A few days later, Liu Tichun also returned to Zhongxiangfu City with many women, all of whom he hired for the soldiers.

As soon as Liu Tichun saw Deng Ming and Yuan Zongdi, he shouted loudly: "Have you heard, Hu Quancai transferred the troops of the two lakes to Wuchang. ”

Zhong Xiangcheng also heard the rumor of Wuchang, but Yuan Zongdi didn't seem to hear it, and acted as if nothing happened.

When Zhongxiang City was first attacked, Liu Tichun sent spies to Hanyang to inquire about the news, and learned that the two cities of Wuchang and Hanyang were heavily guarded, and the Qing soldiers were densely guarded, and passers-by would be carefully interrogated and interrogated. Unable to infiltrate Hanyang to listen, the Ming spies returned to Zhongxiang to report to the leader that the Qing army in the Hanyang area was rushing to repair the fortifications, and seemed to be worried about the Ming army's southward movement. In this regard, Liu Tichun and other Kuidong generals felt that it was not surprising, they had long believed that the Ming and Qing armies did not have the ability to attack each other, and the Qing army rushed to repair the fortifications for defense, and Hu Quancai probably overestimated the strength of the Ming army.

When General Kui Dongsi collected materials and manpower around Zhong Xiang and helped his soldiers as matchmakers, he kept an eye on the movements in the south. Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi's garrison was relatively close to Zhong Xiang, and they would come back from time to time to see the situation in the city with their own eyes, and help Deng Ming solve some problems by the way.

The last few times the spies returned, they reported that the blockade of the Qing army in Hanyang had become tighter, and that the governor of Huguang was building a barrage at night. Liu Tichun was a little surprised, and felt that Hu Quancai was inevitably making too much of a fuss. But this is the Qing army's business, Hu Quancai is willing to waste the manpower and material resources of the Qing army, no matter how he tosses, the Ming army can't control it, just watch the joke.

However, the news just came was a little strange, it is said that Hu Quancai had ordered the abandonment of Jiangfang.

After discovering that the Qing army had suddenly withdrawn overnight, Li Laiheng in the upper reaches hurriedly sent spies to investigate, and learned that Yiling had indeed become an empty city, and immediately lost no time in sending troops to occupy it. Li Laiheng thought that the Ming army led by the fourth general Kui Dong was still in Xiangyang at this time, and when he saw the envoy sent by Liu Tichun to report the victory, he knew that the Ming army had defeated Zhongxiang. At the same time as occupying Yiling, Li Laiheng asked the envoy to rush to Zhongxiang to report the news of the victory.

"Yiling is the hometown of the superintendent, and the superintendent should be happy this time." Liu Tichun smiled and guessed Wen Anzhi's mood, and also made a bet with Yuan Zongdi that Wen Anzhi would return to his hometown to see.

"Yiling's captives withdrew to Wuchang, are they going to fight us?" Deng Ming was a little nervous about this.

"Probably not." Liu Tichun shook his head, during this period, he always paid attention to the information sent back from Hanyang: "Hu Quancai sank several boats into the Han River, and also blocked the river with iron cables, this is not a posture to attack, it is obviously to prevent us from attacking." ”

"What are we going to attack?" Deng Ming asked. Now the Ming army is worried about returning to Kuidong from top to bottom, not to mention the lack of troops, that is, the strength is sufficient, and with the current military spirit, it is impossible to continue to advance.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Liu Tichun said: "Hu Quancai probably overestimated our military spirit and strength. However, this is also a piece of information, indicating that Wuchang is even more empty than we imagined, and Hu Quancai feels that if he does not withdraw the defenders of Yiling, he will not be able to stop even a tempting attack. ”

"Hu Quancai should be more aware of our military strength. This time, our army has been on the expedition for so long, and it has crossed the three prefectures one after another, Hu Quancai still doesn't know how many of us there are? He should know that we have no intention of forging ahead. Yuan Zongdi continued. There are only 14,000 soldiers in the more than 40,000 Ming army, most of them are new soldiers, as long as the Ming generals are not carried away by the victory, they will not attack Wuchang: "It can only show that Wuchang eats too much empty salary, and there are no troops except for the 3,000 soldiers who support Zhong Xiang." Hu Quancai didn't dare to sing about the empty city plan, and he didn't dare to put the bet on not attacking us. ”

"Why do you eat so much when you eat empty salary? In the past, although the Huguang Green Battalion was not very capable of fighting, its number of troops was always full. Liu Tichun thinks that Yuan Zongdi's analysis has some truth, but this is very inconsistent with his impression of the situation of the Huguang Qing army.

"Alas, wasn't Hong Chengchou staring at it before? This great harm was removed, and the green camp in Huguang was not afraid and began to eat empty salaries. Yuan Zongdi thought that Hong Chengchou was burned to death in Kunming, so Huguang officialdom was in a hurry.

However, Deng Ming felt that this statement was a bit far-fetched, Hong Chengchou had only been dead for a few months, and Huguang could be corrupted to such an extent? But there can only be one explanation other than that, Deng Ming couldn't help but ask again: "Is Hu Quancai coming to Zhongxiang to beat us?" ”

"No!" Liu Tichun was confident and said: "Give up Jiangfang to come to Zhongxiang to beat us, isn't that a watermelon and picking up sesame seeds?" Unless he's coming for the Admiral. ”

If the Ming army can't fight it, it can leave, so it's a big deal to return Zhongxiang and other places to Hu Quancai, and there is still the threat of the Henan Green Battalion behind it. The importance of the Han River basin cannot be compared with the river defense of the Yangtze River, and it is impossible for Hu Quancai to give up the river defense in order to bombard the Ming army that came out of the Han River.

Liu Tichun has a more powerful reason: "If he wants to attack, why should he sink the ship in the Han River and set up iron cables to barrage the river?" ”

Liu Tichun has always had prestige among the generals in Kuidong, and Deng Ming has realized this since this expedition, and every pre-war military analysis is almost done by Liu Tichun, and the other three generals are very convinced of his judgment and plan. For example, the blasting of Gucheng has already opened a gap, and Liu Tichun can actually persuade Hao Shaoqi and Yuan Zongdi to stop the siege of the two of them, and carry out several blasts. Especially He Zhen, Deng Ming knew that he asked to take the lead in the siege of the city again and again in order to share more things.

Only the wrong judgment of Zhong Xiang's strength made Liu Tichun feel very embarrassed, but several other people did not think that this was Liu Tichun's mistake, it was really the Hanyang general soldier who guarded Zhong Xiang was too stupid, with 6,000 armored soldiers to block the city gate and cower in the city, which was really unexpected.

"Are we calling General Hao and General He back?" Deng Ming asked. After hearing that Yiling was abandoned by Hu Quancai, he was considering whether he should gather troops to prevent the Qing army.

"No, you don't." Liu Tichun believes that there is no need for this: "Hu Quancai will never give up the river defense in order to counterattack Zhong Xiang. There was only one possibility for him to suddenly give up Yiling, that is, he felt that Wuchang might not be able to hold it, and he was forced to give up Jiangfang when he had no choice. We originally overestimated the strength of Wuchang, Wuchang actually did not have many defenders, even if the soldiers transferred back to Yiling, they were still similar to us, they were more than enough to defend and not enough to attack. ”

Deng Ming admitted that Liu Tichun's analysis was right, but he always felt as if something was wrong. Deng Ming suddenly had a strange thought: "Could it be that Hu Quancai read our text and thought that we had at least 200,000 troops, so he transferred all the Jiangfang troops back?" ”

Liu Tichun smiled slightly when he heard this, and replied politely: "I know that the admiral is lenient to the enemy and refuses to underestimate the strength of the enemy's army, but he inevitably underestimates Hu Quancai, a thief. Although he has not led the army to go out to fight, he has also praised the military affairs by Hong Chengchou's side for many years, so he will not be ignorant. ”

"Hu Quancai also served as the governor of Yunyang for two years." Yuan Zongdi added.

"Yes, he also served as the governor of Yunyang," Liu Tichun agreed loudly: "Maybe he has limited knowledge of other places, but Hu Quancai must be very clear about how many soldiers and horses can come out of the road from Yunyang and the Han River, and how many wooden rafts and bamboo rafts General Hao has in his hands. ”

Deng Ming smiled ashamedly. Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi broke into it, Hu Quancai has been dealing with Chuang Ying for so many years, of course, he knows Kui Dong's strength, and he will not make low-level mistakes.

Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi were not far from Zhong Xiang, sometimes they came and left on the same day, and sometimes they stayed in the city for one night. After this period of getting along, the four generals found that Deng Ming was very talkative, and they would never be angry when they refuted his opinions in person. The two of them checked in Zhongxiang and found that as soon as they were normal, they left their women's battalion in the city and returned to their respective armies.

Two days later, the Ming army in the south reported that a Qing cavalry was coming, and Deng Ming immediately commanded the Ming army in Zhongxiang's area to wait for it. This Qing army circled around in front of the stronghold of the Ming army a few times, and when they saw that there was no gap, they left in a huff.

……

Wuchang, Huguang Governor Yamen.

The atmosphere in the Governor's Yamen for the last two days has been dull and suffocating. More and more reconnaissance information came back one after another, and none of them reflected that Zhong Xiangcun was in charge of the Ming army.

Yesterday another army from Changsha Province rushed to Wuchang exhausted with a few artillery pieces in tow.

When this army arrived, it did not even catch its breath when it encountered troops from other Changsha provinces that had arrived before them. I heard the colleagues who arrived first complaining that the so-called 300,000 rogues were not at all, and they might have dreamed of it when the governor of Huguang was dreaming.

The artillery team worked hard all the way, and many horses died in order to drag the four cannons, several soldiers also fell down tired halfway, and one officer failed to dodge in time when the horse suddenly collapsed, and his leg was broken by the cannon, and he choked on the spot. At that time, the military situation was urgent, and the leading officer of the artillery team did not dare to stay, so he had to leave the body of this henchman on the road and leave it to the magistrate to bury it.

After hearing the truth, the leading officer of this artillery team called out for resignation. All the hard work along the way was wasted, and the confidant officer died in vain. If you make meritorious contributions in the defense of Wuchang, you can not only get a reward, but also ask for compensation for the subordinate who died halfway; But if it is all the delusion of the governor of Huguang, can the imperial court pay for the indiscriminate command?

When a large number of troops rushed to Wuchang in a hurry, they were certainly afraid of the strict orders of the governor of Huguang, but they also looked forward to the reward after the victory. It turned out that I found out how I got here, and how I had to go back. When they came, the magistrates did their best to supply the army, and the soldiers were able to eat and drink enough on the way, and when they returned, they would not be treated as meritorious soldiers. Most of the people who robbed the local area will be punished, but how can they be willing to go home honestly?

More rumors spread unscrupulously in Wuchang, many of them from the Shogunate.

For example, Zhou Peigong has nothing to do, and often studies the war in Yicheng, Zhongxiang and other places with a group of staff. Don't look at Zhou Peigong's ignorance of wars, but he has a great interest in discussing the gains and losses of these wars and gaining lessons.

How to effectively defend the city against the siege of hundreds of thousands of rogues was the tone of the research set by the staff at the beginning. Governor Hu's wise decisions, such as sinking boats full of stones in the middle of the river and setting up iron cables to block the river, were repeatedly praised at the first discussions. Except for one person, everyone agreed that Hu Quan was Huguang's Optimus Jade Pillar and Dinghai Divine Needle, and the exceptions were Zhou Peigong and Zhou Juren.

Zhou Juren still insisted that Zhong Xiang's Ming army had a maximum of 40,000 or 50,000 troops. According to him, Governor Hu's initial judgment was correct, and the Ming army sent from Yunyang was between 20,000 and 40,000. The grass on the wall also turned quickly, and now the topic of discussion in the Shogunate has changed from "how to resist the attack of 300,000 rogues" to "Why were so many defenders of Zhongxiang defeated by Deng Mingliang?" ”

Although Governor Hu already had an opinion on Zhou Juren, in order to show everyone that he "can take a boat in the prime minister's belly", he did not immediately kick Zhou Juren out.

According to Governor Hu's secret agent report, Zhou Juren even found several generals from Hubei and Hunan to ask for advice. Those generals had just arrived in Wuchang, and they didn't know that the blocking of the city gate in Zhongxiangfu City was the instruction of Governor Hu, so they said in unison: Although I don't know why the Ming army was able to quickly destroy the city wall, blocking the four gates was undoubtedly a serious mistake, and the Qing army was wiped out in a very short time. If the city gate was not blocked, the Qing army would not be helpless against the Ming army's cave attack tactics, camping outside the city could effectively deter the enemy, and even send out to annihilate the Ming army's excavation troops; Secondly, even if the Ming army still broke the wall, the Qing army could also use the city tower to observe the deployment of the Ming army, and have the initiative to counterattack the gap from inside or outside the city and annihilate the Ming army entering the city; In the end, even if Zhong Xiang still fell, the Qing army did not need to desperately recapture the gap, but could leave through the city gate lightly.

After these Qing generals left the Yamen, they talked everywhere about how stupid the magistrates of Zhongxiang were and how the late Hanyang generals did not know about the soldiers, until they were told that this arrangement was strictly implemented by Governor Hu's instructions, so they quickly shut their mouths, but the bad impact caused was irreparable, and soon the whole Wuchang knew that Hu Quan was the culprit of the destruction of Zhongxiang's entire army.

Recently, the Qing reconnaissance cavalry sent out approached Zhongxiang City and brought back two prisoners. According to the prisoners' confessions, the equipment of the main soldiers in the Ming army was captured from the Qing soldiers.

The current situation was as follows: Hu Quancai, the governor of Huguang, gave up the Yangtze River defense for the sake of 40,000 or 50,000 Ming troops, withheld taxes and military salaries, grain and grass supplied to Guizhou, and carried out an emergency transfer within the two provinces at great expense, exaggerating the imperial court and neighboring provinces, and insisting that the Ming army was 300,000. Moreover, more than half of the 40,000 or 50,000 Ming troops were expanded after they invaded Hu Quancai's territory, and the Ming army now has 14,000 or 5,000 soldiers, of which 8 or 9,000 equipment were provided by Hu Quancai. In the end, he was frightened by this enemy army and abandoned the Yiling and Jiangling fortress areas that the Qing court had operated for many years.

"Deng Ming, you are so vicious." After finally discovering that this was actually Deng Ming's serial plan, Hu Quan felt as if the sky had fallen. Once the true situation is known by the imperial court, it will definitely not spare itself. poking out such a big basket, not to mention the throne of the governor of Huguang, it is difficult to say whether his family will be affected.

"Quickly report to the court!" Hu Quancai was like a gambler who had lost a red eye, and decided to make the final desperate bet: "Deng Ming, the pseudo-governor of Jiangnan, has been visited in detail by this official, and it is really ...... It's true."

Li Guoying said that Deng Ming is an unidentified pseudo-Ming clan, Hu Quancai not only agrees, but also has to add a little new content to better explain his ability, Hu Quancai thought about it again and again, and put his heart sideways: "Deng thief is really the former Ming Fu King, Wang Shike Jiangning was five years old, and was carried out by a palace man surnamed Deng......"

Hu Quancai said in the report that after Deng Ming captured Zhongxiang, he wept bitterly in front of the tomb of King Xingxian and vowed to recover. After the grave sacrifice, officials were also set up in Anlu Mansion and other places to gather people's hearts. Therefore, Hu Quancai deeply felt that Deng Ming must be eliminated as soon as possible, let alone let him entrench in Zhongxiang to disturb the place, so he must concentrate the forces of the two lakes to clear it as soon as possible.

After this recital was handed over, Hu Quancai immediately ordered the whole army to be mobilized and prepared to send Zhong Xiang.

He guessed that after his copy of the piece was handed to běijīng, the imperial court might not take it seriously. It seems that whether he can get away with the crime, the important point is whether he can defeat Deng Ming. As long as the demagogic Fu Wang clan can be blasted away from Huguang and the peace of Huguang can be maintained, Hu Quancai will still have merit after all, and may be able to ease the thunderous anger of the imperial court.

The only problem now is that Deng Ming is probably not the Fu Wang clan with huge influence. But it doesn't matter, Governor Hu can help him make it, first secretly help Deng Ming build up the momentum, and then drive him away, so that the credit is great. At the same time as sending off the concerto, Hu Quancai secretly ordered his cronies to spread the news outside, so that Huguang and even the world knew Deng Ming and his identity. Even Deng Ming's sacrifice to the orphan of King Fu to offer the king, Hu Quancai has already written a copy for him, which is full of emotion and tear-jerking.

Hearing that Hu Quancai was going to mobilize the whole army to attack Zhong Xiang, the staff and generals suddenly made another difficulty: "What about the water division?" ”

Hu Quancai glared: "Of course, we have to go with us, and go along the Han River." ”

"But there are also chains blocking the river."

Someone said, and someone on the side reminded: "There are still many boats in the Han River, and you can't pass without a chain sailor." ”

"The chains are broken!" Hu Quancai was furious: "Immediately scoop up the wreck, do you want me to teach you this?" Tomorrow this time will have to dredge the river, otherwise military law will be engaged! ”