In March of the seventh year of Tiancong, Huang Taiji, who had finished sorting out the internal power struggle, began to turn his attention to the surrounding countries and local forces again. At this time, the surrounding situation of Houjin should not be too bad.

Lin Dan Khan disappeared, the Mongol tribes were torn apart, and there was no longer a unified state to confront the Houjin. The Joseon Kingdom still maintained a limited degree of subjugation, but it was determined not to move closer to the Later Kim policy. Looking around, except for the Ming Kingdom, Houjin has no rivals.

However, in the eyes of the Houjin people, the current situation is far more dangerous than when the Mandate of Heaven Khan was just founded. Although the enemy of Houjin is only left with the Ming Kingdom. But the old empire that was constantly aging and decaying has begun to change, and the new emperor of the Ming Kingdom has implemented a series of reforms from internal affairs to military affairs after ascending the throne, so that the old empire seems to be rejuvenated, from the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River to the Monan grassland, the figure of the Ming people appears everywhere.

It was at this time that the Later Jin Junchen finally knew what a powerful country the Ming Dynasty was. When the Ming Dynasty stopped trying to pile up all the resources in the small Liaoxi Corridor, a large and determined anti-Houjin alliance emerged around the Houjin.

Yes, they had already conquered the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, Sakhalin Island, and Haidong Wojibu, but the Ming people only used some small profits to make the tribes in these areas rebel against the Houjin.

They forced the Joseon Kingdom to sign a brotherly alliance, but the alliance was hesitant between confrontation and submissiveness toward the Houjin, deterred by the Ming fleet and the town of Donggang.

Under their continuous attacks, Lin Dan Khan not only moved his tribe westward, but even himself was lost in their attacks, but this allowed the Ming to take over and control most of Monan. The Mongol tribes of Transkhalkha also wavered between the Later Jin and the Ming Dynasty.

Almost all the Jurchen generals who had some insight in Houjin knew that if they wanted to break the current predicament, they only needed to defeat the Ming people. As long as they can achieve another decisive victory like the Battle of Sarhu, those Mongolian tribes and ethnic minorities in the northeast who are dependent on the Ming Dynasty will change their attitudes again.

It's just that if you know it, almost no one dares to openly proclaim it now, and the idea of going to the west if the family lacks something. Because one-third of the Houjin treasury revenue came from trade with the Ming Dynasty, because the war cut off the trade between the two countries, the Houjin first fell into the state of financial collapse.

Today's Houjin is no longer the Houjin of the Mandate of Heaven Khan. At that time, Houjin and the Eight Banners were one, and the treasury was the Eight Banners Treasury, and when robbing, some property had to be returned to the public and then distributed to the Eight Banners, and when the war was made, the property was also allocated from the treasury as war funds.

But today's Houjin Khan Huang Taiji, whose prestige is far less than that of his father Nurhachi, in order to win over the hearts of the Eight Banners soldiers, while suppressing the power of the Eight Banners Baylor, he had to give the Eight Banners soldiers more power. Today's Eight Banners are not equal to Houjin, each flag has its own private treasury and interests, and the treasury of Houjin has also become the private treasury of Huang Taiji alone.

Since everyone's interests are no longer the same, there will naturally be differences in their attitudes toward war. Except for the two yellow flags, all of the eight flags now enjoy the benefits of trade to a greater or lesser extent. And the previous battles with the Ming Kingdom were basically fruitless. Under such circumstances, the number of vested interests that preach that trade is better than war is naturally increasing. Those Jurchens and Mongols who still want to go to the Ming Kingdom to plunder at every turn have become thorns in the eyes of these vested interests.

In the face of such a general trend, Huang Taiji will naturally not go against the tide. He rejected the proposal of the Han officials and once again directed the goal of the expedition to the Ming Kingdom. Huang Taiji understood the thoughts of these Han officials at this time, and as the Ming Kingdom began to flourish again, the most panicked were these Han officials who surrendered to Houjin.

With Sun Degong's experience, these Han officials are very clear that once the Ming Dynasty wins and then the Jin is defeated, the Jurchens can probably ask for the forgiveness of the Ming Emperor, but they will not be let go by the Ming Emperor.

Therefore, these Han officials, more than the Jurchens, actively sought war against the Ming, trying to defeat the Ming army and interrupt the rising momentum of the Ming state's strength. They longed for the decay of the Ming Kingdom to prove that their choice was not wrong. Huang Taiji sometimes felt that he and the Han officials were grasshoppers on the same rope, and as for those Jurchen people, they could jump off the Houjin boat at any time.

Therefore, although Huang Taiji rejected the Han officials' suggestion that the Ming continue to fight, he once again expanded the Han army's Wuzhen Chaoha troops, making the country a military and political pattern of the Jurchen Eight Banners, the Mongolian Two Banners, and the Old and New Han Army Two Banners, a total of 12 banners.

Huang Taiji and the relatives and nobles of the Later Jin Dynasty also realized the population problem of the Later Jin again, because they could not continue the large-scale looting from the Ming State to supplement the materials needed by the Later Jin, the development of production and trade with the Ming State became the main way to solve the material gap of the Later Jin.

However, in the future, Jin's current population is obviously in conflict with the desire to develop production and conduct military regularization training at the same time. Gathering ethnic minorities in the north and east, or sending troops to North Korea to replenish the labor force of the Later Jin Dynasty, became the two most hotly discussed plans in the Later Jin Dynasty.

The attack on Korea would at least wait until after the autumn harvest in August, but it was immediately possible to send men and horses to co-opt those savage tribes and make them useful citizens of the Later Jin.

At the end of March, Shenyang sent four troops to the mountains and forests in the north and northeast to move the savage tribes to the vicinity of the border town of Houjin. Gualja Zhuobutai led 500 Jurchen soldiers from Ningguta, and went east to the border of the Suifen River, breaking 13 villages along the way, and about 800 or 900 men, women, and children.

The Suifen River is a gentle mountain pass that crosses the north-south mountain range separating the northeast and east coasts, and from here it goes down the Suifen River, 200 miles away is Shuangchengzi, and more than 400 miles away is Vladivostok.

In the past, this was the limit of the power of the Later Jin Kingdom, and to the east of this north-south mountain range was the Jurchen region of savages who were only nominally subservient to the Later Jin. Of course, the current words should be to submit to the Ming Dynasty's outer northeastern minority areas.

There was originally a large village of 300 to 500 people on this side of the Suifen River, but by the time Gualja Zhuobutai arrived here with his army, it was already empty, and it was obvious that the disturbances they made along the way had frightened the inhabitants of the area, so that they simply abandoned their homes and fled the place.

While sending people to search the surrounding area, Gualja Zhuobutai ordered people to clean and inspect the village to see if there were any villagers who had not fled, and to find out where the villagers had fled.

Before dark, the soldiers finally brought back five people who had been hiding in the nearby forest, some of them villagers who had fled after being straggled, and some of them hunters who had gone out hunting and had not received an order to relocate. From the mouths of these people, Zhuo Butai quickly figured out the direction in which the villagers fled.

It turned out that the villagers had fled to the mouth of the Sancha River, more than 110 miles to the south, where there was a large village of five or six hundred people. It seems that the villagers want to live there for a while and then return to their homes when they return.

After Gualga Zhuobutai learned about the situation, he immediately gathered his subordinates and announced that he would not evacuate for the time being, but would continue to move south along the Suifen River, and be sure to capture the fleeing villagers and the wild Jurchens at the three forks back to Ningguta.

The Jurchen soldiers who had trekked in the mountains, forests and streams for a month were actually exhausted, and they had always been sure that the Suifen River was the end point of this expedition, so they could still grit their teeth and support it. Now Gualja Zhuobutai suddenly wants to continue south, which immediately arouses the dissatisfaction of the soldiers.

"Lord Zhuo Butai, everyone's food is almost finished, and there are more than a dozen wounded soldiers in the team, if we continue to go south and encounter those savage Jurchen resistance, can we go back alive?"

"Yes, sir. You grew up in Shenyang, so you're probably not familiar with the weather here, and it rains almost every day from May to August. It's April 27th now, and if the rainy season begins, our bows and arrows will be useless, and how can we fight those savage Jurchens without them? ”

"My lord, we have broken down thirteen villages this time, and the credit is not small. Why take any more chances..."

"That's enough." Zhuo Butai threw the wood in his hand to the ground fiercely, he got up and looked into the eyes of his subordinates and scolded: "Look at your bears, it's just that you have walked a little way, climbed a little mountain and complained bitterly, are you still my soldiers of the Eight Banners?"

When the old Khan took your fathers and ancestors to run around the mountains and forests in order to defeat the four-way Ming army, how could your fathers and ancestors complain? Now we are just a bunch of lost dogs on the run, can't you catch up?

My Houjin attaches great importance to military merits, as long as there are military merits, there will be fine clothes and jade food to enjoy. Since I was born, I haven't heard of anyone who dislikes military exploits too much.

Breaking thirteen stockades is a credit, but it is an ordinary achievement. But if you can capture nearly 2,000 people at a time, it will be a great achievement. Those savages in the mountains are nothing more than wooden spears and arrows, and even if it rains heavily, can't the armor on our bodies stop their wooden spears? ”

Under Gualja Zhuobutai's strong assertions, it was also the fear of the powerful Su Wanbu behind them, and finally everyone obeyed Gualja Zhuobutai's orders. On the second day, Zhuo Butai left the wounded and 25 soldiers stationed in the village, and he himself took 420 soldiers and a small amount of baggage and light clothing on the road, trying to catch up with the villagers who were pulling their families halfway.

Zhuo Butai's prediction was not wrong, and on the afternoon of the first day, they saw the back of the fleeing villagers, more than 20 women and children, walking slowly on the meadow on the riverbank.

As soon as these women and children saw the Jurchens, they collapsed to the ground and surrendered, and did not flee or resist. On the second day, Chobutai caught even more prisoners on the road, not only more than a hundred, but also young men.

At the same time, the village at the mouth of the Sancha River was almost 10 miles away from the Jurchens. Knowing this, Zhuo Butai ordered his troops to rest in place for half an hour, and prepared to storm the village in one go, ending the last battle of the expedition.