On the evening of 22 September, Chen Jisheng, the guard general of Lushunkou, received a pigeon letter from Pyongyang, knowing that the main force of Hwang Tae-gil had arrived in Pyongyang. So he summoned the generals of Lushun that night and announced the order of the General Staff to everyone.

There are nearly 100,000 soldiers and civilians in Lushun, Dalian, and Jinzhou, including more than 40,000 garrisons. Most of them are from Dongjiang Town, and a small number are from Shandong. Since the completion of the construction of Lushun Fortress and Jinzhou Nanshan Fort Community, the number of permanent residents in Lushun and Dalian has begun to rise due to the favorable port conditions.

It should be said that with the trade tax of the local transit port and the largest port for fish trading in the north, this enclave on the Liaodong Peninsula is still alive and well. But for the generals in the army, this kind of nourishment is not a good thing.

As the imperial court's rectification of the border army entered the track of regularization, the troops of Dongjiang Town, which was shaped like an independent overseas feudal town, began to come under great pressure. In particular, after the imperial court integrated the Dongjiang Town Water Battalion, Denglai Water Division, and Tianjin Water Division into the Bohai Sea Fleet, Dongjiang Town basically lost its control over the sea.

Although the emperor still attached great importance to the generals of Dongjiang Town, for example, Chen Jisheng was promoted to the commander-in-chief of Lushunkou, Mao Chengzuo was the commander-in-chief of Jeju, Shang Kexi was the deputy envoy of Sakhalin Town, and Zhao Chengdong was appointed as the commander-in-chief of Primorsky Krai. But without the protection of the Bohai Fleet, these areas will become isolated islands.

In fact, the expansion of Dongjiang Town's power has become the division and absorption of Dongjiang Town's troops by the Shandong region, the Donghai Patrol Office, and the Naval Staff Headquarters. The places that Dongjiang Town can still control now are Tieshan County, Phi Dao, and Guanglu Islands.

The Dongjiang generals who had been transferred to Lushun and Dalian were now eager to make contributions to the new military system of the imperial court in order to prove their loyalty to the imperial court and weaken the impression that Dongjiang Town had left on the imperial court as an independent feudal town.

In fact, the order of the General Staff read out by Chen Jisheng did not contain much content, but only asked the Lushun armies to send personnel to sweep the area east of Yingkou and move all the population in this area to the Lushun and Dalian areas. The order does not require them to destroy many girls and real people, nor does it require them to recover the lost territory, and they are not even required to contain the strength of Houjin, which can be described as a fairly free military order.

No one will object to such an order, whether it is the Shandong Army or the original Dongjiang Army. What better task to go out and loot a handful of people and return. The only thing they had to worry about was not letting the Jurchens intercept them.

In the early morning of September 23, the governor of Denglai, Yamen, also received a pigeon letter from Hanyang, knowing that Houjin Qianfeng had arrived at the city of Hanyang. On the evening of 23 September and the early morning of 24 September, the General Staff received successive pigeon letters from Lushun and Denglai.

So early in the morning of September 24, Sun Chengzong sent the news that the Houjin army had invaded Korea on a large scale. After reading the two pieces of information, Zhu Youzhen raised his head and asked Sun Chengzong: "Where are Sun Chuanting and Mao Yuanyi now?" ”

Sun Chengzong replied without thinking: "Sun Chuanting should still be in Ningyuan now, and Mao Yuanyi's words should have arrived in Chengde." ”

Zhu Youzhen picked up the pen and signed his name on the document for the establishment of the base camp, then handed the document to Sun Chengzong and said: "Then start implementing the battle plan, Mr. Sun, just report the battle situation to me every three days..."

Sun Chengzong hurriedly left with the documents, and when Zhu Youzhen had just thought about the victory or defeat of this battle for a while, and what impact it would have on the Ming Dynasty, Lu Qi walked into the room and reported to him: "Your Majesty, Xu Xinsu is here, do you want to meet him now?" ”

Zhu Youzhen suddenly put down his thoughts, raised his head and said, "Of course, let him in." ”

As soon as he entered the room, Xu Xinsu happily reported to the emperor: "Your Majesty, the matter has been done, except for the opposition of the Dutch, the other members of the ASEAN Association are in favor..."

Zhu Youzhen asked Lu Qi to make a pot of tea, and said to Xu Xinsu: "Sit down and speak slowly, don't be in such a hurry, tell me from the beginning..."

The good news brought by Xu Xinsu was actually that after the conquest of Japan, Chongzhen instructed Xu Xinsu to exert influence on the members of the ASEAN, turn the ASEAN fleet into a permanent organization, and grant the ASEAN fleet maritime law enforcement powers in the North Pacific, East Asian waters, Southeast Asian waters, and the Indian Ocean.

However, at the beginning, except for Portugal and several Asian countries who were tied to the Ming Dynasty, the representatives of the Netherlands and Spain expressed their opposition, and the attitude of the British was ambiguous. This is actually equivalent to the attitude of all the European colonizers against it, although the Ming Dynasty has an advantage in the number of votes, but after the forced vote, it becomes the whole of the Ming Dynasty against the European colonial forces, which is obviously not what Chongzhen wants.

After nearly a year of waiting, things finally took a turn for the worse, when the Spaniards and the Dutch fell out completely over their interests on the Japanese island. Bitter hatred of the Dutch finally overwhelmed the wariness of the Chinese, and the Spaniards turned to China in favor of the permanent establishment of the ASEAN fleet and the granting of maritime law enforcement powers to the fleet.

However, the Spaniards also proposed an exchange of views whereby the ACA fleet's law enforcement powers in the Pacific Ocean should not cross the 25th parallel, in order to ensure that the routes of galleons were not affected. As for the seas of Southeast Asia, the Spaniards also needed to rely on the ASEAN fleet to fend off the Dutch's maritime superiority.

The British, who had always been ambiguous in their attitude, finally made some moves after the Spaniards changed their attitude. Methwald proposed to Xu Xinsu that if the Ming could ensure that Britain had a certain say in the ASEAN Fleet and recognized that the British East India Company had the same power in the Indian Ocean as the Ming, then they would also be willing to support the establishment of the ASEAN Fleet.

Whether it is the British or the Spaniards, in fact, they know very well in their hearts that after the establishment of the ASEAN fleet, it will inevitably fall into the hands of the Chinese. Because in this region, no one but China can afford a standing fleet.

Although the Dutch demonstrated their great maritime power in the crusade against Japan, the Dutch mainly armed merchant ships, and the number of warships was only two. If it was for such a lucrative colonial war as the attack on Japan, then the Dutch did not lack ships.

But if it was only for the purpose of showing force at sea and eliminating the bandits on the route, the Dutch East India Company would naturally not engage in such a loss-making transaction. The defense of the Spice Islands, Batavia, Japan's Sado Island, and Sri Lanka in the Indian Ocean alone has stretched the Dutch East India Company's power in the East, and how can it be possible for the company to abandon its business and hang out on the sea with the Ming warships.

On the other hand, piracy in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean is still in its most primitive stage of development. Their methods of raiding at sea were extremely dangerous to loose merchants and unarmed Oriental merchant ships, but to armed merchant ships armed with artillery, they were just a group of thieves who could be easily dispersed.

For the Dutch East India Company, the greatest threat was the naval fleets of Asian countries, especially those of a large country as large as China. A group of pirates recruited by China has already taken control, and if Chinese is given a legitimate name for the use of force in the waters from Taiwan to the Strait of Malacca, then the development of the East India Company's power in Southeast Asia will obviously run into an iron plate.

For both the Spanish and the British, however, in the war against Japan, both the Dutch and the Chinese demonstrated their unrivaled strength in the region. Chinese who are willing to share the benefits with everyone are obviously more cooperative than the Dutch who want to eat alone, even if they are a group of pagans.

The change of attitude of the Spaniards and the British allowed the Ming to finally isolate the Dutch within the ASEAN. Even if the Dutch delegates continued to oppose it, they could no longer prevent the formation of the ASEAN fleet. So in the vote last night, all but one of the representatives of the Netherlands voted in favor.

At last night's meeting, it was decided to authorize the Ming Dynasty to raise the ASEAN fleet and obtain maritime law enforcement powers in the North Pacific, East Asian waters, Southeast Asian waters, and the Indian Ocean region. The meeting also decided that ships of any country entering the above areas must lower their flags at half-mast as a sign of respect when they see a ship flying the ASEAN flag in order to show that they are a legitimate trading merchant ship.

For those ships that refuse to lower their flags and still do not lower their flags after being warned, the ASEAN fleet can attack them and carry out forcible boarding and inspection.

After Zhu Youjian listened, he was silent for a moment before he said to Xu Xinsu: "Since the ASEAN fleet has been approved to be established, the next step is to let this fleet be displayed in front of the world as soon as possible to create facts."

I think that the Taihu and the three Ming-class warships can be incorporated into the ASEAN fleet, and the trial voyage of the Taihu may as well start by escorting the merchant fleet to Europe this year. If you don't experience the winds and waves of ocean sailing, you can't always call it a navy..."

When Zhu Youzhen was still discussing with Xu Xinsu about the formation of the ASEAN fleet, Sun Chengzong, who had returned to the General Staff of Wuyingdian, had already begun to make intense arrangements. Under his dictation, orders were sent through the staff officers of the General Staff to the front-line units and to the logistics warehouses in the Gyeonggi area. For the first time, the military units of the Ming Dynasty surrounding Liaodong were completely linked together through the instructions of the General Staff and became a huge machine in motion.

Due to the close commercial ties between the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin, the innovation of the Jinyiwei intelligence system, the use of ciphers and pigeon letters, and the movement of most of the Later Jin army have basically been mastered by the General Staff.

For example, after Huang Taiji led his troops to Korea, he left Wei Qi and Jierharang to guard Shenyang, Azig and Abatai to guard the line of the Liao River, and Yuetuo and Dege to guard Yizhou and Beizhen.

The 15,000 men and horses of the Yuetuo and Dege banners with the red flag and the Zhenglan banner, plus the 8,000-10,000 horses that the Mongol tribes grazing in this area were able to put together, the total strength was about 25,000.

There were about more than 10,000 men and horses under Azig and Abatai who were guarding the Liaohe, so if the Ming army wanted to attack Yizhou, it would first face the encirclement and suppression of about 35,000 men and horses from Houjin.

After Sun Chuanting arrived in Liaoxi, he had been investigating and reviewing the real combat effectiveness of the Ming army in various units to ensure that the battle plan he had formulated could be successfully completed.

On 1 October, the order of the General Staff Headquarters finally reached Sun Chuanting, who had already arrived in Jinzhou, and immediately ordered the civil and military officials of Jinzhou to be summoned to convey the orders of the General Staff Headquarters and to form a headquarters of the former enemy.