A tentative attack is not a small-scale reconnaissance force, and there is the idea of selective combat, and if it is possible, it is necessary to occupy a place and not leave, otherwise there is no need to dispatch 40,000 people. Mao Wenlong's original idea was that the six forts such as Kuandian and Changdian were easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it was related to the safety of the Jurchen village, and there must be heavy defense, and there was no need to attack the fortified positions with the twists of the mountain roads and the ice and snow. It is best to have one unit along the Cao River through Phoenix City to the Taizi River, taking the same road that ran to Salhu last year, and the other force to the west along the coast, passing through Fuzhou, Gaizhou, and Anshan after passing through Hongzui Fort, and then joining forces with the previous army under Liaoyang City.

At this time, if Liaoyang is empty, you can build siege equipment on the spot to take Liaoyang, and take advantage of the main force of Huang Taiji to entangle with the Mongols in the Xilamulun River, find an opportunity or cross the Liaohe River to join forces in Liaodong to capture Jinzhou, or go south to solve the enemy in Jinzhou and Lushun. As long as Liaoyang is captured and a firm foothold, the remaining men and horses of Phi Dao can be ordered to cross the sea by boat and sweep away the enemy in the area of Jinzhou. Mao Wenlong thought very clearly, Huang Taiji went to the Xilamulun River to fight for the interests of the Mongols, and the Mongols stationed in the Jinzhou area must go, at this time the Liaonan Peninsula will not have many troops, as long as the enemy south of Liaoyang can be cleared, it doesn't matter whether Phi Dao wants it or not.

Liu Xingzuo was worried that the division of troops would be easily broken by others, and Mao Wenlong thought that it made sense, so he decided to march to the west coast together, step by step to prevent attacks in the mountains. In the past, when there were few people, they were afraid of the Jurchen cavalry, but now they are not afraid when they are numerous, and they are only worried about meeting the enemy in the rugged mountain passes, and even a small number of enemies will block them when the time comes. Although there are many people this time, there is also a sneak attack, once the main force of Huang Taiji returns, it is not enough to say that 40,000 people are not enough to see another 40,000 people, so we must quickly occupy some places and eliminate some enemies.

When Liu Xingzuo put forward the proposal of not dividing the troops, the large army was in Phoenix City, and the vanguard had already crossed the Dayang River to the west to approach Xuancheng, and the follow-up troops had just left Sinuiju, Mao Wenlong originally wanted to divide part of the troops along the Cao River to the north, but now Liu Xingzuo proposed that the only way to do it was not to divide the troops. After following Liu Xingzuo's suggestion, Mao Wenlong ordered the vanguard to continue westward the next day, reconnoitering how many Jurchens and Mongols there were near Jinzhou, and what the situation of their troop deployment was. At the same time, he also sent a herald to return to Phi Island, so that Mao Chenglu and others could prepare siege equipment and send it to Dachangshan Island next to Hongzui Fort, as long as there were not many defenders in Jinzhou, he would pull out the nail.

Two days later, Mao Wenlong's main force came to Hongzui Fort, and after setting up camp, Mao Wenlong asked his own soldiers to invite Liu Xingzuo to come to discuss the matter. The Chinese officer reported that the vanguard had arrived near Golden State, and that the team that had returned to Phi Dao had not returned, and it was not known if it had been delayed by other matters.

After hearing the report, Mao Wenlong said to Liu Xingzuo: "I don't know if Chenglu has received the news, if he can't transport the siege equipment in time, it will be difficult to take the city of Jinzhou." ”

Liu Xingzuo was warming his hands in the carbon basin, and after listening to Mao Wenlong's words, he said: "The enemy has gone to deal with the Mongols, there should not be many people in Jinzhou, and it will take a long time to run back and forth, and Huang Taiji should not have time to withdraw his troops back." Even if Vice General Mao didn't send the siege equipment in time, we would have cut down trees on the side of the mountain and do it ourselves, and it would be faster to do it with more trees, and it would take an extra day or two at most. ”

Mao Wenlong said: "I have been thinking about what you said on the road for the past two days, that is, why did the North Koreans gather so many people near Iron Mountain? Are they really blinded by lard and want to drive me away? I always felt that something was wrong. ”

Liu Xingzuo nodded and said: "I also think of this and my heart is a little blocked, we had better take Jinzhou this time and not leave, and defend and strengthen after clearing the enemy from Jinzhou to Lushun, such a large piece of land is much stronger than Phi Dao." ”

While the two were gossiping, a soldier came to report that the vanguard had sent back a message that Jinzhou City was no longer there, and only the ruins and ruins were left standing there, not like a fire but like man-made. The soldiers also said that the surrounding Mongols were also missing, and that there was not much dust in their houses, and that it seemed that they had just been gone for less than a month, and that the soldiers in the vanguard did not know whether to continue west or north, and asked what to do next.

After hearing this, Mao Wenlong first let the soldiers go down, and then said with a heavy heart: "What happened to the Jurchens demolishing the city by themselves? The people have also withdrawn cleanly, do they want to do some empty city plan? ”

Liu Xingzuo said: "We can first order the vanguard to inspect the west, if no one in Lushun explains that the Jurchens really want to give up the southern Liaoning region, we can send troops to Fuzhou Gaizhou to check, if there is no one and there is no need to go to Liaoyang to take risks, just cross the Liao River and go to Jinzhou." It is understandable that the enemy is shrinking its forces to deal with the Mongols, but it is completely unnecessary to withdraw them so completely, unless it is a trap. ”

When Mao Wenlong and Liu Xingzuo were discussing in Hongzui Fort, Huang Taiji was already on his way back, and when he heard the spies report that Lin Dan Khan was going to attack the east a month ago, he knew that the opportunity had come. The opportunity that Huang Taiji has to wait for is not to deal with Lin Dan Khan but to deal with Mao Wenlong, every time he uses troops, he has to leave tens of thousands of people in the rear to defend, Mao Wenlong's Dongjiang army wants to attack and defend, and if he doesn't come, he still has to defend, because no one knows whether Mao Wenlong will come or not. Like at the end of last year, seeing that Mao Wenlong had stopped for a long time, he lowered his vigilance, who knew that he would still attack Salhu City and succeed.

Some forage and a small amount of grain were destroyed, Huang Taiji was not particularly distressed, what made him suffer was that the enemy was on the island and he had to be on guard at any time, if he could destroy this henchman, Huang Taiji was willing to bear a greater price than losing food and forage. At first, Huang Taiji didn't hate Mao Wenlong so much, on the contrary, he admired Mao Wenlong's tenacity, and sent people to discuss with Mao Wenlong several times about letting Mao Wenlong surrender. But Mao Wenlong's hatefulness is also here, he neither agreed nor refused, just dragged it and didn't say anything about what made your heart itch.

After several times, Huang Taiji died, especially after the burning of Salhu City, Huang Taiji was even more determined to solve Mao Wenlong, he knew that killing Mao Wenlong alone was nothing, because the Ming Dynasty would send another person, Huang Taiji's purpose was to occupy Phi Dao and cut off his way back to dig his nest, as long as this goal was achieved, it didn't matter if he couldn't kill Mao Wenlong.

After receiving the news of Lin Dan Khan's eastward attack, Huang Taiji asked Amin who was guarding the area of Jinzhou to withdraw to Liubao, destroying all the cities and moving everyone away before leaving. After the Fuzhou rebellion, Nurhachi did not believe in the Han people, and Huang Taiji still had a lot of complaints about it, thinking that it was a small issue, but after Liu Xingzuo rebelled to the Ming Dynasty, Huang Taiji also began to stop believing in the Han people, and moved all these people away, and then settled the Mongols who had returned to the country in the Jinzhou area. The Mongols have been accustomed to the life of migration since childhood, and now it doesn't matter if they are allowed to move them, and the young and strong among them were also organized by Huang Taiji to go north to fight against Lin Dan Khan, and said that as long as Lin Dan Khan is destroyed, he can return to his original homeland.

The purpose of Lin Dan Khan's eastward attack was not to make a comeback, because he knew that he had lost the basis to reoccupy the place, and he only wanted to plunder more people and livestock, and by the way, kill some of the people who had betrayed him. Anyone has a close friend, Lin Dan Khan's perverse behavior in recent years has caused public anger, but after all, he is the nominal Great Khan of Mongolia, and after knowing the news that Huang Taiji secretly transferred troops to fight, someone quietly informed Lin Dan Khan. Hearing that Huang Taiji led nearly 100,000 people to the decisive battle, Lin Dan Khan smiled lightly and immediately retreated, for fear of being blocked by Huang Taiji, he led his troops to cross the Daxing'an Mountains and detoured back.

Huang Taiji heard the news of Lin Dan Khan's withdrawal before he arrived at the Xilamulun River, and after sneering a few times, he immediately ordered the Mongol tribes who had returned to the country to garrison in place to prevent Lin Dan Khan from going and returning. At the same time, he ordered all the Mongols who were harassed by Lin Dan Khan to march west to the vicinity of Daning, one was to make room for the Mongols near Jinzhou, and the other was to put some pressure on the Ming army, and at the same time to prevent the news from leaking out, so that the Ming army thought that they were still fighting Lin Dan Khan by the Xilamulun River.

After Huang Taiji's men returned to Shenyang, they immediately inquired about the situation on the Ming army's side, and the person in charge of intelligence told him that there were about tens of thousands of people in Liaoxi who were ready to move, and their purpose should be Jinzhou. Mao Wenlong's troops are almost all dispatched, and they are now stationed in the vicinity of Hongzuibao and are cleaning up the Lushun area, and it is estimated that they will soon attack the Fuzhou and Gaizhou areas.

Huang Taiji was very satisfied after listening to the report, and immediately summoned the generals to come to discuss the matter, and everyone was very excited when they heard that Mao Wenlong was almost out of the nest, and they all asked for a battle to give this person who didn't know what to do. Huang Taiji first asked everyone to calm down, and then said to everyone: "My Dajin has gained and lost in the past two years, what I have gained is to drive away the Han Department and expand a lot of places to the north, the Horqin Department and the Khalkha Department have completely become a part of my Dajin, and even a few small departments of the Han Department have really returned to it. What was lost was to let Mao Wenlong's Dongjiang Army sit big, last year it actually attacked Salhu, and this year it came to Gaizhou City in a decisive battle posture, and now it is time to completely solve this scourge! ”

Dolgon said first: "Please Tiancong Khan give an order, we will definitely cut off Mao Wenlong's head this time, and let him know the price of annoying my Dajin." ”

After Dolgon finished speaking, the other generals were also excited, and the emperor nodded with satisfaction and said, "I can understand your feelings, but now is not the time to fight him, because he will inevitably retreat if he loses." According to reports, Mao Wenlong sent a fleet of ships to Dachangshan Island to prepare for the siege of the city, and those ships could transport things and people, so let him run rampant for a while and wait for Amin to make contributions before cleaning him up. Now Dolgon led 20,000 troops into Gaizhou, Gaizhou has a tall city wall and is next to a mountain, Mao Wenlong can not easily attack and does not have to worry about him escaping, Dolgon can only hold on and not attack. ”

Sanbeile Mang Gurtai asked: "What about the Ming army on the Jinzhou side?" When will Amin's soldiers with the blue flag make a difference? ”

Huang Taiji said: "I have sent Sun Degong and Li Yongfang to defend Jinzhou together, and I have investigated it clearly, Sun Degong is still loyal to my Dajin, he can't ride a horse now, but there is no problem in defending the city." Amin's men have already laid an ambush, and now they are probably at war with the remnants of Phi Dao. ”