"When did you get the news?"

"Seven days ago, Ningyuan Station obtained, the source is Wu Xiangfu, after he came back from Jinzhou, he convened several staff members to discuss, one of the subordinates came down and talked to two friends, one of them is the outer line of Ningyuan Station."

Outside Fuzhou City, Chen Xin touched his chin and listened to Zhou Shifa's report, in addition to Zhou Shifa, Song Wenxian also accompanied him, he was not surprised by Jiannu's possible peace, Huang Taiji fled in Caohe Fort, and thousands of troops could not conquer the position of four hundred people, which must have left a shadow on Huang Taiji's psychology.

"What happened to the governor of Liaodong and the Ningqian army?"

Zhou Shifa took out another piece of information, "The Yamen of the Governor of Liaodong is a key place to take care of, and most of its subordinates are brought by Fang Yizao, and they don't have much contact with the locals, but within a few days of learning about this matter at Ningyuan Station, there are indeed several people who have been to Fang Yizao's mansion. The conditions of Houjin have not yet been known, and the subordinates have sent cadres to Ningyuan to take charge of this matter, and an urgent report has been sent to Zhang Dong and Zhang Dahui of the Beijing Division, so it is easier to inquire about the news in the imperial court. ”

Fang Yizao was Chongzhen came to power in five years, his jurisdiction was only between Shanhaiguan and Jinzhou, after the battle of the Daling River, Zu Dashou killed He Kegang and surrendered to the matter of the revelation, Chongzhen was worried about the Shanhaiguan fortress, he was not at ease to continue to hand over to Liaozhen, the Shanhaiguan was stripped from the Liaodong governor, and a Shanhaiguan Yongping governor was set up, and the first governor was Qiu Hejia, who could not be punished at that time.

Therefore, at this time, there was no nominal Guanning army, and the soldiers and horses of Liaozhen and Shanhaiguan were separated. You Shiwei, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, was born in Yulinwei, and has no close relationship with Liaodong Jiangmen, originally he was supposed to go to work when Jiannu entered the battle of Xuanfu for the second time, but because Zhong Laosi accidentally killed Mang Gurtai, Song Wenxian in order to deal with Zhangjiakou and gave You Shiwei a head, Chongzhen out of the idea of balancing Liaozhen, and also let You Shiwei go, so You Shiwei is still staying in the position of Shanhaiguan commander.

In recent years, there have been no major wars in Liaodong, Fang Yizao's governor should be decent, and Liaozhen was maintained within the acceptable range of the imperial court, which was considered a relatively capable governor, and he was the governor of Liaodong from the fifth year of Chongzhen to the thirteenth year of Chongzhen. If he can appease Houjin in office, it will be a great miracle, and it will be difficult for anyone to refuse.

"Shifa, what conditions do you expect Jiannu will put forward this time?"

"In the shallow view of the subordinates, the peace conditions proposed by Jiannu before were really sky-high prices, and there was no intention of peace talks, nominally according to the example of Korean and other vassal states, but in fact it was like the Turks in the early Tang Dynasty, not only did they not withdraw from the border wall, but also asked the imperial court to give them gold and silver cloth every year, and they only gave some mink ginseng in exchange. And the court's request to at least withdraw from the side wall, in the eyes of his subordinates, if the emperor insists on this, Huang Taiji will never accept it, and there are very few conditions he can come up with. ”

Song Wenxian said with a smile: "What Huang Taiji can take out is to take the Joseon example of serving the Ming Dynasty as the sect, or go further to accept Zhao'an, saying that he is under the control of civilian officials, but the wealth and population of the first soldier will not be handed over, otherwise his position will not be stable." ”

Zhou Shifa said in a low voice: "Lord Song is high-minded, but his subordinates feel that they may not even be able to recruit An, those banner owners have always looked down on Han officials for many years, and there are few kneeling salutes between them, and it is difficult for them to kneel to the governors and supervisors of the imperial court, and etiquette alone is enough for them to talk about, even if Huang Taiji can agree, those main banner Baylors will not agree." ”

Chen Xin looked at the two of them and nodded: "So Huang Taiji's move is still the same, to talk about change, he wants to use the peace talks as bait, let the imperial court restrain me Dengzhou Town, it is best to delay the autumn harvest and breathe a sigh of relief, and then wait and see the Central Plains." But this abacus can't work with us, and we don't need to make much effort. ”

Zhou Shifa and Song Wenxian said in unison: "Please give me advice." ”

"The key to this matter is not in Jinzhou or Ningyuan, if Houjin wants to negotiate peace, he will finally get Jingshi to go, Fang Yizao and Xiong Mingyu dare not make decisions without permission, and the few adults who negotiated peace without authorization in the Xuanfu two years ago are the best examples. So as long as Jingshi doesn't agree, it's useless for Huang Taiji to explain everything up and down Liaodong, Shifa, you immediately send someone to inform Zhang Dahui, and spread it all over Beijing, saying that someone in Liaodong and the imperial court has accepted Jiannu's bribes, and wants to help Jiannu discuss and recruit An, and the more outrageous the better. ”

Song Wenxian laughed and said: "Preconceived ideas, creating a surge of public sentiment, in this way, who dares to say yes, it is the adult who took the bribe." At that time, there will naturally be a Gon Gon royal history to beat. Huang Taiji probably still doesn't really understand the system of the imperial court, and the emperor doesn't really say anything. ”

Zhou Shifa also said: "This opportunity to earn fame, those imperial histories will not let go." In fact, judging from the analysis of the emperor's surname collected by his subordinates, the possibility that the emperor will agree is very small, especially when Jiannu is weak. ”

After Chen Xin settled this matter, he said to Song Wenxian: "I also want to ask Mr. Song to go to Ningyuan, only your level is enough, this time I want to see Zu Dashou, tell him about the future, the advantages must be explained thoroughly, and the disadvantages must be explained thoroughly, Liaozhen can help the best, even if you can't help, you can't trade privately with Jiannu, and the battle with Houjin is a big deal, please recognize the general trend, otherwise I won't recognize people with Dengzhou's gun." ”

Song Wenxian responded, and the two discussed a few more words by themselves, Chen Xin clasped his hands to his chest, looked in the direction of Liaozhong and muttered, "Huang Taiji, you don't have many chips." ”……

Zhang Zhongqi followed a group of armored soldiers with blue flags and slowly walked towards his tunbao, which was also on the rich Liaozhong Plain, and he rarely left there except for fighting.

During the battle of Caohe Fort, Zhang Zhongqi took advantage of the collapse of the phalanx and hid in the forest, he did not dare to flee back to the avenue, because he would be beheaded by the armored soldiers who pressed the formation, relying on years of experience and luck in escaping, he escaped in time when the Dengzhou reinforcements appeared, and picked up a life again.

Dengzhou's eastern offensive was basically over, Yue Tuo defended Lianshan Pass, Dengzhou Town was encircled but not fought after two attacks, and after completing the containment, Xiuyan was withdrawn, and part of the troops were retained to stay in Tongyuan Fort as a forward stronghold, and two new fortresses were established in the Caohe River Valley, making Phoenix City and Xiuyan a stable rear. After hoarding food, the number of troops that Dengzhou can put in will continue to increase, and the next attack will be more powerful.

In the direction of Gaizhou on the western front, the total strength of Dengzhou Town did not occupy an advantage, the Dengzhou army retreated to the starting line before the reinforcements drawn by Huang Taiji arrived, and the city of Gaizhou was held under the strict orders of Huang Taiji. Like the Tianyou Army in history, they were placed in Gaizhou, which was sparsely populated because of **, which was given to them by Huang Taiji, and they had nowhere to live if they lost Gaizhou.

However, the shape of Gaizhou is also very bad, the spring ploughing from Gaizhou to Haizhou has not been completed, and the area around Gaizhou City is particularly dilapidated, and the men and horses stationed in Houjin this year must rely on the rear to send grain, and the logistical pressure of Houjin is becoming more and more strict.

For Zhang Zhongqi, he couldn't think about things that far, he only knew that the battle of Caohebao suffered heavy losses, and many of the armor soldiers and Han troops who fled into the mountains and forests failed to escape back, and the losses were estimated to be about 2,000.

The group of armor soldiers he followed were the same as them, some came back from Gaizhou, and some came back from the Eastern Front, all of them were sleepy and lacking horses, and they couldn't even eat enough people in winter, and the horses were not well kept because of the lack of concentrate, and they looked even more thin after returning from the battle.

Outside his own Tunpu, under the leadership of Pashiku Cherge, he returned to Tunpu, this Cherg served as a supervisor in the battle of Caohe Fort, Zhang Zhongqi didn't know how he ran away in the end, and after the meeting at Samaji Fort, this person was silent all the way, and he used to beat and scold Nikan at every turn, but now he doesn't scold, but often sighs.

When he arrived at the entrance of the village, Zhang Zhongqi handed over his gun to Cherg, as did the other Han soldiers of Tongbao, Zhang Zhongqi did not have any feelings for this gun, only felt that it was quite heavy to hold him, and there was no reluctance when he handed it to Cherg.

However, he knew that this gun was very powerful, as long as he was shot, no matter what armor could not stop, every phalanx in peacetime had a soldier who supervised the formation, and the ammunition was collected by them, Zhang Zhongqi, who carried the flag, also belonged to a small leader, and the soldier was at ease with him, and he had to help check whether anyone had hidden ammunition privately. Zhang Zhongqi knew that these masters were afraid of Nikan's backbite, but he had never had this kind of thought, and he was not worried about the masters' defense.

After handing over the weapons, Cherge called some coats to carry the guns away, put them in Niu Lu Ezhen's house, according to the requirements of those instructors, it needs to be maintained regularly, and there will be inspections when they are in battle in the future, and the Han soldiers who are not well maintained will be beheaded.

Zhang Zhongqi let go of the bag that carried the gun, walked along the street to his home, walked not far from his home, and came to Taktan, he looked quite haggard, and even his hair was a little dry, he stopped when he saw Zhang Zhongqi.

Zhang Zhongqi hurriedly nodded and said: "Master Taktan, the slave heard that you also went on an expedition, and when I saw you come back safely, I let go of my heart." ”

Taktan stared at Zhang Zhongqi for a while, and suddenly said in a gentle tone: "It's good that you can come back." ”

Zhang Zhongqi raised his head in some surprise.

Taktan said softly: "The matter of Hailan, the old man Daishi came to me later, and he said that he could see clearly, you came up to help, and I blamed you." ”

Zhang Zhongqi said movingly: "It's good that the master understands, the slave comes out of the master's house, the old master...... It's also good for the minions, and the minions won't harm the master. ”

"I understand, you have been born and died with me many times, and I can trust you." Taktan nodded, was silent for a while, and said, "You go home and take a look, your family ......"

Zhang Zhongqi rushed up and grabbed Taktan, "What's wrong with my family, what's wrong?" ”

Taktan didn't push him away, avoiding his gaze and said, "That old Baoyi of your family was captured by the head of the village of Laidaku's master to do labor, and he died outside a few days ago. ”

"My daughter-in-law and baby."

"They're all here, and I gave them some food yesterday."

Zhang Zhongqi panted roughly, with a complicated look in his eyes, he suddenly raised his legs and ran towards his house, Taktan grabbed him and persuaded him in a low voice, "Don't make trouble, the master of Lai Daku is not as true as before, he is very strict with Nikan, you must not have any dissatisfaction, one of the clothes will die if he dies, and the next time he catches one back." ”

Zhang Zhongqi promised to get out of Taktan, ran to his house quickly, pushed open the broken door made of firewood, and the familiar cry of the children in the house came, and Zhang Zhongqi suddenly collapsed on the ground. (To be continued.) )