Li Guoying has been standing on the tower of Chongqing City, with his standard battalion officers and guards standing beside him, and after seeing the overwhelming Sichuan West Naval Division, these officers and men of the standard battalion are all speechless and trembling. Even the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi himself, the fingers hidden under the cuffs at this time became stiff because of nervousness.

Shaanxi's shipbuilding capacity is not strong, and for many years it has mainly built some wooden rafts and boats to transport baggage on the Jialing River. As for the warships, there is no special design, but they are relatively large and sturdy -- for the Ming and Qing armies in Sichuan, transport ships can be used as combat ships as well, and the main mode of engagement between the two sides is to jump gangs, and there are relatively few bows and arrows and ramming battles. The Qing army and naval division on the Jialing River had always regarded Yuan Zongdi, who was of the same level, as an imaginary enemy, and Li Guoying could not let go of his hands and feet to produce ships because of the shortage of funds.

The Ming Army's Western Sichuan Naval Division was completely different from the Qing Army's Jialing River Naval Division, and compared with the Ming Army's large ships, the Qing Army's ships were like small fishing boats. Li Guoying knows very well that with Shaanxi's current shipbuilding capacity, even if he is given ten years, he will not think of forming a fleet that can fight against the Western Sichuan Naval Division.

The first warship of the Ming army had already crossed Chongqing and continued to sail upstream, and Li Guoying saw that the hull of each Ming ship was deeply sunk into the water, and none of the ships were empty.

"It looks like there must be more than 200 ships of the Ming army, and if they are all soldiers, there must not be 60,000 or 70,000 troops on these ships?" Li Guoying still had a calm expression on his face, but he was already horrified in his heart: "And Deng Ming's ship hasn't finished yet, and I don't know how many ships there are behind." ”

If these ships were not filled with soldiers, it would mean that the Ming army had a lot of baggage, and as long as you look at the size of the Western Sichuan Naval Division, Li Guoying knew very well that he would definitely not be able to engage in a war of attrition with Deng Ming.

Ren Tang stood at the stern of the boat, looking at the city wall of Chongqing, which had just been left behind, and he raised his right arm straight high, ready to give orders to the drummers beside him.

The first time he returned from Wuchang, the Ming soldiers beat the drums, but that was only that, and every time he passed through Wuchang in the future, Deng Ming never held a similar demonstration in order to maintain relations with Zhang Changgeng. However, in Jiujiang, Anqing, Chizhou, Nanjing, Zhenjiang and Yangzhou, the Ming army did not land to beat drums and demonstrate against those cities. In Deng Ming's words, this was like blasting the walls of Hanyang, expressing the goodwill of the Sichuan army to the Manchu magistrates - let them know that the Sichuan army had the strength to attack them, but only because of their good intentions did not take action - the first time he heard Deng Ming explain this to Zhou Peigong, Ren Tang gave his commander a "bandit" hat in his heart. In the future, every time Deng Ming released his goodwill, Ren Tang felt that the logic of the Yangtze River Admiral looked even less like that of a righteous man and a gentleman.

"The Li thief is stubbornly resistant, and the crime cannot be punished." Due to Li Guoying's stubborn stance, the navigation of the Yangtze River was affected, and he had to spend huge sums of money to mobilize sailors to escort the escort again and again, so Ren Tang hated Li Guoying quite bitterly: "This time we are releasing our goodwill to Wang Mingde and others. ”

After shouting these words, Ren Tang waved his arm down, and the drummer, who had been prepared for a long time, immediately beat the drum heavily.

One after another, the soldiers on the Ming army ships cooperated quite tacitly, with the beat of the drums, and beat the boat gang rhythmically with the weapons in their hands, blending with the sound of war drums.

Knock, knock, knock, knock......

The snake-like water master of western Sichuan slowly passed outside the city of Chongqing, and the sound of drums attacked the city walls of Chongqing from both east and south directions at the same time. The Qing army in the city was better, after all, the Sichuan army could be seen sailing across the river, and for those green battalions in the city, the drums seemed to be coming from all directions, and the whole sky over Chongqing was filled with a deafening but murderous thump.

There were already more than 300 Manchurian Eight Banners stationed in Chongqing, and several Manchurian officers walked up to the city to look at it for a while, and then returned to the Manchurian Eight Banners garrison one after another, and their faces were all gloomy and terrifying.

The drums were still beating, and the air above me seemed to tremble rhythmically. It sounds as if the drums are constantly moving westward, away from Chongqing, but new drums keep coming closer. The entire city of Chongqing had been surrounded by drums for more than an hour, and some Manchurian Eight Banner soldiers couldn't help but ask, "How many ships are coming from outside?" ”

A Manchurian officer who had just come down from the city wall stretched out two fingers: "At least this number, and they are all big ships." There are only more than fifty ships outside, and we still have to wait. ”

At this time, the sun had already set to the west, and after another hour, darkness descended on the outskirts of Chongqing, and the sound of dong echoed in the silent wilderness, filling the whole heaven and earth. The Ming army on the river had no intention of hiding its strength, and all the ships lit bright torches so that the Qing army could see them clearly.

In the dark night, the Qing army silently listened to the sound of war drums for a long time, and finally someone couldn't bear to shout: "Stop knocking." Many Qing soldiers covered their ears with their hands, trying to avoid the pervasive sound, including soldiers of the Green Battalion and soldiers of the Eight Banners of Manchuria.

"Three hundred have passed." At the head of the city, Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, sat motionless in front of the city tower, counting the ships of the Western Sichuan Navy Division with his subordinates. In front of them, the fleets of the Ming army were connected in a string, like a fire dragon, all the way to the end of the field of vision, where new red light was still born, slowly coming towards Chongqing, Li Guoying They knew that it meant more ships of the Ming army.

The noise in the city behind them became louder and louder, and it was all Qing soldiers who were disturbed by the sound of drums, and they used the noise to fight against the seemingly never-ending sound of war drums, and tried to dispel the panic and uneasiness in their hearts, but their noise only caused more panic in themselves and their companions.

When the noise first started, Li Guoying was still silently counting the Ming warships that passed in front of him, as if he hadn't heard anything, and when the sound exceeded the limit, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi gently spat out two words from his mouth: "Bullet pressure." ”

"Yes." Wang Mingde and Daniel Zhang on both sides bowed down at the same time to receive the order, and quickly retreated from the city tower with their own soldiers. Soon the noise behind gradually subsided, and when Wang Mingde and Daniel Zhang returned to restore their lives, Li Guoying just nodded lightly, without much expression.

The Ming fleet continued from the front of the city of Chongqing to Guò until it turned white in the east, and the last Ming sailing ship passed in front of Chaotianmen.

There were no new drums or new fires, and the Qing generals at the head of the city let out a long sigh: the nightmare was finally over.

Several pro-soldier staff members in charge of counting the ships synthesized their numbers and reported to Li Guoying.

"Five hundred and fifty-six sailing ships, large and small." Li Guoying said to the generals around him: "If it is full of soldiers, I am afraid that there will be 150,000 people?" ”

The generals on the city tower were silent, including Daniel Zhang and Wang Mingde, their underwear was soaked in cold sweat. Among the officers and soldiers in the city, many of them were about to be driven crazy by the continuous sound of war drums.

"If it's not full of soldiers, it's a grain and cloth with millions of stones, countless horses, cattle and sheep, or hundreds of cannons, and enough medicine." Li Guoying added his words softly and looked at the generals in front of him: "What do you think?" ”

"Maybe ......," Wang Mingde lowered his head and said, "The Deng thief loaded all the stones in the boat, just to scare us." ”

Wang Mingde didn't believe this, but Li Guoying nodded heavily: "General Wang is right, these ships are empty, in order to confuse us, Deng thief filled them with stones, quickly spread the news, and informed the whole army." ”

……

In Qijiang, Deng Ming and his subordinates discussed the effect of showing off force, and the demonstration in Chongqing was carefully prepared in advance, and the distance between the ships was relatively large.

"For Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, it is useless to boast of their strength, but it may provoke them to raid. For example, Wen Chou commanded an army of tens of thousands of people, and the banner was connected to the sky and the ground, covering the road, but Guan Gong was not only not afraid, but rushed straight to the flag with a few guards, beheaded Wen Chou in the army, dismounted and cut off his head and returned. Deng Ming paused when he said this, even if he led the troops to fight for many years, the guards around him were all heroes and heroes, but thinking about Guan Yu's divine might, Deng Ming still admired it; Later, when Guan Yu killed Yan Liang, it was similar, when Yan Liang was unstoppable, and drove back Zhang Liao and Xu Huang who led the troops to ambush him. Seeing that Guan Yu arrived, Yan Liang fled in despair, but was still caught up and killed-this kind of prestige that destroyed the enemy's courage, Deng Ming felt that he had some.

"However, for a steady veteran like Li Guoying, the effect of showing off should be good, and I don't think he will have the guts to threaten our shipping anymore."

……

Chongqing, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, again wrote to the imperial court, this time clearly and openly opposing the attack on Chengdu. After seeing the prestige of the Ming army in western Sichuan, most of the Chongqing generals no longer cared about the military salaries promised by the imperial court, but agreed to return to Baoning.

In the past, in Li Guoying's conception, there was a main force of the Qing army that would arrive in Xuzhou along the Yangtze River, and then go up the Min River to Chengdu. After seeing the Western Sichuan Water Division, Li Guoying immediately realized that this strategic plan was completely pipe dream. Li Guoying pointed out to the imperial court that the most important thing to do at present is to concentrate a force to recapture Jiangling and restore the defense of the river, and if this goal is difficult to achieve, then it is necessary to make every effort to consolidate Yuezhou and find every means to intercept and block the Yangtze River waterway.

Then it is to rebuild the Su Song Water Division. As long as the Qing army is not able to confront the Ming army on the Yangtze River for a day, then do not move the idea of attacking Chengdu. If it weren't for the uproar in the Ganxi Green Camp, Li Guoying would even want to build a Qing court to cut the grain and salary given to Shaanxi and concentrate material resources on Huguang, even if it was very necessary to temporarily abandon Baoning for this purpose.