"And what does Big Baylor think?"

A thin layer of sweat oozed from Dai Shan's forehead, and he thought about it in his mind for a while before he said carefully: "As far as I can see, we should send troops as soon as possible to break the Ming army and destroy the city foundation." “

Huang Taiji showed a noncommittal attitude towards Dai Shan's answer, he turned his gaze to the other ministers, and asked, "What do you think?" “

The princes and ministers of the Later Jin Dynasty expressed their approval of Dai Shan's suggestion, and some people also personally invited Ying to go, and by the way, Jinzhou City, which was forty miles away from Dalinghe Fort, was also taken down, unlike the ministers of the Ming Dynasty, these people basically experienced the hard battle of Nurhachi's entrepreneurship, and generally had rich military experience, and their temper was also quite irritable, and for a time there were many people who quarreled about who led the troops to go.

"Silence!" Seeing that the ministers were arguing more and more intensely, Dai Shan hurriedly stopped it, and then said to Huang Taiji: "Great Khan, what do you think?" “

"Rank!" Huang Taiji did not answer Dai Shan's question: "The Ming army has not succeeded in building the city, if I send troops to attack it, Zu Dashou will definitely abandon the city and flee into Jinzhou." Our army consumes horsepower, at most it can only get some people, and the soldiers have no captivity, and they will have a heart of resentment. If you besiege Jinzhou, the other city is complete, and there are red-coated cannons to help, and it is not a good strategy to rush to attack and injure our soldiers, and delay the attack will waste food and wages! ”

When everyone heard this, they all nodded secretly. Under the Eight Banners system of the Later Jin Army, the soldiers had no food, and the source of their income was the spoils of war and the captives, because there was no shortage of land in Liaodong, as long as there were captives, they could be turned into serfs. Therefore, in order to maintain high morale, it is not enough to win the battle, but also to get a lot of spoils in the battle. Therefore, attacking Jinzhou, which has a complete city, is a loss-making deal for Houjin.

"Then leave Zu Dashou alone?" A prince asked.

"Of course not!" Huang Taiji laughed: "You have to set up a trap to catch birds, and you have to sprinkle a few grains of grain in the trap." This Da Ling River is the sleeve. Let's pretend not to know first, let the ancestor build the city, and when it is about to be completed, we will attack it with elite soldiers. At that time, Zu Dashou was reluctant to build a similar castle and insisted on waiting for help. At that time, we besieged the city with a large army and sent reinforcements. If the Mingren Castle can't be attacked, can't we still beat them in the field? As long as the field battle is won, Zu Dashou stays in the city, can he still fly to the sky? “

Hearing this, all the princes and ministers understood Huang Taiji's intentions, and praised them in unison. Huang Taiji immediately ordered spies to be sent to the Daling River to strictly monitor the progress of the Ming army's fortification, Tong Yang stepped up the training of the artillery team, and ordered to write letters to Horqin, Alu, Zalut, Balin, Ao Han, Naiman, Karaqin, Tumut and other troops to send troops to help and besiege the Daling River together.

When everything is done, everything is taken care of. The princes and ministers withdrew. Huang Taiji got off the throne and went back to the harem. Compared with the magnificent palace city of the Ming Dynasty, Huang Taiji's harem at that time was much smaller and simpler, and it was even far inferior to the mansions of some big gentry in the south of the Yangtze River. It turns out that when Nurhachi established the Houjin regime in the early days, he did not know how to call it a royal palace or a khan palace, but thought that the place where the affairs of the state and the people were managed was called the yamen, since it was more powerful than the ordinary yamen, and the area was also larger. It was called the Great Yamen. It was not until the Han intellectuals in the Later Jin regime gradually increased that the name was changed to Gonggong according to their suggestion. Its internal buildings are also named after the Han dynasty, for example, the first gate is called the Great Golden Gate, the gate of the inner palace is called the Phoenix Tower, the place where the Great Khan and the Khan Concubine live is called Qingning Palace, and the two wings on the east side are called Guanju Palace and Yongfu Palace; The two wings on the west side are called Lintoe Palace and Yanqing Palace, and these four "palaces" are for the four concubines of Huang Taiji's higher status to live.

Qingning Palace is also known as the Middle Palace by the Manchurians, which is different from the Qianning Palace in Beijing. Except for the three rooms in the east head for Huang Taiji and his concubines, about three-quarters of the remaining area is dedicated to the worship and worship of the gods, and there is a large iron pot on each side of the palace gate in the southeast corner, which boils white water pork all year round according to the custom of the Jurchens. On the west side of Cheongning Palace is a place dedicated to the gods, and a wooden board is nailed to the wall. There is a yellow curtain hanging from the wooden board, and behind the curtain are various gods: there are Mongolian male and female ancestor puppets, as well as Shakyamuni, Manjushri, Guanyin, Seven Fairies, Guan Yu, in addition to so many statues, there is also a divine arrow, a cloth bag containing the gods.

When Huang Taiji returned to Qingning Palace, the sun had completely set. Many candles were lit in the room, and the arm-thick butter candles emitted a pungent smoke, which mixed with the cigarettes in front of the shrine, the wood smoke under the stove, and the water vapor coming out of the meat pot, adding a bit of gloom and mystery to the palace. Huang Taiji respectfully knelt down in front of the throne and bowed a few times. Next to the throne, two big black fat pigs were tied firmly, because they had been poured a lot of strong liquor beforehand, the two black pigs did not struggle, but snorted a few times unconsciously. After worshipping the gods, Huang Taiji looked at the two black pigs with satisfaction, in his opinion, the pigs were a sign of the gods' joy, which indicated that his plan was about to succeed.

After washing her hands, the concubine also came out of the east room, and the two came to the courtyard for the day's evening sacrifice. Huang Taiji and his wife first bowed to the statue of the god, and then sat down on the antler circle chair. A shaman with a feathered hat and brass bells on his clothes began beating a leather drum, dancing and singing, uttering fragmentary words, and soon the shaman entered a semi-mad state, and the Jurchens believed that the gods had landed on the shaman's body to give shelter and instructions to their descendants. When he jumped to the end, the shaman collapsed to the ground, and after a long time, he slowly woke up, saluted Huang Taiji and the concubine, and withdrew.

At this time, some high-ranking princes were led into the Qingning Palace, and they rushed in, first saluting the gods, and then saluting the emperor Taiji and the concubine, and the guards spread some felt on the ground so that they could kneel on the ground. When everyone was seated, the guards laid down a plate of white meat, a glass of wine, a bowl of rice, and a bowl of broth in front of everyone, and this white meat belonged to the two black pigs that had been sacrificed. When everything was finished, everyone pulled out a short knife from their waist and chopped up the white meat on the plate, which was actually difficult to eat because there was no salt in it. But all of them showed a very happy appearance to share in the gifts of the gods.

Finish eating meat. The princes and ministers withdrew from the Qingning Palace. Huang Taiji was very tired at this time, he lay down on the hot kang, rested in a wide clothes, and in his dream his army defeated thousands of Ming troops, and even stepped into the magnificent city of Beijing.

Juzhou, Zhizhou study. September.

"Will!" Lu Boqi slapped the chess pieces in his hand on the chessboard.

"Oops!" The master patted his thigh in frustration: "Why didn't I see this?" Oops, how can this be saved? ”

"Master, it's already a slotted horse, where can I still be saved!" Lu Boqi triumphantly poured a glass of wine and pushed it over: "Drink quickly, you lost again this time." “

The master shook his head in annoyance, and drank all the wine in the cup, the wine glass was specially used for the wine order, and three glasses could fill a sea bowl. When he entered his stomach with a glass of wine, he suddenly felt that his whole person was three points lighter, as if he was about to float. Seeing that Lu Boqi was playing chess again, and looked like he was going to play, he hurriedly waved his hand again and again: "Master, let's be here today, if I lose again, I'm afraid I'll get drunk." “

Lu Boqi refused to let go of the other party, and said with a smile while playing chess: "If you are drunk, you will be drunk." It's rare to have a good day, and there is nothing going on in the yamen. I asked someone to send a message to my sister-in-law, saying that if you don't go back tonight, you and I will just go to sleep! The master couldn't resist Lu Boqi, so he had to sit down and replied with a wry smile: "Okay, today I will give up my life to accompany the gentleman." “

Lu Boqi laughed when he heard this. He poured the cup full of wine and put it next to the chessboard: "If it was this time in previous years, you and I would have been busy jumping our feet, where would there be such comfort?" It's really boring to let you enjoy happiness but say this! ”

The master heard Lu Boqi say this. also laughed: "What the master said is that this is thanks to that Liu Dusi." “

"Not bad!" Lu Boqi took a "head shot", which was his favorite start: "The first time I saw him, I thought he was a vulgar and unwritten ruffian, unspeakably annoying, but these days I get along, I feel much better, it seems that this acquaintance is in a hurry!" ”

"That's what the master said!" The master moved the chess pieces. It turns out that according to the practice of the Ming Dynasty, September and October are the busiest seasons of the year in the yamen, and at this time of year, even the most leisurely and lazy old men on weekdays have to be so busy that they have to fly up with their feet - the time has come to collect the autumn tax. One of the most important things in the examination of grassroots officials in the Ming Dynasty is whether they can collect taxes in full, which is related to whether they go further or take off their official robes and go home. Even if the lords and gentlemen don't care about their careers and the taxes of the imperial court, they must be diligent just for their own pockets - the little money issued by the imperial court is just a fraction, and the main income of the officials comes from the oppression of the small people - the largest piece of it is the floating income in the autumn endowment, that is, the part that exceeds the original tax amount, such as kicking the tip, drenching, and fire consumption. However, the common people will not honestly pay for the hard-earned grain and cloth for a year, not to mention the gentry and old men who accept the contributions of the small people, most of them owe the government taxes for several years or even decades, these taxes are not their own, these people generally have the privilege of tax exemption, but they have contracted it. As mentioned earlier, the gentry of the Ming Dynasty actually bore some of the responsibilities of the tax collectors, and in many cases they received a full amount of taxes from the common people, but took some of them into their own pockets and refused to hand them over to the state. In a sense, there is a war every year at this time of year in this land, with the state on one side and the gentry on the other, and the spoils of war are the fruits of a year's labor of countless peasants.

For Lu Boqi, the autumn of Chongzhen's fourth year was extraordinarily idle, and he even had the leisure to play chess and eat wine with his master in the study. The reason is very simple, due to the civil uprising in Shaanxi, Chongzhen has been exempted from the taxes in Shaanxi at the invitation of Yang He, so he naturally does not have to break his legs for taxes. Of course, this is not the only reason, the ancient poem has a cloud: "Yellow paper is exhausted, white paper is urged." The taxes of the imperial court are exempted, but the benefits of the adults and the food and clothing of the officials and wanderers are still on these. If it was in previous years, he Master Lu would have to scrape a layer of skin off the poor men. However, thanks to Liu Cheng's blessing, the irrigation canal project has been started for two months, and the progress is quite smooth, Lu Boqi, who got the news in advance, has bought one hundred and fifty dumps of land next to the canal that is about to be excavated, according to the market at the time, when the canal is repaired, it will be tens of thousands of taels of silver, with such a large amount of income that is about to arrive, Master Lu is not too interested in exploiting the mud legs that are about to starve to death to earn a little money.

Lu Boqi and the master played two more games, and the sky outside had darkened, but Lu Boqi was not less interested, he asked the maid to make two large bowls of mutton dumplings first, and he wanted to continue the night battle with the master after eating.

Three mouthfuls poured a bowl of steaming sour soup mutton dumplings into their stomachs, Lu Boqi was about to go back into battle to kill the master without leaving a piece of armor, but when he looked up, he saw the master sitting opposite with chopsticks in his hand in a daze, the bowl of dumplings was only eaten four or five, and a thick layer of oil flowers had condensed on the surface of the soup in the bowl. Lu Boqi gently tapped the other party's bowl with chopsticks and asked, "This dumpling is not your taste?" ”

"No, no!" The master looked like he had just woken up from a dream, stretched out his hand and stuffed a dumpling into his mouth, Lu Boqi stretched out his hand to stop the other party: "Let the subordinates reheat it and eat it again, this mutton dumpling is heavy, and it is not delicious if it is cold." ”

When the maidservant took down the dishes and chopsticks, the master said in a low voice: "I just thought of something and forgot about the dumplings." “

"Oh?" Lu Boqi asked with great interest: "What is it that makes you unable to eat?" I would like to know. “

"Master, why do you say this is an official?"

"That's an interesting question!" Lu Boqi was aroused by his master's question, and even forgot to play chess, he stroked his beard under his chin, and recalled: "When I was a teenager, I thought that if I was admitted to the Jinshi in the future, I must be loyal to the court if I can be an official, love Li Shu, and make a career." But later, the imperial examination was wasted, and it took more than 30 years to win a show, and it took more than ten years to win the promotion, and the ambition of his youth had long been wiped out. At that time, I thought that if I could become an official, I would definitely reorganize the family business and let my parents and wife, who were struggling to support me study, live a good life for a few days. (To be continued......)