"Your Majesty, the Marquis of Jingliao (Wang Fuzhi) defeated the Jurchens at Shanhaiguan and successfully recovered Ningyuan and other places!"
Brother Li Wu said as he respectfully presented the battle report.
When Jiang Dejing, Fan Jingwen, Zuo Maodi and others heard the report, they all showed joy.
Only Zhu Yuanzhang frowned slightly and took the battle report and quickly browsed it.
Because he felt that neither financial resources nor military strength were sufficient to support a sustained war, he had never advocated recovering Ningyuan at this time.
Especially now, Shanhaiguan's troops are already insufficient. If we divide our troops to defend Ningyuan, our troops will be even more stretched.
If the two places were not far apart, they could be the horns of each other.
Ke Ning is more than 200 miles away from Shanhaiguan and cannot form a united front at all. Instead, it is easy for the Jurchens to defeat them one by one.
Furthermore, the Jurchens have already suffered a big loss this time. If the Ming soldiers regain Ningyuan, Dorgon will not retreat easily whether it is for his own face or to consolidate his position in the Jurchens. Then the war in Liaodong will be over in a short time. Can't end,
But if Dorgon does not retreat, Jierhalang and Daishan of Datong will definitely not retreat, so the Ming army will have to maintain a multi-front fighting situation.
However, after reading the battle report, his frown immediately relaxed a lot.
It turned out that after he left, Wang Fuzhi was also preparing to return to Shanhaiguan, and according to the previous plan, he marched towards Ningyuan with bluff while secretly setting up an ambush.
Unexpectedly, Azige and Ganglin remained unmoved and took no action.
When Wang Euzhi saw this, he also had some doubts in his heart.
Because according to his understanding, there are only a few thousand defenders in Ningyuan City, and many of them have old ties to their ancestral families.
With such a force, it is impossible to defend Ningyuan City.
What's more, Dorgon currently has only one or two thousand cavalry under his command. If he leads an army to besiege, it is very likely that he will capture the opponent.
And Dorgon is not only the commander of the army, but also Azig's brother.
Even though Azige and Ganglin could sit back and watch Ningyuan's fall, they would never let Dorgon fall into danger.
Just when Wang Euzhi was puzzled, news came from Anyu Camp that Dorgon had transferred many troops from Jinzhou.
The fastest route is to Li Guohan from the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, who will arrive in the early hours of tomorrow at the latest.
Wu Sangui's Guan Ning cavalry and Kong Youde's navy have also set off and are expected to reach Ningyuan tomorrow.
In addition, Tu Lai of Zhenghuang Banner and his troops also left Jinzhou, and their whereabouts are unknown, and they may have arrived in Ningyuan.
Wang Euzhi couldn't help but frowned when he heard the report.
Because although he also thought that Dorgon would increase his troops, he did not expect that there would be so many.
After discussing with Zu Zerun, Zhang Dabiao, Ma Jinzhong and others, he felt that the previous plan was no longer feasible.
For the current plan, we can only turn the illusion into reality and capture Ningyuan City first.
Although they may be attacked from both sides, it is still better than fighting Azig in the open.
Moreover, the walls of Ningyuan City are high and thick, and there are nearly ten thousand of them, so there is no problem in holding it for a period of time.
When Wang Shoulin rescues Zu Dashou and Zheng's navy arrives, the situation will change.
However, they also have a concern, which is the problem of food and grass.
Because when Wu Sangui evacuated, he had already emptied Ningyuan City of grain, grass and other supplies.
Although the Jurchens occupied Ningyuan City, they did not seem to have any plans to stay there for a long time, so there was not much food and grass in the city.
According to the news from the Dark Feather Camp, the food and grass in the city is only enough for them for ten days.
It was precisely this issue that led to the disagreement between Wang Fuzhi and Ma Jinzhong.
Ma Jinzhong believes that ten days is too short and may not lead to a turnaround.
Once the food and grass are exhausted, the morale of the army will be unstable, and the entire army may be annihilated.
Therefore, he suggested that the army first enter the customs along Zhu Yuanzhang's return to Beijing, and then rush to Shanhaiguan.
But Wang Fuzhi believed that Dorgon's army had already set off and could arrive at Shanhaiguan in three days at most.
Now there are only more than 10,000 brave soldiers in the pass, and there are still many detailed operations.
If they put in so much trouble, Shanhaiguan might have fallen before they even got to Shanhaiguan, so they insisted on attacking Ningyuan City.
Although Zu Zerun and Zhang Dabiao both supported Wang Fuzhi, many generals in the army were Ma Jinzhong's cronies, and there was a stalemate. .
Upon seeing this, Zhang Dabiao called Wang Fuzhi out on the pretext of changing his clothes, and proposed to kill Ma Jinzhong and others first, and then lead his army to seize Ningyuan City.
Wang Fuzhi also had this idea, but he was worried that rashly killing Ma Jinzhong and others would trigger a mutiny.
In addition, he had promised Zhu Yuanzhang that he would subdue Ma Jinzhong, so he was somewhat hesitant.
Just at this time, the spy came back with news that Ganglin had gathered thousands of Han Eighth Banners who had fled, and asked them to disguise themselves as Ming soldiers and rush to Shanhaiguan.
Zhang Dabiao heard the report and saw that Wang Euzhi was silent, so he wanted to arrange for someone to take action.
However, before taking action, Wang Fuzhi stopped him.
Then he proposed to let Zhang Dabiao and Ma Jinzhong continue to set up an ambush here, while he and Zu Zerun led three thousand cavalry to attack Li Guohan.
Because according to the news from Anyu Camp, Li Guohan came with about 15,000 people and more than ten days of food and grass.
If his sneak attack succeeds, they will seize Ningyuan City.
Otherwise, lead the army to enter the customs and then rush to Shanhaiguan.
Ma Jinzhong was originally unwilling to agree, but seeing Zhang Dabiao's murderous intent and thinking that Wang Fu's visit would only last a day or two and would not delay his entry into the customs, he agreed.
When Wang Fuzhi saw Ma Jinzhong's promise, he immediately asked Yang Qi to organize the army, called Zhang Dabiao aside, and told him to be patient for the next two days, and to contact other generals as much as possible to win them over as much as possible.
At the same time, we must also keep an eye on Ma Jinzhong and not let the other party lead his army to escape.
Special measures may be used when necessary, but their lives must not be harmed.
After Zhang Dabiao agreed, Wang Fuzhi told Zhang Dabiao in a low voice that it was imperative to seize Ningyuan City. It would be great if he succeeded in this trip.
In case of failure, Zhang Dabiao would first reward some generals who surrendered to them on the grounds that Zhu Yuanzhang had left a secret order, and then join forces with them to kill Ma Jinzhong and his men. After stabilizing the morale of the army, he led his army to Ningyuan City.
Then he gave some more details before leading the army to set off.
Based on the news from Anyu Camp, Wang Fuzhi galloped all the way, and finally intercepted Li Guohan thirty miles away from Ningyuan City at nightfall, and successfully repelled him.
At the same time, Zu Zerun also controlled the South City Gate through his old tribe.
After Wang Fuzhi got the news, he didn't bother to rest. He immediately led two thousand soldiers and horses into the city, killed nearly a thousand people at night, and successfully captured Ningyuan City.
Then he secretly set up an ambush and deliberately spread false news to lure Dorgon to come and kill him.
Unexpectedly, Tu Lai arrived in time and rescued Dorgon, which made Wang Fuzhi regret it for a long time.
At Shanhaiguan, because Liu Wenbing got the news about Zhang Dabiao, he also laid an ambush and severely cheated Azige.
Azige suffered losses one after another and was very unwilling to do so. He also wanted to pretend that there were few soldiers in Shanhaiguan.
Unfortunately, he met Liu Wenbing and attacked day and night for two days. In addition to losing many soldiers and horses, he could not even climb the top of the city once.
And those Han Eight Banners had had enough of being cannon fodder and fled one after another.
Many people even secretly conveyed news to Liu Wenbing, hoping to return to the Ming Dynasty.
After Liu Wenbing found out Azig's falsehood through these messages, he sent down a thousand warriors at night and gave Azig a severe lesson.
Upon seeing this, Gang Lin asked Azige to pretend to blow up the camp, led his army to retreat, and lured Liu Wenbing to attack.
But Liu Wenbing ignored him at all, and just opened the city gate wide to welcome the warriors in triumph.
When Azig learned about this, he was so angry that he almost vomited blood.
