Zhu Cijiong began the Korean raid, and Chongzhen also stood in front of the main gate of the Chongde Hall in the inner city of Shengjing.

"Twenty years." Looking at the main gate of the Chongde Palace, which was not too majestic, Chongzhen muttered, "I still remember that at the beginning of my accession to the throne, I summoned Yuan Chonghuan to play on the platform. ”

"When Yuan Chonghuan said that he could level Liao in five years, I was so happy in my heart."

After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "At that time, I really believed that Yuan Chonghuan could do what he said, and he could really pacify Liaodong within five years and completely solve the Jianyu Rebellion. ”

"But Yuan Chonghuan couldn't calm Liao after all, he broke his promise after all." Zheng Zhilong said, "Now that twenty years have passed, it is the saint himself who has laid down Liaodong. ”

"Hey, Zheng Qing, you're wrong."

Chongzhen waved his hand and said: "Liaodong is laid by Zhen, not me." ”

Xu Yingwei hurriedly said: "The minister was able to conquer Shenyang City, in fact, it was not the work of the minister, the first relied on the saint's hard work, the strength of the soldiers, and then the soldiers' lives. ”

Chongzhen is the emperor, but he is not greedy for the merits of the ministers.

Xu Yingwei is a courtier, but he is not willing to be greedy for heaven's work.

Seeing Chongzhen and Xu Yingwei humiling each other there, Zheng Zhilong also sighed, such a monarch is really rare, compared with the two, does he care too much about fame and fortune?

Xu Yingwei said: "What's more, the minister only conquered Shenyang, but did not completely pacify Liaodong, and before the Horqin Mongol tribes were pacified, Liaodong was still in danger of repeatedness." ”

"Youzhen is right." Chongzhen said, "Now it depends on how Dolgon will choose, if Dolgon refuses to send troops to rescue, we will wave our army north to solve the Horqin Mongols, if Dolgon sends troops to rescue, then we will fight a field battle with Jiannu in Liaodong, thirty years, and the East should also be concluded." ”

Since the old slave started the army with seven hatreds, it is exactly 30 years since this year.

"Field war with Jiannu?" Hearing this, Zheng Zhilong and Xu Yingwei were a little stunned, how could it be a field battle?

You must know that since the bloody battle of the Hunhe River, the Ming army has never fought a field battle with Jiannu, in the Battle of Songjin, Hong Chengchou led the total army of the eight towns in Liaodong to aid Jinzhou, and also went to Songshan and fought a defensive battle with Jiannu.

After that, all the major wars, the Battle of Xuzhou, the bloody Battle of Shanyang and Yan Yingyuan's defense of Dagukou were all defensive battles.

The Battle of Guting Town can barely be regarded as a field battle, but Jiannu only used cavalry, not infantry and artillery, so it cannot be regarded as a field battle in the real sense.

So neither Zheng Zhilong nor Xu Yingwei thought that Chongzhen would choose to fight a dignified field battle with Jiannu in Liaodong at this time.

"Yes, fight with Jiannu!"

Chongzhen also has his own considerations.

The dispute between the Ming and Qing dynasties was not a simple military dispute, but a system dispute involving politics, military, economy and even people's livelihood.

Until now, the people and even officials of the Ming Dynasty are actually afraid of building slaves like tigers.

After the Jiashen national disaster, although there were also many victories, including the prince of Qin, almost all the officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty believed that the Ming army could win the battle if it fought a defensive war, and it would definitely not be able to defeat Jiannu in a field war.

This can be seen from Zheng Zhilong's expression just now, and even Xu Yingwei is not confident.

The self-confidence of the military is more precious than gold, and the collective self-confidence of the entire population is particularly indispensable.

Therefore, it is necessary to use iron-clad facts to tell the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty and the gentry and people of the Ming Dynasty that the Ming army can not only defeat Jiannu in defensive battles, but also defeat Jiannu in field battles.

The current battle in Liaodong is an excellent opportunity to build confidence.

For this reason, Chongzhen even did not hesitate to give up the overall strategy of hardening the village and fighting a dumb war.

Zheng Zhilong was still a little worried, frowned and asked, "Holy Lord, wouldn't it be too risky to fight with Jiannu at this time?" ”

Chongzhen asked rhetorically: "Then when do you say that you won't take risks in the field with Jiannu?" If there is no accident, as early as next year or later the year after tomorrow, the Ming Dynasty will definitely launch a large-scale Northern Expedition, and at that time it will definitely be impossible to avoid a field battle with Jiannu, Zheng Qing, you say, is it better to have a medium-scale field battle with Jiannu at this time, or wait until the Northern Expedition, and it is better to come up and have a decisive field battle with Jiannu? ”

"Then it's naturally better to have a field battle with Jiannu now." Zheng Zhilong said without thinking, "In this way, it is good to accumulate some field experience, so that when the Northern Expedition is made next year or the year after, there will be a bottom." ”

"The most important thing is faith." Chongzhen said, "If the Ming soldiers are still not confident in the decisive battle of the Northern Expedition, then the possibility of final defeat will be greatly increased, on the contrary, if my Ming soldiers are full of confidence in the victory of the Northern Expedition, then the possibility of winning the Northern Expedition will also be greatly improved." ”

Chongzhen may have thought too much about this, but in order to win the decisive battle, no matter how cautious he is, he can't be too cautious.

The reason is also very simple, this Liaodong War Daming can afford to lose, but next year or the year after tomorrow's decisive battle, Daming can't afford to lose, once you lose the decisive battle of the next year, not to mention that the Northern Expedition is hopeless from now on, but it is very likely to drag on for ten or eight years, Chongzhen does not want to waste so much time, his time is very precious.

"I understand." Xu Yingwei said, "This battle in Liaodong is a battle to build confidence. ”

"Yes, it's a battle of confidence." Chongzhen said solemnly, "It is to take this Liaodong War as a model to inform all the Ming soldiers, and also to all the officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty, that the Ming army can not only defeat Jiannu in the city defense battle, but also defeat Jiannu in the field battle, and the Ming army is fearless and invincible!" ”

……

At the same time, Dolgon's army had just reached the Shanhai Pass.

In this expedition, Dolgon brought 60,000 regular soldiers, including 10,000 in the Eight Banners of Manchuria, 10,000 in the Eight Banners of Mongolia, 20,000 in the Han Army of the Eight Banners, and 20,000 in the Green Battalion.

Not long ago, Dolgon listened to the advice of Hong Chengchou and others, and made a clear division of the composition of the army according to the characteristics of the Green Battalion and the Eight Banners.

In the future, the Eight Banners of Manchuria and the Eight Banners of the Han Army will all be equipped with flintlock muskets and become musketeers.

Of course, at this stage, the Qing army only has a total of 50,000 flintlock guns, and it is impossible to make all the Eight Banners Manchuria and the Eight Banners Han Army redress for the time being, so they can only be redressed in batches.

Those who have not yet changed their outfits still use large bows and swords as their main combat weapons.

However, the 10,000 Eight Banners of Manchuria and the 20,000 Eight Banners of Han Army, which followed Dolgon, have all changed their outfits, and now they are holding flintlock pistols, but the large bow and chopping knife have also been retained.

Because of the characteristics of its troops, the Eight Banners Mongolia is mainly used to pursue and expand the results of the battle, so it still retains mounted archery.

In addition to Liaodong Town, Datong Town and other 30 towns, most of the green battalion will to fight is very weak, and when they arrive on the battlefield, they often collapse at the touch of a button, in view of this, Dolgon made a large-scale adjustment to the green battalion, and the 30,000 green battalion soldiers of the original Liaodong Town and Datong Town were raised to the flag as the Eight Banners Han Army.

So now, the Eight Banners Han Army has increased to 182 Niu Lu.

And these 182 cattle records are all full of 300 cattle records.

Now Jiang Huang, Wu Sangui and Wang Fuchen are also members of the Eight Banners Han Army.

Then the remaining 90,000 green battalion soldiers, in addition to the 60,000 green battalion soldiers guarding the town, the other 30,000 green battalion soldiers stationed in Beijing have been reorganized into artillery by Dolgon.

In the future, the 60,000 green battalions guarding the town will also be transferred to Beijing and reorganized into artillery.

In the future, the Green Battalion will become a full-time artilleryman, and the 20,000 Green Battalion that followed Dolgon to Liaodong this time are all artillerymen.

The 20,000 Green Battalion was equipped with more than 1,000 cannons, including 200 Hongyi cannons, 200 Francophone cannons, 400 camel whirlwind cannons, and 600 tiger squat cannons.

Because it carried more than 1,000 artillery pieces, especially 200 red-coated cannons weighing more than 2,000 catties, this seriously affected the march, so that the Qing army could only walk 30 miles a day.

So seven days have passed, but the Qing army has only walked near Shanhaiguan.

Hong Chengchou said worriedly: "Master, it's not possible to march at this speed, there are still more than 800 miles from Shanhaiguan to Shengjing, and you have to walk for at least a month." ”

"You may not be able to walk in a month." Fan Wencheng continued.

Ning Wan wiped the rain on his face, and said: "I'm afraid this rain won't stop for a while, and the road in western Liaoning will only be more muddy and difficult to walk in the next half month." ”

Dolgon said in a deep voice, "So what do you think? ”

Hou Fangyu replied: "Master, the red-coated cannon and the Franc cannon are too cumbersome, so don't bring them, just bring the camel whirlwind cannon and the tiger squat cannon is enough." ”

"Chaozong is right." Hong Chengchou nodded in agreement.

"With camel whirlwind cannons and tiger squat cannons, it is enough to break the hollow phalanx of the Ming army, and there is no danger in the field."

"You can do without the Francophone cannon, but if you don't bring the red-coated cannon, how can you attack the city?" Dolgon was a little worried, "If the Ming army doesn't come out of Shengjing, won't there be nothing they can do?" ”

"You can bring tens of thousands of pounds of gunpowder." Hou Fangyu suggested.

Hong Chengchou also said: "Yes, digging one or several tunnels directly under the city wall, and then burying thousands of catties or even tens of thousands of catties of gunpowder can blow up the city wall, which is nothing more than spending more work." ”

"That's what I'm afraid of." Dorgon frowned and said, "A long-term siege is not only labor-intensive, but also food-intensive. ”

The silver is actually okay, the Qing Dynasty is actually not short of silver, but the food is really lacking, if it is really in Shengjing with the Ming army for a year and a half, for a long time to give the regular soldiers and miscellaneous soldiers war rations, this consumption is really a bit big.

Seeing Dolgon mention food, Hong Chengchou, Hou Fangyu and the others closed their mouths very interestingly.

Because this is an unsolvable problem, no matter how resourceful they are, there is no way to solve it.

Thinking of this, Hong Chengchou couldn't help but sigh again, how did Chongzhen solve the supply of military food?

You must know that in addition to adding 20,000 troops to Liaodong, Chongzhen also added 200,000 troops to the Xuzhou battlefield, plus more than 300,000 people who were stationed in Guide and Kaifeng Mansion before, so many soldiers can be fed? It's so angry.

(End of chapter)