Deng Ming sat on the boat and galloped downstream with the troops.

The follow-up information became more and more bizarre, and the day before yesterday, the Ming army finally correctly judged that this was a large-scale attack by Li Guoying. This surprise attack of the Qing army was completely unexpected by the Ming army, and neither Deng Ming nor Yuan Zongdi expected that the Qing army would dare to launch a large-scale attack without control of the river. And it turned out that the Ming army's control of the river was not as stable as he imagined, and in the case of the Qing army's simultaneous advance by land and water, the Ming army's escort fleet did not dare to engage in battle under the condition that the enemy situation was unknown, and it was impossible for the Qing army to completely abandon water transportation.

After seeing the latest information, Deng Ming was very worried about the battle situation in the area of Wanxian, and now the Ming army concluded that the Qing army dispatched more than 15,000 armor, and the whole army exceeded 50,000, which had an overwhelming advantage over the Ming army in Wanxian. If Yuan Zongdi, like Deng Ming, underestimated the strength of the Qing army too much, then the Ming army was likely to suffer a big loss.

"The Admiral doesn't need to worry too much," the subordinates who were on the same boat as Deng Ming comforted the commander, and Zhao Tianba said to him: "The Duke of Jingguo is very calm, and he will definitely be able to discover the strength of the Qing army soon, and then properly retreat to Wanxian and wait for our support." ”

"I hope so." Deng Ming urgently mobilized 10,000 soldiers and 10,000 people in Xuzhou, and rushed to reinforce Wanxian County at full speed on hundreds of warships. If Yuan Zongdi had misjudged the strength of the Qing army, he might now be in a bitter battle. As long as Wanxian County was still in the hands of the Ming army when the reinforcements arrived, the Qing army's offensive would naturally collapse as soon as the Western Sichuan Water Division and reinforcements arrived.

Li Guoying, a cautious person, would launch such a large-scale raid, he is really underestimated. Until now, Deng Ming still regrets his carelessness. If Wanxian is lost, then the Qing army, which has captured the inventory of the Ming army, may hold out for a long time, causing greater trouble for the shipping of the Yangtze River; Even if the Qing army could not hold out, the destruction of Wanxian would cause heavy losses to the Ming army.

The situation at this time was somewhat similar to the battle of Chongqing when Deng Minggang crossed, when Wu Sangui underestimated the strength and determination of Kuidong's army, causing Chongqing to be in danger, but due to the defection of Tan Yi and Tan Hong, the Ming army not only failed to take advantage of Wu Sangui's mistakes to obtain results, but suffered heavy losses. And now, also because of the mistakes of Daniel Zhang and Wang Mingde, the Qing army has not been able to use the opportunity of the surprise attack to deal a major blow to the Ming army. While Deng Ming was worried, the Qing army's offensive had actually ended.

The closer the Ming fleet got to Chongqing, the more cargo ships could be seen moored on the southern shore.

Whether it is here or in the Three Gorges or even in Huguang and Jiangxi, the ships going up are basically driving in the near-shore channel, dropping anchor and waiting when the wind is headwind, and driving in the channel with slower water flow on the shore when the wind is downwind. The main bottleneck section of shipping is the Three Gorges area, where the upward channel is very narrow, and the requirements for wind are also higher. During World War II in Deng Ming's previous life, the Chinese government did not have time to wait, and relied on fiber pulling to transport materials and personnel into Sichuan at any cost. Not to mention that the current Ming army does not have that kind of manpower, even Sichuan more than ten years ago could not do it.

"If you want to expand the waterway, you need power other than sails to pass through the Three Gorges, but now I definitely can't build a steam engine, and even if I have the power that doesn't rely on wind energy, the Three Gorges waterway is also full of reefs, so I can only use the near-shore waterway. If you want to widen the shipping lane. In addition to power, high-explosive charges are needed. Deng Ming pondered for a while, and threw aside the idea of expanding the shipping lane, the most feasible way at the moment is still the old way, that is, to build a large number of ships in Sichuan and reduce the import of goods from Sichuan as much as possible. Some of the ships carrying goods down are sold downstream, and some are empty on board: "I don't know how the ban on the sea is being implemented?" If the ban on the sea has already begun to be enforced on a large scale, the residents of several coastal provinces will need to be resettled, including a large number of fishermen, sailors, and shipbuilders. ”

The wind has been good in recent days, but there have been few ships going up along the way, all of them are blocked downstream, and they may return to Yunyang to avoid the fighting, and may even be anchored in Fengjie.

"Chongqing's threat is bigger than I thought." Deng Ming talked about this matter with his confidants around him, although the intention of the Qing army in this war was not to block shipping, but it did expose the problem of the coordination of the Ming army's naval divisions: "What if every time we see that the wind is favorable in the future, the Chongqing naval division will come out to make trouble, and then flee back to the Jialing River before we catch them?" Our cargo ship finally struggled to go up to Chongqing, and had to evade downstream, and when the Qing army retreated, the wind direction might be unfavorable, and even if it was favorable, it would take a lot of time to go again. ”

"Li Guoying must have received a lot of support from Beijing this time." This is the unanimous conclusion of everyone, Mu Tan said. The last time he left Chongqing, Deng Ming thought that this was not bad, because Beijing's transfer of large quantities of supplies to Chongqing would mean that other battlefields would be weakened. At that time, the shipping of the Ming army was not as busy as it is today, and now the volume of salt alone is more than ten times that of a year ago, and with the continuous expansion of the market, the volume of transportation will continue to increase. In the past, the Ming army felt that the delay was indifferent, but now it is intolerable, and it will definitely be even more painful in the future: "If Beijing continues to support Chongqing so vigorously, although the Tartars will cost a lot, we will also be extremely uncomfortable." ”

"Yes, with this experience, the Qing army will definitely come out to harass us more actively, and they also have a certain understanding of our reaction speed." Deng Ming's conclusion now is very different from a few days ago, this time the shipping was cut off for a long time greatly beyond the Ming army's expectations, ten days is not a long time, but if it is cut off for a few days every time it is a tailwind, Beijing's material support for Chongqing will be worth it: "If we leave Sichuan again, then the Yasukuni Gong will become more difficult." ”

Deng Ming planned to go to Jiangnan again after sending troops to rob Chongqing's crops this time. When the soldiers are idle in Chengdu, it is better to go downstream to fight the autumn breeze and maintain the deterrent effect of the Ming army against the officials in the south of the Yangtze River. It's just that now the Ming army is considering whether they should try to remove the threat from Chongqing before leaving, so as not to lose communication between Sichuan and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

……

While Deng Ming and the officers were discussing how to suppress Chongqing, Sun Sike had already returned to the west of Chongqing with the Han Eight Banners. The Shanxi soldiers were distributed on the communication line from Chongqing to Zhongxian, and the sailors had safely entered the estuary.

"The Governor expected the thieves to arrive early, but there is still no trace of them." When the Han Eight Banners were advancing, they were slow when they returned, and in order to return as soon as possible, they also used a large number of unarmored soldiers to pull fibers. Now that he has arrived at the river, there is a boat in front of him, and he can easily cross the river and return to safe Chongqing, Sun Sike is not in a hurry, but is a little dissatisfied with Li Guoying's nervousness: "I hurried all the way back, but I didn't even see the shadow of a thief, it was really in vain." ”

Sun Sike was still a little worried about Chongqing before, but Li Guoying analyzed it in detail, saying that Deng Ming had no way to control Chongqing at all - if it was to monitor Chongqing, under normal circumstances, the Ming army could establish bases in the Qijiang River and Tongluo Gorge and build cities in Tuntian. However, Chengdu does not have much manpower, if the construction in Qijiang will seriously affect the production of western Sichuan, and the Ming army in Qijiang, Tongluo Gorge left too few soldiers and horses to be useless, the main force to stay in these two places Chongqing is not in a hurry, transfer some soldiers and horses back to Guangyuan, you can once again threaten the security of Chengdu from the north from the front line of Jiange. Even if the Ming army fully grasped the movements of the Qing army, it would be mobilized to the point of exhaustion, and as long as the Ming army did not notice it at all, it might leave a flaw in the surprise attack for the Qing army -- if Qijiang and Tongluo Gorge were both strongholds where the Ming army needed to be vigilant at all times and heavily defended, would Deng Ming still dare to leave Sichuan with the main force?

Before this war, Li Guoying thought that Chongqing should be abandoned and save resources, but now Li Guoying's view is still the same, believing that it is not meaningful to stay in Chongqing without a superior sailor, and every time he goes out to harass him, it is a risk-he and Deng Ming are afraid of fighting wolves with bamboo poles. However, since the imperial court insisted, Li Guoying would try his best to play the role of Chongqing, and strive to attract as many Ming troops as possible around Chongqing.

"General Zhao is walking too slowly." After Sun Sike complained, Li Guoying began to complain about Zhao Liangdong again. According to Li Guoying's plan, Zhao Liangdong and Wang Jinbao should have arrived in Chongqing at this time, but now the two are still in Baoning.

This delay is also related to Han Baqi. After sending out the troops, Sun Sike used all the ships in the rear to transport the Eight Banners, because the bannermen were unwilling to walk the mountain roads as hard as the Green Battalion; When the troops were withdrawn, all the ships were intercepted by Sun Sike, and none of the ships planned to assist Zhao Liangdong were completed. Moreover, in addition to the ship, many unarmored soldiers who carried food to Chongqing should also return to Guangyuan with the ship to help the Sichuan-Shaanxi Green Battalion march, but now they were detained downstream with the ship and ordered to pull the fiber for the Eight Banners.

Regarding the style of the master of the Han Eight Banners, Li Guoying once mentioned it lightly twice, and after seeing Sun Kesi's fierce reaction, he simply pretended not to see it. The Governor didn't speak, and the others didn't speak. In order to curry favor with Sun Sike, Gao Mingzhan, who was guarding Chongqing, not only did not argue with reason, but also did his best to meet his demands, and detained all the means of transportation that should have returned to Guangyuan and sent them to the Eight Banners. In order to transport wine to the Manchurian Taijun who accompanied the army, Gao Mingzhan mobilized all the mules and horses, and sent luxury goods to the front line with great fanfare every day, and had the highest priority on the road -- when encountering these convoys and ships that sent luxury goods to the Manchurian Taijun, both the baggage of the Qing army and the army had to give way immediately.

Every day, Chongqing's Chaotianmen wharf has to send pigs and sheep to Sun Sike on board before other goods can be shipped. Although this was contrary to Li Guoying's plan, Gao Mingzhan knew that the Governor would never blame him for this, and if he provoked the Manchurian Taijun and Sun Sike to make them angry, he would probably be beaten down by the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi.