In the spring of the first year of Chongzhen, the Ming army camped 50 miles outside the Shanhai Pass with 3,000 infantry to lure the Qing army to attack. The Qing army dispatched the Four Banners Army, and finally Huang Taiji also personally went out, which lasted ten days before and after, and lost nearly 20,000 troops. Unexpectedly, he fell into the Ming army, and he didn't even leave a single soldier of the Ming army.

It turned out that the Ming army began to secretly dig a tunnel from Shanhaiguan a few months ago, this tunnel was fifty miles long, and the place where the Ming army camped was selected at the exit of the tunnel. In order to ensure that secrets would not be leaked, as long as the workers digging tunnels went down, they were not allowed to return to the ground for the time being, and all the food and drink were sent down from Shanhaiguan until the whole battle was over, and they returned to Shanhaiguan with the retreating Ming army.

The 3,000 Ming Army was led by Liu Quanzhong, the general of the Fifth Army Battalion of the Beijing Battalion, who had just shown his skills in the Battle of Yangzhou, and was equipped with extremely powerful firepower, especially Lu Mi guns and grenades, which almost emptied the stocks of the Beijing Battalion. They relied on the vehicle formation, relying on two lines of defense, inside and outside, to patiently maneuver with the enemy.

The reason why the Ming army fired artillery and guns less and less before was because they had already calculated the time of retreat and transported some troops and weapons and equipment back to Shanhaiguan in advance, such as most of the rapid-fire guns. There are only big guys like Weiyuan cannons and carts, which can't be transported in the tunnel, so they simply don't want it, anyway, it's useless if the Qing army captures it.

After the retreat, the Ming army ignited explosives in many places in the tunnel and blew up the tunnel. Although the life span of this huge project is so short, what is it compared to the brilliant results achieved?

The Qing army planted this big heel, and Huang Taiji had a long nosebleed in a fit of anger, and he did not stop for three days and three nights, and he fell into a coma several times due to excessive blood loss. After waking up, in extreme anger, he wanted to lead his troops to storm Shanhaiguan. Thanks to the persuasion of Dolgon and others, it was said that thousands of Ming troops could defend for ten days with only more than 100 carts, and that Shanhaiguan was fortified by a heavy city and tens of thousands of border troops were stationed, so it was really impossible to attack. After Huang Taiji's anger passed, his mind was still very clear, so he had to return to Shenyang.

Unexpectedly, there is no peace on this road, isn't there a warship in the Ming army that has been harassing the Qing army? Now it is not one, but three more, all the way north along the Liaoxi Corridor, and a few cannons will be fired at the Qing army if there is nothing to do. The Qing army was really helpless about this, so they had to give up the flat road by the sea and march at least three miles away from the coast. However, in this way, the speed of the march was greatly affected, the consumption of grain and grass increased exponentially, and the morale was even lowered.

Half a month later, Huang Taiji's "holy car" returned to Shenyang. The last time I entered the customs battle, although the losses were not small, but the looting gains were also a lot, the Gyeonggi area of the Ming Dynasty was looted, and the two political enemies of Mang Gurtai and Amin were imprisoned, which was a big victory for Huang Taiji on the whole.

But this battle outside the Shanhai Pass, it is really impossible to hide the failure, excluding the Han army flag, the Manchu Eight Banners alone suffered more than 1,000 casualties, most of them were sniped by Lu Mi Gong or killed by the shelling of the battleship. And what about the loot? Zero, outright zero! Since the founding of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, especially since Huang Taiji became emperor, he can be said to be invincible, invincible, this battle is the first failure, I didn't expect to be so defeated!

However, compared with the military defeat, the political crisis faced by Huang Taiji made him more vigilant. Now he has two important prisoners: Amin and Mang Gultai. Among them, Amin was better, his white flag had just been wiped out, and only some orphans and widows remained; After Amin was imprisoned, Huang Taiji simply assigned the position of the owner of the white flag to Du Du, the son of Chu Ying. Since Nurhachi killed his eldest son Chu Ying, Chu Ying's family has lost power, and now he suddenly got the position of the master of the white flag, Du Du is naturally grateful to Huang Taiji. On the other hand, Amin, even his own brother Zilharang betrayed him, and the others would not help him, and he just ate and waited for death in prison.

But Mang Gurtai is different. As the fifth son of Nurhachi, he has a higher status than Amin, and he has great achievements, and all the Niulu bannermen under Zhenglan are very loyal to this master. What's more, he also has a good younger brother, Derge.

Derge is the tenth son of Nurhachi, and he was born to the same mother as Mang Gurtai, and has a very close relationship. He is generous by nature and has no ambitions, although after Huang Taiji imprisoned Mang Gurtai, he transferred the position of the owner of the Zhenglan Banner to Derge, but Derge has been speaking for Mang Gurtai, hoping that Huang Taiji can forgive Mang Gurtai.

If Huang Taiji can always win battles and his position becomes more and more stable, he will not have to pay attention to the Derge class. But this time they suffered a defeat outside the Shanhai Pass, and the hearts of the Manchu aristocratic class fluctuated, and many people secretly complained about Huang Taiji, saying that how Emperor Taizu was back then, and how he is now, the saints today can't tolerate people, and the "four great Baylors" like Amin and Mang Gurtai and the battlefield generals are imprisoned, so that the people's hearts are not aligned, and they will be defeated.

Huang Taiji was furious when he heard this discussion, and he wanted to kill Amin and Mang Gurtai forever. But the two are already in prison, and they didn't kill them when they went to prison, so are there any new charges now, and how can they be killed? Especially the Derge class, as long as he comes to see Huang Taiji, there is nothing else, just kneeling to intercede for his brother, begging Huang Taiji to think of brotherhood and Mang Gurtai's achievements, and to Mang Gurtai lightly, and often in front of others, making Huang Taiji very passive.

What made Huang Taiji even more annoyed was that Mang Gurtai and Derge's sister, Nurhachi's eldest princess, Mang Guji, also made a special trip from Kaiyuan to intercede for Mang Gurtai above the court. Mang Guji is Nurhachi's beloved daughter, and she has a very high status among the Manchu nobles, and she is older than Huang Taiji, so Huang Taiji has to respect her very much on the surface.

This princess Mang Guji has a strong temperament and speaks very impulsively, not so much as pleading, but rather counting Huang Taiji, and asking him to let go of Mang Guertai. At this time, Huang Taiji really moved to kill, but he was worthy of a generation of heroes, so he pretended to be moved and agreed to release Mang Gurtai, but he still had to think about it behind closed doors. This trick is called "wanting to capture the old indulgence", in fact, Huang Taiji secretly strengthened the monitoring of the three sisters and brothers of Mang Guji, Mang Guertai, and Dege, and there is a great trend of mountains and rains in Shenyang.

But no matter how much the Manchus tossed inside, the rice always had to be eaten. Last year, the grain looted in the Guannai did not bring back much, and the Manchurians themselves did not have much to eat, although there were Han people in Liaodong to provide for them, but in the bitter cold land of Liaodong, crops could only be harvested once a year, and there was not enough to eat at all.

So don't look at the Ming and Qing dynasties, the war was vigorous, but the trade of smuggling grain has never been interrupted. Just one day before Huang Taiji's "holy car" returned to Shenyang, a seemingly ordinary smuggling caravan had already rushed into Shenyang City...