Nurhachi prepared grain and grass for the winter, and raised troops on August 21 of the first year of Taichang to attack Yilu and Puhe in the north of Shenyang Zhongwei in Liaodong again, but these two cities were no longer garrisoned, and countless people, horses, and cattle were captured by them. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 After info, it was found that Shenyang rescued the troops, and Bel Mang Gurtai led more than 100 Bayala soldiers under his name to pursue to the east of Shenyang.

The Bayala soldiers, as the protectors, are the 10 strongest men with archers and horses selected from the 300 soldiers of each Niu Lu, and can be considered as special forces.

Thirteen cottages are 20 miles north of Shenyang Zhongwei, there is a small city on the mountain, about 30,000 people are stationed, and Shenyang is each other's horns. The Ming soldiers in the cottage were found by Jiannu, and the eight banners attacked many times and were repulsed, and then the enemy did not know whose strategy to listen to, and besieged but did not attack. The rescuers who heard the news from Shenyang were repeatedly repelled by Mang Gurtai, leaving the mountain without supplies and water.

After more than 20 days of hard work, our Ming officers and soldiers fought to the death without reinforcements from outside and without food and grass inside, and finally because they were outnumbered, they were finally defeated by them on the fifth day of the first month of September, with more than 20,000 casualties and 8,000 prisoners. Most of the captured people were auxiliary soldiers, and they were usually honest peasants, and it was not easy for them to hold out to the end without weapons.

In addition, as an organization specializing in collecting military and political intelligence, Jinyiwei widely spread its eyes and ears on the battlefield in Liaodong, so as to convey the world's trends to the emperor in a timely manner.

The Department of Military Vehicles, near the left side of Donghua Gate, has two organs: one is called the Horse Museum, which is dedicated to the husband and horse; The Ministry of War sent another 16 military officers to the provincial capitals, under the jurisdiction of the Department of Inspectors, and the office directly sent the Beijing newspaper, which was called "Titang", and the origin of the name of this "Tang Bao".

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After the Ministry of Rites read the edict at Chengtianmen (Tiananmen), it was sent to the Yamen of the Ministry of Rites to be copied and sent to the provinces to be read on another day. Therefore, before the crowd dispersed, when they heard the eunuch's decree, they all turned back again.

In the Qianqing Palace, the first assistant Fang Congzhe, the second assistant Liu Yixie, Han Yi, and Zhou Jiamo, the secretary of the ministry; Huang Jiashan, the secretary of the Ministry of War, Huang Kezan, the secretary of the Criminal Department, Sun Ruyou, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Wang Zuo, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Li Ruhua, the secretary of the Ministry of Households, and Zhou Chaorui; Yang Lian of the Military Branch, Wei Yingjia of the Criminal Division, Li Ruogui of the Rite Division, Xue Fengxiang of the Household Division, and Hui Shiyang of the Engineering Division; Zhu Chunchen, the former military prince of Chengguo? , Zhang Weixian, the British Duke of the Later Army; The left army Hui Anbo Zhang Qingzhen, the Chinese army Huaiyuan waiting for Chang Yinxu? , Xu Hongji, the Duke of Wei in the Right Army; Li Shi, the imperial horse supervisor, Zou Yi and Shen Yin of Dongchang, Luo Sigong of Jinyi Wei and other ministers gathered together.

"Read it to you." Ye Xiang, who was sitting on the throne, saw that a group of old men had arrived, so he said to Wang Chengen.

"Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the Liaodong war report sent by Commander Gang Luo......" Then Wang Chengen read the content to everyone.

After hearing this, everyone divided into several small circles and exchanged heads, but the three of them ran up the steps of the throne without saying a word. Zou Yi and Li Shi didn't figure out the posture of this new monarch, and Shen Yin felt that it had little to do with him, and he also had the mentality of pointing where to fight.

Ye Xiang saw that he had been discussing for a long time, but no one had ever stood up to speak, so he said, "Everyone, Aiqing, let's talk about it, what should I do now?" ”

There are many opinions, this matter is too sudden, it is difficult to reach an agreement in a short time, and the result of the separate discussion just now is that if you go down and communicate, you should not be in front of the Son of Heaven, so that there is also room for turnaround.

Seeing Ye Xiang's question, Fang Congzhe came forward on behalf of the cabinet and the six ministries and said, "Your Majesty, you have just ascended to the pole, and you may not know much about the affairs of Liaodong, so leave it to the cabinet and the Ministry of War to deal with." ”

Ye Xiang didn't accept the call, thinking that I had invited all the people who should be called and those who shouldn't be called, and I wasn't afraid of you prevaricating, so I followed his words and said, "I don't know much? That's right, so who's going to explain it to me? Your Excellency Huang, this is a matter within your military department, so come first. ”

Huang Jiashan of the military department is not named, but he is not afraid. He had asked the eunuch before, and knew that something had happened in Liaodong, so he unfolded the map he borrowed from the military department, and explained to Ye Xiang while pointing, "There are 80,000 old officers and troops in Liaodong Town, and about 180,000 newly transferred officers and soldiers, a total of 260,000, which are stationed in Shenyang, Dongning (Liaoyang), Haizhou (Haicheng), Gaizhou (Gaixian), Guangning (Jinzhou) and other places. ”

The map is A2 in size, depicting the entire Liaodong Peninsula, the military deployment map within the Great Wall, the scale is unbalanced, especially the river is seriously exaggerated, but fortunately, the general situation can be distinguished.

"Now Xiong Tingbi is stationed here, Liaoyang, and Deputy Chief He Shixian is in Shenyang."

Ye Xiang nodded, "What is the situation of Jiannu now?" ”

"Jiannu takes 300 Ding as a Niu Lu, Wu Niu Lu as a Jiala, and Wujia La as a solid mountain, that is, a flag, a total of eight banners, the number of officers and soldiers is about 70,000, and the total population is around 300,000."

In terms of numbers, the total strength of the Ming army was superior, but it was divided into various military towns, and a large part of them were infantry; And the Jiannu are all cavalry, and they are all in one place. In this way, the Ming army is in a very disadvantageous position, and every time they fight, they fight more and less, and fight fast and slow.

Last year (March 1619), Yang Hao had divided his troops into four ways to annihilate the enemy with more and less, but he didn't want to wait for the arrival of the various divisions, and was broken by Nurhachi near Salhu, which was the famous Battle of Salhu. The battle resulted in nearly 50,000 casualties among the Ming army, while the casualties of the other side have been kept secret, presumably around 10,000.

Ye Xiang had calmed down, and there were only two ways at the moment, either to let Xiong Tingbi's officers and soldiers fight with him, or to ignore it, but he still wanted to listen to their opinions first, "Then what should I do now?" Discuss it. ”

Huang Jiashan of the Ministry of War still had the same attitude as Fang Congzhe, "Your Majesty, now it's just Jinyiwei's battle report, just a few words, so that everyone present doesn't know what is happening ahead, whether to wait for Xiong Tingbi and He Shixian's Tang to report and then discuss." ”

Ye Xiang thought to himself, when you finished the quarrel, it was not the same result, so he smiled slightly, "What about the Tang report?" All things are foreseen, and those who are not prepared are wasted. Regarding the matter of Liaodong, my opinion is that the offense and defense are combined, and I am ready to let Tengxiang Siwei and the 10th Battalion of Shenji go to Liaodong, and let me bring all the gunpowder and firearms in stock. ”

The British public was entrusted by the temple to admiral Jingying, and has been responsible for the safety of the Jingshi, "Your Majesty, this move must not be done, what should I do if the four guards and the Shenji Battalion have taken the comfort of the palace and the Jingshi?" It is better to let the military department transfer troops from the guards in various places. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty, Liaodong is thousands of miles away, and it is not a problem of elbows and armpits, but the capital is where the Son of Heaven lives, and safety is more important."

Ye Xiang disagreed with the words of the British duke, but still patiently explained, "This is wrong, Teng Xiang Siwei is a cavalryman, and I will give Jiannu a pair of Hu; In addition, the Shenji Battalion is a firearms battalion, regardless of the combat power, firearms are a great weapon, and it is not of much use to stay in the Beijing Division, so it is better to pull down Liaodong for verification. What's more, there are other pro-army and other officers and soldiers in the Beijing camp near the Beijing Division now, totaling 200,000, which is no hindrance. ”

In fact, everyone may not understand these truths, and the reason why they did not take the initiative was that they were worried that the emperor thought they were going to rebel, and secondly, they were worried about whether those pampered soldiers would be able to fight.

Ye Xiang thought relatively simply, anyway, these soldiers usually have to pay for their own money to raise, rather than let them eat and wait for death, it is better to throw them on the battlefield to temper them.

Ye Xiang knew from later generations that the combat effectiveness of the troops was fought in battle, not trained, and only soldiers who had experienced the baptism of war were qualified to be called soldiers.

Wei Yingjia of the Criminal Department looked at the problem from a different angle, and saw that everyone only knew the response and did not know how to pursue responsibility, so he added, "Shenyang is only 20 miles away from the Thirteen Villages, why didn't He Shixian go out of the city to rescue, even if there was a huge disparity in troops, he should also ask Xiong Tingbi in Liaoyang for help." Now it's good, more than ten days have passed, concealment and no report, there is no news in Beijing, and the minister asked the emperor to send Ti Cai to arrest He Shixian and bring him back to Beijing to ask for the crime. ”

Ye Xiang frowned, a little dissatisfied, "Don't mention anything like asking about the crime, wait for the Tang in Liaodong to report and find out what is going on these days." ”

Wei Yingjia, who has been in officialdom for a long time, naturally knows how to observe words and feelings, and when he saw that Ye Xiang, the emperor, was unhappy, he exchanged a look with his colleagues in the six branches and stopped talking.

Ye Xiang remembered that Wang An had previously reported that the Ministry of War had received the silver from the internal carrier, so he asked, "Did the Ministry of War send the 1.6 million down?" What are you waiting for? Hurry up the time, and be sure to distribute it to every officer and soldier before the end of the month, so that the officers and men at the border gates must not shed blood and tears. Well, the celebrant also sent someone to follow up, these silver are squeezed out of the internal money by the emperor's compassionate soldiers, and we must put an end to the messy phenomena such as deduction, fraud, and misappropriation. ”

Huang Jiashan seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, all the ministries were keeping an eye on such a large amount of money, and they had asked themselves to reconcile it many times, wanting to use it to make up for the previous deficit, but he was caught in the middle and promised not to agree. Now that the new monarch is also eyeing it, he doesn't need to be a person inside and out, so he replied, "The minister obeys the order, and the minister will send people to the towns when he returns." ”

Ye Xiang remembered that in addition to fighting for territory in Jiannu's attack on Shenyang, a lot of them may have failed to harvest again this year, and it should be for the material reserves, so he said to Yang Lian, "Well, seeing that winter is coming, I don't know if the border soldiers have enough clothes to protect themselves from the cold, Yang Aiqing, the military department still sent someone to go to the towns on my behalf, this is not a woman's kindness, right?" Ha ha. ”

"The emperor's compassion for the soldiers is the blessing of my Ming people, how can it be regarded as the benevolence of a woman? It's just that the emperor wants to send a messenger? ”

Ye Xiang was stunned for a moment, he is now the emperor, isn't it the Qin Cha who was temporarily sent out on business, and he held back the joy in his heart and said, "Well, yes, it's the Qin Cha." ”

Yang Lian was busy dealing with the government affairs left by Taichang, and with the new monarch ascending the throne, all matters related to military affairs had to be proofread by the military department and issued. And the new monarch is only sixteen years old, so he has to help check the gates, and he really doesn't want to leave the Jingshi, so as not to lose power.

Yang Lian thought of one person, and after weighing it, he said, "Since it is a Qin cha, the minister thinks that he should send someone who is old and serious, and he does not necessarily have to be from the military department, and the minister recommends one person to the emperor, that is, Xu Guangqi, the young Zhan Shi of the Zhan Mansion and the imperial history of Henan Province, who manages the military training." ”