Wu Sangui, as the commander-in-chief, of course knew that tens of thousands of old Qing troops stationed in the north of the city looked down on the newly surrendered former Xiying troops, but the hatred between them was not so deep that it was not enough for any general to take advantage of the chaos in Kunming City to sneak attack the Xiying army. Even if there is such a madman who is not afraid of Wu Sangui's military law, not all the generals will be dizzy and lead an army of 50,000 people out together. Most importantly, Wu Sangui knew that no one but himself could mobilize the army.

But Wu Sangui couldn't help but believe it, and carefully questioned the guards on the city tower, and confirmed that it was really the Qing army in the north of the city who sent troops first. Earlier, after Wu Sangui woke up, he had sent his guards out of the city to give orders, and although the guards were stopped and could not leave the city, several people were also eyewitnesses to this conflict, and they confirmed to Wu Sangui that what the guards said was true, and that it was indeed the Qing army that took the lead in attacking the former western army -- for these guards and guards on the upper floor of Kunming City, it was not a great thing for the Xiying to surrender troops and horses out of the camp. First of all, these soldiers and horses are not coming towards Kunming, and it does not seem to be a threatening behavior; Secondly, whether it is the movement of soldiers and horses in the western camp or the lighting of the lights in their camp, it is not too strange, after all, the fire in the city of Kunming, in this case, it is normal for the troops outside the city to enter a state of alert and wait for orders, and the Qing army in the north of the city did this earlier.

Wu Sangui really wanted to send someone to ask the old Qing army outside the city, how dare they act without their own orders? Treating this group of surrendered troops well is not only of military significance to Wu Sangui, but also of political significance. After Wu Sangui entered Guizhou, some troops who were not descendants of Sun Kewang also surrendered to the Qing army under the leadership of the former, not only because the situation in the Southern Ming Dynasty was critical, but also because the Qing army treated these surrendered troops quite well.

Now Kunming has been decided, Yongli Tianzi abandoned the country, Li Dingguo was forced into the barren mountains and mountains and was unable to fight back, a large number of Ming troops surrendered to Wu Sangui because of a complete loss of confidence, he knew that as long as he treated these surrendered troops well and set an example for the remaining Ming army, then the surrendered Ming soldiers and generals would follow one after another. Without these Ming troops' containment of the Qing army, Li Dingguo would be even more unable to resist the key attack of the main force of the Qing army, and Wu Sangui would be able to free up more mobile forces to drive Li Dingguo farther away, making the rest of the remaining Ming army even more desperate. This is like rolling a snowball, this process has already begun, as long as Wu Sangui does not make a mistake, then Li Dingguo will not be able to stop the snowball from rolling, no matter how capable he is, in the end he can only watch himself being crushed to death.

Wu Sangui explained this truth to his generals, and explained it very clearly to them: as long as these surrendered former Western battalions are treated well, there will be no need to fight tough battles in the future. You may not even need to fight the battle yourself, just let these surrendered troops go into battle, and you can sit back and watch others work hard for you.

Wu Sangui finally recruited 30,000 Xiying troops, he didn't understand why the Qing army in the north of the city was stupid to attack them, if it really made a big deal - it was more than 30,000 Xiying troops, spread out, people in the world would definitely think that they were killing and surrendering in the pit, not only the remnants of the Ming army would fight to the death in the future, but even the Ming army that had surrendered elsewhere would also be unstable.

Although some battle scenes could be seen with the help of the fires rising from the city of Kunming, there was chaos outside the city, and it was difficult to find where the command flags of each battalion were, and it was very difficult to get in touch with the generals of each battalion. Although it is difficult, it is still necessary to do it as much as possible, and what Wu Sangui wants is to restore the control of the army outside the city, so that they will not kill each other inexplicably.

……

At this time, the perpetrator was far away from Kunming, and the Kunming burning behind him was like a torch in the vast night.

"Is this what we set on fire?" Li Xinghan and others frequently turned back, the current scene in Kunming made them happy and also surprised, half of the sky was reflected in the fire, Li Xinghan was still a little puzzled: "We went out of the city directly, we didn't go to the city to set fire everywhere." ”

"It's better than if we go to the city and set a fire, there aren't hundreds of people who can't afford to light such a fire." Deng Ming said. He didn't expect the fire to be so big at first, but no matter how big the fire was, it would eventually be extinguished, after all, there were nearly 100,000 Qing troops inside and outside Kunming. He urged his companion to hurry up and leave.

There were still bursts of shouts and fighting in the distance, and Deng Ming estimated that his authorized action had been effective, and at the moment it was probably the Xiying army was fighting with the Qing army. Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui have both been in battle for a long time, and others may be helpless against this situation of chaotic battles at night, but the two of them are experienced, and they will soon be able to gather the rebels and suppress the Xiying, at most, they will be in a hurry for a while. There is no unified command of the Xiying army, and if it does not surrender, it may be wiped out soon.

And there are also Zhao Liangdong's troops. I have been to several Qing army camps just now, and Deng Ming has the deepest impression of Zhao Liangdong's camp, just from the outside of a hurried observation, you can see that it is different and orderly. After learning from the guards that it was Zhao Liangdong's barracks, Deng Ming made an excuse and turned to leave. Because he knew that with such a military discipline, it would be in vain to falsely pass on orders in the absence of the commander. In any case, now that the two armies are exchanging fire, Wu Sangui, Zhao Liangdong and others will definitely support the old Qing army, and Zhao Liangdong's soldiers and horses will be the new force to attack the Xiying army.

Zhou Kaihuang heard Deng Ming sigh, and asked a little strangely, "How can Mr. still sympathize with those traitors?" ”

"It has been more than ten years since the Tartars entered the customs, and it is really not easy for the soldiers of the Xiying to persist to this day. These Xiying soldiers who remained in Yunnan were even more embarrassed than the Jianchang army, and if the Son of Heaven did not abandon the country, and they still had a commander in command, I think most of them would not surrender. ”

However, although Deng Ming sympathized with them, in any case, even if they were wiped out by the Qing army under the city of Kunming, it would be stronger than watching them attack Li Dingguo.

"Xiying will either surrender soon, or be wiped out by Wu Sangui. There will be fewer soldiers from the Western Battalion who surrender, and there will be fewer forwards sent by Wu thieves to attack King Jin in the future. Deng Ming hardened his heart and no longer thought too much about the fate of the Xiying army, with Wu Sangui and Hong Chengchou presiding, their end was already doomed. This operation helped Li Dingguo a little: "Then the Qing army will do its best to put out the fire, if the Xiying can delay for a while, then the loss of the Qing army will be greater, and the pressure on the King of Jin will be lighter." ”

Wu Sangui will not be able to end the chaos inside and outside Kunming until dawn at the earliest, and when he finds out Deng Mingji's identity and issues an urgent military intelligence order to intercept along the way, it will be in the afternoon.

"Hurry up, we have to rush back to Dongchuan Mansion as much as possible."

Wu Sangui's status as a pro-soldier may be able to be used for a day today, but tomorrow I am afraid that he will have to use the brand of Baoning Qianzong. I don't know if Boring Qianzong's waist card will be intercepted tomorrow. If possible, perhaps find an opportunity to ambush a messenger to see how Wu Sangui would inform the various places, and leave a letter for Wu Sangui before leaving Yunnan.

……

"It's all Hong Jingluo'......" Wu Sangui complained softly while instructing the city gate guards to open the city gate. He felt that it was all to blame Hong Chengchou for giving the order to block the city gate, otherwise his guards might be able to rush to the camp of the generals outside the city in time - in fact, it was still too late, but Wu Sangui felt that there was a chance, at least he could stop a few, so as not to make trouble like this.

As soon as the three words "Hong Jingluo" came out, it seemed that a lightning bolt suddenly crossed in front of Wu Sangui's eyes, tearing open the fog in front of him, and he felt that he had caught some clues, and today's events seemed to have a lot to do with Hong Chengchou.

That's right, Wu Sangui felt that it was impossible for the generals outside the city to go crazy collectively, and they must have been instructed by someone to do so. And who can command these 50,000 Qing troops? There is only one person who can mobilize the army except himself, and that is Hong Chengchou. Wu Sangui asked himself, even if he wanted to order the Qing army in the north of the city to raid the surrendered army in the south of the city, he also needed to spend time explaining to them, explaining the reasons, and letting them see the merits and benefits, otherwise who would be willing to fight and work hard? Except for Hong Chengchou and Wu Sangui himself, there is no third person who can command so many generals to send troops. Who supported these generals and made them dare to disobey their military orders?

Wu Sangui felt his heart contract all of a sudden, his complaining words stopped abruptly, his hand hanging in the air, thinking nervously. The more he thought about it, the more terrifying Wu Sangui felt, because there were some generals outside the city who were his confidants...... Could it be that Hong Chengchou has brought them all under control?

Wu Sangui didn't think that Hong Chengchou had the ability to make all the generals betray him, maybe this was why Hong Chengchou wanted to block the city gate, and he also specifically explained that Wu Sangui's personal soldiers were not allowed to go out of the city, and they had to verify their identity. He is trying to cut off the traffic and communication between inside and outside the city.

Wu Sangui suddenly found that all his doubts were solved

Why can you set fire to an arsenal? Obviously, it was arranged by Hong Chengchou, since he coordinated it, of course it was very easy, and this fire was mostly to contain Wu Sangui's attention. As for his own soldiers and the unlucky Baoning Qianzong, it is likely that they happened to break through Hong Chengchou's arrangement and have been wiped out, so they have never returned. Wu Sangui never believed in Li Ming's arson, that Baoning Qianzong just happened to enter Kunming City, what could he premeditate?

As for attacking the Xiying army outside the city, Wu Sangui felt that there might be two reasons, first, these Western troops were recruited by him Wu Sangui, and they were also controlled by him, and if they achieved war exploits in the future, they would be recorded in Wu Sangui's name, and if they eliminated these Western troops and labeled them as a rebellion at night, they could fundamentally negate Wu Sangui's achievements; Second, there should still be some generals in these armies who are inclined to Wu Sangui, and Hong Chengchou can only use a war to control them first, and then try to completely control them.

"Why did Hong Chengchou deal with me?" Although he couldn't answer this question, Wu Sangui didn't delay much, and he immediately began to guess the other party's hole cards: "Isn't he afraid of the court asking for guilt when he does this, or is he authorized by the court to do this?" ”

Wu Sangui quickly denied the latter question, if there was an instruction from the Qing court, then Hong Chengchou would not have to be so troublesome. However, since the mastermind behind the scenes is Hong Chengchou, and the target is himself, Wu Sangui immediately realized what to do now. He glanced at the soldiers around him, and there were Jinglu's guards holding Hong Chengchou's arrows on this city tower, Wu Sangui made a look, and with a light shout, the guards behind him pounced and grabbed these Hong Chengchou's people.

"Tell me, where is Hong Jingluo now?" Wu Sangui asked coldly. Hong Chengchou may be in charge of affairs outside the city, trying to use this fire to cover up his whereabouts and completely attract his attention to the city of Kunming.

Hong Chengchou's personal guards opened their mouths one by one, not understanding what was happening. Wu Sangui's fierce gaze moved away from them, and swept over the stunned city tower guards, and suddenly he saw Zhao Liangdong hiding by the wall.

Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong have not been working together for a long time, and Zhao Liangdong has been working under Hong Chengchou before. Because Wu Sangui felt that he and Hong Chengchou had the same ambitions, they needed the two of them to work together in the major matter of exterminating the Ming army, plus their appreciation of Zhao Liangdong's military talent, and they always regarded Zhao Liangdong as their own: "What order will he receive tonight?" Did Hong Chengchou put it next to me and stumble over me? ”

After waking up, Zhao Liangdong also felt that tonight's affairs were unprecedentedly messy, just now Wu Sangui spit out the three words "Hong Jingluo" and suddenly stopped moving, Zhao Liangdong was reminded, and had similar doubts as Wu Sangui. But when Wu Sangui suddenly made it difficult to hold Hong Chengchou's personal guards, how could Zhao Liangdong not understand what was going on, this must be the internal strife launched by Hong Chengchou!

Zhao Liangdong dared to swear that he had never participated in this conspiracy, and he was equally saddened by the fighting outside the city. In order to win over these surrendered Xiying generals, he spent a lot of effort; Zhao Liangdong also determined that except for Wu Sangui and Hong Chengchou, there was no third person in the entire Kunming City who could launch this mutiny. Although Zhao Liangdong was appointed as the commander of the expeditionary force outside the city and was about to lead the army to set off, he could not convince the generals to disobey Wu Sangui's military order and attack the Xiying troops that had just surrendered.

After finding himself in a dangerous whirlpool, Zhao Liangdong quietly and slowly moved his steps to the wall, trying to move to the side of the steps and slip down the city tower unconsciously, trying to escape back to the military camp outside his city, and then close the gate and never come out, until the winner is decided in the city of Kunming, and then lose his sincerity to the winner.

Every time he took a small step back, Zhao Liangdong felt that he was a little farther away from this terrible whirlpool, but unfortunately, it was obvious that one foot had already touched the edge of the steps, but it was discovered by Wu Sangui. As soon as he made contact with Wu Sangui's fierce gaze, Zhao Liangdong knew that he had no chance to stay out of the way, and he had to make a choice at this time.

"Dashuai Mingjian, the last general doesn't know anything about this, if there is half a lie, there will be five thunders in the sky!" Zhao Liangdong's reaction was extremely fast, and he fell to his knees with a pop, and swore a curse. Zhao Liangdong also didn't understand what Hong Chengchou was trying to do, did he want to murder Wu Sangui and monopolize the credit for pacifying the southwest? It is not impossible to make such a great achievement, even if it is a feudal town that is named a secession party by the imperial court, I really don't see it, Hong Jingluo is really old-hearted, Zhao Liangdong muttered in his heart.

Wu Sangui stared at Zhao Liangdong and thought twice, it was unlikely that this person was involved in Hong Chengchou's plot against him. Zhao Liangdong drank a lot of wine at the dinner, and Wu Sangui did put a lot of effort into winning over Zhao Liangdong, and he felt that Hong Chengchou couldn't take more credit to buy this person. In the end, Wu Sangui thought of Li Ming again, this matter was likely to be made into a black pot by Hong Chengchou, and told the court that his own soldiers and Zhao Liangdong's subordinates set fire to Kunming, so it seems that Zhao Liangdong is also in Hong Chengchou's calculations.

"I am loyal to the emperor and the court, this is a framing of loyalty." Wu Sangui put on a sad expression and said to Zhao Liangdong, he felt that whether Hong Chengchou planned to use Li Ming to frame Zhao Liangdong or wanted to threaten Zhao Liangdong with this handle, it showed that Zhao Liangdong was not Hong Chengchou's person now.

"Exactly, exactly, the last general dares to ask the marshal to write to the court to make it clear, and the last general dares to ask the letter to be named."

Zhao Liangdong felt that Hong Chengchou's move was too risky, although it can be said that Wu Sangui rebelled and colluded with Li Dingguo in Xiying to seize Kunming and return Yongli, but will the court believe this kind of big lie? Hong Chengchou is scheming, since he dares to make a move, there will definitely be a series of vicious killing tricks behind him. Zhao Liangdong really didn't want to get involved in the troubled waters of the competition between Wu Sangui and Hong Chengchou, but he couldn't pass Wu Sangui without showing his attitude, but after showing his attitude, Zhao Liangdong had only one way to go down. He immediately said: "The last general still has a battalion of soldiers and horses outside the city, and no one can move the arrows without the last general's order, and the last general is willing to send a personal soldier to call them into the city." ”

Zhao Liangdong put himself in Wu Sangui's shoes for a while, and the top priority at the moment was to ensure Kunming, control the army at hand and ensure Wu Sangui's safety. And Hong Chengchou's biggest opportunity is to take advantage of the chaos to kill Wu Sangui, as long as Wu Sangui can hold on until daytime and let the officers and soldiers outside the city see him clearly, then Hong Chengchou will not be able to kill people. No matter what Hong Chengchou's reason is, as long as this lawsuit goes to the imperial court, Wu Sangui does not seem to lose, most likely Hong Chengchou will be unlucky, and the worst case is that the imperial court will play fifty boards each, so that they can continue to work together.

Wu Sangui also pondered like this, but he also knew that Hong Chengchou was powerful, and the other party's attack tonight was a very trivial move, burning Kunming and triggering a scuffle of 80,000 troops outside the city. Hong Chengchou made such a big move, I don't know what means will be used next, maybe there is a killer weapon to kill himself.

Wu Sangui nodded in agreement and rushed to the north gate with Zhao Liangdong. On the way, Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong's drunkenness disappeared a little, and they began to doubt the judgment just now: Hong Chengchou is an important minister of the state, what is he burning Kunming? However, no matter how you look at it, the mobilization of troops and the burning of the city are related, and it is unlikely that two groups of people will create chaos at the same time so coincidentally.

After the two arrived at the north gate, Wu Sangui immediately called the officers of the city gate tower to inquire about the situation again. These people also said that they saw the Qing army leave the barracks on their own initiative and march south. After listening to this, Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong concluded that someone was mobilizing the army, and since it was not Wu Sangui, it could only be Hong Chengchou. If the army was mobilized by Hong Chengchou, then he also did the arson -- it couldn't have been someone else's fire, and then Hong Chengchou suddenly dispatched troops to attack the barracks in the south of the city as soon as he saw that Kunming was on fire, right? This old guy has cheated a lot of people in his life, and he can be regarded as an old jiān cunning, Wu Sangui feels that safety comes first, and he must not be careless.

After seeing that Zhao Liangdong's military camp was indeed safe and sound from the city, Wu Sangui changed his mind: "No, don't let the soldiers go to give orders. ”

Wu Sangui knew that Zhao Liangdong wanted to gain his trust, but who dared to say that Hong Chengchou did not ambush Zhao Liangdong outside his military camp, or had already bribed one of his generals? Zhao Liangdong's personal soldiers went back with the arrows, just to give this battalion of soldiers and horses to Hong Chengchou. Wu Sangui knew that the current shape was extremely dangerous, and he didn't dare to explain his suspicions of Hong Chengchou to everyone at present, so he could only mobilize troops under the pretext of extinguishing the fire, and first firmly control the various city gates. In such a large city, except for the unreliable and uncontrollable rebels, Wu Sangui's troops in his hands were still very tight

Zhao Liangdong's thousands of subordinates plus Wu Sangui's headquarters, this is an important bargaining chip for whether you can hold out until dawn, now bet on whether Zhao Liangdong is willing to advance and retreat with him, Wu Sangui said: "I'll go with the general." ”

Letting Zhao Liangdong return to the camp can ensure that the army is controlled, and going with him is not only to ensure Zhao Liangdong's safety, but also to prevent Wu Sangui from closing the camp gate after Zhao Liangdong returns to the camp in advance, and no longer cares about the life or death of him and Hong Chengchou.

After ordering a close general to guard the city gate for him, Wu Sangui hurriedly rode with Zhao Liangdong to his military camp. In the chaos, it was not easy to see the main general return to the camp, Zhao Liangdong's generals were surprised and happy, Wu Sangui did not give them time to ask, and impatiently urged Zhao Liangdong to quickly lead the troops into the city.

With Wu Sangui supervising on the side, Zhao Liangdong no longer hesitated, and immediately ordered the whole army to enter the city.

Now the tens of thousands of Qing troops in the south of the city are still fighting fiercely, and someone is urgently needed to command the whole army, but Wu Sangui thought that they were under the command of Hong Chengchou at this time, so he did not plan to run inside - in the case of not being able to see Hong Chengchou's means clearly, Wu Sangui decided to brake quietly.

After entering the city, Wu Sangui felt that his safety was already guaranteed, so he sent a few of his cronies to let them go out of the city with his arrows. Outside the city, some generals Wu Sangui thought that they would definitely obey his orders, so he asked these cronies to find these troops and ask them to stop fighting with Xiying and return to the camp.

Now Wu Sangui plans to carefully restore his control over the army, so that his subordinates can withdraw from the senseless engagement, and as for the problem of fighting fires...... Now where does Wu Sangui still have the heart to consider the fire in Kunming City?