It must be known that after the Manchu Qing Dynasty pacified Zhunger, the Chinese merchants represented by the Jin merchants only imported an average of 8071880 Russian pounds of tea into Russia in Kyakhta (located in the southern city of today's Buryatia Autonomous Republic, near Ulaanbaatar) in Kyakhta (located in the southern city of today's Buryatia Autonomous Republic, near Ulaanbaatar) in the thirteen years of Daoguang's 17th to 19th years, and the ruble was still the gold standard currency at that time, and one ruble could be exchanged for 0.77423 grams of gold, which shows the huge trade volume. If this trade route could be controlled, the levy of gold and customs duties alone would amount to no less than one million taels of silver per year, enough to support an army of 100,000. In order to achieve this, it is extremely necessary to delay the decisive battle until the time is ripe.

Liu Chengzheng was immersed in his ambition, and suddenly felt that there seemed to be someone behind the door, he hurriedly jumped up, pulled out his waist knife and shouted: "Who, who is behind the door?" “

"It's me!" A soft voice came from behind the door, and with a squeak, Min Min walked out from behind the door, looking at Liu Cheng with a smile on his face. Liu Cheng smiled a little embarrassedly, and put the knife into the sheath and said, "I thought it was someone else, didn't scare you, right?" “

"I'm a descendant of the Golden Family, and I'm not a lady of your Han people, how can I be so easily scared!" Min Min laughed, walked up to Liu Cheng, gently hugged his arm, and said in a low voice: "You just said so much to Du Gu, I'm afraid he may not understand." “

"If you don't understand, you don't understand!" Liu Cheng smiled: "Anyway, it's good to understand when you should understand, and it's not good to understand too early when you should be confused." “

Hearing Liu Cheng's words, Min Min laughed, she raised her head and looked at the other party, and said with a smile: "You Han people are really strange, it's obviously a very simple thing to say is so complicated." “

"Really?" Liu Cheng smiled: "I don't think it's just the Han people, but you Mongolians are the same?" “

"Why do you say that?"

"Minmin, you are a descendant of the first Taishi, and he had obviously dominated the grassland at that time. But he didn't dare to ascend to the position of the Great Khan, and he only dared to be a Taishi for the rest of his life, am I right? “

"You don't understand this!" Min Min's face became serious: "My ancestor Taishi Tuhuan wiped out his opponent Mahamu and dominated the grassland, so he went to Genghis Khan's mausoleum, wanting to succeed the descendants of the Golden Family to ascend to the throne of the Great Khan. But as soon as he entered the cemetery, he saw the bowstring of the enshrined horned bow trembling, and then he heard the sound of a bow and arrow, and he suddenly felt that he had been hit by an arrow on his body, and felt very unwell, and when he returned home, he died of a serious illness attack shortly after. Before he died, he also told his son that those who were not descendants of the Golden Family should not be the Great Khan. Speaking of which, Min Min's face is not good-looking, as a descendant of Dehuan, she naturally has great respect for this ancestor with outstanding military achievements, but Genghis Khan, as the overlord of the space on the steppe, has an overwhelming psychological dominance over the Mongolian tribes, even though it was hundreds of years ago, but for Min Min, who is faintly standing on the opposite side of the golden family. The psychological pressure is also extremely heavy. Liu Cheng saw it in his eyes, and secretly thought in his heart that although Na Dehuan had outstanding achievements, he was only the first in the grassland, not the overwhelming first. Not replacing the Golden Family as the Great Khan must be due to lack of strength, for fear of causing public anger. As for the injuries caused by the magic arrow, most of them died from internal assassination, so it's hard to say, so I have to use this as a reason. Since the fall of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, the basic political order has been lost on the grassland. It is not uncommon for the strong to bully the weak, the big to bully the small, brothers to fight, and father and son to kill each other. The leaders of the various departments rarely died of old age on the couch, maybe this Dehuan died from his son who succeeded him, and then made up this lie to fool others, but he didn't want to deceive his descendants more than a hundred years later.

"Actually, there's nothing wrong with that, as long as you can hold the power, it doesn't matter if you call it the Great Khan or the Grand Master?" Liu Cheng smiled and comforted.

"That's what you said!" Min Min nodded: "In fact, since Emperor Yuan's Northern Hunt, we Erut people have always been the most powerful among the Mongolian tribes, but after the ancestors also came first, the Erut tribes fell apart, and they were never unified under one banner, and Dayan Khan had a chance to recover." However, the world is impermanent, after the death of Dayan Khan, there is no male lord of the Golden Family, but my father Khan Batur Khan is a rare male lord, and I believe that the time for our Eruts to replace the Golden Family is not far off. ”

Liu Cheng listened quietly to the girl's words, obviously she has completely fallen into the glory of the ancestors and her own ambitions, as a traverser, Liu Cheng of course knows that in history the girl's dream finally came to naught, neither the Golden Family nor the Eruts have completed the hegemony of unifying the Mongols, and finally ascended the throne of Genghis Khan is the Jurchens from the White Mountain and Black Water, all the Mongols have become slaves of the Jurchens, and the fate of the Dzungar Department is even more tragic - after destroying this last nomadic empire, The Qing army even ordered the killing of all men except for children who were less than the height of the wheel, leaving only traces of the "Jungar Basin" in the history of this powerful tribe.

"And what do you think of Dongyu?"

"You mean the Jurchens?"

"Yes, I heard that Huang Taiji has spent a lot of effort to recruit the Mongolian tribes, and the left wing of Mo Nan has also taken refuge in the Jurchens, and the right wing has been made like this by Lin Dan Khan, if I am defeated this time, I am afraid that the rest of the troops will also take refuge in the Jurchens."

"Hmm!" Min Min nodded, with a solemn look on his face: "This Huang Taiji is indeed very difficult, and in the long run, it is the great enemy of my father Khan. ”

"The Great Enemy?" Liu Cheng pretended to be puzzled and asked, "Minmin, why do you say that?" He is in the east and your father is in the west, thousands of miles apart, how can he be called a great enemy? “

"Liu Cheng, you don't know!" Min Min shook his head: "We Mongolians are different from you Han people, you Han people build cities and palaces and live in them, three or five hundred miles away; And we Mongolians are grazing for a living, living by water and grass, every winter and summer is a nomadic radius of one or two thousand miles is also a common thing, plus there are thousands of miles in the Gobi Desert, no one lives at all, it seems that my father Khan and the Jurchen are far away, but if he pulls the south and north of the desert over, and my father Khan is adjacent, then there will be a war. ”

"I see! Then your father Khan and the northern and southern Mongols are both Mongols, if you compare to win over the tribes, you still have some advantage compared to the Jurchens, right? ”

"Not necessarily!" Min Min shook his head and said, "The ancestors of our Erut people are the people of the forest, which is a little different from the Mongolian proper. But that's not the most important thing, the grassland values strength and weakness, not blood kinship. If you fail to protect the weak and punish the betrayers, even your brothers will abandon you. The Jurchens have been invincible to the Ming Dynasty and on the grassland over the years, and they are also famous on the grassland, so naturally some people are willing to join him. ”

"Is that the most important thing to be able to fight?"

"It's not just about being able to fight! The chief must be fair. Huang Taiji and Nurhachi have done a good job in this. Even if they won the battle, they only had to collect a small ransom and let them go back if they captured the prisoners, and the price of selling salt and tea was fair, and they did not occupy fertile pastures, and they were fair in dealing with lawsuits between the tribes, and they did not mess around because of their relatives, which was far worse than Lin Dan Khan. "Speaking of which. Min Min suddenly laughed and said, "Why did you suddenly mention this Jurchen, didn't you want to ally with my father Khan to deal with the Jurchens?" ”

"Not bad!" Liu Cheng nodded: "But I'm just a deputy chief soldier, and I'm afraid that things like this can only be decided by the big guys in the DPRK." The war between the Ming Dynasty and the Dongyu is already on fire, and it is impossible to quench your thirst if you count on your father Khan. ”

"Is it so urgent?" Min Min was taken aback by Liu Cheng's words: "Aren't the Jurchens still outside the gate?" You Daming have two capitals and thirteen provinces in the Guan, even if you lose the Guan, it's nothing, right? “

"It's nothing if you lose it." Liu Cheng sighed: "Actually, if I were to preside over the war in Liaodong, the first step would be to give up the land of Liaodong, leaving only the coastal islands and a few strongholds that were conducive to defense, and move the local people back to Guannei. ”

"Are the Jurchens so powerful?" Min Min was taken aback by Liu Cheng's words, she had known Liu Cheng since she had known her. I only saw that he was invincible, invincible, and almost everything was under control, but in the face of the Jurchens, he admitted that he would give up the place outside the border to defend himself.

"Huh!" Liu Cheng smiled: "It's not that the Jurchens are powerful, I only have four or five thousand soldiers in my hands now." The Jurchens always have 450,000 elite soldiers in the Eight Banners of the headquarters alone, plus the Han army and the Horqin Tribes, it is easy to have an army of 100,000, where can I fight 1:20? ”

"Phew!" Heard Liu Cheng say this. Min Min was relieved and said, "Why should I be?" The Ming Dynasty is rich in the world, if Liu Cheng is in charge of the war in Liaodong. There will only be more soldiers under his command than the Jurchens, where will there be fewer than the Jurchens? ”

"There may be more soldiers than the Jurchens, but they are not up and down, and they are hindered left and right, so what's the use?" Liu Cheng smiled: "Minmin, you are still young, there are some things that you still don't understand, how can the two countries fight only on the battlefield?" If you don't even understand this, it's better not to be in that position, misleading others and yourself! “

Min Min nodded a little ignorantly, although she was talented, but after all, she had little experience, and she was not clear about the deep-seated reasons for the successive defeats in the war between the Ming army and the Houjin at that time, and Liu Cheng was unwilling to say some things too clearly, after all, this was not suitable for his identity.

"And how many soldiers do you have to have to win the battle?"

"Seventy thousand." Liu Cheng paused slightly: "No, fifty thousand, it can't be less." ”

"Fifty thousand, is it?" Min Min laughed: "I don't think it's difficult, it's ten times more than now." ”

"yes, ten times more!" Liu Cheng smiled bitterly.

In the same state, the military is prepared for the yamen.

"My lord, Lord Du Ruhu, the garrison of Chaoyi, has arrived, and he is waiting outside!"

"Hurry up and invite Master Du in,!" Lu Boqi hurriedly ordered, although his official position was far higher than that of Du Ruhu, who was just a mere garrison, but Liu Cheng had introduced him to him as his agent in Chaoyi before leaving, and he did not dare to snub the other party. The entourage was about to go out to announce that Du Ruhu came in, but was stopped by Lu Boqi.

"Wait, you still lead Master Du to my study, let him wait for a while, don't let outsiders see it!"

"Yes, sir!"

Lu Boqi did not immediately go to his study, but sat down and took a deep breath. If there had been a man in the room at this time, he would have found that the old bureaucrat, who was already in his fifties, was in a state of extreme nervousness, and after a while, Lu Boqi let himself relax a little before he got up and walked towards the study.

When Lu Boqi walked into his study, he found that in addition to Du Ruhu, there was also a person who had never been mentioned before-Yu He. Lu Boqi knew very well that this unremarkable old man was in control of Liu Cheng's money bag to a considerable extent, and it was obviously not an accident that this person was here at this time. Lu Boqi scolded in his stomach, but there was a smile on his face, and he arched his hand: "Du Shoubei, oops, it turns out that Mr. Yu is also here, and the subordinates really don't have long eyes, and they didn't even pass it on to the official, it's really damn good!" ”

Du Ruhu and Yu He hurriedly stood up, bowed, and Du Ruhu said: "Lord Lu, Mr. Yu came today to tell the master in the letter. ”

"Oh?" Lu Boqi nodded: "So you all know?" “

"Is it a matter of training four more teams?" Du Ruhu asked: "The master has already made the matter clear to us in the letter, saying that we should all listen to Lord Lu's instructions, and we must handle this mission well!" ”

Hearing Du Ruhu say this, Lu Boqi's mouth was full of bitterness, and he secretly thought in his heart: "Listen to my orders? Must you get the mission done? But I had no money and no food here, so Hong Zhijun threw me an official document to exempt the grain tax owed over the years, and allowed me to donate the money and grain obtained by the gentry in various states to train a battalion and regiment to defend the township, but if those gentry were willing to donate money and grain to train the regiment, why should they owe so much grain tax? Liu Cheng, Liu Cheng, you are pushing me into the fire pit! ”

Lu Boqi forcibly suppressed the bitterness in his heart, and said with a forced smile: "You need money and food for training, but I don't have much food in the Yamen of the Soldier Preparation Dao, I don't know what the two of you have?" ”

Du Ruhu shook his head: "The last general is a military minister, where is there a way to get money and food!" ”

Lu Boqi turned his gaze to Yu He and said with a smile: "This official has long heard that Mr. Yu is a businessman and has a good way to make money, can you teach me one or two?" “

"Lord Lu said he was laughing!" Yu He said with a smile: "Since I followed General Liu, I have long been out of business, just taking care of family affairs for Lord Liu, how dare you talk about such military affairs." He is not lying, whether it is gold, commercial taxes, factories, and various trades with Mongolia, they are all recorded in Liu Cheng's name, because He, the big housekeeper, sorted out the accounts, it is not wrong to say that it is Liu Cheng's family affairs that are taken care of. (To be continued.) )