More than ten miles southeast of Salhu, the bent Suzi River washes out a patch of river beach between the mountains, and Gule Mountain is located in it. This place was originally based by Nurhachi's maternal grandfather Wang Gao, who led his troops to build a castle and invade the border passes of the Ming Dynasty. Later, the Ming army counterattacked and destroyed this place.

The current Gule Mountain is a trading transit point between the Ming Dynasty and Hetuala, and the Macheng Pagoda in charge of commerce and trade is stationed here. He has been standing in front of a wooden house at the moment, indifferently watching two Jurchen strong men beating a female slave. The screams of the slave girl were terrible, and the whip quickly turned bright red, and blood droplets were thrown off the whip and splashed all over the ground.

It's just a slave, and it's not as good as an animal. Animals suffer when they die, but they still have to be fed well when they live. But slaves, when they live, suffer, suffer endlessly.

This is the rule of the Jurchens, the master is supreme and controls the absolute life and death of the slaves below. And the biggest hope of being a slave is to become a high-level slave, and his subordinates also control several lower-level slaves. If he receives any resentment from his master, he sprinkles it on the lower slaves.

A slave society is an evil society that is destined to eat people. A master who can't oppress a slave is not a good master, and he won't live long, and maybe he will become a slave that day. Only those who are the most ferocious, the most brutal, the most violent can be in control.

Ma Chengta is now the master who controls everything in this Gule cottage, or he is the highest slave here, because there are higher masters above him. It's just that now that the master above has lost his temper, his life will not be easy.

In the Dajin Kingdom, there were many slaves of status. Ma Chengta is not the strongest of them, nor is he the most famous, but he can be regarded as the one with the best life. Because his talent is business, which is a rare talent among the Jurchens who like to burn, kill and loot.

Ma Chengta loved to make money and spend money, and he was very happy to see the large quantities of tea and cloth being transported into Hetuala, and to see the large sums of silver flowing out of his hands. This makes him, who is not strong in cultivation, have a high status among the Jurchens, and he has also become the object of emulation by many young people. But just when he was about to lead to the pinnacle of his life, trouble came.

Ma Chengta's gaze retracted from a distance, and he looked back at the slave girl in front of him. The woman had been whipped out of shape, her limbs twisted. The whip marks on the ground were all her blood, and her whole skin was open, and there was no good piece of meat, but she still had the last few breaths. The Jurchen strong man who was executed took back the bloody whip and said to Ma Chengta: "Master, a hundred lashes have been drawn."

"Let's go down."

"Wow."

The slave girl was still making her final convulsions, Ma Chengta took a few steps forward, looked at the woman on the ground with disgust, and sneered: "Do you dare to escape?" Do you dare to encourage others to run away with you? Do you still want to escape back to Fushun? You kind of Han slave just don't know how to thank your master for his kindness, I bought your life, and you have to work honestly. If you don't obey, I'll whip you to death. ”

After Ma Chengta finished speaking, his gaze swept around. There were more than a dozen unkempt slaves on the side, and they were suddenly struck by lightning, and their souls were not possessed. He was very pleased with his power. But the dying female slave on the ground took her last breath and said, "You wait, we Han people will not be willing to be slaves." Sooner or later, someone will step up and sweep away you brutes. ”

Ma Chengta's eyes immediately shrank. He was furious at first, and then shouted to the strong Jurchen man beside him: "Go and get an iron hook, go through this Nikan's tongue, and hang her." Let all the slaves see that this is what happens when you go against your master. ”

The Jurchen strong man did this very well, and the fear and wailing of the slaves made Ma Chengta feel better, but this could not completely drive away his troubles - since Zhou Qingfeng returned to Fushun, no one could contain him, especially after Li Yongfang was controlled by him, and the entire Fushun fell under his control. This greatly affected the business of Macheng Tower.

No, no, no, no, ......it's not just business.

Ma Chengta knows more than anyone else, he is a smart man, and he thinks more than those of his fellow people who can only fight and kill. He knew a secret, a secret that was unknown to many people, and even many people in the high-level of the Dajin Kingdom did not know - the Great Khan Nurhachi had a great calamity, a great calamity. The danger that is almost unmitigated and has been worsening is threatening the entire Daejin State, which is dominated by the state of Jianzhou.

When people in the world talk about the Jurchens, they all think that they are a group of barbarians who like to fight and kill. But do the Jurchens really like to fight, kill, and kill? No. The Jurchens also wanted to live a good life. Fighting and killing is only a means to survive, not an end.

In order to live a good life, in order to snatch enough resources for survival, so the Jurchens fought and killed. One by one, the Jurchen leaders are rising, decaying, rising, and decaying in the process of fighting, killing, and killing. After more than 200 years of this, it is now Nurhachi who is rising.

But now, even if Nurhachi is already the strongest among the Jurchens, he still can't solve the problem of the tribe's survival - the Jurchens don't know how to farm, don't know how to smelt, and don't have enough land. When Nurhachi gathered a strong enough force through fighting and killing, he found that he no longer had enough resources to reward his unruly men.

This is the great crisis of Nurhachi. The Great Golden Kingdom has just been founded, and others are amazed that it is powerful, but when it is the strongest, it is also the most dangerous. As the leader, Nurhachi had exhausted himself trying to balance the contradiction of insufficient resources, but he still found himself on the verge of collapse.

Years of conquest have created a powerful war machine, more and more privileged masters, and more and more slaves, but all to no avail. The slaves have been boiled to the last drop of oil on their bodies, but the masters want a better and more comfortable life - in comparison, Zhou Qingfeng can only be called scabies, which is not worth mentioning at all.

Why did Ma Chengta know this, because he was in business. There are fewer and fewer commodities that Daikin can trade, but there are more and more things that need to be purchased.

All people are greedy, and if this contradiction is not resolved, the power of the Great Khan will soon collapse. After all, the leader who does not bring benefits will not be convinced, and the people below will abandon Nurhachi like shit.

What to do?

In the past, the solution of this contradiction among the Jurchen tribes was to fight and kill internally. But now, except for Yehebu, Nurhachi has subdued most of the Jurchen tribes.

Ma Chengta had certainly never heard the phrase 'internal contradictions and external solutions', but he understood that his Great Khan had only one way to go. There was no more oil and water to fish inside the Jurchens, and the only solution was to invade the Ming Dynasty in the south and plunder the territory of the Han people. Just like Nurhachi's maternal grandfather Wang Gao more than sixty years ago, this is the only way to be reincarnated for decades.

Within the Dajin Kingdom, there was an idea of first solving the Yehe tribe and then invading the south, and the Great Khan also seriously considered it, and it was almost about to be implemented. But Yehebe is also very poor, except for some horses, there is nothing else, it is completely a fleshless bone. In addition, in the past six months, Zhou Qingfeng, this kid has been provoked many times, and Da Khan has changed his mind and wants to eat Fushun this piece of fat first.

More slaves, more food, more cloth, more tea, more and more goods that had never been enjoyed, even Machengta was excited about the Khan's decision. No one in the Dajin Kingdom has seen the Ming Kingdom in the south, and they don't feel that there is any difficulty in defeating it. Everyone is gearing up, just waiting to get enough people ready to kill and grab a handful.

As for facing Daming's anger after robbing, no one cares anymore. In other words, no one in Dajin can afford to look down on the officials and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and they feel that they are all some waste.

It's just that the Jurchen spies sent along the Hunhe River to investigate four or five days ago ran into some trouble. They went down the river very smoothly, but when they approached Fushun City, they found that there were hundreds of people working on the empty bank of the river. Naturally, the spies wanted to go and see what was going on?

The beginning went quite smoothly, and when the Jurchen warriors opened their bows and held swords, the weak Han Nikan began to flee. But when the warriors led the horses from the raft to the shore, a group of southern barbarians with spears came on the opposite side - I have never seen such a Han people who are not afraid of death, they dare to take the initiative to find the Jurchen uncle's moldy head, they are not afraid of swords and arrows, and they are very upright and killed.

Some people were stabbed to death on the spot, and the others got on their horses and fled in a panic, and they actually escaped for several miles in one breath before stopping. These Jurchen spies were all sent out by Ma Chengta, and afterwards he inquired one by one, and learned that there were more than a dozen people in the group of southern barbarians, and their own numerical disadvantage led to defeat.

"When I first came ashore, I was assaulted with a spear, which was really unlucky. But the question is, who is so bold? Ma Chengta was annoyed. Fortunately, one of them died, and it wasn't much of a loss. I just can't figure out what a few spies are saying that 'hundreds of people are working on the banks of the Hunhe River'? The fog of war shrouded not only Zhou Qingfeng, but also the Jurchens.

Compared with Zhou Qingfeng, who has never fought a big war, the Jurchens including Ma Chengta have a better psychological tolerance for war, death, and the unknown. He didn't think there was anything great about a failure, so he sent people again the next day, and he still went down the river, and even the number of people and the path did not change.

This time it was terrible. Fushun set up an ambush. First, there was a rain of arrows, followed by more than a dozen talismans. Two of the Jurchens who were attacked by the raid were killed on the spot, and one more was shot dead as they fled.

One of the two who escaped was seriously wounded and died halfway through. In the end, only a message with a broken arm collapsed. Even this last one was not saved, his wound was inflamed in the past two days, and he began to talk nonsense when he was hot, and he probably couldn't stand it.

Failed twice in a row, forcing Ma Chengta to be more cautious. In the past two days, several Han slaves in the Gule cottage have escaped. In order to deter the other slaves, the captured slave girls were whipped with a hundred lashes. But this slut has to be hard-mouthed when he is dying.

It was getting dark, and torches began to light in the stockade.

Ma Chengta was still standing outside looking at the dark night sky, or at the slaves who were carrying food. The grain transported from the Suzi River is being hoarded here, which will supply grain and grass for the next southern invasion of the Ming Kingdom.

"In a few days, in a few more days, the Great Khan will lead his army to launch. As long as Fushun is taken, there will be endless slaves and endless food in Dajin, and life will naturally be better at that time. One or two slaves dared to rebel and beat them all to death. Ma Chengta tried to calm himself, but he always felt impetuous, as if something was about to happen.

What could it be?

Until late at night, Ma Chengta couldn't sleep. He walked back and forth in the stockade, obviously very sleepy, but his mind was always cranky and couldn't stop. He had to beat his head with his hand, but suddenly a cannon rang out in the darkness ......of the night.

The cannon fire in the dark night was very alarming, and the drowsy head suddenly woke up, and Ma Chengta suddenly looked up in the direction where the cannon sound came from. It seems to be a sentry cannon on the periphery of the Gule Cottage, which is used to launch an enemy attack warning.

But the Dajin Kingdom is now in full swing, and for so many years, Nurhachi has been leading troops to beat others, and no one dares to attack so boldly. When Ma Chengta heard the sound of the cannon, he immediately scolded angrily: "Is this the fool who stepped on the brazier in the middle of the night and lit the cannon?" I'm going to kill him when I find out. ”