At this time, outside the city of Kunming, Deng Ming and the others had already run to the third Qing army camp in the north of the city.

Like the first two, this is also the camp of Wu Sangui's old Qing army, and the Qing troops in the camp are also alarmed by the fire and noise that appeared in the city of Kunming, and there are a large number of soldiers standing in the open space within the camp wall, they are looking at the red light over the city, their faces are full of horror and uneasiness.

Galloping close to the camp gate, after Deng Ming showed the waist card to the guards, someone immediately rushed in to report, and several other guards opened the camp gate and busily brought Deng Ming and his party in.

The Chinese army tent is already brightly lit at the moment, and the chief general has gathered a battalion of officers to discuss what is going on in Kunming City. Originally, the general thought that it might be an ordinary fire, and sent a team of soldiers to ask Kunming if they needed to enter the city to help extinguish the fire. However, the appearance of the guards of the Kunming city gate makes people feel a little strange, the city gates are heavily guarded, and the guards sent by the generals heard the people on the city tower shouting, saying that Hong Jingluo strictly forbids the city gate to enter and exit.

When the general and his officers heard this report, they all felt a little strange in tonight's events, there were no people in the city, there were no enemy troops outside the city, and they didn't understand why Kunming suddenly put on the appearance of a great enemy, and also cut off the communication inside and outside the city.

Some people suspect that there is a fine arson, but in the case that the Yongli court has fled far away, and there is no Ming army near Kunming, the Qing army generals can't think of which people will come to Kunming to wreak havoc, and they can't even understand how the Qing army outside the city can't enter the city, and how the fine work mixed into Kunming City and made such a big move. Hearing that King Pingxi's personal guards had come outside the camp, the people in the Chinese military tent immediately breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that they could solve all the mysteries and find out what was going on in the city.

After Deng Ming was introduced into the Chinese military tent, he immediately took out the arrow of the king of Pingxi. As in the first two camps, Deng Ming didn't answer the people's gossip questions at all, but quickly spit out the words he had thought of: "Earlier, there were people in Kunming City who were in turmoil, and the marshal has almost cleaned them up, and soon there will be nothing in the city." The marshal was worried about the instability of the newly surrendered Former Ming army outside the city, and had ordered them to stay in the camp and not go out. The commander ordered the general to monitor the nearest area, and if they made any moves, the general could act cheaply. ”

Hearing that there were rebels in the city, the camp tent exploded all of a sudden, and there was a buzz all around Deng Ming, but he turned a deaf ear to this, and finished what he had to say in one breath.

"Who is in the city making trouble?" The general patiently listened to Deng Ming's words, and then asked. During this period, he had been carefully observing Deng Ming's outfit.

"It's just a few thieves, the general doesn't have to think about Kunming." After saying that, Deng Ming surrendered his hand, and refused to stay for a moment, so he said goodbye to the general: "I have to go to other places to give orders and retire." ”

Seeing that Deng Ming's tone was so tight, the general knew that the other party would not answer if he asked again, so he nodded and returned Wu Sangui's order arrow to him. Deng Ming bowed to the Qing general again, then turned and strode out of the tent.

The Qing army general walked to the door, watched Deng Ming turn over and get on his horse, and watched a group of more than a dozen people roar away.

"Who's messing around?"

After Deng Ming left, several stunned young officers were still discussing, while the more stable ones looked at the direction of Deng Ming's departure with their generals thoughtfully.

"It seems that there is a lot of chaos in the city." The general sighed, and he said to the few subordinates who had not yet understood: "Don't you see the outfits of these personal guards? ”

If the shape in the city is really as relaxed as the guard just said, the general feels that Deng Ming does not need to be so tight-mouthed, and the armed outfit of Deng Ming and his party makes the general's heart even more uneasy, in the past, Wu Sangui's personal guards would only be seen dressed like this on the battlefield, and now the personal guards of the King of Pingxi are ready to work hard, can the things in this city be small?

Moreover, there were tens of thousands of newly surrendered Ming troops outside the city, and Wu Sangui did not point out which one was unstable, but asked the Qing army to monitor nearby, which shows that the king of Pingxi did not grasp the form, and the overall situation was quite chaotic. If something goes wrong with these tens of thousands of troops, and there is already a Neiying entering the city, then tonight's matter can't be stopped.

Thinking of this, the general felt that he was starting to sweat, he didn't dare to delay, and hurriedly dispatched his troops, preparing to go out of the camp to monitor the troops of the battalion closest to him. At such a critical moment, he must show himself well in front of King Pingxi, and he must not let Wu Dashuai down.

Just as going to the arsenal to set fire to the arsenal was Deng Ming's temporary idea, going to these barracks to fake orders was also an idea that came to him on the way out of the city. Just now he saw that Wu Sangui was already drunk, and after the fire broke out in the city, it was estimated that he would not immediately think of who did it, and most of them would think that it was an accident. If a drunken person encounters an accidental fire, Wu Sangui will definitely use all his jīng power to direct the firefighting first, which is an opportunity to further create chaos for the Qing army outside the city.

Deng Ming heard that the officers and soldiers of the Xiying who had just surrendered were about to be sent to attack Li Dingguo, and they were all deployed in several camps southwest of the city, separate from Wu Sangui's old Qing army. I don't know who the generals of the Qing army are, so I can't make up specific orders, I can only fake some very vague orders, and let the Qing army guess for themselves. At first, Deng Ming felt that such an order might not be effective, but during the time of rest outside the city, Deng Ming thought about it carefully and found that he still had a chance.

There is a sentence about the judgment of people Deng Ming remembers very clearly, that is, "anyone who has power will abuse power", Deng Ming felt that if a clear order was conveyed to the Qing army generals and asked them to attack and surrender the army, it would not be easy to succeed, such an order was not trivial, and the Qing army generals would definitely be very cautious to ask for details to understand why Wu Sangui made such a decision.

And once the details are involved, Deng Ming feels that the possibility of revealing the stuffing will be greatly increased. And if these Qing generals were given the right to "act cheaply" in the name of Wu Sangui, it would be a very reasonable order, and it would also avoid giving details. More importantly, the Qing generals were more than willing to accept such an order, because it implied Wu Sangui's trust in the appointed generals, and the Qing generals could feel a kind of affirmation of their own ability and judgment - who doesn't like compliments? Who thinks they are incompetent and untrustworthy? Therefore, Deng Ming did not hesitate to send the full trust of the king of Pingxi to the Qing army in the battalions outside the city.

Progress was smoother than Deng Ming had imagined, and no of the generals questioned the orders Deng Ming had brought with him—and sure enough, no one thought that they were not worthy of the trust of the King of Pingxi. Very good, what we have to do now is to give them a chance to abuse their power, or rather, to give them a chance to live up to the trust of King Pingxi.

Leaving the northern city, Deng Ming hurried to the south of the city, where all the troops of the former Xiying were stationed, Deng Ming noticed that the atmosphere here was also quite tense, and it was obvious that they had also noticed the changes in Kunming City.

This time, Deng Ming did not enter the barracks, not even close to the camp wall, but stood far away with his own team, not even getting off the horse, just raising Wu Sangui's arrow at the opposite side. Zhou Kaihuang lit up the arrow in Deng Ming's hand with a torch, and shouted for the generals who led the army inside to come out and answer. After someone on the camp wall reported that he was the master of this camp, Deng Ming immediately shouted to the camp wall: "The king of Pingxi has an order, there is a fire in Kunming, in order to avoid harming you, immediately pull out the camp and camp twenty miles south!" ”

After shouting three times in a row, Deng Ming put away the arrow he was holding and ran away from the camp with his men.

Seeing that the heavily armed Wu Sangui guards disappeared into the night, the general of the western camp on the camp wall stood silently for a long time, and finally gave an order to the guards behind him: "Order, pull out the camp, set off overnight, and go twenty miles to the south." ”

"My lord, it's the middle of the night!" After hearing the order, many of the guards cried out in dissatisfaction. After witnessing Wu Sangui's personal guard giving such an impertinent order with that arrogant and arrogant attitude, many people were on fire in their hearts, and when they saw that the commander really wanted to obey the order, they were about to explode their chests one by one.

"I don't know what's going on in Kunming City, but it must be a big deal." The Admiral whispered. After seeing Wu Sangui's obvious combat posture, he was even more convinced that something big had happened in Kunming City. As a general who had just surrendered, he knew that the Qing army must be doubting himself. Wu Sangui's previous order to let them attack Li Dingguo as a vanguard was actually a kind of humiliation, but since they had surrendered, they had to swallow their anger when they encountered any kind of insult. Seeing these henchmen of the King of Pingxi today, he didn't even intend to hide his suspicions, and this general felt even more desolate, just for the sake of the lives of many subordinates, he couldn't help but bow his head: "King Pingxi won't let us stay on the edge of Kunming City, let's go, isn't it time to provoke King Pingxi?" ”

Deng Ming, the other barracks of the Xiying Army, also handled it in this way, putting on a posture of "The king of Pingxi can't believe you, now there is something in Kunming City, I don't want to see you nearby, you have to get out of me even if you are in a dark hurry." ".

Maybe some people will be ordered to leave, and some people will be angry and just not leave, but even if they don't leave, even if there is no conflict between the old Qing army and the new surrendered army, Deng Ming will not have any losses, just some words in vain. Moreover, Wu Sangui must have made some effort to explain the situation to these generals afterwards, explaining to them that someone had falsely passed on the order, not that he himself was suspecting them. If Wu Sangui was not forced to do this, he would have worked hard to set a fire, but maybe Wu Sangui would cover it up and say that it was an accident. As long as Wu Sangui can be forced to expose the truth, it is equivalent to making an advertisement for Deng Ming. In short, it's a no-lose deal.

……

The fire came straight to the grain depot, and looking at the ten-meter-high flames, the Qing soldiers felt their scalps tingle. The commander of the barracks and the steward of the grain depot, as well as the hundreds of soldiers and guards under their command, all of them opened their mouths wide and could not say a word when they looked at the flames.

Seeing that everyone was about to disperse in a hurry, at this moment, a group of men and horses suddenly galloped over, and the general led by shouted loudly: "Lord Jingluo has arrived!" ”

The person who came was the Jingluo personal guard led by Hong Chengchou.

Hong Chengchou changed his clothes and walked out of the mansion, and someone came to report that the fire near the arsenal was no longer controllable, and the soldiers stationed near the arsenal had fled the fire to the upwind area, and several teams of people and horses sent by Hong Chengchou to assist were also blocked by the flames, and they couldn't get close to the arsenal at all, and one of the teams was also isolated by the rapidly developing flames, and now the whole team has lost their news and their lives and deaths are unknown.

What shocked Hong Chengchou even more was that the fire was about to burn to the grain depot. The general attack on Li Dingguo was imminent, and not only did tens of thousands of troops outside the city go out to take away a lot of food, but also needed continuous supplies. If the grain in Kunming is burned, it will not be easy to raise enough grain and grass from war-torn Yunnan.

It was a matter of whether the offensive that was about to be launched could be launched -- it would certainly not be able to be launched, and it would be good if this offensive could be launched as scheduled now -- Hong Chengchou immediately made a decision and led his personal guards to the grain depot at full speed to supervise the formation.

Hong Chengchou found that he had arrived at the right time, the fire had spread, and the Qing army around the grain depot looked like a group of frightened toads, only to see stupidly open mouth drooling, no one stood up to try to defend the grain depot.

"Tear down all the houses on this street in front of you at once." After arriving at the scene, Hong Chengchou did not hesitate and immediately began to give orders. He pointed to the block between the grain depot and the fire, and ordered the commander of the barracks to lead all five hundred soldiers to come forward at once and clear a fire belt.

"Organize people to form a long queue to carry water and splash the soil on this street." After Hong Chengchou finished speaking, he immediately turned around and explained the task to the warehouse manager behind him: "Also, lift water at full speed, wet all the front of the warehouse, water the ground, and don't have an inch of dry land." ”

Now I don't care if the grain will be affected by cháo, no matter what, I have to keep the warehouse first.

Hong Chengchou kept giving orders in the fastest voice. He had many experiences in fire prevention and firefighting, and although tonight's appearance looked particularly bad, it was not the first time that Hong Chengchou had encountered an unprecedented bad situation, and most of them were reversed by his experience, determination and will.

"I bulldozed the house in front of me, moved the wood to the left and right, and caused the fire." Hong Chengchou thought as he spoke, he estimated that the soldiers would have a lot of casualties, but no matter how big the loss was compared to the grain depot, it was worth it. The materials stored in the grain depot are related to the great cause of the emperor's unification, and compared with such a great cause, it is worth paying any loss.

Once the fire is drawn away from the front, Hong Chengchou intends to continue to bulldoze the blocks on both sides, and finally form a ring fire barrier around the grain depot, which does not completely guarantee the safety of the grain depot, after all, the fire on the opposite side looks too amazing. However, Hong Chengchou will also make every effort to organize people to pour water on the fire belt, as long as he persists, the fire will eventually get smaller and smaller, and it will ...... Hong Chengchou looked up at the yīn clouds in the sky, maybe a heavy rain would come in a moment.

……

While Deng Ming kept pretending to give orders and Hong Chengchou urgently organized firefighting, Wu Sangui was desperately pouring cold water on his face. After getting drunk, he didn't sleep for half an hour when he was woken up by the guards. The loud noise from the arsenal did not wake Wu Sangui up, and when the fire first broke out, the henchmen and generals ordered to put out the fire on their own, and they had no intention of waking Wu Sangui up at that time. But the fierceness of the fire caught everyone off guard, not only failed to control it, but also spread to a large area of the city in a blink of an eye, and the generals and guards no longer dared to do anything on their own, and hurriedly woke up Wu Sangui.

Even frightened, Wu Sangui's wine had woken up a lot, but he still felt that his head was still groggy. After hearing that there was a big explosion in the arsenal, Wu Sangui was full of doubts: this city is full of his own people, it is impossible to have a detailed work, there are many fire prevention measures inside the arsenal, even the lanterns are specially made, and there are hundreds of soldiers stationed nearby just in case, how can a big explosion occur, and let the fire spread unhindered?

After repeatedly confirming that the fire was burned from the arsenal, Wu Sangui suddenly remembered that he seemed to have sent someone to the arsenal, and when he asked about it, he hurriedly summoned the personal guard to see him, but the left and right replied that the personal guard went out and did not come back, and they thought that they were dragged to drink by Bao Ning Qianzong, that is, Zhao Liangdong's new subordinates.

"These bastards, no, these two bastards." Wu Sangui scolded, and he began to suspect that the accident was related to his own personal guards and Zhao Liangdong's new subordinates.

Not long after, Zhao Liangdong ran into the Pingxi Mansion in disheveled clothes. Today, he did not go out of the city after drinking, but rested in Kunming. In the past, Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong rarely drank alcohol, but this time it was to entertain Hong Chengchou and practice it for Zhao Liangdong, who was about to go on the expedition. Now Zhao Liangdong is also shouting bad luck in his stomach. Yongli fled to Burma, and the surrounding Ming army either fled and surrendered, and it was peaceful for several months, how could it be that after a little relaxation and drinking, it suddenly caught fire?

Seeing that the fire was burning more and more, Hong Chengchou sent someone to inform Jing Luo that he had personally rushed to the grain depot to supervise the battle. Overseer! Hong Chengchou has already used this word to describe the danger of the form. Wu Sangui considered whether it was necessary to summon troops from outside the city into the city to help put out the fire, and he shook his head vigorously, trying his best to expel the heavy discomfort.

Wu Sangui did not mobilize the troops to surrender, nor did he mobilize the battalions of soldiers and horses that he felt were not good in military discipline, but selectively selected a few generals who he considered to be both reliable and loyal. For a while, the arrows were fired, and the guards rushed out of the Pingxi Mansion with Wu Sangui's password. Wu Sangui hurried up and drank a few cups of tea, not only to sober up, but now Wu Sangui's head hurts and his throat is also very uncomfortable.

The guards came back many times faster than Wu Sangui imagined. He was surprised that they had come back in a blink of an eye, but he didn't expect the guards to shout first: they were all blocked at the city gate, and the people armed with Hong Chengchou's arrows argued with them, saying that they would not be allowed to leave the city.

Along with these guards, there were also the guards of the city gate tower, who did not dare to offend either Hong Chengchou's people or Wu Sangui's people, and they were sandwiched between the two groups of generals and said good things vigorously. They came with them to verify their identities -- Hong Chengchou's guards said that they could leave the city after verifying their identities.

Wu Sangui's face sank, and he was about to be furious, when he suddenly felt shocked and turned to look at Zhao Liangdong. The latter had just drunk the sobering soup, and he was also pondering the meaning of Hong Chengchou's order, and both of them knew that Hong Chengchou was not a ridiculous and confused person.

Before the two had time to exchange opinions, suddenly another pro-soldier stumbled into the door and howled at Wu Sangui: "Dashuai, it's not good!" There was a fight outside the city, and the shouts of killing shook the heavens and the earth! ”