Although the people were already turbulent, the Qing court still knew very little about it, and the latest report sent to the Empress Dowager only mentioned that there was chaos in Shandong, and some people claimed to be Deng Ming's brother.

"Second Prince Zhu?" After seeing this report, the Empress Dowager really had mixed feelings, and she very much hoped that Deng Ming would come forward and tell the world openly that he was the authentic Zhu Ming clan. Now there are too many rumors about Deng Ming's life story among the Manchurians, and the Empress Dowager has played a disgraceful role in several versions: "This must be fake, a fake used to confuse the ignorant and foolish people!" ”

After this judgment was blurted out, the Empress Dowager noticed that no one agreed, and several Han ministers standing in the distance secretly looked at the reaction of the auxiliary minister. And Sonny and Aobai were silent, and the entire Golden Palace was silent.

"Ugh." The Empress Dowager reached out and stroked her forehead, she knew what these minions were thinking, she must be thinking: "How do you know that Deng Ming is not the third prince of Zhu?" Is he the seed of you and Dorgon, or is he the Bogol who was framed by your mother and son's conspiracy? ”

A year ago, if she guessed that the people below were thinking nonsense, the Empress Dowager would probably be furious, but she had practiced a lot of self-cultivation skills in the past year. Some people say that plants and flowers can exercise the work of nourishing qi, that is really nonsense, the empress dowager dares to say loudly to everyone, as long as you are angry with the endless bastards in Beijing for a year, you will ensure that your qi level is proud of the world.

"I didn't say that Deng Ming is not the third prince of Zhu, he is! It's just that in order not to give the thieves a fluke mind, that's why they didn't tell the world! "The Empress Dowager felt more and more that it was necessary to clarify Deng Ming's background. She needs Deng Ming very much, is the third prince of Zhu, even if this will make the Han people in the world have thoughts that they shouldn't have again, they are stronger than now. She is the empress dowager, she should be admired by the minions and courtiers, and she is splashed with dirty water, and no matter how good her temper is, she can't bear it.

There was still a deathly silence below, and the Empress Dowager found that she seemed to be suspected of getting blacker and darker, but she could only stubbornly say: "Let the Shandong government post a bulletin, and anyone who claims to be the second brother of Deng Ming is a fake." Everyone in the world has a legend that Deng Ming is the Zhu Ming clan, and the Empress Dowager feels that it is useless not to admit it, and her innocent reputation cannot be sacrificed senselessly: "Spread the decree, anyone who can kill the former Ming clan, the pseudo-Baoguo Gong, and the pseudonym Deng Ming, Wang Zhi!" His people are left and right, and whoever can offer his head to the court is the king! Soldiers who can overcome Sichuan, to the king of Sichuan. ”

openly justified Deng's name, and set up such an amazing reward as being crowned king, but no one in the golden palace came out to dissuade him, but Sony responded in a reasonable tone: "Tsk." ”

The Qing court has given a reward, and anyone who can kill the prince and county king like the king of Jin and the king of Yanping is only a prince, and now killing a prince of the Ming Dynasty can be crowned a king...... However, Deng Ming killed Shunzhi and entered the south of the Kou River three times in three years, stirring up unrest along the Yangtze River; This year, he went to Zhejiang again, and even some people in Shandong raised his banner. Ao Bai felt that even if the imperial court came up with an unprecedented reward for the king, it was not too unreasonable. As for rewarding Sichuan to meritorious heroes, it is even more deserved. The threat of the Sichuan army had risen dramatically, and had surpassed Li Dingguo and Zheng Chenggong to become a major problem for the Qing court. However, this reward Ao Bai felt that no one could get it for a while, Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, was a general of the lords and ministers, and he also received strong support from the imperial court, but he was beaten by Deng Ming, and the Sichuan army still had the strength to continue to go to Jiangnan to stir up.

It's just that...... Ao Bai noticed an inappropriateness in the Empress Dowager's will, and he felt that Sonny and others should have heard it, but after Kangxi's case, the other three auxiliary ministers were all kowtowers on the issue of Deng Ming, and never picked up the gaps for the Empress Dowager. Ao Bai sighed lightly in his heart, and finally stood up: "The slave thinks that whoever captures and kills Deng Ming can be king." ”

slapped in the face again, the empress dowager stared at Ao Bai fiercely, and scolded angrily in her heart: "Old lady's face, you slave can beat you if you want!" Don't you know that after retreating, remind me in private? However, the Empress Dowager also realized that Ao Bai essentially wanted to round the scene for herself. Deng Ming's life experience is so complicated, he must not be sent to Beijing alive, but if he is caught, is it not easy to let him die? The Empress Dowager was stunned by anger just now, and she didn't notice that her edict seemed to imply that those who wanted to die should not live - in fact, this was her true intention, but she couldn't say it explicitly, otherwise there would be flies buzzing again. The Empress Dowager swallowed this breath, entered Aobai's cleverness into the account book, and said softly: "Just follow what you play." ”

"Wow." Ao Bai then fell to his knees with the others, and responded loudly.

"How's going on in Chongqing?" The Empress Dowager continued to ask. Not long ago, there was an urgent report, saying that the Kuidong group of thieves was besieging Chongqing, and Li Guoying took the remnants of the defeated army after the previous battle to hold on to the city - the imperial court sent a lot of manpower and material resources to Sichuan, and finally suffered a fiasco to Deng Ming, which has attracted a lot of secret ridicule, if all the reinforcements are buried in Chongqing...... I don't know how many strange things will come out of Beijing. This is an important town at the provincial capital level.

"It's not Deng Ming who personally leads the troops, and he doesn't have his henchmen, just a group of minions from Kuidong." Sonny replied hesitantly. In the past year, the situation has not improved in the slightest, but has become worse and worse, and he feels that his waist is about to be bent. Although Sony tried its best to think about the benefits, it was also completely uncertain about Chongqing, and recently sent a report that the news between Hanzhong and Chongqing had been cut off.

"What about Gangnam?"

"The Sichuan thieves have been repelled by the soldiers and horses of the two rivers, and Zhou Pei is just commanding the soldiers and horses to chase and intercept them; Zhejiang's detailed battle report has also been delivered, Hangzhou was defeated first and then won, killing and wounding tens of thousands of Sichuan thieves, along with a list of meritorious soldiers. ”

"Reward, all reward!" The Empress Dowager decreed. Now there are rumors in Beijing that the garrison of Hangzhou and the governor of Zhejiang have emptied the treasury of Zhejiang and spent two million taels of silver to ransom the city to the Sichuan army. However, the imperial court absolutely did not believe this, Hangzhou must have been a great victory in the end, and Deng Ming's henchmen hugged their heads: "This time Zhejiang suffered a military disaster, and taxes will be exempted...... Well, half of it. ”

If the rumors of the ransom of the city are groundless, then the treasury of Hangzhou must be empty, and the exemption from taxation under this pretext can save some of the face of the imperial court; If Hangzhou is really united and defeats strong enemies, the empress dowager feels that it is necessary to reward soldiers, and it is also appropriate to exempt some taxes.

"If there is good news in Chongqing, no matter what time it is, it will be sent to Da Nei immediately." Before retreating, the Empress Dowager gave another order.

……

On Deng Ming's way back to Chengdu, reports about Chongqing were constantly sent to him, and the fighting there was in full swing.

Two months ago, the Kuidong Army, which had received military rations, set off in Wanxian County. This time, the Kuidong Army sent 60,000 troops, including 30,000 armored soldiers, which was a grand military appearance that had never been seen in the past five years.

The Ming army advanced by land and water, the Xiong division crossed both sides of the Yangtze River, when the day marched on both sides of the river, the flags on both sides of the strait were all over the field, the bonfires were in the sky when the camp was set up at night, and when the forward approached the Causeway Gorge, the rearguard troops had just passed through Zhongxian. Seeing such a mighty military appearance, all the generals in Kuidong were in a good mood. After occupying Causeway Gorge, Li Laiheng held a military meeting: "Causeway Gorge is the gateway to Chongqing, when the Eight Kings (Zhang Xianzhong) entered Sichuan in the past, the defenders occupied Causeway Gorge, so that the 100,000 troops of the Eight Kings could not move forward; And today, the captives fled without a fight and abandoned Xiongguan, I know that they are already frightened and powerless. ”

"Tiger Shuai is extremely right." Dang Shousu loudly agreed.

Deng Minggang saw the Ming army's offensive for the first time when he crossed over, and the reason why Gao Mingzhan abandoned Causeway Gorge without a fight was also because Chongqing was extremely empty, and it was pointless to carry out such peripheral resistance. This time, the Ming army knew that Li Guoying was still in Chongqing, and in line with the principle of leniency to the enemy, it was estimated that Chongqing still had heavy troops of the Qing army, so they made preparations in advance to storm Tongluo Gorge. Li Laiheng also prepared a plan, if Li Guoying held the Causeway Gorge with elite soldiers, he might follow Zhang Xianzhong's old method, bypass from Nanshan, and encircle and annihilate the defenders of the Causeway Gorge. However, now that the Qing army had no intention of holding the periphery, the general opinion of the generals in Kuidong was that Chongqing's strength was even weaker than they thought.

"Thanks to our army's complete control of the waterway, as long as 30,000 auxiliaries can guarantee 30,000 soldiers in battle." Yuan Zongdi analyzed. Among the generals in Kuidong, only Yuan Zongdi had fought in eastern Sichuan for a long time, and the other roads had only arrived in Wanxian, and he had not fought with Li Guoying for a long time: "It is precisely because we control the waterway that Li Guoying will give up Tongluo Gorge, because he can't gain a foothold at all, which does not show that Chongqing is empty." ”

"Why did General Yuan grow up with other people's morale to destroy his own prestige?" He Zhen said dissatisfiedly: "Hasn't Li Guoying's elite been defeated by General Yuan? He was left with only a few remnants of the defeated army. Our army has 30,000 soldiers, and its strength is several times that of Li Guoying, and no matter how we fight, we can win. This time, we must take Chongqing, and let Chengdu take a good look at our strength. Don't let them look down on us, and remember to pick us up when they go out to sweep in the future. ”

"Although Zhao Liangdong and Wang Jinbao are not there, there should still be 10,000 Green Battalion soldiers in the city, as well as several thousand Manchu and Han Eight Banners," Yuan Zongdi continued. During this period of time, Yuan Zongdi's words were often regarded as deaf ears by others, and he felt that he always excused Deng Ming's various unrighteous behaviors, resulting in even his military opinions being affected by this emotion: "I think it is better for us to surround the three queyi, pressure Li Guoying to retreat, and then pursue the tail." ”

Yuan Zongdi also admitted that the defenders of Chongqing were basically frightened birds, so he believed that as long as the pressure was maintained, Li Guoying was likely to take the initiative to withdraw his troops, and then the battle situation would evolve into a pursuit battle that Yuan Zongdi was good at.