I

"This is a good place, very suitable for killing Tatars."

Lin Zhidong finally chose the terrain, which was the intersection of the small river and its tributaries.

If more than four thousand Tatars want to rush out, they must cross the tributaries of the small river. There was a small river, narrow and shallow, only about ten meters at its narrowest point. The dragoons swam across it holding their horses.

Hundreds of dragoons, after crossing the river, all waited on the bank.

"Hold the livestock and swim as far as you can!" Fuller Hui ordered.

The bannermen and Tatar civilians had no choice but to cross the river bravely, and those who were afraid of the water froze in place and were at a loss.

Lin Zhidong slowly raised his gun and fired at the Tatars in the river.

Gunshots rang out, and the Tatars were in chaos, including those who had not yet entered the river. Those in the river swam up and down one after another, trying to bypass the Datong Army on the bank.

Is General Fullerhui crazy?

This is simply asking the Tatars to die!

Of course he's not crazy.

"Let's go!"

Fulehui picked up his little daughter, asked his wife and son to ride on horseback, and fled along the river bank with his followers.

The other two Tatar generals also reacted immediately and fled frantically with their families and followers.

Those Eight Banners soldiers, bannermen and civilians who obeyed the order and went into the river were all cannon fodder sent to death. There were also livestock in the river and on the river banks that were left for the Datong army to plunder, and General Fulehui took advantage of the chaos to escape.

Fulehun was born in the Shumulu family. He was a Tatar nobleman. He did not want to die with the Tatar commoners!

Lin Zhidong on the other side of the river was dumbfounded and took a breath of cold air: "This Tatar general is really capable. He divided half of his power to chase the enemy!"

The Datong army pursued them across the river for about three miles, and then they could no longer pursue them.

Because the south bank is relatively wide, you can run on horseback. The north bank soon encountered mountains. There were only narrow slopes along the river, and you had to lead your horse to walk along them.

Fulehun galloped all the way, running along the river for twenty miles, and dismounted to cross a small river in the middle.

Then, he abandoned his horse and headed into the mountains.

Fulehun's escape route was not a serious mountain trail at all. It is so steep that it is difficult to lead a horse. Even if a person climbs it, he will be exhausted and has to climb many mountains to get out.

Lin Zhidong led his army across the river to pursue them, but only saw more than thirty horses at the end of the river valley. All these Tatar nobles and their followers had escaped.

After being captured, A Lin, the guard general of Lianshan Pass, finally regained his freedom, but was deceived into death by Fuller Hui.

He was lying next to a farm cow, holding the Datong Army's bullets against him. Suddenly he heard movement behind him. He turned around and saw Fulehun running away with his family.

"Akina (beast)!"

A Lin cursed loudly and shouted to the Datong army on the other side: "I am willing to surrender, I am willing to surrender!"

Some Tatar soldiers were extremely lucky to swim ashore. They were so tired that they knelt on the ground and asked to surrender.

However, what greeted them was the dragoon's blade.

There were only a few hundred dragoons here, and half of them went after Fullerhun. They did not dare to accept too many prisoners. After all, they were all ferocious Tatar soldiers, so it was safer and easier to kill them.

Seeing that they were also killed after surrendering, the Tatars in the river swam back one after another. Those who had not entered the water abandoned their livestock and food and ran into the mountains like headless flies.

They killed all the Tatars crossing the river, and the dragoons also crossed the river with their horses. After landing, they chased them on horseback. Only when they encountered old, weak, women and children did they stop wielding their swords. The young and strong Tatars hacked them to death.

When Lin Zhidong came back with the captured war horses, there were corpses on both sides of the bank, and there were many floating in the river.

After sending someone to contact Caohe Fort, Lu Xiangsheng was quite surprised: "Tongyuan Fort was also captured? Lin Zhidong is a general!"

Lu Xiangsheng bombarded Caohe Fort for several days, and there were only a few hundred defenders here. When the news of the fall of Tongyuan Fort and Lianshanguan came, the morale of the Tatar garrison was low. The garrison general and his soldiers abandoned the fort in the middle of the night and fled, hiding in the mountains without knowing when they would be able to escape.

After the mountain fortress checkpoint was cleared, Lu Xiangsheng took a day off and continued to lead his troops northward, aiming directly at Weining Camp (near Benxi).

According to legend, Fan Lihua was named "Marquis of Weining" and had a fiefdom of a hundred miles, hence the name Weining Camp. This statement is difficult to verify, but Weining Camp did become a place name in the Ming Dynasty, instead of being called Weining Fort or Weining City.

The army was still twenty miles away from Weining Camp, and Lu Xiangsheng encountered a group of Han people.

A group of Han Chinese with shaved heads.

"Li Laixiang (Ma Zude, Qiao Henian), pay homage to the general of the Celestial Dynasty!" Three Han people took the lead and brought other Han people to pay homage.

Lu Xiangsheng sneered: "You're going to cut your braids now?"

Li Laixiang was the first to show his indignation: "The general doesn't know that the Tatars are really hateful. In recent years, exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes have continued, and the corvee has never stopped. We and the Han people in Liaodong are waiting day and night for the arrival of the heavenly soldiers, so that we no longer have to endure the brutality of the Tatars. I, the Li family of Weining camp, am willing to donate half of my property and cooperate with the imperial court in distributing the land to the farmers!"

"I, Mr. Ma, are also willing to donate half of my property!" Mazude said quickly.

The three people expressed their loyalty one after another. Although Lu Xiangsheng was scornful, he still did not get angry and asked: "How many Tatar defenders are there in Weining Camp?"

Qiao Henian rushed to answer: "It turned out to be only a few hundred. I heard that the general was attacking the city in the mountains, and all the nearby banner men entered the city. There were at least five or six thousand troops in the city, and all the Tatars aged 13 or 14 were guarding the city. city."

Weiningying is the territory of Daishan.

As for Qiao Ma Li, they belong to the three major traitor families. They either led troops to defect to Nurhachi, or helped Nurhaci collect goods and sell stolen goods, and were allowed to squander the land in Weining Camp. Not only did they occupy the land in the circle, they also turned all the Han people on the land into their own tenants (more like serfs).

These traitors were very quick to defect to the Tatars, and now they are rushing to submit to the Datong court.

And they worked very hard. When Lu Xiangsheng led his troops to besiege the city, the three traitor families began to mobilize. The men formed a regiment to help fight the war, the women helped transport supplies, and even the tenant farmers were organized to be husbandmen. Those who didn't know it thought they had a deep hatred for the Tatars.

…

Yaozhou.

Daishan was quarreling with Dorgon: "Return the troops, return the troops, it is useless for the army to confront each other here, go back quickly to save Liaoyang and Shengjing!"

Dorgon said: "The Weining Camp is just a partial division of the Nanmanzi, and it will definitely not fall again. Yaozhou cannot be evacuated. There are tens of thousands of Nanmanzi here. Once the troops withdraw, Yaozhou will be lost. By then, Liaodong and Liaoxi will be cut in half by the Southern Barbarians. It will not be easy for Hauge's army to come back."

"Then I will take my Niulu back and destroy the Nanmanzi's partial army!" Dai Shan was extremely anxious.

Weining Camp (Benxi) and its surroundings were all Daishan's territory, and he could no longer sit still.

The leaders of the Eight Banners have their own territories.

For example, Yaozhou, Haizhou, and Ximu City are all areas with white flags; Xiuyan City, Fenghuang City, and Tangzhanbao are areas with Zhenglan Banner.

In order to prevent each banner's forces from becoming warlords, city defenders often adopt a mixed model, with soldiers from at least two banners in a city.

In the past few years, the Datong Army has expanded in Liaodong, and the two white flags and the two blue flags have suffered the heaviest losses. The Datong Army has occupied the territory of these four flags. For this reason, Dorgon had to re-divide the territory and divide the interests from the other four banners. This has triggered new conflicts. The nobles of the two red flags and the two yellow flags are now all holding back their anger.

There was no civil strife, so Dorgon was considered capable.

If it were Hauge who took charge of the overall situation, there would be no need for the Datong Army to send troops, and the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty would start fighting within themselves.

Dorgon said: "Wait until the outcome of the battle in Yaozhou is decided, then come back..."

"I want to withdraw my troops and return to support Weining Camp!" Daishan interrupted with an angry roar.

After saying that, Daishan turned around and left without giving Dorgon any face.

Dai Shanzhen left and forcibly took away eight thousand troops.

It was not that Daishan had no regard for the overall situation, but he felt that there was no way to fight against Yaozhou. Tens of thousands of Datong troops were piled there, the forts were built extremely solidly, and food was constantly being transported. If we encircle but not attack, we will just confront the Eight Banners soldiers. If we continue to drag them on, we can exhaust the Eight Banners Army's rations.

The Manchu Qing mobilized too many troops and settled in Tianjin and Yaozhou for confrontation. As a result, Lu Xiangsheng's partial divisions fought consecutive battles in the mountains of southern Liaoning.

If he didn't return to the army for rescue, Daishan felt that Lu Xiangsheng could reach Shenyang.

"The Tatars have divided their forces and gone back!"

There are hot air balloons floating in the sky, and the movement from miles away can be seen clearly.

Li Zheng smiled and said: "The time has come for the decisive battle."

Xiao Zongxian said: "There is no need to continue to besiege Yaozhou, and go to the Tatar camp outside the city."

Hu Dinggui said: "Don't rush to capture the enemy camp, surround it and wait for time for the remaining Tatars to show their weaknesses."

"The Tatars divided their forces and left. Should we send cavalry to chase them?" Wang Tingchen asked.

Li Zheng shook his head: "No need. The top priority is to eat the main force of the Tatars in front of you. Don't think about becoming fat in one bite."

The day after Daishan led his army to leave, the Datong army began to move their camps and actively moved closer to Dorgon's camp.

There was already a lot of trouble at Dorgon's place.

The first Gaizhou and Fuzhou occupied by the Datong Army were Dorgon's Zhengbai Banner territories. After the Tatars abandoned Beijing and returned to Liaodong, Dorgon had to redistribute the bannermen. In order to avoid conflicts, he could only attack the subordinates of the dead Dodo and Azig.

Then the differences were drawn together, and it took several years to adjust.

It's also interesting this time. The cities captured by Yang Zhenqing and Lu Xiangsheng were all Hauge's territories.

Hauge and Dorgon were the most panicked, and the other flag owners did not suffer much loss. Even if Yaozhou is captured, it is still Dorgon's territory, and it has nothing to do with other banner leaders?

The nobles of the two red flags and the two yellow flags were clamoring to abandon Yaozhou.

Some Manchu nobles even said: "It is difficult to defend western Liaoning, since it was the territory of the former Ming Dynasty anyway. Let's go back and defend the front line of Haizhou, Anshan, Liaoyang and Weining Camp."

In fact, they just don’t want to fight because they don’t have the confidence to win.

Although I know that abandoning the city is a slow death, it is better than a quick death.

Just like a large international company, both senior executives and lower-level employees know that the company is about to die. However, there are only a few people who change jobs, and most of them stay around until one day they are finished with the company.

If you can hang out for a day, maybe it won't be so difficult and you can hang out for a longer time.

This situation is suitable for the Ming Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Everyone thinks so.