Early on the morning of December 23, Yu Liangtai, Shen Qicheng, and Lin Qingye each took a small team of attendants and followed Xu Tingxuan across the sea to Zhuanghe Fort City.

The situation in Zhuanghe Castle is almost the same as before, at least not much has changed in terms of scale.

Only outside the outer city, numerous trenches, parapets and enemy towers were added.

In addition to the various fortifications originally built on the mountain and surrounding the city, the entire Zhuanghe Fort is surrounded by circles of upper and lower forts and outer city, layer upon layer, more like a maze.

"No wonder the Qing army did not dare to come and capture the Zhuanghe Fort City! If we had such a majestic city on the second road to the north, how could the situation of our generation's uprising against the Qing Dynasty change for the worse!"

Shen Qicheng had never been to Zhuanghe Fort before. At this time, he followed Xu Tingxuan and Yu Liangtai to the south gate of the outer city of Zhuanghe Fort. He saw the majestic appearance of Zhuanghe Fort in the morning sun from a distance and couldn't help but feel proud. He sighed with emotion to Lin Qingye who was walking side by side.

Of course Lin Qingye had never been here, but in his heart, he was very dissatisfied with Shen Qicheng's statement.

When it comes to the dangerous situation of the castle, the two roads to the north of Chaoren are not without similar places.

It seems that in those days, in order to guard against the invasion of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial people deliberately abandoned the former thoroughfares in many places in the northern two roads and devoted themselves to overhauling the mountain cities.

Baimasan Fortress near Uiju Fortress was built on the mountain, so the situation was very dangerous.

However, no matter how dangerous the city's geographical situation is, it will be of no use if the civil servants and military officers guarding the city are not determined to resist.

Especially when the Qing army was accompanied by a large number of heavy artillery, no matter how steep the terrain of the city was, it could not withstand the bombardment of heavy artillery.

Thinking of this, Lin Qingye shook his head, pointed at the dark muzzle on the fort on the city wall not far away, and said to Shen Qicheng with a wry smile:

"Having such a majestic city is certainly conducive to holding on, but if we want to defeat the enemy, we must have Hongyi heavy artillery to guard it! And where do we have the Hongyi heavy artillery at the moment?"

Shen Qicheng sighed casually, but he didn't expect to elicit such a serious reply from Lin Qingye, which made him a little stunned for a moment.

But after a brief moment of shock, Shen Qicheng thought about it and felt that Lin Qingye was right. He couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly.

The most direct reason why he led his troops to flee Pingfu City in a hurry this time was because the city walls of Pingbo could not withstand the heavy artillery bombardment of the Qing Dynasty.

In the end, they were able to board Lin Qingye and Yu Liangtai's fleet, but it was also because Lin Qingye and Yu Liangtai's fleet carried a lot of artillery.

These powerful artillery pieces were not something that the Chao people could have if they wanted to, at least they couldn't make them themselves.

And looking around today's world, I am afraid that only Yang Zhen can bring these things to the people of the court.

While Shen Qicheng was thinking about these things, he saw a group of people coming out from the city gate not far away. They had already greeted Yu Liangtai and others who were walking in front, so he immediately took a few steps and followed them.

"Vice General Yu, Vice General Yu, I have been waiting for you to come back day and night in Zhuanghe Fort. It's like looking at the clouds during a severe drought! Fortunately, it's not too late. Now that you're back, you can stay guard for me for a while! "

As soon as Yu Liangtai and his party arrived at the city gate, Zu Keyong, who was already waiting there, stepped forward and said this.

And what he said made Yu Liangtai stunned on the spot, and he was a little confused for a while.

However, Zu Keyong, who was the commander-in-chief of the East Route, did not pay attention to the reaction of his deputy Yu Liangtai. After smiling and speaking to him, he bypassed him and greeted Lin Qingye and Shen Qicheng who were following behind. Meeting ceremony.

"Now that Commander Lin and Mr. Shen can come together to help, Zu is overjoyed! Come on, come on, come on, please go to the castle and talk!"

Zu Keyong was obviously sincerely happy for the arrival of Yu Liangtai, Lin Qingye, and Shen Qicheng. He, who was not very cheerful and talkative in the past, became much more talkative in front of everyone.

There is of course a reason why Zu Keyong has such an "abnormal" performance.

Ever since the news came out that Yang Zhen was surrounded by a large army led by Qing Dynasty puppet emperor Huang Taiji in Zhenjiang Fort, Zu Keyong, who was in Zhuanghe Fort, fell into a dilemma.

Yang Zhen once personally ordered that no other people from all walks of life were allowed to go to rescue Zhenjiang Fort. He also ordered the soldiers and horses of Zhuanghe Fort to guard the city tightly and not to fight in vain. Moreover, once surrounded, there would be no other reinforcements.

Under such strict orders, although the previous offensive and defensive battles in Zhenjiang Castle were extremely life-and-death battles, Zhuanghe Fort basically remained "still as motionless as a mountain".

Of course they knew Yang Zhen's painstaking efforts and knew that the Qing soldiers and horses must have laid a trap outside Zhenjiang Fort and were waiting to encircle the area for reinforcements.

Therefore, although Yang Zhen's advance arrangements, especially Yang Zhen's consideration for them, were a bit unbearable, everyone was actually grateful and knew that Yang Zhen was thinking about them.

However, Yang Zhen and his troops were surrounded in Zhenjiang Fort, while their subordinates, the generals, stayed out of the incident and stood by, but they could not justify it no matter what.

Although all of this was an order given by Yang Zhen himself, the Zhuanghe Fort army continued to question Zu Keyong.

If you don't go to rescue Zhenjiang Fort, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with it. After all, there may indeed be a trap for the Qing army to surround Zhenjiang Fort for reinforcements.

But if you don’t save Zhenjiang Fort City, you can go and fight elsewhere!

Isn't there a trick in the art of war to surround Wei and rescue Zhao? You can attack Xiuyan Fort!

Guyan

It's best if you can defeat it, but even if you can't defeat it, you can still mobilize the Qing Dynasty soldiers and horses to divide the troops and reduce some pressure on Zhenjiang Castle!

In this way, although Zu Keyong and others followed Yang Zhen's order and stayed at Zhuanghe Fort, the Qing soldiers and horses did not come to attack Zhuanghe Fort.

However, in the seemingly calm Zhuanghe Fort, various soldiers and horses were secretly arguing over what they should do in the situation before them.

Including Zu Keyong himself, he has been under various pressures both internally and externally, and his heart is extremely tormented.

He was born in the ancestral family of western Liaoning, which was a famous general.

However, in Yang Zhen's army, this background is not only not worth boasting about, but has even become a lingering shadow on him.

Although he had already been loyal to Yang Zhen wholeheartedly, at every critical moment, there were always people in the army who would use his background to question his decisions.

Even if this decision was not made by himself, but was just following Yang Zhen's orders, as long as there was something unreasonable, some people would question his intentions.

The most important thing is not the questioning in person, but the fact that although he obeys on the surface, he secretly makes private comments and is weird.

From mid-October to the end of November, he was exhausted both physically and mentally just to deal with the officers and soldiers who made private comments in the camp and discussed important war and defense matters.

In the past two months, dozens of soldiers and officers have been punished, and countless military sticks have been broken, but it still cannot stop the complaints in the army.

In order to eliminate the suspicion of the army sergeants against him, Zu Keyong had to frequently send out the most willing men to fight since the end of November to form patrol cavalry and go to the direction of Zhenjiang Fort and Xiuyan Fort to inquire about the enemy situation and parties ahead.

War news.

What was unexpected and made Zu Keyong ecstatic was that at noon on the fourth day of December, Ao Rijin, who had not returned from his patrol for several days, suddenly happily led a dozen musketeers back to the outside of Zhuanghe Fort.

The leader of the dozen musketeers brought back by Ao Rijin was none other than Li Shouzhong, whom Zu Keyong himself was very familiar with!

Li Shouzhong brought various news from Zhenjiang Fort to Zhuanghe Fort, as well as Yang Zhen's latest orders for the troops and horses on Jinhai East Road.

Among the several orders brought by Li Shouzhong, Yang Zhen told Zu Keyong and others to seize the opportunity that the Qing army had penetrated east of the Yajiang River, and make full use of the cavalry advantage of their troops on the east route to target the Qing soldiers outside Zhenjiang Fort.

In the vast rear area, make several surprise attacks.

Moreover, in the order that Li Shouzhong gave to Zu Keyong, Yang Zhen highlighted Xiuyan Fort, Xuanchengyi and other places.

These places are located northwest of Zhuanghe Fort, not too far from Zhuanghe Fort, and at the same time quite a distance away from the Qinglu Camp outside Zhenjiang Fort.

Correspondingly, they are separated from Gaizhou City and other places on the west side of the Liaodong Peninsula by high mountains belonging to the Qianshan Mountains.

At this time, in the twelfth lunar month of winter, when the mountains were covered with ice and snow, when Zu Keyong and others suddenly rushed to attack Xiuyan Fort, Xuanchengyi and other places, they would not attract the two white flag soldiers and horses that Dorgon and others had deployed in Gaizhou City and other places.

Therefore, although such a raid may seem risky, it only looks that way. If the action is careful, it is very likely to succeed.

Once successful, the several Qing prison camps still besieging Zhenjiang Castle will be in trouble.

If they ignore it and continue to guard the outskirts of Zhenjiang Fort, their rear supply road will face a serious threat from the troops on the Jinhai East Road.

If they want to take care of it, then they have to mobilize soldiers and horses from the remaining camps around Zhenjiang Fort.

In this way, Yang Zhen's soldiers and horses, who were guarding Zhenjiang Fort until their bones were rusting, had the opportunity to leave the city and destroy the remaining camp of the Qing captives.

Of course, the most important thing is that once Zu Keyong's Jinhai East Road soldiers and horses really take the opportunity to capture Xiuyan Fort and other places, then the vast area south of the Dayang River that is easy to cultivate and cultivate will be included in Jinhai Town.

In hand.

At that time, from Xiuyan Fort to Zhenjiang Fort and then to Zhuanghe Fort, a large number of valley plains and coastal plains between the three forts can be safely and boldly arranged for immigration settlement.

Otherwise, just guarding Zhenjiang Fort near the mouth of the Yajiang River, and the area from Zhenjiang Fort to Zhuanghe Fort will still be unsafe.

Because the Qing Dynasty soldiers and horses could still flow continuously from the direction of Xiuyan Fort along the valley of the Dayang River and eastward to the plain area between Zhenjiang Fort and Zhuanghe Fort.

If this is the case, even if Yang Zhen's troops guard Zhenjiang Fort, the coastal plain area within the jurisdiction of Jinhai East Road will still not be able to resettle immigrants.

Regarding the important position of Xiuyan Fort, Yang Zhen actually saw clearly very early on.

It's just that a large number of Qing soldiers and horses were stationed in Xiuyan Fort in the past, but after Yang Zhen captured Zhenjiang Fort, he didn't know that Xiuyan Fort's troops with blue flags had also been transferred to the front line of Zhenjiang Fort, let alone that he had led troops to guard it.

The Qinglu general of Xiuyan Fort was Shaerhuda.

When the offensive and defensive battle of Zhenjiang Castle came to an end a month ago, Jin Yukui had reported to him that among the heads of high-ranking officials from the Qing Dynasty collected from outside the city, there were the heads of Shaerhuda and his son.

But when Jin Yukui said that, Yang Zhen just listened to it, and then the matter passed without thinking much about it.

It wasn't until one day at the end of November that Yang Zhen was in a military meeting with General Zhengdong. When he was almost unable to suppress the generals' desire to fight, he finally decided to send someone to contact Zu Keyong first and let Zu Keyong lead the army outside.

, attack the rear of the Qing captives and create better opportunities for the Zhenjiang Fort defenders.

Until this time, Jin Yukui, the former general of King Zhishun's military department who was relatively familiar with the defense situation of the Qinglu Xianglan Banner, once again mentioned the fact that Sarhuda and his son were dead, which no one had cared about before.
Chapter completed!