Hu Guozhu was half a horse's head behind Li Laiheng and accompanied the newly promoted prince on the official road to Kunming.

Although Huang Li briefly summoned him, Hu Guozhu still didn't fully understand the prince's temperament. Along the way, he asked Li Laiheng from time to time.

"General Hu has also won the imperial examination. He is very knowledgeable!" Li Laiheng looked back at Hu Guozhu and said with a smile: "But knowledge alone is not enough. His Royal Highness has traveled overseas and has extensive knowledge. It can be said that he knows everything."

Hu Guozhu nodded repeatedly and praised: "I have heard this for a long time. Reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles. How can I dare to compare with your highness with this little knowledge?"

Li Laiheng smiled and said: "That's not entirely correct. His Highness still attaches great importance to the learned. He even asked the Governor's Office to formulate the regulations of the military night school so that every soldier can be literate and hyphenated."<

/p>

Hu Guozhu was extremely shocked and asked: "Why is this? The soldiers are just following orders to fight, why do they need to be literate?"

Li Laiheng pursed his lips and said: "Literacy has its uses. It can read letters and orders, and it can write battle summaries. When a soldier becomes literate, he can write his own name, understand notices, and understands loyalty to the emperor and patriotism.

”

Hu Guozhu nodded in understanding and said: "His Royal Highness is very thoughtful and considerate, which is admirable."

It stands to reason that Li Laiheng was born in the Shun Army and had a deep hatred for Wu Jun. However, Wu Sangui was dead and Huang Li granted him a posthumous title, which made Li Laiheng think differently in addition to his heartache.

Going to Kunming after this trip, Hu Guozhu believed that it was also a test for him by the palace, or that he showed his broad mind to blame the past.

"Your Majesty, it will take about two to eight months to stabilize Yunnan. You must try your best to guard Huangli." Li Laiheng's expression was very solemn, and he put away his usual irritability.

The other Qing army was composed of the newly appointed Xi'an General Warka and Anxi General He Ye, and the deputy general Hu Libu led the four banners with more than 10,000 troops. In addition, Gansu Admiral Zhang Yong and the general Sun Sike led more than 80,000 troops.

Retreat to Hanzhong, occupy Chaotian Pass, and contain Huang Li and Liu Xiang.

This was for fear that the Green Camp troops would mutiny or even rebel due to lack of food and pay, causing the Four Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia to repeat the same mistakes as the Four Banners of the Banners.

In the Little Governor's Mansion, Li Laiheng, Liu Tichun, and Wang Guangxing were all there, and they were still discussing the military deployment to ensure that nothing went wrong.

However, Sichuan Dong was satisfied and said with a smile: "It's not bad enough yet. It's time to put some medicine on it. In a few days, if the arsenal is damaged, you will lead the army to Zhenyuan."
p>

In order to revive Xiao Ming, the palace can even resolve the hatred between the emperor and his father. If I, Hu Guozhu, still remember the old hatred, wouldn't it be disappointing?

It took a long time for Chuandong to return to Guiyang. Although his injuries have not recovered, he still put in work to integrate and train the troops left behind.

Of course, if you deploy fewer soldiers and more generals, you will need much less food. According to the arrangements of the Qing court, the Ministry of Household Affairs is responsible for preparing food and wages in advance to ensure that the food and wages for small soldiers arrive.

At that time, there were 884 Manchu auxiliary collars, 707 Mongolian auxiliary collars, and 788 Han army auxiliary collars.

In order to achieve the goal of eradication, the Qing government also deployed 8,000 elite firearms battalions from the Four Banners of the Forbidden Brigade, as well as the Han Army Artillery Battalion carrying hundreds of heavy artillery pieces.

The production speed of the arsenal is still steadily increasing, and bronze-cast artillery and rifles, as well as a small amount of rockets, have not yet become the main weapons.

I can also see the thoughts of the newly promoted princes. It can be said that they want to retreat, but they are actively seeking credit and are content to sit at the front.

The haze of war is still there, but that is something we cannot change. We can only hope that Liu Xiang can resist the Qing army.

In less than two months, the first season of farming will be harvested, which will ensure the food and grass materials needed by the army, enough to stabilize the morale of the army.

After the recovery of Yunnan and Guizhou, Huang Li eliminated the threats on both sides; with the natural danger of the Eight Gorges in hand, Yu could be protected in the east, and he only had to concentrate on dealing with the enemies in the north.

Chuandong was a little firmer and nodded in agreement. Only then did Dang Shousu turn from anger to joy and talk to Chuandong about the establishment of the rescue team with great interest.

The most important thing was to boost the morale of the troops. Pay was given to Tian, ​​there was no forced landing at Wu Bagui, and the small bad situation of recovering Yunnan and Guizhou made the soldiers full of confidence in failure.

The expanded army that attacked Huguang has also been trained. In terms of the old-to-new model, it just lacks actual combat experience.

Wang Guangxing pondered for a while and said: "Just stick to it and wait for changes. There will still be no problem in two or eight months. In that case, in a few days, I will go to northern Sichuan to supervise the war."

Moreover, Liu Xiang was fighting on his home field, and without the convenience of water transportation, the pressure on the front line was much greater than that of the Qing army coming from afar.

And with only the 70,000 or so troops, the Qing court felt that it was not enough, and ordered the Qing army in Guangxi to take action to contain Yunnan Province.

Hearing Sichuan Dong's gentle words of comfort, Dang Shousu pursed his lips slightly, smiled secretly, and said: "This rescue team you organized, go to Zhenyuan with him!"

The Chongqing Navy and the Jialing River Navy also conducted joint operations, traveling along the river to provide transportation and support for the army, and also went out from time to time to conduct reconnaissance and spying to contain the enemy.

That was not the same as last year, when he was also facing the retreat of more than 100,000 Qing troops. Liu Xiang looked quite calm from bottom to top.

Sticking to defense is the most reliable way to practice through combat, which can enable recruits to overcome their fear and grow up quickly.

The latest intelligence shows that the Qing government dispatched each of the Manchu and Mongolian banners to lead one rear guard, one guard, and ten knights. The Han army dispatched ten knights to each banner. The leading officials would consider the number of troops.

Dispatch.

Middle and low-level generals such as Li Laiheng, Wei Wanxin, and Wang Guangxing are more confident in winning.

Hu Guozhu hesitated to speak. Wei Wanxin was very confused and blinked at Wei Wanxin.

Chongqing.

Dang Shousu gave me the bad medicine carelessly, bandaged it up, and then said with a bit of regret: "We have used up all the magic medicine, so we can only ask the doctor to prescribe medicine for application."

Ta Tianbao led the seven battalions that have not yet been stationed in Baoning, and the remaining four battalions were in Shunqingfu, Wusheng, and Hezhou respectively, commanded by Ma Tengyun, forming a stepped and deep defensive posture.

Wei Wanxin, like his son Li Yue, has been with Wei Wanxin for a long time, and has discovered that the Ming army does not seem to have the ability to predict the future, although it is only a big detail.

"It's strange that the palace is able to win every battle. It probably has something to do with this magical ability." Hu Guozhu lowered his eyes, thinking about what happened in the future, and became more and more correct in his guess.

"The Qing army is still far away, so why wait so long?" Wei Wanxin looked at Wei Wan and said with concern: "It's too late to go after all the injuries are gone!"

Dang Shousu spoke up, lowered his head and packed his things silently.

………………

The haze of war has loomed over again, the army is mobilizing quickly, and the navy is transporting up and down the river, creating a relaxed and busy scene.

Therefore, for Zhang Yaoer, Wei Wanxin is far superior to me in terms of official title and seniority, but he has never shown any arrogance.

………………

In the newly restored areas, banknotes can be issued for the time being. Chang Jinyin and Ni Shenglong only waited for a small batch of Sichuan salt to arrive, and took this as an opportunity to try out banknotes in large quantities.

The order in the city has not yet been completely stabilized, and the people have returned to their busy lives.

"Your Majesty, you always treat people with sincerity, and you also want others to be honest with you, so you lie to others with lies." Wei Wanxin warned and reminded: "Elsewhere, Your Majesty——"

Li Laiheng shook his head and said: "Your Majesty wants your army to hold on. It's obvious that you have no intention of taking the next step. It's just as complicated as forcing the Qing army."

Calculated in this way, the number of the four Manchu and Mongolian banners is about 18,000, and the number of the Han army is 2,700. Add in the 10,000 Shaanxi Green Camp and the 78,000 and 78,000 Shandong Green Camp under Wang Yizheng's command, which is 70,000.

Up.

The Ming army took away the 17th battalion of troops, but the 7th battalion of reinforcements rushed to Guizhou, and the 8th battalion of troops entered western Sichuan. Huang Li's Liu Xiang did not have about 70,000 troops, or 14 battalions.

Chuandong smiled and said: "Let Uncle Hao have some leisure time. Young people should do less. It's easy to get tired."

Liu Tichun nodded and said: "The Qing army may increase its troops, but with only 80,000 troops and no navy to help them, they will be so underserved."

It cannot be seen that the Four Banners of Manchuria only have nearly 700,000 people, of which more than 100,000 are the Four Banners of the Forbidden Brigade, responsible for the garrison of Jifu, and the rest are the Four Banners of the Chongzheng Garrison in various places.

But I consider myself loyal, so as long as I act with care, I am worried that I will offend the palace. But such a power is not beneficial to the rebellion of the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty.

"At least we have the same strength as your army, but your navy still has the advantage." Wang Guangxing stretched out his hand and clicked on the map, and said: "Chaotian Pass is the key point. If your army can capture it, the Qing army will have no choice but to return to Hanzhong.

Even Xi'an."

Wang Guangxing took the initiative to apply for the job, naturally he also wanted to make contributions.

But such a request can obviously be completed in a short period of time. For the Qing government with easy finances, it was quite easy.

Huguang must have been beaten to pieces, and less than half of the green battalions in Liangjiang were lost. The Qing government should be able to mobilize even fewer troops.

Hu Guozhu pondered for a while and said euphemistically: "My lord has learned magical powers in the sea, which is amazing and admirable."

That was not the rich result of the attack on Huguang. The number of prisoners taken alone reached 80,000 to 70,000. With the addition of newly recruited soldiers, the number of troops expanded extremely rapidly.

"If you defeat them one by one again, your army will be able to take the strategic initiative." Liu Tichun guessed and said, "Your Majesty probably doesn't have such a strategic vision."

"Perhaps Your Majesty didn't intend to hide it, but it was often because of his carelessness that it was exposed." Hu Guozhu thought so inwardly, but he could not help but feel fearful.

Wei Wan scratched his head and said warmly: "Don't worry, your Majesty has liberated Yunnan Province, and reinforcements will be sent soon. The Qing army is scattered here and there, but it still reaches 70,000!"

Guiyang.

It is still the Eighth Route retreat, and there is nothing new. But the situation is not completely the same. For Liu Xiang, the more than 100,000 Qing troops are a fatal threat and can completely resist it.
Chapter completed!