Chapter 89: Taking Haizhou
"That Marshal has one foot in the ranks of famous generals, but the other foot hasn't entered yet."

Li Hao found it interesting.

He handed over more than 1,900 heads to the Ministry of War, including 150 from the Battle of Ningyuan, more than 940 from the Northern Expedition, more than 700 Mongolian heads, and more than 100 Tartar heads captured during the raid near Guangning.

According to this ranking, after the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, there were only eight or nine generals whose number of beheadings was higher than that of Li Hao.

The first four, Li Yu, Liu and Qi, cannot be shaken for the time being. Although the number of kills by the Jinzhou general is sufficient, the number of heads of able-bodied men that can be handed over to the Ministry of War in exchange for reward silver is still a long way from 7,000.

It will take at least several more months of killing.

"Godfather has stepped in with both feet."

Wu Sangui had always been following the general of Jinzhou and knew how many heads their Ming army had surrendered.

The generals flattered the coach fiercely, and many of them were optimistic about the coach, thinking that he could set a new record in the number of heads taken.

Li Hao waved his hand modestly, "Let's chop off 10,000 Yi people's heads first."

This number will increase rapidly when we attack Haizhou and Liaoyang around May.

……

The reinforcements from Shanhaiguan and Ningqian arrived much earlier than the scheduled date.

On May 9th, a large group of horseback servants arrived at Sancha River.

Zhao Luejiao, wearing red lacquered armor with mountain patterns and a phoenix-wing helmet on his head, rode into the Jinzhou army's camp on horseback. The flag-bearing officer followed behind him in a chariot. On the chariot was a 16-foot-long flagpole, on which a 5-foot-square large banner was hung.

The strong wind blew away the large characters "General of Shanhaiguan" on the big flag in the eyes of the Jinzhou generals who came out to greet them.

After the flag-bearing officer came the small flag-bearers on horseback, holding up a large flag with the word "Zhao" on it. Nearly four hundred red-armored servants followed General Zhao and the large banner, entering the camp one after another, and then followed the officers of Jinzhou to the tents assigned to them.

The rest of the reinforcements led their servants to enter the camp one after another. There was a large swamp between Jinzhou and Panshan, and the soldiers in the chariot camp had to go around a circle to get through.

It takes several rivers to get from Shuangtaizi River to Sancha River, and boats cannot transport them in time. Only a part of their soldiers and civilian laborers have made it. It is both convenient and safer for several armies to station together.

"Is your General Li going across the river to kill the Tartars again?"

Zhao Luejiao dismounted and threw the whip to his trusted servant, then bowed to the Jinzhou generals and asked.

On the way here, the Jinzhou Army had already informed the reinforcements of the situation on the Sancha River front, and Zhao Lushi had a general grasp of the current situation.

"Yes, since our army moved here fourteen days ago, General Li has been crossing the river to kill the Tartars every day. All the Tartar villages within fifty miles of the river have been cleared out. Near Haizhou, all the Tartars were killed and fled into the city."

Lu Yingjiao, the general in charge of the camp and holding the title of guerrilla, had the highest status and was responsible for replying.

"The future life is terrible."

Zhao Lujiao looked envious. He could also bring a small number of servants across the river to harass, but he couldn't do it every day.

I can't keep up the energy.

After the reinforcements arrived, the officers of both sides greeted each other one by one near the main gate of the camp, exchanged pleasantries and then moved to the central military tent.

The general of Shanhaiguan was in high spirits. He not only praised the Jinzhou army for their good fighting, but also looked around the camp for the situation. Whenever he saw something praiseworthy, he would point it out in detail, and words of praise popped out of his mouth one after another.

The generals of the reinforcements also followed the commander-in-chief in praising him.

"These are the Mongolian horses captured from Yizhou, right? There must be two or three thousand war horses in Qianfeng Town now?"

Looking at the cavalrymen riding their horses and whipping their whips back and forth in training in the camp, Zhao Lujiao became interested and asked.

The news of the Ningyuan and Jinzhou coalition forces' victory over the Mongolian soldiers in Yizhou and Zhen'anbao had long been spread to Shanhaiguan and the capital. They had obtained several thousand combat horses, and even he was a little jealous.

The more war horses, the more cavalry.

In Liaodong, only cavalry and mounted infantry can participate in field battles. The chariot soldiers cannot even defend positions with trenches, so they cannot be relied upon to fight in field battles.

"It has reached 4,000. Marshal Li steals the Tatars' good horses every day. There is not enough grass and beans for the horses, so they are currently fed with grain."

Lu Yingjiao replied respectfully.

As the war was about to begin, the Mongolian soldiers and horses from Yizhou were summoned by the commander-in-chief to the Sancha River front. They usually participated in training, and occasionally the general of Jinzhou would lead some Mongolian soldiers with good performance across the river to participate in actual combat.

"Tsk tsk tsk, what a great trick!"

Zhao Lujiao praised repeatedly, saying that these four thousand should only be medium-sized horses that can be ridden, and the shorter pack horses were not included.

The horses of several battalions in Qianfeng Town are almost the same as the war horses under the jurisdiction of Shanhaiguan.

"Where is the military supervisor Dao Bi Zisu?"

The Shanhaiguan general asked the officers behind him. "Deputy Envoy Bi is going with the chariot soldiers. He will arrive tonight or tomorrow."

"This will delay things a bit." Zhao Lujiao shook his head. "I will draft an official document and send someone to Shanhaiguan Jinglüe Mansion overnight to increase the amount of bean fodder transported. It is not good for the horses to eat only grain."

The situation in Liaodong is very good. Even if they do not cross the river to fight, they will have to confront the Eight Banners near Sancha River for a period of time, and the logistics must be well coordinated.

After a delay of some time, the generals, led by General Zhao, entered the central military tent and analyzed the current situation in detail.

……

When Li Hao returned to the camp from Haizhou, the generals of Jinzhou and the reinforcements were still analyzing the current troop deployments of the Eight Banners on the map.

"Marshal Li is back. Sit down and have a rest. Tell the fireman to start cooking."

In the big tent, Zhao Lujiao, who was sitting firmly on the main seat, immediately stood up and made way.

"It's okay. I'll clean it first. You can bring a good chair."

After being helped to take off his armor by auxiliary soldiers such as Li Erniu, Li Hao simply washed up before joining in the situation analysis.

A royal chair was placed near the main seat, so that the two nominal generals could sit side by side.

Zhao Luejiao first introduced the situation of the reinforcements. There were seven battalions in the two major garrison areas, with a total of more than 12,000 combat soldiers, including nearly 1,600 generals' family servants.

"Once the Liao Sea is open to navigation and the food and money are transported in time, Wang Jinglüe will prepare to dispatch another six to eight battalions, and more than a dozen cannons will also be sent up."

The Ming army's rations on the front line are mainly transported by ox carts, and the transportation capacity is insufficient. Now the Sancha River front can only support the activities of about 17,000 to 18,000 combat troops.

Li Hao glanced at the reinforcements. He was not familiar with the ones at Shanhaiguan, but there were a few familiar faces among the reinforcements at Ningyuanqiantun.

Zu Dashou, who was promoted to deputy generals, and his brother Zu Dabi were on the list, but Zuo Fu, the deputy general of Qiantun, did not appear. It seemed that Zu Dashou was the main commander of the Ningqian reinforcements.

Zhao Lujiao was very familiar with these people, and he took them one by one to greet the young Jinzhou general.

After the pleasantries, Cao Wenzhao, Wu Sangui and others who followed Li Hao to the expedition described today's situation on the east coast to the reinforcements.

"General Li led us to the southern camp of the Tartars. There were mainly white-armored and blue-armored Tartars, about five to six thousand strong."

"Most of the Tartars in the Northern Camp are from Liaoyang and Shenyang. They are mainly yellow-armored, but there are also blue-armored and red-armored Tartars. They also have shield carts, artillery, etc., and have gathered at least seventy Niulu."

The gathered Eight Banners soldiers ignored the Jinzhou army that crossed the river to plunder the people every day and just kept increasing the size of the military camps. There were at least 13,000 Later Jin soldiers in the two military camps in the north and south combined.

Among these thirteen thousand, there were about six to seven thousand regular flag soldiers, and the rest were all expendable dead soldiers such as the Tainikan and Sauron soldiers.

Zhao Lujiao looked at the two enemy camps marked on the map. "Even if they left 3,000 cavalry to guard the Dongjiang River, there are still about 15,000 Tatars whose whereabouts are unknown."

The Later Jin Dynasty mobilized one in three men, and could bring out about 50,000 to 60,000 troops in winter, and only 25,000 to 30,000 troops in spring and summer.

There won’t be enough manpower to cultivate more land.

"General Zhao, don't worry. This winter is cold and the thaw is late, so the harvest will definitely be poor in the fall. The old slaves in Shenyang City cannot fail to understand this. In addition, they have lost a lot of soldiers since the first month of the year, and the number of soldiers they can mobilize is only 25,000."

Over the past ten days, Li Hao has gained a thorough understanding of the internal situation of the Eight Banners.

Surprisingly, the succession to the Khanate did not intensify but eased greatly, because two of the four great beiles had died, Daishan's two red flags showed a tendency to completely turn to Huang Taiji, the Zhenglan Banner was completely eliminated, and the small flag owner Fei Yanggu might not even be able to grab the position of flag owner.

Among the two surviving beiles, Amin would definitely not be able to inherit the Khan throne. Therefore, except for the two yellow flags, most of the middle-level leaders of the remaining six flags were optimistic about the fourth beile succeeding to the throne.

Unless Nurhaci passed the throne to Dorgon before his death, the two yellow flags, which only accounted for a little more than a quarter of the Niulu, would definitely not be able to compete with Huang Taiji.

However, the position of the leader of a lower-level banner was fought over fiercely. Daishan's filial sons were divided into two factions and hated each other. Within the Zhenglan Banner, Manggurtai's sister Manggusi supported her brother Feiyanggu to take over as the leader of the banner. She hid in the garrison and refused to obey the orders from Shenyang.

Li Hao pointed to the northern area of ​​Liaohetao and said, "The Eight Banners have also sent several thousand troops to capture Mongolian and Solon soldiers, and they don't have time to participate in this war. After all, the Tatars only have 3,000 to 5,000 idle cavalry. They may fight along the Khorchin and Fuxin roads to Guangning and Yizhou."

The terrain of the Liaohetao area is similar to that of the reed marshes between Panshan and Jinzhou, with many swamps, which cannot support large-scale marches at all. Therefore, if the Later Jin wants to steal the food route of the Liaoxi Army, it must make a big detour from the north.

Although the Tatar soldiers marched fast, it would take them at least a month to reach the Great Wall north of Guangning after taking such a detour, plus the time for assembly and mobilization.

If these Eight Banners soldiers were also planning to gather some Mongolian cavalry from the Nenkorchin tribe, they would have arrived even later.

Li Hao had been on guard against the enemy coming from this direction. By the time he captured the big city near Sancha River, it would still be in time for him to return for support.

"Then according to Li Shuai, how should we play from now on?"

Although the minister of the King of Ji-Liao appointed the veteran general Zhao Luejiao to lead the military, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan understood that the soldiers of the chariot camp could not cross the river to fight in the field. The current situation could only rely on small-scale servants like Li Hao to cross the river to harass.

"Since the servants of the generals have arrived first, let's cross the river tomorrow. We will first deal with the Tartars in the south, and then go straight to Haizhou City."

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(End of this chapter)