After escaping from danger, Li Shixun did not rush to join the governor of Huguang and the main force of the Qing army, but asked a general to meet Hu Quancai and report the defeat. Before leaving Wuchang, Li Shixun felt that Governor Hu was already highly nervous, and now that the vanguard was defeated and the whole army was annihilated, Li Shixun was worried that this news would stimulate Hu Quancai to lose his mind and kill himself to sacrifice the flag, so he decided to hide outside first to avoid the limelight - it was not easy to escape the enemy, and if he was killed by his own people, he would not be wronged.

As for the reason, it is also easy to find, Li Shixun asked the general to report that Governor Hu was gathering his troops outside, and planned to fight with Deng Ming again. Li Shixun planned to use the pretext of collecting the rout as an excuse to hide until Hu Quan lost his anger. After one of the generals went to report the news, Li Shixun ran to De'an Mansion with another person, intending to find a squire to hide in his house, so that he could rest away from the battle for a few days.

According to Li Shixun's analysis, Governor Hu's official position was worrisome, which not only greatly increased the possibility of him becoming angry and murderous, but also the main reason for forcibly commanding the army to go to Zhongxiang. If he returns to the division, it is likely that Governor Hu will be dismissed by the imperial court, and then the Huguang officialdom will definitely put all the responsibility for the defeat on Hu Quancai's head, and at that time Li Shixun can become a witness and do not have to worry about being held accountable for the defeat.

If Hu Quancai continues to attack Zhong Xiang, there are only two possible results: one is a big victory, then Hu Quancai will be complacent, and most of his anger will be gone, and Li Shixun will be easily forgiven for taking the blame again. At that time, Li Shixun pulled a group of strong men nearby and brought them back to say that he had collected the defeated soldiers - there was a monthly military salary, were you afraid that you would not be able to recruit people to join the army?

If Hu Quancai is defeated again, there will definitely be other generals who will bear the brunt, and even if Governor Hu is not questioned by the imperial court, Li Shixun will not continue to be at the top of the list of defeated generals. When the time comes, the strong men will be organized into an army, and maybe the governor of Huguang will rely on him to defend Wuchang.

As Li Shixun expected, Hu Quancai is in a very bad mood now, and he has reached the verge of choosing someone to eat.

When he first set out from Wuchang, Hu Quancai felt good, and the officials, staff, and gentry regained their respect for him in the past, and were full of praise for the various plans he had issued, and no one came out to question the decision of the governor of Huguang. On the way to Zhongxiang, the people around Hu Quancai maintained a similar attitude, and anything that came out of the mouth of the governor of Huguang must have been a wise decision.

If it was placed before the battle of Zhongxiang, Hu Quan would take this reaction of the people around him for granted, of course he was wise and intelligent, otherwise why could he sit in the high position of the governor of Huguang? In the past, Hu Quancai often thought that he had all kinds of shortcomings when he was working under Hong Chengchou, but now he doesn't see it that way, any of his ideas are a stroke of genius, there are few people in the world who can be more divine than Governor Hu, and everyone else is obediently studying on the side.

However, after the fall of Zhong Xiang, Wuchang set off an undercurrent of suspicion of Governor Hu, and a small group of gentry led by Zhou Juren issued many criticisms and accusations against Governor Hu.

The news that the spies inquired about made Hu Quancai so angry that he almost turned his back on him, and there is now a rumor among officials, staff, and officers, saying that he Hu Quancai does things like Yuan Shao, and some people say that he is Yuan Benchu, who is not far from death, and he has not been jumping for two days.

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a very popular novel, the soldiers in the army are illiterate and have heard the commentary of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, since everyone compares Governor Hu to Yuan Shao, then even the soldiers who have not seen Hu Quancai think that he is self-righteous and narrow-minded. As for how to deal with Yuan Shao, there is the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a textbook, and naturally everyone knows it, that is, he will definitely not be Tian Feng and frustrated.

This rumor is said to have been spread by the Zhou Juren - originally Zhou Peigong only intended to use it to avoid danger for himself, but later when he saw that several colleagues planned to passively confront Governor Hu, Zhou Peigong persuaded them to give up this idea and not to make trouble for themselves.

Hearing the gratitude of his colleagues, Zhou Peigong couldn't help but feel complacent, and repeatedly became a teacher for others, carefully analyzing these questions for everyone: Why is Hu Quancai like Yuan Shao? Hu Quancai is more similar to Yuan Shao in which period? How should I deal with Yuan Shao in the late period?

Of course, everyone is very grateful for Zhou Peigong's reminder, and because Zhou Peigong's analysis is the first to go, his reputation as "Zhou Dacai" has become louder. It didn't take much effort for Hu Quancai's men to find out who was actively trying to discredit the governor of Huguang in order to elevate themselves.

"When you win this battle, you want to look good!" Hu Quancai now hates Zhou Peigong to the bone, but he has to admit that Zhou Peigong's analysis is quite close to his mentality, the more this is the case, the more Hu Quancai secretly vows to make Zhou Peigong regret dying slowly.

At this moment, the news of the defeat of the vanguard suddenly came, and Li Shixun's lieutenant fled back to the army, saying that he had encountered 20,000 or 30,000 enemy soldiers, and the 10,000 Qing troops who had set out in advance were all annihilated.

This news was tantamount to a bolt from the blue for Hu Quancai, and the sneak attack on which he had high hopes was not only discovered by the enemy, but also suffered another crushing defeat, and Hu Quancai felt more and more unable to explain to the imperial court.

Soon the news of the defeat spread throughout the army, and Hu Quancai, who was advancing along the Han River by land and water, fell into a dilemma:

If he retires now, then he has done nothing in the past half a month except to lose his city and land, lose his teacher and humiliate foreign countries. Hu Quancai also knew that his previous behavior had aroused public anger in Wuchang, not to mention that when he left Wuchang and Hanyang this time, he did something extremely unpopular. If the imperial court supported him, then Hu Quancai was certainly not afraid of the anger of the gentry and the people around Wuchang, but if the imperial court was already disgusted with himself, then the attacks of these soldiers might become the last straw that broke the camel's back. But if he didn't retreat, Hu Quancai felt that the other party was on guard, and his morale was really low, so he didn't dare to say that he would win.

After thinking about it, Hu Quancai also wavered, and felt that perhaps it was safest to turn back, that is, to exaggerate the strength of the Ming army, and insist that the Ming army had an army of 100,000. As long as there is Li Shixun's collusion, Hu Quancai may be able to deceive the imperial court.

But the adjutant general sent back by Li Shixun refused to be honest, Li Shixun had discussed the matter with two confidant generals in advance, and had already predicted Hu Quancai's possible reaction. They believed that Governor Hu was not what it used to be, and that his position was already very unstable, and there was no need to implicate himself for Governor Hu, who might fall at any time. If Governor Hu does not fall, of course there is nothing, but if Governor Hu falls, then Li Shixun will be held accountable together.

No matter how Governor Hu threatened and lured, Li Shixun's lieutenant pretended not to understand the Governor's hint that he wanted him to give false testimony, and insisted that all the main forces of Zhong Xiangming's army were dispatched, Deng Ming, Hao Shaoqi, Liu Tichun, Yuan Zongdi, and He Zhen were all met by them, and Li Shixun couldn't fight the crime of non-war - well, it means that Governor Hu made a mistake in command, and asked 10,000 forwards to fight the main force of Zhong Xiangming's army - but Zhong Xiangming's army jīng Rui all added up, that is, these tens of thousands.

Hu Quancai also knew that this general was just a microphone, and the key was that Li Shixun was willing to obey the order, so he asked this deputy general to go back to Li Shixun's camp immediately, and let Li Shixun return to the governor of Huguang immediately, without rushing to collect the remnants.

Soon the vanguard officers and soldiers who escaped returned to Hu Quancai's camp one after another, and they brought back similar news, that is, the Ming army was about 20,000 or 30,000, and no one still believed that Deng Ming had an army of 100,000, since Li Shixun and the deserters all said that there were 20,000 or 30,000 troops, then everyone knew that the Ming army in this attack was definitely no more than 10,000. Now that Zhou Peigong has faintly become the leader of the army, all the staff and civilian officials have gathered in the camp of Zhou Dacai to hold a real enemy discussion meeting after they vigorously praised Hu Quancai for predicting the enemy's intrigue. Zhou Dacai concluded that Li Shixun was also lying, and it was said that Zhong Xiang's Ming army still had tens of thousands, and Li Shixun definitely did not encounter Deng Ming's entire army, most of which was defeated by a partial division.

The defeated soldiers who fled back included the officers and soldiers of the various departments who followed Li Shixun to the expedition, and there were also the soldiers of his own barracks, and the defeated soldiers returned to the camp for about a day, returning to the early 1,000s in total, and the rest were estimated to have been captured by the Ming army, but until the defeated soldiers returned to Hu Quancai's camp, Li Shixun, who claimed to be collecting the rout outside, was still nowhere to be seen.

Seeing that Li Dashuai, who was loyal to Governor Hu, had avoided trouble—Zhou Dacai guessed Li Shixun's psychology in public—everyone Governor Hu was even less confident, and that day in Zhou Peigong's tent, everyone discussed to echo Hu Quancai's statement, saying that Zhong Xiangming's army had hundreds of thousands, and asked Governor Hu to bring the army back to Wuchang first, anyway, in the future, the court would not be able to ask them about the civil officials and staff.

After Li Shixun's disappearance, Hu Quancai's prestige dropped to a new low, and many generals also came to advance and retreat with civilian officials and staff groups, and these generals believed that although the Qing army was still far stronger than Zhong Xiangming's army, factors such as road and morale were enough to offset the Qing army's superiority in troops. Besides, winning this battle was only good for Governor Hu, and seeing Li Shixun's defeat so quickly and so miserably, many Qing army generals had already retreated.

Everyone has decided to discuss it, and they plan to go together tomorrow to pour ** soup to Hu Quancai, but the conspiracy group's sense of secrecy is too poor, and now the governor of Huguang already knows that there is an anti-Hu group gathered around Zhou Peigong, and he has already secretly ordered a few generals to enter it, and report to himself separately the conspiracy of the group.

When he learned that these guys wanted to trick themselves into returning to their teachers and then bear the blame of the court alone, Hu Quancai was so angry that he almost spurted out a mouthful of blood. Fortunately, there was still a group of generals who did not participate in the conspiracy group, and Hu Quancai hated himself for not knowing anyone, so he hurriedly made a list, divided it into two parts according to whether he had been to Zhou Juren according to the standard, and left the evidence for promotion and demotion after the battle.

Zhou Peigong naturally held the top of the blacklist, Hu Quancai stared at the name for a while, and the triumphant face appeared in front of him again: "Don't let you break your body into ten thousand pieces, your wife and daughter will enter the camp, and the old man will not be a man!" ”

Although he made a poisonous oath, it was not a good time to retaliate, so Hu Quancai had to continue to make a false deal with everyone first: Don't you want to agree with my decision? Okay, then I'll decide to continue marching towards Zhongxiang.

The next day, Hu Quancai convened civil and military officials and staff to discuss the military aircraft, Zhou Peigong first stood up and sang the praises of Hu Quancai, Zhong Xiangming's army is too strong to be defeated, and the whole army should retreat to Wuchang and stick to the city! This proposal was endorsed by many participants. Hu Quancai, as the governor of Huguang, his kung fu to nourish qi is naturally not trivial, and during Zhou Peigong's speech, he twisted his long beard and smiled frequently at this young man, showing that he knew nothing about the conspiracy group.

After Zhou Peigong finished speaking, Hu Quancai also praised him a few words, but praise was praise, and the governor of Huguang still could not agree to withdraw from the army, and he pointed out that the reason why Deng Ming was able to win the battle was because Deng Ming used witchcraft.

After learning that Zhong Xiangming's army only had tens of thousands of people, Hu Quancai had been pondering how the Ming army quickly captured Yunyang and other places, and the biggest possibility was that there were two kinds, one was that Deng Ming had an amazing siege cannon, and the other was that he used witchcraft.

And the vanguard officers and soldiers who recently escaped proved that Deng Ming was indeed using witchcraft, and many people claimed that the Qing army's battle line was not broken, but Deng Ming suddenly appeared behind the Qing army with cavalry. Although the general Zuo sent back by Li Shixun did not admit that Deng Ming used witchcraft, he also held the same statement: When the two armies on the battlefield were in a state of stalemate, Deng Ming suddenly flashed out from behind Li Shixun's flag, and flashed to Li Shixun's side, and directly put the sword on Li Dashuai's neck.

When he led the troops to leave Wuchang, Hu Quancai couldn't tell whether the opponent's trump card was demonic or cannon, but this was difficult for the resourceful governor of Huguang. For this reason, Hu Quancai ordered the requisition of the advocacy army of Wuchang and Hanyang. Because of the urgency of the military situation, Hu Quancai hinted that the army could also levy some widows who had no backers or backgrounds.

However, for the army that executes the order, whether it is a widow or not, advocating excellence depends on whether it pays money, and many poor women who can't cope with extortion are also requisitioned to the camp by the army, for which Hu Quancai was even more scolded by the gentry of Wuchang and Hanyang pointing at his back - no one dares to point at Hu Quancai's nose and scold for the time being.

This matter is often mentioned by the anti-Hu group, and Hu Quan knew that if he returned to the division at this time, it would definitely be a sin to recruit women to accompany the army, but if these women broke Deng Ming's witchcraft, not only would no one be able to say that they were not, but everyone would praise Governor Hu's foresight.

Hu Quancai was unusual, denied that Zhong Xiang had more than 100,000 Ming troops, but insisted that Deng Ming's subordinates were only 40,000 at most, including 18,000 or 9 armored soldiers, in this case, the strength of the vast army of the lake was still stronger than Deng Ming, and at the same time there was the assistance of the water division, as long as Deng Ming's magic could be broken, there was nothing to be afraid of, besides, Wang Shi rebelled against Shun, who dared to doubt Wang Shi's victory was to question the Manchu Mandate of Heaven.

As soon as this kind of big hat was buttoned down, Zhou Peigong and the others suddenly had nothing to say, and Governor Hu overrode the public opinion and ordered to continue to advance towards Zhongxiang.

However, although Governor Hu dismissed Zhou Juren at the military meeting and was unable to fight back, there were more people who went to Zhou Juren's camp at night. Hu Quancai revised the list overnight, crossed many people off the list of commendations, and transferred them to the blacklist.

What made Hu Quancai feel the most sad was that Zhang Changgeng, the governor of Hunan, also secretly sent people to Zhou Pei's public camp in the middle of the night to find Zhou Juren and several other activists of the conspiracy group, and talked secretly for a long time before letting them leave quietly in the early morning. Zhang Changgeng is an important subordinate of Hu Quancai, and he has trusted and entrusted him with important tasks for many years, and Hu Quancai has even thought that if he is not qualified for the work of the governor of Huguang one day, he will recommend Zhang Changgeng to take over.

Unexpectedly, such a henchman who relied on him as a pillar would also have a secret meeting with Zhou Peigong late at night, if it weren't for Governor Hu's secret agent who monitored Zhou Juren twelve hours a day, maybe he wouldn't have found out that Zhang Changgeng was also shaken.

After a secret meeting with several Huguang gentlemen, Zhang Changgeng came to Hu Quancai and gently persuaded him as an old friend and old subordinate. If he hadn't known that Zhang Changgeng had already had an affair with the conspiracy group, Hu Quancai might have really seriously considered the Hunan governor's construction and weighed the pros and cons of continuing to march, but now although Hu Quancai pretended to listen carefully, he was scolding the white-eyed wolf in front of him in his heart.

"Hmph, you probably reached an agreement with those Huguang barbarians, you are responsible for tricking me to return to the division, so that the Huguang barbarians can be safe, and they are responsible for supporting you, promoting you to the imperial court, letting you inherit the position of the old man, and you will be the governor of Huguang." Hu Quancai was secretly ruthless in his heart, and after recovering the declining situation, he would clean up Zhang Changgeng, an ungrateful villain, who was worse than death: "Let me go back to my teacher now, if I don't break Deng Ming's demon arts, and if I don't recover the lost land, when the time comes, the court will blame you, you villain will definitely not help the old man say a good word, and will only follow the Huguang barbarians and them to fall into the well." ”

……

Zhong Xiang.

Knowing that Fucheng was in distress, Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi rushed back as quickly as possible, the young officers in the two armies and the most brave and warlike jīng soldiers, many of whom were engaged not long ago, and their fiancées were in Zhongxiang, and they were even more anxious than Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi. The Ming army traveled at night, flew back to Zhongxiang, and after seeing that the city was safe and sound, these Ming soldiers breathed a sigh of relief.

This time, Deng Ming did not release the captives immediately, but brought them all back to Zhongxiang. Hu Quancai was behind Li Shixun, and the next move of the Qing army was not yet known, and of course the prisoners could not be released at this time, and let them go back to report the reality of the Ming army. Deng Ming had already agreed with He Zhen that the prisoners would be handed over to He Zhen for screening first, and those soldiers who He Zhen thought were good and wanted to stay would be left behind, and the rest would be handed over to Deng Ming. After the vast army of Hu retreated, Deng Ming planned to follow the precedent and send all these Qing soldiers home.

After learning that they could be released if they stayed honestly, and that they could get a tael of silver, these Qing soldiers were more honest than ever. The news of Deng Ming's last release of prisoners of war has reached Wuchang, and everyone feels that since Deng Ming said it, the possibility of realizing it is very great. Moreover, these Qing soldiers are already destitute, all the valuable things on their bodies, including some clothes, have been robbed by He Zhen, if they are not paid severance pay, they can only beg to return to their hometowns.

After seeing the thousands of captives sent by He Zhen, Deng Ming felt that he had gone too far, so he personally ran to He Zhen's camp and asked him to return the prisoners' clothes to the original owner. He Zhen argued on the basis of reason, saying that the original fate of these leftover captives was to work as coolies until they died, or they were thrown directly into a big pit and buried, and it would be good to leave them a life now, and it would be too greedy and too unsatisfied to wear decent clothes.

Of course, He Zhen couldn't let Deng Ming provide clothes for so many prisoners, so he would not peel the skin from the prisoners but take money from Deng Ming's pocket, and finally He Zhen reluctantly agreed to return some of the clothes. The next day, He Zhen also sent these things as promised, and Deng Ming checked them, and they were all rags and rags that He Zhen didn't need.

When Liu Tichun and Yuan Zongdi rushed back to Zhongxiang, they saw a large number of ragged men fishing in the ditches outside the city, cutting firewood in the woods, and then taking them to the barracks or city gates to sell.

After Liu Tichun entered the city, he saw that there were also many "primitive people" wrapped in rags and wearing straw sandals in the city, helping Zhong Xiang's people to repair their houses.

It turned out that Deng Ming did not intend to force these captives to work for themselves, so he let them do some small business on their own to solve the problem of food and clothing. Even He Zhen's subordinates wanted to take things from these captives, and Deng Ming also demanded that they pay, at least in exchange for clothes or rations.

When Deng Minggang escorted a large number of captives back, the residents of Zhongxiang watched from a distance and pointed at these unclothed men. The First World War of Zhongxiang caused a large number of damaged houses, and many of the surrounding peasants also fled, and many people's houses have not been renovated until now. On the first day, the captives cut some firewood in the woods and sold it at the gates of the city, and soon they were hired by clever men at a very low price to help them cut a few logs, or to make adobe for building houses.

When Deng Ming heard about this situation, he organized the captives and divided them into many construction teams to help the common people repair roofs and walls, remove blanks, build walls, and plaster. The captives earned money to feed their stomachs, and Deng Ming didn't want their labor income, and even arranged for several officers and soldiers of the Ming army to set up an arbitration body to deal with salary disputes-

Today's update of 6,000 words, do you think 6,000 words is better for single or double?