Nearly September, Deng Mingcai reluctantly admitted that Li Guoying did not have any military cantonments near Chongqing. At this time, the Ming army forwarded and found the Qing army reinforcements along the river, led by Wang Jinbao. After seeing the Ming troops, the Qing army quickly disembarked and turned to foot, heading towards Chongqing from the other side of the Jialing River. Just one day later, the Ming army discovered that the Qing army also had a colorful military flag in the rear, apparently the supervising army of the Han Eight Banners.

Sun Sike retreated to Baoning with his troops, abandoning all unnecessary equipment along the way, paying the price of discarding all the cattle and the remnants of the unarmored Han soldiers, and finally preserved the Eight Banners basically intact. After encountering Wang Jinbao's troops by boat, Sun Sike's Han Eight Banners were given a chance to resupply and recuperate. Sun Sike asked Yuan Jiawenbi to bring hundreds of Eight Banner soldiers who were in acceptable condition as a supervisor to follow behind the forward troops returning to Chongqing.

"Sun Sike and Zhao Liangdong have about 15,000 armored soldiers under them, half of them are new soldiers, and the most elite part is Zhao Liangdong's personal soldiers and the border soldiers they brought. Now that Zhao Liangdong has not arrived, the combat effectiveness of the soldiers and horses around Sun Sike should be poor. Deng Ming has learned all about Li Guoying's dispatch of troops from the mouth of the captive, and now that he has seen Sun Sike, Deng Ming understands that the city of Chongqing is indeed very empty a few days ago, and the Ming army missed the opportunity to attack Chongqing: "Now if you cross the Jialing River to fight Chongqing, you may be attacked by Wang Jinbao behind the back when the soldiers are under the city, which is too dangerous." Well, if we can defeat Wang Jinbao before Zhao Liangdong arrives, and then go to Chongqing, maybe there will be a chance. ”

Deng Ming's opinion was not echoed by Zhao Tianba and Zhou Kaihuang, both of them had serious expressions, and Zhao Tianba even shook his head slightly after listening to Deng Ming's words.

Seven thousand Ming soldiers, plus more than 1,000 sailors and more than 10,000 people, this is all the strength of Deng Ming's hand. The 20,000 people spread out along the Jialing River and did not clench into fists. Today, the next strategy was discussed, but Li Xinghan, who was in charge of the rear army, could not arrive in time, and had to guard the Jiangkou to ensure the retreat of the Ming army.

Although repeatedly urged and fully cooperated, the three thousand reinforcements sent had just begun to disembark near the mouth of the river, and it would take some time to complete the collection.

The Ming army's transportation capacity was insufficient, and as a large number of prisoners were transported back to Xuzhou, the Ming army also had to transfer a large number of people back from the front line to prevent a commotion among the prisoners gathered in Xuzhou. For this reason, Deng Ming also ordered Chengdu to urgently mobilize a group of troops, not to go to the front line but to Xuzhou to guard just in case, and at the same time accept that part of the manpower given to Chengdu. A large number of prisoners and civilians had to go upriver by boat, and the time was still very tight, which occupied almost all the capacity of the Ming army, and the remaining capacity was used to maintain the supply of Deng Ming's department, so the mobility of the Ming army was greatly reduced.

With the current state of the Ming army, even if Wang Jinbao's reinforcements do not arrive, as long as Chongqing seriously defends, the offensive of the Ming army will be quite weak.

"We simply didn't expect to get so many captives at once. Our army's original plan was to ensure the mobility of about 20,000 troops, but because of the urgency of the war, 50,000 people were mobilized at once, plus more than 70,000 prisoners. If our ships are for 20,000 men to move quickly, they will be more than enough to support the operation; But now there are 120,000 people, and naturally they act like snails, not to mention the constant transportation of food from the rear. Fortunately, we have some grain stored in Xuzhou, and if all of them had to be transported from Chengdu, the ships would be even more insufficient, and the army would definitely be pinned to the ground and unable to move. Zhao Tianba knew that Deng Ming was a little unwilling, and vaguely felt that if he hadn't been too careful the day before yesterday, maybe he would have been able to reap the benefits of Chongqing City. Now Deng Ming was unwilling to think of a remedy - and Zhao Tianba thought that this method did not exist, and he did not want to see Deng Ming take risks because he regretted his previous mistakes: "There are ships everywhere that are nervous, and the troops cannot move and can only take the mountain road like the Qing army, and now it is too reluctant to cross the river to fight Wang Jinbao." Even if he is willing to come out to fight, even if he can repel him, can he retreat in time to capture Chongqing? What if Zhao Liangdong arrives soon? ”

Deng Ming sighed softly, Wang Jinbao's vanguard on the opposite side didn't seem to be much, maybe only three or four thousand armored soldiers, Deng Ming was fearless in the face of Li Guoying's army, but now he was pinned down by so few enemy troops that it was difficult to maneuver, he was really a little unwilling: "Li Guoying's main force has been easily defeated, if we can take Wang Jinbao and Zhao Liangdong, this Chongqing will be in our bag." ”

"The Admiral is too greedy." Zhao Tianba laughed.

Due to Sun Sike's indiscriminate command in this battle, Li Guoying had a large army but could not exert his strength at all, and the casualties of the Ming army in western Sichuan on the battlefield were only 200, but they achieved a major victory. As far as the young and strong labor force is concerned, it took nearly two years to go to Jiangnan in the past, and the number of people obtained was not as large as that obtained in less than a month this time.

"Well, you're right," Deng Ming thought for a moment and smiled, "Reminds me of a joke." ”

"What joke?" Zhou Kaihuang immediately came to the spirit.

"I had two friends who went to someone's house to eat, and one of them ate so much that he had to walk with his stomach up when he came home at night. A gust of wind blew his hat off. The man tried for a long time, but he couldn't bend down, but fortunately his friend came after him, and he beckoned his friend to help him pick up his hat; And his friend looked at him deeply and walked away. ”

"Oh, why?" Zhou Kaihuang asked with interest: "What about that hat?" ”

"What else can I do? This guy had to kick his hat all the way home. Deng Ming replied: "The next day he asked his friend why he didn't help him pick up his hat, and his friend said, 'You can't bend down, so will I.'" When the man asked why he hadn't told him, his friend replied: 'I have a ball in my mouth.' I can't speak. ”

"Meatballs, huh?" Zhou Kaihuang nodded: "I won't vomit if I change it." ”

"Well, I feel that is what Major Zhao meant. With the amount of food I eat, one steamed bun is not a problem, but now that I have two buckets of noodles in my stomach, I can only kick my hat and go home," under the persuasion of Zhao Tianba, Deng Ming gave up the idea of continuing to fight, and he said self-deprecatingly: "Wang Jinbao is that ball, even if we can swallow it, we can't swallow it." ”

"If only the Admiral understood." Zhao Tianba kept laughing after hearing the story: "This time Li Guoying mobilized more than 100,000 troops, not to mention Gansu and Shaanxi, even Shanxi is probably a big injury, and he has to take care of his injuries for a while." ”

"Chongqing is a big problem after all," Deng Ming now has a new assessment of Chongqing's strategic value, believing that the threat of the Qing army to the Yangtze River shipping is far beyond the previous imagination: "Let's withdraw our troops first, don't wait for Zhao Liangdong's army." But when we have digested the results of this battle, we must come to Chongqing again. ”

"The Admiral can rest assured at this point, we will definitely recover much faster than Li Guoying, and we can send troops again after we settle the prisoners, but it is not easy for him to gather another 100,000 people." Zhou Kaihuang said confidently.

"This time I disappointed Brother Zhao." Deng Ming said to Zhao Tianba with some apologies: "Seeing that Zhao Liangdong is coming, I don't have a chance to let Brother Zhao take revenge. ”

The last time Deng Ming went to Jiangnan, Zhao Tianba stayed behind, and he and Li Xinghan worked hard to train their troops. He always remembered the shame of being surrounded by Zhao Liangdong last time, so he said to Deng Ming many times before and after this expedition that if Zhao Liangdong didn't come, it would be fine, and if he came, he must let him personally avenge this arrow.

"It doesn't matter, I'm so young, I have a chance. But does the Admiral really plan to come back to Chongqing after the prisoners have been settled? Zhao Tianba raised another question: "Chongqing doesn't have a year to launch another large-scale attack, but Chongqing is a hard bone after all, if you don't besiege it for a year and a half, I'm afraid it will be difficult to fight, right?" And Xuzhou added 30,000 or 40,000 singles after this war. ”

"Hmm." Deng Ming replied in a low voice, speechless. There were originally 27,000 young men and 5,000 young women in Xuzhou; After the completion of the prisoner placement, there will be more than 50,000 young men, while the number of women will remain the same. This ratio of men to women is undoubtedly extremely dangerous enough to cause huge social problems. Chengdu, on the other hand, looks slightly better, with a less disparity, but there are actually many more young men who can't find a spouse than in Xuzhou.

Workers and peasants in Syria are in a hurry to start a family, have children and heirs when they have some savings or their own land. Unlike Deng Ming's previous life, people in his previous life had more spiritual sustenance, and the average life expectancy was long, and there were people in their thirties who were unmarried and unmarried. But the end of the Ming Dynasty was completely different, the common people had a much shorter life expectancy for themselves, and they desperately wanted to start a family after they had the ability to support their families. This idea is also encouraged by the government, and citizens with stable families and property are the strong pillars of the country.

"Everything is worrying." Deng Ming thought of the grain prices in Chengdu, the industry and the financial industry walking on the tightrope, and couldn't help but sigh softly: "With the ratio of men and women in Xuzhou, if I have a wife, I will definitely not want to serve in the military, and I will not follow the expedition, so I will stay at home and watch my mother-in-law carefully, so as not to be stolen by others, even if I leave home for a long time every day, I don't feel at ease." ”

"Exactly, some of our officers have already married, and if this continues, sooner or later these officers will rather retire than join the army." Zhao Tianba added: "Fortunately, the Admiral did not get married, and everyone's grievances are still smaller. The admiral set the rule that no concubines were allowed, so that the people's resentment would not boil. ”

"Don't suffer from widowhood and unevenness, but if you don't go to Huguang to buy some...... No, recruit some girls to come back, no matter how much you don't allow concubines, it's useless, you can't get them all. The more Deng Ming thought about it, the more headache he felt. On the issue of men, Chengdu needs more labor, but men need to start a family; The government needed food, so it encouraged land reclamation, and factories needed manpower; Strategically, Chongqing is like a fish in the throat, but taking it will not help solve the various contradictions that are becoming more and more intense in western Sichuan. Merchants, workers, and peasants all preferred to attack the rich southeast: "Let's get this battle over quickly, and on the way back to Xuzhou, let's think about our next move." ”