The city of Hetuala, where Nurhachi is located, is about 700 miles away from the small city of Tangshan, and about 2,000 miles away from Seoul, and the North Korean sergeants ambushed Nalambaksh on Beiyue Mountain on May 16, and today is June 11, less than a month before and after, even this Ding Baihu of Tangshan Baihu did not know the news of the Korean coup, but Nurhachi, who was far away in Hetuala, had already been prophetic, and he still had time to arrange manpower to intercept the Ming Mission halfway, which really shocked Zhang Yuan, and immediately asked the chief flag officer sent by Mao Wenlong to report the news from the Sanyang garrison in detail-

The general flag officer is also surnamed Mao, is Mao Wenlong's family ding, this Mao general banner does not know the accurate time and specific number of people who Jianzhou Jurchen infiltrated the border wall of eastern Liaodong, he introduced to Zhang Yuan that the border wall of Liaodong built since the Yongle period is mainly to defend against Mongolia and Jurchen, but the border wall from Liaodong to Liaoxi is difficult to defend, and the side wall of many sections has long been in vain, the old marshal of Liaodong Li Chengliang in the early years of Wanli expanded the six forts of Kuandian outside the border wall of Liaodong, and the defense line pushed forward is beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, choking the throat of Jianzhou's eastward expansion, However, in the thirty-fourth year of Wanli, Li Chengliang gave up the 800-li territory on the grounds that the six forts of Kuandian were lonely and difficult to defend, and forced more than 60,000 households of the people of Kuandian to move back to Liao and Jin.

Mao Zongqi reminded Zhang Yuan to be careful on the journey back to Beijing from Tangshan to Liaoyang, this area is less than 300 miles away from the nearest place where Jiannu can freely enter and exit Kuandian, and the Jiannu cavalry pretending to be horse thieves can gallop in two days. As few as seven or eight rides. Most of them are twenty or thirty rides. Robbed and fled, the Ming army was helpless, Nurhachi would not admit that his subordinates did it, the key is that he failed to catch those "robbers" on the spot, there is no evidence-

Ding Baihu on the side said angrily: "Don't worry, Lord Zhang, Jiannu is only twenty or thirty horsemen, and tomorrow he will lead fifty banner troops to escort the adults and the delegation to Lianshan Pass, and Chen Qian will answer him when he arrives at Lianshan Pass." ”

It stands to reason that if there are fifty foot guards of Ding Baihu escorting. The mission also has 60 Jinyi guard captains led by Zhen Zidan, who are not afraid of twenty or thirty thieves, but for Zhang Yuan, after experiencing the ambush of Beiyue Mountain, the combat effectiveness of the Jurchen cavalry impressed him deeply, not to mention one enemy and one hundred, saying that the Houjin Changjia soldiers with one enemy and ten are not long enemy morale to destroy their own prestige, in addition to defending the city, the Liaodong Ming army in the late Ming Dynasty was very easy to collapse against the Eight Banners Army in field encounters, and one-sided slaughters were not uncommon. Therefore, Zhang Yuan never dared to despise the twenty or thirty Jiannu long-armored cavalry, and said to Ding Baihu: "I am tired that Ding Baihu sent someone to Lianshanguan to report to President Chen Qian. I asked Mr. Chen Qian to send a hundred musketeers to Tangshan to escort us and others, and the mission waited in Tangshan for two days. ”

Ding Baihu obeyed the order on the surface and said that he would do it immediately, but in his heart he looked down on this new champion, thinking that Zhang Yuan was as timid as a mouse, and even Ruan Dacheng said to Zhang Yuan: "This is the realm of the Ming Dynasty, how dare Jiannu rob our envoys, don't you be too cautious?" "Ruan Dacheng is anxious to return to Beijing.

Zhang Yuan didn't explain much, just smiled: "The son of a daughter can't sit down, it's not bad to be cautious." ”

Although Ruan Dacheng, Zhen Zidan and others did not say anything more, they always had some slander against Zhang Yuan, thinking that Zhang Yuan was not bold enough, only Zhang Rushen, a merchant under the eunuch Lu, expressed support for Zhang Yuan's steadiness, and Zhang Rushen brought 30 carts of goods to North Korea from Guangning were sold in Pyongyang and Seoul, and obtained 18,000 taels of silver, and then transferred to buy Korean Korean ginseng, white cotton paper, Jeju fans, Busan copperware and other special products for 15,000 taels and shipped them back to Liaodong, and this time he could get a net profit of 6,000 taels of silver, so Zhang Rushen was most afraid of encountering Jiannu horse thieves. Even if he can drive back the construction thief, if the construction thief takes advantage of the chaos to set a fire or something, then how can he go back to Guangning to wait for Lu Gong!

Zhang Yuan is well aware of the current contempt of the government and the opposition Shishu for the Houjin Nu chieftain, the Ming Dynasty public opinion is blind and arrogant, after losing Fushun and Qinghe, the crowd is raging, and the army is asked to send troops to destroy the Jiannu, even the small people in the market also say that the people of the Ming Dynasty have drowned those Jiannu with a mouthful of spit, the battle of Salhu is actually forced by public opinion, the Ming Dynasty is eager for revenge, but suffered a greater defeat, Xiong Tingbi once said on the defeat of Salhu: "Today the court is discussing, all do not know the soldiers, in winter and spring, the enemy is slightly slowed down by the ice and snow, and the old man is scarce, and the army is defeated, If he was stunned, he didn't say anything more. ”

It is after the defeat of Salhu that those arrogant and arrogant voices have become smaller, the huge empire and proud people seem to have to suffer such a painful lesson, but it is a pity that they have not grown up after eating the lesson, Xiong Tingbi and Sun Chengzong who relied on the reason of Jiancheng were deposed, Yuan Chonghuan spoke boldly in front of Emperor Chongzhen, and five years of Pingliao finally became a tragedy-

The question in front of Zhang Yuan now is that before the Ming Dynasty went through the heavy lesson of Salhu, if he advocated a defensive counterattack strategy against Houjin, he would be criticized and even ridiculed by many people, this is the tragedy of the prophet in ancient Greek mythology, how could he avoid coming to that point?

That night, Zhang Yuan wrote a long letter to Mao Wenlong, after a brief description of the hometown, he expounded his knowledge of the situation in Liaodong, Mao Wenlong was very capable among the border generals in the late Ming Dynasty, although this person is extremely selfish and unruly, but it can definitely be co-opted, controlled and reused, of course, Zhang Yuan now does not have the strength and status to make Mao Wenlong take refuge, and Mao Wenlong is only a small garrison, his soldiers and horses are not more than a thousand, and the impact on the Liaodong war in the past two years is almost negligible, but why not make friends first, It's like he befriended Juniper—

On the morning of the next day, Mao Zongqi received Zhang Yuan's reply letter and said goodbye to Sanyang, and the sergeants sent by Ding Baihu to Lianshanguan to ask Chen Qianhu for help had also set off, while Zhang Yuan's people waited in Tangshan Town, and on the evening of the 13th, 100 musketeers sent by Chen Qianhu from Lianshanguan rushed to Tangshan, and early in the morning of 14 June, Zhang Yuan and his party set off.

With the protection of Chen Qianzong's 100 musketeers, Ding Baihu did not go to Lianshan Pass with him, but only sent the mission back after crossing the Danghe River.

Zhang Yuan asked the hundred musketeers to send twenty people to the front road and the right side of Kuandian, Ruan Dacheng, Zhen Zidan and others all secretly laughed at Zhang Yuan's grass and trees, does Zhang Yuan really regard this as a battlefield, this is the realm of the Ming Dynasty, where do the Jiannu thieves dare to come over when they see so many people!

Ruan Dacheng sighed in his heart: "Zhang Jiezi, Zhang Jiezi, I knew this was the case, why did you cause so many things when you went to North Korea, and you didn't get any benefits?" That dumb princess can finally speak, and you can only say goodbye sadly, the gold and silver that Guanghaijun sent earlier were donated by you to Xiuxuanwu Temple and Sungkyunkwon, only one thing is very certain, that is, you Zhang Yuan has become Nurhachi's mortal enemy, so you are so afraid of Nurhachi's revenge, this is all the trouble you caused. ”

June 14, 15 these two days were safe, on the night of the 15th, Zhang Yuan and his party of more than 200 people rested at the Phoenix Mountain Station, there is also a hundred households here, the town guards said that there are no thieves in recent days, it is a hot day, horse thieves will not appear in this season.

At the beginning of 16 June, Zhang Yuan and Yu Yan led the two delegations to set off for a night's rest at Lianshan Pass today.

Today's weather is extremely hot, the sun has not risen in the morning, and you will sweat when riding a horse, Zhang Yuan looked at the black clouds rising in the blue sky, and said in his heart: "The rainstorm is coming." ”

The members of the mission did not mind the coming heavy rain, it was too stuffy, the rain fell early and cool, and it did not hurt to be soaked by the heavy rain, and they hurried away one by one with enthusiasm and sweat.

Phoenix Mountain is divided into East Mountain and West Mountain, from the valley between the two mountains can be less than ten miles of road, the hundred musketeers from Lianshan Pass when they came to this road, at the moment to Zhang Yuan suggested to take a shortcut, said that the valley road is not rugged and difficult, but can save a lot of distance, but Zhang Yuan still ordered the mission to go around the mountain, do not have to save this half an hour of travel adventure, Phoenix West Mountain forest is deep and grassy, hiding dozens of Jianzhou Jurchen is difficult to find, a round of cold arrows down, the dead and wounded are incalculable, it is inconvenient to fight in the valley, and the heavy rain will soon pour down, muskets are useless in the rain, these muskets are arquebuses, and the new flintlock pistols made by the military department have not yet been replaced-

Zhang Yuan was quite prestigious, and although the entourage was a little dissatisfied with Zhang Yuan's refusal to approach the road, no one dared to object, and Ruan Dacheng made a friendly joke with Zhang Yuan when he was about to bypass Phoenix Mountain.

The dark clouds are four, the lightning and thunder are roaring, the group has not bypassed the Phoenix Mountain, the summer rainstorm has poured down, everyone has put on rain gear, Fan Tongshi, who is familiar with the road, rushed over and said to Zhang Yuan: "Lord Zhang, there is a Yaowang Temple over there, go to the temple to avoid the rain first, this rainstorm comes and goes quickly." ”

Zhang Yuan and Ruan Dacheng and the North Korean envoys Yu Yan, Xu Yun, Jin Zhongqing rushed to the Yaowang Temple at the northern foot of Phoenix Mountain in the rain, this Yaowang Temple is not dedicated to the Medicine King Bodhisattva, but the small temple of the Medicine King Sun Simiao, the temple is dilapidated, the statue of the god has collapsed, and there is no incense for a long time.

The musketeers and brocade guards crowded under the eaves of the temple to avoid the rain, and the small temple couldn't squeeze in, so they stood in the open air wearing hats, shouting that it was so cool, and Naranbaksh in the prisoner car was also drenched in the rain, and no one cared about him—

Zhang Yuan saw that although the muskets of those musketeers were covered by rain cloths, they could not be loaded with gunpowder projectiles on this rainy day, and even flintlock muskets were extremely inconvenient.

It didn't take a moment for the torrential rain to stop, and there were sporadic drizzles drifting, and everyone didn't wait for the rain to stop completely and get on the road, just left the Yaowang Temple, and had not yet walked on the avenue, suddenly heard the sound of hooves coming suddenly from the back mountain, everyone was still listening to the sound of horses' hooves, and the guest Guangxian beside Zhang Yuan suddenly shouted: "This is the cavalry of Jianzhou Tong Nuer!" ”

Keguang first followed Zhang Yuan's Joseon Dynasty, had been silent, and did not socialize with other people, but at this time he suddenly shouted so loudly, could he be able to tell that this was Nurhachi's cavalry just by the sound of horses' hooves?

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There were some troubles earlier, but now they are basically solved, and they will be updated in the future, thank you for your tolerance and support. (To be continued.) )