Jinzhou City is backed by the sea and controls the isthmus, which is the key place to operate Lushun Zhenhai. The Great Black Mountain in the north of Jinzhou City was the location of Beisha City in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and Beisha City was the center of Goguryeo's control of Lushun Dalian at that time.

Guarding Jinzhou is better than guarding Zhenhai or Lushun, after all, its geographical location is unique, and it is impossible to open a door. Especially for the nine-headed bird with artillery, it is a pity not to defend this place if the fortress batteries are built at the commanding heights on three sides of Jinzhou, and the two bays are close to each other, and the naval guns can support it.

In particular, if Jinzhou is defended, then the isthmus to the south of Jinzhou will be dug up, so that the 130 miles to the south, such as Lushun Zhenhai and other places, will be a safe rear island.

However, it is not easy to dig the isthmus, although it is only ten miles wide, and there are no big mountains, all of which are flat. But Liu Jun calculated that he had to dig at least 20 meters wide, and as for 6 to 8 meters deep, if it was 20 meters wide and 10 meters deep and 5,000 meters long, it would be an excavation operation of 1 million cubic meters.

One man digs two square meters of soil a day, and 10,000 people have to dig for three months.

The amount of work is somewhat large, but if a trench is dug first, the depth and width of each zhang first, it will greatly reduce the amount of work. It is easier to dig a ditch than to build a city, and Liu Jun plans to build a castle first and then dig a ditch.

"Recruit the people in and around Jinzhou City to build forts and dig ditches, first build three castles, arrange cannons, then strengthen Jinshan City, and then dig ditches."

"There may not be 100,000 young people in the entire Golden State in this more than 100 miles! We have to build fortresses and ports in Lushun and Zhenhai, and we have to run Jinzhou, will it be too difficult? If we get it for a long time, and then the Tartars come to us, won't our efforts be in vain? "Some generals have raised concerns.

Liu Jun's fingers tapped on the table, it stands to reason that he really shouldn't run any Jinzhou Lushun Zhenhai here, he should take the fleet around to raid the coast. But he had a strong urge in his heart to occupy this place. If you want to grab it, you will grab it. What's the point of a little fight?

Thinking of this, he said aloud, "I don't think there's anything wrong with us running here, the population is not enough, so let's grab it." We are not running our house, not to blindly defend, but to treat this place as a big rear. We still have to continue to attack, offense is the best defense, and we also need a rear for our offense, even if it is used to transfer people's money and food back to the Central Plains. There needs to be a place like this. ”

"If we only want a rear, then it's not bad for us to lay down Changsheng Island in the south of Fuzhou, it's a big island, and it's not far from the coast of Fuzhou."

"Changsheng Island doesn't have a good port." Liu Jun refuted with this reason.

At this time, a report came from outside that the Qing army that had left the city of Jinzhou had been defeated by the First Brigade and was fleeing back to Jinzhou.

"Intercept them, don't let them escape!" Liu Jun hurriedly said.

When the collapsed Qing army, which was beaten by the First Brigade, finally fled back to Jinzhou City, it was surprising to find that Jinzhou City had actually changed its flag.

The red banner of the Ming army fluttered at the head of the city, and the city gate was opened. A cavalry was rushing over.

At this time, this cavalry unit of 1,500 cavalry was now less than 800 left, and it had no fighting spirit at all.

Rumbling artillery rang out, and the artillery began to support the cavalry out of the city with artillery fire.

"The combat effectiveness of the Qing army is still good. Fifteen hundred people went out of the city, and when they encountered more than 10,000 men and horses of the First Brigade, they were able to escape back more than half. ”

"It's cavalry, after all."

"Yes, we still have too few cavalry troops. As soon as the enemy fled, he could not catch up with him and could not take advantage of the opportunity to expand the victory. Liu Jun also nodded.

"This time we are attacking the Liaodong Peninsula. Are you afraid that there are no war horses? Wang Qian laughed, when he arrived in Liaodong, he could grab as many war horses as he lacked.

Under the city, the Tartars, who had no way to escape, were in a dying struggle, and two cavalry teams began to fight on horseback. However, the two cavalry fought in very different ways. The Tartar relied on mounted archery, while the Hydra also relied on mounted archery, but was not worthy of a bow and arrow. Instead, each person had two short guns, and when they got closer, they fired two shots at close range, and then they rushed over and dismounted and lined up, firing a salvo with long guns. Then get on your horse and charge with your spear.

"Our cavalry is superior!"

The officers watching the battle at the head of the city were relieved that the Hydra cavalry with firearms was more lethal than the Tartar cavalry with bows, especially every time the Tartars wanted to form a team, the Hydra artillery would disrupt their formation with timely cannons.

After a few rounds of back and forth, the cavalry of the 1st Brigade pursued and joined the battle group.

The nine-headed bird, with many outnumbered blows and artillery support, soon gained the upper hand, and the Qing army fought again, and the infantry of the first brigade also arrived, and they were surrounded by a siege.

In the end, the exhausted Qing army finally surrendered, and the remaining hundreds of cavalry also understood that if they continued to fight, they could only wipe out the entire army.

"Spare them their lives, and take them to build the city."

Jinzhou City was taken, the garrison Qing army was annihilated, and then Liu Jun planned to take advantage of the victory to march and attack Fuzhou.

"Continue to divide the army into two routes, part of the land march, along the way by the way to sweep the castle villages and towns of the Tartars, all the people along the way north of Jinzhou City, all the people along the way, all move them to Jinzhou, take away everything that can be taken away, and burn directly if you can't take it away, and the walls are clear." Liu Jun issued a battle plan.

"The sailor left part in Qingniwan, and the rest returned to Lushun, entered the Bohai Sea from the Lao Tieshan Water Channel, first captured Changsheng Island, and then landed directly on the coast south of Fuzhou."

"Fuzhou should have more people and money." Several officers said.

"Grab as much as you want, and don't be polite to them at all." Liu Jun said with a smile, this time it is not fighting in the territory of Daming, but fighting in an enemy country, as long as you can move away, you can move anything, and no one will say that you are plundering places and harassing the people.

"But there is one thing that everyone should pay attention to, we must maintain military discipline. We want to remove people and property, but this is a military action, not undisciplined robbery, still less adultery, and murder without reason, and at the same time, we must not hide the spoils of war or loot without permission, and those who disobey must be severely punished. Liu Jun said very seriously, the plundering of the army and the robbery of private individuals are completely different things, one is a disciplined and organized behavior, and the other is a private behavior. This kind of private robbery is likely to corrupt military discipline and make the troops worse and lose control.

Five days later, the nine-headed bird gathered again. Besieged the city of Fuzhou.

Along the way, the nine-headed bird did not rush to march, but swept forward, sweeping all the township markets of Tartar along the way, while advancing, forcibly moved all the population on the road from Jinzhou to Fuzhou to Jinzhou City, and organized these people to transport the grain and so on together, and those cattle, sheep, livestock, commercial goods, etc. were also not left behind, and finally the empty village market. A fire burned all.

Since only the Golden State is ready to be defended, there is no need to keep the rest of the place for the Tartars. Anyway, the nine-headed bird can rely on the sea route to replenish the food baggage, and now that these are burned, the strong wall will only cause trouble for the Tartars' counterattack in the future.

When the powerful relocation brigade of the nine-headed bird drove all the way to Fuzhou City, the Tartars in Fuzhou City did not dare to come out and move. When the land and water soldiers arrived at the landing first, the Tartar soldiers in Fuzhou City attacked, but they were killed by shelling and hundreds of them, so they all retreated to the city and never dared to come out again.

From the landing of Lushun to the arrival of soldiers under the city of Fuzhou. It was only six days in total, and it was only twelve days since the nine-headed bird came out of Wuchang.

At this time, the Tartar court had just received information that the Ming army was attacking from the sea. I don't know exactly how many came, the number of soldiers and horses, the firepower allocation, etc.

Not to mention sending reinforcements right away.

After the land soldiers and horses led by Liu Jun arrived. Siege warfare is officially launched.

Half a day later, the head of the city was replaced with the red flag of the Ming army.

The process of breaking through Fuzhou City was quite easy, after blasting a few shrapnel grenades at the city. The artillery pushed the 24-pounder siege guns under the city and bombarded the city gates, and the entire 18 24-pounder siege guns collapsed the city gates of Fuzhou in only three rounds without interference.

Then the infantry appeared, an infantry bureau with four infantry flags, two cold weapon flags guarding two flintlock infantry flags, and killed all the way through the collapsed city gate. The sharp flintlock pistol, coupled with a large number of small light artillery pieces such as tiger squat and Franc machine, hit the Qing army in the city and complained bitterly.

The defenders in Fuzhou City are worse than Jinzhou, and this is not a front line close to the Ming Dynasty, especially after the Qing army destroyed Dongjiang Town, the coast was stable, and they never expected that now such a powerful Ming army would be killed from the sea.

There are even fewer soldiers and horses stationed in the city than in Lushun City. There were about 200 Qing troops plus 500 other Mongolian and Han coats.

Moreover, not long ago, Huang Taiji also transferred 100 Manchu soldiers and 200 Mongolian and Han soldiers from Fuzhou to the north to participate in the siege of Jinzhou. As a result, there were less than 500 soldiers left in the city.

When the Hydra blasted open the city gates with cannons, they resisted desperately, but they were quickly annihilated.

After the defenders were annihilated, the city of Fuzhou fell intact into the hands of the nine-headed bird.

"These guys didn't even have time to burn the grain and cloth in the warehouse." Fu Shan laughed and reported to Liu Jun.

"Not much." A staff officer took the numbers he had just gathered and reported, "This Fuzhou is really poor." ”

"Count as many as you want, immediately organize the people to relocate, move to Changsheng Island first, and then slowly transport them back to Lushun, Jinzhou, by boat." Liu Jun said that although Fuzhou does not have much money, there are two things that are still very big, one is the population, there are a lot of people in Fuzhou, there are tens of thousands of people, and the other is horses, Fuzhou has the pasture of the Qing army, and there are many war horses, and now they are all Liu Jun's.

"In just a few days, we have successively broken Lushun, Qingniwa, Nanguanbao, Jinzhou City, and Fuzhou City, presumably the Tartars will soon know that the soldiers and horses are coming." Liu Jun didn't care about this, and he didn't want to defend Fuzhou anyway. However, he was a little dissatisfied with the harvest, especially the people's money and food, and the harvest was too small.

"It is estimated that it will take some time for the Tartars' soldiers and horses to go south, seize the time, take this opportunity, let's send troops to carry out a thorough sweep of Fuzhou and Jinzhou, completely relocate all the people, and give the Tartars a complete clear of the wall." Fu Shan proposed.

"Well, send more scouts out and scatter them a hundred miles away, keeping an eye on the Tartars. Hurry up and sweep it, as much as you can, burn all the things that can't be moved, and don't leave it to the Tartars at all. (To be continued......)