The distance between Changning Fort and Shenyang Zhongwei was about 200 miles, so there were many artillery and baggage for the army, and at the same time, in order to preserve the strength of the soldiers to cope with the subsequent fierce battle, Ziren set the daily marching distance at 60 miles. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info (Ming Dynasty one mile equivalent to today's system is about 550 meters or so)

Along the way, Ma Shinan led a light horse to patrol the five miles ahead. During the march, Wang Shouguan and Zhou Daqi lived separately, and Ziren led Wang Mingqiang, Lei Zhenwei, Ding Shoutie and others to the center, guarding the baggage, the people and the thieves who were used as coolies.

Now it is the spring ploughing season, and the soldiers and civilians of Liaodong Town have received the news of the Mongol Tatar invasion at this time, and most of them have retreated to the tunbao to defend themselves, and only a few brave people are still working in the fields. Ziren saw many barren fields on both sides of the official road that were barren because no one cultivated them, and his heart was very uncomfortable. In order to retreat from the enemy as soon as possible, he looked at Jin Guan beside him and asked, "Brother Jin, how high is this Shenyang Acropolis?" How many soldiers can fight under General Sun's soldiers. ”

Seeing Ziren asking himself, Jin Guan said in order to show off: "This Shenyang City was the fief of King Shen 'Zhu Mo', the twenty-first son of Taizu, in the early years, in order to protect the vassal king, the perimeter of the city wall was nine miles and ten steps long when it was first built, and the city was two feet and five feet high, and then it was expanded several times, and it was a big fortified city in Liaodong Town. In the early years, there were two guards in Shenyang and left in the city, and King Shen moved in the Chengzu period, and now only one guard of Shenyang Zhongwei is left to garrison, plus my brother-in-law's battalion of soldiers, but the soldiers are about 8,000 people. ”

After hearing this, Ziren felt that it should be no big problem for this little force to stick to Shenyang, nodded lightly, and continued to ask: "I don't know how many soldiers are stationed in this 'Pingyu Fort' under Shenyang Wei, and what is the terrain around this fort?" ”

Jin Guan didn't expect that Ziren had just arrived in Liaodong for less than half a year, and he actually knew something about the subordinate forts of Shenyang Wei, and after being stunned for a moment, he said: "This Pingyu Fort and the five subordinate piers and platforms are garrisoned with a total of 270 officers and soldiers. This fort is located on the north bank of the Pu River, where the river is shallow, and the Mongol Tartars often break into it to harass the soldiers and civilians of Shenyang. For this reason, in the 17th year of Hongji, a water conservancy gate was built here, and after the river water accumulated, the river level was raised to prevent the Tartars from crossing it. After my brother-in-law took office, he built a new enemy platform by the gate, and once the enemy attacked, the defenders could send troops from the gate to defend against the enemy. ”

Speaking of this, Jin Guan suddenly understood something, and asked again: "Is it difficult for Ziren, do you think the Mongol Tatars will attack from Pingyu Fort?" ”

Ziren was only skeptical at first, but after hearing Jin Guan's words, he thought that Pingyu Fort was holding the key points, and the defenders were less than three hundred, so he said in a firm tone: "Although I am not sure, as long as we strictly guard this fort, the Mongolian Tartars will not be able to cross the Pu River, and I will not be able to make any waves." ”

After listening to this, Jin Guan felt that what Ziren said was very reasonable, and he was eager for a moment, and said: "Ziren or I will rush directly to Pingyu Fort to block the enemy and force back the Mengnu army, which is a great achievement." With that, he looked at Ziren with bright eyes.

Seeing this, Ziren straightened the helmet on his head, and said unhurriedly: "Sun Junmen is a fierce general who has been famous in Liaodong for a long time, and he must have already seen the weight of Pingyu Fort. At this time, Ziren paused intentionally, stared at Jin Guan for a moment, and said with a serious face: "If General Sun sends heavy troops to Pingyu Fort to garrison, I, Ding Shouming, will definitely accompany him." But if someone is cowardly in battle, my soldiers will not be called upon by others. ”

"That's nature." Jin Guan whispered back, knowing that Liaodong Town had become a cowardly enemy under the chief soldier Li Chengliang, Ziren Yiran was wary of his own family, and explained: "Ziren, don't worry, my brother-in-law has been galloping in Liaodong for many years, and after being promoted to deputy chief soldier in Shenyang, his family has also expanded to five hundred, and this battle will definitely give Mengnu a head-on blow." ”

After Ziren heard this, he didn't answer this anymore, and after smiling slightly, he chatted with Jin Guan without saying a word about the terrain and landforms around Shenyang Wei. But he secretly sighed in his heart that the brothers Li Chengliang and Li Chengcai relied on a Liaodong iron cavalry dominated by family members to play this glory for the Li family. Attracting the generals here to follow suit, this problem of heavy family and light soldiers has become the norm in Liaodong.

Although the family can fight, but after all, it is a private soldier, and the generals will try their best to deduct food and salary in order to recruit more family members, and it will not be beneficial to the country in the long run. For this reason, on Ziren's side, except for Ding Youcai, who is considered his own family, the rest of the people will have a superior-subordinate relationship with him.

However, it is no different to think about it, and after Ziren sighed, he led his troops to concentrate on the journey. Every day, Ziren supervised the army to pull out the camp at the hour of the hour, marched for two hours until noon to bury the pot to make food, rested for an hour and then set up the road again at the end of the day, and rushed to the city selected before and then set up camp.

Although Ziren carried 200 stone of grain and grass with the army, plus the pancakes and meatballs he carried with him, he could use the army for 20 days. However, in order to prevent the wars from changing and lacking food and grass, they still paid a lot of money to ask the fort guards to buy some pigs and sheep to reward the soldiers, and at the same time ordered people to boil hot water for the soldiers to burn their feet to relieve their fatigue. Fortunately, at this time, most of the Mongolian Tatars were still assembled outside the border wall, and the road was quite peaceful.

On the third day, Ziren led his troops to Baitapu, which was located twenty miles south of Shenyang City. Seeing that it was still early, Jin Guan proposed to hurry up and strive to spend the night in Shenyang City tonight. However, Ziren saw that the soldiers were a little tired after a few days of traveling, and under the pretext that the soldiers needed to recuperate, they still camped here according to the original plan.

Who knew that as soon as Ziren led the troops to press the camp, a soldier came to report, saying that the Baitapu garrison had brought a batch of wine and meat to the outside of the camp to ask for a meeting.

Ziren passed through many cities along the way, and the guards in the city were worried about the passage of the guests, and the city gates were closed. When this initiative came to see him, Ziren felt fresh, so he took a group of generals to meet him.

The person who came was a middle-aged man in his forties, and when he saw Ziren, he immediately stepped forward quickly, clasped his hands into fists and said with an anxious face: "The last general is Xuezhong, seeing that the generals and soldiers are strong and strong, they have come to ask for help." Her younger brother Yu Xuezhi is the head of the pier five miles away from here, and now he is being attacked by Mengnu, and he hopes that the general will come to his rescue. ”

As soon as he heard that a colleague was besieged by the enemy, Ziren immediately came to his senses and asked: "General Yu, how many people are coming from the Mongolian Tatars, let's talk about it quickly, let's wait for a strategy to retreat from the enemy." ”

Yu Xuezhong saw that Ziren was willing to come to the rescue, and quickly replied: "There are about 200 Mongolian Tatars, and the last general is willing to lead twenty horsemen to fight with the general." ”

I heard that there were not many enemies, but in order to ensure the victory of this battle, Ziren did not dare to be careless. After some consideration, it was decided that he would personally lead Wang Mingjian and Zhou Daqi's two divisions, plus Lei Tiedan's charioteers, and lead the way to kill the enemy because of Xuezhong. Jin Guan, Lei Zhenwei, Wang Shouguan, Ding Shoutie and others stayed here.

(Next chapter updated by 8 p.m. tomorrow night)