Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 230
  "Gu...Gu...Gu..."

At night, the sound of waves came from far away, and there were unknown birds chirping in the forest.

In the distance, a city with torches was right in front of you, and some wild beast seemed to come in the woods outside the city, and many cooing birds flew away.

Under the cover of night, nothing here was discovered, and a group of savages exuding a "sour smell" finally arrived here.

"We're finally here, are you sure the news is correct?"

In the forest, looking at the sparkling Jinzhou City, Cui Jun turned back to look at another soldier.

The soldiers' clothing was shabby compared to that of the Bohai Navy. They only had mandarin duck battle coats and breastplates, and no other skirts or arm armor.

"Zheng Baihu said that he would open the city gate for us after the change of defense in Haishi. I only hope that His Highness and the general can abide by their promise to Governor Fu Qianshi, exchange civilian citizenship for the troops stationed in the city, and all receive land."

"Don't worry, our Highness has nothing to say, and all of you should also know."

The conversation between the soldiers and Cui Jun made the Bohai navy soldiers around them excitedly hold the handles of their swords. Even Cui Jun himself was very excited.

It is already May [-]th, more than [-] days have passed since Cui Jun set off, two days later than he expected.

Originally he thought it would take a hard fight to win Jinzhou, but he didn't expect to meet an acquaintance at Luan Gu Ma Yi.

The brothers who went out of the city side by side with him and fought directly with Zhu Gaoxu against the enemy camp in Harawu.

Cui Jun thought that all the brothers related to his family had been transferred to the south, but he did not expect that the court only transferred officials from Bohai who had official positions above [-] households, but Li Meng and others who were only promoted to the flag officer were not transferred.

Li Meng was in charge of Luan Guma Station, so when he saw the flag of the Bohai Navy, he immediately explained the situation in Liaonan.

Five days ago, Tangqi from northern Liaoning just passed by Luan Guma Station, and their military order was to send Liu Zhen, who was stationed in Jiulian City, to garrison Jinzhou.

The Jinzhou Guards only numbered [-], and there were only sixteen hundred officers. One of them was promoted by Fu Rang from a small flag officer in the garrison to an officer of one hundred households, named Zheng Jun.

Zheng Jun has not been promoted since Fu Rang was transferred, so Li Meng thought that Zheng Jun should be willing to defect to Bohai.

Li Meng led the Bohai Navy and lied that they were soldiers from western Liaoning heading south to garrison Jinzhou, so he helped Cui Junbolan Horse Station and Shihe Horse Station.

At present, these three stations are all owned by the Bohai Navy, which also means that the connection between the Jinzhou Guard and the other three guards in southern Liaoning has been severed.

After testing during the day, Zheng Jun sent a soldier out of the city and expressed his willingness to open the city gate to Bohai, but he needed the Bohai Navy to agree to the policy of equal distribution of farmland.

Cui Jun naturally had no reason to refuse, after all, his Highness had explained everything before going south.

Watching the time passing by, when the time came to Hai hour, Cui Jun, who was holding a monocular telescope, saw the changing of figures under the firelight.

Not long after, the gate of Jinzhou City slowly opened, and a torch was thrown at the gate.

"go!"

Seeing that the city gate was illuminated, Cui Jun decisively ordered the entire army to enter the city.

He has no worries that Zheng Jun will ambush him, because according to the information he obtained from Li Meng, Jinzhou City does not have an Wengcheng, so as long as he enters Jinzhou City, even if the Jinzhou City defenders defraud him, he can He led his troops to seize the city gate tower, opened the city gate, and let all the brothers enter the city.

With a feeling of anxiety, Cui Jun led the people through the city gate corridor, and kept paying attention to the thousand-jin gate above the city gate corridor.

One hundred people, two hundred people, three hundred...

As more and more people passed through the city, Cui Jun finally felt relieved and met Zheng Jun who had joined the Bohai Navy.

"Zheng Jun, the official of Baihu, meets Cui Qianhu!"

Zheng Jun is a man in his early thirties, but his appearance looks like he is in his forties because he has been working in the fields all year round.

"Brother Zheng, don't worry. You were the first to win Jinzhou City, and the land equalization policy will be implemented as promised!"

"Thank you Cui Qianhu."

Cui Jun grabbed Zheng Jun's hand and said all good things enthusiastically. Zheng Jun was relieved after hearing this and said: "The granary is in the east. In the past few days, a lot of grain has been transported from Shandong, no less than five hundred thousand shi. Qianhu can first send people to capture the granary, and then recruit the defenders in the city."

"Okay!!" Cui Jun was excited. He didn't expect that there was an unexpected surprise.

Needless to say, what the Bohai Navy lacks most right now is food.

Five hundred thousand dan of grain, which is enough to feed the Bohai Navy civilians until winter.

"go!"

Cui Jun led the team to the granary, and soon someone lit a torch and carefully held a knife: "Who!"

One hundred soldiers stationed at the granary were on alert, but Zheng Jun walked out of the crowd and said, "This is the brother sent by Governor Liu to take over the granary. Don't be rude!"

"Zheng Baihu..."

Seeing that the person coming was Zheng Jun, many soldiers relaxed. Upon seeing this, Cui Jun also followed Zheng Jun forward.

Without enough time to notify the Hundred Household Officers, the Chief Flag Officer released Cui Jun and others. Upon seeing this, Cui Jun pretended to be dignified and said: "Call out all the people stationed at the granary, and then look for our Thousand Households Officers and Hundred Households Officers to come over."

"Yes!" The chief flag officer had no time to care about anything else. After agreeing, he sent people to find the Qianhu and Baihu officials.

"You want to..." Zheng Jun saw Cui Jun's intention. He didn't expect that Cui Jun could plan so carefully at such a young age.

Cui Jun did not reply, but waited for the Qianhu officials in the city and the other fifteen Baihu officials to arrive at the entrance of the granary, and then he said:

"This city has been taken over by me, Bohai, you guys..."

"Traitor!!"

When Bohai exited for the second time, the Qianhu officials and several Baihu officials were the first to react, intending to kill Cui Jun.

But before they could step forward, several soldiers stepped forward, knocked them to the ground, and put knives on their necks.

The soldiers around him finally reacted and drew their swords to point at Cui Jun and others.

But they looked at the number of Cui Jun and others and swallowed nervously.

"My Highness is here for Qingjun, not for anything else."

"This time we captured the Jinzhou Guard, all military households were reduced to civilian status. Those who are willing to join the army will receive eight guan of money and twenty shi of food every year, and their families will receive ten acres of military land. In addition, the land will be divided equally among all the military households in the guard. According to the It will be divided equally per capita, and no taxes will be collected in the first year.”

"Rebel Bohai..."

"Paws!"

"Snapped--"

The captured Qianhu was still yelling and cursing, Cui Jun said coldly, and the soldiers on the left and right immediately stepped forward and gave him two hard blows with their scabbards, causing his cheeks to become visibly red and swollen.

Seeing the fate of officials from thousands of households, the officials and soldiers from hundreds of households put away their weapons one after another.

Soon, Cui Jun took over Jinzhou City and ordered Zheng Jun to command five hundred brothers to take over the city at Zhongzuo in the south and bring the soldiers there back to Jinzhou City.

Cui Jun sent someone to notify Li Meng to go south. As a result, three inns leading from Fuzhou to Jiuliancheng evaporated out of thin air.

Doing this will certainly cause the Jinzhou incident to break out, but Cui Jun has [-] men in his hands. If he wants to defend Jinzhou City, which has more than [-] shi of food, the city is two feet high, and the circumference is only three miles, it is more than enough.

Cui Jun believed in His Highness, and did not think that Liaodong Dusi's soldiers and horses would be his Highness's opponent.

Anyway, Liu Zhen is already going to lead his troops to take over Jinzhou, and the incident in Jinzhou will only be exposed in the next day or two. In this case, it is better to go earlier, at least to attract the attention of the Liao soldiers in southern Liaoning.

As Cui Jun expected, they saw two thousand cavalry galloping from the north the next day.

The banner with the word "Liu" was flying, but when they came to the city, they were rejected.

"I am the Commander-in-Chief, Liu Zhen. Open the city gate quickly. This is your troop deployment card!"

Liu Zhen didn't know what was happening in Jinzhou yet. He hurriedly hurried along the way and didn't even take a break when he passed the inn, in order to settle in Jinzhou City early.

Unfortunately, facing his voice, a young voice came from the top of the city.

"Captain Liu, I'm sorry, you're late!"

Along with this sound, a flag appeared at the top of the city. As soon as the Bohai Zhuque flag with a red background and black edges appeared, Liu Zhen quickly turned his horse's head and left the city.

From a distance, he looked at Jinzhou City, which was captured by the Bohai Navy, with a very ugly look on his face.

"What's going on? Could it be that the Marquis of Jiangyin was defeated?"

"It wouldn't be so fast even if they were defeated. They were still in Tieling eight days ago. How could they possibly go down more than ten cities and arrive in Jinzhou in eight days?"

"What do we do now?"

"The only choice is to withdraw to Jiulian City..."

"Don't panic!" Listening to the noise behind him, Liu Zhen shook the reins and said unwillingly: "Retreat to Shihema Post and send a boat to Shandong to report the news. He Qi, you sent someone to Fuzhou to check the situation!"

"Yes!"

Liu Zhen, who had been galloping for four days, had no choice but to turn his horse and leave, because from the number of defenders at the top of the city, he knew that the Bohai Navy soldiers in Jinzhou definitely exceeded the number of soldiers and horses under his command.

Liu Zhen had seen the Bohai Navy's combat power with his own eyes during the Battle of the Northern Patrol, and naturally he did not want to fight with less to defeat more.

He should first withdraw to Jiuliancheng and figure out the situation in Liaodong.

Soon, Liu Zhen withdrew from Shihema Station, which had been vacated by Cui Jun. After setting up camp here, he went to Fuzhou to inquire about the situation.

The next day, news came from Fuzhou that Fuzhou was fine.

"They came over the mountains!"

Liu Zhen had experienced the power of the Bohai Navy in crossing the ground in Ulliangha, and naturally he would not doubt whether they could cross the Changbai Mountains.

"Commander, I saw the garrison in Jinzhou City yesterday. There were no less than thousands of people. In addition, there are hundreds of thousands of stones of food in the city. If we cannot capture Jinzhou, our army will be in danger!"

The commander under his command reminded Liu Zhen, and Liu Zhen naturally knew it, so he quickly said: "Send Tangqi to inform Governor Wu Gao and ask him to send troops south to recover Jinzhou."

"Yes!"

The commander quickly agreed, turned around and walked out of the camp, and sent Tangqi to Shenyang.

"Fixed fire loading, target Shenyang City, test fire for ten rounds, self-scheduling!"

"Ready... let go!" 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　pleint�

The dull sound of artillery sounded outside Shenyang City, and this was already the third day that the Shenyang defenders were bombarded.

On May [-], Zhu Gaoxu led his troops south and successfully surrounded Shenyang City.

He was not in a hurry to attack the city, as if waiting for something, but just ordered the bombardment of Shenyang City.

Thanks to Feng Sheng's massive city construction when he was stationed in Liaodong, the cities in Liaoshen area were strong and built with blue bricks.

Facing such a city, even the Bohai Navy's field artillery could not capture it for a while.

However, everyone also knows that no matter how strong Shenyang City is, it is not made of steel and will be broken sooner or later. Therefore, their only hope is the reinforcements from Shandong, Peiping, and Daning.

"It's the third day, and bricks have already fallen off the city wall. If this continues, it will probably be breached in ten days."

In the Shenyang Guard Commander's Office, Geng Gu, who had just returned from a tour of the city wall, was anxious to explain the city defense matters to Wu Gao.

Just listening to his words, Wu Gao was absent-minded. Instead, he said doubtfully: "He just bombarded the city without attacking the city. It doesn't look like he is short of food."

"Is it possible that the Bohai Navy is not short of food?" Wu Gao murmured, but shook his head and objected: "Impossible, it is impossible for them not to be short of food. There are records of all the food trucks of the [-] Guards leaving customs. Their food should only be enough to support About a month.”

He was wondering why Zhu Gaoxu was not in a hurry, but at this moment the commander Wang Xian anxiously ran into the Yamen again holding a piece of paper.

As soon as he came in, Wu Gao and Geng Feng became nervous.

"No! Jinzhou City was captured by the rebels!"

"What did you say?!" After hearing Wang Xian's words, Wu Gao and Geng Wei stood up at the same time, in disbelief.

"It's absolutely true!" Wang Xian took two deep breaths: "Dudu Liu led his troops to Jinzhou City and saw that the rebel flag had been hung up in Jinzhou City. The number of soldiers at the top of the city was several times the number of the original defenders. I'm afraid No less than five or six thousand people.”

"Captain Liu was hesitant and thought we had lost, so he retreated to Shihema Station. After inquiring about information in Fuzhou, he determined that the rebels had crossed the mountains and crossed the ridge from Jilin to Jinzhou."

"Master Marquis, now there is no less than [-] shi of grain in Jinzhou. If Zhu Gaoxu gets the news, he can completely bypass Shenyang and go south, but we will be trapped in a food shortage situation!"

For a time, the offense and defense changed, and Zhu Gaoxu became the party with abundant food, while Wu Gao and the others encountered food problems.

"How long will we have enough food to last?" Wu Gao subconsciously looked at Geng Wei, who looked very ugly.

"Excluding the food from Jinzhou, our food supply is only [-] dan at most, but we can survive until the end of August at most. If we include the brothers' family members, I'm afraid we won't even survive July..."

The Dusi family in Liaodong had a great cause, but the Ming Dynasty did not develop the area in depth, so that the entire Liao farmland was only [-] hectares, or [-] million acres.

After losing the [-] Guards, Tieling Guards and Puhe Guards, the number of farmland has dropped to more than [-] million acres, and the grain that can be handed over to the army is only more than [-] shi.

With more than [-] stones, it is simply a foolish dream to support more than [-] soldiers and civilians outside Liaobei and Jinzhou.

Without grain transportation from Shandong, the [-] people in Liaodong would only be able to survive until the end of June at most.

The month that Wu Gao had been thinking about was now not limiting Zhu Gaoxu's time, but instead limiting their time.

"strike camp……"

Wu Gao quickly made a decision. If Jinzhou, which has the best port, cannot be recovered in time, then Liaodong will be an eye-opener if it does not surrender to the rebels, let alone resist the rebels.

"We still have two shallow ports in Jiulian City and Ningyuan, so we won't abandon Shenyang."

Geng Wei pulled Wu Gao, but Wu Gao shook his head solemnly: "To go from Shandong to Jiuliancheng (Dandong), you must pass through Jinzhou, and the rebels' artillery is sharp. If they also cast cannons in Jinzhou, there will be no Ships can pass through the Golden State.”

"As for Guangning, the common people of Yan have rebelled, and there is a need to supply food to the Daning Dusi."

"Shenyang City cannot be defended, and the same goes for Liaoyang City. We have to go south."

"Why don't we ask the Shandong Dusi to mobilize troops to capture Jinzhou?" Geng Wei still didn't want to give up Liaoshen, because without Liaoshen, the situation they faced would be more severe.

The Liaochen Plain is completely the back garden of the Bohai Navy's horse and infantry forces. Once they are no longer restrained by the two cities of Liaoyang and Shenyang, God knows what kind of trouble they will cause.

"The Shandong Dusi should still have [-] Japanese soldiers ready. If they are put under Liu Zhen's control, they might be able to capture Jinzhou City."

"If that doesn't work, you can also prepare in advance and ask the Peiping Dusi to transport the grain to Guangning first."

"Captain! Governor..."

Before Geng Feng finished speaking, someone ran into the yamen with a loud voice, and he came to the middle hall to hand over the military information.

Wu Gao quickly grabbed it and turned pale after opening the military information.

"What's going on?" Geng Feng and Wang Xian asked anxiously, but Wu Gao, who had not yet recovered from the military situation, said: "The common people of Yan defeated Fang Zhao's [-] soldiers and horses, pulled out Juyong Pass, and captured Huai Lai."

"The commander of Juyongguan, Yu Tian, ​​died in battle, the commander of Kaiping Guard, Song Zhong, was captured alive, the commander of Huailai Guard, Liu Zhen, surrendered, the Five Guards City of Kaiping surrendered, and only Fang Zhao fled to Datong in time..."

"How could this happen..." Upon hearing the news, Geng Feng and Wang Xian also widened their eyes.

If Juyong Pass is broken and Huailai is captured by Zhu Di, then only Daning in the north can compete with Peiping.

As expected, the imperial court will definitely mobilize Shaanxi Dusi soldiers and horses to enter Shanxi, and Henan and Shandong soldiers and horses will go north to put down the rebellion.

If this is the case, then the reinforcements Geng Wei mentioned before will become false.

Now Daning and Liaodong have completely become isolated islands...

"You leave [-] troops, and I will defend Shenyang!"

Geng Wei made up his mind. Wu Gao clenched his fists when he saw this, but nodded helplessly after a moment: "I will leave you fifteen thousand people, and I will take another seventeen thousand people south, plus Liaoyang and Liaonan, Liu Zhen's troops and horses are enough to raise [-] people."

Although Wu Gao said this, everyone knew that more than [-]% of the soldiers in Liao were here, and Shanhaiguan and Guangning could not move. Therefore, the [-] people Wu Gao mentioned were actually only him and Liu Zhenna. Less than [-] people can be considered combat soldiers.

Can [-] people attack Jinzhou, which is garrisoned by [-] or [-] people?

Geng Feng didn't have time to think too much, so he got the troop deployment card handed to him by Wu Gao.

Not long after, the south gate of Shenyang City opened, and the spearmen formed a formation and headed south.

This news was also reported to Zhu Gaoxu by Tangqi of the Bohai Navy, and Zhu Gaoxu, who was sitting in the camp and eating brown rice with his generals, also laughed after learning the news.

"It seems that Cui Jun has captured Jinzhou. It's not us who are short of food now, but Wu Gao!"

Zhu Gaoxu smiled heartily and at the same time explained how he arranged for Cui Jun to go south to attack Jinzhou.

After hearing this, all the generals realized what they were doing, so they all said with grim faces: "Your Highness, you have been able to hide this from us for so long..."

"Haha... I did this just to be on the safe side." Zhu Gaoxu stood up happily, and Wang Yi bowed as he walked back and forth: "Your Highness, should we go and suppress the troops leaving the city?"

"No need! Jinzhou City suffered from Japanese invasion in the early years. Emperor Taizu Gao specially ordered people to reinforce Jinzhou and Jinzhou Zhongzuo. With [-] men in hand, Cui Jun is enough to defend until we arrive."

"Right now, the number of soldiers in Shenyang City is no longer enough to fight us. Give me my order..."

When Zhu Gaoxu saw that the time was up, he immediately issued an order: "Promote Wang Yi to be the commander of the capital of Liaodong, Chen Chang and Meng Zhang to be the commanders of the capital, and Xu Sheng, Cui Jun, Sun Cheng, and Zhao Mu to be the commanders of the capital."

"I accept your order!" Wang Yi and others bowed in response, feeling ecstatic.

"Wang Yi led the Jurchen Eight Guards all the way south and captured the three prefectures of Haizhou, Gaizhou, and Fuzhou. Meng Zhang led the Third Battalion of Shenji to Liaoyang City and captured Liaoyang."

"Chen Chang, you lead the Anton Guard to capture Fushun. Xu Sheng, you stay with me and continue to surround Shenyang."

"The minister waits for orders!!"

Zhu Gaoxu's orderly orders seemed to have captured the east of the Liaohe River in one fell swoop.

The generals excitedly accepted the tiger talisman given by Zhu Gaoxu. The tiger talisman was made from the gold mines of Jilin City and was heavy in weight.

After taking over the tiger talisman, the more than [-] Bohai army was divided into four and attacked and plundered Liaonan, Liaoyang and Fushun respectively.

This scene was seen by Geng Feng at the top of the city and Wu Liang who was preparing to cross the river south, but they could do nothing.

If Jinzhou is not recaptured, all their [-] soldiers and civilians will starve to death.

"Captain, the common people of Bohai have stayed."

On the city gate tower of Fusheng Gate (North Gate), Wang Xian and Geng Gu were talking, and Geng Gu naturally saw that the soldiers and horses leaving the city did not carry the big banner.

This shows that Zhu Gaoxu is still in the camp, but Geng Gu can do nothing about it.

The Bohai Navy showed absolute strength at this moment. Thirty thousand horse infantry left the camp. Even the Shenji Battalion had enough horses and draft horses to ride and pull the artillery.

Although there were only more than [-] people around Zhu Gaoxu, most of them were cavalry.

Geng Feng did not have the confidence to defeat the [-] cavalry with [-] infantry. He could only defend Shenyang City and let this place become the last nail in the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong.

"How many days will the food in the city be enough to last?"

Geng Feng asked Wang Xian, and Wang Xian felt relieved after hearing this: "Half of the soldiers and horses have been gone, and there are still [-] shi of food in the city, which is enough to feed the [-] soldiers in the city for a year and a half."

"That's good……"

Geng Wei looked at the Bohai camp and murmured these words, while in the same camp, Xu Sheng also looked at the brothers who were walking out, feeling itchy.

He looked at Zhu Gaoxu who was observing Shenyang City with a telescope: "Your Highness, why don't we take action?"

"Do it?" Zhu Gaoxu looked at Xu Sheng in confusion, and quickly guessed what he was thinking, so he smiled:

"Using [-] men to contain Shenyang City's [-]-strong army is not a great achievement, isn't it?"

"That's true, but..." Xu Sheng faltered and couldn't speak. Zhu Gaoxu smiled and patted him: "Don't worry, you will be useful later, but before that, you first take the artificial boat to the Hun River It provides me with fishing and subsidizes the military."

"Ah?" Xu Sheng said with a bitter face: "Everyone else has gone to attack the city and plunder the land, why do we still have to fish?"

"They took the food away. If we don't fish, what will we eat? It will take at least some time before we can eat the food in Jinzhou." Zhu Gaoxu patted Xu Sheng on the back: "Don't talk too much, go and build a ship quickly. "

"Oh..." Xu Sheng agreed with a grimace, and could only take the man-made boat to fish...

　"Bohai Chronicles": "In the fifth month of Guimao, we led [-] troops to cross the mountains for more than [-] miles and captured the city of Jinzhou. I was very happy and promoted the capital to command Qianshi."

　　"Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty": "Jun led five thousand horse and infantry officers and soldiers southward. When the barbarians heard about the troops and horses, they all attached to guide them. Jun's troops arrived in Jinzhou. Zheng Jun heard about the wise man and raised the city to surrender."

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)