In the middle of August, Liaodong has been full of wolf smoke, the eight banners of each Niu Lu strong men are empty, only the old and weak women guard the village fort, the Ming army offensive overwhelming. The Dongjiang army continued to besiege Hetuala and Lianshan Pass, and more and more Dongjiang sentinels appeared in Sarhu and Jiefan, and some sentry cavalry even crossed Sarhu into the plain area. Later Jin abandoned the northern front, leaving a cavalry of 2,000 men to stay in Shenyang and wait for the Dongjiang army to enter the plain. Houjin was surrounded by enemies on all sides, and even Liaoxi, which had always been safe and sound, was threatened.

August 20, outside the old city of Xiping Fort, a team of Ming troops with bright armor lined up outside the ruined fort city, and played three flags on the opposite side, which were inlaid with white flags, Zheng Huang, and inlaid with yellow, but the sentry cavalry returned to Zu Dale, Zheng Huang and Huang were two Tartar soldiers, and the white flag came to Azig, and Azig belonged to 15 Niu Lu, this flag suffered many heavy blows in Dengzhou, and this time there were only about seven Niu Lu in Xiping Fort, and the number was six or seven hundred.

If it was in the past, when he encountered seven or eight hundred Tartar soldiers, Zu Dale should have run away, but now there are only six hundred Tartars, plus two thousand or two Tartar soldiers, Zu Dale has a thousand Liaozhen cavalry, more than two hundred Ding, and two thousand infantry troops, and he also sees that the Tartars can't send a large army across the river.

Zu Dale glanced to the right, there were two people from Dengzhou over there, who were the so-called liaison officers who only arrived in Liaozhen this year, Zu Dashou invited them to go on the expedition together this time, just to let them testify that Liaozhen had indeed gone to fight the Sancha River.

The Tartar soldiers on the opposite side were arrayed, and the cavalry on the two wings of the infantry in the middle, Zu Dale said to the left and right Jiading: "Beat the drums, the infantry army will hit the middle of Jiannu directly, and kill these two Tartar soldiers, those Dengzhou soldiers will take a look, and Lao Tzu Liao Town can also fight!" ”

The drums of the Chinese army roared, and the infantry of Liaozhen moved forward slowly, the soldiers in the front row had armor or shields, and the rear row used spears, and the formation also appeared quite strict.

The Han army banner on the Houjin Front did not have a spear formation this time, it seemed that all of them were musketeers, Zu Dale saw that the two liaison officers in Dengzhou kept talking to each other, but he was quite disdainful in his heart, this formation was all muskets, Zu Dale himself did not look down on firearms, that thing often had some problems, and there was no power in fighting, and his infantry army rushed away.

"Tom, tom" two cannon sounds, the Houjin Front two small cannons began to shoot, Zu Dale was unmoved, the drum continued to beat, the Liaozhen Ming Army crumbled up, the Houjin Front shouted everywhere, and the muskets were raised densely.

"Sons, rush to Lao Tzu!" Zu Dale shouted loudly and rode out with his family......

On 22 August, the pot shop south of Gaizhou had been turned into a large barracks, and two battalions of the Guards were stationed here, 45 miles away from Gaizhou, with the 2nd Liaoning Brigade of Pottoupu as the forward in front, and this was the front-line headquarters of Dengzhou Town.

"Liaozhen was overturned by Wu Zhenchao Hagan?" Chen Xin raised his eyebrows with the battle report in his hand, and looked at Liu Pojun and Wu Jianzhong standing in front of him, the battle report in his hand was not from Liaozhen, but from the Dengzhou special service team.

Houjin Bing had a small transfer in Niuzhuang, and when crossing the Sancha River, he was discovered by the Dengzhou clippers cruising nearby, and the special service team followed him to check and learned about it.

Liu Pojun said in a deep voice: "There are thousands of dead and wounded in Liaozhen, and most of the infantry has lost. ”

Chen Xin put down the battle report and slapped it twice on the table, "Wu Zhenchaoha has been practicing for a year, and it seems that he has made some progress." ”

"Not far from the information we obtained, after Houjin was attacked by our army's all-firearms infantry last year, he also trained three flags of flintlock pistols in winter, namely Zhenghuang, inlaid yellow and Zhenglan, all of which were led by Huang Taiji and his son."

Chen Xin nodded and smiled: "I heard that Wuzhen Chaoha only practiced until the beginning of spring, but the two yellow flags practiced for a longer time, and I heard that they were still training intensively in May and June." ”

Liu Pojun said: "What my lord said is that from this point of view, the two yellow flags may have learned something from the battle of Caohe Fort, these two flags all used flintlock muskets, their bayonet production is very small, most of the soldiers are issued waist knives as melee weapons, and the subordinates suspect that those coats do not have the courage to engage in hand-to-hand combat." ”

Wu Jianzhong reminded again: "One of the pieces of intelligence that came from Liaodong last time was very important, our eyes saw that the Han army banner put all the musketeers in front of the spearmen to practice a salvo. ”

Chen Xin said disdainfully: "Dong Shi Xiaofeng, but Huang Taiji is very fast to learn things, the Hongyi cannon learned in a few years, the last intelligence said that last winter they not only built the Hongyi cannon, but also built a batch of small copper cannons." ”

Wu Jianzhong added: "They are short of craftsmen, and the power of the Tianyou Cheering General who imitates the Hongyi cannon is not good, and the number of molds has been reduced last winter, and the total number of Jiannu Hongyi cannons is less than ten, but the number of small cannons has increased a lot, but the power is not as good as my Dengzhou Town, and the weight is more than a lot." Similarly, flintlock pistols have been built over the years, and the Intelligence Bureau has synthesized various intelligence sources and estimated that about 5,000 to 6,000 guns, with a firing rate of about 60 or 70 percent, and the length of the air diameter pipe and so on are inconsistent, and there are still many people in the Wuzhen Chaoha and Tianyou Army who use arquebuses. ”

Chen Xin said with a smile: "However, Jiannu has been beaten a lot, and he has also learned a few successful husbands, although Liaozhen is also trying to produce flintlock pistols and small cannons, but he does not have the tactics and experience to use them, and there is no such content in Ji Xiaoxin's book, so Liaozhen naturally has no corresponding training." They always think that the flintlock pistol is to fight fast, and the weapon is not worthy of the appropriate tactics, it is difficult to exert its power, and the flintlock pistol of the Liao Zhen system is only used as a sharp weapon to defend the city. ”

Liu Pojun said with confidence: "According to the record in the battle report, the main formation of Jiannu is a six-row line surnamed formation, there are some three-line formations on both wings of the middle formation, and the six-line column used when entering the battlefield, the battlefield array time is about three to four times that of our army, and there has been no battlefield maneuver from beginning to end after the formation, after the thirty steps to start three rounds of salvos, the Liaozhen infantry collapsed, the Jiannu cavalry pursued and killed, the infantry advanced slowly according to the array, and Wuzhen Chaoha was also chaotic after shooting. According to the analysis of his subordinates, the Jiannu infantry had strict queue training, but their battlefield mobility was very weak, and they lacked actual combat experience, so they only learned a little scratch. ”

Chen Xin sighed, "Jiannu has learned a lot, Liaozhen has been defeated so many times, how can he still be so virtuous, in this way, Liaoxi's containment will go." ”

Liu Pojun said in a low voice: "If he only goes to Xiaolinghe to wait and move, he can contain a group of Houjin soldiers to stay in Niuzhuang, but he is too aggressive, and this defeat will definitely flee back to Jinzhou." ”

Chen Xin shook his head and sat down and said, "Tell me about the movements of the Houjin Army." ”

Liu Pojun spread out the simple map on the table, "Hetuala's battle report is still five days ago, and the Dongjiang Army is besieging it. Between Haizhou and Anshan Station, it was found that two yellow flags, inlaid blue flags, red flags, and inlaid yellow flags and horses, the number of people exceeded 10,000, and Wuzhen Chaoha was more than 5,000, because of its sentry horses, the specific number could not be investigated, in the eight banners of the Houjin, only the main force of the white flag did not appear, and the main force of the Mongolian left wing was found in the direction of Niuzhuang, and the Houjin army gathered between Liaoyang and Haizhou, and we were arranged in the same echelon, and he was also waiting for us to move first, so the main force of Houjin would not rush to Gaizhou, but the direction of Gaizhou was undoubtedly the main force of Houjin. Judging from the quantity, Huang Taiji did not divide his troops too much to Lianshan Pass. ”

Chen Xin looked at the dot of Hetuala, he asked Shang Kexi to reinforce part of the troops on the northern front, there were a thousand people wearing Dengzhou's military uniforms, which were used as suspicious soldiers to attract Huang Taiji's soldiers and horses to support the northern front.

He smiled and said: "It seems that Huang Taiji doesn't want Hetuala, but he can't do without Lianshan Pass, so he sent an order to Wang Mafu to send the eighth battalion of reinforcements to strengthen the attack on Lianshan Pass." What are the movements of the Houjin army stationed in Gaizhou? ”

"They discharged a forward of more than 200 people, stationed in the old fort of Yulinpu, blocking our sentinel reconnaissance, the rest of the men and horses are still guarding the city, two earthen walls are built outside the city of Gaizhou, and the back is connected by a trench, similar to our Lushun defense line, and the ox convoy transporting grain in the direction of Yaozhou Fort is endless."

Chen Xin touched his chin, Yulin Fort is the vanguard of Gaizhou, the spring offensive was conquered by the Dengzhou army, and then the Jin army carried out a simple repair, as an outpost, "The ox convoy is endless, Huang Taiji really plans to fight a decisive battle in Gaizhou?" Or is it just to lead us to attack Gaizhou first, and then fortify the city. Were there any fortifications built in Haizhou, Shenyang and Liaoyang? ”

Liu Pojun pointed to the map and said: "Haizhou and Liaoyang are also under construction, and there are tens of thousands of coats to work on, and Huang Taiji should also be preparing for a decisive battle in Haizhou, and the news of Shenyang is broken, and it is unknown at present." ”

Chen Xin suddenly smiled and said: "Don't guess, Jiannu naturally wants us to go to Liaoyang, Gaizhou to Liaoyang two hundred and seventy miles, there is only land transportation along the way, if I am Huang Taiji, the construction of fortifications in Gaizhou Haizhou is a virtual son, and Liaoyang is killed." His army gathered in Liaoyang, even if even the mountain pass was lost, he was not afraid, once the direction of Lianshan Pass to our army into the plain, Huang Taiji could give full play to the cavalry advantage at any time to quickly support Shenyang, after concentrating his forces to defeat a force, he could return to Liaoyang in one day, his logistics line will also be very short, most of the Houjin Baqi village forts are distributed in the Liaozhong region, but it is a land route of 270 miles for us, and then Jiannu can send a large force of cavalry to attack our grain road. ”

Liu Pojun frowned and said, "Then why did he use ox carts to transport military rations to Gaizhou?" All sides have received information that Jiannu is extremely short of food this year. ”

Chen Xin said calmly: "Lead our army to attack Gaizhou, Gaizhou has built many fortifications, Gaizhou City is dominated by Tianyou Army and Wuzhen Chaoha, these firearms are still quite powerful for defense, which can deplete the strength of our army and demoralize our army." If it is not conquered for a long time, Huang Taiji can lead the troops again, and if Gaizhou is conquered by our army, it will only hurt him the skin. ”

Wu Jianzhong said in a deep voice: "That means that those grains and grasses may be fake. ”

Chen Xin got up and said, "It's very possible, but it can't be said to be dead." It just so happens that we should also move, in addition to Lianshan Pass, let Zhu Guobin attack Yulinpu to the north, and the cavalry battalion will be stationed in Gongtoupu, which will be under the command of the Second Brigade to see how Jiannu reacts. If he doesn't come, we'll drag it out again and see who can't stand it first. ”