Half a month after the Kuidong Army left Chongqing, it was basically back to normal, and all the generals of the Qing army believed that the Ming army would not be able to launch another large-scale attack on Chongqing for at least half a year.

While singing praises to the wisdom of the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, the generals held a celebratory banquet -- in addition to Li Guoying's celebration of the generals, the generals also gave their soldiers rewards for their meritorious deeds. Although the Qing army suffered heavy losses in this battle, because it had the right to clean up the battlefield, it captured some equipment, which was not without help in the eyes of the Qing generals. The Qing army also captured thousands of Ming prisoners, all of whom were counted by Yuan Zongdi and others in the attrition of a total of 8,700 people. Regardless of whether the Qing army surrendered prisoners to the Qing court - generally speaking, if there were no prisoners, the senior officials probably would not surrender prisoners; But if they did not surrender, they were killed, or they were used as coolies, and after being tortured, they were still killed.

When the generals and soldiers repaired the gaps in the city wall, Li Guoying returned to the back house to recuperate. Since the Battle of Zhongxian, his health has been good and bad, and in the course of this fierce battle, Li Guoying had no problems at that time because of his excitement, but when the enemy retreated, he could no longer hold on because of his energy overdraw.

"I want to fight all my life, but I can't leave the bed when I'm old." Li Guoying said to the concubine with some sadness, he used to be good at riding and shooting, but in the past year, let alone riding and archery, he will have a headache after working for a long time.

When Li Guoying was comfortably drinking tea and reading a book, Gao Mingzhan stumbled to see him again.

"What's the matter?" Li Guoying asked with a frown. Seeing Governor Gao's appearance, Li Guoying couldn't help but chuckle in his heart, and couldn't help but guess: "Could it be that Western Sichuan gave Kuidong thieves grain, and they came back?" ”

"It's back, it's back!" Gao Mingzhan shouted loudly.

"What's the panic, how many Kui Dong thieves have come back?" Although it was greatly unexpected by Li Guoying, he felt that the Qing army in Chongqing had been resting for the past ten days, and the new defeat of the Kuidong army was still in a position to take Chongqing. It is estimated that Kui Dongjun didn't even reach Zhongxian, so why did he turn back again?

"It's not Kui Dong's thief, it's Deng Ming who is back!" Gao Mingzhan shouted with a sad face.

Li Guoying heard that Deng Ming had gone to Myanmar. However, last time it was said that Deng Ming went to Yunnan, but he suddenly turned back and caught Li Guoying off guard. So Li Guoying has not slept well for most of the past six months, for fear that Deng Ming will come to Chongqing again.

But this time in the Chongqing War, Deng Ming didn't come to add to the chaos. During the interrogation of the prisoners of the Kui Dong Army, they also confessed that Deng Ming had indeed gone to Burma for a long time to rescue the Emperor of Yongli. After hearing that Deng Ming left his foundation and went to the barren land of Burma -- in the impression of the Qing officers and soldiers, Burma was almost a barren mountainous land where no grass grew -- many people praised Li Guoying: I didn't see that Deng Ming was really a loyal minister.

Although Li Guoying was very confident in the face of Kui Dongjun, no matter how dangerous the situation was, he never lost hope of victory, but he had a different mentality towards Deng Ming. For example, the defeat of twenty miles, Li Guoying is still horrified when he thinks about it, and he definitely does not have this kind of commanding ability.

"How many people did Deng Ming bring?" Li Guoying lost his mind for a moment, and after coming back to his senses, he bounced up from his chair, put his military uniform and armor crackling on his body, and finally inserted a dagger in his boots.

"The lower officials don't know."

Gao Mingzhan had just gone to inspect Futu Pass when he suddenly heard an uproar among the officers and soldiers of the Green Battalion. Gao Mingzhan looked in the direction everyone pointed and found that a group of boats from western Sichuan were riding the wind and waves towards Chongqing. Nowadays, it is very easy to distinguish between the military ships and the merchant ships in western Sichuan, and the ships in other places have pennants, but the merchant ships in western Sichuan have distinctive red quadrangular flags, and the warships also have generals' flags. After dealing with western Sichuan for so long, Gao Mingzhan and the defenders of Chongqing could recognize most of the general flags at a glance, and what Gao Mingzhan saw today was the mahjong flag - there were three flags on Deng Ming's boat: the red quadrangular flag representing the Ming regime in western Sichuan, the blue striped red flag representing the navy division in western Sichuan, and the military flag of the three walls.

"Deng Ming's quadripartite flag, you can't be wrong." In fact, the military flag of the three walls is not Deng Ming's general flag, but because this army has always been Deng Ming's personal guard, the Qing army regarded it as a symbol of Deng Ming; And the Ming army is about the same, as long as you see the three wall flags, you know that Deng Ming has arrived.

When Li Guoying walked up to the city, he saw a large number of soldiers of the Green Battalion running back to Chongqing City with a wild shout. These people were all sent to repair the Futu Pass, and after they recognized Deng Ming's banner, they first panicked, and then looked for the governor of Sichuan, hoping that Gao Futai could give everyone some confidence. Unexpectedly, after Gao Mingzhan saw that it was Deng Ming's banner, he left everyone without saying a word, rode a fast horse and went straight to Chongqing, looking for Li Guoying to seek confidence and comfort.

After discovering that the governor of Sichuan was the first to flee, where was anyone willing to stay in Futuguan and wait for death? When Li Guoying climbed the tower, these Qing soldiers had just run back to Chongqing. Their panicked shouts immediately caused a great chaos, and in less than a quarter of an hour, Chongqing was full of rumors that Deng Ming had come to besiege with a large army.

The Ming ships were unhurriedly sailing along the Yangtze River, and when Deng Ming's ships anchored within the field of vision of the Jintangmen Tower, Wang Mingde and others also hurried over, all of them sweating on their foreheads, as if they were facing a great enemy.

Looking at these disheveled subordinates, Li Guoying coughed and glared at Wang Mingde fiercely. The latter confessed, straightened out his helmet, and felt that he was wearing it quite well; But Li Guoying didn't let him go at all, and glared at him again.

Hu Wenke behind him stabbed Wang Mingde's waist and reminded in a low voice: "Wang Shuai, your things are about to fall." ”

Wang Mingde hurriedly looked at the hem of the armor and found that most of the release tickets were exposed. He was too nervous when he went out just now, so he hurriedly put his permanent release coupon into his arms, and angrily led his own soldiers over - since it was Deng Ming, it was absolutely not careless, who knows if there is still a chance to go back to his camp, this release coupon still has to be hidden close to his body to rest assured.

The leaked release coupon attracted the attention of many people around, and Wang Mingde hurriedly grabbed it in his hand and put it back into his arms. Only then did Li Guoying retract his gaze and take everyone to observe the movements of the Ming army.

"Wang Shuai, this is not good, what if something falls? There is no name on it, and others will not return it if they find it. Taking advantage of Li Guoying's distance, Hu Wenke reminded him in a low voice.

Wang Mingde nodded. After he put away his permanent release coupon, he reached into his arms and fumbled for a while, making sure that the other large stacks of release coupons were there, as if they had not fallen, and then he breathed a sigh of relief. After hearing Hu Wenke's words, Wang Mingde stared at Li Guoying in front of him with one eye, and turned his head slightly and whispered to Hu Wenke: "Is there any good way for General Hu?" ”

"All my underwear is sewn with an inner pocket, which is not big or small to hold release coupons," Hu Wenke did not hide his selfishness, and introduced his advanced experience in a low voice: "This pocket only contains release coupons, not other things, never digs indiscriminately, and will never lose it!" ”

"Good way, good way." Wang Mingde praised from the bottom of his heart.

In the distance, the Ming warships laid down several small boats, each carrying a few horses and a few cavalry. After the scouts boarded the ship, they circled around and sent back flags to the Ming fleet, and then Chongqing saw that the Ming fleet released more small boats.

Seeing that the Ming army had only released a total of twenty or thirty small boats, many people breathed a sigh of relief. It seems that the Ming army has no intention of landing in a big way, otherwise all the small boats should be lowered and enough soldiers should be sent at the first moment. The Kuidong Army landed in the west of Futu Pass and reorganized the camp before pressing towards Chongqing in a big way, while the Western Sichuan Army disembarked at Jintangmen in a big way. However, the Qing army had no intention of attacking them - the Ming army had come with horses, and their numbers did not seem to be very large, and it was unlikely that they would catch up with them until they withdrew to the river and boarded the boats. Besides, the opposite is Deng Ming, when his attitude is unclear, why do you want to provoke this demon to make him unhappy!

"There are not many ships in the Ming army, and the ships are not big," Wang Mingde squeezed forward and analyzed matter-of-factly: "They are not here to attack our ......."

Li Guoying couldn't help but glare at Wang Mingde again, because he heard that the general soldiers of the Qing Dynasty actually called the other party the Ming army. However, others, including Sun Sike, didn't seem to realize that there was anything wrong, and many people nodded their heads, feeling that Wang Mingde's analysis was correct.

Just when a stone was about to fall to the ground in everyone's hearts, a sharp-eyed general suddenly screamed: "Look, that person is Admiral Deng Ming!" ”

Although they saw the military flag with three walls on the ship, at first everyone thought that the cavalry with three walls came to be the messenger, but they didn't expect Deng Ming to leave the ship and go ashore.

The generals who originally wanted to echo Wang Mingde suddenly changed their tune, and they pointed to those small ships of the Ming army and shouted: "Don't look at the boats, which are not big or too many, but they are full of Ming troops!" ”

Using dozens of small boats that can directly dock to transport more than a hundred cavalry is of course a bit crowded, and Wang Mingde also feels the same way: "Yes, the Ming army is indeed much more than it seems at first glance. ”

Standing on the ground and moving his legs and feet, Deng Ming took one hundred and twenty guards and rode straight to Jintangmen in Chongqing, and they saw Li Guoying's banner from a distance.

Deng Ming stopped a stone's throw away and shouted towards the city. Thousands of soldiers on the city wall held their breath, only to hear Deng Ming's voice coming from afar: "Please Governor Li come out and answer." ”

Li Guoying didn't want to shout at Deng Ming across the stone's throw from him, and now he felt a little lacking in qi, so he asked Gao Mingzhan to go over and ask Deng Ming what he wanted to do.

"Wow." Gao Mingzhan took a deep breath, walked to the head of the city, and almost blurted out a greeting of "Admiral Deng, don't come to harm", but he was still a little anxious, and swallowed it back when the words came to his mouth.

"Deng Ming! Our army will not surrender! You're dead to this heart. Gao Mingzhan shouted impassionedly: "Our army is united and vows to live and die with Chongqing." You don't want to underestimate us. I advise you to withdraw your troops right now, lest you shed a river of blood under the city of Chongqing. ”

Standing in the midst of the ten thousand armies and at the head of the fortified city, Gao Mingzhan shouted at the more than 100 Ming cavalry in front of him with high morale, thinking that he was right, and took advantage of the break to look back at the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi. Gao Mingzhan found that everyone else looked as usual, and some people nodded silently, obviously thinking that they were right, only Li Guoying looked at him viciously.

"Why is the Governor angry?" Gao Mingzhan had a flash of inspiration in his mind, and suddenly realized: "It must be that the Governor is worried about those gaps." ”

Thinking of the three big openings in the northwest of the city that had not yet been mended, Gao Mingzhan's liver tip also trembled: "Deng Ming!" Don't think you have a chance if the walls fall! We have built five parapets in the city, and we have an army of 100,000, if you ......"

Gao Mingzhan wanted to say, "If you have a kind, come and attack it", but Gao Mingzhan, who has always been anxious, realized that something was wrong when the words came to his lips, and hurriedly changed it to: "I advise you to withdraw from the army, we just burned down the warehouse, and we won't leave it to you!" ”

"Shut up!" Li Guoying couldn't bear it anymore, and finally roared behind his back.