In Fuzhou, southern Liaoning, Huang Fei held the newly arrived letter, frowned and asked, "Deputy General Zhao, this is Han Yong's fifth letter of help!"

Zhao Xusheng shook his head and said, "No, it's the seventh mail. This time, the Tartars transferred nearly 50,000 people from all over the country and surrounded and suppressed them from all directions. In just one month, Han Yong was exhausted and had lost thousands of troops. Most of the camps he had built before were destroyed. The reinforcements we sent were blocked outside Gaizhou and could not get close at all."

Huang Fei paced anxiously. After a while, he stopped and said, "Can you withdraw him?"

Zhao Xusheng shook his head and said, "It's difficult. Now Shang Kexi leads a large army to station in Fifty Posts, controlling the main entry and exit passages, and most of the other paths are cut off by the Tartars. Currently, Han Yong only has thousands of men left, most of whom are injured, and he has no ability to break through the Tartars' defense line. If it weren't for the mountains and forests in Liaodong, he would have been wiped out. Now there is a way to concentrate our troops to counterattack Fifty Posts to put pressure on Shang Kexi. At the same time, use the paths that have not been cut off by the Tartars to respond to some of the injured soldiers returning to southern Liaoning, and let Han Yong lead the remaining troops to retreat to the southeast of the North Korea. As long as he can jump out of the core ruling area of ​​the Tartars, he should be able to escape."

Huang Fei said without thinking, "Okay, I'll call Gao Yi, Yu Qi, Xie Qian, Zhalali and others to come and discuss the specific combat plan. Send someone to contact Han Yong and let him prepare early."

Zhao Xusheng shook his head helplessly, "Huang Qianshi wait. Have you ever thought about the purpose of the Qing army's dispatch this time? You must know that winter has just passed, the horses have not yet gained weight, and the people are extremely tired. Why do they need to recruit nearly 50,000 troops to clear Han Yong's scattered soldiers and scattered soldiers?"

Huang Fei stopped his outward steps and asked in confusion: "Then why do you think it is?"

Zhao Xusheng shook his head and said, "I don't know yet, but it may be related to what was said in the letter Zhou Tusang."

"You are talking about the defeat of Sun's Ministry of War in Nanyang?"

Zhao Xusheng nodded and said, "I'm afraid we're in southern Liaoning for a long time and don't know much about the situation in the Central Plains. But one thing is very clear. The troops led by Sun's Ministry of War were the last elite of the Ming Dynasty. After his defeat, the next target of the treacherous bandits must be to go north to Shaanxi and Jin, and even to attack the capital. Although the General Zhou did not clearly state the letter, he asked us whether we could draw out 5,000 soldiers to return to Shandong. You must know that when Liu Zeqing was in chaos and the situation in Shandong was the most critical, he did not transfer one soldiers from southern Liaoning, unless he noticed the real crisis. Also, look at the list of military supplies transported this time. In addition to the food and grass, other things such as muskets, artillery, even bows and arrows, swords and guns were greatly reduced. Can't this explain the problem?"

Huang Fei frowned and said, "I heard what you said, it seems that this is true. But this only means that the situation in the Central Plains is not good, but what does this have to do with the Tartars?"

Zhao Xusheng sighed silently in his heart. He already understood what he said so clearly, Huang Fei still asked this question, how dull was he? "Huang Qianshi, we have been fighting with the Tartars for so long, don't you know their ambitions? When Huang Taiji was alive, he proposed that "taking Yanjing is like cutting a big tree, and it needs to be cut from both sides, and the big tree is self-serving." Over the years, he first sent troops to Korea twice, forcing the Li Korean to return to the Qing Dynasty. Then several times

Send elite cavalry to break into the Central Plains, looting nearly one million people and countless wealth back to Liaodong to weaken the Ming Dynasty. Although in recent years, General Zhou sent troops to retake southern Liaoning and rebuilt the Dongjiang Army, and even Lin Qingye could occupy half of the southern part of North Korea. However, the situation in the Ming Dynasty did not improve at all, and even became weaker due to the continuous civil strife. At this moment, the thieves defeated the official army again, and the Tartars might think that the time for them to fully enter the Central Plains was already here."

Seeing Huang Fei remained silent, Zhao Xusheng continued: "The most worrying thing the Tartars wanted to send troops to the Central Plains was to disrupt Han Yong, who was stationed in southern Liaoning. Some time ago, Shang Kexi suddenly recruited tens of thousands of farmers and built countless forts in the fifty posts, and even the main city was raised. At first, I was wondering why he did this suddenly after so long. Now it seems that they sent tens of thousands of troops to encircle Han Yong in order to completely clear the threat from the hinterland of Liaoyang. When they could not drive us out of southern Liaoning in a short time, they set up forts on key passes to trap us in southern Liaoning and not go north. Everything they did seemed to be to eliminate the threat, prepare for gathering troops in the future and entering the Central Plains."

Huang Fei was a little unbelievable, "My foundation in Ming Dynasty is still there, so I probably won't fall to that level!"

Zhao Xusheng shook his head and said, "I don't know. But what if it really reaches that level! What should we do?"

Huang Fei was silent and didn't say anything, his face was extremely difficult to see. After a while, he asked, "What do you think?"

"We must draw troops back to Shandong for the mayor of crisis in the future. But before that, we still have extra troops in our hands and concentrate all our strength to attack the 50 posts. On the one hand, we can cover the actions of Han Yong's troops and create opportunities for them to escape. On the other hand, we put pressure on the Tartars so that they dare not enter the Guanzhong Plain easily in the future. As for the future, let's talk about the situation!"

Huang Fei thought for a moment and replied, "Okay! Summon the generals and start the action as soon as possible."

A few days later, Huang Fei transferred more than 20,000 soldiers from all over the country and rushed to the Fifty Posts with all the useful red cannons. He attacked fiercely in ten days and knocked down dozens of forts, and even the main city of the Fifty Posts was taken down. Shang Kexi suffered heavy losses and could only ask for help from the Qing army in the rear. Later, the Qing reinforcements arrived, and he led his troops to retreat gradually. During the retreat, he completely destroyed the forts, and did not even leave ordinary bricks and stones for Shang Kexi. It would take several months to rebuild them.

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! The Qing army sent troops to rescue Shang Kexi, which gave Han Yong a chance to breathe. He led his troops out of the siege and covered nearly 2,000 wounded soldiers to escape back to southern Liaoning. The remaining troops were divided into two parts, one went northeast to escape to the bitter and cold place where the mountains and forests were denser. There were still some other tribes who were not obedient to the Qing rule, so they could connect them to resist the Qing army. The other fled southeastward and towards the North Korean border. In Pidao and other places, there was still a certain amount of Ming army left. As long as they escape there, they could rest easy. The burden of the wounded soldiers was less dispersed, and the target was reduced. The most important thing was that most of the remaining people had mounts, which allowed them to eventually escape from the pursuit of the Qing army.

After the war stopped for more than ten days, five thousand soldiers boarded the ship at Lushunkou. They were all elite soldiers in the battle, and their departure suddenly took the backbone of Liaonan. At first, Zhou Xian wanted Gao Yi to lead his troops back to Shandong, hoping to use his bravery and good combat. But Huang Fei did not agree, but asked Yu Qi, who was thoughtful, to lead the team back.

Then, considering the limited military force, Huang Fei concentrated the remaining army into the main passes along the route to guard against possible counterattacks by the Qing army. At the same time, he ordered the recruitment of new soldiers in Jinzhou and Fuzhou. As the Ming army gained a foothold in southern Liaoning, a large number of Han slaves under the Manchus fled to Fuzhou in the south. Most of these people were young and strong, and they were even more hatred for the Qing Dynasty. Most of them were in trouble. Most of them were sent to Zhou Xianyun enough food and grass to make them have no worries at all.

But when Huang Fei prepared everything, the expected counterattack did not come. Instead, the Qing army recruited more slaves from all over the place and stepped up the repair of the forts around Fifty Daoyi Post. At the same time, dozens of cannons were brought from Liaoyang and Chenyang, and all of them were handed over to Shang Kexi. The simple castle of Fifty Daoyi, which was previously a simple castle, became a solid fortress, making it even more difficult to break.

The two confronted each other, but there was no war, and they entered a rare period of calm.

On Dachen Island in Zhoushan, Han Kuo held a telescope and looked at the fifteen warships practicing in the distance, with a serious face. He handed the telescope to a tall Western man beside him, "Coutinho, how are they doing?"

Coutinho looked at the telescope for a while and said, "Dear Commander, if they were to say according to their training time, their performance was perfect at this moment. Especially the ten small clutches surrounding the periphery, they moved quickly and agile, and were difficult to be hit by the cannon. They could bypass the front and attack from the two wings. If in a real naval battle, they could even play a role that was more than five large warships head-on. I have commanded so many ships and have never seen such cooperation. By the way, what are the names of those small ships?"

Coutinho, the Portuguese. Three years ago, he was the commander of the Macheng Fortress in the Strait of Malacca. After months of siege, the Dutch and the Johor Kingdom coalition forces had only more than 70 people left in the city, and the food and grass were completely cut off. Coutinho led his troops to surrender after receiving the guarantee from the Dutch. After nearly a year of imprisonment, he was released. The defeat of the siege of Malacca was the beginning of the decline of the Portuguese Maritime Empire. The Malacca-Macao-Nazaki trade route they built was gradually collapsed by the Dutch. Since then, merchant ships belonging to Portugal have to pay taxes to the Dutch every time they pass the Strait of Malacca.

Han Kuo thought for a while and said, "Call them to fast pirate ships!"

Coutinho was stunned for a moment, shook his head very strangely, "What a strange name."

Han Kuo asked, "I just asked you, what if you use them to fight your warships! What will happen?"
Chapter completed!