Although it is not uncommon for the Qinwang army to come from all over the country to have higher official positions than Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng, the two of them are the highest-ranking civil officials in the Qinwang army. Although the status of the warriors has improved a lot since the establishment of the General Staff, it is mainly concentrated in Gyeonggi and a few border towns that have been rectified.

For other areas of the Ming Dynasty, the change in this atmosphere is not very obvious, and although Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng are civilian officials, their ability to govern the army is much stronger than these generals, and they have naturally won the military heart of King Qin's army along the way.

In this situation, although there are generals of higher rank than the two in King Qin's army, it still has become a situation dominated by Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng.

Compared with Lu Xiangsheng, the Henan New Army led by Sun Chuanting can be said to be the most well-equipped in the Qinwang Army, and it can even be said that it is on a par with the New Army that has experienced the baptism of defensive warfare, so it is also the most valued by Sun Chengzong.

After Sun Chengzong arrived at the front line, he went out several times to watch the movements of the Houjin army, believing that although the Houjin army still maintained the blockade and encirclement of the Ming army's camp, in fact it was just a foreign strong and middle-class cadre, and it was just a bluff. He even guessed that there were not many troops in the tightly blocked Houjin camp on the opposite side, so the Ming army should take the initiative to attack and test the reality of the Houjin army on the opposite side.

Yuan Chonghuan and Mao Yuanyi, on the other hand, opposed Sun Chengzong's adventurous proposition, arguing that the retreat of the Later Jin army after launching an attack six days earlier was clearly inconsistent with the Later Jin army's past performance. Since the Houjin army did not choose to withdraw directly, it is obvious that some conspiracy is hidden.

In this situation, if the movements of the Houjin army were not thoroughly understood, they rashly attacked, and once the Houjin army was defeated, not only could not echo the emperor's Eastern Route Army, but also violated the emperor's order to hold the Western Route Army. Therefore, they insisted that they should not attack, but should wait for the emperor's new orders before making plans.

After listening to the propositions of Yuan Chonghuan and others, Lu Xiangsheng rudely interrupted another staff officer who wanted to speak, looked at Sun Chengzong and said with an urgent expression: "Master Sun, the lower officials think that no matter what, we have to move." His Majesty had just won a big victory on the East Road, apparently seizing the opportunity of the emptiness of the Houjin East Road.

Therefore, the most important thing for us now is that we must attract the main forces of Houjin on the opposite side here, rather than allowing them to move freely. If the main force of Houjin really moved to the east under our noses and caused any damage to Your Majesty, wouldn't we have become the biggest sinners. ”

Seeing that Sun Chengzong was silent, Sun Chuanting also said: "What Governor Lu said is similar to what the lower officials thought, it is indeed important to stick to the camp, but the safety of His Majesty is more important.

Now it will take at least four or five days to ask His Majesty to change the battle strategy of holding the camp. If during this time, the main force of Houjin is really transferred, and our tens of thousands of troops sit idly by, how can we explain to the people of the world afterwards?

Even if His Majesty was lucky enough to be fine, he didn't hold us accountable, but others may not see it that way. What's more, although the simple railway from Jizhou to Shimenzhai has been built, the daily transportation volume is only a little more than 200 tons, and our tens of thousands of troops consume more than 300 tons of various materials every day.

If we are unable to decide the victory with Houjin, we must consider withdrawing part of our army to Jizhou, otherwise our logistics will collapse first. We can't let soldiers go hungry in this kind of weather, can we? ”

The words of Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting made Yuan Chonghuan and the others a little speechless. In the face of the emperor's safety, all other reasons seemed to pale and weak.

The meeting lasted until dark, and after a long and difficult discussion, Sun Chengzong finally decided, he agreed with Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng's proposal to attack, and decided to launch a limited sortie tomorrow.

The Ming army in the camp was divided into three parts, Sun Chuanting and Yuan Chonghuan each led 2,500 cavalry under their command as the vanguard, and attacked the Houjin camp in two ways early tomorrow morning.

Mao Yuanyi commanded the 25,000 Ming army as the Chinese army, and received Sun Chuanting and Yuan Chonghuan. If the main force of Houjin on the opposite side did not withdraw, and the two fell into the encirclement of the main force of Houjin, then Mao Yuanyi commanded the Chinese army to come forward to rescue the two.

If things are as expected by Sun Chuanting and others, the main force of the Later Jin has been transferred, and there is only an empty camp opposite, then Mao Yuanyi should command the Chinese army to come forward and completely occupy the camp of the Later Jin army. As for the rest of the Ming army, Sun Chengzong himself led and guarded the Ming army camp.

December 13 was still an ordinary winter day with clouds and cold winds. After Nanuk walked out of the camp, he looked at the dim sky, reached out and pulled the blackened sheepskin jacket on his body, turned his head to the subordinates behind him and said: "It's really damn weather, it's gloomy and gloomy, everyone hurry up and get on the horse, finish today's patrol early, and come back early to rest." ”

Listening to the uneven promises of his subordinates behind him, Nanuk spat on the ground, then turned on his mount and led the team to the northwest. The Mongol soldiers guarding the gate of the camp gathered around the fire to keep warm, and they didn't care about the departure of Nanuk and the others.

With the departure of the Great Khan of the Later Jin Dynasty with the main force of the Eight Banners, the news of the defeat of the Wunag army on the Eastern Road gradually spread among the Mongol tribes who remained here.

Originally, a group of Jurchens led by Gu Santai and Suna were in the camp, so although they got the news of the defeat of the Wunag Division, the troops in the camp were only discussing when to retire, and they were not worried about their own safety.

But when Gu Santai and Suna left with the Jurchens and the Korqin tribe, the Mongolian soldiers who stayed behind finally felt that the atmosphere in the camp was a little strange. Especially yesterday, the Great Khan once again transferred Shu Bu and half of the 36 men, so that the strength of the battalion was reduced to about 6,000.

This made the remaining Mongolian soldiers finally a little worried about their safety, after all, there were more and more people in the Ming army camp opposite, and there were fewer and fewer soldiers and horses in their camp. Since the Later Jin Khan continued to transfer the troops in the battalion, the remaining Mongol soldiers were already somewhat half-hearted.

After all, the Mongolian soldiers left in the camp now, in addition to the hundreds of Mongolian left battalion men and horses around Engedel, the rest are newly attached Mongolian troops, especially the 36 men and horses are the first time to accompany the Houjin army.

Although Engdel was the Gushan Ezhen of the Mongol Left Battalion, as a newly defeated general, he had little prestige among these Mongols. In addition to some of the soldiers of these Mongolian left battalions who were garrisoned in Baozizhai, a small half of them were defeated soldiers who fled in the last Battle of Shimen, so they did not have much morale.

As for the Mongol vassal tribes that had recently been annexed to the Later Jin Kingdom, they themselves did not have much loyalty to the Later Jin Kingdom. They followed Houjin into the Ming Dynasty, firstly because they did not want to attack the Chahar Department, and secondly, because they had the temptation to plunder the wealth of the Ming people.

When the Later Jin army was victorious, the Mongol vassal tribes who shared the spoils of war naturally increased their loyalty to the Later Jin. And once they encountered the current unfavorable situation, the Houjin army retreated first, and the minds of these Mongol vassal tribes began to be confused.

In this unfamiliar environment, if they were left behind by the Houjin army, most of them did not think that they would be able to return to the grassland alive. With hidden worries in mind, the army, which was still quite morale, began to slowly slack off. The first manifestation was the slackness of the soldiers in patrol affairs.

Engdel found that he was gradually commanding the men and horses of the vassal tribes, so he had to reduce the patrol work and sent Nanuk and other descendants to take up the patrol mission. It was precisely because the Houjin army continued to reduce the patrol area that the Ming generals such as Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng felt that the main force of the Houjin was not affected here.

The Mongol vassal soldiers guarding the camp gate were warming themselves around the fire when they heard shouts of "enemy attack" in the distance. Everyone turned their heads to look and found that Nanuk, who had gone out on patrol half an hour earlier, was leaning over his horse and urging his horse towards the camp gate, and he was also hoarsely warning the Mongol soldiers on the way.

Seeing the expressions of Nanuk and his subordinates, the gatekeepers hurriedly ordered their subordinates to step forward and remove the horses at the door, so that they could enter the camp. Before the soldiers guarding the camp gate could lift the horses completely, Nanuk had already hurried through the gap between the horses.

After hearing Nanuk's report, Engdel's face turned a little blue, with the current strength in his hands, it was rare to be able to resist a wave of charges from the Ming army. If the main force of the Ming army was allowed to attack, he knew that the fragmented Mongol army in his hands would not be able to resist.

After hearing the news of the Ming army's attack, Burhatutaji, who led the remaining 36 troops of the Guanmen, and the leaders of several Mongol vassal tribes quickly rushed to Engdel's tent to ask him for an idea.

Engdel had just received an order from Mang Gurtai to withdraw to the Zunhua camp tonight or tomorrow early morning with the rest of his army.

His first reaction to the sudden attack of the Ming army was that the Ming army may have received the news that they were going to retreat, so they rushed up to pick up the bargain and reel the enemy's military exploits.

Engdel, who had escaped on the battlefield not long ago, had the first reaction in his mind to continue retreating with his army. However, looking at Burhatuteiji and several other Mongol leaders, he finally did not say this directly.

After a little discussion with several chiefs, Engdel decided to let Burhatu Taiji and his younger brother Manggordai each lead an army and come forward to repel the Ming cavalry. And he himself sat in the camp to prevent the Ming army from attacking the camp.

After driving Burhatu and the other Mongol vassal tribal leaders out to attack, Engdel grabbed his brother and said, "You must be careful when you go to the battlefield, if you can't do it, you will retreat." As long as you block it for an hour, we will directly abandon this place and go to Zunhua to join the Eight Banners army. ”