The speed of the Ming army's build-up from Chengdu to Xuzhou was not fast, mainly because of concerns about production. Many of the farmers in Chengdu now own 20 acres of land, and they have worked hard to cultivate such a large area of arable land, and if they are allowed to leave at this time, I am afraid that there will be a great loss. Even organizing people to harvest for the recruits also requires a cost, and Chengdu is reluctant to pay this cost, and Deng Ming also has to weigh whether it is worth paying a lot of wages.

Xuzhou is slightly better here, because the Tongxiucai who immigrated here this year missed the agricultural time, many of them worked for salt merchants, and these people were easily recruited, as long as they paid military salaries. However, it will also damage the development of the salt industry, so Deng Ming also has to consider the economic losses caused by premature mobilization to the government; Moreover, the number of immigrants in Xuzhou is relatively limited, and it is impossible to mobilize so many troops at once.

As for the handicraftsmen in Chengdu, although they also participated in military training, Deng Ming was reluctant to recruit them into the army if there were other options. The war had to be costed, and because Chengdu was extremely short of manpower, the cost of manpower was very high for Deng Ming, so much so that it affected his strategic determination.

By the end of June, in addition to the 2,000 infantry and 300 cavalry of the standing army, more than 4,000 conscripts had been concentrated in Xuzhou, and as for the auxiliaries, only 5,000 people had been concentrated. After all, the sailors on the Chongqing side did not have much pressure on shipping, and according to the reconnaissance report, Li Guoying had blocked the Jialing River, which further reduced the pressure of escort and patrol of the Ming army.

"Let's wait until the last minute to recruit troops." Because it was estimated that Chongqing's troops were not strong, Deng Ming was reluctant to make profits from agriculture and salt, so he postponed the assembly time again and again: "Going downstream, we can reach Chongqing in five days." Counting the road to outflank Chongqing, we will have time to dispatch in mid-July. Li Guoying did not have a sailor, so he could not detect our movements, and he did not have time to harvest the crops. ”

Although such a careful time may leave the Qing army with a chance to harvest, it is not entirely bad for the Ming army, because once the harvest is completed, Chengdu can be mobilized on a large scale, so that the gap between the first and second waves of attacks will be shortened, which means a shorter reaction time for the Qing army, and for the Ming army, it means that it is less likely to have accidents and the army is safer.

Unlike Deng Ming, who was indecisive in Xuzhou, Li Guoying had already sent a lot of advance troops at this time, carrying grain and grass to Zhongxian. In order to act covertly so as not to be detected by passing Ming ships, these advance teams did not advance along the banks of the river, but marched inland. Without the ability to control the waterways of the Yangtze River, the Qing army had to endure greater losses in body and rations.

Compared with the slow build-up of the Ming army, the Qing army moved slightly faster, but it was not very fast, Li Guoying's order to Zhao Liangdong to go south had been issued for a long time, but now Zhao Liangdong and Wang Jinbao had not yet arrived in Baoning. This was not a surprise to Li Guoying, because the limited transportation capacity of the Qing army needed to give priority to ensuring that grain was transported into Chongqing, and Li Guoying insisted on hoarding enough grain for three months for an army of 100,000 in Chongqing, and the military rations for attacking Wanxian could not be counted.

"Your Excellency the Governor," Sun Sike couldn't help but be even more anxious when he saw that the Qing army's action was slow, and that such a simple military action as harassing Wanxian could not be launched immediately: "Deng Ming has already gone to Kunming, we don't need to reserve so much grain in Chongqing, right?" ”

"I expect the enemy to be lenient, maybe Deng Ming will come back suddenly. With him presiding over Chengdu, the speed of the thieves' dispatch of troops can be as fast as ten days, or even more than half a month, and they can go down the river from Chengdu to Chongqing in seven or eight days. If Deng Ming suddenly sent troops, then Chongqing left enough military rations to deal with all kinds of emergencies, Li Guoying didn't know what accidents would happen, but it was always right to ensure a stable base and sufficient reserves: "Not only may there be all kinds of accidents on our side, but also on the Wanxian side, as long as Chongqing has military rations, and General Zhao and General Wang are stationed with elite soldiers, the governor will have no worries; If Yuan Zongdi's response was abnormal, the governor could storm Wanxian or chase down the fleeing thieves at his discretion. Wouldn't it be a pity if there was a good opportunity to arise, but because of the unstable back road? ”

If Chongqing becomes a fortress that the Ming army will never be able to conquer, and there is an opportunity in favor of the Qing army on the Wanxian side, Li Guoying can even consider temporarily abandoning the line of communication and concentrating all the troops along the way to Wanxian. The Qing army gathered more than 100,000 troops on the front line of Chongqing, Zhongxian, and Wanxian, and Li Guoying estimated that the reinforcements of the Ming army in Chengdu would not exceed half of the Qing army at most, so that even if it was temporarily divided by the Ming army, he was not afraid.

"If Deng Ming dares to stay on the north shore after defeating Wanxian, we will attack him from east to west. The army is huddled together, Chongqing has food and reinforcements, and he is the sailor who has the advantage and has nothing to do with us. Li Guoying patiently explained to Sun Sike. After all, this person is a prison sent by the imperial court, and he is the eyes and ears used by the imperial court to observe Li Guoying; Even if Li Guoying has the right to be arbitrary, Sun Sike must be made to understand his thinking and strategy: "In addition, Deng Ming may also take a risk and strike directly into Shunqing." ”

Shunqing is located between Chongqing and Boryeong, on the west bank of the Jialing River, and is an important place connecting Boryeong and Chongqing. If Deng Ming landed west of Chongqing and bypassed Chongqing and went straight to the Jialing River channel, he could threaten Shunqing.

"Deng thief can't be so arrogant, right?" Sun Sike was startled, there was a Qing army stationed in Chongqing Jiancheng behind him, the Ming army's grain route was not smooth, and Deng Mingchang drove straight into it, no matter how he looked at it, he was close to committing suicide.

"Logically not, but a lot of times you can't guess if a thief will suddenly go crazy." Li Guoying also believed that Deng Ming was unlikely to ignore the more than 100,000 Qing troops, and swooped down on Shunqing regardless of it, replacing it with Daniel Zhang, Zhao Liangdong, and Wang Jinbao, and most of them would not consider this possibility; But Li Guoying was unwilling to leave an obvious flaw behind his back, so he even had to take care of this seemingly completely impossible thing: "If there is grain in Chongqing and Deng Ming dares to insert it into Shunqing, we will slowly withdraw the whole army and then attack him." If there is enough food and grass, there is no need to rush for a while, and you can slowly catch the fighters. But this requires Chongqing to really have reserves, otherwise the grain road will be cut off, and we can only be forced to open up the grain road. ”

Since Li Guoying is unwilling to leave flaws, his speed of action will inevitably be slowed down.

Seeing the Qing army struggling to transport grain into the city, Sun Sike couldn't help but sigh: "Why doesn't the governor go to Tuntian around Chongqing? It would be nice to reduce even a little bit of grain transshipment. ”

Originally, Li Guoying had a little tuntian in Chongqing, but after the last battle of Chongqing, he even gave up this bit of military tun, and the soldiers who cultivated it also withdrew to the military tun in Baoning.

After glancing at Sun Sike, Li Guoying thought about it and decided to be open and honest with the imperial court's supervisors: "When this official was in Tuntian, Chongqing a year ago, he thought that western Sichuan would be taken soon, and Wanxian might soon be in the bag. But now Chongqing may become a battlefield at any time, and opening up military cantonments will tie up their hands and feet. ”

In Li Guoying's view, when defending, we need to know how to prioritize and weigh the trade-offs: "If there are a large number of military camps outside the city, when the thieves attack, we may have to weaken the city defense because we are reluctant to eat and defend against the enemy." Although it is hard to transport tens of thousands of stone of grain, it can keep the official from being disturbed by the small profits in front of him and use his troops in a really critical position. ”

Sun Sike kept nodding his head and said that he was taught.

But Li Guoying's words were actually not finished, and the selfishness of the generals was also involved. It is likely that these cantonments will be handed over to the generals to run, or the output will be distributed among them. When the harvest is in the interests of the generals, they will influence the overall strategy in order to protect their property. Li Guoying would rather be in trouble than have a general act of acting without authorization to defend his property at a critical juncture.

And there is a more critical point, that is, Li Guoying still thinks that Chongqing can be abandoned, if a large number of military cantonments are reclaimed around Chongqing, the evacuation of Chongqing will encounter greater resistance, and the generals do not want their own interests to be damaged, and most of them will insist on sticking here.

Compared with the cost of 100,000 troops, the harvest of Juntun is really a drop in the bucket, just like the Ming Dynasty in Guanning Tuntian in order to fight against the Houjin, there are a large number of Juntun from Shanhaiguan to Ningyuan and Jinzhou. In the early years of Chongzhen, Zu Dashou's family alone had tens of thousands of auxiliary soldiers working in the fields for the ancestral family; Later Chongzhen period; Wu Sangui's family even swelled to the point that he controlled 20,000 or 30,000 Liao people to cultivate for themselves. But it still required the imperial court to import a large amount of food. The large amount of land made both the Wu family and the ancestral family fully oppose the evacuation from those areas that were already very dangerous, forcing the imperial court to invest more reinforcements and materials again and again.

"Whether Chongqing has the meaning of reservation or not depends on the results of this beating Wanxian." Li Guoying thought silently in his heart, hundreds of thousands of troops are stationed in Chongqing, if they can cut off the Yangtze River shipping, of course, it is the best, if not, as long as Deng Ming and Yuan Zongdi can be exhausted, the back and forth reinforcements are also worth the money; What's more, as long as Deng Ming can be dragged in Sichuan and can no longer attack Jiangnan, then this expense will not be wasted. But if the huge Qing army can't threaten Wanxian at all, but can only struggle for its own survival, then Li Guoying thinks that this Chongqing should hurry up and still fall. Li Guoying does not have any troops here, and if he really insists on withdrawing his troops, the generals will just complain a few times and will not desperately block them.

In early July, Li Guoying received a report from the advance team that they had safely arrived in Zhongxian County and joined up with the local Qing army. After the long-awaited governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi got the news, he immediately swore and set off. (To be continued)