The ice and snow melted, everything recovered, the Hunhe River regained its vitality, the ice and snow melt greatly increased the runoff on the surface, and the Hunhe River and the Liao River were surging for a time, and the white waves were in the sky.

Yuan Yingtai stood on the north tower of Liaoyang. Looking in the direction of Shenyang, I was very melancholy. He knew in his heart that Shenyang City could not be defended. Although the circumference of Shenyang City is 1,428 zhang (4,570 meters), due to disrepair, erosion of the years, and the erosion of wind and rain, the rammed earth wall without renovation has suffered great damage.

The city wall of Shenyang is "not high and surplus, the face is narrow only five or six feet", the wall bricks are "all corroded and collapsed", there are only two or three hundred residents left in the city, that is to say, the wall is barely three meters high, and the thickest part of the wall is only between 1.6 meters ~ 1.9 meters, the Houjin soldiers can stab the defenders standing on the city wall with a spear under the city, and the spears of Houjin are 4.5 meters long. If you rush under the city wall and dig with a shovel and pickaxe, you can dig the city wall down in a few moments.

Yuan Yingtai, an outstanding water conservancy expert at the end of the Ming Dynasty, came from controlling the water. In the twenty-third year of Wanli (1595), he was awarded the magistrate of Linzhang County (formerly Hebei Province, Henan during the Ming and Qing Dynasties), and built a long embankment for more than 40 miles during his tenure to prevent the flooding of Zhangshui.

After being transferred to Hanoi (now Qinyang County, Henan), he organized the people to build a water diversion tunnel, dug through the Taihang Mountain, introduced Qinshui, built 25 weirs, and irrigated tens of thousands of acres of fields, benefiting neighboring counties. At that time, it was rated as the top of the two rivers (Henan and Hebei).

After that, he successively served as the director of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Military Affairs. Yuan Yingtai has always been conscientious and courageous, and he is not afraid of offending people. During his tenure in the military department, hundreds of people who pretended to be secular positions were eliminated.

Soon, he was sent from the capital and transferred to the Huaixu Military Staff. At that time, Shandong was hit by a disaster, he set up a porridge factory to relieve the victims, and mobilized them to repair the city wall, dredge the city river, and repair the Confucian Temple, so that the victims could be fed. Yuan Yingtai also used the extra tax and tens of thousands of taels of silver to help the victims.

As long as Lao Yuan is worthy of his conscience, he is not afraid of affecting his personal future. He did this at a great personal risk. Subsequently, the Ministry of Household impeached him for using the official treasury silver and grain without authorization. Because of his meritorious service in disaster relief, he has been promoted to deputy envoy, and after repeatedly considering the situation, he feels that it is better for him to be interested in it, and he also leaves some dignity for himself. So he took advantage of his illness to return to his hometown.

This time, I went to the field and was silent for a long time. It wasn't until many years later that there was a flood near Gyeonggi, and professionals had such benefits, and they were useful, regardless of whether they would be officials or not, and leaders were really inseparable. Yuan Yingtai was once again appointed as the right participant in politics in Henan, and went to Yongping (belonging to Beijing) to control the water as an envoy.

At that time, Houjin repeatedly raised troops to attack the border, and Yuan Yingtai stepped up training and repaired weapons, and the grain, grass, gunpowder and so on needed outside the customs could be supplied in a timely manner, which was deeply trusted by Xiong Tingbi.

After Xiong Tingbi stepped down because of party disputes, Yuan Yingtai was promoted to Liaodong Economic Strategy, at this time, this position, no more than peacetime, is actually a hot potato, no one wants to want it. If you go, you will fight, and if you don't rely on it, you will be sent if you have the ability and integrity, so you can not only top the tank, but also rest assured. He was okay for Xiong Tingbi to manage logistics affairs, he worked diligently and competently, but he didn't have any military experience, let alone military command talent. There is also a lack of a deep understanding of the situation in Liaodong.

At this time, he clearly knew that there was no time to temporarily repair the city wall, there was no way to construct it in the previous winter, and now it was just spring, and the army of Houjin had arrived. Therefore, Lao Yuan could only give full play to his own expertise and expand the fortifications in Shenyang.

First of all, the moat was filled, and it was about the same whether there was a river anyway. Then set up a car camp at a distance of seven or eight zhang outside the city, and wrapped the city of Shenyang, so that the Ming army's defense line reached 1,500 zhang.

Yuan Yingtai knew that he did not understand military affairs, and adopted a cautious approach in the deployment of troops. Each zhang and five feet is divided into a chariot, each chariot is equipped with 2 cannons, 5 firearms, 6 chariot soldiers, occupying a circle of five feet, and the distance between the chariots is one zhang, and the space between the two chariots is arranged with 10 firecrackers, ten people are divided into two vertical columns, each column has five layers, and shoots in turns. There was still a distance of four feet between the battalion and the city wall, and it was used as a road for reserves and mobile forces to and fro to support the movement.

In addition, two wide and deep trenches were dug outside the car camp, and outside the ditch trees were cut down and sharpened into wooden stakes, which were staggered, and a wooden fence with a height of several zhang was set up every three or four layers as a peripheral fortification, and the city wall and the car camp were matched with each other, and the fire was staggered.

In this way, the defenders were divided into three parts, the defenders of the ramparts, the defenders of the chariot battalions, the reserves, and the mobile troops. Lao Yuan can't fight wars, but he is a good hand at engineering, and this set is the one that Zeng Guofan did later, which is hard and stupid. After doing all this, Lao Yuan could only hope that Shenyang's defender He Shixian would hold on for a long time, waiting for reinforcements from the Guannei.

According to the records of the old Manchurian archives without circles, the Ming army dug thirteen large trenches several zhang deep and wide outside the city of Shenyang, and also built a five-foot-high sheep and horse wall between the chariots, which does not match the records of the Ming Dynasty, and may have exaggerated the city defense to highlight the bravery of the Eight Banners. According to the "Manchurian Secret Files", there were 70,000 Ming troops in Shenyang, but this is obviously a deliberate exaggeration. The actual Ming army was only 15,000 or 6.

After the defeat of Salhu, the mobile forces of the Ming army in Liaodong were swept away, after the loss of Kaiyuan and Tieling, nearly 40,000 troops were lost, after Xiong Tingbi came to power, he fully investigated, Shenyang in addition to the 18,378 people defending at the head of the city and outside the city, there are about 10,000 people who can be used as guerrillas. According to rough calculations, the total strength of the Ming army in Shenyang at that time should be between 28,000 ~ 30,000. These troops are not elite, they are mainly local guards and battalion soldiers.

After Xiong Tingbi was dismissed, the original deployment of Xiong Tingbi was arbitrarily changed by civilian officials, and after Yuan Yingtai took over, he redeployed the defense in various places, and he found that there were only 10,000 old troops in Shenyang. During the Xiong Tingbi period, the Ming army could still arrange four defense lines, but the current strength can only maintain two defense lines at best.

The crisis was imminent, Yuan Yingtai took the risk and began to recruit ethnic minority soldiers, and a large number of soldiers were arranged in the city. These conjugations included Mongols and Jurchens. By the end of February of the first year of the Apocalypse, Liaoshen had received a total of about 5,000 conquests, and these temporarily recruited mercenaries were mainly placed in Liaoyang and Shenyang, and other small castles were also partially settled. Among them, 3,000 were taken to Shenyang by He Shixian.

The Ministry of War was very worried about the recruitment of the Mongol Jurchens by the commander-in-chief of Liaodong Yuan, and in February, Xiao Ji was in charge of the incident, expressing concern about the surrender of the Yi, believing that the surrender had colluded with the Houjin. In Lao Yuan's opinion, if the Ministry of War does not agree, then send additional reinforcements and allocate funds. I don't know about these risks, things are clear, the war will start immediately, and more than 10,000 people will fart.

You say that there is a hidden danger and do not solve the problem. Yuan Yingtai was very angry, he always believed that there were two kinds of officials. One is errand, and the other is fart. So he also went up, taking the previous Sancha'er Jie Jie Yi killing 23 people in battle as an example, thinking that the loyalty of the Surrender can be used.

The Ministry of War raised this matter for insurance, blocking both ends, anyway, we have all said it, it is your old Yuan's business to do it well. The two sides argued for a while, and with the start of the war, the matter was settled.

Under the afterglow of the setting sun, Lao Yuan held the battlements with both hands, sighed, do your best to obey the destiny of heaven, you have done everything you can, your ability is so great, you already have a clear conscience.