Early in the morning of September 7, snowflakes fell one after another, fluttering and falling with the north wind between the heavens and the earth, and after accumulating on the ground, the mountains and rivers turned into a white picture. Compared with 10 days ago, Yulinpu, fifteen miles south of Gaizhou, has changed its appearance, two shallow trenches have been dug on the periphery, the old fort city has been reinforced, the ruins of the city are covered with tents, and the fourth battalion of Dengzhou is stationed inside and outside the fort city.

The official road from Gaizhou winds its way outside the fort, and the surrounding plains are snow-white, except for the silhouettes of shrubs, woods, and ruined villages.

Yulinpu is surrounded by a wilderness land, the width of the east and west is about ten miles, the length of the north and south is about twenty-five miles, Yulinpu is fourteen miles away from the Qinghe, and it is about two miles away from the mountains on the east side. After the Houjin massacre of Nansiwei, the fertile fields of that year became wasteland, which was overgrown with wild grasses and shrubs, but the ground became relatively flat, and the whole area did not have complex terrain.

Two or three miles away from the east of Yulinpu, there are a series of peaks with an altitude of 100 to 200 meters such as Phoenix Mountain, Songtou Mountain, Shidaokou Mountain, etc., forming the barrier of the eastern part of Yulinbao, about five miles to the west is the Rotor Mountain, a few miles to the west of the Rotor Mountain is the Liaohai Sea, there are mountains such as Xitao Mountain and Banxian Mountain standing by the sea, and there are several dilapidated fishing villages under the mountain (the place names are all from the "Gaiping County Chronicle").

Less than a mile north of Yulinpu is the commanding heights of the plains near Yulinbao Xushan, the altitude is less than 100 meters, it is covered with dry woods, the top of the mountain has erected the flying tiger flag of Dengzhou Town, a division of the fourth battalion is stationed there, the ruins of four villages are distributed from east to west in the wilderness north of Xushan, namely Ertaizi Village, Wangjiatun Village, Zhuanzishan Village, and Zhangwangzhai.

Zhu Guobin is in Xushan. He had come here to inspect the Mandarin Duck Formation Division stationed there, and at this time he was about to go down the mountain to the two outposts north of Xushan. Before walking down the top of the mountain, Zhu Guobin stopped and looked at the direction of Gaizhou, he is a native of Haizhou, Liaodong, only more than 100 miles away from Gaizhou, the first year of the Apocalypse, Nuer Hachi conquered Liaoshen, more than 70 forts in Liaodong fell from the wind, Zhu Guobin escaped by sea alone, and it has been 16 years. The impression of his hometown is a little blurred, but the desire to recover Liaodong is getting hotter and hotter.

When Chongzhen met Chen Xin in the first year, Zhu Guobin admired this person, Chen Xin said at the time to take him to kill the Tartars, Zhu Guobin was just thinking that Chen Xin would take the boat to secretly go ashore in Liaodong, and then kill a few lone Tartars, eight years have passed in a blink of an eye. But it was a dignified battle between tens of thousands of troops and Jiannu, which looks like a dream in retrospect.

The rumbling hooves pulled Zhu Guobin back from his memories, and the cavalry under the mountain headed north, and in the first two days, Dengzhou Town had withdrawn most of its troops on the south bank of the Qing River, leaving only a small number of cavalry and dragoons to monitor the enemy. However, Jiannu did not take special action yet, and there was a bend of the Qing River to the east of Gaizhou City, where two ferries were not blocked, and the Houjin Sentinel Cavalry used to constantly cross the river from there and fight with the Sentinel Cavalry of Dengzhou on the south bank. Fierce outpost battles are launched, and now more reconnaissance is to the south. An attempt was made to confirm the deployment of troops in Dengzhou.

This group of cavalry, which Zhu Guobin sent today, numbered about 500 people, half dragoons and half regular cavalry, and they would strengthen the control near the ferry and support the sentinel cavalry in front.

The distance between the main forces of the two sides is about the same as that of Yulinpu, and the Houjin soldiers will not bump into it recklessly, when they face Dengzhou Town, they will advance carefully, the weather reason is another aspect, if it is snowing heavily, it is difficult for both sides to act, and it is not a good opportunity to fight.

At this time, the Qinghe River and the Liaohai Sea have frozen, Zhu Guobin believes that Huang Taiji will cross the river south after crossing the ice of the Qinghe River enough for people and horses to pass, the two wooden bridges on the Qinghe River have long been destroyed, and the speed of the two ferries to send troops is limited, Huang Taiji should be worried about being attacked by Dengzhou Town, and wading in the water in this season is a very painful thing, and after crossing the river, it will affect the combat strength of the army.

The Qing River can be crossed everywhere, and the ox carts commonly used by the Houjin can also go south, so Zhu Guobin believes that as long as the ice on the Qinghe River can withstand the passage of people and animals, and there is no snow, it will be time for the entire Houjin army to go south.

The fourth battalion is used as the outpost of the whole army, and there is a mountainous area between Potpu and Yulinbao, where it is not convenient to pass the guò troops, so Chen Xin does not want the battlefield to be too southern, and deliberately arranges the first battalion in Yulinbao, which has been roughly reinforced, and the garrison is highly alert, which cannot be conquered in a short time.

Dengzhou has a strategic advantage, so it occupies the initiative to choose the battlefield, as far as the periphery of Yulinpu is concerned, Xushan is the most important commanding height, so Zhu Guobin stationed a mandarin duck formation division here.

There are more and more snowflakes falling from the sky, Zhu Guobin took a breath to his hand, and went down from the northern slope of Xu Mountain, Xu Mountain is an east-west hill, the length of the east and west is less than two miles, the altitude is only tens of meters, the north and south are a gentle slope, the infantry and cavalry can go up and down, the only thing that has an impact is the dead trees on the mountain, Zhu Guobin has ordered the garrison to cut down firewood for fire from Xu Mountain, so that these dead trees will not affect the army.

Just down to the foot of the slope, two pond horses galloped from the north, bringing the snowflakes on the official road to fly, they saw Zhu Guobin's recognition of the flag, and quickly ran to Zhu Guobin, "Brigade officer, there are sentinels riding horses to walk back and forth on the ice, Jiannu Baoyi is exploring the ice in various places in the Qinghe, there are a large number of wooden planks on the north bank, it seems to be ready to spread the ice, Gaizhou south and east of the city each sent 1,500 cavalry, is assembling on the north bank. ”

Zhu Guobin felt a slight excitement in his heart, and then said to Natang Ma: "Report to Lord Chen immediately." ”……

Eight miles behind Yulinbao, the seventh battalion of the second brigade of southern Liaoning has been out of camp and occupies the mountain exit north of the pot, and the pot headshop fifteen miles away is the main force and front-line logistics center of Dengzhou Town, which is garrisoned by the first brigade of southern Liaoning, the Guards Brigade and a cavalry battalion of Dengzhou Town, and the camps are all north of the Shahe River, and they can go to Yulinbao at any time.

If the whole army of Dengzhou is assembled in Yulinpu, Jiannu will be worried about being attacked by Dengzhou's half-crossing, so that he will not dare to go south, Chen Xin arranged the second brigade of southern Liaoning in front, both as a cover for the deployment of the army. It is also a posture of accepting the battle, otherwise the whole army can be recycled to the pot head shop. Jiannu did not have the slightest chance of attacking.

Chen Xin was riding a horse by the Shahe River at this time, after coming to this era, the last thing he was used to was winter, although he had the privilege of being able to use charcoal fire to warm himself at home and in the official room, but he was not always able to go out to do errands, even if the current living conditions in Dengzhou have improved, the price of cotton clothes has been very low, but there are still things that freeze to death in winter.

The north shore is lined with neat camps. Dengzhou's 30,000 troops gathered here, this is also the most powerful force in the East in this era, the Houjin army thirty miles away has been crisscrossing the north for more than ten years, if it weren't for Chen Xin's arrival, they would enter the pass and sweep the world nine years later, far easier than the process of Meng Yuan's invasion of China, but this is only known to Chen Xin and Liu Min. At this time, no one else present doubted that Dengzhou Town would finally defeat Jiannu and recover Liaodong.

Chen Xin couldn't help but glance back at Liu Pojun, Wu Jianzhong, Wang Changfu and Xu Yuanhua, who replaced Liu Minyou to coordinate the supply of southern Liaoning, and the faces of Lu Chuanzong and Dai Zhenggang suddenly appeared in his mind.

These people behind him were not the first to follow him, if he didn't recruit people from Yanggu at that time, and only took Lu Chuanzong and Dai Zhenggang away, then Xu Yuanhua might have starved to death in his hometown, or Dengzhou a few years later like Ertun. Relying on his own wisdom to become an ordinary tun chief or civil ministry official, other Yanggu people will only be ordinary positions, and there will be no Yanggu Gang, and in the end, the two people who followed him first failed to go to the end, and Lu Chuanzong died at the hands of Zhou Shifa. Dai Zhenggang is self-distributed.

Chen Xin shook his head lightly and turned to a few people behind him: "After defeating Jiannu in this battle. What do you most want to do? ”

Wang Changfu said without hesitation: "The subordinates themselves are following the adults, what the adults ask their subordinates to do, the subordinates will do anything, if the adults say that they will fight Shanhaiguan tomorrow, I will go to Shanhaiguan, and if I want to fight the Beijing Division, I will ......."

Chen Xin hurriedly waved his hand, but there was no look of blame on his face, Wang Changfu was born in the slender man department, and he was the most important for Chen Xin, and he often shouted that he should occupy Shandong, and then go straight to the Beijing Division, he was the representative of the radical faction in the army, many young officers were influenced by him, and most of the people who formulated the plan for attacking Nanzhili and Jingshi in Wuxue were from Wang Changfu's subordinates.

Several people around also look strange, Dengzhou Town has developed to the present, the people in the system have been firmly tied together, with common interests, with the expansion of the scope of interests and strength, so that Dengzhou Town expansion of the ** more and more intense, especially in the population, land and commercial expansion, and the imperial court more and more conflicts, the most fierce commercial conflict, is the southern section of the canal and the gentlemen in the south of the Yangtze River, especially on cotton cloth and cigarettes, they have begun to use the power of the Jiangnan government to restrict the commercial goods of Dengzhou, And Dengzhou Town's influence there is still small, and it can only rely on the Intelligence Bureau to carry out some strikes, but it is far from being able to change the balance of strength, and these people rely on the power of the imperial court. The eventual conflict between Dengzhou Town and the imperial court was inevitable, even if Chen Xin did not have the ambition to become an emperor, he would eventually be pushed to that position by this chariot, so Chen Xin did not restrict such thoughts, but he also did not promote them in the army, so as not to cause too radical actions and affect his overall strategy.

Xu Yuanhua didn't dare to fall behind, and immediately continued: "My subordinates also think like Lord Wang, I was just a farmer, and I never dreamed that I could manage so many things and live such a good life." This is all given by Lord Chen, Lord Chen is my reborn parents, and his subordinates only listen to Lord Chen. ”

Chen Xin smiled and encouraged, Xu Yuanhua has been practicing for many years, but he can speak, and he is also very tactful in the officialdom, and he has long since lost the rustic and down-and-out atmosphere when he first came to Weihai.

He turned to Liu Pojun again, and Liu Pojun hurriedly hugged his fists and said: "My subordinates remember what Lord Chen said, and they want to do more things for the people of Liaodong, and they also want to do more things for the people of the world, so that they can all live a good life like Denglai." ”

It's also a cliché, but there are also Liu Pojun's true thoughts, when he first came to Chen Xin's side, he often muttered that he should let people from other places come to Wendeng, Chen Xin still nodded approvingly.

The last is Wu Jianzhong, Chen Xin is very curious about what this person with almost no hobbies will say, Wu Jianzhong only married a wife in Dengzhou, this is still the task given to him by Chen Xin, and he is still young when he gave birth to a boy, this person is a workaholic, he runs around on weekdays, and occasionally when he goes back to Dengzhou, he also has to go to Qixia Tatar Village, the Blue Team, etc. to teach Houjin combat methods and Yiyu, in addition to recovering Liaodong, Chen Xin really doesn't know what Wu Jianzhong will be interested in.

Wu Jianzhong said expressionlessly: "This, my subordinates want to go back to their hometowns and get back the land left by my ancestors, which was given to me by my ancestors, and it is enough to find a few tenants to plant." ”

Chen Xin was stunned for a moment, then laughed, and several other people also laughed, Chen Xin laughed for a while before stopping, and said to Wu Jianzhong: "True temperament, but the land can be taken back, but this official still wants you to stay in the Intelligence Bureau." ”

Just as he was saying this, Liu Pojun's adjutant rode after him from behind and said loudly: "Lord Chen, Lord Liu, 3,000 Jiannu cavalry crossed the Qinghe River, and the forward is advancing towards Yulin, fighting with my peripheral sentinels. ”

Chen Xin let out a breath of white air, "It's finally here, and the main force of the cavalry battalion is ordered to go to Yulinpu immediately, and after blocking it, the Jin Qianfeng crosses the line of Yulinpu, and the various departments in the combat sequence of the Military Order Division will immediately open and set up a defense line five miles south of Yulinpu." ”

The order was issued immediately, and the armies had already made a plan, and the cavalry battalion with the highest combat readiness set off quickly, and the rest of the troops drove out of the camp in turn and walked onto the official road in accordance with the marching plan, and advanced towards Yulinpu.

PS: Note: For the map of Yulinpu, please refer to the "Topographic Map of the Battle of Gaizhou" related to the work