I am one year older than Chongzhen

Chapter 257
At the beginning of the offensive and defensive battle of Dalinghe City, Zu Dashou, He Kegang and other iron-armored servants fought back and forth with the invading Houjin army, and did not suffer any losses.

But things changed after Huang Taiji's main force arrived on the battlefield.

In the ensuing scout battle, the Ming army retreated steadily, and finally all retreated into Dalinghe City.

At the end of August, the Houjin army dispatched [-] soldiers and civilians to surround Dalinghe City.

Hou Jinjun also did good deeds, helping Guan Ningjun to harvest all the tens of thousands of acres of farmland near Jinzhou, and obtained more than 5 shi of grain mainly wheat, millet, and beans.

Generals Wu Xiang, Song Wei and other generals also had a lot of soldiers and horses in their hands, but unfortunately they did not dare to go out to fight in the field. Tens of thousands of Ming troops watched from the top of the city as the Hou Jin army cut the wheat.

Huang Taiji was in a hurry, and sent troops before the autumn harvest, and was about to face the plight of lack of military supplies.

Unexpectedly, the Ming army in Jinzhou had done a good job of farming the fields, and the later Jin army did not need to cultivate and harvest directly, which took advantage of it and solved the military food problem on the spot.

The year before last, Huang Taiji insisted on going his own way and led the main force to plunder the entrance with the Harqin and Horqin light cavalry.

Today's Houjin is no longer the four major Baylors discussing politics, it is basically Huang Taiji's arbitrariness.

So no one dared to speak out to shake Huang Taiji's determination to capture Dalinghe City.

At this time, the strength of the Houjin Army has a little deviation from history.

The main reason is that Huang Yi, who was born in the sky, was ambushed, and the number of Han craftsmen who were engulfed by the Hou Jin army to Shenyang in history was reduced by hundreds.

Those are of course Liu Han, Wang Tianxiang and other great craftsmen who are good at casting cannons and matchlock guns from the artisan households in Santunying.

After these people were rescued by Huang Yi, they became the masters of the steel factory and gun factory in the base area.

Due to the serious shortage of technical personnel for casting cannons, the time for casting cannons in Houjin was delayed.

When launching the Battle of Dalinghe, the Hou Jin Army did not bring several newly cast "God Bless the Great General Cannon" as it did in the original history.

However, the Hou Jin army still adopted the method of digging trenches, dug a trench around Dalinghe City, and used the excavated soil to form an earth wall.

As a result, the Ming army stationed in Dalinghe City became a turtle in an urn.

If Zu Dashou, He Kegang, etc. want to break out of the siege, they will switch from the defending side to the attacking side.

The Liaodong War resumed, Dalinghe City was besieged, and urgent memorials and official documents were sent to the imperial court and the Ministry of War.

Yuan Chonghuan, the former governor of Jiliao, was hacked into pieces, and his meat was eaten by the soldiers and civilians of the capital. Now it is Sun Chengzong who holds the position.

The emperor, Sun Dushi, and Xiong Mingyu, Shangshu of the Ministry of War, etc., could all see Huang Taiji's intention to encircle and fight for aid.

But what if you can see it?

We have to send troops to the rescue!
The Ministry of War issued an order to aid Liao, and the unlucky governor of Denglai, Sun Yuanhua, sent Kong Youde, a member of the Supervising Biao Battalion, to lead more than a thousand soldiers and horses to dawdle on the road.

Governor Xuanda received Huang Yi's warning in advance, and on the day he returned to Xuanfu, he sent the official document to the Ministry of War that the Tartars from the Karaqin and Chahar tribes urgently needed to replenish gunpowder, artillery, and food.

Within a few days, something really happened. It wasn't the Tartars, but the bandits who crossed the Yellow River and came to Shanxi to burn, kill and loot.

Therefore, the Ministry of War asked Xuanda to send troops to aid Liao, but Geng Ruqi refused on the grounds that he was too busy with internal and external affairs.

Since Emperor Chongzhen came to power, governors, governors and other officials in the borderlands are similar to the president of South Korea, and have become high-risk occupations.

In July of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Yang He, the governor of the three sides who insisted on appeasing the bandits, was arrested by Tiqi and taken to prison.

Hong Chengchou finally came to prominence and became the great official of the Ming Dynasty. He was about to kill thousands of rogues and refugees to achieve the notoriety of "Hong Shaved his head".

It is because of the "Hong Shaved Head" in Shaanxi that the rogues in Shaanxi were frightened and fled in all directions regardless.

Bandits headed by "Dengdengzi", "Sweeping King", "Xing Honglang", "Slippery", and "Bai Jiuer" entered the Luliang area of ​​Shanxi.

At this time, the class contradictions in Ming Dynasty were irreconcilable, and many ordinary people were so poor that they had no way out.

This group of rogues who had been beaten into the sky and the earth were harmed to a new place, but the number of them suddenly snowballed.

When they entered the prefectures and counties in Luliang, they claimed to have one hundred thousand troops.

Liaodong and Shaanxi are corrupt, and the situation in Shanxi is tense. Huang Yi's territory welcomes the autumn harvest and people feel stable.

Huang Yi knows that in the end times and troubled times, he must strive for self-improvement, and of course he will not enjoy this rare stability.

After the autumn grain was put into storage, two national exercises were carried out.

The purpose of the exercise is to let every soldier and civilian know how to retreat when encountering an enemy attack.

It is necessary to prevent the invading enemy from grabbing a grain of food and catching a commoner.

It is completely different from the Ming Dynasty decree not leaving the county seat. Every household in the base area knows which township governor should obey the management, and which Baochang or Jiachang leader it should belong to.

Evening schools not only teach literacy and arithmetic, but can also propagate and confuse unification of ideas, making all soldiers and civilians feel a sense of crisis.

There are more literate people, and management is much easier. During the exercise, no one was found wandering around aimlessly. Every household knew who to follow, where to go, and what to do.

It is very important to predict the enemy first, because the base area has a relatively large sphere of influence. The cavalry patrols led by Hu Xiaochuan, Bi Daxi, etc. have returned from two days to eight, nine, or ten days.

The patrol team in the farthest direction has been patrolling eastward to the outlying grassroots tribes more than 500 miles away from Xinghe City.

All the cavalry are involved in patrolling and take turns. The first team is basically a hundred, carrying three eight-fold monoculars.

With a large number of people, familiar terrain, far-sightedness, and the assistance of grassroots tribes, the patrols performing the mission will basically not return empty-handed, and they will always find and round up some scattered herdsmen.

After the autumn harvest, there are still no idlers in the base area, and production and military training are in full swing.

Because the soldiers are paid on time, the workers are paid wages, and the farmers are cashed in for selling grain.

Therefore, families who have been in the base area for more than half a year have some savings.

With money in the hands of the common people, the commercial prosperity of Xinghe City is just around the corner.

However, because of too much investment, the industrial products produced failed to open up the market, and the money earned was far from enough to produce military flintlock guns and regiment artillery.

Therefore, the iron and steel factories, guns and artillery factories, and cement factories in the base areas are actually in the investment stage and have not generated profits.

It is so important to prepare for war and famine. Of course, Huang Yi cannot sell the 30 million shi of grain that has been put into storage, and will face the dilemma of having no money to use.

On the second floor of the south gate building of Xinghe City, dozens of civil officials including Zhang, Wang Baishan, Qi Dashan, Ye Huiling, Zuo Fanglian, Liu Shifu, Lan Jinkui, Qi Xiaoshan, etc. were having a meeting.

Participants are full of confidence in the future of the base area.

However, Wang Baishan, Zhang Shi, Ye Huiling, and Zuo Fanglian, who manage the finances of the base area, are all worried.

(End of this chapter)