On the banks of the Qingsha River in Gaizhou, many half-built wooden trestle bridges stand on the south bank, but no one continues to work, and a few days ago, the dense migrant workers like ants suddenly disappeared, and tents were removed from several places that looked like military camps, and the timber cut from all around was burned, and the billowing smoke rose into the sky.

In the previous days of riverbank operations, Dengzhou infantry conquered the north bank of a ferry, several newly built Houjin platform became ruins, and established a bridgehead, after the main force of Houjin appeared in the north of Gaizhou, Dengzhou Town abandoned the north bank bridgehead, and evacuated the people and infantry on the south bank of the Qingsha River, leaving a dragoon and cavalry to garrison. Today, only the south bank of the crossing point is still in the control of Dengzhou Town.

A group of unmarked cavalry came from the south and stopped on the south bank of the crossing point. Chen Xin took out his telescope, a mile away from the river bank is Gaizhou City, the earthen wall fortifications built outside the city are clearly visible, and the Jin army has invested a lot of money in Gaizhou, and the fortifications have been repaired to the riverside.

Liu Pojun also held a telescope to check, and said in his mouth: "The main forces of the Houjin Eight Banners that were confirmed to arrive in Gaizhou yesterday have two yellow flags, two red flags, positive blue flags, and positive white flags. ”

Chen Xin listened and observed with a telescope, the banner at the head of Gaizhou City did not see any new ones, but Gaizhou is also a big city, and the residents in the city have been wiped out during the Mandate of Heaven, and a large part of the main force of Houjin will be stationed in the city, which cannot be seen from here.

Liu Pojun continued: "According to the information sent back by the special service team today, 3,000 people from the Mongolian right wing and Wuzhen Chaoha were found in Polo Po yesterday, as well as a part of the Mongolian Outer Domain. The number of Outer Mongols is slightly higher than the last known, and should be between 4,000 and 5,000. ”

Zhu Guobin said coldly: "Although these Mongolians are here. may not be willing to die, among which the one who is closest to Jiannu is only one of Horqin, even if those Taiji are willing, the combat power of the Mongolian people below is far inferior to the Zhenyi armor soldiers. ”

"It's all coming together, Huang Taiji is betting a lot this time." Chen Xin pulled up his collar and looked at the Qingsha River not far away, the temperature has dropped sharply in the past few days, and there are already some ice cubes on the bank of the Qingsha River. It is likely to freeze during the night.

Chen Xin turned his head to Liu Pojun and said, "The location of the battle, is the Military Command Department still determined to be near Yulinpu?" ”

"Yes, there is a mountainous area in the north of Gaizhou, which is not suitable for battle until the vicinity of Polo Po, which is thirty miles away, and the surrounding area of Gaizhou City is even more inappropriate. To the south, there are Yulinpu and Pottoupu can be used as a battle site, but let Huang Taiji come to fight the defense line of Pottoupu, he is afraid that he would rather turn his head back, Yulinpu is blocked by mountains in the east, and Liaohai is in the west, and I have an army of 40,000 people in Dengzhou. It was enough to cover the frontal front, and the advantage of the Jiannu cavalry was difficult to play, so the military commander thought that only the vicinity of Yulinpu could be used as a battle site. ”

Chen Xin nodded, although Huang Taiji came to Gaizhou, he was still hiding in the fortified city. They must be brought to the plains in order to defeat their main force. Compared to Dengzhou, the Houjin had no war potential, and as long as a major battle was defeated, the Houjin system would fall apart.

Zhu Guobin asked Liu Pojun: "Under the assessment of the Military Orders Division, is Jiannu willing to fight in Yulinpu?" ”

"Jiannu is never willing to fight with us in the narrow terrain of the valley, Yulinpu is flat, if Huang Taiji still doesn't come, then let the eighth battalion storm Lianshan Pass, Huang Taiji naturally can't sit still."

Chen Xin said with a smile: "Huang Taiji came to Gaizhou, but it was difficult to ride a tiger, so according to the plan of the Military Command Division, the fourth battalion stayed in Yulin Fort and gave up this ferry in the afternoon. ”……

On the fourth day of the first month of September, Liaodong cooled down again, the Qingsha River began to freeze, and the Dengzhou troops and ships of Lianyun Island went south one after another, and Liaodong once again entered the cold season, but the war was slowly heating up.

The army of the Eight Banners of the Later Jin Dynasty gathered in Gaizhou, in addition to the Eight Banners, there were 1,700 people from the left wing of Mongolia, 7,000 people from Wuzhen Chaoha, 1,500 people from Tianyou Army, and more than 4,200 from the Mongolian Domain.

Dengzhou town gave up the south bank of the Qingsha River, the forward shrank back to Yulinpu, within sixty miles south of Gaizhou, the main force of Dengzhou of Xin'anbao, Potpu, and Xiongyueyi advanced in turn, and the army on the official road rolled to the pot head shop to assemble, Yulinpu built a trench defense line, and the fourth battalion of the main force of the Liaonan Brigade was equipped with a cavalry to defend it, and the golden sentry cavalry began to cross the Qingsha River to the south, and the size of the force exceeded one day.

After the main force of the Later Jin Army arrived in Gaizhou, the Dengzhou and Dongjiang troops in the direction of Xiuyan were in strict formation, and fortified layer by layer along the mountain road, cutting off the hope of the Houjin light army to raid, and the mountain infantry battalion guarding the mountain road from Xiuyan to Haizhou became active and advanced the defense line to Haizhou, which was the key node of the Houjin grain route, so that the Mongolian right wing of the Later Jin was dragged between Haizhou and Liaoyang, and dispersed the forces of the Later Jin on the front line.

Huang Taiji himself led the two yellow flags to Gaizhou on September 3, erected a sweat banner in the city of Gaizhou, and prepared to fight Chen Xin to the death, according to his and Yue Tuo's assumptions, Chen Xin should also be in a hurry to fight a decisive battle, otherwise he would not give up the effective attrition tactics at this time, so he hoped that the small battle would lead Dengzhou Town to the first line of the Qingsha River for a decisive battle.

But before his ass was hot, there was another piece of bad news from the north......

Heavy snow fell in Salhu in eastern Liaodong, the old capital that stood in the northwest of Salhu Mountain is still resisting, the name of Salhu is widely known because of the key battle in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the original name of this place is Sa'er Lake, the Suzi River and the Hunhe River impact plain for dozens of miles under the mountain, the grain harvest in previous years is quite abundant, and it is an important node in the northeast of Liaoning.

Its city began to be built since the fifth year of the Mandate of Heaven, although it is ten miles after the old capital Jiefan, but the location is more suitable for the expansion in the direction of Liaozhong, so Nurhachi began to build the city in the fifth year of the Mandate of Heaven, the city circumference is about seven miles, open the east and south gates, and the nearby Jiefan City, Wang Gao City echo each other, in addition to Shangjian Ya City, Zakdan City, Wendexiang and other four large fortresses as peripheral defense, if it is not for the excessive number of armor soldiers, the Dongjiang Army really attacks it substantially.

After the heavy snow fell, the offensive of the Dongjiang army was suspended for two days, and the fighting stopped for a while, and the defenders of Salhu just breathed a sigh of relief, and found that the Dongjiang army had pulled out thousands of Zhenyi prisoners under the city, which immediately made the morale of Salhu City plummet, because these prisoners were from Jiefan, ten miles away.

Although the perimeter of the city is only two miles, it is difficult for the attacking side to deploy, so it is because the Dongjiang army arrived and burned all the residential areas by the water outside the city, but it could not enter the city, and then the Dongjiang army changed its methods, but quickly conquered the city of Jiefan, because Jiefan had an Achilles heel, that is, there was no water source in the city (Note 1). In previous years, Zhenyi lived by the water source outside the city, and Jiefan City was only used as a military stronghold, not a living community, but after the arrival of the Dongjiang soldiers, Zhenyi outside the city could only flee into the fortress-like Jiefan City.

After the Dongjiang soldiers blockaded Jiefan for a few days, the water storage in the city of Jiefan was exhausted, and Zhenyi knew that the Dongjiang soldiers were Liao people's army, and the Houjin feud was as deep as the sea, and there was no good end to surrendering, so they looked forward to the next snow in the beauty of Tiangong, so that there would be water to drink. But although water was the cheapest thing, it was more important than food, and after two days of perseverance, at last a man who could not bear the thirst opened the city gate and let Dongjiang Town into the city, and these captives were taken from Jiefan.

On the second day, the Dongjiang army continued to attack Salhu, the guards of Salhu sent people out of the city overnight to send a letter, asking Huang Taiji for help, the Dongjiang army offensive was fierce, Shang Keyi held back a force, conquered Hetuala, Jiefan, and continued to attack Salhu, the four large fortresses around Salhu have been conquered in three places, these three were once the Houjin capital, and the Dongjiang army has the intention of capturing the Houjin capital in turn.

When Huang Taiji received Salhu's distress document, he was alone in front of a simple map looking at the mountains and rivers near Gaizhou, after reading the paperwork, Huang Taiji rubbed his nose to relieve the uncomfortable feeling, and then moved his fingers on the map, combined with his own memories of coming to Gaizhou in the past, and kept muttering to himself......

Note 1: Joseon Lee Myung-hwan recorded that "the city of Zhefan is between two waters, extremely dangerous, there is no well spring in the city, it is built with wood and stone, it can be several zhang high, and the big and small Hu families are all at the water's edge outside the city." ”