In Songshan Castle, in the hall of Governor Ji Liao's residence, Hong Chengchou stroked his beard and asked, "Are there fifty thousand slaves and thieves in the Nuerhe River area of Baimiao Fort?"
"Returning to the governor, my subordinate Li Changsheng, the commander-in-chief of Qian, stayed at night and stayed on the north bank of the Nerv River for several days. It can be determined that around the Baimiao Fort, there are about 50,000 Tatar thieves on the Nerv River, and they are all elite vests."
As soon as Zhang Cheng finished speaking, everyone in the lobby who heard the news for the first time took a deep breath.
They just heard that there were 50,000 Tatar thieves, but everyone didn't take it seriously. They just treated it as normal. Among the 50,000 Tatar thieves, there were at least 20,000 servants. How could they have thought that these 50,000 Tatar thieves were all elite knights!
Wu Sangui's face showed a look of contemplation, and Tang Tong, the commander-in-chief of Miyun, actually exclaimed: "Fifty thousand? And they are all elite cavalry? What's the conspiracy of the Tatars?"
Everyone in the lobby began to whisper, among which Li Fuming was relatively quiet. He was stationed at the Xiaoling River ration road with the commander-in-chief Zhang Ruoqi. The gathering place of the Tatar thieves was by the Jinxi Nuer River, which was far away. He did not need to worry about his family.
Shanhaiguan Commander-in-Chief Ma Ke was whispering to Jizhen Commander-in-Chief Bai Guangen. Although he didn't know what they were talking about, Zhang Cheng caught a glimpse of a trace of amusement on Ma Ke's face from the corner of his eye.
However, he didn't pay too much attention. He heard Chen Jiugao's deep voice saying: "As long as the Tatars dare to come, we guarantee that they will be beaten to such a degree that even my own parents will not recognize them."
"Hahaha……"
Fu Yingchong laughed wildly with Chen Jiugao on the side.
Wang Pu also joined in and said, "Hey. When the Shenji Battalion's cannons have blasted through, we will lead the Datong athletes to rush forward, chop melons and vegetables, and call the Tatars to cry for father and mother, and then return defeated!"
"Hahaha……"
They burst out laughing again as if no one was around, causing everyone in the lobby to look at them sideways.
Bingxian Zhang Dou said at this time: "My lord, the Tatar cavalry are gathering at the Nvnu River in Jinxi. According to what General Zhang said, they have frequently gone south to explore in the direction of Xingshan in recent days. I'm afraid they have plans!"
Hong Chengchou nodded slightly, looked at Zhang Cheng, and asked, "General Zhongchen, what do you think of this?"
Zhang Cheng smiled in return, pondered for a moment, and then said: "Returning to the governor, I will finally think that the Tatar thieves are plotting on my food route."
He continued: "Our army is surrounding Songshan City. Although the Tatars are in large numbers, they will not gain any advantage if they attack forcefully. The general will observe his actions. He will first withdraw his troops from various places and close the defense line, and then rush to attack Jin The purpose of the city is to lure me into battle and find my weakness to attack.
The governor and the supervisors were well aware of this, and they failed to fall into the Tatar bandit's scheme, which failed. Huang Taiji, the chieftain, must have been dissatisfied and hatched another plan. "
Everyone listened to Zhang Cheng's eloquent talk and felt it was reasonable, especially Zhang Ruoqi, who was overjoyed and couldn't hide his smile when Zhang Cheng praised him in public.
Hong Chengchou was different. He seemed to have turned a deaf ear to Zhang Cheng's praise just now, with an unmoved expression on his face. He had indeed cultivated to the point where he was almost unfazed by honor or disgrace.
Zhang Cheng then continued: "Looking at the movements of the Tatar thieves today, it seems that they have set their sights on the food route of our army."
He said: "There are only a small number of Tatars in places like Shimen Mountain and Huangtu Ridge, and most of them are mainly Han and Korean troops armed with muskets and artillery, supplemented by a small number of Mongolian soldiers and horses from foreign vassals.
Even under Jinzhou City, not many elite Eight Banners of Tartar thieves were seen. Tens of thousands of their elite and brave warriors were missing, and they must have a huge conspiracy.
According to my speculation, the first one is in the direction of Xingshan and Gaoqiao, with the intention of cutting off our food routes and disrupting the morale of our troops; the second one may be at the mouth of the Xiaoling River, where the Tatars may rush south along the Xiaoling River to surprise us. A place for storing food at the mouth of the river.
Of course, it cannot be ruled out that one of its main forces is hiding on the east bank of the river, waiting for an opportunity to cross the river and attack our Hekou grain station. "
Zhang Cheng's analysis was based on a large number of intelligence provided by the Xuanfu army who came to investigate at night, and it was reasonable. He spoke eloquently and eloquently, and no one could refute it.
In fact, although everyone was worried about Xingshan and Gaoqiao, they were not too anxious. After all, Xingshan had a battalion of Xuanfu troops from Zuo Guangxian and Zhang Cheng.
And Gao Qiao hadn't just sent Liu Zhaoji, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, to lead the army to return reinforcements. Now the Ming army there was gathered together, and there were more than 60,000 people. Even if the old, weak and auxiliary personnel were eliminated, there were still three , 40,000 capable soldiers.
What's more, they don't need to fight in the wild with the Tartar thieves. They only need to stick to their respective camps and castles and wait for reinforcements. I hope there won't be any big mistakes.
After all, returning to Xingshan from Songshan Fort can be reached in half a day if the troops ride lightly and the rescue is much more convenient.
But here at the mouth of Xiaoling River, it’s completely different!
Once the Xiaoling River mouth is attacked by Tatar thieves, the loss will not only be the local food storage, but also the Empress Palace Fish Market at the foot of Mamatou Mountain not far to the south.
Around the Empress Palace Fish Market and extending to the seaside, there are almost densely packed workshops of various sizes processing and making dried fish. The core area of the whole dried fish processing is in this area.
Although there are some dried fish workshops along the seaside to the southwest, they have not been developed because they are too far from the Empress Palace Fish Market and transportation is inconvenient.
Most of the people participating in the military discussion in the lobby today have more or less various connections with the Empress Palace Fish Market, and there are many intertwined interests among them.
The Tartar thieves raided the Xingshan grain road. The reason why everyone didn't pay much attention to it was mainly because it had too little stake in everyone's interests.
Although once the grain road is destroyed, everyone may run out of food, but after all, everyone is holding on together. The most anxious one should be Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, because he is the person in charge of the overall situation.
But Xiaolinghekou is different. Everyone's interests are directly involved here. This is the most direct personal interest.
The most shameful thing about this man is money.
Would you be willing to lose a place where you can count money while lying down every day?
You know, now we are giving bonus money to all the high officials and the general soldiers of each town on a monthly basis. I am used to receiving money with my left hand. Can I stop?
That was no more uncomfortable than having a piece of flesh cut out from his body!
Just like Zhang Ruoqi, the former commander-in-chief who was dedicated to urging the war, after the first battle in Songshan, he received a lot of benefits privately after the generals checked their merits, and now he has the power to allocate food and fodder to the front line.
In order to get more food and grass, many of the general soldiers from various towns came to him to carry out activities in private. He did not know how much money, silk, gold and silver he received overtly and covertly.
Since then, his motivation to fight has become somewhat slack.
Later, with the establishment of the Fisheries Chamber of Commerce, he also held a lot of shares in it, and his thoughts of urging the war disappeared, and he even hoped that the war in Jinzhou would last a while longer.
Sure enough, he was the first to speak, and he only heard him say: "No. The place where food is stored at the mouth of the river is related to the survival of the entire army. There must be no loss... There must be no loss!"
As his words fell, the hall immediately became abuzz with people. Everyone was talking to each other, but there was only one central thought, that is, nothing should happen to the Empress Palace Fish Market.
Some people scolded the Tartar thieves for being treacherous and cunning, while others stamped their feet and sighed in secret. Even Bai Guangen, the commander-in-chief of Ji Town, rolled up his sleeves and shouted that he would fight to the death with the Tartar thieves, but they would never be allowed to harass the fish market in the Queen's Palace.
In fact, although many officials and generals of the Ming Dynasty were not very good at fighting, when it came to doing business, they were all top-notch masters.
In fact, they are not completely without fighting power. The main reason is that the generals' minds are not used in fighting.
After all, in the last days of the Ming Dynasty, many people who fought hard and achieved various feats in battle were only rewarded in vain, without any real meaning.
They gradually began to work passively, taking preservation of strength as the first factor, and tried every means to make money, and then used the money to support their servants and dead soldiers.
This went back and forth, so the Ming army generals were defeated every time. However, before the later stage, few people were killed in battle or punished by the court, except for those whose family fortunes were completely ruined by themselves.
Just like Zuo Liangyu now, if I want to listen to you, I will listen to you. If I don’t want to listen, I will gather up a team and leave. Who dares to control or stop you?
It was not until Sun Chuanting came back and replaced Wang Qiaonian as the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi that he resorted to thunderous means and executed He Renlong, the commander-in-chief of the Qin Army's reinforcements and suppression forces, in the name of "collaborating with thieves."
Zuo Liangyu, another tycoon in the late Ming Dynasty, was even more arrogant and domineering. In the later period, he occupied the Xiangyang area as a base, expanded his troops to hundreds of thousands, and bravely played the dangerous game of "Qingjun side".
It can be seen that the trend of warlordism has begun to rise in the late Ming Dynasty. Many people are working in this direction, but no one talks about it.
Of course, one of the main reasons for the military deterioration in the late Ming Dynasty was that the payment system was not implemented in a timely manner. After layers of deductions, very few of them reached the hands of the generals.
If they only relied on the limited food and salary from the court, no matter how much they deducted military salary, they would not be able to support their servants and cavalry, so they all expanded their financial resources and showed their talents.
Some generals were even forced to have no choice but to secretly send their subordinates to pretend to be bandits and bandits, carry out raids on homes and rob houses, and steal gold and silver to support their private soldiers and servants.
Therefore, everyone cannot afford to miss out on the big piece of meat in the Empress Palace Fish Market.
In the lobby, Marco was probably the only one who didn't care about this. He seemed to be very relaxed, not as nervous as the other generals.
This may be because he does not hold a large share in it. Of course, his resentment towards Zhang Cheng also went to his head.
Now he just wants to see Zhang Cheng fall into a big trap, nothing else seems to matter, and in his heart, he even thinks that if Zhang Cheng loses power, the shares in the Empress Palace Fish Market may be redistributed.
And by that time, if Zhang Cheng hadn't hindered him, he might not have been able to make such a small difference.
Just when everyone was worried about the safety of the fish market in the Empress Palace, Ningyuan Commander-in-Chief Wu Sangui suddenly stood up and said with a slightly sad look on his face: "Director Hong, Director Zhang, Jinzhou already has insufficient fuel, and now it is even more affected by the Tatars." The thieves are besieging us, and we are already in danger. We must mobilize troops to help as soon as possible. If we don’t rescue, the city will fall in a matter of seconds!”
Ma Ke saw that Wu Sangui said it sincerely, but he remained unmoved. Instead, he glanced sideways at Zhang Cheng from the corner of his eye, and couldn't help but sneer.
He seemed to have learned the lesson from the previous military meeting. Although he still looked down upon Zhang Cheng in every possible way, he could only hold back his lips and did not say anything.
However, Bai Guangen, the commander-in-chief of Jizhen, said: "Yes, the thieves and slaves are bombarding Jinzhou day and night. It is very obvious that they must take over. We can't just sit back and watch.
If the city of Jinzhou falls, the commander-in-chief will fall into the enemy's hands. So who should bear this responsibility? "
He glanced sideways at Zhang Cheng again and said sadly: "Come to think of it, Mr. Zhang can't bear this responsibility, right?"
Zhang Cheng frowned deeply. It was the same last time, and he severely criticized Ma Ke. Could it be that Bai Guangen wanted to stand up for Ma Ke this time?
But after careful consideration, I have never heard of any special relationship between Bai Guangen and Ma Ke!
But he couldn't show weakness to him. Zhang Cheng looked towards Bai Guangen, only to see him looking at him with an evil smile on his face, his eyes full of rebelliousness.
Zhang Cheng naturally didn't want to talk to him, nor would he argue with him here.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, you and Bai Guangen have no grudges in the past and have no grudges recently. Naturally, it will not be revenge for personal gain.
Upon closer inspection, it was simply because of Ma Ke's interference. After all, Ji Town and Shanhaiguan are both important towns in Jibei. They usually interacted with each other a lot, so they were naturally familiar with each other.
But Zhang Cheng doesn't care, which doesn't mean others are willing to let him go.
Sure enough, Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of Datong, jumped out and said: "Huh, you are worried about the safety of Jinzhou, why don't you lead the army to rescue it immediately? But here you are debating the strategy of entering the army, wasting the good time?"
Chen Jiugao also came forward to speak for Zhang Cheng at this time. He said: "Yes, it is exactly this gift. We still understand the principle of rapidity in military affairs. Now, the Tatar thieves are bent on luring me to attack, and they must have conspiracies and tricks behind them."
If my army of hundreds of thousands to aid the Liao Dynasty loses its footing because of a few pieces of land, and the army suffers losses, wouldn't it be taken advantage of by the Tatar thieves? "
Hong Chengchou still looked at the quarrels in the military tent with an expressionless face.
After a long time, he looked at Zhang Cheng again and asked again: "Although the slave thieves are full of tricks, they are not completely clueless.
Today, the Xuanfu sentry cavalry is the most active. I wonder if General Zhongchen has a plan for my supervisor to study? "
Here, Wu Sangui also looked at Zhang Cheng expectantly and asked eagerly: "General Zhongchen..."
Zhang Cheng looked at Wu Shangui again, feeling helpless. His eyes were filled with pleading, and he couldn't bear it in his heart.
He opened his mouth and finally said: "It's time for our army to assist the King of Liao to march!"
Originally, I just prayed to Zhang Cheng to express his deep thoughts, but I never thought that Zhang Cheng would agree so easily and break the siege of Jinzhou.
The first one was, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, had a strange light flashing in his eyes.
He smiled and said, "Oh, I don't know what General Zhongchen has in mind?"
In the past, Zhang Cheng had always opposed the immediate rescue of Jinzhou.
The main purpose was to prevent the Qing army from falling into the trap of besieging the city for reinforcements due to unclear intelligence.
However, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, seemed to be influenced by Wu Sangui and others, and he was very eager to relieve Jinzhou because they could not bear the consequences of Jinzhou's fall.
