Of course, Deng Ming didn't know that he had two more brothers, and they appeared in Shandong and Guangdong almost at the same time, and he wouldn't have expected that he would have more and more brothers.

At this time, the expeditionary force withdrawn from Burma was resting in Jianchang. The Sichuan army that followed Deng Ming from Chengdu last autumn totaled 8,000 people, and after nearly a year, they once again came to Feng Shuangli's territory under the banner of Deng Ming, and at this time there were only more than 6,000 Sichuan troops left.

More than 500 soldiers were killed in Burma, and more than 1,000 died in foreign countries due to illness, accidents, and serious injuries. The bones of these deceased were all packed in coffins by Deng Ming and transported back to China with great difficulty. Although Deng Ming himself did not believe in any ghosts and gods, the Sichuan army did not want to see their living companions become ghosts in a foreign land, and Deng Ming was unwilling to leave their bodies abroad, for fear that their cemeteries would not be well cared for.

On the way back to China, Deng Ming did not mind placing the coffins outside his tent. At first, the Ming army was still a little taboo about this, and the soldiers were also a little afraid of possible ghost harassment. But Deng Ming said to everyone: "These soldiers were our friends when they were alive, and they died and had spirits, so how could they be unfavorable to us?" Definitely bless our army. ”

There are many ways to ward off evil spirits among the people, and the same is true in the army, such as hanging a sword at the door of the tent, and it is said that when the ghost sees a murder weapon that has killed someone, it will retreat, which is more effective than hanging a portrait of the god of the door or a strip of red cloth at the door. But Deng Ming didn't use any of these methods, and even said that he really hoped to be able to reunite with the heroic spirits of his subordinates. Deng Ming believes that all fears of ghosts are insults to the dead.

Under the influence of Deng Ming, the people in the Sichuan army also began to change their views, and many people felt that Deng Ming was very reasonable, and the fallen soldiers were all colleagues and friends before their deaths, and they would never come to find trouble for themselves. Some people even remembered that many soldiers died to cover their comrades, in this case, how could they come to the person they wanted to cover when they were alive as substitutes for the dead ghosts?

After entering Yunnan, Deng Ming chose a place to bury the remains of the soldiers. This is already Chinese territory, and if the coffin continues to be carried, the decomposing corpse will also pose a sanitary hazard. However, Deng Ming told Li Dingguo that he was only entrusting Li Dingguo to take care of these soldiers for a few years, and in a few years he would send someone to lift the coffin and bring the bones of these sacrificed Sichuan soldiers back to Chengdu.

After arriving in Jianchang, Deng Ming asked his subordinates to send some of the armor back to western Sichuan first, Feng Shuangli is definitely Deng Ming's most reliable ally at present, no matter from which point of view, Jianchang has no reason to be unfavorable to Deng Ming.

When he was in Kunming, although the Sichuan army and the Yunnan army behaved harmoniously, they were not completely unguarded in their hearts; Deng Ming is like this, and Li Dingguo is the same. Therefore, after seeing that Wu Sangui had no intention of encroaching, Deng Ming quickly bid farewell to Li Dingguo and led his troops to Jianchang. After Deng Ming left Yunnan, not only did he feel relaxed all of a sudden, but even Li Dingguo could sleep peacefully - if thousands of Sichuan troops were stationed next to Kunming, but the king of Jin was not at all guarded, then he was not responsible for all his subordinates. When people reach this position, some things have nothing to do with morality and trust, but must be done.

After returning to Jianchang, the Sichuan army felt that they had returned to the friendly land, although they had not yet returned to their hometown in western Sichuan, but the officers no longer required soldiers according to wartime standards, they had been nervous for almost a year, and it was time to rest.

While the soldiers of the Sichuan Army were enjoying Jianchang's hospitality and relaxing around Jianchang Lake, Deng Ming was settling accounts with Feng Shuangli. The two have been working together for so long, and the friendship is already very good. However, Deng Ming insisted that the accounts should be clear, and all the money owed by western Sichuan to Jianchang should be paid off as soon as possible with interest.

Feng Shuangli, who knew Deng Ming's temper, was not too polite, and after Deng Ming settled the grain and cloth borrowed during the expedition, as well as the freight for letting Jianchang help transfer the loot, Feng Shuangli generously said that the expenses of the Sichuan army in Jianchang during this period were all counted as their Jianchang generals' treats.

This time he followed Deng Ming to send troops, and Jianchang benefited a lot, but the cost was very small. The Jianchang army also paid the price of hundreds of men, but most of them were auxiliaries brought with them, and many of them died in the spontaneous resistance of the Burmese because of Bai Wenxuan's poor occupation policy. The death of a group of auxiliaries and a small number of cavalry, in exchange for the further improvement of relations with Kunming, the continued deepening of cooperation with Chengdu, and the seizure of a large number of materials and slave labor, Feng Shuangli felt that the deal was too cost-effective - Di Sanxi did not bring back the corpses of those Jianchang soldiers, but buried them on the spot in Burma.

In the meeting with Deng Ming, Feng Shuangli vaguely revealed that he wanted to send Jianchang soldiers to Sichuan to help in the war, which Deng Ming of course welcomed. Although Jianchang has a number of factions that cannot be compared with Chengdu, it is also quite complex, and it is also an alliance established to counter the threat of Kunming. Deng Ming saw that the battalion commanders and generals were all staying in their own defense areas, running their own territories and military camps, and only came to Jianchang to see Feng Shuangli when they had something. And the king of Qingyang himself was shaken for a time and acquiesced in the surrender of his subordinates to the Qing court, but he could no longer recover the courage of the previous years, and now Feng Shuangli has no ambition to dominate the side at all, but simply wants to keep his life safe and his current position, and has no desire to integrate the Qin and Shu forces in Jianchang.

With such a loose Jianchang alliance, Deng Ming thought that it would be easier to deal with, at least easier than the cohesive Jin dynasty to reach an understanding and cooperate. Therefore, Deng Ming told Feng Shuangli and other Jianchang generals that if anyone wants to send troops to help the war, Sichuan West is very welcome, but when Sichuan West handles the spoils, it will still be distributed in proportion to the size of the force, so if the Jianchang reinforcements want to get a piece of the pie, they need to send elite soldiers and strong generals with real combat effectiveness.

At Feng Shuangli's place, Deng Mingcai heard that Kuidong's army was besieging Chongqing, and there may have been a fierce battle at this time.

"Chongqing's food is tasteless, and it's a pity to abandon it." Deng Ming didn't know how many victories the Sichuan army had achieved in Zhejiang, but even if he knew, he would still sigh like this to Feng Shuangli. Deng Ming didn't want to send the entire population to farm, but he also didn't want to starve people for agricultural production. If he is responsible for occupying Chongqing, it means that a large number of people have to leave production and be responsible for defending Chongqing and transporting materials.

After telling Feng Shuangli about these worries, Deng Ming whispered as if he was talking to himself: "I wonder if General Yuan is willing to move to Chongqing?" However, if he guards it, I am afraid that I will have to spend a lot of money to subsidize him, otherwise how can General Yuan be willing to do it? ”

Hearing this, Feng Shuangli's heart moved, although he didn't quite understand why Deng Ming didn't attach so much importance to occupying land, but Chongqing was an important town, and Liu Wenxiu talked to Feng Shuangli about this place many times, pointing out that this was a necessary place to attack Baoning, and even to advance into Hanzhong and Xi'an, and it was also a key point to cover the security of Sichuan.

"If Chongqing is my territory, won't Hanzhong and Xi'an also be mine in the future?" This thought flashed through Feng Shuangli's mind, but it was just a moment, and the ambition that had just emerged disappeared without a trace in the next moment. When the Son of Heaven abandoned the country and Di Sanxi and other human owners surrendered, Feng Shuangli had a fierce psychological struggle, but after that step, now he values a peaceful and leisurely life more than anything else: "If you go to Chongqing, you have to intrigue with Chengdu and Kuidong, and you have to guard against the attack of Baoning; If you plan to go on a northern expedition, you must actively train your soldiers and collect intelligence on Baoning and Hanzhong...... Alas, I've been tired all my life, and I'm finally able to enjoy a little blessing here, so why bother myself? ”

Since Feng Shuangli followed Zhang Xianzhong, he has been living a risky life. Like now, as long as you help Chengdu transfer some materials to Kunming, you can get compensation for various luxury goods; Occasionally, people were sent to help Deng Ming fight, and there would be gold and silver in his pocket. Feng Shuangli thinks this kind of day is quite good. Thinking of this, Feng Shuangli pressed the idea of going to Chongqing. In the past, Feng Shuangli only needed to guard against Kunming, but now that the relationship has improved, even Kunming does not need to be on guard; Jianchang has Chengdu in the north and Kunming in the south, since it is impossible to expand the territory, even this thought can be saved.

……

It was also from Feng Shuangli's mouth that Deng Ming learned that the Senate and the Imperial Assembly in Sichuan had begun to function, and he could even organize an Eastern Crusade when he was out. While the army was resting in Jianchang, Deng Ming sent people to Chengdu to inquire about the situation of the Eastern Crusade and the situation in Chongqing, and at this time, the left-behind personnel in Burma also kept sending reports back.

Deng Ming left hundreds of Sichuan soldiers in Burma, and they would send a copy of the general situation in northern Burma every once in a while, and if there was an emergency, they would send back urgent mail. However, Deng Ming also knows very well that this kind of report is just a change of peace of mind, sending an intelligence from Myanmar back has to trek through mountains and rivers, and it is so far away that it is impossible to command remotely, and if there is really an emergency, Deng Ming can only watch and cannot intervene in time.

"Is there a better way to communicate?" Deng Ming pondered for a long time, but he really couldn't think of how to invent the telegraph, so he had to put this idea aside.

The situation in northern Burma was relatively stable, and the people left behind reported that Siam seemed to have launched an attack on Burma, and Siamese envoys infiltrated northern Burma to get in touch with the Ming army and jointly crusade against Mangbai.

"Until Mangru and Pang Gao are able to take control of southern Burma, it is not in the interest of the empire to eliminate Mangbai." Near Zhu Zhechi, Zhao Tianba has been by Deng Ming's side for so long, and his worldview is greatly aligned with that of Baoguo Gong: "Even if Reckless and Pang Gao can control southern Myanmar, it may not be a good thing for them to unify Myanmar." As for Siam, they have a decent relationship with us at the moment, but if we help Siam unify Burma for this purpose, it will certainly be thankless. ”

"Not bad, not bad." Deng Mingqi praised: "Now that Brother Zhao is leading an army to Jiangnan alone, it shouldn't be a difficult thing." ”

"The most worrying thing is whether Pang Gao will tell the truth in the future." Zhao Tianba accepted Deng Ming's praise in full, and he pointed out a hidden danger, that is, the impersonation always made Pang Gao uncertain, and he often muttered to Deng Ming's left-behind personnel for this.

"So what? Why is recklessness the son of recklessness? Because we need him, the Imperial Forest Army and Yang Ge Lao need him, and the monks of Burma also need him; When Mangbai is deposed in the future, those who turn to Recklessness need him to continue to be the son of Recklessness; The bereaved family of Mangda will also say that he is in order to obtain preferential treatment; Even Mangbai himself may one day insist that Mangbai is the son of Mangda - of course, when Mangbai is not going well, after all, a fake without hatred is better than a nephew who really has a hatred for killing his father. Deng Ming laughed and said: "When all the Burmese people say that he is, doesn't he say that he is not, can he have the final say in this kind of thing?" ”

……

Beijing.

"Brother Yang has anything on his mind?"

Today, the host behaved a little strangely, and always looked like he was distracted when he was drinking, and several guests had already noticed this. But the host just drank vigorously and didn't give an explanation for a long time, and finally someone couldn't help but ask.

The host did not immediately answer the guest's curious question, but filled the glass again, raised it violently and drank it all...... And then another ...... Then came the third cup.

Among the guests invited, one was an officer of the Green Battalion of the Beijing Division, and the other was a banner man's coat, but the host was convinced that they were all iron buddies he could trust.

"I don't want to be called Yang Qilong." The master slammed the wine glass on the table, as if he had made a great determination: "You have all heard of the third prince of Sichuan, right?" He's my brother! ”