"Isn't there any news from Lin Yuanzhong's side yet?" Zhu Youzhen put down Mao Wenlong's recital, raised his head and asked Lu Qi in front of him.

Lu Qi bent his body and whispered back to Chongzhen: "Back to Your Majesty, Lin Yuanzhong also has a secret report." He said in the secret report that Liu Xingzuo attacked Kuandian in mid-September, but was continuously repelled by Chen Jisheng, deputy commander-in-chief of the Right Association, and suddenly led more than 300 relatives and some sergeants to flee into Kuandian in early October.

It is said that he had an appointment with Yuan Ke, the governor of Denglai, in the past, and wanted to return to the Ming army, but things were not harmonious, and he was betrayed by the general Wang Bing, which caused the slave to be aware. The old slave and Li Yongfang's eldest son went away, killed his brother Liu Xingren and Wang Bing, and slaughtered Fuzhou City.

After all his family was moved to Shenyang, the old slave monitored him in every way, so he lost contact with the Ming Dynasty after that. The old slave returned to heaven, and the four Beile Huangtaiji succeeded to the position of the Great Khan, and because he was suspected of betraying the slave, and the people under the Great Beile, they did not trust him.

After years of enduring humiliation, it wasn't until the beginning of this year that Huang Taiji asked him to do some small things. Under his petty flattery, Huang Taiji finally sent him out of Shenyang this time and led his troops to attack Kuandian. He had long wanted to defect to China, so taking advantage of the continuous failure of the army's attacks, the generals who monitored him relaxed, and took his brothers and cronies to defect with his brothers and cronies in the strategy of burning the camp.

According to Lin Yuanzhong, Liu Xingzuo also showed a ticket signed by Yuan Keli at that time, and Chen Jisheng could not determine the authenticity, so he disarmed the more than 300 people and sent them to Phi Island.

At that time, General Mao had just returned from vacation, and after hearing about this, he summoned Liu Xingzuo alone, and the two talked privately for nearly an hour.

Wang was in Korea at the time, and he was discussing with North Korea to allocate some food supplies for wintering, so he did not know about it. ”

After listening to this, Zhu Youzhen pondered for a long time before asking: "During this period of Mao Shuai's return to his hometown for vacation, has there been any progress in the military rectification and the number of people in Dongjiang Town?" ”

Lu Qi thought for a while before replying: "The imperial court set up 20,000 troops for Dongjiang Town, and gave 200,000 stone for grain and salary every year, while Mao Shuai claimed that Dongjiang Town had 150,000 soldiers.

However, according to the survey conducted by the Social Investigation Institute and Jinyiwei on the islands under the jurisdiction of Dongjiang Town, there were about 42,000 soldiers in Dongjiang Town, and Mao Shuai gave each soldier a monthly ration of 5 dou, which cost 252,000 stone per year.

With the consent of Mao Shuai, the General Staff divided Dongjiang Town into four associations, each with 12,000 people.

Chen Jisheng, deputy chief soldier of the ASEAN Association, stationed in the area from Kuandian to Tieshan; Huang Long, deputy commander-in-chief of the Western Association, was stationed in the area of the islands off the coast of Liaodong from Guanglu Island in the west to Phi Island in the east;

Shen Shikui, deputy commander of the Right Association, stationed in the area from Ganghwa Island to Jeju Island; The Left Association was stationed in the area from Lushunkou to Jinzhou, and Dongjiang Town recommended Mao Yongshi as the deputy chief soldier of the Left Association, who was Mao Shuai's adopted grandson, formerly known as Kong Youde.

The current Lushunkou Army is under the command of this person, and the Lushungang Navy is under the command of General Zhao Dake of the Bohai Fleet. ”

Hearing Kong Youde's name, Zhu Youzhen's brows couldn't help frowning, this one of the three feudatories of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in later generations was really loyal to the Qing Dynasty.

However, he now has a good reputation in Dongjiang Town, and even the personnel he sent to investigate said that this person is very loyal to the Ming Dynasty, and he is one of the few generals in Dongjiang Town who does not speak out against the imperial court on weekdays.

Chongzhen thought for a moment and asked, "To what extent has the fortress of Lushunkou been reached?" What about the Golden State? ”

Located at the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, Lushun Port is not only the gateway of the Bohai Sea, but also the transit point of Tianjin and Shandong Peninsula to Phi Dao. If there is a good wind from Dengzhou to Lushunkou, you can arrive in half a day.

Port Arthur is a high-quality natural deep-water port, and it is also a rare ice-free port in the north.

Because of the suspicion that Liu Xingzuo was suspected of rebellion, Nurhachi moved the people of southern Liaoning into the interior, and the four hundred miles along the coast of eastern Liaoning suddenly became an uninhabited wasteland. Only Lushunkou has become the most prosperous place on the Liaodong Peninsula because of the persistence of Dongjiang Town, with a population of tens of thousands.

Although Dongjiang Town gained a foothold in Lushunkou, Dongjiang Town lacked resources, and the Ming court also lacked attention to sea routes, so the Ming army did not take the opportunity to recover the Jinzhou Acropolis, sealed the rear artery of Lushunkou, and turned the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula into a base for the recovery of Liaodong.

Zhu Youzhen sometimes thought darkly that Mao Wenlong set up the Dongjiang Town station on Phi Island instead of Lushunkou, and there was probably a Tiangao Emperor Yuan in it. After all, it was only a half-day to one-day voyage from Lushunkou to Dengzhou, and as long as the governor of Denglai was willing, he could give orders to Dongjiang Town at any time.

For all kinds of military towns of the Ming Dynasty that fought for the war, Lushunkou was just a dividing line, but for Zhu Youzhen, who had set up a general staff and considered the strategic issues of the Ming army as a whole, Lushunkou was not just a window for transshipment of grain and salary, and a window to contact Dongjiang Town.

According to Zhu Youzhen's communication and discussion with the General Staff Headquarters and generals in various localities, the General Staff Headquarters of the Ming Army basically established a strategic consensus, first in the south and then in the north, and defending by land and then attacking by sea.

The first enemy of the Ming Dynasty was the Later Jin, followed by the Mongols, then the rebellious Zhutusi in the southwest, and finally the ethnic minorities in Tibet and Qinghai and the European colonizers overseas.

The ethnic minorities in Tibet and Qinghai are not strong, and there are still various internal disputes, so even if there is a danger of attacking the Ming Dynasty, it will not happen in the near future. And the overseas European colonizers are now busy fighting the indigenous resistance forces in Southeast Asia, and have not yet left the strength to pose a danger to the Ming coast.

Therefore, the real enemies that the Ming Dynasty needs to face now are the Later Jin, Mongolia, and the Southwest Rebel Zhutusi. Houjin is the strongest of the three enemies; The Mongols, under the oppression of the Later Jin, had the possibility of becoming allies with the Ming Dynasty; The Tusi of the Southwest Rebellion was the weakest, but because of its proximity to the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty, it also had the most extensive impact on the Ming economy.

Therefore, the Ming should stabilize the situation on the northern border, first concentrate on killing the rebellious Tusi in the southwest, and then restore the economy in the southwest, and then turn to deal with Houjin, the main enemy of the Ming Dynasty.

Houjin, which occupies most of the eastern part of Liaodong, has a vast area and abundant products. The Jurchens, who are in the ascending period of a new nation, are far ahead of the current Ming Dynasty in terms of administrative efficiency and the combat enthusiasm of the army.

Their only drawback is that the size of the Jurchen population restricts the development of the land under their control. When the Jurchens were in an offensive position, it could gather elite troops and defeat the outnumbered but ineffective Ming and Mongol armies in the direction of attack.

But once the Jurchens fell into the point of attacking and besieging in many places, then the disadvantages of its insufficient forces would be exposed. With the lofty mountains and mountains of Liaodong, and the vast land. The power of the Jurchens will be spent on the road to and fro.

The plan discussed by Zhu Youzhen and the General Staff Headquarters was that the Ming army and the Mongol units would form a land defense line from Yinshan to Shanhaiguan and Quang Ninh, and establish four bases for launching attacks on the sea at Lushun, Phi Dao, Vladivostok, and Sakhalin Island, forcing the Houjin army to fall into a state of exhaustion.

Among these four bases, Zhu Youzhen is most optimistic about Lushun. Not only because Lushun has an excellent ice-free deep-water port, but also because it is the closest to the Shandong Peninsula, it can rely on Shandong as the hinterland to directly attack the hinterland of Liaodong.

Lushun mouth to Shenyang is only more than 800 miles, and Shanhaiguan to Shenyang is about the same distance. The march along the coastal plain to the east of the Bohai Bay will take no more than 15 days to reach Shenyang.

However, it is convenient to march from Lushunkou to Shenyang, and it is equally convenient for Shenyang to send troops to Lushunkou. Lushunkou District is a coastal hilly area composed of the remaining veins of Changbai Mountain, high in the east and low in the west, with an average altitude of more than 100 meters, known as six hills, half water, three parts and half fields.

There are nearly 300 hills on the peninsula, and the highest hill, Laotie Mountain, is less than 500 meters above sea level. The land is mostly mountainous and hilly, and there are few plains and lowlands; The coast is tortuous, and there are many harbors,

After the construction of forts on both sides of the exit channel of Port Arthur, the Golden Mountain and Lao Tie Mountain can defend against enemy attacks at sea. However, the terrain of Arthur Pass was difficult to defend, and the enemy troops attacked from the land behind the flank.

If you want to ensure the land security of Lushunkou, you must control the Nanshan key point in the waist of the bee in the Jinzhou area. Nanshan is located in the southern part of Jinzhou Bay, no more than 100 meters high, about 4 kilometers wide, just choking the narrowest "bee waist" in Jinzhou. On the east side of the mountain is the main road to Lushun, which is 62 kilometers away from Lushun. The west side of the mountain is the only way to Dalian.

The north of Nanshan is Jinzhou City, Jinzhou City is bordered by the Bohai Sea in the west, Xiao Jinshan in the east, Nanshan in the south, and Beiping Mountain in the east and west as a barrier in the north, and is located on the small plain of coastal impact. The Beida River and the Rouge River, which originate from the Great Black Mountain, flow into Jinzhou Bay from east to west.

In the eighth year of Hongwu, the city wall of Jinzhou City was repaired in the shape of "Ya", the circumference was six miles, the height was three zhang and three feet, the moat was about 37 meters deep, and the width was about 202 meters. But such a majestic city surrendered to the Jurchens without a single shot.

After moving the population of Jin, Fu, Hai, and Gai into the interior, Nurhachi slaughtered the Han people who did not want to move, and completely turned the place into a wasteland. Most of the walls of Jinzhou City have been destroyed, and now there are about hundreds of fugitives living in the Jinzhou area, and Jinzhou City is a deserted city and ruined fortress.

Lü Qi immediately reported: "Lushunkou was originally just a small earthen city, with a population of 2 or 3,000 people, and later due to the Liaodong Incident, Lushunkou was valued by the imperial court.

Because Lushunkou is the main shipping route to Phi Island, the city was expanded during Yuan Keli's tenure as governor of Denglai, which is enough to accommodate about 10,000 people.

In the past, Zhang Pan, the defender of Lushun, set up an ambush in the defensive battle of Lushun to defeat the Houjin army, and took advantage of the situation to go north to recover Jinzhou and Nanguan. However, in the Battle of Nanguan in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, when Zhang Pan led his troops to fight with the enemy, he was besieged by the rebellion of the new Han army and died heroically.

Our army had to abandon Jinzhou again and retreat to Lushun, after Yuan Keli stepped down as governor of Denglai, the defenders of Lushunkou no longer had the heart to go north, and the defenders of Lushun were once less than 3,000 people.

At the beginning of the year, His Majesty ordered the construction of a fortress at Lushun Pass, in addition to reinforcing the old city of Lushun, from Jiguan Mountain, Baiyu Mountain to Golden Mountain, a total of 22 land forts and 7 sea forts were built at key points.

The total investment is 1.89 million yuan, and the construction will be completed in three years. This year, 790,000 yuan was invested to repair the old city of Lushun, and relying on the hills in the west and north of the old city, three military camps and five defensive fortresses were built, realizing the separation of military and civilian housing.

In addition, a major fort on the Golden Mountain has been built, and it will be ready for use when the seven guns are poured next year.

As for the Jinzhou area, after the survey personnel of the Navy and the military engineering team sent by the General Staff conducted a survey, they believed that if they wanted to defend Nanshan, they must first hold Jinzhou, and the investment in repairing the city wall and building defense facilities in Jinzhou would not be less than the cost of renovating the Lushun Pass..."