Chen Xinjia's first thought is the choice of the place of operation, this time the battle is different from the past, relying on the city to hold on, I'm afraid it won't work, if you can't build a solid defense line, fight head-on with the Jiangning battalion, stop the advance of the Jiangning battalion, and let the Jiangning battalion besiege and attack, I'm afraid that he, the marshal, can't keep the head of Xiang Shang, once in the battle of Liaodong, experienced defeat, and was defeated in the hands of the Houjin Tartars, which is equivalent to losing in the hands of Huang Taiji, but this time he has to lead the coalition army to fight, Chen Xinjia knows very well that he must make detailed and reasonable arrangements, so that it is possible to convince the public.

After discussing with Wang Daozhi for more than an hour, Chen Xinjia made a preliminary decision, the location of the decisive battle was selected in Hejian Mansion and Baoding Mansion, and the location was roughly determined to be Cangzhou, Tianjin Hejian Mansion City and Baoding Mansion City four places, and then Wang Daozhi put forward a different opinion, thinking that the location of the decisive battle was too broad and not conducive to the preparation of the army. The next attack on the capital, from this point of analysis, the location of the decisive battle can be selected in Cangzhou and Tianjin, and the rest of the places can be completely ruled out.

Chen Xinjia was a little puzzled, thinking that such a judgment was too arbitrary, lacking the support of intelligence, no one knew which road the Jiangning battalion would advance along and where it would attack, Wang Daozhi further explained, Su Tiancheng appeared in Dezhou, indicating that the Jiangning battalion was mainly attacking by land, and there may be some sergeants attacking from the sea, but the scale will not be very large, and it is not the main force.

Starting from Dezhou, the possibility of attacking Zhending Mansion was ruled out in the first place, so that the Jiangning battalion would be concentrated in Wucheng. After Dezhou enters the North Zhili, it will directly arrive at Jingzhou, from which you can attack along the direction of Fucheng and Xiancheng, take Hejian Fucheng, enter Baoding, and take Baoding Fucheng. Take the opportunity to occupy Hejian Mansion and Baoding Mansion, this is an offensive line, the second route is through Dongguang, Nanpi, directly into Cangzhou, after occupying Cangzhou, through Xingqiao, Qingxian, Jinghai, attack Tianjin, and finally take Tianjin, after controlling Tianjin. You can plan to attack the capital directly.

The two offensive lines, at first glance, it is indeed impossible to determine what the Jiangning battalion is, but as long as we pay a little attention and look at the characteristics of Su Tiancheng's previous operational command, we can analyze that Su Tiancheng will definitely choose to take Tianjin and directly attack the capital. In this way, the court was destroyed as quickly as possible. Su Tiancheng was able to unify the Central Plains, as for the fact that after the imperial court was destroyed, it would be much less difficult for Jiangning to recover other places.

After some analysis, Chen Xinjia felt that it was very reasonable, so he gave up the idea of fortifying the cities of Hejian and Baoding. Instead, he focused his attention on Cangzhou and Tianjin.

This time, without Wang Daozhi's suggestion, Chen Xinjia directly decided to start a decisive battle with the Jiangning camp in Cangzhou, in case he lost in Cangzhou. You can also retreat to Tianjin, if you choose Tianjin directly, once Tianjin is lost, the capital will be in danger.

Wang Daozhi fully agrees with such an arrangement.

A large-scale decisive battle has finally taken shape.

After seriously discussing with Wang Daozhi again, Chen Xinjia quickly reported the battle deployment to the emperor and obtained the emperor's approval.

Chen Xinjia's arrangement was originally very good, and it also grasped the key point, the so-called completion of the battle, who won and who lost is still an uncertain thing, but Chen Xinjia's biggest mistake, that is, to report this operational deployment to the emperor, the so-called generals outside the monarch's life is not affected, since the decision has been made, as long as the main commander of the battle knows, it is okay, prematurely report the operational deployment to the emperor, first, dare not guarantee that it will not be leaked, and second, dare not guarantee that someone will point fingers and affect the specific deployment.

It's a pity that Chen Xinjia's ideas are too conservative, this is also because the imperial court has such a convention, Chen Xinjia does not dare to guarantee 100% victory, so he reports the combat deployment to the emperor, which is equivalent to shirking part of the responsibility, in case of defeat in the future, the responsibility is not borne by him alone.

The emperor and Chen Xinjia would never have thought that there was an inextricable connection between Zhou Yanru, the first assistant to the cabinet, and Su Tiancheng, and Su Tiancheng could get the news of many confidential matters of the imperial court at the first time, although it was not completely accurate information, but as long as a simple analysis was made, the truth could be obtained.

After the emperor approved the operational deployment, Chen Xinjia quickly formulated a specific operational plan, and at the same time informed this plan to Dolgon, who had secretly entered the Guannai, in the form of top-secret information.

Dolgon was originally a little unconvinced, thinking that this battle should be commanded by him, the second assistant of the cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Xinjia, was once a defeated general, what qualifications did he have to be the commander, but Huang Taiji had already said hello, and Dolgon could only obey the overall situation.

After receiving the specific combat deployment plan, Dolgon read it with contempt, but gradually, the expression on Dolgon's face began to become focused, he held the battle plan, and began to look carefully at the map, and after arriving at the most, he had to be convinced, it seems that the Ming court is really talented, and can make such accurate analysis and judgment, and the selected decisive battle location is also the most suitable.

As for how the army is deployed and which army undertakes the task of vanguard, although the operational deployment plan does not say above, but from the meaning revealed between the words, it seems that it is the Ming army that undertakes the main offensive task, not those, the Manchu nobles understand, the Manchu Eight Banners will fight in the front, and the Ming army will profit from the rear.

Dolgon has an extraordinary military talent, since he leads the army to fight, he must think about how to win the battle, and not how to preserve his strength when he has not yet started fighting, so that the final outcome will not only fail to preserve his strength, but also lead to the defeat of the battle.

Therefore, Dolgon began to face up to this battle, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army is clear to him, although the Datong border army may be stronger than the Weisuo army, but compared with the full eight banners, there is still a big gap, no matter from which aspect, the vanguard should be the full eight banners. Besides, if the Ming army is allowed to be the vanguard, once the Ming army is defeated, the Manchu Eight Banners are trying to turn the tide of the war, and it will be difficult, and the defeat will be like a mountain.

After careful consideration, Dolgon suggested that nearly 30,000 soldiers with the positive white flag should be the vanguard troops, and that the Ming army and the soldiers with the white flag should fight with the Jiangning battalion one by one in accordance with the operational arrangements.

Dolgon also put forward a bold idea that the final battle would take place in Tianjin, not Cangzhou. However, the battle of Cangzhou was crucial and could basically determine the final outcome of the decisive battle in Tianjin.

After receiving Dolgon's letter, Chen Xinjia was very happy, he knew that Dolgon recognized the deployment of the battle in Cangzhou, and proceeded from the overall situation and took the initiative to undertake the task of pioneering, which made this campaign have a very good start.

Chen Xinjia reported the news to the emperor in time, and at the same time set off from the capital and rushed to Cangzhou.

As for the large army led by Dolgon, after passing through the Shanhaiguan, it quickly advanced in the direction of Tianjin and Cangzhou along the direction of Changli and Luanzhou, and according to the requirements of time, in late November, the Manchurian Eight Banners and the Ming army were to meet in Cangzhou, and then they were arranged in accordance with the operational arrangements.

Coincidentally, the operational deployment suggested by Su Tiancheng was also Cangzhou.

After learning the information that the Houjin Tartars were likely to fight jointly with the Ming army, Su Tiancheng thought about it seriously, he thought that the 30,000 Jiangning battalion soldiers led by Sun Chuanting were still in accordance with the original plan, and arrived directly at Dagukou by boat and attacked Tianjin from the direction of Dagukou, and there was no need to rush to Cangzhou because of the combination of the Ming army and the Houjin Tartars, and the 70,000 Jiangning battalion soldiers were enough to deal with the coalition of the Houjin Tartars and the Ming army. Prompting the coalition forces to change many of their deployments, taking into account the defense of Tianjin.

Su Tiancheng also believes that since the Houjin Tartars and the Ming army have formed a coalition army, the main opponent of the Jiangning battalion in many key battles is the Houjin Tartars, and in terms of combat effectiveness, the Houjin Tartars are obviously stronger than the coalition army, so all the soldiers of the Jiangning battalion must be prepared for brutal battles and cannot have the slightest slackness.

Su Tiancheng even proposed that Cangzhou is just a place for the battle, and the final decisive battle is likely to continue to Tianjin, if the Ming army cannot unite with the Houjin Tartars, and the Jiangning battalion can deal with the Ming army alone, I am afraid that Cangzhou will be able to completely solve the problem, so that the Ming army will not be able to resist.

According to Su Tiancheng's proposals and suggestions, Hong Chengchou began to think about revising the previously determined operational arrangements, adjusting some of the details, and taking into account as many aspects as possible.

Because of the important information received, the departure time of the Jiangning battalion from Texas was postponed by two days.

This kind of analysis of the battle situation has reached an astonishing coincidence, Su Tiancheng, Chen Xinjia, and Dolgon would not have thought of it, but they are very clear that this battle is very important, if the Jiangning battalion wins, the Ming Dynasty will face the danger of annihilation, and the situation in Houjin will not be much better, once the Jiangning battalion has gained a firm foothold, it will launch a large-scale attack from Liaodong, and at that time, the Manchu Eight Banners and the Han Eight Banners have no other way out except desperate resistance, and the conquest needs money and food to guarantee, The place occupied by the Houjin is barren, and it is far from being able to be compared with the Central Plains, and there is no need to think much about the outcome of the final battle. (To be continued......)