Wang Xincheng only had 600 men under his command, but he helped persuade the 1,700 Shanxi Green Battalion that hesitated and refused to lay down his arms, of course Deng Ming could not agree to this and completed the self-redemption request, otherwise Deng Ming would have to owe Wang Xincheng a lot of money if he helped collect auxiliaries. Deng Ming's opposition was also reasonable, and he pointed out that these Shanxi soldiers had been surrounded by the Ming army, and as long as the Ming army was hungry, someone would surrender for a while - Deng Ming was unwilling to admit that besieging these green battalions would bring casualties to the Ming army, because once the lives of his own soldiers were involved, the value of Wang Xincheng's contribution would immediately go up.

Fortunately, Wang Xincheng did not attach much importance to the lives of ordinary soldiers, and after bargaining with Deng Ming for this persuasion work, he agreed to convert it into the ransom fee of one hundred soldiers of the Ganshan Green Battalion. The focus is on the back, the more than 10,000 unarmored soldiers who were placed on the back originally wanted to escape, but whether it was a strong man from Shaanxi or Shanxi, it was a strange environment for them, it was easy to string into the mountains, but it was difficult to get out alive, and it was impossible for these people to find a shortcut to join the Chongqing team. Wang Xincheng frightened the unarmored soldiers, and then ordered his men to bring every unarmored soldier they could find to surrender to the Ming army. With the assistance of Wang Xincheng, the Ming army accepted more than 12,000 prisoners.

In any case, Deng Ming had to admit that without Wang Xincheng's assistance, the Ming army would have taken at least 6,000 fewer prisoners, and he would have to make the soldiers run a lot more unjust roads to find the Qing soldiers hiding in Tibet; For these captives, Wang Xincheng may also be called their savior, because if Wang Xincheng had not led them to surrender to Deng Ming, many Qing soldiers from other places who blindly fled to the north because they believed that the Ming army was a man-eating beast might have died in the mountains.

"Of course, one auxiliary soldier can't be counted as a cow, ten people are converted into one cow." Deng Ming felt that his statement seemed to be somewhat similar to the Mongolian evaluation of the Han people, that is, cattle were more valuable than living people, but now the problem Deng Ming faced was that if he didn't lower the price of people, he would owe Wang Xincheng a lot of money: "Vice General Wang helped me capture 6,000 more prisoners, converted into 600 cattle, plus the ransom fee for 100 people we calculated just now, I owe Vice General Wang a ransom fee for 100 people, which can also be regarded as the market price of 100 cows, how about we settle it with silver?" ”

"Ten people for one cow? Even in terms of strength, it's not like this, and besides, people are people, how can they be lower than the price of animals? Wang Xincheng shook his head, at this time he was definitely a staunch supporter of human dignity, pointing out that Deng Ming had even insulted himself by converting the price of people so low.

"What does Vice Admiral Wang mean by one person and one head? This is absolutely not good, nine people count as one. ”

"The last general thinks that people are worth more than cattle, but in troubled times, so let's do it, the two of them are one, and Admiral Deng won't be entangled anymore."

"Two? No, eight. ”

……

In the end, it stopped at the conversion of five people into a cow, so that the total value of Wang Xincheng's contribution was equivalent to 1,300 redemption fees, and he spent more than 600 himself, and there were more than 600 left. Deng Ming asked him if he wanted silver, and Wang Xincheng generously said that he didn't need it, and he was willing to convert the more than 600 into a permanent and valid prisoner release coupon.

"And the Governor still has a few of my friends by his side, and if the time comes, if he is unlucky, he will have to bother the Admiral to take care of him." Wang Xincheng made a list of personnel, in addition to Wang Mingde, there were several generals of the Chongqing department, and finally Wang Xincheng asked tentatively: "If Admiral Deng meets our Governor, I don't know how the Admiral intends to deal with it." ”

"Governor Li......" Deng Ming hesitated, Li Guoying had the blood of the Sichuan people on his hands, and Deng Ming was not dissatisfied with his many defeats of the Ming army's attacks, because this was a war, and one of the duties of soldiers was to kill each other; But Li Guoying has war crimes, which, according to Deng Ming's original thinking, should be pursued, just like Daniel Zhang, Wang Jinbao and Zhao Liangdong.

However, in the subsequent implementation, Deng Ming could not fulfill his principles well, such as Jiang Guozhu and Guan Xiaozhong, who sacked Zhenjiang, and the latter did not need to mention that he died, but the former Deng Ming was determined to seek justice for those who died, but this time when he went to Jiangnan last time, Jiang Guozhu and the two left safely after entering the Ming army camp.

Because in addition to justice, Deng Ming has other things to consider, such as the interests of the army, personal prestige, etc., and for Deng Ming, not letting justice be realized may just be uneasy in his heart, and he can also comfort himself with "It's not that he doesn't report it, and the time has not come", but if he doesn't keep his word to Jiang Guozhu and endangers his personal safety, there will be substantial harm to Deng Ming.

Li Guoying's situation is even stronger than Jiang Guozhu's, Deng Ming has seen the suffering of the people of Zhenjiang with his own eyes, but he has only heard of Li Guoying's behavior. If Li Guoying chooses to cooperate, Deng Ming really can't see the benefit of killing him, and if Li Guoying can be dragged into the water, then Chengdu's safety will be guaranteed: "If Governor Li doesn't cut himself, I think these release coupons should be effective for him." ”

"Since the Admiral sees it this way, the last general is relieved." Wang Xincheng said happily: "If Admiral Deng meets our Governor, please also ask Admiral Deng to explain that it is a coupon for the last general...... No, this release coupon got him back. ”

"Okay." Deng Ming nodded, he did not force Wang Xincheng to provide him with information about the Qing army, anyway, there were so many prisoners, and he would soon be able to find out the truth of the Qing army between Chongqing and Zhongxian, and Wang Xincheng's request had already provided very valuable information - that is, even the Qing army generals believed that Li Guoying was now in danger, and even had the risk of being captured.

Glancing at Wang Xincheng, Deng Ming felt that the other party did not realize the intelligence benefits that his request brought to the Ming army, so he said in line with the principle of not giving nothing: "Then what benefits does Vice General Wang plan to give me in exchange?" Give you the opportunity to send your governor a great favor. ”

"What is the Admiral going to want?" Wang Xincheng wanted to say that it was a big deal to give you a few more certificates of release, but after thinking about it, the value of this coupon was essentially equal to a cow, and the value of a life-saving grace to the governor obviously could not be measured by a cow.

"Now General Wang, they are still in the east, right? I would like to ask Adjutant General Wang to send a few competent men to meet them and tell them about the agreement between you and me. "If the Qing generals knew that they could leave unscathed, then Deng Ming felt that their already low morale would be further reduced.

After Wang Jiaxin left, Deng Ming earnestly inquired about a group of prisoners of war and informed them at the post-war meeting: Chongqing can still be counted on to be protected by 3,000 Han and Eight Banners for the time being, and there are still 2,000 Gan-Shaanxi green battalions to assist, and the Ming army may be able to rush to Chongqing with all its might, but the Ming army cannot set off immediately -- the victors need a lot of time to settle the prisoners.

Between this place and Wanxian, there were 70,000 or 80,000 horses under the personal command of Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, of which at least 15,000 were armored, and the grain could probably last for half a month, and it was unlikely that it would be replenished in Wanxian -- Deng Ming knew the situation of Yuan Zongdi's tuntian.

At this time, Deng Ming did not know that Li Guoying had lost 4,000 armor, so he estimated that the Qing army had more armor than himself, but it was comparable to the strength of the combined forces of Chengdu and Wanxian. Although the enemy is dangerous, once defeated, it may mean completely breaking the stalemate in Chongqing, completely destroying the will to fight of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and even reaching a tacit agreement with him. Upon learning that Li Guoying was between himself and Yuan Zongdi and that there was not much military rations, Deng Ming's entire attention turned to the Eastern Front, and he sent more envoys to contact Wanxian, and once again rushed to rejoice in the agreement he had reached with Wang Xincheng. Although the battle had not yet begun, the Ming army had already faintly gained the upper hand in preparations.

After briefing on the general strategic situation, Deng Ming left Wu Yuewang alone after the meeting, and after seeing the officer who was temporarily in charge of the firecrackers, Deng Ming reproached: "Why don't you let the firecrackers retreat immediately after firing?" ”

After completing a shot, all the Ming musketeers knew that they had no second chance to reload and shoot, and as a result, the Ming musketeers threw down their muskets and drew their long daggers to prepare for hand-to-hand combat.

Wu Yuewang was also very dissatisfied with the reaction of the firecrackers, who used to shoot at the farthest distance, and hid behind the position long before the enemy rushed over, if the enemy had arrived in front of him after shooting, it meant that the position had been overwhelmed, and the firecrackers who had lost cover surrendered and begged for their lives in addition to pulling out the dagger; However, the tactics of the Sichuan army today are obviously different from before, and even the tactical arrangements before the war are very different, so Wu Yuewang also feels that the firecrackers are all superfluous, and they should run back to the position with muskets after shooting.

But in front of Deng Ming, Wu Yuewang did not express his dissatisfaction, but loudly defended the musketeers: "I remember that the Admiral regarded these musketeers as infantry rather than artillery or stone throwers, and always said this to us, and asked us to say the same as infantry. ”

"Yes, what's wrong with that?" Deng Ming nodded and asked rhetorically.

"If you don't have the courage to fight hand-to-hand, then what kind of infantry is it, and if the musketeers will always avoid hand-to-hand combat and hide behind the other armorers, then no matter what the admiral thinks, they are artillery and not infantry." Wu Yuewang also mentioned the bayonet that Deng Ming said: "I think that the bayonet that the Emperor Admiral said is stronger than the long dagger they use now, and they are equivalent to spearmen when equipped with bayonets, and this kind of spearmen can also shoot before engaging the enemy, as long as they are close enough, they can definitely kill one." Today's close-range shooting has left a deep impression on all the officers of the Ming army, and now there is a fairly unified understanding of the musket in the Ming army, that is, it must be used at the nearest distance: "Killing the enemy's officers in the front row and charging after his own soldiers will be an unprecedented powerful spearman." ”