readx; That night, Zhu Youzhen boarded the ship with Yuan Chonghuan, Li Laiheng, Cao Wenzhao and others, and the four grain ships plus the newly repaired Yuan Chonghuan ship, the five ships slowly marched towards Ningyuan. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

However, this time it was not as fast as it came, because the wind at sea suddenly weakened, and although the sailors kept adjusting the course and sails to make the ship as capable of using the wind as possible, the speed of the ship was like a turtle, and it took two days to drift at sea before reaching the vicinity of the mouth of the Pohai Sea. This also exposes the shortcomings of maritime transport in this era, that is, there is no power other than wind power, so its reliability is much inferior to that of land.

Although Zhu Youzhen was anxious, he had no choice but to study the terrain of eastern Liaodong with Yuan Chonghuan and others every day and chat to relieve his boredom. But in my heart, I was thinking that it was obviously unrealistic to expect the engine to appear now, and if I wanted to sail against the wind, I had to rely on human paddling.

But the sea boat is not a small boat, its weight is very large, in order to row with oars, in addition to the boat needs to be modified, a large number of oarsmen, at least dozens of people. Then every time the ship goes to sea, it must bring dozens of more people, as well as the food and fresh water of these dozens of people, and the consumption will naturally increase greatly. The trade-off between speed and consumption is a real headache.

On the third day, as spring approached, the sea turned southeasterly, and the speed of the ship increased sharply. Everyone roared with joy, aimed the course at Ning Yuan, hung up the full sail and moved forward at full speed.

Another day passed, and the outline of Juehua Island was already visible in the distance. While everyone was cheering, Zhu Youzhen remembered the past when the soldiers and civilians on the island were slaughtered by the Houjin army and thousands of ships were burned more than two years ago, and his heart couldn't help but be gloomy.

Suddenly, Yuan Chonghuan exclaimed, "Holy Lord, there are two ships approaching us!" ”

The sailors and soldiers on the ship immediately went into a state of alert, there were no guns on the grain ship, only four small Francophone cannons on the side of Yuan Chonghuan's ship, and the gunners hurriedly loaded their ammunition and prepared to shoot. Although the Jurchens did not have a navy, they had become more and more rampant recently, and occasionally they would flow into this sea area, so everyone was like a great enemy.

When the distance was closer, Yuan Chonghuan breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Don't worry, it's our ship, and the person on the bow of the boat is still waving to us." Hey, this person's body looks familiar..."

When the two sides got closer, Zhu Youzhen and Yuan Chonghuan were surprised. It turned out that it was none other than Sun Chengzong, the secretary of the ministry! I saw that the old man was so anxious that his face was flushed, and he jumped high on the bow of the boat and shouted desperately. But the distance is too far to hear what is being shouted.

Zhu Youzhen's heart tightened suddenly, secretly thinking that Sun Chengzong was not thrown to Shanhaiguan by himself, what would he do in Ningyuan, and why was he so panicked? Could it be that the situation in Liaodong has changed?

When the ships on both sides were less than 100 feet apart, the sailors on the opposite boat suddenly shouted in unison: "Jinzhou and Daling River are surrounded!" ”

Zhu Youzhen's head "buzzed", and he almost didn't sit on the deck. Yuan Chonghuan hurriedly hugged him, but Zhu Youzhen struggled to shake off his arm and scolded: "Your uncle's Yuan Chonghuan, look at the good things you have done!" You didn't stay in Ningyuan, you had to go to Phi Island, and you delayed me for more than ten days! If the border armies of the two cities are completely destroyed, I will have to kill you alive! ”

Of course, Yuan Chonghuan also knew the seriousness of the situation, so he was so frightened that he knelt on the deck and kowtowed repeatedly. Zhu Youzhen gritted his teeth with hatred, and just flew up and wanted to kick Yuan Chonghuan, but he paused and said, "Kowtow has a fart!" Hurry up and enter Ningyuan City, and think of a remedy! ”

Several boats quickly docked, and Sun Chengzong also got off the boat, almost crawling in front of Zhu Youzhen, panting and saying: "Saint... Holy Lord, you are so big-hearted, why have you been gone for so long! Dalinghe and Jinzhou have been besieged for five days, and Jianyu is attacking with all his might, how good is this! ”

Zhu Youzhen hurriedly flew on the horse that had been prepared, and while entering Ningyuan City, he listened to Sun Chengzong's detailed report on the battle situation.

It turned out that Emperor Taiji of the Great Khan of Houjin sent Ning Wan and me to Beijing to negotiate peace on the one hand, and on the other hand, he was also strong and ready to attack at any time. Although Zhu Youzhen soon came to Liaodong and blocked the news for a few days, due to the delay of more than ten days back and forth on the trip to Phi Dao, the Houjin side still learned the news that Ning Wan and I had been killed.

Huang Taiji was furious when he heard the news, and he was also ready to raise troops to invade the south after the long winter, so he immediately raised more than 100,000 troops from the eight banners of the Houjin, Mongolia and Han armies, and set off from Shenyang, Liaoyang and Guangning respectively, and it took only a day and a half to approach the city of Dalinghe and surround the city that had not yet been completed.

Zu Dashouzheng, the general of the Daling River and the chief soldier of the Pingliao forward, led 35,000 border troops to build a city here, and saw that the Houjin army suddenly arrived, of course, he did not dare to go out of the city to meet the enemy, so he had to close the four gates and shrink out, and the Houjin army immediately surrounded the Daling River on all sides like an iron bucket.

Huang Taiji also felt that he was still unsatisfied, hundreds of thousands of troops besieged this small city, and the troops were not easy to deploy, and he ordered one of the four major Baylors, the blue flag lord Mang Gurtai, to be the commander, and the white flag of Jierharang, Yue Tuo's red flag, and one of the yellow flags led by his eldest son Haoge, quickly crossed the city of Dalinghe and went straight to Jinzhou, dozens of miles away.

The current guard of Jinzhou is Zhu Mei, the chief soldier, who was excluded by Zu Dashou, and only had 8,000 old and weak soldiers under his command. Although Jinzhou has been built, it is not enough for these 8,000 weak soldiers to protect themselves, let alone rescue the Daling River, so Zhu Mei has no choice but to defend Jinzhou, and at the same time Pegasus tells Ning Yuan to be anxious. As soon as the news was sent, the Eight Banners army surrounded Jinzhou, and no news came out since.

It just so happened that Yuan Chonghuan, who was stationed in Ningyuan, went to Phi Island, and Ning Yuanshou dared to call the shots, so he had to continue to report to Gaodi in Shanhaiguan. Gao Di and Sun Chengzong were waiting for the emperor at Shanhaiguan, and when they suddenly heard of this great change, they were so frightened that their souls were scattered.

Gao Di didn't have any military talent, so it might be okay for him to guard the mountain pass, but in such an emergency, he didn't know what to do. However, Sun Chengzong was still calm, on the one hand, he ordered people to chase Zhao Shujiao quickly, and asked him to quickly lead the army back to Shanhaiguan; On the other hand, he led more than 10,000 troops from Mangui's department to march to Ningyuan, and it took two days and two nights to hurry there.

But Sun Chengzong also knew that if more than 10,000 people went to fight with the Houjin army, most of them would be more than lucky. Jinzhou and Daling River have a lot of grain in stock, and the city is very strong, so they should be able to hold it for a while. Besides, he is not the commander of the army now, but only a secretary of the ministry, and he has no authority to make such a major military decision. Therefore, he was anxious for the emperor to come back to preside over the overall situation, and in a hurry, he even went to sea by boat, wanting to go to Phi Island to find Zhu Youzhen, but fortunately he ran into it after walking a short distance.

Zhu Youzhen's eyebrows tightened after listening to the introduction, and he said after a long time: "Lord Shangshu, and you, Yuan Chonghuan!" What do you think is the time to go? ”