Shi Kefa never imagined that he would encounter such a situation when he became the governor of Liaodong, although he said that he was appointed with the title of secretary of the Ministry of War, which was completely reused, but he was not happy at all. When I first came to Liaodong, the situation was very calm, at that time, although the signs of Su Tiancheng's rebellion were very clear, but the submission of the Houjin Tartars still made Liaodong have a trace of prosperity, and the tense emotions for many years were relieved.

But the situation soon changed, first of all, the emperor's suspicion of Su Tiancheng became public, and then Su Tiancheng's resistance, once the situation began to deteriorate, it eventually led to Su Tiancheng's rebellion, and the emperor began to purge the officials related to Su Tiancheng on a large scale in the capital.

Even during this period of time, Shi Kefa didn't have much to worry about, after all, there was no intersection between him and Su Tiancheng, and he hadn't even met, this kind of purge naturally had nothing to do with him, but no relationship didn't mean that Shi Kefa didn't care about these things, Liaodong was not far from the capital, and the fragmentary situation spread to Liaodong, Shi Kefa felt that such a practice would eventually cause a big problem, which was destroying the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, but it was a pity that at this time, countless civil and military ministers who raised objections, They were all punished, and Shi Kefa, who was in Liaodong, was even more unlikely to put forward any objections.

After Su Tiancheng began to send troops to Zhejiang and Fujian, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, a large number of imperial troops were wiped out, and within a short period of time, the south was all occupied by Su Tiancheng, especially after the establishment of the Great Jin Dynasty and Su Tiancheng's proclamation as emperor, the situation began to become delicate. The attention of the imperial court has begun to turn to Liaodong, because there are nearly 300,000 Liaodong border troops here.

Shi Kefa knew that the military salary allocated by the imperial court was not sufficient at all, and it was in consideration of the courage of the Jiangning battalion and the imperial court to prevent Su Tiancheng's rebellion, so the large-scale expansion of the Liaodong border army and the Datong border army was carried out, but unfortunately the financial support could not keep up in time. Fortunately, in the mutual markets of Jingbian, Anningbao and Guangning, all the income is at the disposal of the Liaodong border army, in addition to Liaodong's salary, which is about the same, the gap is not too big, but with the expansion of the war between the imperial court and Su Tiancheng, the household department is gradually unable to allocate military salaries and grain and grass, and the Liaodong border army began to feel unprecedented difficulties.

There was a debate in the court that the Houjin Tartars had surrendered. You can mobilize the Liaodong border army on a large scale and participate in the fight with the Jiangning battalion, after all, the Liaodong border army still has good combat effectiveness, but this point of view, not only many civil and military ministers disagree, even Shi Kefa, who has not been in Liaodong for a long time, does not agree, and the ambition of the Houjin Tartar is very clear, once Liaodong is empty. Houjin Tartar will definitely make a move, losing the Guanning Jin defense line that it relies on to support. The capital is in danger, maybe Su Tiancheng doesn't need to attack the capital, and the Golden Tartars will directly surround the capital.

Under the support of this view, the Liaodong border army was not mobilized in the end.

Before the Battle of Cangzhou, the imperial court once again discussed the Liaodong border army, this time because the Houjin Tartars fought jointly with the imperial army. Someone suggested that the Liaodong border army be mobilized, since the Houjin Tartars and the Ming army have fought together, there are not many major things in Liaodong, and there is a strong Liaodong border army, which is a loss. But at that time, the opinion of calling for the dispatch of the Datong border army prevailed, so the Liaodong border army still did not move.

After the fiasco of the Battle of Cangzhou and the Battle of Tianjin, the army that the imperial court was able to mobilize was the Beijing camp and the Liaodong Border Army.

At this time, the situation in Liaodong began to deteriorate, first of all, Dolgon evacuated without authorization when he was fighting together, and plundered along Baoding, Zhendingfu and Shanxi, causing great panic and pain to the people, and then the Houjin Tartars sent heavy troops to gather in the Liaohe area, and the skirmishes in the Guangning area slowly began to appear.

The meaning of such an action is very clear, that is, it is ready to do it in Liaodong.

The large-scale withdrawal of the Liaodong border army will cause what kind of consequences, Shi Kefa is very clear, to be honest, the combat effectiveness of the Liaodong border army is not as good as the Houjin Tartar, relying on the city to be able to hold on, plus the Jin Tartar in the previous years and the Jiangning battalion in the battle, suffered heavy losses, and it was difficult to recover for a while, so the two sides can be safe, but now the situation has changed, the Houjin Tartar thinks that the opportunity has come, the Jiangning battalion, the strongest in the Ming Dynasty, is now also turning the gun, began to deal with the imperial court, such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, how could the Houjin Tartars miss it.

how to make a choice,; Shi Kefa fell into deep pain.

Shi Kefa's strengths and weaknesses are very obvious, honesty and integrity are his strengths, but indecision is also his most obvious flaw, especially when encountering principled big things, it is often difficult to make decisions, looking forward and backward, so that the best opportunity is lost.

Giving up Liaodong means bearing a huge culpability, in case the capital is captured by the Houjin Tartars, Shi Kefa will become a sinner in history, leaving a stain forever that cannot be erased, but if he sticks to Liaodong and allows Su Tiancheng to attack the capital, the guilt of the fall of the Ming Dynasty will also make him miserable.

History and choices are often so cruel that Shi Kefa has no way to avoid it.

Although the Spring Festival is approaching, Shi Kefa feels that life is like a year.

The two main generals of the Liaodong Frontier Army, Zu Dashou and Zu Dale, had a high prestige in the army, and after Su Tiancheng began to rebel, these two never commented on the Jiangning battalion, although they said that they had an extraordinary intersection with the Jiangning battalion.

From this matter, Shi Kefa also felt the crisis, the courage of the Jiangning battalion, Shi Kefa is clear, he led the Jingying sergeant in Nanzhili, he often talked about the Jiangning battalion, saying that the Jiangning battalion is invincible, Su Tiancheng once served as the Jiliao Governor, personally sat in Liaodong, and dealt with the Houjin Tartars, and Su Tiancheng led the Jiangning battalion and the Liaodong border army to recover Dalinghe City in one fell swoop, completely stabilized the Guanning Jin defense line, and the belief and worship of Su Tiancheng in the Liaodong border army cannot be erased in a short period of time.

Under such circumstances, even if the Liaodong border army is dragged to resist the Jiangning battalion, who knows if there will be a mutiny in Ludao, and because of the lack of military salaries, the sergeants below already have a lot of opinions.

After Shi Kefa came to Liaodong, he found an open secret, that is, the officers and sergeants who were the backbone of the Liaodong Border Army were actually thinking of entering the Jiangning Battalion, and the generous treatment of the Jiangning Battalion was the biggest attraction, and it was influenced by the Jiangning Battalion.

Shi Kefa once asked Zu Dashou and Zu Dale for their opinions, thinking to see what their attitude was, if under the premise of sticking to the Guanningjin defense line, properly mobilize some of the soldiers of the Jiangning battalion to defend the capital, did the two agree, I didn't expect that the two did not object to such an arrangement, but they did not agree to lead the troops by themselves.

The mobilization of the Liaodong border army means that it may lose Guangning, Xipingbao, Yizhou and other cities, which means that the confrontation between the Liaodong border army and the Houjin Tartars, mainly in the area of Montenegro and Dalinghe City, the Liaodong border army relies on the Guanning Jin defense line to resist the attack of the Houjin Tartars, which is equivalent to restoring the situation of Chongzhen for about ten years, but now the situation is different, maybe the Houjin Tartars will directly bypass the Guanning Jin defense line and attack Beizhili.

Dolgon was stationed in the Datong area, and he did not enter the grassland and return to Shenyang for a long time, which is the best proof of this.

There are not many places that the imperial court can control, if the Houjin Tartars suddenly launch an attack and directly besiege the capital, the imperial court has no army that can Qin Wang, which makes the Houjin Tartars have no worries, and they can rest assured that they can attack boldly.

Therefore, from this level, Guangning and Xipingbao and other places must be defended, and in this case, there is still a huge danger for the Houjin Tartars to attack and besiege the capital for thousands of miles.

Just when Shi Kefa hesitated, he received a handwritten letter from Su Tiancheng.

When he received the letter, Shi Kefa was dumbfounded, he couldn't imagine that Su Tiancheng would write a letter to himself, what time was this, originally Shi Kefa was disdainful, he thought that Su Tiancheng was a thief, he even thought about handing the letter directly to the imperial court, but after thinking about it, he still opened the letter.

After reading the letter, Shi Kefa had to fall into deeper thinking, Su Tiancheng analyzed the importance of Liaodong in the letter, and clearly told Shi Kefa that if he completely gave up the entire Liaodong, he would become a sinner in history, the brutality of the Houjin Tartars has long been famous, and the Houjin Tartars suffered heavy losses because of the previous battles with the Ming army, and there is a lot of resentment in his heart, this resentment is violent, if the Houjin Tartars occupy the entire Liaodong, that kind of situation where there are thousands of miles of people, It will definitely appear again, and the Houjin Tartars will retreat from Liaodong after large-scale looting and massacre, or after losing their wealth and population, they will appear again.

Shi Kefa also thought of this, he had to be convinced, Su Tiancheng, who was thousands of miles away, was actually able to analyze these situations and make accurate predictions.

Based on this situation, Shi Kefa did not dare to evacuate Liaodong easily, he did not want to become a sinner through the ages. (To be continued......)