Several years have passed, Shenyang has not been very calm, three failures in the customs battle, so that Huang Taiji suffered a heavy blow, although Huang Taiji took a lot of measures to stabilize his position, eliminate the impact of the defeat of the war, but the Manchurian nobles still have a great opinion on this. The Manchurians are good at martial arts, believing in the use of force to show everything, and also rely on force to plunder wealth, and the defeat of the battle is unbearable for them, let alone the failure of the war against the Ming Dynasty.

After the establishment of the Mengbaqi and the Han Baqi, Huang Taiji's main energy is basically in the strong army, the twenty-four banners show that the Qing army is gradually stronger, and Huang Taiji also understands a truth, that is, only the army is firmly in control of the hands, can really protect the stability of his emperor's throne, the Manchurian nobles are not vegetarians, the scene of the four major Baylors discussing the government of the year, Huang Taiji will not forget, he does not allow the power to fall.

But no matter how far-reaching Huang Taiji considered, there was one thing he couldn't solve, that is, to ensure the military salaries of the Manchurian Eight Banners, the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Han Eight Banners. According to the rules of the Qing Dynasty, the children of the Eight Banners have no military salary, and their sources of income are all obtained by fighting, that is, they obtain wealth by plundering each other.

Fan Wencheng once specifically suggested to Huang Taiji on this matter to change the way the Eight Banners Army's military salaries were provided.

The Eight Banners system established by Nurhachi is very good on the surface, the children of the Eight Banners have no military salary, and they must fight desperately in every battle, and only after defeating the opponent can they obtain wealth, and they can study the problems in their bones in depth, which makes Huang Taiji shudder. That is to say, the children of the Eight Banners all follow the banner owners to fight and rely on the banners to survive, and they have nothing to do with the imperial court. Under such circumstances, these Eight Banners disciples only have the banner master in their eyes, and there is no emperor.

Huang Taiji also thought that the imperial court would uniformly supply the military salaries of the children of the Eight Banners, but the result of the household settlement made Huang Taiji gasp, according to the strength of the imperial court, he could not bear the military salaries of the Eight Banners, the Eight Banners of Mongolia and the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, after all, the place occupied by the Great Qing State was too small, and the tax income was limited.

Such a result made Huang Taiji depressed and angry. It also made him, the emperor who had the world in mind and had great talents, feel a deep helplessness, it was impossible to increase taxes, whether it was Manchus, Hans, Mongols or Koreans, they could not bear it, and the Manchus had a special status in the Great Qing Dynasty, and it was impossible for them to take out silver to the imperial court to feed the children of the Eight Banners. It seems that being an emperor is not such a simple thing, and it is not only necessary to take into account the strength of the army. It is also necessary to take into account the accumulation of wealth, both of which are indispensable.

Huang Taiji's worries, the current situation of the Great Qing Kingdom, Fan Wencheng is very clear, and he is also trying to find a way to help solve this biggest problem, but judging from the current situation. There is little solution to this problem.

The battle in the eleventh year of Chongzhen and the third year of Chongde in the Qing Dynasty was defeated very badly, and the Manchu Eight Banners suffered heavy losses, and this battle was directly commanded by the Rui Prince Dolgon, and it was a joint operation of the Manchu Eight Banners, the Mengba Banners and the Han Eight Banners. The defeat in this battle dealt a heavy blow to the arrogance of the Manchu nobles, and made many Manchu nobles doubt and waver in the ultimate goal of reunifying the Central Plains.

Three years have passed in a blink of an eye, maybe time has diluted everything, maybe it is the scar that has forgotten the pain, maybe it is the lack of military salaries, or maybe it is the gradual strengthening of the strength of the Manchurian Eight Banners, the Mongolian Eight Banners and the Han Eight Banners, and the call for the Ming Dynasty to attack has reappeared, and it has become more and more intense in a short period of time.

Huang Taiji also moved his mind, it is not okay for the children of the Eight Banners to always nest at home, they must be pulled out to fight, and they must obtain wealth, so that they can be more powerful.

Huang Taiji's thoughts, Fan Wencheng understood, and he also began to focus his attention on the aspects of the disciples of the Great Eight Banners sending troops to fight.

In a short period of time, Fan Wencheng made a suggestion to Huang Taiji to strengthen the defense of the western Liaoning region, make a certain gesture to see what the Ming army would do, on this basis, the army began to assemble and prepare, if the Ming army was negligent in prevention, then the army launched a large-scale offensive in western Liaoning, it is best to be able to directly occupy Jinzhou and Ningyuan and other cities, so that it can gradually disintegrate the Ming Dynasty's Guanningjin defense line.

Fan Wencheng's suggestion is in line with Huang Taiji's idea, for more than ten years, the children of the Eight Banners of the Great Qing Kingdom have entered the customs many times, all of which are based on plundering wealth and weakening the strength of the Ming Dynasty, all of which are auxiliary, and the place where the Great Qing Kingdom really needs to focus on attacking and occupying is the Guanning Jin Defense Line, which is like a spike, firmly rooted in the skin of the Great Qing Kingdom, and the Ming Dynasty also relies on this line of defense to resist the expansion of the Great Qing Kingdom.

Once the Great Qing State took the Guanningjin defense line, then it would be a matter of course to enter the Central Plains.

However, Huang Taiji is very cautious, attacking Jinzhou and Ningyuan such cities, you need to make adequate preparations, when his father Emperor Nurhachi attacked Ningyuan City, he Huang Taiji led a large army to attack Jinzhou City, and finally they were helpless to evacuate, not to mention the loss of people and money, not to mention the loss of soldiers, and greatly shook the foundation of the Qing Dynasty.

When the timing was not right, Huang Taiji would not easily start a large-scale battle with the Ming army in the Jinzhou area of western Liaoning.

Fan Wencheng will not casually put forward such an idea, he put forward this suggestion at the same time, spend more effort to collect information about all aspects of the Ming court, he needs to prove with the actual situation that the Qing State can fight in Jinzhou, and at this time, Duan Zongkui, a merchant who travels to and from all parts of Liaodong, has become the best source of information.

Duan Zongkui is already very familiar with Shenyang, but his identity is still top secret, in the Ming Dynasty, the people who know his identity are Zheng Xunrui, Xu Wanghua and Zheng Jinhong and a few others, and in the Qing Dynasty, the people who know his identity are Fan Wencheng and a few others.

Over the years, Duan Zongkui's relationship is not ordinary, not only has a good relationship with Jiading Bo Zhou Kui and Jinyiwei commander Tian Hongyu, but also makes friends with some adults in the court, Duan Zongkui is generous and bold, such a character has been appreciated by many people, and there are naturally many people who are willing to make friends, but Duan Zongkui is very careful that the characters he has befriended are mainly Wenchen in the court, and it also depends on whether the other party is in an important department.

Duan Zongkui's contact with Zheng Xunrui is extremely secretive, under normal circumstances, there is no contact at all, unless he has obtained extremely important information, he will report to Zheng Xunrui, according to Zheng Xunrui's requirements, under special circumstances, Duan Zongkui will not come forward directly, in accordance with Zheng Xunrui's requirements, send someone to send the prepared documents to a specific place, and the person who receives the documents is not allowed to ask casually.

Because the business is getting bigger and bigger, Duan Zongkui rarely goes to Liaodong to do business in person, usually in the capital, but he has to go back and forth to Liaodong four to five times a year, the ostensible reason is that some business transactions must be done by him, but the actual reason is that he must rush to Shenyang to meet Fan Wencheng.

After a long time in the capital, almost every day is in contact with the people of the court, Duan Zongkui has naturally mastered more and more information, especially in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, a lot of big things have happened in the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court expropriation and suppression, large-scale extermination of the Liukou, major cabinet adjustments, etc., according to the eyes of businessmen, Duan Zongkui is keenly aware that these changes will have a significant impact on the Ming court.

When the news of Houjin Tatar's Chen Bing in Liaoxi reached Duan Zongkui's ears, he also received a message from Fan Wencheng and asked him to rush to Shenyang immediately.

Duan Zongkui knew that Fan Wencheng must be thinking about knowing the situation in the Ming Dynasty.

There is a one-line connection between Duan Zongkui and Fan Wencheng, that is to say, Duan Zongkui will not give Fan Wencheng anything in the situation of the paperwork, and he will report it after meeting every time, which is also Fan Wencheng's decision, the danger of sending the document is too great, and it may be exposed if you don't pay attention to it.

Duan Zongkui was not in a hurry to set off, at such a critical and delicate moment, he needed to ask Zheng Xunrui how to deal with it.

In just a few days, Duan Zongkui received a message from Zheng Xunrui, telling the truth.

After receiving this order, Duan Zongkui was puzzled, but he didn't need to consider the reason, just do what Zheng Xunrui asked, as for the possible consequences of doing so, he didn't need to think about it.

After receiving Zheng Xunrui's order, Duan Zongkui set off from the capital the next day.

Along the way, Duan Zongkui was extremely careful, because there were Houjin Tartars in the Jinzhou area, the Guanning Jin defense line was already nervous, and the control of merchants was also very strict.

When he was about to arrive at Jinzhou City, Duan Zongkui, through his own observations, found that the Ming army near Ningyuan and Jinzhou had increased, especially in some military forts, the number of sergeants had increased significantly, and the city gate was very tightly guarded.

All this made Duan Zongkui faintly feel that Da Ming and Hou Jin were near Jinzhou, and I was afraid that a large-scale fight would break out, and this time he went to Shenyang to see Fan Wencheng, which must have a lot to do with this matter.

When Duan Zongkui arrived in Jinzhou, he was also subjected to severe interrogation, but he was willing to pay for the silver, as the saying goes, money can make the ghost grind, with this silver, Duan Zongkui can always deal with it calmly.

At the end of October, Duan Zongkui left Jinzhou, passed through the Daling River, and headed for Xiping Fort, which was controlled by the Houjin Tartars.

In early November, Duan Zongkui finally arrived in Shenyang. (To be continued......)