Emperor Ming Fengyunlu

Volume 5: Lying on the salary and tasting the guts

Chapter 4 Painstaking management of the initial army

Section 8 Expedition to Liaodong

In the first year of the Apocalypse (the sixth year of the Later Jin Mandate of Heaven), on March 10, outside the north gate of Tongzhou City.

Early in the morning of this day, Liu Yunwei gathered more than 36,000 soldiers from the three barracks, including the Chinese Army's pacesetter battalion, the trapping camp, and the Changshui battalion, and swore to march on the field outside the north gate of Tongzhou City.

The three combat battalions mobilized by Liu Yunwei this time have a total of nine thousand infantry battalions, three thousand cavalry battalions including Long Xiang Iron Cavalry, as well as three artillery battalions and three baggage battalions; Edward, the commander of the Chinese artillery battalion, and his Franc machine gunners also accompanied the army.

The prefect of Tongzhou had learned the news three days ago, and on this day, he gathered all the officials and gentry in Tongzhou City, and presented the pigs, sheep and wine sent by the people in the city to Liu Yunwei outside the north gate, and Liu Yunwei was very happy and accepted it. The prefect of Tongzhou looked at the soldiers with a clear banner and a rainbow, and was very excited in his heart, and immediately composed a poem for the soldiers.

The people in Tongzhou City also rushed to the vicinity of the north gate to see off the army, and the guards of the military tun in Tongzhou Town, the military households of Mintun also rushed to a lot of people, and everyone saw their comrades wearing helmets and armor, and they were all yearning, and they all shouted loudly: "We must practice our skills hard, so that we can go to Liaodong with the general as soon as possible and win military achievements!" ”

On the north gate tower, there are more than a dozen gorgeously dressed businessmen looking at the boundless military array, these people are all wealthy merchants in the capital who once lent money to Tongzhou Town. After hearing the news that Liu Yunwei was about to go to Liaodong, these wealthy businessmen immediately rushed over, wanting to see the army of the expedition and see if they would lose the money and grain they had invested in Tongzhou Town.

After seeing the tens of thousands of troops in front of them, these wealthy businessmen all put down their hearts. I saw that the army outside the city was divided into three huge phalanxes according to the battalion, and each large phalanx was divided into several small phalanxes according to different types of troops; The soldiers stood still in the cold wind, like a tall green pine, and the whole expedition was orderly and magnificent! In the center of the three huge phalanxes, there are three flags fluttering in the cold wind, from left to right are the Qinglong Mo Sword Banner of the trapped camp, the Golden Regiment Dragon Flag of Liu Yunwei's pacesetter camp, and the Iron Horse Lance Flag of Changshui Battalion; On the right side of the three flags, there is also a taller Ming Sun and Moon Jintao battle flag.

The soldiers who went out on the expedition were even more powerful, everyone was wearing a brand-new red mandarin duck battle jacket, whether it was a melee pikeman, a Mo knife soldier, or a long-range attacking bird gunner, gunner, without exception, they were all helmets and armor, armed to the teeth; I saw that the soldiers were wearing iron net combat boots at their feet, iron wire gloves on their hands, eight-petal brass iron helmets on their heads, stainless steel armor and brand-new red cotton armor on their bodies, and even the soldiers wore hideous iron masks on their faces. Looking up from afar, I saw that the wilderness was full of fiery red, and the bright red uniforms of the soldiers seemed to burn everything in the world, mighty and enthusiastic!

Not to mention the jungle-like heavy spears and the cold and cold knives of chopping horses, just the black and shiny fine flintlock bird guns and heavy and thick Francophone cannons were enough to make the onlookers and wealthy businessmen tremble and excited.

An elderly wealthy businessman couldn't help but sigh: "The soldiers under the command of General Liu are so elite and so well-equipped, it seems that we are betting on the right treasure this time." In this battle, the dynasty will definitely be able to defeat Jiannu and return triumphantly! ”

The rest of the people were deeply convinced, and they were overjoyed.

At the same time, Yuan Mingxuan, Sun Yuanhua, and Lu Ying and other left-behind generals also came to march for the army. Looking at the army that went out, Zhao Kaishan, Wang Dangdang, and Li Tianhao were red-eyed and envious; Lu Ying, Gao Hongguang and Huang Fuming were also yearning, and they couldn't wait to stand in the big array immediately; Everyone said loudly: "My Hanwei soldiers are so majestic, how many people will be left in Jiannu after this battle?" Won't we have no chance of conquering the Tartar captives? ”

Yuan Mingxuan and Sun Yuanhua gave Liu Yunwei a good advice, constantly telling him not to risk his life, and to be cautious and steady; Lu Ying also talked to Liu Yunwei for a while.

In the face of everyone's concern, Liu Yunwei also agreed one by one, and comforted Zhao Kaishan and others, promising that he would bring all the people with him when he went on the next expedition and fought to the death with Jiannu. After talking for a while, Liu Yunwei saw that the auspicious time for the expedition had arrived, so he said, "Everyone, the hour is not early, please go back." Tongzhou Town will ask you to take care of it, and wait until the day of the great victory of the dynasty and the triumph of the soldiers, let's drink another 300 cups! ”

After speaking, Liu Yunwei hugged his fists goodbye to Yuan Mingxuan and others, as well as officials such as the prefect of Tongzhou.

Looking at Liu Yunwei, who turned over and got on the horse, and looked at the soldiers of the army marching north, in addition to reluctance, everyone's hearts were more full of pride, and they were highly respectful to the heroes who defended the country.

At this time, Lu Ying suddenly shouted loudly: "Beat the war drums!" Heroic for the brethren! ”

Zhao Kaishan, Li Tianhao, Wang Dangdang, Gao Hongguang, and Huang Fuming shouted in unison: "Beat the war drums!" ”

Suddenly, all the war drums on the head of Tongzhou City rang out, and the majestic war drums resounded in the sky, and the surrounding people and officials were all infected by the passionate war drums, and they all raised their arms and shouted to cheer for the soldiers who went out to fight.

At this time, more than 30,000 troops also resounded in the battle song:

"Wearing iron armor and carrying a long knife. The battle with the son is long.

Fight with the enemy, die and live together. Fight with your son, and your heart will not be slack.

Step on the swallow and chase the beard. Fight with the son, and sing fearlessly. ”

The words are divided into two ends, one for each table.

Since Yuan Yingtai succeeded Xiong Tingbi as the post of Liaodong Economic Strategy, he began to rectify the defense of Liaodong according to his own ideas. Because when Yuan Yingtai went to Yongning as an envoy to control the water, he had stepped up military training and weapon repair, and important materials such as grain, grass, gunpowder and other important materials needed in Liaodong could be supplied in a timely manner, so he was deeply trusted by Xiong Tingbi. In view of this, Yuan Yingtai thought that he was talented and knew about military affairs, and he did not take some of the advice of his subordinates seriously.

In the face of the increasingly obvious strategic attempt of Jiannu, Yuan Yingtai was never ready for a full-scale war, did not hoard grain, grass, and weapons, and the defenders distributed throughout Liaodong did not mobilize in time to assemble around Liaoyang and Shenyang. Not only that, Yuan Yingtai also showed kindness at a very bad time, and resettled tens of thousands of Mongolian victims in the two cities of Liaoyang and Shenyang, and recruited thousands of Mongolian strong men as soldiers to assist the defenders in defending the city.

Although Yuan Yingtai's idea was good, he thought that after those Mongols were rescued, they would be grateful to him and be able to serve the dynasty under his orders, so that they could strengthen the defense of Liaoyang and Shenyang; But the reality is often cruel, these Mongols not only did not be grateful and dedicated to defending the city, but instead committed adultery, adultery, and plunder in Liaoyang and Shenyang, and ignored some of Yuan Yingtai's orders, which made the people in the city boiling, and the soldiers defending the city were resentful and the army was in turmoil. After these Mongols entered the cities of Liaoyang and Shenyang, not only did the defensive strength of the two cities not be strengthened, but also frequently chaotic.

Faced with such a situation, Yuan Yingtai also knew that he had done something stupid, so he wanted to move those Mongols elsewhere. But as the saying goes: it's easier to please God, but it's harder to send God. As soon as Yuan Yingtai issued the order to move out of the Mongols, the Mongols in Liaoyang and Shenyang became noisy, and the Mongol soldiers who had been recruited before were even clamoring, and even threatened Yuan Yingtai with mutiny.

As a result, Yuan Yingtai no longer dared to mention the relocation of the Mongols out of the city, and could only try to appease and suppress the resentment of his subordinates and the people in the city. Suddenly, the morale of the defenders of Liaoyang and Shenyang dropped sharply.

Yuan Yingtai naturally knew that it was not a way to go on like this, so he eagerly looked forward to the early arrival of reinforcements from the imperial court, as long as he had an elite army to rely on, whether it was the Mongols in Liaoyang and Shenyang at that time, or the Jiannu who was about to invade, there would be nothing to fear. When the time comes, whoever dares to disobey orders and act recklessly will let him know that he knows how powerful the elite of the court is!

After a long wait, the news of the imperial court reinforcements finally came. On 10 March, on the same day that Liu Yunwei led the Hanwei army to the north, a total of 7,000 people from the Liaoyang coalition army composed of 3,000 soldiers from Shizhufu and 4,000 soldiers from Qijia Army in Zhejiang finally arrived at Haichengwei, which was only three days away from Liaoyang City.

Yuan Yingtai was very happy when he heard the news, and a stone that had been blocked in his heart for many days finally landed, and even in Yuan Yingtai's mind, he was already sketching a wonderful picture of his great destruction and meritorious service. At this time, Yuan Yingtai was still thinking in his heart, whether he should send a capable henchman to the direction of Haichengwei to meet these two world-famous elite divisions, and establish a good relationship with these two elite generals in advance, so that they could get along better in the next battle.

Just when Yuan Yingtai wanted to get into trouble, he suddenly received an urgent report that was not received at night, and when he saw the red feathers on the envelope, an ominous premonition immediately surged into Yuan Yingtai's heart.

Yuan Yingtai held his breath, hurriedly opened the envelope and looked at it, only to see that the letter read: "100,000 urgent: a few days ago, the 100,000 army of Jiannu has been assembled, and in the early morning of March 9, the slave chief Nurhachi has set off from Hetuara to the south with the Eight Banners Banner Owner and Baylor, and the troops are directed at Shenyang!" ”

Yuan Yingtai panicked after reading it, and immediately ordered Liaoyang and Shenyang to block the city gates and impose full martial law, and at the same time sent an envoy to Haichengwei for help.