On the seventh day of the fifth month of the forty-sixth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, Liaodong, Qinghe City.

This year, the weather outside the gate is unusually cold, and it has entered summer at this moment, but the dawn of midsummer is still frosty, cold, dry and cold.

The morning sun was so dazzling, but the flying wind unique to the land of Liaodong turned the only warm light in the air into a bone-chilling cold; The city is deserted, and the shops and vendors are closed, and there is no trace of the bustling scene of the horse market in the past. Ordinary people are closed and few people come out. Occasionally, one or two city residents passed by the streets, and they also looked hurried, a depressed and tense scene.

From time to time, there are groups of armored officers and soldiers armed with guns and knives patrolling through the streets and alleys, and the city is even more heavily guarded and hung with buckets, piled with rolling logs, stones, bows and crossbows.

Two trenches were dug outside the city, filled with bamboo sticks, and the open space on the outside of the ditch was covered with pits, iron scorpions, and a wall of sheep and horses, more than six feet high, was built along the side of the ditch against the wall. It was densely covered with cannon holes, and at intervals behind the wall there was a swarthy iron cannon mounted on a sturdy gun mount, the muzzle of which was facing the open space outside the wall.

Behind the wall stood full of officers and soldiers, the city gate was closed, the drawbridge was hung high, and the officers and soldiers on the road at the head of the city were fully armed with armor and armor, and their slightly panicked eyes looked to the Bapanling Mountains stretching in the east from time to time.

There is an important pass on the border wall of Liaodong, the Yahu Pass, and further east of the Yahu Pass, is the White Mountain, Black Water, Forest, Sea and Snow Field, where is the world of the Jurchen barbarians of the Jianzhou Weihou Jin Khanate.

Qinghe City is surrounded by mountains on all sides, located in the key point, belongs to the military fortress city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, the military households in the city account for two-thirds of the whole city, and the main function is to guard the main road for the barbarians of Jianzhou to enter Liaoyang. Therefore, the city is mainly military, and there are no civilian officials, and all affairs should be dispatched by the local town guard deputy general. The government of Qinghe City is located in the city of Dongguan, at this moment in the main hall of the yamen, more than a dozen local students, show talent gathered together. Before the chief officer arrived, these people were talking to each other in groups of three, and everyone's expressions were full of nervousness.

Yue Xiang stood to the side blankly, looking at the people in front of him, as if he was **.

He also has a bandage around his head, a memento of his trip out of town last month to hunt black bears in the mountains. The black bear was killed by him, but he almost opened his head, fortunately he was rescued by his family, he was in a coma for more than ten days, and he was once out of breath, but in the end he came back to life, and he finally picked up a life, and lay at home for more than half a month, and was just able to go to the ground a few days ago, which was a strange thing in the city for a while.

"Ziyi, is the injury better?" Just when Yue Xiang was in a daze, a red-faced fat man next to him arched his hand, this person was wearing a Confucian robe, wearing a scarf on his head, and his chubby round face looked like a Maitreya Buddha, it was Yue Xiang's classmate and friend Dong Mingchuan.

"Brother Lao is worried, and the small injuries are not enough to worry about, and I heard that my brother went to Weiziyu to collect medicine in order to save me. I won't say anything about the great kindness, go back to me today, let's drink two cups of him, and stew the bear's paws that came back last time, and don't get drunk and don't return. Yue Xiang returned the salute.

"Brother, can you still drink with this trauma on your head? Wait until the injury is healed......" Dong Mingchuan pointed to the wound on his head

"Hey, that's a piece of." Yue Xiang shook his head nonchalantly. Dong Mingchuan and the two nearby students laughed together: "It really deserves to be our first outlaw Yue Ziyi in Qinghe City." "Liaodong is located outside the Guan, often have to deal with the Mongolian Jurchen and other barbarian tribes, the Han people practice shooting, hunting, fishing and animal husbandry, so they create a fierce folk style, even if they read poetry and books to do learning, most of them are brave and ruthless.

Yue Xiang's family is the Qinghe household, Yue Xiang himself in the Qinghe area is even more famous for both civil and military affairs, once single-handedly killed a big insect, if it weren't for the elders of his family to see him smart and studious by nature and want him to get a reputation in the future to glorify his ancestors, he would have joined the army. Zou Chuxian, the town guard of Qinghe City, had long taken a fancy to Yue Xiang and had always wanted to take him as his own personal general.

"Outlaws are outlaws, it's better than the outlaws, in our Liaodong land, it's useless to be scholars." Another Xiucai Ma Gong came over, "Ziyi, it's really a pity that you don't join the army with a good boxer, my second brother is now in the position of the flag chief under Zou Junmen." If it were for you, the whole Qianzong and the general manager would not be a matter of holding the handle, so why bother reading this suffocating man's poetry every day. ”

Everyone laughed again, Ma Gong's talent and fame were bought by the family to serve as a façade, and he was a scoundrel boy who didn't learn and didn't know how to join the army, and the elders in the family were not allowed to join the army, so he often complained at this time. The Ma family is also the number one in Qinghe City, and the dozen or so students present basically represent the major civil clan forces on the ground of Qinghe.

On the ground of Liaodong, the words of the imperial court and the government may not be as good as the words of these families, such as the Li family of Tieling, the Tong family of Liaoyang, the ancestor of Ningyuan, and the Gao family of Jinzhou, these families are entrenched in Liaodong, and the relationship is intricately intertwined, and each has a private army and a general, and the power is unimaginable. If the government does not agree with them, they will definitely not have a good relationship, and they will control all the black and white underground forces in Liaodong, and even the government will control them.

At that time, the notorious Liaodong mining tax supervisor Gao Huai, the chief eunuch, made chaos in Liaodong for ten years, expropriated and extorted all kinds of evil, and did everything possible to brutally exploit them, making Liaodong chickens and dogs restless, and hundreds of people were ruined. In the end, it was only because he tried in vain to meddle in the military power of Liaodong, and the deduction of military salaries was too harsh, and his crooked brains moved to these people's heads, and finally forced these clans to secretly join forces to take risks and incite mutiny, and let out the words that Gao Huai didn't want to return to the pass alive, in the end, Gao Huai was retired.

Since then, the power of these large and small clans has become more vigorous.

The most famous Tieling Li family is the pinnacle of achievements, Ning Yuanbo Li Chengliang's family monopolized the entire Liaodong military and political government for more than 20 years, the Li family will be powerful outside, fight Mongolia, fight Jurchen, to Korea to fight the Japanese invaders invincible, is the default warlord of the imperial court. After Li Chengliang's death, the military power of the castle fortresses in various towns and roads was still in the hands of his old subordinates.

Zou Junmen in Qinghe City was Li Chengliang's family back then, and now he is a prince of a town.

"The Son of Heaven is heroic, the article teaches Er Cao, everything is inferior, only reading is high. Our Ming Dynasty has always emphasized literature over military force, what is the future of joining the army? Now is not the time for a strong man in the Tang Dynasty, a good man is not a soldier, and a good iron is not a nail. Dong Mingchuan sighed.

"That's not necessarily, there are unforeseen circumstances in the sky, which ......" Yue Xiang's face seemed to have a strange look, and he said softly as if talking to himself, Dong Mingchuan and the others were stunned for a moment when they heard this, and were about to open their mouths to ask, but Yue Xiang preemptively said: "Brother, I haven't left the house for a few days, I don't know what's going on in the city so deserted, I see that even the big iron cannon in the arsenal has been moved out and erected at the head of the city, what's going on?" ”

This question temporarily led everyone's thoughts away, Dong Mingchuan frowned and touched his chin and said: "I don't know very well, but I heard that it was the Jurchen barbarians of Jianzhou Wei who made trouble in Fushun Ma Market last month, and they also fought with the officers and soldiers of Fushunwei, and even the officers and soldiers of Guangning were alarmed, and later I heard that the Jianzhou barbarians robbed everywhere, and a few days ago I heard that Zhang Zhenshuai ordered the transfer of troops to Fushun, and I heard that more than 10,000 people went, and now I don't know the news." ”

Yue Xiang counted the days and shook his head secretly. I thought that the news was spread too slowly, and it was hard to imagine that the speed of this kind of military information transmission was so slow, or was the government deliberately blocking the news, for fear of causing panic and a wave of refugees?

"I also heard about it, I heard that the barbarians of Jianzhou made a big fuss this time, robbed the whole city of Fushun, and the men and women heard that they were captured by thousands, and I heard that even the cannons on the city tower were dragged back to them. Ziyi, didn't your eldest brother go to Fushun Horse Market to deliver the goods, did you come back? Ma Gong also came over.

When he said this, everyone began to talk about it again.

Yue Xiang shook his head, he didn't think anyone could come back alive from Fushun. He is different from these people, he knows what kind of power the Jianzhou Jurchen has, and he also knows that from the day last month, that is, from the 14th day of April in the 46th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, there will be a catastrophe that will erupt from between the white mountains and black waters, until it completely swallows the entire Liaodong, the entire Central Plains, and even the entire Great Tomorrow.

"Do the Jianzhou barbarians really dare to make trouble? Why haven't I heard? Just by virtue of the people who built the state? Our Ming Dynasty can drown them with a mouthful of foam! Even the Mongolian Tatars don't dare to blow up the thorns, are they tired of it? Besides, our officers and soldiers in Liaodong are adults who have fought with the Mongolian Tatars, and they have experienced a hundred battles, and even such fierce Japanese are not opponents, and the Jianzhou barbarians are staying in their own homes and claiming to be kings, and they dare to come to our Ming Dynasty to make trouble? "Some people expressed skepticism.

"You know! I know that I am stupid to study at home. I went to Jianzhou to buy ginseng the year before last, and I saw the horse team of Jianzhou barbarians. Obediently, the team pulled out is also thousands of mountains and fields, I have a family member who used to be a jumping team in the army, saying that the armor of these barbarians is the best iron armor, three points stronger than our Daming. ”

"yes? Then according to you, this Jianzhou barbarian really went to Fushun to make trouble? "Someone was dumbfounded.

"That's not right, what kind of savages are the barbarians in Jianzhou? Kill without blinking! Over the years, Liaodong has been tossed by them, and now they are fighting this and Ming'er are fighting that, I heard that the domains on the other side of Changbai Mountain have all been flattened by him, and there is no time for him to stop. Our family originally had a business with the Donghai Domain, and there was a deposit for a batch of mink furs there, but as a result, the Jianzhou soldiers drew the East China Sea, and this account was not recognized, and my family's deposit of 3,000 taels of silver was not returned. ”

"Then you didn't go to ask for it?"

"Who dare? Unless it's greasy. That group of people is not reasonable at all, and they go in and out with white knives at every turn, no different from bandits' beards. Now the trade route through Beiguan has also been cut off by them, and the goods in Beiguan have been transferred to the Fushun horse market, and the supply of goods in the East China Sea generation has been controlled by the Jianzhou barbarians, and our horse market in Qinghe is really not as good as a day. Someone sighed.

"Co-author, our Qinghe is really trying to prevent Jianzhou barbarians from doing this today? According to you, these wild people will come to our Qinghe to loot? Do they dare? Our Qinghe alone has thousands of officers and soldiers stationed outside the city, how many of his Jurchen barbarians can come? No matter how powerful the bow and arrow are, it can't withstand the cannon, Zou Junmen is a fierce general who went to North Korea to fight the Japanese invaders. ”

"That's not sure, how can these barbarians know what is powerful? In the forty-first year of Wanli, the Jianzhou barbarians colluded with the Mongolian Tatars to occupy the South Pass, and later ran to our Qinghe side in the name of arable land and Tuntian, and I heard that once 20,000 or 30,000 people came to the Yahu Pass. It was still Zhang Xun of Quang Ninh who came over with his soldiers, and the group of savages retracted. ”

"In the forty-fourth year of Wanli, that is, the year before last, our migrant workers in Qinghe City who went to Jinshitai to pick ginseng and log were killed by hundreds of barbarians in Jianzhou. Isn't his Jianzhou Wei also the official position of Da Ming Feng? Why can't we people of the Ming Dynasty work in the land of the Ming Dynasty? Besides, what can we do with him? It's nothing more than digging for silver, picking ginseng, cutting wood, collecting pine nuts, mushrooms, fungus, etc., and then killing them without saying a word. Pity one of my cousins, who also died under the knife of the barbarian. Later, if it weren't for the governor of Guangning, the Yamen, who detained the envoys of the barbarians in Jianzhou and forced them to kill more than a dozen people to pay for their lives, maybe they would have come to Qinghe to make trouble. Now no one dares to go to Jinshitai's generation to pick ginseng. ”

"I've heard about this, and I heard that it was also quite a big trouble that time, and the Jianzhou barbarians began to carry it and didn't hand over people, and then the governor Yamen ordered the horse markets everywhere to stop, and the Jianzhou barbarians had no choice but to hand over the murderer and kill him."

"Then if you can't get it this time, the horse market will have to stop, no wonder he changed to robbing, he can't buy the goods, he naturally has to rob, he is a natural thief. I don't know what happened to Fushun, I heard that even the Mongolian Tartars went to take advantage of the fire to rob, and our family still has a pawnshop in Fushun, this news has never come back, I don't know what happened. ”

"I've seen enough of choking, those barbarians usually come out to arrest people, and when they are captured, the men are dragged to their old village to be Aha, ploughing the fields, farming, fishing, and grazing, and they are guilty of the old nose. When the women are caught, they will be the wives of the village, and seven or eight men will spoil them dozens of times a day. Don't worry about your pawnshop, it's good if people don't have an accident. ”

"This time, Zhang Zhenshuai led the troops over, and if I don't kill them, I don't think I can stop them." Some people said it was aggressive, and the rest agreed. The Ming Dynasty is a heavenly country, and the soldiers and generals are all heavenly soldiers and generals, and it is not easy to clean up a bunch of barbarians.

What's more important is when did the officers and soldiers of Liaodong lose the battle? For more than 20 years, I have not heard of officers and soldiers defeating a battle.

"I've seen enough choking ......" Yue Xiang listened for a long time and suddenly spoke. When the students were discussing enthusiastically, they suddenly heard Yue Xiang come to such a sentence, which was a little strange. Dong Mingchuan asked, "Ziyi, how do you say this?" ”

"I think it's enough to choke this time. I think this time the trouble is not as good as before, no matter how fierce he was in the past, he has never heard of the ransacking of our Daming City, and openly started a war with the officers and soldiers, this is a clear rebellion! This is not as simple as occupying a few more pieces of arable land and stealing a few ginsengs, I can't figure out that this Jianzhou Jurchen barbarian is really rebelling this time! ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone's faces changed a little. Ma Gong looked at him stunned and said, "No...... No way? This Jianzhou Wei is a feudal official of our great tomorrow, and I heard that Nurhachi also worked as a family member in Ningyuanbo's mansion. He dares to rebel? Isn't he afraid of punishing the Nine Clans? ”

"Zhu Jiu Clan? The emperor is far away, he has soldiers and generals in his hands, who can punish him for the nine clans? Besides, Jiannu has already founded the country and called Khan by himself. Over the years, he has conquered the entire barbarian army outside the Guan, except for Ye He in the North Pass, and almost all the others have been drawn by him, and his generals have fought for decades, and each of them has experienced a hundred battles. Besides, I heard that he divided his troops into eight banners, and there were 50,000 or 60,000 ironclad cavalry alone, and Zhang Junmen only went to more than 10,000 people this time. ”

"Our officers and men are all armed with iron cannons, and a single cannon can kill hundreds of people. No matter how many barbarians he has in Jianzhou, no matter how thick the iron armor is, he can't resist the cannons. Dong Mingchuan also expressed dissent.

"Hundreds of kills in one shot, have you seen it with your own eyes? Besides, there are plains near Fushun, which is suitable for iron cavalry charge, and our Ming artillery is too troublesome, and it takes half a day to shoot a cannon, and it is not good to be accurate. After you have fired a shot, before you can make a second shot, I am afraid that the barbarians will rush to you. ”

"Besides, if the battle is really won, why is there no news yet? And even Qinghe is under martial law, I don't think it's possible to figure out that there is a big mess in Fushun, and it is estimated that the officers and soldiers have lost. ”

"That's not necessarily, it's not good to say that the Jianzhou barbarians were scared when they saw our officers and soldiers coming, and hid in the mountains. Jianzhou is full of deep mountains and dense forests, and it is not a hassle to hide tens of thousands of people, maybe Zhang Zhenshuai is leading people to search the mountains. "Of course, no one would want to imagine the consequences of the defeat of the officers and soldiers, and immediately someone began to self-hypnotize.

"I hope so......" Yue Xiang didn't say anything more, he couldn't tell everything he knew, and no one would believe him when he said it. For the people of Liaodong, even if Fushun really fell and the Jianzhou Jurchens really rebelled, it was just a relatively large-scale border raid.

For the Liaodong people, who have been neighbors of the Mongol Tatars for many years, this kind of thing has become accustomed to it. Anyway, they will go back when they have grabbed enough, in their minds, the Jurchens will only graze and hunt like the Mongols, their purpose is food, and the land will not be planted for them.

But Yue Xiang knew that grabbing food was just the beginning.

No one could have imagined that a Jurchen tribal leader in Jianzhou, who was inconspicuous a few decades ago, had a terrible ambition to annex the whole world, and in the days that followed, he would use sabers and bows and arrows to make the entire land of Liaodong bleed and make the entire Ming Dynasty tremble under his iron hooves.

It wasn't until a few years later that this arrogant ambition was shattered in front of a little-known town.

Now, of course, he was only considered the king of savages in a wild land.

The sound of the doorkeeper singing came from outside the door, and everyone quickly stopped talking and stood up one after another. Zou Junmen, the general of Qinghe City, arrived, Zou Chuxian was nearly forty years old, with a strong figure, wearing official uniforms, followed by four pro-soldiers, and strode into the main hall. Yue Xiang and more than a dozen others gave salutes one after another, they were people with meritorious reputations, so there was no need to kneel.

"You don't have to be polite, I will rely on you in the future."

When the people heard him say this, they didn't know what he meant. Yue Xiang stepped forward and asked, "Junmen, but what's the news over there in Fushun?" ”

Zou Chuxian nodded with a heavy face, and then the first words of the exit were like a thunderbolt in the clear sky, which stunned everyone present.

"Fushun...... The army was defeated. ”