What the Jurchens did this time turned out to be a plan to attack the west.

When the Jurchens approached the middle of the Ming Ningjin defense line with the so-called 200,000 troops, cutting off the main road between the two places, the eyes of the Ming Dynasty and Liaodong were almost attracted by the other party's military action.

In fact, behind the Jurchens swaggering out of this attack, it was to cover up their real main army, a total of 30,000 Qing iron cavalry from the Xifengkou gap they were most familiar with, drove straight in, with lightning speed, broke through the defense line of the Ming Dynasty's border pass, and penetrated deep into the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty.

By the time Hong Chengchou, the governor of Xuliao, received the report and finally reacted, it was already too late, and the Qing Iron Cavalry gave full play to their mobility advantages, and the first-class absolute dust was killed under the city of Zunhua, and the Zunhua defenders were caught off guard, and Zunhua was lost.

This is since the second year of Chongzhen, the Ming Dynasty Zunhua town was occupied by the Jurchens again, and the Jurchens after occupying Zunhua did not delay, while accelerating the search for the huge population and materials in Zunhua City, while sending pioneers to Tongzhou farther forward to reconnoitre, looking for fighters.

When the news of the fall of Zunhua flowed into the ears of Hong Chengchou and others, it was as if they had heard a completely unbelievable news, and the governor of Xuliao, who was very deep in the city, did not come back to his senses for a long, long time.

"Mobilize troops from Xuancheng and Shanhaiguan to return to reinforcements, and we must not allow the enemy to wreak havoc in our hinterland."

The lesson of the past is still not far away, and Hong Chengchou, the governor of Xuliao, knows that if he allows this group of Qing cavalry to plunder in his hinterland and threaten the safety of the Beijing Division, not to mention that his official body is difficult to protect, I am afraid that even the head on his head will be separated from his shoulder.

Emperor Chongzhen's character, with his ascension to the throne for a long time, the group of officials with a seven-hearted heart have found out a lot of experience, Emperor Chongzhen's capriciousness, meanness, compared to other emperors is better than blue, just so far by the first assistant ministers who have been appointed and dismissed, are almost impossible to count on one hand, from which they can detect the other party's cold temperament.

Fortunately, at this time, after crossing the border pass of the Ming Dynasty, the Jurchens who invaded the hinterland of Xuliao only had 30,000 cavalry, perhaps the other party's mobility was extremely strong, but it was probably an extremely difficult task to attack the city and plunder the fortress with it.

On the one hand, he sent additional envoys to urge the Qing army to take strict precautions and not be careless, while Hong Chengchou mobilized troops from the frontier to return for reinforcements.

Suddenly thinking of something, Hong Chengchou's solemn face raised, and he issued an order to the messenger beside him: "Send someone to Ningyuan and Jinzhou in an urgent manner, and ask what is going on with the Jurchen army stationed between them?" ”

It is rare for the Jurchens to be like now, after mobilizing an army that could have been completely capable of attacking the border pass with great light and bringing a great threat to the Ming border pass, but they abandoned it and instead sent out a surprise army to attack themselves by surprise.

"Yes!"

The scout was ordered to leave, and quickly rode a fast horse towards the direction where Ningyuan and Jinzhou were located.

At this time, Wu Sangui, who had just received the battle report from Zunhua, Tongzhou and other places, now also figured out something wrong, and after receiving orders from Hong Chengchou to let him investigate the situation of the Jurchen army on Songshan Pass in detail, the young and vigorous Wu Sangui suddenly issued an order to his 50,000 soldiers to go out of the city after thinking about it for a night.

"General soldiers, the opposite side is where the 200,000 troops are located, how can we be their opponents with only our 50,000 soldiers, and the opposite side is the Jurchen barbarians who are known as invincible in the field!!"

Wu Sangui and the other orders were issued, but before they reached the low-level generals, they immediately caused a wave of ripples among the middle- and high-level generals.

"Hmph, a bunch of eggless guys! After dealing with the Jurchen barbarians for so long, don't you all know their personalities? When did this Jurchen barbarian be so peaceful and quiet, with an army of more than 100,000 out of thin air and no action for several days!! ”

Wu Sangui's face was full of disdain, and he retorted to the worried words of the group of generals under his command.

"Even if this Jurchen barbarian is strong in the field battle, but our Liaodong soldiers are not vegetarians, Guanning Iron Cavalry has not fought a draw with the Jurchen Iron Cavalry, when has General Mangui's team been defeated by the Jurchens?"

The reprimand made the group of generals in Ningyuan City have to shut up, this young and other general soldiers seem to have made up their minds, no matter what they say at this time, I am afraid that it will be useless, it is better to follow the wishes of this popular first, and act when the time comes, otherwise no one dares to guarantee what punishment this young and other general soldiers will do to everyone.

After breakfast in the morning, the army slowly rushed out of the south city gate, and when the last soldier walked out of the city gate, the defenders who stayed in Ningyuan quickly closed the city gate of Ningyuan, silently watching the long dragon composed of colleagues marching into the distance.

Along the way, Wu Sangui repeatedly told the generals at all levels to be cautious, after all, the enemy they were facing was a powerful Jurchen, although they were determined to send troops to deal with the enemy head-on, but Wu Sangui did not dare to be careless at all.

It was not until the army reached more than 30 miles away from the Lesong Pass that the scouts who had dispersed brought back the military movements of the Jurchen Ren and others in the Songshan Pass.

"What? The Jurchen barbarians are retreating?? ”

Although he was already suspicious of the strange actions of the Jurchen army, Wu Sangui never thought that the more than 100,000 soldiers and horses of the Jurchen people were preparing to retreat without firing a shot.

And the news that surprised Wu Sangui even more was just revealed from the mouth of Cong Scout: "'Please punish the adult, you are derelict in your duty!'" ”

“？？ What do you mean? ”

"The actual size of the Jurchens' army is not as good as the 200,000 they say, not even half of its number, until they Jurchens evacuate the camp and no longer disguise, we find out that they have been singing empty city plans to us!!"

The Scout always hung his head in shame and bowed his head to admit his disappointment.

"Then how many Jurchens are there?"

Wu Sangui's face was blue, and his deep tone was full of anger.

"From our observations, the actual strength of its team should be only 60,000 people, of which except for 10,000 Jurchen and Mongolian barbarian cavalry elites, the rest of the soldiers are all composed of Han and Korean soldiers."

"And what about your observations some time ago? Why is there such a big error? ”

Wu Sangui couldn't even believe his ears, and with only 10,000 main forces and 50,000 miscellaneous soldiers, he actually contained more than 100,000 Ming soldiers on the Ningjin Defense Line, not to mention that more Ming troops in the Guannai were mobilized for this.

"Because Songshankou is heavily guarded, when subordinates and others observe the opponent's camp, they can only roughly confirm the opponent's scale based on the number of tents, flags, and stoves."

Although the scout general was ashamed, he also told the basis of his scout investigation, but it also made Wu Sangui speechless.

(End of chapter)