"It's not that I'm old, it's that the world has changed too much."

Sun Chengzong walked out of the Changchun Palace accompanied by Wei Zhongxian with a confused mind, and looked back at the Changchun Palace shrouded in darkness.

Dunhua, after a few days of preparation, Huang Taiji officially held a flag sacrifice ceremony outside Dunhua City to pray for the smooth departure of the army.

Sacrificing flags is a superstitious practice in ancient times: the leader of an army kills a living creature before going on an expedition, and sacrifices the life of that creature to the gods in order to obtain the protection of the gods.

The decapitation sacrificial flag was generally used in the later military, and it was recorded in the Spring and Autumn Period, the Book of Rites, and the Historical Records. There are in very old wars. The exact time is not available.

There is another meaning: to boost morale. Make an example of what to do.

The Jurchens, who had just come out of the mountains and forests, attached great importance to the sacrificial rituals.

Although Huang Taiji is the head of a country, due to the limitations of his vision, he naturally has blind attention. Even in the army, more than a dozen shamans were specially brought.

These shamans usually don't do any work, only to perform divination before each march, or perform some exaltation rituals.

The exalted crowd is generally those who died in the Houjin cavalry, and of course, those ordinary people who were slaughtered by the Houjin cavalry.

It's not that Huang Taiji has good thoughts, but the theory of ghosts and gods was very popular in ancient times, especially for the Jurchens who had just come out of the mountains and forests.

Ghosts, gods, ghosts, why are ghosts in front of gods? Ghosts can harm people, but gods don't, and naturally ghosts are more dangerous than gods.

I don't know if these shamans have real skills, but they definitely belong to an expert at observing the weather.

All the army must choose a good day and an auspicious day, and the weather on this day is also very friendly to Huang Taiji.

Although it is already the beginning of February, the northern land is still shrouded in cold. But today it was cloudless, and there was a warm feeling of the sun shining on my body.

Outside Zunhua City, tens of thousands of troops all quietly looked at the high platform that had been built overnight, and more than a dozen shamans and wizards danced on it like gods and demons dancing.

Huang Taiji took Amin and the others with solemn faces, and their eyes revealed bursts of blazing light.

More than half an hour later, at the signal of the shaman, more than a dozen men wearing Ming Dynasty official uniforms were all tied up one by one and forcibly pushed to the ground.

With an order, more than a dozen human heads fell to the ground. The spurted blood stained the earth red, and then slowly merged into a river of blood. At the same time, tens of thousands of hordes let out earth-shattering roars. The sound is so loud that it can shake the Nine Heavens.

"Eternal Heaven bless, go".

At this time, Huang Taiji, who was supposed to make a long speech to motivate the soldiers, instead did the opposite, just a simple sentence.

It's just that this short sentence is full of endless murderous aura, which seems to be able to shock people's hearts.

The army goes out on the march, unlike three or two people who can walk when they say they can go. In addition to the 10,000 elite soldiers left behind by Amin, there were also some casualties in the marching battles these days, and in the end there were less than 45,000 men.

Compared to the hundreds of thousands of troops gathered in Beijing, it seems to be a little overwhelming. However, Huang Taiji is confident that with these horses in his hands, he can definitely turn the river and the sea in the capital of the Ming Dynasty.

"Brother Xilong, now that Huang Taiji has led the army to the Beijing Division, he has only sent Bel Amin to stay in Dunhua, you see if we will rush to the Beijing Division in the next step."

A burly middle-aged man frowned and looked down at the map placed on the table. I love to read

The person who spoke was Man Gui, who led 3,000 iron horsemen to the rescue together with Zhao Shujiao. It's just that by the time Zhao led the cavalry to arrive, the entire Dunhua area had already been reduced to the pasture of Houjin. could only hide and hide, and started a guerrilla war with the Houjin cavalry.

At this time, Zhao Shujiao, who was dressed in armor, raised his head and pondered for a while.

"In this way, Brother Mangui, you will lead 1,000 men and horses to Jingshi first, and as for me, I will take the rest of the brothers to Pinggu."

Pinggu, although it has a flat character in its name, is actually a huge valley. There was nothing here before, but now it was filled with ordinary people captured by the Houjin cavalry.

Man Gui just thought about it, and then understood what Zhao Shujiao meant. Now there are only these people in the entire Dunhua area, and the rescue of the ordinary people who were captured by the Houjin naturally fell on their heads.

Although the chance of being rescued is 10 points slim, it must be expressed. If you really don't say a word, you will inevitably be attacked by hundreds of officials in the court in the future.

As long as you send someone to rescue yourself, whether you can save it or not is another matter.

"Then my lord, I will lead the army to Beijing first, if it is not violated, I hope that my lord can focus on the overall situation."

Although Man Gui's words sounded very normal on the surface, the meaning of his words all indicated that he would let Zhao Shujiao make a show and immediately lead the army to Beijing together.

Although it is a good thing for the army to gather in Beijing, it will naturally cause trouble when there are many people.

A great man in later generations once said that more people are powerful, but more people means more things to eat.

The consumption of hundreds of thousands of soldiers eating horses and chewing grain and grass is naturally larger, not to mention that these soldiers and horses are all transferred from other places, if they are fighting locally, they can also raise some grain and grass, but now that they have arrived in the capital, they are not familiar with the place and how to raise grain and grass.

Of course, there is another way to collect grain and grass, and that is to grab grain by arson, which is a common thing in troubled times. It's just that now although the chaos of the Ming Dynasty has been born, but it has not yet reached that point, if there is really any general who dares to indulge his soldiers and horses to loot grain and grass everywhere, I believe that there will be Jinyi guards who will come to arrest it that day, and a human head will fall to the ground that is guaranteed.

Sun Chengzong, who became the commander of this army, quickly mastered this army with years of prestige. Of course, there is also the cooperation of Wu Xiang of the Liaodong Army, after all, Sun Chengzong has been in Liaodong for many years, although he has been removed now, but the love for many years is still there, for this old master, Wu Xiang is naturally very respectful, and he can be regarded as becoming a pro-army of Sun Chengzong.

In the military tent of the army outside the city, Sun Chengzong and Guo Yunhou were like street vendors, and they did not have the majesty of the commander of an army of more than 100,000.

"Guo Shangshu, I don't know when the grain and grass of the army will be sent to the army this time."

Listening to Sun Chengzong's words, Guo Yunhou also had a sad face, spread his hands, and looked helpless.

"Emperor, it's not that I don't want to allocate grain and grass, it's just that the Chinese treasury is really empty now.

The autumn tax has already been sent to various places, and now the fruit bank can only take out 100,000 taels of silver, as well as tens of thousands of stone grain, and no matter how much it is, it really can't be taken out."

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the finances were in deficit year after year, and the deficit was every year, in today's words, it was the moonlight clan.

Even these grains and grasses have been saved as emergency supplies, and now the treasury has already been emptied, where is the money.

In the big tent, only two people were left with a long sigh.

Zhu Youxiao, who was in the palace, had already expected this, so he set his eyes on a group of prominent people in the city early.

The descendants of Jingnan, a group of descendants of the once famous Meng Yuan generals, but now they are incarnated as small business experts.

If you want to say who can still be rich in this Ming Dynasty, it must be this group of people.