In the seventh year of Xuande, in early December, a team wearing the military uniform of Liaodong of the Ming Dynasty and with yellow muscles marched along the road in the direction of Kaiyuan City, shivering in the cold wind due to their thin clothes.

The marching contingent was the prisoners of war of the Liaodong Ming Army exchanged and redeemed between the Mongol army in Yinzhou City and Li Yuntian, with a total of nearly 20,000 people.

After a few months of life in a hellish prison camp, these Ming prisoners of war were haggard, their eyes glazed, and they looked like walking corpses, without the slightest anger at all.

Compared with their comrades who died in the prisoner of war camp, these Ming prisoners of war were undoubtedly lucky, at least they were alive and saw the hope of survival.

In fact, if it weren't for Li Yuntian's proposal to exchange prisoners of war, then there were more Ming prisoners of war who were frozen, starved to death, and killed these days, because Li Yuntian offered a price that both Mansu and Mu could not refuse to redeem the Ming prisoners of war, so the two ordered to improve the living conditions of the prisoners of war, so that they could support them until they returned to Kaiyuan City.

Dozens of grass huts have been erected in the open space outside Kaiyuan City, some of which make fires for cooking, some of which distribute winter clothes, some of which carry out medical treatment, and some of which register the identities of the prisoners.

Li Yuntian stood on the tower of the city gate, looking at the prisoners who were devouring bread and drinking gruel like the reincarnation of a hungry tiger, and he could imagine the scene of starvation and bullying in the prisoner-of-war camp of the Mongol army.

In order to avoid the tragedy of supporting the dead, Li Yuntian specially stipulated the ration of food for each Ming army captive, and it was not uncommon for hungry people to be strangled to death in the Ming Dynasty, and eating too much was not good for their stomachs, so the diet of the captives should be adjusted step by step.

"Lord Hou is benevolent and virtuous, and my Liaodong soldiers will definitely remember Lord Hou's great kindness." Glancing at the black captives under the city, Pei Jun, who was standing behind Li Yuntian, couldn't help but take a step forward, bowed his hand at Li Yuntian, and said solemnly.

In order to redeem these captured Ming troops, Li Yuntian not only asked the Xiaowu army to release the captured Mongolian soldiers, but also spent nearly 100,000 taels of silver for this, and the only person who dared to do this in Liaodong was Li Yuntian, even Zhang Hao, the Duke of Yiguo, was probably unable to do this.

Generally speaking, the exchange of prisoners of war was after the end of the war, and Li Yuntian's exchange of prisoners of war with the Mongolian army at this time was undoubtedly suspected of "disturbing the morale of the army", and the low morale of the captured Ming army obviously affected the morale of the defenders of Kaiyuan City, and also intensified the consumption of materials in Kaiyuan City.

In addition, Li Yuntian went so far as to exchange prisoners of war at a ratio of one to one, and it was inevitable that some people would criticize him afterwards, because it was obvious that the fighting strength of the Mongolian army was stronger than that of the Ming army, and if the one-to-one exchange was made, the Ming army would undoubtedly suffer a loss, which was equivalent to invisibly enhancing the strength of the Mongolian army.

Besides, after all, now that the war has just begun, Li Yuntian's use of such a large sum of money will inevitably be called "abuse of military funds."

Therefore, in such a grim situation in Liaodong, who can take care of those captured Ming troops, and who dares to take out 100,000 taels of silver in one go to ransom the prisoners of war? In the event that the Ming army was defeated in Liaodong and forced to withdraw from Liaodong, then there is no doubt that this matter would be used as a handle to settle accounts.

Pei Jun naturally knew that Li Yuntian would bear huge risks and pressures after exchanging prisoners of war with the Mongolian army, so he was grateful to Li Yuntian in his heart for saving the lives of those prisoners of war.

"It is the duty of Ben Hou to expand the territory and defend the territory for the Ming Dynasty, and Ben Hou just did his part to protect my Ming soldiers, where is the kindness to speak of?" Li Yuntian shook his head when he heard this, and said to Pei Jun lightly, without taking this matter to heart at all.

"Master Hou, the lowly will strictly train these soldiers, and he will not disappoint Master Hou." Seeing Li Yuntian so generous, Pei Jun couldn't help but admire him even more, so he replied in a deep voice, he was going to let those prisoners of war become a sharp blade in Li Yuntian's hands against the Mongolian army.

"Don't be in a hurry in advance, let them take care of their bodies first, and then practice after the year." Li Yuntian waved his hand, this matter cannot be rushed, now those prisoners of war are so weak that they must first recuperate before they can be trained, otherwise they will definitely get twice the result with half the effort and will not be able to achieve the best results.

"Humble duty understands." Pei Jun bowed to Li Yuntian and agreed in a deep voice, the people who could come out of the prisoner of war camp this time were all young and strong, he believed that as long as he could practice like the Xiaowu Army, he would definitely be reborn, even if he could not reach the level of the Xiaowu Army, it was enough to fight with the Mongolian army.

"Master Hou, the things have been sent out." At this time, Gu Liyu strode up to the city gate tower, came to Li Yuntian's side and bowed down and said.

Hearing this, Li Yuntian looked under the parapet wall, and saw more than a dozen horses carrying luggage leaving the city gate under the escort of a group of more than 100 Xiaowu army sergeants, passing through the prisoners on the road and heading in the direction of Yinzhou City.

"Master Hou's move to level the ground is really wonderful, I'm afraid Mu Du will guard against the barbarian Su in the future." Looking at the team that was far away, Pei Jun couldn't help but say with a smile.

Li Yuntian heard this, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, the horses in the team were carrying silk and satin, gold, silver and jade and other items transported from Xijing of Korea, which were New Year's gifts he gave to the Tatar general Mansu of Yinzhou City, to thank him for taking care of the Ming prisoners of war, and also contained a gesture of goodwill.

The grievances and entanglements between the Mongolian Tatar Department and the Warat Department have been entangled for a long time, although this time the two sides united to invade the Ming Dynasty in the south, but each other was full of vigilance against each other, so Li Yuntian deliberately gave gifts to the Mansu, which would definitely make Mu Du suspicious and invisibly disintegrate the two of them.

"Thank you, Lord for saving your life!" At this moment, a shout suddenly came from under the city gate, and a middle-aged prisoner who looked like a general came to the city gate and knelt down at Li Yuntian.

"Thank you, Lord for saving your life!" After hearing the words of the middle-aged captive, the captives gathered in front of the city gate knelt down like dominoes at Li Yuntian on the city gate.

At this moment, the captives already knew that it was the senior military attache of the Xiaowu Army who rescued them from the prisoner of war camp, but they didn't know who the senior military attache was, and after the reminder of the middle-aged captives, the captives realized that the senior military attache of the Xiaowu Army who saved them was on the city gate tower, so they knelt down to thank them for saving their lives, otherwise it would be difficult for many of them to survive this winter.

"You don't need to thank this official, the emperor is very concerned about the war situation in Liaodong, this official is just for the emperor to share his worries, I hope you will be diligent in drilling, drive the Mongolian soldiers out of Liaodong, report to Jun'en, and protect the people."

Li Yuntian glanced around at the prisoners kneeling densely under the city, arched his hand diagonally upward, and said loudly to the captives that he did not mean to take credit at all, but pushed the credit to Emperor Xuande.

"Report to Jun'en, protect the people, long live the emperor, long live long live!" The middle-aged captive has been an official for many years, how could he not hear the meaning of Li Yuntian's words, so he kowtowed and shouted loudly.

"Report to Jun'en, protect the people, long live the emperor, long live long live!" The coral tsunami-like sound immediately sounded among the captives, and they knelt down to thank Emperor Xuande.

Seeing this, Li Yuntian nodded with satisfaction, and left the city gate tower accompanied by Gu Liyu, Pei Jun and others, and returned to the residence of the Suzaku camp, now the situation in Liaodong is in a mess, and there are many affairs waiting for him to deal with.

In a blink of an eye, the soldiers and civilians of Kaiyuan City ushered in the Spring Festival of the eighth year of Xuande, although the Mongolian army of Yinzhou City was eyeing each other, but because of the Xiaowu Army, the people in the city were still full of lights and had a good year with joy.

On the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, Li Yuntian hosted a banquet for the high-ranking military attachés of Kaiyuan City, including not only the Xiaowu army and the Liaodong defenders of Kaiyuan City, but also Fancha, the younger brother of Timur, the fierce brother of the Jurchen Duo Mercy Division, and Harbara, the leader of the Mongolian Dayan Tribe.

After arriving at Kaiyuan City, Li Yuntian did not let Fan Cha go back and leave him to serve by his side, and Fan Cha had successfully persuaded the leaders of several Jurchen tribes around Kaiyuan City to agree to send troops to resist the invasion of the Mongol army.

At the banquet, Li Yuntian asked Halbara about his mother's condition.

Due to the careful treatment of Halbara's mother's condition has gradually improved, but her body is a little weak, and she can recover after a period of recuperation, which makes Halbara very grateful to Li Yuntian, so she seized the time to train the cavalry of the Ming Army in Kaiyuan City, hoping to help Li Yuntian in the future war.

There were not many cavalry in Kaiyuan City, only about a thousand people, and more than half of them were Mongolian cavalry composed of men from the Dayan tribe.

It has to be said that the tactical literacy of the Mongolian cavalry is much higher than that of the Ming army, and the level of individual combat or group combat is obviously one grade higher than that of the Ming cavalry.

Li Yuntian had already made arrangements, and after the end of the Liaodong War, he would ask Emperor Xuande to let the Dayan Department move to Guannei, and buy a house for Harbara in the capital, so that Harbara's mother could enjoy her old age in peace and avoid the pain of grassland displacement.

After the Spring Festival, the Liaodong Ming army in Kaiyuan City was in full swing in the barracks, shouting and killing, preparing for the upcoming battle with the Mongolian army.

It is worth mentioning that the military attachés and non-commissioned officers of the Xiaowu Army who were responsible for training the Ming Army in Liaodong were in charge of training, and Li Yuntian hoped that they could become a wonder soldier in his hands in future battles.

Among all the troops in Kaiyuan City, Li Yuntian naturally valued the newly formed musket battalion the most, which would be the first time that the arquebus would appear in the war, and he was full of expectations.

Although the arquebus is very powerful and can inflict great damage on enemies from a distance, it has to be used in conjunction with other units due to its slow rate of fire and weak melee ability.

According to Li Yuntian's plan, the musket battalion will be equipped with an infantry battalion of the same number for protection, and the musket battalion will be responsible for long-range attacks when fighting on the battlefield, while the infantry battalion will be responsible for close combat, which makes the cooperation between the two sides the key.

Therefore, the men of the musket battalion and the infantry battalion have been intensively practicing the tactics of coordination, with a view to bringing out the maximum power of the musket battalion and the infantry battalion in battle.

Because of the importance of the newly formed musket battalion, Li Yuntian made it his direct subordinate unit, and no one was allowed to call it unless he was ordered to do so.

On the night of the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, when Li Yuntian was in the barracks with the sergeants of the Xiaowu Army and spending the Lantern Festival together, Lei Ting hurriedly walked to his side and whispered a few words in his ear.

Li Yuntian's face suddenly changed slightly when he heard this, and his eyes showed a shocked look, but he quickly returned to his normal state, nodded to Lei Ting, and continued to talk and laugh with the sergeant on the side as if nothing had happened.

Lei Ting glanced at Li Yuntian quietly, and then retreated with a cold expression, she had just received an urgent report from the capital, which made the already very difficult battle situation in Liaodong even worse.