While the Qing court was preparing to gather heavy troops to encircle and suppress the third town of the Xia army, Su Yan also ordered the recruitment and training of new troops in Shandong to send reinforcements to the Liaodong Peninsula across the sea.

This conscription and training of the new army was the first new army that began to be formed after the establishment of the dynasty, so Su Yan was not prepared to continue to train cheap and durable Cossack infantry, but instead recruited the line infantry of the army pillars and reorganized the diversified new military system.

The new military system will be based on the composition of the French Army in the Napoleonic era a hundred years later, with a division at the battalion level, that is, a battalion will have six infantry companies, including a grenadier company, four riflemen companies and a leaper company (light infantry).

The battalion is divided into a combat battalion and a military station battalion, with an infantry standard under three combat battalions and a military station battalion, and four infantry companies under the military station battalion, which are responsible for the supply of military salaries and salaries for their respective targets, and are also responsible for building camps when they are in camp.

In this way, one standard will be unified into 2,460 soldiers, which will be the most basic combat unit of the Imperial Army, and the standard above will be unified with four standards as one brigade, four brigades as one town, and one town as 40,000 soldiers.

This is also to change the current situation of small number of troops at the town level, looking at the existing towns in the empire, the number of troops is basically about 10,000, except for Li Laiheng's second town, no more than 20,000.

In addition to a full-fledged town, the new army formed in Shandong will also be attached to a cavalry brigade and an artillery standard with 128 guns, and the artillery standard will be subordinate to a howitzer battalion and three infantry artillery battalions, each battalion will have four artillery companies under its jurisdiction, and one company will be composed of eight artillery pieces for two artillery teams.

Such a huge amount of conscription is naturally impossible to do in Shandong alone, so the scope of conscription will include the three provinces of Jiangnan, Shandong, and Henan, consuming hundreds of thousands of silver, and is expected to be completed within two months.

For two months, I don't know if the war in Liaodong will last that long.

At the same time as ordering the formation of the new army, the training of the First Cavalry Brigade formed in Shaanxi had already been completed, and Su Yan appointed Anding Bo Mabao under Zhang Mingzhen as the brigade commander of the First Cavalry Brigade, and ordered him to lead the army north, first familiarize himself with his subordinates in Yulin for a month, and then go north to the Mongolian steppe to take revenge on the Mongolian tribes that had been in Koubian.

This is one of the missions, and the other task is to search for clues about Wu Yingqi, who has fled to the grassland.

On the other side, the gaze returned to the Liaodong battlefield.

Su Dingyuan is not ready to defend Gaizhou.

The so-called best defense is to attack, and if the Qing court wants to gather troops and horses from all over the country to pacify the Xia army, it will take at least one or two months, and during this time, it is naturally impossible for the Xia army to sit and wait for death in Gaizhou.

Moreover, Su Dingyuan was still a staunch attacker, and after ordering the scouts to draw a map of this area, he summoned the brigade commanders and three lieutenants of the Qinglong Right Brigade and the Suzaku Left Brigade, and pressed his fingers heavily on the circle symbolizing Liaoyang Mansion under the gaze of everyone.

Under the gaze of everyone, he said: "Liaoyang is the gateway to Shenyang, as long as Liaoyang is captured, Shenyang can be attacked if it advances, and its edge can be avoided when it retreats, no matter how the Qing army responds, our army can occupy the initiative.

Moreover, it is absolutely impossible for the Tatar chieftains to dare to take the initiative to attack Liaoyang Mansion and send troops to attack Liaoyang despite the disadvantage in numbers, and they can also take the Qing army by surprise."

"There is still a Haicheng blocking the road from Kegaizhou to Liaoyang, if the Haicheng Qing army reports the military situation to Liaoyang in advance, how can it play the role of a surprise attack?" Zhao Liangdong asked.

"Indeed, attacking Liaoyang is too risky, and when the Qing army in western Liaoxi returns, our army is very likely to fall into the predicament of being flanked in front and back, and it is a taboo for soldiers to go deep alone, and if they fall into the siege of the Qing army again, the third town will be in danger." Wang Jinbao echoed.

"What do you think our army should do?" Su Dingyuan withdrew his finger and asked the two of them.

Perhaps expecting Su Dingyuan to ask like this in advance, Zhao Liangdong was confident and said: "Our army is fully equipped with firearms, which is not suitable for fighting on the plains, but if the Qing army is introduced into the Qianshan Mountains on the east side and relies on the complex terrain to block the attack, the Qing army will be defeated."

"But our army is not familiar with the terrain of the Thousand Mountains, and it is not appropriate to rush into the mountains, just afraid that our army will be lost in the mountains first." Su Dingyuan shook his head and rejected his proposal.

Then, he looked at Wang Jinbao again, who met Su Dingyuan's gaze and thought

After a while, he said: "It's not appropriate to enter the mountains, then you can only fight on the plains, you can follow the example of the former Ming Sun Chuanting, form a chariot battalion on the plains, and use chariots as a cover to deal with the offensive of the Qing army."

Wang Jinbao was originally from Shaanxi, and he had seen the appearance of the Qin army's car battalion, which may not be able to withstand the bombardment of artillery, but under the premise of sharp firearms, it can still inflict heavy damage on the enemy.

Su Dingyuan thought for a moment, and did not immediately refute Wang Jinbao's proposal, if I remember correctly, before he joined the army, His Majesty had used the Che Battalion to defeat the Qing army that had entered Fujian to suppress it, and all kinds of actual battles were enough to prove that the Che Battalion's method was indeed effective.

Thinking of this, he nodded and said, "The method of the Cheying can be used, the army will conquer Haicheng first, and then decide whether to continue to attack Liaoyang."

"Why?"

The generals promised.

After Su Dingyuan made the final decision, the army marched from Gaizhou on the same day and headed towards Haicheng, along the way the Han people all ate pot pulp, welcomed them in the middle of the road, and expressed their high welcome and enthusiasm to the Xia army who came to liberate them.

South of Haicheng, to be precise, the Manchus south of Liaoyang are scrambling to pack up their homes and flee to the north with large bags and small bags, and the atrocities of the Xia army in Gaizhou City have made the Manchus who are accustomed to acting as powerful people fearful, in order not to die under the blade of the Han people, they can only abandon the manor and flee in a hurry.

If it was placed more than ten years ago before the Qing army entered the customs, the Manchurians in Liaodong might still be able to maintain their bloody nature and spontaneously take up arms to fight against the Xia army, but after the corrosion after entering the customs, the blood in their bones has been consumed a lot, and escape has become the mainstream.

Seeing that the Xia army was gradually moving north, the Han people around Haicheng rose up one after another, they picked up any tool that could be used as a weapon, gathered a crowd to besiege the Manchu masters who were high in the past, they shouted: "Welcome the Xia army, welcome the Xia army, kill the Manchu people to welcome the Xia army, the Xia army will have a reward for silver", with anger those Manchus who did not have time to escape to death, the head was cut off and salted with lime, and the corpse was hung directly on the trunk of the tree, allowing the scavenging birds to peck at it.

In just a few days, thousands of Han people around Haicheng joined the uprising, and the Han people inside Haicheng rebelled in the city when the Xia army was approaching the city and launched a fierce attack on the city, and the Xia army should cooperate with the outside to take the city.

After taking the city, the Xia army launched a retaliatory massacre against the Hu people in the city as usual, and Su Dingyuan shouted the slogan of "revenge Yangzhou ten days, Jiangyin ten days, Jiading three massacres, Gengyin robbery and other blood hatreds, let the Manchus return blood for blood, tooth for tooth", and mercilessly killed the Hu people everywhere they went.

After the Xia army took Haicheng, the Han people who started around the incident sent people to the city with the severed head in exchange for a reward for silver, asking for help, Su Dingyuan was very happy to distribute the reward according to the head, for those who were ready to continue to act alone, to take revenge on the Manchurian Han rebels, he also unconditionally gave them the weapons and armor of the captured Qing army, encouraging them to continue fighting.

Su Dingyuan's move undoubtedly greatly boosted the morale of the Han people in Liaodong, and as the news spread, the center of Haicheng gradually radiated and spread out, reaching Jinzhou Mansion in the west, Phoenix City in the east, and Changtu Hall in the north.

The most terrifying thing for the Qing court finally happened, when the oppressed Han Chinese from all over Liaodong rose up, picked up any tool that could be called a weapon, killed their master's family in the night, and then fled the manor.

In the following short period of half a month, nearly 1,000 people died in the hands of the Han people, in addition to the Manchus, those Han women who rode on the heads of their compatriots were also attacked, and the smoke in Shengjing was everywhere, and the Manchus were panicked.

In this context, the Qing court conscripted the children of the Eight Banners in Shengjing, intending to gather heavy troops to attack the Xia army's plan could only be delayed, and under the persuasion of the Manchu ministers in the court, the Shunzhi Emperor could only order to first concentrate troops to encircle and suppress the Han rebels in various places to protect the safety of the lives and property of the Manchus.

However, in order to prevent the Xia army from further attacking Liaoyang and directly threatening Shengjing, Emperor Shunzhi still increased his troops to Liaoyang and increased the strength of the defenders in the city.

The Qing army increased its troops to Liaoyang, and Su Dingyuan's intention to attack Liaoyang was shattered, but he still took this opportunity to build a large number of chariots in Haicheng to prepare for future wars.

Half a month has passed.

Until the middle of October, a war report from Liaoxi once again shook the entire Shengjing place, and on the eighth day of October, the Xia army finally conquered Shanhaiguan, and the Qing Zhenhai general Shi Tingzhu was martyred, and the garrison in the city was also destroyed.

After the Xia army conquered Shanhaiguan, there was no obstacle in the western Liaoning corridor, and the Xia army was able to drive straight in.

Shanxi, Hebei Governor, Huaiguo Gong Su Ci led the army through the Shanhaiguan, along the Liaoxi corridor continued to march eastward, along the way the Qing army in Shanhaiguan fell after the demoralization, almost the wind fell, the Xia army in the battle of the Liuzhou River defeated the Manchurian inlaid cypress banner Gushan Ezhen Zhuoluo, just a few days, the Xia army all the way to Ningyuan Prefecture.

This is since Chongzhen fifteen years, the Han people counterattacked back to Ningyuan, so that the Qing army fell into a passive defensive position, Su Ci in order to take Ningyuan Prefecture as soon as possible, personally supervised the battle, the Xia army attacked for two days, and finally entered the city, the Qing army in the city or died or surrendered, and the Han people were liberated.

Compared with Su Dingyuan, Su Ci's methods are much softer, he did not kill the Manchus in the occupied area indiscriminately, but let the Han people accuse them, kill those who commit the most heinous crimes, kill those who have Han blood on their hands, and kill those who bully *** Han women.

After a few killings, although many Manchus were killed, there were still a few people who survived, but they were destined not to return to their original glory, and their fields and family properties were forcibly confiscated and distributed to the local Han people.

As soon as the Xia army came, the Han people successfully turned over and became the masters, and the Han people in western Liaoning supported the Xia army even more.

After recovering Ningyuan, Su Ci surrendered his eyes to Jinzhou, and he only repaired in Ningyuan for a few days, and then continued to lead the army eastward to kill Jinzhou City.