At that time, the civil uprising within the Ming Dynasty had not yet broken out, although the Houjin won many battles outside the Guan, but the manpower and material resources of the Ming Dynasty were still a hundred times more than the Houjin, and the Houjin won a hundred times, and the Ming Dynasty was still the Ming Dynasty; But as long as you lose once, you will die and the country will be destroyed. Huang Taiji knew this better than anyone, so the highest goal he pursued was nothing more than to negotiate peace with Ming and force Ming to admit his possession of the existing land. And Zu Dashou was born as a general, and he was already the pinnacle of martial arts at this time, what can he get by being a traitor of Houjin? In 1631, not to mention Zu Dashou, even Huang Taiji himself never thought that the Jurchens would be able to stay in the Central Plains and rule for three hundred years. At most, it is said that Zu Dashou has the heart to preserve his strength, but that was also the norm of generals and civil officials at that time, and there is nothing unusual.

"Yes, sir!" Gui stood up, carefully stood aside, and stood with his hands down. Zu Dashou looked up and down for a while, with a satisfied look on his face, and asked reservedly: "Mr. Gui Qian, how is the injury on your body?" ”

"Tell your lordship, it's just a small injury on the flesh and skin, and it's out of the way!"

"That's good!" Zu Dashou said solemnly: "You also know that the east and west roads are encircled, and the army is gathered, and the defenders in the city alone are not enough to break the siege. You clean up, take advantage of the camp of Dongyu has not yet been settled, hurry up and go to Jinzhou for help! Speaking of this, he picked up a letter from several cases, and the attaché next to him hurriedly took the letter and handed it to Ah Gui.

"This is a handwritten letter to General Sun Inspector, and it must not fall into the hands of Dongyu!"

"Your Excellency, please rest assured, the Admiral will never say that this letter has fallen into the hands of the Tartars!"

"Well, whoever you want to walk with you is just a matter of choosing!"

"My lord, this kind of thing is troublesome when there are many people, just give the villain two good horses! Also, the villain went out of the east gate tonight, got out of the thief's encirclement, and then turned west. Please also ask the adults to blow the trumpet at the west gate, and make the appearance of breaking through the city, so that the villain can take advantage of it! ”

"Good!" Zu Dashou said with a smile: "Brave and strategic, it really deserves to be the athlete of our Guan Ning Army, come here, take wine!" ”

"Yes, sir!" The attaché took the wine, and Zu Dashou took his own wine glass, poured a full glass himself, and took a sip. handed the remaining half to Ah Gui and said with a smile: "Mr. Gui Qian, no, Gui Dusi, next time I come back, General Ben will drink again!" “

"Thank you, sir!" Ah Gui drank all the wine in the cup, returned the wine glass to Zu Dashou with both hands, knelt down and kowtowed again, and then withdrew. At this time, he was in a very happy mood. It's like a bird that has escaped from a snare.

Houjin camp, sweat tent.

It was already the first shift, but the tent was still waiting for the brightness, and Huang Taiji was sitting in front of the bookcase. I'm planning and estimating on a map with a confidant minister.

"Great Khan, it's not too early, I'll be here today, you can rest first!" A burly man said respectfully. Although he has shaved his hair, looking at his appearance and demeanor, he is clearly a Han Confucian student.

"Mr. Fan!" Huang Taiji smiled: "The five piers in the southwest corner of this city have not yet been taken down. Whether to attack by force or persuaded by Huairou, it is not too late to rest after agreeing! ”

"Great Khan!" Fan Wencheng smiled slightly, and explained while pointing to the map with his finger: "The rabbit ear guard is surnamed Qu, he has a nephew who fled to Dajin two years ago because of a military discipline, and he is under Weichen, let this person go and persuade him, and take it down without a fight." When the Great Khan rewards this man, he will be able to gain his lethal power, and then let him persuade the other piers, and he will definitely be able to go down without a fight. “

"Good!" Huang Taiji said with a smile: "Mr. Fan is really my Zhuge , the elite soldiers of the southern country, eight or nine times out of ten are east of Shanhaiguan; And there are many wise and brave people in this Dalinghe City. This time, I have brought the whole army to come, not to take this district and a city, but to subdue these talents for my use, so that I can achieve a great cause. The generals think a lot about killing the enemy and taking money, being a rich man, and being able to understand my mind, there is only one gentleman in the Manchu court. “

Fan Wencheng heard that Huang Taiji was doing this to him, and leaned down and bowed: "The talent of Weichen and the horse, if you have to be so wrong to love, you will be broken to pieces, and you can't repay the grace of the encounter!" “

"Get up, Mr. Fan!" Huang Taiji stretched out his hand to help Fan Wencheng up: "I know that some people gossip about you behind your back on weekdays, saying that you didn't see anyone when you were digging the soil and cultivating the fields, and you ran over when you were harvesting grain." Don't you care, those people only know how to wield a sword and draw a bow, where do they know the truth of governing the country and the people? A few years ago, my father Khan was old and confused, and when the situation stabilized, I wanted to correct them one by one. ”

When Fan Wencheng heard this, he was already moved to tears, choked up and bowed down: "The Great Khan is full of grace, and the Weichen has treated the Han people of Liaodong to thank you here!" It turned out that when Nurhachi died in 1626 AD, Houjin was still in the process of transforming from a tribal alliance to a state. In other words, Nurhachi was not yet able to pass on all the enormous power he once possessed to his successor, Huang Taiji, because the tribal alliance did not have the bureaucracy of the state that was above everyone and was loyal only to the man on the throne. Nurhachi's enormous power was "earned" by relying on decades of unifying the Jurchen tribes and his invincible and invincible prestige, and Nurhachi could pass the throne to Huang Taiji, but there was no way to pass on the merit and prestige to him. The biggest problem facing Huang Taiji after succeeding to the throne was not to deal with external enemies, but how to overwhelm his brothers and consolidate his throne, so the Ming monarchs and ministers were overjoyed after learning of Nurhachi's death. It's not that those people are so frivolous, but they judge according to past experience that a rapidly rising group like Houjin has not yet had time to establish a political ethics that everyone accepts, and the order within the group is often maintained by the life and death of a certain political and military strongman, and once the strongman dies, the group will quickly fall into the melee of the sons (and possibly other relatives) competing for the position, which often greatly weakens the power of the group, and even directly leads to destruction. Many of Nurhachi's sons and nephews can fight and have a lot of achievements, but Huang Taiji is still the younger one among them. It was a good thing when he was alive, but it was another thing after he died.

But fortunately, or unfortunately, Nurhachi's chosen heir, Huang Taiji, was an unborn political and military genius, and when he found that his strength was not enough to overwhelm the rest of his brothers, he voluntarily backed down and recognized the power position of the other three Baylors. He is allowed to sit south with himself, and has the power to open the government and manage the government. Subsequently, he used troops externally and reformed political affairs internally, accumulating prestige and strength on the one hand, and looking for opportunities to eradicate the other three Baylor forces. In this process, Huang Taiji gradually began to discover the talents loyal to him among the Han people in Liaodong, so he promoted and appointed, and gradually abolished some of the privileges of the Jurchen nobles, and liberated some Han serfs who were originally subordinate to the Jurchen aristocracy as household Qi people. For Huang Taiji, it was a wonderful move to kill two birds with one stone: first, Jin Ruo wanted to consolidate his rule over Liaodong and even march into Guannai. It is necessary to expand the base of its own political power, and this goal can only be achieved by absorbing the upper classes of the majority of the population in Liaodong into its own ruling group; Second, the Eight Banners system of the integration of soldiers and civilians determines that the banner people are subordinate to their banner owners, and when necessary, the banner owners can even use this power to confront Huang Taiji, while the other Han and Mongols are different, the newly established Han Eight Banners, Mongolian Eight Banners and other armies are directly subordinate to the country of Houjin, in other words, they are loyal to Huang Taiji himself, who is the supreme ruler of the country, so in the contest between Huang Taiji and Zhubeile. The Han actually played the role of the Imperial Taiji Alliance, and Fan Wencheng was one of these Han representatives.

"Tell the Great Khan, the west gate of the Ming army's Dalinghe City opened, and cavalry rushed out. And beating the trumpet, there seems to be signs of a breakthrough! A Baraya guard came in from outside the tent, knelt down and prayed.

"Got it, send a detective. If there is a change, tell me again! “

"Wow!"

"Mr. Fan, what do you think of that ancestor birthday?" Huang Taiji asked.

"Great Khan. From the perspective of Weichen, I am afraid that there is fraud! “

"Oh, why do you say that?"

"Great Khan." Fan Wencheng twisted his beard under his chin: "Zu Dashou is a battle-hardened general, and he should have discovered that this time it was the Great Khan who came from all over the country, and his troops were far more than him." If he wants to break through the siege, he will definitely stop fighting, lest our army will find out, how can there be such a big fanfare and make such a big move? ”

"What Mr. Fan said is reasonable!" Huang Taiji nodded: "But anything can happen on the battlefield, will Zu Dashou bluff first, focus our army's attention on the west gate, and then break through from the other city gates?" ”

"The Great Khan really saw the sky." Fan Wencheng said with a smile: "But Weichen thinks this is unlikely. ”

"Oh, why do you say that?"

"Great Khan, since the eleventh year of the Mandate of Heaven, since the old Khan attacked Ningyuan, every time my Dajin army attacked Mingjian City, they all returned. Sun Chengzong supervised Liaodong with the respect of scholars, and for many years he managed the army and built a fortress, but he did not go further eastward. ”

Huang Taiji listened to Fan Wencheng's words, lowered his head and thought for a moment, and suddenly smiled: "Mr. Fan, do you mean that someone in the Ming Dynasty attacked Sun Chengzong and forced him to enter the Zhongzuo Institute to block other people's mouths?" “

"Not bad!" Fan Wencheng said with a smile: "Great Khan, think about it, if Zu Dashou led his troops to abandon the almost built Zhongzuo Suocheng and the people to flee back to Jinzhou without a battle, then how would Sun Chengzong clean him up?" “

Huang Taiji stood up and paced back and forth in the tent, when suddenly he stopped and asked, "Mr. Fan, how can I prove that what you just said is true?" “

"What's so hard about that? This kind of party dispute in the Ming Kingdom has always been known to the world, just let the capital work carefully spend more silver, at most more than ten days there will be news, maybe those scholars will make all kinds of posts all over the city, I'm afraid even the silver will be saved. “

"Hahaha!" Hearing Fan Wencheng's answer, Huang Taiji laughed: "If that's the case, then it's great." Although this Sun Chengzong is good at planning and short at decision-making, he is not a good handsome talent. But this person has the amount of a prime minister, if he is allowed to arrange it calmly, and then find a first-class person of Qi Shaobao, it will really be difficult to deal with. Fortunately, the Ming people attacked each other, and the national government was not repaired, and God gave our country also. “

"In fact, the Ming people have thousands of miles of land and trillions of households, if it weren't for the courtiers attacking each other and separating themselves from the body, how could they get such a field today? As long as the Great Khan has the heart of loving the people and walking on the right path, he will be blessed by Heaven and establish a great cause that is difficult for anyone to achieve before! “

"I understand Mr. Fan's intentions!" Huang Taiji nodded: "Don't worry, as long as the opportunity is right, I will give the Han people of Liaodong land, just like the Manchurians!" “

"Weichen has thanked the Great Khan for the Han people of Liaodong!" Fan Wencheng knelt on the ground when he heard this, and kowtowed again and again. Huang Taiji stretched out his hand to help Fan Wencheng up, and said with a smile: "Why is Mr. Fan like this, didn't you Han people say that the emperor is the son of heaven and governs the people on behalf of heaven, in the eyes of heaven, what is the difference between Manchu and Han people?" Since I am already a Great Khan, I am naturally not only the Great Khan of the Manchus, but also the Great Khan of the Han and Mongols, which is just the proper righteousness! But this matter should not be rushed, you also know that my fellow clansmen are good at conquest and short on farming, and if they dissolve all the farmers at once, I am afraid that they will be worried about cold and hunger. “

"That's nature, that's nature!" Hearing Huang Taiji's words, Fan Wencheng was a little embarrassed, and hurriedly smiled: "In fact, the Manchurian people are soldiers to defend the country, and the Han people cultivate and weave to give grain silk, and there is nothing wrong with it." “

"Oh, Mr. Fan said that, I didn't think about it!" Huang Taiji smiled, and then he slapped his palm twice, and a guard came in outside, and he said in a deep voice to the guard: "Pass the order, all the armies can hold the road, and the other movements of the Ming army don't need to be ignored, step up to take down the pier and build a long trench!" “

"Wow!"

Juzhou, the city of thousands of households, the warehouse.

"These, these are the firearms you've been making these days?"

Xu Hecheng held back the excitement in his heart, pointing to the neatly placed bird guns on the wooden shelf in front of him, the hard jujube wood butt had been coated with varnish, and the metal surface treated with high-temperature soaphorn liquid emitted a dark blue light, and next to the bird gun were neatly bundled fire ropes, medicine bottles, horn cartridges, cowhide lead bullet bags, ammunition rods, molds for making lead bullets, and many miscellaneous utensils, in Xu Hecheng's view, these inanimate objects exuded a kind of magic at this time.

"Yes, there are two hundred here, and the other thirty have been handed over to Du Ruhu for training the new soldiers, and there are enough accessories to assemble a hundred in the warehouse next door." Speaking of this, Liu Cheng smiled slightly: "Speaking of which, thanks to you, eldest brother, this time you brought back a lot of saltpeter, sulfur, grease, and wool, and many other things, all of which are urgent!" Speaking of this, Liu Cheng casually picked up a handful of bird guns and handed them to Xu Hecheng: "Do you want to try it?" (To be continued.) )

PS: I saw that there were book friends in the discussion forum complaining that Weber was digressing. Weber wanted to make an analogy, this novel is the same as singing, the stage must be set up before the character can sing. Different plays need different stages, if it is a one-man show, there is a slap square size on the line, if the opponent plays bigger, if it is an opera, it is bigger, if it is a modern movie, sometimes you have to pull thousands of people to kick the right step, dozens of cameras in the sky and the ground together. This is a historical novel, with a large background scene, many characters, and intricate relationships between them. Naturally, it takes a long time to set up the stage, isn't it good to be a little patient? History has always been complicated, simplistic, NPC-based characters, is it interesting?

Finally, if you want to blame our country for being a big country with a vast territory, it would be simple to write about Japan's Warring States, anyway, a hundred miles is a "country", and no matter how you write it, you won't run 800 miles away