It turned out that after Sun Chengzong received the military information sent by Zhong Jinwei's clipper, he understood the purpose of Jianlu's dispatch and was shocked by Zhong Jinwei's actions.
At this time, traces of Jianlu were found in front of Shanhaiguan. Although Sun Chengzong understood that Jianlu was here to grab grain, he could no longer complete the task. So he gritted his teeth and sent people out to set fire to the grain fields while sending out two letters.
letter.
Sun Chengzong knew that 10% of the messengers he sent would be caught by the Jianlu, so he made a small plan to deceive the Jianlu with false letters, and wrote the true letters according to the method taught by Zhongxing Marquis, and informed Yuan Keri to act according to the plan.
To put it bluntly, it is very simple, just use Arabic numerals to write a number string. Sun Chengzong and Yuan Keli both have a copy of Dream of Red Mansions in their hands. This simple and easy-to-use method is probably known to future generations as long as they have watched some TV series behind enemy lines.
After Yuan Keli read the letter, he used deceitful methods to seduce Jianlu and let them focus on the front line.
At this time, Zhong Jinwei had no idea that two old commanders were covering his actions, trying his best to attract the main force of Jianlu to Guan Ning.
Zhong Jinwei's march was led by Ye Bushou, who was led by Cao Bianjiao, but they were all disguised as Denglai Ming troops. They marched in an inverted triangle, that is to say, there were groups of five at the front, and after a period of time, there were
Ten people form a section, and so on, echoing back and forth.
The advantage of this is that even if the forward accidentally encounters the Jianlu, they will be considered as a small group of Denglai Ming troops and rush into the hinterland of Liaodong. If there are few Jianlu, wait for the rear team to annihilate them together. If
If there are many Jianqi people, they should retreat and let the army behind them deal with Jianqiu.
Because there was no prior reconnaissance, and more importantly, the advice of two volunteers was used as a reference, the marching route was well planned and the army did not encounter much trouble.
In the few villages on the march route, something unexpected happened naturally. All the captives in the village were massacred. The Ming army did not need to take action, and the Korean army rushed to do it. All the Han slaves in the village were slaughtered.
The army took them away and did not dare to stay or send them away. Because if there was a traitor among them, it would be a big trouble.
On the fifth day after the army set off, they finally arrived near Baitapu, about twenty miles away from Shenyang City, without anyone noticing.
At this time, it was almost evening. The army was resting in a mountain col. The generals of various ministries gathered at Zhongxinghou for a meeting. They stayed at night to conduct reconnaissance in case the captives suddenly appeared. Among them, Hu Hao's team, led by Tang Daxuan,
Move towards Shenyang to observe the enemy's situation.
"Everyone, we have now arrived at the entrance of the Tiger's Cave. Whether we can attack Shenyang City by surprise depends on tonight. How is the physical strength of the soldiers in each unit? Do they need a night's rest?"
Although Zhong Jinwei saw that the generals present were in good spirits and were obviously in excitement, he was worried that marching for five consecutive days in a nervous manner might cause someone to consume too much physical strength, which would affect the subsequent war.
After all, in the age of cold weapons, fighting relied on physical strength. He traveled all the way to Shenyang and successfully attacked in a sneak attack. Then when he entered the city to fight, he had no physical strength. The Jianlu were laughing at him.
But obviously Zhong Jinwei was overly worried. Cavalrymen are generally veterans, not rookies who are new to the field. They know how to maintain their physical strength during marching. The war horses need to rest, but the next battle is not a mounted battle, so they will not be able to do so when the time comes.
It consumes the horse's physical strength very much.
The generals of each department replied to Zhongxing Hou one after another: "Master Marquis, the general's strength is good and there is no need to rest."
"Those bastards are so energetic that I can't tire them."
"Master Hou, the people under the last general are more energetic than the last general, and they are just waiting for revenge!"
"..."
Seeing that the results of the feedback from various departments were good, Zhong Jinwei nodded and said: "Okay, in that case, in order to prevent long nights and long dreams, we will launch a sneak attack on Shenyang City tonight as planned."
"Yes, Lord Marquis." All the generals replied in unison, in high spirits.
"Seize the time to rest, and wait until the enemy's situation is confirmed before the troops set off again." Zhong Jinwei ordered.
We are approaching Shenyang, and there are more villages and people. If we set out too early, we are afraid of being encountered by others, so we have to walk in the dark for the last twenty miles or so. However, because we are close to Shenyang, the roads are It's spacious, and the moon tonight is also half-circle, so you can vaguely see the road.
Hu Hao returned about an hour later and reported to Zhong Jinwei that everything was normal. Jianlu had not found any trace of the Ming army, and there was no abnormal behavior due to Fan Wencheng's disappearance.
Zhong Jinwei still believed in Hu Hao's reconnaissance. However, he felt a little sorry for Fan Dahan. After missing for so long, Jianlu just pretended that nothing happened.
In fact, this was normal in the past. During Mao Wenlong's period, he often sent spies to sneak into areas controlled by Jianlu, instigating rebellion, spreading rumors, poisoning, and killing thieves. But later, with the death of Mao Wenlong, these methods Then slowly disappeared.
First, because no one is more proficient in these than Mao Wenlong. Second, the slave chief changed from the violent Nurhaci to the shrewd Huang Taiji, and some spontaneous actions were stifled by the Jianlu. Third, Lu Xiangsheng later took over the command of Denglai Ming Army. After Quan, he focused on deciding the outcome on the battlefield, but did not pay much attention to these second battlefield methods, and there was not enough soil for Lu Xiangsheng to use them.
In the end, due to the defeats of the Ming army and Huang Taiji's deliberate propaganda, the Han people in Liaodong completely lost hope and no longer resisted, and they completely lost those means.
But now that Fan Wencheng is missing, Daishan and others naturally attribute it to the reappearance of the previous phenomenon. Fan Wencheng is already in danger anyway, so he ignored it after sending people to search him at first. He didn't even think of reporting Huang Taiji. No, I plan to wait until Huang Taiji returns to discuss this matter.
Before the army set off, they tied up all the Han people who had been captured from Liaodong and asked them to stay in the mountains. Only a few soldiers who had exhausted their physical strength were left to monitor them.
Then Zhong Jinwei led his army to set off in the dark and sneaked into Shenyang City.
Around midnight, the army had lurked outside Shenyang City.
There were not many lights in Shenyang City, and it looked pitch black. Only torches were burning every few feet on the city wall, illuminating a small area around it. Because the night wind was strong, the light of the torches flickered on and off. .
Zhong Jinwei discovered through the telescope that there were more night watch guards near the city gate, while in other parts of the city wall there was only one every few feet. In addition, there were several groups of guards patrolling back and forth crossing from time to time.
However, the city wall of Shenyang is not very high, which makes Zhong Jinwei, who has seen the city wall of the capital, secretly happy. Originally, the Ming army's important town in Liaodong was Liaoyang, not Shenyang, so the city walls of Liaoyang are a little higher than those of Shenyang.
After Jianlu occupied Shenyang as the capital, they were in the offensive period. The Ming army never counterattacked. Therefore, Jianlu did not rebuild the city wall. For them, this was a thankless task, at least in the short term. Won't do this.
After Zhong Jinwei finished observing, he turned to look at Lu Xiangsheng aside. At this time, Lu Xiangsheng had also seen clearly the situation at the top of the city through his telescope.
"Master Marquis, I can see that there is no problem." Lu Xiangsheng put down the telescope and said to Zhong Jinwei.
"Okay, then wait a little longer, wait until the moment before dawn, and let the soldiers take a rest." Zhong Jinwei suddenly felt a little nervous, but he still controlled his emotions and said to Lu Xiangsheng.
According to the plan, Lu Xiangsheng and the forty selected strongest combatants will steal the city to see if they can capture Shenyang City in one fell swoop.