On October 27 of the fourth year of Chongzhen, thousands of miles of frozen snowflakes flew in the land of Liaodong, the Houjin soldier camp behind the earth city emitted curling smoke, but the range of three miles outside the city of Dalinghe was a depression, the original fortified platform has been conquered one by one, only the broken wall remains, some of them also stationed the Houjin soldiers, and erected various colors of Houjin banners at the head of the wall.

Zuodu Governor Zu Dashou frowned, looking at the scene of Xiao Suo under the city with a solemn face, a group of Houjin soldiers rode slowly two miles away, holding some guerrilla and deputy general banners of the Ming army, and continued to carry out their offensive warfare.

Since the siege of the city in August, Zu Dashou's table xiàn should be said to be good, he continued to send troops to engage in small-scale battles with Jiannu, only at the end of August killed two Houjin deputy generals, three guerrillas, and Niu Lu Zhenshu, more than 500 Jin soldiers were killed and wounded, but after Wuzhen Chaoha participated in the war, he successively captured the outer forts, and even the strongest and Zizhangtai only lasted for three days, and the general Wang Jing surrendered, and a large number of grains stored in each fort also became the military rations of the Houjin soldiers.

The food in the city was enough to eat until March, but what made Zu Dashou collapse was that he had no firewood, and he tried his best at the beginning of defending the city, and he did not expect that he would be trapped in the cheapest firewood in the end.

The winter in Liaodong was very cold, and Zu Dashou was only concerned about transporting grain to the city at that time, but he didn't expect to store enough coal and firewood, and now when winter comes, there is no firewood to cook and keep warm, which has a strict impact on the military and civilians of the whole city, and the originally high morale in the city actually fell because of this small problem.

Guan Ningjun dug three feet of ground in the city and found out all the firewood that was demolished by the Houjin army that year. But it didn't last long. After the fort outside the castle was conquered. After the Jin soldiers took control of the city circumference, they harvested all the shrubs near the city gate, or simply burned them, leaving only the vicinity of the mound, luring the Guanning army out of the city to cut down, and then ambushed those Ming troops. In this way, Guan Ningjun had to exchange his life for cheap firewood, and then Zu Dashou finally couldn't stand it. All out-of-town operations were stopped.

There was a sound of footsteps behind him, He Kegang and Zu Kefa came behind him, and Zu Kefa said softly: "Father-in-law, find three hundred pairs of saddles." There are also useless guns that can be burned as firewood. ”

Zu Dashou's eyes were still staring at the southwest, as if he hoped for a miracle there, but he himself did not believe that Wu Xiang of Jinzhou could do anything better than Jiannu, and the Ming army banner that Jiannu flaunted under the city also explained the problem.

The Ming army in Jinzhou attacked a total of three times, and after Qiu Jiahe participated in the second time, he was no longer willing to go out, but forced Wu Xiang and Song Wei to send troops, and Wu Xiang had to go out again, after the first two transfers. This time he was already a frightened bird, the whole army had no morale at all, they just saw the Houjin Sentinel Cavalry and ran wildly, as a result, less than 100 Houjin soldiers chased more than 3,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry, less than 100 people were killed, and more than 300 Guanning troops fell off their horses and were trampled to death.

Because Sun Chengzong considered that there was enough grain and grass in the city, he asked Chongzhen to mobilize the Wendeng battalion and Shizhu soldiers, so the battle of Changshan, which suffered the heaviest losses in history, had not yet happened.

At the beginning of the siege, Zu Dashou's intrigues and intrigues emerged one after another. Houjin soldiers were also very fooled, losing hundreds of men and horses, but Huang Taiji soon returned Zu Dashou's game, he defeated the Ming army for the third rescue, and found some clothes to wear the Ming army's clothes. Carrying the banner of the Ming army and making loud noises in the southwest, the battalions of the Jin soldiers sent troops to the southwest to meet the battle. Zu Dashou was really fooled, and hurriedly went out to meet the outside, but was beaten by the real elite soldiers ambushed by Houjin, and the troops suffered heavy losses, and even half of his ironclad infantry was killed, and he basically lost his combat effectiveness.

After this trip, Zu Dashou became cautious, and in two months, his family lost Yan zhòng, and the Houjin soldiers outside the city also gained experience, and only relied on the earth city trench to fight, and did not give the Guanning army a chance at all.

Zu Kefa whispered behind him: "Father-in-law, Mrs. Hong has shot the book of surrender again, does your father-in-law look at it?" ”

"Don't look." Zu Dashou exhaled a breath of white air, Huang Taiji is nothing more than saying some heavenly blessing Dajin, with my nonsense in the eastern boundary of Liaodong, and then explain that Amin slaughtered the city on his own initiative, and he would never treat Zu Dashou badly or something.

He Kegang listened to it and said with admiration: "Young Fu is wise, not to mention Huayi's great defense, he only speaks of it, his subordinates Guan Hongtai is difficult to achieve great things, he takes Yongping and immediately returns to Liaodong, does not get rid of the true character of the slave thief, Yongping Yu army has no way to dispatch, and wantonly slaughters the people of the city, the people of the world look at it, but a butcher, how can it be a master worthy of trust." ”

Zu Kefa bowed his head and didn't speak, Zu Dashou only nodded slightly, and continued to patrol along the city wall, the grasslands everywhere were crowded with Ming troops huddled in a ball, and many people were wearing stolen civilian clothes outside, even so, they were still shivering with cold. After he walked to the location of the urn city, he walked down the city wall along the city ladder and returned to the city of Dalinghe.

There are only a few buildings in Dalinghe City, most of them are tents and ground nests, the last time the Jin army destroyed, they burned all the houses, this time the Guan Ning army has been busy repairing the city, most of the building materials are used in the city wall, after the arrival of the severe cold, the ground nest can only be dug deep, now after the temperature drops further, the land is frozen hard, and even digging is very difficult, because there is no heating material, the people at the bottom have frozen to death a lot.

Not far in front of him, several soldiers were pulling clothes from the people, who could only take off their coats under the threat of waist knives, and the soldiers snatched them and put them on themselves. In Zu Dashou's view, this kind of blatant robbery is not a mistake, as long as it can maintain the combat strength of the army, and at present, these troops in Dalinghe City are the essence of the Guanning army, and of course they are more valuable than the people.

When he walked to his station, a group of servants were cutting the saddle and taking out the wood part inside, and Zu Kefa whispered, "There are more than a thousand saddles, but we have to keep them for the breakout, and we can't cut them anymore." ”

"How's the horse doing?"

"There is no forage, so I can only eat all the refined grains, which is enough to eat for a month, and if I don't break the siege again, I can only kill them."

Zu Dashou sighed, Huang Taiji's style of play was something he never expected, now Tucheng Yicheng, his own cavalry is basically useless, and it is impossible to break through with the strength of Dalinghe itself.

The situation is like this, in addition to hoping for the rescue of Jinzhou, the idea of surrender has floated through Zu Dashou's mind like a ghost many times, and he estimates that his generals will also think of it to some extent.

Since the stalemate in the military operation, Hou Jin has continued to shoot letters or send captured Ming to persuade him to surrender, but from the perspective of interests, Hou Jin can't give him anything. The current Guanning army has Liao salary and land, and Zu Dashou himself has a large number of fields and tens of thousands of tenants in Ningyuan, he is the emperor of Liaodong, and even Sun Chengzong does not dare to persecute himself.

Huang Taiji put on a tone of a British lord, but the book of persuasion did not mention anything practical, only said that according to the merit of the official, once he surrendered, he would definitely be escorted back to Liaodong by the Houjin army, at most some land, and then attached to the banners, completely reduced to the vassals of the Eight Banners, how can the current life be comfortable.

So as long as there is a glimmer of hope, he is unwilling to surrender Houjin, although the Houjin soldiers displayed some captured Ming army flags outside the city, claiming to have eliminated the main force of the Guanning army, but Zu Dashou could see that there were at most deputy general flags, indicating that the main force of the Ming army was not defeated by them, so there was still hope.

He Kegang said with confidence: "Young master, we are hard, Jiannu is also uncomfortable, look at its camp tent, every day there are clothes are dragged out and buried, Shenyang to Daling River hundreds of miles, winter transport grain and grass ten to five of them is lucky, and their Hongyi artillery is not much of a threat, artillery will not be lawless, the day before yesterday to attack the south city to blow up a chamber, two to the cannon big bomb small, subordinates in the south city wall to find an iron bullet, but seven pounds of weight, its Hongyi cannon at least 5,000 catties, it can be seen that the cannon is also crude. The seven-pound cannon did very little damage to our city wall. As long as we hold on, Master Sun will come to our rescue. ”

Zu Kefa said coldly: "Just rely on Wu Xiang and Song Wei? ”

He Kegang was speechless for a while, turned his head to look at Zu Kefa and said: "Wu Xiang and Song Wei have defeated Jiannu in Zunyong's victory, why can't the siege be lifted, there are still thousands of white pole soldiers in Shanhaiguan, and the combined army should have the strength to fight." ”

Zu Kefa retorted: "We also participated in the great victory of Zunyong, when Zunyong Jiannu was just a lone army, surrounded and beaten by my 100,000 army on three sides, now Jiannu came with the whole country, backed by Liaodong, how can it be compared with that time." ”

He Kegang glared angrily, "When you are about to fight, how can you allow the stomach to be in the intestines, build a slave and enslave the wildlings, and be brutal by nature, we can only escape and retreat from the battle, but we must not surrender to ......"

Zu Dashou listened to the two arguing, and the first thing he thought of in his heart now was the Wendeng battalion, although he didn't like Chen Xin, but he knew that if he could fight, this Wendeng battalion and the white pole soldiers were the most powerful, if they could come, it would really be considered hopeful......

The Wendeng camp that Young Master Zu was eagerly looking forward to had just set off at this time, and they did not go to Huangxian and Zhaoyuan, which were difficult to travel, but first detoured to Qixia, and after arriving in Laiyang, they headed west to Pingdu Prefecture.

Kong Youde's department followed behind them, and the distance had been pulled out for a day, Kong Youde and Chen Xin were both generals, and Sun Yuanhua did not arrange the subordination of the two armies on this march, and they belonged to their own affairs.

To Kong Youde's surprise, Chen Xin sent someone to contact him after he set off, saying that he could strengthen contact on the way and provide some help, Kong Youde knew Sun Yuanhua's predicament, and had been wavering whether to take refuge in Lu Zhi, but Sun Yuanhua did have the grace of knowing him, as far as he knew, as early as the end of Chongzhen's second year, Sun Chengzong had warned Sun Yuanhua to be wary of Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng in view of Liu Xingzhi's matter, and Sun Yuanhua also said at that time that "this number cannot be restored", but he finally reused a few people, Therefore, Kong Youde has always been grateful to Sun Yuanhua in his heart. As for Chen Xin, Kong Youde actually has the heart to take refuge, because the momentum of Wendengying's rise is very violent, and Wendeng has always been very tolerant to the Liao people.

Regarding the change in Chen Xin's attitude before and after this time, Kong Youde believes that Chen Xin deliberately showed Lu Zhi in Dengzhou, and now his attitude after departure is Chen Xin's own attitude. So he readily agreed, and Wendeng's Tangma came once a day to contact them.

But the improvement of Chen Xin's attitude is limited to this, Kong Youde hinted several times that he wanted to share some grain and grass, but did not get a response, both sides did not go fast, Wendeng camp to Laiyang after camping for a day, and then continued to advance, Laiyang County to the east to the county boundary is ninety miles, the county boundary to Pingdu Prefecture is one hundred and eighty miles.

After leaving Laiyang County, Kong Youde's headquarters was stretched out on a two-day journey, and the Wendeng camp accelerated slightly and arrived at Pingdu Prefecture on November 3.