At the end of January in the 11th year of Jingwu, a tall maroon Hequ horse stood on the bank of the Liao River. A young man with a short beard on his chin motionless looked back and forth in the west and north directions with one hand on his hips.
He wore a double-breasted ermine coat trimmed with wind fur, and a Yanling knife hung on the turquoise-inlaid barbarian belt around his waist. A sturdy horse-stem with a sturdy handle hung on the saddle on the other side.
"Mr. Wu, I think this place they chose is good, let's do it right here!"
"Sir, please think carefully. If we cannot succeed in the first battle, not only will we have to retreat to Shenyang, but this relatively complete reserve team will be destroyed. What happens next..." Wu Mao did not continue.
Li Dan chuckled: "If it fails, my head should be hung on Yongding Gate (North Gate of Shangjing), right?" After he finished speaking, he took out the monocular telescope from the leather case on his waist and looked at the opposite side again. After a while, he lowered his head and thought about it, pointed with his finger and said:
"Sir, look, here is the Liuhe River, which is more than two hundred steps wide, in the south, and Yanfeibo in the north. Only these twelve miles wide can Bihan pass. We can see them because of the high terrain on our side, but across the The trees cannot see the hills.
The ground is civilized and soft enough for us to set traps, lay mines, and build fortifications. The terrain is mine! Sanwanerlang has been on the alert for more than half a year. He is very skilled in training, exercises, and simulations. His morale is high, and he is also in harmony with me.
Sun Tzu said that a battle can be won with a 70% certainty. This time we are here by the Liao River and we must not lose to the Kerges again! "
I left Beijing last year and came to Liaoning. When I arrived at the scene, I found that the Liao army was indeed unusable.
Li Dan, who broke out in a cold sweat, reported to the emperor and Shi Hao the lack of manpower, neglect of training, lack of clothing and armor, etc., and at the same time urgently ordered trading companies to purchase various military supplies in Shuntian Mansion and transport them to Jinzhou and Shenyang.
As soon as Shi Hao set off, he was quite surprised when he saw this report. He is a commander-in-chief, and his army has a total shortage of nearly 8,000 men. Half of the 50,000 troops originally promised were gone in an instant!
Shi Hao quickly reported to the Ministry of War and issued a document based on Li Dan's suggestion, requesting permission to recruit volunteers on the spot to form a regiment for training and participate in the war.
But time waits for no one, and the Liao region is already sparsely populated. How easy is it to quickly recruit 8,000 people?
In the end, it was Li Dan who gave him the idea and asked him to recruit shogunate pacesetters along the way, which would play a supplementary role to some extent.
Finally, when he left Shanhaiguan, there were already four thousand Qingji disciples under his command, and Shi Hao felt that he was very tough.
But fighting against each of Kerr is still not enough. After defeating the coalition forces of Seyan and Luyan, Yebihan marched straight in. He once marched 210 miles southward in one day and was so frightened that the Seyan people almost abandoned Yidu and fled.
Fortunately, the main focus was on conquering the Luyan tribe. The army turned around and headed east, allowing Zha'eqi Khan to breathe a sigh of relief.
Yebi Khan was indeed bluffing against Seyan. His troops then pointed at the Harawin Pass, and before the Han troops had finished intercepting them, they rushed across the Lemulun Valley and occupied the city of Udan.
Now the original idea of having a decisive battle with the enemy in Liutiaogou west of Culun was wrong, because the enemy was advancing too fast. Before the army from Culun arrived, the enemy had already crossed the Udonte Sea and appeared outside the city.
At that time, there were only three thousand defenders in Cullen. What was commendable was that they resolutely carried out the order. After three days of guarding this dilapidated town to block an enemy force that was more than ten times their size, they began to break out on the fourth day.
As a result, only two hundred people returned to their own camp, and almost all the rest were killed. After losing the first battle, Shi Hao arrived at the front line and stopped everyone's clamor for counterattack.
He clearly saw that his army came from different systems, and they only had enthusiasm, not high combat effectiveness, and insufficient supplies to continue fighting.
Therefore, he sent cavalry to harass the opponent's rear camp, and led his troops to step back (Shorbu) Zhangwu.
The cavalry attack was quite effective, and Bihan, who was so angry, mobilized his elite troops to turn back. At the same time, because his generals requested to graze and rest here, the army came to a halt in Culun.
Months of long journeys exhausted his tribe, and Yebihan did not want to cause internal divisions, so he compromised.
He spent the summer on the Kulun Grassland, relying on the water and grass here to rehabilitate his tribesmen and war horses. When autumn came, during the traditional threshing season,
He sent troops again.
Two soldiers and horses went to rob Seyan and Luyan respectively, and he led the team to Shuorbu City.
Shoerbu was originally a polder built by the late emperor during the Northern Expedition. Later, Han Chinese, scattered Egu people who had lost their homes and sought refuge, and escaped slaves gradually gathered outside the fort.
Jingwu first built the city and it became the ancient border town between the empire and Seyane. In other words, only when you come here can you officially enter the territory of the empire.
Shi Hao was sure that he would come here sooner or later, so he left 5,000 men to defend the city, thousands of rolling thunder and "hand grenades" provided by Li Dan, and more than 30 tigers collected from various places. Crouching gun.
These five thousand warriors used their sharp firearms to cause serious losses to Yebi's troops - three captains were killed and two were seriously injured.
Of course, they achieved their goal. Those who failed to succeed after eight days of strong attack had to retreat to Kulun to lick their wounds. At the same time, he sent his trusted followers to lead 10,000 cavalry to explore the north and east respectively.
The cavalry who did not want to go east stepped into the ambush and ran back without their helmets and armor.
He must be depressed this time. He doesn't dare to try again. If there is another defeat, maybe these nobles will ask to stop attacking the Southern Empire. Seeing that it was getting colder and colder, he had to camp.
The area from Udontehai to Liutiaogou is covered with Obo, and they are greeted with snow here. In the thick snow, people were thinking about how to survive the terrible winter, and no one was in a hurry to conquer the country.
But when the snow began to melt, the atmosphere suddenly became tense. Yebi's general Kutush's men met the official army at Cobble Beach. If it was winter, both parties would turn around and walk away without even thinking, but this time it was different.
This rocky beach quickly turned into a battlefield, and the officers and soldiers who were caught off guard abandoned their bodies and retreated quickly.
When they came back to look for them, they found that all the corpses had been stripped naked. The jealous Egu people were as ferocious as hungry wolves who had been waiting all winter, which also led to a retaliatory counterattack by the frontline officers and soldiers.
The final encounter between the reconnaissance teams gradually evolved into a battle involving tens of thousands of people on both sides.
The Egu people cleverly launched attacks from the north repeatedly. The officers and soldiers thought that reinforcements were coming and panicked. In a flash, they lost their terrain advantage and were driven into the river valley and beaten violently.
Shi Hao was astonished and stopped the unauthorized actions of the frontline generals, shrinking the entire army. Some people entered Shoerbu City to strengthen the defense there, and the rest of the troops withdrew to Daqinggou and Xinglongbao.
However, the troops, which were demoralized and complained a lot about their senior officers, lost both battles. The entire army had to use tricks to deceive their opponents and retreat eastward to the Black Mountain and Wulong Ridge areas to defend and rest.
While sending people to contact and lobby the Luyan tribe to come to join forces, the latter was frightened by Kerr's army and dared not move. Shi Hao had to hold on and could not get out. At the same time, he thought of Li Dan and became very worried. Invite him politely to discuss countermeasures.
Li Dan's role is rather awkward. He is the supervisor appointed by the emperor. He only supervises in theory and has nothing to do in command. He is only used as the general governor when senior generals retreat, neglect their duties or collaborate with the enemy.
However, the emperor gave him the privilege to command and use the second-line reserves concentrated in the Haigai area. Shi Hao's invitation to him actually has three meanings:
The unauthorized decision-making by a certain senior general endangers the entire army; I want to discuss with him what to do next; I hope to use the 30,000 reserve troops in the rear who have been in training.
Soon after arriving in Liao, Li Dan saw the arrogance of the Liao generals and various problems in the troops.
He reminded Shi Hao to recruit the shogunate's pacesetters all the way. As a result, this pacesetter performed very well in this battle. Their tenacity and decisiveness were in sharp contrast to other troops. This is where Shi Hao was secretly grateful and grateful to Li Dan.
However, this was not the case when he first took office. At that time, he politely asked Li Dan to stay in Liaoyang to watch the battle, meaning that I was enough and the supervisory troops did not need to step forward.
Li Dan told his indignant subordinates that they were right. We are supervisors of the army, not generals. So he stayed in Liaoyang with peace of mind and focused on the defense and development of the south.
At this time, Li Dan's second-line troops included the Jinzhou and Fuzhou guards stationed in Haizhou and Gaizhou, as well as the Japanese troops stationed in Deng, Lai, Weihai, Yantai and other places. At the same time, there were Kaiping and Funing troops stationed in Jinzhou. There are 7,000 guards in total.
Later, 3,900 veterans of the Zhouzhou regiment recruited from Jiangxi (and more than 400 academy soldiers in the name of the merchant regiment's standard guarding force) also arrived by boat. With the old subordinates in mind, Li Dan began to Implementing his own plan, he interacted with various commanders, especially Sun Douen, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong Town, in the name of inspection and understanding.
Mr. Sun's hometown is from Qingzhou, Shandong. He has been in Liaodong for 20 years, so he can be regarded as an old Liaodong. He was already sixty years old this year, and he was extremely dissatisfied with Shi Hao for leaving him in Liaoyang, and he kept scolding him as "that kid".
But he liked Li Dan quite a lot, not only because Li Gengsan and Hou Xie had sent people to take care of him, but also because he admired the words and actions of this baby who was as big as his grandson.
"Look at how their children are born and raised. Even though they are civil servants, they have no airs at all. They are close ministers of the emperor!" He returned to the house and called his children and grandchildren. He was silent for a moment and issued the military order:
"The second and third sons are also known as literati. Tomorrow they will go to Li Zhongshu's shogunate to set up a clerkship for me. Don't stay at home and be embarrassed all day long!" After saying that, he turned to look at his eldest grandson:
"Dezhi, what's the point of seeing the sky and playing with a big sword at home? The country is in danger, and it's only right to go into battle to kill the enemy! Tie also goes to be a guard next to Li Zhongshu."
"Sir, I still have the status of a martial arts officer, so why should I be a guard?"
"You're such a picky little brat? Go and study hard. The guards around Li Zhongshu are all heroes killed by thousands of troops. If you want to stay, it's a good idea!"
"Da, this baby is still young..." The eldest son, Sun Qinggang, was still laughing secretly at his two younger brothers, Sun Zhe and Sun Qi. In the blink of an eye, his son was assigned to him, and he was so frightened that he quickly stood up. This was a war, and it would be fatal!
"What, I was killed too, what a bastard, why do you want to forget your roots?"
When the old man yelled, his children and grandchildren were so frightened that they shrank their necks. The old wife wanted to dissuade him, but she quickly swallowed her words when she saw this.
"Grandpa, I'll go!" Sun Dezhi patted his chest: "I've heard about Li Zhongshu's young hero. I've long wanted to see it! Don't worry, I'll go tomorrow and kill a dozen of his heroes on the battlefield. Give it to grandpa. Look at your grandson’s ability!”
The old general laughed loudly: "That's right, this is how I don't lose the prestige of the Sun family!"
But that being said, repeated losses on the front line also made him anxious. Therefore, Li Dan proposed the idea of training soldiers and organizing regiments to prepare for emergencies, and he immediately agreed.
But...where does the money come from? Li Dan waved his hand, "Don't worry, I have an idea."
I don’t know how he did it, but news soon came from the capital. One was from the Ministry of Household Affairs to the prefect of Liaoyang, informing him to prepare 500,000 acres of suburban wasteland and plan to build three forts from Hebei, Shandong, and Henan. , 10,000 Anhui immigrants came to Liaoyang!
Following the emperor's imperial edict, Zhunliao Town raised its own funds to train 8,000 regiments to serve as auxiliary officers and soldiers. At the same time, it established an inspection department and inspection departments and inspection branches at all levels imitating the mainland to strengthen the control of Liao territory and the management of new immigrants. Li Dan was given a new title:
Wai Lang, a member of the Ministry of Household Affairs, was in charge of immigration and land distribution matters in Liao.
Then Li Dan magically told General Sun and Prefect Kai Daxing: We are rich!
If you have land, you can make money! Li Dan's idea is very simple: contract the recruitment of immigrants to businessmen from four provinces, and then plan the team training, inspection agencies, castles, residences, and shops needed by the new immigrants on the map. Investment promotion plus construction contracting and Sale.
Businessmen from all over the country came one after another after hearing the news, including businessmen from Shandong and Hebei on the other side of the river, as well as businessmen from Shanxi and Shaanxi from afar. No matter how far the journey is, who will have a grudge against profit? Summer is not over yet, businessmen are already gathering in Liaoyang, and the hearts of the people are stirring!
"If you have votes, please cast your vote. Mr. Cat is going to see it all!"
