"Taken?"

On 23 August, on the official road from Guangning to Jinzhou, when Zhu Gaoxu led more than 100 cavalry to Jinzhou, a small flag officer stationed at a post station stopped the team.

"Back to His Royal Highness, I have just received news from Jinzhou City, His Royal Highness King Yan broke Geng Bingwen on August 19, and heard that tens of thousands of beheaded, tens of thousands of prisoners, and a lot of grain and horses were seized."

"The specific situation is not clear, this is the good news sent by the envoy of Chen Du, please read it."

The little flag officer handed Zhu Gaoxu a letter sealed with fire paint with both hands, and Zhu Gaochu also turned over and dismounted when he heard the words, took the good news and sat on the chair outside the post station next to the official road.

More than 100 cavalrymen who followed him dismounted, carried simple shade cloth tents in the post station for him, guarded him at the same time, and sent people to cook with the post guards.

In the process of their busyness, Zhu Gaoxu also saw clearly what had happened in the past few days.

"My cheap daddy ......"

Zhu Gaoxu sighed a few times, and he didn't know whether he was saying that Zhu Di was powerful or that Lao Zhu was powerful.

Needless to say, Lao Zhu's arrangement, if Zhu Biao did not die in his prime, then there would be Zhu Li and Zhu Di in the north to check and balance each other, Zhu Zhen and Zhu Bai in Huguang, and Mu Chun, Song Sheng, and Li Jinglong in the court.

As for this group of young and middle-aged people, Zhu Li's troops are slightly weaker, but Zhu Li's means are not low, which is enough to contain Zhu Di.

There were three people in the clan rebellion, and there were four members in the clan in the rebellion of foreign ministers.

Among them, Li Jinglong and Zhu Di are still able to have more than 200,000 soldiers.

This group of young Zhuang faction plus the foundation left by Lao Zhu, if Zhu Biao can survive smoothly, at the age when he can ascend the throne at the age of only forty-four, even if he can only live for ten years, he can also lead the Ming Dynasty to expand the territory and lay down a large territory.

Lao Zhu is really difficult to find fault with his uncle's favor, and it is no wonder that no matter how dark his cheap father is after he takes the throne, it is difficult to erase Lao Zhu's favor for his cheap uncle.

Of course, even if many of them die of illness, if Zhu Yunwen works hard, the guarantee is also a world waiting for him to create, but it is a pity that he lacks heart.

"Suck ......" took a breath, and Zhu Gaoxu had to admit that sometimes he was really jealous of Zhu Yunwen.

In other words, if Old Zhu Ken paved the way for him like this, he could at least double the strength of Daming's country.

It's just that all this has come to nothing, and from the Battle of Jingjing to now, from Bohai to Zhending, no less than 70,000 people have been killed in the battle.

If these soldiers were handed over to a general and rationed enough supplies, it would be enough to destroy a country, but now they have died of Zhu Yunwen's stupidity.

"Your Highness, are we still going to Jinzhou?"

Seeing that His Royal Highness had read the good news, the officials of the hundred households immediately stepped forward to ask.

"No need to go." Zhu Gaoxu shook his head, his eyes were calm, but his thoughts were flying.

At present, the southern army has suffered heavy losses, and even if capable generals are dispatched, it will take at least a few months to retrain the 60,000 or 70,000 people in Zhending.

And according to the ideas of Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and others in history, I am afraid that the veterans of the Hongwu Dynasty have been revived now, and the soldiers and horses of the entire south have been mobilized.

The opportunity he was waiting for should come soon, and the only question was where to find the generals of the Liaodong Naval Division......

The situation is different, and he is not the king of Bohai County who can only lead four or five thousand people to make a small fuss.

In history, the reason why Zhu Yunwen urged Li Jinglong to go north in winter after Geng Bingwen's defeat was to solve Zhu Di in time and transport grain and grass to Daning, in case the army lacked food and clothing, and took refuge in Zhu Di.

But at the moment, without Daning and Liaodong, two places of pure investment, although from a military point of view, it is impossible to continue to surround the Yan army on all sides, but from an economic point of view, it is a great good thing.

The imperial court broke free from Daning and Liaodong, the two capitals and yamen that invest nearly two million stones every year, and they could save a lot of manpower and material resources to solve Zhu Di, and there was only one way to solve Zhu Di, that is, to advance steadily and slowly.

"Lee Kyung-lung ......"

Zhu Gaoxu's face flashed in his mind, and his brows slowly furrowed.

He actually doesn't remember much about Li Jinglong's operation in the Battle of Jingyan, and the few things he remembers are that he didn't let Qu Neng attack the city was a false rumor, and how many times he almost used the mobility of the infantry of the Southern Army to outflank Zhu Di in a large area, and when he encountered Zhu Di in the Battle of Beiping, he was able to command 200,000 people to retreat slowly, so that the Yan army did not even have a Southern Army commander at the level of an envoy.

He could ignore all of the first, but he couldn't ignore the last one.

He personally led an army of 40,000, and the result was that in the Battle of Tieling, he almost fell for Wu Gao's deceitful plan, and the reason was that the army under his command could not carry out corps operations.

To put it mildly, it was because the run-in time of the 40,000 army was too short, and to put it mildly, it was because he himself was not prepared enough.

If it weren't for his vicious vision and seeing through Wu Gao's tricks, he would have been the one who had failed.

It is still so difficult to command an army of 40,000 head-on, let alone retreat, and it is to organize an army of 200,000 to retreat.

Throughout the ages, any general who commanded more than 100,000 troops to retreat and successfully retreated calmly and successfully could leave a mark in the history books, because there were too many incidents in which the retreat turned into a rout because there were too many soldiers and horses.

Organized retreats are like this, not to mention that Li Jinglong only organized the retreat during the confrontation stage with the Yan cavalry, and the retreat was successful.

Not to mention ancient times, even if in modern times they were able to organize a large army by telephone and radio, there were only a handful of generals who could retreat 200,000 people during the confrontation with the enemy and did not let the regimental establishment suffer heavy losses.

Fighting Li Jinglong head-on, this is obviously not a way out, at least he Zhu Gaoxu doesn't want to do it.

Of course, the reason why he didn't want to do this, in addition to being afraid of Li Jinglong, there was another problem, that is, people's livelihood.

There is no need to repeat how the people's livelihood at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was, the gap between the north of the Yangtze River and the south of the Yangtze River is simply a world of difference.

It took Lao Zhu thirty-one years to restore the people's livelihood in the north to the current situation, and although the battle between Zhu Di and Geng Bingwen was huge, it did not have much impact on the people north of the Yangtze River.

What really hit the people's livelihood in the north was the most intense stage of the battle from the second year of Jianwen to the third year of Jianwen.

What I have to do is to avoid this stage and speed up to take down Zhu Yunwen.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu no longer rested, got up and ordered the brothers around him: "Withdraw to Guangning, and let the generals of Guangning prepare reports from all over the country, I want to see the latest news of the overall situation as soon as possible." ”

"Yes!" The 100 household officials nodded in response, and soon blew the wooden whistle, and followed Zhu Gaoxu back to Guangning with more than 100 soldiers, leaving only the small flag officer of the post station who had worked hard to wash the dishes of 100 people and stood in the wind.

More than 100 horsemen returned to Guangning under the leadership of Zhu Gaoxu, when the autumn harvest had not yet begun in Guangning, and 4,000 military households migrated from Daning were placed outside the city, about 20,000 people.

Jilin's ploughing oxen and horses have not yet arrived, and at this moment they are using manpower to reclaim the barren land, which is very inefficient.

In Jilin City, after each family is allotted horses and cattle, if it is harder, they can even open two acres of ripe land in a month, but the Daning immigrants in Guangning can only reach one mu per month, or even one and a half months, to open up one acre of wasteland with manpower.

Zhu Gaoxu, who walked through the official road on horseback, kept frowning at the people of Daning who had worked hard to open up the wasteland, although their faces were full of smiles, but he himself was not satisfied.

The reclamation of Liaodong had to be fast enough to facilitate further immigration work.

Daning has been taken, and now what Zhu Gaoxu wants is the population of Shandong and Beiping.

There are more than 500,000 people in Shandong, and as far as I saw and heard when I went north, because the chaotic war at the end of the Yuan Dynasty did not hit the Shandong gentry hard, the local gentry annexed land and the proportion that should have exceeded the proportion that the founding of the country should have.

Taking advantage of this southward trip, he had to think of a way to move the gentry from Shandong, Jianghuai and other places to Liaodong.

This move is not only to solve the problem of land annexation, but also for the development of Liaodong.

Liaodong's humanities are shallow, since this is the case, then move tens of thousands of Confucian children to Liaodong and let them develop Liaodong's humanities.

As for the name, it is necessary to protect the "saints" and then move them as a clan.

Zhu Gaoxu had thoughts, and he also entered the city of Guangning with more than 100 horses.

Along the way, they went straight to the yamen of the command post in Guangning, due to the lack of county officials, although Liaodong has now set up the yamen of the three divisions under the auspices of Zhu Gaoxu, but there is no suitable county official, he still did not make a big move to change the yamen of the command post to the county yamen.

"Your Highness!"

"How's the situation in the Quartet?"

Seeing that he turned over and dismounted, the Qianhu official on duty in Guangning City immediately greeted him, and in Zhu Gaoxu's inquiry, he also showed the various messages that had been prepared earlier.

"Your Highness, these are all news sent by the Quartet, Wu Sheng and Liu Song of the Central Left Institute of Guangning organized several breakthroughs a few days ago, preparing to go to the seaside to ferry south, but they were intercepted by Xu Tongzhi with troops, and Wu Shouan of Shanhaiguan in the south was also blocked by Meng Tongzhi."

"It seems that Jiuliancheng in the east has begun to withdraw its troops, and the boats in the south have sailed to the Yalu River and go south to Denglai through the Korean waterway, but according to the report of our army's Tangcai, their ships are not many, and they can only carry two or three thousand people at a time."

"In addition, the southern army in Shenyang City surrendered ......"

"What did you say?" Zhu Gaoxu paused, he didn't expect Geng Xuan to surrender.

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu stop, Qianhu officials also stopped with him, and explained: "Yesterday, Geng Cheng received a letter from the imperial court, and after reading the letter, he killed himself on the wall of Shenyang Beicheng. ”

Qianhu Guan was a little embarrassed when he said this, and Zhu Gaoxu did the same after hearing it.

He said that how could a person like Geng Zheng surrender, it turned out that he killed himself.

"He's a general, find a place to bury him properly."

Zhu Gaoxu thought of Geng Bingwen, who had just been undecided, and couldn't help shaking his head, and he didn't know whether to say that the father and son admitted death or were confused by Zhu Yunwen's righteousness.

People like Zhu Yunwen are really not worthy of their martyrdom.

It's just that Geng Zhen died, and he also took over a large amount of materials and manpower in Shenyang, which is good news.

"How many soldiers and civilians and grain are there in Shenyang?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked, and the Qianhu official also replied truthfully: "According to the news from Chen's notice, the total number of soldiers and civilians is no less than 50,000, and the grain and straw are no less than 120,000 stones, but the houses in the whole city have been demolished, and all the wood has been used to bury pots for cooking, that is, the scabbards, scabbards and spear shafts have been used by them for cooking, and the current Shenyang can be described as ruins." ”

"Ruins are ruins, and it's a big deal to rebuild them in the future." Zhu Gaoxu bowed his head, and then commanded:

"Let Chen Heng assign the immigrants from Daning to Shenyang earlier, and wait for Yihan to go south, so that he can immediately enter Shenyang to prepare to repair the city and build a good fire road and fire kang for the people."

"Yes!"

The officials of the thousand households continued to respond to Zhu Gaoxu's orders, and Zhu Gaochu himself also walked into the middle hall and sat on the main seat.

Qianhu officials stood in the middle hall and waited for Zhu Gaoxu's orders, and Zhu Gaochu thought for a moment, and finally decided to temporarily sit in Guangning, waiting for more food from Zhu Di after breaking through Shanhaiguan and Guangning Zhongzuo.

"Tell Meng Zhang that you don't have to keep your hands anymore, and go all out to storm and take the two lonely cities in Liaoxi."

Zhu Gaoxu didn't want to waste time for the two lonely cities, he had to take them down now, and then continue his plan.

Soon, Qianhu officials sent an expedited dispatch to send Zhu Gaoxu's order to the Jinzhou and Ningyuan fronts.

Meng Zhang and Xu Sheng, who got the news, no longer left their hands behind, and took 100 field guns transported back from southern Liaoning, combined with 300 field guns, to launch a fierce attack on the Guangning Zhongzuo Station, which was the easiest to take.

"Boom, boom—"

The dull and dense sound of artillery rang out, but the two-foot high Quang Ninh center left was crumbling under the shelling.

The naval division that Zhu Yunwen and others thought of could not succeed, because the southern army was no match for the Bohai Navy in a field battle when there was a small conflict.

Wu Sheng and Liu Song organized many breakthroughs, but they were repeatedly defeated by Meng Zhang's use of the magic machine battalion.

On the third day of the storming of the city, more than 2,000 defenders in the city had been exhausted in many breakthroughs, and only 700 people remained.

Rao was like this, Meng Zhang still did not attack steadily, but waited until the fourth day, Wu Sheng and Liu Song saw that there was no hope of breaking through, and opened the city gate on their own.

The two surrendered, and the Quang Ninh Zhongzuo was also successfully taken.

Meng Zhang ignored them, just handed them over to Chen Mao to deal with, and he and Xu Sheng took the Shenji Battalion to the Shanhaiguan Pass in the south.

On the second day of September, the two of them began to bombard Shanhaiguan, and Wu Sheng and Liu Song were also escorted to Guangning by Chen Mao.

In the Guangning command post, Wu Sheng and Liu Song knelt on the middle hall like defeated roosters, not daring to look at Zhu Gaoxu.

When Zhu Gaoxu saw the two of them like this, he didn't get angry because they resisted him, but got up and walked in front of them and helped the two of them up.

"This time the army is only for the Qing monarch's side, except for the ministers, you are in the court, and you are helpless to be driven by the ministers."

"As for the news of the two of you, I will reveal it to the south, and say that the two of you are not in the center of the left office, so as to prevent the imperial court from retaliating against your two families."

Zhu Gaoxu still cherishes his talents, although Wu Sheng and Liu Song do not have the ability to command tens of thousands of people, they can still command 10,000 people.

Such a person will stay in the future, whether it is to expand the territory or to guard the Quartet.

The only thing he was worried about was not the mutiny of the two, but the crazy criticism of Zhu Yunwen who went to take revenge on their families after learning the news that the Guangning Zhongzuo Institute was broken and the two were captured.

This kind of thing is impossible to put on others, but it is difficult to say on Zhu Yunwen.

"Thank you, Your Highness......"

In the face of Zhu Gaoxu's frank treatment, Wu Sheng and Liu Song were a little ashamed in their hearts.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't continue to say anything, but said to Wu Sheng: "If you have the heart, let Wu Shouan of Shanhaiguan surrender, and I will also lie to the outside world that he died in battle to protect his family." ”

He wants to buy people's hearts, naturally it is not simply to cherish talents, but more importantly, Wu Sheng is Wu Gao's son and Wu Shou'an's nephew.

If Wu Sheng can write a letter to persuade Wu Shou'an, then he can successfully enter the customs.

"The last general, I am willing to write a handwritten letter for His Highness personally."

Wu Sheng also knew that this was the time to make up for his mistakes, seeing that the combat strength of the Bohai Navy was like this, and there was no battlefield for Geng Bingwen's formation in the south, and there was no hope for him to break through, he naturally chose to change his court.

"Thank you!" Hearing Wu Sheng's words, Zhu Gaoxu clasped his hand to express his gratitude, and at the same time instructed Chen Mao, who sent them here: "Arrange a residence for the two generals, be closer to where I live, and the daily meals will be made according to my standards, and you can't be deducted. ”

"Yes......" Chen Mao was very helpless, and only felt that since he surrendered to the king of Bohai County with his father, it seemed that he had to take responsibility for everything.

However, Rao is like this, he still admires Zhu Gaochu very much, at least at Zhu Gaoxu's age, he can't lead 40,000 people to take the entire territory of Liaodong and Daning in three months.

"The Last Will Retire ......"

Chen Mao and Liu Song left, and Zhu Gaoxu, who watched them leave, slowly sketched a smile.

"Liu Zhen, Wu Gao......"

Zhu Gaoxu muttered softly, now these two guys are caught by themselves, if he hands over the news of Wu Sheng and Liu Song's surrender to Zhu Yunwen, then with Zhu Yunwen's character, even if he doesn't kill Wu Gao and Liu Zhen, I'm afraid he will take away their military power and tell them to go home to recuperate.

Thinking so, he also hummed a light tune.

Soon after, the letter written by Wu Sheng himself arrived at Shanhaiguan in just one night under the condition that Tangqi was urgent.

This was built by the king of Zhongshan, Xu Da, because it leans on Yanshan in the north, connects the Bohai Sea in the south, so it is named the pass of Shanhaiguan, although there is no iron wall like the end of the Ming Dynasty, but it is still enough to block the connection between Beiping and Liaodong in the Hongwu period.

As far as its gate is concerned, the circumference of its city wall is nearly eight miles, the height of the city is four zhang and seven feet, and the thickness is two zhang and three feet.

"Mother, if the artillery here was 300 siege guns, then this Shanhaiguan would have been taken down a long time ago."

In the north of Shanhaiguan, Xu Sheng stood on the artillery position, looked at Shanhaiguan City with a telescope, and couldn't help boasting about his siege artillery.

"How dare you think of it!" Meng Zhang on the side scolded with a smile:

"If there are really 300 siege artillery, our Shenji battalion must have at least 20,000 people."

Meng Zhang was right, even the lightest field artillery in the Bohai Navy needed a small flag for each gun.

If it is a 3,000-pound siege artillery, then at least thirty people need to be arranged, that is, three small flags can be escorted, and a small flag can be operated.

Of the 300 siege artillery, at least 10,000 people must be deployed to be reasonably deployed.

"I'm just complaining, I just don't know if His Highness's letter has any effect."

Xu Sheng let out a smack, apparently not believing that a single letter could take down the Shanhaiguan Customs, which lies between Beiping and Liaodong.

It is precisely because of the importance of Shanhaiguan that Wu Shouan has received many letters at present.

In the Yamen of the Shanhaiguan Commanding Envoy, Wu Shou'an, who was not unusual, sat on his main seat, looked at the three letters placed on the table, and opened them one by one with a heavy heart.

The first one was written to him by Zhu Di of Beiping, which is nothing more than that Geng Bingwen has been defeated now, and Shanhaiguan is already a lonely city that cannot be defended.

Wu Shouan was not very interested in Zhu Di's letter, after all, if only Zhu Di attacked Shanhaiguan, then he could completely rely on Shanhaiguan to block Zhu Di's 100,000 soldiers and horses.

What he is worried and afraid about at the moment is actually Zhu Gaoxu in Guanbei, because their artillery is really sharp, if they are really allowed to bomb indiscriminately for more than ten days, then no matter how strong Shanhaiguan is, there will still be a day when it will fall.

Thinking of this, Wu Shouan picked up the second letter, and the content of this letter was the news that the imperial court commended him for guarding Shanhaiguan and specially promoted him to be the governor of the Right Army.

"Hehe......" Looking at the so-called promotion, Wu Shouan sneered.

What he needs most now is not promotions, but reinforcements.

Obviously, half a month ago, the imperial court wrote to himself to let him break through to the sea, and then a boat master would come to pick them up and retreat.

As a result, only a few days later, the tone in the south has changed, and it looks like he needs to defend the Shanhaiguan by himself.

Shaking his head lightly, Wu Shouan stretched out his hand to the last letter, that is, the letter sent by Bohai.

He slowly opened it, but its contents made his pupils vibrate.

Wu Sheng and Liu Song surrendered, Geng Zhong killed himself, Shenyang was defeated, and Jiuliancheng retreated by the Korean waterway......

"Okay......" Looking at the content of the letter, Wu Shouan sighed a few times, and then realized that he was the last city in Liaodong that was engaged in a frontal battle with the Bohai Navy.

In this case, what can be done if it falls, at least judging from the content of the letter, Zhu Gaoxu was not angry because of his three members of his family blocking him, but treated his nephew with a broad heart.

"Wu Hui!" Wu Shouan greeted the empty central hall.

Not long after, a thousand-household official walked out from behind the shadow wall outside the middle hall, and Wu Shouan also raised his hand to signal him to come.

After Wu Hui approached, Wu Shouan spoke: "Tonight, you open the North Gate Pass, send a person to the Bohai camp, and tell that Meng Zhang, just say that I, Wu Shouan, have surrendered, but I hope they will lead the troops into the city to fight, and afterwards I will say that you and I died in the city." ”

"General, let's ......" Wu Hui wanted to speak and stopped, but under Wu Shou'an's gaze, he still nodded apprehensively.

"Let's go down." Wu Shouan patted him on the back, and Wu Hui also left with a complicated and apprehensive mood.

Looking at his departing back, Wu Shouan could only lean back in his chair and sigh.

"If I lose this battle, I'm afraid I will become the first sinner of the founding of the country......"

"Bohai Chronicle": "Sheng surrendered without help, and lured Sheng with interests, Sheng wrote letters and Shou'an, Shou'an surrendered, and then Shanhaiguan was broken." ”

"Ming Shizong Record": "Wu Sheng, Shou'an, and Song fought with Shang, although they were defeated and admired it, they were defeated by Bingwen and had no help, so they surrendered. ”

(End of chapter)