In the Yellow Dragon Tent of the Houjin Battalion, Mang Gurtai is kneeling at the knees of the Heavenly Mandate Khan Nurha, telling in detail about the attack on Juehua Island and the battle with the Ming army.

Although nearly 10,000 defenders were killed on Juehua Island in this battle, thousands of people were buried in the sea in the Red Banner, and the Ming army could not be annihilated, but more than 1,000 Jurchen cavalry were put in. In addition to the thousands of Han military flags, the loss of troops actually reached five or six thousand, which is really rare in recent years.

Mang Gurtai didn't dare to hide it, and told Nurhachi the entire battle process in detail, and beads of sweat the size of beans had already oozed from his head. He didn't know Nurhachi's temper, as the saying goes, tiger poison doesn't eat children, but in order to consolidate his sweat position, Nurhachi even killed his eldest son Chu Ying. This time, he lost so many Eight Banner soldiers, in case the old man was furious, he would be the end of Baylor.

Nurhachi listened to Mang Gurtai's report without saying a word, and only after a long time did he say calmly: "According to what you said, the cavalry of the Ming army is about 10,000 people, and it seems that they want to reinforce Ningyuan?" ”

"Exactly!" Mang Gurtai hurriedly replied, "Erchen was careless for a while, and he didn't know how to judge the enemy army, so he hastily withdrew his troops, it's really damned!" If Father Khan can give his son a chance to make up for his merits, his son will lead the Zhenglan Banner to kill him, and if he does not kill all the Ming army, he will never dare to come back to see Father Khan! ”

"Fifth elder brother, you can rest!" The blue flag master on the side, Amin, sneered, and said, "The red flag of Da Baylor has been lent to you, but you can't even pack a thousand Ming troops." You're already a defeated man, what can you do if you go again? Great Khan, it's better to let my blue flag go, and ensure that the southern barbarians will be killed without leaving a piece of armor! ”

Mang Gurtai and Amin have never been on good terms, and they both covet the Khan position, so they often fight openly and secretly on weekdays. At this time, seeing Amin fall into the ground, Mang Gurtai was even more angry, and suddenly pulled out his waist knife and said, "Amin! Don't play tricks here, which time did I go on an expedition, didn't I charge ahead? Since you have the ability, why don't you dare to attack Juehua Island? ”

Amin also drew his sword without showing weakness, and said viciously: "What's the point of a small island! Our warriors with blue flags are only interested in Shanhaiguan and Ningyuan! ”

"Presumptuous!" Seeing that the two of them stiffened more and more, and finally drew their swords to each other, Nurhachi shouted angrily and changed color.

Seeing that the Great Khan was angry, Mang Gurtai and Amin didn't dare to make any more trouble, they both knelt on the ground, and they didn't even dare to come out.

Nurhachi hurriedly paced back and forth in the tent twice, and suddenly flew up with a kick that kicked Mang Gurtai into a somersault. Mang Gurtai was so frightened that he kowtowed again and again: "Father Khan spares his life!" Father Khan spares his life! ”

"You two idiots!" Nurhachi pointed at Mang Gultai and Amin's noses and scolded, "We Jurchens only have hundreds of thousands of people, and the population of the Ming Dynasty is a hundred times that of me, why can we defeat them repeatedly? Just because we are united! If you are like the two of you who don't care about the overall situation and fight each other only for your own selfishness, we Jurchens will have to let the Ming Dynasty annihilate sooner or later! ”

Mang Gurtai and Amin glanced at each other, and hurriedly kowtowed: "Great Khan, we know that we are wrong, the blue flag and the blue flag are willing to fight hand in hand, and they will definitely annihilate the Ming army!" ”

Nurhachi nodded and sat down again. But he was noncommittal to the proposal of the two, and turned to Huang Taiji, who had been watching coldly, and said, "Old eight, tell me your opinion!" ”

Huang Taiji smiled slightly, and said confidently: "Father Khan, it stands to reason that the enemy army is coming to help, and we should destroy them outside the city first." But this time the situation was different, and Erchen felt that they should be put into Ningyuan City. ”

"Oh?" Nurhachi looked at Huang Taiji with admiration, "But why?" ”

"Didn't Father Khan just receive a report from the secret agents in Ningyuan City?" Huang Taiji said with a smile, "There is not much food in the city, only enough for Yuan Chonghuan's more than 10,000 soldiers to eat for five or six days. They were all counting on the grain storage on Juehua Island, but the fifth brother won a big victory in this battle, although we didn't get the grain on Juehua Island, but the Ming army didn't want to count on it. Their reinforcements came in a hurry, and they must have carried no rations. If you pour into Ningyuan, within three days, the food will be exhausted, and Ningyuan will be self-defeating! ”

"Well said!" Nurhachi looked up to the sky and laughed, "Mang Gurtai, Amin, although you two are brave in battle, you are still only generals. If you want to be the commander of the whole army, you have to learn from Lao Ba! ”

Mang Gurtai and Amin had to chatter repeatedly, but they were extremely unconvinced.

"Mang Gurtai, you still don't know why the Ming army's combat effectiveness has suddenly increased greatly, right?" Nurha Chiyin said with a smile, "Knowing yourself and knowing your opponent, you will not be defeated in a hundred battles, I always ask you to read "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" several times, but you just won't!" Tell you, the younger brother of the Great Tomorrow, Zhu Youzhen, the king of letters, is in the army. This man is extremely favored by their emperor, and if he dies, or falls into our hands, all the generals of the Ming army will be beheaded, so they sacrifice their lives to fight. ”

"In other words," Nurhachi paused, "as long as this person is captured, we will choke the pulse of the Great Ming, and we can do whatever we want!" He's still outside Ningyuan City, so we have to put him back in the city and shut down the door and beat the dogs! ”

"Great Khan Shengming!" The Jurchen nobles in the Yellow Dragon tent shouted in unison.

At the same time, Zhu Youzhen also led Man Gui, Zhao Shujiao, Qi Meifeng, Li Chongyao and others, as well as the 10,000 Ming troops under his command, and quickly marched towards Ningyuan.

What Zhu Youzhen was most afraid of was that the Houjin army was too eager to attack the city, and Ning Yuan couldn't hold on. It wasn't until he saw the Ming army flag still flying high at the head of the city that he was relieved.

Zhao Shujiao was thoughtful, and hurriedly said to Zhu Youjian: "Your Highness, the general always feels that something is wrong along the way!" According to Jianyu's past combat methods, they obviously knew that our army was coming to the rescue of Ning Yuan, and they had already sent a large army to block it. Why have we already seen Ningyuan's city wall, and there is still no movement at all? I'm afraid that the Tartars are playing some kind of ghost idea, so you have to guard against it! ”

Although Man Gui has a rude temperament, he is very experienced in combat, and after a little thought, he said: "The Tartars probably don't want to suffer the enemy on their backs, and deliberately want to let us into the city." ”

"Now we're chasing ducks to the shelves, and if we can't do it, we have to do it." Zhu Youzhen smiled bitterly, "None of the two generals carried military rations in their armies, right?" If you don't go into the city, will you starve outside the city? Since the Tartar is kind enough to let us go into the city to rest, let's take him this love! Anyway, we have dozens of Franc cannons in our hands, and we have Master Sun to train them, and if the Tartars dare to attack the city, we must let them have a good time! ”

Along the way, the Ming army was really not disturbed. When Ningyuan's defenders saw the reinforcements arriving, they were naturally also greatly boosted, and hurriedly opened the south gate and put more than 10,000 people into the city.

As soon as Zhu Youzhen entered the city, Yuan Chonghuan led Zu Dashou, He Kegang, Zhu Mei and other major generals to greet him.

It turned out that Yuan Chonghuan already knew that Juehua Island was slaughtered by Houjin, firstly, he was ashamed of his paralysis and carelessness, and secondly, he was afraid that Zhu Youzhen and Li Chongyao would go in together. At this time, seeing Zhu Youzhen return to the city safely, Yuan Chonghuan was so excited that he burst into tears, but he just kowtowed vigorously, and couldn't even say a word.

Zhu Youzhen thought to himself, Yuan Chonghuan, as the chief general of Ningyuan, only knew how to stick to Ningyuan, but he underestimated the Houjin raid on Juehua Island. He naturally bears some responsibility for the fiasco of this battle. However, the Jurchens marched quickly, and Ning Yuan's troops were still insufficient to defend the city, and if Yuan Chonghuan was to blame, it seemed to be unfair.

What's more, at this time, Ning Yuan was still surrounded by the Houjin Army, and it was a taboo for soldiers to change commanders in battle, and he had no right to remove Yuan Chonghuan from his post. Therefore, I had to persuade a few words, and led everyone to rush to the drum tower to arrange the next stage of city defense.

Due to the arrival of Man Gui and Zhao Shujiao, the number of defenders almost doubled in strength, which is gratifying. Yuan Chonghuan redeployed, ordering Man Gui to guard the east gate, Zuo Fu to guard the west gate, Zu Dashou to guard the south gate, and Zhu Mei to still guard the north gate. And generals such as He Kegang and Wu Sangui were all commanded by Yuan Chonghuan and responded in the center.

As for Qi Meifeng's Qi Jiajun and Li Chongyao's Guanning Iron Cavalry, because of the huge losses, Yuan Chonghuan did not plan to assign tasks. Qi Meifeng said: "There are still dozens of Franc cannons among the last generals, and the manufacturing process is special, I am afraid that other sergeants are not familiar with it, so it is better for the last general to lead the army to use it personally." Besides, there is also Lord Sun to help. ”

Yuan Chonghuan noticed Sun Yuanhua behind Zhu Youzhen, and shouted in surprise: "Brother Chuyang (Sun Yuanhua's character Chuyang), why are you here too?" ”

"Brother Element (Yuan Chonghuan Character Element), you have just entered Beijing, and you can still take the initiative to rush to the front line to kill the enemy; Wouldn't it be shameful for students to live in the military department for a long time? Therefore, I followed in the footsteps of Brother Elemental, and I hope that Brother Tai will not be disgusted. Sun Yuanhua said with a smile.

It turned out that both of them were the heads of the Ministry of War, and they were colleagues in the same office. Seeing each other in Ningyuan at this time is naturally very cordial. Yuan Chonghuan smiled and said to Zhu Youzhen: "Your Highness, Master Sun is a Catholic, and the foreign monk Tang Ruowang you often mention is his teacher!" ”

Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but be overjoyed. Whether Sun Yuanhua is a Catholic or not, he is not interested in this; What he was interested in was that since Sun Yuanhua was a disciple of John Tang and claimed to understand Western artillery, it must be true! As long as you can help the Ming army use good artillery and hold Ningyuan, don't say believe in God, that is, believe in Zhu Bajie, Zhu Youzhen will also accept all the orders!

He immediately asked, "Master Sun, can you teach this king to fire a cannon?" ”

Sun Yuanhua hurriedly said respectfully: "The cannon is a dangerous thing, why should Your Highness do it yourself?" ”

"No, no, no, this king is good for this!" Zhu Youzhen thought to himself that as a modern person who had traveled over, he would not be able to use swords, guns and halberds, so it was just that; If you can't even fire a gun, it's a shame for your time!

"In that case, please go to the city to test fire the Franc cannon!" Sun Yuanhua was also moved by Zhu Youzhen's spirit of taking the lead, and immediately agreed.

When he came to the Beicheng Tower, Zhu Youzhen saw that the Qi family's Franc machine gun had been raised, and he was about to step forward happily, but Sun Yuanhua stopped him with a smile and said: "Your Highness, don't worry, do you know what 'shooting Zhuyuan' is?" ”