The rapid fiasco of the monk did not surprise the Manchu court, he was originally a world-famous general who was blown out, and he tried his best to pull his hind legs in the defense of Beijing, this time he still pulled a group of pampered ** marriages to the battlefield, and it was purely unreasonable not to defeat the battle. The monk and the prince were not completely wiped out by the Wu army, and the monk himself was not directly killed by the Wu army on the battlefield, which was already a surprise to the Manchu court.

What really surprised the Manchu court and the Qing army was the rapid loss of Lulongcheng, as the only prefecture-level city near Shanhaiguan, the Manchu court has always regarded Lulongcheng as the outer barrier of Shanhaiguan to operate, and some war resources are given priority to Lulongcheng, and great efforts have been made to build and strengthen Lulongcheng's defenses, and at the same time, it has also spent a lot of effort in personnel arrangements.

The prefect Yanfu is a banner man whose loyalty is reliable, good at acting and knows how to win people's hearts, and the people in the customs continue to move to the northeast through Shanhaiguan, during which there is almost no chaos and let the people be grateful to the Manchu court, and Yanfu, who looks very incorruptible, has made great contributions to it. Jin Taiwen, the chief soldier of the commanding army, is a rising star of the Qing army in the continuous actual combat, has rich experience in actual combat and is very popular with the army, and has some ability to make the soldiers swear to serve their lives, and the equipment of the Lu Long Qing army is not bad, there are more than 3,000 foreign guns in the city, of which a considerable part is still relatively advanced Lizhi rifles and carbines, with sufficient ammunition, and more than 60 artillery pieces to help.

However, it is such a city, such an army, but it still failed to block the fierce attack of the Wu army, only in front of the Wu army soldiers to support for more than ten days before announcing the break, the prefect Yanfu committed suicide and died, Jin Taiwen only fled back to Shanhaiguan with less than 200 remnants of the defeated army, so when the news reached Shenyang, the Manchu court was in an uproar, and it was not allowed to consider such a dangerous problem How long can Shanhaiguan last? Will it be able to survive the most favorable winter for the Manchu court?

"You must immediately establish a state, establish a new regime, and invite the troops of our Great Tsarist Russia to enter Shanhaiguan, only in this way can our Great Tsarist Russia justifiably provide you with all the military, political and diplomatic assistance within its capacity, directly send troops to help you resist the attack of the squadron, help you gain recognition from other Western countries, and then help you win the support of other Western countries. Otherwise, your court will inevitably be overthrown by Wu Chaoyue, and Wu Chaoyue will also replace you as the sole ruler of China! ”

Diametrically opposed to the panicked Manchu court, the Russian minister to China, Rhemeni, clapped his hands to celebrate the loss of Lulongcheng, jumping up and down only to encourage the Manchu court to split China quickly, and constantly encouraging the Manchu court to allow the Tsarist army to enter the northeast to help the Qing army resist the attack of the Wu army. The Manchu separatists led by Ci'an, Cixi, and Guizi Liu had already had this intention, and because they really had nothing to do, they gritted their teeth and finally started formal negotiations with Remmeni on the establishment of the Manchurian state.

Of course, Cixi and others are not completely brainless, knowing that there is a lot of opposition in the imperial court, if they rashly abandon the idea of great unification of Chinese Confucianism to build the Manchurian court, it is very likely to lead to the people's disorientation, so that a large number of Manchu officials who have been seriously brainwashed by Confucianism fall to Wu Chaoyue, plus they are also very worried that Tsarist Russia will not make a promise, and only want to take the opportunity to annex Northeast China and Mongolia, Cixi and others use the excuse of the need to calm down the opposition of the people in the court. A condition was put forward to Rhemeni, as long as the Russian army could help Shanhaiguan survive this winter and hold out until the spring of the next day, the Manchu court would immediately officially announce the establishment of Manchukuo.

In other words, it is necessary for the Tsarist army to fulfill its promise first, so that the military and civilian people and princely officials in Northeast China and Mongolia know that the Tsarist army is indeed reliable, and then the Manchu court can get rid of the shackles of the Confucian idea of great unification and establish Manchu in the name of justice.

Rhemeny, who was not very satisfied, once wanted to insist that the Manchu court immediately split China, but seeing that the Manchu court refused to give in, and the situation on the Shanhaiguan battlefield was indeed very critical, coupled with the fact that the Manchu court had agreed to borrow troops from Tsarist Russia and openly allowed the Tsarist army to enter the war, the Tsarist army already had an excuse to intervene in the Northeast, so Rhemini had no choice but to make concessions, and loosely agreed to the conditions offered by the Manchu court, forcing the Manchu court to immediately sign the traitorous treaty. At the same time, he hurriedly sent people north to contact the current Tsarist governor of Eastern Siberia, Korsakov, and asked Korsakov, who had been prepared for a long time, to immediately send troops south to help the Qing army guard Shanhaiguan.

At the same time, the Wu Army of the Northern Expedition, which was ordered to advance the front line to Jinzhou within this year, had already pulled the main force to the current Shanhaiguan City under Linyu City, and immediately launched an attack on Linyu City, after easily taking Funing City, which was guarded by only a small number of local troops of the Qing Army. However, it is a pity that under Linyu City, the Wu army encountered the most stubborn resistance of the Qing army, and launched two fierce attacks on Linyu City without success, on the contrary, it also paid a lot of casualties.

The key reason why the Wu army could not quickly take Linyu City was that the siege tactics were poor, and the two tricks of directly blowing up the city gate and digging holes directly in the city wall had already been familiar to the Qing army and tried to restrain them, digging tunnels to attack the city was blocked by the Shihe, only the northwest of Linyu could barely implement this tactic, but the Qing army had already dug a number of trenches in this position and introduced river water to protect the city wall, and the terrain in this area was narrow, which was very unfavorable to the deployment of troops, so the tactic of cave blasting was still difficult to achieve, Wu Jun did not dare to continue the adventure after only a slight attempt. In addition, the city fortifications of Shanhaiguan were stronger than those of Lulongcheng, and the Qing army in the city was better equipped and more tenacious than Lulong's Qing army, so the frontal assault of the Wu army was never successful, and there was no way to take Linyu City for a while.

Fortunately, there has never been a living person in the world who has been suffocated by urine, after carefully exploring the surrounding terrain, Li Hongzhang, the chief of staff of the Wu army of the Northern Expedition, came up with a way, suggesting that Jiang Zhongji give up the frontal attack, take the sea route around the back of Shanhaiguan, and launch an attack on Shanhaiguan in the north without a river blockage, Jiang Zhongji applauded, and it happened that the Wu army's naval division Xu Laibu also protected the grain ship and came to Qinhuangdao, and the Wu army immediately began to implement this plan, leaving only part of the army to guard outside the south gate of Shanhaiguan, and the main force boarded the sea ship and went north under the protection of the naval warship. They returned to Dongdaihe, just north of Shanhaiguan, and landed at Dongdaihe, and went south to set up camp outside the north gate of Shanhaiguan, preparing to attack.

It's a pity, because the Wu army occupies the advantage of the water, the Wu army's move was also expected by the Qing army, even if there is no Shihe protection, the strong city fortifications north of Shanhaiguan are still the stumbling blocks of the Wu army's siege, once tried to find that the frontal attack is still difficult to succeed, the Wu army also had to change its strategy, and honestly began to implement relatively safe but slow to implement the crypt blasting tactics that are relatively safe but slow to work, the Qing army also improvised and immediately buried the ground to listen to and monitor the underground movements, and dug tunnels to connect the Wu army tunnels. Flooding water and smoke to destroy the tunnels of the Wu army, and engaged in fierce underground battles with the soldiers of the Wu army, which not only successfully prevented the rapid success of the Wu army's crypt blasting tactics, but also pulled the Wu army into the most beneficial war of attrition for the Qing army.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Wu army was temporarily blocked under the Shanhaiguan City, the cities of Ningyuan and Jinzhou in the north raced against time to build more fortifications, hoarded grain and grass to form regimental training and prepared for long-term defenses, and the armies of Mongolia and Jilin and Heilongjiang also marched towards the western Liaoning corridor. In addition, more than 1,000 Russian Cossack cavalry, known for their bravery and good at war, also sailed into the Songhua River by boat with the permission and guidance of the Manchu court, and prepared day and night to rush to Hulan to land and go south to participate in the war.

These may still be relatively easy problems to solve, but what is worse for the Wu army is that the temperature in the northeast has gradually dropped, and the warm time that is conducive to the fighting of the Wu army soldiers is getting shorter and shorter.

The pressure as heavy as a mountain pressed on Jiang Zhongji, the commander of the Northern Expedition of the Wu Army, and Jiang Zhongji was a little difficult to breathe, so that after being damaged by the Shanhaiguan Qing army for the third time by irrigating the tunnel, Jiang Zhongji, who has always been more reasonable, lost his temper and scolded his younger brother Jiang Zhongshu, who commanded the excavation of the tunnel. Jiang Zhongshu was extremely aggrieved, and had the courage to retort: "Second brother, how can you blame me? The rebellious party's tunnel suddenly connected to our tunnel, and before we could close the hole, the water would come immediately, what could my sappers do? ”

"Won't you be careful and make less noise when digging tunnels? Don't let the chaotic people hear out your tunnel? ”

Jiang Zhongji was obviously a little angry, and Jiang Zhongshu shouted even more grievances, aggrievedly pointing out that Jiang Zhongji forced himself to speed up the progress before the Qing army heard the location of the tunnel, complaining that his brother wanted the horse to run and the horse not to eat grass. Li Hongzhang next to him saw that Jiang Zhongji had already moved his liver, and hurriedly persuaded: "Second general, victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, and the fifth general has worked hard enough, but he was unlucky to be discovered by the chaotic party, and it has nothing to do with him." You are brothers, if you have anything to say, you should say it well. ”

"I want to talk to him, but who is going to talk to me?" Jiang Zhongshu asked angrily, and said distressedly: "It's already late August, and it's winter soon, but we are still blocked under Shanhaiguan City, if we continue like this, how can we advance the front to the front line of Jinzhou within this year?" ”

"Speaking of advancing the front to the front line of Jinzhou...... Li Hongzhang hesitated a little, but still continued: "Actually, to be honest, I always feel that Weiting is a little cautious in using troops this time, and he only thinks about it step by step, and he doesn't think about winning by surprise and tying our hands and feet. ”

"What do you mean?" Jiang Zhongji didn't understand Li Hongzhang's words, and said: "To put it bluntly, Lao Wu and I are not the kind of people who love to chew the root of the tongue, and your words will not reach the ears of King Zhennan." ”

"Then you're welcome." Li Hongzhang no longer had scruples, and said: "Weiting is too conservative in using troops this time, and the strategy explained to us is too rigid, and we want to fight Yongping first to take Shanhaiguan, and then fight Ningyuan to advance the front to the Jinzhou area, which is too limited to our water superiority and field superiority, and gives the chaotic party the opportunity to hold on one by one, so we have a very hard time fighting." I think that we should not fight according to the strategy deployed by the comfort pavilion, but should highlight the surprise troops, kill the party by surprise, and completely reverse the passive situation in which we can only attack the fortifications one by one. ”

"So what do you think we should do?" Jiang Zhongji asked.

"Take the sea route to the north and hit Jinzhou directly!" Li Hongzhang gave an astonishing answer, and said in a deep voice: "As long as we defeat Jinzhou, we can not only directly complete the errand assigned by the comfort pavilion, but also cut off the direct connection between Shanhaiguan, Ningyuan City and Shenyang, and completely isolate Shanhaiguan and Ningyuan, the two strong cities in western Liaoning, and then try to take these two cities, we can be much easier." ”

"Go directly to Jinzhou?" Jiang Zhongji was a little suspicious that he had heard it wrong, and said in surprise: "It's too risky to go so far north alone, right?" ”

"What's there to risk it?" Li Hongzhang asked very strangely, and said: "In a field war, the chaotic party army is our opponent?" Fighting a naval battle, the few small broken ships of the chaotic party, are they enough for Xu Lai's fleet of sailors to fill in the gaps? Jinzhou is less than ten miles away from the sea, and has an absolute advantage on the water, do we still have to worry about running out of food? Do you still have to worry about having no way back? ”

Jiang Zhongji stopped talking, he rolled his eyes and just tried to calculate, and Li Hongzhang continued: "Second general, you are also a scholar, you must have read the history books of the Ming Dynasty, in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, the Eight Banners army first surrounded Jinzhou while dividing troops to attack Ningyuan, and then bypassed Shanhaiguan several times to directly attack the capital, and when besieging Ningyuan, divided troops to attack Juehua Island to seize grain, and when besieging Jinzhou, divided troops to attack Bijia Mountain to burn grain. At that time, the Eight Banners army only dared to do this with field superiority, and did not encounter any danger, and now we have both field superiority and maritime superiority, why don't we dare to bypass Shanhaiguan and Ningyuan City and go directly to Jinzhou? ”

Jiang Zhongji was extremely shaken, and said hesitantly: "But if we go to fight Jinzhou, just like we are fighting Shanhaiguan now, what if we can't beat it for a long time?" ”

"Of course, this possibility cannot be ruled out." Li Hongzhang nodded, and said: "But I don't think this may be big, because Shanhaiguan has always been the first important town used by the rebel army to resist our Northern Expedition, the city is strong, there are many defenders, there is plenty of food, grass and ammunition, and the terrain is steep and easy to defend and difficult to attack, so it is strange that it is difficult for us to defeat it." ”

"The situation in Jinzhou is completely different, first of all, Jinzhou does not have the Shanhaiguan Mountain, which is close to the mountains and the sea, in addition to the protection of the river in the south, the three directions of the east, west and north are open terrain, which is conducive to our attack on the city. The second is that the city fortifications of Jinzhou are certainly not as strong as Shanhaiguan, the city wall has been more than 200 years, during which there has been no large-scale renovation and reinforcement, in the past two years, a little money and food of the chaotic party is also given priority to use in Shanhaiguan, no matter how to repair it is certainly not as strong as Shanhaiguan. ”

"The third point is also very important, the defenders in Jinzhou City are definitely not as many as those in Shanhaiguan City, and the weapons and equipment are definitely not as good as the defenders on Shanhaiguan. As for the reason, it is still the problem of money and food for the chaotic party, it has been less than two years since the chaotic party fled back to the northeast, and it is impossible to have so much money and food, and all the troops are armed like the defenders here in Shanhaiguan. ”

After listening to Li Hongzhang's analysis of each article, Jiang Zhongji was inevitably even more moved, but he still didn't dare to make up his mind, and Jiang Zhongshu next to him also said: "Shaoquan, it's still too risky to fight Jinzhou directly, should we compromise and go to fight Ningyuan first?" This makes it easy to adjust even if there is a problem. ”

"It's not an adventure, I've already said it, there's no danger, it's a bold intersperse." Li Hongzhang said calmly: "The mission given to us by Weiting is to push the front line to the front line of Jinzhou, and make every effort to win Jinzhou before the Chinese New Year." Since we are bold and interspersed, why don't we just intersperse it to fight Jinzhou? Why waste time in Ningyuan? It takes time and consumes strength, and gives the rebellious army time and opportunity to strengthen the defense of Jinzhou? ”

"It's ......." Jiang Zhongji finally spoke and said, "This matter is too big, I have to think about it carefully before I can make a decision." ”

"Yes, it can be considered, but it must be done as soon as possible." Li Hongzhang reminded: "We directly blow up the city gate and directly dig the city wall tactics, the rebellious army has already found a way to restrain and crack, if it drags on until winter, the soil freezes and there is no way to dig tunnels, and we want to take any city, we can only rely on ants to attack the city." ”

Jiang Zhongji was silent again, and suddenly remembered in his heart that Wu Chaoyue hinted that he was going to give himself the position of governor of the three eastern provinces, and then gritted his teeth, Jiang Zhongji suddenly slapped the table and shouted: "Outside, the king's order is not affected!" That's it! Be bold and go directly to Jinzhou! ”