The main task of the Special Reconnaissance Battalion is to break the enemy's back, and even the reconnaissance mission is not even mainstream. This time, Liaodong Qi entered the war because the Crown Prince himself attached great importance to it. Xiao Donglou was asked by the Houyan, so he handed it over to the Special Reconnaissance Battalion. Therefore, no one expects the Special Reconnaissance Battalion to defend Ningyuan City. For them, the key is to arrange some tricks to make the city easily conquered.

Such tricks include sending people to lurk in the city or laying gunpowder and hot tinder in the main buildings. Once a large army attacks the city, these hidden tricks can often have unexpected results.

After Zuo Shouyi took over the city defense, he identified Zhenyi, Baoyi, Green Camp and Refugees, and killed Zhenyi and Baoyi to avoid trouble. As the only army in the Eastern Palace sequence without military judges, the Special Investigation Battalion has a lot of room for self-discipline.

Zuo Shouyi did not take special care of the people and the green camp that was in trouble. In addition to telling them that there would be a team of soldiers coming to Ningyuan tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, he asked them to find food by themselves.

Zuo Shouyi entered the bell and drum tower in the center of the city, set up a temporary command center, recorded military diaries, and sorted out various intelligence materials. These should be documents and staff work in other battalions, and he was his job in the special investigation camp. Originally, a fighting man who could only kill with a knife was forced to learn to write and write, which also shows how strict the training of the special investigation camp was.

Although Shi Xinsheng was a coach, his skills on the pen might not be as good as Zuo Shouyi. He entered the Bell and Drum Tower and was not polite, saying, "There is something wrong in the city."

"right."

"right?"

"There is no food in the city." Zuo Shouyi raised his head: "This Manchu army brought very little food, and the nearest grain-Taiwan Fortress in the Donglu was fifty miles away."

"The Green Camp soldiers who were in trouble said that they had set out at dawn. Did they go and get food?" Shi Xinsheng asked.

Zuo Shouyi tapped his finger on the table: "I'm thinking of another question."

"What?"

"When we first reconnaissed Ningyuan City, there was a scattered army of more than a hundred people in the city. Where did these people go?" Zuo Shouyi said: "At that time, we were rushing to understand the terrain and left them alone. As a result, when we came back the second time, we became the current group of people. So where did they go?"

"What do you think?" Shi Xinsheng asked.

"I thought they were also retreating Qing troops, so I didn't take it much." Zuo Shouyi said: "But when I think about it, they didn't bring anything robbed in the pass. This is unreasonable." There were few Manchus, and it was normal to escort their respective spoils when retreating, so there was no reason for people to go home empty-handed.

"They should be the troops stationed in Ningyuan." Zuo Shouyi concluded: "So they are very likely to come back. The reason is that there is not enough food in Ningyuan City. They either make up the place to buy food or move the food."

"It is very likely that I will come back tomorrow." Shi Xinsheng said: "It's like the handover of the garrison."

"You can also patrol and hunt," Zuo Shouyi said: "The problem now is that if only these hundred scattered soldiers are just here, we can trick them into killing them. But if they happen to meet the 500 brigade behind them, there will be 600 people in total, and we may not be able to eat them."

"It's definitely not enough to eat it." Shi Xinsheng said: "There is no need to take risks in this."

Zuo Shouyi nodded: "Let the brothers go out and watch the beach. If the second division can arrive tomorrow, you can still defend Ningyuan City, otherwise you can only throw it to the Donglu first. You will get it back in the future."

Shi Xinsheng nodded, then went out to arrange the arrangements, and accidentally served as a staff officer and an adjutant.

When the Special Investigation Battalion is away, the soldiers carry dry food and jerky for several days with them. When they have the conditions, they will use the "isolated island" prepared by the Jinyiwei for them when they are not able to do so. This is also the pride of the Special Investigation Battalion.

Although the Special Investigation Camp did not need Ningyuan's food, the Green Camp soldiers and refugees urgently needed food to fill their stomachs. They searched through all the possible places in the city where grain was stored, and finally found only a few buckets of old grain. They cooked a pot of porridge that could be seen, mixed with wild vegetables, and each person shared the food.

Even so, it only makes some people die "happily".

In Ningyuan City in March, water turns into ice at night, and weaker people can't stand it.

After dawn, Zuo Shouyi asked the people in the green camp who had combat power to change into Donglu's armor and stood at the top of the city with weapons. As a lookout, he took the brothers from the Special Investigation Camp to scatter out. On the one hand, he explored the position of Donglu's horse probe to judge the position and scale of Donglu's rear team; on the other hand, he sent people to the beach to look around to see if he could wait for the navy ships.

After joking with the Ming Dynasty for thirty years, God finally took the Shandong Navy to the waters of Juehua Island as scheduled. According to the initial plan, Xiao Donglou wanted to camp at the entrance of Xingcheng River northwest of Juehua Island by taking advantage of the power of the river and sea. Then he captured Ningyuan City more than ten miles away. Who knew that as soon as he got ashore, he met a scout sent by Zuo Shouyi, and could march straight to Ningyuan to set up defenses.

Ningyuan was established in the third year of Xuande. The Liaoxi Corridor was not valued by the Ming court at that time because it was just a corridor connecting Jingdong and Liaodong. At that time, Liaodong was still steadily in the hands of the Ming Dynasty, and the Jianzhou Jurchens were still trying to pretend to be a survivor of the Jin Dynasty and proud to join the Ming Dynasty.

Even so, Ningyuan Acropolis, built in the fifth year of Xuande, had two inner and outer cities, with a circumference of nine miles, and even in the mainland, it was not a small city. A hundred years later, the Ningyuan Acropolis was destroyed by an earthquake. After the incident in Liaodong, the current Ningyuan City was built on the original site. During the heyday of the Liao throne, Sun Cheng's sect, there were 50,000 military and civilian households in Ningyuan City, which were settled as far as fifty miles away, and the merchants and travelers were experiencing a large town outside the pass.

Xiao Donglou has always been decisive and after asking about the military situation, he immediately sent a battalion to explore the horses, and then lit up the first batch of troops who had arrived ashore and rushed to Ningyuan City with light equipment. This was also the benefit of the military rank. Although the system was a little chaotic after getting off the ship, the soldiers still knew who should follow the command of the officer at the command of the officer.

This team took the lead in three games and saw a heroic city on the plain half an hour later.

"The city is three zhang high, and the city foundation is three zhang wide, the top is two zhang wide, and the battlements are six zhang high. There are forts at the four corners." Zuo Shouyi personally welcomed him, greeted Xiao Donglou, and at the same time introduced the city defense situation of Ningyuan City to General Xiao.

"It's okay to look outside. There are only bricks in some places that were demolished and built by the enemy." Zuo Shouyi said: "But the city is a bit miserable. In addition to the bell and drum tower, there are some houses in the west of the city that have escaped the fire. Now they have been cleaned up for refugees."

"It's okay, we brought the camp tent." Xiao Donglou looked at the city wall and his eyebrows were tight: "This artillery tower is still not good, and the city gate is convex, which is inconvenient to defend. You have to build a hollow enemy platform."

"As long as you have food, the laborers are ready-made." Zuo Shouyi agreed.

Experts can tell if they have any of them as soon as they make a move. After seeing the benefits of a concave city wall, they are a little dissatisfied with this kind of square city. When Qi Jiguang was defending the Mongolian Tatar in Jizhen, he invented a hollow enemy platform, which was to build an extended platform pavilion on the city wall to create the effect of a concave defense. This has also become an urgent move. Whether Yuan Chonghuan guards Ningyuan or Chen Yongfu guards Kaifeng, they have used this method.

"There is a lot of food, but it hasn't been transported yet." Xiao Donglou said: "See if these refugees can leave later. If they can be sent directly to the beach, they can eat."

"It's also a good idea." Zuo Shouyi narrowed his eyes and looked at the sun, saying, "General Xiao first inspects Ningyuan City. I will also leave a copy of the nearby terrain maps here, and then my troops will leave first."

"I'm sorry, the Zuoying official." Xiao Donglou bowed slightly, and suddenly thought of a question: "If these refugees were separated and were caught by the Donglu, and the information of your troops was leaked, what should we do?"

"What information can they reveal?" Zuo Shouyi smiled and said, "It's just that we dressed up as Tartars. I'm still worried that Donglu didn't know!"

Xiao Donglou's heart changed and immediately realized: Donglu didn't know that the Ming army was pretending to be a Tartar, but it could certainly be deceived. If Donglu knew that there was a Ming army pretending to be his own people, wouldn't it be a panic? It was just right for Zuo Shouyi to take advantage of the situation, and even the thief shouted to catch the thief.

"So brave." Xiao Donglou also sincerely praised: "It is really a blessing for Xiao to be able to know the officials of Zuoying!"

"The general is wrong." Zuo Shouyi said modestly, but his feet did not slow down.

The 100 Eastern Captains did not appear today, and they were obviously together with the 500 team, which was delayed. In this way, when the enemy soldiers arrived, they would inevitably have to fight for a while.

"Although the Donglu seem to have no army outside the pass, they were originally a military and civilian unity. Once something happened, they could still recruit more than 10,000 people in each camp." Zuo Shouyi reminded.

Xiao Donglou also did his homework outside the pass and said disapprovingly: "They just rely on their personal bravery. When they encounter a large army trained by us, they are vulnerable. Moreover, Yuan Chonghuan used 20,000 soldiers and 30 cannons to defend this lonely city, but he did not let the old slaves catch 60,000 troops. This time, my second division brought 60 cannons and nearly 10,000 muskets. If you want to break the city, unless the Donglu came to the country."

Zuo Shouyi smiled and said nothing. He knew that Xiao Donglou's Second Division rushed to Tianjin and withdrew the strong attack of tens of thousands of Donglu troops with one division. Although he did not see the battle situation that day with his own eyes, he heard that the Second Division had almost changed halfway, which shows the intensity of the battle.

Now the Donglu troops are divided into two groups and come out of the pass. The main force is to go to Xifengkou to deter Mongolia. With just two white flags, it is at most 30,000 to 50,000 troops, and this requires a large number of mobs to make up the numbers. The invincibility of the Eastern Palace Army has proved that the harm caused by mobs in the war is far higher than the effect of their combat effectiveness.
Chapter completed!