At the beginning of December, when the sky was full of snow, Ningguta, which is seven or eight thousand miles away from Beijing, has become a world of ice and snow. Except for the fact that there is still some popularity in Ningguta Tucheng on the south side of the Hailang River, the outside of the city is like a world that has lost its vitality.

The terrain of mountains and hills is several miles to the east, north and west of Ningguta, and only near the city and to the south are large plains, but during this season, there is nothing to be seen except snow. The snow on the plains often exceeds a person's depth, and people have no choice but to hide in their homes except for the use of climbing plows.

Of course, even if there is a climbing plow available, no one wants to go out during this season, unless they receive a military order from Shenyang. Although Ningguta is known as the birthplace of Jianzhou Jurchen, there are really not many real girls here, but there are many Jurchens from the East China Sea Vortcha in the mountains and forests to the east.

When Nurhachi unified the Jurchen tribes, he once ordered Yidu to lead a thousand troops to attack the East China Sea Wuji Department in this area, so as to capture the Jurchens and supplement the manpower of the Jianzhou Jurchens. When the East China Sea Vortex retreated into the mountains to the east, where the natural conditions were even harsher, Nurhachi built this small city in Ningguta to monitor the movements of the East China Sea Vorte.

In 1625, after the small city was initially formed, Nurhachi ordered the blue flag Niu Lu Zhen Xingjia to garrison this place, and Ningguta was used as an important frontier town in the east of the Later Jin, and it was also the stronghold of the Later Jin to attack the East China Sea Wuji Division.

After Huangtaiji ascended the throne, Ningguta and Sanxia, which were 600 miles away from each other in the north, and Hunchun, which was nearly 600 miles away from the south, became the first line of defense to blockade the westward advance of the Wuji Department in the East China Sea.

Although the geographical location here is very important, it is limited to the poor human resources of Houjin, and Ningguta, which is in the middle of the north and south roads, only has 600 soldiers stationed, and the inhabitants of the city are only about 1,500 people. In the north of the three surnames and in the south of Hunchun, there were only 300 soldiers, and there were only 5 or 600 residents.

Of course, for the East China Sea Woji Division, which is extremely scattered among the tribes and has no unified command, these horses are already quite a strong force. In addition, the Jurchens, who had no armor and few iron weapons, only relied on their own brute bravery when they went into battle, and had no command and military discipline. Once the Houjin army held the first wave of attacks, the next thing was the mass rout of the Jurchens.

The Houjin soldiers here are accustomed to the chaotic attacks of these Jurchens, and they also know how to use their strength to defeat them, so they are not worried about the Jurchens attacking them.

However, the raids on the East China Sea Vorte tribe that began during the Nurhachi period have completely eliminated the Jurchen tribes living in the nearby plains, and the existing East China Sea Vortin tribes live in the harsher mountains and coastal mountain ranges.

The unproductive Jurchens needed to stock up on food for their tribes in other seasons, and during the long winter months, they lacked sufficient warm equipment and food to cross hundreds of miles to gather men and horses and attack the Houjin army on the border.

Therefore, Ningguta, Sanxing, and Hunchun have not been actively attacked by the Jurchens for many years, and the Jurchen soldiers stationed in these three small cities not only complain that the winter here is too cold and boring, but also regard this place as a rare place to recuperate. After all, the Jurchen soldiers near Shenyang have to be conscripted and fought every year, and it is difficult to be idle.

Moreover, since the accession of Huangtaiji to the throne by Jin Great Khan, the status of Shenyang as the capital city has been further strengthened, and the Jurchens from all over the country have been relocated to the areas near Shenyang in order to strengthen control. As a result, the Ningguta area, which is 1,400 or 500 miles away from Shenyang, has weakened its function as an important frontier town.

In terms of the policy towards the birth of a girl, Huang Taiji is different from Nurhachi. Nurhachi adheres to a policy of force that if it cannot be used by me, it will be eradicated. Huang Taiji, on the other hand, preferred to use politics and trade to lure these Jurchens out of the mountains, supplemented by military strikes.

In this way, Ningguta began to develop from a military town to a trade and exchange market for various ethnic groups in the frontier. Although Ningguta is a bitter cold place, the mink and ginseng produced here are the first in Liaodong. Especially in the hands of the Shengjurchens of the East China Sea Vortive Division, the place where they live is rich in fur animal resources and ginseng resources.

Originally, from October to December every year, it was the trade season in Ningguta, Sanxing and other places, and the Houjin would symbolically collect the taxes and tributes of these tribes who came to trade, to show that these tribes had surrendered to the Houjin. Although this is just a clumsy little trick, it is an extremely effective strategy for the simple raw Jurchens.

Many tribes came to trade just to obtain the necessary necessities to maintain the livelihood of the tribes, but under the propaganda of the Houjin, these tribes became traitors to the Houjin. The tribes that were at odds with the Houjin soon alienated the tribes who came to trade, and even led to wars between the tribes.

The Later Jin only let go of some trade and created some rumors, which caused an obvious rift between the Jurchen tribes of the Wuji tribe in the East China Sea, so that some of the Jurchen tribes had to move closer to the Houjin. If this continues, soon the East China Sea will cease to exist, the moderate tribes will accept the rule of the Later Jin, and the hard-line tribes will move northward, farther away from the areas occupied by the Later Jin.

The reason for this situation is also that the weather is getting colder and colder year by year, so that these young Jurchens who are backward in productivity have to rely more on transactions with Houjin in order to keep the tribe alive.

However, in the winter of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Ningguta City was extremely quiet, and the Houjin merchants who were waiting for trading in the city did not wait for the Jurchens of the East China Sea who had led a large team of climbing mink ginseng in previous years to come to trade. Occasionally, a few carts of climbing plows came over, and they were also small tribes in the nearby mountains and forests.

This trading volume of mink and ginseng not only made the merchants sigh, but even Niu Lu Zhen Xingjia, who managed Ningguta City, began to worry. Donghai Sheng Jurchen did not come to trade with goods, it must have happened a great change, he was really a little worried, this change for Houjin, whether it was good or bad.

However, while Xingjia was worrying back and forth in the courtyard of his house, a soldier wearing a dogskin hat and cotton armor hurriedly ran in and told Xingjia that someone from Hetun Gashan (the third surname) had come to ask for help, saying that the Jurchens were besieging them.

Xingjia panicked at first, but quickly calmed down, and ordered the soldier to take the person asking for help to his yamen. The one who came to ask for help was Niu Lu Ezhen's cronies stationed in Hetun Gashan, and Xingjia had seen this person, so he was somewhat sure that what the other party said was probably the truth, but this made him even more anxious.

Without waiting for the other party to salute, Xingjia had already asked with a slashed face: "How many days ago did the attack of the three surnamed cities by the birth of the Jurchen start?" How many raw Jurchens were there? Do you know where they come from? How are they equipped? Hurigai asked you to bring me some message..."

Xingjia's series of questions suddenly made the soldier who reported the news a little dizzy, and he couldn't speak for a long time. Xingjia realized that something was wrong and asked the messenger to speak slowly.

The soldier who reported the news thought for a moment before he spoke: "It was six days before the birth of the Jurchen outside the city, and it is estimated that there are about six or seven hundred people, who are dressed in cotton armor and fur hats as good as us, and warmer leather boots.

Judging from the direction in which the climbing plough appeared, this army should be a combination of the Beishan Jurchens and the Donghai Jurchens from the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River. After the appearance of this Jurchen army, the tribes of Geyikle, Hushhari, and Lu Yele outside the city surrendered one after another, and the tribes were relocated to the direction of Heilongjiang by the other party.

Hu Li was really worried that there were reinforcements behind the other party, and the defenders in the city with the three surnames were insufficient to defend, so he sent villains and others to ask for help from the adults and Lord Wu Bahai, if the adults could send troops to relieve the siege as soon as possible, maybe they could intercept some of the people with the three surnames who migrated back..."

After listening to the soldier's report, Xingjia finally had a preliminary grasp of the situation. In the land of Liaodong, spring, summer and autumn are the seasons of labor for all tribes, and only winter is the season for sending troops to conquer. The most important thing to send troops in winter is to keep warm clothes and enough war supplies, without which winter combat is suicidal.

Although the productivity of the Later Jin cannot be compared with that of the Ming Kingdom, whether it is from the looting of the Ming people or through the trade of local products in Liaodong, the Later Jin has abundant materials enough to attack these savage Jurchen tribes in Liaodong at will.

However, since the Ming people entered the estuary of the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River and occupied Sakhalin Island and the coastal area, the situation in Liaodong has undergone some subtle changes. Houjin can no longer rely on good equipment to teach those savage Jurchen tribes a lesson. In the winter of the previous year, the Ming people united with the Aili Liaozi in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River to leave Tubury and the other two Niu Lu in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River forever, so that Meler Ezhen Anguli fled back to the three surnames in disgrace, except for the people of Shenyang City, how could the soldiers and civilians of Ningguta and the three surname cities not know.

It is said that although the masters of Shenyang were furious, they could not spare their hands for a while to crusade against the rebellious tribes in the lower reaches of Heilongjiang. So he ordered Wu Bahai to replace Anguli as the commander of Yu San, and fortified Fukejin on the south bank of the lower reaches of the Songhua River to prevent the Ming army and rebellious tribes in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River from entering the Songhua River.

It's just that Wu Bahai was born with a blue flag. When the Mang Gurtai garrison was in the Kaiyuan area and Huang Taiji in Shenyang City faintly confronted, in order to prevent Wu Bahai from occupying the local rebellion, Huang Taiji quickly ordered Wu Bahai's troops to be transferred back to the area of the Alchuka Fortress, that is, to the west of Ningguta City.

Xingjia immediately realized that the only one who could send troops to rescue in the short term was Ningguta. And listening to what this soldier said, these Jurchens didn't seem to have come to seize the city of the three surnames, but more like they came to capture and plunder the population, just like when the Heavenly Mandate Khan robbed these Jurchens.

Xingjia only thought for a moment before deciding to send troops, firstly, because the Houjin army did not have a tradition of not being saved, and he did not want to be punished by the Great Khan for this.

The second is the image of the Jurchen in his mind, which really does not look like an existence that can fight, even if it is one against two, he does not feel that he will lose.

The third is that only by thwarting the attack of the Shengju Zhenren on the city of the three surnames can the surrounding savage tribes be persuaded to continue to submit to the Houjin. Otherwise, there will never be peace in this land.