On the shore, densely packed soldiers lined up to board the ship.
"Sun Futai, there aren't many people here in our family!"
On the day when the Dengzhou navy went out for the expedition, the angel who came from the capital to deliver the message stood on a high place near the shore and looked at the Dengzhou soldiers who were boarding the ship.
"Dear angel, there are only a thousand soldiers and horses sent to Lushun." Yang Guodong, who was standing aside, replied.
The angel frowned when he heard this, and said with an unhappy face: "What can a thousand soldiers and horses do? Even if our family doesn't understand this, we still know that sending a thousand soldiers and horses to Lushun is just a drop in the bucket. Don't think at that time You can't quell the rebellion, but instead let the rebels quell your Dengzhou soldiers."
Both words and deeds showed that he was dissatisfied with Yang Guodong's decision to send only a thousand troops to Lushun.
"Actually, a thousand infantry is enough to support Lushun. The key lies in the navy." Sun Guozhen said at the side.
Hearing this, the angel was not happy at first, narrowed his eyes slightly, and said with a sneer: "So we are just pretending to understand. It seems that we are too talkative to ask such a question."
"Angel misunderstood." Sun Guozhen saw Angel's face darken and hurriedly explained, "There are not many soldiers and horses in Dengzhou, and some of them have to be stationed in Denglai. They cannot all be sent to Lushun, and Lushun has soldiers from Dongjiang Town. There are tens of thousands of soldiers and horses. In fact, no matter how many soldiers and horses are sent to Dengzhou, it will be of little use. The key still depends on whether the navy can defeat the tiger bandits' navy and blockade the coastline around Lushun."
Perhaps the money given a few days ago had an effect. With this explanation, the angel's expression softened a lot.
Yang Guodong next to him took the opportunity to say: "The tiger bandits' troops in Lushun will not exceed ten thousand. If the tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in Dongjiang Town cannot stop the invading tiger bandits' troops, even if all the troops in Dengzhou are sent away, It’s no use even going to Port Arthur.”
"The tiger thieves who invaded Lushun had less than 10,000 soldiers and horses? You two are not joking with us! After all, the tiger thieves also invaded the three provinces of the Ming Dynasty." Angel didn't quite believe Yang Guodong's explanation.
In his opinion, the tiger-shaped flag that occupies the land of three provinces can be taken out not to mention 10,000 soldiers and horses, even 100,000 or 80,000.
After hearing this, Sun Guozhen smiled softly and said: "Angels don't have to worry, the tiger thieves' troops in the three provinces can't reach Lushun at all."
"Why?" Angel looked puzzled.
If he were the commander-in-chief of the Tiger Flag, if he wanted to deal with Lushun, he would definitely dispatch soldiers and horses from the three provinces to capture Lushun with the advantage of his military strength.
Seeing that the other party did not understand, Sun Guozhen explained patiently: "The tiger thieves are entrenched in Shanxi and Shaanxi, and now there is Henan, and these three places are not close to the sea. The tiger thieves want to use the soldiers and horses from these three provinces to support Lushun." , there are only two ways to go."
As he spoke, he held up two fingers.
"Which two roads?" the angel asked curiously.
Sun Guozhen said: "First, the soldiers and horses of the tiger thieves in Shanshan and Shaanxi walked through the grasslands and used the road to slave the thieves. They traveled thousands of miles around to reach Lushun."
"This is impossible. The slave thief is not an idiot. How could he let the tiger thief take advantage of it?" The angel shook his head.
Even if he doesn't understand military matters, he understands that Tao is not easy to borrow. No matter who borrows Tao or lends Tao to others, they have to take certain risks.
Sun Guozhen said with a smile: "What the angel said is absolutely true. It is naturally impossible for slave thieves to lend the road to tiger thieves. Then tiger thieves can only transport troops and horses from the three provinces to Lushun by sea."
"Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan are not close to the sea, so naturally there is no sea route." As soon as Sun Guozhen finished speaking, the angel immediately picked up the conversation.
Sun Guozhen said with a smile: "The angel is right. The three places occupied by the tiger thieves are not close to the sea. If you want to take the sea route, the best choice is Dengzhou."
As he spoke, he pointed to the ships transporting troops on the sea.
"What Sun Futai means is that the tiger thieves will come to attack Dengzhou?" Angel quickly thought of a possibility and looked worried at the same time.
He came to Dengzhou to convey the decree under the order of the imperial court, but he did not want to be trapped in Dengzhou by the tiger bandits' troops and unable to return to the capital.
Sun Guozhen, who heard this, said hurriedly: "Angels, don't worry, the fastest way for tiger thieves to come to Dengzhou is to send troops from Henan, and pass through half of Shandong to Dengzhou. There are so many Shandong guards along the road, waiting for the tiger thieves' soldiers." When the horse arrives in Dengzhou, the war in Lushun has ended, so the tiger thieves may come to attack Shandong, but they will never use Dengzhou to transport troops to Lushun. If that happens, the whole of Shandong may fall into the hands of the tiger thieves. .”
"snort!"
The angel made a cold snort with a nasal sound to express his dissatisfaction with the Tiger Flag.
He did not say that the Tiger Character Banner would not invade Shandong, or that it would be impossible to capture Shandong.
Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan have all proven the strength of the Tiger Flag, and even the imperial court has deliberately ignored these three provinces. Few people in the court mentioned these three provinces again.
Sun Guozhen continued: "General Yang said that the tiger bandit's troops in Lushun are limited for these reasons."
"Our family is a little confused." Angel looked at Sun Guozhen and asked, "Sun Futai said so much, which seems to make sense, but how did the tiger thief's ship and soldiers and horses appear? It cannot be long-term. You can fly there with two wings!"
Before Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, he was just a small eunuch in Prince Xin's palace. As Prince Xin took over the throne, he also rose with the tide, but he was not as trusted by Chongzhen as Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen, otherwise he would not have accepted the mission to convey the decree. state.
With this kind of background, he only had a partial understanding of many things in the court. With his status in Prince Xin's Mansion, he was more of a waiter and paid little attention to matters in the court.
"Dayuan Island." Sun Guozhen said a place name.
The angel frowned and asked, "What is this place? Why haven't we heard of it?"
"There is a large island in the southeastern waters of Fujian, very close to Penghu Island, just south of Penghu Island." Sun Guozhen said the location of Dajuan Island.
The angel nodded suddenly and said: "My family has heard of Penghu Island. We remember that the governor of Fujian sent the head of a foreigner to the capital a few years ago."
The Battle of Penghu was a rare great victory for the Tianqi Dynasty, even if it was only against the unknown Fan people, but in order to show off their martial arts, the capital was very lively about it.
So he is no stranger to Penghu Island.
Sun Guozhen said: "Dayuan Island is very big, and the tiger thieves have certain strength on Damuan Island, and all the boats used by the tiger thieves to deal with Pi Island came from this island."
"According to Sun Futai, there is a rebel force called Tiger Flag on this Dajuan Island." Angel frowned, thinking that this was too much of a coincidence.
After all, one was in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty, and the other was in the southeast of the Ming Dynasty. The two were thousands of miles apart. He thought for a while that they were two different forces, and it was just a coincidence that they were both called Tiger Flags.
