Li Guoying launched a breakthrough and dispatched 4,000 armored soldiers at the beginning, and these Qing army vanguards, assisted by more than 20,000 unarmored soldiers, comprehensively tested the Ming army's battle line. The remaining 8,000 Qing army armor soldiers were left in Li Guoying's hands as reserves. He estimated that Deng Ming would be the same, and he would keep the main force in his hands and keep an eye on his main force. And a full-scale attack by more than 20,000 Qing troops can distract the strength of the Ming army, create momentum, and attract the attention of the main force of the Ming army.

The governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi himself sat in the tent of the Chinese army, eagerly waiting for news from the front. The southern front and the center were all in charge of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Green Battalion, and even if the two thousand armored pioneers encountered the main force of the Ming army, they could take advantage of their familiarity with the terrain and fight and retreat - in fact, they were not very familiar with geography, but they were much stronger than the Shanxi Green Battalion.

The 2,000 Shanxi Green Battalion mainly attacked the north, and their troops were relatively strong, and this area was also predicted by Li Guoying to be a relatively easy place to make a breakthrough. When the attention of the Ming army was attracted by the southern front, the Shanxi Green Battalion could find the weak link in the Ming army's defense line and open a passage.

Since the Shanxi Green Battalion is relatively unfamiliar with geography, Li Guoying does not have to worry too much about them escaping on their own after opening the passage - although Li Guoying has repeatedly emphasized to his subordinates that the Ming army is weak and cannot prevent the 70,000 army from leaving in groups, but if the Sichuan-Shaanxi Green Battalion is in the north, Li Guoying is still not very relieved, afraid that they will leave the main force and leave first at the critical juncture, after all, they may rely on themselves to be the head snake and quickly flee back to Chongqing.

There was no suspense about the outcome of the Qing army's breakthrough, and the Shanxi Green Battalion attacked westward for a day without finding a way out, and they went north deeper into the inland mountains for more than ten miles, but they could still see the Ming army's outposts and camps. Moreover, the defense line of the Ming army was also quite thick, and even if it crossed the camp of the Ming army, it would be blocked by the reinforcements of the Ming army.

However, the Shanxi Green Battalion refused to give up, they firmly believed in Li Guoying's judgment, that is, the Ming army's strength was insufficient to form a continuous front, and if the Ming army forcibly extended their defensive line, the strength of the entire defense line would be diluted - except to believe in this judgment, the Shanxi Green Battalion had no other way out, because if it was not the case, the Qing army would only be left with a dead end.

According to Li Guoying's order, the Shanxi Green Battalion tried to bypass the Ming outposts and fortresses in the front row, and surrounded these Ming forts with unarmored soldiers to prevent them from coming out to interfere with the Qing army's march. When the vanguard of the Green Battalion carried out such work, the Ming army began to use beacon fire alarms in the fortress, and soon a large number of Ming army armor soldiers drove over from the rear to prevent the Shanxi Green Battalion from paralyzing the Ming army's outpost fortress with simple trenches.

The Shanxi Green Battalion, which refused to give up, repeatedly attacked the Ming army's defensive line, and did not retreat unwillingly until it was nearly dusk. The withdrawn Shanxi Green Battalion reported to Li Guoying the details of their defeat, and in addition to the fact that the Ming army would always have timely reinforcements, these Shanxi Green Battalions also saw a lot of ranger activity behind the fort, and it was obvious that the Ming army was stationed behind the northern defense line. The goal of each dispatch of the Ming army was clear, but to drive away the unarmored soldiers who wanted to carry out civil engineering works, or to block the further advance of the green battalion armor, and the Ming army only dispatched the necessary troops each time without wasting their reserves.

The report of Shanxi Green Camp made Li Guoying silent. The Qing army's attacks on the southern front and the center were also unsuccessful, and Wang Mingde only fought for one morning and complained bitterly, complaining that the Ming army's camp was strong and absolutely impossible to break through; The central Ganshan Green Battalion also said that the Ming army was heavily guarded, so that the Qing army trying to break through had no gaps.

Li Guoying personally sat in the town, knowing that the forward generals did not dare to lie and deceive themselves, since the Ming army had abundant troops everywhere, it could only mean that Deng Ming had received a large number of reinforcements.

"Wasn't Chengdu originally more than 10,000 people from Liu Yao? Later, he may have asked for some people from Jianchang, plus the Zhejiang people who followed Deng Ming into Sichuan, a total of 40,000 or 50,000, right? The strength of the Ming army on the other side was much stronger than Li Guoying imagined, but the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi found it difficult to accept this fact: "There may be more than 100,000 people left, but they are all prisoners captured by Deng Ming." ”

Zhao Liangdong and their Guizhou auxiliaries, the troops sent to Chengdu after Gao Mingzhan's defeat, and the tens of thousands of people abandoned by Li Guoying, who had just been captured by the Ming army for more than a year...... Although Li Guoying was born as a military general, he was quite good at military work and other work, and had a good grasp of strategy and people's hearts, so he was favored by the imperial court and Hong Chengchou, and gave him the heavy responsibility of resisting Liu Wenxiu's army, and promoted him all the way to the governor of the northwest provinces.

According to Li Guoying's experience, these prisoners captured by the Ming army could not be digested without five or six years of work, and not only could they not help the Ming army, but they needed to leave a considerable amount of manpower to monitor them. And the strong men captured by the Ming army from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River could not be collected for their own use in just two years, and these people probably had the intention of escaping from the military camp. But Li Guoying did not see the exiles - even if there was a large no-man's land between Chongqing and Chengdu, this was an abnormal phenomenon, which only showed that Deng Ming had adopted a very strict vigilant system for his ruling area, and this system of course needed to be maintained.

Counting with his fingers, Li Guoying thought that Deng Ming's core army was the Sichuan Army, and the auxiliaries under those people might have been promoted by Deng Ming to military guards and armor soldiers; The second is the outlaws from Zhejiang. However, Li Guoying never saw Liu Yao, Yang Youcai, and other Qingcheng faction generals appear on the battlefield, not once, so Li Guoying always suspected that Deng Ming had carried out a purge in Chengdu - which would lead to a further decline in Deng Ming's control over the old Sichuan army.

"How could Deng Ming mobilize 40,000 or 50,000 people to stop us? The reliable troops in his hands are the same number as the sky, so don't there be any housekeepers left in Chengdu? ”

In addition to the number of core troops, Li Guoying guessed that Chengdu now has about 200,000 strong men, and he also raised this number to 250,000 for insurance purposes - although it is still underestimated, it is not much different from the 280,000 men actually controlled by Deng Ming. If Deng Ming mobilized 50,000 people to the front line, it would be equivalent to six Ding and one Ding, which was a ratio that Li Guoying absolutely couldn't believe - when the decisive battle of Songjin in Liaodong was at the beginning, although Huang Taiji was able to achieve three Ding and one in the Manchu, Han and Mongolian Eight Banners (including non-armored soldiers), but that was also the limit of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and behind the Three Ding of the Eight Banner Soldiers, there was also the backing of millions of Han people. In order to ensure the mobilization of the Eight Banners, Baoyi couldn't even draw one out of thirty - in this way, the mobilization rate in Liaodong was only about one-twentieth.

Even if Deng Ming has grain reserves and waterway advantages, Huang Taiji also has a large number of reserves and the advantage of local warfare, and now Deng Ming's mobilization ability is much higher than that of Manchuria during the Huang Taiji period, which makes Li Guoying feel very puzzled - Huang Taiji has been operating in Liaodong for many years at that time, and there are many Han people born in Liaodong, the second generation of the surrendered Han army, and the Han people who have been clothed for more than ten years, these people are all desperate for the Manchurians, and they are definitely not comparable to Deng Ming's group of people collected from all over the world- And if he didn't rule long enough, with Li Guoying's knowledge, he couldn't understand how Deng Ming dared to mobilize these unreliable strong men on a large scale.

The worst thing is that these strong men of the Ming army, who should be very unreliable and refuse to fight for their lack of prestige and fear, are actually firmly guarding the defense line of the Ming army.

"Is it that the Dong thief has also come to support the Deng thief?" Wang Mingde said to Li Guoying.

"It's a possibility." Although Li Guoying did not see the banner of the generals of Yudong except for Yuan Zongdi, this can explain why there were so many Ming troops on the opposite side, and there were no large escapes: "It may also be that the thieves from Jianchang came to reinforce the Deng thieves." ”

"So what are we going to do?" Many generals of the Shanxi Green Battalion felt very nervous, they were unfamiliar with the place, and once they dispersed and broke through, they would definitely fall into the hands of the enemy. Moreover, Wang Mingde and they are all Li Guoying's descendants, if the situation is tense enough that someone must break the queen, Shanxi Luying suspects that this errand to death will definitely fall on their heads.

"Your Excellency the Governor, our army's military rations are only enough to eat for three days, and we must break through!" What is Shanxi Green Camp afraid of, Wang Mingde said sonorously: "There will only be more and more thieves, and our army must break through as soon as possible!" ”

Looking around at the surrounding generals, Wang Mingde took a step forward, knelt on one knee and fell to the ground, clasped his hands into fists and asked Li Guoying for his life: "Your Excellency the Governor must go, and you must leave immediately, the last general dares to ask for the army to be cut off!" ”

As soon as Wang Mingde's words came out, the faces of the generals of Shanxi Green Camp changed color, followed by sincere emotion, mixed with a little doubt.

"Exactly." Another Shaanxi general, Hu Wenke, also took a step forward, knelt down side by side with Wang Mingde, and made a generous statement: "It is difficult to let the whole army break through, but the soldiers must be saved!" The last general implored the governor to take the armor of the Shanxi Green Battalion to take the first step, and let the last general stay and Wang Zongbing to break the rear of the army. ”

"The last general is willing to stay."

"The last general is also a good man in Shaanxi, and he is unwilling to leave Wang Zongbing and Hu Guerrilla to live alone!"

Many generals of the Shaanxi Green Battalion jumped out one after another, scrambling to ask Li Guoying for his life, and they repeatedly stressed that the Governor should leave with all the Shanxi Green Battalion armor, and vowed to use the 5,000 armor soldiers of the Ganshan Green Battalion and tens of thousands of unarmored soldiers in their hands to drag Deng Ming to the death, and to keep the Governor and most of the main force from escaping from danger.

The generals of the Shanxi Green Camp were ashamed of themselves at this time, and many of them were enthusiastic, and they also asked to stay together, but they were stopped by Wang Mingde, Hu Wenke said in an unquestionable tone: "You are guests from afar, our old Qin army...... No, we are the hosts of the Ganshan Green Camp, how can we let the guests take risks? ”

In addition to the Shanxi Green Battalion, the generals of the Ganshan Green Battalion also unanimously said that Daniel Zhang, the governor of Shaanxi, was also too important and should break through with the governor.

Daniel Zhang did not shirk this, but to the surprise of the generals of the Shanxi Green Camp, Daniel Zhang did not show gratitude, but nodded with a gloomy face and stood behind Li Guoying without saying a word. And the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi did not seem to be very moved in the face of the many loyal and righteous people under him, but had a strange expression that the generals of the Shanxi Green Camp could not understand.