In the middle of October of the second year of Chongzhen, Weining Haizi, the cold wind is cold, the grass and trees are yellow, the birds gathered here have long disappeared, only a few flocks of livestock endure the cold and wander in the pasture to feed, occasionally one or two herdsmen can be seen busy harvesting pasture, making the final preparations for the harsh winter - several years of severe cold and drought have shrunk the surface of this lake by a large circle, and the grassland is increasingly depressed with abundant water and grass, cattle and sheep everywhere.

Under the banner of the flying tiger that was hunted by the wind, Li Yu looked at the lake in front of him grimly, Weining Haizi used to be an excellent pasture for the East Whistle Tumert and Yongshaobu people to live and graze together, after the Chahar invasion to the west, this place was forcibly occupied by the Chahar people, and now it is finally recovered, but it is an empty and dilapidated scene, Li Yu shook his head helplessly, the Great Khan couldn't maintain it before he handed this place over to him, but can he make Weining Haizi prosperous?

Li Huai and the officials of the Great Commander's Mansion analyzed that after Weining Haizi was recovered, the Xinghewei abandoned by Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty was completely recovered, and then expanded north to Zhutou Mountain as a stronghold, so that the Guanshan Wei that Emperor Taizu gave to the Yiren to live in his hands was also controlled, so that the Fengzhou army could take Kuku and Tun at any time, and set up a defensive line in Guillotine Mountain and Weining Haizi to block any enemy who invaded the west to defend Fengzhou. This idea is wonderful, but it is very difficult to realize, not because of the need to fight, Chahar Khan agreed to hand over Weining Haizi to Li Yu in the spring of this year, but Fengzhou did not have the strength to receive this land, the two thousand households of Terige and Yang Dazhi in the west post died more than 1,000 people in this year's plague, and then there was a drought, everyone in order to protect the crops, protect the livestock, the active people were almost all working hard, how could they have the spare strength to receive the land, until after the autumn harvest the two of them were supported by the Great Commander's Mansion, Some of the men and horses were sent into the area of Weining Haizi, but they received a mess, the Chahar people ran away under the blow of hunger and plague, and left seven or eight hundred people with no livestock and no rations waiting for relief, Terig and Yang Dazhi gritted their teeth and organized these people into their thousands of households, and barely gave them a bite to eat, and the others could no longer do anything.

Li Yu went to Weining Haizi this time to meet with Chahar Khan, Chahar Khan was already red-eyed, his tribal leaders continued to flee with their troops, some defected to Khalkha, some defected to Korqin, and in September, thousands of people even defected directly to the Jin State - the nobles of Chahar are very smart, and no one will defect to Li Yu, Fengzhou is a place where the poor go to work, and if they want to continue to be powerful, they still have to find their kind. Faced with the situation of betrayal and separation, Chahar Khan could only ask Li Yu, the eldest brother-in-law, for help with letters asking for money and food, Li Yu had nothing to say to this brother-in-law, this guy seemed to be determined to do the work of asking for food to the end. After the autumn harvest, Li Yu gave Chahar Khan 2,000 stone of grain, and no one in the Grand Commander's Mansion objected this time, so it would not work if he didn't give it! The plague on the Chahar side only stopped in July, and everyone was afraid that the hungry Chahars would provoke the plague again. Chahar Khan got the food, and immediately replied to Li Yu with great praise, and asked Li Yu to go to Weining Haizi to meet him, and he also had some things to discuss with his most trusted brother-in-law and Li Yu to meet properly, Li Yu then took Yun Rong and the personal guard battalion to Weining Haizi.

"Terige, Yang Dazhi, to be honest, do you have a foothold in Weining Haizi?" Li Yu sighed slightly, and asked the two thousand households who were accompanying Terig and Yang Dazhi.

Terig and Yang Dazhi glanced at each other, Yang Dazhi said pitifully: "Great Commander, can you give us some food every month, we don't want much, just give ten stone per month for each thousand households, and farm tools, can you transfer a pair of mirrored plows from Shanxi, if we want to gain a foothold here, we need to reclaim more land, that thing saves manpower and works quickly, as long as we have food to eat, we can hold Weining Haizi." ”

"Commander, and weapons, give us two hundred sets of swords and spears, and give us some arrows, and we will never lose this land again, and we will defend it even if we have all our men, women, and children." Terige said with his fists clenched.

", such a large area as the West Whistle, can you defend it with five thousand men and women from two thousand households? Let me tell you, the current role of the west post can only be an early warning, when there is no war, you will be in this area of the cultivated land grazing, if there is a danger, immediately withdraw to the mountains, it doesn't matter if the territory is lost, the villagers must protect it, the Great Commander's Mansion will ask for it, and I will bear it for you. Li Yu waved his hand very dissatisfied, pointed at Yun Rong and said, "I will give you food, weapons and farm tools, but the mirror plow can't be taken out for the time being, maybe I can give it to you after the spring next year, you will ask Secretary Yun Rong, this time he brought you good things." ”

"I brought you ten iron pots, which were made by our iron factory itself, and they can be boiled and fried better than a wide pot, so you can see for yourself." Yun Rong was chatting with Fan Erxi, who had been here a few days ago, and when he heard Li Yu's words, he immediately smiled and asked someone to bring a big iron pot.

Only people living on the grassland know the importance of the iron pot, there are blacksmiths on the grassland who can make poor iron, but they will not smelt pig iron, and they will not use the casting method to produce iron, the iron pot is not rare for the people in the Guannai, but the Mongolians have to rely on imports from the Ming State, and the Ming State in order to prevent the Mongols from destroying the pot to make iron, do everything possible to restrict it, and even call the Guangzhou pot trade that can only be used for cooking and not for frying from Guangdong, thousands of miles away, the reason is that the Guangzhou pot can not be used to smelt refined iron, which causes the iron pot to be expensive, The iron pot has also become an important property in the Mongolian family, and even quarrels over an iron pot when the family is separated. When Li Fugui opened the craftsman camp, he convened the best blacksmiths in Fengzhou to set up a blacksmith workshop, with the Han blacksmith of Bansheng as the general banner, first of all, the casting iron pot as a breakthrough, he understood that as long as the iron pot can be produced, not only can solve the living problems of the people of Fengzhou, but also the smelting and casting method of pig iron is also considered to be the entry, after the iron factory was built, there is more than a year of experience accumulation, plus Fan Yongdou invited the blacksmith master from the Guannei guidance, the iron pot was finally made, and it is better than the wide pot, It can be used for both Mongolian cooking and Han frying, this important achievement made Han blacksmith the first craftsman in Fengzhou to hang the title of 100 households, and the confident Han blacksmith has set his goal to use the casting method to mass produce arrow clusters and large-scale ironware, of which iron plow casting is an important goal.

"Brother Erxi, how many days have you been here? Is there a business here? Li Yu turned his face to Fan Erxi and asked.

"Where is there business to do in this place now, the owner just asked me to take a look, this is relatively close to Xinpingbao and Shoukoubao Horse Market, the roads extend in all directions, and there are lakes and grasslands that are easy to gather popularity, we plan to build a business inn to store goods, maybe in two or three years this area will prosper," Fan Erxi has been wandering around here for a few days, and it seems that he is still more confident in the future, but he said with a little regret, "It's still Jinguo's business is easy to do, and what they have in their hands is silver, The price of some freight goods has increased tenfold in the past, and the commander can't guess it; last year, when the green and yellow were not connected, the price of rice in Shenyang was sold to eight taels of silver a bucket, and if it weren't for the invasion of the trade route by inserting the Han West, we would have been able to make a fortune just by selling grain. ”

Yun Rong's eyes widened in disbelief: "Eight taels and one bucket of rice, that is eighty taels and one stone, as soon as the price of grain rises, the others will also rise, no matter how rich the people of the Jin Kingdom are, they can't stand the spending, I'm afraid that many people will starve to death, doesn't the Great Khan of the Jin Kingdom care?" ”

"But isn't it, last year the Jin country starved to death a lot of people, Liaoyang began to eat people, the Great Khan of the Jin country, that is, the past four Baylor was anxious, and forced the Eight Banners Baylor to produce grain, each flag gave a hundred stones to sell in the rice market for one or two silver and one stone, trying to stabilize the price of rice, but it was useless, one or two silver and one stone of rice let the Baylors join hands with us to buy it back, and the people did not want to buy a liter of rice, the Great Khan of the Jin Kingdom had no choice, so he had to take people to fight again, they have always been so ......" Fan Erxi was talking proudly, and when he saw Li Yu's face was ugly, he immediately closed his mouth.

Li Yu didn't speak, he knew what Fan Erxi was thinking, Fengzhou helped Fan Yongdou and they were in trouble to dredge the trade route, Chahar Khan welcomed merchants to the Chahar people to do business, but it was strictly forbidden for these merchants to go to Jinguo through Chahar, once they were found, all the goods would be confiscated, and the people would be arrested and sent to Fengzhou, although Fan Yongdou and a group of profiteers were still secretly doing business in Jinguo, but this kind of petty fight obviously could not satisfy their appetite, Fan Yongdou has hinted that they can pay food and pay to help Fengzhou destroy Chahar, but the attitude of the Great Commander's Office is very resolute, you go crazy, I can't go crazy, Chahar and Fengzhou are brotherly allies, and there will be absolutely no infighting, Li Fugui even agreed to Ma Qi's request, set up an inspection office, and sent Bi Lige to take charge of the inspection envoy, and the original Qianhu taught Han Dagong as a deputy envoy to inspect the illegal behavior of Fengzhou traders, Fan Yongdou and Fan Erxi were of course dissatisfied.

"Do you know the situation of Uncle Mandahae and Haesan in the Uiju area in the past?" Li Yu diverted the topic, the Yehe people Mandahai and the Hada people Haishan whom he knew in Yizhou had been horse thieves outside the eastern border of Liaodong, but he had not heard from them since he left the Jin Kingdom, and Zhao Ji did not know their current situation.

Fan Erxi thought for a while and shook his head and said: "I haven't seen them last year, in the past, I had to pass through their territory to and from Liaodong, and I had to pay money to them, after the Great Khan of the Jin State controlled the Chahar hometown of the West Liaohe, their business would definitely not be able to continue, and I don't know where they were hiding?" ”

"If your people can meet them, bring me a message, and if they have nowhere to go, come to me, and I will treat them as brothers." Li Yu saw Fan Erxi nodding and agreeing, and immediately asked Terig and Yang Dazhi, "Have the people of the Great Khan contacted you?" Where are they now? ”

"The people of the Great Khan have come, they have arrived to the north of Weining Haizi and set up a big tent, please go to see the Great Khan as soon as you arrive, they are diligent this time, our two armed young men of the Thousand Households were only assembled yesterday, and they are driving towards this side." Terige replied.

"There is no need to mobilize the army, I will take the personal guard battalion to meet him tomorrow, and the Chahar people will never dare to provoke me now." Li Yu waved his hand and said.

Early the next morning, Li Yu set out to the Great Tent of Chahar Khan, and Mozhige, Mengke, Jeddah, Chaolu and Baiyintu led 500 Flying Tiger Cavalry to follow the guards.

Weining Haizi to the north less than twenty miles, you can see a camp tent surrounded by the Chahar Khan's Daxu, the two sides of the trumpet sounded one after another, the Chahar camp lively, the cavalry swarmed out in two columns, welcome the arrival of the Fengzhou commander, Sangha Er Zhai Jinong, Tuba Jinong, Garma Jinong and other Chahar important ministers came out to greet Li Yu, this kind of etiquette makes Li Yu feel inexplicable, Jinong's noble status is equivalent to the deputy Khan, what kind of hospitality do these guys come out to offer, will not make up their minds to ask me for money and food, right? Thinking of this, Li Yu couldn't help but touch his pocket.

"Li Yucha, my most trusted brother-in-law, the answer of the Great Khan of Chahar." Chahar Khan was already waiting outside the big tent, and before Li Yu could kneel and bow to him, he shouted loudly and quickly stepped forward to hug Li Yu, and the Chahar ministers also hurriedly bowed down and touched their chests.

Li Yu shook his head and said, "Great Khan, the gifts I received are too heavy, I am only the leader of one party, and I can't afford the gifts of so many important ministers." ”

"No, you can afford it, you are Ben Khan's brother-in-law and Ben Khan's answer, Ben Khan has informed all the ministries that you, the great commander, will be the same as Jinong, and in the future, the officials and people below Jinong will salute you," Chahar Khan took Li Yu's hand and replied, Li Yu was taken aback, it's too bad, it will definitely not cost less today! Chahar didn't care about Li Yu's expression, but looked behind Li Yu and shouted, "Li Yucha, why didn't my lark-like sister come?" ”

"Wu Langha is pregnant with a child, I don't dare to let her ride a horse." Li Yu replied a little embarrassed.

Wu Langha has been pregnant for more than two months, and the medical officer requires her to stay at home honestly to protect the fetus, Wu Langha himself wants to go out and show off - she is now raising her eyebrows, which shows that it is not her problem that she can't give birth to children in the past, but that Guiying has a problem, and it shows that she killed the people of Guiying's family justifiably, Guiyingcha has a physical problem, but his concubines gave birth to him, this must be his concubine who went out to steal and gave birth to a bunch of wild seeds, the people of Guiying's family are so shameless, Then she killed the people of Guiying's family justifiably. Ortai heard that Wu Langha was pregnant, and he was so angry that he wanted to beat Li Yu again, but fortunately, the news that Ulan was also pregnant came later, which calmed down the big break, and the big break is now praying to the Buddha every day to let Wu Langha give birth to a girl, and Ulan must give birth to a smart and healthy boy.

"What do you say? Wu Langha is pregnant, why didn't you tell me earlier," Chahar Khan grabbed Li Yu's shoulders in surprise, and without waiting for Li Yu to answer, he turned to the big tent and shouted, "Su Tai, you come out quickly, Kong Guoer is going to have a brother!" ”

A young and beautiful young woman ran out with a tiger-like little boy, and Chahar Khan excitedly pointed at Li Yu and said to the little boy: "Kongor, he is the bravest Humba Tulu and your uncle in the steppe that I have told you, and he will bring you a younger brother in the future." ”

"Great Khan, I will only give birth in May or June next year, and I don't know how to give birth to boys and girls." Kong Guoer stretched out his arms, and Li Yu picked him up.

"I want a younger brother." Kong Guoer put his arms around Li Yu's neck and said.

"Yes, if you want to give birth to a younger brother to Kongol, Li Yucha, you can make Wu Langha pregnant, and you will definitely be able to give her a boy," Chahar Khan also said.

"It's not bad if you give birth to a girl, you can marry Kongor." Sutai Hatun said with a smile.

Chahar Khan immediately nodded in agreement, as if they could arrange Li Yu's unborn child, but Li Yu had nothing to do.

After talking for a while, Chahar Khan pulled Li Yu into the big tent, and Yun Rong and Chahar's important ministers also came in one after another, but this time they didn't see the two of them Tutu and Gunchuk, Chahar Khan told Li Yu in a low voice that these two guys not only couldn't do anything, but also teamed up with Wang Guozhong, the general soldier of Xuanfu Fuyi of the Ming Kingdom, that is, Sutai Hatun's cousin, to use the horse market to cheat him of money, and these two people could no longer use it.

Chahar Khan pulled Li Yu to sit next to him, waved his hand and asked Tuba Jinong to report on the military situation, Tuba Jinong got up and said: The current situation is very urgent, according to the report of the Chahar people who fled back from the Jin State, the Jin State has encountered the same spring cold and drought as we have this year, and there is a serious shortage of food, and the Great Khan of the Jin State has taken many measures to alleviate the food crisis, in February and March, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Ming State Jiliao Governor in Gaotaibao to make rice, send a large number of people to mix among the Karaqin people in Subudi, and exchange furs, ginseng, Dongzhu and other things for food, In September, he sent Belezir Harang and Abatai to lead troops into Jinzhou and Ningyuan, robbing the crops of the Ming State outside the city and plundering the population of the Ming State, and the stupid and timid Governor Jiliao of the Ming State resigned himself to the behavior of the Jin State of rice and plunder, but this could not fundamentally solve the problem of food shortage in the Jin State, the Great Khan of the Jin State once again brandished his sword, and ordered the rebellious Mongolian tribes to choose the elite to join the Jin army in the Karaqin steppe, and now the Great Khan of the Jin State has two offensive directions to choose from, The first is to go south to break through the border wall of Jizhen in the Ming Kingdom, threaten the Ming Kingdom's Beijing Division, and plunder the rich areas of the Ming Kingdom; The second is to attack Chahar and Fengzhou in the west, completely conquer the Mongol tribes, and create conditions for a large-scale southward march in the future.

"The Great Khan and we have discussed, we think that the direction of the Jin army's attack is us, the Ming Kingdom in the south is too big and too strong, full of fortified city walls, and has a million troops, they are small and difficult to gnaw, and we are too weak, there is a serious shortage of money, food, horses and weapons, and we have just experienced a great epidemic, and we are simply unable to resist their attacks, we used to think that we could take advantage of the long and difficult road to drag them down, but now it is not possible, with the rebellion of a large number of Mongols, their long-distance combat ability even exceeds ours, Li YuchaWe have to prepare for a vicious battle that has never been fought before. Tuba said helplessly to Li Yu.

Sangha Er Zhai Jinong twisted his beard and said: "This battle is going to come sooner or later, the grassland tribe and the mountain and forest tribe have always been you live and die, only one falls, the other is likely to enter the prosperous Central Plains, the Great Khan of the Jin Kingdom will never let go of us, nor will he let go of your Fengzhou, Li Yucha, we must trust each other and fight side by side." ”

(Lao Lu originally planned to start updating in the middle of this month, but due to Lao Lu's own shortcomings, the time was not rushed, and he had to be pushed to today, I apologize to the book friends, Lao Lu is not the person who eats this bowl of rice after all, by the way, Lao Lu has no interest in writing "Anti-Qing Divine Drama", Lao Lu has no absolute good guy or absolute bad guy in this book, including the protagonist Li Yu is also a problem, Lao Lu only describes the psychology and behavior of the characters at that time according to the existing historical materials, The moral evaluation of a person in the book is judged by the book friends themselves, because Lao Lu believes that with the change of age and experience, everyone's values will change, and this cannot be replaced by others. ）