For the intelligence units of the Ming Dynasty, now they no longer try to start from the Manchurian nobles to inquire about top-secret military information. The focus of the intelligence unit is to collect data on the fluctuation of the prices of various materials in the Qing market, and then conduct a comprehensive analysis to determine whether the Qing has the strength to wage war and the scale of the war.

Compared with the political tendency to focus on the leaders of the frontier tribes in the past, the Ming Dynasty is now more concerned about whether the frontier tribes have the power to resist the Ming Dynasty. Under Chongzhen's direct intervention, the three major intelligence units of the Ming Dynasty, the Social Investigation Bureau, the Jinyiwei, and the Military Intelligence Section, have become more and more inclined to materialism, believing that the change of the material base is the root cause of all changes.

For example, the report submitted to the emperor by the Social Investigation Bureau does not contain too many views within the Manchu Qing on waging foreign wars, but only focuses on the recent changes in the prices of grain, steel, saltpeter, and sulfur, and it can already be determined that the Manchus are preparing for a war.

Although the target of the Manchu war and the exact time of the war have not yet been determined, the Manchu Qing already have the material reserves to launch a war of no less than the scale of Chongzhen's two years, but it is already a sure thing.

Chongzhen, who finished reading the report, also sighed, the rebellion of the Jianzhou Jurchens was indeed a miracle, but this miracle was not based on the contribution of the Jianzhou Jurchens to the economic development of Liaodong, but on the decline of the Ming army and the military adventures of the Jurchens.

The Jianzhou Jurchen armed forces, which were established with the support of the Ming Dynasty, launched a war of rebellion against the Ming after unifying the Jurchen tribes. The purpose of this war was not so much to establish the independence of the Jurchens, but to unify the Jurchen tribes, Nurhachi, who found that he could not support so many Jurchens, and could only wear down some of his subordinates by waging wars.

But who would have thought that the seemingly powerful Liaodong Ming army would be so vulnerable, and the materials that the Jianzhou Jurchens seized from the Liaodong Ming army were enough to feed the entire Jurchen tribe. The weakness of the Ming army naturally stimulated the ambition of the Jianzhou Jurchens, and it was much easier to plunder materials from the Ming people in Liaodong than for the Jurchens to farm and produce by themselves.

The reason that drives all backward nations to wage war against advanced nations is that the low productive forces of the backward nations are not enough to feed the whole nation, and the armed forces of the advanced nations are not enough to deter the backward nations. The root cause of the advanced nations waging war against the backward nations lies in their thirst for land and resources.

The Jurchens had the need to rob the Ming Dynasty, but the Ming Dynasty lacked the force to defend itself, which made the Jianzhou Jurchens frequently launch wars after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. In order to meet the needs of the war, even though the Jianzhou Jurchens occupied most of Liaodong, they still adopted a mode of concentrating on urban residence.

Although this model is not conducive to production, it is conducive to the armed training and armed assembly of the Jurchen Eight Banners. If it weren't for the failure of Huang Taiji's attack on the Ningjin defense line in the last year of the Apocalypse, and the frustration of Huang Taiji's detour to enter the pass in the second year of Chongzhen, which made it impossible for Hou Jin to arm and plunder the Ming Dynasty to support himself, Hou Jin's military operations against the Ming would have become more frequent.

It is precisely because of the failure of these two invasions that Houjin had to focus on domestic production and operation. With the remnants of the Han Chinese in Liaodong and the population looted from Korea, as well as commercial dealings with the Ming Dynasty, the Later Jin Dynasty truly formed a state and no longer a military bandit group.

If it was not Huang Taiji who led the Houjin, but a slightly more mediocre monarch, then perhaps the peace between the Ming and Qing dynasties would have been able to last for quite a long time. But Huang Taiji is not a person who is willing to settle for the status quo, as can be seen from his change of Jianzhou Jurchen to Manchuria, and the change of Houjin to Daqing, he is not a monarch who is a little rich and peaceful.

Maybe he will compromise with Da Ming temporarily, but this compromise is just to recuperate and wait for a more suitable time to attack Da Ming. And the reason why Chongzhen wants to compromise with the Manchu Qing is not that he has the ability to destroy the Manchu Qing and not do it, but the current Ming Dynasty can't do it.

When Chongzhen formulated the strategy of defending the north and attacking the south at the beginning of his ascension to the throne, it was already destined that the Ming would not focus on the military action to eliminate the Manchus. For the current Ming Dynasty, it will cost an astronomical amount every year just to maintain the transformation of the border army, the reorganization of the new army, the construction of water conservancy facilities in the north and south, the relief of the disaster victims in the north, and the co-optation of the Mongolian departments.

In such a situation, spending a huge amount of military expenditure to attack the Manchu Qing Dynasty, even if Liaodong is defeated, it is necessary to continue to fill in the huge reconstruction funds, and there is no benefit. But if you use the same amount of money for colonization in the southern seas, you can get a tenfold return for every dollar invested.

These interests and materials imported from overseas are stabilizing the economic and political situation of the Ming Dynasty, and in such a situation, even Chongzhen himself is difficult to change this strategy, after all, this strategy has been related to the vital interests of most people. Just as many courtiers opposed the shrinking of the Ningjin defense line in the early years of his accession to the throne, there would be no one who supported the shrinkage of the Ming Dynasty's overseas power to be used in Liaodong.

Although Chongzhen can't change the current strategic direction of the Ming Dynasty, it doesn't mean that he can't make some adjustments to the defense in the north. After thinking for a long time, he instructed Lu Qi: "Forward this report to the General Staff and ask them to draw up a plan for the outbreak of the Northern War."

The General Headquarters of the Northern Defense Line was formed, with Lu Xiang promoted to commander-in-chief and Zhang Chun, Gunchuktaiji, Amin, and Du Du as deputy commanders.

Also, how is the financial plan implemented by the Social Investigation Bureau in Shenyang going? How well is Fan Yongdou cooperative? ”

Lu Qi recalled, and then stepped forward and replied: "The financial plan went more smoothly than expected, but the Manchu Qing Dynasty was very strict in controlling the outflow of materials, and it was difficult for us to smoothly transport a large amount of materials even if we took them.

Fan Yongdou cooperated well, and at his suggestion, the Manchus implemented a gold and silver exchange law to force the people to hand over gold and silver, which nearly tripled the Manchu treasury.

Gold and silver are more convenient to carry than other things, and the Four Seas Trading Company is cooperating with Fan Yongdou to exchange the Qing Yuan in his hand for gold and silver and transport it back, of course, it will take a certain amount of time. According to our estimates, by the end of this autumn, about eighty percent of the profits will be shipped out of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the remaining two achievements can only be deposited in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said: "I don't think it will go so smoothly, the Manchu Qing army has always been in the late autumn, if Huang Taiji really wants to start a war, the outflow of materials will be banned from this summer."

Let Sihai Trading Company detonate the Manchu stock market in advance, and disrupt Huang Taiji's steps first. In addition, the company can mortgage the materials in Shenyang to those Manchu relatives who are familiar with each other, so as not to let Huang Taiji serve it in one pot.

In addition, the Japanese side was notified to raise the purchase price of sulfur, and the North Korean side was notified to block the sulfur trade between Japan and North Korea. From now on, I don't want a pound of sulfur to flow into the territory of the Manchus..."

When Chongzhen was trying to disrupt the rhythm of the Manchu war in the palace, Huang Taiji was also cleaning up the hidden dangers behind the war. Compared with the Ming people on the east coast and the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, Huang Taiji was more concerned with the military alliances that gradually formed along the Jingqili River. The Jingqili River, also known as the Jieya River by the natives, is a gathering area for the Daur and Sauron peoples.

For the Manchus, whether they were Daur or Sauron, they were originally supposed to be the Jurchens used by the Manchus to supplement the population. But when they formed a military alliance with the support of the Ming, they began to threaten the Manchu rule in the middle and upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River and the Nenjiang River Valley.

After all, the Ming people were a group of outsiders, and even if they gained a foothold on the east coast and the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, it would be difficult for them to integrate into the local tribal society. However, this military alliance of the Jingqili River was different, they and the inhabitants of the Manchu frontier mostly belonged to the same ethnic group, and had the same living habits and language, and when this military alliance was established, it was natural to compete with the Manchus for the population of the frontier.

In this era, the Northeast lost its control over the land without population. Therefore, the Manchu Qing Dynasty could temporarily tolerate the Shuangchengzi and Boli built by the Ming people, but Huang Taiji could not tolerate this newly emerged Jingqili River military alliance for a moment.

So at the end of the autumn of the third year of Chongde, Huang Taiji mobilized 2,500 people to expedition to the Jingqili River, and Wu Bahai led the army to raid Hailanpao at the mouth of the Jingqili River at the end of October, conquering this fortress that had just been built, and about 20 large and small tunzi nearby. And along the Jingqili River all the way to the upper reaches of the area, in February of the fourth year of Chongde, more than 40 villages along the river were destroyed before returning triumphantly.

Although the leader of the Jingqilijiang Tribal Alliance sent people to Boli to ask for assistance from the Ming army when Hailanpao was attacked by the Qing army, the Manchu Qing also mobilized an army to confront Boli's Ming army when they sent troops to attack Hailanpao, making it difficult for the Boli Ming army to send troops to the rescue.

It was not until the beginning of January that the Ming generals of Valen came to support with 600 Ming troops, but by this time the Qing army had basically controlled the lower reaches of the Jingqili River, and the Ming army did not dare to attack easily. It was not until the Qing army began to withdraw to the other side of the Heilongjiang River that the Ming army found an opportunity to attack the rear of the Qing army and save dozens of old and weak people.

After this battle, the tribal alliance of the Jingqili River suffered a heavy blow, and the tribal alliance with a population of more than 10,000 people was left with only 3 or 4,000 people left. The strength of the Qing army caused some upstream villages to withdraw from the alliance one after another, unwilling to continue to be hostile to the Qing army.

The remaining villages were unwilling to submit to the Qing army, and it was difficult for them to cope with the oppression of the Qing army alone, so they had to abandon their homeland, or move to the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River, far from the Qing army's stronghold, or simply move the entire village to the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River under the control of the Ming army, seeking the protection of the Ming army.

More than 20 villages, including Bardaqi Ernab, Moyin, and Erpen, moved to Boli and Valun with 700 or 800 people, while many more villages took refuge in Bomu Bogol, the leader of the Kamunikan tribe between the Shilek and Jingqili rivers, which greatly strengthened the strength of this Evenki tribe.

The Manchu Qing conquered the Jingqili River basin this time, basically achieved their goal, but this war also made the various tribes in the Heilongjiang River valley realize that it was impossible to dream of independence from the Manchus and the Ming Dynasty, and they could only choose to cling to one side.

Compared with the Manchu Qing who constantly moved them to the interior to assimilate, these tribes preferred to choose the Ming Dynasty. After all, the Ming Dynasty, which had a large amount of supplies, was more willing to use trade to envelop these tribes, and also respected their living customs.