The Ming army returned in the direction of Wanxian in an endless stream, and it took a whole afternoon to completely withdraw from the battlefield, and the excited soldiers boasted to each other about their martial arts. The soldiers, who had been stuffy under their armor for a long time, handed over their equipment to the auxiliaries, changed into thin clothes to dissipate heat, and some even jumped into the water to take a good shower. During this time, the corpse under the straw hat remained intact, and two soldiers played in the water not far upstream of it, and then were ordered to return by the impatient officers.

When the Ming army was far away, the sun was already in the west, and it was not until night began to fall on the earth and the Yangtze River turned black that the "corpse" twitched slightly, and then gently raised his head, exposed a pair of eyes to the water, and carefully observed the movements around him.

After making sure that there was nothing unusual around, Daniel Zhang slipped ashore lightly and reached out to untie the thin thread that tied the braid and straw hat together. But when his fingers touched the braid, Daniel Zhang hesitated, did not uncover the thin thread, but put the straw hat on his head. Then Daniel Zhang gently spat out the grass pipe in his mouth, relying on the cover of this hollow pipe and straw hat, he was able to stay under the water for so long unharmed. Daniel Zhang did not spit on the ground, but carefully put it away, and then hurried to the west.

……

Two days later, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi in the northwest of Zhongxian County set camp.

Zhao Liangdong and Wang Jinbao's 15,000 armor had not yet arrived in Chongqing, and Gao Mingzhan took more than 1,000 armor to defend the city. In addition to the 12,000 Shanxi Green Battalion and the 3,000 Han Eight Banners, Li Guoying originally only had 9,000 armored soldiers from the Sichuan-Shaanxi Green Battalion, but as a result, the outpost was almost wiped out in a battle of 4,000 armor, and only a few hundred people ran back one after another in the past two days. Coupled with the loss of auxiliaries, the Qing army had already lost nearly 10,000 people, and it suffered such a big defeat at the beginning of the expedition, not to mention the blow to morale. In order to prevent the people of Shanxi Green Camp from being disheartened, Li Guoying had to try his best to block the news and try his best to conceal the loss.

Fortunately, the losses of the high-ranking generals this time were unprecedentedly low, and Daniel Zhang, Wang Mingde, Hu Wenke, and other generals all had to return safely, which provided a lot of convenience for Li Guoying to conceal his losses -- in the past, if he had lost 10,000 soldiers and horses, it was really not too much to fold four or five generals, and he would definitely not fight like this, and the bare rods that fled back were more than their own soldiers.

When Wang Mingde returned to the camp with six or seven generals, Yuan Jiawen Bi was drinking tea with Li Guoying leisurely, and after seeing Wang Mingde, the deputy capital snorted and ignored them.

"Why don't you come over and give the deputy capital a sinner!" Li Guoying scolded with a tiger face, Yuan Jiawen ruthlessly sued these green battalions, and also made a list of equipment losses for Li Guoying to see.

"The deputy commanders are all incompetent." Wang Mingde and the other generals of the Green Battalion hurriedly bowed down and confessed: "There are a lot of deputy commanders, give the last generals a chance to make meritorious contributions and atone for their crimes." ”

After scolding these subordinate generals, Li Guoying changed his words and pleaded with Yuan Jiawenbi for them, and Li Guoying took care of the losses of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, saying that he would pay full compensation, as long as Yuan Jiawenbi did not write to the court to complain.

"The governor is serious, Wang Shuai and they have done their best, and this humble duty is also well known." The face of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Yuan Jiawenbi could not help but give, he generously said that even if this matter passed like this, Yuan Zongdi was insidious and cunning, and although the generals lost, their courage was commendable, and since the requirements of the Han Eight Banners were met, he naturally would not fight the lawsuit in front of the court.

After drinking the tea, Yuan Jiawenbi bowed his hand and said goodbye, and the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi sent him to the door of the camp with a smile on his face.

After Yuan Jiawenbi left, Wang Mingde and the others all knelt down again, and reported their escape process to Li Guoying 1510.

"It's that coupon again." Li Guoying no longer had the strength to scold, pinched the bridge of his nose with both hands, and rubbed it vigorously, and now he really had a feeling of exhaustion: "Say, how many cows do you want from this official this time?" ”

For Wang Mingde, they reported the military situation to Yuan Zongdi, Li Guoying was not too angry, as long as a general was captured, most of the secrets of the military situation could not be kept. After hearing the news of the defeat, the first thing Li Guoying did was to adjust the deployment, since these guys are honest to themselves, it means that they are still loyal. As for claiming to be silent in front of the public, Li Guoying will naturally accept it on the surface.

"Lord Governor, the last general has an idea." One person said: "Yuan Thief has a lot of soldiers, he must have planted a lot of fields in Wanxian, the governor may as well threaten him, if he doesn't let people go, we will go and burn his fields." ”

"Even if he releases him, won't we burn his fields? You also know that he has planted a lot of land, do you just watch him harvest again and continue to expand the army? Li Guoying scolded, since he realized Yuan Zongdi's strength, he regarded cutting Yuan Zongdi's crops as an important task that must be carried out: "Forget it, didn't Yuan Zongdi say that he would hand over everyone to Deng Ming, Deng Ming is a trustworthy person, wait for Yuan Zongdi's crops to be cut, and then let Governor Gao find Deng Ming to ask for someone for you." There are still some cattle over there in Boryeong...... I can see that no matter how thick the official's family background is, he will be ruined by you! ”

Don't worry too much about the coupon, because several Manchurian Taijun around Li Guoying also used this to pick up their lives, and most of them will pretend not to see this kind of scandal.

Regarding Li Guoying's use of their military salaries to compensate for the Han Eight Banners, Wang Mingde and they would not object even if they were dissatisfied, and at this time, the main owner was not there, and Li Guoying also comforted them in turn: "Don't be the same as Yuan Jia." ”

"The last will understand, understand." Wang Mingde: They nodded again and again. For the imperial court, the Manchurian princes were naturally their own sons; And the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, most of them are Liaodong people like Sun Sike, Yuan Jiawenbi, and Zu Zerun (Zu Dashou's son) brothers, they are also Eight Banner soldiers, and they can be regarded as honorary sons, commonly known as godsons; And Li Guoying and Zhao Liangdong, the Han Eight Banners with green battalion soldiers, waited for them, they were all people who made great contributions to the Qing army that entered the customs, such as Zhao Liangdong helped Azig suppress the resistance of Ganshan and Shaanxi, and Li Guoying stuck to the lonely city to resist Liu Wenxiu's army, so they were also raised to become the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, but they are still different from Sun Sike, Yuan Jiawenbi, and the Zu brothers, and they are still the godsons, and they can be regarded as honorary godsons.

Li Guoying continued to ask about the details of the battle, Wang Mingde and they planned to put all the blame on Daniel Zhang, but Li Guoying was shrewd, so they answered very carefully, and did not finish it once. In the evening, several people got together and confessed overnight according to Li Guoying's reaction; The next day, when Li Guoying continued to ask, just as they were just beginning to complain, Daniel Zhang suddenly returned unharmed.

Then there was a crazy mutual accusation and abuse, and Li Guoying, who was old in military affairs, only listened to it for a moment, and was so angry that he slapped the table and interrupted their spittle and blamed each other: "Daniel Zhang, Wang Mingde!" You all want to take advantage, and no one is willing to suffer, in order to take advantage of the situation, send false signals to deceive friendly troops, treat the real signals as fake, and then simply send false signals for escape, and the battle that you can obviously win is lost. Five thousand against five thousand, it was actually beaten and annihilated! ”

The old governor, who was almost angry, stood up and cursed at Daniel Zhang and Wang Mingde, and suddenly felt dizzy, his eyes were blurred, and an exclamation sounded in his ears, including Daniel Zhang's and Wang Mingde's.

"Lift the Governor up!"

"Oh no, call the doctor."

"Where's the doctor? The Governor fainted. ”

……

On the same day, Xuzhou.

The new governor of Xuzhou, Yuan Xiang and Deng Ming, discussed government affairs, and the post station system between Xuzhou and Chengdu had been established. After this system was established, some people asked whether it was better to establish a post station system to Wanxian in order to speed up the contact with Yuan Zongdi.

"If the post station is set up along the Yangtze River, then it will be the same as the capital here, and the express report along the river will use boats, and the horses will be used against the current, which can save half of the cost. But even if you save by half, the cost is still too much. Yuan Xiang has already made a simple budget, the distance from Xuzhou to Wanxian is much farther than to Chengdu, and there is a nail on the road to Chongqing, the post station must consider self-defense capabilities, and it also needs to be equipped with reconnaissance forces, these costs add up, and the maintenance cost is probably ten times that of the Chengdu-Xuzhou post station system.

"It's too much." Deng Ming glanced at the budget table and threw it aside: "Li Guoying didn't dare to go out of the Jialing River at all, there is no urgent military information to convey, and it is a waste of money." ”

"I think so, too." Yuan Xiang fully agreed with Deng Ming's view. If a huge amount of money is spent to establish this system, the Qingcheng faction in the Senate who are idle all day and night will probably have to make irresponsible remarks, especially the guard general of Wanxian County is still Yuan Zongdi, and the Qingcheng faction is estimated to be saying that Yuan Xiang has selfish intentions - even if he wants to help Yuan Zongdi, Yuan Xiang can also choose to send more supplies to Wanxian, and there is no need to spend money on this useless post station system.

"I've always heard that Zhejiang people have very flexible minds, but when it comes to fighting, it's really similar to elm pimples." After discussing official business, Deng Ming and Yuan Xiang chatted about what they had seen and heard about the last time they went to Jiangnan, and since he came back, the two had no time to sit together and have a good chat like today.

"Why did the Admiral say that?"

"I told Zhang Shangshu's subordinates again and again that after all, it is necessary to fight against the enemy on the battlefield in a dignified manner, and don't think about sneak attacks all day long." Deng Ming said helplessly, whether it was last time or this time, the Zhoushan army, especially Zhang Huangyan's descendants, were not very concerned about the dignified positional warfare tactics, but were very interested in how to make up for a sneak attack: "But they just decided that fighting a war is to put on makeup as a tartar, and then go to steal the camp while the enemy is sleeping or eating." ”

"They're so stubborn." Yuan Xiang also felt very incredible, Deng was invincible, and the Zhoushan army would not believe his military vision; Especially Deng Ming still has the aura of Gaoyou Lake's victory, it is simply unreasonable for the Zhoushan Army to be so stubborn.

After degrading Zhang Huangyan and the stubbornness of the Zhoushan army behind his back, Yuan Xiang asked again: "The admiral hasn't told me about the battle of Gaoyou Lake yet."

"Oh," Deng Ming perked up: "In this battle, we first dressed up as Tartars, and then attacked their camp while the Qing army was sleeping......"