"Stompping... Stomping ......"

The sound of horses' hooves resounded in the wilderness south of the Hunhe River, and thousands of soldiers on low Mongolian horses drove southeast with hundreds of artillery wagons drawn by two horses.

For others, this scene may make people feel very majestic, but for those who are enemies with them, it is a little tormenting.

Seven or eight miles away from this group, another, much larger army was on the march.

The difference is that compared to the army that rides leisurely, this army is a bit embarrassed.

The cavalry patrolled the perimeter, the foot soldiers hurried with their armor on their backs, and the whole team was in the dust, and everyone would look behind them from time to time, as if to watch out for a surprise attack by the army behind.

After a short time, the whole army stopped marching, and the team in the rear also stopped to rest under the Tang cavalry.

"Master Hou, this rebel army is following like this, at first glance, it is going to attack Liaoyang City, if so, will we still go to Liaoyang to transfer troops?"

In the ranks of tens of thousands of people, one of the commanders spoke angrily, and his eyes kept looking to the northwest, as if he wanted to kill the army in the distance with his eyes.

"This Bohai Shu person is smart......

The person who opened his mouth was Wu Gao, the Marquis of Jiangyin, who commanded this army, and what he sighed was also the situation of the army behind him.

"Master Hou, it's really strange how this rebel army is so difficult to fight after leaving the camp!"

The commander was still venting, Wu Gao sighed, and felt a slight headache: "This is also the reason why I praise the people of Bohai." ”

"During the Battle of Tieling, the reason why I wanted to lure them into pursuit was that their various units did not cooperate well, and once they pursued, the formation would be disordered, which would facilitate our army to divide and outflank."

"Come to think of it, at that time, the Bohai Shu people ordered to stop the pursuit, and they decided to see their own shortcomings."

"This time we went south, he did not lead a large army to pursue, but divided his troops to pursue."

"After not needing to cooperate with the ministries, they are handy in dispatching and difficult to deal with."

Wu Gao said what he had a headache, and he couldn't help but think that Zhu Gaoxu's eyes were vicious.

"Then are we going to Liaoyang?" The commander looked up at the many clouds gathered in the sky: "This day, I'm afraid it will rain in the next few days." ”

"No, this is the conspiracy of the Bohai Shu people, we can't commit it."

The commander was still thinking about the sky, but Wu Gao had already seen Zhu Gaoxu's intentions.

"The people of Bohai have already known about the loss of our army's Jinzhou." Wu Gao said with a solemn expression: "If I were him, since the enemy army was reluctant to give up Shenyang City, the soldiers and horses would inevitably divide their troops." ”

"The division of troops is not enough to take Jinzhou City, so it is inevitable to go to various cities to transfer troops."

"He didn't lead a large army to fight against us, because he knew that we were short of food and grass, so he could slowly watch the bloodied prey dry and die like a tiger in the mountains."

"Right now, we are the prey of the bloodletting, and the blood is the food......"

Wu Gao felt tricky about Zhu Gaoxu's methods, and the commander next to him also seemed to understand: "According to your meaning, Master Hou, if we transfer some of the defenders of Liaoyang City, the seven or eight thousand troops behind us may attack Liaoyang City?" ”

"It's not possible, it's certain!" Wu Gao nodded his head, and then said:

"When we crossed the river the previous time, the number of their soldiers and horses was far above us, and the soldiers and horses behind us were only two or three percent of the rebels' soldiers and horses crossing the river, and the other soldiers and horses were probably going to southern Liaoning."

"Then we ......" Hearing that Zhu Gaoxu's army was heading for southern Liaoning, the commander was sweating, he knew that the speed of the Bohai Navy's march was above them, and if Zhu Gaoxu really sent people to southern Liaoning, it would be difficult to keep up with their speed.

"Once Haizhou is taken, we will cut off contact with the 20,000 troops in Liaoxi, and it will be impossible for us to retreat from Jiulian City."

Wu Gao touched his slightly cold forehead, and seemed to have a headache about how to break the game.

He already thought that Zhu Gaochu was a tricky opponent, so he kept avoiding the fight, and came to deal with him with the strong wall.

Jinzhou City was taken, and the maritime lifeline of Liaodong was cut off.

Compared with regular soldiers, Zhu Gaoxu is better at using surprise soldiers.

"Ordered the army to march south, along the mountains to Fuzhou."

Wu Gao had no choice but to abandon Liaoyang, Haizhou and Gaizhou, and use Fuzhou, the third state of the four southern Liaoning states from north to south, as the territory to take Jinzhou.

"Why don't you transfer the soldiers and horses from Liaoxi?" The commander asked cautiously, but Wu Gao shook his head:

"The Yanshu people have rebelled, and have taken Juyong Pass, Huailaiwei, and Kaiping Wuwei, cutting off the connection between Daning and Shanxi."

"At this time, if something goes wrong with the soldiers and horses of Liaoxi, then the Bohai Shu people will be able to join the Yanshu people, and they will inevitably attack Daning at that time."

"If Daning and Liaodong both fall down, this battle will be difficult to fight......"

Wu Gao did not hesitate any longer, and after simply taking the army to rest for a while, he led them to retreat to the south.

The military rations they carried were enough to support their retreat to Fuzhou, which was 500 miles away.

Seeing them leaving, Meng Zhang, who followed behind him, felt a little regretful.

"This Wu Gao, it is a pity that he can see His Highness's intentions clearly and follow Jianwen."

Meng Zhang watched the Ming army change direction with a monocular, and felt a little sorry in his heart.

"Tongzhi, are we going to attack Liaoyang?"

A commander behind Meng Zhang asked, and Meng Zhang nodded when he heard this: "The military order given by His Royal Highness is to take Liaoyang City, and we naturally want to take Liaoyang City." ”

"Besides, it is nothing to let him go to the south, and after crossing the river, did we not transfer 2,000 artillery and 200 artillery pieces to the command of the king? It is not a problem to conquer the three states of Hai, Gai and Fu. ”

"Taking Liaoyang City as soon as possible, and then waiting for His Highness's military order is what we should do."

Meng Zhang said, and the commander also muttered, "Our artillery and brothers are divided among them, and I don't know if they will cherish them." ”

"It's really embarrassing to fight with them, unlike when we surrounded and suppressed those stockades in Blackwater City, the brothers fought smoothly."

The words of the commander are also the thoughts of the brothers of the third battalion of Shenji, or to expand it, it is the idea of the entire Bohai army.

The various departments that have not gone through the run-in seem to be holding each other back, thinking that they can't keep up, I am slowing down, and thinking that they suddenly slow down, and the cooperation is not smooth, and my heart is panicked.

The rhythm of each department is different, and there will naturally be the undense situation exposed during Tieling City.

Zhu Gaoxu also sensed Wu Gao's temptation, and then discovered his own shortcomings, and then decided to divide his troops to fight.

Anyway, he has 6,000 cavalry in his hands, no matter which one encounters difficulties, he can lead the cavalry to gallop out of the siege, and he doesn't have to worry about the various divisions being surrounded and annihilated.

This style of play is still simplified from Lao Zhu's triple defense against Beiyuan.

In Lao Zhu's triple defense line, the most important thing is that the imperial court must have a large cavalry team in order to quickly support the soldiers and horses of the northern capitals.

After Zhu Gaoxu simplified, he was the imperial court, and the ministries were the northern capitals.

As long as the ministries don't make fatal mistakes, he has the time and opportunity to support them.

His style of play made Wu Gao feel very uncomfortable, and it also made the cities in eastern Liaodong very uncomfortable.

On May 24, Chen Chang led An Dongwei to besiege Fushun, and Fushun's general Zhao led the city to surrender, and Bohai received more than 3,700 soldiers and civilians, and more than 4,600 stone of grain.

In accordance with Bohai's "Jingnan Regulations," Chen Chang reduced the military to civilian use of more than 700 military households in Fushun, transferred half of them to the Puhe Institute, and evenly distributed more than 24,000 mu of cultivated land in the Puhe Institute to them, and exempted them from paying taxes in the first year.

At the same time, for the more than 12,000 mu of military tun land in the local area, he also gave the 400 military households left behind according to the human hair, and each household received more than 30 mu of land, and was exempted from paying taxes.

On May 25, Meng Zhang besieged Liaoyang City, Liaoyang did not surrender, and Meng Zhang did not rush to attack the city, because since Jinzhou was seized, food in Liaodong cities has become a problem, and the longer it drags on, the weaker Liaoyang City becomes.

On May 27, Wang Yi led the Jurchen guards to take the lead in besieging Haizhou City, and divided 12,000 troops to the south to besiege Gaizhou City.

In just four days, four of the eight cities east of the Liaohe River that had not yet fallen were surrounded, one surrendered, and one was uprooted.

The only ones that can still be in the hands of the Ming army are Fuzhou, where Liu Zhen is stationed, and Jiulian City, which is far away from the main battlefield.

This situation was soon spread to Nanjing by Liu Zhen's performance, and it happened to be the first day of June when he arrived in Nanjing.

"It is said that the rebels can be stopped in Tieling, but now almost the entire territory east of the Liao River has been lost, and even the 600,000 stone grain sent by the imperial court has been obtained by the rebels, hehe......"

In the Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City, Zhu Yunwen held the copy from Liu Zhen in his hand with a cold face, and while saying this sentence in a mocking tone, his eyes were still scanning the ministers.

More than 40 civil and military officials, including the five prefectures and six ministries, stood in the Wuying Palace, no one spoke, and they all looked at their noses and noses.

"Do you think I'm going to be angry?"

Zhu Yunwen got up and walked to the dragon case, looking at the ministers with a cold face.

After all, Qi Tai was the one who recommended Wu Gao, so he took the lead in standing up and saying:

"Your Majesty, there is no problem with Wu Gao's expectations, the only problem is that the rebels have gotten more sharp firearms than the imperial court out of nowhere, which caused Tieling to be pulled out and the cities of Shenyang to be besieged."

"At present, although the cities are besieged, Liaodong has not been hit hard, and with the three guards of the Liaowang Mansion, there are still as many as 60,000 soldiers in Liaodong who can fight."

"As long as you wait for Wu Gao and Liu Zhen to recover Jinzhou, you can go north again and relieve the siege of Zhucheng."

"The top priority at the moment is to find a way to transport grain and grass to Liaodong, and Daning is now cut off from Shanxi, and grain can only be transported through Liaoxi."

"The minister has flipped through the grain and grass transportation of the Daning Dusi, and the grain and grass in Daning can only last until winter at most, and the same is true in Liaodong."

Qi Tai told the situation between Daning and Liaodong, but it was extremely harsh to Zhu Yunwen, and he asked Qi Tai with a cold face:

"Before the war, you Aiqing said that Liaodong lacked generals and soldiers, so I transferred ......"

"Before the war, Aiqing said that Liaodong lacked money and food, and I also adjusted it, and I adjusted it for 600,000 stones in one go."

"Before the war, you Aiqing kept saying that you could put down the rebellion in a month, and I also have great trust in your Aiqing."

"But now?" Zhu Yunwen questioned everyone, and walked to the sand table in the Wuying Palace, pointed to the sand table and said: "Then the Bohai Shu people have sent detailed maps to the imperial court, and the imperial court already has such a detailed map, why are they still defeated?" ”

Speaking of this, Zhu Yunwen asked Qi Tai again: "Just now the Qi Soldiers Department said that the soldiers and horses of the Liaodong Metropolitan Division did not suffer heavy losses, but why did the soldiers and horses not suffer heavy losses, but the rebels' soldiers went all the way south. ”

"Please tell me that the soldiers and horses of the Bohai Shu people will not wait until the soldiers and horses of the Bohai Shu people surround the capital and put the knife on my neck, so that the soldiers and horses under Wu Gao can be regarded as suffering heavy losses?!"

"The ministers don't dare to ......" Hearing Zhu Yunwen say this, Qi Tai and everyone knelt down and kowtowed, Zhu Yunwen stood in the hall, and Changshu was all unhappy during this time.

If the ministers are wronged, then he is really wronged.

The five governments and six ministries asked for money, soldiers and food, and he gave them all these things, and the amount they gave was much more than what they asked in advance, but in the end, the situation given was Liaodong erosion.

This is only Liaodong, what about other places?

"Liao affairs are serious, pass on my will......" Zhu Yunwen slowly spoke, calming down a little.

"Wu Gao, the Marquis of Jiangyin, was promoted to the governor of the Left Army in Beijing, and he set off for Beijing on the same day, and then promoted Geng Rong to be the chief military officer of Liaodong, in charge of the counterinsurgency of the Liaodong Metropolitan Division."

"Your Majesty, no!" Hearing that Zhu Yunwen was going to dismiss Wu Gao, Qi Tai said stiffly: "Wu Gao is the best person to be in charge of Liao affairs, if it is abolished, Liao affairs may be eroded to western Liaoning, not to mention that Geng Zhen is now defending Shenyang City, besieged by the Bohai Shu people with cavalry, and the military order cannot be reached, how to command the troops and horses of Liaodong to quell the rebellion?" ”

"Best?" Zhu Yunwen was very disappointed with Qi Tai, and he questioned again: "Sir keeps saying that Wu Gao is the best for countering the rebellion, but I didn't see the first-class victory, I didn't see the rebels stop, but in less than half a month, the east of the Liao River almost became the territory of the rebels. ”

"Geng Xuan, as a deputy general, still knows that Shenyang cannot be abandoned, but the Marquis of Jiangyin has abandoned 30,000, Tieling, Puhe and many other guard cities in half a month, how can I believe him?"

"Geng Zhen can't command, so let Liu Zhen command the three armies, I don't believe that the battle that the Marquis of Jiangyin can fight, Liu Zhen can't fight!"

"I don't want Liu Zhen to defeat the rebels, but as long as he doesn't let the rebels surround more than half of the cities in western Liaoning in half a month, this is a great achievement!"

Zhu Yunwen's voice was not heavy, but it was very heavy in everyone's ears.

Of course, with him, there are also civil officials such as Fang Xiaoru, Huang Zicheng, and Violent Zhao, only Li Jinglong and others know that there is no problem with Wu Gao's playing style.

There is no problem with clearing the wilderness and exchanging space for time, with the size of the imperial court, it is completely possible to restore the livelihood of the people in Liaodong after the war, which is the means to defeat Zhu Gaoxu at the lowest cost.

It's just a pity that no one expected that Zhu Gaoxu would suddenly take out firearms that were sharper than those of the imperial court, and there were many more cavalry, horses, and troops than Liaodong.

Together, these three made it difficult for the capital of Liaodong to compete, and it also made many cities in Liaodong surrounded into a kind of fixed number.

Now the imperial court is not only losing and retreating in the Liaodong battlefield, but even more so in the Hebei battlefield, so the imperial court needs a big victory to stimulate the court and deter the local vassal kings.

Wu Gao hit the arrow this time.

"How is the Yanshu people doing?"

After the Liao affair was filmed, Zhu Yunwen began to care about Zhu Di in Beiping.

When Qi Tai heard this, he could only move his thoughts from Liaodong to Beiping: "After the rebels took the Huailai and Juyong Pass and opened the equal land, they withdrew their troops and returned to Beiping to rest, thinking that there were many casualties. ”

"On the side of the imperial court, the Marquis of Changxing has arrived in Kaifeng, and he only needs to wait for the troops and horses in Huguang, Henan, Shandong and other places to assemble, and then he can move his army north to quell the rebels."

"How many soldiers and horses will take to pull out?" Zhu Yunwen didn't have the heart to say these scenes, he just wanted to know when he would be able to send troops and when he would be able to put down the rebellion.

"At present, the 130,000 troops of the Sandu Division have been mobilized, except for the 20,000 soldiers and horses who are responsible for supervising Xiangyang, the rest of the soldiers have all been on the way to Kaifeng, and there are more than 96,000 people who have arrived so far."

Li Jinglong opened his mouth at the critical moment, and Zhu Yunwen frowned when he saw this and asked, "How many soldiers and horses does the Yanshu people have now?" ”

"After recruiting and surrendering Juyongguan, Fang Zhao and Kaiping, there were about 60,000 people, including about 5,000 cavalry and about 56,700 foot soldiers." Li Jinglong replied truthfully:

"In addition to the soldiers and horses defending the city, about 30,000 people can be mobilized to fight with the Marquis of Changxing."

"In addition, the Governor's Mansion has sent people to board the ship from Shandong, and sent the military order to the commander of the Northern Parallel Metropolitan Division to Bu Wan, asking Bu Wan to transfer 4,000 cavalry and 5,000 foot soldiers from Wu Shouan and other troops in Shanhaiguan to try to recover Yongping while holding Yanshan."

Li Jinglong told about the situation ahead, and Zhu Yunwen frowned: "Then the Bohai rebels are short of food, what about Yan Rebellion?" ”

"There are no less than 300,000 stone of grain in the reserve warehouses of Beiping and Tongzhou, plus about 400,000 stone in the reserve warehouses of Yongping and Beiping counties, as well as Juyongguan and Huailai that were captured by Yan Rebellion, I am afraid that the grain in the hands of Yan Rebellion is no less than 2 million stones."

Li Jinglong opened his mouth with a smile, after all, there are Taihang Mountains in the west of Beiping and Yan Mountain in the north, these two mountain ranges make Beiping's agricultural situation very good, and Beiping does not need the imperial court to bother with the problem of grain and grass over the years, and its tax payment is second only to Shanxi and Shandong in the north, which is much better than Bohai and Liaodong and Daning.

It's just that as soon as he said this, the ministers in the palace were a little hesitant.

Most of the ministers in this palace are in favor of cutting the domain, but although the current situation seems to be still under control, it is too far from what the ministers said that 'the domain can be leveled in a few months'.

Not to mention anything else, judging from the current strength of the rebels, if the armies of Liaodong and Beiping did not exaggerate the strength of the rebels, the number of rebels would be 60,000 in Yan, and about 40,000 in Bohai, totaling 100,000.

100,000, this is a lot, although Geng Bingwen and Daning, Liaodong and several places together have about 200,000 troops, but if you want to solve these 100,000 rebels in a short time, I am afraid it will be very difficult.

Zhu Yunwen glanced at the performance of the ministers, and was very disappointed.

If it weren't for the tens of millions of money and food and hundreds of thousands of soldiers in his hands, I'm afraid he wouldn't have been able to deal with the situation so calmly.

"What's going on in Yunnan? Can it be controlled? ”

Zhu Yunwen continued to set his eyes on Li Jinglong, and the situation in his mouth was the rebellion of Luchuan Dao Ganmeng.

"Wei Guogong has used Yongchang to Jinghan to open up a nine-foot road, and now the speed of grain and grass transportation is more than twice as fast as before, and the Marquis of Xiping also led the governor Gu Cheng, He Fu, Qu Neng and others to retake Kongtong Village, and now he has led the army to Longchuan."

"As long as you take Longchuan, Sister Yun will be under the front of my army, and it will not be easy for the thief to kill Meng even if he wants to flee."

The smooth operation of the war in the southwest made Zhu Yunwen feel a little better, and he breathed a sigh of relief: "Calm down the war in the southwest as soon as possible, so as not to change the situation in the north." ”

"Yes!" Li Jinglong responded, and Zhu Yunwen also glanced at everyone: "The Qi Army, Huang Taichang Siqing, and Dr. Fang will stay, and the rest of Aiqing will disperse." ”

"The ministers are retiring......" Hearing that the ministers left, only Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and Fang Xiaoru were left.

Seeing the ministers withdraw from the hall, Zhu Yunwen took out a letter.

"This letter was written to me by a Yanshu person, and I thought that he was so arrogant that he should be begged for a thief."

The letter was handed over to Huang Zicheng and others through Li Quan's hand, and the three of them opened it to read, and the content of it was nothing else, but Zhu Di's accusation against Zhu Yunwen about those measures and policies.

Zhu Di first said that the cutting of the feudal domain must be cut, but there is no need to abolish the uncles into commoners, and he also sent troops to force his own uncle to death.

In the letter, Zhu Di praised Zhu Yunwen for being very obedient when he was a child, so he must have been bewitched by Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng to do this.

As long as Zhu Yunwen handed over Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, and re-entered his and Zhu Gaoxu's names into the Zongren Mansion, and pardoned the soldiers who raised troops with them this time, then he would immediately write a letter to Zhu Gaoxu, and the two armies would immediately return to their garrisons, and would never continue to raise troops with the slogan of "Jing Nan".

Seeing this letter, cold sweat broke out on the foreheads of Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai, originally the slogan of "Qing Jun's side" was very far-fetched, and when he met the emperor with a weak temperament, he could completely slaughter the rebel courtiers as a slogan with a knife, and then let the rebel division be unknown.

After Zhu Di shouted the slogan "Qingjun side", Zhu Yunwen did not move, which made the two of them feel a little more at ease.

Now Zhu Di wrote to the emperor again, giving many promises to ask him to hand over the two of them, how could this make them settle down.

"Rest assured, I will not be subject to Yan Rebellious, and I want the two gentlemen to watch Yan Rebellious fall, so that I can continue to govern the government."

Zhu Yunwen smiled and comforted the two, which made the two breathe a sigh of relief: "Thank you, Your Majesty Longen......"

"Thank you for not needing, what I am most concerned about at the moment is when the rebels will be wiped out, and will there be any changes in the local domains?"

Zhu Yunwen asked him what he was most concerned about, after all, there were still nine vassal kings who had not moved, including King Ning, King Gu and King Liao, who were very close to Beiping.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured, the imperial court is strong, but the loss of Fang Zhao's soldiers and horses, the feudal lords did not dare to raise troops to rebel, then the Yanshu people dared to raise troops, and they also dared to do so when they saw that the Bohai Shu people pulled out tens of thousands of troops to go south."

"Similar to the King of Chu, the King of Shu, the King of Qin, the King of Qing, the King of Jin and others, there are only three guards in their hands, and there are soldiers and horses to supervise them, so they naturally dare not raise troops."

"The only thing that needs to be paid attention to is the three of King Ning, King Gu and King Liao."

"Among them, especially the King of Ning and the King of Liao, there are only 20,000 officers and soldiers in Liaoxi at the moment, of which 15,000 are still the guards of the King of Liao, if the King of Liao responds to the Yanshu people and the Bohai Shu people, then Daning will be completely surrounded, and once the King of Ning follows the response, the available soldiers in the hands of Yan Rebellion are probably no less than 100,000."

"At the moment, the first thing Your Majesty has to do is to summon King Ning, King Gu and King Liao into Beijing."

Qi Tai gave his own views and suggestions, and Zhu Yunwen also felt that there was no problem after hearing it, so he instructed Li Quan, the celebrant on the side, to draft the decree.

After solving this headache, Zhu Yunwen let the three of them leave, and they went out of the palace with them, as well as the will to summon the King of Liao, King Ning, and King Gu into Beijing.

(End of chapter)