"The Tatars sent an envoy to Ningyuan a few days ago to ask for peace."

Autumn is crisp, and corn on both sides of the Yalu River estuary has also begun to be harvested. The corn that was rushed to the end of summer was a late-maturing seed that finally matured after three months of growth. The green gauze tents have changed color, the ears of corn have turned yellow, and the upper kernels have begun to harden.

The newly arrived prefect of Yalu Prefecture led the newly arrived officials in Zhenjiang, Tieshan, Yiju and other places to organize the people to harvest corn. Originally, the winter outside the gate was too cold to sow wheat, so spring wheat was planted after the beginning of spring. After the harvest at the end of summer, Liu Jun ordered that late-maturing corn be planted in the Yalu River estuary and land, as well as drought-resistant and high-yield crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes.

This year was dry, but corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes were relatively drought resistant, and the harvest was gratifying.

Liu Jun arranged a number of Chu army patrols to prevent the Tartars from destroying the autumn harvest, and he led his troops up the Yalu River and began to launch the autumn harvest offensive.

The sky was high and the clouds were light, the Chu army marched smoothly, and the Qing army in several small forts along the way found that the Ming army was dispatched, and they had already abandoned the fort and fled. When Qu Shiyun rushed to the army and reported to Liu Jun the latest news of the Tatar peace, Liu Jun had already arrived at the southernmost Changdian Fort of the Six Forts of Kuandian.

Changdian Fort and the other five forts are called Kuandian Six Forts, also known as Liudian. It was in the first year of Wanli, and the border general Ning Yuanbo Li Chengliang built six forts in the Kuandian area. Xiong Tingbi, who passed through Liaodong, called it 800 miles of Xinjiang, and each fort managed a section of the Great Wall of Liaodong, which was close to the foundation of the Jurchen and established a state, and once held the exit of the Jurchen to the southwest.

Changdian Fort is in the southwest, only a few miles away from the Yalu River, the circumference of the castle is 800 steps, the city wall is made of stones, the height is about one zhang two, and there is only one door of the south gate. The east, west, north and south triangles each build a corner tower, and there is a city tower on the south gate.

When the Qing army heard that the Ming army of Zhenjiang was coming, they had already abandoned the surrounding small forts and included all the soldiers and horses in Changdian Fort. At this time, there were only more than 2,000 soldiers and civilians in the fort, and under the city, there were more than 15,000 people in the Chu army. There were also some ships of the sailors who came.

The Qing army hid in the city like a turtle with a shrunken head, and did not dare to take the lead.

Liu Jun was not surprised when he heard that the Qing army wanted to negotiate peace. The Ming Dynasty has been fighting with the Jurchens for so many years, in fact, except for these two years, in the early years, although the Jurchens have been winning the war against the Ming, they have always wanted peace talks. It's just that even if the Ming Dynasty lost badly before and was beaten to the city of Beijing, it has always refused to negotiate peace.

In Liu Jun's opinion, Tatar's attitude of wanting to negotiate peace was still very serious. Although the Jurchens have always won militarily. But after all, the tribe has such a small population, and the Ming army can quickly draw troops and horses if it loses again and again, but the Jurchens are one less dead. Before they conquered Mongolia and Korea, the Jurchens hoped to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty, and the two sides would cease fighting to get more opportunities to recuperate and develop stronger.

It's not that the Jurchen Tartars are peace-lovers, it's just a strategy for development.

Until they conquered Mongolia and Korea. After conquering other Jurchen tribes in the Heilongjiang Valley, Huang Taiji was truly a little ignorant of the Ming Dynasty. I don't care so much about peace talks.

But now, the situation is quickly turning against the Jurchens.

First, the peasant army in the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty was defeated and suppressed, and then the Ming army counterattacked Liaodong, and Korea fell to the Ming Dynasty. The 3,000 Qing army in Jinzhou was newly defeated, and nearly half of the losses were lost by the 20,000 Ming army, which made Huang Taiji have to reconsider the matter of negotiating peace.

"What are the conditions of the Tartars?" Liu Jun asked.

Qu Shiyun Road. "Huang Taiji's condition is that the two countries are equal and become brotherly states. The two sides took the Xiaoling River as their national boundary, and since then they have ceased fighting and not invaded each other. Repatriated the other side of the fugitive, and the Qing army withdrew from Jinzhou. The Ming army withdrew from Liaodong. Fourth, the two sides opened up to each other, and the Ming Dynasty gave the Qing 10,000 taels of gold every year, and the Qing Dynasty reported ginseng and mink. ”

"Huh." Liu Jun couldn't help laughing, Huang Taiji had reached this time, and he still put forward this kind of condition, and it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to agree. The Qing Dynasty was still very strong, especially now that the Donglin Party was in power, and whoever dared to come out and say that he wanted to negotiate peace would be attacked as a traitor.

However, to Liu Jun's surprise, Chongzhen actually agreed to negotiate peace.

However, Chongzhen also put forward his own peace conditions, which made Liu Jun a little unexpected.

"What conditions does the emperor propose?"

"The emperor's condition is to let Huangtai Jiyi last year and obey Zhengshuo. Retreat to the east of the Great Wall of Liaodong, return to the land of Jianzhou, and return the population that has been occupied and plundered over the years. ”

The condition of withdrawing from the Great Wall of Liaodong is quite harsh, and the Great Wall of Liaodong was built when the Jurchens had not yet risen. Its location is roughly bounded by the Yalu River in the south and Jiulian City in the southwest. Its northern end is bounded by Zhenbeiguan, and the location is about the south of Siping in later generations.

This is equivalent to asking the Manchus to return to the Ming Dynasty all the cities and territories of Liaohai, Tieling, Fushun, Shenyang, Liaoning, Phoenix, Liaodong Peninsula and even the Liaohe Plain that they had seized over the past few decades. In addition, it is necessary to remove the name of the country, change the name of the year, re-respect the Ming as the suzerain, and pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty. And they have to return the Han people they control to the Ming Dynasty.

Such conditions are not harsh at all, but I just don't want to talk about it.

Liu Jun smiled and felt normal. If Chongzhen really offered any sincere conditions, then it would be hell. Now it is very beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, and Chongzhen definitely does not want to negotiate peace.

However, Liu Jun felt in his heart that in fact, the strength of the two sides has not changed much now, and peace talks are actually beneficial to the Ming army at this time. However, the peace talks could not be carried out according to the ideas of the Qing army, and the Ming army itself could relax some conditions.

For example, an armistice agreement should be negotiated first, stipulating a three-to-five-year armistice, and then a temporary boundary line should be drawn in the areas under the actual control of both sides. Daming needs more time to recover, these years have been disasters and wars, Daming's foundation has long been empty, and if you have a chance, you should take a good breather.

However, the Ming Dynasty monarchs and ministers are the most hard-headed group of people, when the Tumubao Change, the emperor was arrested and taken to the city of Beijing, and the Ming courtiers would rather set up another emperor than compromise.

Later, he negotiated peace with Longqing, or Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng made a great effort in it, and when Longqing negotiated peace, the Ming army and the Tatar Ministry agreed to make peace, and on the surface, it was still Tatar to ask for peace and ask for tribute.

However, the situation between the Qing Dynasty and the Tatars was still different, and the Qing Dynasty was stronger than the Tatars back then. Second, now the situation of the imperial court is very good for the Qing army, and the hesitation is inspired by the great victory in Songshan, and now the court is fighting with one force. At this time, who is willing.

"Huang Taiji asked the two sides to temporarily withdraw their troops during the peace talks, and in order to show the sincerity of the peace talks, he has ordered the Qing troops surrounding Jinyi and Jinzhou to withdraw to Yizhou and Quang Ninh."

"He withdrew from the siege of Jinzhou, that is, he couldn't surround it, and it had nothing to do with whether he discussed it or not." After Liu Jun finished speaking, he issued an order to the Ming army under Changdian Fort, "Send someone to persuade the defenders of the city to surrender and give them a quarter of an hour." If the city is not opened in a quarter of an hour, then we will break through the gates with artillery bombardment. ”

Yihe has nothing to do with Liu Jun, as long as Chongzhen does not issue an order to him to stop the army, then Liu Jun will not change his battle plan.

The forts in the Kuandian area were the target of Liu Jun's sweep this time. Taking advantage of the fact that Huang Taiji is still being dragged in the Liaoyang area of Jinzhou, and Kong Youde and others are still in Jinzhou, it would be stupid if Liu Jun did not take the opportunity to pull out these fortresses.

When a quarter of an hour came, the Qing troops in Changdian Fort refused to surrender.

"Enough seeds." Liu Jun gave a thumbs up, then flipped it over and faced down, "Since you choose to die, then I will fulfill you." ”

Liu Jun waved his hand towards the castle, and the cannon that had already been loaded roared towards the south gate.

Not surprisingly, the south gate of the small Changdian Fort collapsed in the face of heavy siege artillery with heavy artillery marks.

The heavy infantry, dressed in heavy armor and holding large shields, began to move towards the castle, followed by a group of musketeers known as light infantry. The howitzers opened the way for them to fire their artillery in the back, and the whole attack was orderly and tacitly coordinated.

In the smoke of gunpowder, a group of Qing soldiers rushed out shouting and holding swords, but they were greeted by rows of bullets, knocking them to the ground.

The Tartars rushed out one after another, as if they were committing suicide. Maybe they know that they can't live anymore, and they just want to die with dignity.

The castle was quickly occupied, and an officer ran to report.

"The Tartars are all brutes, they have slaughtered all the people in the city before we broke the city, not only killing the Han people, but also their own family members, the old people and children have not been spared."

Liu Jun's face changed, he didn't expect the Tartar to be so ferocious.

"Bury the dead people well, cut off all the heads of those tartars, and build a temple in front of the fort."

"Does Changdian Fort need to be garrisoned?"

Changdian Fort is eighty miles away from Zhenjiang, Liu Jun thought for a while, "Keep it for now, and use it as a military station for our march this time." Garrison some soldiers and horses, and when we finish the six forts of Kuandian this time, we will destroy them all. ”

Qu Shiyun hurriedly asked, "Isn't Kuandian guarded?" ”

"No."

The Kuandian area is all mountainous, with few fields and a small population. Moreover, these places are too far away from Zhenjiang and other Yalu River estuary, and it will be winter again, and it will be more difficult to defend at that time. Liu Jun didn't want to come to the siege when the Tartars came, and the rescue was too late. For now, it would be good for the Chu army to only defend Zhenjiang and other near the mouth of the Yalu River, so that the defense would not be too open, and the support would be timely.

"Continue to march, we will try to sweep the six forts as soon as possible, and don't give the Tartars another chance to slaughter the city."

At the end of September, Liu Jun launched the autumn offensive, along the Yalu River, with lightning speed, swept away the six forts of Kuandian and the surrounding forts, annihilated more than 1,000 Qing troops, and rescued more than 20,000 people. In early October, after the victory of Kuandian, Liu Jun destroyed the Kuandian forts and then withdrew to Zhenjiang. (To be continued.) )