Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 232 Obtaining Liaowangning
  "Your Highness! Your Highness!"

In early June, in a camp outside Shenyang City, Xu Sheng, carrying a big fish on his back, ran into Zhu Gaoxu's tent with a roar.

"What? Come to show off your fish?"

Zhu Gaoxu, who was writing textbooks, looked up and saw the almost three-foot-long fish behind Xu Sheng, and asked with interest.

"Ah?" After his reminder, Xu Sheng realized what he was doing, and quickly put the fish on his back on a low table in the tent, and then said happily: "Your Highness, Liaoyang and Haizhou have surrendered one after another. Gaizhou is coming soon!”

Xu Sheng brought good news, but Zhu Gaoxu didn't find it strange. He asked directly: "Did you see Wu Gao withdrawing his troops all the way south and surrendering without relieving the siege?"

"Yes! You guessed it right, Wu Gao didn't stop all the way and ran directly to Jinzhou." Xu Sheng clapped his hands and applauded, and Zhu Gaoxu was not surprised.

Once Peking raises troops, the land lifeline of Liaodong will be cut off. If Jinzhou, the largest maritime lifeline, is also cut off, the sea route to Jiuliancheng will also be cut off, leaving only Ningyuan in western Liaoning.

But the problem is that many Liaodong ports in this era were located in shoals, and many excellent ports in later generations have not yet been washed out. Therefore, Ningyuan Pier cannot accommodate a large number of ships.

There is no problem in using it to protect western Liaoning, but trying to help more than [-] people in eastern Liaoning is simply a pipe dream.

Wu Gao would be anxious to go south, but the grain from Haizhou and Gaizhou had already been diverted by Wu Gao. Wu Gao thought that when the grain arrived in Jinzhou, he could supply the two states, but he didn't want Jinzhou to be intercepted by Zhu Gaoxu.

Now that there is no food in Haigai Erzhou City, and seeing that Wu Gao has not rescued him, the only way left is to surrender.

The only thing that surprised Zhu Gaoxu was that Liaoyang, which had plenty of food and grass, also surrendered.

"How did Liaoyang surrender?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked, and Xu Sheng also grinned and said: "Zhou Ding's younger brother Zhou Gui killed the commander of Liaoyang and took thousands of households from his headquarters to open the city gate for Meng Zhang. The "Fish Scale Atlas" of Haizhou and Liaoyang , it will probably be delivered here soon."

"It's an unexpected surprise." Although Zhu Gaoxu was pleasantly surprised, he was not as excited as Xu Sheng.

After all, in his opinion, once Liaoyang was besieged, it would only be a matter of time before he surrendered, because once Wu Gao left, he would never come back.

As soon as Wu Gao leaves, it will be the best time for him to raise a large army to capture Liaodong.

"Is there anything unusual happening in Shenyang City?"

Zhu Gaoxu lowered his head to compile teaching materials and asked about the situation in Shenyang, but Xu Sheng shook his head: "Then Geng Gu has been guarding the city. Recently, the brothers patrolling the sentry often heard the sound of smashing in the city. I am afraid that there is insufficient firewood. They have already arrived to push the house. It’s to the point of tearing down wood.”

"It's not surprising." Zhu Gaoxu replied distractedly: "Although Wu Gao moved the common people in Shenyang and Puhe Sansuo in advance, there are still some people who have not had time to move."

"Shenyang has sufficient grain and grass, but firewood can only be transported through Fushun in the upper reaches of the Hun River."

"Now our army has captured Fushun and is patrolling Shenyang. In less than half a year, I'm afraid Geng Gu won't even have to demolish his house. I'm afraid he will have to demolish the city gate tower."

"Your Highness!"

Suddenly, happy shouts came from outside the tent.

Not long after, Zhao Mu appeared outside the camp.

Zhao Mu was Zhu Gaoxu's former personal guard officer. Later, he was promoted to the commanding envoy after he achieved meritorious service. A few days ago, he was promoted to the capital commander's envoy, responsible for the exchange of documents and the dispatch of troops and horses in the camp.

He came in with two soldiers and more than a dozen thick books.

When two soldiers placed the document on Zhu Gaoxu's table, he also bowed and introduced: "The document on the left is the situation and land distribution of the cultivated land of Sanwanwei, Tielingwei and Puhe after Sun Changshi from the north re-measured it. Amount."

"On the right are the "Fish Scale Atlas", "Yellow Album" and "Grain Album" from Fushun, Liaoyang and Haizhou."

"Currently, Erweisan in the north has more than [-] acres of land, Liaoyang has more than [-] acres, Haizhou has more than [-] acres, and Fushun has more than [-] acres."

"The number of households in Zhuchengkou is listed as [-] households, with a population of about [-]."

"But now that Wu Gao and Geng Feng have gathered soldiers, it is estimated that it will be lower than this estimate, but not much lower. Thousands of people in Shenyang were moved to Liaoyang City."

"Let's divide the fields according to [-] yuan." Zhu Gaoxu stopped editing, picked up a few "Fish Scale Atlas" and looked at it.

Except for the error in the [-]th year of Hongwu's reign, there were no major problems with the land surveying during Lao Zhu's period.

Judging from the measurements and documentation of the Second and Third Institutes in Northern Liaoning, they are basically about [-]% more than what is shown on paper. They should all be newly cultivated land that has not yet been registered after being reclaimed in the past two years.

Zhu Gaoxu looked through the grain book and found that Liaoyang and Haizhou combined had a total of [-] shi, enough to feed the [-] people for two months.

In two months, he should be able to conquer the entire territory of Liaodong and build ships to prepare to cross the sea and attack Denglai.

"With over [-] acres of land, don't you want to divide it among the brothers?"

Xu Sheng spoke cautiously, and Zhu Gaoxu also chuckled: "Of course we have to separate."

After saying that, he looked at Zhao Mu, thought for a moment and then said: "The Jurchen brothers who died in the war will each be granted fifty acres of land as a pension, and the whole family will be moved to Liaoyang and Haizhou to divide the land."

"After they went south, their fields in Jilin were transferred to Liaoyang and Haizhou on a one-to-one basis."

"The brothers of the Han family who died in the war were also granted fifty acres of land, divided into three areas in Puhe."

"As for the people who were relocated in Liaoyang, they were moved to Changchun, and cattle were distributed to open up wasteland. They were provided with two kilograms of grain every day. They should not be harshly punished."

"In addition, the four cities in the Bohai Sea can also resume the supply of two kilograms of grain per day."

Although it is not known how much food there is in Jinzhou, according to the information given by Fu Rang before the war, the food there should not be less than [-] shi.

The [-] people in Bohai, plus the [-] people in Liaoyang and other places, and [-] troops, these more than [-] shi of food are enough to feed their nearly [-] people until winter.

Four months was enough time to build a ship and land in Shandong.

If it doesn't work, as long as Liaoxi is solved, he can ask Zhu Di for food.

If Zhu Gaoxu remembers correctly, Zhu Di did not encounter food problems when he was in trouble. In the early stage, there were granaries in Beiping and Tongzhou, and in the middle and later stages, he relied entirely on jungle.

You don't have to wait until the middle and late stages. As long as you can quickly capture Liaodong, then go to capture Daning while the ship is being built, move Daning's population to fill Liaodong and the Bohai Sea, and then get food from Zhu Di, you will have no worries.

It is too wasteful to move the population of Daning to Peking. Only by giving it to Liaodong and Bohai can the benefits be maximized.

Zhu Gaoxu has been coveting the population of that place for more than a day or two. He has been waiting for the opportunity since the beginning of the war.

After Jinzhou was captured, it was not only Liaodong that was in trouble, but also Daning, which relied on Liaodong's shipping for grain transportation.

In previous years, Daning had only three routes for transporting grain, one was via Huailai, Shanxi Province, one was via Beiping, and the other was via Liaodong Shipping.

Now Beiping is definitely unworkable, and Jinzhou has been cut off by itself. The Huailaiwei route alone cannot supply it at all.

If Zhu Gaoxu remembered correctly, after Zhu Di raised his army, even with supplies from Liaodong, Daning began to suffer from food shortages in the second year of Jianwen.

Because of this, Zhu Yunwen urged Li Jinglong to go north to fight in the winter, because if he delayed it any longer, Daning might not need Zhu Di to go, so he would go south to join Zhu Di.

Now that the Jinzhou Sea Road is gone, Zhu Gaoxu wants to know how long Daning's food stocks can keep those [-] people fed.

Of course, what he is more curious about now is whether Wu Gao, who went all the way south, has arrived in Fuzhou, and how he plans to attack Jinzhou, which is defended by [-] people.

"Nineteen thousand people want to capture Jinzhou, which is a bit difficult..."

When Zhu Gaoxu was guessing, a huge camp also stood outside Fuzhou City.

In the camp, Liu Zhen looked embarrassed and talked about the current predicament with Wu Gao, who had arrived after a long journey.

After Hongwu's twenty-eight years of reinforcement, Jinzhou City was easy to defend but difficult to attack, and most of the Liaodong Dusi's firearms were transferred to Shenyang. It would take at least two months for Fuzhou to cast cannons to attack the city.

But the current problem is that the food in Fuzhou is only enough to feed the [-] soldiers and civilians for a month and a half.

Therefore, the only way left before Wu Gao was to attack by force.

Regarding his proposal, Liu Zhen expressed the difficulties.

Less than [-] people stormed the city garrisoned by [-] or [-] people. Even if they captured it, they suffered heavy casualties and were unable to go north to relieve the siege of Gaizhou and Shenyang, not to mention the surrender of Liaoyang and Haizhou.

"Only when we capture Jinzhou can we use big ships to transport reinforcements to support us."

Wu Gao was not in pain. Originally, his idea was to strengthen the walls and clear the country, relying on the city to consume Zhu Gaoxu.

It's just that now that the offense and defense have changed, he has to turn around and attack the city, and Zhu Gaoxu consumes his own strength.

After learning the specific situation in Jinzhou, Wu Gao did not expect to regain the lost territory in Liaodong alone, but set his sights on Shandong.

But just after he finished speaking, Liu Zhen said with a complex expression: "The Shandong soldiers and the Japanese soldiers were all transferred to the north. The imperial court appointed Changxing Hou as the general to conquer the captives, and went north to conquer Yan Ni."

"We...I'm afraid we don't have any reinforcements..."

Liu Zhen's words made Wu Gao's mood sink to the bottom, but he also knew that Jinzhou must be won.

"With Jinzhou captured, we will have room to attack, retreat, or wait for reinforcements from the imperial court."

"Now the post road from Liaodong to western Liaoning has been cut off by the rebels. We only have two isolated cities in Liaodong, Jiulian City and Fuzhou. Once the food is exhausted, we will either kill ourselves to serve the country or surrender."

"Only by winning Jinzhou can we have a way out."

After Wu Gao explained, he told Liu Zhen: "Prepare a month's worth of military rations tomorrow. I will capture Jinzhou within a month."

"Yes!" Liu Zhen agreed with difficulty, got up and went to prepare military rations.

After he left, Wu Gao also stood up and took a look at the sand table in the tent, and rubbed his slightly sore temples: "I should have thought of it earlier."

"Whether he was fighting Xiyang Ha or Ha Lawu, he always used surprise troops to attack and win. If I had thought of it earlier, I wouldn't be so passive."

Wu Gao sighed, but he also knew that even if he thought about it at first, he could not prevent the loss of Jinzhou.

In the final analysis, it was his inertial thinking that limited him.

Throughout the ages, no one has ever attacked Jinzhou, the southernmost part of Liaodong, from a place as remote as Jilin. Zhu Gaoxu was the first to do so.

Naturally, he would not consider things that had not happened before, and this was also the reason why his plan was disrupted by Zhu Gaoxu.

One wrong step after another, Wu Gao now has no capital to counterattack. Winning Golden State has become his last battle to wash away his humiliation.

He knew very well that the Liao affairs were so corrupt that he might not be able to protect himself.

I just don’t know who the imperial court will send to take over the military power in Liaodong after he leaves.　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

Before Wu Gao could think of who the visitor would be, he saw Liu Zhen, who had left earlier, come back with a dark face.

"What's wrong?" Wu Gao frowned.

"Gaizhou has also been surrendered." Liu Zhen lowered his head, obviously feeling ashamed.

The Gaizhou garrison was the person he single-handedly promoted, but he didn't expect that at this moment, his men would actually surrender.

"As expected..."

Rubbing his eyebrows, Wu Gao felt that he was getting closer and closer to being replaced.

His worries were not unfounded. Three days later, the army set off southward. The soldiers and horses had only traveled more than twenty miles when he received an angel who took a boat to the coast of Fuzhou and paddled ashore in a small boat.

Not surprisingly, Wu Gao was replaced, and his replacement was Geng Feng. The person who supervised the army before relieving Shenyang was Liu Zhen.

"I dare to ask Angel, can I, after conquering Jinzhou, go south to Beijing to report on my duties?"

After listening to the imperial edict, Wu Gao stood up in front of the incense table and asked the officials who came to deliver the edict, but what he got was a shake of his head: "Your Majesty said that the Marquis of Jiangyin will set off south today. Xiaguan's ship is already cruising on the Fuzhou Sea and waiting. .”

"Whether Jinzhou can be recovered now is very important to the imperial court. Can the angels be lenient?" Liu Zhen also stood up to speak for Wu Gao.

"Captain Liu, don't embarrass me..." The official smiled bitterly and said, "Now the temple has become a mess due to the corruption of the Liao Dynasty. If I delay for the Marquis of Jiangyin, I'm afraid he will be imprisoned when he returns."

"What's more, you just captured Jinzhou, which is garrisoned by five to six thousand people. You have ten thousand troops, so why worry about not being able to capture it?"

This Wen Linlang didn't know how difficult Jinzhou City was to defeat, he just kept thinking about himself.

After hearing this, Wu Gao did not expect him to understand. He could only turn around and explain to Liu Zhen: "If the common people of Bohai personally lead the troops south for rescue, then you should evacuate to Jiuliancheng immediately. I will ask the court to deal with it and use the Korean sea route to transport the goods." The food is for you."

"I finally understand..." Liu Zhen lowered his head and bowed solemnly.

Not long after, Wu Gao handed over the troop dispatching order given by the court to Liu Zhen. Under the supervision of Wen Linlang and his guards, Wu Gao mounted his horse and returned to Fuzhou.

Looking at his back gradually walking away, Liu Zhen felt a heavy burden on his shoulders.

He was someone who had personally fought with Zhu Gaoxu, and he knew Zhu Gaoxu's bravery very well.

In a frontal battle, even if he has multiple troops, he may not be able to draw a tie with Zhu Gaoxu, not to mention that Zhu Gaoxu still has artillery and firearms.

Although he did not face the Bohai Navy's artillery and firearms that Wu Gao and others talked about, he could still understand the power of those firearms from the soldiers' words.

Thinking of this, he looked at the sea in the distance and murmured: "Can I hold Liaodong..."

No one answered his question, and after a brief period of confusion, he led [-] troops and [-] civilians from Fuzhou to advance to Jinzhou in the south.

On the sixth day of June, he led his troops to the gates of Jinzhou City. At this time, Jinzhou had more defensive equipment than half a month ago.

Nineteen thousand troops began to camp six miles north of Jinzhou City. Liu Zhen commanded the more than [-] cavalry brought back by Wu Gao from northern Liaoning and his own [-] cavalry to bypass Jinzhou and go south to explore the center of Jinzhou. Zuosuo and port conditions.

"At this scale, there are probably [-] people, right?"

"almost……"

At the top of Jinzhou City, Zheng Jun, who was promoted to be the commander, looked at the stretching camp outside the city and sighed. Cui Jun beside him, although he was young, nodded his head in approval.

"Can we hold it?"

Although Zheng Jun had fought in battles, the scale was not large. On the contrary, although Cui Jun was young, he had fought many battles with Zhu Gaoxu and had rich experience.

"Although Jinzhou City is not high, the horse roads are wide and there are many people in the city. We can rotate three shifts to defend the city."

"We don't have to hold on for too long. As long as we hold on for a month, His Highness will lead his troops south and the siege of Jinzhou will be lifted."

Cui Jun was not afraid because the army outside the city was four times his own. Instead, he shouted to the brothers around him:

"Brothers, you all know that His Highness rewards you generously!"

"Know!!"

The excited voice sounded, and Cui Jun also grinned: "Okay! Just know it!"

Cui Jun pointed to the outside of the city: "At the beginning, [-] Haragu troops besieged Jixi Pass. We only had less than [-] soldiers and less than [-] civilians to defend Jixi Pass. Now there are only [-] soldiers outside the city. What should we be afraid of! "

"I guarantee you with my head that within one month, His Highness will lead troops to relieve us."

"What I have to do is to defend Jinzhou City. As long as I can hold on until Your Highness comes, I will personally ask for credit for the brothers and at least let His Highness give each of us twenty acres of land!"

"War! War! War..."

Before going south, Zhu Gaoxu told Xu Cuijun that although the twenty acres of land per person was a lot, it was nothing compared to the more than [-] shi of food in the city.

Cui Jun was young and high-spirited. Zheng Jun on the side couldn't help but be envious when he saw it, and at the same time lamented the Bohai Navy's generosity.

Just for defending the city, twenty acres of land will be given out for one month. Not to mention the soldiers from the Bohai Sea, even they, and even the men and women in the city, will probably bravely walk up the city wall and defend the city with the Bohai Navy.

That is [-] acres of land. If sold according to the previous price of private land in Jinzhou, it would be worth at least more than [-] guan. If used for farming, it could produce thirteen or four shi of grain per year to feed a family of five.

We must know that under the current guard system, they still had to cultivate the army's farmland every year before they had the strength to cultivate their own remaining fields.

The veteran military households in Jinzhou struggled for twelve years, but they could only cultivate [-] to [-] acres of land in Jinzhou, during which they had to fight against Japanese pirates.

Although the Japanese pirates have disappeared in the past two years, the bloody spirit is still there.

It is much safer to defend the city than to go out to fight the Japanese pirates.

"The arrogance of these rebels is so arrogant!"

In the camp outside the city, shouts could be vaguely heard from Jinzhou City. A commander spoke angrily, but Liu Zhen was as steady as a rock.

"It's useless to fight verbally. The brothers must supervise the construction of siege equipment within three days, and prepare all the gunpowder for the army. Three days later, the gunmen from the archery tower will call on the rebels at the top of the city, and Lu Gongcha will send the elite troops to ascend first."

"Yes!" The commander agreed, turned around and went out to supervise the construction of camps and siege equipment.

At the same time, Wang Yi, who captured Gaizhou and sent his horse and infantry south to inquire about Fuzhou, also reported the news to the rear.

In just two days, Zhu Gaoxu got news about Wang Yi.

"You said Wu Gao was replaced?"

Looking at the commander who came to report the news, Zhu Gaoxu smiled when he heard this. Ta Shi also nodded and said: "Brothers went to Fuzhou to find out the news, and happened to encounter the defenders at the top of the city changing their flags."

"The flags with the character 'Wu' on the top of the city have all been replaced with the character 'Liu', so the news should be fine."

"Okay! Okay!" After receiving the confirmation, Zhu Gaoxu stood up and couldn't help laughing.

"With Wu Gao gone, Liaodong will be easy to deal with."

His thoughts were spinning rapidly, and he soon had an idea. He looked at Xu Sheng, Zhao Mu and Ta She in the tent, and after a moment he gave the order: "Xu Sheng, you and Ta She will return to Gaizhou now. Separate two guards on the left and right sides of Changchun to garrison Haizhou and Gaizhou."

"In addition, you order someone to notify Meng Zhang of Liaoyang and ask him to leave a battalion to defend the city and take the artillery and remaining troops to Haizhou to join you."

"When he joins you, you can take Changchun Guards to cross the river with him and go to besiege Guangning."

"Yes!" Xu Sheng bowed in agreement, feeling ecstatic in his heart, thinking that he finally had a fight.

"Ta Shi!" Zhu Gaoxu spoke to Ta Shi again: "After you go south, let Wang Yi stay with Xu Sheng's three Changchun guards, and ask him to lead the rest of his troops south to besiege Fuzhou."

"Yes!" When Ta failed to respond, Zhao Mu on the side also said nervously: "Your Highness, aren't you going to save Cui Jun and the others?"

Zhao Mu has a good relationship with Cui Jun, so he is very worried about him.

In this regard, Zhu Gaoxu said confidently: "You have to believe him. Liu Zhen only has [-] or [-] troops at most. Cui Jun only needs to hold on for half a month. Wang Yi can break through Fuzhou City and drive Liu Zhen south." Jiulian City.”

His arrangement was one button after another. Now that the Bohai Navy has captured so many cities, it has obtained tens of thousands of kilograms of gunpowder alone, not to mention iron materials.

Wang Yi has a hundred field guns in his hand. If he cannot capture Fuzhou City in half a month, he can resign and return to Bohai to retire.

"Your Highness, will we still fight Jiulian City by then?"

Ta Shi did not doubt that his unit could not win Fuzhou. After all, it was as strong as Tieling, the gateway to northern Liaoning. After withstanding several days of field artillery attacks, Wu Gaodu had no choice but to withdraw his troops and leave, not to mention that Fuzhou's city defense was not as good as Tieling.

What Ta She cares about is what Zhu Gaoxu said just now, that is, after expelling Liu Zhen, whether they will march into Jiulian City.

"Don't worry about him. Jiuliancheng will fight again later."

Faced with his inquiry, Zhu Gaoxu first responded, and then ordered: "After taking Jinzhou, you will immediately have people cut down the wood and transport it to the shipyard in Jinzhou with draft horses."

"Wang Yuan and the others can reach Shenyang in one day, and it only takes about ten days to go south to Jinzhou."

"After arriving in Jinzhou, you asked Wang Yi to cooperate with Wang Yuan, Wang Shipengong and others' requests to cast the clay molds they brought into artillery as quickly as possible and process the felled wood into warships."

"After taking over Jinzhou, send a letter to me as soon as possible."

As soon as Wu Gao leaves, Zhu Gaoxu will launch a full-scale attack. Otherwise, with his presence, Zhu Gaoxu will have to worry about whether he will secretly undermine his arrangements.

There is a big gap between Liu Zhen and Wu Gao. Liu Zhen can only see the immediate future, but Wu Gao can see the overall situation.

The former poses no threat to him and only needs a few soldiers and horses to contain him, but the latter cannot.

It's a pity that now the latter has been transferred away by Zhu Yunwen, so he can use his skills to his heart's content.

With his thoughts here, Zhu Gaoxu could not help but drool over Daning's soldiers and horses...

　"Bohai Chronicles": "Jianwen Jun heard that Liao Dynasty had lost a lot of land, so he withdrew Gao to Beijing and promoted Liu Zhen to take charge of Liao affairs. He was very happy when he heard about it."

　　"Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty": "Gao Duo lost ground. Lord Jianwen suspected that he was supporting the enemy and was self-respecting, so he replaced Zhen. The superiors heard that: 'Wu Gao was timid and Liu Zhen was brave. He was disappointed to meet the enemy, so he ordered Wang Yi to send Wanba troops south to contain them."

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)