The situation in Liaodong became more and more unfavorable to the Ming Dynasty.

In the second year of the Apocalypse, Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen lost Guangning, the most important fortified city in eastern Liaodong except Shenyang. In this battle, Xiong Tingbi advocated sticking to Quang Ninh, and Wang Huazhen, who was young but did not understand military affairs, wanted to make meritorious contributions, and with the support of the Ministry of War, he set up Xiong Tingbi and took risks to attack, which eventually led to a fiasco.

More than 100,000 defenders of Quang Ninh City were completely annihilated by Nurhachi. Except for 40,000 soldiers who were slaughtered and less than 5,000 soldiers fled back to Ningyuan City, the rest of the soldiers were all reduced to the coats of the various banners of Jiannu. In the Battle of Quang Ninh, the Mongol tribes near Liaoxi had different mentalities.

Although the Horqin Division, which had the closest relationship with Jiannu, did not directly dispatch cavalry, it took advantage of the geographical advantage closest to Guangning City to actively spy on the military information of the Ming Dynasty for Jiannu.

The three Duoyan and Chahar tribes, who nominally submitted to the Ming Dynasty, sat on the mountain and watched the tiger, did not send a single soldier, and after the fall of Guangning, they openly surrendered to Jiannu.

The Tumut Department, which had a close relationship with the Ming Dynasty, was the descendant of Genghis Khan's golden family, and had always despised Jiannu, and dispatched 10,000 cavalry to assist the defenders of Guangning in the battle of Guangning between Ming and Jiannu. However, the Tumut division was the farthest away from Quang Ninh, and the Ming army in Quang Ninh was defeated very quickly, and by the time the Tumut cavalry arrived at Quang Ninh City, Jiannu had already pacified Quang Ninh.

Dissatisfied with the support of the Tumut tribe for the Ming Dynasty, Jiannu dispatched superior forces to storm the Tumut reinforcements, who were outnumbered and retreated to the grassland after suffering more than 5,000 casualties.

Quang Ninh is located at the junction of the western Liaoning corridor and the Mongolian steppe, and is a regional platform for the alliance between the Ming Dynasty and the Mongolian tribes. The fall of Quang Ninh completely interrupted the communication between the Ming Dynasty and the Mongol ministries, and the Ming Dynasty's plan to unite with the Mongols to deal with Jiannu was officially bankrupt.

The fall of Guangning made Zhu Youxiao, the emperor of the Apocalypse who had never cared about the outside of the palace, very angry, and the military department was under great pressure. Zhu Youxiao had no choice but to use the emperor's teacher Sun Chengzong, and passed through Jiliao as a scholar of the military department and a scholar of Dongge University.

Sun Chengzong adopted the strategy of "active defense", with Ningyuan and Jinzhou as the core, and built a large number of fortresses on the Ningjin line, step by step, to weaken the advantage of the Jiannu cavalry. Although Sun Chengzong spent millions of silver taels to build the fortress, it also ensured the safety of Ningyuan and Jinzhou, and in the four years from the second year of the Apocalypse to the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Nurhachi took Sun Chengzong's prestige and did not invade the Ningjin line.

However, in May of the fifth year of the Apocalypse, Ma Shilong, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, listened to the words of Liu Boqiao, who had fled from Houjin, and sent troops to cross the Liuhe River and attack Yaozhou, but he was ambushed by Jiannu and retreated.

This was originally only an insignificant battle, and although Ma Shilong failed, the losses were not large. Compared with the tens of thousands of casualties of the army in Liaodong, Ma Shilong's losses were negligible.

However, Sun Chengzong is a member of the Donglin Party, and after the six gentlemen of the Donglin Party were sentenced and the first assistant Ye Xiang Gao Zhishi, he faintly became the head of the Donglin Party as an emperor.

Ma Shilong's defeat, of course, the eunuchs will not let go of such an opportunity, they impeached Ma Shilong in the name of Ma Shilong's "loss of 670 horses", and even impeached Sun Chengzong. Sun Chengzong wrote to the Emperor of the Apocalypse in vain, and in a fit of anger, he asked for resignation and returned to his hometown of Baoding in Beizhili to retire.

The eunuch party got rid of Sun Chengzong, but there was no one who could go through Ji Liao.

The eunuch party has Wei Zhongxian as the core, the eunuchs in the palace and Dongchang as the team, and the Qi party and the Chu party on the periphery. Let them kill people, set fires, and make a frame-up is a good thing, if they lead troops, but it is not this material, and now Liaodong is a mess, and the eunuchs will not dare to take over. Although the Qi Party and the Chu Party were both foreign ministers, when they couldn't fight the Donglin Party, they bent down and bowed down to the eunuchs who were most despised by the literati, and naturally they did not have the character of a soldier. Like things gather, and the bones of those who are connected with them are not hard.

Therefore, the eunuch party was just immersed in the excitement of getting rid of Sun Chengzong, and in the blink of an eye, he had a headache that no one could serve as Jiliao's strategy.

The dwarf was selected as a general, and in the end, the honest, obedient and a little wooden Gao Di became the secretary of the military department and the Jiliao Jingluo in May of the fifth year of the Apocalypse.

After Gao Di took over the entire Jiliao, he completely rejected Sun Chengzong's "active defense" strategy, and he was timid and fearful, and adopted a "passive defense" policy. In order to let the people outside the Guanxi live a stable life and prevent them from being killed by Jiannu when the city was broken, he had to abandon Ningyuan, Jinzhou and the various fortresses built by Sun Chengzong with millions of silver taels outside the Guan, withdraw to the people outside the Guan, and fully retreat to Shanhaiguan.

Ning Yuan's former Yuan Chonghuan, the general soldier Man Gui, the general Zu Dashou and others were all Sun Chengzong's subordinates, and they resolutely refused to remove Ning Yuan, and the lawsuit went to the military department, and under the hint of Zhu Youzhen, Li Chunye fully supported Gao Di. As a result, Yuan Chonghuan, Man Gui, and Zu Dashou were dismissed from all positions.

After learning that Sun Chengzong had left Liaodong and Zhishi had returned to his hometown, the Nu chieftain immediately raised 100,000 elites from the Eight Banners, based on Guangning, and rushed to the front line of Ningjin with great momentum.

Sun Chengzong's pressure on Jiannu was too great, and he went through Jiliao for four years, which was the four years when Jiannu did not take an inch of land from the Han people and grabbed a grain of grain. Now that Sun Chengzong has returned to his hometown, how can Nurhachi let go of such a good opportunity.

Ningyuan and Jinzhou were soon occupied by Jiannu, and Nurhachi's troops had already reached Qiantun outside Shanhaiguan, and confronted Gaodi at Shanhaiguan across Qiantun.

However, Ningyuan and Jinzhou were already empty cities, and the Eight Banners Army of Jiannu occupied these two cities, and did not get much equipment and horses, and even the food was only enough to feed a dozen sparrows, and the food in Guangning was not enough for the Jiannu people to eat horses. Nurhachi was furious and ordered the destruction of all the fortresses built by Sun Chengzong on the Ningjin line.

Outside the Guan, he lost thousands of miles again, which made Zhu Youxiao furious, and even Wei Zhongxian, who recommended Gao Di, was rarely reprimanded by Zhu Youxiao. There is no way, Wei Zhongxian passed on the pressure to the cabinet and the military department, but the first assistant of the cabinet, Gu Bingqian, the second assistant, Huang Liji, and several scholars of the military department, are usually the only masters in front of Wei Zhongxian, how can they come up with any good ideas. In addition to scolding and releasing the emperor's anger, Wei Zhongxian knew that at the critical moment, they couldn't help much.

Although the anger came out, the threat of Jiannu was not lifted, and Wei Zhongxian was still very uneasy. Although he is the governor of Dongchang, in charge of the first key department of the imperial court, and the chief eunuch of the court, all the chapters of the ministers of the imperial court must be read by him before being transferred to Zhu Youxiao. However, the system of eunuchs and civil officials is different, Wei Zhongxian has the right to read the recitals, that is, the emperor is lazy and unwilling to read the recitals of the ministers, and there is no institutional guarantee at all. In a word, he is the emperor's private secretary, and his rights are based on the emperor's trust, and one day the emperor is unhappy and kicks him out of the door, without even looking for a reason.

After Li Chunye and other important members of the cabinet and the military department left, he stayed alone. "Nine thousand years old, my subordinates have something to report." He knelt down on his knees in front of Wei Zhongxian's seat, his whole body lying on the ground, not only his forehead, but even his old face was stained with dust from Wei Zhongxian's mansion.

"What are you going to say? Is there a way to let Jiannu retire? Wei Zhongxian's anger disappeared, but the fear in his heart had not been lifted, and besides, Li Chunye was not his confidant, and he was in a bad mood, and his face was even worse. The eyes are gloomy, and the muscles of the face that have slackened tremble slightly, as if it is a ready frog, ready to swallow the prey in front of it in one gulp.

"There is no way for his subordinates to let Jiannu retreat......" Li Chunye stiffened, he knew that the moment when the muscles on Wei Zhongxian's face trembled, it was the moment when someone suffered, and now there were only two of them in the hall, and it must be himself who suffered. But now is also the time when Wei Zhongxian is most helpless, and any little hope is his lifeline.

"There's no way to let Jiannu retire, so what else do you say?" Wei Zhongxian didn't give Li Chunye a chance to finish, he got up from his seat angrily, kicked Li Chunye on the shoulder, kicked Li Chunye to the ground, fell on his back, and rolled on the ground, which was regarded as a free rag for the Wei Mansion.

Li Chunye was in a cold sweat, he quickly got up and knelt at Wei Zhongxian's feet again.

Wei Zhongxian looked at Li Chunye's embarrassed statue, in the end, he was a little unbearable, he was also a secretary of the military department, a civil official of the second grade of the Ming Dynasty. "What the hell are you going to say?"

"The subordinates are incompetent and can't let Jiannu retire, but the subordinates have a way to let the nine thousand years old avoid disaster." Li Chunye trembled, crawling on the ground, not even daring to shoot the dust on his official uniform.

Wei Zhongxian looked at Li Chunye carefully, as if he didn't know him, and as if he wanted to find some reason for his anger: "Then why didn't you say it just now?" ”

"Back to nine thousand years old, my subordinates don't know if this method will work, besides, this matter involves the royal family, so I don't dare to say it in front of people." Li Chunye didn't say anything full, and carried out the royal family, obviously saying confidential things.

"Royal?" Wei Zhongxian sat back in his chair, his eyes swept over Li Chunye's body, but Li Chunye was prostrate on the ground, and his face could not be seen. "Get up! Let's talk about it first, what the hell is going on. ”

Li Chunye slowly sat down on the chair, "Nine thousand years old, the war in Liaodong is unfavorable, the emperor blames nine thousand years old for improper employment, and his subordinates have a way to make the emperor no longer blame nine thousand years old." Li Chunye found that Wei Zhongxian listened very carefully, for fear of missing a word, and he was even more convinced in his heart that the kick just now was worth it. King Xin had just defeated the Japanese in Shandong, and was appointed by the emperor as the commander of the Siwu Battalion, and let him be in charge of the training of the Siwu Battalion. Nine thousand years old can introduce Kennu into King Shin. ”

"How do you introduce the King of Faith?" Wei Zhongxian really became interested, and the muscles on his face no longer trembled.

"Since King Xin is good at commanding troops, let King Xin deal with Jiannu. Nine thousand years old should fully support King Shin in training the four martial arts camps. Li Chunye was like a cunning fox, smiling at Wei Zhongxian.

Wei Zhongxian was stunned for a moment, and then understood, but there were some words that could not be spoken. "Waiting, are you saying that you don't really need to support King Xin?"

"Back to the nine thousand years old, support is to really support, otherwise King Xin will definitely appeal to the emperor that the nine thousand years old make a stumbling block. really supported King Xin, and also let the emperor see that the nine thousand years old were working hard for the affairs of Liaodong. Li Chunye followed the temptation step by step, and approached Wei Zhongxian's heart step by step.

"But no matter how strong the four martial arts battalions are, no matter how good King Xin can train, he can't scare Jiannu away now!" Wei Zhongxian still didn't understand it.

"Nine thousand years old, Shanhaiguan City is strong, and Jiannu will not be able to break Shanhaiguan for a while. Now supporting King Xin is to let the emperor see that the nine thousand years old are working hard for the Ming court. In the future, Jiannu will come again, just let King Xin deal with Jiannu, in fact, Jiannu is similar to the Wako, both are very strong in individual combat, which is the strength of King Xin. ”

"But Jiannu are all cavalry, and they are very good at cavalry shooting, unlike the Japanese who are infantry." Wei Zhongxian still didn't understand a little, he looked at Li Chunye, and found that Li Chunye was snickering weirdly again, and suddenly understood, reporting to the emperor is that the place that should be ignored should be ignored. He has always done this, those movements against him, Zhu Youxiao, never saw it, they were directly ignored by himself, and today it may be the first time he has been reprimanded by the emperor, and he has forgotten this most important move. "Waiting, if King Xin is defeated by Jiannu in the future, what will our family do? Will the emperor punish our family again? ”