"It's finally here!!"

Between the tall and majestic walls of Shanhaiguan, Wu Jie, commander of the Hongtang Expeditionary Force, looked at the smoke and dust that gradually rose in the distance, and sighed.

At this time, it has been nearly a month since the Hongtang army raided and captured Shanhaiguan, and in this month's time, Hongtang's professional engineering troops not only repaired various fortifications that had been destroyed by Hongtang's army, but even re-strengthened some city defenses during this period before the Jurchen army arrived, so that the defense line of the Ming Great Wall from Shanhaiguan to Zunhua became stronger and stronger.

Of course, this kind of repair costs the cement and steel resources that are continuously transported from Dayuan Island, and even if the stone is an important raw material that can be used locally, the cost still makes the Hongmen Ministry of Finance feel painful.

Fighting a war has always been an economy, whether it is food, no trace, ammunition, military salaries, and even pensions, all of them need a steady stream of money to fill in, and only one month after the start of the war, Hongmen's financial expenditure exceeded one million taels of silver, which shows the huge consumption involved.

The smoke and dust rising from the sky finally turned into galloping horse knights, galloping towards the shortest Shanhaiguan between Jingshi and Shengjing of Jianzhou outside the Guan.

On the afternoon of September 13, the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, the cavalry army galloping from far to near with a pole on the edge of the sky with a slender yellow triangular dragon flag stopped at a distance of about two miles from Shanhaiguan, Wu Jie stood between the battlements between the female walls, and looked at the head of his cavalry with a telescope in his hand.

It seems that he has a feeling in his heart, Wu Jie has already decided in his heart that the person in front of him must be the Prince of the Qing Dynasty regent Rui Dolgon himself, and I don't know if it is an illusion, just when Wu Jie found the main general opposite, the military general who was holding a clairvoyant mirror to observe Shanhaiguan on the opposite side also seemed to have found himself standing at the head of the city and observing the other party.

The young military general who was discovered by Wu Jie outside the city was indeed the regent of the Qing Dynasty who came in a hurry, Dolgon himself, after receiving the news that Shengjing in Jianzhou was in danger, Dolgon, the main force of the Qing Dynasty that invaded the Ming Pass and so on, finally could not be stabilized.

In fact, Dolgon himself is not too anxious, as long as he has these more than 300,000 Qing troops in his hands, even if Jianzhou is poisoned, he can use the military power in his hands to re-turn the situation, and even he can rightfully sit on the dragon chair of the Qing Emperor.

But Dolgon is not in a hurry, it does not mean that the more than 130,000 soldiers of the Eight Banners under his command are not in a hurry, Dolgon can give up many of his relatives in Jianzhou in cold blood, but the owners and nobles of the Eight Banners, and the children and soldiers of the Eight Banners may not be able to give up their relatives, territory and interests in Jianzhou.

Although the land of the Ming Dynasty is richer and more suitable for the birth and maintenance of the population, for the children of the Eight Banners, the Guangda Wilderness north of Jianzhou is the root of their Eight Banners tribe, and their ancestors, relatives and tribes are still there, even if they have more interests in their hands, they may not be as important as the family and the He tribe.

It is unlikely that Dolgon wants to conceal the war that happened in Jianzhou, and in addition to the secret envoy sent by Shengjing, who directly met Dolgon, there are also secret envoys from the side of the Eight Banners and several banner owners to report, and finally the news quickly spread throughout the entire Eight Banners military camp.

The Eight Banners Army, which had been marching slowly for the sake of looting huge wealth around them, finally under the information of Shengjing's urgent report, the entire Qing army began to abandon all kinds of baggage and auxiliary that slowed down the pace, and handed over the Han soldiers who were mainly infantry to escort, while the soldiers of the Eight Banners Army and the Mongolian Army, which were almost dominated by cavalry, rode war horses and quickly returned to the defense regardless of all obstacles.

If it is to bypass the Hongtang army position on the front line of Zunhua and Shanhaiguan, it may not be a good choice, although it is likely to take some long roads and travel more than ten days, but it is good that their Eight Banners army does not have to face the Hongtang army with the Great Wall as a fortification.

However, for more than a year, under the leadership of Prince Dolgon, the Qing army fought from Jianzhou to Guangping Mansion on the north bank of the Yellow River.

All the way south, until the south bank of the Yellow River, the Qing army encountered the Ming army, several simple battles are either easy to break or surrender directly, and the only time the soldiers came to the city to persuade the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers to surrender a small city but to no avail, captured this city with a population of more than 10,000 people, Dolgon a three-day sentence of anger without sealing the sword, so that this small city became a ghost city, since then, basically there is no longer dare to swear to die and wait for the Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers.

Even if the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty felt that they had a duty to resist, they could not stand the gentry and landlords in the towns who were very famous and brought the people to persuade and intercede, and in the end, in order not to harm the Ming Dynasty soldiers of the people, they either chose to go out of the city to fight the enemy, or led the team to leave, and gave the cities to the hands of the Qing people.

Of course, not all cities are like this, the Ming Dynasty has been raising soldiers for many years, and there are still loyal ministers who are willing to be loyal to the country, and a few cities are still like the first county town that was slaughtered, and the people of the city and the soldiers are the same as the enemy to protect their common home, but in the face of the powerful Qing army, the main force has long ceased to be on the south bank of the Yellow River.

The cities that dared to resist were reduced to ashes, and it seemed that after perceiving the weakness of the Ming people, in order to prevent these miscellaneous soldiers from restraining their footsteps, and at the same time to minimize the casualties of the army, many soldiers of the city people who cherished their old masters also issued an order to slaughter the city in cold blood.

The brutal repressive policy made the only little resistance courage of the Ming people come to naught, and the cities were in the hands of the other party in the voice of the Qing people's surrender or simple temptations again and again, so that not only did they not lose too much because of the siege of the city and the land, but instead recruited a lot of Han troops to enrich their own army.

On the contrary, among the people, there were also groups of civil rebels who rose up and used the advantages of familiar terrain to harass and attack the Qing army, so that the places they controlled were not quiet, so as to prove that this place was still not naturalized in the Qing Dynasty.

But so many kinds of combat experience, so that the Qing people gradually breed a kind of domineering, the night has a little more contempt and contempt for the Ming army, and finally this army went straight to the nearest Shanhaiguan from the way home.

(End of chapter)