The salt reform had just begun, and the bandits in the Central Plains had not yet been exterminated, so at this time, Liu Jun was not in a hurry to fight the Manchus. At this time, he didn't have the strength to directly destroy the Manchu Qing, since this was the case, there was no need to be distracted to fight.

It's good to stabilize the defense line of the Great Wall first, if the Manchu Qing people dare to hit the door, then Liu Jun can't wait for work, with a strong city defense and sharp forts, let them know what it means to regret.

Gyeonggi has become Liu Jun's home base, and he is doing his best to control it.

The protruding plague made the canal, which had not yet thawed, even more unusable. Liu Jun is planning a full sea freight to replace the original Cao Yun. It has long been proved that in fact, sea transportation is far more convenient and less expensive than water transportation. However, although Daming has used the sea several times, he quickly adhered to the Cao Yun system.

There are many reasons, and one of the most important reasons is that the Cao Yun involves the interests of countless people, officials and businessmen, and local interests. Even if the canal is often silted up, there are often effects such as levee bursting and diversion, resulting in the canal being unusable. Moreover, the canal is composed of multiple river sections, and the water level of different rivers is not the same, so it is not smooth sailing for boats to go up the canal.

There are many checkpoints on the canal, not only for tax collection, but for sluices, just like the Three Gorges Channel in later generations, through which the rivers of different water levels need to be connected and allowed to be lifted and lowered by ships.

Such a gate has a great impact on navigation, and some busy gates, ships sometimes have to queue for five or six days to pass through the customs. On this canal, there are dozens of canal cities, hundreds of thousands of Caoding.

The imperial court transported the grain and rice from the south through the Caochuan Canal and transported it to the north, which took a lot of time along the way, and there were often various drifts, etc., which made the transportation cost of the grain extremely high. Over the years, the imperial court has lost much money and grain on Caoyun.

However, because the interests of too many people are involved, it is obviously more cost-effective. The faster way of shipping was not used by the imperial court at all.

Liu Jun believes that it is time to change the transportation to sea, through the Yellow River, Huai River, Yangtze River and other major rivers to transport materials to the sea, and then through the sea to transport materials to the central center of Gyeonggi.

As for the interests of many people who will be touched, Liu Jun is not too worried.

It's not a few years ago now, Liu Jun has basically completed the control of the central center and Gyeonggi and the Central Plains, and whoever dares to jump out will kill himself.

For Wu Sangui and the Qing army, Liu Jun really didn't pay much attention to it.

He was appointed as the superintendent, and the governor was directly subordinate to the two military regions outside the Guanwai and the towns of the four provinces and were fully responsible for the rebellion and counterinsurgency. The first order he issued was to order all the people in Jinzhou and other places to withdraw to Ningyuan. Except for some of the necessary materials left for Zuo Liangyu, the rest were all taken away, and everything that could not be taken away was burned.

Originally, Liu Jun planned that Zuo Liangyu would also withdraw to Ningyuan and clear Jinzhou, Yizhou and other places, but at the meeting of the Military Aircraft Department, they insisted that Zuo Liangyu continue to guard Jinzhou, and Liu Jun didn't say much. However, in his official letter to Zuo Liangyu, he still asked Zuo Liangyu to withdraw the soldiers and horses of Yizhou and other cities into Jinzhou City, shrink and concentrate troops for defense.

Liu Jun's second order. It is to order all the armies of the northern Great Wall defense line, so that they can dispatch troops in a timely manner to launch a round of sweep within 100 miles outside the defense line.

"I want them to sweep away everything within a hundred miles of our line before the rebels arrive. Break all the fortresses. Sweep away all the villages, and copy back all the people, livestock, money, and grain within a hundred miles, and I want that hundred miles of the area. The walls are clear, there is nothing, and there is no house. There is not a clean well, nor a grain of grain. ”

As Liu Jun expected, there were still many people in the court who opposed his two orders, feeling that they were not the work of Wang Shi. Liu Jun didn't bother to pay attention to these people.

A war is a war, and it is common for flesh and blood to fly on the battlefield and rivers of blood.

The generals and colonels of the Chu army were all in favor of Liu Jun's order. They all know the significance of this move. Defending does not mean that you have to retreat into the fortress and not come out.

Defense, there is also active defense, timely dispatch of troops, sweep the perimeter, clear the wall, which will make the defense line safer. It will also make the enemy troops from afar not reinforced, and even the cannon fodder will not be found.

Datong, Changping, Jizhen, Qian'an, Yongping, and Qiantun each have a joint army and horses, and at the same time, a division is assembled and deployed in Xuanfu, Miyun, Zunhua, Shanhaiguan, and Ningyuan.

In addition, Liu Jun set up a rebellion in Tongzhou, gathered three divisions, and responded in the center.

The defense of the entire Ming army has thus formed three levels, not only on the entire Great Wall, but also in several important defense areas deployed heavy troops, which can support and respond at any time. There are also tens of thousands of Liu Jun's general reserve army in Tongzhou, which can be in the center at any time. No matter from which point the Qing army wanted to attack, the Ming army could ensure that there were troops to defend, and at the same time, the rear could quickly support.

In this defense command system, Liu Jun, the assistant minister of Gu Ming, a cabinet scholar and the governor of Zhili, was naturally the commander with full authority.

Liu Jun set up a headquarters for the fight against rebellion and counterinsurgency in Tongzhou, and a staff office, an operations office, and a logistics department were set up under the headquarters, and the headquarters directly commanded the divisions and associations below. In fact, this directly commanded the soldiers and horses of several towns of the two military regions, and broke the original command level of the Army-Division Association.

Liu Jun did this not only for the convenience of command, but also to directly throw aside Hu Dawei, Mengruhu, Zuo Liangyu, and other general officers, bypass them, and directly command the divisions and associations below. It is precisely for this reason that Liu Jun has engaged in this command system this time.

Especially Liu Jun, just like when he was in Liaodong, for those governors, inspectors, and military supervisors of ministers and civil officials, they were just put aside for decoration. There is no room for them to speak when it comes to commanding operations.

Jinzhou.

After Zuo Liangyu received Liu Jun's official document, he was shocked and angry. What was surprising was that Liu Jun actually wanted to evacuate the people, and what was angry was that Liu Jun refused to come to reinforce Jinzhou.

"What the king of the county means is that Admiral Zuo will stay in Jinzhou for the time being, and after the people have evacuated, he will also abandon Jinzhou and withdraw to Ningyuan." The one who came to give the order was a young officer of the Right Captain.

"Is this what the king of the county meant?" Zuo Liangyu didn't see these on the official documents, and asked suspiciously.

"Yes. With the intention of the king of the county, there is no need to fight with the Tartars for an inch of land here. There is only one empty city in Jinzhou, which is too far away from Guannei. Whether it is the supply of food, grass and ordnance, or the reinforcement of soldiers and horses, it is not in our favor. It is better to withdraw to Ningyuan, Ningyuan needs sufficient food, grass and ordnance, as well as a strong city defense battery, and it is also close to the Shanhaiguan in the back. If the rebels want to fight Ningyuan, the supply line will drag on for a long time, and it will be far away from Liaoyang and other important cities of the Qing army. We don't even need to attack, as long as we hold on, we'll kill them. ”

"But if the rebels don't fight Ningyuan, then won't we lose Jinzhou, Yizhou, Guangning and other places?"

"If you lose it, you lose it, and that's only temporary. Without a population, it's just a wasteland. The rebels are occupied, and what do they get? Do they dare to occupy the business? In the summer, our sailors can land and attack anywhere along the coast of western Liaoning, and they will not be able to stand at all. ”

Zuo Liangyu smiled bitterly, he couldn't keep up with Liu Jun's thoughts. With so much land in western Liaoning, how could it be worthless in Liu Jun's eyes.

"If I stick to Jinzhou, will the county king send troops to help?"

"No, it won't." The young lieutenant told him the answer unabashedly.

"We want to control the initiative on the battlefield, the county king has already demarcated the battlefield, formulated a plan, and more than 100,000 troops have been deployed. The king of the county will not break the entire deployment because of you and Jinzhou. ”

After the envoy left, Zuo Liangyu pondered alone for a long time.

He originally planned to stick to Jinzhou, but now, he didn't expect Liu Jun to have such a plan. After thinking about it for a long time, he finally changed his mind. Since the people sent by Liu Jun have said it so clearly, they will definitely not come to help.

"Liu Jiye, this is a coward?"

After Zuo Liangyu informed his subordinates that they were ready to withdraw to Ning Yuan, his generals talked a lot, and Liu Guoneng snorted coldly.

"Do you think Liu Jiye is a cowardly enemy, who is he cowardly? Wu Sangui or Hauge? Another general, Ma Jinzhong, retorted, "When Liu Jun beheaded Huangtaiji's soldiers in Liaodong and besieged Liaoyang, Haoge abandoned the city and fled, and he didn't dare to fight at all. Liu Jun dared to cross the sea to attack Liao with a town of soldiers and horses, and he conquered the two towns of Lushun and Zhenjiang, and once broke through Liaoyang and surrounded Shenyang, you say Liu Jun was cowardly? ”

"Hmph, I don't think there is anyone in the world who is more daring and brave than Liu Jiye. I think Liu Jiye's arrangement is very reasonable, whether it is a frontal charge or a side detour, as long as you can win. Liu Jiye is playing a big game of chess, and I think he is fishing. ”

Zuo Liangyu didn't want to guess Liu Jun's true thoughts, he just sighed that he finally gained a foothold in Jinzhou Yizhou and ran a piece of his own territory, and now, he has to give it up again.

Back to Ningyuan, he, the commander of the army, can only be in name only.

At this moment, he suddenly felt a little bored.

On the same day, Zuo Liangyu didn't care about the people in Jinzhou, Yizhou, Songshan and other places, and he directly retreated with his 30,000 horses as soon as he gave the order. Zuo Liangyu only brought 10,000 Yu troops when he came to Guanwai, but after arriving in Liaoxi, he privately recruited and supplemented 20,000 people, and now he has 30,000 horses.

However, these recruited soldiers and horses are not excellent soldiers, the military discipline of the left army has always been extremely poor, and the 10,000 people he brought are mostly the original bandits who surrendered when the Central Plains suppressed bandits.

With this retreat, many officers and men of the left army took advantage of the fire to loot and openly loot.

The left army retreated and plundered, plundering every city it withdrew, and when it left, it set fire to the city.

Zuo Liangyu really cleared the wilderness and retreated all the way, leaving a scorched earth behind him. (To be continued.) )