Thirty miles south of Shenyang, the Ming army camp.

Banners fluttered in the cold wind, and groups of soldiers patrolled the camp, and from time to time cavalry galloped from the snow into the camp.

In the Chinese military tent, Lu Xiangsheng was sitting on his lap, listening to the report of a small cavalry flag officer. Ningyuan's general soldier Cao Wenzhao walked around in the tent like an ant in a hot pot.

"The lowly duty together with his subordinates a total of fifteen cavalry, out of the camp to the west fifteen miles to meet the Jiannu cavalry, at the beginning of the Jiannu cavalry only a few horses, the lowly with his cavalry wanted to surround and kill the Jiannu sentry cavalry, did not want to chase without a moment, nearly a hundred Jiannu cavalry rushed over, the lowly soldiers fought hard to escape the pursuit of the Jiannu cavalry, but ten brothers did not come back." The little flag officer cried.

"Waste, more than ten of you can't even surround a few people, and you're lured into a trap by others, isn't it waste?" Cao Wenzhao finally stopped, pointed at the little flag officer and scolded angrily.

The little flag officer hung his head and didn't dare to say a word.

"From the day before yesterday to today, this is the first wave of sentinels to be surrounded and killed by the Jiannu cavalry?" Lu Xiangsheng asked coldly.

"Sixth, seventh,......" Cao Wenzhao counted with his fingers.

"It's the ninth wave!" Lu Xiangsheng said in a deep voice.

"The day before yesterday, the sentry cavalry could still detect the outside of Shenyang, but yesterday, they could only rush out twenty miles, and today, they can't even explore the distance of fifteen miles. Maybe in a few days, my sentry will not even be able to get out of the camp gate. Lu Xiangsheng's tone was not very heavy, but it was as heavy as the roar of the yellow bell in Cao Wenzhao's ears, which made him feel extremely ashamed.

After Cao Wenzhao led his cavalry to join Lu Xiangsheng, Lu Xiangsheng gave him this task, but now the sentinels sent were intercepted and killed by Jiannu one after another, and they could not find any information about Jiannu, which can be described as a dereliction of duty!

Now the main force of Jiannu is back, but where is Huang Taiji? Whether he went to Shenyang City, or led the army somewhere, it took two days, and he couldn't figure it out, even Cao Wenzhao himself could not accept it.

If you can't detect the enemy's traces, you don't know how to deal with it, how can this battle be fought?

"The last general will send more sentinels, and we must find out the traces of the main force of Jiannu!" Cao Wenzhao gritted his teeth and said. In more than two days, in the pursuit battle with the Jiannu Sentinels, his light cavalry has lost more than 200 people, and I am afraid that there will be more losses in the future.

Lu Xiangsheng shook his head: "Don't send out sentry horses in a hurry, if you send them again, you will fall into the trap of Jiannu and lose more." ”

"Are we going to be deaf and blind, I'm not reconciled!" Cao Wen said.

Lu Xiangsheng said coldly: "There must be Jiannu eyes and ears around our camp, Jiannu sentinels are staring at us from afar, and sending sentinels will definitely not be able to avoid their eyes and ears, it is meaningless." ”

In the original time, relying on the strong military strength, the Jiannu left-behind army did not dare to leave the two cities of Liaoyang and Shenyang, and the vast Liaohe Plain was allowed to gallop by the Ming army.

And since the return of the main force of Jiannu, the situation has turned abruptly. The main force of Jiannu has a strong cavalry, and its combat effectiveness is far from being comparable to that of the cavalry of the Ming army. If it is a battle in formation, Cao Wenzhao's light cavalry and heavy cavalry are not afraid of the Jiannu cavalry, but a few sentry cavalry encounters, more attention is paid to the cavalry's individual combat strength, and the Liaoxi cavalry cannot be compared with the Jiannu.

The weapons of the cavalry in western Liaoxi are mostly firearms, and there are not many who can ride and shoot at all, while the Jiannu sentry cavalry is good at riding and shooting, and their immediate combat skills are not inferior to those of the Mongols. Therefore, the sentinels of the two sides encountered each other, and the Ming sentry cavalry was not the opponent of the Jiannu sentinel at all. The failure of the sentinel encounter, the result was that the battlefield was completely cut off by the Jiannu sentinels, and the Ming army could not detect the movement of the main force of Jiannu at all, and it was not clear what the main force of Jiannu was going to do next.

"Alas!" Cao Wenzhao sighed, feeling that this battle was really heartwarming, but there was nothing to be done.

"But don't worry too much, Jiannu's intentions are easy to guess," Lu Xiangsheng smiled coldly, "If Jiannu wants to really fight directly with our army, he will kill him directly, and attack the defenders of Shenyang City inside and outside, its strength will be stronger than ours, and there is no need to send a large number of cavalry to intercept and kill our sentry cavalry for two consecutive days." Its purpose in covering the battlefield is to hide its main force! ”

"Are you saying that the main force of Jiannu is not here?" Cao Wenzhao also came back to his senses and asked in surprise.

Lu Xiangsheng nodded: "Most likely, Jiannu blocked the battlefield, so that we couldn't find out where its main force was, so we didn't dare to move, and its main force could just do what they wanted!" ”

"What exactly does Jiannu want to do?" Cao Wenzhao muttered.

"Yes, it's Liaoyang City!" Cao Wenzhao finally understood, "Now that Bianjiao and Zhou Yuji are attacking Liaoyang, then Huang Taiji must lead the main force to Liaoyang to attack Bianjiao and Zhou Yuji!" ”

"Almost everyone in the main force of Jiannu has a war horse, and their mobility is stronger than ours, and what they are best at is to break them one by one, which was the case in the original battle of Salhu. Now we must fight Cao Bianjiao and Zhou Yuji first, and then go back to the idea of cleaning up our minds! Cao Wenzhao exclaimed.

Lu Xiangsheng nodded calmly, agreeing with Cao Wenzhao's guess.

At this moment, his face seemed calm, but his heart was turbulent. It's careless, it's still careless! At this moment, Lu Xiangsheng regretted a little, regretting that he was a little big.

It should have been the moment he learned that Jiannu was out of the border wall, so he gathered all the troops sent out, and returned to Liaoyang and Cao Bianjiao and Zhou Yuji to join forces. But he thought about destroying the potential of Jiannu's hinterland as much as possible, thinking that if he could delay for a day, he would be able to destroy Jiannu a little more. In seven or eight days, the Liaoxi soldiers, the Dongjiang army, and the Guiyi army all went out, burned and plundered hundreds of Jiannutun villages, killed and plundered 50,000 women, children, the old and the weak, and rescued tens of thousands of Hannu Baoyi, and the result was that the opportunity to retreat safely was lost.

Although the sentinels sent could not break through the Jiannu cavalry to intercept and detect enough information, Lu Xiangsheng could imagine that Liu Xingzuo's Dongjiang Army and Li Yangeng's Guiyi battalion were probably being pursued and killed by the main force of Jiannu at this moment, and I don't know how many people could retreat through Liaoyang safely.

Lu Xiangsheng regretted his mistake even more, in his opinion, with his own 20,000 main forces outside Shenyang, Huang Taiji should not have the time to pay attention to Liu Xingzuo and them, but now he found that Huang Taiji did not put his 20,000 people in his eyes at all, and only relied on cavalry to block the battlefield, so he let himself advance and retreat.

In fact, Lu Xiangsheng is still too young at this moment, and without much experience, he was suddenly promoted by Zhu Youzhen to the position of Liaodong Jingluo, compared with Huang Taiji, who has been on the battlefield for a long time, Lu Xiangsheng is still too tender!

At the beginning, according to the strategic plan agreed in advance, using the strategy of three imaginaries and one reality to directly attack the Yellow Dragon, Lu Xiangsheng fought smoothly, but that did not mean how strong his current ability was, it was just a good plan. Now when Huang Taiji led the main force back and really played against a generation of heroes like Huang Taiji on the battlefield, the gap was suddenly revealed.

Of course, although he regrets it, Lu Xiangsheng is now young and vigorous, and he will not admit this gap, and the setbacks he encountered have aroused his competitive mentality!

"Now is not the time for the Battle of Salhu, and the Eight Banners of Jiannu are not as strong as they were when Salhu." Lu Xiangsheng snorted coldly, "Huang Taiji wants to defeat each other, how can it be so easy!" ”

To be honest, the situation is indeed different from the battle of Sarhu. At the time of the Battle of Salhu, the Eight Banners should have been the strongest when they were strong, and the number of the Eight Banners that could be used was nearly 100,000, and their strength was not much less than that of the Ming Army at that time.

Since the Battle of Sarhu, the Eight Banners seem to have won every battle, occupying the entire Liaodong, conquering Korea, and subduing the Mongols, but they are only extremely powerful, and the number of their bannermen is indeed decreasing year by year.

The Eight Banners fought the Ming Dynasty, fought Mongolia, fought North Korea, and won consecutive battles, but each battle had losses in its banners, from about 100,000 bannermen before the battle of Sarhu, to 70,000 banners left before this war, and now, after a series of battles, especially Lu Xiangsheng led the Janissaries into the hinterland of Liaodong, the number of banners was seriously damaged, and now the total number is more than 40,000.

In other words, after this war, 40,000 of the 70,000 bannermen of Jiannu remained, and the loss of its banner population has exceeded 60%.

The current Jiannu, the main force still exists, and the rest are the most elite Eight Banner soldiers, but after all, the number of dead one is one less, and they can't afford to lose at all.

Although Lu Xiangsheng didn't know in such detail, he also knew that Jiannu couldn't withstand the big losses now, so he wasn't afraid of any tricks in Jiannu at all.

"Cao Bianjiao and Zhou Yuji still have 30,000 soldiers and horses, if they add the Guiyi army that is going south one after another, they can use more troops, plus Sun Chuanting and Sun Inspector are rushing to Liaoyang, as long as they are not careless and are attacked by Huang Taiji, at least there is no problem in guarding until Inspector Sun arrives. Huang Taiji can use various means to break down, as long as he can withstand the loss, what if he is allowed to break it? If it is the lives of the 5,000 Eight Banner soldiers who can be exchanged, Cao Bianjiao and Zhou Yuji can be wiped out! Lu Xiangsheng sneered.

Cao Wenzhao opened his mouth and closed his mouth again. Cao Bianjiao is his own nephew, and he doesn't want Cao Bianjiao to die.

However, Cao Wenzhao understood what Lu Xiangsheng meant, that is, the current Ming army can withstand losses, but Jiannu can't.

"So what do we do? Is it to rescue Liaoyang or just wait here? Could it be that Huang Taiji didn't go to Liaoyang, just waited for us to leave the camp, and then attacked us halfway? Cao Wenzhao guessed again.

"Are the Jiannu cavalry blocking the battlefield in order to plot against us?" Lu Xiangsheng was stunned for a moment, "It's not impossible, but it's unlikely." ”

"Huang Taiji can use cavalry to cut off the battlefield, but it is impossible to rush to our army without being discovered. It's impossible for them to sneak up on us. After the battle of Guannei, Huang Taiji must have known our strength by now, and he should know that it is impossible to defeat our 20,000-strong army without paying thousands of casualties. The question is, can Huang Taiji still afford casualties? ”

"And now Liaoyang City is being attacked by Cao Bianjiao Zhou Yuji, there are many Jinyi guards in the city, and our army is likely to attack Liaoyang City. Although Liaoyang is not the capital of Jiannu, it has a population of more than 100,000, and once Liaoyang City is captured by our army, the blow to Jiannu will be devastating. It means that Jiannu has completely lost most of the population and lost the important town of Liaoyang, and from then on, the hinterland of the Liaohe Plain will directly face the attack of our army, and Jiannu will no longer be able to stand in this Liaohe Plain! ”

"So now for Huang Taiji, the most important thing is to rescue Liaoyang, not to attack our army!" Lu Xiangsheng said firmly.

"In that case, we should rush to Liaoyang City immediately!" Cao Wenzhao said eagerly.

Lu Xiangsheng suddenly sighed: "Now there is another problem, that is, Chen Yongfu is leading his troops to retreat from Tieling, if we leave, Chen Yongfu will inevitably be besieged by Jiannu, and it is very likely that he will not be able to return safely." ”

Chen Yongfu had a battalion of 3,000 Praetorian Guards in his hands, but he carried 4,500 rescued Hannu wrappers, and according to the report received the day before yesterday, he was almost in Fushun, and it was less than 100 miles away from here.

The strategy that had been put in place at the time seemed perfect now seems to be full of loopholes. At the beginning, the strategy of plundering and weakening the forces of the slaves has now become a drag on the army. But how could the 3,000 Praetorian Guards give up so easily?

Whether to return to Liaoyang with the whole army, or wait for Chen Yongfu to lead the army to come to rendezvous, to be honest, Lu Xiangsheng was also a little hesitant.

"Huang Taiji has the idea of breaking down, if Chen Yongfu retreats to Liaoyang through Shenyang, he will definitely not be able to escape the attack of Jiannu, in the opinion of his subordinates, he should send someone to inform Chen Yongfu, so that Chen Yongfu can immediately turn to the east, go south to Kuandian through Jianzhou, and retreat by the east road." Cao Wenzhao thought about it.

"From Jianzhou to Kuandian?" Lu Xiangsheng was stunned for a moment, this is a good idea, he can avoid the Jiannu soldiers and retreat safely. But the problem is that the mountain road from Jianzhou to Kuandian is not easy to walk.

But no matter how difficult it is, it's better than being surrounded and annihilated by Jiannu, and I don't have time to wait here all the time.

"Okay, just do what General Cao said!" Lu Xiangsheng said categorically, "If you want to pick up Chen Yongfu, you still have to trouble General Cao." ”

"Me?" Cao Wenzhao was stunned, "You mean to let me pick up Chen Yongfu?" ”

How willing is Cao Wenzhao to pick up a deputy general, not to mention that to meet Chen Yongfu means missing the battle of Liaoyang, he doesn't want to return to China all the way from Kuandian.

"I have a bad premonition," Lu Xiangsheng sighed, "Maybe Huang Taiji has already sent troops to deal with Chen Yongfu, and if he doesn't send troops to respond, Chen Yongfu will probably not be able to return to Daming." And the Praetorian Guards in my battalion are all infantry, although most of them ride horses, they can't run long distances, and can only trouble the Liaoxi Iron Cavalry under your command. ”

"Huang Taiji has more than 20,000 people in his hands, and he has to go to Liaoyang to deal with Cao Bianjiao and them, and he has to beware of our army, can he still divide the troops?" Cao Wenzhao was skeptical.

Lu Xiangsheng said: "Huang Taiji's troops are insufficient, but he can transfer troops from Shenyang, and there are 10,000 people in Shenyang City." ”

"General Cao, you lead the light cavalry to meet Chen Yongfu, just send him out of Fushun, and then you can immediately lead the troops back. I led the army south to Liaoyang, but the infantry couldn't go too fast, and you might be able to catch up, and you still had time to participate in the next big battle. General Cao, there is no more suitable general in the battalion than you. ”