"The prince wants us to kidnap him and surrender to Wu Sangui."

"It's absolutely not going to work!"

Di Sanxi brought Feng Shuangli's meaning out to discuss with everyone, and Feng Shuangli's subordinates all expressed their opposition.

The terms of surrender of the Qing court were very clear, as long as the general of the Ming army who led the troops surrendered to the past, then what kind of title he was in the Ming court, the Qing court would also give the same title, but those who refused to surrender were all beheaded without exception. If Feng Shuangli did not submit the letter of surrender, then he would be executed, which was unacceptable to the officers under him. Now almost half of Feng Shuangli's subordinates openly advocate surrender, and many of the rest remain silent, although a very small number of people are unwilling in their hearts, they have no reason to object, only to use Feng Shuangli's non-surrender as the last shield: "If the prince can't live, then we won't live alone!" ”

"You persuade the prince again." An officer belonging to the surrender faction said to Di Sanxi. Although he had no motivation to continue fighting against the Manchus and no hope of victory, this man was still loyal to Feng Shuangli, and if the benefactor resolutely refused to surrender, he felt that he could only continue to resist.

"Brothers, that's what I think......" Di Sanxi made a gesture, signaling the excited colleagues to calm down, and listened to him finish his words first: "In order to buy people's hearts, the Tartars will not punish the generals; In addition, I pondered that there was another reason, that is, the Tartars were afraid that the officers and soldiers below would repeat, so they would treat the generals who won the hearts of the army well. ”

The purpose of the Qing court is indeed as Di Sanxi said, and the Qing court has no intention of concealing this, even if Tan Yi, who was defeated by Deng Ming, has no strength in his hands, the Qing court still made him a marquis; As for Tan Hong, who was punished by Wen Anzhi, the Qing court also posthumously bestowed a marquis title after confirming his death, and also granted his son, who had fled to Chóngqìng, not to be demoted to a knighthood once. This news played a shocking role in the Ming army in Jianchang and other places, and of course Di Sanxi and they also knew it; In addition, the Qing court felt that its strength was limited, after all, the Manchus were scarce and could not closely monitor the surrendered troops everywhere, and the Qing court had just entered the customs for more than ten years, and the rule was not stable, so the Qing court treated the generals who surrendered favorably and let them continue to control their own troops. If Feng Shuangli really surrendered to the past, he would still not be able to run away from the throne of the county king.

"But the prince won't surrender." Everyone admits that Di Sanxi is right. If Feng Shuangli did not surrender, of course, it did not fall within the scope of the Qing court's pardon, and if Feng Shuangli's subordinates tied Feng Shuangli to surrender, the Qing court's practice was to put him to death: first of all, this person's subordinates were able to rebel and rebel, indicating that he no longer had the ability to control the army, and it was useless to keep it; Secondly, the head of this person was used to appease the subordinates who betrayed him, and at the same time to eliminate hidden dangers.

"If the prince sees the Wu thief, he will not say anything good, and it will be difficult for him to surrender to the Wu thief. But we can explain the situation to the court jointly. Di Sanxi felt that if he could explain to the Qing court that Feng Shuangli did not oppose the surrender of his subordinates, and that he also had high prestige in the eyes of his subordinates, then the Qing court would probably not execute Feng Shuangli, at most he would not let him lead the army.

Di Sanxi's words silenced everyone, and as long as they could not trap their benefactor to death, most people would no longer oppose surrender.

"How do you explain the situation to the court?"

"We only have the thief Li Guoying."

After discussing for a while, they decided to write a letter to Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi in the Qing court, and asked him if he could intercede with the Qing court on behalf of Feng Shuangli. In fact, everyone understands that as long as Li Guoying agrees, this plea is just a formality, and Feng Shuangli is not a particularly important person, and the Qing court will not oppose the promise of a governor on such an issue that has nothing to do with the overall situation.

"If Li Guoying agrees, we will surrender; If he doesn't agree, then there will be only a bloody fight to the end. In the end, the main descending faction reached an agreement: "Send fast horses, rì night and journey to chóngqìng." ”

The messenger who sent the letter can still play the banner of the Ming army in the Ming army-controlled zhì area, and there is no problem with a secret letter after entering the Qing army-controlled zhì area, and everyone can expect to receive a reply at the end of the month: "If Li Guoying agrees, then we will not take the court and the Tartars to talk nonsense in the future." ”

Less than a quarter of the people were staunch main battle factions, and seeing that opposition was useless, they had to go to Feng Shuangli and ask him if he had really said such a thing, and even asked everyone to kidnap him to surrender, and Di Sanxi naturally did not object to this.

……

After Deng Ming and others left Chengdu, they went all the way south, and when they arrived in Jiading Prefecture, they entered the mountains again. Most of the forts throughout Sichuan were abandoned, lacking friendly strongholds to replenish, and leaving the plains, the horses did not get enough rest and food, and began to die one after another. Occasionally, they could encounter the strongholds of the Ming army, but they did not have enough forage for dozens of horses to eat, and it was impossible to provide enough transfer horses to Deng Ming and his party. According to them, just a few days ago, three urgent military intelligence envoys who were heading north from Jianchang crossed the border and took all the horses with them.

Not only did they have to hurry, but they also had to take care of the horses, and Deng Ming and his guards were tired not long after leaving Chengdu, and decided to stop for a day to rest the horses - the road leading to Jianchang was all mountainous, and they did not want to exhaust the horses and go on foot.

"It's a pity that Mr. Deng is in military affairs this time, otherwise Mr. Deng can go to Leshan to burn a pillar of incense, which is very spiritual." The guide sent by Jiading Prefecture said.

Deng Ming, the Leshan Giant Buddha, also heard about it, and after listening to the guide's words, he asked, "What does it look like?" Have you been? ”

"I've been." The guide, who was a local, immediately said aloud: "Three rivers meet here in Jiading Prefecture, so it floods every year. In the Tang Dynasty, there was a master who traveled here, and made a grand wish to build a Maitreya Buddha statue to suppress the flood, and the four generations before and after a total of more than 100 years of repair, finally repaired, and there will be no floods since then. ”

Deng Ming heard it with relish, and when he heard the last sentence, he was slightly stunned, and asked: "Isn't there a flood in Jiading Prefecture now?" ”

"There will still be occasional ones, but they can't be compared with before Maitreya Buddha cultivated." The guide said confidently: "I heard the old people say that before the Buddha was repaired, the flood was seven or eight zhang high in the rainy season, and Jiading Prefecture was flooded all of a sudden. ”

Deng Ming blamed himself in his heart, he felt a little bad as soon as he asked the question, what are he arguing with the people of this era? Even in the twenty-first century, there is no reason to talk about such a thing as faith. After recommending the Maitreya Buddha of Leshan, the guide recommended another famous spot in Jiading Prefecture: Emei Mountain.

"Emei Golden Dome is the dojo of Fuxian Bodhisattva......" The guide relished the scenery of his hometown, according to him, Fuxian Bodhisattva is in charge of the peace of life, no matter which way people worship, which way of worshipping Bodhisattva, only ask for peace, then all the gods and Buddhas will hand over your wish to Fuxian Bodhisattva to deal with. And Emei Mountain, as the dojo of Fuxian, is the most effective: "It's a pity that Mr. Deng is in military affairs, otherwise he should really go and worship." ”

Before Deng Ming could reply, those who believed in Buddhism among the fellow guards immediately showed fascination on their faces. Although they are all from Sichuan, they have never been to Jiading Prefecture before, and of course they will not be to Emei Mountain. Speaking of praying for the safety of life, these soldiers don't know how many pillars of incense they have burned for this purpose, but now that they heard that the office of the head of the department, Fugen Bodhisattva, is next door, they naturally want to pay homage to it.

"Wait until you come back," Deng Ming saw the thoughts of these guards, so he said to them: "When we finish the matter of Jianchang, if there is nothing urgent when we come back, we will go to Emei Mountain to burn pillar incense." ”

Continue south from Jiading Prefecture into the boundary of the Sichuan Xingdu Division, the capital of which is Jianchang, the destination of Deng Ming.

The terrain is becoming more and more precipitous, and the peaks at the end of the field of vision are covered with white sè, and the snow on many of the high mountains here has been unmelted all year round. Compared to Chengdu, which is located in a plain area where rivers and farmland can be seen everywhere, the population here has increased significantly. Large tracts of farmland in Chengdu have been abandoned, and the western Sichuan Plain is overgrown with weeds, except for a few crops that Deng Ming had seen in Chengdu. However, in Xingdusi, you can see some terraced rice fields that have been reclaimed. The fields are very fragmented, one in the east and one in the west, spread out on a slightly gentler hillside, and at first glance they are cared for by jīng, with neat crops growing on them.

"Sichuan Xingdu Division has always been very poor, here is close to the Tibetan border, the road is rugged and difficult to walk, there are many mountains and few lands, not to mention the capital, even Jiading Prefecture is much more fertile than here." A guide sent by Yue Xiguan said.

This new guide is not a native of Xingdusi, but a native of Chengdu. When he was a child, he fled the western Sichuan Plain with his parents, first to Jiading Prefecture, then to Sichuan Xingdusi, and finally found an errand in Yuexi Pass to guard the beacon tower.

He said: "After the Hongguang year, the capital and chóngqìng were in turmoil, and when I stood on Jiading Prefecture and looked north, there were a large number of people on the three rivers who helped the old and the young to cross to the south every day, but there was no one who crossed to the north, and they were all people who fled from western Sichuan." Originally, the western thieves and officers and soldiers did not look down on Jiading Prefecture, and in their eyes, there was only the capital. But back and forth, both sides of the killing non-stop, the people in the capital were killed, and the people who did not die ran away, the officers and soldiers and the thieves began to fight for Jiading Prefecture, the officers and soldiers conscripted for food, the thieves also searched for food, the people did not pay the food, and the thieves wanted to kill the officers and soldiers. Whether it is the western thief or the officers and soldiers, no one has the ability to beat the other faction away, so the people will be killed back and forth on both sides, at that time, there were floating corpses floating in front of the Buddha every day on the three rivers, rì night and night. There was no way, so the people crossed the mountains and mountains to flee to this line of capital. ”

Pointing to the scattered fields that Deng Ming had just seen, the guide told him: "Originally, there was no crop land here, and it was all reclaimed by the people who fled from the capital and Jiading Prefecture after they arrived here. ”

Deng Ming saw that there was no one cultivating in the field, and the guide explained this question to him, as soon as he saw someone who looked like a soldier passing by, the people would flee to the mountains and forests to hide, which were tempered in Chengdu and Jiading Prefecture in the past, and those who did not develop this habit were either killed by the grain conscription team or pulled away by the passing army as a master. There are often those orphans and widows crying bitterly next to the corpses of their relatives, and things like "the husband of a certain family said goodbye to his wife and children in the morning and went out to farm, and then there was no news" also happened repeatedly.

"There are still many people who have gone west over the Great Snow Mountain and have been going there all the way." The guide had a lot to say, and he could answer ten questions if he asked, and he pointed to the western mountains farther away, where there are plateaus on the Sichuan and Tibetan borders: "In recent years, some people have returned, but fortunately, Xingdu is too poor here, and the western thieves and the officers and soldiers can't afford to bring up the god jīng to come here to kill and live, and the people see that the officers and soldiers and the western thieves have not been killed, and some of the people who have escaped have come back one after another." ”

The keeper of the beacon tower in Yuexi Pass belonged to the Sichuan army, that is, the officers and soldiers in his mouth, but he never showed the slightest respect for the Sichuan army in his words. Li Xinghan's face was gloomy, obviously dissatisfied with this fellow Sichuan army officer comparing officers and soldiers to Western thieves, but Deng Ming had quietly reminded him several times not to attack this guide.

"What is the relationship between the garrison of the Xingdu Division and these people?" Deng Ming felt that they should take care of each other, for example, this guide guarded the beacon tower to mix bowls of rice, not a hereditary soldier like Li Xinghan.

"We used to flee from western Sichuan, and the people treated us a little kindly, but they also guarded against us. Many of the families here are already widows, and their men have either been killed or taken away - presumably dead outside, and it is not known whether there is a place to bury the bones. These widows worked hard to raise their children, and were more vigilant like wolves, for fear that their half-grown children would be taken away again. ”

According to the guide, last time Liu Wenxiu intended to run Jianchang, the news came out, which scared the people here a lot, thinking that there was another big war. Didn't someone go over the mountains to the river and hide before? The people helped the old and the young to take care of each other, and those who returned from the west were guides, and fled over the mountains and mountains. After a year, I saw that there was no movement, and then I came back one after another.

The guide's words made Deng Ming speechless, and after half a ring, he barely squeezed out a smile: "It's okay, the Tartars may invade Jianchang, the Tartars are very ferocious, and the villagers are always good at having more eyes." ”

"Tartar, is it cruel?" The guide did not meet the Qing soldiers.

"yes." Deng Ming replied, casually mentioning a few examples, such as the atrocities of the Qing soldiers in Jiangnan and the massacre in Guangdong.

"Well, but in Sichuan, the Tartars are not as good as the officers and soldiers and the Western thieves." The guide did not doubt the story told by Deng Ming, but he made such an assertion after listening to it.

"How so?" As far as Deng Ming knew, the Qing soldiers were as ferocious as Sichuan, and I remember someone said that after the Qing soldiers invaded Chengdu, they washed the last people who were still alive again.

"Because there is no one in Sichuan anymore. In other places, the Tartars may be the most ferocious, but in Sichuan, the number of officers and soldiers is the first, and the number of thieves in the west is the second. This guide obviously did not have much consciousness as an officer and soldier: "The people of Sichuan have only three ways, if they become officers and soldiers, they will be killed by Western thieves, if they become Western thieves, they will be killed by officers and soldiers, or if they do nothing, they will be killed together with Western thieves." Now there are not many people in Sichuan, and even if the Tartars kill all the remaining people, they don't want to catch up with the officers and soldiers...... Well, if you want to talk about the second position of the West Thief, maybe the Tartars can catch up. ”

Deng Ming glanced back with some uneasiness, and Li Xinghan's eyes stared fiercely at the guide's back, and he was about to burst into flames. And Zhou Kaihuang's face had a kind of schadenfreude that wanted to laugh but was embarrassed to laugh.

After crossing the snow-capped mountains, Deng Ming knew that Lugu was further ahead, and it was not far from Jianchang, so he asked the guide from Yuexiguan to return to the station. Deng Ming took out a small piece of silver and a bag of salt from his arms and handed him as a reward: "Thank you for your hard work." ”

"Thank you, Mr. Deng." The guide casually carried the silver into his arms, and after getting the salt bag, he couldn't help but gently weigh the weight of the bag, and a hint of surprise appeared on his face, and he quickly put the bag away. The guide didn't know that Deng Ming gave him the best alabaster salt produced in Dachang.

Deng Ming was about to continue to hurry with the guards, and the guide looked at Deng Ming's figure, and suddenly seemed to have made up his mind, ran to Deng Ming's horse, and fell to the ground suddenly, knocking his head three times in a row.

"What are you doing here?" Deng Ming was taken aback.

"Mr. Deng just said that the Tartars are coming to fight Jianchang, and the Tartars are also murderous without blinking." The guide raised his head and looked at Deng Ming's eyes sadly: "It is naturally good that the officers and soldiers can hold Jianchang, but if Mr. Deng feels that if he can't hold it, if he feels that it is not safe, can he tell the people in advance?" ”

Without waiting for Deng Ming to answer, the guide urgently demanded: "Please ask Mr. Deng to tell the people in advance, let them flee to the snow-capped mountain as soon as possible, and come back after the victory of the officers and soldiers." There are not many Sichuan people left, and there are only a few people left in the Xingdu Division who have survived safely over the years, begging Mr. Deng for help. ”

"You!" Li Xinghan held back the fire in his belly to this guide, and when he saw that he was actually saying such frustrating words now, he lost the face of the Sichuan people, and suddenly jumped up unbearably: "The national disaster is at the head, you don't want to serve the imperial court......"

"Mr. Li Qian!" Deng Ming shouted to Li Xinghan.

After stopping Li Xinghan, Deng Ming jumped off his horse, stretched out his hand to help the guide who was kneeling on the ground, and solemnly promised: "If the army of the Tartars comes, I will definitely inform the entire Xingdu Division in advance, so that everyone can receive the news, so that they have time to take refuge, and they will never be Raf." I swear here, I swear by the Buddha of the West Heaven and the God and Buddha of the Heavens! ”