Within a month, the good news from the front continued to reach the Fengyang Palace.

Xi Benzhen, who sent the envoy, succeeded in concluding an alliance with the Korean state, and it was estimated that it would cost 2 million taels of silver to rebuild the Phi Dao military fort. According to the covenant negotiated by Xi Benzhen, if the construction is carried out by the Korean state, only one million taels of silver will be paid. It not only saves a lot of construction time, but also saves costs, which is simply a double win.

Xi Benzhen concluded an alliance with the Korean state, and when he returned, he went to Phi Island to meet with two generals, Zhang Ying and Zhao Quanzhong. The first is to inform the second general of the latest results of the peace talks, and the second is to order the Xuanjia Army, which is stationed on Phi Island, to immediately relocate with the Korean state and assume the heavy responsibility of guarding the Yalu River.

With Xi Benzhen's identity, he couldn't mobilize the Xuanjia Army. However, before Xi Benzhen sent an envoy, Fang Yuan had already authorized him to handle the peace treaty with Korea with full authority. Now the condition of the peace treaty is that the Xuanjia Army must participate in the garrison of the Yalu River, and Zhang Ying and Zhao Quanzhong have no reason to refuse.

In addition, being able to leave Phi Island, which drinks the sea breeze, in this cold winter and stationed on the territory of the Korean State is also an improvement in the living standards of the soldiers. As for the war with the Manchus that would break out at any time, they were sent by Fang Yuan to start a war with the Manchus, to fight on the land of the Korean State, and the people provided by the Korean State were responsible for the logistics.

The second general agreed to Xi Benzhen's transfer, and under the transportation of the Korean National Naval Division, he went to the battlefield north of Korea. After a brief discussion, the two generals Zhang Ying and Zhao Quanzhong decided that Zhao Quanzhong, who was eager for meritorious service, would lead 20,000 powerful cavalry to be stationed on the Yalu River to deal with the harassment of the Manchus at any time. Zhang Ying led the elite of the 10,000-foot battalion and stationed 10,000 soldiers of the Korean state in Pyongyang.

The consumption of Xuanjia soldiers and war horses was all provided by the Korean state. The capital of Korea is so poor that it is difficult to support such a large army that spends money.

Fang Yuan also did not want to take advantage of the Korean state, and the grain consumed by the 30,000 Xuanjia army, the forage for the war horses, as well as the cotton clothes and animal skins to keep out the cold, and the people who supported the war horses, all of which were converted into silver, or raw silk, silk, porcelain and other items, which were settled by the Korean state and the Jiangnan Special Economic Zone.

When the Xuanjia Army took over the defense of the line from Pyongyang to the Yalu River in northern Korea, the Korean state also began to recruit a large number of people, as well as the materials hoarded in Uiju, to go to Phi Island to rebuild the defense of the military fort.

And in the direction of Henan, Li Yan also came with good news.

Zhou Yuji, who returned to help, first had to ensure the safety of Shanxi, and then it was his turn to get Henan's defense. In Shanxi, in order to prevent the invasion of Shanxi by Li Zicheng and his followers, Zhou Yuji spent a lot of money to build a defense system similar to the Guanning defense line from the west bank of Weishui to Taiyuan. There are more than 10 county towns and at least 30 military forts along the way.

The large area of Kaifeng and Henan Prefectures south of the Yellow River is all flat and flat. It was beneficial to the cavalry offensive of the Xuanjia army, but not to the infantry of Zhou Yuji.

Zhou Yuji immediately abandoned the territory of Henan south of the Yellow River, and stationed the Jin army in Huaiqing and Weihui north of the Yellow River to guard the Yellow River defense line. However, sticking to the Yellow River defense line is just a show, how can there be a history that sticking to the Yellow River can prevent the enemy from crossing the river?

If the Xuanjia army crosses the river to attack Huaiqing and Weihui again, Zhou Yuji will also withdraw his troops immediately and make every effort to hold the defense line built on the Taihang Mountains.

Zhou Yuji took the initiative to retreat strategically, and ceded the most important Kaifeng and Henan Second Prefectures of Henan to Li Yan, and Li Yan was happy to accept it. Li Yan and his wife are both from Henan, and they went to seek refuge with Li Zicheng as a rogue, and now they have finally returned to their hometown as the governor of Henan.

Fang Yuan was overjoyed when he saw this letter, not because Henan and Kaifeng Erfu had any strategic value, but because he occupied Erfu, he opened up the connection with the Qin King of Shaanxi and connected the territory of Henan and Shaanxi into a line.

At this point, the general trend of the world has been decided, and only the three forces that can oppose Fang Yuan are left on the Central Plains, the Gyeonggi Imperial Court, Sichuan Liukou Zhang Xianzhong, Liu Zongmin, and the Muwangfu in the southwest, and the Tusi in various places, all of which have been cut apart by the Xuanjia Army, and can no longer form a joint force, so they can only wait quietly to be exterminated one by one.

Of course, there are two more important benefits to opening up the connection with Shaanxi.

One is that there is no need to sneak and travel long distances to buy war horses, and a large number of war horses can be purchased directly from several border towns in Shaanxi. Fang Yuan saved one million taels of silver and allocated half of it to the Changshu Arsenal to build tanks; Half was given to Li Yan, and he was asked to buy 50,000 war horses within a year, and collect another 30,000 elite cavalry fighters in Henan.

The second is foreign trade. Shaanxi is the starting point of the ancient Silk Road, and the land trade with Central Asia, the Middle East, and even Luxi and other countries all started from Shaanxi. To open up the connection with Shaanxi is to open up the trade of the Silk Road.

Fang Yuan was in full swing preparing for a decisive battle with the Manchus, and the Manchu direction would naturally not sit idly by.

Shengjing

Palace

The fire in the dormitory was burning on the stove, and on the couch, the Manchu Emperor Dolgon was pressing on a naked woman, venting to his heart's content.

The dull sound of a man and the moaning of a woman are intertwined.

After a quarter of an hour, Dorgon finally let out of his mind and rolled out of the woman.

The early winter was cold, and the winter in Shengjing was even colder, and a biting cold was coming, and Dolgon put on a coat and sat on the dragon couch to close his eyes and recuperate.

The woman beside him was Dolgon's long-time political enemy, Hauge's wife, the Korqin Borzigit clan, that is, a woman from the same tribe as his queen and Concubine Zhuang.

When he ascended the throne as emperor five years ago, Dolgon took Huang Taiji's concubine, and Concubine Zhuang, who already had a leg behind his back, into the harem as the imperial concubine. Hauge had been executed by him two years earlier, and at the same time, Hauge's wife had been adopted by him as a concubine.

The woman who conquered her political opponents was a great sense of accomplishment for Dorgon.

Dolgon, who ascended the throne as the Manchu emperor for five years, has made extraordinary achievements in playing with women, and has taken all the women of Huang Taiji and Haoge father and son into his own. It can be regarded as a fierce revenge for the deep hatred that was taken away from the throne by Huang Taiji and his son Haoge for several years, and he almost couldn't ascend the throne.

But when it came to military and political affairs, Dorgon's achievements were mixed.

Happily, after many years of Manchurian and Mongolian peace, there are also marriages between Dolgon and Duoduo and the Mongol tribes. The Mongolian tribes were finally formally integrated. The corresponding advantage is that the Mengba Banner has also been expanded, and the previous 10 or so cattle records per banner have been expanded to 20 cattle records per banner and 6,000 people. The Eight Banners of Mongolia were a total of 48,000 soldiers.

The Han people in western Liaoxi took the initiative to abandon Ningyuan City outside the Guanguan because of the Ming court. As soon as Ningyuan City was demolished, it was equivalent to the Ming court taking the initiative to give up its rule over Liaoxi. Dolgon's Manchu forces took the opportunity to occupy the important town of Guangning in western Liaoning. Moreover, with the center of Guangning, the Han people in western Liaoning were continuously gathered, and the establishment of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty was expanded again, imitating the restructuring of the Eight Banners of Mongolia, and it also reached 48,000 soldiers.

For the integration of the Mongol tribes and the Liaotu Han people, Dolgon was quite successful, but when integrating the Korean state, there was an unexpected fork.