Yu You told Deng Ming that the Ming army was still on the south bank when he left, and when Deng Ming arrived at Chóngqìng, he found that the Ming army had still not been able to reach the north bank. Yuan Zongdi took Deng Ming to the riverside to watch the Qing army's position, only to see more than a dozen Qing army company camps on the north bank, lined up along the riverbank, and connected with Chóngqìng City.

"The Tartars to the west are not joint ventures, but there will be a camp every few miles." Yuan Zongdi pointed in the direction of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

"I saw it when I came." When Deng Ming arrived with his guards and a small number of soldiers and horses from Chengdu, he discovered the Qing army's surveillance position at a distance from Chóngqìng: "I am afraid that there are hundreds of enemy soldiers in each camp. ”

"Exactly." Yuan Zongdi nodded, as the Ming army arrived one after another, now more than 20,000 Ming troops have gathered on the south bank of Chóngqìng, of which 7,000 were brought by Yuan Zongdi, and the rest are Deng Ming's Zhejiang soldiers and Huguang Zhuangding.

"What about the Jialing River?" Deng Ming looked at the enemy camp on the Yangtze River for a while, and then asked Yuan Zongdi.

"I'll take the Admiral to see it."

The two came to the intersection of the Jialing River and the Yangtze River, where the Ming army concentrated a large number of ships and built a water camp, always guarding against the sudden killing of the Qing army's sailors from the river.

"From here to the north, the Tartars have also built a company camp to prevent us from having the opportunity to climb the west bank of the Jialing River." Yuan Zongdi said that because of Chóngqìng's survival, the Qing army could see the movement of the Ming ships in the Yangtze River clearly, and if the Ming army forcibly attacked the Jialing River against the current, the Qing army would have a great advantage; But on the contrary, the Ming army did not know anything about the movements of the Qing army's sailors, so the sailors of the Ming army needed to take turns on duty, always guarding against the Qing army's sneak attack: "After the water camp was repaired in the past two days, we were relieved, although we still had to maintain jǐngti, but at least it was much better than a few days ago." ”

"Why don't you send a detachment of troops to the other side?" Deng Ming pointed to the empty east bank of the Jialing River and asked, "If we set up a camp there, we can send scouts to observe the position of the Qing army's ships." ”

"I am afraid that the Tartars of Chóngqìng are not less than us, if we send people to cross the river, we will become a lone army, which is very dangerous, and it is easier for the Tartars to cross the Jialing River than we to cross the Yangtze River, if Li Guoying sends a large army to suddenly cross the river to attack our camp on the north bank, we may not be able to reinforce here in time." Yuan Zongdi sighed softly: "If it wasn't for the Tan thief's rebellion last year, we wouldn't have such a big trouble today." ”

"I want to tell General Sù Yuan good news." Deng Ming saw that Yuan Zongdi was a little depressed, so he told him that Tan Yi and Gao Mingzhan had already captured him.

"Oh, that's great news." Yuan Zongdi raised his eyebrows, and then showed deep hatred: "This thief killed me thousands of children, and when the overseer cuts him with a thousand knives, I must watch it carefully on the side." ”

Affected by this good news, Yuan Zongdi's mood seemed to be better, and he congratulated Deng Mingdao: "Thanks to the Admiral, I can regain my strength, and the soldiers and horses brought this time are even stronger than a year ago; By the way, the last general has not congratulated the Admiral, the Admiral killed the Tartars in Nanjing, and brought back so much grain and grass, otherwise Changwei Chóngqìng would not know where to collect military rations. ”

"Is General Yuan planning to encircle for a long time?"

"Yes. There are more than 20,000 Tartars in the city, and they are camped along the two river banks, and I am afraid that they will not be able to take it lightly. Even if they retreat back to the city now, let's use the admiral's city-breaking technique to blow up the city wall, I'm afraid it will be difficult to win by street fighting......" While speaking, Deng Ming and Yuan Zongdi heard a horn sound from the opposite bank, Yuan Zongdi stopped talking, squinted his eyes and looked at the edge of the city, and Deng Ming also looked at the other side together.

A cavalry that looked like ants from a distance drove out of the city of Chóngqìng and galloped past the Qing army camp.

"This is Li Guoying's thief's standard camp," Yuan Zongdi told Deng Ming, almost every day Li Guoying would personally lead the team to patrol the camp: "Li Thief's standard camp is estimated to have at least 800 heavy armored cavalry, this standard battalion has followed Li Thief for many years, and has fought with the King of Shu, General He, and Sun Kewang, so it should not be underestimated." ”

"Hmm." Deng Ming looked at the cavalry of the Qing army and realized that the survival of this enemy army made the landing of the Ming army more difficult, and the Ming army that got off the ship was afraid that before it could gain a firm foothold, this cavalry would be killed in front of him.

Yuan Zongdi also confirmed Deng Ming's speculation: "Even if we land on the north shore from a distance, as long as the camp set up there by Li Thief drags us for a while, he will be able to arrive with the cavalry of Chóngqìng, so that we cannot afford to build a camp." ”

"So we can't land near chóngqìng, so how does Yasukuni plan to encircle chóngqìng for a long time?"

"There are no people around Chóngqìng, these tens of thousands of Tartars have to rely on the Jialing River to transport food, we will patiently board for another month, and when more soldiers and horses arrive, we have twice the military strength of the Tartars, we can go to the east bank of the Jialing River to set up camp, and then march north, to see if we can cut off the shipping of the Jialing River, so that the Tartars are equivalent to being surrounded." Yuan Zongdi was not familiar with the geography of the upper reaches of the Jialing River, but according to his thoughts, such a long river would always have a relatively narrow place, and the Ming army could block it from one side of the bank.

Yuan Zongdi's words made Deng Ming groan, he didn't know the hydrology and geography of the upstream, and asked after a while: "I guess it's difficult, Li Guoying won't let go of this hand, if there is really such a throat point, he may have already been armed." ”

"If it is not well guarded or the Tartars are well guarded, our army can continue to go north, and such a long road from Chóngqìng to Boryeong cannot be guarded everywhere."

"But then we're going to split the army in two." Deng Ming said: "If our army goes too far along the east bank, it will lose contact with this side, and it may be attacked from both Chóngqìng and Borning. ”

"So we need to have twice as many troops as the Li Thief, and if the Li Thief moves troops to follow us all the way north from the west bank in order to protect the grain route, the men and horses here may be able to land on the north bank."

"After I set up camp on the east bank, can't I directly let the sailors enter the Jialing River?" Deng Ming put forward another Jianyì: "As long as the waterway is controlled, won't the grain channel of the Tartars be cut off?" Although the Zhejiang soldiers under our command may not be stronger in land warfare than the Ganshan Green Battalion, the water warfare should not be bad. ”

"What the Admiral said is very true, but the Tartars have cannons." Yuan Zongdi smiled bitterly, if there was really such a simple and good way, of course he would not take the risk to divide the troops.

"Cannons? I didn't see it. Deng Ming came all the way from Chengdu to Chóngqìng by boat, but did not see the Qing army arranging artillery forts on the riverbank.

"There are many, when I first set up camp on the north shore, the Li thief bombarded our ships with cannons, but I let all the boats sail close to the south bank, and the Li thief saw that it was not easy to bombard, so it was no longer in vain; When he saw that there were more and more soldiers and ships in our army, Li Thief withdrew all his artillery from the Yangtze River, and must have deployed it to the Jialing River, leaving us to storm his grain route with our sailors. Yuan Zongdi thought for a moment, then raised his arm and pointed to the Qing army camp on the other side: "Well, it won't all be transferred, there should still be some hidden in these camps, if we force the landing, they will be brought out to bombard us." ”

According to Yuan Zongdi, Li Guoying had at least 40 pieces of artillery, although the caliber may not be too large, and there was not much threat to the Ming army on the other side of the Yangtze River, but the Jialing River was not as wide as the Yangtze River, and there were still Qing army sailors on the river. In the Yangtze River, the Ming army could drive close to one side of the river, but if there was a water battle, it would obviously be impossible to arrange it like this: "Does the Admiral know the terrain of the upper reaches of the Jialing River?" ”

Shut down

Deng Ming shook his head: "I don't know." ”

"So I don't know where the Qing army will ambush the artillery, and there is no sailor to attack, so I can only divide the army and go north along the river bank to see if I can cut off the grain route of the Li thief."

"Let's talk about it again." Deng Ming did not immediately agree with Yuan Zongdi's strategy, although Deng Ming did not have any good solutions, but there was still time to consider other countermeasures.

After returning to the camp, Deng Ming's guards also discussed enthusiastically, as Yuan Zongdi's old department, Zhou Kaihuang actually thought that this plan would not work: "Although we have captured a lot of grain from Nanjing, tens of thousands of troops are stationed outside, and the consumption is too fast; Even if Li Guoying's grain route is cut off, we don't know how long he has stored enough food in Chóngqìng City. After three months of siege, if the Qing army has not run out of food, will we still be surrounded? If you continue to encircle, what if the Qing army has not run out of food after six months? What if Li Guoying had been preparing food for a year? ”

Zhou Kaihuang said it very reasonably, and no one else could refute it.

"The army is stationed here, and the grain and grass are wasted, not to mention the confrontation for a year, even for three months, and the agricultural time will be delayed." Zhou Kaihuang thought that he should still try to land, and then storm chóngqìng: "Li Guoying is not afraid, his soldiers don't need to farm, and they have their own Tartars to bring him grain from other places, but what about us?" All of us are going to Chengdu to open up wasteland. ”

"But with such a strong city, a strong attack will inevitably cause heavy losses." Although Ren Tang could not refute Zhou's reasons for opening the wilderness, he thought that the storming of Chóngqìng would be an extremely difficult battle: "The Yasukuni Gong said that the Tartars have forty artillery pieces, but we don't have any of them. ”

"Blow up the walls, then rush in and get a few artillery hits." Zhou Kaihuang is still stubborn.

"The Ganshan Green Battalion is not easy to fight, and they still have a lot of cavalry." Even the brave Zhao Tianba also opposed the strong attack, Li Guoying's standard camp has fought many tough battles, and they also participated in the one when Wu Sangui defeated Liu Wenxiu, Zhao Tianba will not underestimate the strength of the other party: "The Zhejiang soldiers did not fight a hard battle, and the Chu people were all recruits who had just joined the army, and the armor soldiers under General Yuan ......" Zhao Tianba glanced at Zhou Kaihuang: "At least half of them are just wearing armor." ”

"yes, what if there are heavy casualties? We also hope that these people can go to Chengdu to open up wasteland. Although there will inevitably be sacrifices in the war, Ren Tang did not want to see the Zhejiang people suffer heavy casualties under the cannons and iron cavalry of the Ganshan Green Battalion.

"So we have to wait for our men and horses to arrive, the street battle is to fight who has more people, if we have twice the troops, we should be able to win, and we can also capture a group of prisoners when the time comes......" Zhou Kaihuang said a few more words, and finally felt that it was inappropriate for him to oppose Yuan Zongdi's mention so desperately: "Forget it, the idea of the Duke of Yasukuni should also be very good, if you can make a forced landing on Chóngqìng with fewer dead, of course it is the best." ”

"Why don't we camp directly on the east bank of the Jialing River? When there are more of us, we will divide our troops to cut off Li Guoying's grain route. Wu Yuewang asked with some doubts: "Why are you stationed here?" In the future, after the division of the army, there will be a Yangtze River. ”

Without waiting for Deng Ming to speak, Mu Tan preemptively said: "Because we are Guizhou to the south, Yasukuni Gong must definitely take precautions." ”

"Oh?" Most people didn't react, except for Deng Ming and a few guards, most people felt that what Wu Yuewang said seemed to make sense at first glance.

Although the road in Loushan Pass is no longer able to lead to the army, Wu Sangui may not be willing to care about Li Guoying's life or death. But reinforcements of a thousand people, or even a few thousand, are still possible, as long as they bring their own one-way food, it is no problem to come to chóngqìng quickly, anyway, they can eat Li Guoying's food when they get here. Mu Tan immediately explained: "Yasukuni Gong must be afraid that such a small army will suddenly appear, as soon as they arrive, they will first cut off the Yangtze River, and then they can also pounce along the south bank to Tongluo Gorge, when the time comes, we have not been able to cut off Li Guoying's grain route, but our own grain route has been cut off first." ”

"Well, that's probably the reason, so the Yasukuni Gong camped on the south bank, so that we can at least block the Tartar sailors in the Jialing River, and the connection with Chengdu will not be broken," Deng Ming felt that Mu Tan was right: "If Wu Sangui sends a small army to send them to death, they will be blocked by us, and even if the Li thief wants to support them, there is still a Yangtze River in between." ”

Now the Zhejiang soldiers still implement the system of military subordinates and battalions, and after Yuan Zongdi confirmed that Deng Ming planned to transport all these people to Chengdu after the war, he built a plan for Deng Ming to transport these military dependents away in advance, so as not to let them cause chaos near the battlefield. Although the camp is very experienced in this kind of sub-camp system, it is also a last resort because there is no base, and since Chengdu is now a seemingly stable base, there is no need to let family members accompany the army.

Of course, Deng Ming agreed with this Jianyì Deng Ming, and when there were ships transporting family members from Fengjie downstream, the Ming army told these ships not to stop, and continued to sail upstream to Chengdu directly.

Seeing the Ming army's fleet passing in front of the city one after another, and there seemed to be many women and children among them, Li Guoying in the city was also shocked. Now Li Guoying still doesn't know that Gao Mingzhan has been defeated in Chengdu, but after seeing the posture of the Ming army, Li Guoying also feels that the enemy seems to be very confident in the safety of western Sichuan, otherwise how dare he leave the combat troops to confront him and transport the military dependents away in batches?

"Why hasn't there been any news from Gao Mingzhan yet?" Li Guoying calculated again, he knew when Gao Mingzhan would set off from Guangyuan, Li Guoying thought that Gao Mingzhan should have arrived in Chengdu before the New Year, if Chengdu's troops were indeed as weak as the intelligence said, Gao Mingzhan should have pacified western Sichuan long ago.

And Li Guoying's order to Gao Mingzhan in advance was: once Chengdu is conquered, immediately send someone to report to Chóngqìng, and then Li Guoying orders the soldiers to shout to the Ming army together, which is estimated to dispel Deng Ming's idea of besieging Chóngqìng.

For a moment, Li Guoying even suspected that there was something wrong with Gao Mingzhan, otherwise it would not have been too late for almost a month and there was no good news, but soon Li Guoying dispelled this idea again, and he said to himself: "The earliest fleet of thieves also passed more than 20 days ago, and there are not a few ships, so there should not be many troops." ”

The earliest fleet in Li Guoying's mouth was Yu Youming's group, when the Ming army had only begun to camp on the north shore, and the troops were still relatively weak, Li Guoying did not think that the enemy would send the fighting troops away at that dangerous time.

"Maybe Gao Mingzhan met the thieves of that fleet? So you feel that the western part of Sichuan has not been completely pacified? Li Guoying thought that the Ming army should not be able to defeat Gao Mingzhan's 3,500 cavalry mixed troops: "It's really a mistake, even if you haven't swept away the enemy, you should send someone to let me know the progress after you take Chengdu." Wouldn't it be that Gao Mingzhan hasn't laid Chengdu yet? With more than 3,500 armor, will it be so difficult to deal with tens of thousands of peasants? ”

Because Li Guoying is very confident in Gao Mingzhan all the way, his deployment in Chóngqìng is with the idea of not seeking merit, but seeking no fault, that is, he intends to let Deng Ming retreat knowing the difficulty. Like Yuan Zongdi, Li Guoying also didn't want to fight a war of attrition, he didn't know that Deng Ming had left a lot of armor soldiers in Huguang, and the enemy was lenient, so he formulated a strategy according to Deng Ming's 30,000 armor soldiers. It is precisely because of this that Li Guoying took the initiative to give up in Zhongxian, Tongluo Gorge and other places in order to save troops and at the same time lengthen the supply line of Deng Ming's army.

"King Pingxi said that Zhao Liangdong and they all agreed to support Chóngqìng, why is there no follow-up?"

…… At this time, in Deng Ming's battalion, the Ming army still couldn't come up with any good way to fight quickly, and today Yuan Zongdi put forward an idea, that is, let Chengdu send troops, send out the Sword Pavilion to attack Guangyuan, and threaten Li Guoying's rear.

But Deng Ming disagreed, according to the captive's description, Baoning and Hanzhong still had considerable strength of the remaining troops: "There is no sentry on the way from the capital to Jiange, and there is no way to replenish grain and grass, and we don't know the reality of Baoning." As long as Li Guoying left a few thousand soldiers in Baoning, the capital would send troops to die, and once defeated, it would be the same as Gao Mingzhan's fate, and there would be no way to escape. Moreover, there is no cavalry in the capital, but there is a green battalion in Shaanxi, and they will soon reinforce Guangyuan from Hanzhong and Xi'an. ”

Of course, when these captives set off, Li Guoying was still in Baoning, perhaps now Baoning, Hanzhong, and Xi'an are empty, but the actual situation of the Ming army cannot be ascertained, so they dare not gamble.

"Since the Admiral will definitely not set out from the Sword Pavilion to attack Guangyuan, there is no need to keep the matter of Gao Mingzhan's defeat secret." Yuan Zong's first plan failed, and another plan was born: "Just let Gao Mingzhan out, claiming that we are sending a large army out of the Sword Pavilion to attack Guangyuan, Li Guoying is worried that the back road will be lost, maybe he will give up Chóngqìng, even if he doesn't give up, as long as he sends some reinforcements back, we have a great chance here." ”

"I haven't figured out how to use Gao Mingzhan to defeat the army," Deng Ming looked a little hesitant after hearing this: "I have also thought about General Yuan's method, but I am worried that I will not be able to scare Li Guoying." ”

"You might as well give it a try." Yuan Zongdi felt that he would only know if he would succeed after experimenting: "It will not be harmful to us." ”