The Third Relief Army

  In the following ten days, the Ming army was busy clearing obstacles under Chongqing City. As they got closer to the city wall, the battles between the Ming and Qing armies became more intense, and Yuan Zongdi was busy supervising the progress and directing the battle, without any spare time to chat with this young nobleman. Zhao Tianba and Zhou Kai often accompanied him, these two people were already considered familiar faces by Ruan Xing. He felt quite satisfied with such an arrangement, in this world he only knew a few people. He felt that the attitude of other Ming army soldiers towards him was somewhat strange - respectful, but keeping their distance.

  In the Ming army, there is no need to consider shaving for the time being. Yu Xing was delighted about this, but thinking that the Qing dynasty would inevitably sweep across the country in the future made him worry. If the joking aliens or people from the future didn't send him back, Yu Xing felt that he was in a precarious situation, unable to think of any way to escape for the time being, and this distress couldn't be discussed with anyone.

  At noon today, Yu Xing saw a fleet of ships coming from downstream and suddenly felt a bit tense. However, seeing Zhao Tianba beside him with a relaxed face, he thought back to what Yuan Zongdi had been telling them about the downstream being within the Ming army's sphere of influence. Yu Xing silently scolded himself for being a coward and stretched his neck to gaze at the fleet. Indeed, the ships were flying red flags, which was the insignia of the Ming army's reinforcements.

  This new Ming army did not sail along the Yangtze River to Yuan Zongdi's camp, but instead sailed into the Jialing River and went to Tan Wen.

  "It's the army of Ren Shou Hou." Zhao Tianba said with his mouth open.

  "Oh?" Xing Ming didn't know who Ren Shou Hou was.

  "Mr. Deng," Zhao Tianba heard the hesitation in his answer and turned to look at him, "Does Mr. Deng know who Ren Shou Hou is?"

  His face turned red as he shook his head and replied, "I'm ignorant and have limited knowledge."

  Zhao Tianba did not show any suspicion or sneer at Tan Gong's ignorance, but immediately replied: "Tan Hou is the guardian general of Wanxian, just like Fu Hou."

  Fei Hou is Tan Wen, this surname has been heard from Yuan Zongdi before. He understood that the newcomer was another one of the "Three Tans" - Tan Yi, and nodded: "Thank you, Brother Zhao, for your teachings."

  "You're really late." Zhou Kaihuang couldn't help but complain.

  Yuan Zongdi has been rushing from Dachang for ten days, and Tan Huan, who is stationed in Wanxian with Tan Wen, has already arrived for twelve days. According to the prior plan of the Ming army's various divisions, the Ming army in the Wanxian area and Yuan Zongdi were supposed to strive to destroy all the Qing army's fortifications outside Chongqing before the main force arrived, and then launch a comprehensive attack on the city as soon as the main force arrived. The Ming army's supplies were extremely limited, and it was difficult for the main force to stay under Chongqing for an extended period, while also having to guard against Wu Sangui's counterattack. The Ming army's time was so tight that Tan Huan's slow arrival made Yuan Zongdi's subordinates very dissatisfied.

  "It's good that he can come, but I don't know how long it will take for Xīn Jīn Hóu to arrive." Zhao Tianba actually had a preconceived notion about these officials and soldiers. In the past, the Western Camp had fought bitterly with these Sichuan troops for many years. Although they were now all flying the Ming dynasty's flag, the estrangement still existed. Zhao Tianba continued to explain to Yuán Míng that Xīn Jīn Hóu was Tán Hóng: "Xīn Jīn Hóu is surnamed Tán, named Hóng."

  The city of Chongqing occasionally transmitted the sound of cannons, this was the first time he had seen war and death with his own eyes. Seeing some more Ming soldiers fall down, he couldn't help but let out a sigh.

  Zhou Kaihuai knew that Yu Xing was not willing in his heart, and Yuan Zongdi had secretly told him before that a soft-hearted young master of the imperial clan would be easily moved and might also help to speak well of it, which was not bad either.

  Zhou Kaihu said, "The casualties we have suffered so far are not significant. Once our army clears the Mei Hua Zhuang and fills in the trenches, our main force will arrive. At that time, the battle to capture the city will be the decisive one. If you harbor a fear of death, you will not succeed."

  Xu Ming nodded slightly and let out another soft sigh.

  ……

  At this time in Chongqing city, the Qing army's defending general Wang Mingde was restless.

  The two Ming armies led by Yuan Zongdi and Tan Wen, which had been besieging the city, each had 7 or 8 thousand troops. Gao Mingzhai, the Sichuan provincial governor appointed by the Qing court, saw that there were already so many enemy soldiers with just these two routes, and knew that the follow-up troops would be even more numerous. He made a quick decision to take advantage of the situation, using the excuse of going to ask for reinforcements from Li Guoying, the Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and slipped out of the siege from the junction of Yuan Zongdi and Tan Wen's two armies. Before leaving, he ordered General Wang Mingde to hold on to the city and wait for reinforcements. Wang Mingde knew that Gao Mingzhai was abandoning the city and escaping secretly, but he dared not speak out in anger, so he could only stay in the city and resist.

  "The Governor is still in Baoning, after seeing the Provincial Commander, he asked about the situation and gathered soldiers and horses, it's likely that they haven't departed yet." The Sichuan Governor's residence was set in Chengdu, but Chengdu was currently under the control of the Ming army. Wu Sangui took his elite troops to fight in Yunnan, leaving Li Guoying's remaining troops unable to capture Chengdu, so he could only temporarily stay in Baoning and write letters every day to persuade the Ming generals in Chengdu to surrender.

  As the new Ming army arrived at the city, Wang Mingde's brow furrowed in worry. He complained to Wu Sangui, "You said that the bandits and the Ming court had old grievances and were suspicious of each other, so they wouldn't make a move this time since they didn't get along last time when they came to Chongqing. But it looks like you misjudged them this time! The ones who have come this time are probably more numerous than those in July."

  Wang Mingde secretly speculated that the Governor Li Guoying, who was relatively weak in defending Chengdu, would not be able to send troops to rescue him. For ten days, the Ming army had been attacking the city wall, and although they were slow in cutting down the wooden stakes, due to the lack of defenders inside the city, they could not launch a counterattack, so the Ming army continued to advance. Today, several sections of the city wall reported an emergency to Wang Mingde, who climbed up onto the wall and saw that the Ming army had already approached the base of the wall in these areas. Especially Tan Wen's troops, who arrived earliest, had begun filling in the moat. Although Yuan Zongdi's side was progressing a bit slower, it seemed that they would reach the moat within one or two days.

  Wang Mingde knew that the situation was extremely critical, and if the Ming army were allowed to fill in the trenches at multiple locations, they would be able to launch a full-scale attack on the city once their main force arrived. At this time, the Qing soldiers inside Chongqing were unstable, with some requesting to break out of the siege - which was impossible; others asked to fight, advocating for launching a decisive battle against the Ming army outside the city before their main force arrived, rather than waiting to be killed. Wang Mingde could not agree to this plan either, as the Ming army outside the city was much stronger than the defending forces, and if they were defeated, Chongqing would immediately fall.

  Wang Mingde, standing on the city wall of Chongqing, could only watch as Tan Yi's army merged with Tan Wenhui - it seemed that the newly arrived Ming army had more than 5,000 soldiers. Soon, Tan Yi took over Tan Wen's position, and Tan Wen moved his camp to the middle, so the Ming army's battle line was closed. Now, even if Wang Mingde wanted to follow Gao Ming's example and abandon the city to escape, he had no way out.

  "Alas, Wu Shuai has really misjudged this time." Wang Mingde thought sorrowfully. A thought suddenly emerged: "Taking advantage of the nearly 10,000 troops in my hands, plus this Chongqing, if I surrender, should I be able to keep my life?"

  But just as he thought of this, Wang Mingde shook his head and suppressed the idea: "Now that the imperial court has almost unified the world, the remaining Ming remnants are only in Sichuan and Yunnan-Guizhou, surrendering would be nothing but an early or late death, who knows if Governor Zhang can really help me out of this predicament!"

  After another moment of deliberation, Wang Mingde gritted his teeth and encouraged himself: "Even if I die in battle, the imperial court will still provide for my sons. If I surrender, I'll only end up dying anyway, and drag down my entire clan with me - what's the point?"

  With this idea in mind, Wang Mingde was determined to defend Chongqing to the death, and every day he could hold out was a victory.

  ……

  Unlike Wang Mingde, Yuan Zongdi was in high spirits when he returned to the camp today and invited Xu Ming to dinner. During the meal, there were laughter and conversations. Although Xu Ming wasn't very familiar with the etiquette of this era, he felt that Yuan Zongdi's attitude towards him was absolutely unusual. Xu Ming thought that if he was lucky, he would at most serve as a staff officer, but Yuan Zongdi didn't discuss matters with him or need his help in analyzing things. Moreover, Yuan Zongdi's courtesy towards him far exceeded what a superior would show to their subordinates, even someone like Zhou Kaihuang, who was a trusted aide, wouldn't receive such polite treatment, let alone other subordinates.

  "Marquis Ren Shou brought news that General Wen's troops crossed over to Wan County two days ago, and are now estimated to have arrived in Fengdu." said Yuan Zongdi with a smile.

  Wen Anzhi was the inspector sent by Emperor Yongli to Sichuan, stationed in Fongjie, mainly responsible for pacifying and controlling the remnants of the rebel army gathered in eastern Sichuan and northern Huguang. Wen Anzhi's large army marched overland, which would be two or three days later than Tan Bian's naval force. Now Yuan Zongdi and Tan Wen's camps were already solid, with enough grain and fodder stored for tens of thousands of troops, and the outer fortifications around Chongqing had been largely cleared. Today, Tan Wen and Yuan Zongdi began to probe the city gates and walls to test the strength of the defenders, and as soon as the main force arrived, they could launch a strong attack on Chongqing.

  Zhao Tianba remained expressionless, but in his heart he looked down on Tan Bian with great disdain.

  Unlike Zhao Tianba, Zhou Kaihuang immediately exclaimed loudly upon hearing the news: "No wonder Marquis Ren Shou came. If the commander-in-chief is fast, he can arrive in Chongqing within three days; if slow, five days. If he doesn't come now, won't this merit have nothing to do with him?"

  "It can't be said that way, they are all working hard for the country, and Ren Shou Hou also has his own difficulties," Yuan Zongdi thought about these Ming army main forces, otherwise he wouldn't have separated the camp with Tan Wen. If it were usual times, Yuan Zongdi would mostly nod in approval of Zhou Kaihuang's undisguised sarcasm, at least he would smile and not speak, but today with Xue Ming this aristocratic son by his side, Yuan Zongdi left some leeway.

  "What's difficult about it..." Zhou Kaihu was still arguing.

  Zhou Kaihuang opened his mouth and couldn't stop, getting more and more agitated as he spoke. Zhao Tianba knew from past experience that this guy would soon start scolding Ming Ting. These past few days, Zhou Kaihuang had been by Xu Ming's side and hadn't been able to speak freely, so he was probably about to burst. At the same time, Zhao Tianba noticed Yuan Zongdi sizing up Xu Ming's expression, guessing that Jing Guo Gong's heart was also starting to feel uneasy.

  "Taking down Chongqing would cut off Wu's retreat route. I heard that the city has accumulated a lot of wealth, enough to support the actions of hundreds of thousands of troops." Zhao Tianba shouldn't have discussed how the Sichuan and Hubei Ming army should act in front of Yuan Zongdi, after all, his identity was just an envoy, but he still diverted the topic: "If Wu doesn't want to retreat, it's possible that we'll need to trouble Governor Yuan to lead the three armies on a southern expedition."

  "It's only natural," Yuan Zongdi nodded immediately: "After taking down Chongqing and isolating southern and northern Sichuan, even if the King of Jin doesn't say anything, we will still petition the imperial court to let us go and meet Wu Zei. He owes us a lot of blood debt after all."

  He was very interested in this topic, and it happened to be able to answer his doubts, so he asked about Yuan Zongdi's opinion, and listened to the other party's answer with an ear up.

  Yuan Zongdi is an old soldier and is quite familiar with battles, speaking of which he is very clear-headed.

  In his view, the grain transported by the Yangtze River was definitely not enough to supply Wu Sangui's large army, and Wu Sangui still needed to requisition a large amount of grain from the people during the march. Yuan Zongdi believed that since Sun Keshang pointed the way, Wu Sangui's choice of route into Yunnan must have had a sufficiently dense population for him to exploit. However, Wu Sangui had previously turned back halfway and then sent troops again, so even if the population was dense, two large armies passing through would necessarily leave the people with nothing. Yuan Zongdi thought that after the Ming army obtained grain and fodder in Chongqing, the reinforcements sent from Sichuan to Yunnan could take the route of Jianchang, where Liu Wenxiu had operated for a long time, and there were probably many accumulated grains and sufficient strong population available for use by the reinforcements. When the two major systems of Ming army, Zhang and Xi, joined forces, they would not be at a disadvantage even when facing Wu Sangui.

  In short, Yuan Zongdi was quite optimistic about the situation after taking down Chongqing, and he believed that Wu Sangui had already become a hanging general. The more numerous the Qing army was in attacking Yunnan, the more they would be unable to sustain themselves due to lack of supplies, and with their retreat route blocked by the Ming army, the outcome could be imagined.

  Zhao Tianba nodded frequently, apparently very much in agreement.

  Yuxiang listened, feeling increasingly perplexed. In the past few days, in Yuan Zongdi's camp, he had repeatedly heard them say that if they could capture Chongqing, they could reverse the southwest war situation, and Yuxiang gradually felt that what they said made sense. Now, with the Mei flower stakes on the outskirts of Chongqing almost cleared, the city walls and gates were already exposed, and two days later, the elite troops would follow Wen An together to rush over, adding tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. It seemed that Chongqing was about to fall into the hands of the Ming army. However, Yuxiang knew that historically, the southwest war situation had not been reversed after all, so Chongqing should not have been captured, and the Qing army had indeed thoroughly defeated Li Dingguo...

  Yuan Zongdi was increasingly optimistic about the battle situation after capturing Chongqing, but Yu Name felt more and more tense and uneasy.

  Due to the distance and inconvenience of communication, neither Yuan Zongdi, Zhao Tianbao, Zhou Kaihuang nor Yu Ming knew that the battle situation in Yunnan was far from their optimistic expectations. In fact, after Wu Sangui led the Qing army south to approach Kunming, Emperor Yongli fled hastily upon hearing the news. The main force of the Ming army in Guangxi returned to Kunming on orders, and the Han traitor Geng Jingzhong took advantage of the situation to launch an attack, capturing a large area of Ming territory, while Hong Chengchou also set out from Huguang to participate in the attack on Yunnan.

  At night when he returned to his camp, Xue's mind was preoccupied and he couldn't sleep: "If the Ming army fails to capture Chongqing, what is it all for?"

  Yuan Zongdi has said several times that with Sichuan's current population, it is fundamentally impossible to withstand the back-and-forth turmoil of a large army, so he does not think that the Qing army can still send a large number of reinforcements from Shaanxi. Moreover, the Qing army in Shaanxi no longer has any decent troops, and even if they had time, they would not be able to come.

  Yu's judgment was that, as the city of Chongqing was strongly fortified and difficult to breach, the Ming army would likely return without success. He then followed Yuan Zongyi back to the Ming army base, where they would consider their next move. However, in just two days, Wen Anzhi's main force would arrive, and with the Ming army's advantage, Chongqing would be unable to hold out, and was expected to fall soon.

  "Something unexpected must have happened! Could it be that a Qing army suddenly arrived and lifted the siege of Chongqing?" A thought flashed through Yu's mind, but he couldn't imagine what had actually happened: "If Yuan Zongdi was right, and there wasn't a single Qing army in Shaanxi and Sichuan that could defeat the main force of the Ming army, then it must be that another Qing army reinforcement suddenly arrived, with an extremely large number! In that case, this suddenly arriving Qing army should be..."

  Thinking of this, Hsu-ming felt that all the hairs on his body stood up. This Qing army should appear before Wen An's main force arrives, so it will be in these two or three days.

  "How can I remind Yuan Zongdi? Should I ask him to send more scouts to investigate? But if he asks me what basis I have for this judgment, how should I respond? Where did this Qing army come from, which road did they take, and in which direction did they appear? I know nothing about military campaigns or battles, nor do I understand anything about this era. I don't even know where the Qing army is stationed in Sichuan. How can I convince Yuan Zongdi to believe that a Qing army will suddenly appear?"

  Xu's name was deep in thought, but to no avail. He felt that a storm was brewing and great danger lurked nearby. In the vast darkness, wild beasts were hiding, although you couldn't see the fierce light in their eyes now, nor hear their hungry gasps, nor know from which direction they would pounce, but undoubtedly they were lurking somewhere, step by step approaching you.

  Suddenly a loud shout came, and then a man in Qing dynasty uniform lifted the curtain, rushed in with a torch, and slashed towards Yu Sheng without saying a word.

  Xu Ming sat up with a start, facing the gleaming knife, only to realize it was just a dream. He had unknowingly fallen asleep earlier. His heart racing, Xu Ming wiped away the sweat on his forehead and got out of bed in the dark, quietly making his way outside the tent. The moonlight illuminated the entire campsite of the Ming army, with an eerie silence all around, punctuated only by the sound of snoring from nearby tents. In the distance, the silhouettes of sentries standing guard on the camp walls were clearly visible, vigilantly protecting the safety of the camp.

  Yu Xing gazed up at the starry sky - in this world fraught with danger, the only thing that made him feel calm and at peace was this vast expanse of stars, which he had never before found so beautiful. Yu Xing let out a silent sigh. Destiny was unknown to others, but to him it was all too clear, even terrifying. Yu Xing knew that he, along with these Ming soldiers who had treated him kindly in recent days, were walking down a path from which there was no return, and awaiting them was certain annihilation. But Yu Xing did not know how to change this fate.

  "It's highly likely that an enemy army is approaching us, and the Ming army will be completely annihilated. But I am unable to help General Yuan. How can I bear to tell them - the cause they have fought for their whole lives will ultimately come to nothing."

  Actually, Yu Xing didn't guess wrong, the Qing army he was worried about had already arrived at the foot of Chongqing City.