"We have decided to attach ourselves to the Ming Dynasty and reorganize it in accordance with the Ming military system, and we can pass on the officers and soldiers of the three armies, those who are willing to stay and continue to fight to kill the enemy, stay, and those who want to farm and farm, General Cao will also send people to resettle, you can choose for yourself, there is only one way, if anyone surrenders to the Manchus behind his back, don't blame me for not remembering the old feelings."

"The first emperor was killed by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, this enmity is not shared, and we are willing to follow the two generals to resist the Qing Dynasty to the end."

"Swear to the death and never surrender to the Manchu Tartars!"

At the moment, all the generals shouted one after another, those who could come back at the time of the defeat were all loyal and brave people, soft-boned, and had already surrendered to the enemy in Langzhong, Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi were just making a formal speech, they all believed in these people.

"I am very relieved that you are righteous, but I still don't know what your soldiers think, and they will go to inform the whole army, and within two days, you must give me an answer."

"Yes!" The generals also went to deal with the matter.

Two days later, Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi handed over the roster of those who stayed behind to Cao Bianjiao, and the people who were willing to stay behind to continue the fight against the Qing Dynasty were 23,000 people, and the rest of the 110,000 soldiers and civilians in the West were willing to return to farming.

Cao Bianjiao is also actively preparing for defense matters, he has sent Qin Liangyu north to garrison Pengzhou, looking for an opportunity to capture Langzhong, threatening the Qing army's back road, and the Sichuan general Zeng Ying stayed in Chongqing, responsible for the response, on the other hand, ordered Yuan Shu to launch an offensive against the Qing army in Henan, divided troops to attack Tongguan and Huaiqing, and contained the Qing army's strength, and Xuzhou and Fengyang, let Jin Shenghuan and Li Guo join forces to attack Yizhou and Yanzhou from the direction of Xuzhou, threatening Shandong, Xiangyang, Cao Dingjiao led the army to attack Hanzhong, which was also to contain the Qing army's offensive. Even the Beiyang Naval Division was dispatched to threaten the coastal areas of Shandong and Hebei in the Qing court, and Cao Bianjiao would not abandon the land of northern Sichuan anyway.

A big battle was also carried out immediately, especially in southern Sichuan, the most lively, from Guizhou, Yunnan, Sichuan north and south to the reinforcements is a steady stream, many Tusi is also the best tribal elite soldiers to the north, because Cao Bianjiao to their favor, they are sincerely grateful, in order to repay Cao Bianjiao's kindness.

After Cao Bianjiao implemented the new policy, he implemented the policy of ethnic autonomy, and the autonomous prefectures and counties were to nominate officials to manage the people by themselves, and the imperial court approved them, and the imperial court appointed deputies to assist, and the tribes recommended two people to Nanjing to take up posts, understand the policies and guidelines of the imperial court, convey them to the autonomous prefectures and counties, and approve the payment of taxes, which can be paid in kind every year, and can also pay money and grain at the officially approved price, and exempt them from paying harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, etc., which has won the support of the ethnic minorities in the southwest.

In the distance outside this narrow Seoul, there are several war horses walking and stopping, carrying the owner of the horse to constantly explore the surrounding terrain, pointing at the two mountain beams and the city wall in front, when a tall and sturdy jujube red horse is holding a tall and strong man, a unique red tasseled ear helmet of the Qing army, a rough black face, holding a very beautiful horse whip in his right hand, knocking his thigh from time to time, this person is none other than the vanguard leader of the Qing army.

Behind him, several men who were also majestic and calm, riding variegated but handsome war horses, all followed quietly, and the guards scattered around them were also carefully guarding the left and right.

"This place is good, this place is not wide on both sides of the valley, it is difficult to spread a large army, as long as you establish a single-minded hold, let you thousands of troops and horses not want to easily fight this through, it is worthy of 'the key Qu of Shu Province, the hole of Beijing'!" Ao Bai looked at the terrain of Hanzhou not far away, and admired the danger of this place.

Liu Jinzhong, the general next to him, heard Aobai's analysis, nodded approvingly, and said: "What the general said is that this place is the northern gateway of Chengdu, during the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei entered Sichuan, which was blocked here for more than a year, and it was difficult to break through, which shows the danger of this place, as long as we take Hanzhou, and then south is the land of Pingchuan, there is no danger to defend, but the terrain is good, but at the moment this Western Army is just a group of remnants of the defeated generals, and there are red-clothed cannons to help the war, but it is not tight!" ”

"Haha, they are all defeated under my Qing Dynasty, no matter how stubbornly they resist, they are just a group of ants, the previous time they had hundreds of thousands of horses in their battalion, not still a battle and a rout, what fighting spirit is there now, what can not be done, I am afraid that as long as I attack the city, they will immediately flee and surrender, we don't have much food and grass, when the quick battle is resolved, solve the soldiers and horses of Hanzhou, we can take Chengdu directly, and then we will worry about materials and money, that is the legendary country of abundance!"

"What the general said is very true! Zhang Xianzhong has been looting for so many years, but they are all hidden in Chengdu, it is said that there are tens of millions of taels of gold and silver, as well as countless grains and cloths...... "Liu Jinzhong's eyes are also shining, he has also heard of these things, and he does not know the truth, Zhang Xianzhong cannot tell everyone about this kind of thing, but he followed Zhang Xianzhong for a period of time, from Xiangyang to Wuchang, and then to Chengdu, Zhang Xianzhong grabbed a lot of things, and there will be no mistake in thinking about it."

"Pass the order, and the siege will begin tomorrow!" Ao Bai immediately announced the military order, and then rode back to the camp.

On the city pass, Ma Degong and Zhang Yingyuan also stood on the city pass, inspecting the city defense, and they also noticed the traces of the Qing army sentry not far away, but they did not attack, they were afraid of the other party's strategy, so they held on behind closed doors, anyway, the military order given to them by Cao Bianjiao was to defend Hanzhou City, no matter what happened, even if their father was under the city, they were not allowed to open the city gate.

"The city defense of Hanzhou is being strengthened at the moment, I think the Qing army will not give us too much time, the general said, the Qing army attacked the city, they have always relied on the red-coated cannons, blasted open the gap, and then short-handed soldiers, in order to deal with the red-coated cannons, we also need to be well prepared." Zhang Yingyuan said that he and Ma Degong were both promoted from the army by Cao Bianjiao, and they were promoted from a general to the general soldier, and they were both loyal to Cao Bianjiao, otherwise they would not have been sent to guard Jiujiang and inherit the heavens and the earth.

"They have cannons, and we have them, so why be afraid? What is so great about the Qing army, I don't believe that the shells can't kill them, I have ordered people to ambush more than a dozen small Buddha cannons on the platform on the mountainside at both ends, and when the Qing army is close to the siege, they will cross fire and flank them, the general is behind, and it will arrive in a few days, and we only need to hold on for a few days. Ma Degong is quite confident, others are afraid of the Manchu Qing, but he is not afraid, he followed Cao Bianjiao to participate in the Battle of Nanjing, and killed not a hundred or seventy or eighty soldiers of the Eight Banners, and he was also a member of the fierce generals.

"That being said, but you should be cautious, you still need to be cautious, I am afraid that the city has been mixed with Manchu spies, and when the time comes, they will cause chaos in the city, so I have assigned men and horses to lurk in the key places at various intersections, and once a suspicious person is found, he will be immediately arrested and interrogated." Zhang Yingyuan still reminded that he had already made ample preparations.

The routines of the Qing army are very ordinary, and there are only a few tricks to attack the city, sending spies to make trouble, bombarding them with red-clothed cannons, and then buying low-level officers of the Ming army with heavy money, so that they can cooperate with each other inside and outside, Cao Bianjiao has specially published a booklet to teach how to deal with these situations, which has long been circulated in the army, so they are all familiar with these routines of the Qing army.

"Then there is General Lao Zhang, I am in charge of the city defense, General Zhang, you are in charge of the city, and cooperate with each other."

"That's the way it should be, then go your separate ways!" Zhang Yingyuan has no objection, this battle is very important, and they all know it.