In the battle of Eighteen Kicks, the Ming army not only defeated the momentum of these Qing troops who had infiltrated the rear of their positions, but also restored the morale of the Ming soldiers stationed in the mountain passes, letting them know that these Qing troops were not invincible opponents.

When the Ming army found a way to deal with the tactics of the Qing army, the initiative in the war for the mountain pass returned to the Ming army. Yue Tuo, who was sitting in Beizhen, also discovered the biggest problem on his side from the changes in the battle situation at this time, that is, the soldiers of the Eight Banners could not enter the state of war for a long time.

Although the financial crisis in Shenyang has barely subsided, the consequences of this crisis have not stopped. Anyone who finds that the savings they have worked hard for for half of their lives have suddenly evaporated more than half, they will not be in the mood to do anything else.

Previously, the Shenyang stock market was booming for nearly a year, and the small and medium-sized people in Baqi basically did not hold back their greed, and Fan Yongdou continued to release water in the later period, as long as there was a little relationship between the full people who could go to the bank for a loan, so when the tide receded, everyone found that they had lost only a pair of underwear.

And at this time, the case of Mangguzigege broke out again. With empty pockets and worries about themselves or their families being involved in a major rebellion case because of an old incident, how can these Eight Banners soldiers focus on combat.

Although Yue Tuo's ability ranked high among the Manchu Beylers, he could be said to be the first among the young Beylers, even Dolgon was firmly suppressed by him at this time. But his talent does not include making something out of nothing, helping the soldiers with red and blue flags to recover their losses and appease their grievances.

Those Manchurians who had newly joined the Eight Banners had no assets of their own, so the losses this time were not large, and they still wanted to recover their losses through war. But for those old Eight Banner disciples, what they lost was not something that could be recovered after one or two meritorious service awards.

Unless Fan Yongdou, the culprit who caused all this, was on the other side, it would not be able to arouse the anger of these Manchurian soldiers. Of course, as an upper-class person in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Yue Tuo knew very well that it was really hard to say whether Fan Yongdou was really the culprit, after all, in the process of this financial crisis, the losses were mainly the middle and lower classes of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the powerful Baylor relatives and nobles, relying on the well-informed, not only did they not lose anything, but some even made a lot of money.

At least he knew that Baylor, the owner of the Eight Banners, except for the Great Khan, took the opportunity to make a fortune, but everyone hid it from the Great Khan. Among them, the most powerful one is his mother-in-law, Mang Guzigege, and his wife is also a lot. It's just that the Great Khan planted the blame without rules and directly flipped the table, which made everyone a little more restrained.

Faced with the war-weariness of his subordinates, even Yue Tuo had to choose to compromise and no longer force them to engage in an increasingly brutal battle for the mountain pass with the Ming army. After all, under the aggressive posture of the Great Khan, those who can ensure the safety of him and his family still have to rely on the support of the descendants of this banner.

When the survivors of the Battle of the Eighteen Kicks returned to Beizhen, both Yue Tuo and Zilharang knew that their plans to rely on elite troops to disrupt the Ming army's logistics and thus gain an advantage in the battle for the mountain pass had failed. In the face of the Ming army's superiority in firearms, it was obviously unfavorable for the Qing army to fight this kind of battle for the top of the mountain that was limited by the terrain.

Even if Yue Tuo didn't agree to give up these key points before, but under the resistance of his subordinates, he had to think about it at this moment. He consulted with Zilharang and his subordinates for a long time, and finally everyone came to a consensus that if they gave up the mountain passes, the first problem they faced was how to suppress the artillery of the Ming army.

In the Battle of Yiju that year, Derge was besieged by the Ming army in the city of Yizhou, and had to surrender within a few days, in the final analysis, the artillery of the Ming army was too fierce. And once the Ming army mastered Yiwulu Mountain, the first target was this Beizhen City. Once the Ming army captured this city with artillery, it was equivalent to allowing the Ming army to gain a foothold east of Yiwulu Mountain.

Judging from the strange-looking but well-defended fortresses built by the Ming army in Yizhou, Jinzhou, and Jinzhou, the Ming army really occupied Beizhen City, and I am afraid they will not be able to easily recapture it. Therefore, Yue Tuo reformulated a military plan, and he decided to use Beizhen City as the core to build a second line of defense after the Manchus abandoned Yiwu Lu Mountain.

As long as it can hold out until winter, once the snow closes the mountain, the heavy snow will become the helper of the Qing army, dividing the Ming army on the east and west sides of Yiwulu Mountain into two sections. At this time, the Qing army launched a full-scale counterattack, and it should be able to annihilate the Ming army's troops in the east of Yiwulu Mountain in one fell swoop. Of course, the core of this plan is who owns Beizhen City.

Once the Ming army captured this fortress, the Qing army would not only be unable to successfully counterattack, but would also let the Ming army rely on Beizhen City to form a defensive core, dragging the Qing army to a kneer. Even if the Manchurians were more tolerant of the cold than the Ming army in the pass, they would not be able to spend a whole winter in the ice and snow and still maintain their combat effectiveness.

In order to ensure the safety of Beizhencheng, Yue Tuo and Zilharang had to send messengers to Shenyang, hoping that the Great Khan would send Wuzhen Chaoha's troops to Shenyang. With the red-coated artillery that this unit was equipped with, Yue Tuo believed that it would be difficult for the Ming army's artillery to approach Beizhencheng.

It's just that not long after the two of them sent a messenger, a messenger had already arrived in Shenyang. Of course, what this envoy brought was not Huang Taiji's reply, but the latest order from Shenyang. This is not good news for Yueto and Zilharang. Because the envoy told the two banner lords that Yingkou had been captured by the Ming army, and the Great Khan was personally leading his troops to recover it, he asked Yue Tuo and Zilharang to strengthen their attention to the movements of the Ming army in Jinzhou in addition to preventing the Ming army in Yizhou and prevent the Ming army in Jinzhou from going to support Yingkou.

Yue Tuo was shocked and asked the envoy, "When was Yingkou lost?" Why did the Great Khan go on his own expedition? ”

Zilharang said: "How was Yingkou lost? We haven't relaxed our surveillance of the Ming army in Jinzhou for a moment, could it be that they flew over from the sky? How did Abatai garrison Fuzhou..."

The messenger was momentarily dizzy and did not know how to answer when he was questioned by the two Baylors, until Yueto and Zilharang realized that they were a little out of shape, and they stopped motioning for him to answer slowly, giving him a chance to speak.

The envoy first sorted out the questions of the next two Baylors in his mind before he organized the language and said: "Yingkou has been lost, it has been almost ten days..."

Ten days ago, on the Fourth of October. Although Zheng Zhilong, who won the contest for the chief of the navy, had only been in office for less than half a year, he personally organized the Bohai Bay landing battle with 11 warships of the Bohai Fleet and 42 merchant ships, including the Sihai Shipping Company and the Jiangnan Shipping Company.

Only a few years ago, the pirate king was still jealous of the imperial court, and even if he accepted the court's recruitment, he still tried his best to ensure the independence of his Taiwan Strait Inspection Office. But the consequence of his doing so was that the other pirate leaders of Eighteen Zhi, who received the support of the imperial court, were rapidly expanding their power, Xu Xinsu was expanding to the coast of North America in Japan, Yang Tiansheng, Liu Xiang and others were going to the Indian mainland, and only the Zheng family was still in Taiwan, which made Zheng Zhilong's subordinates gradually complain.

Got Long, regained Shu. Cao Cao said back then that there is no end to the ** of people's hearts. At the beginning, everyone followed Zheng Zhilong and the government to do it, just to force the court to open the sea. But when the imperial court really opened the sea to recruit peace, looking at those companions who were not as good as themselves in the past, they became the town guards and overseers of the place, and after Zhu Peizi was like an important member of the imperial court, some of the captains who were still begging for a living under Zheng Zhilong were disheartened.

In particular, the brothers Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Zhihu got their titles and official positions in the imperial court, and even Zheng Cai, who defected to the imperial court, went to Malacca to become the governor, which made the group of pirates who were still serving as commanders and guerrillas how they could watch it. Even the Zheng family's own brothers are complaining that Zheng Zhilong will not be an official, obviously Zheng Zhilong is the leader of the Eighteen Zhi, but now he has been taken away from the benefits of the court by the pirate leader who opposed Zhao'an at the beginning.

These relatives of the Zheng family are just generals and guerrillas appointed by the Taiwan Strait Patrol Office, and those nameless pirates have been knighted and appointed officials by the imperial court. Some people even said strange things in front of Zheng Zhilong, saying that they were embarrassed to greet these former pirate companions on the street, because the little leaders who flattered them at the beginning were now one or two levels higher than them, and they had to salute first when they met. Everyone is a pirate, why are they so bad?

Zheng Zhilong was also speechless for the complaints of these relatives and subordinates. But even his own brother Zheng Zhihu, when he rarely returned to Taiwan, he had to show off first, and what the emperor had rewarded him this time, no wonder everyone was very angry.

When the Ming Dynasty conquered the Strait of Malacca in the South Seas and took control of Japan, Cambodia, Siam, Vietnam and other places, the maritime power of the entire East and West Oceans has undergone fundamental changes. After the Ming army united the countries to defeat the Dutch, it regained the right to speak in the entire Nanyang region in one fell swoop.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong found that he was holding on to Taiwan's belongings like this, and he was afraid that he would really be completely marginalized by the imperial court. After all, with the current maritime strength of the imperial court, it is no longer something that a mere pirate gang can challenge. And the court's co-optation and division also made his subordinates less and less satisfied with the current treatment.

Without the loyalty of these descendants, the Zheng family really became an empty shell. He didn't have such a good relationship with the other pirate leaders of Eighteen Zhi, and if he really lost his strength, it was hard to guarantee that these people would not take the opportunity to retaliate against him.

Therefore, Zheng Zhilong began to change his attitude three years ago and actively cooperated with the imperial court. On the one hand, he sent his son to Beijing to go to school, which was regarded as a proton; On the other hand, he actively moved closer to the headquarters of the Navy General Staff and assisted the Navy Staff Headquarters in completing the task of the Philippine campaign, thus winning the favor of Zhang Xie, the chief of the Navy.

When he heard that Zhang Xie recommended himself to the emperor to become the next chief of the navy, he was even more ecstatic, and took out a large amount of money to bribe several directors of the internal affairs department, thus gaining the support of the internal affairs department, and finally got Chongzhen's appointment. When the news spread that Zheng Zhilong had been appointed as the chief of the navy, the hearts of the Zheng family immediately settled down.

At the same time, Zheng Zhihu was also instructed to open up Jiuli Prefecture, a project funded by the clan to raise equity investment, which naturally gave the Zheng family an extremely good expectation, and the Taiwan Strait Patrol Office, which was originally a semi-independent overseas force, was also integrated into the Ming naval system.

The Battle of Yingkou, as the newly appointed chief of the navy, Zheng Zhilong, has regarded it as a good start for his navy and a battle to establish prestige. Therefore, he not only actively cooperated with Sun Chuanting, but also personally went into battle to command sea navigation and landing battles. Compared with the complex sea conditions along the coast of Fujian, the Bohai Sea can really be regarded as calm.

And Zheng Zhilong's subordinates can be described as experts in landing operations, and this battle can be described as a victory for the Ming army.