"Oh, you all discussed it, oh, why didn't you tell me?"
Ma Xiaoquan nodded and said: "I accidentally talked about this with Eunuch Ji. It is also Eunuch Ji's idea, but I don't know if it is mature or not."
"But let's get straight to the point~" Zhao Lute taught.
"Okay~~" Ma Xiaoquan nodded and told Zhao Shujiao about He Ji Yong's discussion last night.
After listening, Zhao led the teacher and said: "If this can be done, it would be great~~"
On that day, the Ming army sent spies to convey the matters agreed upon by Ma Xiaoquan and the others by oral message to Yuan Chonghuan, who was stationed in Ningyuan.
Yuan Chonghuan was a civil servant. Although the messenger was wrong, he relied on his own cultural level to understand the intention of Jinzhou. Immediately, Yuan Chonghuan wrote a letter and ordered his men to send it to Jinzhou immediately.
As soon as the men who delivered the letter left, Yuan Chonghuan called a few people and said, "I want to find a way to spread the news. Let's just say that I wrote a top-secret letter and sent it to Jinzhou as soon as possible. What's the specifics? You don't need me to settle down anymore, right?"
"
These people are all experienced people. As soon as Yuan Chonghuan settled down, they naturally understood what to do.
At this time, Huang Taiji was stepping up his troops to encircle Jinzhou City. His purpose was very clear, which was to trap the Ming army in Jinzhou to death.
However, the Jurchen army did not have as much food and grass as the Ming army, so such an encirclement was not a long-term solution.
Just as he was hesitating about what to do next, a tribal leader ran into the main camp sweating profusely.
"Great Khan, Great Khan" the leader of the tribe shouted hastily, "I intercepted a letter from Ning Yuan~"
"Oh?" Huang Taiji's eyes lit up, "Bring it to me quickly~"
Huang Taiji has been learning Chinese since he was a child, and reading and writing Chinese is no longer a problem. The tribal leader handed him the letter, and when he opened it and read it, he immediately raised his eyebrows.
This tribal leader didn't know Chinese characters, and he had learned Chinese through continuous study in recent years. He looked at Huang Taiji and raised his eyebrows, and asked: "Khan, what's going on?"
Huang Taiji put down the letter and said with a smile: "This letter was written by Yuan Chonghuan to Jinzhou guard Zhao Lijiao and eunuch Ji Yong. It means to mobilize 60,000 to 70,000 naval troops from the waterway to Shanhaiguan, and to mobilize troops from Jizhou and Xuanfu.
To Qiantun, from Shahe, from Zhonghou to Ningyuan." After saying that, Huang Taiji put down the letter, walked to the sand table, and pointed with his fingers at the checkpoints he had just mentioned.
"This is a place heavily guarded by the Ming army, and it is also a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Great Khan, since they have mobilized troops, why don't we take this opportunity to sneak attack these strongholds and checkpoints and break off his left and right arms?
"
Huang Taiji dragged his chin and said, "We have thought of it together, but have you ever thought that this might be the Ming army's plan to divert the tiger away from the mountain? We are currently encircling Jinzhou. If we divide our troops, our encirclement may be
It will be broken. Furthermore, they may have ambushed heavy troops at a certain checkpoint. We divide our troops to drive them away, fearing that we will be ambushed."
The leader of the tribe said: "The Great Khan is wise, but if we don't seize this opportunity, it won't make sense?"
Huang Taiji dragged his chin and thought for a while and said: "I would rather believe that it is there than that it is not. I think we should shrink the encirclement. Well, send my order to gather troops two miles west of the city to prevent the Ming army from coming for reinforcements."
"Yes~"
When no one came the next day, Huang Taiji became impatient and ordered his soldiers to shoot arrows and send letters to Jinzhou City. The contents of the letters were the same, which was to persuade them to surrender.
Huang Taiji lied in the letter, saying that they had sniped the Ming army's reinforcements from all directions on the way. Your Jinzhou City is currently an isolated city. You still want to wait for reinforcements. Hum, give up. Of course, if you surrender, I will keep you all alive.
, I will not kill you due to the power of God.
Ma Xiaoquan read Huang Taiji's letter and handed it to Ji Yong with a smile. Ji Yong also read it, threw it away and said with a smile: "This Huang Taiji is really interesting. We know we won't have any thoughts about his letter.
He also insisted on borrowing one letter from another, which was interesting~"
Zhao led the teacher: "But there is a problem. If we don't go out to fight, Huang Taiji may besiege Jinzhou even deeper. Although Jinzhou is a fortified city, it cannot be completely defended to the end. If the city is really broken one day, then it will be a disaster."
It’s troublesome.”
Ma Xiaoquan said: "General Zhao's words are true. As of today, the governor (Yuan Chonghuan) has also sent secret messages several times in a row. Huang Taiji has been unable to attack Jinzhou for a long time and is afraid he will turn around and attack Ningyuan."
Ji Yong said: "Master Deacon, are all your family members in Ningyuan? If Huang Taiji's army presses in, won't your family members be in Ningyuan?"
Ma Xiaoquan waved his hand and said: "It doesn't matter, Ningyuan's generals and defenders are more elite than Jinzhou. Even if Huang Taiji is a god descending from heaven, it will not be possible overnight. I believe they can hold it."
"But there are too many of them," Zhao Lute taught.
Ji Yong said: "What we can hope for now is that we stick to each other and the Jurchen army will eventually withdraw due to lack of food and grass."
Ma Xiaoquan and Zhao Lijiao looked at each other and said in unison: "This is the only way."
As expected by Ma Xiaoquan and the others, after failing to persuade them to surrender, attack the city, and lure the enemy out of the city, Huang Taiji led his army to attack Ningyuan instead.
Immediately, Ningyuan was personally supervised by Yuan Chonghuan, and was seriously awaiting the arrival of the Jurchen army.
Everyone knew that this battle would definitely be a tough one, so everyone was very alert. Even if they hadn't seen the Jurchen army yet, the Ming army's preparations were basically ready.
Under the leadership of Yuan Chonghuan, the general distribution of the Ming army was as follows:
Inside the city: The main force of the Ming army was fully equipped and divided into different small camps to prepare for the rapid replacement of personnel when the Jurchen army attacked the city. Due to the special geographical location of Ningyuan City, the east and west sides of Ningyuan City needed to be heavily guarded. Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan sent Sun Zushou, the commander-in-chief, to
Lieutenant General Xu Dingguo was placed in the west of the city, and Zu Dashou was in charge of the east. The other parties took advantage of their geographical advantages and guarded relatively fewer personnel than those on the east and west sides, but the elite level of the soldiers was definitely no worse than that on the east and west sides.
All armies have prepared firearms, especially firecrackers, and some of them have been mass-produced thunderbolts.
Outside the city, a motor camp array was arranged in a fan shape. A trench 3.6 meters deep and 3 meters wide was dug in front of the array, and kerosene and dry firewood were placed in the trench. Once the Jurchen soldiers approached, the kerosene in the trench could be ignited in time to make it difficult for them to move forward.
Cross the trench.
On the other hand, Man Gui, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan, has also led reinforcements to garrison outside the city, responding to and taking care of each other inside and outside the city.
In front of the trench, the vehicle camp array is ready. Each vehicle is equipped with three gunmen. One is responsible for shooting, one is responsible for loading, and the other is responsible for delivery. Judging from experience, the Jurchen Army will definitely use cavalry as its main weapon.
Pioneer, at that time, the long-range cannon team can be used to kill the enemy first. When it approaches, the fire cannons will retreat, and the vehicle camp array will form a defensive angle. Even if they can cross the trench, they will still have a motionless anti-horse angle to resist. In this case,
The so-called double insurance.
The Ma Jiajun was temporarily arranged in the west of the city, under the sole command of Ma Ruiqing, Ma's father. In fact, this force was a special mobile force that defended the Ming Army. No matter if there was any difficulty in any of the four directions, they would be the first to do so.
rushed over to support.
"Bah~~" Ma Yuan held a spear and spat while riding on a war horse. He gritted his teeth and said: "The horses are scouting ahead to report. Huang Taiji will be here soon. Lao San, you said Xiao Sizi and the others are defending in Jinzhou."
How's it going?"
Next to Ma Yuan, Ma Cheng held up a long knife, waved it twice, and said: "The fourth son is more capable than us, he must be fine, and I heard that the fourth son got the magic of witchcraft from somewhere.
, but so powerful, some people even said that the fourth son is some kind of magic stick, haha."
Ma Yuan also laughed: "Actually, it's not like our three brothers don't know the background of the fourth son. His God of Fire is a bright man, but the believers he brought from the capital are quite right.
He is very loyal."
"Hey, when I talk about this, why do I think of my sister-in-law? No, where is Li Qinghan~"
"This guy, the fourth son, even took in his sister-in-law. It's a pity that Qinghan has gone somewhere. Forget it, let's not talk about it~"
The two brothers looked at each other and stopped communicating.
In Ningyuan City, Mother Ma frowned and stood on the city looking into the distance. She knew that at this moment, the Jinzhou garrison should be fighting hard with the Jurchen Army. As a mother, she had absolute reason to worry about her children.
"I don't know what's going on with Quan'er, and I can't even reply to this child."
Next to Ma's mother, Hua Yue had a swollen belly and a worried look on her face. The baby was about to give birth. She really wanted Ma Xiaoquan to come back and see her and her baby.
"Mom, don't worry, my husband is very powerful, he will be fine."
Ma Mu nodded: "Among the daughters-in-law, Mom is the most at ease with you. Quan'er, this damn child, has been away all this time, which is why I have wronged you. You, a young lady from a rich family, are suffering here with us."
Hua Yue smiled and shook his head: "Marry a chicken, follow the chicken, marry a dog, follow the dog, mother, the child is not miserable at all, but the people here are simple and simple, which is much better than the intrigues in the capital."
"You kid, um, by the way, hasn't Fangfang come back yet?"
"No, he said he went to the capital to find his brother. This girl looks weak and petite, but in fact she has a very fierce temper."
Ma Mu sighed and said: "Well, everyone has gone, let's wait for him to come back, but it's strange that Xiao Zhifeng cries when anyone holds him, but you don't cry when you hold him and coax him. Since Fangfang left,
I am the closest to you, this child."
Hua Yue smiled and nodded: "I think so too. Little Zhifeng is so kind. My husband also said that I will give birth to a daughter this time to keep little Zhifeng company."
Mother Ma smiled and said: "Yes, the Ma family does have a few little girls to make a fuss about. Although the four sons I gave birth to are all successful, they worry me too much. It's better to have girls~ at least they don't have to go to the front line.