On the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month in the twenty-fourth year of Chongzhen, Chongzhen received news from Zhang Rong in Qufu.
He thought it would be good news that Qufu would be in complete chaos.
The result was different from what I expected.
The situation in Qufu was indeed serious for some time.
But as the New Year approaches, many people leave Qufu and return home.
The situation in Qufu eased a lot.
The matter of pouring the hole can only be postponed.
Chongzhen knew that it was easy to kill Duke Yansheng but difficult to defeat him.
Let me put it this way.
It is more difficult to completely destroy the image and appeal of Duke Yansheng than to defeat the Jiannu.
But just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean there are no opportunities.
As time goes by, the banner of Duke Yansheng will sooner or later fall completely in the hearts of scholars.
Putting down the secret letter, Chongzhen sighed: "Time is passing too slowly."
"Your Majesty," Wang Chengen walked in slowly, carrying a tray. "You just said that time is too slow, but I think time is too fast."
"Where's the fast one?" Chongzhen asked.
"When I first served you, Your Majesty, you had no white hair, but now you have white hair on your head."
"Haha." Chongzhen smiled helplessly.
The court is full of old foxes, and you must be prepared to fight wits and courage with them at any time.
Secondly, there was a war in Liaodong.
Any disturbance on the front line would make him nervous.
One more thing.
When he has nothing to do, he likes to go to the harem to play.
It would be strange if you don’t have white hair after a long time.
At this time, Wang Chengen came to Chongzhen with a tray and placed the tray and the documents on it on the dragon desk.
"What is this?" Chongzhen asked.
"This is the troop deployment plan sent by Wang Yongji. The Ministry of War has read it but has not made any statement." Wang Chengen replied.
Chongzhen picked up the document from the tray, opened it and read it carefully.
Wang Yongji is very cunning.
In order to minimize his own responsibility, he submitted two plans for sending troops.
The first plan was to gather the main force and set out from Shenyang, first taking Fushun and then taking Fushun Pass.
After taking Sarhu, they marched to Hetuala.
but...
This approach has drawbacks.
First of all, after leaving Fushun, the roads are all mountainous.
Not only is the terrain complex, but the roads are also winding.
Although it did not affect the passage of cavalry and infantry, it had a huge impact on the transportation of baggage and artillery.
Fortunately, there is the Hunhe River that can be used.
The Ming army only needed to prepare some flat-bottomed cargo ships to transport supplies and artillery.
But problems continued to arise.
The Ming army relied heavily on artillery in combat.
If the artillery is not allowed to travel with the army, it must be transported from the ship to the shore before the battle.
First of all, this is not in line with common sense in war.
Secondly, when loading and unloading artillery, it is necessary to find a suitable location (a deep shore) to serve as a temporary dock.
You have to know that the rivers at that time were all natural.
It is not easy to find a suitable place to serve as a dock temporarily.
Therefore, the Ming army could only carry artillery with them as they marched.
If you want to carry artillery through the mountains, it will not only affect the marching speed, but also have many restrictions when choosing the marching route.
If the Jiannu attacked and blocked the Ming army in a place with high terrain and narrow terrain.
The Ming army's advantages in artillery and manpower will be offset.
Once the two sides fell into a stalemate, the first to be unable to bear it would be the Ping Liao army itself.
The morale of the Ming army will gradually decline over time.
As the governor-general of Pingliao, Wang Yongji was certainly aware of these drawbacks.
So he made some optimizations on this basis.
Before the army was dispatched to pacify Liao, a navy was sent to land in Korea.
If the Jiannu supported Korea, they would have to divide their forces.
The army to pacify Liao took advantage of the opportunity to attack.
Even if a stalemate occurs, the Ping Liao army can use a rotation battle method to tire the enemy and break the deadlock.
in addition.
Countless rumors, Jinyiwei intelligence and secret letters from Koreans showed that the Jiannu were smuggling supplies through Korea.
The location is right at Haizhou Port.
Taking over North Korea would not only make Jiannu lose an ally, but also destroy Jiannu's smuggling channels.
It not only hit the morale of the Jiannu, but also imposed an economic blockade on them.
It can be said to kill two birds with one stone.
The fear is that the Jiannu will not divide their troops.
After regaining Korea, the Ming army still had to face the issue of whether to divide its troops.
Wang Yongji’s second plan was to divide the troops and attack.
The first army set out from Shenyang, passed through Fushun, Fushun Pass, and Sarhu, and then headed straight for Hetuala.
The second group of troops set out from Liaoyang, followed the Taizi River to Qinghe Fort, and crossed the Yahu Pass to reach Hetuala.
The third route consists of two troops.
The first one was Huang Fei's unit that recaptured Kuandian Fort.
The second group was Zheng Chenggong's army.
Huang Fei's troops were stationed in the Kuandian Fort area.
Zheng Chenggong had to attack Haizhou Port first to cut off the Jiannu's smuggling route.
Then he joined forces with Huang Fei and attacked Hetuala together.
Among these three armies, the troops in Shenyang and Kuandian Fort are real, while the troops in Liaoyang are fake.
The combination of real and fake tactics made it impossible for the Jiannu to distinguish the location of the main force of the Ming army.
Once the Jiannu army guessed incorrectly the main attack direction of the Ming army, the consequences were self-evident.
"Wang Chengen," Chongzhen pushed Wang Yongji's memorial aside, "Do you think it is better to divide the troops or concentrate the main force to attack?"
"I am stupid and dare not speak nonsense." Wang Chengen answered cautiously.
"If we concentrate our main forces to attack, we are afraid of a stalemate. If we divide our forces to encircle them, we are afraid of being defeated one by one. It is indeed a bit difficult!" Chongzhen sighed.
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