After seeing Liu Tichun, Deng Ming immediately told him: "After the defeat of Li Shixun, many of them were captured, and General He left 500 sets of armor for each of you, and now they are stored in his camp, and General Liu can send someone to fetch them." ”

Liu Tichun suddenly looked surprised, and glanced at Yuan Zongdi, who arrived first, who nodded: "I did get five hundred pairs, although they are all very old." ”

"This He Zhen ......" Liu Tichun wondered how He Zhen turned xìng, and suddenly realized, looking at Deng Ming: "It was given to us by the Admiral, right?" Just temporarily save zài He Zhen there. ”

"It's not." Deng Ming flatly denied: "This battle is all dependent on General He's soldiers and horses, how can I get 1,500 armor?" General He now burns his hands with a lot of armor, and after getting Li Shixun's things, the Daning soldiers under his command can't wear two sets of clothes even if they wear them. ”

Although Deng Ming did not admit it, Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi both suspected that the thousand and five armors belonged to Deng Ming, and he divided them into three parts and distributed them to the other three. The two of them saw that many captives were picked up by He Zhen and were close to naked**, some of them didn't even have many strips of cloth on their bodies, relying on bark and grass skirts to cover their bodies, He Zhen didn't even let go of the cloth clothes, can they let go of the armor? Even if it's some old armor.

The two of them guessed correctly, and after the war, Deng Ming pointed out that He Zhen's plan did not work completely, and his assault still played a considerable role, so Deng Ming justifiably asked for a part of the capture. Seeing that Deng Ming wanted to be a small half of armor, He Zhen felt very sad, although as Deng Ming pointed out, he couldn't wear more armor, but He Zhen felt that it would be good to look at it even if it was piled up in the warehouse. After all, this is a rare resource, although there are not enough reliable Daning soldiers now, but soldiers are easy to obtain, and armor can be difficult to build.

However, He Zhen could not deny the role played by Deng Ming, and Deng Ming said that these equipment would be transferred to Hao Shaoqi and others in his name, and He Zhen finally reluctantly agreed. Of course, the rest of the seizures: silver taels, copper coins, cloth, and grain, Deng Ming was all handed over to He Zhen alone.

Afterwards, He Zhen scolded his son fiercely for this, if his son launched a surprise attack with Deng Ming and shared part of Deng Ming's credit, then he would have a reason to give Yuan Zongdi 200 sets of armor for each of them, this loser son not only made Lao Tzu lose 600 sets of armor at once, but also missed a good opportunity to marry Deng Ming. When He Zhen was angry, he originally wanted to whip his son twice, but the whip was in his hand, and he was reluctant to think about it, so He Zhen put it down again and scolded He Daoning for everything.

Since the expedition, the management of the various military camps has naturally not been Deng Ming's turn to interfere, and only when everyone else is not in Zhong Xiang, Deng Ming will put forward his own opinions on large and small affairs, and he has also never issued any orders to force Xìng's subordinates to the generals of Kuidong. Only how to manage these captives is completely up to Deng Ming, who stayed in Zhongxiang for several days, working to earn food and clothing every rì, and in the evening Deng Ming also organized some singing and storytelling artists to perform in the prisoner camp.

Originally, Liu Tichun had already turned a blind eye to how Deng Ming disposed of the prisoners, but after hearing about this, he became curious again, so he went to the prisoner camp to have a look.

What surprised Liu Tichun even more was that Deng Ming actually went out in person, and said stand-up comedy to the captives around him on one of the platforms, seeing the third prince so self-deprecating, Liu Tichun felt like he was in a dream, and felt that his worldview and values for more than 30 years were about to be subverted.

Among the guards who followed Liu Tichun, two of them had been stationed in Zhongxiang during this time, and the two of them were not very surprised by Deng Ming's actions, and these two people showed disappointment after listening to two sentences: "Old paragraph, I have heard it." ”

"What have you heard?" Liu Tichun was even more surprised, and hurriedly asked, although he vaguely guessed what his subordinates meant, he still couldn't believe it.

"Admiral Tiyì has been mentioned a few times, if the soldiers have nothing to do, they can go to listen to books and watch ...... plays" The subordinates' answers confirmed Liu Tichun's guess, Zhong Xiangcheng is not big, and there are not many artists, Deng Ming personally went out to talk to Ming Jun about stand-up comedy. By the way, Deng Ming also helped his subordinates exercise their ability to read and write, and in the past few months, Li Xinghan and others have learned a lot of words, so Deng Ming wrote the cross talk book on paper, and let them listen to themselves while reading, to see if they can understand a rough idea.

Before, Zhong Xiang did not have many guards, each with its own position, and the rules in the camp were also according to the old method of Liu Tichun and others, so although Deng Ming had a celebrity effect, he was not as busy as he is now, and he had to find a random platform to talk about the previous paragraph almost every day.

Most of the people on the side of the stage sat cross-legged on the ground, wearing tattered clothes given by He Zhen or homemade bark and straw skirts, all grinning and smiling, obviously fascinated by the audience. When Deng Ming shook his burden, the captives around the stage were excitedly patting their thighs and laughing, and Liu Tichun saw that there were still many people rolling on the ground with joy, and tears spurted out.

Several guards who came with Liu Tichun also listened with a smile, and shouted hello with other listeners from time to time, but Liu Tichun didn't listen particularly carefully to the story told by Deng Ming, he kept observing the crowd around him. It wasn't until the earth sank into the night that Deng Ming ended his performance, and when he walked down from the stage, he still held a basin in his hand, and shouted loudly, "If you have money to hold a money field, you don't have money to hold a personal field." Walking through the crowd, the captives also threw copper coins into Deng Ming's basin. The rest of the performances were almost over, and the crowd let out a sigh of unending meaning and began to walk back to the prisoner camp.

Holding a pot full of copper coins, Deng Ming walked in front of Liu Tichun with the guards with a smile on his face, just now he had already seen Liu Tichun coming on stage, and after the performance, he walked straight over, raised the basin and showed off to Liu Tichun: "Look, Admiral Ben earns no less than others." ”

Many of the money from the captives' work, excluding the money spent on food and drink, was given to these entertainers. Liu Tichun glanced down at the money basin, without any compliment, but motioned for Deng Ming to talk alone. Putting the copper coin in his pocket and putting it in his arms, Deng Ming and Liu Tichun walked side by side, and the guards of the two followed far behind.

"Is the Admiral still going to put all such captives back?" Liu Tichun asked straight to the point.

"These people, yes," Deng Ming nodded, and replied without hesitation: "They are all screened by General He, they are all the personal soldiers of the Tartar generals, or there are old and young people in their hometowns, and they will not follow us with peace of mind." After Hu Quancai withdrew from the army, I released them all, just like last time. ”

Liu Tichun pondered for a moment, and after he came back, he asked a few of his subordinates, and knew that Deng Ming had arranged a remuneration arbitration department, which was specifically responsible for coordinating the conflict between the prisoners and the residents of Zhongxiang. In the past, the soldiers may have been strong, but now these Qing soldiers are prisoners, and the residents of Zhongxiang feel that under normal circumstances, their lives are not guaranteed, and it is inevitable that some people will want to bully them and rely on their wages. The arbitration institutions established by Deng Ming did not favor the inhabitants, but worked to ensure that the captives could get their fair wages.

"If the Admiral doesn't want to win the hearts and minds of their army, why bother?" Liu Tichun asked his doubts, when he saw Deng Ming walking through the crowd just now, although he knew that these captives definitely did not have the courage to disadvantage Deng Ming under the control of the Ming army, even if there were a few fanatics Deng Ming's guards were enough to subdue him, but after all, this was still a gesture of trust, Liu Tichun felt that it would only appear when he tried to buy people's hearts: "If the admiral doesn't want these prisoners, why bother." ”

After asking, Liu Tichun looked at Deng Ming's expression seriously, waiting for the other party's answer.

Deng Ming sighed softly, these captives were once his enemies, and Deng Ming had also seen their hideous faces on the battlefield, and most of these people had fierce expressions on their faces at that time. However, when Deng Ming said cross talk, he saw simple joy on the faces of the people around him, and the happy appearance of these people made Deng Ming feel warm and kind, and when he walked through these people with a money basin, Deng Ming could also feel their gratitude and friendliness.

"Many of them were also peasants, and they were captured by the Tartars, and then they joined the army and embarked on the road of fighting us, and some of them had been in the Tartar army for a long time, so they became pro-soldiers, wearing armor, and some of the shorter ones were auxiliary soldiers. But a long time ago, they were all Han Chinese, they spoke the same words as us, ate the same things, would miss their relatives, and would love their children. Deng Ming said calmly as he walked: "They are all human beings." ”

"What about all people?" Liu Tichun was a little puzzled by Deng Ming's emotion and asked.

"I thought that since they were human beings, they should be paid for their labor, that they should be able to find something to eat when they are hungry, that they should have clothes to wear when they feel cold, and that they should be happy when they are well fed and satisfied." Deng Ming seriously told Liu Tichun what he thought people should be treated: "When I am on the battlefield, I will not be soft on the enemy, but on the battlefield, I would rather treat the prisoners as human beings, not insult them, and let them be entertained after work." ”

"That's what the Admiral thinks." Liu Tichun also sighed softly, and did not make any evaluation of Deng Ming's persuasion, and there were no more problems.

After breaking up with Deng Ming, Liu Tichun went to Yuan Zong's camp again, the latter came back half a day earlier than Liu Tichun, and he already knew what Deng Ming did to the captives, but his guess was similar to Liu Tichun, that is, Deng Ming may have moved his mind to take some of the captives for his own use.

Liu Tichun denied his speculation and repeated what Deng Ming said to himself to Yuan Zongdi, and when the latter was stunned, Liu Tichun suddenly patted Yuan Zongdi's shoulder vigorously: "Brother Yuan, you are a very good person, the third prince is a benevolent and virtuous person, and he will be good to us in the future." ”

……

Hao Shaoqi also hurried with his soldiers and horses soon after, but when Hao Shaoqi arrived, Hu Quancai's army was still far away from Zhong Xiang.

"What is the thief doing?" Hao Shaoqi hurried along the way, for fear that he would not be able to arrive in time, but he didn't expect Hu Quancai's action to be so slow, and it seemed that he would still not be able to arrive within a few days.

"The army of thieves walks like a turtle crawling, not moving in the middle of the day, the rear camp advances into the front camp, and then defends on the spot, and the next day the camp behind rolls forward, and it can't go a few miles in a row." Liu Tichun and the others had already investigated Hu Quancai's situation very clearly, and the Qing army seemed to have no fighting spirit, judging from the morale of their marching table, they would have already returned home under normal circumstances.

These rìzi interrogated the prisoners, and the Ming army also knew a lot about the situation of the Qing army, basically Hu Quancai was alone in the main battle, and the accompanying civilian officials, staff, and generals were not willing to take risks for the desperate gamble of the governor of Huguang. If it was left in the former Ming Dynasty, it is estimated that the army would have dispersed in a hurry, but now that the Manchu Qing Dynasty has just opened the country, the laws are strict, and Hu Quancai's subordinates are afraid of Běijīng's punishment, so they have to bite the bullet and Hu Quancai to attack Zhong Xiang.

"Maybe they were hoping that the Tartars would remove Hu Quancai from his post so that they could go home quickly, so they were desperately grinding on the road." Yuan Zongdi analyzed: "Well, there is another possibility, they are counting on scaring us away, the thieves brought more than 60,000 people, more than 20,000 armor, and sailors this time, they rubbed over step by step, counting on us to see that there was no gap, and they were not sure about it, so they withdrew by themselves." ”

"That's a good idea, that's what most of the Tartars think." Hao Shaoqi felt that Yuan Zongdi's last guess was closer to the truth, Běijīng's Shunzhi was not a fool, and most of the changes in command could not be done, and the news of Li Shixun's fiasco would not spread to Běijīng so quickly, Hu Quancai would definitely try his best to cover it up, even if someone else poked it out, it would be a long time before Běijīng figured out what was going on.

After defeating Li Shixun this time, He Zhen felt that he had eaten almost enough, if there was no other reason, He Zhen would definitely agree to take the initiative to withdraw from the army, Hao Shaoqi had already proposed this proposal before he arrived, Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi They also felt that this expedition was fruitful, and it was indeed a good idea to return to the base area to train soldiers.

But just a quarter of an hour before Hao Shaoqi returned to Zhongxiang, a Ming envoy felt Zhong Xiang and sent Li Laiheng and a letter, which made Liu Tichun and them change their minds immediately.

Liu Tichun shook the letter he had just received in front of Hao Shaoqi, and Deng Mingnian read it to him.

"The little tiger has already arrived from Gangneung?" Without waiting for Deng Ming to finish reading Hao Shaoqi, he exclaimed, Yiling and Jiangling defense lines were operated by Hong Chengchou as impregnable, and the Ming army of Kuidong hit his head on it several times, but the letter said that this time the Ming army took the two places without much effort, and Li Laiheng had no loss at all, and after learning that Hu Quancai concentrated the main force to attack Zhongxiang, he set off from Jiangling, preparing to rush to meet Liu Tichun.

"You're not done yet." Liu Tichun said with a smile: "Inspector Wen has also returned to his hometown. ”

After learning that the Qing army in Hubei was defeated and Yiling had been captured by Li Laiheng, Wen Anzhi couldn't sit still in Fengjie, so he hurriedly led Fengjie's soldiers and horses downstream. At first, Wen Anzhi also said that he had a bad appetite when he was older, but Deng Ming retorted that it was precisely because of the poor absorption capacity of the elderly that they should eat more nutritious things such as fish and meat, which are rich in protein and trace elements. Although he was skeptical of Deng Ming's health theory, Wen Anzhi did greatly increase the proportion of meat and vegetables in the recipe under Deng Ming's repeated persuasion.

When he left from Fengjie this time, Wen Anzhi stewed two pieces of meat for himself to practice, and he must eat a fish every day on the road, he encouraged himself in his heart: "I want to eat fish and meat, the king of Shaotang said that I can be physically strong in this way, I must live to ninety, see the Ming Zhongxing, and recover the two capitals!" ”

Li Laiheng got the news that Wen Anzhi had arrived in Yiling and was preparing to supervise the eastward expedition, and under Wen Anzhi's call, other Kuidong Ming troops also sent troops to join the sweep around Yiling and Jiangling. It was precisely because of his worries that Li Laiheng was able to lead the whole army out of Gangneung.

On the one hand, Zhong Xiangming's army sent an envoy to get in touch with Li Laiheng's army, and on the other hand, he stepped up his investigation of Hu Quancai's movements, and found that the other party was still crawling towards Zhong Xiang at turtle speed, Liu Tichun commented contemptuously: "Hu thieves don't know whether they are dead or alive. ”

……

Wusongkou.

After learning of the Kunming fire, Zheng Chenggong waited more urgently for Deng Ming to come to his army, and such a heroic clan would definitely be able to greatly boost his military morale. Because of waiting for the young Tang king, he delayed some departure, and seeing that Deng Ming could not arrive for a long time, Zheng Chenggong finally set off from Xiamen and came to Zhoushan with the army to join Zhang Huangyan.

Zhang Huangyan, who had been waiting a little impatiently, complained after seeing Zheng Chenggong, blaming him for not keeping the appointment, in case the news leaked and the Qing army was wary, it would be troublesome. Zheng Chenggong didn't dare to confide in the little abacus in his heart, so he could only deduce that there was a typhoon in the South China Sea, and he had to stay for a few more days in order to avoid the wind.

On the way, Zhang Huangyan also talked to Zheng Chenggong about the Kunming fire, and also mentioned Deng Ming's clan rumors with great interest, Zheng Chenggong tried to divert the topic several times: if Zhang Huangyan knew that Deng Ming was the king of the Shaotang Dynasty, then the other party would definitely immediately gain insight into Zheng Chenggong's intentions, and he was afraid that letting Zhang Huangyan know about this matter too early would cause trouble, after all, Deng Ming had not yet arrived in his army safely - Zheng Chenggong knew that Zhang Huangyan was a loyal Ming courtier, but he felt that it was better to be careful when it came to supporting the establishment.

After taking Nanjing, receiving Deng Ming, and having Wen An's testimony, Zheng Chenggong will support Deng Mingjian State. When the raw rice is cooked and matured, coupled with the echo of the Ming army in Kuidong, he feels that Zhang Huangyan can't make any waves, but now if he pretends to know nothing and guesses the identity of this person with Zhang Huangyan in a clear and confused way, then Zhang Huangyan will feel that Zheng Chenggong is too deceitful in the future, which is not conducive to the future cooperation between the two families.

Nearly 200,000 Ming troops and 1,000 ships gathered outside Wusongkou, Zheng Chenggong first showed off his military strength for a long time, so that the defenders could clearly see their strength, and then sent envoys to send letters and war letters.

"What did Ma Fengzhi say?"

After the envoy returned, Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan asked together.

"I'm scared of all my guts." The envoy smiled and told the two great men: Wu Song's chief soldiers and horses did not dare to accept the war letter at all, and the meaning of begging for mercy was very obvious.

"Well, when I go to deliver the message again, I will say that as long as he does not stop his ship on the river, I will not attack his camp." Zheng Chenggong said with a laugh.

After the envoy took the order, Zheng Chenggong ordered the whole army to prepare to enter the Yangtze River, Zhang Huangyan thought for a while, and proposed a proposal to Zheng Chenggong: "You might as well order Ma Fengzhi to surrender, if he refuses, we will attack him first, if we see that our offensive is fierce, we may completely surrender; If he still does not surrender, the so-called general will be the commander of the army, and he is now full of courage, and he will not be able to stop our thunderous blow. ”

Zheng Chenggong thought for a while, shook his head and said: "Ma Fengzhi has 3,000 cavalry under his command, which is the largest horse army of the Tartars in the south of the Yangtze River. We went down to Nanjing first, and when the time came, I didn't believe that he would not surrender, just so that he would make meritorious service and be our precursor. ”

Admiral Ma Fengzhi of Wusong accepted Zheng Chenggong's ultimatum, Ma Bu was not allowed to leave the camp, and even the Jiangfang fort took the initiative to give up, and the defenders all retreated to his camp.

At the same time, Zheng Chenggong sent a letter to Liang Huafeng, the defender of Chongming Island, to persuade him to surrender.

Liang Huafeng was in charge of the Manchu Qing Su and Songshui Divisions, and like Ma Fengzhi, he was a key general of the Yangtze River defense, and after seeing the boundless Ming Army Naval Division, he was as shocked as Ma Fengzhi. Now Chongming Island is surrounded by the Ming army and sailors, like a lonely boat in the vast ocean, as if it will capsize if a wave hits it.

"Who said that Zheng Wei focused on Fujian?" In the camp of Chongming Island, Liang Huafeng jumped like thunder, because he did not expect Zheng Chenggong to suddenly appear at the mouth of the Yangtze River, the Su and Songshui divisions were not prepared for battle at all, and the forts on the shore defense did not have enough gunpowder and projectiles.

Liang Huafeng, who had nothing to do, asked the messenger who brought Zheng Chenggong to see him.

Holding Zheng Chenggong's letter of persuasion in his hand, looking at the envoy of the Ming army in front of him, Liang Huafeng felt that his mouth was full of bitter water, although he had the heart to refuse, but he didn't dare to spit out the word "no".

"If General Liang can't make a decision for a while, then the king can give a few days of grace."

Liang Huafeng didn't expect that it was the envoy of the Ming army who opened his mouth to relieve the siege for himself, and Zheng Chenggong's strategy to deal with Liang Huafeng was the same as Ma Fengzhi's, that is, to allow the other party not to surrender for the time being, as long as the other party showed enough sincerity. Zheng Chenggong needed Ma Fengzhi to do to abandon the Jiangfang fort at Wusongkou, while Liang Huafeng needed to put away all the Su Song water divisions and not interfere with the military operations of the Ming army.

"The king is magnanimous, and the last general dares to disobey his fate?" Liang Huafeng hurriedly agreed, and ordered the whole army in front of the envoy, so that all the Qing warships around Chongming Island would unload their sails and be firmly tied to the harbor, and no one was allowed to board the ship.

After getting Liang Huafeng's reply, Zheng Chenggong was in a better mood, and he said to Zhang Huangyan: "When Nanjing is conquered, let Liang Huafeng be the vanguard, and take his Su and Songshui divisions to Jiangxi to recover Nanchang for the imperial court." ”

After taking over these dangerous passes, the army of Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan sailed into the Yangtze River and drove mightily towards Nanjing.