Deng Ming's army did not march fast, and after the 8,000 soldiers left Jiading Prefecture, they kept going by land. Since the agreement with Li Dingguo was reached in Kunming in the middle of the year, Jianchang has set aside some of his forces to establish a communication line connecting western Sichuan. These newly built post stations helped the Sichuan army a lot, otherwise Deng Ming's march would have been slower.

"In the future, sooner or later, a military station will have to be built along the road, otherwise this road will be too difficult to walk." Deng Ming complained to Zhao Tianba. There were no more than 8,000 Sichuan soldiers living in the post station, and the Sichuan army had to camp by itself every day, and they also had to prepare food. Although there was a post station to provide a guide to tell the Ming army where there was a spring for the army to quote and where there was an open space suitable for camping, after all, it was a place where there were no people, and everything had to be done by themselves.

"How much does that cost? And how many soldiers are stationed? Do so many camps need to be checked in often? Zhao Tianba asked: "If you don't come to check often, the military station that you have worked so hard to build is likely to be abandoned, and in the end it will not be able to be used by the army." ”

"I just said it casually, Brother Zhao doesn't have to take it seriously." Deng Ming immediately realized that his idea lacked feasibility, and the geographical conditions of Sichuan Xingdu Division were far inferior to those of western Sichuan, and many of the residents were people from western Sichuan who had fled. Liu Wenxiu collected the population when he ran Jianchang, and after Feng Shuangli entered Jianchang, he continued to gather the surrounding residents. In the past two years, the western Sichuan shape began to improve, and those people who were not captured began to move to Jiading Prefecture, and the relationship between Jianchang and Chengdu became more desolate, and all the post stations had to rely on Jianchang or Jiading Prefecture for supplies.

Deng Ming thought for a while, and said to Zhao Tianba again: "Maybe we can formulate a policy, anyone who is willing to live here, will give them a large area of mountains and forests, a family can have thousands of acres of mountains and forests, all of which are owned by him, maybe then someone is willing to settle here and form some villages." ”

Zhao Tianba pondered for a moment and continued to pour cold water on Deng Ming: "Even if a person can have several mountains, there is nothing here, salt, tea, and cloth must be transported from Chengdu." If you hunt the prey and reclaim the mountain fields, there is nowhere to sell them, and the caravans will not come, right? Unless gold and silver mines can be discovered, how does the Admiral plan to make people want to come here? ”

Deng Ming sighed softly and admitted that he had nothing to do. In the final analysis, Sichuan is still ruined, and until enough people are gathered, any lofty ideas are just castles in the air.

"When we go back to the capital and pass through Jiading Prefecture, the Admiral might as well go to Mount Emei for a walk and see if we can pull the mountain people out." There have been people who fled to Sichuan and Xingdusi to return, and the bold people have gone to Chengdu, but there are still many timid people hiding in the mountains, and these people are still skeptical about whether the Sichuan army can gain a firm foothold, so they would rather continue to hide in Emei Mountain: "I heard that there are also a group of people in Tiantai Mountain. ”

"Really? How do you know? Deng Ming had also heard about these things from the post soldiers in Jiading Prefecture, but Deng Ming had told not to go up the mountain to arrest people, and if they were unwilling to come out, they should not be forced. Deng Ming knew that the living conditions in the mountains were very difficult, so he also explained to the soldiers at the post station that if he met the mountain people, he would give them some food and cotton cloth, which Chengdu would specially allocate, and there was no need for the mountain people to go out to live in the mountains in exchange.

"Because we have attacked Tiantai Mountain." Zhao Tianba replied unashamedly. He felt that Deng Ming's giving food and cloth was completely half the effort, and it was better to send troops to arrest the people down the mountain, so that they could see the situation in western Sichuan with their own eyes, so they were naturally willing to stay on the plains. In short, how the Ming army dealt with the Qing army's auxiliaries should deal with these mountain people: "When the Eight Great Kings were established, many people fled to Tiantai Mountain to escape the war, and there were many temples on it that could accommodate them, and most of the monks in them were not good things, spreading rumors and saying bad things about our Xiying, and bewitching the people not to return to their hometowns for production." ”

"The result?" Deng Ming asked.

"There is a lake on Tiantai Mountain, and there is fresh water to cultivate, and the people who have listened to the rumors will not be able to come down. When the Eight Kings sent their troops, the thieves also organized the monks to resist at risk. It was King Gongchang who led the team, where were the thieves and balds his old man's opponents? Seeing that the thieves were guarding the mountain road in front, he sent more than a dozen elite soldiers to climb up from the back mountain, and burned down the temples of the thieves and balds. "Zhang Xianzhong doesn't have such a good temper as Deng Ming, Bai Wenxuan is also a first-class general, and the monks of Tiantai Mountain were killed by the Western Army at that time. When Zhao Tianba talked about Bai Wenxuan's outstanding conductor, his face also looked quite proud.

"And then?"

"Originally, after King Gongchang killed all the thieves, he wanted to search the mountains and bring the people back, but at this time, the Tartars came from Shaanxi, and King Gongchang left in a hurry. According to him, there are many mountain fields on the mountain, and there must be a lot of people. Later, the king of Shu also wanted to go to Tiantai Mountain and Emei Mountain to find people, but he did not go because of the urgent military situation. When we get free, we'll search all these places. ”

Deng Ming nodded and did not continue to discuss the topic. In Deng Ming's previous life, Li Guoying slaughtered all the way in the campaign to pacify Sichuan, and killed all the people hiding in the base area of Kuidong. After the end of the war in Sichuan, after Li Guoying's unremitting search, many men, women and children were found from the surrounding mountains, and all of them were moved to the plains, and it is said that hundreds of thousands of Sichuan people were able to escape the catastrophe at the end of the Ming Dynasty. But the good times did not last long, and then the rebellion of the three feudatories broke out, and the only remaining Sichuan people and the people who had just immigrated to Sichuan were killed by Zhao Liangdong, and finally there were only 10,000 people left.

Deng Ming and Zhao Tianba estimated that there would inevitably be some delays in Jianchang and Yunnan, and that they would not be able to reach the Burmese border until the first month of next year at the earliest.

The pace of the war at the end of the Ming Dynasty was much slower than in Deng Ming's previous life, and every time the Ming army went on an expedition, most of the time was spent on the road. This time, the 8,000 soldiers led by Deng Ming were all strong, there was no threat from the enemy, and they could concentrate on rushing every day. Even so, it takes about four months to get from Xuzhou to the destination. After camping every day, Deng Ming organized the officers to learn the necessary knowledge in advance.

"There are elephants in Myanmar and other places, have you heard of ivory? That thing is the elephant's teeth, which is a huge animal. Deng Ming said as he stretched out his arms vigorously and gestured the size of the elephant to his subordinates: "The Burmese army is likely to use elephants as mounts to raid our army." If they charge with elephants, our army will never be able to stop them by relying on the phalanx, and we will all be trampled into meat sauce by elephants. ”

Zhao Tianba had to admire Deng Ming's insight. When he was in Yunnan, Li Dingguo also purchased some elephants and trained a small number of elephant soldiers to fight against the Qing army, and Zhao Tianba only saw elephant cavalry at that time. He didn't expect Deng Ming, a mainlander, to know so much about this.

After seeing the size of Deng Mingbi's drawing, many of the officers of the Ming army looked a little nervous, and many of them had no concept of elephants at all.

"Although the elephant is very large, it is not a very good mount...... Deng Ming said this, and seeing the disapproving look on Zhao Tianba's face, he took the initiative to stop and ask, "Does Major Zhao have anything to say?" ”

"I think the elephant is a good mount, and the roar is terrifying, and when the king of Jin used it to fight the Tartars, the elephants can scare the Tartars' horses so much that they dare not come forward, and the Tartar soldiers are also extremely afraid. As the marshal just said, when the elephants are urged to rush into battle, everyone is trampled into pulp. As the only person who had seen an elephant, Zhao Tianba's speech was very authoritative, which made many Ming army officers even more uneasy.

"Elephants are so easy to use, so how did the Qing army deal with them?" Deng Ming asked with a smile.

"We don't have a few elephants, they were all purchased from Myanmar by the king of Jin for a lot of money, and the elephants are bullied, and the elephant cavalry is very difficult to train. This thing ate a lot and was squeamish, and it didn't take long for them to die in Hunan and Guangxi. ”

"I see." Deng Ming bowed slightly. In this era, people's knowledge is really limited. At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army was at war with Vietnam and later encountered elephant soldiers at war with Burma. Although the Ming army won the battle, there was no specific means of victory that have been handed down. According to Zhao Tianba, Li Dingguo believes that when encountering elephants, he should send sharp soldiers who dare to fight to fight desperately and exchange human lives for expensive elephants, so as not to let the enemy have the opportunity to attack his own military formation. However, the Qing army had never had such equipment, so Li Dingguo's idea had not been tested in actual combat.

Deng Ming is different, he remembers reading the history books when he was a child, specifically mentioning how the Romans were repeatedly ravaged by Carthaginian elephants within a few years, and with the steadfastness of the Roman tortoise soldiers, they were trampled miserably by the Carthaginian army that concentrated on elephants.

And Deng Ming still remembers the method that the Romans figured out: "I just said that the elephant is not a good mount, because unlike the horse, it is difficult for the rider to control the elephant, in fact, he only points the target to the elephant, and the rest is basically to watch the beast play on its own." Elephants are very afraid of fire, and if the Burmese concentrate elephants against us, then we will have to shoot intensively with rockets. Once the elephant is scared, it will turn around and step on its own position. And the elephant cavalry couldn't control it at all - the Burmese soldiers standing behind the elephants couldn't stop them......"

After Deng Ming explained the tactics carefully, many officers breathed a sigh of relief, and after the meeting ended, they would report the situation introduced by Deng Ming to the soldiers in detail.

"Is there any basis for what the big marshal said?" Only Zhao Tianba was still unconvinced, he felt that as a person who had seen elephants with his own eyes, he should have more say than Deng Ming.

"I've read a military book about how to deal with elephants." Deng Ming replied calmly.

"What military book?" Zhao Tianba asked suspiciously. He had never heard of such a record in the book of war, and it was a weapon that was almost impossible to see in the country, let alone that the book of war would say that the elephant was a timid and very fire-fearing animal: "What is the name of the book?" ”

"Patents." Deng Ming smiled mysteriously: "Trade secrets." ”