Li Jing had just sent away Youyang Jun and Wang Gui's Mao soldiers. Youyang soldiers went to Qinhuangdao, which was across the sea, and Mao soldiers boarded a ship and went to Kaohsiung to build a camp.

Bai Zaixiang and others took the remaining 2,370 people to replenish the grain and grass and other baggage here in Li Jing, the money for selling the prisoners this time was not enough to pay the bill, Li Jing gave Aunt Bai a bad idea, after arriving in Qinhuangdao, the head of the Jiannu captured this time was sold to the Guanning army and Jizhen, Datong Army, each head fifty taels is not two prices. Bai Zaixiang has more than 5,000 heads in his hands. Together with the horses and livestock and armor and weapons that were seized, it was enough to sell it for forty-five thousand taels of silver.

This battle made the generals of Youyang see their shortcomings in the face of Jiannu, and this time they started a carnival of buying and buying after they had money. This time, the pro-soldier battalion equipped with plate armor put out fires several times, so that the whole army turned the danger into safety, and left a deep impression on the Youyang native soldiers, and the whole body was carburized with 1.5 mm steel plate armor, and under the resolute request of the soldiers, 5,000 sets were directly purchased, and 5,000 handles of 1.5 slashes/sabers were also purchased. 2,370 sets were left, and the rest were sent to Youyang for delivery along the Yangtze River by the fleet.

Now in addition to a full set of plate armor and the original cross-edged spear, 1,000 steel-armed crossbows and 1,000 crossbow arrows were purchased for each person. This crossbow is one and a half meters long, steel and wood construction, with a retractable two-legged bracket, which can be lowered as a fulcrum, somewhat similar to a heavy arquebus. The other end resembles a butt-like structure against the shoulder. It is wound by ratchet hand, has a rate of fire of six rounds a minute, an effective range of 100 meters (penetrating triple armor), and a maximum range of 400 meters.

500 pairs of curved 2 mm steel shields with wheels were purchased, this shield, two meters high and one meter five wide, composed of three parts, with folding pages can be folded and stored, and the wheels can be removed. Easy to transport, this can replace shield and deflection vehicles to protect infantry.

The surface was riveted with seven-inch-long sharp steel spikes, with sliding observation and shooting holes, and a retractable garrison hoe to withstand heavy cavalry charges.

Aunt Bai also wanted to buy Li Jing's three-pounder cannon, Li Jing thought about it for a while, decided that it still couldn't be leaked, and finally promised her that she could produce a batch of Gustav leather cannons for Youyang soldiers and deliver them in half a month. It weighed about 500 pounds, twice as much as a three-pounder gun, but it fired twelve-pound shells. The firing range is the same as that of a twelve-pounder gun cast in copper and iron, but the life is short, about 120 rounds. However, the price is cheap, only 150 taels per door. This is the price of conscience, and I didn't earn a penny.

The Youyang soldiers were sent away, and a large number of laborers hired from the high-tech in the Liaoshen area also arrived at Yingkou one after another. The construction of the harbour pier pier pier was officially started, and the construction of fifteen small outer bastions was built. They are located on the periphery of Yingkou Port City. This is the estuary port, where the Liao River and the Hunhe River are not far apart and flow into the Bohai Bay. Li Jing built a city wall on a five-kilometer-long stretch of land between the two estuaries of the river. The location is five kilometers from the shoreline pier to the north, and the new city is designed as a square.

This is the port of Hekou, the sea is diluted, the winter is actually frozen, and there is less than nine months of navigation in a year, but its location is closer to the core area of Liaoshen than Lushun, and at the same time threatens the land communication line to Jinzhou in western Liaoning, so the strategic location is very important.

Li Jing planned to dig a five-kilometer canal to connect the Liao and Hunhe rivers. The river is fifty meters wide and three meters deep. The excavated earth was used to ram the walls along the river on all sides, and then to wrap bricks. The walls are estimated to take a year to complete. At the moment, it's just a matter of pulling up the barbed wire first. Wooden watchtowers were built.

The price of rice in Liaodong is close to five taels of silver per load. Li Jing directly gave the high price of one load of rice per worker a month. Li Jing's rice was transported from Nanyang, and the cost of only two dollars of silver per load can be said to be very cost-effective. The labor force in Liaodong can only be cat winter in winter, and there is no income, and under such huge profits, laborers flock to it, peasants, guards, displaced people, and even many Koreans, Mongolians, and I don't know what kind of messy people are.

This time, the Li family sent more than 500 people to Liaoyang, Shenyang and other core areas to recruit people, and recruited more than 50,000 strong laborers in half a month. The follow-up news is still coming. Li Jing plans to recruit 200,000 laborers. Anyway, Liao Shen has to be lost, and how much he pulls out is counted.

A large number of laborers were organized, and on the demarcated lots, the snow was first shoveled, and then the sledgehammers were drilled, and Li Jing's soldiers were responsible for inserting gunpowder cartridges to blast it, and then loading the excavated earth onto sleds and transporting it to the city wall to be stacked. Although the ground is hard in winter, and the shovel and pickaxe can't be dug up, it is nothing to blast with gunpowder, but the ice and snow are still there, and Li Jing has no shortage of big livestock in his hands, which can be easily transported by sled. Li Jing hoped to complete the excavation of the canal and the stacking of the earthwork of the city wall within a month, and then ram the city wall after civilization.

In the half month that Li Jing was immersed in digging soil, the situation in eastern Liaoning changed dramatically. Houjin began to mobilize on a large scale, and a new offensive was imminent.

In the forty-eighth year of Wanli (the first year of Taichang in 1620), the Liao situation was critical, Nurhachi led the Jurchens to capture Kaiyuan and Tieling, and Mao sent more than 3,000 soldiers to aid Liaodong. Subsequently, the imperial court discussed "recruiting 35,000 soldiers from the eight prefectures in Jinnei, Ningwu in Shanxi, and Mao soldiers in Zhongzhou, spearmen in Shandong, and soldiers in Zhejiang, and Ma Bu to participate in the war.

On January 21, 1621, the name of the Apocalypse began to be used, and by this time Liaoshen had increased its army to more than 100,000 people. The real number of 1,500 people reported by Li Jing is really not worth mentioning as a small reptile, and Yingkou is a corner that no one pays attention to. In the eyes of the Ministry of War, as long as the wharf is repaired, it is enough to maintain the sea baggage.

In fact, from February to March of 1619 (the forty-seventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty and the fourth year of the Later Jin Mandate of Heaven), the situation in Liaodong became tense day by day. There was no fleeting respite.

In 1619, after Nurhachi won the Battle of Sarhu, he took advantage of the victory to seize Kaiyuan and Tieling, and eliminated Yehe.

After the defeat of Salhu, Ma Lin, who served as the commander of the Northern Route Army as the commander of Kaiyuan Tieling, fled back to Kaiyuan in embarrassment to wait for the punishment of the imperial court. However, the commander-in-chief of the sarhu, Yang Ho, was not held accountable for a long time because he was recommended by the cabinet chief assistant Fang Congzhe, and was not arrested and imprisoned by the imperial court until August.

At that time, the party struggle was already white-hot, and the Donglin Party was facing Taiwan, and it was the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang. However, at this time, the head of the cabinet, Congzhe, won the hearts of the people, and was less involved in the party struggle, and his suggestions also reflected more of the public will at that time. The use of Yang Ho was Fang Congzhe's proposal, as a person who won the trust of Wanli, Fang Congzhe's suggestion was adopted immediately, so Yang Ho was put on the horse.

After the defeat, the first assistant protected Yang Ho. Yang Ho has not been dealt with for a long time. With Yang Hao's support, Marin still held the military power of Kaiyuan. He was already afraid of the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry, and knew that it would be difficult to compete with Kaiyuan's less than 20,000 troops. He repeatedly asked Liaoyang for reinforcements, but Liaodong, which had suffered heavy losses, was unable to send reinforcements, so Marin had to hope to win over the Mongol tribes to fight against Jianzhou. As a result, the Mongols were not fooled, and Kaitie was lost one after another.

After the Battle of Salhu, the situation between the Ming and Qing dynasties changed dramatically, with the Ming on the defensive in Liaodong and the Jin on the offensive. Nurhachi made Liao and Shen the next targets. However, due to the Ming Dynasty's re-establishment of Xiong Tingbi as the strategy for Liaodong, Nurhachi postponed the plan to march into Liaoshen for more than a year, and it was not until the spring of the first year of the Apocalypse (the sixth year of the Mandate of Heaven, 1621) that Nurhachi put the march into Liaoshen on the agenda.

Houjin made careful preparations for the attack on Liaoshen for more than a year. First of all, the temporary capital was moved from the boundary domain to Salhu, which was closer to Liaoshen, and a wooden city was simply built in Salhu. The city of Jiefan was built on Tiebei Mountain, and its west side is not far from the confluence of the Hunhe River and the Suzi River. The trees on the Tiebei Mountain are dense, the strange rocks are craggy, three sides are facing the water, one side is connected with the mountain, the geographical location is extremely dangerous, here is in front of the unification of the Jurchen tribes in Nurhachi, it was originally the "boundary domain" of the Jurchen Zhechen Chen Department of Jianzhou.

the second is to build siege weapons, gather craftsmen, and build siege equipment such as hook ladders and chariots day and night;

The third is to constantly send units of troops and peripheral servant troops to carry out tentative attacks on Liaoshen, and understand the reality of the Ming side through armed reconnaissance.

One of the biggest of these attacks was Saharan's attack on the Tiger Skin. Xiong Tingbi once said: "Forty miles southeast of Shenzhi, Fengji Fort, can be horned in Shenyang." Thirty miles southwest of Fengji is the tiger skin station, which can be horned Fengji. The northeast of Fengji is 90 miles away from Fushun and southwest from Liaoyang, and thieves such as peeping at Liaoyang, or into Fushun, or into Magendan, all pass through this fort, and can also be intercepted. If you don't keep Fengji, Shenyang is lonely, if you don't keep the tiger skin, you will be lonely, and the three sides will stand together, and if you don't have 320,000 heavy soldiers, you will be easy to be shaken. ”

It's a pity that Xiong Tingbi has been replaced, a few months ago, Xiong Tingbi was deposed, and the imperial court appointed Yuan Yingtai, a water conservancy expert, as the economic strategy of Liaodong, which may be the reason why Houjin accelerated the capture of Liaoshen. The most important tiger skin post was only stationed with 4,000 Youyang soldiers, and 700 soldiers from Wang Guibu, if Li Jing hadn't sent Li Yu's observation group and carried artillery, not to mention the tiger skin station, I'm afraid Fengji Fort would have been lost.

In the face of the attack of the Later Jin, the Ming Dynasty also took some measures. For example, if a general was dispatched from various places to lead troops to aid Liao, those who were sent were Chai Guozhu, the chief soldier, and Zhu Wanliang, a guerrilla attacker. Chen Ce, deputy commander-in-chief of Sichuan, was promoted to commander-in-chief and sent to Liaodong. Qin Liangyu, a female general of Sichuan Tusi, was also ordered to lead troops to aid Liao. The army of Liaodong came from all over the country, including Sichuan soldiers, Ji soldiers, Baoding soldiers, Ningxia soldiers, Xuanfu soldiers, Datong soldiers, Guyuan soldiers, Gansu soldiers, including town soldiers, the families of various generals, as well as native soldiers, Mao soldiers, and locally recruited recruits. Later, sailors from the Huai, Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong general towns were also transferred. At the same time, sufficient horses and rations were mobilized according to the actual size of the army. At this time, the commanders of Shenyang were He Shixian and You Shigong, the commanders-in-chief.

On February 11, the first year of the Tomorrow Dynasty (the sixth year of the Mandate of Heaven, 1621), tens of thousands of troops of Houjin attacked Fengji Fort in eight ways, opening the prelude to the battle of Liaoshen. Fengjibao is located in the middle of Liao and Shen, and has an important strategic position. There must be no mistakes, otherwise Shenyang Liaoyang is in danger of being broken by each other.