Ability is the sum of talent, learning, and practice. For example, Deng Ming and Zhou Peigong, if you talk about the level of intelligence, Zhou Peigong should not be under Deng Ming, but because one lived in the era of information explosion, and the other was born in the 17th century, when knowledge spread slowly, the latter, who is all self-taught, is difficult to compete with Deng Ming no matter how hard he tries. Now Deng Ming gives Zhou Peigong a feeling of "born to know", tricks are easy to come by, endlessly, looking at the other party's age, of course Zhou Peigong will not think that the other party's ability comes from the accumulation of knowledge - experience, books and teachers' teachings can never provide such a large amount of information, so it can only be explained by God.

During the Chengping period of the dynasty, local officials rarely saw war, so even if they were promoted to the position of a feudal territory, they did not necessarily know much about military affairs. Just like Sun Chengzong, the governor of Liaodong during the Apocalypse of the Ming Dynasty, he read so well, his intelligence must be excellent, and his character and cāo guard are also outstanding, but the military facts are not his strengths. And now the magistrates of the Qing Dynasty, even if they have not experienced wars, have at least heard of many military operations, so the average is far higher than their counterparts twenty years ago.

The previous reports related to land warfare were checked by Zhang Changgeng, and there were never any major loopholes in Huguang's writing, and there were no obvious flaws. Before the troops were dispatched, the Wuchang shogunate already knew that it would be able to break through successfully, so they wrote a draft of the report document in advance, and let the green battalion generals who led the Cao transport fleet use this draft as a blueprint, and then make some adjustments according to the specific situation. However, the problem is that for more than ten years, the Ming army has never been able to cut off the waterway from Wuchang to the lower reaches, and it has never dispatched naval divisions and Qing troops to fight in Hubei and Jiangxi. Now it was up to the Wuchang shogunate to make up stories about the water war, but they were desperately lacking in relevant materials.

The situation in Jiangxi is not as good as that of the Wuchang shogunate, there is not a single Yudong Army group on the border of Nanchang that has been fighting fiercely for many years, and Jiangxi's civil and military forces, which are in the far-reaching rear of the 5,000-mile defense line, have not encountered a war for many years. As for the water warfare, not even Hao Shaoqi's enemies who use canoes and bamboo rows, Dong Weiguo described how to break through the successful victory, and did not mention the specific details of the battle, and the whole article was the emperor's blessing, the governor's teachings, and the soldiers' lives.

"Water wars are not won by courage." Jiangxi's good news made Liang Huafeng shake his head, less than a year ago he was the admiral of Su Song's sailors, and his station in Chongming was also an island in the sea, and every rì was accompanied by sailors and ships. When he was on Chongming Island, all of Liang Huafeng's rì training was about water warfare, and he had a considerable understanding of the combat capabilities of various ships and various precautions for water warfare; Moreover, Liang Huafeng also had actual combat experience, and for many years Zhang Huangyan had been harassing the southeast and carrying out active smuggling activities in the areas occupied by the Qing army.

In Liang Huafeng's eyes, Jiangxi's good news had no practical significance at all, and the passing of the details of the battle was even more suspicious and weak-hearted.

"In land warfare, a small number of soldiers may really turn the tide of battle, but once an avalanche is formed, no matter how large the number is; But water warfare is completely different, if the ship is inferior to the people, then no matter how brave it is, it will not win; And the ships are numerous and strong, and even the poor sailors can easily defeat the enemy who sees death as if they were at home. Then looking down, it was still "Hongfu", "fighting spirit", "desperate", "brave", Liang Huafeng completely lost interest in Jiangxi Jiebao, put it aside, and took out the Huguang letter and looked at it.

On Huguang's good news, the content of the battle is much more detailed than the one in Jiangxi, and if it is placed in the eyes of ordinary people, there may not be any major flaws, even if it is sent to běijīng, no one will be able to say anything wrong. But Su Songshui is the most powerful water division in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Liang Huafeng is the supreme commander of Su Songshui Division, this good news only looked at it a few times and felt wrong, and after reading a few more words, the sense of absurdity in Liang Huafeng's heart became stronger and stronger. After reading the whole story, Liang Huafeng raised his head, looked up to the sky and muttered a few words to himself, and his face suddenly showed a sudden realization.

"I'm going to see the governor right now." Liang Huafeng put away the two good news, and hurriedly ordered the surrounding guards.

After the group entered Nanjing, they went straight to the yamen of the governor of Liangjiang, and Jiang Guozhu, who acted as the governor of Liangjiang, had already waited in the yamen.

"There's something wrong with both of them, right?" Jiang Guozhu asked with a sneer, it was because he felt that there was fraud in it, so as soon as he heard that Liang Huafeng had rushed back to Nanjing, he hurriedly sent a messenger to send the good news to the former admiral of Su Songshui.

"The governor has seen that these two good news are very inappropriate." Since Jiang Guozhu sent the good news to himself, Liang Huafeng of course realized that the other party suspected his true xìng, Jiang Guozhu was in advance so that he could ponder on the road, but this was obviously underestimating Liang Huafeng, he didn't need to think seriously at all, and he could see the problem at a glance.

"Jiangxi's is completely Dong Weiguo's nonsense! The heaviest equipment in water warfare, although the role of the jīng soldier is great, it is far less than that in land warfare. Only if the ships are about the same size and in roughly the same number do they need to be considered for morale. In a battle on the water, a dozen veterans of a hundred battles may not be as useful as a cannon, and the broken ship made by the sailor cāo of Jīng Rui will capsize if it is hit by a giant ship, and even if the morale of the people in it is like a rainbow, it will become a fish and turtle. The good news of Jiangxi's political envoy, not to mention the ships and troops, obviously didn't know what the water war was going on, how could he win Deng Ming's Yangtze River Naval Division? Moreover......" Liang Huafeng first pierced Dong Weiguo's recital, the officers and soldiers of Deng Ming's Yangtze River Naval Division were mainly from Zhoushan, and Liang Huafeng had many years of experience in fighting with them: "The Zhejiang soldiers are extremely tenacious, and the last general has been fighting with them for many years, and those who do not retreat from the fight to the death abound." Although the last general has won more victories and lost less over the years, he mainly took advantage of the boat, if the equipment of the two armies on both sides is exactly the same, if he really wants to compete in fighting spirit and courage, the last general is afraid that our army will fall behind. ”

"Sure enough!" Jiang Guozhu shouted loudly and scolded hatefully: "As soon as I see that Dong Weiguo is hesitant about the details of how to win, I don't feel right, if it is useful to fight desperately in water warfare, then what is the use of spending a lot of money to build a big ship?" ”

Throwing Dong Weiguo's good news aside, Jiang Guozhu pointed at Huguang's and shouted: "How is this letter true or false?" ”

Before Dong Weiguo's good news came, Jiang Guozhu did not have much suspicion about the Huguang Cao boat's breakthrough, and he did not feel anything wrong after reading the good news. Seeing that the Ming army's naval division was actually unable to move at the stage, Jiang Guozhu was still very happy, and felt that Deng Ming was really the end of the crossbow, thinking that Nanjing should not be in danger this time, and Jiang Guozhu was still pondering whether it was necessary to continue to transfer troops from the east to aid Anqing.

But before Jiang Guozhu was happy for too long, he learned that Jiangxi's fleet had actually succeeded in breaking through Jiujiang, and when the 300,000 stone of grain passed through Nanjing, Jiang Guozhu also personally went to the dock to look at Jiangxi's fleet, and the more he looked at it, the more suspicious he became. After coming back, Jiang Guozhu turned out Huguang's report again, and Dong Weiguo's success made Jiang Guozhu doubt the truth of Huguang's water division, but he studied this good news for a long time and didn't see any problems.

Shut down

"Since Governor Jiang can't see the problem, how does he know that there is fraud in it?" After hearing Jiang Guozhu's words, Liang Huafeng immediately had this question in his heart, but he didn't ask it, but explained it seriously: "This good news really has no big problems at first glance, although the last general felt that something was wrong at first, it was also vague, and after reading it carefully, he felt unspeakably awkward." After thinking about it carefully, I finally realized that this battle was not fought on the Yangtze River at all, nor was it fought by Deng Ming and the Chu army. ”

"Then who fought with the Chu army?" Jiang Guozhu still didn't understand, and hurriedly asked.

"The last general doesn't know who fought this battle with the Chu army." Liang Huafeng shook his head and continued to explain: "Deng Ming has a lot of big ships in his hands, all of which he captured from Anqing and Nanjing before, and a few of them were the warships of the last general Su Song's naval division. If Chu Jun really fought with Deng Ming in Jiujiang, and dealt with these boats, Deng Ming would definitely send a big ship to approach, coerce the boat to surrender and stop sailing, if the boat did not listen, the big ship would condescendingly let out arrows to kill the sailors and helmsmen, or destroy the sails - it was full of grain, I think Deng Ming was reluctant to sink the boat. And if the Chu army wants to protect the boats, they can't let Deng Ming's big ships get close to these precious grain ships, they must bravely meet them, set fires, jump to seize the boats, and sacrifice some escort ships and sailors to protect the boats to escape. And the battle on this good news is completely reversed, it is the Ming army that comes to attack, to jump to the gang to seize the ship......"

Liang Huafeng said and shook his head again and again: "This good news gives me the feeling that it is like, well, the thieves I saw in front of me did not take a big ship to attack the slow and defenseless grain ship, but drove a bunch of canoes and wooden rafts, and in the face of our army's magnificent warship, they rushed up and wanted to set fire to it, and wanted to jump to seize our warship. ”

"The Yangtze River is wide, and you can't take a canoe so hard." Pointing to the good news of Huguang, Liang Huafeng finally concluded: "According to the last general's opinion, most of the battles above took place in some small puddle in Hubei, and the ghost knew that he was fighting with some small water bandits. ”

Liang Huafeng's guess was right, in order to prepare this report, the Wuchang shogunate found several sailor generals who had fought with Hao Shaoqi many times in the upper reaches of the Han River, and asked them to design a rough framework, and after some processing, it became a battle on this good news.

"I see, it's hateful." Jiang Guozhu laughed angrily: "I always thought that Zhang Changgeng had real skills, but I didn't expect it, I didn't think that he actually fornicated with thieves!" ”

"The governor is right." Since the good news is fake, it is obvious that the Jiujiang pass is the Chu army and the Ming army playing double reeds, but Liang Huafeng still has a question in his heart that has never been explained: "But before the end comes, how did the governor see through this?" ”

"Hehe, it's too easy." Jiang Guozhu twisted his beard and laughed, and scornfully nodded towards Jiangxi's good news: "This good news has been given to us here in one go, and the implication is that the thieves are incompetent and vulnerable, and if the officials in Jiangnan see Deng Ming, they don't have to be polite, hurry up and give him a good beating, and the credit will be easily obtained, hum!" Will this person surnamed Dong be so kind? I don't have to look at it, I can smell that there is a trick in it. ”

"Oh." Liang Huafeng nodded slightly, when he commented on Huguang's good news just now, he didn't say it very obviously at the beginning, but just broke it, "This battle was not fought on the Yangtze River at all, nor was it fought by Deng Ming and the Chu army." The result was that Jiang Guozhu couldn't understand it at all. This time Jiang Guozhu made the same mistake as Liang Huafeng just now, he thought it was very clear, but Liang Huafeng still didn't know why.

Jiang Guozhu observed the words and knew that his alliance was still confused, so he further elaborated: "Will Deng Ming be so easy to fight? First, if it was really easy to fight, Dong Weiguo would not have lost Jiujiang, and second, even if Deng Ming was the same as Zheng Chenggong, because of some kind of mistake, the army had no fighting spirit, and Dong Weiguo saw through the truth - Admiral Liang, please think about it, if Deng Ming suddenly becomes easy to fight, will Zhang Chao and Dong Weiguo sue us? Of course not! If they sue us, I may send troops into Jiangxi to fight in the name of acting governor of Liangjiang, and share their credit. Therefore, they will definitely say that Deng Ming is extremely fierce and scares me into fear, so as not to compete with them. Also, even if they are not afraid of me to steal the credit, they will definitely not say that Deng Ming has no combat effectiveness. If Deng Ming's subordinates were really like arrows, and the generals were greedy for money and bribes, then what credit did they have for defeating Deng Ming? ”

"The governor whipped in, and it really made the last general suddenly open." Liang Huafeng praised loudly and convincingly, thinking about it carefully, if you are defeated by the enemy, then you must not say that the enemy is strong, because it is called raising the enemy's morale and destroying your own prestige, it is a loss of face for the court, and it will also make běijīng think that you have lost your courage and have no use value; And if the enemy army is defeated, then you must desperately praise the enemy's strength, and the more invincible the enemy, the greater the credit for yourself. Liang Huafeng has done this before, and after he and Guan Xiaozhong defeated Zheng Chenggong under the city of Nanjing last time, they both sang Zheng Chenggong's praise: Guan Xiaozhong said that there were seventeen battles inside and outside the Guan, and he had never seen such a strong Ming army as Zheng Jun - Guan Ning Army, Western Army and Zheng Army can only be regarded as a bandit underworld compared to Zheng Jun; And Liang Huafeng also said that the Zheng army was orderly, advancing and retreating in an orderly manner, even if the army was defeated, it was not chaotic, and the soldiers walked on the drum when they fled - such a strong army that shook the ancient and modern times was actually defeated by his three thousand sailors of Liang Huafeng, and Liang Huafeng's own bravery can be imagined.

Of course, believe it or not, you have to divide people, Shunzhi Tianzi was very happy after seeing Liang Huafeng's recital, and immediately decided to be promoted by him to the governor of Jiangnan, and let Liang Huafeng's portrait be presented to běijīng Yulan; And after arriving in Nanjing and seeing Liang Huafeng's sailors and cavalry with his own eyes, Da Su was determined to go to Fujian to exterminate Zheng Chenggong - although Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng had been trying their best to flatter him in order to keep Da Su from staying in Jiangnan, and persuaded him to swear to leave Nanjing earlier to fight Zhang Huangyan and Zheng Chenggong. However, Da Su also has a strong desire for this, and estimated the gap between the combat effectiveness of the Songjiang Naval Division and his own troops, even if he needs to cross the sea, Da Su is not afraid, and must share the worries of the imperial court and go to Xiamen to exterminate Zheng Chenggong.

From this, the official knew that Dong Weiguo must not have a good heart, he hoped that the official would believe his big lie, and went to Deng Ming's unhappiness with the idea of beating Deng Ming, but he was beaten by Deng Ming, and found himself unhappy. Hmph, if that's the case, then it's as Dong Weiguo wants. "When facing Deng Ming, a person in the 21st century, Jiang Guozhu often feels constrained and scheming, but when the opponent is Dong Weiguo, who is a teacher and a fellow disciple, Jiang Guozhu can be said to be like a god, and he will tell the other party's plans one by one, just like jīng reading through the mind.

"If it's Jiangxi, it's fine, but Huguang is ...... here" Liang Huafeng felt his heart twitch suddenly, and said nervously: "Even Governor Zhang has colluded with Deng Ming, then Deng Ming must be strong." ”

"It's very powerful, so everything must follow Deng Ming's meaning." Jiang Guozhu sneered again, he carefully read the good news of Huguang and Jiangxi, and they all tried their best to find objective reasons for Deng Ming's failure to win: "You take a good look at their articles, you never dare to say how badly Deng Ming was beaten, Hanyang is Deng Ming's strong attack and did not succeed, and the Chu army and the Jiangxi army only repelled the pursuit of the Ming army, all of them were successful in defense, and none of them took the initiative to attack." Obviously, he was afraid that he would brag too much, so that Deng Ming would not be happy to beat them, do you remember what we said in Nanjing? ”

Of course, Liang Huafeng remembered that when Deng Ming withdrew from the city of Nanjing, the two of them were also very restrained when describing the victory in the recital, only emphasizing the fact that the Ming army had withdrawn, but there was no beheading or seizure. It is because they have ghosts in their hearts, since Deng Ming had hinted in the previous negotiations and said that he did not want his reputation to be damaged too much, the weak-hearted Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng had to do so.

Liang Huafeng picked up the two good news and read them carefully, and found that just as Jiang Guozhu said: The two good news in Huguang and Jiangxi are also similar to the good news they had at the beginning, and they can avoid the results of the battle, and they dare not ridicule and sarcastically mock the enemy.

"It's just Governor Zhang's side, it's just self-preservation, just like us that time, we can be regarded as sympathetic, but Dong Weiguo is here!" Jiang Guozhu's face suddenly became hideous, and his eyes were full of fierceness: "He wants to trap us, this grandson wants to trap his grandfather." ”