Dengzhou, Shandong.

A sea boat crosses the Bohai Strait and shores at Dengzhou Pier.

The Qing army messenger on the ship hurriedly got off the ship and ran to the Navy Admiral's Office.

In the hall, Hong Chengchou sat upright in the middle hall, Shi Lang and others sat on both sides, listening to the soldiers sent by Gao Di to report.

The messenger knelt in the middle of the lobby, kowtowed and bowed, "Reported to the Lord Zhongtang, the pirate fleet approached Lushun Port, in an attempt to capture Lushun. Gao Junmen led his brothers to fight to the death, fought with the pirates for one day, and finally repelled the pirates. Now, the pirates have left the Lushun waters and must have retreated back to Jiangnan in shame."

Hong Chengchou and others showed surprise on their faces, and Shi Lang frowned and said, "How could Zhao Zamao retreat like this?"

Obviously, Shi Lang did not expect that the Ming army would withdraw its troops so decisively.

After all, it was not easy to come by thousands of miles away, and just one trip was not easy. Zhao Ming gave up like this, which surprised him very much.

Hong Chengchou also frowned slightly, "You are sure the pirates have evacuated!"

Although Hong Chengchou was very confident in his arrangement and thought it would be difficult for Zhao Ming to conquer Lushun, he was a little unable to adapt for a while when he heard that Zhao Ming gave up so quickly.

The messenger decisively said: "Reporting to the central hall, it is true that the pirates have indeed left Lushun!"

When Hong Chengchou heard the words, he looked at Shi Lang. The latter understood and hurriedly saluted: "Qi Bizhongtang, on the coast of Shandong, no trace of pirates were found!"

Hong Chengchou couldn't help but wonder, "Can the pirates really retreat? Humph, Zhao Zamao knew it. If he dared to attack Lushun, he would definitely be bleeding and give me a chance to defeat him."

The news was soon reported to Beijing, and Dorgon saw Hong Chengchou's report, but did not give a positive reply, but only told the Qing court that Zhao Zamao might have withdrawn his troops.

Hong Chengchou was relatively cautious in his actions and ordered the Qing navy to send a sentry ship out of the port to investigate. At the same time, he would not draw a rash conclusion before Zhao Ming's fleet returned to Chongming.

This is also because Zhao Ming’s reputation is beyond the reach, which makes Hong Chengchou feel a little worried, thinking that Zhao Zamao cannot be so easy to deal with.

Within the Qing Dynasty, Dorgon dismissed Mandahai's post and imprisoned Haoge, who failed to fight.

This caused great turmoil in the Qing court, which made the ministers of the Haoge faction tense nervous. They were worried that Dorgon would be unfavorable to Haoge, so they began to connect and prepare to cause chaos on Dorgon.

At this time, in the Qing court, with the failure of consecutive wars, Dorgon's personal prestige had also dropped to a low point. The Qing army was dissatisfied with Dorgon's arbitrary behavior, and many people began to question and attack Dorgon, hoping to force Dorgon to hand over power.

This put Dorgon in a dilemma and urgently needed victory to stabilize people's hearts.

Therefore, after learning that Zhao Ming went north to Shandong, Dorgon urged Hong Chengchou several times to defeat Zhao Zamao's invasion as soon as possible to consolidate his authority.

At this time, Dorgon received Hong Chengchou's memorial and ignored it directly. The two possible words in Hong Chengchou's memorial began to celebrate, and the Qing army defeated Zhao Zamao's invasion.

This time, repelling Zhao Ming's invasion did make the Qing Dynasty quiet and relieved Dorgon of the siege.

At this time, above the sea, the Zhenhai led the fleet. After leaving Lushun, the fleet bypassed the southern end of the Liaodong Peninsula and sailed north along the coastline.

A few days later, the fleet arrived at the mouth of the Yalu River and suddenly occupied Pi Island, which was guarded by only a few dozen North Korean soldiers.

This was once the base of Mao Wenlong in Dongjiang Town. Zhao Ming led his army to occupy this place again, which made the accompanying soldiers sigh. Guo Zhong even knelt on the island and paid tribute to his dead comrades and relatives.

Zhao Ming's fleet did not stay on Pi Island for a long time, so he left a team of soldiers to guard him, and supplied some tamsui, so he continued to sail east along the coast.

At this time, in the cabin of the Zhenhai ship, Zhao Ming was discussing with the generals and staff how to take down North Korea.

"The Grand Marshal, called Goryeo during the Yuan Dynasty. During the reign of the Ming Dynasty, King Goryeo sent the general Li Chenggui to start a war with the Ming Dynasty. Li Chenggui knew that Goryeo was defeated by the Ming Dynasty, so he launched a mutiny and took Goryeo and replaced it. Taizu gave the country a name for Korea. This country's land was as large as a province in the Ming Dynasty, with a population of five or six million. He used Chinese characters, studied Confucianism, and called himself a small China!" Hu Weizong explained the situation in Korea.

Zhao Ming nodded and asked, "What is the situation in North Korea now? How much military force does it have?"

Hu Weizong said: "Reporting to the commander, the King of Korea is now Lee Seok, who is quite close to the Ming Dynasty politically. Two years ago, shortly after Li Seok inherited the throne of Korea, he sent a secret envoy to cross the sea to meet His Royal Highness the Prince. He agreed that if the Ming Dynasty's Northern Expedition Army advanced to Shandong, North Korea would immediately respond. In addition, Li Seok took the initiative to repair relations with Japan and wanted to unite with Japan to attack the Qing Dynasty, but at the same time wrote a letter to the Qing Dynasty, claiming that Japan was

To seek to attack North Korea, he attempted to expand his army and prepare for war on the grounds of preparing for Japan. However, the incident was discovered by the Qing Dynasty, so he sent secret spies to check it out and found that North Korea and Japan were actually in harmony, which made the Qing Dynasty alert to North Korea. About a year ago, the Qing Dynasty issued an edict to reprimand Li Jing and pressure North Korea, purged the Yili Sect ministers who were close to the Ming Dynasty, and supported the Qing Dynasty's ministers in power! Nowadays, most of the power of North Korea is controlled by the Qing Dynasty!"

Hu Weizong paused and continued: "King of Korea Lee Seo once wanted to expand its army of 100,000, but North Korea was barren and difficult to raise its troops. In addition, after the Six Envoys questioned the incident, the Qing Dynasty restricted North Korea, so the North Korean soldiers were only about 30,000. Most of these 30,000 Korean troops were defending various roads and could not be mobilized. Only the Imperial Camp Army stationed in Seoul had 7,000 troops and 600 imperial troops."

Zhao Ming then asked: "Which forces are controlled by the local garrisons in the North Korean camp, the 7,000 people in the Imperial Camp and the 600 people in the Imperial Camp."

Hu Weizong said: "Report to the general, the defenders of Korea obeyed the orders of the King of Joseon, but the 7,000 people in the Imperial Camp Hall in Seoul were controlled by the Qing sect, and the King of Joseon only controlled less than 600 imperial guards."

After hearing this, Zhao Ming looked at the many generals and staff and asked, "What do you think should you fight this battle?"

The general and his staff discussed a lot, and the shogunate secretary Gu Yanwu came out to salute and said, "Report to the Grand Marshal, North Korea is nearly a thousand miles in a radius, and our Donghai Town is difficult to control. I thought that to control North Korea, I still need to rely on the power of the King of Jones. The current situation of the King of Jones is actually equivalent to the army controlled by the Qing Dynasty being placed under house arrest in Seoul. The Grand Marshal only needs to attack Huanglong and defeat the seven thousand Imperial Camp Army controlled by the Qing Dynasty, and then rescue the King of Jones, and then command the Eight Roads of the Haidong in the name of the King of Jones!"

When Zhao Ming heard the words, he agreed and nodded, "Since that's the case, the fleet set sail immediately, headed straight to the mouth of the Han River, and captured Seoul."
Chapter completed!