Out of precaution, Deng Mingrang everyone brought a set of military uniforms for Qing soldiers, so that they could get through in case of a blockade. In addition to military uniforms, Wen Anzhi had some officer waist cards captured from the Qing army, and Deng Ming picked a piece of Baoning Qianzong to take with him.

For Deng Ming's concerns, his subordinates were not impressed. Due to years of war and repeated tug-of-war, Sichuan's population has plummeted, and those people who were not killed have fled into the mountains, and now there are large areas of no man's land everywhere. Neither the Qing nor the Ming armies were interested in these no-man's lands, and there were no garrisons or blockades, so although the control areas of the two armies looked staggered from the map, the actual control areas were just some strongholds, and the messengers on both sides could communicate from the no-man's land, as long as they were not too close to the prefectures or important fortresses of the provinces, there was no need to worry about enemy patrols at all.

Deng Ming's group of twenty people, compared to the group of three or two messengers, was a big target, and they went all the way west after disembarking from the ship in Changshou. Deng Ming separated the outpost and the guard from this team, and carefully explored all the way. Some of his subordinates built a shortcut road, as long as they avoided chóngqìng, but Deng Ming was very careful and let the local guards sent by Wen Anzhi lead the way. Needless to say, he avoided even the roads that Qing army messengers often took when delivering letters, so he preferred to take small roads and make large circles.

The probability of encountering enemy soldiers is very low, and even if you happen to encounter as few as one or two, or as many as three or four enemy cavalry, you don't have to worry about them taking the initiative to attack the Ming cavalry of up to twenty people. Although it is not common, there are times when two couriers meet, and in general, neither of them will attack on their own initiative, but will go to their own destination. The Couriers have their own tasks, and they know that the other is the most daring of the enemy's army, and they are colleagues on equally dangerous missions, and there is a similar feeling of sympathy between them.

Since the signal corps would not attack each other, and there was no garrison in the no-man's land, it was natural that Deng Ming's subordinates would feel that there was no need to be so careful. However, Deng Ming was unmoved, not only insisted on the deployment of detours and outpost reconnaissance, but also hid all of them if they found any trouble, and continued to rush until the danger was eliminated. Even if all the "dangers" encountered along the way were proved to be false alarms, Deng Ming was still the same. It is not surprising that Zhou Kaihuang, Li Xinghan and other old acquaintances have seen Deng Ming's "timidity" on the way from Chóngqìng to Fengjie, and the people who have just come to Deng Ming's side feel that he is a little too cautious, wasting time in vain, and a bit more than worth the loss.

Deng Ming also knew this, and he explained to Liu Jinge, Yuan Xiang and others: "This time we go to Jianchang to have a heavy relationship, we have to arrive no matter what, since we can't fail, we can't be careless; If the army of Wu thieves is killed, we can't defeat Jianchang and lose it, but if we are not careful, for the sake of one or two enemy horsemen and lead the trip to fail, isn't it too wrong? ”

After hiding all the way, Deng Ming finally arrived in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, on March 20.

"Ahead is the capital." After seeing the city wall of Chengdu from afar, the western Sichuan guard, as a guide, let out a long breath, and finally saw the city garrisoned by the Ming army again, and the next road to Jianchang was the area controlled by the Ming army.

"This is Chengdu." Deng Ming looked at the tall and magnificent city wall in front of him, which was worthy of being the capital of Sichuan, and the scale and momentum were not comparable to Chóngqìng at this time, let alone Fengjie.

Soon Deng Ming and his entourage approached under the city wall.

When he looked up, he didn't see any banners on the city walls, which was very different from Chóngqìng and Fengjie, where the walls of the latter two cities were full of flags, and he could see the soldiers and their weapons behind the battlements. But after walking along the city wall of Chengdu for a long time, Deng Ming saw neither a banner nor a soldier, so he walked all the way to the bottom of the city tower.

"Why is there no one on the castle?" Zhou Kaihuang looked up at the urn city, not only was the city gate closed in broad daylight, but the city tower was as empty as the city wall he had just passed.

"The door is closed." The guard, who had been to Chengdu, also looked up for a while, and when he saw that there was no flag on the tower, he explained to his companions: "The gates here in Chengdu are not all open, and if there are no flags on the tower, it means that the gate is blocked." ”

Seeing the disbelief on everyone's faces, the guide added, "I remember that only one door was opened, and the rest were blocked." But I forgot which one to open, so I had to walk along the wall. ”

Deng Ming and the others walked for a long time under the empty city wall, and once again encountered an urn city that also did not have a flag, and the gate was also closed. The guide shook his head and was about to move on, but Zhou Kaihuang did not give up, and shouted at the bottom of the urn city for a long time, trying to open the door, but in the end he had to give up.

The third urn city encountered finally did not disappoint everyone, and a lonely red flag could be seen trembling on the urn city from a distance. But when they got closer, they found that the gate of the city was still not open, and they looked at the urn city for a long time, but they did not see any guards.

"Call the door." Deng Ming ordered, and then shouted in unison with everyone:

"Anyone?"

"Anyone?"

After shouting a few times, an answer came from the city: "Someone! Then a head poked out from behind the battlements and looked at them.

Everyone stretched out their hands to point to the red flag held by the flag soldiers, the head looked at it for a while, retracted it, and then Deng Ming and they heard a shout from behind the battlements: "Third brother, you go and report to the chief soldier, there are people from the city!" ”

As soon as the shouting fell, the person just now poked his head out again and shouted to Deng Ming: "Wait a while, and we can only open the city gate when our general army comes." ”

I don't know how long I waited, but finally more heads appeared from behind the battlements, and after the people in the city and under the city reported their identities to each other, Deng Ming learned that the two people who talked to him this time were Liu Yao, the chief soldier, and Yang Youcai, the deputy general. Explaining that he came under the order of the governor Wen Anzhi, the city put down the drawbridge. Through the moat to the city gate, Deng Ming touched the letter written by Wen Anzhi to the Chengdu guard, and a basket hung down from the city, and he put the letter in it and hung it up by the defenders - now, in Deng Ming's heart, Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, was close to a beacon tower, and the status of the general Liu was similar to that of a post commander.

But to Deng Ming's surprise, the hanging basket used to hang the people did not appear, and the two generals disappeared from behind the battlements, and then Deng Ming heard a heavy sound of moving the deadbolt from behind the door - Chengdu finally preserved the last of her dignity as the capital of Sichuan: the soldiers guarding the city gate walked out of the door and began to test the defense of Deng Ming and his party.

"It turned out to be Mr. Deng." After reading Wen Anzhi's letter to them, Vice General Yang Youcai showed a hint of excitement. They had also heard of the war between Chóngqìng and Wanxian, although Yang Youcai had told his subordinates before that most of the so-called clan matters were false, but now that he saw the real person, his opinion was suddenly different.

However, Liu Yao didn't have much reaction, he said to Deng Ming in a light tone: "I'm afraid that the horses that Mr. Deng wants can't be gathered for a while, and I have to bother Mr. Deng to stay in Chengdu for a few days, so we can transfer the horses out." The mounts brought by Mr. can also take advantage of this to restore the body. ”

This means that Chengdu can't even do the work of the post station now. Before Deng Ming could speak, some of his entourage couldn't help but ask, "Why do you want to stay for a few hours?" What about the horses in Chengdu? ”

After hearing this question, Yang Youcai's face changed, and he seemed to be considering how to answer, but Liu Yao didn't think much about it, and still replied in that calm tone: "I went to work in the fields." ”

Following in the footsteps of the two generals into the city, they saw that the city was full of reclaimed fields, on which crops were grown, and there were still people working in them.

"Why don't the gates of the capital be opened during the day?" Deng Ming asked Liu Yaodao.

"No one came anyway." Liu Zongbing replied in a low voice, Chengdu is a big city that can accommodate hundreds of thousands of people, Wanli, Tianqi years, Chengdu only weavers have tens of thousands, a large number of weaving mills do not even rest at night, the production of the world-famous Shu brocade, sold all over the country; It was also the commercial center of the West Sichuan Plain, where merchants from other places came to buy tea and other local products from Qingcheng, Emei and other places, and the prosperous business also gave rise to a wide variety of industries.

"What about Qiao Cai?" Deng Ming still felt a little strange, even a city like Wanxian needed to obtain wood from outside the city, otherwise where would the fire come from for cooking and cooking?

"Are there any woodcutters in Fengjie who have entered the city?" Liu Yao asked rhetorically, he had not left Chengdu for many years, and he did not know anything about the current situation in Kuizhou.

"Of course." Deng Ming replied that there were not only woodcutters in Fengjie, but sometimes hunters from the vicinity would come to the city to sell their prey, and the surrounding mountain people would also get the city in exchange for salt.

"It's so prosperous." Liu Yao sighed, waved his hand at the buildings in the city, and explained to Deng Ming: "Now there are only more than 13,000 soldiers in Chengdu City, and there are more than 10,000 military dependents, so many houses are full of wood, we just can't use it up for a few more years, and we don't need to go out to pick wood, and there are no woodcutters around the capital." ”

Then Liu Yao pointed to the new field that was only opened this year: "These fields were originally all houses, and we bulldozed the land, and the wood that was removed has not been used up." ”

"Why do you want to farm in the city?" Deng Ming saw the large area of barren land outside Chengdu, and did not understand why the Ming army wasted such strength.

"The road is close," this time it was Yang Youcai who came to explain, and he answered Deng Ming's question for Liu Yao: "And there is a city wall separating it, and wild beasts can't get in, even if you go out to water the fields before dawn in the morning, you don't have to worry about encountering wolves." ”

Deng Ming also sighed when he heard this, and was silent, seeing that Deng Ming had no problems, Li Xinghan began to ask: "Liu Shuai, Yang Shuai!" I don't understand why you don't send troops to stand guard in the city, it's very dangerous. ”

"There aren't many wealthy people, so everyone has to work in the fields." Yang Youcai replied confidently: "The land around the capital has been abandoned, and people have fled to the mountains if they don't die, and we soldiers also have to eat." ”

"But if there are no sentinels, what if the Tartars come?" Li Xinghan admitted that what the other party said made sense, but he felt that some minimum sentry posts should be deployed no matter what.

"There are not enough people......," replied Yang Youcai, explaining that in order to maintain the operation of Chengdu, even military dependents had to participate in labor, and much of the irrigated land relied on well water, which needed to be cultivated, carried water, and chopped firewood...... There was a shortage of manpower everywhere, so there was no one to guard the walls.

"Even if you don't do anything," Yang Youcai finally concluded, "13,000 soldiers are all on the city wall, and this little soldier is not enough to defend the entire city wall when they encounter the Tartars coming to attack the city." There are no people around the capital anymore, so there have been no wars in these years, only those of us who were ordered to guard Chengdu are still there. If the Tartars really come, we will all die, but if we don't farm, even if the Tartars don't come, everyone will starve. ”

Several other city gates in Chengdu have been blocked for several years, in Yang Youcai's words, this is to prevent thieves, although there are no people around, but sometimes there are some scattered bandits and bandits crossing. The Chengdu defenders were afraid that they would sneak into the city by climbing over the x wall at night, secretly open the city gates and steal the grain they had worked so hard to grow, so they blocked all the city gates and set up sentry posts at the only gate that was not blocked - so that even if there were thieves coming, even if they climbed over the x wall and entered the city without alerting the guards, there was no way to steal a large amount of food.

Liu Yao took Deng Ming and them to the Sichuan Governor's Yamen, where the senior generals in Chengdu worked, and Liu Yao lived here, with some chickens and ducks in the yard, and some empty rooms in the back for people. After Deng Ming and his entourage put down their salutes, Liu Yao explained for the negligence of his subordinates at the city gate: "The messengers from all over the country who reported to the capital government only arrived in the afternoon, and no one would have come when Mr. Deng came today, so the guards did not go to the city to watch, and asked for forgiveness." ”

Hearing this, Deng Ming's god immediately shook his head, the group of them had been running on the uninhabited road for ten days, and they didn't know anything about what happened during this time, since there was still a fixed messenger here in Chengdu, he immediately asked Liu Yaoke what big things had happened, and told them that he hadn't been in contact with anyone since he left Fengjie at the beginning of the month.

After hearing Deng Ming's question, Liu Yao, who was already depressed, looked even lower, and Yang Youcai suddenly asked excitedly: "Mr. Deng still doesn't know about the affairs of the imperial court?" ”

"What's wrong with the imperial court?" Deng Ming's heart sank, and it was estimated that it was not good news.

"It's about the Son of Heaven hunting in the West, Mr. Deng hasn't heard of it?" Yang Youcai's voice became even more urgent.

"I heard that the Son of Heaven left Kunming and went to southern Yunnan." Although Wen Anzhi has always claimed that this is a rumor in Fengjie, in his heart Deng Ming and Wen Anzhi know that most of it is true.

"Mr. Deng really doesn't know." Yang Youcai shouted.

"What's wrong with the Son of Heaven?" This time, not only Deng Ming, but also the guards around him shouted together, and those standing behind also came forward.

Liu Yao just shook his head vigorously, while Yang Youcai's face was full of sadness and he lowered his head to the ground.

"What's wrong with the Son of Heaven?!" The crowd cried out again.

"The Son of Heaven has abandoned the country!" Yang Youcai raised his head and let out a cry of grief and indignation.

Everyone was stunned by this shout, and after a while, Li Xinghan jumped up and reprimanded: "Nonsense! ”

"I'm not talking nonsense, the news from Jianchang," Yang Youcai defended: "Last month, the king of Jin and the Wu thief fought ...... in the Nu River."

The guards behind Deng Ming all held their breath and waited for Yang Youcai's next step.

"The damage is comparable, the King of Jin failed to defeat the Wu thief......"

As soon as Yang Youcai's words came out, everyone was darkened, and Deng Ming also sighed in his heart, he knew that Li Dingguo was now in a sparsely populated and remote place with nowhere to collect materials, at least it was either a big victory or a defeat, and killing and wounding was equal to a big defeat.

"The Son of Heaven has abandoned the country and has hunted south to Burma." After Yang Youcai finished speaking, he lowered his head again, and there was silence in the Sichuan governor's yamen, only the sound of heavy breathing remained.

Li Dingguo originally tried to completely annihilate Wu Sangui's pursuers at Mopan Mountain, revive the morale of the Ming army, and give Yongli the confidence to return to the army, but Lu Guisheng found an opportunity to defect to Wu Sangui's army after the Qing army had already entered the Ming army's ambush circle, and reported the plan and location of the Ming army to Wu Sangui, so that the Qing army could not only withdraw from the ambush circle, but also preemptively attack the Ming army scattered throughout the ambush circle. Although Li Dingguo bravely repelled Wu Sangui's attack under extreme disadvantage, Xiying Jīng Rui suffered heavy losses and was forced to continue to retreat. However, long before the start of this battle, Yongli Tianzi led the Praetorian Guards to flee into Burma despite the fact that the Ming soldiers were still fighting behind him, and when the Burmese soldiers guarding the pass asked the Praetorian Guards to lay down their arms, 2,000 Janissaries equipped with jīng Liang did not hesitate to abandon all their weapons and armor and poured into Burma with their bare hands. The soldiers of the Son of Heaven of the Yongli Imperial Court could not pity the armed forces still on the border, piling up a hill that took Myanmar several days to move, but they refused to turn back to help their comrades who were still fighting hard behind them.

After the battle of Mopanshan, Li Dingguo completely lost the ability to conceal the news of the Son of Heaven's abandonment of the country, and soon spread throughout Yunnan, and in just ten days, more than 30,000 Yunnan Ming troops refused to continue to obey Li Dingguo's orders, but surrendered to Wu Sangui.

"The Son of Heaven has abandoned the country, and you still farm with peace of mind?" After half a ring, Li Xinghan suddenly jumped three feet high, although he didn't know what to do, but he felt that he had to do something to deal with this change.

"What are you doing without farming? We still have to eat. Liu Yao said with a sad face: "The Son of Heaven has abandoned the country, what else can we do except continue to farm?" ”

The calmest person in the crowd was Deng Ming, although he didn't know about it, he was still mentally prepared for Yongli to flee to Myanmar, and the reaction of others to this incident was: How could this be? And Deng Ming's reaction was: It happened in the end.

"This news came from Jianchang?" Deng Ming asked.