"Xilulu..."

"I have probably guessed what His Highness was thinking this time..."

On April 5, the first year of the Apocalypse, when news from the north reached the southwest, the first person to receive the information was Hong Chengchou, who was in Chongqing Mansion and served as Chongqing's military commander.

At this moment, Hong Chengchou was on the north bank of Jiangjin County, southwest of Chongqing Prefecture. When he heard his words, the staff next to him also said: "Censor, what do you mean by His Highness..."

Upon hearing the inquiry, Hong Chengchou frowned and said:

"Your Highness did not send Man Gui, but sent Sun Yingyuan, who was fighting for the first time, which will explain the problem."

"If my guess is correct, His Highness should have invited some good generals to Zhenjiang to wait for help."

"The so-called Seventh Guards Army is not the main force, but just a cover."

"His Highness is not prepared to allow them to have substantial large-scale contact with Jianlu."

"It would be okay if the old Seventh Guards Battalion was the first, but if the current Seventh Guards Army meets and fights Jianlu, the fight will turn into a rout if not careful."

"Besides, there are few roads in the Liaodong Mountains that can support tens of thousands of people marching."

"So, after the Seven Guards Army rushes to Liaodong, it must start from the two or three guards with the most veterans, and the target is only Gushan and other fortresses south of Hetuala."

"The total number of soldiers stationed in these stone forts is less than 2,000. They are good targets for training troops."

"As for the auxiliary troops and the few remaining guards, their task should be to rectify the three cities of Fenghuang, Zhenjiang and Kuandian."

"Even if there are only two or three guards, once the Gushan Fort is breached, I will have to divide my troops and return to the defense."

"This is a conspiracy. The old slave can see it very clearly, but even if he sees it, he still has to divide his troops. It just depends on the number."

Hong Chengchou finished speaking in one breath and explained Zhu Youjian's thoughts on tactics and strategy.

To put it bluntly, Zhu Youjian also knew that the Seventh Guards Army was no match for Jianlu at the moment. Even in places like the Liaodong Mountains, a large-scale march and an order to retreat could easily turn into a rout.

Therefore, there is no so-called mission of 60,000 soldiers and horses to storm Hetuala. There is only the task of most of the soldiers and horses to sort out the three cities of Zhenjiang and continuously build stone fortresses in the mountains leading to the three cities.

The offensive task was carried out by Sun Yingyuan, Qi Yuangong and Qi Yuanfu together with a small number of troops.

There are more than a dozen stone fortresses in the south of Hetuala, with a total of only two thousand soldiers and horses, and each one alone can only have one or two hundred.

Therefore, it was impossible for them to successfully resist the troops led by Sun Yingyuan and the others.

Although fighting like this, the Seventh Guards Army was unlikely to gain much, but all he wanted was to attract Nurhachi's attention and let him divide his forces to reduce the pressure on Shenyang.

"Censor, according to what you said, the Seventh Guards Army still lacks a little bit to become an inducement."

After hearing what Hong Chengchou said, the staff said: "I must make the old slave think that the Seventh Guards Army is brave and good at fighting, otherwise the old slave will not divide too many troops."

"So next, I am afraid that His Highness the Fifth Prince will find a way to mobilize the elite troops of the Thirteenth Guards Army to promote martial arts in certain places to confuse the old slaves." Hong Chengchou responded:

"Before the confusion is reached, Sun Yingyuan's troops will not attack, and will quietly build a fort in the three cities."

"What a good plan..." After saying that, Hong Chengchou looked down the school field.

It has been four months since he arrived in Chongqing. With the support of Xu Keqiu, the Chongqing government allocated 100,000 taels of silver and 30,000 shi of grain to help him reorganize his troops and prepare roads.

In four months, Hong Chengchou had gathered 6,000 troops.

However, they were incomparable to Zhu Youjian's troops. Only two thousand of Hong Chengchou's six thousand troops were all wearing armor and holding long spears and knives. The remaining four thousand men only had cotton armor, and the fire gunmen only had

Mandarin ducks and war coats.

But even so, such a configuration can be regarded as elite in the south.

Different from the north, although the south is a little cold, it is still a world of iron armor and paper armor.

Looking down at the high platform of the school grounds, Hong Chengchou had a hunch in his heart that even if the Southwest chieftains did not rebel, with this army, he would still be able to occupy a place in front of His Majesty the Fifth Prince.

Thinking of this, Hong Chengchou said to the staff next to him:

"How are Sun Chuanting and the others doing right now? What about She Chongming?"

"I heard that Sun Chuanting has been training his troops very hard recently. After Bijie Guard was abolished and established as a government, Long Live exempted him from taxes for two years, so Sun Chuanting raised eight thousand soldiers." The staff first talked about Sun Chuanting, which showed that Bijie had changed a lot.

After finishing speaking, he turned the conversation back to Wu Aheng and Yang Wenyue:

"Wu Aheng trained 4,000 new soldiers in Hejiang County. I heard that he was doing well. Yang Wenyue was from Sichuan, so many people gave him gifts. It seemed that they wanted to elevate him to a high position, so he trained with 6,000 new soldiers in Xuzhou.

Soldiers."

"As for She Chongming, there have indeed been troop mobilizations recently, but the strange thing is that he moved his troops to Yongning Guard, as if he wanted to aid the Liao Dynasty for the imperial court."

After the staff member finished speaking, Hong Chengchou frowned.

This time His Highness the Fifth Prince arranged for the four of them to come to the southwest, obviously to prevent She Chongming from rebelling.

Secondly, maybe he wanted to train some soldiers and horses belonging to the emperor so that no one would be available.

Originally, Hong Chengchou had the idea of ​​using military training to gain the emperor's attention, but as he arrived in Chongqing, Sun Chuanting abolished the Bijie Guards, and His Highness the Fifth Highness abolished the guard posts in the north, the military strength in the southwest became increasingly useless.

It's no longer important.

If She Chongming does not rebel, then in the eyes of His Highness the Fifth Prince, who already has an army of more than 100,000 men, what kind of official position can he get with only 6,000 troops?

Moreover, among the four people in the southwest, Sun Chuanting had the largest number of troops, which made Hong Chengchou very uncomfortable.

Sun Chuanting was closest to She Chongming and had the most soldiers and horses.

And he is the farthest away and the second most powerful person.

Hong Chengchou had some doubts as to whether She Chongming had been defeated by Sun Chuanting before his troops even left Chongqing.

If this is the case, then Wu Aheng and Yang Wenyue may be able to catch up, but he will not be able to catch up.

Thinking of this, Hong Chengchou closed his eyes and meditated. After a few seconds, he spoke:

"How much silver and food are there in the camp now?"

"There are still more than thirty-four thousand taels and eighteen thousand stones." The staff bowed in response. When Hong Chengchou heard this, he gritted his teeth and said:

"Write a letter to Governor Xu, please allocate another 30,000 taels of silver and 30,000 shi of grain."

"In addition, we will immediately recruit 6,000 new soldiers. Military pay will be paid once a month, and each person will be given a settlement allowance of five taels of silver."

"Inspection... If this is the case, it will be difficult for us to last until winter." The staff instinctively reminded, but Hong Chengchou raised his hand and said:

"There is no need to persuade me. We must have more soldiers and horses than Sun Chuanting. If that doesn't work, I will sell all the acres I have been operating in Fujian in the past few years."

"Yes..." Seeing that Hong Chengchou could not be persuaded, his staff could only honestly write a letter with his thoughts and sent it to Xu Keqiu, the governor of Sichuan.

Fortunately, although Xu Keqiu was incompetent, his original intention was good. He also wanted to rectify the situation in Sichuan after the Sichuan troops were transferred to aid the Liao Dynasty. Therefore, after seeing Hong Chengchou's letter, although it was a bit difficult, he still collected 30,000 taels of silver and 30,000 shi.

Give food to Hong Chengchou.

The reason why he was so kind to Hong Chengchou was because he was a member of the Zhejiang Party, and the Fujian Party behind Hong Chengchou was dependent on the Zhejiang Party.

Under the current situation where the Central and Zhejiang Party is losing power, cultivating Hong Chengchou is a good choice.

Comparing Hong Chengchou's identity as a Fujianese, Sun Chuanting and Wu Aheng were both from the north, and Yang Wenyue was from Sichuan, so the Sichuan Party and Xu Keqiu did not deal with them.

Therefore, this is an opportunity, and Hong Chengchou is very good at seizing such opportunities.

Hong Chengchou recruited troops on a large scale, and Qin Liangyu, who returned to Shizhu, also used the silver and grain distributed by Zhu You from the school's funds to recruit 10,000 white soldiers in Shizhu and Youyang again.

The combined forces of their five parties totaled 34,000 soldiers and horses. Such soldiers and horses could almost surround Yongning's She Chongming.

Therefore, such changes also made She Chongming, who had a ghost in his heart, very nervous.

On the eighth day of April, the surrounding Ming army became increasingly enthusiastic about military training, and heavy footsteps sounded in Yongning City.

A general wearing armor walked around the long corridor, then walked to the door of a courtyard, bowed and said: "Father-in-law, something seems to be wrong."

"Come in!" an old-fashioned voice sounded.

Hearing this, the general walked into the other courtyard, then crossed the threshold and saw a skinny old man wearing ordinary clothes but with dark skin.

"Tell me, is it Qin Liangyu or is there something wrong?" The old man stood in front of his desk, practicing calligraphy.

When the general heard this, he bowed and said: "Father-in-law, it has only been a few months, and there are already thirty or forty thousand soldiers and horses around us. If the imperial court does not order them to be transferred out of Sichuan, I am afraid they will come for us."

"Why are you panic?!" The old man threw the pen away and hummed:

"I think Yang Yinglong also sent troops to attack the Chief Envoy of Guizhou before he was surrounded and suppressed by the Ming Dynasty. Now we are keeping to ourselves and our troops are strong. Who dares to offend us first?"

The old man's words revealed his identity, that is, She Chongming, who had been in charge of Yongning Xuanwei Division for thirty-four years.

He just turned sixty this year. Although he is already considered to be old, his ambition has not diminished.

This can be seen from his name for the Ming Dynasty.

Even chieftains usually address themselves as imperial court, but he actually addressed himself as Ming Ting, treating himself as a little king.

However, it is not surprising that he is like this. In the Battle of Sarhu, all the Sichuan troops transferred outside were killed in the battle, and Liu Wei also died on the battlefield. For a chieftain like him with tens of thousands of soldiers, it can be said that he is extremely ambitious.

Great temptation.

Just as northerners looked down on southerners in this era, southwestern barbarians also looked down on northeastern barbarians.

In She Chongming's view, Nurhachi, a domestic dog under Li Chengliang's command at that time, could inflict such heavy damage on the Ming Dynasty, so he had 20,000 Yi soldiers and 10,000 Han soldiers, so he could not be worse than Nurhachi.

Nurhaci still has nine sides in the north that can support Liaodong, but what about the southwest?

Except for the Mu Mansion in Yunnan, which can draw 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers and horses, there are few chieftains and local forces in the entire southwest who have more soldiers and horses than him.
To be continued...