"Korqin is finished."

Halfway north to Heilongjiang, Dolgon received an urgent report from someone sent by Zilharang. In the battle of the Huolin River, the coalition of 130,000 Mongol princes raided the unsuspecting Horqin Four Divisions and Ten Banners, which was a surprise attack and a massacre.

The Mongol princes pursued and killed for seven days and seven nights, from the Huolin River, to the vicinity of Shengjing and Shenyang. The Qing troops who stayed in Shenyang did not dare to rescue them at all, and watched as the thousands of Horqin cavalry who finally fled outside the city were cut and killed.

After the Mongol princes raided and annihilated the four main forces, they then swept through the thousands of miles of grasslands of the Jelimu League like a strong wind. On this huge grassland, the four departments and ten banners suffered a devastating blow.

"How much is left?"

"Not a single one left."

The Minister of the Interior, Ta Zhan, let out a long sigh and shook his head helplessly. He was Dolgon's cousin, and his mother was Nurhachi's daughter. His father was a hero of the Qing Dynasty, and in today's Manchu Qing Dynasty, he can be regarded as having a transcendent status, so he has a deep trust in Dorgon.

Dorgon was stunned.

The four parts of Horqin, with a population of no less than 500,000, are over like this. At that time, the left and right wings of the Mongolian headquarters competed for supremacy, and the right-wing Tumut drove the suzerain-lord of the left wing, Chahar, to Liaodong. It was after Chahar arrived in Liaodong that he united with the Uliangha people in the north to cause rebellion in Liaodong, which made the Ming Dynasty's power in Liaodong greatly reduced, and the Jurchens had the opportunity to take advantage of the opportunity.

After that, it was precisely by virtue of the marriage with Horqin that the Jurchens turned against the guest and drove Chahar to the Hetao. Behind the chahar all the way to the west, defeated Tumut, and expeditioned to Qinghai, while the Jurchens married Horqin, constantly attracting and conquering the Mongol tribes in the east, and finally had the new overlord of Liaodong, Houjin.

After the strength of the two heroes of the Mongol headquarters in the past was greatly reduced due to the civil war, the Jurchens took the opportunity to send troops to the west and defeated and conquered Tumut and Chahar successively.

At that time, the two major tribes, which had a population of one million, were in civil strife first. was slaughtered by the Jurchens again, and there were no more than 10,000 left.

Korqin was originally unable to be mentioned with Tumut and Chahar at all, but over the years, the Jurchens have increased in strength, establishing two wings and six banners, with a population of hundreds of thousands, plus the remaining three and four banners, with a population of no less than 500,000.

But now, it's all over all at once.

"They are self-defeating." Dolgon's heart ached, but he also had to say hatefully. At first, he persuaded Horqin and others to move north with him. But these people kept procrastinating, and finally secretly surrendered to Han. But these stupid guys ended up just falling for the Han people, and they were driven by others to kill people and kill them all.

Dorgon was furious, but he was even more heartbroken by the loss of a powerful ally for the Jurchens.

With a population of 500,000, it is the strongest part of Monan, and if they are there, the Jurchens will have a little more confidence to resist the Han people. But now, the lips are dead and the teeth are cold.

"Those Han tribes are too stupid, don't they know, except for Horqinhou. The Mongols are weaker, and they can only be kneaded by the Han people in the future? ”

"There is no shortage of people in this world." Dorgon sighed. However, he also knew in his heart that if the Mongol tribes looked at it, they would have no choice but to do so.

In that year, Yuan lost the Central Plains. retreated to Mobei and was divided, but the strength was still there. At the time of Dayan Khan. It also unified the eastern part of Mongolia, and it is said that at its peak, the combined population of the three major Mongolian tribes could reach 10 million.

But how many Mongol tribes are there now?

The southern parts of the desert alone are estimated to add up to about one million, and the northern parts of the desert will not exceed one million.

This is the strength of the eastern Mongol tribes today, less than two million people. Among them, there are more than 400,000 young people who can ride horses and carry bows.

The real warriors, all combined, may not add up to 200,000.

But this is not a whole, but a group of many tribes. Especially after the civil strife of the Mongols and the conquest of the Qing Dynasty, each part was divided into multiple winged flags, and the alliance flag was established, and its strength was weakened more and more.

At that time, the right-wing Tumut and the left-wing Chahar were already weak, and among the Mongol tribes, they could not even find a leader who could have enough prestige.

In the land of Mobei, there are three khans standing side by side.

This was the cause planted by the Jurchens back then, and now it is the Jurchens' turn to swallow the bitter fruit of this.

The Jurchens did not conquer the Mongol tribes for a long time, but they further destroyed the Mongol tribes, leaving them without a leading sheep, and also greatly reducing their strength and strength.

This was originally a ploy that the Jurchens had been secretly proud of, but after the Han army's northern expedition, the weak Mongols were like a plate of scattered sand, they were powerless to resist the Han people, and they were even unwilling to resist at all, and they all surrendered to the Han people at once.

This was something that the Jurchens did not expect at the beginning.

They worked hard to weaken the Mongols, but in the end they all lost the Han Chinese.

What they didn't do, the Han people did.

Liu Jun made a will, the tribes would join Chifeng, Liu Jun divided the princes, and then the princes gathered the elite, and dispatched 130,000 troops at once, killing Horqin, a thief, by surprise.

The four divisions with a population of more than 500,000 were killed by the coalition of more than 100,000 princes, and the rest were also captured. The allied armies were like robbers, robbing whatever they saw, leaving no men, women, young and old.

"The Han people paid a high price, and before sending troops, they originally said that a young and strong prisoner of war was ten silver dollars and eight yuan per head. Now all of them have doubled, twenty dollars for a young prisoner of war, and twenty dollars for a head. Therefore, the coalition forces were too lazy to capture the prisoners, and directly cut off the heads and brought them back to receive the reward. ”

On the prairie, there are Jingguan piled up with the headless corpses of the four herdsmen, and their heads have all become the evidence for them to invite the Han to reward.

Now that the Han Dynasty has opened up its trade with the grasslands, it is no longer just a tea and horse market, but it is always settled in silver dollars. It is more convenient to trade in silver dollars than to barter.

Dolgon realized that the Han Chinese had raised their bounty and put the price of heads and captives for the same sinister purpose. This is to encourage the coalition forces to directly kill people and take the head, after all, the same reward, how can there be a head with a prisoner.

In the face of this greatly increased reward, many Mongols preferred to cut off people and exchange their heads for silver, rather than directly take prisoners of war back to be their own slaves.

In this way, Liu Jiye didn't have to use a single soldier by himself, and directly destroyed the four tribes of Horqin, not to mention, but also directly killed these people, so as not to give the various departments a chance to attract and grow.

is a treacherous and ruthless man.

Ta Zhan said with some puzzlement, "Wouldn't Liu Jiye be so detrimental to others, just to destroy the four tribes of Horqin, spending millions of silver dollars, is it worth it?" ”

"Of course it's worth it." Dolgon said. If Liu Jun accepts his submission, Horqin, a single family, is likely to break the balance of the Mongol tribes in the south and north, and even in the future, Horqin may replace Tumut and Chahar and become the new leader of the Mongolian tribes.

And once a leader appears in the scattered Mongolian tribes, this is an extremely dangerous sign, and it will endanger Liu Jun's strategy of dividing the steppe.

Although a population of hundreds of thousands is a lot, if you can capture it, it will become a great fortune. But the most important thing in the Han Dynasty is the population, they have a population of more than 200 million, any county in the Central Plains, there are 100,000 people, and a province has a population of hundreds of thousands.

As for setting a high bounty, it will cost millions of dollars. But is Liu Jun short of money? No, he is not short of money, millions of dollars are a drop in the bucket for him.

Moreover, Dolgon believed that Liu Jiye was not the kind of person who would throw money around. The money he threw out would go back to his pocket in the blink of an eye.

These silver dollars were given to the Mongol coalition forces, and it was impossible for the Mongols to bring the silver dollars back to the tribe, so it was meaningless. If you have the opportunity to buy Han Chinese goods, they will definitely spend them.

The silver that was rewarded could be recovered by Liu Jun through trading when it changed hands. And this kind of transaction will definitely be more profitable than selling in the Central Plains, and Liu Jun can even change hands to collect a tax, in short, no matter how you look at it, Liu Jun will make a steady profit.

The real loss was the Mongols, an alliance of hundreds of thousands of people, which perished like this.

Their strength will be further reduced, and now, the population of the southern and northern parts of the desert is less than two million, and it is even more impossible for them to get rid of the control of the Han Dynasty.

On the surface, they received a lot of booty and silver and livestock from this war, but in fact they lost the future. Moreover, they also put the future of the Qing Dynasty into it.

"Nine kings, Prince Zheng is worried in the letter, fearing that the Mongol tribes will take advantage of the situation to attack Liaodong. Now there are many Mongol soldiers on the east bank of the Liao River, and they are eyeing the cities of Shenyang and Harwin. ”

Dolgon was also worried, the Mongol coalition army had just destroyed the four parts of Horqin, and under the new victory, they did not pay much price, and the result was full of money, at this time, they wanted to send troops to attack the Qing Dynasty, it was not impossible.

These short-sighted Mongolian tribes are really possible to do anything.

"What about the Han army? What is the situation of the various units of the Han army? Dorgon asked.

In the previous war, the Han army did not participate from beginning to end, and it was purely a Mongolian civil war.

"According to our horse exploration report, when the Mongol attacks began, Liu Jiye had already moved to Chaoyang, western Liaoning. Some of the 100,000 Han troops who accompanied them continued to garrison the front line of Chifeng Tuhe, and some of them drove to the area of western Liaoning. Now, these two troops and horses are stationed in Chifeng and Chaoyang, and there is no change. ”

"What about the Liaodong Han army stationed in Guangning, Jinzhou, Lushun, Jinzhou, Zhenjiang, and Kuandian?"

"All of them were stationary, and there were no unusual movements. Nine kings, Liu Jiye may not want to tear up the peace treaty that has just been signed with his own hands. ”

Dolgon sneered a few times, the peace treaty was originally used to tear it up after it was signed, and Liu Jiye's current strength does not have to care about this paper peace treaty at all. Liu Jiye has not mobilized troops and horses yet, and he will never be concerned about any peace treaty, but must have other considerations.

Perhaps Liu Jiye was brewing a larger offensive plot, and Dolgon felt that he was now in a dilemma. Giving up Liao Shen like this, he couldn't make up his mind. But if you don't give up, then you have to send troops to guard it, but with the current situation, how much is enough?

If there is less, it will only annihilate the Han-Mongolian coalition army in vain, and if there is more, he will not be able to take it out. (To be continued.) )