, also objected, and Daniel Zhang believed that there was no need to let the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi take risks to defeat Deng Ming: "We might as well follow Deng Ming closely as Lu Shi, if the water division leaves immediately, Deng Ming needs to keep his water division on guard, and also guard against the army that follows him closely, and he can't escape quickly." As long as he has to go to Xuzhou Deng Ming to get reinforcements, he can only be beaten along the way and cannot fight back, as long as he is negligent, we will bite him a piece of meat, bite bite by bite, without taking any risk to win. ”

Hearing Daniel Zhang's plan, Li Guoying suddenly stretched his brows and said with his jaw headed: "General Zhang, this is the way of perfection." ”

Relying on the fact that he was a flag man like Li Guoying, Zhao Liangdong continued to argue: "Our army's armor is estimated to be twice that of Deng Thief, and the battlefield experience is not comparable to the group of recruits under him for several months, so why waste this time?" Moreover, our army directly came to the door to challenge, if Deng Ming did not dare to fight, then his momentum would be overwhelmed by me, and the henchmen under Deng Thief would also know that the general situation was not good. ”

"What if Deng Ming should fight?" Wang Jinbao asked.

"That's even more unwanted." Zhao Liangdong laughed and said: "Deng Mingxiao'er, it hasn't been more than a year since the time of commanding the troops has been full, we have a lot of generals, and we have a head-to-head confrontation, are we still afraid of him?" ”

"But this will give Deng Thief Dog a chance to jump over the wall in a hurry, if General Zhang's strategy is used to slowly approach, even if Deng Ming retreats alternately, he will inevitably keep throwing the guard to us. When our henchmen see that they are injured, they will fall into our hands, and their morale will continue to erode. Li Guoying finally opened his mouth to say what he thought, and what he said was the painful lesson when he was pursued by Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichun before: "Soon there will be no strength to fight, don't be anxious about the pursuit." ”

"Only a coward who fears the enemy like a tiger would say that, we have the chance to win, there is no need to be so cautious?" Zhao Liangdong blurted out without thinking, completely unaware that the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi was telling his own experience, and then let out a sneer: "And this is a chance for Deng Ming to escape, after he retreats for a few days, it is entirely possible to abandon his large army and flee with his own soldiers." ”

Li Guoying changed slightly, and said coldly: "Is General Zhao treating others with his own heart?" ”

At this time, Zhao Liangdong realized that what he said just now was very disrespectful to the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and hurriedly apologized: "The last general has lost his word." ”

At this time, the generals and protectors under Li Guoying were heartfelt, and they also made sarcastic remarks: "General Zhao has been on the battlefield for a long time, and the plan of the golden cicada to get out of the shell is of course perfect, so Deng Thief has not brought a year of soldiers to the fullest, how can he use this plan well?" ”

Zhao Liangdong was furious in his heart, but he had just offended Li Guoying, and he had no way to continue arguing with everyone. However, Daniel Zhang and Wang Jinbao felt that they had burdened Zhao Liangdong and distinguished two sentences for him.

Shut down

"Alright, don't argue about this." Li Guoying waved his hand to interrupt the quarrel of his subordinates, originally when chóngqìng was at his most critical, he wanted to retreat alternately, Li Guoying felt that this retreat was very risky, and it was difficult to do it; On the other hand, the pursuer is quite relaxed, as long as he follows behind and waits for the other party to make a mistake: "This official has made up his mind, so he will use General Zhang's strategy to advance by land and water, and pursue the Deng thief at the tail." Even if he can't capture this fang this time, he will not dare to face chóngqìng for several years. ”

…… As soon as Deng Ming withdrew from Jiangjin, the rearguard troops reported that the Qing army had followed, and the remaining sailors saw countless Qing troops crossing the Qijiang River with the assistance of the Chóngqìng sailors. Now the Ming Army's naval division is against the epidemic, the speed is not fast, if the wind is not enough, it still needs to be dragged by a slender man, so it does not dare to lag behind the Lu Division too much, and does not monitor near the Qijiang River for a long time but returns to the vicinity of the Lu Division.

"Li Guoying and Zhao Liangdong are really chasing after them." It took some time to rectify the prisoners in Jiangjin, and Deng Ming's greatest concern at that time was that the Qing army rushed to challenge despite fatigue, and if that was the case, he could only respond to the battle, hoping to defeat the main force of the Qing army, which was lacking in body, in one fell swoop to ensure the safe retreat of the army. As a result, the Qing army did not appear, which made Deng Ming feel a lot more relieved, and now after learning that the Qing army was still pursuing, Deng Ming did not feel as nervous as a day ago: "The Qing army is cowardly." ”

"The Tartars most likely want to follow us slowly, waiting for us to show their flaws." The guards were not as optimistic as Deng Ming, especially since they had heard Yuan Zongdi talk about how he pursued Li Guoying.

"Yes, but in the end it is still cowardly, although General Yuan's methods are good, but after all, they are tricks, and he has no confidence to subdue the desperate enemy. I know it's sinister now, but it's better than Li Guoying taking all the men and horses and driving violently in front of our camp to settle down. Deng Ming asked himself, if he had absolute confidence in defeating the enemy, he would definitely not follow, but would fight a decisive battle, so that none of the enemies could escape.

In the next few days, Deng Ming's marching speed became slower and slower, and the Qing army, which had the advantage of cavalry, followed the Ming army like a shadow, if the Ming army moved a little faster, they rushed up to try to attack the rear of the Ming army, and if the Ming army turned around and tried to engage, the Qing cavalry quickly broke away, not giving the Ming cavalry a chance to stick to them.

"If we continue at this speed, we may not be able to reach Xuzhou in a month." Deng Ming admitted that the tactics of the Qing army were very annoying, and caused a high degree of tension in the Ming army, and every time the Ming army turned back, it was necessary to guard against the main force of the Qing army coming to fight, which required the coordination of the whole army, and the Qing army, which had the initiative in the battle, did not need to do so: "Li Guoying hid behind and let the soldiers fully recuperate." But we can't be careless once, if we recklessly divide our forces to drive away the enemy cavalry, the main force of the Qing army may pounce together, and it will be out of control. ”

After another two days, the Qing army became more and more bold, and some Qing infantry also engaged in sāo harassment work near the Ming army under the cover of cavalry. After this period of adaptation, Li Guoying controlled the rhythm of the pursuit better, and camped close to the Ming army's rear guards every day. Although the Ming army's strict precautions made the Qing army's robbery camp unsuccessful, Li Guoying was not in a hurry at all, because he didn't expect to defeat the Ming army as soon as he came up.

"Yuan thief and Liu thief tossed me like this back then." Li Guoying looked at the camp of the Ming army not far away, and remembered all kinds of embarrassing situations more than ten years ago, disturbed by the night attack of the invading army, the soldiers became more and more impetuous, even if Li Guoying personally commanded the broken troops, it was useless. When a soldier is physically and mentally exhausted by the endless sāo disturbances, he will begin to lose his fighting spirit, and some will even relax his jǐng vows in a self-defeating manner.

At that time, Li Guoying racked his brains and couldn't come up with a countermeasure, and hated Yuan Zongdi and Liu Tichun to the bone: "It's really feng shui in turn." Now Li Guoying has a kind of pleasure similar to cat and mouse in his heart, and at the same time warned himself in his heart: "Don't be in a hurry, take your time, Deng Ming will become more and more anxious, and soon he will stop the troops and confront me in anger, and then challenge him again and again, I don't care about him, continue to disturb him, until his military heart collapses." ”

...... "Li Guoying, he's consuming it with us." "Today, the Ming army was not able to get out of a few miles, because the rear guard was under a lot of pressure, so the whole army had to stop to cover the broken rear troops to be able to break away safely.

In the past two days, the skirmishes between the Ming and Qing armies have also become frequent, and there have been some wounded in the Ming army, and Deng Ming ordered these wounded to be loaded onto the ship, and they must be guaranteed to go first: "Fortunately, the injuries are not too serious, but sooner or later there will be serious wounded who can't even take the boat, if you don't abandon the wounded, then the whole army won't want to leave." ”

"Our army does not have a problem with military rations." Although Deng Ming transported a large amount of military rations away, there was no problem in eating the military rations carried by the Ming army for a month, and if necessary, the grain could be transported back from Chengdu.

"In that case, there will be a lot of dreams at night, we don't know if there will be any variables in the Sword Pavilion, whether there will be a new Qing army entering Sichuan, and we will have to return to the capital as soon as possible to open up the wasteland." While advancing slowly, Deng Ming sent a large number of soldiers to reconnoiter the terrain in front: "Only a thousand rì are thieves, and there are no thousands of thieves to guard against, we can't go on like this, we have to fight a good battle with Li Guoying." ”

"Most of the Li thieves will not fight," Li Xinghan said, "He is now single-minded. ”

"Yes, handsome courage is military courage, the commander is bent on tricks, and the soldiers are naturally timid, and now we need to use some means to let Li Guoying fight with us in an upright manner." Deng Ming ordered all the lieutenants to be summoned.