The news of the Ming army's accumulation of troops in Tongzhou reached Abatai in Pinggu and Azigna in Baodi, making the two of them nervous for a while, and hurriedly strengthened the defenses of Pinggu and Baodi.

As a result, after waiting for several days, they found that the Ming army did not move at all, and finally dispersed again, which made the Tartars very angry and felt that they had been tricked!

On August 30, Abatai personally led an army of 20,000 out of Pinggu, preparing to take Tongzhou and kill the crown prince of the Ming Kingdom.

After Zhu Cihong got the news, he led the three battalions of Yongwei Battalion, Shenji Battalion, and Shenshu Battalion to withdraw from Tongzhou, and ordered the fierce tiger to defend Tongzhou and not allow the Tartars to enter the city.

Along the way, Huang Degong couldn't help but ask: "Your Highness, why did we withdraw from Tongzhou?" With the strength of our army, it is impossible for the Tartars to take Tongzhou even if 20,000 people want to, right? ”

Zhu Cihong smiled slightly and said: "Those people and horses have been sent by me to defend the city, and only our three battalions can fight, what about holding Tongzhou?" What this palace wants is the head of the Tartars, and only when they are beaten and disabled will they not dare to attack my Ming so arrogantly! ”

Zhu Cihong said again: "The geographical location of Tongzhou is very important, if Tongzhou is surrounded, the Beijing division will inevitably be turbulent, and someone in the DPRK may stab us in the back!" If we withdraw from Tongzhou, if the Tartars continue to besiege Tongzhou, we can collect the heads behind their backs, if the Tartars don't fight, won't it be a crisis to get rid of itself? ”

All the generals said: "Your Highness is wise! ”

The three battalions continued all the way to the south, and not long after, Long Xiang did not receive the report at night, and Abatai gave up the attack on Tongzhou, and led the army to change direction and chase this side.

Zhu Cihong smiled and said, "It turned out that I came to the palace!" ”

"Your Highness, let's wait for them in this array, and let the Tartars know how powerful we are!" The generals were clamoring for a while, and they all asked for battle.

Zhu Cihong asked if he didn't accept it at night: "How many cavalry are there in the Tartars?" ”

"More than 10,000 cavalry!"

"Retreat to the new city!" Zhu Cihong immediately ordered to run to the new city, and the cavalry was over 10,000 and a fart!

Tongzhou to Xincheng is a flat terrain, which is a great advantage for cavalry, 10,000 cavalry can charge back and forth against tens of thousands of infantry, and a few waves can make the infantry collapse.

Not to mention the thousand cavalry of the Yongwei Battalion, even the five thousand cavalry of the Shenshu Battalion were consumed by less than four thousand people in the previous battle, and their combat effectiveness was completely incomparable to that of the Tartar cavalry.

The artillery of the Shenji battalion is many and fierce, and the muskets of the Yongwei battalion are also very sharp, but Zhu Cihong does not dare to take risks, there are so many cavalry in the Tartars, if they really get up, the probability of getting rid of it is greater.

When Zhu Cihong led the army into the new city, the front gate of the new city was already crowded, and under the leadership of Ren Guangyu, the magistrate of the new city, the people cheered and welcomed.

People are grateful for the crown prince's life, and the new town is also called Chitose Castle, and the people of the new city are extremely excited when the crown prince's army arrives.

After the army entered the new city, Zhu Cihong found that the new city had now been glowed, with many shops and clean streets.

There was once a thousand-strong Qing army that wanted to capture Xincheng, but after losing hundreds of corpses, they ran away, and they didn't even pry away a piece of Chitose mud.

The people of Xincheng are no longer the yellow-muscled homeless people of the past, and now their lives have improved significantly, and there is no problem with food and clothing.

Nowadays, the crops of the people in Xincheng are mainly sweet potatoes, which begin to be cut in late June, and mature at the end of September and early October, and the yield per mu is expected to be about 2,000 catties, which is more than ten times higher than the general grain yield.

Sweet potatoes were introduced by Chen Zhenlong, a native of Changle, Fujian, who was doing business in Luzon (i.e., the Philippines) during the Wanli period, and it took a lot of effort to introduce them, and Xu Guangqi promoted and summarized the "Thirteen Wins of Sweet Potato" for publicity: one mu harvests dozens of stones, one also; The color is white and the taste is sweet, and among the soil species, it is especially 敻 (xuàn) absolutely, and the two are also.

In other words, the yield of sweet potatoes has increased almost tenfold compared to rice and wheat, and the fields that used to be able to feed one person can now be planted with sweet potatoes and can feed ten people.

According to the records of Fang Zhi, during the Wanli and Tianqi years of the Ming Dynasty, Shaanxi, Henan, Nanzhi, Shandong, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, and Yunnan political envoys had generally planted corn and sweet potatoes.

Sweet potatoes have the advantages of drought tolerance, strong disease resistance, strong insect pest resistance, and high yield, but the disadvantage is that the taste of eating is not as good as rice and flour, especially after eating sweet potatoes, there are adverse reactions such as flatulence and pantothenic acid, so the people's enthusiasm for planting is not high.

Most of the people in Xincheng were homeless people before, as long as they could eat enough, whether they were sour or not, bloated or not, I heard the crown prince say that this thing was planted to be full, and the people began to compete for planting, waiting for a bumper harvest in the near future.

As soon as he entered the new city, Zhu Cihong ordered the third battalion to prepare for battle, plus the new battalion was considered a fourth battalion, with a total strength of more than 20,000 people! However, Zhu Cihong still did not plan to go out of the city to fight.

The 13,000 men and horses of the new battalion have been trained for less than three months, although the training in all aspects is good, but Zhu Cihong still does not worry about letting them go to the battlefield, after all, they have not seen blood, no veteran has fought with actual combat, and the casualties are very heavy when they start fighting rashly, and it is better to defend the city first and see the blood.

An hour later, Zhu Cihong, who was accepting a banquet from Ren Guangyu, the magistrate of Xincheng, received the news that 10,000 vanguard soldiers of the Tartars were coming to the city.

"So fast?" Zhu Cihong was a little surprised.

Although he was surprised by the speed of the tartar, he was not in a hurry at all, and after Sun Yingyuan came and said a few words in his ear, he began to eat and drink without hurry.

Abatai's second son, Bo He, served as the vanguard general, and led an army of 10,000 to encircle the new city, leaving only the east gate, if the Ming army fled to the east, tens of thousands of Qing troops in Baodi would copy it up.......

Bo and Zhen were not in a hurry to start the siege, and after two days of rushing on the road, their stomachs collapsed, and they always had to take a breath and fight again.

Sun Yingyuan came to the front of the city tower, and saw the Tartar soldiers under the city, and he was a little anxious, the deployment of the new city had just begun, and if the Tartars attacked the city at this time, they would suffer great losses.

After thinking for a while, Sun Yingyuan decided to send two bold officers to the Qing army camp as envoys to talk to Bo and Zhi.

Seeing that the Ming army sent two people to negotiate, Bo and Zhi were a little confused, Lao Tzu was besieging the city, and he was talking about a fart, either fight or surrender!

Although the two officers who came to negotiate were only a thousand generals, they were dressed in bells and whistles, claiming to be generals, the two were not only bold, but also particularly able to fool people.

"Do you mean that the prince of the kingdom is frightened and weeps in the city?" Bo and Zhen were happy in his heart, and raised his eyebrows.

Bo Hezhen saw that the prince of the Ming Kingdom was cowardly and fled all the way south, and he believed the words of these two big fools in his heart, mainly because these two big fools spoke too well!

The two big flickers nodded vigorously, their acting skills were superb, and they even said that the crown prince was willing to offer a table, and there were millions of gold and silver in the city attached to the table.

Bo and Zhen were a little moved, this thing of surrendering without a fight can only be done by an excellent general, and now he has been caught up by himself? This is a great achievement!

The crown prince of the Ming Kingdom is really a child, not scared! Bo and Zhen said with contempt in his heart, and he personally wrote a letter of surrender, and asked the two big fools of the Yongwei Battalion to bring back according to the process.

The letter was harshly worded, revealing an inexplicable self-confidence everywhere, asking the prince of the Ming Kingdom to surrender quickly, so as not to suffer misery.

When Zhu Cihong saw the letter, he just smiled slightly, and then handed it to one of the big flickers who looked pleasing to the eye, and said, "Take it and wipe your butt!" ”

After the banquet, Zhu Cihong asked Ren Guangyu, the magistrate of the county, to take him around the new city with great interest, and turned a blind eye to the sand sculpture Bo and the 10,000 Qing soldiers.

After carefully looking at the development of the new city, Zhu Cihong couldn't help but show an appreciative look, Ren Guangyu has good ability, and he has managed the new city so well, and he has lived up to his expectations.

Ren Guangyu also felt in his heart, he didn't expect that he would escape from the famine, escape from a county, and get the grace of the crown prince, and the new city is also his home, how can he not work hard to govern it?

Zhu Cihong walked around the new city and inspected the new camp, the condition of the new camp is very good, they are all carefully selected good seedlings, and they are not afraid of hardships in training.

This time, the battlefield was set near the new city, Zhu Cihong mainly wanted to sharpen the new battalion, and the sword he forged himself, it was time to start the sword!

Since letting the two big fools go back with letters, Bo Hezhen ordered the army to lift the siege and prepare to welcome the Ming prince out of the city and surrender.

As a result, the Ming army did not surrender all afternoon, nor did it surrender in the evening, and finally the next day, it still did not surrender!

Bo Hezhen looked at the head of the new city from afar, and saw that the Ming army was strengthening the fortifications and pulling artillery on the city wall......

"What do you mean?" Bo and Zhen were a little confused in their hearts, what about the surrender that they said they would do? How did you start strengthening your defenses? Even the artillery was carried?

Bo He was puzzled, and sent two envoys to Xincheng to talk about surrender, but the two Qing envoys could not even enter the city gate, so they could only stand under the city wall and howl, demanding that the defenders in the city quickly open the door and surrender.

The Ming army on the city wall continued to install artillery there, ignoring him at all, and occasionally some soldiers spat at the city in reply.

Bo Hezhen sent a messenger again, and also sent a letter, which looked very formal, Sun Yingyuan didn't even look at it, stood on the head of the city and yelled at the Qing army below: "If you want to fight, you will fight, if you don't fight, get out, what nonsense!" Coercion! ”

"Fuck you!"

It wasn't until this time that Bo and Zhen knew that he had been tricked! He ordered the army to immediately prepare for a siege and kill the barbarians!