In the flower hall of the back house of the governor's mansion in the town of Santunying, the heat emitted by the fire channel under the ground in the hall bakes the entire flower hall warmly. The interior of the flower hall is also surrounded by a whole horse of brocade along the wall to shield it from the cold wind from the outside.

Zhu Youzhen sat in the middle of the flower hall at this moment and looked at the documents coming from everywhere, the original layout in the flower hall has been replaced, and the current flower hall has become Zhu Youzhen's study and bedroom.

Although Zhu Youzhen, who grew up in the palace since he was a child, has always been in good health, the rush in the past month has still made him a little overtired. And he has been taken care of since he was a child, and after refusing the eunuchs in the palace to follow him on the expedition, his life began to become a little chaotic. As the temperature continued to drop these days, coupled with the mental relaxation brought about by the victory in battle, he finally suffered some wind chills, and began to cough from time to time.

Although Zhu Youzhen felt that it was just a minor illness, Wang Zaijin and the others were like a great enemy and wanted to send him back to the rear. But at this time, Chongzhen won one after another because he commanded the Ming army on the East Road, and his prestige in the army was much higher than that of Wang Zaijin and other officials, and he was unwilling to leave the front line, and Wang Zaijin could not do anything about it.

Wang Zaijin saw that he could not send the emperor off the front line, so he ordered someone to arrange this flower hall and let Chongzhen nourish his body in it. Zhu Youzhen also knew that it was not the time for him to get sick, so he moved in obediently.

The large brocade shielded the cold wind outside, and also blocked the light outside, so even though it was still daytime, there were still several whale candles lit in the flower hall, illuminating the entire flower hall as bright as day.

After sitting on the circle chair and listening to Li Hongyuan's report, Zhu Youzhen wrapped the brocade robe on his body, took a piece of paper, blew his nose, crumpled it into a ball and threw it into the copper basin on the side, and then said to him lazily: "Dolgon said so, then how did you reply to him?" ”

Li Hongyuan hesitated for a moment before replying: "The minister thinks what he said is right, my Ming is a state of etiquette, since I recognize that they are envoys on behalf of the Houjin State, I should naturally treat each other with courtesy, and I can't make the small border countries think that I am rude."

Therefore, the ministers moved out of the courtyard and allowed them to choose two guards from outside the city to take care of their lives. However, the minister had already ordered someone to check and confirm that none of the Jurchen guards entering the city were carrying any weapons. ”

Zhu Youzhen held a cup of steaming boiled water, sipped it lightly without a sip, and after listening to Li Hongyuan's approach, he shook his head and said: "Where can Houjin be regarded as a small border country, but it is just a local rebel regime in my Daming." Dorgon is nothing more than a rebellious representative, an emissary of some kind of country.

However, these rebellious fists are still tough, so let's put up with them for a few days, let them be proud for a few days, and then we will settle the reckoning with them later.

Have you talked to Dorgon about anything else? What kind of peace conditions did he bring? ”

Li Hongyuan was greatly excited about Chongzhen's ideal of recovering Liaodong revealed in his tone today, and as a member of the General Staff, he still could not accept last year's emperor's proposal to negotiate peace with Houjin. The successive defeats of the Ming army led to the loss of the land of Liaodong and Hexi, which was really an unacceptable fact for the Ming people.

In addition to the Yongle period when the Ming army took the initiative to abandon the Guanwai guards, the loss of the Hetao in the last years of Jingtai, and the loss of Hamiwei in the Chenghua years, the fall of Liaodong can be said to be the most influential territorial fall event for the Ming people in the past ten years.

In the past, the Ming people still had a certain psychological advantage over the various ethnic groups outside the Guanxi in psychology. Although a lot of territory was lost before, those places belonged to the nomads on the grassland, and they were not really Ming territories in the hearts of the Ming people. But Liaodong is different, although Liaodong is called Guanwai, but it is a territory redeveloped by the Ming people. The Ming people even spent decades building the Great Wall of Liaodong to protect the newly developed land.

Before Nurhachi raised his army, the number of Han people in Liaodong was close to 10 million. With such a large number of Han people, they were slaughtered by the Jianzhou Jurchens, and they robbed the cities built by the Han people outside the customs and the fertile fields developed, which naturally made the Ming people a little unbearable.

Of course, this simple patriotic feeling only exists among people who have a certain amount of education; Or among the people who have traveled south and north, and have seen a wider range of people. Li Hongyuan, who was born in a military family, was naturally one of them, and he did not approve of ending the war with Houjin, and then the two countries divided the border with the current border, so that Houjin became a country that divided Liaodong.

He still hoped in his heart that one day he would be able to lead the army to attack Houjin, recapture the land and Han people that had been robbed by the Jurchens, wash away the humiliation of the defeat of the Ming army in Liaodong, and re-incorporate the land of Liaodong into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

However, although he was in high spirits because he understood the emperor's intentions, he still reported to Chongzhen with some annoyance when he thought of the conditions put forward by Dolgon: "The conditions brought by Dolgon are very rude, he proposed that before the two countries strike troops and negotiate peace, they should first exchange prisoners, and they must be replaced one-on-one, and he also asked for priority to exchange those living Jurchens."

In addition, if the two sides reach a peace treaty, the passes of the Great Wall that the Houjin now occupy, will be a pile of useless things for the Houjin, so he hopes that we can redeem these passes with grain, and the price of grain he proposed is not high.

In addition, he also said that the reason why Houjin made a detour to attack our country this time was entirely because we accepted their fugitives and sent troops to invade their border areas. Therefore, he demanded that we make a public statement that we would no longer accept fugitives from the Later Jin Kingdom, and that those who had fled to the Ming Kingdom should also be arrested and returned to them, and that we would not send troops to invade their borders. ”

Zhu Youzhen coughed for a while, and then came to his senses and said sarcastically: "Didn't they ask for compensation?" It seems that the skin of these tartars is not thick enough. At the passes of the Great Wall, if they liked, they would continue to leave soldiers and horses to station, but the Ming Dynasty would not guarantee the safety of these garrisons.

It is impossible to exchange prisoners one-on-one, tell them: our captured Mongol vassals and Uluts in exchange for all the Ming soldiers and civilians in their hands; The Horqin Department was not a member of the Houjin, so the release of the Horqin prisoners was for the Horqin Department to send someone to discuss with me.

As for the Jurchens captured by our army, as long as they have not slaughtered our civilians, I will still allow them to exchange them back. And those war criminals who have slaughtered our civilians must first be punished by our country.

Tell Dorgon that if he wants to ransom the men and horses of the two white flags, I only have two demands: first, send their so-called fugitive families to Daming; Second, the Guangning rebel general Sun Degong and the three clans were all sent to the Ming Dynasty.

As for the matter of negotiating peace, as long as they return to Liaodong, the two sides can continue to act in accordance with last year's peace treaty and there is no need to discuss it separately. ”

After hearing that the emperor stopped talking, Li Hongyuan waited for a while, thinking that Chongzhen had finished his instructions, and was about to retire loudly, but he heard the emperor say: "You can also convey the conditions for the release of the captives that I just said, so that they can rest assured." In addition, you can ask Dolgon to meet the captured White Flag personnel, and you can find a few obedient people to ask Dolgon, and let Dolgon confirm in public whether the conditions we proposed for the release of the prisoners are true. ”

"Yes, I understand." Li Hongyuan hurriedly swallowed the words of resignation and promised the emperor first.

Zhu Youzhen nodded before continuing: "In addition, the wounded prisoners in Qianxi and Santun Camp City will be selected, and selected according to whether they can move around or not, and less than 100 households will be selected, and then these wounded will be handed over to the guards around Dolgon to bring back, as our sincerity in negotiating peace, and by the way, let them send Du Du to Santun Camp City." ”

Li Hongyuan suddenly said with some worry: "Your Majesty, if we return the prisoners first, will we be too eager to negotiate peace." If those Jurchens think that we are cowardly and make a tone in the peace talks, isn't it a bit self-defeating? ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at him, smiled and said: "We have trained military doctors for almost two years, and we have transferred a lot of doctors in the pharmacy, but we can barely treat these wounded, if it weren't for the current weather, how would many of the wounded survive."

After the Jin army made a detour and attacked from afar, how many doctors and medicinal herbs could the army bring? It's all used on these wounded, what if those generals and Jurchen relatives are injured?

What's more, even if the Houjin army goes out, there are still thousands of miles to go. A wounded person who cannot walk needs at least two people to take care of them before they can return to Liaodong smoothly.

Sending these wounded over will not only reduce the workload of our field hospitals, but also offset a part of the combat capability of the Houjin army.

Of course, Huang Taiji and they can also leave these wounded behind, but in that case, the morale of the Houjin army will inevitably be greatly damaged. Fighting and dying on the battlefield may also motivate your comrades to fight. But watching the comrades around you die in wailing day and night, or decaying day by day, will not have any effect on boosting morale. ”

Li Hongyuan pondered for a moment, finally figured it out, and replied respectfully: "Your Majesty hopes to use these wounded to completely dispel the fighting courage of the Houjin soldiers, and the minister understands. After the ministers went down, they asked them to gather those Houjin wounded and send them to the Houjin army as soon as possible. Does Your Majesty have any other commands? ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a moment, and then said: "Is the interrogation of the prisoners in Santun Camp City almost complete?" ”

Li Hongyuan lowered his head and thought for a while before replying: "About one-third of the people still need to continue the interrogation, does Your Majesty have any special instructions?" ”

Zhu You put together his brocade robe and said, "There is so much reconstruction work to be done in the Santun camp city, and these prisoners can't be allowed to eat leisurely." You arrange to pick some honest captives to work.

Well, try to let the men and horses of the Horqin Department be responsible for the work of overseers, and in the future, the food and heating firewood of the captives will be linked to their work performance. The power to distribute the supplies is vested in the overseers, and the people we send are only responsible for maintaining order and distributing the workload..."