When Yang Zhen said this, he looked at Wang Shoutang and saw him sighing and nodding. He didn't say anything more to him, but turned to Pan Wenmao and said:

"Old Pan! I didn't let you go last night because you were too tired before, but your contribution is indispensable! Without the good fire and salt you made, the good gunpowder you prepared, the grenadiers, artillery team, including

The Musketeers can't even play such a big role! I know your contribution! Even if you are the first in merit, others must also accept it! Tell me, what are you worried about? "

Pan Wenmao suddenly heard Yang Zhen say this, and he valued his little contribution so much, and said that he had the first credit, which made him very moved.

"Sir! A humble position—a humble position that I cannot deserve!"

Pan Wenmao choked up and said these words, then took a deep breath and continued: "I am not worried that the Tatars will attack! I am worried that the Tatars will come too fast, and we do not have that much time to prepare enough new gunpowder!

"The Grenadiers almost used up the newly prepared gunpowder last night! To cope with the Tatar attack, we must add more pots, stoves, and boil the gunpowder from today on!"

After hearing this, Yang Zhen knew that Pan Wenmao had entered the role of ambassador of the ammunition depot. He thought about it and said: "Given the current conditions, there is no other way! Let's do this - Lao Zhang! You go ahead in person

Send an order to all the battalions and go to Yuan Jin to tell them that from now on, let them eat together on the stove!

"Let's leave one pot here, one pot at Xu Changyong's place, one pot at Zu Keyong's place, and try our best to combine the stoves at Yuan Jin's place, and centralize the other pots and stoves under Pan Wenmao for unified use!"

Yang Zhen arranged these things, and everyone went to work separately, leaving him, his captain and deputy captain where they were.

At this time, the sun in the east had risen. Yang Zhen looked up, estimated the time, and then said to the two people around him: "The tide has almost receded! I want to go to the reed swamp in the west. If possible,

, we can also go all the way deep and take a look in the direction of the Empress Palace!"

While Yang Zhen was talking, he pointed to the reed marsh in the distance and continued: "There is no one else around me! It's just you two! Come with me!"

Yang Zhan'ao and Yan San are now full-time captains and have no subordinates. However, being able to follow Yang Zhen all the time and directly listen to his orders is much better than being an adjutant.

These two people are both veterans. How could they not know this truth? When they saw that Yang Zhen wanted to take them to the west to check the terrain, they immediately agreed.

At this time, Yang Zhen looked at Yan San and said: "Go first and get your boat, including the rowers on the boat, and borrow it too! If Yuan Jin needs me to say hello, just come back and tell me

!I’ll go tell him! When you’re ready, wait for me in the southwest corner!”

Yan Sanwu said nothing, received the order, and went to do the work.

As for Yang Zhen, he took Yang Zhan'ao back to his shack in the left wing camp of the musketeers. He went in to get a long musket and ammunition bag, took them out and carried them on his back. Then he called Yang Zhan'ao and shot Zhang Chen and others.

After receiving the greeting, I walked towards the southwest of this sandbank.

At the same time, when Yang Zhen led Yang Zhan'ao and Yan San to set off again to inspect the terrain along the coastline on the south bank of the Xiaoling River, there was a fat man with a money rat tail in the camp of the Tatar Empress Palace.

He was furious and vented his overwhelming anger.

"Tell me! Tell me! How did this Ming army run to the Xiaoling River under my nose, under the nose of you princes, princes, Baylor, ministers, and slaves?

From the north?! How did you burn down my food camp under your noses?! You useless slaves!"

This fat man was furiously cursing and reprimanding the slaves who were kneeling on the ground in front of him. At the same time, he waved his arms and removed the gold jug, gold wine glass, and a pile of white meat and snacks on the table in front of him.

It fell to the ground!

And everyone kneeling in this hall - the prince, the county king, and Baile, all had their heads lowered and remained silent, and no one dared to say a word.

This fat man with a money rat tail is about fifty years old. He is very tall and majestic in appearance. He also has a fat head, big ears, a lion's nose, a wide mouth, a mustache on his lips, and a long chin.

The goatee, especially the slender and long eyes, and the fierce and sharp gaze. At this time, because of the anger, the face was dark red and the color of pig liver, exuding a kind of intimidating power.

This man was none other than Huang Taiji, the current ruler of the Manchu Tatar Kingdom and the self-proclaimed Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Huang Taiji's palace at this time was located at the Empress Palace between Songshan City and Xiaoling River.

The Tatar camp was located at the Empress Palace camp five or six miles south of the Xiaoling River. The area was very large, and it was so big that there was no way to erect obstacles such as walls and fences.

The layout of the entire camp is in the shape of stars over the moon, that is, there are several camps in the east, west, south, north, and east, where the elite Bagalas of Zhenghuang Banner, Xianghuang Banner, Zhenghong Banner, Xianghong Banner, and Xianglan Banner are stationed respectively.

And Aliha Chaoha.

Baya La means personal soldiers and protectors. They are the most elite soldiers drawn from the soldiers of the Eight Banners. There are not many in number, but all of them are the most elite among the Jurchen Tatars.

Aliha Chaoha is an elite cavalry selected from the Eight Banners of Manchuria and the Eight Banners of Mongolia cavalry, also known as the so-called Tatar heavy cavalry.

At present, the Baya La camp and the "Aliha Chaoha" camp of the Eight Banners of Manchuria have become the main force of the Eight Banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty after Huang Taiji became emperor.

All these Eight Banners elite camps are dotted around one building, and this building in the center is the Empress' Palace.

The current Empress’ Palace outside Songshan City is of course not as big as it would be 380 years later, but it’s not far behind. Especially the second entrance hall of the Empress’ Palace is considered to be the best and largest building in this area.

.

At present, the clay puppets and statues in the second main hall of the Queen's Palace, that is, the Queen's Hall, have been cleaned up, and the curtains and other items brought by Huang Taiji's imperial guards from the Shengjing Palace have been hung up.

It looks like a royal palace.

Late at night on the eighth day of March, Huang Taiji received the report that the grain and grass camp on the north bank of the Xiaoling River had been burned down in this hall, which served as a temporary residence.

In the same hall, Huang Taiji, who had not slept a wink in the middle of the night, summoned all the Tatar princes, county kings, and Baylors from Songshan, Jinzhou, Xingshan, and Tashan to discuss matters together.

Before launching the siege of Jinzhou and Songshan, Huang Taiji considered all aspects of the situation. Not only did he ask King Sanshun to transport the only "Hongyi Cannon" to the front line, but he also sent many fierce generals to lead heavy troops to Tashan.

, Xingshan and other places set up ambushes, preparing to encircle the points and call for reinforcements.

For him, even if Jinzhou and Songshan cannot be captured, it would make sense if he could use Jinzhou and Songshan as bait to lure the main force of Zu Dashou's Liaodong army stationed in Ningyuan to come to relieve the siege, and then set up an ambush in the middle to wipe them all out.

Without Zu Dashou and the elite Ming army of Ningjin under Zu Dashou, Songshan and Jinzhou, and even all the cities and fortresses in western Liaoning, would sooner or later be in Huang Taiji's pocket.

However, what he never expected was that all his ingenious arrangements could not prevent the Ming army, which probably numbered no more than a thousand men.

Moreover, this small Ming army was allowed to pass through the defense line that he personally deployed and had always thought to be extremely sophisticated and tight, and in one fell swoop burned the food and fodder of the Tashan, Xingshan, Songshan and Jinzhou frontline troops for several months.

The occurrence of this incident made the Qing Emperor Huang Taiji, who was increasingly more authoritative and considered himself wise and powerful, simply intolerable. It was as if he had been slapped hard in the face by an unknown person in public. In his opinion, this was simply

What a shame!

In particular, the occurrence of this incident exceeded all his previous expectations, making him feel that some developments were beyond his control, which even made him a little scared for no reason.

Therefore, at this time, Huang Taiji did not look like a strategist or a wise and mighty emperor. Instead, he had somewhat lost the wisdom and demeanor that he had always maintained, and became angry, irritable and willful, and spoke indiscriminately.

"Speak! Why are you silent?! When did Ningyuan City send out such an army, and no one among you knew about it?! When did this army cross the Xiaoling River without anyone noticing, and you didn't know it either?

Does anyone know?! I ask you, what is the origin of this advance camp, but you still don’t know?! You, the princes, the princes, Baylor, and the ministers, when did you become deaf and blind?
Chapter completed!