Xiaozhuang heard the news from Tong Tulai and felt a sense of powerlessness climb into his heart, since the death of Huang Taiji, in the past five or six years, his orphans and widows have faced the tigers and wolves of the Manchu Dynasty, and they have been walking like a tightrope around various forces, which ensures that his son's throne is stable.

Now it's hard to wait until Dolgon is about to braid, plus the two white flags suffered huge losses in the first battle of Jiangxi last year, and Taizu's elite for many years was lost in Jiangxi. Seeing that he was finally going to keep the clouds open and see the sun and the moon, who would have thought that the damn Emperor Shenwu would return the two white flags and six thousand elite soldiers to Dolgon.

6,000 people is not much, but returning to Beijing will immediately upset the balance. Although the two yellow flags and the two red flags are stronger than the two white flags in terms of overall strength, the soldiers of the two white flags are the elite of the two yellow flags of Nurhachi, and it is really hard to say that they can win if they really fight.

In his later years, Nurhachi bestowed most of his two yellow banners on his mother's three younger sons, Azig, Dolgon, and Dordor. The rest of his own commanders are pro-army, but he has a clear instruction that Azig is the owner of the yellow banner, and Duoduo will lead the yellow banner, and in the future, after his death, all the pro-army commanded by himself will be given to Duoduo, but another banner will be given to Dorgon. Some historians believe that this is tantamount to a public declaration that Dorgon is the heir. Because this distribution scheme gave the three brothers of the same mother a great advantage in military power, no other brother could compare with them, but on the contrary, it also made the other sons of Nurhachi unite against the three brothers.

Shortly before Nurhachi's death, he had transferred Dudu, the owner of the White Flag, to the Red Flag, and was going to give it to Dolgon, but he died before he could make arrangements. As soon as he took a breath, several eldest sons united to force the three brothers' biological mother Dafujin, Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne and seized the white flag, with his eldest son Haoge as the banner owner, but Dolgon kept the 15 Niu Lu he received and attached it to the Zhenghuang banner of Azig. The Manchus respected yellow, and Huang Taiji changed the original yellow flag and inlaid yellow flag to inlaid white flag and positive white flag, and the two white flags he led became two yellow flags. In this way, Azig collared with white flags, Duoduo collared with white flags, plus the pro-army left by Nurhachi, became the strongest of the eight banners, and Huang Taiji's two yellow flags were the smallest at this time.

The reason why Huang Taiji did not kill the three brothers at this time was because although they were young, they had the strongest troops, because they were not too threatening at a young age, but they were easy to grasp and use to resist the other three Baylors. Azig was the most straightforward and reckless of the three, so in the second year, Huang Taiji deposed Azig's banner master in the name of saying goodbye to his younger brother without authorization, and replaced it with a white flag under the leadership of Dolgon.

Later, Huang Taiji adopted a strategy to abolish Amin with a blue flag and Mang Gurtai with a white flag, and replaced Amin with the obedient Jilharang with a blue flag. After the violent death of Mang Gul, his half-brother Degele led the blue flag, Dege died bizarrely, Huang Taiji launched the rebellion of the three brothers and sisters of Mangde, annexed the blue flag, and divided the blue flag and the yellow flag into two, forming a new blue and yellow flag, commanded by himself, from which he also divided a part of the cattle to Haoge Zhuangli, Haoge's inlaid yellow flag became the positive blue flag, and the result of the change was the new inlaid yellow flag The strength is the least, in order to consolidate the position, Huang Taiji found a fork in the second year of Chongde to mix the two white flags of Dorgon and Duoduo, With Dolgon as the main white flag and Dordo as the white flag master, but the two white flags have always been relatively united due to their historical origins, and their strength is the second and third of the eight banners.

When Huang Taiji died, he and Haoge had a total of 117 Niu Lu, which was the largest force in the Eight Banners, and the three Dolgon brothers had 98 Niu Lu, ranking second, and the two red flags of the eldest Dai Shan (his son Yue Tuo died, and Dai Shan led the two red flags) and the blue flag of Zierharang had 96 Niu Lu as the middle force of the Eight Banners. From here, you can see why Dolgon is unwilling to fight hard for the throne, Hauge has the advantage of troops, and has always defended bravely, although the three Dolgon brothers are smaller in number but have stronger combat power (Nurhachi's descendants, Huang Taiji did not change too much).

Huang Taiji only received the positive white flag during Nurhachi's lifetime, and his strength was relatively weak, with only 18 Niu Lu. Dai Shan led two red flags with a total of 51 Niu Lu, of which the red flag (26 Niu Lu) was the flag of his eldest son Yue Tuo. The owner of the blue flag is Mang Gurtai, and the owner of the blue flag is Amin. Therefore, they are also called the four major Baylors, that is, the banner lord Baylor-Gushan Ezhen. At that time, the two yellow flags were owned by Nurhachi, but the official history said that it was led by Huang Taiji, and the purpose of writing this is to highlight that Huang Taiji was the heir of Nurhachi before his death, but in fact, Nurhachi did not set up a prince before his death, and it is not groundless that the legend and the Joseon history books contained in the history books of the Joseon Dynasty designated Dolgon as the heir before his death.

After Nurhachi was defeated in Ningyuan, in the name that the undivided family could share his father's property, he divided the two yellow banners under his name into four parts, Azig, Dolgon, and Duoduo each received fifteen oxen, and Nurhachi himself only received twenty oxen, and his three young sons were promoted to the banner lord Baylor at the same time, alongside the status of the four major Baylors. Therefore, although the two white flags of the three Dolgon brothers are small in number, their combat effectiveness is definitely the crown of the eight banners.

With the defeat of Jiangxi Duoduo, in order to consolidate his strength, Dolgon found a reason to deprive him of the identity of the owner of the blue flag Jierharang, and dismembered his blue flag to supplement his two white flags. If Dolgon and Emperor Shenwu reach a consensus on peace talks at this time, when the time comes, the two white flags and 6,000 elite soldiers will come back, and Dolgon's strength will exceed Xiaozhuang's strength, how can this not make Xiaozhuang worried?

Tong Tulai knelt on the ground and didn't dare to speak after speaking, his position was too low, and he didn't dare to intervene in this kind of high-level struggle in the imperial court.

It took a long time for Xiaozhuang to react, and said with a smile: "Okay, Lord Tong, you have made a great contribution today, and this palace will not treat you badly!" After Xiaozhuang finished speaking, he immediately asked people to find his absolute confidant Sony.

Tong Tulai on the side was very excited when he saw the Empress Dowager of Xiaozhuang treating him like this, so that he could be regarded as entering the Empress Dowager's small circle and being an absolute person.

Sony, Herschelis, Manchuria is a native of the Yellow Flag. One of the founding heroes of the Qing Dynasty, a first-class duke, and the head of the four auxiliary ministers designated by Emperor Shunzhi to assist Kangxi. And Sony's granddaughter is still the first queen of Kangxi, and the son she gave birth to is Yinren, who has been the prince for more than 40 years.

Sony, as the Yellow Banner of Manchuria, is naturally much higher than Tong Tulai, who was born in the Han Army Banner. At the same time, because Sony is not a royal family, it naturally has no bonds, so it is very good to give advice to Xiaozhuang.

After Sony entered the palace, he was stunned when he saw Tong Tulai, and Sony muttered in his heart, why is this guy here!

Although Tong Tulai is the owner of the Blue Banner of the Han Army, he is still incomparable with Sony of the Three Banners.

After waiting for Sonny to salute and get up, Tong Tulai quickly knelt on the ground and saluted, saying, "Tong Tulai has said hello to the master!" ”

Sonny laughed: "How dare you! Lord Tong is the flag master, I am just a flag man, I should ask the master to say goodbye! ”

"Master, don't scare the minions, the minions are ridiculous!"

Sonny didn't plan to greet a Han man, so he laughed a few times and asked, "Queen Mother, I don't know what you're calling for a slave this year?" ”

Xiaozhuang sighed and said, "There is an important matter today, which Lord Tong told me!" Master Tong, you will tell Master Suo what happened again! ”

Tong Tulai hurriedly nodded and said what he had just said.

Sonny was also surprised after hearing this, and asked, "Queen Mother, if this matter is true, the regent's strength will expand again!" ”

Xiaozhuang nodded: "I can trust the fourteenth brother, he will never turn his back on the first emperor and bully me and other orphans and widows, but if he doesn't want to, it doesn't mean that his subordinates don't want to!" ”

Sony also nodded and said, "Yes! The regent's subordinates, Sukh Saha, Zhan Dai, Mu Zilun, He Luohui, and Hu Xi, are meeting every day, and they don't know what to discuss! ”

"Sony, you are a talented man of our Yellow Flag, what should you do?"

Sonny summed it up and asked Tong Tulai: "Lord Tong, since that cousin of yours was a high-ranking official in the Ming Dynasty, why did he want to take refuge in my Qing Dynasty?" ”

"Back to the Queen Mother, Lord Suo! My cousin said that Emperor Shenwu was short-tempered and cruel, and he either beat or scolded his subordinates, and Chen Zizhuang, the first assistant of the Shenwu Dynasty a few years ago, was almost beheaded by the whole family because he refuted Emperor Shenwu, so my cousin and my cousin's family felt that the safety of Emperor Shenwu could not be guaranteed, and they learned that the slave was not bad here, so they had the idea of taking refuge in it! ”

"Master Tong, can you guarantee the accuracy of your cousin's news?"

Tong Tulai was stunned, how can this be guaranteed? Tong Tuchang just said that, and there was no holy decree of Emperor Shenwu as evidence.

"This! This minion can't guarantee it! ”

Sonny nodded and said, "Queen Mother, if the news is accurate, it's not good, the slave thinks that the regent must not be allowed to get reinforcements from six thousand elite soldiers!" The minions think that we should make a move on the front line and have another dispute with Emperor Shenwu, so that the matter of peace talks will be over! ”

Xiaozhuang thought about it, this was also an idea, she also knew that the Manchu Qing Dynasty now had no extra troops, but in order to keep her son and her own power, she couldn't take care of it so much.

Sonny continued: "But the slave still suggested that the Queen Mother meet that Tong Tuchang first, ask what the situation is in the south, and make an accurate judgment!" ”

"Okay, just do what Master Suo said, Lord Tong, you are contacting your cousin, find an opportunity to take him into the palace, and the palace will ask in detail! Be careful not to let anyone else find out! ”

Xiaozhuang also has a headache, she doesn't care about the army, and she doesn't have any cronies in the army, and now she wants to reach out to the army and don't know what to do at all, so she can only ask Tong Tuchang Nanming about the situation first, and then talk about it.