After Zhu Cijiong and Sun Chengzong discussed the details of the mobilization of troops and horses in various places, they immediately ordered the general soldiers of each town to start preparing soldiers and horses, and once Houjin had a tendency to assemble, they would immediately enter their designated cities to defend them.

He was not at ease about this, and appointed Sun Chengzong as the governor of Jiliao to take charge of the defense of Jizhou and Liaodong, and ordered him to immediately inspect the city defense situation from the capital to the front line of Zunhua.

Houjin's sneak attack on the capital is not a joke, Sun Chengzong naturally knows the stakes, he immediately set off with a thousand brocade guards after receiving the appointment, starting from Tongzhou all the way to patrol, passing through Sanhe, passing Jizhou, this day will come to the last stop Zunhua.

Zunhua, located in the Yanshan Mountains three hundred miles north of the east of the capital, guards the only passage for the Karaqin Department of Guanwai Mongolia to enter Shuntianfu in the south, and is an important town in Jizhou and the core of customs defense.

The city defenses of Tongzhou, Sanhe and Jizhou in front were all unsatisfactory, except for the obvious lack of training of the soldiers defending the city, everything else was said to be in the past. Sun Chengzong wasn't too worried, anyway, he had to transfer the elites of each town to preside over the city defense later, and the original city defense soldiers were just fighting, so it didn't matter much.

Zunhua is different, this is the core of Jizhou's defense, most of the soldiers and horses of Jizhou Town are gathered here, in Sun Chengzong's plan, this is to rely on the soldiers and horses of Jizhou Town, the focus of his inspection is Zunhua.

Starting from Jizhou, beating horses on the rugged mountain road for most of the day, Zunhua is finally in sight, it is worthy of being a heroic city from a distance, the city wall is towering, the arrow tower is numerous, and the weather is clear. However, as the distance narrowed, Sun Chengzong felt more and more that something was wrong, how could this city wall look like a dog gnawing!

When he came to Zunhua less than a mile outside the city, Sun Chengzong was completely angry, and he didn't know whether it was the Ming army or the peasants who had just put down their hoes, and the number was seriously insufficient, and there were less than 10,000 people; What's even more annoying is the city wall, I don't know how long it hasn't been repaired, there are no more arrow battlements left, and there are even collapses in some places!

Is this the so-called Jizhou Town? When the Houjin cavalry came, they didn't need to dismount, they could jump directly into the city along the collapse!

Sun Chengzong turned his head and glared at Wang Yuanya, the governor of Jizhou who came with him, according to his original temper, he would definitely order this guy to be dragged down and cut down. But after the Liaodong Wang's Ministers incident, he understood a truth, corrupt officials cannot be killed, it is better to let them spit out the proceeds of corruption to make up for the losses caused by them.

Wang Yuanya's face was already pale at this time, he knew the situation in Zunhua, but his predecessor, his predecessor was already like this, after he took office as governor, he originally wanted to rectify it, but his subordinates were all wine bags and rice bags, and the rectification was like this, but it cost a lot of money and food. Slowly, he was corrupted by these people, anyway, Meng Yuan has declined, and he has not been in the prison for decades, so why should he have nothing to do, it is better to join them and get a lot of benefits from it.

Sun Chengzong came to inspect this time, he thought it was just a formality, just a good reception in Jizhou, but he didn't expect Sun Chengzong to play really, and he insisted on coming to Zunhua to have a look! Along the way, he was ready to be cut down, and he didn't bother to defend at this time, so he waited for Sun Chengzong's order to drag him down and cut him down!

Unexpectedly, Sun Chengzong opened his mouth: "Give me a list of all the officials under you who are suspected of corruption, and collect the food and salary of 50,000 soldiers and horses for three months and the cost of repairing the city wall, and I will spare you from death." ”

Wang Yuanya looked at Sun Chengzong dumbfounded, he never thought that he still had a chance to live, and he was stupid there for a while.

Sun Chengzong didn't bother to talk to him, so he shouted: "Don't do it for me right away." ”

Then, the horse led the guards to Zunhua City.

He didn't worry that Wang Yuanya would run away at all, you run, the monk can't run the temple, if you dare to run, I will punish you nine clans, I will copy all the homes of your clan relatives, see if you can make up this military expenses!

In ancient times, the concept of clan was still relatively strong, and no one wanted to harm his family, Wang Yuanya really did not run as Sun Chengzong expected, he honestly followed Sun Chengzong into Zunhua City, and began to raise money after confessing to his corrupt subordinates, and the money was collected in less than a month.

This is really another nest case, from the governor Wang Yuanya below, the general army, the supervising army, and thousands of households are not greedy, Sun Chengzong has no time to worry about them, and directly withdrew them all, and then transferred the right attendant of the military department Sun Yuanhua to take over as the governor of Jizhou, and transferred Liaodong deputy chief soldier He Kegang to take over as the general army of Jizhou, and the supervising army was directly exempted, and thousands of households, hundreds of households or something were selected in the Jizhou army.

Sun Chengzong was not in a hurry to return to the capital, he sat in Zunhua, checked the military households, filled the people, repaired the city wall, prepared rolling stones, sassal wood, waste oil and other city defense equipment, and was very busy.

............

In August of the second year of Chongzheng (A.D. 1629), Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of Liaodong, wrote: Most of the soldiers and horses of the Houjin army in Liaodong gathered in the west, and they were afraid that they would make a detour to Mongolia and attack the Beijing division.

Zhu Cijiong naturally did not believe in this evil like Emperor Chongzhen, and the scouts of the 3,000 battalions also came with news that the Mongolian Karaqin Department had begun to gather troops and horses, and there was a tendency to go south to knock on the pass, all kinds of signs showed that Huang Taiji was still the same as in the history books, and couldn't help but come to attack the capital, and this battle was inevitable!

He immediately sent a fast horse to deliver an edict, ordering the general soldiers of all towns to hurry to the capital, and he wanted to convene a royal council.

............

On the 15th of August, Emperor Chongzheng Zhu Cijiong summoned relevant personnel to discuss the defense of the capital in the main hall of the Qianqing Palace.

The officials who participated in the deliberations were:

Taifu, Zhongji Hall University Scholar, Military Department Shangshu, Cabinet Leader Jiliao Governor Sun Chengzong;

Qin Liangyu, the commander of the Beijing camp;

Liaodong Jingluo Yuan Keli;

The governor of the five armies, the left governor of the palace, and the commander of the Jinyi guard made Luo Yangxing;

Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of Liaodong led by Yuan Chonghuan, the right capital of the Imperial Palace, and the left squire of the military department;

The right attendant of the military department led Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Jizhou;

Liaodong General Soldier Zu Dashou;

Shanhaiguan General Soldier Zhao led the teaching;

He Kegang, the general soldier of Jizhou;

You Shiwei, the chief soldier of Changping;

Hou Shilu, the chief soldier of Xuanfu;

Datong General Soldier Mangui;

In fact, Zhu Cijiong and Sun Chengzong had already discussed properly, saying that they were asked to discuss, but in fact, they were asked to come and wait for the dispatch, Sun Chengzong directly divided the large and small cities along the capital to Zunhua into defense areas, how many soldiers and horses were sent by the general soldiers of each town to garrison which city, and how to assist in defense, he made detailed arrangements, and the generals only needed to act according to the plan.

Of course, the war between countries is not just a matter of gathering troops and horses on both sides to do a big job, and it involves many aspects. After Sun Chengzong arranged the soldiers and horses from all over the place, Zhu Cijiong began to arrange other matters.

First of all, the strong wall is clear, this strong wall is good to say, to defend against the enemy's siege is naturally to build the city wall a little stronger, and prepare more defensive equipment. But what is the purpose of this clear field, if there is a war, there will be a war, why should the outside of the city be cleaned up?

It turned out that the Houjin cavalry had a very bad habit, that is, they not only loved to fight, but also loved to loot, or the purpose of their war was to loot, every time they fought they would be looted, whether it was civilians, livestock, food, money, or even clothing, as long as they could rob it, they would rob it all.

Zhu Cijiong naturally didn't want them to succeed, so he ordered Jinyiwei to arrange for people to post notices everywhere along the route from the capital to Zunhua, so that all civilians outside the city, those who had a relationship to enter the city, hid in the city, and all those who could not enter the city moved to the vicinity of Tianjin Wei south of the capital. There was already a guard post there, and Zhu Cijiong was also ready to gather the troops of King Qinqin from all over the country, and arranged for Jinyi Wei to lay mines along the road, believing that as long as Huang Taiji was not convulsive, he would not run hundreds of miles to manually clear mines.

In the end, it is to arrange a defensive counterattack, there is a saying called coming without being rude, Huang Taiji came to attack Jingshi so unscrupulously, Zhu Cijiong naturally wanted to teach him a lesson. You come to attack the capital, I will attack Liaodong, he ordered Yuan Keli to go back to prepare, once the main force of Houjin arrived in the capital, Liaodong began to counterattack, not seeking to recover the entire territory of Liaodong, as long as Huang Taiji went back to rescue Guangning before taking it down, it was a victory.

I heard that Houjin has begun to learn Chinese, and he wants to let Huang Taiji review it well, what is the meaning of stealing chickens and rice.