On the evening of April 12, the 15th year of Chongzhen, Zhang Chen and Li Lu led their troops to escort Yang Shen's large fleet of vehicles, artillery and supplies, and finally arrived at the foot of the southern foot of Baima Mountain City.

Early the next morning, Yang Zhen personally led all the troops gathered together, with Yang Dagui as the guide and Zhang Chen's horse musketeers as the vanguard. They left Baima Mountain City and marched toward the former Yizhou capital thirty miles to the north.

Go to the old location.

Thirty miles away was not that far at first, but Yang Zhen's brigade, which was moving forward with a large number of heavy artillery, a large number of civilian troops and their carts, had to walk for most of the day.

By the time Yang Zhen led his troops to their destination, Zhang Chen and Yang Dagui had already set up camp at the ferry along the river to the west of Xinyi Fort.

Entering the camp set up by Zhang Chen and others, Yang Zhen immediately summoned the accompanying generals to discuss matters in the Chinese army's tent.

"Li Lu!"

"The humble position is here!"

"You will take the lead in building Xinyi Fort on this old city site!"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

"The most important thing is to build the four city walls first to build a solid shelter for the army. As for building the city, we can use the block building method, using cement, sand, gravel and bricks to mix and compact them together, and reserve four small gates for entry and exit from the east, west, north and south."

"This, does the governor have any instructions for the bastions, barbicans, forts, and government offices?"

When Li Lu was in Songshan City before, he had been responsible for the construction of the east gate of Songshan City and its attached city wall and bastion, so as soon as he accepted the task, he immediately asked Yang Zhen about his specific requirements for building the city.

"As for the bastions, barbicans, forts, and government offices, we'll leave that for later. You should first build the four walls! You can take care of the rest!"

"I understand the humble position!"

Ganqing just built four walls with cement and rubble on the old site.

In this case, as long as there are sufficient materials and sufficient manpower, it will be done very quickly.

"Yang Dagui!"

"The humble position is here!"

"General Li Lu is in charge of building the city. You will be responsible for the specific manpower and material matters!"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

In fact, ever since Yang Zhen asked him and Qiu Bixian to transport cement materials and named him to recruit young men from the villages, he knew that he was responsible for this matter, so he had been mentally prepared for it.

"Your Tieshan Battalion and the first batch of young and strong civilian men you recruited must all be put into the city construction site and obey the dispatch and command of General Li Lu! In addition, send people back immediately to urge the second batch of materials to be shipped. The construction site

If the material is broken, you are the only one I can ask!"

"I understand the humble position!"

"Zhang Chen!"

"The humble position is here!"

"You are responsible for pre-military reconnaissance, security, combat readiness and other matters!"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

"In addition to directing the construction of fortifications along the river and guarding against incoming Qing captives in Jiulian City on the other side, you asked Li Shouzhong to lead a battalion north to conduct sentinels and at the same time search for all the Koreans encountered along the way to make up for the lack of manpower for the construction of Xinyi Fort!"

"If they resist—"

"If they resist, then they will be killed without mercy. At this time, the people of the court will either serve the Qing Dynasty or us. There is no middle way for them to choose!"

"I understand the humble position!"

"Yang Shen!"

"The humble position is here!"

"In addition to cooperating with General Zhang to set up artillery formations along the river to prevent Qing raiders from crossing the river, the artillery regiment and battalion must also find favorable terrain in the north of Xinyibao City to build artillery positions to prevent Qing raiders from detouring from upstream!"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

"As well as the auxiliary sentries under your command that are accompanying the army, in addition to the affairs of the main camp, a group of manpower must also be allocated to support the construction project of Xinyi Fort!"

"I understand the humble position!"

Of course, Yang Shen was not the only one who bowed down to accept the order this time, but all the generals in the big tent who had previously received the assignment.

As soon as Yang Zhen's order was issued, in the afternoon of the same day, Li Lu and Yang Dagui began to direct people to demarcate the city site, allocate sections, start digging foundations, transport materials, and start full-scale construction.

Regarding the construction of Xinyi Fort this time, Yang Zhen had no intention of keeping a low profile. Instead, he acted with great fanfare and mobilized troops and people.

Even that night, they were still setting up lights and fires everywhere and fighting all night long.

Yang Zhen is not afraid at all that the Qinglu in Jiulian City on the other side of the river know that he is building Xinyi Fort. It can even be said that Yang Zhen is afraid that they don't know.

Of course, if they dared to cross the river and attack the Xinyibao construction site, Yang Zhen wouldn't mind wiping them out on the east bank of the Yajiang River.

Because Yang Zhen's current military strength, including guns, ammunition and other weapons and equipment, is very sufficient.

Now, for Yang Zhen, as long as he is not suddenly attacked by tens of thousands of Qing captive cavalry, he has nothing to fear.

What's more, Qinglu and him are still separated by a river, and Qinglu doesn't have many decent ships.

Under such circumstances, he was hoping that the Qing captives in Jiulian City would somehow attack his camp.

It is a pity that the Qinglu clan official Fei Yangwu, who was guarding Jiulian City, maintained his usual caution when faced with a large number of Ming soldiers who suddenly appeared on the other side of the river near the former site of Yizhou Fucheng at noon that day.

After receiving the report from the patrolling horse team, Fei Yangwu climbed to the top of Jiulian City, observed it with a telescope for a long time, and finally chose to stand still.

His decision was certainly not in line with the past style of the Qing Dynasty Eight Banners powerful men.

Because in the past, as long as the Ming army appeared in the sight of the Qinglu soldiers and horses, no matter how many Qinglu soldiers and horses were there, or the number of the Ming army, the general who led the Qinglu troops usually had only one choice, and that was to rush forward and kill them.

The Ming army was dispersed or destroyed.

Sometimes, a few hundred Qing barbarian sentries and cavalry dared to attack thousands of Ming troops.

Thousands of Qing Dynasty cavalrymen dared to rampage and attack the Ming army's formation of tens of thousands or even tens of thousands of people.

That legendary scene often made Fei Yangwu's blood boil.

But today, when things happen to him, he doesn't have the courage at all.

Because he knows that the situation is very different now. The older generation of Baturus of the Eight Banners who dared to attack and fight have all died of old age and withered away.

Today's new generation is no longer the generation that grew up in the mountains and forests, in battles, and on horseback. Instead, they are the dandy kids who have lived in a honey pot since they were young.

Fei Yangwu didn't know how this change happened, but he knew very well that it had already happened.

At almost the same time when Yang Zhen had laid out a trap and was waiting for Fei Yangwu to send people across the river to raid the Eastern Expeditionary Army camp, Fei Yangwu was convening in the lobby of the Xianglan Banner Gushan'e Zhenyamen Office in Jiulian City

In Jiulian City, various Mele Zhangjings and Jia La Zhangjings discussed matters.

The hall was brightly lit, but the atmosphere was dull. Fei Yangwu, who was about the same age as Yang Zhen, was frowning and looking at the slaves kneeling on the ground with a sad face.

"You guys are talking! Don't you have any other option besides sending a letter to Prince Zheng of Phoenix City for help? Are we just going to watch them build a new city on the other side of the river?!"

"Master, please calm down. My slave Engetu is willing to take the Mongolian Jiala under my tent out of the city, and take advantage of the fact that the Nanmanzi have just arrived and are not yet established, to attack the Nanmanzi camp at night!"

"That's enough! Night attack, night attack, you and the Nanmanzi have two rivers, how can you attack at night?! How many ships do you have, and how many men and horses can you send across in one night?!"

Fei Yangwu was in a bad mood, with a rhetorical question in his tone, and scolded Engetu for mentioning the idea of ​​crossing the river to attack Yang Zhen's troops again.

Engetu was born in the Horqin tribe and is now considered a relatively senior general among the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty.

But in front of Fei Yangwu, the Duke of Zhenguo who came from a clan, no matter how senior he was, he was still just a slave.

Facing Fei Yangwu's scolding, he felt quite unconvinced, but he did not dare to say anything. He could only lower his head and curse secretly in his heart.

Of the two rivers Fei Yangwu mentioned, one naturally refers to the Yajiang River, and the other refers to the Juha River.

Jiulian City is located southwest of the mouth of the Yajiang River where the Koha River merges into the Yajiang River. To the southeast is the main channel of the Yajiang River, and to the northeast is the lower reaches of the Aiha River.

If Yang Zhen did not have a strong navy, it would be very difficult to launch an attack on Jiulian City from the east of the Yajiang River.

Correspondingly, if the soldiers and horses stationed in Jiulian City do not have a navy, it will also be very difficult to go out of the city to attack the enemy across the river.

Fortunately, Yang Zhen had a powerful navy, and this was one of the prerequisites for his detour to Jiangdong and garrisoning troops there, facing Jiulian City across the river.

Of course, the main reason why Yang Zhen went to Jiangdong was because there were many vehicles and artillery and a lot of baggage. The road from Andong City to Jiulian City in the north was narrow and difficult to navigate, and no matter how many troops and horses there were, they couldn't get through it.

Jiulian City and the Dangerous Mountain Fort area to the west of Jiulian City are all in the hands of Qing soldiers. Going directly north from Anton Fort, the team will only get longer and longer, and they may be attacked by Qing soldiers on horseback anytime and anywhere.

In this regard, it would be much safer to cross the river from the lower reaches first and go to the east of the Yangtze River, where a large number of vehicles, artillery and baggage teams would be transported.

Then, while recruiting civilians to build Xinyi Fort, they waited for the arrival of the sunrise tide in April.

After the three generals of Yan Province equipped the Yingzhou and Lelang with a large number of heavy artillery and sailed into the open water where the Koha River and the Ya River converged, the end of the Qing Dynasty captives in Jiulian City would have come.

Of course, Yang Zhen also hoped that while he was leading his troops to repair Xinyi Fort, the Qing captives stationed in the Jiulian City area could ask for help from everywhere, spread the news of his offensive behind enemy lines to Shengjing City, and at the same time mobilize more Qing captives.

Come to support Jiulian City.

Anyway, he and Jiulian City face each other across the river. Once Xinyi Fort is built, he will be in an invincible position, and he doesn't care if the Qing Dynasty has a few more Jia La or even a few more Gushan.

Yang Zhen dared to do this, of course because he saw that the Qinglu had no navy, so he bullied the Qinglu and had no warships.

In fact, the Qinglu were able to build their own ships, but after losing the shipyard of King Chishun and his troops at the mouth of the Koha River, the remaining soldiers and horses of the Eight Banners of the Qinglu could no longer build large sea-going ships.

.

The ships that the Qinglu Eight Banners could build themselves were small boats that could only play a small role in inland navigation.
To be continued...