On July 20 of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Liu Fan, who returned home, suddenly received a holy decree that Chongzhen wanted to recruit him into the palace. Liu Fan asked the little eunuch emperor what was going on to recruit him into the palace, the little eunuch said that he didn't know, and seeing that he couldn't ask anything, Liu Fan had to hurry back to Beijing, and after seeing Chongzhen in the palace, Liu Fan asked, "Your Majesty, I don't know what you did when you recruited Weichen?" ’”

Chongzhen looked at Liu Fan, "I didn't expect that I hadn't seen him for a month, and Jimin would be like this!" When I first saw Jimin, my skin was fair-skinned and I was covered with the breath of a scroll, but now the whole person exudes a fierce and heroic atmosphere! It seems that Jimin has succeeded in training! ”

Hearing Chongzhen's words, Liu Fan's face darkened, of course, he couldn't see it on the surface! "Huh! The minister thinks it's a success! After all, they haven't seen blood yet, and they are not really elite soldiers! ”

"I have time to bring it to see, I really want to see what the soldiers trained by Jimin according to the future generations are like! This time, I called Aiqing to come mainly to ask about something! ”

"Your Majesty, if there is anything but ask, as long as the minister knows everything!" Liu Fan hurriedly expressed his loyalty

"Well, the teacher recently came to Song Fold and said that he was going to build the Daling River again, Aiqing knows the history, and I want to ask if it has succeeded. Will it be dangerous this time? Chongzhen asked

"Teacher? Emperor Sun Chengzong? He wants to build the Daling River? Liu Fan asked anxiously

"Yes, it's time for the first month of the new year, I sent a teacher to the governor's military affairs outside the Guan, and he planned to build the Daling River, and now he sent me a note to implement it!"

"Oops! This time, the construction of the Daling River not only failed, but also caused almost all of the Guanning Iron Cavalry built by Yuan Chonghuan to lose everything! Your Majesty! Did Zu Dashou set off? Liu Fan was anxious

"Huh? It's already off! Chongzhen exclaimed

"Can you send someone to inform him?" Liu Fan asked

"It's late! Even if you send someone to expedite it for 800 miles, it's too late! Moreover, even if I send someone to inform him, it may not be useful, not to mention that since Yuan Chonghuan's death, the Liaodong Group is basically not controlled by the imperial court, Zu Dashou is wary of the imperial court everywhere, and basically will not leave the military camp by himself, I just want to send Jinyi Wei to arrest him, and there is no chance! The wood is already in the boat, and I have nothing to do," Chongzhen explained

"Alas!" The two of them sighed in unison

"The minister also wants to train his soldiers as soon as possible and participate in the battle of Daling River! Hearing you say that, it seems that there is no chance! Liu Fan sighed

"Hmmm! I won't send you to be a shield for them!" Now that this matter is out of control, it can only be left to fate! I'm also curious about the Battle of the Great Ling River, so tell me what the Battle of the Great Ling River was like in history! Chongzhen also said helplessly

"The Daling River is a transportation hub connecting the Northeast and the Central Plains, the Northern Expedition of the Qi State to Shanrong, the Cao Wei expedition to Wuhuan, the former Yan to the Central Plains, the Northern Qi to attack the Khitan, the Sui and Tang Dynasties to pacify Goryeo, all to the Daling River Valley as the main route of the march. The Daling River is an important line of defense to shield Jinzhou. If the Ming army wants to consolidate Liao, it must build this city; Then if Jin wants to attack Ming, he must also demolish this city. Since the time of Yuan Chonghuan, the competition between the two sides for the two cities of the Great and Small Linghe has been very fierce, and it has been two constructions and two demolitions. Chen Zhen didn't know what Zu Dashou thought, he dared to build the Daling River with only a few days of food, and the pigs were smarter than him! In the face of the rebuilding of the Ming army, of course, Huang Taiji could not sit idly by, he immediately requisitioned a large army, including the Mongol soldiers, and divided the troops into two routes, one route was Beledeg, Yuetuo, Azige led 20,000 troops, and settled between Jinzhou and the Daling River through Yizhou, cutting off the connection between Jinzhou and the Daling River. Huang Taiji personally led the army through Montenegro and Quang Ninh to press towards Dalinghe City from the front. On the 27th day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, starting from Shenyang, the Liao River was crossed on the vertical day, which opened the prelude to the Battle of Linghe.

In the battle of the Daling River in this time, Huang Taiji changed his previous tactics of hard attack to encirclement. He ordered the soldiers of the Eight Banners to dig four trenches around the city, and built a wall more than one zhang high, surrounding the small Linghe City like an iron bucket. The Ming army never expected that the Jin soldiers would make such a ruthless move, they looked down from the city, and saw: "The reverse slaves surrounded the Ling, dug four trenches in a row, bent and difficult to walk, the equipment was complete, and the plan was the most cunning." "The grain and grass in the city were only enough for a few days, and after a few days of siege, the city ran out of food. The soldiers in the city were all terrified, and Zu Dashou made several tentative breakthroughs, but they were all killed by the Jin soldiers. In desperation, he had to sit in the city of sorrow, looking forward to reinforcements. After less than half a month, on the 16th day of August, 2,000 defenders of Songshan came to reinforce them, but due to the disparity in numbers, they were defeated by the Jin soldiers without much effort, and the first rescue failed. On the 26th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the commander-in-chief Wu Xiang and Song Wei led 6,000 Jinzhou soldiers to come to the rescue, and Azig led the troops to meet the enemy. This time it was also defeated! The second rescue also failed! In the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the general soldiers Wu Xiang and Song Wei once again led troops to help, this time Huang Taiji personally commanded the army to meet the attack, this time the defeat was even worse, and 6,000 people fled in defeat. Huang Taiji also sent people to pretend to be reinforcements to lure Zu Dashou out of the city, and Zu Dashou really fell into the plan and was deceived out of the city to surround him. Fortunately, his subordinates were desperately rescued and were not caught! Since then, he has never succeeded, even if Zhang Chun, the superintendent of the army, led an army of 40,000 to Zu Dashou, there was no response. On the 27th day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, the army crossed the Xiaoling River and approached the Dalinghe City, and when it was fifteen miles away from the Dalinghe City, it met the Jin soldiers. Zhang Chun in order to stifle the cavalry, used a lot of chariots, chariots equipped with firearms, the two sides began to fight, the Eight Banners suffered some losses, rushed several times were unsuccessful, the chariot array slowly advanced, at this time the Jin soldiers had already had the powerful red-coated cannon, at this time was in the middle of the avenue, waiting for the arrival of the Ming army. When the Ming army entered the firing range, forty cannons were fired one after another, and the camp of the Ming army was in chaos at that time, Huang Taiji led the army to rush up, and the Ming army was killed and retreated. Zhang Chun saw that the situation was not good, and saw that the wind was going east, so he used fire to attack, the fire was fierce, and pounced on the Jin soldiers, who were forced back by the fire, and the soldiers were defeated like a mountain, Zhang Chun wanted to curb the rout, but it was useless, and finally even he himself was swept into the tide of defeat and retreat. Huang Taiji had already laid an ambush on the way of the retreat of the Ming army, and most of the fleeing Ming troops gave up resistance and surrendered when they encountered ambushes. Zhang Chun and more than 30 of his generals were captured alive, and the commanders Wu Xiang and Song Wei only escaped with a few dozen people. The army of 40,000 reinforcements collapsed in this way, and the fourth reinforcement was almost completely annihilated. The Ming and Jin sides were earth-shattering, but Zu Dashou did not move in the city, did not reflect at all, some history books said that Zu Dashou was scared by the fake reinforcements of Huang Taiji, and he couldn't tell whether it was true or false, and he was afraid of being fooled again. The city has been without food for nearly two months, and everything that should be eaten and everything that should not be eaten has been eaten, and there is nothing left to eat except people. Zhang Chun was defeated again, and Da Linghe was completely in a desperate situation. The soldiers and civilians in Dalinghe City struggled in hell for ten more days, and on the seventh day of the tenth lunar month, Huang Taiji once again sent Shuzu Dashou and sent Jiang Xin, a general, to the city for an interview. Zu Dashou sent a general named Han Dong to negotiate in the Jin camp. On the evening of the 25th day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, Zu Kefa, Zu Zerun, Liu Tianlu, Zhang Cunren and other four people arrived at the Jin Bing camp with Shi Tingzhu, and Huang Taiji personally greeted them, and the four knelt down and bowed. On the 28th day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar, Zu Dashou opened the city gate and led the crowd to Jinying. After surrendering, Zu Dashou suggested to Huang Taiji: his wife and children are in Jinzhou City, and while Jinzhou does not know that he has surrendered, he is willing to take a group of soldiers and horses to Jinzhou, and take Jinzhou City as an internal response in the city. Huang Taiji agreed to let Zu Dashou go to Jinzhou City. As soon as Zu Dashou returned to Jinzhou City, he organized a defense against the Qing army. In this battle, the Guanning Iron Cavalry built by the imperial court with a lot of money was completely wiped out, and the Ming Dynasty no longer had the strength to stop the Houjin from plundering and ravaging the north! Liu Fan said with a little heaviness

"Zu Dashou!" Chongzhen clenched his fists and shouted through gritted teeth, and then collapsed weakly on the chair and let go of his hands, because he found that he couldn't deal with Zu Dashou at all. Once the persecution is too tight, people turn around and surrender to Houjin, that is the really bad thing, then not only will Shanhaiguan be in danger, but there will also be a huge enemy! It can only be kept in the cage!

"Is there any way Aiqing can reduce the loss?" Chongzhen looked at Liu Fan expectantly and asked

After thinking about it for a long time, Liu Fan said to Chongzhen guiltily: "The minister has no choice, it's all because the minister is incompetent, and he actually forgot such an important thing, causing me to lose the last barrier against Houjin!" ”

"Alas! It's not your fault! After all, it's too late for you to come, and I can't control the situation in Liaodong anymore! Aiqing, don't blame yourself, you've done a good job! Chongzhen comforted

Hearing Chongzhen say this, Liu Fan felt even more uncomfortable, and suddenly Liu Fan thought of one thing and hurriedly said to Chongzhen: "In August of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Kong Youde, the old department of Liaodong, rebelled, and caused chaos in Shandong. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is the biggest traitor! ”

"How can this be true? I'm going to send someone to arrest Kong Youde! Chongzhen was furious

Liu Fan hurriedly stopped, "No, Your Majesty, not to mention that Kong Youde, as the leader of the Liaodong Army, has a large army around him, I am afraid that there will be no way to catch him in just 10 days, even if he is caught, I am afraid that it will also cause the army to rebound, and the situation will be even more out of control at that time!" It's better to know what he's going to do now. Make arrangements early and strive to minimize losses! ”

"Then Aiqing has a good way!" Chongzhen asked

"For today's plan, the only way to do this is to send someone to inform Zhang Keda, the chief soldier of Denglai, to make preparations as soon as possible, and then inform Yu Dacheng, the governor of Shandong, to take strict precautions and not accept Kong Youde's fraudulent surrender! In addition, the minister asked for an order to go out to fight against the rebellion of Kong Youde! ”

"Oh? Has Jimin already trained his soldiers? But I'm afraid it's useless to deal with Kong Youde's tens of thousands of rebels with just five hundred people! Chongzhen was skeptical

"It's useless to take a look at it, it just so happens that the Broken Army is about to become an army! Please ask Your Majesty to review the troops and preside over the ceremony of breaking the army! Liu Fan knelt down and said

"Good! Since Aiqing has this determination, I will promise you! Three days later, parade outside the city! Chongzhen said happily

"Your Majesty, this matter should not be publicized, there are many people in the capital, once the combat effectiveness of the broken army is seen by someone with a heart, it will inevitably be investigated, and the secret of the minister's training will not be guaranteed! In case there is a Houjin spy among them, it will not be good for the future battle of the captive army! ”

"Hmmm! Aiqing has a point! In that case, let's change it to the Imperial Garden! Anyway, there are not many people in 500, and the Imperial Garden can accommodate it! I have given you a holy decree, and you should bring your troops here! Don't bring weapons," Chongzhen said after thinking about it

"Yes! Commanded! Your Majesty's ministers still have one thing, the Broken Army has no armor yet, you don't think you will allocate a batch of armor! Liu Fan hurriedly said

"Oh! Then you go to the War Bureau to get 500 mandarin duck battle jackets! ”