A ray of dawn shines through the heavy morning fog on the north and south banks of the Nuer River.
At this moment, in the Ming army camp located on the south bank of the Nuerhe River, the sound of horns and golden drums was already heard, startling the Tatars from the north bank with whistles and riding towards them in waves, eagerly waiting to watch.
They looked across the river at the Ming army on the other side, and saw that they kept pushing boats and rafts into the river. From the foot of Rufeng Mountain to the foot of Shimen Mountain, there were Ming army camps, and large boats, small boats, rafts and logs lined the river bank.
The Ming troops gathered on the river bank. Looking at the red armor, they stood in groups under the sea of red flags, as if they would board the ship and rush in at any time.
Even Prince Dorgon of the Qing Dynasty and Shuorui was shocked by this action. He shouted to the sentry who came to report the news: "Have the Ming army been dispatched?"
"Reply to your Majesty, Ming troops are all over the river bank, and boats and rafts are piled up everywhere along the river. They should be crossing the river to attack."
Dorgon continued to ask: "Can anyone find out where the Ming army wants to cross the river and where it will attack?"
Ba Yala, who came to report the red flag, Fende Bashiku replied with a confused look on his face: "Prince Xunrui, there are boats and rafts everywhere along the river, and I... I... I don't know... I don't know that the Ming army is mainly attacking. where……"
"Trash, it's all trash!"
For some reason, after Huang Taiji left the Jinzhou front line and returned to Shengjing, Dorgon's temper became very violent, and he was not as calm, deep and gentle as before.
At this time, Dorgon yelled and cursed angrily, and then said to his left and right: "Get your horses ready and follow me to see where the Ming army wants to attack?"
…………
In the Chinese Army Commander's tent in Ningyuan Town, Wu Sangui was sitting upright. He seemed to be very energetic and in high spirits. He must have had a good sleep last night.
It is strange to say that Wu Sangui and Zhang Cheng seem to have a habit, that is, before any major event, they will repeatedly think about and weigh the benefits and losses. Once the strategy is decided, they will sleep soundly and rarely have tossing and turning. situation occurs.
As the commander-in-chief of a town and the leaders of the military circles in their respective places, both of them can be called outstanding men!
Naturally, everyone understands the principle that "a decision is more important than a plan", so when making a decision, they will naturally think carefully and plan carefully. Once the decision is made, they will have a good rest and focus on the execution.
Wu Sangui's Chinese army commander's tent was very spacious, and there were two tall and sturdy sergeants standing guard at the tent door's felt curtain, with their hands on their waist knives.
All of them are tall and burly in general, wearing hats and helmets, and long body armor with exposed armor leaves. They are fine and fine, and equipped with copper buckles and sheath belts. Their behavior is both sturdy and full. It's heroic.
You must know that although Wu Sangui is famous in Liaodong for having many servants under his command, it is not easy for ordinary servants to enter the guard camp.
After all, my own safety while sleeping depends on the protection of these people. Heroes like Wu Sangui, even if they are not as insidious and cunning as Cao Cao, are not too generous. Naturally, they will not entrust their life and safety to others casually. people.
He neither imitated Cao Cao's insidious cruelty in killing people in his dream, nor did he have the ability to sleep with his eyes open, so he had stricter requirements for the guards around him.
First of all, he required that the fathers of these people must be the servants of his father Wu Xiang or uncle Zu Dashou; secondly, he must have two relatives in his Ningyuan army; finally, he required that their parents, brothers and sisters must He must be healthy and move to Ningyuan City.
In this way, these guards have no reason to murder themselves.
Because they have been servants of the Wu family and the ancestral family for generations, they know the basics and their loyalty is guaranteed. Moreover, if any of them makes a mistake, it will endanger their parents, wives, children, brothers and sisters, and even at least two other relatives. The price is too high.
What's more, Wu Sangui asked their relatives to move to Ningyuan, which not only had the deep meaning of being hostages, but also had the advantages of being close and taking care of them. Wu Sangui had always treated his family members very favorably, let alone his personal guards.
Of course, in addition to the above, their personal force must also be very outstanding, even outstanding. After all, it is used to protect their own safety, not as a display for outsiders to see.
From the tent door to behind Wu Sangui, there was an equally strong soldier every two steps, making the entire Chinese military tent full of solemn and solemn atmosphere.
Wu Sangui, who had always been kind to his subordinates, although he was usually very gentle, had a serious face during the war, especially the solemn killing in the military tent at this moment, which made him not angry and intimidated.
Although Wu Sangui's military tent is large and thick, it does not appear to be very luxurious.
In fact, it is not that Wu Sangui does not have extremely luxurious strength, but at this time, his ambitions are still based on making achievements, and he does not attach great importance to those vain and useless things.
Of course, although Wu Sangui did not insist on luxurious furnishings, he did not demand a hard life to temper his will. His handsome tent still had everything he wanted.
On the left is a topographic map of the Rufeng Mountain, Shimen Mountain, and Nuerhe area. Jinzhou, Songshan, and even Yizhou are all depicted in great detail. After all, this is also their home field, so they naturally know it in detail. What is unknown is only the deployment of the Qing army's troops.
On the right side is a row of weapon racks. The broadswords, bows and arrows he used well are all displayed here. The armor rack next to it is even more empty, because they are all worn on Wu Sangui.
There was another person sitting side by side with Wu Sangui. It was Chen Jiugao, the commander-in-chief of the front camp of the Shenji Camp. Because his governor Hong Chengchou paid the most attention to Wu Sangui, and he himself was very close to Wu Sangui, he personally Come and take command.
However, only two people had seats at the bottom. One was Wu Sangui's uncle Zu Dale, and the other was Fu Yingchong, the deputy general of the Shenji Battalion. The rest of the generals were standing in their respective positions.
Wu Sangui glanced sharply at the generals in the tent and said in a deep voice: "The ancestral commander of Jinzhou has been guarding the city for more than a year and has worn away the spirit of the slaves and thieves. This is the perfect opportunity for us to break the siege of Jinzhou.
Now, we are only separated from Jinzhou City by the daughter river in front of us. How can you look at the river and sigh, only to make the slaves and thieves laugh? "
He looked at the generals one by one with sharp eyes and continued: "The imperial court has spent money and food to support you, and today is the time to repay you with blood. I hope you can march forward with courage, kill Nuerhe River in one fell swoop, and fight to the gates of Jinzhou City. I will not hesitate to reward Sangui."
Zu Dale was the first to speak: "I will obey the commander-in-chief's order."
He then faced Ningyuan's generals and continued: "Commander Zu has treated me well. Jinzhou is so close today, how dare we not fight bravely to kill the slaves?
What's more, there are also the artillery of General Chen of the Shenji Battalion to help us. We are defending the territory and fighting hard, but we don't dare to let General Chen see the jokes of our Liaodong soldiers. "
"You must bravely kill the slaves and repay the kindness of Commander Wu and Commander Zu with death!"
Wu Sangui's generals such as the Chinese Army Staff General Wu Guogui, Zuoying guerrilla Hu Xinshui, Youying guerrilla Xialongshan, as well as Dusi Gao Dejie, Wang Pingfan, Ji Zhonglun, Li Qinggong and others all responded loudly.
The reaction of the generals Wu Sangui was very satisfactory. In fact, all this was what he expected. The Ningyuan Army was different from the Shanhai Town, Ji Town, Miyun Town and other official armies, but it was somewhat similar to Zhang Cheng's Xuanbei Army.
The Ningyuan Army was a private army built with nearly 3,000 servants under Wu Sangui as its backbone. Although it still received military pay and food from the court, these were given directly to Wu Sangui according to his position, and he would then use them according to his own Willing to redistribute distribution.
Therefore, the Ningyuan army only knew its own commander Wu Sangui, but did not know what the imperial order was. In Liaodong alone, there were the ancestral family represented by Zu Dashou and the Wu family represented by Wu Sangui. They raised their troops in this way. .
Although other generals such as Tang Tong, Ma Ke, and Bai Guangen also had this intention, they were not like the Zu family and the Wu family who had been operating in Liaodong for a long time and had a lot of land and tenant farmers and slaves in their hands. It is powerless.
It is precisely because of this that all the generals in Ningyuan's army were single-handedly promoted by Wu Sangui from his servants, so they were naturally loyal to him. In critical moments, they were able to fight bravely regardless of danger to protect him, the general. My safety.
At this moment, Wu Sangui waved his hand for everyone to stop, and then he turned to Chen Jiugao and said, "Mr. Chen, please cheer up the boys too!"
Chen Jiugao was not as serious as Wu Sangui. He said to everyone with a smile on his face: "I have heard for a long time that the soldiers and horses under the command of Commander-in-Chief Liaodong and General Wu are the most capable in fighting. Today Jiugao can kill slaves side by side with you. , what a great honor..."
He first praised the generals of the Ningyuan Army, gaining everyone's favor, and then started selling well. He then began to boast about himself: "...please rest assured, generals, our Shenji Camp has plenty of gunpowder and cannons." Well, I, Chen Jiugao, am here to make a promise to everyone. I will definitely shoot out all the cannons for him, so that the Tatars can’t even find which way is south, let alone stop you from crossing the river..."
"Hahaha……"
After Chen Jiugao finished speaking, he laughed loudly to himself. Looking at the entire handsome tent, apart from him and Fu Yingchong, no one else laughed out loud.
In order to prevent Chen Jiugao from being too embarrassed, Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of the Ningyuan regiment, grinned. At his signal, the Ningyuan generals laughed out loud.
Because Wu Sangui's Ningyuan Army would not launch a fierce attack until after Ji Town and Shanhai Town, there was still plenty of time to prepare.
But even so, Wu Sangui had already arranged for the generals to arrange everything properly, and could launch a general attack at any time as long as the military order from the governor's camp was issued.
After all, it was his uncle who was besieged in Jinzhou City, and Wu Sangui could not be tolerated in any case without using his own strength. This was also the starting point for Hong Chengchou to arrange for his Ningyuan Army to undertake the main attack.
Moreover, with Zu Dashou's prestige in Liaodong, as long as he is still alive, he will always be the emperor of the land of Liaodong. Even if Wu Sangui wipes out the Ningyuan Army today, he will still be able to rebuild it in the future, and it will definitely be better than it is today. Stronger.
This is why Wu Sangui spared no expense in order to understand the siege of Jinzhou!
Finally, with some generous encouragement and the promise of generous rewards, he led the generals out of the commander's tent and went to the river bank to inspect the war preparations.
…………
As soon as Wu Sangui and Chen Jiugao walked out of the commander's tent hand in hand, there were layers of guards wearing strong iron armor, holding iron guns and saluting them.
Wu Sangui had long been accustomed to this and didn't take it seriously, but Chen Jiugao was suppressed by this murderous aura, and even the smile on his face faded.
They walked all the way to the bank of the Nvnu River. Along the way, they saw sergeants busy inside and outside the military camp. Some of them were packing up their armor and weapons, while others were transporting supplies to the river bank in preparation for the upcoming war.
However, there was not much nervousness on the faces of the Ningyuan Army. For them, fighting did not seem to be a fatal matter.
It can be seen that whether an army can fight, in addition to ensuring the food and salary of the soldiers, daily drills are also very important.
Among the Ming army, there were very few troops who could do the above two things. Even Zu Dashou, the soul of Liaodong who was trapped in Jinzhou City, could only barely keep the treatment of his servants unchanged.
The reason why Wu Sangui was able to support nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses under his command was not only the output of a large amount of land in Liaodong, but also and more importantly, the support of Governor Hong Chengchou, who gave priority to most of the food, grass, pay and silver to Ningyuan's army.
The distribution of Ningyuan's army's camp was such that Wu Sangui's central army was located in the middle, facing the river section that would be attacked with all its strength. The remaining battalions were placed on the left and right in sequence, with only the rear army behind the central army.
He arranged it in this way. Because there were no Qing troops stationed on the south bank of the Nv'er River, and although there were still thousands of Qing troops and cavalry in the western section of the Ner'er River, the troops of Tang Tong, Bai Guang'en, and Ma Ke were blocking the front in turn. Naturally, there is no need to be on guard here.
Chen Jiugao's Shenji Battalion artillery team was stationed fifty or sixty steps away from the river bank. After all, the sandy soil on the river bank was soft. Even if it was padded with rocks, the artillery would be easily translocated under the impact of the recoil of the cannon, so it could not be too close to the river bank.
At such a distance, only the dozens of Hongyi cannons could hit the Qing army on the other side. Seeing this, the generals of the Ningyuan Army began to question, could these dozens of Hongyi cannons alone suppress the Qing army?
Chen Jiugao's face instantly became embarrassed, but his mind also became flexible at this moment. Inspired by the wooden rafts by the river, Chen Jiugao proposed to use wooden stakes to fix the wooden rafts, so that the camp could be stretched for a mile or two. The artillery at a certain distance can be fired from the raft.
The officers and soldiers of the Ningyuan Army did what they said. After all, the more intense the Shenji Battalion's artillery fire, the more vulnerable the Qing Army's defense line would be, and the smaller the casualties of their own soldiers would be.
Although the Ningyuan Army can be called an army that dares to fight, who would dislike it if they have tactics that don't take advantage of the bastards and can reduce their own casualties?
What's more, in order to erect the pontoon bridge faster, the rafts have been prepared in sufficient quantities, and using some now will not affect the erection of the pontoon bridge.
As the military order was issued, the place immediately became a lively and busy scene.
