Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 247 Three-party wooing

"Take it?"

On August 23, on the official road from Guangning to Jinzhou, when Zhu Gaoxu led more than a hundred cavalry to Jinzhou, a small flag officer stationed at a post station stopped the team.

"Going back to Your Highness, Your Majesty has also just received news from Jinzhou City. His Highness King Yan defeated Geng Bingwen on the 19th day of August. I heard that he beheaded tens of thousands, captured tens of thousands, and captured a lot of grain and horses."

"The specific situation is unclear. This is the good news sent by Commander Chen Du. Please read it."

The little flag official handed a letter sealed with fire paint to Zhu Gaoxu with both hands. Zhu Gaoxu also got off his horse after hearing this, took the good news and sat on a chair outside the post station next to the official road.

The more than a hundred cavalrymen who followed him dismounted one after another and carried him a simple sunshade tent in the post station. At the same time, they protected him and sent people to cook with the soldiers of the post station.

While they were busy, Zhu Gaoxu also took a clear look at what happened in the pass in the past few days.

"My cheap daddy..."

Zhu Gaoxu clicked his tongue a few times, not sure whether he was saying that Zhu Di was awesome or that Lao Zhu was awesome.

Needless to say, Lao Zhu's arrangements. If Zhu Biao did not die in his prime, then there would be Zhu Fan and Zhu Di to check and balance each other in the north, Zhu Zhen and Zhu Bai in Huguang, and Muchun, Song Sheng, and Li Jinglong in the outer court.

As for this group of young men, only Zhu Fan's troops were slightly weaker, but Zhu Fan's methods were not low, and they were enough to contain Zhu Di.

There were three members of the clan, Li Jinglong, in the rebellion, and four members of the clan were involved in the rebellion of the foreign ministers.

Among them, Li Jinglong and Zhu Di can still command more than 200,000 troops.

With this group of young and strong factions and the foundation left by Lao Zhu, if Zhu Biao can survive successfully, he will be able to take the throne at the age of only forty-four. Even if he only lives for ten years, he can lead the Ming Dynasty to expand its territory. , to lay down a large territory.

It's hard to find fault with Lao Zhu's favor towards his uncle. It's no wonder that no matter how shady his cheap father came to power, he couldn't erase Lao Zhu's love for his cheap uncle.

Of course, even if many of them died of illness, if Zhu Yunwen worked hard, there would be a world of peace waiting for him to create, but it is a pity that he lacks the foresight.

"Suck..." Taking a breath, Zhu Gaoxu had to admit that sometimes he was really jealous of Zhu Yunwen.

If it were him, if Old Zhu Ken had paved the way for him, he would at least be able to double the strength of the Ming Dynasty.

But all this has turned into nothing. From the Battle of Jingnan to now, from Bohai to Zhending, no less than 70,000 people have been killed.

If these soldiers were handed over to a general and given enough supplies, they would be enough to destroy a country, but now they all died due to Zhu Yunwen's stupidity.

"Your Highness, are we still going to Jinzhou?"

Seeing that their highness had read the good news, the guards of the Hundred Households immediately stepped forward to inquire.

"No need to go." Zhu Gaoxu shook his head, his eyes were calm, but his thoughts were racing.

At present, the Southern Army has suffered heavy losses. Even if capable generals are dispatched, it will take at least several months to retrain Zhending's 60,000 to 70,000 people.

And according to the historical thinking of Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and others, I am afraid that they are now reviving the veterans of the Hongwu Dynasty and mobilizing the entire southern army.

The opportunity he has been waiting for should come soon. The only question is where to find the generals of the Liaodong Navy...

The current situation has changed, and he is no longer the Bohai County King who could only lead four to five thousand people to fight.

Historically, the reason why Zhu Yunwen urged Li Jinglong to go north in winter after Geng Bingwen was defeated was to deal with Zhu Di in time and transport grain and grass to Daning to prevent the army from being short of food and clothing and seeking refuge with Zhu Di.

But now, there are no more pure investment places in Daning and Liaodong. Although from a military point of view, it is impossible to continue to surround the Yan army on all sides, from an economic point of view, it is a great good thing.

After the imperial court got rid of Daning and Liaodong, which invested nearly two million shi each year, it could save a lot of manpower and material resources to deal with Zhu Di, and there was only one way to deal with Zhu Di, and that was Play slowly and slowly.

"Li Jinglong..."

Li Jinglong's face flashed in Zhu Gaoxu's mind, and his brows slowly wrinkled.

He actually didn't remember much about Li Jinglong's operations in the Battle of Jingnan. The few things he remembered were that it was a rumor that he didn't let Qu Neng attack the city, and that he almost used the mobility of the Southern Army's infantry to outflank Zhu Di on a large scale several times. When encountering Zhu Di in the Battle of Peking, he was able to command 200,000 people to retreat slowly, so that the Yan army did not even gain a single southern army commander level.

He could ignore all the previous ones, but he couldn't ignore the last one.

He personally led an army of 40,000, but in the Battle of Tieling he almost fell into Wu Gao's trick to fake defeat, and the reason was that his army was unable to carry out regimental operations.

At the most serious level, it was because the 40,000-strong army had too little time to adjust. At the most minor level, it was due to his own lack of preparation.

If he hadn't had a ruthless vision and saw through Wu Gao's tricks, he would have been the one who failed miserably.

It is so difficult to command an army of 40,000 people head-on, let alone retreat and organize an army of 200,000 people to retreat.

Throughout the ages, any general who commanded an army of more than 100,000 to retreat and successfully retreated calmly will leave a mark in the history books, because there have been too many incidents where the retreat turned into a rout due to too many troops and horses.

This is true for any organized retreat, not to mention that Li Jinglong organized the retreat during the confrontation with the Yan army's cavalry, and the retreat was successful.

Not to mention ancient times, even in modern times, there are only a handful of generals who can organize large armies with the help of telephones and radios, but can retreat 200,000 people during a confrontation with the enemy without causing serious damage to the regiment-level organization.

Fighting Li Jinglong head-on was obviously not a way out, at least Zhu Gaoxu didn't want to do that.

Of course, the reason why he didn't want to do this was not only because he was afraid of Li Jinglong, but also because of people's livelihood.

Needless to say, the people's livelihood at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was as great as the gap between the north of the Yangtze River and the south of the Yangtze River.

It took Lao Zhu thirty-one years to restore the people's livelihood in the north to the current situation. Although the confrontation between Zhu Di and Geng Bingwen was huge, it did not have much impact on the people north of the Yangtze River.

What really hit the people's livelihood in the north was the most intense stage of the war from the second year to the third year of Jianwen.

What he has to do is to avoid this stage and speed up to capture Zhu Yunwen.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu stopped resting. He stood up and told the brothers around him: "Retreat to Guangning, and ask the generals in Guangning to prepare local newspapers. I want to see the latest news on the overall situation as soon as possible."

"Yes!" Baihuguan nodded in agreement, and soon blew the wooden whistle, and followed Zhu Gaoxu with more than a hundred soldiers to get on their horses and return to Guangning, leaving only those who worked hard to wash the dishes for one hundred people and stood in the wind. The little flag officer of the messy post station.

More than a hundred riders returned to Guangning under the leadership of Zhu Gaoxu. It was late August and the autumn harvest had not yet begun in Guangning. Four thousand military households, about 20,000 people, who had migrated from Daning, were resettled outside the city.

The oxen and horses from Jilin have not yet arrived. At this moment, they are using manpower to reclaim the wasteland, which is very inefficient.

In Jilin City, after each household is rationed with draft horses and cattle, if they work harder, they can even develop two acres of mature farmland a month. However, the Daning immigrants in Guangning can only cultivate one acre per month or even one acre per month with their manpower. It takes one and a half months to clear an acre of wasteland.

Zhu Gaoxu, who was riding through the official road on horseback, kept frowning at the Daning people who worked hard to open up wasteland. Although there were smiles on their faces, he himself was not satisfied.

The land reclamation in Liaodong must be fast enough to facilitate further immigration work.

Daning has been captured, and now Zhu Gaoxu wants the population of Shandong and Beiping.

There are more than five million people in Shandong. From what I saw and heard when I first went north, since the chaos of the late Yuan Dynasty did not severely damage the Shandong gentry, the local gentry's land annexation has exceeded the proportion that should have been achieved in the founding of the country.

Taking advantage of this trip south, I had to find a way to move the gentry from Shandong, Jianghuai and other places to Liaodong.

This move is not only to solve the problem of land annexation, but also for the development of Liaodong.

The humanities in Liaodong are shallow. If this is the case, tens of thousands of Confucius' descendants should be moved to Liaodong and let them develop the humanities in Liaodong.

As for the name, then use it to protect the "saints" and then move their families.

Zhu Gaoxu had his thoughts, and he also entered Guangning City with more than a hundred riders.

Along the way, they went straight to the Guangning command post office. Due to the shortage of county officials, although Liaodong had already set up three division offices under the chairmanship of Zhu Gaoxu, he still did not make any major changes to the command post office as a county office because there were no suitable county officials.

"Your Highness!"

"How is the situation on all sides?"

Seeing him stand up and dismount, the Qianhu official on duty in Guangning City immediately came up to greet him. During Zhu Gaoxu's questioning, he also showed the various messages he had prepared in advance.

"Your Highness, these are the news sent from all directions. Wu Sheng and Liu Song from Guangning Zhongzuo Institute organized several breakouts in the past few days, preparing to go to the seaside to ferry south, but they were intercepted by Xu Tongzhi's troops. Shanhaiguan in the south Wu Shouan was also blocked by Meng Tongzhi."

"Jiuliancheng in the east seems to have begun to withdraw its troops. The ships from the south have sailed to the Yalu River and taken the Korean waterway southward to Denglai. However, according to reports from our army Tangqi, their ships are not large in number and can only carry two to three thousand people at a time. ."

"In addition, the Southern Army in Shenyang City surrendered..."

"What did you say?" Zhu Gaoxu paused. He didn't expect Geng Qi to surrender.

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu stop, Qianhuguan also stopped with him and explained: "Yesterday Geng Chen received a letter from the court. After reading the letter, he committed suicide on the wall of Shenyang North City. The tens of thousands of defenders saw Geng Chen After committing suicide, he opened the city gate and surrendered to Chen Tongzhi one after another."

Qian Huguan was a little sad when he said this, and Zhu Gaoxu was the same after hearing this.

He said how could a man like Geng Feng surrender? It turned out that he had committed suicide.

"He was a general. Let's find a place to bury him properly."

Zhu Gaoxu thought of Geng Bingwen, who had just been defeated by Zhending, and couldn't help but shake his head. He didn't know whether to say that the father and son accepted death or were confused by Zhu Yunwen's righteousness.

People like Zhu Yunwen are really not worthy of their loyalty to the country.

It's just that once Geng Yu died, he also took over a large amount of materials and manpower in Shenyang, which was good news.

"How many soldiers, civilians, and food supplies are left in Shenyang City?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked, and the Qianhu official answered truthfully: "According to the news from Chen Zhen, the total number of soldiers and civilians is no less than 50,000, and the amount of food and fodder is no less than 120,000 shi. However, all the houses in the city have been knocked down, and all the wood has been used to bury pots for cooking. , even the scabbards, scabbards and spear shafts were all used by them for cooking, and Shenyang is now in ruins."

"Ruins are just ruins. At worst, they will be rebuilt in the future." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, and then ordered: "Let Chen Heng allocate the immigrants from Daning to Shenyang early, and wait for Yi Shihan to go south. Let him go to Shenyang immediately to prepare for repairing the city. The people built fire roads and fire pits."

"Yes!"

Qianhu officials kept responding to Zhu Gaoxu's instructions, and Zhu Gaoxu himself walked into the middle hall and sat on the main seat.

Qianhu officials stood in the middle hall waiting for Zhu Gaoxu's instructions. Zhu Gaoxu thought for a moment and finally decided to stay in Guangning temporarily, waiting to get more food from Zhu Di after breaking through Shanhaiguan and Guangning Zhongzuo.

"Tell Meng Zhang that you don't have to hold back anymore and attack with all your strength to capture the two isolated cities in western Liaoning."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't want to waste any more time for the two isolated cities. He had to capture them immediately and then continue his plan.

Soon, Qianhu officials dispatched urgent orders to send Zhu Gaoxu's orders to the Jinzhou and Ningyuan front lines.

After receiving the news, Meng Zhang and Xu Sheng no longer held back. They took the 100 field guns transported back from Liaonan and combined with 300 field guns to launch a fierce attack on Guangning Zhongzuo Station, which was the easiest to capture. .

"Boom boom-"

The dull and intensive sound of artillery sounded, but the two-foot-tall Guangning Zhongzuo was teetering under the bombardment.

The naval response that Zhu Yunwen and others thought of could not succeed, because the Southern Army was no match for the Bohai Navy in small-group conflicts in the field.

Wu Sheng and Liu Song organized breakouts many times, but were repeatedly thwarted by Meng Zhang's Shenji Battalion.

On the third day of the storming of the city, the more than 2,000 defenders in the city had been wiped out in many breakouts, with only no less than 700 remaining.

Despite this, Meng Zhang remained steady and did not attack. Instead, on the fourth day, Wu Sheng and Liu Song saw that there was no hope of breaking through and opened the city gate on their own.

The two surrendered, and the Guangning Zhongzuo Station was successfully captured.

Meng Zhang ignored them and just handed them over to Chen Mao. He and Xu Sheng took the Shenji Battalion and rushed to Shanhaiguan in the south.

On the second day of September, the two of them began to bombard Shanhaiguan, and Wu Sheng and Liu Song were also escorted to Guangning by Chen Mao.

In the Guangning command post, Wu Sheng and Liu Song knelt in the middle hall like defeated roosters, not daring to look at Zhu Gaoxu.

When Zhu Gaoxu saw the two of them like this, he was not angry because they resisted him. Instead, he got up and walked to them and helped them up.

"The troops raised this time are only for the Qing emperor. In addition to the traitors, you are in the court and there is nothing you can do if you are driven by the traitors."

"As for the news about you two, I will reveal it to the south, and say that the two of you are missing in Zhongzuo, in order to prevent the imperial court from retaliating against your family."

Zhu Gaoxu still cherishes talents. Although Wu Sheng and Liu Song do not have the ability to command tens of thousands of people, they can still command ten thousand people with ease.

Such a person would be good to keep in the future, whether it is to expand territory or to guard the four directions.

The only thing he worried about was not that the two rebelled, but that Zhu Yunwen, the crazy batch leader, went to take revenge on their families after learning that the Guangning Zhongzuo Station was breached and the two were captured.

This kind of thing is impossible for others, but it is difficult to say for Zhu Yunwen.

"Thank you, Your Highness..."

Facing Zhu Gaoxu's frank treatment, Wu Sheng and Liu Song felt a little ashamed.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't say anything more, but just said to Wu Sheng: "If you are serious, let Wu Shouan of Shanhaiguan surrender. I will also lie to the outside world that he died in battle to save his family."

He wanted to win people's hearts, and naturally it was not just about cherishing talents. More importantly, Wu Sheng was Wu Gao's son and Wu Shou'an's nephew.

If he can get Wu Sheng to write a letter to persuade Wu Shouan, then he can successfully enter the customs.

"General, I am willing to write a handwritten letter for His Highness."

Wu Sheng also knew that this was the time to make up for his past mistakes. Seeing the Bohai Navy's combat power, and the fact that Geng Bingwen's formation in the south had no battlefield, he had no hope of breaking through, so he naturally chose to change the gate.

"Thank you!" After hearing Wu Sheng's words, Zhu Gaoxu squeezed his hand to express his gratitude. At the same time, he told Chen Mao who sent them here: "Arrange a residence for the two generals, close to where I live. Every day The meals are cooked according to my standards and cannot be deducted. Once I find out, I will be the first to hold you accountable."

"Yes..." Chen Mao was very helpless. He felt that since he followed his father and surrendered to the King of Bohai County, he seemed to have to take responsibility for everything.

Even so, he still admired Zhu Gaoxu very much. At least when he was Zhu Gaoxu's age, he could not lead 40,000 people to capture the entire territory of Liaodong and Daning in three months.

"I will finally retire..."

Chen Mao and Liu Song left, and Zhu Gaoxu slowly smiled as he watched them leave.

"Liu Zhen, Wu Gao..."

Zhu Gaoxu murmured softly. Now these two guys were caught by him. If he handed the news of Wu Sheng and Liu Song's surrender to Zhu Yunwen, then with Zhu Yunwen's character, even if he did not kill Wu Gao and Liu Zhen, he would probably have to kill them. Seize their military power and send them home to rest in peace.

Thinking like this, he also hummed a light tune.

Soon after, the letter written by Wu Sheng himself was delivered to Shanhaiguan in just one night under Tangqi's urgent need.

This pass was built by Xu Da, King of Zhongshan. It is named Shanhaiguan Pass because it is adjacent to Yanshan Mountain in the north and connects to the Bohai Sea in the south. Although it does not have the iron walls like those in the late Ming Dynasty, it was still a powerful pass that could block the connection between Peiping and Liaodong during the Hongwu period.

As far as the city is concerned, its wall circumference is nearly eight miles, its height is four feet and seven feet, and its thickness is two feet and three feet. Even if the Bohai Navy's 300 field guns indiscriminately bombarded it for two days, there was no sign of it. This Guancheng shows no signs of collapse.

"Mother, if the artillery here were three hundred siege guns, then Shanhaiguan would have been captured long ago."

In the north of Shanhaiguan, Xu Sheng stood on the artillery position, looking at Shanhaiguan City with a telescope, and couldn't help but boast about his siege guns.

"You dare to think about it!" Meng Zhang laughed and scolded:

"If there are really three hundred siege guns, our Shenji Battalion must have at least 20,000 people."

Meng Zhang was right. Even the lightest field gun in the Bohai Navy needs a small flag for each gun.

If it is a three thousand kilogram siege artillery, then at least thirty people need to be arranged, that is, three small flags can be escorted and one small flag can be operated.

Three hundred siege guns require at least 10,000 people to deploy them reasonably.

"I'm just complaining. I just don't know if your highness's letter has any effect."

Xu Sheng made a tut-tsk sound, obviously not believing that one letter could capture Shanhaiguan, which lies between Peiping and Liaodong.

Precisely because Shanhaiguan is so important, Wu Shouan has received many letters from various parties.

In the Shanhaiguan Commandery Office, Wu Shouan, who looked not out of the ordinary, was sitting in his seat, looking at the three letters on the table and opening them one by one with a heavy heart.

The first one was written to him by Zhu Di from Peiping. It was nothing more than that Geng Bingwen had been defeated and Shanhaiguan was already an isolated city and could not hold on. If Wu Shouan was willing, Zhu Di was willing to accept the surrender in person and promoted him to be the commander of Peiping. .

Wu Shouan was not very interested in Zhu Di's letter. After all, if only Zhu Di attacked Shanhaiguan, he could rely on Shanhaiguan to block Zhu Di's 100,000 troops.

What he is worried and afraid of right now is actually Zhu Gaoxu from Guanbei, because their artillery is really sharp. If they are allowed to bomb indiscriminately for more than ten days, no matter how strong Shanhaiguan is, it will still fall. .

Thinking of this, Wu Shouan picked up the second letter, and the content of this letter was the news that the imperial court commended him for sticking to Shanhaiguan and specially promoted him to the governor of the Right Army Governor's Office.

"Haha..." Looking at the so-called promotion, Wu Shou'an laughed lightly.

What he needs most now is not promotion, but reinforcements.

Apparently half a month ago, the imperial court wrote to him, asking him to break out of the siege and head to the sea, and then a boat master would come to pick them up and retreat.

As a result, only a few days later, the tone in the south had changed, and it seemed that they needed to defend Shanhaiguan by themselves.

Shaking his head mockingly, Wu Shou'an reached out to the last letter, which was the letter from Bohai.

He slowly opened it, but the content inside made his pupils vibrate.

Wu Sheng and Liu Song surrendered, Geng Feng committed suicide, Shenyang was conquered, and Jiuliancheng retreated through the Korean waterway...

"Okay..." Looking at the content of the letter, Wu Shou'an clicked his tongue several times, and then realized that he was the last city in Liaodong to fight the Bohai Navy head-on.

In this case, what would happen if he surrendered? At least judging from the content of the letter, Zhu Gaoxu was not angry because the three members of his family blocked him. Instead, he was broad-minded and treated his nephew favorably.

"Wu Hui!" Wu Shouan greeted the empty nave.

Not long after, a Qianhu official walked out from behind the screen wall outside the central hall, and Wu Shou'an raised his hand to signal him to come.

After Wu Hui approached, Wu Shou'an said: "Tonight at midnight, you open the North Gate and send someone to the Bohai camp. Tell Meng Zhang that I, Wu Shou'an, have surrendered, but I hope they will lead troops into the city to fight." , I will say that you and I will die in the city afterward."

"General, we..." Wu Hui hesitated, but under Wu Shou'an's gaze, he nodded nervously.

"Go down." Wu Shou'an patted his back, and Wu Hui left with a complicated and anxious mood.

Looking at his leaving figure, Wu Shou'an could only lean on his chair and let out a long sigh.

"If I lose this battle, I'm afraid I will become the first sinner in the founding of the country..."

　"Bohai Chronicles": "The rise fell without help, and the superiors used benefits to lure the rise. The letter from the rise was with Shou'an, and Shou'an surrendered, so Shanhaiguan was broken."

　　"Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty": "Wu Sheng, Shou'an, and Song fought with Shang. Although they were defeated, they admired him. Therefore, Bingwen was defeated and had no help, so he surrendered."

　　

　

(End of this chapter)