On 17 March, the much-anticipated Northern Expedition finally set off in Huai'an Prefecture, and the 40,000 Right Route Army all assembled on the shore of Hongze Lake in the south of Huai'an Prefecture at the appointed time, and at the same time, hundreds of ships full of various grain, straw, ammunition and materials and more than 3,000 officers and men of the Chinese Navy were assembled here as the logistical support for the Right Route Army to go north this time, and to provide support for the Right Route Army at any time.

At this time, the Huai'an Mansion had already announced its surrender ten days in advance, the Huai'an Prefect fled, and some officials and defenders in the city killed some colleagues who tried to resist, opened the city gate and sent people to find the soldiers of Great China, and dedicated the Huai'an Mansion to Xiao Tianjian.

Therefore, Xiao Tianjian originally planned to take the Huai'an Mansion sacrificial knife after the oath, and the idea of taking the Huai'an Mansion sacrificial knife first fell into the vacancy, and the army was under his auspices, and after the implementation was completed, he immediately marched by land and water, along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and drove towards the north.

At the same time, the soldiers of the first town in Shanxi have already completed the assembly in the area of Yanmen Pass in advance, Yan Chongxi, as the commander of the army, came to Yanmen Pass in person, including Wang Chengping and Li Lingfeng also led their troops to arrive at the assembly place, including Lu Xiangsheng, the military supervisor of the left road, at this time, he had already taken a step in advance, and came to the first town army camp of Yanmen Pass day and night under the escort of the guards.

Lu Xiangsheng went out of the mountain at this time, which can be said to be a decision made after a considerable ideological struggle, because Xiao Tianjian sent someone to tell him that although he went north this time to overthrow the Ming Dynasty, in essence, their purpose was to have a decisive battle with Jiannu in the north to determine the fate of both sides.

So Lu Xiangsheng finally put aside his scruples, resolutely went out of the mountain to accept Xiao Tianjian's appointment to him, made public the news that he was not dead, and put on his newly built big knife, changed into a military uniform, and stationed in the camp of the Left Route Army as the chief inspector of the Great China Supervision Yuan and the supervisor of the Left Route Army.

Not only that, Lu Xiangsheng also did everything possible to persuade Sun Chuanting, who was transferred to Ruzhou by Xiao Tianjian, so that Sun Chuanting finally agreed to serve Xiao Tianjian, and accepted Xiao Tianjian's appointment, and rushed to Nanjing City to take office.

Lu Xiangsheng's generals in the old department of the Heavenly Army all know it, and they are very respectful to Lu Xiangsheng, an upright, resolute and loyal minister, and they are also very polite to Lu Xiangsheng when they come to serve as a supervisor in their army.

Although Lu Xiangsheng is nominally the supervisor of the Left Route Army, he also knows very well that his supervisor is different from the kind of prison army of the Ming Dynasty, and he cannot interfere with the command of the old generals of the Xingtian Army like Yan Chongxi, and Xiao Tianjian's main purpose in filming him in the Left Route Army is to let him act as a liaison between the officers and the army, persuade those officers and soldiers not to go against the Great China Defense Army, and reduce the consumption between each other as much as possible, so Lu Xiangsheng knows his identity very well, and after arriving in the army, he only symbolically took over the military police in the army. Responsible for some daily picket military discipline matters, and did not interfere with Yan Chongxi's command at all.

And Lu Xiangsheng's previous identity was originally the governor of Xuanda, and many of the generals in Xuanda's army turned out to be his old subordinates, including Yang Guozhu, the current general soldier of Xuanda, are his old subordinates, when he learned that Lu Xiangsheng came to Yanmen Pass, Yang Guozhu, who was sitting in Xuanda, was very entangled, Lu Xiangsheng sent someone to Yang Guozhu to send a letter to him, telling Yang Guozhu that this time their army pressed the border, not because they wanted to be enemies with them, but to eventually become enemies with Jiannu, if Yang Guozhu and their officers and soldiers did not want to surrender, It doesn't matter, they can lead their troops to the Shanhaiguan area and devote themselves to Hong Chengchou's command, but they must make way for the soldiers and horses of their first town, he never wants to see the two sides facing each other at Yanmen Pass at this time, and the blood of killing is like a river!

After Yang Guozhu read Lu Xiangsheng's handwritten letter to him, he sighed and ordered dozens of empty cannons to be fired at Yanmen Pass, and then withdrew the 3,000 defenders of Yanmen Pass, completely opened the gate of Xuanda to the Dazhong Left Route Army, and let the Left Route Army enter the territory of Datong Mansion.

In fact, Yang Guozhu is very clear that now Xuan Dabing has no will to fight against the Xingtian Army (they still habitually call Xiao Tianjian's men and horses the Xingtian Army), and the 20,000 soldiers under his command are eating the food provided to them by the Xingtian Army, and many of the generals are still Lu Xiangsheng's old department, this battle can't be fought at all, even if he insists on fighting, Yanmen Pass will definitely not be able to hold it, and in the end he just tore his face in vain and ended up with a defeat, rather than this, he might as well be wise and take the initiative to give way, Leave some living forces to go to Hong Chengchou and strengthen the forces along the Great Wall to resist Jiannu.

And Yan Chongxi led the Left Route Army in this way, it can be said that without a single shot, he entered the Yanmen Pass and soon controlled most of Datong Mansion, and took over Datong Mansion and Ulzhou and other places, while Yang Guozhu retreated with the whole army, and the two sides longed for it from afar, but they did not fight a battle, so they began to gradually abandon Xuanfu Town, so that the Left Route Army Department quickly and gradually took over the area of Xuanfu Town, and gradually took over the Huai'anwei, Wanquan Left Guard, and Wanquan Right Guard of Xuanfu Town, so that the Left Army arrived along the Great Wall. The remnants of the officers and soldiers in this area have been replaced.

By the way, Yang Guozhu also secretly removed some of the old and weak in the Xuan army and threw them to Lu Xiangsheng to deal with them, telling the court and Hong Chengchou that these people had died in the battle against the Xingtian army, and he himself took the remaining more than 10,000 Xuan soldiers and rushed out of Juyong Pass towards the Shanhaiguan area.

During this time, there was an unexpected large-scale conflict between the Beijing camp of the imperial court and the Guanning army, and the cause of this conflict was very simple, there were more than 30,000 officers and soldiers in the Ming Beijing camp of the imperial guard of the Beijing division at this time, and after the transportation was cut off, there was also a serious shortage of their grain, and although the imperial court tried its best, it could not meet the needs of these Beijing generals, so these Beijing soldiers began to set up troops in the area around the Beijing division to meet their needs by plundering.

After learning that the Guanning Army had accepted a large number of grain and straw provided by the Xingtian Army, the Jingying generals who were guarding the Miyun area began to use these grains received from the Xingtian Army, and after Yang Guozhu received these grains at Yanmen Pass, he transported most of them to Jizhou through Juyongguan, Huairou, Pinggu and other places to Jizhou and handed them over to Hong Chengchou, but the officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp who did not think of Miyun intercepted a large amount of grain on the way, and killed dozens of Xuanda soldiers who tried to stop them. The two sides immediately broke out.

Hong Chengchou was furious when he learned the news, and immediately went to the court to sue the Beijing camp, asking Chongzhen to deal with the generals headed by him, and immediately return the robbed grain to them, at this time the court can be said to have basically lost the ability to control the army, although Chongzhen is also very angry about this, and now he is embattled, but between his own officers and soldiers, his own people and his own people fought first, and they had the intention to deal with it, but they were afraid of forcing the officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp, and this matter was suppressed.

After this incident, Guan Ningjun scolded them all, these grains were obviously given to them by the Xingtian Army, so that they could use them to fight with Jiannu, but as a friendly army, the Beijing camp robbed a large amount of food, which was simply a move to draw wages from the bottom of the kettle, and the imperial court seemed to be deaf to this matter, and sat back and watched these Beijing officials and soldiers just take away the food, and some people even planned to pick a son and not do it for the Ming court, fortunately, Hong Chengchou in order to take into account the overall situation, convened the generals, and moved it with emotion and reason, The generals were aware of the benefits, and finally persuaded these subordinate generals and ordered them to suppress the generals under their respective commands, so that there was no big chaos in the Guanning area.

With the start of the Xingtian army, the Jiannu side is also fully prepared, after Huang Taiji arrived in Jinzhou City, gathered all kinds of soldiers and horses, personally led nearly 200,000 Jiannu army, began to go out of Jinzhou towards Ningyuan City to kill over, outside the Guanhai Hong Chengchou has been forced by the situation, in advance to abandon a large number of forts in the north of Ningyuan City, the strength of the troops around Ningyuan City, so along the way the Jiannu army basically did not encounter any effective resistance, so on March 16, the long drive straight into the Ningyuan Acropolis.

Under the deployment of Hong Chengchou, the Ming defenders fortified Baitai Mountain, Lao Crooked Peach Mountain, Jiulong Mountain and other places outside Ningyuan to resist the southward movement of the Jiannu army.

After the Jiannu army marched to Baitai Mountain, it encountered the first stubborn resistance of the Ming army, the main general of the Ming army guarding Baitai Mountain was the first fierce general Cao Bianjiao under the command of Hong Chengchou, Cao Bianjiao was the nephew of the general Cao Wenzhao who died in the early years, and Cao Wenzhao was called the general of Cao, the battle was very brave, after the death of Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao became the first fierce general under Hong Chengchou, and followed Hong Chengchou to suppress bandits in Shaanxi all the year round, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting were transferred to the guard the year before last, Cao Bianjiao has been promoted to the chief military officer with merit, Also with Hong Chengchou moved to the Guanning area, at this time he had a total of more than 3,000 soldiers and horses, considering the importance of the first battle, Hong Chengchou handed over Baitai Mountain, the first line of defense of Ningyuan City, to Cao Bianjiao.

Cao Bianjiao did not live up to Hong Chengchou's expectations of him, in the area of Baitai Mountain, the use of the Jiannu army to light the enemy's rash advance, suddenly led the troops to kill, and the Jiannu army's vanguard launched a fierce battle in Baitai Mountain, the Ming army at this time also knew that they had no way to retreat, under the leadership of Cao Bianjiao, fought a rare bravery, this battle, Cao Bianjiao led the troops to kill more than 100 Jiannu army, and injured nearly 200 people, and successfully achieved a victory in the eyes of the Guanning army, which is a "great victory".

This battle is probably one of the few highlights in the Guanning War, although Cao Bianjiao is very brave, but after all, the battle-hardened Jiannu army is not in vain, this fierce battle, Cao Bianjiao's Ming army losses are also very serious, although nearly 300 or so Jiannu troops were killed and wounded, but the casualties paid by his command exceeded the opponent nearly doubled, these Jiannu troops are not like the previous Cao Bianjiao to deal with those Changmin army, a surprise enemy will be defeated, and it is easy to achieve victory, In this regard, the Jiannu army far exceeded the general civilian army several times, whether it was in terms of toughness or personal combat effectiveness, it was very strong, so even if Cao Bianjiao led the army to fight to the death, he failed to achieve great results, and after repelling this Jiannu army, Cao Bianjiao also had to give up Baitai Mountain, and led his troops to retreat to the area of Lao Crooked Peach Mountain and Jiulong Mountain, and met with the Ming army deployed there.

After the Jiannu army suffered a small loss in Baitai Mountain, they began to be cautious, and no longer sent a small number of men and horses to rush forward, but began to gather troops, and fanned out to Ningyuan City, which was lonely outside the pass.

(Huh!) Thank you for the reward of the two brothers who do not drink the northwest wind! Thank you so much! ）