It's about to enter October, the temperature in Liaodong began to drop sharply, Zhu Cijiong had to decide to return to the court, because it was about to snow, and when the weather was cold and the snow was closed, it would not be so easy to return to Beijing, and he was likely to stay in Liaodong for the New Year.

He is the emperor, naturally he can't stay in Liaodong for the New Year, he left the capital for a month or two, if he doesn't go back for more than half a year, then the court must be chaotic, after all, many important things Zhu Youzhen and Xu Guangqi can't do the master, he must make a decision.

So, he hurried back to Beijing with 50,000 elite of the Beijing battalion, and Sun Chuanting's Qin army was left behind by him, after all, there are still 120,000 Houjin troops in Haizhou, if all the people are withdrawn, Huang Taiji may be desperate and crazy counterattack, and at that time, the Liaodong army, which is less than 100,000 people, may not be able to withstand it.

After several battles, the Liaodong Army lost nearly 50,000 horses, except for Mao Wenlong's 100,000 horses and the troops left behind in various places, in fact, the Liaodong Army in Shanchahe Fort and Gaizhou City was not even 90,000, although the emperor had agreed that he would supplement the battle losses and continue to recruit 100,000, but that would not be able to be recruited for a while and a half, and even if it was recruited, it would take several months of training to come in handy.

The weather turned cold, the camp was full of wounded soldiers, and there was still the threat of Huang Taiji on Haizhouwei's side, so Sun Chengzong had to postpone the operation to recover the southeast of Liao, and he decided to first talk about the impregnable operation of Shanchahe and Gaizhou.

How do you make a line of defense as solid? That was naturally to repair the bunker, so Sun Chengzong began to exert his expertise and repair the bunker wildly.

Over there in Haizhou, Huang Taiji saw that Sun Chengzong had played the old routine of repairing the bunker again, and his heart was desperate, Nima, although the little emperor was gone, there were still nearly 200,000 troops on the other side, if they didn't repair the fortress, then there was still a little hope, and now they started to build the fortress again, and they were still a fart!

He really regretted it a little, regretted that he had underestimated the power of muskets and artillery, and even more regretted that he had misestimated Sun Chengzong's determination to regain the lost territory. He always thought that Mang Gurtai could completely hold Gaizhou, but what was the result? It was captured by the Ming army in less than a day!

Don't blame Mang Gurtai for being incompetent, Sun Chengzong's old guy is like going crazy, regardless of casualties, desperately attacking the city, coupled with the cooperation of muskets and artillery, Mang Gurtai was directly killed by his fist, and he didn't even have a chance to adjust his tactics!

Seeing that there was no hope of recovering Gaizhou, Huang Taiji had to leave Da Beile Daishan to lead an army of 100,000 to guard Haizhouwei, and he himself returned to Shengjing with 20,000 horses.

A Ming and Houjin shocking war ended like this, the two sides have invested more than 400,000 horses, in Liaodong fierce battle for nearly two months, finally, the Ming Dynasty with the advantage of numbers and weapons, defeated Houjin, recaptured the Santaizi River and the Sancha River basin tens of thousands of square kilometers of land, but also won the Liaodong town Gaizhou, since then the situation in Liaodong reversed, the Ming Dynasty from passive defense to active attack, the south of Liaodong has been in sight, the recovery of the whole Liao is no longer a dream.

Liaodong is more than 200,000 Ming troops pressed 150,000 Houjin army to fight, and victory after victory, so what about Shanxi?

The poor governor of the five provinces, Lu Xiangsheng, has a total of 100,000 Tianxiong troops under his command, and there are more than 200,000 thieves gathered in Linfen alone.

Of course, this increase in troops is not an expansion, without the permission of the emperor, he does not dare to expand indiscriminately, now he is the governor of the five provinces, and there are still 250,000 recruits defending the city in the five provinces, although they can't all be transferred, but it should be no problem to transfer half, right? The emperor has given him full responsibility for the suppression of thieves in the five provinces, and the mobilization of the defenders in each province should be within his power, right?

He didn't have time to ask for instructions, the emperor was already far away in Liaodong, he was imminent, if he accidentally suffered a defeat, it would be over. So, he issued the Governor's Decree:

ordered the Henan garrison and the Beizhili garrison to each transfer 20,000 horses to Zezhou to assist the deputy general Zhang Hongye to defend Yangcheng;

ordered the Shanxi defenders and the Shaanxi garrisons to each send 40,000 horses and horses to Hongdong as soon as possible to help him fight the main force of the thieves;

Ordered the Sichuan defenders to send 20,000 horses and horses to Shaanxi to help the Shaanxi defenders defend Xi'an.

With such a transfer, there are 30,000 defenders in Beizhili, Henan, Shaanxi, and Sichuan, and there are not many thieves in these four provinces, so there should be no problems. As for Shanxi, the main force of the thieves is confronting him, and other places are naturally safe, leaving 10,000 defenders to guard Taiyuan just in case.

When all the soldiers and horses of the five provinces were mobilized, most of the month passed, and at this time, the siege of Santaizibao had been relieved on the Liaodong side and the construction of Sanchahe Fort had begun.

After the 80,000 defenders of Shanxi and Shaanxi were in place, Lu Xiangsheng had assembled an army of 170,000 in Hongdong, and more than 200,000 thieves could no longer pose any threat to him. At this time, the twenty five-five mortar cannons sent by Zhu Cijiong also arrived, and after Lu Xiangsheng asked the artillery of the Beijing camp to demonstrate, his heart began to stir, good thing!

Although the firing range of this five-five mortar cannon is only 300 steps, it is already an unreachable distance compared to the bow and crossbow, and this thing is easy to move, whether it is used for siege or field warfare, it is an unstoppable weapon!

It can be seen from that secret decree that the emperor is not in a hurry to exterminate the thieves in the northwest, he just needs to bite the main force of the thieves and prevent them from developing and growing. But the problem is that the main force of the thieves is now very strong and big, and if they are allowed to dominate the southern part of Pingyang and continue to develop, it will be a problem whether they will be exterminated or not.

Originally, he had a headache, the thieves occupied the Xiongcheng Linfen, the giant shield of the strong city, and even if he had 40,000 musketeers under him, there was no way to take them. Now with mortars, it's different, the thick city wall can't be bombed, but those wooden giant shields are vulnerable in front of it, as long as the shield array is defeated, the slippery thieves behind it will not become the target of flintlock pistols!

Thinking about it, Lu Xiangsheng slapped his face, fight, isn't it more than 200,000 thieves, isn't it just a big city, as long as you break through their shield array, no matter how many thieves there are, you can't hold the big city.

Siege of the city is of course not a hot head, as soon as the horn shouts, rush forward, that is to seek death, you have artillery, then there are flintlock guns, the necessary siege equipment still has to be built, otherwise how to climb the city wall. In the past, when attacking Fenxi and Huozhou, a batch of siege equipment was built, but it was used to attack a small city more than two people high, and this Linfen was a big city with more than three people, and the original cloud ladder and the height of the well were not enough.

Anyway, the new defenders also had to practice, so Lu Xiangsheng simply trained the new army while asking the veterans to build siege equipment and prepare for a month before launching an attack.

This time, he didn't dare to make a commotion anymore and went directly to the city wall to build a well, there were countless capable people in the more than 200,000 thieves, and many small catapults had been built on the city wall. If you dare to go under the city wall to build a well, although the frequency of the catapult can't hurt many people, it is no problem to smash your well.

In view of this situation, Lu Xiangsheng simply ordered the veterans to build a well and a ladder directly under the city wall of Hongdong County, and the well ladder also had to be wheeled.

The thieves are not stupid, seeing that they built so many wells and ladders outside Hongdong City, they naturally knew that this King Lu Yan was preparing to attack Linfen, and they also began to build giant shields and catapults, and all of a sudden, the trees near Linfen and Hongdong were cut down, and there were bare mountain bags everywhere, just like a monk shaving his head, "Boom" all clean and slippery.

When Lu Xiangsheng began to prepare to attack Linfen, Liaodong also began to prepare to attack Gaizhou, but Liaodong was full of veterans and did not need to practice at all, so Lu Xiangsheng's side was not ready, and that side had already begun to attack the city. By the time he had just prepared, the report of Gaizhou's victory had already been delivered to him!

This is okay, the emperor's side has captured Gaizhou, which is guarded by the Houjin army, but his side has not even captured Linfen City, which is guarded by thieves, so he has to hurry up, otherwise the emperor will think I am playing here!

Lu Xiangsheng was really anxious at this time, and early the next morning, he gathered an army of 150,000 and rushed straight to Linfen City with siege equipment, leaving only 20,000 people to guard Hongdong.

As soon as he set off, the thieves received the news, so when he arrived at the city of Linfen, the leaders of the thieves were already standing on the gate tower of the north gate of Linfen and were ready to watch a good show.

Why are they ready to go to the theater? Do you think that 150,000 horses and horses attacking a big city guarded by nearly 300,000 people are not sick in the brain! Generals with a little common sense know that you have to have at least twice as many troops to consider the siege of the city, and you are now only half of the strength of others, and you are running over to attack the city, and it is strange that people don't think you are sick in the brain.

Lu Xiangsheng's brain is not sick, if he didn't have those twenty mortars, he wouldn't have been able to attack the city, and now that he is here, he is naturally a little sure.

When he saw the banners of the thieves and bandits lined up on the city gate, he couldn't help but pout, and secretly said in his heart: "Grandchildren, you just stand there and watch a good show, wait for Lao Tzu to attack the city wall, and see if I don't chop off your heads as a night pot!" ”

The leaders of the thieves didn't know that Lu Xiangsheng still had the killer weapon of the mortar cannon, and they were pointing and desperately mocking this crazy King Lu Yan.

Lu Xiangsheng glanced at the city wall, there were only twenty mortar cannons, which could not cover the entire city wall in the north of Linfen at all, so he picked the right part of the city wall, a relatively flat section of the ground below, pushed the well diaphragm over, the cloud ladder was carried over, the formation swinged, the mortar rack was nailed to the ground, and then directly shouted: "The well is rushing into battle." ”

The command flag waved, and 40,000 musketeers, under the cover of sword and shield soldiers, pushed the well and rushed towards the city wall.

The thieves on the city wall are messed up, what are you kidding, you just ran to Linfen, you didn't even take a breath, you didn't even say hello, just start fighting, hurry to reincarnate or how to drop!