Daming: Apocalypse of Longevity

Chapter 157
In terms of Houjin in Liaodong, Huang Taiji has indeed won many battles in the political and legal battles of Chahar in the past year, occupying many territories and plundering a lot of people. The people who were previously lost in the battle of Ningjin The troops have also been restored and replenished, but his life has not been easy for more than a year.

At this time, the climate is extremely cold and dry. Even the Jiangnan area sometimes freezes and snows, not to mention Liaodong, which is already a bitter cold place. Famines broke out in all the chief ministers of the Ming Dynasty, and the food crisis was serious. The Hou Jin Dynasty was naturally not immune to the disaster, and even because it was located in Liaodong, the situation was even worse than that of the Ming Dynasty.

Huang Taiji has more troops and more people, but at the same time there are more mouths to eat. This is even worse for Huang Taiji, who is already short of food and supplies, so he urgently needs to find a way to break the current situation. Dilemma.

The Jiannu were like the Tatars in the past. As a nomadic people, the most convenient and cheapest way for them to obtain food and daily necessities was to enter the country and plunder. This was what the Jiannu had done in the previous decades.

But now it's no longer possible. The Ming Dynasty sent Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan to defend Liaodong. Originally, the Guanningjin defense line was a tough nut to crack, leaving Huang Taiji helpless and sighing. Not to mention that after more than a year of efforts by Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan, I worked hard.

According to reports from Huang Taiji's scouts, the Ming army's defense line was pushed forward nearly a hundred miles, and nearly a hundred new strongholds and fortresses were built, and Hongyi cannons were placed in the slightly larger strongholds or fortresses. As long as you dare to get even a little closer, you will inevitably be knocked over and smashed to pieces.

Faced with such a situation, Huang Taiji had no intention of attacking the Guanningjin defense line head-on. Therefore, if he wanted to defeat the Ming army, he had to find another way and detour through the Tatars. Therefore, the plan to sneak attack the capital came into being.

But even with such a plan, Huang Taiji actually had no intention of implementing it so early. He had great ambitions, and naturally he didn't just plan to plunder some food and living supplies and make a profit through a sneak attack on the capital. No, but to achieve a certain strategic goal and damage the vitality of the Ming army.

But now Houjin's overall situation no longer allows him to wait any longer. If he doesn't take action now, it may be difficult to survive this winter!

Therefore, Huang Taiji finally made up his mind. On the second day of October, he led his Eight Banners Army to almost all of them, bypassing the Tatars, and using the Tatar Karaqin cavalry as a guide, bypassed the Guanningjin defense line and attacked the capital. The weakly defended Jizhen Great Wall Pass in the north.

However, Huang Taiji probably never expected that on the day of his departure, Sun Chengzong wrote a military report about his sneak attack plan and sent it to the capital. The Ming court also learned of his plan in the early morning of the day after his departure. His sneak attack plan is now dispatching troops to prepare to "welcome" his arrival.

On the tenth day of October, Zhu Tianqi officially led his troops to the expedition. He personally led [-] imperial troops, and was accompanied by a thousand Jinyi guards with high martial arts skills who had been carefully selected by Zhu Youjian to serve as escorts.

Zhu Tianqi wore a bulletproof vest and an armor coat, and rode majestically at the front of the team. Behind him were a thousand brocade guards wearing flying fish suits, leather armor, and embroidered spring knives on their waists. Behind them were ten thousand imperial guards with flags flying. .

In this way, Zhu Tianqi took [-] troops and horses and was sent outside Desheng Gate by hundreds of officials, and then went straight to Shunyi. Sun Yuanhua had already led the new army to move from Tongzhou to Shunyi in advance and was waiting again.

At the same time, Zhu Tianqi had already sent people to mobilize Datong General Man Gui, Changping General You Shiwei, and Xuanfu General Hou Shilu to lead their troops to join forces in Shunyi.

In addition to Mangui leading 2 troops, Changping Commander-in-Chief You Shiwei only had more than 5 men, and Xuanfu Commander-in-Chief Hou Shilu had 20 men. As a result, after several troops joined forces in Shunyi, Zhu Tianqi has nearly [-] soldiers and horses under his command.

The 20 soldiers and horses may not be powerful enough to encircle and suppress the JINU slaves, but they are indeed enough to act as the left wing to resist the JINU slaves.

Zhu Tianqi has carefully studied the actual strength of Jiannu through historical records. Huang Taiji's surprise attack on the capital was claimed to be a hundred thousand troops, but according to the structure of the Eight Banners Army, it should be around seventy or eighty thousand.

The so-called Eight Banners system of Jiannu actually originated from the hunting organization of the Jurchens. When the Jurchens carried out hunting activities, because there were many people and needed a unified command, their commanders were called "Niulu Ezhen". This hunting group is called "Niulu".

Later, in order to meet larger-scale hunting and combat operations, several cattle units needed to be merged into a larger unit, guided by flags. The flag was called "Gushan" in Manchu, so this larger unit The unit is called Gushan.

It was not until around the 21st year of Wanli that Nurhaci officially carried out large-scale transformation and reconstruction of the Niulu Gushan organization. It was stipulated that 300 people were one Niulu, five Niulu were one Jiala, five Jiala were one Gushan, and one Gushan That is, one flag, one flag is about 500 people.

Because there were only a few slave-building troops at the beginning, there were only four banners: yellow, white, red, and blue. It was not until the 43rd year of Wanli that Nurhachi conquered various Jurchen tribes and many Mongolian tribes, and the military strength was greatly expanded, and it was officially organized into eight banners.

If calculated this way, the total strength of the Eight Banners is only about 6. Even according to some historical records, it is said that Huang Taiji has continuously conquered the Tatar tribes in the past two years and expanded the Mongolian banners. There are only 5000 people together!

On Zhu Tianqi's side, there are now nearly 20 soldiers and horses on the left alone. There are also Liaodong's Guanning cavalry and Liaodong soldiers and horses on the right. Together, they have nearly three times the strength of Jiannu, not to mention his own. With so many deadly weapons in his hands, Huang Taiji will never come back.

After all the soldiers and horses came to Shunyi, they all entered the city to come to see the emperor. After learning the news that the emperor's imperial commander was personally marching, several generals were very surprised.

The emperor's personal expedition was a mixed blessing for them.

Fortunately, the emperor came to the front line in person. The morale of the soldiers must be high and the military might be shocked. Moreover, his performance on the battlefield can also be seen by the emperor, so that the credit will not be taken away by the civil servants.

The worry is that the emperor personally takes command, which somewhat affects their performance and makes it difficult for them to perform well. After all, civil servants do not understand military affairs, and the emperor is probably even more unprofessional. However, they heard that the emperor has been addicted to carpentry all year round, and his cultural level is not very high. , let alone the matter of war!

Another point is that the emperor is an obvious weakness on the battlefield. The enemy army will definitely be more excited when they learn that the emperor is personally on the march. In order to protect the safety of the emperor, all armies have to concentrate on protecting the rear, and their actions will be affected. Constraints.

But now there is no point in looking forward and backward. The emperor has already led the expedition in person, so they can only act according to orders and do their best.

After all the generals saw Zhu Tianqi, they stood respectfully on both sides, waiting for the emperor's orders and instructions. In addition to Mangui, Xuanhua general Hou Shilu, Changping general You Shiwei, and Zhu Tianqi all It was the first time I met them. Because he didn't know their personalities and abilities, Zhu Tianqi didn't dare to give them too important tasks.Zhu Tianqi glanced at the map on the table and called out: "Mangui!"

"The last general is here!" Man Gui hurried out after hearing the sound.

Zhu Tianqi looked up at Mangui and began to order: "I order you to lead troops to Jizhou immediately, leave 5 people to garrison, and then lead 5 people to Zunhua to garrison, and take over Zunhua's military affairs and city defense with full authority!"

"General, I obey your order!" Man Gui immediately clasped his fists and saluted to accept the order.

Zhu Tianqi immediately waved to the Jin Yiwei beside him, and the Jin Yiwei quickly stepped forward to salute and obey his orders.

Zhu Tianqi told him: "Take your men and go to Zunhua with General Man to help General Man uncover the spies in the city!"

According to historical records, when the Jiannu entered the customs and arrived at Zunhua City, it was the gates opened inside the city that led the Jiannu army into the city. Therefore, in order to avoid similar things from happening again, the Jiannu Yingnei in Zunhua City must first be reconciled. Just get rid of the spies.

"I humbly obey my order!" Jin Yiwei immediately accepted the order.

Although this Jin Yiwei did not know what specific errands he would do with the army before this, Zhu Youjian had already told them that the emperor should have asked them to do some errands such as catching spies, so at this time he accepted The order did not surprise him.

Man Gui, on the other hand, was suddenly startled and confused after hearing this. It was really hard for him to figure out why the emperor knew that there were slave-building spies in Zunhua City.Does the emperor still pay attention to the situation in Zunhua City on weekdays?
If this is said, the emperor's deployment of troops and generals does not seem to be haphazard, but rather seems to have already been well thought out and made complete arrangements.

Zhu Tianqi then called You Shiwei and Hou Shilu to obey his orders, "Hou Shilu, I order you to lead troops to Yutian to garrison, You Shiwei, I order you to lead troops to Fengrun to garrison!"

"The general obeys orders!" You Shiwei and Hou Shilu clasped their fists and took orders in unison.

After Man Gui, You Shiwei and Hou Shilu all took orders to leave, Zhu Tianqi called a Jin Yiwei and ordered him to go to Qian'an to deliver orders to the Liao army. Now Sun Chengzong had sent Ji Liao commander Zhao Lijiao and Liaodong forward commander. Bingzu Dashou led [-] Guanning cavalry back to the aid pass and stationed them in Qian'an City. He also ordered the Chinese army guard He Kegang of Ningyuan Road to lead [-] Liao soldiers to station in Yongping.

After arranging these arrangements, Zhu Tianqi told Sun Yuanhua: "Sun Aiqing, hurry up and send [-] heavy artillerymen to carry [-] heavy cannons, [-] light artillerymen to carry [-] light cannons, and [-] infantrymen. Gunslinger, go to Qian'an to join Zhao's teaching department, and go north with the army to standby!"

Sun Yuanhua did not hesitate and immediately took the order to make arrangements. Unlike Man Gui, You Shiwei, and Hou Shilu, Sun Yuanhua lacked awareness of the emperor's strength. In Sun Yuanhua's mind, the emperor had long become an omniscient and omnipotent god. There is a general existence, so he naturally has no doubts about the emperor's orders!
According to historical records, Jiannu broke through the Great Wall Pass and entered the pass on October 26 and October 27. Half a month was enough for Zhu Tianqi to make all arrangements.

Zhu Tianqi checked the historical records and carefully checked the map. To be cautious, he ordered people to go back to Beijing to transport the remaining batch of new artillery and muskets cast by Sun Yuanhua at the northwest military industrial base after equipping the new army. After they came out, they were sent to Jizhou, Zunhua, Yutian, Fengrun, Qian'an, Yongping, Luanzhou and other major towns in the capital.

With these new artillery, it can play a great role in improving the city defense capabilities of various cities. The slaves are mainly cavalry, and the cavalry is good at fighting on the plains, not good at siege warfare, especially when facing The city with powerful artillery made Jiannu even more troublesome.

Although these artillery can not 100% guarantee the safety of these cities, as long as they can increase the losses of the Jiannu army during the siege, Zhu Tianqi believes that the goal has been achieved. The Jiannu troops are not large, allowing them to attack again and again. The loss of manpower in a siege battle can be regarded as a "victory" in a sense.

Zhu Tianqi was not worried that these artillery pieces would fall into the hands of the enemy and be used against him by Jiannu, because Jiannu was lagging behind in terms of firearms. There were very few soldiers who knew how to operate cannons, and they could only operate simple small artillery. These new types of artillery were The operation of the giant steel cannon is very difficult and requires certain training to operate it. Otherwise, it is easy to make mistakes in operation and accidentally injure one's own people.

After staying in Shunyi City for one night, Zhu Tianqi ordered the whole army to march eastward and set up camp at Sanhe.

Later, Zhu Tianqi received reports from the troops in front. Mangui had arranged for his deputy general to lead 5 people to garrison in Jizhou, and personally led an army of [-] to Zunhua early this morning to take over Zunhua's military affairs and city defense. , Hou Shilu and You Shiwei have also arrived at Yutian and Fengrun cities and are stationed in the city.

Reports from Zhao Lijiao and Zu Dashou also came from Qian'an. They had received their orders and began to divide their troops according to their orders. Zhao Lijiao was preparing to lead his troops north, while Zu Dashou stayed behind in Qian'an.

Five days later, the Jinyi Guards of Zunhua came to return their orders. All the slave slaves and spies in Zunhua City were arrested and are currently being held in the prison in Zunhua City, waiting to be punished.

Zhu Tianqi stayed in Sanhe for the past few days, just waiting for news from Zunhua. Now that he heard that all the spies in Zunhua City had finally been found out, he immediately asked the Jin Yiwei to return to Zunhua to deliver the order to Mangui, "Quickly Move all the soldiers and civilians in Santun Camp in the east of Zunhua into Zunhua City, and at the same time transfer the Jizhou garrison to Santun Camp to garrison!"

The Jin Yiwei took note of Zhu Tianqi's imperial order and hurried back to Zunhua to deliver the order to Mangui. Zhu Tianqi once again led his army eastwards early the next morning, marching from Sanhe to Jizhou City and stationed there.

Zhu Tianqi then ordered the defenders of the Great Wall in Ji Town to withdraw most of the defenders on the Great Wall from Da'ankou to Xifengkou, withdraw into Zunhua City, and merge into the Manchu and Guangxi armies. Only a few defenders were left to show off. However, once encountering the Jiannu army attacking a key point, you only need to make a token resistance to evacuate, allowing the Jiannu to break through the pass.

Although Zhu Tianqi arranged this mainly to lure the enemy deeper, judging from the current defense situation of the Jizhen Great Wall, "the fortress walls are in decay and the army is depleted." Even if he wants to resist, it is probably in vain and can only be in vain. It's just a waste of troops!

(End of this chapter)