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Chapter 21: Strong Walls and Clear Fields

After Zhu Cijing and Sun Chengzong discussed the details of the mobilization of troops in various places, they immediately issued an order to order the generals of each town to start preparing troops. Once the Later Jin Dynasty had a tendency to assemble, they would immediately enter their designated cities to defend.

He was not at ease, so he appointed Sun Chengzong as the governor of Ji Liao to manage the defense of Jizhou and Liaodong, and ordered him to immediately inspect the city defense situation from the capital to Zunhua.

The Later Jin attack on the capital was not a joke. Sun Chengzong naturally knew the pros and cons. After receiving the appointment, he immediately took the personal army of the One Thousand Jinyiwei, and began to patrol all the way from Tongzhou, passing through Sanhe, and passing Jizhou. On that day, he was about to arrive at Zunhua, Zunhua, the last stop.

Zunhua, located in the Yanshan Mountains 300 miles northeast of the capital, guards the only passage for the Kalaqin tribe of Outer Mongolia to the south and enter Shuntian Prefecture. It is an important town in Jizhou and the guard center of the pass.

The city defenses in Tongzhou, Sanhe and Jizhou were all unsatisfactory. Except for the obvious lack of training for the soldiers guarding the city, everything else was said to be the same. Sun Chengzong was not very worried. Anyway, the elite troops of each town were to be transferred to preside over the city defense later. The original city defense soldiers were just trying to take action, and it almost didn't matter much.

Zunhua is different. This is the core of Jizhou's defense. Most of the soldiers and horses in Jizhou Town gather here. In Sun Chengzong's plan, they have to rely on the troops and horses of Jizhou Town to defend here. The focus of his inspection this time was Zunhua.

Starting from Jizhou, he rode a horse on the rugged mountain road for more than half a day. Zunhua finally looked at it. From a distance, he looked like a majestic city with towering walls and a sequel of arrow towers. However, as the distance narrowed, Sun Chengzong felt something was wrong. Why did this city wall look like a dog chewing on it?

When he arrived less than a mile outside Zunhua City, Sun Chengzong was completely angry. I don’t know if it was the Ming army or the farmers who had just put down their hoes. The number of people was also severely insufficient, with less than 10,000 people. What’s even more annoying is that the city wall has not been repaired for a long time. There are not many left in the bushel, and there are even some collapses in some places!

Is this the so-called important town in Jizhou? When the Later Jin cavalry came, they would not have to dismount and jump into the city directly along the collapsed place!

Sun Chengzong turned around with a pale face and stared at the Jizhou Governor Wang Yuanya who came with him. He would definitely order this guy to be dragged down and chopped down according to his original temper. But after the incident of the Liaodong King's minister, he understood a truth that corrupt officials could not be killed, so it would be better to let them spit out the proceeds of corruption to make up for the losses they caused.

Wang Yuanya's face was already dead, and he knew Zunhua's situation, but his ex-executive had already been like this. After he took office as governor, he wanted to make some trouble, but his subordinates were all wine bags. After the rectification, they were all like this, and they consumed a lot of money and food. Gradually, he was corrupted by these people. Anyway, the Mongol Yuan had declined and had not invaded for decades, so why should he be in trouble? It would be better to join them and get a lot of benefits from it.

When Sun Chengzong came to inspect this time, he thought it was just a formality and just had a good hospitality in Jizhou. Unexpectedly, Sun Chengzong was just playing the game and insisted on coming to Zunhua to see! He was ready to be chopped along the way, and he was too lazy to defend himself at this moment, so he just waited for Sun Chengzong to drag him down and chop him down!

Unexpectedly, when Sun Chengzong spoke, he said: "List all the officials under your command who are suspected of corruption, and collect 50,000 troops and the three-month food and salary for the repair of the city walls. I will spare you."

Wang Yuanya looked at Sun Chengzong in amazement. He never thought that he had a chance to survive, and he was stunned for a moment.

Sun Chengzong was too lazy to talk to him, and shouted fiercely: "Why don't you do it for me right away."

Then, he led his personal guards to Zunhua City.

He was not worried that Wang Yuanya would run away at all. If you run away, the monk could not run away. If you dare to run away, I would kill your nine clans. I would confiscate all the families of your clan relatives. Let's see if you can't make up all the military expenses!

In ancient times, the clan concept was relatively strong, and no one wanted to harm his family. Wang Yuanya did not run away as Sun Chengzong expected. He followed Sun Chengzong to Zunhua City honestly. After instructing his corrupt subordinates, he started raising money and collected all the money in less than a month.

This is indeed another case. From the Governor Wang Yuanya, there are no one who is not greedy for the general and the military supervisor. Sun Chengzong had no time to argue with them and directly withdrew them all. Then he transferred Sun Yuanhua, the Right Minister of the Ministry of War, to take over as the governor of Jizhou, and He Kegang, the deputy general of Liaodong, to take over as the general of Jizhou. The military supervisor was directly dismissed. Thousands and hundreds of households were selected in the Jizhou army.

Sun Chengzong was not in a hurry to return to the capital. He was in charge of Zunhua, checking military households, filling in the people, repairing the city walls, preparing city defense equipment such as rolling stones, wood, and waste oil. He was very busy.

............

In August of the second year of Chongzheng (1629 AD), Liaodong Governor Yuan Chonghuan wrote a letter: Most of the troops of the Later Jin army in Liaodong gathered to go west, and may be suspected of taking a detour to Mongolia and attacking the capital.

Zhu Cijiu naturally would not believe this evil like Emperor Chongzhen. The scouts of the San Thousand Camp also heard news that the Mongolian Kalaqin tribe had begun to gather troops and was in a state of going south to knock on the gate. All signs showed that Huang Taiji was still as recorded in history books and could not help but attack the capital. This battle was inevitable!

He immediately sent a quick horse to send an order to order the generals of the towns to come to the capital quickly, and he wanted to hold a meeting of the imperial front.

............

At the 15th day of August, Emperor Chongzheng Zhu Cijing summoned relevant personnel to discuss matters at the main hall of Qianqing Palace to discuss defense in the capital.

Officials involved in the discussion include:

The Grand Tutor, Grand Secretary of Zhongji Palace, Minister of War, Chief Auxiliary of the Cabinet, Sun Chengzong, the governor of Ji Liao;

Qin Liangyu, the governor of the Beijing camp;

Yuan Keli, the governor of Liaodong;

The left governor of the Five Army Governor's Office and the commander of the Jinyiwei Guard Luo Yangxing;

The right censor of the Censorate, and the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War, Yuan Chonghuan, governor of Liaodong;

The Right Minister of War was the governor of Jizhou, Sun Yuanhua;

Zu Dashou, general of Liaodong;

Shanhaiguan General Zhao Rujiao;

He Kegang, general of Jizhou;

General You Shiwei of Changping;

Hou Shilu, general of Xuanfu;

Datong General Man Gui;

In fact, Zhu Cijing and Sun Chengzong had already discussed it, saying that they were asking them to discuss it, but in fact they were waiting for the dispatch. Sun Chengzong directly divided the large and small cities along the capital to Zunhua into defense zones. He made detailed arrangements for how many soldiers and horses were sent by the generals of each town to garrison and how to assist in defense. All the generals had to act according to the plan.

Of course, the war between countries is not done with both sides. It also involves many aspects. After Sun Chengzong arranged the troops from various places, Zhu Cijing began to arrange other matters.

First of all, it is to strengthen the wall and clear the field. It is okay to say that this solid wall is naturally necessary to build the city wall to strengthen it and prepare more defensive equipment. But why is this clearing the field? It is just a war, so why do you still need to clean up the outside of the city?

It turned out that the Later Jin cavalry had a very bad habit, that is, they not only like to fight, but also like to plunder. In other words, their purpose of fighting was to plunder. Every time they passed through in a war, they would be plundered. Whether it was civilians, livestock, food, money, or even clothes, they would plunder all the things they could.

Zhu Cijing naturally didn't want them to succeed, so he ordered the Jinyiwei to arrange people to post notices from the capital to Zunhua, and ordered all civilians outside the city to hide in the city if they had any connections to enter the city, and all those who could not enter the city would move to the near Tianjinwei south of the capital. There were already garrisons there, and Zhu Cijing was also planning to gather troops from all over the place to serve the king there, and arranged for the Jinyiwei to bury landmines along the road. I believe that as long as Huang Taiji was not exhausted, he would not run hundreds of miles to artificial mines.

Finally, we arranged a defensive counterattack. There is a saying that it is impolite to come but not to go. When Huang Taiji came to attack the capital so unscrupulously, Zhu Cijiu naturally wanted to teach him some lessons. If you attack the capital, I will attack Liaodong. He ordered Yuan Keli to go back and prepare. Once the main force of the Later Jin Dynasty arrived in the capital, Liaodong would start to fight back, without asking to recover the entire territory of Liaodong. As long as Huang Taiji took down Guangning before he went back to rescue, it would be victory.
Chapter completed!
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