"The Tartars have withdrawn?" Zhu Youzhen couldn't believe it.

"The Tartars have really withdrawn!" Yuan Chonghuan didn't care about the pain, and cheered excitedly, "Your Highness, please look, not only have they retreated to the camp, but even the camp and tents have been demolished!" ”

Zhu Youzhen looked far away to the north, and sure enough, he saw that the Jurchens receded like a tide, gradually disappearing below the horizon. The vast northeast land north of Ningyuan fell into silence again, as if nothing had happened.

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but wonder in his heart: Today, the Jin army attacked the city with all its might, and although it suffered heavy casualties, it also chiseled several big holes in the city wall of Ningyuan. The artillery was just a last resort, after all, it was not comparable to a machine gun, and it was impossible to seal the gap for too long. As soon as the outer city is destroyed, the cannons on the head of the city will fall into the hands of the enemy. The land of the inner city is even more unsupportable.

At the moment when the city wall was chiseled, Zhu Youzhen even had the idea of killing himself, thinking that instead of being captured and humiliated, it was better to shoot himself in the head and die a happy death.

But for some reason, the Houjin army retreated on all fronts without warning, giving up the siege of Ningyuan for nearly ten days, leaving dead bodies all over the ground! It can't be a dream, right?

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live! His Royal Highness King Shin Chitose, Chitose! The deafening cheers of the soldiers and civilians at the head of the city woke Zhu Youzhen from his contemplation. Looking at the faces with tears in joy, Zhu Youzhen finally realized that no matter what the reason, the enemy army had indeed withdrawn, and Ning Yuan held it!

At this moment, Zhu Youzhen was relieved, and the emotions that had been accumulated for many days finally broke out completely. While weeping bitterly, he hugged the generals and soldiers at the head of the city one by one, celebrating this hard-won victory.

At this time, all the people in the city, regardless of their status, hugged each other tightly with tears in their eyes. Even Qi Meifeng and Li Chongyao forgot that they were daughters, and hugged the soldiers around them one by one. This is the most sincere comradeship! This moment is also the happiest moment to exchange blood and life!

In fact, because he didn't know much about history, Zhu Youzhen didn't know: in another time and space, this battle, known as the "Ningyuan Great Victory" or "Ningyuan Battle", did not take place in the fourth year of the Apocalypse, but in the sixth year of the Apocalypse two years later.

But because of his arrival, this battle that will forever be recorded in history was advanced by two years, and many changes and chaos were born!

Yuan Chonghuan is the chief officer in the army in the end, and his mind calms down faster than others. He immediately issued several orders: First, he sent scouts to track the Houjin army and observe the enemy's movements, in case the Tartars suddenly killed the horse pistol.

The second is that Pegasus is successful in Shanhaiguan and the imperial court, and at the same time asks to send people and horses to support Ning Yuan as soon as possible, and the most important thing is to quickly transport a batch of grain and grass.

The third is to clean up the battlefield and count the results.

The fourth is to reorganize the city's defenses and prepare for the next attack of the Houjin army.

Zhu Youzhen saw that Yuan Chonghuan was meticulously arranged, and he couldn't help but be convinced. If he had the final say, I was afraid that he would have to take a three-day holiday and celebrate.

But he hadn't closed his eyes for several days, and he was so tired that he couldn't move even if he wanted toss. Yuan Chonghuan hurriedly sent Li Chongyao and Qi Meifeng to escort him back to the Li Mansion, this time the goods finally closed the door steadily, stripped off the strips, and slept beautifully under the covers, without even dreaming.

A day later, the Malay report was that the Houjin army really retreated. Moreover, not only did they lift the siege of Ningyuan, but they did not even stop in Jinzhou and Guangning, but drove directly to Shenyang, with unknown motives.

Zhu Youzhen secretly thought in his heart, this must be something wrong with Houjin in the rear, and the Jurchens had to be saved. But I don't know what the hell is going on.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but sigh: The intelligence work of the Ming army is really bad!

Since this time he set out on behalf of the Son of Heaven and Sun Chengzong supervised Liaodong, the movements of the Ming army against the enemy army were simply black. The imperial court first thought that the Houjin army was going to continue south from Guangning, so it was anxious to cobble together an army of tens of thousands and rushed to Shanhaiguan in a hurry. As a result, when I arrived at Shanhaiguan, I learned that Houjin did not come to attack at all.

In the middle of this, because of the sudden rebellion of the Duoyan Department, the imperial court was caught off guard, so it had to tear down the east wall to make up the west wall, and suck half of King Qin's soldiers and horses to Jizhen. In fact, Duoyanbu's vitality was greatly damaged, and it was impossible to organize another attack in the short term.

However, the Ming court was basically indifferent to how many troops these Mongol tribes had and where they were distributed in peacetime. When the enemy retreated, he remembered that he had deployed heavy troops, but he was just spending money and food in vain, and tens of thousands of people were in a daze in the wilderness.

In the following Qiantun Revolution and the Battle of Ningyuan, the Ming army did not know itself or the other, and was tossed by the Houjin army, and was almost wiped out. Until now, the Jin army has withdrawn, but I still don't know why people withdrew their troops, and even the thief chief Nurhachi is not sure whether he was injured or not.

The Jurchens, on the other hand, have done an excellent job in intelligence. They first plotted against Tong Yanghao, and then surrounded Ning Yuan with a plan. While besieging Ningyuan, he also gave the Ming army's grain and grass base Juehua Island. As early as Ningyuan, the city was densely packed with spies and burned all the surplus grain in the city. If it weren't for Zhu Youzhen's risky implementation of the "beheading operation" and the collapse of the Yellow Dragon Tent with one shot, the entire army and civilians in Ningyuan would really be starving to death now!

After another half a day, the superintendent Sun Chengzong also led 10,000 infantry and some grain and grass to march into Ningyuan, which temporarily solved Ningyuan's hunger problem.

As soon as he entered the city, he first pleaded guilty to Zhu You, and said some clichés such as "I almost lost the town, and the crime deserves death". Since Zhu Youzhen was unharmed, of course he would not blame Sun Chengzong. Everyone was overjoyed and held a banquet in the Li Mansion to celebrate this staged victory in Ningyuan.

At the banquet, Sun Chengzong told everyone that he had written to the emperor, reported in detail the process of "Ningyuan's great victory", and asked for credit for the soldiers who contributed to the battle. It is expected that in a few days, the holy decree of the imperial court will be transmitted to Ningyuan, and those who have meritorious service will have heavy rewards.

This banquet made all the generals such as Man Gui and Zu Dashou happy, who doesn't want to be added to the ranks? Even Yuan Chonghuan's eyebrows fluttered, quite complacent, thinking that it was he who was the one who advocated building the city in Ningyuan, and this time he personally presided over the city defense battle, and this first major achievement would definitely fall on his head. From now on, the career will be smooth and prosperous, and sooner or later he will enter the cabinet to worship the prime minister, and he will be famous for eternity, and his achievements may still be above Sun Chengzong!

Zhu Youzhen kept frowning and watching coldly, seeing that everyone was a little carried away, he couldn't help but say, "Master Inspector, do you say that we really won this battle?" ”

Sun Chengzong smiled with some surprise: "Why did Your Highness say this? Since the 44th year of Wanli, Jianyu has conquered everything and conquered everything, and the imperial court has been defeated in successive battles, and the important towns of eastern Liaoning, such as Kaiyuan, Tieling, Liaoyang, Shenyang, and Guangning, have been thrown away one by one. The old slave thought that he was invincible in the world, but unexpectedly, this time Chen soldiers were more than 100,000 soldiers, and they were finally defeated under Ningyuan City, and the life and death of the old slave himself were uncertain! If that's not a big victory, what kind of victory is? ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said: "I think that the victory or defeat of a war does not lie in the gains or losses of one city or one place, but in whether or not the enemy's living forces can be destroyed. ”

"Oh?" Sun Chengzong felt that Zhu Youzhen's point of view was very strange, and thought to himself that since ancient times, isn't fighting wars just to grab territory? Whoever grabs the turf is a victory, otherwise it is a defeat, what else is there to say? But as a university scholar with excellent self-cultivation, he did not interrupt Zhu Youzhen, but motioned for him to continue.

Zhu Youzhen cleared his throat and continued: "Judging from the results of the inventory of the battlefield, although the Tatar casualties exceeded 10,000, most of them were surrendered by the Han army banner, and the real Jurchens accounted for less than thirty percent. On the other hand, on our side, there are also six or seven thousand military and civilian casualties in Ningyuan City, and from the perspective of defending the city, it is really a big loss. What's more, the entire army of Juehua Island was destroyed, more than 2,000 ships were burned, and all the military rations and ammunition were burned, and the losses were really too heavy. ”

Yuan Chonghuan suddenly interjected: "According to His Highness's words, our army has been defeated this time?" ”

He is the most arrogant and irritable, and the city government is far worse than Sun Chengzong. Hearing Zhu Youzhen say this, it seemed that he wanted to completely deny the battle of Ningyuan, and he was immediately very dissatisfied, and he was already faintly angry.

Zhu Youzhen smiled bitterly and said: "Of course, we can't say that, after all, the Tartars didn't encircle us here, and we also kept our vitality." At this point, it doesn't make much sense to talk about victory or defeat, the most important thing is that we should think about what we should do next time the Tartars come again? ”

"The soldiers will come to block, and the water will come to the earth." Yuan Chonghuan smiled disapprehantly, "Since we can hold Ning Yuan once, we can naturally hold it a second and third time." The imperial court had already set a plan for Liaodong, and was planning to build a city in Ningyuan and build a defense line in Guanning. Now we are stationed here, reinforcing the city walls, and stocking up more artillery and ammunition. As long as Ningyuan is guarded, Shanhaiguan will naturally sit back and relax, and there will be no need to look east from now on! ”

"Well said!" Sun Chengzong said in a timely manner, "This time Ningyuan won a great victory, Lord Yuan made great contributions, and the generals also made great contributions, which shows that the plan of 'guarding Liao land with Liao people and raising Liao people with Liao soil' discussed in Shanhaiguan is completely feasible." The old man will play the Ming Shengshang, and Lord Yuan will guard Ningyuan, and Zu Dashou, Zhao Shujiao, and He Kegang will be assisted, and Xu Tu will enter Jinzhou. When Jinzhou is recovered, the Liaodong defense line is even more impregnable, and the old man will be worth his life! ”

As a supervisor, his remarks are naturally a final conclusion on the coffin, and Zhu Youzhen is not allowed to put his beak again.

Zhu Youzhen had to hold his breath secretly, thinking that the so-called "great victory" this time really had too many accidental factors, and it was difficult to replicate it again. In particular, the problem of grain and grass has been exacerbated by the loss of Juehua Island.

After the banquet was dispersed, all the generals were drunk, but Zhu Youzhen was preoccupied and walked alone in the back garden of the Li Mansion. Looking at the thick dark clouds in the night sky, he also seemed to be overwhelmed. Thinking that the future was uncertain and the demise of Da Ming seemed inevitable, he couldn't help but sigh heavily.

"Lord Wang, everyone else is happy, but you sigh for a long time, it's too disappointing!" Li Chongyao suddenly appeared next to Zhu Youzhen.

"Miss, I..." Zhu Youzhen wanted to speak and stopped. How could he tell the innocent girl in front of him with his melancholy?

Li Chongyao suddenly quieted down, and only after a while did he say quietly: "What, you... Are you leaving? ”