Zhu Cijiong thought for a while and said calmly, "It's not impossible to exchange materials for information, but the Jinyiwei must be involved, otherwise it will be regarded as collaborating with the enemy! What do you think, Governor Wang?"
"From now on, let the task of gathering information with money be left to the Pacification Office, and the Ping Liao Army should just focus on fighting." Wang Yongji politely declined Zhu Ciji's suggestion.
Zhu Cijiong seemed to be letting the Jinyiwei participate in supervision, but in fact he was openly inserting the Jinyiwei into the army.
This is equivalent to putting sand in the eyes of the generals.
This will make the generals feel very unhappy, and lead to a crisis of trust.
Zhu Cijiong also understood this truth.
He was just implementing Chongzhen's plan step by step.
Now the Jinyiwei has a monopoly on this matter to make it easier to crack down on smuggling in the future.
As the war continues and the battlefield expands, various forms of smuggling will inevitably appear in Liaodong.
Especially those from Liaodong...
On the surface they were fighting, but in reality they were doing business.
This kind of thing is difficult to investigate and difficult to catch.
But there is still a way out.
As long as various reasons and excuses are blocked in advance, the risk and difficulty of smuggling will be greatly increased.
Some people will voluntarily give up smuggling because of this.
"Since Governor Wang has said so, the Jinyiwei will not be polite." Zhu Cijiong smiled at Wang Yongji.
"The Zhenfu Division is best at doing this kind of thing. I feel at ease leaving it to the Zhenfu Division!" Wang Yongji smiled and ordered people to prepare all the supplies Zhu Cijiong needed.
After seeing Zhu Cijiong off, Wang Yongji immediately convened a meeting of all the generals to discuss specific strategies for dividing the troops.
Some people think that the main force of the Ping Liao army should stay in Dalinghhe Fort and contain the main force of the Jiannu in Guangning Wei.
Then he sent 15,000 to 20,000 troops to attack Yizhou.
The 10,000 Mongolian soldiers in Yizhou were no match for these Ming troops.
After capturing Yizhou, we will attack Guangning.
Those who support this view include Li Xingzhong, Yuan Zongdi and Liu Xiyao.
Some people thought that since the number of Yizhou defenders had been ascertained, there was no need to go through so much trouble.
Just divide the troops directly.
The main force attacked Guangning, and the rest attacked Yizhou.
Two battlefields, two sides blooming.
Generals who supported this view included Wu Sangui and Gao Di.
Others thought that a flank force should be sent to contain the Yizhou area, while the remaining main force should directly attack Guangning.
As long as Guangning is captured, the Yizhou defenders will retreat without a fight.
The people who support this view the most include Huang Degong, Liu Zhaoji, He Jin, Ma Shiyao, Tang Tong, Liu Fangliang and others.
All three plans had supporters, but no consensus could be reached.
The final decision on this matter will still be made by Wang Yongji.
After careful consideration, Wang Yongji decided to focus on stability.
How to be stable?
The first thing to do is to stabilize the bridgehead of Dalinghhebao.
As long as this place is not lost, the retreat of the Ping Liao army will not be cut off.
So he decided to keep the main force stationed in Dalinghhe Fort and send a troop to attack Yizhou.
There was another reason for doing this, which was that Yizhou and Dalinghhe Fort were on the same side of the river, so there was no need to cross the river to attack.
If we want to attack Guangning, we need to cross the Daling River.
After making up his mind, he looked at everyone, and finally his gaze fell on Li Xingzhong, Yuan Zongde and Liu Xiyao.
Since the three of them support this plan, they should be the ones to send troops to implement it.
After the candidates were determined, the troops, food, fodder and various supplies were dispatched together.
Li Xingzhong ordered Li Shunzu to be the vanguard, himself to be the central army, Yuan Zongde to be the left wing, and Liu Xiyao to be the right wing.
An army of 17,000 marched towards Yizhou Wei in a mighty force.
The two places are less than ninety miles apart, and both sides send out a large number of scouts every day to investigate the enemy situation.
On the evening of the ninth day of March, the Ming army set up camp forty miles away from Yizhou.
The Jiannu scouts delivered the news to Yizhou overnight.
The defender of Yizhou City was Lekdehun.
It was already late at night when he received the news. While mobilizing troops, he ordered people to rush to Guangning with the news.
The straight-line distance between Yizhou and Guangning is only ninety miles, but there is a Yiwulü Mountain in between.
Although the winding and rugged mountain road can accommodate small groups of cavalry, it is a mountain road after all, and the cavalry's marching speed is greatly slowed down.
It was already the morning of the tenth day of March when Jirgalang received the news.
He handed the secret letter in his hand to Man Dahai and asked, "What does Prince Li think?"
After reading the contents of the secret letter, Man Dahai put it down and looked up and asked, "What do you think? Of course, we should fight back when the enemy comes and block the water with earth!"
"No," Jirgalang shook his head slowly, "both the process and the results of the Battle of Ningyuan and the Battle of Jinzhou illustrate one fact."
"What facts?"
"It will be difficult for the Eight Banners soldiers to gain the upper hand in a head-on clash with the Ming army on the front battlefield. If we want to win the battle, we need to broaden our horizons, step away from the battle situation, and analyze and deploy troops from an overall strategic perspective." Jirgalang said something very meaningful.
"Hmm..." Man Dahai frowned and thought for a while without any clue, so he could only ask: "How does Prince Zheng want to fight?"
"True and false, the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind!" Jirgalang stated his plan with a confident smile.
When listening to Jirgalang's plan, Man Dahai was puzzled at first, then frowned in thought, and finally smiled.
"Wonderful, it's really wonderful!"
"Is there anything else to add? If not, let's do this!" Jirgalang said in an inquiring tone.
"No, Prince Zheng's plan is brilliant!"
"That's good!" Jirgalang wrote the letter as quickly as possible and ordered someone to send it to Yizhou.
At the same time, troops were deployed overnight to prepare for the next battle.
At noon on the tenth day of March, Lekedehun received a letter from Jirgalang.
After reading the letter, he immediately issued an order: "The Ming army will arrive soon. Order all units to move all food and supplies out of the city and transport them to the north bank of the Daling River!"
Since most of the people in the city were Mongolian tribesmen, the supplies they carried were relatively few.
So the speed of transportation is very fast.
While they were moving supplies, Ming army vanguard scouts had already appeared in the southern part of the city.
Lekedehun only sent out a small group of cavalry to drive them away, but did not go out of the city to form a battle line to meet the enemy.
In the evening of that day, the vanguard of the Ming army set up camp ten miles south of the city.
The next morning, when the Ming army was forming its battle array, a fire suddenly broke out in Yizhou City.
"A big fire?" Li Shunzu was a little surprised. "Could it be that the people in the city have started an uprising?"
"I don't know," the scout replied.
"Quickly send out scouts to investigate and deliver the news to the central army."
Inside the central army.
Li Xingzhong was also a little surprised when he got the news, "Why did the fire suddenly start?"
Yuan Zongdi said: "This fire should be set by the Jiannu themselves."
Li Xingzhong raised his head. "You mean... the Jiannu retreated without a fight?"
"Very likely."
"It doesn't make sense for the Jiannu to retreat without a fight!" Liu Xiyao was very puzzled. "There are more than 10,000 troops in Yizhou City. They are running away before the battle even starts. This is not the style of the Jiannu."
While they were still speculating, Li Shunzu sent back news: the Jiannu burned down the houses in the city, damaged the north, east and west walls, and then abandoned the city and fled!
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