When I returned to the south bank of the Hunhe River, it was already the afternoon of May 21. Keep in mind .. com

I don't know if it is blessed by the gods and Buddhas, since Hoi An Fort left, there is no obstacle on the road, as if the ubiquitous Jurchen rangers have disappeared overnight. After crossing the river without danger and walking for a while, Yue Xiang and the others finally saw the ruins of Dongzhou Fort again.

At this time, they walked back according to the route when Yue Xiang came, and there were many ambushes on the road, and no one dared to take risks. And now each of them deserves the strength of their feet, and they don't have to suffer the pain of the trek on foot.

"This is Dongzhou Fort...... "The two Jinyi guards must have walked the main road before coming, and they didn't pass through the battlefield last time. Even though he was a superior martial artist, looking at the ruins of the entire city wall that had almost been razed to the ground and the corpses of white bones everywhere, he could imagine the severity of the last battle, and his face couldn't help but change color.

Although Dongzhou Fort is not a strong city, but there are always walls and trenches, Jianzhou soldiers are good at field battles, short of fortification, and can actually destroy this city into this shape, it can be seen that its ability to attack fortifications is not as low as imagined. However, after capturing the city, they demolished the city walls and razed the buildings, obviously making up their minds not to let the Ming army reuse it, but it exposed the fact that their ability to attack the fortified positions was still limited.

"A few of them came from Shenyang Road, so they haven't seen these." Yue Xiang said in a deep voice, "Last time, tens of thousands of Tartars gathered here, but there were only more than a thousand soldiers and civilians in these fortresses, and all of them were killed and plundered. Wherever the Tartars passed, they were completely burned, killed, and robbed, and almost no grass was born, and no chickens and dogs were left. ”

I had already seen the combat effectiveness of the Jurchen cavalry with my own eyes, and then I saw the terrible ruins of the battlefield, and the rest of the people did not speak, and the shock given by this scene was too great.

“…… Is this artillery? It took a long time before Wang Yining asked.

"Where did the Tartars get their artillery? I heard that Nurhachi had snatched a lot of artillery and iron guns from the officers and soldiers in the last battle, but he didn't know how to use them, so he went back to the furnace and remelted and recast swords, spears, bows and arrows. The Tartars lacked iron tools, and every time they grabbed the iron tools, they concentrated on burning and refining them into fine iron, which was used as arrow clusters. ”

"Such sharp weapons, but they were so spoiled by the Tartars, it can be seen that the barbarians are barbarians after all, and I don't know the wonderful use of all kinds of firearms in my Ming Dynasty, and it is a matter of time before I am defeated." The dark dragon's gaze scanned the ruined and desolate scene around him, the expression on his face was very heavy, but his mouth was still unrelenting.

Yue Xiang had already heard too many of these words, and his ears had already worn out calluses. I don't bother to refute it, I think you can say whatever you want, anyway, the war hasn't broken out yet, you can say anything.

The current Ming Court seems to have a kind of blind self-confidence. Whether it was the Japanese who had caused trouble on the southeast coast, or the Jurchens in Liaodong, they all thought it was just a temporary rebellion. The reason why they are allowed to run rampant for a while is because this huge empire has a lot to deal with, and it doesn't have the energy to deal with you for a while. When the court is really provoked, and the forces are concentrated and dealt with seriously, those clowns who jump off the beam are not opponents at all.

Therefore, despite the repeated defeats in Liaodong and Nurhachi's aggressiveness, most of the officials and people of the Ming Dynasty still thought that it was just a local conflict on the border, which could not affect the overall situation, especially the people in the Guannei basically thought so. The unanimous idea is, don't look at you having fun now, you're afraid of pulling the list in the future. Keep in mind .. com The defeat in a small-scale battle does not explain the problem, that is because the imperial court did not move seriously, and when the army gathers and enters the army to clear it with the momentum of a boulder, that is the real strength of the dignified Celestial Empire.

Therefore, before going through a decisive battle, it is determined in advance that you will lose, and if you say this, you will definitely be called a madman, and if you don't do it, you will have to go to court. Even if you don't take the lawsuit, 100% no one will believe it. Because at this moment, no one can see the true strength of the enemy.

Even Yuan Chonghuan and Sun Chengzong may not be able to see it clearly. Because there is no experience of previous failures to learn from.

Along the way, you will encounter destroyed villages and skeletons everywhere, like ghosts. After walking for more than ten miles, they didn't even see a single living person, and in such an atmosphere, everyone was in no mood to speak, and rode their horses with their heads stuffy. After walking for about an hour, I finally arrived at the foot of the Bapanling Pass. Entering the mountain from the mountain pass, climbing over a few small roads and mountains, you can enter the surface of the Qinghe River. Last time, in order to prevent the Jurchen rangers from infiltrating in, Zou Chuxian ordered some of the paths to be blocked, and Yue Xiang didn't know which roads were blocked, anyway, after entering the mountain, he could only see walking.

After entering the mountain, all they walked was a winding and rugged path, and everyone dismounted and took the reins in their hands and pulled the horses forward. The surrounding terrain is steep, the woods are dense, and the path winds around the high slopes and dense forests from time to time and falls into the valley gorges, and occasionally there are forks in the road. However, everyone present still understood the general direction, anyway, it must be going south, and after a few circles, it is still on the right road.

Yue Xiang walked ahead, looking around as he went. The road he remembered seemed to be roughly right, but he always felt that something was wrong, and he seemed to vaguely feel that there was a hidden atmosphere surging in secret.

No, there is a problem ahead! Yue Xiang walked and walked and suddenly stopped. Waving his hand to signal the people behind him to stop, everyone stopped. The dark dragon stepped forward, looked left and right suspiciously, and asked, "Is it the wrong way again?" Yue Xiang shook his head, feeling the atmosphere with his heart, and said, "There may be an ambush ahead. ”

"There is an ambush?!" The dark dragon was also nervous when he heard this, but after looking left and right, his expression relaxed again.

"Where is the ambush? I didn't see any ambushes. The way he looked at Yue Xiang clearly showed his attitude, this was just Yue Xiang wanting to get rid of the tricks they were playing, he would not be fooled.

"If you see the ambush, is it still an ambush? We've been here for so long, and we haven't startled a single bird. It doesn't make sense, it must be that the birds in the forest were scared away before we came in. Yue Xiang didn't care what he looked at, the battle these days had sharpened his nerves very sensitively, and he was always vigilant.

"What about the birds? Isn't it normal for birds to fly? "Although the Dark Dragon's martial arts are high, it is revealed that he is a military layman in one sentence. Yue Xiang said coldly: "The art of war is cloudy, and those who are quiet after the enemy will take risks; Those who are far away and pick, want others to enter; Those who have many obstacles are suspicious; The bird rises, and the fuge also. Now that the forest is silent, there are no birds, there must be ambushes nearby, so let's retreat quickly. ”

Yue Xiang has been an officer anyway, and he has read a few pages of the military book, and these things can really live a few sentences in vain. In addition, he really felt that something was wrong.

"Really?" The dark dragon was also a little hesitant when he said this, although he also belonged to the army of the Son of Heaven, but his main task was not to march and fight, but to engage in espionage, and he had never read the art of war. Yue Xiang said that he had a nose and eyes, and he began to feel that something was really wrong, but he didn't want to be easily manipulated by Yue Xiang like this.

"The path is winding here, and I don't know how long it will take to get out of the other walk, you ......"

As a result, before he finished speaking, a large number of figures suddenly appeared on the stone cliffs on both sides of the front and behind the trees, all of whom were camouflaged by many vines and leaves, holding shields, knives, bows and crossbows in their hands, and sealed the road ahead in an instant. And Yue Xiang and the others also appeared on both sides of the ambush, and more than ten guns were aimed at them.

"Bold and spy, don't you abandon your weapon and be bound quickly!" A loud voice shouted loudly, it turned out to be the Chinese of Liaodong.

"Han Chinese?" Everyone present was surprised, especially Yue Xiang. How could there be Han Chinese here? Could it be the garrison of Qinghe? They are the only ones in the vicinity who can afford to send such a large force. Yue Xiang really couldn't imagine that they would have the courage to push the defense line so far away from the city, when did they become so bold?

I remember that before I left the city, they were just a group of frightened birds who did not dare to break away from the protection of the city walls.

"I am Yue Xiang Yue Ziyi, the commander of the right division of the Qinghe Central Army, which battalion are you soldiers?" Yue Xiang shouted loudly to reveal his identity, and the two brocade guards behind him woke up like a dream and revealed their identities one after another. They also sensed that these people might be officers and soldiers, after all, firearms are unique to officers and soldiers.

"Yue Xiang?" The other party had obviously heard of the name, but did not put down the strong crossbow in his hand. The person next to the other party commanded, and then looked at Yue Xiang carefully. Then a person came out from behind, and when he saw Yue Xiang, he was immediately overjoyed: "Oh Ziyi, it's really you?" "Saying three steps and making two steps to climb down, who is Dong Mingchuan?

Since everyone is an acquaintance, the hostility between each other has stopped.

"Aren't you promoted? Why don't you stay in Qinghe City, what are you doing here? Yue Xiang took a closer look at the ambush soldiers around him, at this moment, these people had already emerged from their hiding places, and they turned out to be the members of the Dong family. They made this camouflage technique invented by Yue Xiang.

"Hey, what's the use of being promoted? No matter how high the official promotion is, there will always be someone who can control you. Dong Mingchuan laughed dryly and waved his hand as if he didn't care. Since the last time he and Ma Gong participated in the encounter between Goat Yubao and Huang Taiji, although they did not directly participate in the battle, they fought a battle after all, and they brought back hundreds of heads in that battle, and the men and horses basically did not lose much, and they immediately became the "experienced" generals valued by Zou Chuxian and were reused.

On the contrary, because of the annihilation of the whole army, Yue Xiang's status plummeted, and he did not receive any expression, as if he had become an insignificant person.

"I'm only now aware of the taste, and it's really not easy to be an official who dares to love. It's better that I used to be a flat-headed commoner, free and easy, with a false title, without adding a single soldier to my subordinates, and there was military law everywhere. You have to accept other people's commands to do this and that, who made you someone else's general? At the beginning, he was really obsessed with the ghost and voluntarily signed the deed of sale. Those guys used to be polite when they saw me, but now they give me a military order at every turn, it's so annoying! ”

Yue Xiang smiled secretly, this guy is usually used to being the king and the young master in the city, and no one can care about him except his father. Now that there are so many superiors who have come out, the freshness and excitement of being an official at the beginning will inevitably feel very uncomfortable. Not to mention uploading and issuing orders, training soldiers and horses, memorizing military laws and regulations, learning military books and battle strategies, etc., what is even more annoying is that there are a lot of them.

"What are you doing here? Could it be that it was specially designed to greet me here? Yue Xiang became more and more suspicious, with such a person, he rushed to lead the troops and led the team to come here to set up an ambush and block the road? He couldn't have taken the initiative to do this, was he under orders?

"That was naturally on the orders of the boss, Zou Chuxian, that guy didn't know what was wrong, and he stayed in the city and suddenly said that he would expand the scope of the guard and strictly prevent the Tartar raid. The light and dark horse shops outside Qinghe City were all doubled, and all the small road passes were guarded, and half of the soldiers and horses in the city were sent out. If it is said that the Tartars are coming, no one can retreat, and they must rely on the mountainous terrain to defend layer by layer, and they cannot let the Tartars get close to Qinghe City. ”

"What? Did this stupid ** take the wrong medicine? Yue Xiang was shocked, the effective way to deal with Nurhachi is one move, the wall is cleared, with the use of firearms in the fortified city, and with the morale, equipment, quality, number, ability of the generals and other factors of the current Qinghe Ming army, there is absolutely no chance of winning the field battle out of the city.

The mountains do not necessarily limit the combat effectiveness of the Jianzhou soldiers, Yue Xiang has seen it with his own eyes, and you must know that among those people are fierce generals and masters.

"I told him before that to deal with the Jurchen soldiers, you have to rely on the trick of defending first and then attacking, there are cities to defend and dangers to rely on, and they already have a three-point advantage in terms of geography. Now that you don't defend the city, you go to the wilderness to fight with the Jurchen soldiers, what kind of fart battle is this? Is his head faint? ”

The more Yue Xiang thought about it, the more incredible it became, Zou Chuxian obviously appreciated his suggestion at the beginning, how could he say that the hexagram would be changed. Is it because Lao Tzu is now at a low point for the time being, and even my opinions have been despised? Although Zou Chuxian is snobbish, he is not an incompetent general, and he should be able to distinguish good advice.

Don't...... Yue Xiang's heart moved, it was someone else...... He suddenly thought of Yang Hao.

"By the way, have there been any big people in the city in the past two days? For example, high-ranking officials of the imperial court and the like? "If this matter is on Yang Ho's orders, then it can be understood. With such a sensitive person in his own city, Zou Chuxian must set up police posts on the periphery to prevent accidents. Otherwise, if a Jurchen spy infiltrates into the territory of Qinghe and injures Lord Jinglu, it will be very bad. And if the Jurchen army comes, it can also get an early warning in advance, so that Yang Hao can retreat in time.

"Big shots? I don't know, what high-ranking officials will come here? Haven't you seen what the Jurchen Tartars look like, so you want to get closer and see them clearly? ”

This answer is expected, if Yang Hao comes secretly, Zou Chuxian will definitely block the news, so as not to leak the news that Nurhachi will attack, this is a golden opportunity. Naturally, people like Dong Mingchuan would not know, presumably those who stayed in the city were his henchmen and descendants.

On the other hand, this proves that there are extraordinary characters in the city, otherwise Zou Chuxian would not have taken such extraordinary measures.

I hope that this military arrangement is only a temporary adjustment, and if it is used as a strategic arrangement in the future, then Qinghe City will be really difficult to hold.