Zheng Xunrui's choice to attack and occupy Lushunkou is a very crucial move, in fact, many people can see the key to this move, but unfortunately not much can be done.

From the first year of the Apocalypse to the sixth year of Chongzhen, thirteen years, whether it was Nurhachi or Huang Taiji, they all tried their best to occupy Lushun, and it was because Lushun's position was too important, whether it was for the Ming Dynasty or the Later Jin Tartars.

The importance of the strategic location of Lushunkou is mainly reflected in four aspects, one is the coastal defense line connecting Dengzhou and Laizhou in the south, the second is the defense line of Beijing and Tianjin in the west, the third is the vassal state of Korea that can directly contact the Ming Dynasty in the east, and the fourth is the Houjin Tartar in the north to block the south.

The defensive front of the Ming Dynasty against the Houjin Tatars was divided into two parts, one part was to focus on Guanning in Liaodong to prevent the Houjin Tatars from advancing westward, and the other part was to focus on Lushunkou and gradually control the mouth of the Liao River to Gaizhou, and then directly threaten the capital of the Later Jin Dynasty, Shenyang and Liaoyang, so that the Houjin Tatars did not dare to rashly advance westward.

The loss of Lushun by the Ming Dynasty and the blow suffered were extremely heavy, which indicated that the Houjin Tatars would not have any worries after the complete conquest of Korea, and Phi Dao, as a strategic location, would also lose its value after the surrender of Korea.

This made Lushunkou a battleground between the Ming Dynasty and the Houjin Tartars, but unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty eventually lost Lushun.

The battle for Lushunkou also lasted many times, until the general soldier Huanglong died in battle, and the Ming Dynasty completely lost control of Lushunkou, which was actually the bitter fruit planted by the Ming Dynasty itself. It was under such circumstances that the Houjin Tartars captured and occupied the Port of Arthur.

From this level, the Ming Dynasty's recovery of Arthur is probably more important than the loss of Korea, a vassal state, once the Ming Dynasty occupies Lushunkou. The eastern Phi Dao will be supported, which is equivalent to planting a nail in the back of the Houjin Tartars, so that the Houjin Tartars will not be able to sleep well, once the Houjin Tartars will enter the pass to plunder, then the Ming troops stationed in Phi Dao and Lushun can take advantage of the situation to attack Gaizhou, Yaozhou, Haizhou and Anshan and other places, threatening Liaoyang.

Of course, Zheng Xunrui's battle this time also depends on the situation. Once the Zheng army occupied Shuangdao and Lushunkou and defeated the reinforcements of the Houjin Tartars, the Ming army stationed in the direction of Guanning could take advantage of the situation and make a posture of attacking Guangning and Xiping Fort, which would make Huang Taiji panic and must lead a large army back to Shenyang and other places, such a situation occurred. Zheng Jiajun can take advantage of the situation to occupy Jinzhou and Wanghai Fort, or even directly covet Fuzhou.

Zheng Jiajun really occupied Fuzhou. I'm afraid Huang Taiji won't be able to sleep peacefully.

On December 22, the ninth year of Chongzhen, the emperor's decree arrived in Huai'an.

The emperor agreed to all Zheng Xunrui's requests.

Zheng Jiajun was also prepared, and the day after the arrival of the holy decree, the 25,000-strong army set out.

Zheng Jinhong, Yang He, Liu Zeqing, Hong Xinyu and others followed Zheng Xunrui to fight, Xu Wanghua and Hong Xingui stayed in Huai'an, and Xu Wanghua was in charge of the Caoyun Governor's Mansion. It has the power to arbitrarily act on the spot.

Ma Xianglin, who had been appointed as the general of the Zheng family's army, also followed the army.

During this period, there was one thing, Zheng Xunrui, Qin Liangyu, and Ma Xianglin had already discussed that Qin Liangyu would secretly transfer 5,000 soldiers from the white pole soldiers. Join the army of the Zheng family. According to their agreement, 5,000 white pole soldiers will come to Huai'an in March of the following year and join the sequence of Zheng's army.

The departure is secret, the route of the march has long been determined, the 25,000 army through Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Laizhou, Shandong belongs, arrived at Dengzhou, there is also a route, that is, by sea, if you take the sea route, the army's actions can be completely secret, but unfortunately the 25,000 army, need more than 100 large warships, Huai'an does not have such conditions at present.

When leaving, Zheng Xunrui simply told Xu Wanghua that it was enough to maintain the stability of Huaibei and Caoyun Governor's Mansion, and the local government had already started spring break, there was not much to do, and the people were also preparing for the New Year, so there should be no big event, even if there was an emergency, Xu Wanghua could completely cope with it.

Xu Wanghua was a little reluctant, he originally wanted to follow Zheng Xunrui on the expedition, but Huaibei needed to stabilize and need someone to stay to maintain local affairs, so he finally obeyed the decision and stayed in Huai'an.

The army is divided into the front army and the middle army, the front army of 5,000 people, the main task is to reconnoiter along the road, led by Yang He, Wang Xiaoer led the scout battalion, follow the front army action, the Chinese army of 20,000 people, commanded by Zheng Jinhong.

The army moves very fast, and there is very little time to rest in the day, all in order to buy time.

What happened to Huang Taiji's campaign to conquer Korea, Zheng Xunrui didn't know, the North Korean envoy had left Huai'an and went to the capital, the envoy did not get a clear answer to Zheng Xunrui, and in desperation, he could only go to the capital and beg the emperor again, of course, the news of Zheng Jiajun's dispatch could never be known to the North Korean envoy, otherwise the news would leak out immediately and let Huang Taiji, who was on the Korean expedition, know.

In order to cover up their whereabouts as much as possible, the army will not enter the city, because there are many people and they are all cavalry, so they can only take the official road.

Leaving Huaibei and entering Yanzhou in Shandong, Zheng Xunrui's feeling is different, the same as the feeling when he traveled many years ago, Huaibei is a rich and prosperous place, even the people on the official road are numerous, but the situation in Yanzhou is different, there are not many people on the official road, and the expressions on the faces are not very good, and many people's expressions are numb.

The information detected by Yang He and Wang Xiaoer was constantly transmitted to Zheng Xunrui.

Shandong has not yet fully recovered from the rebellion of Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming and Shang Kexi, as the gateway of the Ming Dynasty, Shandong bears a very heavy responsibility, since Lushun and Shuangdao and other places were occupied by the Houjin Tartars, Dengzhou and Laizhou and other places, have become the front line, and the invasion of the Houjin Tartars will become more and more important all the time.

It is precisely because of the fact that as the front line of coastal defense, the burden on the people here is very heavy, not only to bear the normal taxes, but also to deal with the increased taxes of the Golden Tartars after the increased defense.

Naturally, the people could not bear it.

Knowing this information, Zheng Xunrui could only shake his head secretly, Dengzhou and Laizhou became the frontline positions of coastal defense, such an arrangement is not wrong, but it is impossible for the Houjin Tatars to launch an attack from Lushun and Shuangdao, the Houjin Tatars have never attached importance to the construction of the water division, and the construction of the water division in the history of the Qing Dynasty is a mess.

In the face of such a practical situation, Dengzhou and Laizhou only need to do a good job of daily defense matters, and there is no need to increase the burden on the people.

On December 25, the army entered Dengzhou.

Perhaps it is because they have experienced too many wars and fights, and the people of Shandong do not feel anything strange about the marching army, and the Chinese New Year is approaching, most of the people are staying at home, and there are not many people rushing on the official road, and they are generally businessmen.

Some businessmen, after seeing the army, of course, are to guess, I don't know what happened, if there is a rogue, then they need to avoid doing business, but this way of the army, the speed of the march is very fast, fast these businessmen can't keep up at all, so although full of suspicion, but those businessmen are not completely concerned, after all, I haven't heard of where there is a riot in Shandong, and the New Year is coming soon, and it is possible for the army to adjust the defense.

Zheng Jiajun entered Shandong, and Zheng Xunrui should have reported it to Zhu Dadian, the governor of Shandong.

However, Zheng Xunrui did not do this, he wrote to the emperor, the matter of the report is directly responsible for the Ministry of War, and it needs to be kept secret, anyway, the supply of Zheng Jiajun does not need to be responsible for the local area in Shandong, which saves the time delayed in contact.

Zhu Dadian is the governor of the old qualifications, concurrently serving as the governor of Shandong as the right deputy imperial envoy of the Imperial Inspectorate, in order to maintain the stability of Shandong, it is also exhausting, you must know that when Longyou rebelled, Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, Xu Congzhi, the governor of Shandong, and Xie Lian, the governor of Denglai who succeeded later, all had accidents, among which Sun Yuanhua was captured by Kong Youde, and later returned to the capital and was beheaded, Xu Congzhi and Xie Lian were all killed in battle.

On December 27, 25,000 troops entered Penglai City.

The army entered Penglai City, did not cause too many fluctuations, the edict of the Ministry of War had already arrived in Shandong and Denglai, in order to cover up this action, it was said that the army was mobilized, so it was able to stabilize the people around.

Departure on December 23rd, until the 27th, which lasted five days, 25,000 officers and soldiers of the Zheng family's army, all arrived in Penglai City, such a marching speed, Zheng Xunrui was very dissatisfied, but he had no choice, along the way mainly to consider the matter of secrecy, if the march was too big, aroused the suspicion of the people, and even the turmoil in various parts of Shandong, then the plan of this operation, it could not be kept secret.

Zheng Xunrui did not expect the local government to supply food, Zheng Jiajun's military discipline and military regulations are very strict, and the people are never allowed to be harassed along the road, otherwise the military law will deal with it, although it is a cold winter wax moon, but when the night rests, the army is still camped in the field.

There were no officials to contact or greet them along the way, so it looked more like a change of guard.

When he arrived in Penglai City, Zheng Xunrui breathed a sigh of relief, after all, there was no fluctuation, and the actions of the army were still completely secret. (To be continued......)