"Zhaolong, how is the army assembled?" Li Fuqiang asked in the barracks of Puliango.

"A total of 12,000 people were assembled, and I was organized into a division, two-thirds veterans and one-third recruits." Lin Zhaolong replied, "The equipment and military rations are also ready, but now there is a question, what should we do when we go to Brother Pulian?" ”

Li Fuqiang didn't answer Lin Zhaolong's question, and thought silently for a while: "What's the situation on Ruan Youyi's side?" ”

"He is now reorganizing the original South Vietnamese army, which can have almost 5,000 men, all assembled in Hoi An." Lin Zhaolong said, "It would be good to be able to gather 10,000 people by the end of the year. Ruan Youyi is also worried about Ruan Qi coming from Hue now, even if we attack Cambodia, he shouldn't have any ideas. ”

"How many troops are there in the city of Priango?" Li Fuqiang asked again.

"It's not much, it's only about a thousand." Lin Zhaolong replied, "You know this better than me, haven't you been Brother Pulian all the time?" You've had a good relationship with the city over the years, and they're defenseless against us now. Besides, now that South Vietnam is dead, it's just that their attitude is still very difficult to say. ”

"Occupy Priango." Li Fuqiang suddenly said, "Take full control of Priango, leave 2,000 people to garrison, and the remaining 10,000 people will attack Cambodia with all their strength and advance towards Phnom Penh." ”

"Occupy Priango?" Lin Zhaolong suddenly hesitated, "Is this appropriate, nothing will happen again, right?" ”

"Just in case." Li Fuqiang instructed, "There is no need to argue about this matter anymore, after the occupation of Puliange, we will organize the 1,000 troops into our ranks, and provide Ruan Youyi with a certain number of muskets and artillery, so that he can defend Hoi An and guard against Ruan Qi's attack." ”

"Provide artillery and muskets for Ruan Youyi?" Lin Zhaolong was shocked again, "Are you really not afraid that Ruan Youyi has any ideas?" ”

"Zhaolong, although you are a member of the Military Council, I am the Governor of Priango and the commander of the Second Army, and I am the supreme commander here." Li Fuqiang suddenly became serious, "This is an order, just execute the order." ”

"Yes, I will resolutely carry out the order." Lin Zhaolong saluted, "But sir, I must report these situations to my family, this is also my duty, please understand." ”

"Nothing unforgivable." Li Fuqiang said with a smile, "Originally, I wanted to write a letter to report by myself, but since you take the initiative to report, then this task will be handed over to you." Write the report in detail and send it home as soon as possible. ”

"Hey, I said, it's my business again." Lin Zhaolong didn't expect to get another job for himself, "Okay, I'll do it as soon as possible." ”

"And." Li Fuqiang said again, "Let He Chaoyong go to Hue to find Nguyen Qi, and we will appease North Vietnam." ”

Jiang Beiming convened another meeting of senior officers of the Yulin Army: "Ladies and gentlemen, our offensive plan Yang Wenyue has approved. Now the Yulin Army and Zheng Zhilong's troops are almost ready, and the Ming Army in Dengzhou is currently making final preparations. I now order, all departments make all preparations, Zeng Guangxian, you pay attention to the situation of the ships collected by Yang Wenyue in the past few days, and ten days later, it will be the first day of the first month of November, and we will set off. ”

"Yes, sir." All of them replied in unison.

"Beiming." Han Wantao asked, "The plan to attack Jinzhou has changed a lot from the order we received when we came out, do you want to inform the family as well?" ”

Jiang Beiming said with a smile: "I have already passed the book to the flying pigeons at home, and they should know the details of this plan soon." ”

Xu Lang sat quietly in his office, with Jiang Beiming's flying pigeon biography that he had just taken back from Zheng Jiang in front of him.

Xu Lang didn't have any questions about Jiang Beiming's plan, but he always felt that something might be wrong, but he couldn't say what was wrong.

"Someone." Xu Lang shouted, "Go and call Gao Chen to me." ”

It didn't take long for Gao Chen to come to Xu Lang's office: "Sir." ”

Xu Lang pointed to the message on the table: "Let's take a look at this first, Chief Jiang has sent it back from the north." ”

Gao Chen picked it up and looked at it carefully for a while: "Sir, there is nothing wrong with Chief Jiang's plan, but I look at you as if I am worried about something." ”

"I'm worried." Xu Lang didn't hide his thoughts, "But I don't know what I'm worried about, Chief Jiang's plan should be said to be foolproof, but my intuition tells me that there should be something missing." ”

Gao Chen picked up the strip of cloth again and said to himself, "What will you miss?" ”

"Gao Chen." Xu Lang rubbed his head and said, "I'm old, and my brain can't turn anymore." If you think about it, I think I'm really missing something. ”

"What would be missing?" Gao Chen stood in front of the map with a strip of cloth, "All aspects of the situation have been taken into account, and it is no problem for 50,000 horses to attack Jinzhou." Commander Chiang also considered it comprehensively, and even took into account the time of reinforcements from all walks of life in the Manchu Dynasty. ”

"Gao Chen, don't consider the problem from one side." Xu Lang stood behind Gao Chen and said, "Think about it from the enemy's side, if you are Huang Taiji, Dolgon, and Tao Min, how will you deal with it?" ”

"What else can I do?" Gao Chen pondered Xu Lang's words.

Suddenly, Gao Chen slapped his thigh: "Chief of Staff, Chief Jiang may really have overlooked a problem." ”

Xu Lang's eyes widened: "What did you think of, what did Jiang Beiming ignore?" ”

"Chief of Staff." Gao Chen pointed to the map on the wall and said, "Chief Jiang only considered the time for Dolgon and Tao Min to return to Lushun, and we take it for granted that they will definitely return to Lushun, but what if they don't come back." ”

"If they don't come back to Lushun, where can they go?" Xu Lang asked, "Gao Chen, tell me everything you think." ”

"Yes, sir." Gao Chen stood upright, "We are now trying to find a way to separate Emperor Taiji and Dolgon, regardless of whether our strategy works or not." If Dolgon and Tao Min came together, not only did they not return to Lushun, but even Nampo gave up, Dolgon led 10,000 Eight Banners and 20,000 new Korean troops to Tsushima Island, what if Tao Min took this opportunity to attack Dongying directly? Our warships and all our troops will be tied to Lushun, Zheng Zhilong cannot have reinforcements, and it will take time for Shandong to gather troops again, and Chief Li and Chief Lin are in Annam. ”

"Tao Min will use this opportunity to fight Dongying? It's not impossible. Xu Lang stood up suddenly, "Gao Chen, go and meet Chairman Zheng and Chairman Zhang with me immediately." ”

Zheng Jiang's office, Zhang Guodong, Zheng Jiang, Wang Hua, including Xia Yang and Xu Tianbin, all came, and everyone was silent after listening to Gao Chen's analysis, no one expected this result.

"Xu Tianbin." Xu Lang asked, "How many troops can be gathered in Yulin Bay now, counting all those who can move." ”

Xu Tianbin thought for a while: "There are more than 2,000 people in a regiment on my side; Principal Wang's military cadet has a maximum of 400 students; five hundred marines; During this period of time, there were more than 800 Ming troops, but they had little combat effectiveness. ”

"How many tax police can there be?" Xu Lang asked, "They used to be the army too. ”

"It should be less than a thousand, but it's about the same."

"That's less than five thousand people in total." Xu Lang silently calculated and asked, "Chairman Zhang, to what extent has Qiu Peng's battleship arrived, and can it be launched now?" ”

"I can't get into the water, and it won't be until the end of the year at the earliest." Zhang Guodong asked, "Xu Lang, what do you want to do?" ”

Xu Lang took out the map of Liaodong from his clothes and spread it on the table: "Everyone, if it is really as best as Beiming expected, but once it is as Gao Chen thought, Dolgon and Taomin will attack Dongying with all their might, and we will not be able to stop it at all." So I have another plan, to send a surprise force to land from the south of the Korean Peninsula, occupy Busan, and if possible, attack Tsushima Island, cut off Tao Min's return route, and take Korea by the way. But we now have neither soldiers nor ships, and even if we can gather 5,000 soldiers and horses on Hainan Island, we will not be able to catch up with North Korea. ”

Xia Yang asked, "Xu Lang, will Tao Min really go to fight Dongying?" ”

"Consider the possibility." Wang Hua said, "Xu Lang, even if we can send 5,000 people to North Korea, the number is not enough. Beiming only brought the fast gun team and the Shenji battalion to Dengzhou this time, and there should still be Ming troops in the area of Beijing, can you find a way to use it, they should go to North Korea soon. ”

"You want to use the Ming army in Beijing?" Zhang Guodong had some doubts, "Beiming is not in Beijing, Zhang Hai went to Ningyuan, and only Pan Xuezhong himself is in Beijing, but can Pan Xuezhong say that Chongzhen can be moved?" ”

"I'm going to Beijing." Xu Lang stood up suddenly, "Everyone, Gao Chen and I personally went to Beijing to find Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen, and tried to persuade Chongzhen. Don't be idle, Xu Tianbin, gather all the troops, no matter what method you use, even if you take a rapid march by land, you must arrive in Dengzhou and camp before the end of the year. Principal Wang, the Ministry of Security will send someone to Dongying to send a letter to Keiji Yokoji, telling him the news that Tao Min may attack Dongying, and ask him to find a way to persuade Dongying to resist desperately and must drag this war on. As long as it drags on until next spring, we have a way. ”

"But." Zheng Jiang asked a question, "In this way, there will be no army in our Yulin Bay, and you are all gone, leaving only Chairman Zhang and Principal Wang at home." ”

"What, Chairman Zheng." Wang Hua smiled, "Don't worry about me and Chairman Zhang? ”

"I didn't mean that." Zheng Jiang explained.

"It's okay." Zhang Guodong said, "Let Liu Guannan's patrol room pay more attention, and at the same time contact Zhou Chongde and Li Shuang, and transfer some of their people to Yulin Bay, we can reorganize Zhou Chongde's troops at the same time." ”

"I didn't expect it to be like this." Xia Yang suddenly said, "I originally wanted to stop Tao Min from going to Dongying, but now, it may be another big war." ”

"There's no way around it." Xu Lang said with a smile, "When Lao Jiang's Battle of Songhu was supposed to annihilate the Japanese army's 3,000 marines, it ended up being a three-month battle with 1 million people. No one knows what will happen when the battle starts. ”

Gao Chen, who was beside Xu Lang, didn't understand what the Battle of Songhu meant, and glanced at his chief of general staff, but he didn't dare to ask more.

This plan was thus decided, Wang Hua and Xu Tianbin were busy, and Xia Yang personally went to Yazhou to discuss with Zhou Chongde and Li Shuang. Xu Lang didn't delay, went home and said a word and hurried to Beijing with Gao Chen.