Only three days after the end of this meeting of the king's ministers, the scout cavalry of the Manchu Han army sent back the news to Ning Yuan: the Ming army at Shanhaiguan had been dispatched!

Ning Yuan's general Tong Yangzhen was overjoyed, and while immediately reporting to Guangning, he personally led 500 cavalry to reconnoitre.

The Tong family was originally a frontier general in eastern Liaodong for generations, but since the surrender of the Manchu Dynasty, they have worked hard for the new master, and Tong Yanghao, Tong Tuyuan, Tong Tulai and others have died unexpectedly. Such a loyal dog, of course, Huang Taiji also likes it. After ascending the throne as emperor, he appointed Tong Yangzhen as the commander of the Han army with yellow flags, and let Tong Yangzhen's granddaughter and the daughter of the dead ghost Tong Tulai Tong Jiashi enter the palace to serve the queen. is called serving the queen, but in fact, it is serving his emperor Taiji. Tong Jiashi is only ten years old this year, and Tong Yangzhen even sold his young granddaughter for his own glory and wealth.

The battle plan set by the Wang's Council of Ministers this time, in fact, Tong Yangzhen did not know. Although he was "loyal", his Manchu masters did not really trust him, and the Manchurian commanders with yellow flags only told him to keep an eye on the movements of the Ming army at Shanhaiguan and guard Ningyuan City.

But Tong Yangzhen wanted to show his merit in front of his master, and he was not at ease when he only sent reconnaissance cavalry, so he simply went in person. The Han army's banners were half cavalry, and the five hundred people he brought were all cavalry, thinking that even if he encountered the main force of the Ming army, he could retreat calmly.

The 500 traitor troops galloped southwest along the narrow Liaoxi corridor, running for about 150 miles, and there was a horse probe in front of them: the Ming army camp was found. Tong Yangzhen is a native of Liaodong, and he knew that this place was called Gaoling, so he asked Tanma: "Where is the Ming army?" ”

"Lord Yudutong, the Ming army is in the flat underground village close to the coast."

"Haha, these fools who don't understand the art of war!" Tong Yangzhen was overjoyed and said, "Put the high ridge in the west, which is higher and easy to defend and difficult to attack, but choose a flat land suitable for war horses to gallop!" How many centaurs do they have? ”

"Lord Yudutong, there are a lot of vehicles in the Ming army, and the entire camp is blocked, so I can't see how many troops there are."

"Oh? Wait for Pontus to see it for yourself! ”

Tong Yangzhen immediately hit the horse and went uphill and looked at the Ming army camp from afar. Because of the distance, it is not very clear to see, but it can be seen that the camp under the Ming army is not a traditional wooden fence camp, but a circle surrounded by large carts one after another. This camp is very small, and the radius is about 100 zhang, and under normal circumstances, it can accommodate two or three thousand soldiers.

Tong Yangzhen was a little determined, and then stared at the female dog to observe carefully, and found that although there were horses in the camp, there were not too many, probably more than three hundred. Now he was even more relieved, because the Ming army only had more than 300 cavalry at most, which was not as much as the 500 cavalry he brought now. As for the infantry, it is impossible to catch up with him.

It seems that this is a vanguard of the Ming army. But the strange thing is that the vanguard is generally cavalry, and at the same time as going down the village, scouts will definitely be sent forward to search. But along the way, he did not encounter the scout cavalry of the Ming army.

Besides, the location of this Xiazhai is also very strange, it is nearly two hundred miles away from Ningyuan, and it is not far from Shanhaiguan, only more than fifty miles. It seems that the generals of the Ming army were very timid and did not dare to go too fast, so they must have stopped and waited for the large army. Tong Yangzhen saw it for a long time, and he knew it in his heart, so he set up camp thirty miles away from the camp of the Ming army, and at the same time sent someone back to report the news.

At this time, Huang Taiji had moved to Quang Ninh. The commander of the partial division, Hao Ge, was supposed to garrison Jinzhou, but he was in a hurry and wanted to start fighting as soon as possible, so he personally led the standard battalion to Xiazhai on the bank of the Lianshan River, thirty miles north of Ningyuan City, so he soon received the news.

Hearing that the army really came out of Shanhaiguan, Haoge was overjoyed, thinking that this time he couldn't miss the opportunity to make meritorious contributions. However, according to Tong Yangzhen's report, the vanguard of the Ming army was only about 3,000 people, and Haoge really didn't take this strength seriously. Now that the battle plan has been decided, Hauge secretly gathered troops while waiting for the appearance of the main force of the Ming army.

I didn't expect to wait for three days, and Tong Yangzhen reported: I didn't see any more Ming troops coming, but the 3,000 Ming troops who camped were not idle for a moment, and they either dug trenches or built sandbags every day, which meant that they wanted to stay there for a long time.

When Hauge heard the news, he immediately summoned the generals Sonny, Aobai, and Kupilon to discuss. In fact, in order to let Haoge establish his prestige in the Eight Banners, Huang Taiji appointed him as the owner of the blue flag, but Sony belongs to the positive yellow flag, and Aobai and Kubilong belong to the yellow flag, so it is said that it should not be led by Haoge. But these three people have always had a good relationship with Haoge, and they also tacitly agreed in their hearts that Haoge was the heir of Huang Taiji. In this battle, Haoge borrowed these three people from Huang Taiji, and Huang Taiji also had the intention of letting the three of them help Haoge.

After listening to Hauge's introduction to the military situation, Sonny, the oldest and most prestigious, thought for a moment and said: "It seems that Dolgon's guess may not be right, according to the slave, the Ming army wants to build a city!" ”

In fact, Dolgon is the fourteenth son of Nurhachi, and he was also named Prince Rui, and Sony should not call him by his name anyway. But these three are all Hauge's sworn friends, and Dolgon is Hauge's sworn enemy, and several people talk in private, of course, they will not be polite to Dolgon.

"That's right!" As soon as Sony's voice fell, Ao Bai took the case and said, "Dolgon thinks he is extremely smart, I think it's pure self-inflicted cleverness!" The Han people are all sparse and soft, recovering Ningyuan? Don't dare to borrow their guts! I think that the emperor of the Ming Dynasty was in a hurry, and the Ming army had to go out of the customs to make a show, so he didn't dare to go forward after walking fifty miles. Dolgon is still waiting to defeat the main force of the Ming army, go dream! ”

He said the same, adding: "If the Ming army really wants to build a city, it must be done early." Once they are allowed to build the city, it will be difficult to attack it again. ”

Hauge originally looked down on Dolgon, but when he heard what these three people said, he suddenly felt that it made a lot of sense, and after thinking about it, he said: "If this is the case, then the king will let Dolgon plant a big heel: while reporting to the emperor Amma, it means that the army has no intention of attacking Ningyuan at all; While sending troops to directly kill these 3,000 Ming troops. Even if the Ming army wanted to fight Ningyuan and lost the vanguard, they would not dare to come out. In this way, the battle merit is unique to this king. As for Dolgon, this king will participate in his nonsense, causing the Eight Banners to mobilize the people, at least take down his prince first! ”

The plan was decided, Haoge immediately moved to Ningyuan, and transferred the four banners under his command to Ningyuan to obey the order, which was different from the original plan. At the same time, he ordered Tong Yangzhen to lead the Han army with yellow flag soldiers, first surround the Ming army, and try to attack once. It must be known that although the combat effectiveness of the Han army with the Yellow Flag is not as good as that of the Manchu Eight Banners, after a winter of replenishment, there are quite a few people, more than 10,000 people. Cannon fodder in war comes first, which is also an old routine of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Tong Yangzhen naturally did not dare to slack off, and immediately led a large group of men and horses to surround the Ming army. And inside the encirclement, a young Ming army general stood on the roof of the car and looked through a telescope for a while, nervously and excitedly ordered: "Use the flying pigeon to pass the book to Shanhaiguan urgently: the Tartars are starting to take the bait!" ”