It turned out that since Yuan Chonghuan served as the governor of Liaodong, a new rule for retribution was set.

It is forbidden to go out of the city to steal people's heads.

The standard of retribution in the battle of defending the city is mainly to protect the city, and the merit of reinforcements is mainly to make the enemy retreat.

These two and other rules were reported to the Emperor of the Apocalypse for approval.

The Emperor of the Apocalypse, who has become a sick man, why is he willing to agree to this rule of retribution?

This is because Yuan Chonghuan and Yan Mingtai looked through the historical materials before the Apocalypse Dynasty and found a very important thing.

That is, there is a precedent in the Ming Dynasty!

During the Longqing period, Qi Jiguang served as the chief soldier of Jizhen.

At the insistence of Tan Lun and Qi Jiguang, Ming Muzong agreed to the meritorious service system that had been implemented in Jizhen for a long time.

It was Qi Jiguang who successfully repelled the Mongols several times, but did not have much success, and Emperor Longqing advocated it against public opinion.

Because at that time, Emperor Longqing knew that if the defensive war was mainly based on grabbing people's heads, it was likely to lead to Li Chengliang's immoral style of play - putting the Mongols in to plunder the people, and then taking advantage of the Mongolian retreat to be careless and attack.

And Ji Zhen is at the foot of the Son of Heaven, you put the enemy in to try?

During the Jiajing period, the changes of Gengxu were a lesson from the past.

Therefore, at that time, other areas of the Ming Dynasty still maintained the head of military merit as the verification standard, but every time the merit was recorded in Jizhen, it was headed by retreating from the enemy.

This is the peace of Jizhen for decades.

The situation in eastern Liaodong, Yuan Chonghuan saw it very clearly. Neither he nor Yang Chengying could eliminate the Houjin regime in a short period of time, and they had to take it step by step.

If the military merits of the head are always used as the standard for recording merits, Yang Chengying's side will sooner or later make everyone bored, and his side will also disrupt the steps of defending the city because of going out of the city to snatch people's heads.

Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan put forward the idea of referring to the defense system of Jizhen in the defense of the city, and the Emperor of the Apocalypse also agreed.

And Huang Taiji didn't know about this situation, so he could only watch it all night and wait in vain.

Just when he led his army to continue to besiege Jinzhou, Yang Chengying was also acting on his side.

Due to Yuan Chonghuan's strong walls and clear wilderness, Huang Taiji had nowhere to plunder, and the grain and grass of the army under his command needed to be transported from Shenyang in advance, so as not to run out of cooking.

However, Huang Taiji also knew that Yang Chengying had a force under his command that was good at mountain warfare, and learned from Amin's lesson, protected food with heavy troops, and was not allowed to pursue.

Unable to cut off the food of the Houjin army, Zhang Cunren thought of a strange trick - to pull out the border forts of the Houjin army along the way.

In this way, it can not only do things, but also bring psychological and physical pressure to the escort of the Houjin army.

On the evening of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, at the end of the year.

Since dusk, the gloomy sky can no longer rely on loneliness, and the goose feathers and snow will pour down incessantly.

With the howling cold wind and the sound of the branches shaking, the momentum is really terrifying.

Outside Ximu City, southeast of Haizhou Wei, a foot soldier was slowly approaching Ximu City in the face of a snowstorm.

At the forefront of the team were Zhang Cunren, Jin Guochen and Hu Hongxian, with only one goal to take Ximu City.

Ximu City is the outermost city in the southeast of Haizhou Wei, located at the lowest point of the mountains, not only the nail that is prioritized for extraction, but also the supply point of the leopard Tao camp under Zhang Cunren.

The defender in this border fort is Tumu Bulu, who caused Ma Shilong to suffer defeat.

There was a lot of grain and grass in the fort, which was enough for Zhang Cunren to get supplies.

Pushing aside the branches that were blocking him, Zhang Cunren looked at the faint flash of fire on the Wood City, and smiled excitedly on his face.

Judging from the sparse firelight, it is known that the Houjin soldiers in Ximu City are limited.

Moreover, the guard sergeant could never have imagined that someone would raid the border fort in such bad weather.

The sound of the wind and snow completely drowned out the sound of their footsteps.

Seeing that the light of the fire on the fort became clearer and clearer, and if the march like this again would be discovered by the defenders, Zhang Cunren immediately made a gesture of "scattering and approaching".

The well-trained soldiers of the Leopard Tao Battalion immediately passed on Zhang Cunren's order, and unsheathed the short knife in his hand and wrapped it thickly around his hand and knife.

In the extreme cold, if you don't do this, it is easy to not be able to pull out the knife, or even if you pull out the knife, you will not be able to swing it out because your hands are numb.

After the soldiers dispersed, under the leadership of Zhang Cunren, Jin Guochen and Hu Hongxian, they outflanked them in three ways.

In the city of Ximu, the Houjin army.

In the slightly empty wooden house, only a few houses are lit up.

This border fort, which could have housed thousands of soldiers, was now garrisoned by only more than a hundred soldiers.

A few months ago, Yang Chengying's army attacked Haizhou Wei and the surrounding area, sweeping away the border forts of the Later Jin army, including Ximu City.

Later, after Yang Chengying's army retreated, Ximu City returned to the hands of the Houjin army.

With the Later Jin Great Khan Emperor Taiji sending troops to Jinzhou, and worried that Yang Chengying would rob the grain road, he had no choice but to adopt the strategy of shrinking the defense line and deploy the limited forces in the key position of the grain road.

Most of the soldiers in Ximu City were Du Du, who was guarded in Haizhou, and was transferred to garrison Haizhou City.

Considering the importance of the city, two hundred people were barely left to guard the city to serve as a warning.

"What kind of whistle do you need to look at in such a ghost weather? Would a ghost march in such weather? ”

A Houjin army patrol soldier held a spear, shrunk his body as far as possible to hide from the wind and snow, and said to his other companion without complaint.

"Yes! The other brothers are hiding in the room and sleeping, but the two of us are unlucky, and we have to be on duty in such a ghost weather! ”

Another soldier also said angrily, "Actually, our sentry can only pretend!" The Golden State Army is also human, who will march in this ghost weather. ”

"That is, if you want me to say, even if the enemy really kills him, it is better to go back to Haizhou with the two hundred people in our fort, and it is better to go back to Haizhou."

"Not really. Even if you don't go to Haizhou City, it's not bad to live in Tashanpu, but it's just this ghost place. ”

Just when the two soldiers on duty were talking happily, death was approaching them!

In order to avoid the wind and snow, both soldiers tried to shrink under the castle tower of the border fort, with their bodies facing away from the stairs downstairs. So much so that they didn't notice that there was a hook hooked on the ear wall of the side fort and turned up.

Unbeknownst to them, the enemies had already crept up the side walls and crept up the stairs behind them.

"Woo......!"

A guard on duty was completely unsuspected, and his mouth was covered from behind with his hand, and then a sharp blade was stabbed in the back, and he lost his life before he could utter a scream.

"Huh? What happened to you? ”

Another sentry turned his head in surprise when he heard the strange noise of his companion, only to see his companion's body slowly sliding with the tip of a knife on his chest.

He was about to let out an exclamation when another sharp blade stabbed into his neck with rapid and unusual speed.

Enemy attack!

The soldier's life faded quickly, and before he could lose his senses, he would finally realize what was in front of him, but it was too late.

"Head, there are only these two on duty, and everyone else should be sleeping in the room!"

A chief of the Leopard Tao Camp whispered to Zhang Cunren.

"Hmm."

Zhang Cunren nodded, and with a slight force in his right hand, he pulled out the short knife that pierced the enemy's neck, "Follow me in, I can't let anyone go." ”

"Yes, General!"