In Baoning, Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, was preparing to go south to Chóngqìng.

A few days ago, accurate news came that Deng Ming had returned to Fengjie, Wanxian had gained and lost, and now the Ming army had expressed its hope for an attack on Chóngqìng.

"I have long said that Deng Ming is a member of the former Ming clan and a confidant of the imperial court, so why should I be loyal." Li Guoying sighed. After the defeat of Tan Hong and Tan Yi, Li Guoying predicted to the Qing court the danger of Deng Ming, but Běijīng thought that Li Guoying was sensationalist and aimed to shirk responsibility, which was not wrong. As a result, in the past year, Deng Ming successively showed his might in Yunnan and Huguang, and finally openly showed off his strength under the city of Nanjing, shaking half of the country.

After the end of the First World War in Nanjing, Li Guoying often received inquiries from Běijīng, asking him to report in detail on the situation before and after Deng Ming's appearance. But even if Li Guoying used his strength to eat nǎi, he could not find out any of Deng Ming's experience in the battle of Chóngqìng. Seeing that Běijīng was urging over and over again, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi had no choice but to use his imagination to make it up. However, in addition to the nonsense of the story, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi was not completely without real evidence, and after taking Wanxian, he got a few pictures of the palace scenery drawn by Deng Ming. Li Guoying himself did not know whether it was true or false because he had never seen the palace, so he asked one of the pictures with the Jinshui Bridge to be delivered to běijīng.

In addition to the pictures of Jinshui Bridge, there are also pictures of the palace, but Li Guoying feels that the quality is very poor, and most of them are fake and shoddy. Although Li Guoying has never been to Běijīng, he has heard the boss Zuo Liangyu say that the gate of the Běijīng Imperial City is called "Chengtianmen", which is very majestic and a symbol of imperial power; In the pictures confiscated by Wanxian, the word "**" is mentioned next to the gate of the imperial city, although Li Guoying did not destroy these obviously forgery things out of caution, but he did not hand them over.

As a result, only a dozen days later, Běijīng's envoy rushed to Boryeong and asked Li Guoying to quickly send the righteous man who had donated the picture to Běijīng without a moment's delay, and Běijīng wanted to interrogate this person himself. Li Guoying could feel the panic of the Qing court from Běijīng's order, but the righteous soldiers who offered the map could not release Běijīng, who were all Xiong Lan's subordinates, and now they had returned to the Ming army, and more than 1,000 of Governor Li's soldiers were kidnapped.

Although there are no righteous people to hand over, Li Guoying still has a few pictures in his hand, and he can't hand them over, so he has to hand them over. The leader of the běijīng envoy this time was a general of the forward battalion, Li Guoying hesitated for a moment, and showed those ** pictures to the imperial guard.

Originally, Li Guoying thought that this imperial guard would be dismissive, and immediately concluded that these drawings were forgeries, just like him. But to Li Guoying's surprise, after reading it, the Manchurian officer's expression became extremely stern. Especially when the three words "**" were read, the voice of the full man trembled, and he immediately asked the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi to hand over all the pictures of the imperial city without landing.

Li Guoying was shocked when she saw this, and couldn't help but wonder: Could it be that Zuo Liangyu and other scholars are all wrong? Or does Chengtianmen have another nickname called **?

Those pictures about the interior of the palace, the imperial guard said that he could not fully judge clearly, although he had entered the palace, but many places had not been to at all, but from those places he had visited, Deng Ming painted nothing wrong. With this important information, the officers of the forward battalion hurriedly returned to Běijīng, and before leaving, these envoys of Běijīng also asked Li Guoying if he knew anything about Deng Ming's identity.

When Wanxian surrendered to the Qing army, many people claimed that Deng Ming was the third prince, and although Li Guoying was suspicious, there was no evidence to the contrary, so he told the messenger Deng Mingnai to be Zhu Cihuan. After hearing that Deng Ming was the head of this background, the people in the forward battalion were even more nervous, and the appeal of the third prince Zhu was not trivial. As for why it was not made public, Li Guoying couldn't say why, but he guessed that it might be related to the camp.

After the departure of Běijīng's envoy, Li Guoying prepared to personally lead the Boring soldiers and horses south, and now Chóngqìng was guarded by Wang Mingde, with 3,000 armored soldiers in the city, with a total strength of more than 10,000, but these forces were obviously not enough to resist the victorious Deng Ming army. Fortunately, after a year of Li Guoying's operation, the supply capacity of the Jialing River waterway has been greatly strengthened, and it can supply more than 20,000 Qing troops to be stationed in Chóngqìng.

"If Deng Ming breaks through the chóngqìng, then he will be able to connect the east and west rivers, and he will have a stronghold to invade the waterways of the Jialing River." Li Guoying repeatedly calculated the strength of his own troops, and after leaving the necessary defensive forces in Boryeong, Guangyuan and other places, the number of troops that could reinforce Chóngqìng would be very limited, probably only more than 2,000 armor and more than 8,000 auxiliaries. After successive victories in Huguang and Nanjing, Li Guoying estimated that Deng Ming could mobilize more than 20,000 soldiers: "I don't know when the reinforcements of the King of Pingxi will arrive?" ”

The attack on Chengdu certainly also occupied a considerable part of Li Guoying's troops, and the Qing army attacking western Sichuan had nearly 4,000 armor and 7,000 auxiliaries. Li Guoying felt that if this force was thrown into the direction of Chóngqìng, it would be difficult to break the stalemate in Sichuan, so even after learning of Deng Ming's return, Li Guoying still stuck to the original plan. Now Li Guoying's plan is to gamble, to gamble that he can use more than 20,000 troops to hold on to Chóngqìng for a period of time, and win the time to pacify western Sichuan.

In Li Guoying's view, this is not completely impossible, even if Deng Ming can mobilize 20,000 or 30,000 armor soldiers, these troops will also need a large number of auxiliary support, which will consume a large amount of materials of the Ming army, and it will take a long time to assemble. Li Guoying knew that relying on Kuidong's output, Deng Ming would not be able to support such a huge army at all, and could only consume the materials captured from Huguang. As long as he can delay for a while, Li Guoying feels that Deng Ming will find it difficult to hold on, and he may feel that the gains outweigh the losses and take the initiative to retreat, turning around again to attack Hubei, which can provide him with a large amount of supplies.

Li Guoying glanced at the location of Chengdu on the map again, and he ordered Gao Mingzhan to return to Guangyuan to lead the troops and launch an attack on western Sichuan as scheduled: "As long as Chengdu is taken, Deng Ming will probably retreat, right?" Li Guoying judged that the reason why Deng Ming showed his intention to attack Chóngqìng was that he felt that Chengdu still had a certain value, at least it could help him feed his troops. Therefore, once the news of the loss of Chengdu came, Deng Ming should immediately lose the reason to continue the attack, from Chóngqìng to Chengdu is a no-man's land, if the Ming army is reluctant to march, the consumption of grain and grass is too great, even if it can advance to Chengdu, Gao Mingzhan can also burn all the captured grain, Li Guoying can't see what benefit Deng Ming can do to recapture Chengdu.

"Take Chengdu and chóngqìng, I, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, deserve my name, from Jianchang to Chengdu to cross the mountains, and the western thieves should not be of much interest. Well, in this way, I have no worries, neither Kuidong nor Jianchang will be interested in me anymore, I can calmly accumulate strength, whether the king of Pingxi wants to attack Yunnan again, or the imperial court mobilizes heavy troops to besiege the Three Gorges, I may get some credit. Not long ago, Gao Mingzhan passed by Baoning, Li Guoying had discussed the battle situation in Sichuan with him, and after learning that Deng Ming led the army back, Gao Mingzhan was very nervous. Li Guoying tried to cheer up this deputy, saying that he would drag Deng Ming's main force and let him take Chengdu as much as possible, and then move to Chóngqìng to join him: "It's enough to hold on for a while, Gao Mingzhan shouldn't take too long to take Chengdu, if the reinforcements of the King of Pingxi can arrive in time, then it will be even more worry-free." ”

…… At this time, Gao Mingzhan had already arrived at the Sword Pavilion. Before the infighting of the Three Kings, Liu Wenxiu put a lot of pressure on northern Sichuan, and the Qing army only regarded Baoning as an outpost, and the focus of defense was in Hanzhong, so there was no interest in attacking the Sword Pavilion; After the infighting between the three kings, Wu Sangui mobilized all the forces of Ganxi to attack Yungui, and of course he would not take a second look at the insignificant Ming army stronghold of the Sword Pavilion.

Li Guoying's first idea of attacking Chengdu was after Tan Yi surrendered, when he planned to spend a few months to stabilize Wanxian, and then send troops around June and July to attack Chengdu by the road of Jiange and Jiangyou; But then the two Tan were defeated one after another, and they were not able to take Wanxian, and Chóngqìng was still threatened, so the matter was delayed. Although he had no spare strength to launch an attack, Li Guoying's reconnaissance work and decoy activities in Sword Pavilion and other places were not suspended, so Gao Mingzhan knew the strength of Sword Pavilion well.

Although he knew that there were only more than 1,000 peasant soldiers and hundreds of women and children in the Sword Pavilion, no more than half of them had weapons, and even fewer had armor, but Gao Mingzhan was not careless because of this, in addition to bringing 3,500 armored soldiers, he also brought ten cannons. After the main force was secretly assembled, Gao Mingzhan ordered the whole army to go out together and set off at full speed towards the Sword Pavilion, hoping that the strong military appearance could completely destroy the fighting spirit of the defenders, and persuaded the Ming army of the Sword Pavilion to surrender. If the Ming army refused to surrender, Gao Mingzhan would use artillery to launch a fierce attack on the same day.

Shut down

But without waiting for Gao Mingzhan to lead the main force to arrive, the spies in front reported that the Sword Pavilion was empty, and the Tanma checked the Ming army barracks near the Sword Pavilion, all of which had been abandoned without exception.

"The thief left about twenty days ago." After Gao Mingzhan personally inspected the Sword Pavilion, he came to this judgment, at that time he had just begun to assemble troops: "For more than a year, no thieves from the Sword Pavilion have been found to come out to reconnoitre, and the soldiers who defected even said that they had not reconnoitred the Jialing River for more than two years. How could it be such a coincidence that I came out to scout as soon as I gathered them? Could it be that the news leaked? ”

However, the doubts in Gao Mingzhan's heart flashed, he felt that this matter was unlikely, and there were not many people who knew that the Qing army had the intention of attacking Chengdu. After assembling here, Gao Mingzhan has been forbidding soldiers to leave the camp casually, as far as he knows, this order has been implemented very well, and the Ganshan soldiers and the Ming army in the Sword Pavilion have no friendship at all, why should they go to report the news? Even if there is, how do you do it without knowing it? As for whether it was leaked by Chóngqìng, Gao Mingzhan did not have the slightest doubt: First of all, almost no one on Chóngqìng's side knew about it, and although a few high-ranking generals such as Wang Mingde knew it, they would definitely not say it, and the contact between the Ming armies in western and eastern Sichuan was not frequent.

"Bad luck." After thinking about it, Gao Mingzhan finally decided that it was the Ming Army of the Sword Pavilion who suddenly came out to investigate for some reason, and accidentally discovered his actions.

Gao Mingzhan had already regarded the more than 1,000 Ming troops stationed in the Sword Pavilion as his auxiliaries, and planned to send them to his army to assist in transporting, but he didn't expect that these more than 1,000 people would escape from his palm like this. Not only did the Ming army flee, but they also moved all the winter grain together, and after Gao Mingzhan saw the empty warehouses, he knew that the food needed for this expedition would be more than planned.

"It seems that the words of the surrender of the troops cannot be trusted," one of the two surrendered soldiers who defected last year died of illness, and the other died in the battle of Chóngqìng, Gao Mingzhan remembered that they said that the morale and morale of the Jiange army were not high: "I can still retreat immediately, and I also withdrew together, and I can control the army, and no one defects." ”

Of course, Gao Mingzhan didn't know that after receiving the report from Chengdu, the defenders of the Sword Pavilion immediately closed the pass, and then retreated in groups, far more calmly and orderly than he imagined: "But they probably fled twenty days ago, so I don't know how many troops I have concentrated." ”

At that time, the Qing army that had completed the assembly was probably only more than 3,000 people, and it was not surprising that these forces scared the Ming army of Sword Pavilion away, but the Ming army probably did not think that the Qing army would attack Jiangyou with 3,000 troops.

"Hehe, the Sword Pavilion is dangerous, if the thieves are held according to the danger, it will still be a big disaster for our army, and now the thieves have fled in a hurry and handed over the natural danger, and the official has concluded that they are already unbearable." Although he failed to capture the Ming army to replenish the military strength, and failed to capture the food stock of the defenders of the Sword Pavilion, Gao Mingzhan still smiled and boosted morale.

After hearing the words of the commander, the Qing soldiers also applauded, although the Ganshan Green Battalion did not take more than 1,000 peasant soldiers to heart, but it was still impossible to be nervous at all, and now the Sword Pavilion had to make the Qing army breathe a sigh of relief without a fight.

"Go ahead and march towards Jiangyou." Gao Mingzhan ordered.

In the process of marching, Gao Mingzhan, who did not give up, also ordered to carefully search both sides of the road, and he still hoped that the Ming army of Sword Pavilion did not flee far, but hid nearby with a fluke mentality. However, the search team of the Qing army found nothing, and there was no sign of human activity on both sides of the road, and finally Gao Mingzhan had to give up: "That's it, maybe they really fled to Jiangyou, anyway, it's good to catch them and Jiangyou's people when they get there." ”

There have not been many pedestrians on the avenue over the years, and neither Jiangyou nor the Ming army of Jiange have the will to tidy up the road, which has become overgrown with weeds, and some sections have even blended with the dense forests on both sides. The Qing army was extremely short of guides who were familiar with geography, and when they were overcoming obstacles along the way, Gao Mingzhan and his subordinates were angry with the Ming army of the Sword Pavilion. When the Qing army felt the vicinity of Jiangyou, Gao Mingzhan discussed with a few henchmen that after catching the defenders of the Sword Pavilion, they must find fault and kill one or two officers to vent their hatred.

The Qing army's understanding of Jiangyou was much worse than that of the Sword Pavilion, and they could only understand it indirectly through the surrender of the Sword Pavilion and some intercepted Ming army documents. Jiang You's report to Fengjie was much less than that sent to Chengdu, so the Qing army knew even less about it than Chengdu, only knowing that there were about 2,000 peasant soldiers near the city.

After learning that Jiangyou was in sight, the morale that had dropped because of even the arduous march of the army suddenly rose, especially the Qing troops who were responsible for towing artillery, and everyone was even more elated. These days, several horses were exhausted by towing artillery carts, gunpowder, and projectiles, and it was impossible for Gao Mingzhan to replenish the cavalry's war horses to the artillery, so he had to use more auxiliaries to pull them. The Qing army shouted one after another, saying that the bitterness was finally coming to an end, and that there would soon be a group of strong men to do the heaviest work, and they would be able to make it easier; The armored soldiers were also happily making pre-battle preparations, encouraging each other to conquer Jiangyou in one go, and after capturing the warehouse of the Ming army, they had a good meal and then had a good night's sleep.

But soon the scouts returned, and Jiangyou was already empty.

"What?" Gao Mingzhan jumped up in surprise and immediately rushed to Jiangyou with the scout.

As the scouts had seen, Jiangyou, which was said to have numbered as many as 2,000 people, was now without a single person, and most of the houses in the city looked as if they had not been inhabited for many years, and looked like they could collapse at any moment. Outside the north gate, there is a patch of ashes, which looks like a campsite and warehouse once used by the Ming army.

Gao Mingzhan led his soldiers to search back and forth in the ruins, and suddenly bent down to pick up a handful of ashes and spread them in the palm of his hand to look at them carefully.

"It's probably been burning for more than ten days, and when they started burning the camp, we hadn't attacked the Sword Pavilion yet." Gao Mingzhan stood up straight, lowered his hand and sprinkled the ashes on the ground, his face was unconcealable disappointment, mixed with some surprise: "Did they know early on that we would attack here?" ”

Gao Mingzhan waited for a long time in the empty Jiangyou, but the army behind him did not arrive until the impatient Sichuan governor sent someone to inquire, only to learn that the news of Jiangyou's abandonment had spread among the army. The Qing soldiers who had already put on their armor took off their armor and threw it on the ground without waiting for an order, and the auxiliary soldiers were also complaining, and many people were already lying down on the side of the road, saying that they would not fight anyway, so they would just rest for a while.

Gao Mingzhan was angry at first when he heard this, but after thinking about it, he agreed to the army's request, and at the same time asked his own soldiers to summon the important assistants of the trip to meet him.

The Qing army did not notice that in the dense forest around Jiangyou, there were several pairs of eyes watching their movements.

…… Chengdu.

After seeing Xiong Lan and his gang appear in front of him, Deng Ming said in surprise: "Xiong County Ling really came to the capital?" ”

Deng Ming thought that Xiong Lan was just looking for an excuse to avoid Wen Anzhi and Yuan Zongdi, but he didn't expect him to really come to Chengdu without any difficulty.

"Specially here to serve the Admiral." Because there were no horses, Xiong Lan risked leading the team to sneak over the chóngqìng at night and take a boat all the way to western Sichuan, but even this was still almost a month longer than Deng Ming, and now he and his men have lost a lot of weight, and the food has almost been eaten.

"It's hard work, hurry up and eat a good meal, and rest for a day first." Deng Ming's words were not entirely polite, the clothes on Xiong Lan and the others were tattered, and they were almost the same as savages. However, after Longquanyi sent the number of people to the station yesterday, Deng Ming actually found that few people were left behind, and he didn't see that Xiong Lan was quite righteous at some times.

"Yes, even the villain's subordinates are still behind."

"Xiong County Order don't worry, I've already sent someone to send them food and clothes."

"Thank you, Admiral, I wonder if the thief is almost there?" Xiong Lan asked again: "I am willing to go into battle to kill the enemy." ”

"The Xiong County Order doesn't need to be so anxious, there is no news yet." Liu Yao left scouts near Jiangyou and Mianzhu, and also established several bases to store grain and forage, and Deng Ming has not heard of it until now.

After letting Xiong Lan rest, Deng Ming rushed to inspect the training of the army, and now Chengdu has built a lot of wooden weapons and shields, and also made some rattan armor.

"The weapons are still not enough, the training must be paid attention to, Jiangyou and other places are not left behind, and the Qing army will not have any damage when they rush to the capital, their troops and horses are neat and full of morale, we must not take it lightly." Deng Ming was both a little expectant and a little nervous, and he said to Liu Yao, Yang Youcai and the guards: "There is no news about the reinforcements in Jianchang, and this time we have to rely on ourselves to fight with the Qing army in a dignified manner." ”