Chapter 44 Preparations for the Liaodong Campaign

"Please tell the prince for me. I am willing to help. Please let the prince know when he is ready to attack."

"The prince said that it would be bad if we agreed on a time. When the Qing army comes, General Wu can just support and open the door. Recently, I also asked the general to appease his subordinates."

After the messenger finished speaking, he raised his hands to indicate that he was leaving. Wu Basi called out to let people outside come in.

"Did anyone else see the envoy when he came in just now?"

"General, only the people at our outpost saw it. Because he was in our disguise and there was only one person, he didn't alert the Han army."

"Send the envoy out secretly, don't let the Han army see it."

The scout immediately left with the Mongolian envoy, but no matter how careful he was, he was still seen by the soldiers arranged by Zu Dashou in the distance.

The soldiers followed him for a while, confirmed that the envoy was leaving in the direction of Yiju, and then returned to the commander's camp to resume his duties.

"Commander, a stranger came to the Dongguan Mongolian Cavalry Station, and then left under the arrangement of the scouts. I saw him going to Yizhou."

"Really? But the time is coming soon. Dorgon, Heshuo and the others may not be able to wait any longer. Spring plowing is approaching.

Your Majesty said that if I take action, someone will leak the secret. It seems that there are many slave builders around me, how can I clean them up?"

After the soldiers left, Zu Dashou thought about the news sent by Chongzhen. Today's Ming Dynasty is suffering from internal and external troubles, and Zu Dashou has been waiting for an opportunity.

It would be false to say that he was willing to be ruled by the Qing Dynasty, but it would also be false to say that he was really loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

He was thinking about how to secretly kill the Wu Basi brothers.

"Who could it be?"

Unable to find the slave-building spies around him, Zu Dashou felt restless.

…

After Chen Ye accompanied Chongzhen to inspect Jinyiwei, he returned to Huichang Street, where he was preparing to receive the foreigners summoned by Wang Chengen. Wang Chengen summoned the ministers to go to Wuying Palace to discuss matters.

The six ministers of the cabinet, Hong Chengchou, Cao Bianjiao, Li Daiwen, Chen Xinjia, and Huang Degong and Wang Jiayan, all received the notice and were waiting in the hall.

Sun Chuanting looked at Hong Chengchou appearing in the palace and remembered that Hong Chengchou had recently been ordered to return to Beijing to report on his work.

Looking at the civil servants and military officers present who are all powerful figures, I feel that the discussion today may be about military matters related to Liaodong.

"See Your Majesty."

The door opened, and Chongzhen, who had changed into his formal attire, walked in. All the ministers greeted him together, and Wuying Hall instantly transformed into a court.

"My dear friends, please excuse me. After reviewing the soldiers today, I have summoned you to arrange something."

After Chongzhen finished speaking, he waved, and a group of eunuchs came over carrying a large table. After setting up the table, Chongzhen walked to the main seat and called the ministers to come over. After the civil and military officials stood separately, he opened the red cloth on the table.

"This, this is the Liaodong sand table???"

"It's really amazing. I have never seen such a realistic sand table, this river, this city, and this mountain range."

"It turns out that the terrain in Liaodong is so complicated. These red dots outside Jinzhou are the slaves of Yizhou? It seems that they are very close. The Daling River reaches Yizhou and firmly surrounds Jinzhou."

The cabinet ministers couldn't help but touch the insertion marks everywhere, and then looked at the layout and sighed.

Whether you have led soldiers or not, you can see the important use of this sand table. With a completely realistic terrain map, marching arrangements can block chokepoints, and you can also set up ambushes and surprise attack channels according to the terrain.

Hong Chengchou touched the uneven map, closed his eyes, and shivered.

"The main content today is for Hong Qing to tell you all about the current situation in Liaodong."

"I accept the decree."

Hong Chengchou opened his eyes, gave Chongzhen a fist, then looked at the sand table, and began to explain carefully.

"Jinzhou is the most important border town in Liaodong during the Ming Dynasty. It is only 800 miles away from Shanhaiguan and surrounded by three military towns: Songshan, Xingshan and Tashan.

Since February of last year, Jian Nu has set out a hundred miles outside Jinzhou City to build Yizhou City, using it as a bridgehead to besiege Jinzhou. Although Jinzhou has grain reserves, it has been unable to cultivate, and they have continued to fight. After a year of siege, they are exhausted.

Nowadays, Jiannu launches frequent provocations, Jinzhou's military strength has shrunk, food routes have been cut off, and the number of earthen forts around the Daling River is also increasing. I believe that Jiannu is looking for an opportunity to decisively defeat the city."

"Governor Hong, if that's the case, why don't you just ask for orders and lead the army to rescue Jinzhou? I remember that there were 130,000 troops trained by you in Liaodong, and there were countless firearms."

"Yes, if we let the army rely on Ningyuan to attack, it is only a few hundred miles away and can be reached in two days."

"Jiannu is strong in the field, but our army has few cavalry and cannot form an effective attack.

When a large army moves, it is difficult to transport food and wages. If they attack rashly, Jiannu only needs to disperse the attack to penetrate our army's food channels. Therefore, Liaodong can only defend and cannot take the initiative to attack.

Although my training in Liaodong has achieved certain results, in December of the twelfth year, Jiannuhaug led 10,000 cavalry to attack Ningyuan. The Ningyuan defenders bravely took the initiative to attack, but they still suffered a tragic victory in the field battle. This can be seen from this that our army

There is no advantage over the Jiannu cavalry in the wild."

Hong Chengchou said with a proud face, in fact, Ningyuan was able to defend in the first place because of his training function. Under his management, Ningyuan's defenders dared to go out of the city to fight, which was already good.

However, to say it was a tragic victory would be to brag. In fact, it was a tragic defeat, but the result was good. Hauge felt that the Ming army dared to take the initiative and gave up the siege.

Everyone looked at Hong Chengchou. From this analysis, we could know that a decisive battle in Jinzhou would be very unfriendly to the Ming army.

"Your Majesty, I believe that Hong Chengchou was timid before fighting and should be punished."

"Master Chen, I'm just telling the truth. If you are old and dim and can't see the situation clearly, why don't you resign and go home."

Hong Chengchou looked at Chen Yan and said, if His Majesty had not told him about the future arrangements, he would not be as confident as he is now to preach.

Other cabinet ministers and ministers were thinking about how to rescue Jinzhou if it was trapped.

"My lords, Jinzhou has been trapped for half a year. Yizhou Town, where Jiannu was located, is only 100 miles away. The Daling River is even closer. A quick horse can easily make the trip back and forth in one day. I got news a few days ago that Jiannu has been here.

Ready to take action."

Chongzhen put his hand in the direction of Jinzhou and pointed in the direction of Yizhou City and the Daling River.

"Your Majesty, is this the same information as Xiangyang?"

"Yes, even more detailed."

"If this is the case, I think we can make a plan based on Jiannu's actions. Now we have already anticipated the enemy. Governor Hong is familiar with Liaodong, and he probably has a careful plan."

As soon as Fan Fucui heard Chongzhen's words, he understood that it was the mysterious shopkeeper who had given the information. Taking this as his belief, Jinzhou Jiannu's action was understandable.

"Exactly, I have learned from my previous failed experience in establishing slaves, and prepared to advance the army slowly in a step-by-step manner, far away from Jinzhou.

At the same time, the team will select elite soldiers for training, carry out comprehensive firearm replacement, coordinate generals, and build slaves. No matter how strong they are, they will still be unable to withstand firearms. In this way, even if Huang Taiji blocks the entire clan's troops, he will still be defeated."

"Your Majesty, the household department is now empty, and the Liaodong Pay Division already owes a lot of pay. If we stop farming and training the army, it may aggravate the level of Liao pay collection in the mainland."

Fan Fucui said worriedly, with more than 100,000 troops, the fields in several military towns have been abandoned without cultivation for a long time.

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