After leaving Mianzhu, Gao Mingzhan finally found the right direction and moved in the right direction.

Now there are more than 3,000 Qing troops following Gao Mingzhan's side, and there are a large number of soldiers slowly catching up. After two days of slow advance, thousands more soldiers caught up with the advancing army, restoring the strength of the Qing army to about 6,000 men.

Before sending troops, Gao Mingzhan and Tan Yiman thought that this would be a snowball offensive, starting from the Sword Pavilion, they could use the surrendered Ming army to supplement the Qing army's military rations with the savings of the Ming army, and then make full use of the manpower and material resources of the Ming army in Jiangyou and Mianzhu, so that the Qing army's body could be well preserved. When Gao Mingzhan left Guangyuan, he was optimistic that by the time he reached the city of Chengdu, the original Ganshan Green Battalion would not only have a full staff, but also be able to expand thousands of auxiliary soldiers.

Gao Mingzhan also hoped that the soldiers who had surrendered in the early stage would go to Chengdu to persuade the defenders to surrender, even if Chengdu planned to resist to the end, Gao Mingzhan felt that there was nothing to fear. The Mianzhu Ming army must have understood the reality of Chengdu, and can understand the weakness of the defenders from their mouths, coupled with the equipment of the Qing army, it must have been effortless to deal with a group of peasants in Chengdu.

This year, Chóngqìng also intercepted some reports from western Sichuan to Fengjie, which said that more than 20,000 Jianchang's auxiliaries and thousands of civilians had moved to Chengdu, and the total number of these newcomers had reached about 40,000. If Liu Yao and Yang Youcai lacked the ability to control the Qing army, then whether it was the original more than 10,000 peasant soldiers or the current 40,000 peasant soldiers, it would not cause any trouble to the Qing army, and the large number of people would be more conducive to Gao Mingzhan's construction of a military camp in Chengdu.

But now Gao Mingzhan's confidence is not so sufficient. The collective retreat of the Ming army in Jiange and other three places shows that Chengdu's control of western Sichuan is definitely not as weak and powerless as Tan Yi said; Along the way, the Qing army suffered from the Ming army, and it seems that Liu Yao and Yang Youcai are not as honest as Tan Yi said; Since Tan Yi was so wrong in the first two questions, Gao Mingzhan doubted whether Tan Yi's description of Chengdu's military strength was correct.

Since no prisoners were captured on the way, Gao Mingzhan could not know the true situation in Chengdu, and Liu Yao and Yang Youcai did not know anything about their ability to control it. It's just that there is no turning back now, Gao Mingzhan can only force himself to believe in the information of Tan Yi and Chóngqìng, and attack Chengdu head-on.

"The thieves in Chengdu have no ability to resist at all, they have no weapons, they don't have armor, they don't even serve as soldiers, they are just a group of farmers who can farm, and no one has ever killed anyone." Gao Mingzhan and Tan Yi desperately boosted morale. Now that the armor of the Qing army is almost lost, there are still some weapons left, and since the number is at a great disadvantage, it can only be emphasized that Su zhì: "One of us can beat ten of them!" ”

Relying on hunting, digging out the rhizomes of plants from under the snow, and then taking out the last stored grain, Gao Mingzhan estimated that the soldiers could support it for a few days. On the tenth day of the first lunar month, he ordered to camp and rest for two days, so that the soldiers could recover a little, and then continue to march and take Chengdu in one go. The governor of Sichuan estimated that there were probably more than 1,000 soldiers behind him, but now he had no strength to look for them, and he didn't have time to wait for them to catch up on their own, Gao Mingzhan could only hope to take Chengdu in one fell swoop, and then let the surrendered Ming army go to the back to look for it to see if there were any surviving Qing troops.

……

Since Gao Mingzhan drove towards Chengdu, his actions have been under the full attention of the Ming army. Originally, Deng Ming planned to defend the city and wait until the Qing army ran out of food and grass before going out of the city to fight. But now that the IOU system has just been introduced, the credit of the IOU is still questioned, so after thinking about it, I can't let all the people enter the city, so I come up with a two-choice plan for the fellow talents outside the city to choose.

The first is to let the Tongxiucai bring all the food into the city, burn all the houses outside the city, and help them build them when the Qing army is repulsed. Second, all the Tongxiucai who were unwilling to burn down their houses and enter the city with all their savings had to join the army and fight with the Ming army.

Originally, Deng Ming thought that most of the Tongxiu talents would not dare to fight with the Qing army, so they would voluntarily choose to enter the city, but he did not expect that the expectations of these people to defend their houses and fields were much higher than Deng Ming imagined, or that they were too worried about the Ming army and refused to take out all the food stored at home and bring it into the city.

From the beginning, thousands of people chose to participate in training and fight a decisive battle against the Qing army. Under their influence, more and more Tong Xiucai, who was originally hesitant, also decided to participate in military training instead of moving all their family into the city. After the number of Tongxiu who participated in the military training exceeded 10,000, Deng Ming knew that his plan to strengthen the wall and clear the field was completely ruined, and the number of people left outside the city had become so large that the Ming army could not adopt the strategy of strengthening the wall.

Therefore, Deng Ming canceled the option of letting people into the city, and announced that everyone would participate in military training and fight to the death with the Qing army. Throughout the month of Layue, Chengdu was like a big training camp, and all the people were divided into groups and practiced under the guidance of instructors.

"The Admiral is really merciful, if he changes the general, he will burn down their houses and see if they enter the city or not?" The person who spoke was Di Sanxi. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, he rushed to Chengdu with 1,000 soldiers, including 500 armor soldiers, and 150 of them were cavalrymen.

"Because you are a military tun, and we are not here, some of the methods used by the military tun cannot be used on our side." Deng Ming was originally a little dissatisfied with the delay in Jianchang's reinforcements, but after he saw Di Sanxi, these dissatisfaction turned into emotion - the heavy snow closed the road, and the road from Jianchang to Chengdu was extremely difficult.

But after hearing that Deng Ming had gone to Chengdu, Di Sanxi asked Ying to lead the team. Of the 500 armor soldiers he brought, 200 were Di Sanxi's henchmen, and the other 300 armor soldiers were jīng soldiers lent to Di Sanxi by other Western camp generals. Di Sanxi led the soldiers and horses to brave the cold winter and crossed the snowy mountains and rushed to Chengdu as quickly as possible. When he arrived in Jiading Prefecture, he saw that the New Year was coming, Di Sanxi refused to stay and delay, did not take a little rest, and set off immediately after his men and horses recovered.

Yuan Xiang also threw down the affairs at hand and rushed with Di Sanxi. After seeing Yuan Xiang, Deng Ming asked about the civil affairs of the Sichuan Xingdu Division, and Yuan Xiang said something about it. After Yuan Xiang and Liu Jinge met in the evening, he rushed to Deng Ming the next day to plead guilty, saying that he had failed to understand Deng Ming's intentions and had affected the governor's great cause of governing Sichuan - it sounded like what Yuan Xiang had done in Jianchang was similar to what Liu Jinge had done in Chengdu before.

"Since the Admiral plans to fight in the field, then the field battle is, or better, so as to save time with the Tartars." After resting in Chengdu for a few days, Di Sanxi's men and horses recovered the body lì and jīng gods. Although Di Sanxi felt that Deng Ming's methods to the people were a little soft, and he was a little less domineering in Jianchang to smash himself with a big seal, he did not have the slightest doubt about the upcoming victory: "The last general is willing to capture the flag for the commander." ”

"Okay, then you can follow me with the cavalry." The 150 cavalry brought by Di Sanxi were all the personal soldiers and family members of the generals of the Xiying camp, although the number was not large, but the combat effectiveness was considerable. With these people, Deng Ming felt that the certainty of luring the enemy was even greater. Originally, personal guards had always been Zhao Tianba's job, but since Zhao Tianba was going to command the Chinese army, he had to temporarily let Di Sanxi do it for him.

Now the people around Chengdu have a blind worship of Deng Ming, and the reason why a large number of Tongxiucai are unwilling to burn down their houses and hide in the city is because they feel that Deng Ming is unlikely to lose the battle, so why give up their family property and flee into the city? And Liu Yao, Yang Youcai, Di Sanxi, and the guards' trust in Deng Ming is probably much stronger than that of ordinary people, no matter how Deng Ming wants to fight, they all support it unconditionally.

Due to the policy of encouraging land reclamation, farmers here in Chengdu live far away from each other, so although Gao Mingzhan is still far from the city, he has already threatened the houses of farmers in the outermost part of the agricultural reclamation area. Therefore, the day before yesterday, Deng Ming ordered Chengdu to fully mobilize and gather a large army to meet Gao Mingzhan in the north.

Di Sanxi took the soldiers of the Western Battalion to follow Deng Ming as the front army, and now there are only fifteen guards around Deng Ming. In addition to Zhao Tianba to command the Chinese army, Zhou Kaihuang, Li Xinghan, Ren Tang, and Mu Tan, the four people, Deng Ming, also felt very potential, so they all asked them to lead the troops.

Shut down

The soldiers of Liu Yao and Yang Youcai, plus the armor soldiers in Jiangyou and other places, totaled more than 1,200 people, which were the core force of the Ming army; Although Xiong Lan's subordinates are not known as long-term battle formations, they have at least seen the battlefield, and they are more knowledgeable than Liu Yao's soldiers, so they are also used as quasi-main forces; The three hundred and fifty foot soldiers brought by Di Sanxi, Deng Ming planned to assign them to the command of Zhao Tianba and other five people before the war; In addition, there were more than 34,000 Tongxiucai who had just undergone basic training, each armed with a wooden spear, and marched north together.

"Gao Mingzhan's camp is twenty miles away." Tanma reported to Deng Ming.

"Well, how are they trooping? What's going on? ”

When Deng Ming received the first military information from Jiang You, he was under great pressure from above to describe Gao Mingzhan's military strength, and the Qing army not only had four or five hundred cavalry, but also carried artillery. At that time, Deng Ming thought that even if the Qing army could be defeated, the losses in Chengdu would be very large - let these peasants with no combat experience go into battle to fight the Ganshan Green Battalion, Deng Ming really could not rest assured, which was also an important reason why he wanted to hold on to Chengdu.

But then the situation of the Qing army deteriorated dramatically, and when Gao Mingzhan came out of the mountains near Mianzhu, Deng Ming's report of a horse exploration surprised Deng Ming. The Ming scouts described to Deng Ming that the Qing army no longer had any cavalry, and that it no longer had the ability to reconnoiter the vicinity of the army; Moreover, the weapons and equipment of the Qing army are also very different from the previous one, if it were not for the fact that there were no other Qing troops nearby, and they still saw the banner of Gao Mingzhan, the Ming army scouts suspected that this was another enemy army; As for the cannons that Deng Ming was most worried about, the Ming army scouts could no longer see their traces.

"The Tartars are a little more numerous today, and they look like six or seven thousand." Scouts reported that the Qing army turned a blind eye to their reconnaissance activities in the vicinity, preoccupied with gathering firewood or digging for food under the snow.

"Is that all the Tartar so confident?" Di Sanxi said in surprise: "They are too big, right?" ”

But now the Qing army is so big. Because these soldiers of the Ganshan Green Battalion knew in their hearts that if the Ming army had thousands of armor soldiers, they would not be able to fight; And it is obviously impossible to return to Guangyuan, if you don't freeze to death, you will starve to death; Since this is the case, then everyone can only believe the propaganda of Gao Mingzhan and Tan Yi, and firmly believe in the assertion that the Ming army in Chengdu is vulnerable - since the Ming army has absolutely no strength to fight itself, then of course collecting firewood and looking for food is the right thing to do.

"Well, you can't give them time to recover." Deng Ming ordered the front army to continue to advance, and at the same time asked people to urge Zhao Tianba to speed up their march, and they were to camp opposite the Qing army tonight.

Soon the front army entered the sphere of activity of the Qing army. Seeing that Di Sanxi and the guards were all jumping to try, Deng Ming did not stop them, but just told them to be careful not to pursue too far and be ambushed by the Qing army.

"Yes, Admiral." Di Sanxi's face was excited, and he was about to rush out after speaking.

"There is one more thing," Deng Ming hurriedly stopped Di Sanxi: "If you catch a prisoner in a while, let the two go back and bring a message to Gao Mingzhan." ”

"What does the Admiral want to say to the high thief?"

"Give me my name, and then make an appointment with Gao Ming Zhan Ming to fight a decisive battle." Since the scout said that the Qing army was exhausted and the men and horses had not arrived, Deng Ming did not plan to delay it any longer, but was determined to fight quickly: "Defeat them in one fell swoop, and we will go back to Chengdu for the Lantern Festival." ”

"Yes, Admiral said it well." Di Sanxi nodded, and then asked, "Does the Admiral have anything else?" ”

"No, go ahead."

Along the way, Deng Ming and Di Sanxi said many times that they should not kill unnecessarily for the sake of temporary pleasure, and if it does not affect their own safety, it is better to capture the Qing soldiers as much as possible. Di Sanxi also thought deeply about this, he said that Jianchang's military cantonment needed a large number of auxiliary soldiers, and now there was a shortage of manpower everywhere.

Di Sanxi did not hesitate, and rushed forward with the cavalry of the western camp and Deng Ming's guards, and launched an attack on the surrounding Qing army stragglers. And Deng Ming led the infantry of the Western Battalion to set up a position in the distance, watching the battle while being ready to support at any time.

However, Di Sanxi's attack was unexpectedly smooth, and the Qing army had no power to resist, and many people did not even try to escape when they were attacked by the Xiying cavalry, but directly knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

For the Qing soldiers who surrendered, the cavalry of the western camp ordered them to go to the banner of Deng Ming to surrender on their own, and then pursued the enemies who tried to escape, cutting them all to the ground without mercy.

Di Sanxi, who did not encounter any resistance, continued to attack and fought until he reached the camp of the Qing army.

"General Di is also a brave general." Deng Ming sighed. If Di Sanxi rushed directly to the front of the Qing army's camp, it would definitely be more deterrent to shout directly.

"The Qing army is really exhausted, and they are proud of the enemy." Deng Ming saw that the battle was going so smoothly, and he couldn't help but have a thought: "The enemy army is coming from afar, should we organize men and horses to rob the camp separately?" Let them not rest all night, and then Ming rì besieged the camp of the Qing army and annihilated them in one fell swoop. ”

……

Li Yanpeng carried a wooden spear and walked on the avenue with his companions beside him. A herald galloped past the procession and shouted, "Speed up, the Tartar camp has been discovered!" ”

After a month of military training, Li Yanpeng already knew how to make assassination actions, and was able to listen to simple orders and respond quickly. Before sending out the troops, Li Yanpeng was as nervous and excited as everyone else, and even more excited, feeling that it was finally time to apply what he had learned. But after two days, gradually, the nervousness overwhelmed the excitement. During the march this morning, Xiong Guerrilla led a group of his men to boost morale at the side of the marching procession, shouting that he would kill the Ganshan Green Battalion without leaving a piece of armor, and screw off Gao Mingzhan's head to make a night pot.

"Those guys are all murderous and unblinking Tartars," Li Yanpeng couldn't help but think that Deng Mingxiang was invincible, and Gao Mingzhan should not be his opponent, but Li Yanpeng was worried that he would encounter danger on the battlefield: "I have never fought a war, I have never killed anyone, and I have just learned how to assassinate in the past few days." At that time, if I really meet the strong general of the Tartars, I won't be killed by the Tartars in one move, right? ”

This worry lingered in his mind, and the more Li Yanpeng walked forward, the more he felt his legs become heavy. The other Ming soldiers around him were the same as him, all of them had a stern expression, each thinking about their own thoughts.

After Zhao Tianba learned that the front army had come into contact with the Qing army, he couldn't hide the excitement on his face anymore, and said secretly: "This time, Mr. asked me to command the Chinese army, and even General Liu and Vice General Yang agreed to see my banner." Well, tomorrow is the decisive battle, I must simply defeat the thief neatly, so that everyone can see how good I am...... Well, I am also very familiar with Mr.'s tactics, and after Mr. draws the enemy's attention, I will immediately press the whole army and never give Gao Mingzhan a chance to react. ”

……

Deng Ming originally guessed that Di Sanxi and the guards would restrain their horses outside the camp of the first Qing army, and then send the message of the battle to enter, but he didn't expect that they didn't have the slightest intention of stopping, and rushed in directly under Deng Ming's gaze.

"Oops." Deng Mingming screamed, immediately drew his horse sword, turned to the soldiers of the Western Camp behind him, and shouted, "Come with me to support General Di." ”

The officers and soldiers of the West Battalion behind him responded in unison, and seeing Di Sanxi killing happily with the cavalry, the infantry of the West Camp also jumped one by one.

But when Deng Ming looked ahead again, the first Qing army camp in front of him was already in chaos, and hundreds of Qing soldiers were throwing off their armor and fleeing the camp in all directions. Looking at it, Di Sanxi seemed to be leading people to continue to rush towards the second Qing army camp behind him, and it seemed that if he didn't hold him, Di Sanxi would rush all the way to the Qing army's military tent in the depths.

"Come with me." Deng Ming swung his horse sword vigorously and rushed forward with the front army.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

The soldiers of the Western Battalion let out a loud shout and rushed forward after Deng Ming.