Army marching is essentially a kind of management science, an army of about 1,000 people can march 30-40 kilometers a day, then an army of more than 10,000 people can march only 30-40 miles a day. For larger armies, the speed of the march is even lower.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty, which relied on martial arts to establish the country, also attached great importance to the speed and method of the army's march, and both Nurhachi and Huang Taiji had personally ordered the march of the Eight Banners Army to restrain it.

The main points of the march they paid attention to were two main points, one was the march of the Eight Banners Army, and if the road conditions did not allow it, it would be divided into two routes: left and right. If conditions permit, each flag should occupy its own way. The second is the requirement for marching discipline, which strictly prohibits the army from making noise and making noise during the march and leaving the army to loot without authorization.

When Nurhachi established the Eight Banners system, he once boasted that "if you go out, you will be a soldier, and if you enter, you will be a people, and you will not be wasted in farming and warfare"; "Commanding people with flags, that is, commanding troops with flags". There is absolutely no food and ammunition to operate during the battle, and the soldiers can prepare their own troops.

But is that really the case? I'm afraid not. Because of similar words, Zhu Yuanzhang also said, "Raising more than 100,000 soldiers does not cost the people a single grain." There is actually no essential difference between the Eight Banners system and the military household system of the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that the Manchurian Eight Banners have just been formed, and their combat effectiveness has not yet degraded, and there are still Ming people to loot, so the Manchurians are not tired of war. However, it is an exaggeration to say that there is absolutely no food and ammunition during the war, and the soldiers can prepare their own equipment.

Wealthy Eight Banner families were naturally able to prepare their own food and military weapons, but where did the poor Eight Banner families buy food and military weapons, they could only rob during the march to meet their own material needs.

The Manchus even regarded the clothes of the Han civilians as valuable property, and they followed their masters out to fight, so that they would not plunder the civilians, which was undoubtedly a fool's dream. Huang Taiji can shoot and punish the Mongols who do not obey orders, but for these Manchus who disobey his orders and leave the team to rob in private, he can only reprimand a few words.

However, under the influence of Huang Taiji's constant talk about military discipline all the time, coupled with the continuous increase in the combat effectiveness of the Ming army, the Manchus finally had many fewer actions to leave the team and plunder privately. It's not that Huang Taiji's teachings have played a role, but that the Manchus have realized that the current Ming army has the ability to encircle and annihilate, and those small Manchu teams who have left the team privately to loot.

Although Huang Taiji decided to personally lead the army to attack, he also knew that if the 25,000 troops traveled in order, it would have to arrive at Yingkou at least eight or nine days later, especially for the Wuzhen Chaoha troops, a red-coated cannon would require 16 teams of bulls to pull and haul them, and there would be people to build special roads, and the speed would not be able to go up at all.

And in eight or nine days, God knows what these Ming troops will do. Whether they reinforce the city defense of Yingkou or divide their troops to attack and disturb the back road of Fuzhou, they will bring a lot of trouble to the Qing army.

Therefore, before the army, Huangtai Ji ordered Duoduo and Ye Keshu to lead 2,000 horsemen to Yaozhou City first, and ordered Laosa and Xingne to lead 200 horsemen each to the vicinity of Yingkou to reconnoiter the movement of the Ming army.

Lausa is a veteran of the Eight Banners who came halfway to join the Varkha Department when Nurhachi went to conquer the Varkha Department in the past. Because of his courage and good fighting, he was also rewarded with the title "Kala Yizhangjing". Xingne is also an old man by Nurhachi's side, and now belongs to the Manchurian Zhengbai Banner.

It should be said that these two are veterans of the Eight Banners with rich combat experience, and it took them only 4 days to arrive from Shenyang to Yaozhou City, nearly 400 miles. At this time, it was only nine days before the defeat of Honika.

In the past nine days, the Ming army has not wasted time. In the first three days, the Ming army was busy loading and unloading the personnel and combat materials on the ship, counting the population and materials in the city, and forming a headquarters.

Beginning on the fourth day, the repaired Ming army began to reconnoiter the topography around Yingkou, the villages, and the garrison. On this day, Sun Chuanting also communicated with the merchants and citizen representatives of Yingkou, pacified the Manchurians such as the garrison Deshan who voluntarily surrendered, and appointed Deshan as the county governor of the city, and ordered Zhao Anming, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, and others to assist Deshan in managing local affairs.

The Manchu and Han soldiers under Yuan Deshan were merged into the police force at Yingkou after screening. Even the Korean musketeers who surrendered in the Battle of Yingkou were incorporated into the police force by Li Yan because of their good attitude, and promised to send them back to China after the war was over.

Due to the cooperation of the Manchu and Han people in Yingkou City, and the Qing army was repulsed outside the city, the entire city was basically well preserved except for some attacks when the Ming army landed.

In the past period of time, although Yingkou's trade with the Ming Dynasty stopped, the materials transported to Yingkou have not stopped, so the Yingkou wharf and the warehouses in the city are full, especially the trees that can be used to build the camp are countless, which provides sufficient material reserves for the Ming army to strengthen the city defense of Yingkou.

Under the negotiation of Zhao Anming and Li Yan, the Ming army finally did not requisition the materials in Yingkou City without compensation, but treated them differently.

The Ming army will directly confiscate the property belonging to the Manchu court; For the private materials of the people and shops in the city, when it comes to combat needs, the Ming army can take the means of war requisition, but it must be collected, and the Sihai Trading Company will pay for the Ming army. For the private needs of the Ming soldiers, they must be bought and sold fairly, and cannot be plundered directly.

The salaries of the Guards and the General Staff Headquarters have always been good, and Li Yan has no objection to fair trading. He also knew that the emperor did not want the Ming army to carry out any private looting, because it would be too damaging to the morale of the army.

What's more, fair trade also helps the Ming army to establish the rule in Yingkou, and the Manchurians who hold the Great Ming Yuan will never want the Great Ming Yuan to become waste paper. Li Yan used this as an excuse to persuade Sun Chuanting.

Therefore, on the fifth day after the end of the war, normal social order was restored to Yingkou, and many shops were opened. Tens of thousands of Ming soldiers and sailors soon stimulated the catering industry and commercial demand in Yingkou, but made the market in Yingkou much more prosperous than before the war.

Through these people's activities of buying ingredients in the surrounding villages, the Ming army also expanded the sources of external intelligence collection, and had a clearer understanding of the dynamics of cities, villages and towns around Yingkou.

So on the seventh day, there were two voices within the Ming army, one was that since there was no force threatening Yingkou in the surrounding area for the time being, it was better to take advantage of the fact that Shenyang did not send troops to strengthen the city defense of Yingkou in accordance with the battle plan, so as to lay a good foundation for the next operation.

Now that the garrison at Yingkou has been defeated, before Shenyang sends troops, there is no opponent in the surrounding area who can contain the Ming army except for Fu and Gaizhou, so the battle plan should be adjusted and the defenders of Jinzhou and Lushun should be contacted to attack the enemy of Gaizhou and Fuzhou.

Division Commander Huang Degong supported the adjustment of the battle plan to attack, while Li Yan opposed the adjustment of the battle plan, believing that after a small victory for the officers and men of the Guards, the enemy was somewhat underestimated, and this was obviously a dangerous tendency.

As for Sun Chuanting, he is actually more inclined to the latter proposition, after all, if he can annihilate the Manchu forces in Gaizhou and Fuzhou at one time, to a certain extent, it is equivalent to completely changing the situation of the confrontation in Liaodong.

In the past, I defended and enslaved and attacked, but when Yingkou and Jinzhou were connected, they could already echo Jinzhou and Yizhou, so that they became my attack and slave defense.

Although this desire was very attractive, Sun Chuanting did not make up his mind in the end, and he summoned the senior officers stationed at Yingkou to discuss.

At this military meeting, although Li Yan repeatedly pointed out that keeping Yingkou is the most important task at the moment, only by keeping this place first can they establish a foothold at the mouth of the Liaohe River, so as to cut off the connection between Beizhen and Fuzhou, and lay the foundation for the next battle of the Ming Dynasty.

However, Huang Degong did not see it that way, and he retorted to Li Yan: "Yingkou is just a lonely city that builds an estuary, and this is a place full of people, they can easily build a city next to us to monitor us, so that we can't move, how can we threaten the inland areas of the Manchu Qing Dynasty?"

And no matter how hard we try, we may not be able to complete the construction of the city defense before the snow arrives, do you plan to let us hold on to such a city with incomplete defense until the ice opens next spring?

Now we have very definite information, the Manchu Qing garrisoned about 1,500-2,000 people in the town of Xiongyue in Gaizhou, and about 8,000 people on the Fuzhou and Jinzhou fronts. And our Ming Jinzhou garrison has 15,000 people, and Lushun has 5,000 people.

As long as Jinzhou and Lushun send troops to suppress the Fuzhou soldiers and cannot move, our army sends a small force to capture Yaozhou, cut off the connection between Gaizhou and Haizhou, and then besiege Xiongyue Town with the main force, Gaizhou will be taken by me, and then continue the rear of the Fuzhou army and connect Yingkou and Jinzhou into a line, then Yingkou will be extremely safe..."

Huang Degong and the Guards officers' desire to fight eventually overwhelmed Li Yan, who was too rational. In the end, Sun Chuanting chose the ideas of Huang Degong and the guards officers and decided to revise the battle plan.

At this time, Sun Chuanting had 9 infantry battalions and two artillery battalions in his hands, and he decided to use two battalions to attack Yaozhou City, and use ships to transport two battalions to the rear of Xiongyue Town to intercept the reinforcements coming from the direction of Fuzhou, while he and Huang Degong took 4 infantry battalions and an artillery battalion to attack Xiongyue Town, and Li Yan took an infantry battalion, an artillery battalion and the police force in the city to stay at the entrance of the camp.

The one responsible for attacking Yaozhou City was Li You, who had a good relationship with Li Yan, as the main general. Although Li Yan couldn't stop Sun Chuanting from revising his battle plan, he still said to Li You: "I have seen some records of Huang Taiji personally commanding the battle, although I don't know when Shenyang will send troops, but he has two characteristics of using troops: first, surprise; The second is that he likes to block news on the battlefield.

Therefore, if Shenyang does not send troops, once it sends troops, it should be faster than we imagined. You go to Yaozhou, go for a day, come for a day, if you can't capture Yaozhou City in one day, then retreat back first.

If you don't return for more than three days, and you don't have any news back, I will personally lead troops to meet you and ask Deputy Chief Sun to retreat as soon as possible. ”

Li You hesitated for a moment and said: "With the help of these two cannons you allocated, you will definitely be able to capture Yaozhou City in one day, but if you really can't capture it, you will retreat, wouldn't it expose the backs of President Sun and their heads?" ”

Li Yan shook his head and said: "After the Yingkou garrison was defeated and retreated, the defenders of Yaozhou have become frightened birds, and our army arrived under Yaozhou City to investigate, and they did not dare to come out to expel them.

If you go over with two battalions and so many cannons, and they can hold out for a day without retreating, either Manchu reinforcements have arrived, or Huang Taiji's order has arrived. Either way, it's not suitable for you to stay under Yaozhou City for a long time..."

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