Sun Chuanting received the letter from Li Yantuo's navy, it was already a day after Li Youjun returned to Yingkou, and at this time, Xiongyue Town, where the Qing army was stationed, had almost been hit by the artillery of the Ming army, and it seemed that the flag was about to be raised and surrendered in the next second.

Whether it was the Ming army or the Qing army stationed in Xiongyue Town, no one had ever experienced such a siege battle. The artillery shells of the Ming people poured ammunition on this military fortress for more than a day as if they did not want money, and the Qing army on the city wall had already suffered heavy losses before they saw the enemy.

If it weren't for the fact that the army in this fortress was mainly Manchurian, it is estimated that someone would have surrendered the city long ago. Huang Degong, who commanded such a battle for the first time, was also eager to capture such a Qing army fortress, and even ran to the front-line troops, planning to attack the city with his subordinates after this round of artillery bombardment.

But at this time, Sun Chuanting, who was in charge of the overall situation, suddenly sent an order, asking them to stop the attack and prepare to retreat, which made Huang Degong very dissatisfied, and he immediately ran back to the Chinese army to ask Sun Chuanting for an explanation.

Although the status of soldiers since the founding of the New Army has been constantly improving, Huang Degong is still quite in awe of an official like Sun Chuanting, who was born as a jinshi and transferred to the status of the General Staff. It's just that he relied on the fact that he was from the Guards under the emperor's own leadership, so he was able to have the courage to ask for an explanation.

Although Sun Chuanting was a little impatient with Huang Degong's questioning, he still explained a few words to him, "Li Yan received the news that Shenyang's reaction was faster than we expected, and its vanguard had arrived in Yaozhou City, Li You and they failed to occupy Yaozhou, and they were almost caught by the Qing army.

The situation on the battlefield has changed radically, and there is no point in attacking Xiongyue Town again at this time, because we simply have no time to join forces with the Jinzhou army to attack the Fuzhou Qing army. If we can't defeat Fuzhou, we can't connect Yingzhou, Gaizhou, Fuzhou, Jinzhou, and Lushun, and Xiongyue Town and Yingkou City will become two isolated places that are not connected to each other.

Our army has no geographical advantages, people and people in Liaodong, and even the time will be lost after a while, so it is a little overstretched to garrison one place with such a lone army, let alone two places. In the present situation, we will gain nothing but the lives of our soldiers and valuable war materials, so we might as well suspend combat operations. ”

Huang Degong obviously had some difficulty understanding Sun Chuanting's considerations, and he couldn't help but raise his voice a little and said: "But we mobilized the army and knocked out so many shells, seeing that the Qing army was hiding in the city and didn't dare to show its head, now we just need to work harder... I dare to take the head guarantee of the item, as long as I am given an hour... No, half an hour is fine. I will personally lead my troops to charge the city, and I will be able to break it in one fell swoop..."

Sun Chuanting glanced at him coldly, then interrupted him and said: "Enough, this is the Guards, not your own troops, the Guards are the army of His Majesty and the country, and everything should be based on military orders."

Now that I have told you why we should stop the attack now, you should obey the military orders. This is the big tent of the Chinese army, not a street vegetable market for bargaining. Now all you have to do is tell me whether you obey the military orders or not. If you can't do it, I'll find someone who can do it. ”

Although Huang Degong's temper is short-tempered, his brain is not stupid. In the old army, the relationship between protégés and former officials was most important, and even the ranks in the army were mostly destroyed. For example, even if the sergeants made mistakes, the ordinary officers of the old Ming army did not dare to beat them at will, for fear of causing problems.

In the new army, on the other hand, the distinction between the upper and lower classes is the most important, and the subordinates will be punished by military discipline when they see that their superiors do not take the initiative to salute, or if the superiors take the initiative to salute their subordinates. Regardless of Sun Chuanting's background as a jinshi, Sun Chuanting's current position as deputy chief of the General Staff and deputy chief of the general staff of the wartime base camp are all his direct superiors, and he is not allowed to disobey orders and offend.

Moreover, the current officer system of the new army has also made it possible for the General Staff to command the army through an entire officer system, no longer relying on the former military department, as in the past. Theoretically, the General Staff would be able to direct a company to the grassroots level, bypassing the commander-in-chief, if it wanted to.

Under the current situation, Sun Chuanting directly dismissed him from his post and ordered other officers to take his place, and Huang Degong had no choice at all. After all, the promotion of officers in the Guards is still comprehensively evaluated by the General Staff. Although it was ultimately the emperor's decision, no one wanted to clash head-on with the General Staff.

Huang Degong gasped for a long time, and finally saluted Sun Chuanting and said, "The subordinate is willing to obey the military order." ”

Sun Chuanting nodded to him and said, "That's good, you go down now to gather the troops, calm the emotions of the soldiers, and sort out the baggage." We evacuated to the port after dark, and the navy fleet will come to meet us early tomorrow morning."

Seeing Huang Degong unwillingly turn around and leave, Sun Chuanting was also extremely uncomfortable. The first time he stood alone, there was such a judgment deviation, which made him unwilling.

In fact, if he had a choice, he would prefer to be able to lead an army to fight the enemy face to face with him, rather than be in such a position to control the overall situation. If it weren't for Li Yanxin's words that moved him, the ideas he had before were no different from Huang Degong's, and he finally cooked a pot of rice, could he discard it without even tasting a mouthful, which is too difficult to give up.

However, Li Yan emphasized to him in the letter: "... Your Majesty set up the General Staff Headquarters to control the Sixth Army, not to establish the General Staff Headquarters for the Sixth Army to establish itself in the court..."

All people have desires, and villains and gentlemen are no exception. Even the Holy Master of Dacheng did not forget to restore the Zhou rites and the rule of the three generations, and even did not hesitate to kill Shaozheng Mao, who was against him.

Sun Chuanting also received some information before the expedition, knowing that the results of this expedition would determine whether he would be able to take over the post of chief of staff, so he naturally would not be indifferent.

When Sun Chengzong gradually faded out of the daily affairs of the General Staff, the protégés who followed him gradually divided into two factions, one headed by Yuan Chonghuan and the other headed by Mao Yuanyi. As for the staff officers like Sun Chuanting, who joined later, if it were not for the support of the emperor, it would be difficult to compete with these two for the position of commander-in-chief.

Sun Chuanting naturally would not play any humble posture at such a time and give up the position of chief to others. This not only failed the emperor's support for him, but also made it difficult to implement his political ideals. Whether it is Yuan Chonghuan or Mao Yuanyi, everyone's ideals of governing the army are different, and if you want to implement your own political ideals, in addition to the support of the emperor, the position of chief of staff of the army is also indispensable.

The ancients said: When you hear the truth, you can die at night. Faced with a position where he could practice his political ideas, even Sun Chuanting couldn't help but feel desired. This made him a little carried away by the victory after easily capturing Yingkou, and couldn't help but want to go one step further and connect the coastal areas of southern Liaoning, so as to further improve the situation of the Ming army in eastern Liaodong.

However, now it seems that he was still too hasty when he made the decision, and he underestimated Shenyang's reaction speed, which made this expedition to Xiongyue a tiger, and even almost lost the two battalions that went to attack Yaozhou.

After being woken up by Li Yan, Sun Chuanting finally came to his senses and understood what his duty was, so he categorically stopped the battle at hand. As the chief of the General Staff, the vision of the commander-in-chief of the army is different after all, and if he is still blindly pursuing tactical victory as the goal, then he will eventually be excluded from the candidate for commander-in-chief.

Just when Sun Chuanting urged the troops besieging Xiongyue Town to withdraw, Duoduo, the main general of the Qing army, who received the news that Yaozhou City was besieged by the Ming army, immediately threw the baggage troops to Ye Keshu, and personally led more than 1,000 cavalry to Yaozhou. Not long after he arrived in Yaozhou City, he received the news that the Ming army had broken through and that Laosa and other cavalry were following in search of opportunities.

So Duoduo gave up rushing to the Gaizhou front line to relieve the siege of Xiongyue Town, and continued to lead his troops westward in an attempt to eat the Ming army that fled back to Yingkou first. In Duoduo's mind, Xiongyue Town was a military fortress after all, although it was not as strong as the Ming army fortress, but it was not something that thousands of Ming troops could easily capture.

And this Ming army that fled to Yingkou has become a lone army, eating this Ming army, which is not enough to hit the morale of the Ming army guarding Yingkou, and also ensures the safety of the rear when he attacks Gaizhou. What's more, after eating this Ming army and then going south to Gaizhou, the morale of the Ming army besieging Xiongyue Town should also be tired, just let them attack.

However, he met Lausa and the others who were returning on the way, and learned that they not only failed to find a chance to make a move, but instead watched the Ming army enter Yingkou City, which made Duoduo extremely angry. He felt that the striker he led was humiliated by the Ming people, and if he didn't get this face back, how could the generals of the Eight Banners look down on him.

However, Duoduo also understood that no matter how low the city wall of Yingkou was, it was still a city wall after all, and the cavalry alone could not attack the city, so he ordered Ye Keshu in the rear to bring the troops directly to Yingkou City, and on the other hand, he returned to the outside of Yingkou City with Rausa, Xingne, Turushh and others.

Duoduo's move directly affected the direction of the Qing army's attack, and naturally missed the opportunity to stay behind to besiege the Ming army in Xiongyue Town, so that Sun Chuanting calmly withdrew his subordinates from the sea to Yingkou.

As the generals of the Qing army who were ineffective in combat, Lausa, Xingne, Turushh and others naturally wished that Duoduo would choose to attack Yingkou City directly. If the Dordor had won the siege, they would have been able to save some face. If they fail, it can also cover up their previous unfavorable performance in attacking the Ming army.

After all, if even Prince Yu with two white flag elite soldiers was defeated, they would not be ashamed and incompetent if they were defeated by these Ming troops before.

In such a situation, it is difficult for the request for help from Gaizhou officials to attract everyone's attention. was even considered by these Qing generals that the officers and soldiers of Gaizhou were too timid.

The way the Qing army attacked the city was to build a shield cart first, block the firearms and arrows of the defending soldiers with thick and bulky shield carts, cover the archers on their side to shoot close to the city wall, and wait until the defenders on the city wall were chaotic, and then set up a cloud ladder to climb the city to fight. And this is also the mainstream way of siege warfare in the past thousand years, and the Qing army has not made any revolutionary changes.

(. = )