Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"Pullingleng..."

A pigeon flew over Weihai and landed in a courtyard.

The Jinyiwei commander who was in charge of the team, Xiang Junqing, watched the messenger take the bamboo tube off the pigeon's leg and hand it to him.

He checked the seal as usual, asked the correspondent to write down the mailbox number, and then opened the mailbox and took out the message inside.

Thanks to the improvement of digital codes, digital codes are now used in pigeon communication. Just four digits can represent a word.

In theory, this set of digital codes should be public and available to everyone. However, because the Ming Dynasty is currently at war, the digital codes are still kept secret and have not been released to the public.

However, even so, the Jinyiwei also compiled a code to encrypt the transmitted numbers, and only by adding and subtracting in the correct way can the correct digital code be obtained.

All the communicators of the Imperial Guard were required to master this system.

As one of the persons in charge of the communication experiment, Xiang Junqing was very familiar with this. He took out the corresponding code book according to the number of the mailbox, and then the communicator added and subtracted to decipher the information.

As a descendant of Xiang Zhong, a wise official of the Purple Chamber and the Minister of War during the Chenghua period, Xiang Junqing's family inherited the title of Jinyiwei. He also had a lot of insights on military affairs and believed that the court should support Dongjiang Town and Korea and recover the four guards in southern Liaoning.

This coincided with the court's strategy, so he was reused by the emperor and participated in the implementation of the Ji Si Plan.

Xiang Junqing was therefore quite excited. He was determined to make a contribution in this battle and bring glory to the Xiang family.

He knew that the emperor intended to start a new round of conferring titles based on military merit.

His hereditary centurion title was already a qualification that could be converted into a hereditary knighthood.

If you make merit in a war, your title is more likely to be promoted and you will be awarded a fiefdom.

If he built a ancestral temple in his fiefdom and offered sacrifices to his ancestors, he would no longer be a useless person who relied entirely on his ancestors' influence, and his name would be recorded in the Xiang family tree.

Even, as the founder of a fief, he could obtain the qualification of being a 100-generation immortal and be worshipped in the ancestral temple all the time.

This is the most popular saying among the hereditary officials of the Embroidered Uniform Guard in recent times.

Zhu Youjian deliberately spread the story to arouse the desire of these hereditary officials to achieve great things.

Even though most people have not been touched, there are capable people like Xiang Junqing who are very excited about this.

Xiang Junqing's deputy Huang Pei was also one of them.

He is the grandson of Huang Jiashan, a wise official of the Purple Pavilion and the Minister of War during the Wanli period. He inherited the title of Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and now works in the Bureau of Confidentiality.

His uncle Huang Zongchang was a Jinshi in the second year of the Tianqi reign and was appointed as the Imperial Censor last year as the most obedient official in the country. Even after the officials who were originally county magistrates were purged, Huang Zongchang was promoted and transferred to the Ministry of Personnel, where he inherited the title of the official.

It can be said that the Huang family were all supporters of the Ming Dynasty. In history, Huang Zongchang's son died fighting against the peasant army. After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, Huang Zongchang lived in seclusion and built Yurui Tower to accommodate literati who did not want to serve in the government.

When Gu Yanwu went north to Shandong, he lived in Yurui Tower and left behind poems.

Huang Pei was reported for compiling a collection of anti-Qing poems, which triggered a literary inquisition known in history as the "Huang Pei Poetry Case."

Gu Yanwu was also involved and almost died.

Zhu Youjian had some impression of this, so Huang Pei was given an important position.

This young man, who had just turned 25, was sent by Zhu Youjian to work in the Security Department to strengthen confidentiality training.

This time, he was sent to work with Xiang Junqing to implement the Jisi Plan. As the head of the Jinyiwei, he was responsible for intelligence and communications in Shandong and southern Liaoning.

If they could recapture the four guards of southern Liaoning, the two would most likely be sent to serve in the Liaonan Guard Office and have more opportunities to make meritorious service.

Xiang Junqing knew this and even knew most of the contents of the Ji Si Plan.

Looking at the information deciphered by the communicator, he was excited because the court finally decided to send the navy of Weihai to build a fort in Daling River.

This means that the Ji Si Plan will be officially implemented and started by him.

After checking the information with Xiang Junqing and Huang Pei, they immediately wrote a formal order according to the rules set by the court, took it to the naval base in Weihai, and sent the order to Zheng Zhihu:
"Order from the Privy Council Staff: The Third Squadron of the First Fleet will depart immediately to Tianjin to receive supplies and build a fort at Daling River."

"You must arrive at Dalinghe Fort before March 15th."

When Zheng Zhihu received the order, he immediately saluted and shouted "Yes, sir."

Then he summoned the soldiers and conveyed the Privy Council order:

"Listen, all the soldiers:"

"We came to the north to fight the Jianlu."

"Now that the imperial court has issued an order, what do you say we should do?"

"Fight!" Everyone shouted loudly. Zheng Zhihu was very satisfied and promised them:
"I won't say anything else. Anyone who dies on the battlefield will be granted at least one well of land."

"This is my promise, Zheng Zhihu. If the court doesn't give it to me, I will give you my fiefdom."

"Don't worry if you get hurt. Our Zheng family will always take care of you."

"Now follow my orders and go to Liaodong to fight the Jianlu together!"

He ordered his soldiers to load the supplies that had been prepared onto the ship, and then set sail.

These soldiers and generals were selected from the private soldiers accumulated by the Zheng family over the years. They could be considered the main force, if not the elite.

After arriving in Weihaiwei and being allocated some ships and weapons by the imperial court, they are now stronger and full of confidence.

Their main task is to cooperate with the construction of Dalinghe Fort and ensure that the sea transportation routes can always be unobstructed.

Because the Jianlu had no navy, the danger of this mission was very small.

Zheng Zhihu and a group of soldiers who were born as pirates were full of confidence.

There are even people who are eager to try and see whether the so-called powerful Jianlu are worthy of their name.
-
Soon, the fleet arrived in Tianjin.

Supplies have been piled up at the port here, waiting to be transported by the fleet.

As a war directly commanded by the Privy Council, although the defenders of Dalinghhe had to obey the command of the Liaodong Front Army, they were actually very independent, and the logistics were directly under the charge of the Governor of Tianjin.

Supplies were also mainly transported by sea rather than by land from Shanhaiguan to Ningyuan, then from Ningyuan to Jinzhou, and from Jinzhou to Dalinghhe.

It can be said that this is the biggest difference compared to before.

Emperor Zhu Youjian paid more attention to sea transportation. Huang Yuntai, the governor of Tianjin who was responsible for supervising the military supplies for Liaodong, became more powerful and was truly responsible for part of the logistics of Liaodong.

This not only reduces losses on land, but also eliminates the number of layers of processing and reduces corruption in the middle.

Huang Yuntai attached great importance to this. He knew that the reason why he, a remnant of the eunuch party, remained in office was because the emperor valued him and wanted to use his abilities.

Now that the emperor has given him such an important task, he must do his best to repay the current emperor. Especially this time, the one in charge of the Dalinghe battle is Huo Weihua, a former capable general of the eunuch party. As a remnant of the eunuch party, he must give his full support.

This time, he assigned responsible officials to prepare the supplies and supervised it personally to prevent anyone from doing anything bad.

Huang Yuntai was pleased to see the city-building materials being loaded onto the ship in an orderly manner, but he also felt that the speed was a bit slow:
"Carrying things on shoulders and backs is too slow. When will all these boats be filled?"

"The cart sent by the Imperial Household Department is quite good. It can transport the large boxes directly to the dock."

He usually doesn't have this realization because the matter is not urgent.

Now that he has to transport supplies to Dalingh River, he realizes that using carts at the port is really convenient.

Dock workers only need to lift the standard cargo containers onto a cart and push them easily to the dockside.

This made him decide to purchase more carts for use at the dock.

He even decided to harden the road surface at the docks and warehouses to make it easier for carts to roll after seeing how inconvenient it was to push carts on the bumpy road.

He wants to increase the transportation capacity of Tianjin Port to a higher level.

However, what he didn't know was that the port transport vehicles would soon be upgraded.

After Zhu Youjian proposed the artillery track, he soon thought of the track can be used in mines and ports to carry heavy goods. Therefore, the Imperial Household Supervision has been developing and using the tracks and vehicles in the port, which have a greater carrying capacity than wooden wheel carts.

Moreover, the design of the track was also added to the design drawings of Dalinghe Fort. The walls and roads of this fort had to reserve space for laying the track.

In the future, when the tracks are mature, they will be quickly transported there to facilitate the dispatch of personnel and the transfer of materials within the city.

As a disciple of Xu Guangqi and a person who participated in the construction of the western Beijing bastion throughout the process, Han Yun was appointed as the chief engineer of Dalingh Fort and was responsible for the construction of this fortress.

With him were dozens of engineers and craftsmen who participated in the construction of the Jingxi Bastion. They were going to the Dalingh River area to build another fort.

There was also a team of engineers who were responsible for protecting them and participating in the construction of the fortress.
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At this time, Huo Weihua also received the news and set out from Jinzhou City with a thousand Dongning Guard soldiers who had already been transferred to Liaodong.

With him was He Kegang, who brought a thousand men selected from Shanhaiguan.

The Liaodong soldiers stationed in Jinzhou looked at the two thousand people with complicated expressions. They hoped that they would successfully build the fort, but they also felt a little unwilling.

Especially the Liaodong Admiral You Shilu, who was previously the general of Jinzhou, was appointed admiral and was responsible for front-line command.

The construction of Dalinghe City was proposed by him, Sun Chengzong and others. He was naturally unwilling to accept the fact that the Dalinghe Fort plan was defeated by Huo Weihua in the court.

However, he was somewhat impressed by the performance of Huo Weihua and He Kegang after they led their troops to Jinzhou.

Although the number of two thousand is small, they can truly be considered elite.

He Kegang was worthy of being a general valued by Yuan Chonghuan and Bi Zisu, and was quite popular in the army.

So, watching these people walking away, You Shilu gave the order:
"Let the soldiers sing and wish them a triumphant return!"

He asked his soldiers to sing the "Victory Song" that came from the capital, wishing them a triumphant return.

This song was created by Qi Jiguang decades ago. When Qi Jiguang came to the north, it became popular in the army.

Now we changed a few words and made it into a military song, and the soldiers learned it quickly.

Soon, the song of "Ten Thousand People, One Heart" rang out on the city walls of Jinzhou.

The two thousand people who went to Dalingh River to build a fort quickly responded and started singing as well.

For a moment, the two different armies seemed to be truly united and became close comrades-in-arms.
-
Huo Weihua would never have this illusion in his mind.

Because he had been in Liaodong for several months, he had already figured out the mentality of people from all walks of life in Liaodong.

As the emperor worried, the Liaodong soldiers had a tendency to localize. And because of the victory in the battles of Ningyuan and Ningjin, these people were more concerned about defending the city rather than actively fighting against the Jianlu.

Some soldiers who had deep hatred for the Jianlu and were bent on revenge were unable to change this tendency.

The people of Liaodong have been fattened by the Liao tribute. They want to use the threat of Jianlu to maintain the Liao tribute unchanged.

So people like Zu Dashou appeared, who secretly contacted the Jianlu and even negotiated peace and sought money.

More than a year after Sun Chengzong resumed his post, he transferred Zu Dashou to the interior of China on suspicion of collusion with the enemy. He even reshuffled the senior generals in Liaodong according to the emperor's order.

However, the mentality of the middle and lower classes cannot be changed hastily.

It can be said that the Liaodong Front Army today has no fighting spirit and is not willing to take the initiative to attack.

If they were forced to fight, it is estimated that as long as the conditions offered by the Jianlu were suitable, some people would dare to kill their generals and surrender to the enemy.

So this month, Huo Weihua asked He Kegang to train the troops while he reviewed the soldiers selected by He Kegang.

This was not only to prevent the spies of Jianlu, but also because he was worried that some soldiers were not willing to fight and would not be able to persist in the long-term defense of the city.

After all, what the emperor asked was to hold out for at least one year under the siege of the Jianlu.

If this requirement is not met, it will be a failure for Huo Weihua.

Therefore, the Liaodong soldiers who finally stayed behind all had a deep hatred for the Jianlu. It could even be said that they were mortal enemies and came only for revenge.

The fighting spirit of these soldiers was indeed stronger than that of ordinary soldiers. Even the soldiers of Dongning Guards that he had carefully selected were inferior to them.

He had lured these soldiers of the Dongning Guard with the land he had allocated to them. Since their families were on Dongning Island, their loyalty was guaranteed. However, their fighting spirit, fighting will, combat experience and skills were not as good as his.

He could only hope that He Kegang could train these people as soon as possible to avoid being unable to cope with the attack by Jianlu.

He Kegang was very satisfied with the Dongning Guard soldiers brought by Huo Weihua, because he felt that these people were qualified soldiers.

After being tempered by thousands of miles of immigration and selected by Huo Weihua from tens of thousands of households, these soldiers are in good physical condition and can be called strong and robust.

And the number of people is substantial, a little over a thousand.

After walking forty miles from Jinzhou City, these people still had enough energy to set up the tents.

In contrast, some of the soldiers he selected were not so good -

His physical condition is too poor and he has not yet been fully recovered.

Fortunately, Jinzhou City is only forty miles away from Dalingh River, so there is no need to go any further.

He Kegang and Huo Weihua set up camp on the high ground they had observed long ago, preparing to build Dalinghhe Fort starting tomorrow.

The spies in the army were also sent out early to guard against the nearest Jianlu, who might attack after receiving the news.

Although they all knew that the Jianlu would definitely get the news of the fortification, they wanted to keep it a secret for a while, and it would be best if the fortification could be completely built before the Jianlu sent out their troops. (End of this chapter)