At that time, Li Lu personally appointed Pan Xi to lead a group of grenadiers to wrap up some ten thousand enemies who were inconvenient to carry on their way north, as well as a large amount of gunpowder found in Xiongyue City, in layers of water-proof oilcloth.

It is buried under the city wall next to Suide Gate, the south gate of Xiongyue City.

The excavated stone slabs and rammed earth were carefully backfilled, leaving nothing visible on the exposed surface of the wall.

However, there is a fuse under the wall, wrapped in layers of waterproof tarpaulin, leading to the outside of the city wall.

At that time, Li Lu, Pan Xi and others, on the one hand, did not want to waste the tens of thousands of enemies and gunpowder that they could not carry with them to the north, but on the other hand, they also looked forward to the possibility that one day they might be used as a precaution.

"Captain, I understand! If the Governor wants to defeat Xiongyue City with a sledgehammer, it is really easy now with the previous arrangements! I never thought that this day would actually come, and it would come so soon!"

Li Lu was originally a little worried about Yang Zhen's eagerness to go north to attack the Manchu Tatars, but when he recalled what he had done under Xiongyue City, he immediately excitedly agreed with Yang Zhen's idea.

As for Li Lu, he always had a good impression on the generals. They all knew that he was very steady in his work and would not speak easily about things he was unsure of.

Now that he has said this, it means that Yang Zhen did have a backup plan in Xiong Yuecheng, and it was a fatal backup plan.

If that's the case, what else is there to say?

As long as Xiongyue City can be broken and the Manchu Tatar generals above Jia Lazhangjing who are stationed in Xiongyue can be captured, the details of Shengjing City can be interrogated from their mouths.

At that time, not only can Xiong Yuecheng be destroyed, but also the information that Yang Zhen mentioned just now will have an honest source, and it can be reported to the court as appropriate.

In this way, it can take as long as one year, or as short as half a year, and all the people in Jinhai Town under Yang Zhen's command will no longer face pressure from the imperial court to urge war.

In fact, after Yang Zhen led his troops to move to the Liaodong Peninsula, if he continued to passively defend the city like Liaoxi, there would be no way out.

For Yang Zhen, instead of passively defending, it is better to use offense instead of defense.

Because passive defense will eventually lead to a dead end.

First of all, if we remain passively defensive, Jinhaizhen will not be able to explain to the court or the emperor. Breaking his promise to Emperor Chongzhen is very dangerous.

Although Emperor Chongzhen can no longer do anything to Yang Zhen, he can cut off the court's support for Jinhai Town at any time and beat Yang Zhen and his troops into traitors and traitors.

Once he is saddled with such an infamy or accusation, it will be troublesome. Yang Zhen will be unable to do anything he wants to do in the future.

On the other hand, once Yang Zhen's troops adopt passive defense, Fuzhou City, Jinzhou City, and even the north of Lushunkou will become a battlefield where Manchus and Tatars are raging, just like the western Liaoning region.

Once this happens, Yang Zhen's plan to recruit people for reclamation will be greatly affected.

If his recruitment and reclamation business in Jinhai Town can only be limited to the offshore islands on both sides of the Liaodong Peninsula, then the scale will be very limited.

Once the Manchu Tatars attack with all their national strength, if they just rely on the few existing cities and hold on to the city, sooner or later the city will fall and people will die.

The historical ending of the cities in western Liaoning is a lesson from the past.

Since the Manchu Tatars already had a large number of heavy artillery, simply relying on the city to defend them was the next best option.

Correspondingly, the only way to survive is to use offense instead of defense and lead the battlefield to territory controlled by the Tatars.

Of course, this substitution of offense for defense does not mean heading all the way north on the Liaodong Peninsula and competing with the Manchu Tatars city after city.

Under the current circumstances, doing so is tantamount to hitting an egg against a stone, which can be said to be a recipe for disaster.

So, what does Yang Zhen’s idea of ​​using offense instead of defense mean?

Of course, we should use our strengths and avoid weaknesses, take the sea route, go around the rear of the Manchu Tatars, and attack areas where their forces are relatively empty.

After doing this several times, the Manchu Tatar puppet emperor Huang Taiji will have to station the elite troops of the Eight Banners in Manchuria for defense, and will even have to divide his troops for defense along the coast.

However, there are only so many elite troops of the Manchu Tatars. As long as they divide their troops, they will be unable to move south in a short time.

In this way, Jinhai Town will naturally be safe, and people can be recruited to start farming.

And the role that Yang Zhen promised to Emperor Chongzhen and Hong Chengchou in containing the Manchu Tatar army came into play naturally.

Why not kill two birds with one stone or even three birds with one stone?

But that night, with Li Lu's sudden statement and Yang Zhen's subsequent explanation, the doubts of the generals at the banquet gradually disappeared, and no one was anymore entangled in the pros and cons, or whether they should take the initiative to attack the Manchu Tatars.

.

On the next day, that is, on the morning of February 12, the 13th year of Chongzhen, Yang Zhen gathered all the generals in the Fuzhou City Guards House. He first announced in public that he would attack Li Lu, Pan Xi and other generals on the left and right of the grenadier battalion of the advance army for the Eastern Expedition.

And General Qian promoted and appointed the general officers, and then announced his plan to prepare for war and march north to capture Xiong Yue in the near future.

All of a sudden, all the ministries counted the soldiers, ammunition, horses and ships, prepared dry food, packed their luggage, and waited for the order to set off northward.

However, just as people from all walks of life inside and outside Fuzhou City were gearing up and ready to go north, a sudden snowstorm and the resulting late-spring cold put Yang Zhen's plan in jeopardy.

Not temporarily stranded.

Going north to Xiongyue from Fuzhou City, Yang Zhen naturally planned to go by sea.

However, the sea ice from the north of Fuzhou Bay to the sea outside Xiongyue City was expected to melt within a few days, but it failed to melt as expected due to the sudden late-spring cold.

As a result, the first Northern Expedition planned by Yang Zhen after he led his troops to move to the southern tip of the Liaodong Peninsula had to be postponed before it officially started.

At the same time when Yang Zhen was waiting depressedly for the sea ice north of Liaodong Bay to melt away as soon as possible, the situation in Xiongyue City north of Fuzhou City, Gaizhou City, and even the entire southern Liaoning region quickly underwent a major change.

In the afternoon of February 16, the 13th year of Chongzhen, Zhong Lingxianbu, one of the land and sea troops sent to the north of Fuzhou to detect the enemy, rushed back to Fuzhou City in a dusty journey to prepare for Yang Zhen and the heavy troops in Fuzhou City.

The generals who went north brought back a shocking news——

They haven't started moving north yet, but the Manchu Tatars in the north have already moved south in large numbers!

"Captain, a large number of Tatars are coming from south!"

Zhong Ling first galloped on his horse and rushed to the Fuzhou City Shoufu where Yang Zhen was staying. After passing the news all the way, he saw Yang Zhen's face and immediately said such earth-shattering words.

"After the wind and snow subsided the day before yesterday, I immediately led my team to go north to scout outposts. They first passed the ruins of Yongning Prison City and then the ruins of Wuzhaibao. No Mantar outposts were found in either place. Until yesterday, I arrived east of Xiongyue City.

The whole place is literally full of Tartar patrols!"

Having said this, Zhong Ling first took a deep breath to calm his agitated mind, and then said to Yang Zhen: "Bizhi and the others couldn't get through, and they were afraid of disturbing the situation, so they lurked in the mountains east of Xiong Yue and waited for the opportunity.

Today, when I went to scout near Xiong Yue again, I saw a large number of Manchu Tatar soldiers coming from the north in the wind and snow!"

"Oh?! - Haha, we haven't gone to find them yet, but they came first. Tell me, how many people are there in Manta?"

The news brought back by Zhong Lingxian surprised Yang Zhen at first, but he soon regained his composure.

The large-scale march of the Manchu Tatars south was originally expected by him, but the time of the large-scale invasion of the Manchu Tatars was much later than he expected.

But what should come will eventually come.

"Looking northward from the east mountain ridge of Xiongyue City, I saw a Manchu-Tatar troop of cavalry, infantry, chariots, horses and baggage, stretching back and forth for probably ten miles. Based on Beizhong's rough estimate, the number of men and horses should be at least thirty thousand!"

Facing Yang Zhen's inquiry, Zhong Lingxian answered without hesitation.

Yang Zhen still trusted Zhong Lingxian's observation ability. After hearing what he said, he nodded solemnly and then asked:

"Have you observed carefully? Are there people from which Tatar banners coming this time?"

"When I returned to the governor, the Manchu Tatars' armor and flags were very clear, and the humble officials could see them clearly. The Manchu Tatars who came this time, in terms of their clothes, armor, flags, colors, carriages, horses, artillery, and weapons, were definitely white.

There is no doubt that the Manchu and Mongolian Tatars with their four banners in white and true blue, and the two Tatars in Han Dynasty with heavy troops under their banners!"

The Manchu Tatar army moving south this time obviously left a very deep impression on Zhong Lingxian who went to scout, so as soon as he heard Yang Zhen's question and what he observed at the time, he immediately blurted out.

"The arrival of the men and horses with the two white flags was already within my expectation. As for the two blue flags, it was indeed a bit beyond my expectation! Haha, it seems that the false Emperor Huang Taiji of the Manchu Tatars is

I have made up my mind to drive us away from here!"

After listening to Zhong Lingxian's report, Yang Zhen's frown relaxed a little, the solemn look on his face became a little lighter, and his words even had a hint of joking.
Chapter completed!