After returning to the Yamen, Wen Anzhi took out another letter and showed it to Deng Ming, which was sent from Kunming by Li Dingguo's envoy.

"King Jin wants to ask for a knight for you." Wen Anzhi glanced at Deng Ming deeply.

Li Dingguo wrote to Fengjie several times before, asking Wen Anzhi about Deng Ming's life experience, but Wen Anzhi prevaricated by not knowing. Li Dingguo is the prince of the fake Huang Yue, so fooling him made Wen Anzhi feel uneasy in conscience, after the news of the victory of Gaoyou Lake reached Kunming, Li Dingguo sent someone to deliver this letter again.

If Deng Ming is a clan, then he doesn't need Li Dingguo to ask for a knighthood for himself, in other words, if Deng Ming intends to compete with Yongli for the throne of the Son of Heaven, then he can't agree to Li Dingguo asking for a knighthood for himself; But if Deng Ming is not a clan, Li Dingguo's move undoubtedly shows the greatest kindness.

"King Qingyang of Jianchang seems to have humiliated the envoy of King Jin several times." When Wen Anzhi read Deng Ming's letter, he rebuked him without a trace.

"Really?" Although Deng Ming did not give Jianchang such a hint, he also knew that this account must be counted on his head. Although Feng Shuangli and other generals of the Qin and Shu kings had already had a holiday with Li Dingguo, because of Deng Ming's relationship, their contempt for the Son of Heaven and the imperial court was undoubtedly more emboldened: "Did the King of Jin say it?" ”

"King Jin didn't say a word," Wen Anzhi sighed. Jianchang's rudeness and hostility, Li Dingguo not only did not say it to Fengjie, but also did not allow his envoy to mention it in front of Wen Anzhi; But when an envoy of the King of Jin was having dinner at Fengjie, he had a few glasses of wine in his stomach, and suddenly couldn't hold back and scolded the people of Jianchang, which made Wen Anzhi hear the news: "The King of Jin is probably afraid that I will misunderstand and think that he has taken this matter to heart." ”

"Hmm." Deng Ming nodded, and after listening to Wen Anzhi's explanation, he strengthened his determination to go to Kunming: "The last general heard that the King of Jin had difficulty in food and salary, and I brought back a lot of grain from Jiangnan this time, and I plan to transport 500,000 stones to Jianchang, half of which is for the King of Jin, and transfer it from Jianchang to Kunming."

"That's very good." Wen Anzhi also believes that it is necessary to resolve the contradictions between Kunming and Jianchang. Now tens of thousands of soldiers in Jianchang's western battalion are preoccupied with guarding against Kunming, and using so many troops to guard against Li Dingguo is definitely a heavy waste of military resources, and it must also involve a lot of Li Dingguo's energy: "The King of Jin asked for a knight for you, how do you plan to reply to the King of Jin?" ”

It has always been Wen'an's help Deng Ming to cover up, but this time Deng Ming said that he didn't need to reply to him on his behalf: "I will personally escort the grain and grass to Kunming." ”

"You're going to Kunming?" Wen Anzhi was stunned when he heard this, and waved his hand again and again: "It's not proper, it's not proper, you still have to guard against Li Guoying in Chongqing." ”

"Inspector Mingjian." In Deng Ming's view, if you want to build trust between Chengdu and Kunming, the best way is to have a face-to-face meeting with Li Dingguo, but Deng Ming also knows that Wen Anzhi is worried about his safety: "Of course, Sun Kewang advocated the rebellion back then, but the countermeasures of the kings of Jin and Shu are also debatable. The King of Jin never mentioned to us that Jianchang humiliated his envoy, which shows that the King of Jin is also reflecting on the mistakes of the year, and the last general believes that the King of Jin will definitely not treat the last general like the King of Shu; Besides, now that the shape is so sinister, the imperial court only has a little place left in the southwest line, and the confrontation between Jianchang and Yunnan will only make the relatives and enemies happy. The last general also has a bit of face in Jianchang, so this matter is imperative. ”

After Wen Anzhi's several teachings, Deng Ming rarely spoke so bluntly, but he didn't have time to organize his language in this matter today, and he could speak wherever he wanted.

looked at the guards around him, although they were all henchmen of the two, Wen Anzhi still coughed heavily: "The Sun thief betrayed the court, and the King of Jin was ordered to beg the thief, what is the matter?" And in the case of the King of Shu, most of the King of Jin also had some unspeakable hardships. However, Deng Ming, you have neither betrayed the imperial court, nor are you the king of Shu, so naturally you don't need to worry about this. ”

"Yes." Deng Ming bowed and replied, knowing that Wen Anzhi had agreed with him, but still hinting that he should be careful.

"Oh, yes." Wen Anzhi thought of something again, and patted his head lightly: "Your military training is very good, you might as well bring two thousand armor soldiers, no, you take three thousand armor soldiers to Kunming, King Jin will like it." Besides, the King of Jin must also want to meet these heroes who killed thieves in Gaoyou Lake. ”

"Yes." Deng Ming replied respectfully again, and his face couldn't help but smile.

……

After a few days of rest in Fengjie, Deng Ming said goodbye to Wen Anzhi and led the army back to Chengdu, where he let the cattle rest again in Wanxian County.

When the Ming army sailed out of the Causeway Gorge, the forward general was Major Ren Tang, whether it was Yuan Zongdi's intelligence or the Sichuan army's exploration horses, it proved that Li Guoying's entire army stayed in the city of Chongqing, so that the Qing army's artillery could not pose much threat to the Ming army at all. If the Ming ships were sailing on the east and south sides of the river, they would not be threatened in the slightest.

The last time he fought with Li Guoying, Ren Tang had not led the army to fight a few battles, and he did not have much military experience, and almost all of them were on the march; However, benefiting from a series of experiences since then, Ren Tang has learned a lot and accumulated a lot of experience; After this dispatch, Ren Tang has been involved in decision-making, often discussing military affairs with Deng Ming, Mu Tan and Zhou Kaihuang, not only knowing the reasons behind every decision, but also personally leading the troops many times.

"Why is Li Guoying unwilling to send a group of soldiers and horses to cross the Yangtze River to build a fortress here, equipped with guns and artillery?" As early as when he entered Kuimen, Ren Tang asserted to Deng Ming that Li Guoying would not risk crossing the river, and now he discussed the pros and cons with the officers around him: "If you are in Li Guoying's position, how will you act?" ”

Several officers thought that Li Guoying's countermeasures were very appropriate, and the last time Li Guoying crossed the river with 30,000 troops to attack Deng Ming, he was beaten so that only 3,500 people fled back to Chongqing. Now, although there is strong support from the Qing court, Li Guoying may have gathered more than 10,000 but less than 20,000 soldiers and horses in Chongqing, and naturally he did not dare to cross the river to fight again-Wanxian's naval division was stronger than the Jialing River naval division, and if the Ming army besieged Li Guoying's fortress on the south bank with heavy troops, he could only squat in the city of Chongqing and watch.

However, two officers thought that Li Guoying had missed a good opportunity, and if they were in Li Guoying's position, they would send troops and horses to cross the river and sneak attack, even if they could not hurt the Ming army, they could also cause trouble for the Ming army. As for the difficulties that a small group of Qing troops might encounter, these two officers felt that they could be solved by improvisation, and one even thought that even a small force of the Ming army besieging and crossing the river would be beneficial to Chongqing, so that the shipping force of the Ming army's naval division could be contained and the Ming army's Yangtze River shipping could be further dragged down.

Ren Tang did not judge the rights and wrongs of their opinions, but just silently memorized the names of the two officers who advocated a sneak attack, and labeled them as inclined to attack. Most of the officers who lacked combat experience preferred defense, and although they now supported Li Guoying's strategy of defending the city, they were not necessarily moderate, and perhaps they would become more and more aggressive as they became more experienced in combat.

However, Li Guoying was different, as an experienced general, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi always showed obvious conservative tendencies. At the Ming army's discussion meeting in Kuimen, Ren Tang pointed out that Li Guoying had a tendency to exaggerate the enemy's reaction speed and the troubles he encountered. For example, the last time he fought with the Sichuan army, Li Guoying did not burn the camp when he retreated, obviously to mislead the Sichuan army as much as possible - in fact, even Li Guoying burned the camp and materials, and with Ren Tang's military ability at that time, he may not be able to stop the retreat of the Qing army.

Now that Chongqing's deployment is in the same way, Li Guoying's rich combat experience has made him realize that any action carries a lot of risks, and he would rather avoid taking risks until he comes up with a safe solution. This cautious attitude and careful thinking made Li Guoying show a strong defensive capability, and he had thought about various offensive forms of the Ming army, so he also had a preliminary way to deal with it.

Zhao Liangdong is different from Li Guoying, he has a tendency to narrow difficulties, and his rich combat experience plays the opposite role of Zhao Liangdong and Li Guoying, not only does not make Zhao Liangdong more cautious, but makes him full of confidence to overcome all difficulties. The last time he confronted the Sichuan army, Zhao Liangdong still confidently launched a counterattack, intending to rely on his rich combat experience to defeat the Ming army one by one -- my soldiers trained better, and my reaction was faster, so even if everyone encountered unexpected trouble, I solved it better and faster, and the result was still that I won.

Previously, Zhao Liangdong had been ordered to go back to Shaanxi to train new soldiers, and Deng Ming and the others all believed that if Zhao Liangdong was in Chongqing, it was very likely that the Ming and Qing armies would have already fought -- this was both a threat and an opportunity for the Ming army, and Chongqing's defense would definitely not be as watertight as Li Guoying presided over.

When Ren Tang's ship sailed near Chongqing, the river from Chongqing to Causeway Gorge was already full of ships of the Ming army. The governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi was alarmed, and had already run up the castle tower to look out over the river -- this formation was somewhat similar to that of the Ming army when it sailed out of Kuimen, but it was certainly not a joy for the Qing army in Chongqing.

Hu Wenke and the others on the city tower were speechless in surprise and were greatly shaken. As for those low-ranking officers and soldiers, they trembled even more at the river. The general soldiers Wang Mingde and Daniel Zhang were slightly better, and they did not tremble like the soldiers, but there was no trace of blood on their faces.

In the fifteenth year of Shunzhi, Wu Sangui went from Chongqing to Zunyi, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty transferred a large number of ships from the Liangjiang River to forcibly transport grain and straw to Chongqing through the Guò Three Gorges. But even the Susong Sailor in its heyday was far from being able to compare with the Sailor of Western Sichuan that came out of the Causeway Gorge today.

When Tan Yi rebelled, Wang Mingde and Tan Yi's joint sailor pursued Yuan Zongdi, and when the sailor chased to Tongluo Gorge, he felt that it was far enough that the squad returned. But now the vanguard of the Ming army has arrived at the city of Chongqing, and the fleet behind it is still coming in a steady stream, as if it is endless......