Chongzhen ten years, early September, Liaoyang.

Haoge and Yue Tuo can already clearly feel the "pressure from the Tiger Ben Army." Every day, standing on the top of Liaoyang City, they have a feeling of being out of breath. The wilderness around Liaoyang City was very quiet, and no gunfire could be heard at all. This abnormal silence made the defenders of Liaoyang City a little nervous.

Liaoyang, this city, has a special significance in Liaodong. Whether it is for the former Ming Army, or for the current Dajin Army, or for the future Tiger Army, "this city" has too many historical meanings. The reason is simple, this is the former location of the Liaodong Prefecture.

Liaodong Metropolitan Division is a very special institution. The ruling body of the Ming State in Liaodong was not a political envoy or the like, but the capital of Liaodong. To put it simply, the entire eastern part of Liaodong is a military administrative area. People here. "It's mainly the military households of the guards. The number of households is very small. In other words, Liaoyang is the seat of Liaodong.

The capital of the Dajin Kingdom is in Shenyang. The residence of Yan Taiji, Qingning Palace, is also in Shenyang. It stands to reason that "the geographical location of Shenyang is more important than Liaoyang." However, in fact, the ruling core of Liaodong is actually in Liaoyang. At least, "from the perspective of the Han Chinese, that's what it looks like." As long as Liaoyang is recovered, Shenyang will follow. Therefore, when the news of the siege of Liaoyang by the Tiger Ben Army spread, it immediately attracted a large number of onlookers.

A large part of these onlookers are spies from Jiangnan, or the eyeliners of various forces. Of course, they have to pay special attention to the actions of the Tiger Army. Because once the Huben army conquered Liaoyang, it meant that the war in Liaodong was basically over. At that time, whether the Tiger Ben Army moves west, south, or north, it will be seriously related to their life and death. Of course, "there are pure hot-blooded youths."

In particular, the gentry from Jiangnan are very concerned about this. The army of the Tiger Ben Army was stationed in Yangzhou Prefecture. The navy of the Tiger Ben Army is cruising on the Yangtze River. Basically, the sandwich families in Jiangnan "can clearly feel the cold glow from the bayonets of the Tiger Ben Army." In such a situation, it is very necessary to choose the right way out.

No one would be naïve enough to think that the current imperial court is still capable of stopping the Tiger Ben army from moving south. The news that the imperial court moved its capital to Sichuan has been widely spread. The imperial court went to Shu, obviously to be safe. The terrain of Shu is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is not easy to come out. The hand of the imperial court "made the gentry in Jiangnan very worried, and they felt that the imperial court was ready to abandon them."

"My lord, they said they wanted to get close to Liaoyang and take a look."

Wang Junyu said in a low voice.

Those visiting envoys from all sides were probably convinced that there was no problem for the Tiger Ben army to conquer Liaoyang, so their actions were quite free. They can move around Liaoyang without worrying about the appearance of the tartars. Even, some people proposed to "go to the front line in Liaoyang to have a look." They wanted to see what the real Tartar "really looked like."

"If you have the guts, go ahead!"

Zhang Zhun said casually.

For those who came to Liaoyang to see the excitement, Zhang Zhun's attitude was that you just watched it, "It's good if it doesn't hinder us from doing things."

He also knew that among these people, "there must be forces from all sides who want to spy on the movements of the Tiger Army."

However, Zhang Zhun is not afraid of their prying eyes. Coming from later generations, he knew very well that war and politics "were originally one and the same." What cannot be solved politically "is solved by war." What cannot be solved by war can be solved through politics. In other words, there are many ways to solve problems outside of war.

Now, let all the forces come to see the might of the Tiger Army" is definitely very beneficial for the future exhibition of the Tiger Army. The power of the imperial court "is already very weak." If the Tiger Army starts a war, "it will not be difficult to defeat the imperial court." But is it really necessary to go to war? Is it possible to solve the problem with the imperial court by other means?

After the ravages of Shaanxi Liukou, the current Ming Yuan area is already a piece of erosion. Needless to say, Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Huguang, Sichuan and other places have suffered serious damage. Shaanxi, in particular, is about to turn into a blank field. What is needed in these regions is not war, but peace. Only by bringing peace to these areas as soon as possible can the vitality of the Ming Kingdom be restored as soon as possible.

And Gangnam too. To say that so far, the Ming country has not suffered serious damage to that place, it is the southern half of the Yangtze River. The financial resources of the Ming Kingdom, "as well as the grain source", basically came from the southern half of the Yangtze River, especially the southeast half. In these areas, do you necessarily need to mobilize troops in order to bring Jiangnan under the control of the Tiger Ben Army? These "are actually debatable. The flames of war will always bring only destruction.

"In the future, there is a long way to go!"

Zhang Zhun silently encouraged himself in his sampan. As those who visited the envoys saw it, the Tiger Ben army had indeed gathered a large number of troops and was "ready to attack Liaoyang." The Tartar observation post standing on the head of Liaoyang City, even with the naked eye, "can clearly observe that outside the range of the red-coated cannons at the head of Liaoyang City, a large number of Tiger Ben troops are moving.

The movement of the Tiger Army's ranks is simply endless. During the day, there are teams mobilized from the east to the west. In the evening "another procession was gathered from the west to the east, carrying torches." The number of Tiger Ben troops transferred from north to south, or from south to north, was also quite large. Some Tartars have roughly estimated that the strength of the current Tiger Ben army is at least more than 100,000 people.

100,000 people, for the Dajin Army" is a huge number. With the strength of the whole army, it may be such a small number of people. However, for the Han Chinese, this number is very small. It was indeed too easy for the Han people to mobilize an army of 100,000. The army lost by the Han people in Liaodong is probably more than 500,000 in the previous and backward combined. If it was a 100,000 Ming army, the Tartars guarding Liaodong, the morale would definitely not be so low. But the 100,000 Tiger Ben Army is indeed too shocking. When he was in Beizhili, the Tiger Ben army only had tens of thousands of people, and the Dajin army was defeated, and now, there are 100,000 people, where is there still good fruit for the defenders to eat? Therefore, even the bravest Tartars in Liaoyang City did not dare to hope that they would be able to defend Liaoyang.

"100,000?"

"Impossible!"

Both Hauge and Yue Tuo had to refute the rumors.

The two of them absolutely did not believe that the Tiger Ben army had 100,000 people to surround Liaoyang. Those troops who came and went were actually tricks, and the purpose was to undermine the morale of the defenders of Liaoyang. Outside Liaoyang, the strength of the Tiger Ben Army was "about 30,000 at most."

However, the two of them can infer that "the soldiers below can't do it." The series of defeats have made many Dajin soldiers "lose confidence in themselves and their superiors." The superiors desperately said that the enemy situation was not so serious, and the more they felt that the enemy situation was serious. Such a disagreement" Hauge and Yue Tuo are also helpless.

In fact, in the past month, Liaoyang and Shenyang have become isolated cities. A large number of Tiger and Mongol cavalry were active on the periphery of these two cities, cutting them off from all contact with the outside world. The defenders of the two cities would of course have some strange ideas "in such a closed environment".

Regrettably, the cavalry of the Dajin Army "no longer has the ability to confront them." The cavalry of the Dajin Army who went out of the city are gone forever. Every Dajin army knows that "Liaodong, this fascinating land, is obviously about to be reclaimed by the Tiger Army." Waiting for them "is only the fate of perdition."

In fact, it is.

From top to bottom, the Tiger Ben Army was ready to fully recover Liaodong.

The remnants of the Tartar forces have all shrunk to Hetuala, and the rest are surrounded in Shenyang or Liaoyang. Including Huang Taiji, they have all been besieged by the Tiger Ben Legion. What awaits them is either surrender, killed, or captured alive, and there is no other possibility.

Everything is ready, only the east wind is owed.

This east wind "is two hundred red-coated cannons brought from behind."

There are still two or three days to go, and the red-coated artillery transferred from the rear will be sent to the front line in Liaoyang. As long as we wait for the arrival of the red-coated cannons, we can launch a full-scale attack on Liaoyang.

"I decided to divide the troops into three attack groups." , "The Blue Dragon Legion, responsible for attacking the West Gate. ”

"Zhou Yanyu's legion, responsible for attacking the south gate." "Lu Xiangsheng's corps, responsible for attacking the east gate. ”

"All the cavalry units, responsible for cutting the road between Shenyang and Liaoyang."

When the combat deployment was carried out, Zhang Zhun said succinctly.

Such a deployment is completely a strategy of catching turtles in an urn. The key target of the attack is Liaoyang. The defenders of Liaoyang, under the heavy pressure of the Tiger Ben Army, could not escape.

The total strength of the Tiger Army, the infantry added up to more than 10,000, the cavalry also added up to more than 10,000, and there were two artillery battalions. In addition, there is the Korean Janissaries. There were two hundred redcoat cannons that were about to arrive. With such a strong force, if you can't clean up Liaoyang, "Zhang Zhun will definitely scold his mother."

"Mr. Jiutai, please come with me."

After deploying the combat mission, Zhang Zhun nodded at Lu Xiangsheng and wanted to talk to him alone. He had a special task "ready to be handed over to Lu Xiangsheng to carry out."

Lu Xiangsheng followed Zhang Zhun into the command headquarters and sat down calmly in front of Zhang Zhun.

Now he already has some feelings for the Tiger Benjun. It's just that he belongs to the kind of person who is very introverted, and even if he has any ideas, he won't show them easily.

Zhang Zhun personally poured a cup of tea for Lu Xiangsheng, and said slowly: "I don't know what Mr. Jiutai knows about the Japanese Kou back then?" ”

Lu Xiangsheng looked at Zhang Zhun with a little puzzlement, not knowing what he meant by suddenly mentioning the Japanese Kou. However, Lu Xiangsheng absolutely hates the Japanese Kou. Therefore, he said without thinking: "The Japanese are tyrannical, and everyone will be punished." Lu Xiangsheng's orthodoxy is very strong, he is trying his best to maintain the authority of the imperial court, in fact, he is also trying his best to maintain the dignity of the Ming Kingdom. At that time, the Japanese were on the coast of the Ming Kingdom, causing huge losses to the Ming Kingdom, and Lu Xiangsheng was very angry about this. However, at that time, he was not yet born, "can only commemorate the heroic deeds of Qi Jiguang and others."

Zhang Zhun said with a grim face: "The news of the declaration of war by the Tokugawa shogunate on our army, presumably Mr. Jiutai already knows about it."

Lu Xiangsheng nodded, indicating that he did know. How could he not know such a big news as the declaration of war? Pondering for a moment," Lu Xiangsheng said solemnly: "Since the Japanese have declared war, our army must fight back." I wonder what Lord Governor thinks? ”

After learning the news that the Tokugawa shogunate had declared war on the Tiger Army, Lu Xiangsheng was indeed quite angry. These Japanese invaders "invaded the coastal areas of the Ming Kingdom and were defeated, but they did not give up when they returned, and gathered their forces to attack Korea, trying to use Korea as a springboard, and then invaded the Ming Kingdom." For such an opponent, of course, Lu Xiangsheng will not have the slightest pity. Since the Japanese invaders dared to declare war, the Ming Kingdom naturally had to fight.

He once conceived that there were several ways to fight against Japan. The first is to completely occupy the territory of the Japanese and incorporate it into the territory of the Ming Kingdom. This is the most complete way to win. The second is to force the Japanese to surrender and recognize the Celestial Empire as the suzerain.

Zhang Zhun said in a deep voice: "First, we must compensate for the loss. Second, it is necessary to recognize the status of the Celestial Empire. Thirdly, "we must garrison the army in Japan." Fourth, part of the port will be managed by our army. ”

Lu Xiangsheng nodded.

It seems that "Zhang Zhun has already considered the "day" book carefully.

To be honest, Lu Xiangsheng also knew that it was not very easy to completely occupy the capital of Japan. War, after all, is not a matter of wishful thinking. Well, to completely eliminate the "day" himself, the difficulty should be relatively large. The war is protracted, and it is not known how long it will drag. If there is any accident from time to time, I am afraid that the gains will outweigh the losses.

If you follow Zhang Zhun's method, it seems to be much simpler. Zhang Zhun's method is tantamount to pumping the blood of the "day". As long as the Japanese himself admits his mistakes, submits, and loses money, "cutting the land and garrisoning the army, the goal has been achieved." took away the money of the "day" himself, and stationed troops on the "day" himself, "I don't think the day himself can be arrogant anymore." Basically, the Wako are finished.

At the beginning, Qi Jiguang and them, to be precise, just expelled the Japanese invaders. For people like Lu Xiangsheng, "such a result, of course, is not enough. Someone else comes to beat you up, "You just take him away, how can you do that?" At the very least, you have to catch up, continue to beat the other party, and then ask the other party to apologize. It's a pity that there wasn't at the time.

Zhang Zhun said with shining eyes: "The current arrogance of the Japanese is still very arrogant, I don't know if Mr. Jiutai is interested in suppressing the arrogance of the Japanese invaders?" ”

Lu Xiangsheng pondered for a moment, and said solemnly: "Lord Governor commands, Jiutai dares to disobey his orders