On 16 March, there was a loud roar of killing by the Xiaoling River, and the sound of guns and cannons was incessant.

"Reinforcements are coming?"

On the city wall of Jinzhou, Zu Dashou was very surprised, and he paid special attention to the situation outside.

In the past few days, the Qing army has attacked Jinzhou City frantically, and it can be used to come in frenzy, but today it seems to have retreated, and the Qing army outside the city is obviously less, and they will not come to send people to the head, but there is a faint sound of fierce fighting on the Xiaoling River in the south of the city.

Zu Dashou climbed the drum tower in the city and looked at the Xiaoling River with a telescope, where there was fire and smoke, and it was obvious that the Ming army had hit the river.

Several guards are all overjoyed, this time the reinforcements are really powerful, it seems that the court is going to play really!

The Jinzhou staff general said happily: "Dashuai, let's kill to the river, and give the Tartars a front and back attack!" ”

Zu Dashou waved his hand and said, "It's not as simple as you think, just let the brothers honestly guard Jinzhou City!" ”

The general hesitated: "Marshal, it is the crown prince who is leading the army to help this time, just under the nose outside, if we don't help, we will ......... in the future."

Zu Dashou glared at him and said, "If you want to defend the city, you will defend the city, what nonsense!" Whoever dares to go out of the city to meet the enemy without permission will be executed on the spot! ”

The general was startled and hurriedly retired.

Zu Dashou stared at the camp where the Qing army was located, and snorted lightly: "Want to lead Lao Tzu out? Dream on! ”

After speaking, Zu Dashou hummed a minor tune and walked away.

.......

On the side of the Xiaoling River, tens of thousands of mountain navy and Ning Yuanjun were building pontoon bridges and killing towards the north bank of the river.

On the riverside of the Guanning Army a few miles away, the people and horses of the three towns of Xuanda are also building pontoon bridges, which are temporary bridges that are easy to erect and quickly become bridges, and are often used in river crossing operations.

Zhu Cihong received a letter sent by Zu Dashou, not only did Zu Dashou not shout for help, but asked the reinforcements to quickly relieve the siege of Jinzhou, but reminded the reinforcements in his heart not to rush forward, to be careful of the enemy's traps, and said that he could last a year and a half.

Zhu Cihong was speechless, a fierce man is a fierce man, no wonder the Manchu Qing Dynasty has not gnawed Jinzhou for so many years, Zu Dashou is not ordinary tenacious.

If it were another general, Jinzhou City would be alone outside the Xiaoling River, and when he saw the army besieging the city, it was estimated that he would have run away a long time ago.

However, Zhu Cihong believes that no matter how the other party arranges, whether there is a conspiracy or not, the army will definitely cross the river, and the purpose of this time is not to travel, nor to relieve the siege of Jinzhou, but to kill into Shengjing.

Seeing that the Guanning army and the Xuanda army were struggling to cross the river, Zhu Cihong ordered the troops to be collected, and the main purpose of this battle was to test the defense of the Qing army and the combat capability of the nine sides.

It's not that the Ming Nine-sided Soldiers can't fight, but more often than not, the main general is both cowardly and wants to preserve his strength, and one person runs, and the whole army runs.

Through temptation, Zhu Cihong concluded that Huang Taiji would not dare to bear the consequences of the main force of the Ming army crossing the Xiaoling River, and would definitely mobilize heavy troops to intercept it north of the Xiaoling River, and the two sides would also fight by the river.

Zhu Cihong looked at the map of Jinzhou and Songshan, his brows furrowed, the terrain of this ghost place is also evil, in the north of Jinzhou, north of Rufeng Mountain, this is the best place to attack, Xiaoling River and Daughter River The two rivers forcibly separated them.

The intersection of the two rivers was directly south of Jinzhou City, and Zhu Cihong wanted to open the battle line and cross the river north far from Jinzhou, so that the Qing army could forcibly divide the troops, either continue to besiege Jinzhou, or intercept the main force of the Ming army crossing the river.

However, this Xiaoling River in Songshan Qianhusho directly changed from east-west to north-south, making the terrain very narrow, and the Ming army could not launch a formation at all, no wonder the Songjin War in history would be dead in these two places.

In the middle of the mountain city of Rufeng Mountain, the wide hall is full of high-ranking civil and military generals, and the lowest of the military generals must be second-class generals to be listed.

Zhu Cihong sat firmly at the top, and on both sides of it were Fang Zhenghua, the superintendent of the army, and Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao.

Further down are Chen Xinjia, the governor of Xuanda, Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, Qiu Minyang, the governor of Liaodong, Wang Tingchen, the general soldier of Liaodong, Yang Guozhu, the chief soldier of Xuanzhen, Hu Dawei, the chief soldier of Shanxi, Li Fuming, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Ningyuan, and others.

Chen Xinjia represented the military supervision army as the right attendant of the military department, and his status was second only to the supervision of the army Fang Zhenghua and the governor Hong Chengchou.

The atmosphere in the hall was calm, and everyone knew that the next battle would be extraordinary, and one bad thing was the decisive battle between the two sides.

Jiannu is already fierce, and this time Jiannu has carried out a general mobilization for war in the country, and the follow-up army is only afraid that there will be more, and it is difficult to say whether the future will be won or lost.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses are fighting each other in the corridor of western Liaoning, swords, arrows and cannons have no eyes, life and death are only in an instant, no one can guarantee that they can go back alive, not to mention that the enemy has set up many artillery pieces on the opposite riverbank, and they are all Hongyi cannons.

Hong Chengchou continued to cheer up the generals, his current position was a little awkward, he was supposed to command this battle, because of the existence of Zhu Cihong, the crown prince, he could only stand aside and do some deputy.

It can also be said that as Zhu Cihong's staff officer, Hong Chengchou has led the troops to fight for so many years, and he is still very experienced, and Zhu Cihong has not put aside the reason that he does not use it.

Fang Zhenghua didn't speak, he was very clear about his positioning, and this time, he had only one code of conduct: watch more and talk less, and not comment on the war.

Although he is very low-key, no one dares to show contempt, Fang Zhenghua, as the eunuch in charge of the seal, is a celebrity around the emperor, and he can say a few words casually in front of the emperor, which is enough for some of the people present.

The generals also knew very well that the attitude towards this old eunuch should not only be respected, but also appropriate stammering, especially Wu Sangui, his eyes when he looked at Fang Zhenghua were full of intimacy.

When Gao Qiqian was supervising the army in Liaodong a few years ago, Wu Sangui was his righteous son, Fang Zhenghua and Gao Qiqian were old acquaintances, and the relationship between the two was not bad in the past, I don't mind helping my late old friend take care of my son, right?

Zhu Cihong saw everyone's expressions in his eyes, he stood up, and said solemnly: "The next battle of crossing the river will be opened by the Tianwu army, and after the Tianwu army crosses the north bank of the river, the palace hopes that the whole army will be pressed and enter the territory of Jiannu in one go!" ”

"Command!" Hearing that the Tianwu Army was going to fight, the morale of the generals was suddenly aroused.

No matter how impassioned General Ren Hong Chengchou is, there is no such thing as Zhu Cihong's words, no one wants to be the vanguard, and it is best for the powerful Tianwu Army to open the way.

After the combat tasks were arranged, the various units began to make intensive preparations, and Qiu Minyang, the governor of Liaodong who was in charge of logistics, and other civilian officials did not dare to slack off, and ordered a steady stream of people to carry the boats and wooden platoons needed to cross the river along the Xiaoling River to the front line.