September of the 13th year of Chongzhen...

The general of Ningyuan Town, Wu Sangui, led an army of 20,000 to ambush 10,000 Qing troops outside Songshan City. In this case, Ningyuan Army was fully captured, and beheaded 1,765 levels, including 653 levels, and the Mongolian Tartars 1,112 levels. Among them, 57 levels were divided into Bashiku or above. Ningyuan General Wu Sangui personally killed the 17 porters and waved his sword on the formation to cut off one of the left arm of the Tartars Prince Zheng Jierharang.

As a result of such a brilliant victory, Ningyuan Town only killed more than 800 infantry and cavalry and injured more than a thousand.

The good news was sent back to Ningyuan, and Hong Chengchou was shocked and quickly reported to the director Gao Qiqian. Gao Qiqian personally rushed to Ningyuan to check the head of the Tartars and confirmed that the results were true. Gao Qiqian also sent spies to collect news from the Qing army, and reported that Prince Zheng Jirgalang did cut off his arm.

After receiving this reward, Gao Qiqian and Hong Chengchou personally drafted the good news and sent a fast horse to rush to Beijing.

The good news came to the capital, and Long Yan was very happy, and all officials in the court also claimed congratulations. After hearing about the great victory, the people in the capital celebrated the New Year.

The whole court was full of joy and encouragement. Chongzhen issued an order to grant Wu Xiang, the former Liaodong general who was dismissed from his post due to the defeat in the Linghe Battle. Wu Sangui was promoted to the left governor of the Right Army Governor's Office, and was appointed as the Minister of War. He was specially awarded the title of admiral. The imperial envoy was appointed as the military commander of Liaoxi, the commander-in-chief of the three towns of Guanning and Jin, and the award of the thousand households of the hereditary Jinyiwei.

People praised Wu Sangui's heroes and famous generals in the world, and once again promoted him to Liu Jun. Everyone called Wu Sangui and Zhu Ciye, the two heroes of the Ming Dynasty and the two ghosts of the empire. Many people in the court even reported that Wu Sangui was awarded the title of Wu Sangui.

In the battle of Songshan, Wu Sangui won both fame and fortune.

Although in this battle, he ambushed the Qing army with 20,000, not 20,000. The 1,756-level heads he killed also included the 635-level Mongolian surrendered Qing people. However, Gao Qiqian did not say these, nor did Hong Chengchou say that this victory was not only Wu Sangui's, but also the entire Guanning army, and the achievements of the entire 200,000 army outside the pass.

When Liu Jun received the news of the Songshan Victory, he had just returned to Zhenjiang from Japan.

October has entered this time, and the weather in Liaodong is already very cold. Liu Jun is stepping up shipping the grain purchased from North Korea and Japan to Zhenjiang, Yizhou and Jinzhou Lushun. In the past, the temperature in the Liaohai Sea will begin to freeze until early November, and it will not melt until March and April next year.

For the Nine-Headed Bird, this will cause a lot of trouble. First of all, the supply of food and food resources is all relied on the transportation and supplies of the Liaonan Chu army. It must rush to transport and replenish all supplies before freezing and make good reserves.

At the same time, once frozen, the most powerful fleet of the Ming army could not be able to connect and support. Now the Ming army is mainly divided into two major parts in Liaodong, one is the Jinzhou Peninsula and the surrounding Changsheng Island and Guanglu Island. The other part is the Yalu River Estuary area, including Zhenjiangcheng, Jiulian Castle, Yizhou Fort, Tieshan Fort, Pi Island, Shicheng Island and other islands.

Both areas are overseas, six or seven hundred miles apart, and once winter comes, they can no longer communicate with each other, and the fleet cannot connect with each other.

As for the Danluo and Juji who were rented from North Korea, the Hirado, Tsuma, Goshima and other islands that were rented from Japan, it was even further away. These places only have a small number of warship soldiers, mainly for commercial trade, and there are Zheng's men responsible for management, so Liu Jun doesn't have to worry too much about that.

After leaving Japan, Liu Jun returned to Korea first. After the Korean monarch and ministers knew that Liu Jun had forced Japan to surrender to the Ming Dynasty in just over a month, they became more respectful to Liu Jun. Chongzhen also issued a special order. He appointed Liu Jun as the ambassador of North Korea and was responsible for supervising the national affairs of North Korea.

In this way, Liu Jun has more jurisdiction over North Korea's affairs, which is conducive to his troops stationed in the Yalu River area. With this ambassador, Liu Jun is not just a king's son-in-law in North Korea, but is equivalent to the emperor of North Korea. However, Liu Jun also has no intention of interfering in North Korea's affairs too much. As long as North Korea maintains the status quo, continues to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty, and opens trade to the Ming East India Company, it is enough.

A short stay in North Korea. Liu Jun and Princess Jingshu got married in Seoul. Originally, Liu Jun planned to get engaged first and get married next year, but North Korean King Lee Ho and his ministers were more urgent than Liu Jun and were eager to get the princess out immediately. Finally, after negotiation, they got married in advance. Liu Jun also agreed to North Korea's request and held a grand wedding in the Ming Dynasty next year.

After the wedding in Seoul, Princess Jingshu Li Hui returned to Zhenjiang with Liu Jun.

Zhenjiang City has been repaired, or reconstruction is more appropriate. Today, Zhenjiang City has become a new fortress like Jinzhou. The fortress is built next to Zhenjiang City. The fortress is mainly military, with troops, food and grass, and has many forts. The original Zhenjiang Fortress has been repaired and expanded, becoming a residential area for the people, as well as commercial areas, and markets.

Within a hundred miles of Yalukou area, the Chu army has built a control area centered on Zhenjiang Fortress, with Jiulian Fortress in the north, Yizhou City in the east, Tieshan City in the south, and Pi Island.

There is a fifty-mile unmanned area between the Chu army's controlled area and the Qing army's actual controlled area. Zhenjiang and Phoenix City are a hundred miles apart, most of which are unmanned areas. Yizhou City to the east is also more than a hundred miles apart from Changdian Fort controlled by the Qing army.

In the Ming-controlled area at the mouth of the Yalu River, a large number of people were focused on, including Han people and Korean people. The Chu army built cities and forts here. After the garrison was opened, the people flocked to it.

In just over half a year, the place became lively again. Many North Korean merchants also came here to sell goods and buy goods. Many North Korean ginseng collectors also brought the ginseng they dug here to sell, and the hunters also sent fur goods here for exchange.

The opening of Zhenjiang Market also attracted many merchants from the Ming Dynasty to bring goods.

"More than 200,000 people have gathered again in Zhenjiang, Yizhou, Tieshan, and Pi Island. We have even cultivated the fields around each city again, and it is time to harvest autumn grains." Qu Shizi, the deputy military supervisor who was stationed here, reported to Liu Jun.

"This is a good thing, but with so many people, are we enough food reserves this winter to next spring?"

Qu Shixi smiled and said, "It's enough."

"It's enough?" Liu Jun said in surprise.

"We have robbed a lot of food in Liaodong this summer. There are nearly 100 miles from Jinzhou to Zhenjiang along the coast. This year's summer food has basically been taken away by us. In addition, the grain transported by the Grand Marshal from North Korea and Japan, as well as what we are about to harvest this fall. We have more than 10,000 troops and more than 200,000 people have rations for a year."

"It's very good, food is the most important thing. If you have food in your hands, you don't panic. All food must be protected and stored in various castles. You must not let the Tatars make careful work and burn it. We must strictly prevent the Tatars from making details. In addition, when the autumn harvest is approaching, we must also send troops to be alert. If we take the Tatars' summer grain in summer, we must prevent the Tatars from taking our autumn grain." Liu Jun explained.

"We are not short of food now, but the key is that we lack many other commodities. Such as cloth, needles, thread, oil and salt, etc., they have to be transported from North Korea or Shandong. They will soon be frozen. By then, merchants will not be able to come, and the materials in this area will still have to be stored."

"This is not a problem. As long as it is profitable, merchants will be farther than we think. As long as we raise the price appropriately, they will immediately compete to transport the goods we need."

Due to the Tartars' relocation order, the situation in Jinzhou and Yizhou this year was very good, and there was no war between the two sides. It was just a stalemate. This situation was excellent for the Chu army. The Chu army was able to calmly control these two newly occupied areas, and safely build the castle and fortresses, and even relocate to attract a large number of people.

The Tatars moved fifty miles from the sea and set up this unmanned land, which also made these two places of the Ming army much safer.

Qu Shizi and Liu Jun sat down in the military conference hall of Zhenjiang Fortress. Qu Shizi personally poured Liu Jun a cup of tea. Then he poured himself a cup and sat down at Liu Jun's head.

"General Wu's victory in Songshan was really a great achievement. Now the court is full of joy. It is probably not far from defeating the Tartars and regaining Liaodong."

After Liu Jun returned to Zhenjiang, he also heard a lot of news about Wu Sangui's Songshan victory. He had learned the specific situation through Liu Qiao and Wang Zhixin's factory guards. Although the victory was a little moisture, it still has to be said that this battle was indeed a great victory, and North Korea had never had such a great victory in many years.

Even though Liu Jun led the Chu army into Liao, he had fought many wars, but he had never fought hard with the Three Thousand Eight Banners and achieved a record of beheading more than a thousand. I have to say that when he heard this news, Liu Jun was also amazed at the bravery and courageous battle of Ningyuan Army.

"General Wu is indeed well-known. The Tartars are afraid that they will withdraw from the Jinzhou siege." Liu Jun smiled. After suffering such a big loss, even Prince Zheng Jierhalang lost one arm and lost more than a thousand elite cavalry. The Tartars will inevitably be greatly shocked. Under the current situation, the Tartars can only withdraw from the Jinzhou siege.

If he surrounded Jinzhou again, the Ming army, inspired by the Songshan Victory, might really have the army to arrive in Jinzhou to fight the Tartars. In this situation, Liu Jun thought Huang Taiji would never be willing to fight the decisive battle.

But it is just to lift the siege of Jinzhou. It is unrealistic to say that it can counterattack and restore Liao immediately. A safe choice is to continue to oppress and consume the Qing army. Now North Korea has been solved. If North Korea guards Ningjin while still pulls the Mongolian troops back to the court, then the Tartars will be alone.

If you spend a few years with the Tartars, the Qing army will definitely collapse.

However, Liu Jun felt that the Songshan victory would make the court miscalculated the situation, and many people would definitely be unable to help but shouting to counterattack and restore Liao.

Qu Shixi said to Liu Jun, "I heard that the cabinet intends to reset the official office in Liaodong and send officials. Jinzhou and surrounding islands re-establish the Lushun Prefecture, and Zhenjiang has a new Yalu Prefecture, and the prefecture and county magistrate are sent to manage civil affairs."

"This is a good thing." Liu Jun smiled, not caring too much about it.

Qu Shixi turned the topic and asked Liu Jun, "North Korea and Japan are all in business. I wonder if the general has a new plan to send troops?" As the military supervisor, he saw the great victory of Wu Sangui and Songshan, and heard that the court had recently intended to counterattack and restore Liao, so he also hoped that Liu Jun could send troops again.

"Well, the autumn harvest is coming soon, and the Tartars may have to do some damage. Defense is always hard to defend, and the best defense is to attack. Now the city fortress has been built, and the soldiers have rested. It is time to attack. I plan to have a wave of autumn offensive to sweep the Qing army fortresses in the two areas of Phoenix City in the north and Kuandian in the east."

The main purpose of launching a new wave of attacks is not to occupy the areas of Phoenix City and Kuandian, but to attack and consume the strength of the Qing army around Zhenjiang, so as not to wait for them to attack in autumn or even winter.

However, before the war began, the Chu army had to complete a new round of rotation and rest, and also complete the distribution of winter clothes. Now the nine-headed bird is not short of money. It entered the south of Liao and robbed nearly a thousand miles of coastline, robbed hundreds of castles and markets, and directly robbed money and resold it to those merchants. The total amount was millions, because the robbery was too clean, and the Chu army's harvest was quite gratifying.

These gold, silver, even copper coins, jewelry, etc. of various colors were eventually converted into silver, and then transferred to the bank and exchanged for silver dollars. After half a year in Liaoning, Jiutouzhao started relocation business, and received silver bills of tens of millions of yuan. Liu Jun's last part of this money was used as military pay, part of it as rewards, and the expenses of supplementing weapons, casting guns, producing ammunition, and producing soldiers' armor, military uniforms, casting turrets and docks.

Ten million silver dollars are a lot, but for the Chu army, which now has 100,000 troops, it is almost a year of military expenditure and welfare expenses. Fortunately, the Chu army did not rely on siege and rob the supply army, and the income of this ten million silver dollars is actually considered an additional income.

Now the Chu army has established a complete logistics supply system, from cannons and guns to lead-fired bullets and gunpowder, from cotton armor helmets to boots and gloves, to large warships to small kettles, basically all have their own workshops that are specially produced, with reliable quality and guaranteed speed.

What the Chu army cannot produce now is military horses and food, and there are many basic materials.

It took a lot of money to establish this complete system, but it was worth it. Now this system not only satisfies the equipment needs of the Chu army, but also begins to provide continuous benefits to the Chu army. Even the workshops of this system have absorbed a large number of Chu army's families to work in it and earn salaries.

Now the financial situation of the Chu army is very stable and sufficient, and the soldiers' subsidies and various allowances and rewards are also increasing. It is precisely because of the generous salary and good welfare benefits that although the Jiutou Bird has expanded to the scale of the four towns, its combat effectiveness is still as good as before and remains good.

In particular, these soldiers are still full of gratitude to Liu Jun, the great general. This kind of gratitude is something that Liu Jun has been pursuing for all time. Gratitude can be transformed into loyalty. (To be continued.)

ps: Thank you, the fourth young man from the Feng family, and thank you for your support from brothers!
Chapter completed!