After the Ming fleet passed through Wuchang, it landed on the north bank and joined up with the battalions of the former army and the women's battalion that had arrived, and then the whole Ming army turned to the Han River and headed north, returning to Zhongxiang in a mighty way. It is said to be a return, but most of the people in the Ming army actually came to Zhongxiang for the first time, with a total of more than 100,000 men and women, of which only 8,000 Li Laiheng's old troops set off from here.

The huge army could not take all the boats, so Deng Ming ordered the male soldiers to go on foot, the women to take the boat, and the women who could not fit on the boat also tried to arrange vehicles as much as possible. Although Deng Ming tried his best to take care of the women, the bumps along the way still made the small-footed women in the families of the Zhejiang army miserable, and these were all disabled according to Deng Ming's standards, and many of them fell ill in the middle of the long journey. Fortunately, the number of disabled people is not very large, only more than 1,000, and all those in Hubei who are willing to enter Sichuan with the Ming army are poor, whether it is their wives, sisters or daughters, they have to work in the fields, so they are all Tianzu; And Li Laiheng's subordinate was born in the camp, and the long-term mobile combat made them pay more attention to the mobility of the women's battalion, so the girls they married were all big.

Speaking of Li Laiheng's women's camp, these girls who have not yet passed the door also have a lot of complaints, when Li Laiheng said goodbye to his subordinates in Anqing, Wuhu and other places, he also used the pseudonym of Yuezhou Deputy General Hu Laoxiao. The parents of these girls thought that they had married their daughters to the officers and soldiers of the Green Battalion instead of the Sichuan-Hubei Liukou, so most of them asked for a dowry of only a dozen taels. When these girls find out the true face of their fiancés, they have no chance to regret it. Although it is said that marrying a chicken is a chicken, it is impossible to be without worry and panic in my heart, many people are muttering that Li Laiheng is a fraudulent marriage, and the fiancé's bride price is also less, at least it should be doubled to be reasonable. Since entering Huguang, Deng Ming has always taken special care of the women's camp, arranged transportation as much as possible, and never lacked food. These unaccompanied women who left home felt that the Ming army was actually good, and this kind of complaint gradually subsided, and the remarks in favor of the Ming army began to become popular, probably that is: although she has not yet passed the door, she is no longer a girl at home but the daughter-in-law of a Ming soldier, and if the bride price is given more, it will not be beneficial to the husband's family -- of course, the daughter-in-law must put the interests of her mother-in-law's family first. The girls who were originally scheming also turned around one after another, muttering and discussing: It would be nice if I had given a few taels less of the bride price, and if I gave the silver directly to their fiancé, I would be able to buy a lot more belongings in Kuidong in the future.

There are only more than 1,000 disabled people among the 40,000 female military dependents, a ratio that makes Deng Ming feel very satisfied, but unlike him, the others feel that small feet are more in line with their aesthetics. Although it was inconvenient to see the husbands of those disabled people, the other soldiers were still full of envy, thinking that these Zhejiang officers and soldiers were married to first-class daughters-in-law. Deng Ming heard that in the women's camp, those small-footed ladies are also the objects of worship, in order to take care of the disabled Deng Ming also formulated some preferential treatment systems, which made the big-footed women even more envious, many people said that they hope that their husbands can have a good life in the future, so that they do not need to work.

After passing through Wuchang, Deng Ming got in touch with the remaining troops, and after walking along the Han River for a few days, Zhong Xiang sent troops to meet Deng Ming and Li Laiheng, who were in the class. There were only 8,000 men when they left, but when they returned, there were 60,000 people, and the officers who stayed behind were overjoyed.

After meeting Li Laiheng, the left-behind officers proudly showed the commander the Zhongxiang warehouse, which was full of cotton clothes, quilts, blankets, grain, grass, and cloth, as well as a large number of livestock and boats, not to mention a large number of weapons.

"You don't have to pay it back." After seeing these materials, Deng Ming immediately said to Li Laiheng: "But I have half of these things. ”

Deng Ming's words made the remaining Xingshan officers frustrated, they had already regarded all these goods as their own, not only them, but even Li Laiheng felt a sense of sadness - when he first inspected the warehouse, Li Laiheng also mistakenly thought that these were his things - but Li Laiheng did not let the negative feelings affect him for too long, and happily divided the contents of the warehouse with Deng Ming, and then summoned his subordinates to discuss the material distribution plan.

Soon Li Laiheng distributed most of the cotton clothes, armor and weapons, and then trained the troops outside the city for two days in a row, looking at the tens of thousands of soldiers wearing brand new clothes and holding bright swords and guns in front of him, the joy in Li Laiheng's heart is really indescribable: "It is really new." The more Li Laiheng looked at it, the more he liked it, and he planned to continue to pull the army out for training tomorrow.

Deng Ming has not yet figured out how to distribute these materials, he plans to transport them back to Fengjie first, and now that Jiangling and Yiling are in the hands of the Ming army, it is not a difficult thing to transport these materials.

After arriving in Huangzhou, Deng Ming learned that a new war had taken place in Sichuan, and that the Qing army had captured Wanxian and accumulated thousands of armored soldiers there. Deng Ming had already asked people to go to Fengjie to report the situation on Wen Anzhi's side, and at the same time began to inquire about the further development of the situation in Sichuan.

Today, when Ren Tang hurried to see Deng Ming with the envoy, he saw three people standing outside the tent and secretly peeping inside.

"What are you doing?" Ren Tang saw Li Xinghan, Zhou Kaihuang and Wu Baoping and the three of them sneaky, so he lowered his voice and asked softly.

"Shh Li Xinghan put his finger in front of his lips and mysteriously made a silent gesture towards Ren Tang.

"Sir seems to be painting." Zhou Kaihuang said in an almost inaudible voice.

Usually Deng Ming always stayed alone in his tent, if his subordinates had something to do, they would come to him, and if there was nothing to do, he would remember it and do other work, and now Deng Ming has almost no time to paint.

Just now, after Li Xinghan completed the teaching task of the team he was in charge of, he came to Deng Ming to report his work, and before entering the house, he suddenly found that Deng Ming was drawing something on the table with his back to the tent door. Li Xinghan didn't go in to disturb Deng Ming, but lurked outside the tent, planning to rush in and grab one after Deng Ming finished painting.

After a while, Zhou Kaihuang and Wu Baoping also came, and after learning that Deng Ming didn't know what to paint, the two of them also joined Li Xinghan's team - the last time Deng Ming painted in Wanxian, the work was looted by everyone - the three of them had reached an agreement that if they got something good, no one was allowed to say anything.

Seeing that Ren Tang was also here, but Deng Ming still hadn't finished painting, the three of them were shocked and anxious, lest more and more people would come, and in the end they wouldn't be able to get a few shots. However, the so-called seeers have a share, and Li Xinghan wants to pull Ren Tang into their offensive and defensive alliance: "Mr. Deng's painting is not allowed to tell anyone!" "The last time he was in Wanxian, it was because Li Xinghan couldn't help showing off that he was robbed by everyone, this time he was determined to keep his mouth shut, and he also used his own appearance to say: "If it is known by others, even if it is as brave as Zhao Qianhu, it will not be able to keep a few photos." ”

"How can I have time to play this with you?" After Ren Tang understood the idea of these three guys, he was angry and funny, opened the camp tent and walked in, and shouted to Deng Ming: "Admiral, the envoy of Fengjie is here." ”

"Ah, come in." Deng Ming, who was engrossed in painting, hurriedly threw down the pen and ink, put aside the semi-finished product in his hand, and stacked it on the stack of works that had been completed.

Deng Ming sent an envoy back to Fengjie to break up with him at the junction of Huguang and Jiangxi, and Deng Ming had not yet met Zhou Peigong at that time, and he did not dare to say how long it would take to return to the Hanshui Valley safely. Wen Anzhi learned from the envoy about the battle of Nanjing, naturally he was very happy, although some of the news has reached Sichuan, but Wen Anzhi does not know the specific results, nor can he figure out Deng Ming's movements, now that the dust has settled, Wen Anzhi asked the messenger to rush back to report to Deng Ming: Now the battle situation in Sichuan has stabilized, so that Deng Ming can rest assured that there is no need to rush back to Fengjie.

"Wanxian Xiong Lan surrendered as soon as he saw the Tartars," the envoy said angrily when he reported the course of the battle: "There is no thought of resisting at all, and he surrendered without saying a word." ”

"This capricious thief really deserves to be raised by a little maid." After listening to Wanxian's surrender, Li Xinghan scolded and said, "I really regret that I didn't kill him with a knife." ”

"But didn't he show Yunyang jǐng?" Deng Ming was not as excited as the others, and calmly said to the envoy: "Didn't you just say that Xiong Lan didn't leave any of our people in distress, and handed over all the ships to them?" ”

"Even if this guy still has a little conscience, rush this, and I can give him a good time when I catch him." Zhou Kaihuang said.

Deng Ming smiled noncommittally and said to the messenger, "Go on." ”

"After Wanxian surrendered, Wang Mingde arrived first, Gao Mingzhan arrived later, reorganized the troops and horses in Wanxian for a few days, and wanted to attack Yunyang. Fortunately, our people brought all the boats from Wanxian, and the ships of the two thieves had to go back to Chóngqìng to transport grain, so they couldn't go out for a while. After they prepared the grain and grass, our army abandoned Yunyang, and the whole army retreated to Fengjie. ”

Shut down

"Look, Xiong Lan's conscience is a little more." Deng Ming didn't give his subordinates a chance to refute, and said to the envoy again: "Keep talking." ”

"It seems that the thieves wanted to raid Fengjie, but they didn't find a single grain in Yunyang, so they had to continue to go back to Chóngqìng to transport grain. At this time, Inspector Wen had already received the news, so he rushed back to Fengjie from Yiling...... "Although Wen Anzhi feels that Huguangxing is very good, but Fengjie is absolutely not to be lost, if the Qing army captures Fengjie and controls the vicinity of Kuimen, it is equivalent to blocking the entrance to the Three Gorges." Although it was difficult for the Qing army to take advantage of the situation to attack the Three Gorges, it was extremely difficult for the Ming army to go against the current, break out of the Kuimen natural danger, and recapture Fengjie.

The envoy also told Deng Ming that after Wen Anzhi decided to rush back to Fengjie, he immediately sent a letter to Yuan Zongdi and He Zhen, asking them to send reinforcements. Now in Fengjie, in addition to the 2,000 armor soldiers directly under Wen Anzhi, there are more than 1,000 soldiers sent by these two roads. At present, Fengjie's troops can be called strong, and it is not something that the Qing army can spy on.

"General Yuan and General He, why didn't they send troops to reinforce Fengjie earlier?" Deng Ming asked immediately after listening.

"Neither of them knew the Inspector's intentions," the envoy felt that Deng Ming seemed to be a little dissatisfied, so he repeated Wen Anzhi's meaning to Deng Ming: "The two generals were originally training soldiers. At that time, the Wen Inspector was in Yiling, and they didn't know if the Wen Inspector intended to capture Huguang with all his might, so they didn't immediately send reinforcements. Later, after seeing the transmission of the Wen Inspector, he immediately sent five or six hundred jīng soldiers, and rushed to Fengjie at night, almost with the Wen Inspector. ”

"So no one is going to save Wanxian," Deng Ming sighed lightly: "If Xiong Qian asks for help, I'm afraid no one will send him reinforcements." ”

Ren Tang's eyes widened when he heard this: "What does the Admiral mean by this?" Could it be that the Admiral felt that the surrender of the bear thief to the city was not a crime that deserved death, but a forgivable circumstance? If the Admiral thinks so, where will the soldiers who are sworn to resist be placed? ”

"I didn't say that it was wrong to resist to the death, and I didn't say that I would spare Mr. Xiong Qian." Deng Ming waved his hand, saying that he didn't want to discuss this issue: "I just think that this time the Tartars captured Wanxian County and threatened Fengjie, and there was really a big reason why we didn't think about it well and didn't communicate well, so we gave the Tartars such an opportunity." ”

Since Fengjie was worry-free for the time being, Deng Ming put his mind at ease and continued to transport supplies and troops to Kuidong step by step.

At this time, Ren Tang's gaze shifted to Deng Ming's stack of sketches, looking at the curvy lines on the top piece of paper, Ren Tang asked curiously, "Is the Admiral drawing a map?" ”

Ren Tang leaned closer, stared at the picture and looked at it seriously: "It doesn't seem to be the Yangtze River, oh, I don't know how the upstream goes, is this intersecting line the Han River?" ”

Deng Ming laughed, stopped laughing after a long time, shook his head and said, "It has nothing to do with the military, I painted it casually." ”

Ren Tang's question also led to a question from Deng Ming, who asked the four guards around him and the messenger, "Do you think a woman's little feet are beautiful?" ”

Ren Tang was stunned for a moment, while Zhou Kaihuang and Li Xinghan glanced at each other, with a smile in their eyes: Although Mr. Deng is both wise and brave, he is also a young man with strong blood after all, and being able to put down his body and discuss the problem of this kind of man with us shows that Mr. Deng trusts us.

"Of course," replied Wu Baoping, "a woman's toe arch is short, so she looks good." ”

Everyone said yes. Although Ren Tang is a scholar, he is also a young man in his early twenties after all, and he also smiled: "Exactly, it is very good-looking, at least three points are on the pointed feet." ”

"Oh." Deng Ming nodded, he heard that Zhong Xiang's footwrap was selling very well in the past few days, and the price had increased several times. Due to the exemplary role of the families of the little feet of the Zhejiang army, many Ming army officers complained in Li Laiheng's ears, and the director Zhan Hu Shuai purchased a large number of such luxury goods, planning to distribute them to his officers after returning to Kuidong. After hearing this, many women in the women's camp also went to inquire about the use of this luxury. Of course, Deng Ming did not approve of this kind of behavior of creating disabled people, but he couldn't care about the homes of high-ranking officers of the Ming army. Now, due to the need to march and the tradition of breaking into camps, Deng Ming estimates that not many women will become disabled; But if he didn't want to find a way, as the strength of the Ming army increased, the base area became more and more stable, and the treatment of officers became better and better, Deng Ming knew that sooner or later a large number of women would suffer.

After talking for a while, when the time came for Deng Ming to inspect the army, he got up and left the camp, and several guards followed.

...... "What exactly is the gentleman drawing?" After the patrol was over, Li Xinghan, Zhou Kaihuang, Ren Tang and Wu Baoping gathered together to study the drawings they stole from Deng Ming's desk. ”

"It's certainly not a boat." Zhou Kaihuang said. When he saw this thing at first glance just now, Wu Baoping recklessly concluded that it was a pointed boat: "Look, this pole is underneath, you say this is a mast?" Whose mast grows under the ship? Or a rudder, you can't use such a long pole, right? Besides, where to put the sails? ”

"And what do you say?" Wu Baoping couldn't resist Zhou Kaihuang's questioning, so he asked rhetorically: "If this is not a canoe, what do you say?" ”

"I don't know, it's not a canoe anyway, what does a canoe want this pole for? Besides......" Zhou Kaihuang pointed to the painting on the other picture and shouted: "These two are about the same, but the bottom of this one is ...... No, on the bottom of this boat-like thing, there is a pointed wedge, and your canoe still has a wooden wedge? ”

"These are military boots!" Ren Tang, who had not spoken, finally stopped being silent after thinking hard, and said confidently: "Yes, this is a new kind of military boots. ”

"Oh?" The other three people leaned over to look at it again, and had to admit that what Ren Tang said seemed to have some truth.

"Pointy boots? Don't have boots yet? Wu Baoping is still a little attached to the canoe.

"The pointed end is just right for kicking people." The more Ren Tang looked, the more sure he became: "There are no boots to save materials, we are still poor now, and the poor want to be poor." ”

"And what is the nail and wedge for?" Zhou Kaihuang gestured with his hand: "If it's a boot, this sharp wedge must be several inches, right?" It's not easy to walk, is it? ”

"This is to deter the enemy," Ren Tang was confident, and a smile appeared on his face: "Wearing this kind of boots, of course, it looks much taller." The enemy on the other side saw that our side was full of tower-like men, and the Tartar's legs themselves were a little weaker. ”

…… Yuyao.

When they heard the shout of "the city is broken" coming from the street, the people in Hufu were surprised. Yesterday, the Zhejiang army only went to the city to camp, but I didn't expect that the Ming army would be able to break the city with one drum.

The panicked shouts gradually subsided, and soon a new shout came, which was the announcement of the Ming army's peace of mind.

This time it was Zhang Huangyan who led the troops to attack Yuyao, and the people in the city knew that Zhang Shangshu was strict in discipline, and when the Ming army completely controlled the city, men, women and children quickly went out of their homes and returned to the market. Soon after, the servants of the Hu Mansion also inquired back with the news that the army was moving quickly, and that the eastern city wall had been dug down in the morning.

"Oh." Hu Jinshen nodded, ordered to pack up, and planned to take the whole family to the countryside for refuge, and then come back after the Qing army recovered Yuyao and stopped washing the city.

After Rì was behind, the old servant who guarded the door saw Hu Jinshen coming over alone, and hurriedly asked, "Master, is there something wrong?" ”

"You go down first, I'll wait here for an old friend." Hu Jinshen sent the door away and sat alone in the gatehouse with a candle.

Waiting until around midnight, Hu Jinshen suddenly heard a gentle knock on the door, he hurriedly walked to the door, put down the latch, opened a thin slit, and in the dark night, a familiar and low voice came: "Brother Hu." ”

"Come on in."

Hu Jinshen put the man dressed in black into the door, and the two of them worked together to close the door and drop the latch. Then the two of them hurried to the back house and came to a side house - everyone in Yuyao knew that the philanthropic Master Hu had taken in a down-and-out scholar from the north who had wandered here a few years ago, and later recruited him into the house, which was the residence of a scholar named Wang Shiyuan and Miss Hu.

Although it was in his own home, Hu Jinshen acted as if he was a thief, and gently buckled the door of his son-in-law's room, and the door opened with a "yah", and Hu Jinshen and the man in black entered in a flash.

Inside the house, Wang Shiyuan, who was neatly dressed, looked at his father-in-law and the man in black with a stern expression.

After turning around and closing the door carefully, the man in black turned around and stood facing Wang Shiyuan.

As if he had guessed the other party's imminent move, the young man hurriedly took two steps forward and shouted in a low voice, "Zhang Shangshu doesn't need to be polite. ”

But the man in black turned a deaf ear, still bowed down, and called in his mouth: "Weichen Zhang Huangyan, knock on the king." ”