Zhu Shuren instructed Li Yu to return to his hometown and re-woo North Korea, but this matter will take time after all.

It will take time for the troops to set off and raise equipment and salaries.

Although there is a northward monsoon after February, in previous years it was used to travel around Tianjin, and the wind direction was slightly westerly. If you want to blow to the Korean Peninsula to the east, you have to wait for the right time when you come to the ground.

All in all, plus the half a month required for sea navigation, it is basically good to be able to reach North Korea in mid-to-late March.

After arranging these things, Zhu Shuren rarely enjoyed another month or two of leisure in Nanjing to accompany his family.

The follow-up frontal military operations of the Ming Dynasty will basically wait for the end of spring plowing and farming in March before they will be advanced one by one.

It's not that the Ming side is short of this manpower, for fear of delaying the farming. It's that Zhu Shuren doesn't want the people in the Heluo area to miss the farming time, and when the autumn harvest comes, the Ming government will have to come to relieve them-

In the eyes of Zhu Shuren, although the people in the Qing occupation areas in Kaifeng and Luoyang were allowed to do a good job of spring ploughing, anyway, when the summer harvest is reached, at most the autumn harvest, this land will definitely not belong to the Qing State.

So now the grain planted in the spring is planted for Daming, how can Daming destroy its own production?

As for the land north of the Yellow River, it was impossible to get it this year, and it had nothing to do with the Ming Dynasty about the production situation.

From the first month of the first month to the first half of March, the front-line troops basically maintained a state of mutual alert, and the two sides were at peace with each other. This timeline can basically be perfectly coordinated with the actions of the North Korean side.

By the time April comes, whether it is the Central Plains or North Korea, they can launch a change together, and the Qing court will naturally take care of itself on both sides of the east and west.

……

And the two months that Zhu Shuren stayed in Nanjing to accompany his family were not idle. Every day, there are still some daily government affairs, whether he needs to deal with it or not, he must listen to the report and understand it.

In the back house, he also had to accompany Fang Ziling and Bian Yujing. Shuangshu accompanied Zhu Shuren to Hefei last year to live for half a year, which was also the first time that Zhu Shuren took the side concubine and concubine to travel far away after Zhu Shuren passed his son-in-law out and moved the palace to stabilize the palace.

Facts have proved that Zhu Shuren's body is still very powerful, especially for long-term military travel, often riding horses for fitness, and having few heirs before, but to ensure that the princess's wife comes out on top and prevent chaos with the concubines.

Now that the ban has been completely lifted, the firepower is in full swing, and before Zhu Shuren leaves Hefei, Fang Ziling and Bian Yujing have already been recruited.

Fang Ziling recruited early, and found out soon after he went in late summer and early autumn last year, and it is estimated that he had it before he left Nanjing last year and went north. Bian Yujing was a little later, and he only found out in winter.

At that time, Zhu Shuren finally returned to Nanjing ten days and half a month ahead of schedule, otherwise the women around him would be inconvenient, so he could only temporarily pull a few beautiful maids to make do with it.

Now, Zhu Shuren lives in Nanjing until the beginning of April, just in time for Fang Ziling to give birth. The medical research institute in Nanjing is now more complete than when the princess gave birth two years ago, with a lot of small achievements and a lot of practical running-in.

Fang Ziling didn't suffer much at all, and gave birth to a son smoothly, so far Zhu Shuren can also be regarded as having a concubine, among which the concubine passed to the royal family, not counting him, this concubine is also born to a side concubine after all, and the maternal lineage is much more noble than Chen Yuanyuan and Dong Xiaowan's births.

If the princess can't give birth to other sons in a few years, Zhu Shuren is ready to let this concubine inherit the title of his Ewang Mansion, and if there is a more humble maternal lineage in the future, he will be divided to inherit the family business of the Shen family. Anyway, don't rush to make sure now, so as not to fight for the restlessness of the house, everything can wait and see.

After all, this kind of child is not the heir to the throne, there is no need to "only grow up", you can watch its growth, look at the age of three and look at the old at the age of seven, determine whether the child is virtuous or not, and then make a decision.

Bian Yujing will have to wait a few more months, and it is estimated that the results will be available in July and August, but many female doctors in the obstetrics department have seen it and said that their stomachs look like a daughter, and if it is accurate, Zhu Shuren will have two sons and three daughters.

With the birth of Fang Ziling, Zhu Shuren's other concubines were also a little hot, so from the Chinese New Year to April, they were obsessed every day for three months, and personally cooked nourishing soup for Zhu Shuren.

Especially Chen Yuanyuan is the most afraid in her heart, she and Zhu Shuren are the earliest, the two met in Chongzhen for 12 years, Chongzhen Dynasty for 6 years, Longwu Dynasty 4 years, this is already the tenth year.

Chen Yuanyuan's age is also the eldest of Zhu Shuren's wives and concubines, she is only two or three years younger than Zhu Shuren, she was twenty-eight years old when she first met, and now she is twenty-six, as for Zhu Shuren's New Year, she is twenty-nine years old.

In contrast, Li Xiangjun is still more than two years younger than her after all, and Bian Yujing is one or two years younger. Now that Bian Yujing is going to have a child in twenty-two-three, she Chen Yuanyuan is twenty-six and not yet pregnant, so she is not in a hurry according to the standards of the ancients.

There's no way, Zhu Shuren is also a person who values love and righteousness, after all, Chen Yuanyuan is the first woman he accepted after coming to this world, and his love is there.

He had no choice but to comfort him every day and work diligently. At the end of the spring ploughing season and the eve of the resumption of the war between the Ming and Qing dynasties on the front line, Zhu Shuren's daily spring ploughing work at home finally had some results.

In April, Chen Yuanyuan was pleasantly surprised to find that his relatives finally failed to come on time, and hurriedly asked the female gynecologist of the medical research institute to see her carefully, and finally confirmed the good news.

As for Li Xiangjun, he has often received some leftovers in the past few months, but he hasn't moved yet, maybe the opportunity has not come, and there is nothing to force for.

……

The time soon came to April of the fourth year of Longwu.

With the complete end of spring ploughing and farming, both sides have also slightly repaired water conservancy facilities to check and fill in the gaps, and the Ming army in the direction of Henan has also silently increased the intensity of military operations one by one.

The line between Yingchuan and the ancient canal is a plain that can be defended without danger, and only some gentle rivers can be used as barriers. Therefore, after any side has achieved a large advantage, it does not support the weak side to defend step by step, basically once it is pushed, it is directly pushed to the rhythm of the Yellow River.

In the autumn and winter of last year, the Qing army suffered too many losses, and after the death of Azig, the Qing army's Huaixi Road retreated north to Kaifeng, and they were also warless.

Although Dolgon newly assigned Bel Baiyintu to temporarily take over the retreating old Azig department, as well as two other assistants Bei Zishuo Sai and Gong Adai, these people had no choice but to avoid under the heavy fire attack of the superior Ming army.

The steady advance in the territory of Kaifeng Prefecture was steadily advanced, and it was fought for nearly two months, and by the summer grain harvest season, the entire territory of Kaifeng Prefecture had been occupied by the Ming army. After more than a month, the summer harvest and autumn planting double rush season ended, and the Guide Mansion where Shangqiu was located next to it was also forced to retreat because there was no danger to defend.

A part of the defeated troops of the Qing army directly retreated across the Yellow River and retreated to Huaiqing Mansion and Weihui Mansion. Bai Yintu had the responsibility of commander, and he really did not dare to disobey the order to retreat across the Yellow River, so he had to divide his troops and retreat westward, hiding in the Heluo Basin through the Bishui Pass, relying on the Luoyang Eight Passes to delay dangerously.

Fortunately, in the Ming Dynasty, the Yellow River was relatively southern, and there were originally three or four prefectures in Henan Province that were located north of the Yellow River.

Luoyang is a thousand-year-old ancient capital, relying on the geographical advantage to temporarily hold Luoyang, but also can barely pull a fig leaf.

However, with the fall of Kaifeng, the Qing army in Luoyang directly entered the North China Plain through Henan Road was completely blocked. If the Qing army in Luoyang encountered the strong attack and siege of the Ming army again, and wanted to evacuate or ask for help, it could only count on the Qing army in the direction of Shanxi and Hanoi to cross the Yellow River and move south through Mengjindu.

Luoyang itself is not connected to the canal, relying on Hanoi to transport supplies, the cost will be very high, once the long-lasting, too many garrisons, the burden of the Qing army in Luoyang to the Qing court is very heavy.

In addition, the military affairs of the Qing court in the direction of Shanxi and Shaanxi are now in full charge of Prince Haoge, who was assigned to deal with Wu Sangui last year.

And Haug is definitely the most incompatible faction with Dolgon in the world - they had a feud for the throne back then, and this festival is completely immortal.

Historically, it was in this year (1648) that Hauge was framed by Dorgon and finally murdered in prison. It's just that now because the butterfly effect is too strong, Dolgon, the regent, has lost his prestige, and he can't deal with Hauge.

What's more, Haoge is now the only one among the four-way Qing troops sent last year who did not suffer obvious defeats. The other three roads were all lost soldiers, and some of them lost more than half of their troops and lost a large amount of land.

Although Haoge didn't have much credit, he just fought a war of attrition with Wu Sangui and Yuan Zongdi in Xi'an, pulling each other's hair and pecking at each other, but at least he didn't lose the size of the land, and the battle damage was no more ugly than Wu Sangui.

In this case, even if Dorgon wanted to frame Hauge, the people below would not be convinced.

So, how could Hauge give a good face to the commanders of the troops who were completely under Dorgon's orders? Expecting to get more military supplies from Hauge's territory, he had to accept some letters of submission to take sides.

If he refuses and still wants to be completely loyal to Dorgon, Prince Nasu doesn't mind putting moderate pressure on him to wear small shoes, and gradually infiltrate the old Azig department who retreated to Luoyang.

In the months that followed, while Hauge continued to completely control the Qing army in Shanxi, he gradually purged the part of the Henan Qing army that had fled to the Luoyang Basin, and gradually mastered the military strength of two and a half provinces.

……

The flowers bloom at two ends, one on each branch.

While the Ming army gradually took Kaifeng and Guide in the summer offensive of the fourth year of Longwu, the Korean kingdom in Dongyi also ushered in some unexpected situations.

One day in early April of this year, the Korean garrison of Ganghwa Province, which was more than 100 miles east of Seoul and at the mouth of the Han River, suddenly discovered that there were at least 100 huge ships coming from the west and covering the sky with masts and banners.

The local magistrate was shocked, and hurriedly adhered to the usual exaggerated rhetoric of the North Koreans, described the "more than 100" huge ships as "hundreds", and directly reported to Seoul, without even having time to wait for the other party to dock or send sailors to intercept and interrogate.

Fortunately, the comer did not have malicious intent, dozens of miles of sea docked after just two hours of sailing, and the person who came just sent a sentinel boat to show his identity, indicating that they were the Ming sailors, and sent the Ming envoy.

When the magistrate of Jianghua Prefecture heard the news, he couldn't tell whether he was happy or sad.

It is said that the Kingdom of Korea has now been forced to become a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, and it has been seven or eight years since the change of flag.

If it is the Qing army sailor, it is theoretically considered a suzerain. However, North Korea was very afraid of the Qing army's approach, because every time the Qing army approached, it would be accompanied by burning, killing and looting, even if it was already a subject country, it would inevitably suffer.

In contrast, although the Ming Navy Division is theoretically considered the enemy's army at the moment, the Koreans are relieved, because the Ming army has always been a civilized division, and when the Ming army fought against the Japanese invaders fifty years ago, the Ming army was very civilized when it entered the territory of Korea.

"I heard that there was a truce between the Ming and Qing dynasties a few years ago, and the men and horses of the Tartar southern expedition suffered a heavy setback, and the two countries resumed fighting last year, and I don't know if the situation is clear now.

The people said that the Tartars had failed miserably again, but when they went to Beijing to inquire about the news, the news sent back by the Tartar envoy said that countless Ming troops had been annihilated, and I don't know who to believe......"

While the officials of Jianghua Mansion were waiting for contact, they inevitably thought so in their hearts.

Although the decisive battle in the Central Plains was initially decided in October last year, everything was already in place by the time of the lunar month. Helplessly, North Korea is located in Dongyi, and the news is very closed.

In the past few months, the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing has not been in a hurry to cross the sea to communicate with them, and the news from official channels in Beijing is mostly beneficial to the Qing army. So much so that more than four months after the winner was clearly decided, North Korea has not yet figured out the situation.

With the landing of several capital ships in the Ming fleet, the largest of the 1,200 huge ships were so amazed that the North Koreans could hardly stop at the harbor berths on Ganghwa Island.

The Ming generals and official envoys on the ship, escorted by rows of Wuchang-made riflemen with shiny bayonets, gracefully boarded the dock.

The riflemen were all dressed in monolithically forged cuirasses as bright as bayonets, and the finely polished steel arc barely had the effect of a haha mirror when illuminated, but the onlookers only felt terrible.

Of course, the team sent by Zhu Shuren this time could not only be led by Li Yu, and that would be an invasion of Korea. There must also be an official envoy of state, one writer and two military forces.

Wen was responsible for submitting credentials to the king of Korea, and Wu was responsible for reopening Donggang Town, and recruiting and training troops in Korea in the future.

As long as the envoy is eloquent and has a literary name, so Zhu Shuren let Gu Yanwu, who has been idle recently, go on a trip, and his official position is "the master of the Ming Dynasty's Governor's Mansion", and then let Emperor Longwu give a Qincha edict, there will be no problem.

Li Bing, who was left behind in Jianghua Mansion, immediately greeted Gu Yanwu as soon as he stepped on the dock: "Xiaguan Jianghua Mansion stayed behind, and I didn't know that the angel of the kingdom was coming, so I missed it." ”

The North Korean official system, the government stays from the second grade, which looks scary. But in fact, the territory of North Korea is too small, so the territory of the country must be divided into eight provinces first, and there are prefectures and counties below the provinces. In fact, a second-class official only cares about the big fart.

After the scene was finished, Li Bing said euphemistically: Now that North Korea is forced to become a vassal state of the Qing State, the Ming envoy should keep a low profile and don't cause trouble for North Korea.

Otherwise, if it is discovered by the Qing court, it will inevitably send troops to coerce North Korea. North Korea does not reject the Ming Dynasty in its heart, but it does not have the courage to openly show it.

Gu Yanwu is also a great Confucian in the world, this kind of face-saving work naturally knows how to deal with it flexibly, after he introduced his identity, he immediately hinted to the other party that Daming wanted to reopen Dongjiang Town, and the matter of moving the knife, Daming was sure, and he also provided a few messages of victory and encouragement.

"Li Shoubei, are you so closed to news about North Korea? I didn't know that my Ming Dynasty had counterattacked the puppet Qing Dynasty and won a great victory, killing the puppet British prince Azig, annihilating 200,000 enemies, and recovering the two provinces?

This official has come this time to receive the edict of my great emperor and give the DPRK a chance to abandon the darkness and turn to the light again. Li Shoubei only led the way to Seoul, and the rest of your country was decided by the king and the government. ”

Li Bing was shocked again when he heard this, and he still didn't believe the results of the Ming Dynasty envoy. At this time, the generals are needed, Gu Yanwu has no evidence, he gave Li Yu and the others a look, and Li Yu immediately took over the topic strongly:

"Azig, the pseudo-British prince, was killed by General Ben with his own hand, can this be fake?"

Li Binghu glanced at him suspiciously: "I don't know ...... general"

Li Yu returned home with the arrogance of returning to his hometown: "This general is the son of the soldier Cao Li Jushu, who was originally a hostage at the Tartars, and seven years ago in the battle of Beacon Mountain, he had the opportunity to lead his troops to abandon the darkness and surrender to the light. Meng Daming reused, and accumulated merit year by year to the general army of Dongjiang Town and the general of General Anton! ”

When Li Yu mentioned his father, it was inconvenient to even say the name, so as not to be disrespectful, so he was only commensurate with his official position.

Li Bing became more and more surprised, and while saying that he wanted to entertain them well and stabilize them, he gave a few more instructions to the people next to him.

After a while, everyone went to the garrison mansion to drink and feast under Li Bing's control, and after resting, they arranged to go to Seoul tomorrow. Then between the banquets, a young military attache who was also less than thirty years old was brought in, and Li Bing gave two orders, pointing and pointing to make him recognize people.

The North Korean military attache followed Li Bing's instructions, hesitated for only a few seconds, and immediately showed shock: "Fourth brother? ”

Li Yu also noticed it, and after a short hesitation, he finally recognized from the other party's expression that this person was his third brother Li Yue - eight years ago, his father asked him to impersonate the third brother to go to Tartar as a hostage.

"Isn't this the third brother, why are you still messing around here now, hasn't your father always been very fond of you." Li Yu is also angry in his heart, of course he will not speak well of this third brother.

Li Yue smiled embarrassedly: "The fourth brother smiled...... was impersonated as a hostage, and it was not easy for his brother to stay in Seoul.

The so-called one wrong step is one wrong step. At the beginning, in order to avoid being hostage, my brother could only use your identity to continue to make a living, and my father was afraid that there would be many people in Seoul, and after a long time, he would have to go to the Ganghwa Island Naval Division Battalion as a soldier and horse supervisor, asking for isolation from the world and not leaking, alas. ”

Li Yu replaced Li Yue's identity and went to Shenyang back then, and Li Yue, who stayed in Seoul, of course, had to change his identity on the surface, so he lived as a younger brother from then on.

If Li Yu can be released by the Qing people, then the brothers may still swap identities again, pretending that nothing happened in the middle of the years.

But Li Yu cheated and surrendered in the Qing Kingdom, and Li Yue's original identity was completely useless, and in the eyes of the world, the identity of "Li Yue" was already a dead person.

Their father, Li Shibai, has also regretted this in recent years, and he knew that it was better to let his sister-in-law be a hostage back then, which was really self-defeating.

So now Li Yu wants to re-identify his "resurrection", which is also good for Li Yue, at least he doesn't have to live with a fake identity anymore, and he can be an upright person.

Li Liu, who was on the side, saw that Li Zongbing and Li Dujian were indeed brothers, and he didn't admit his mistake, so he knew that this matter was not something he could meddle in at his level, so it was better to send it to Seoul as soon as possible, and let the king and Li Jushu worry about it.

……

After resting overnight in Jianghua Mansion, the next day the Ming delegation continued to ride horses to Seoul, a distance of 90 miles, and a day of horseback riding was there.

The follow-up drama really has nothing to repeat.

At this time, the king of Joseon, Yi Liang, was fifty-four years old and seriously ill, and rarely took charge of the government himself. In history, he only had one year left to live, but when he heard that the Ming mission came with heavy troops, he still had to meet him in person.

As for the specific affairs, he was afraid of power, so he had to hand it over to Li Hao, the son of the king, and Li Shibai, the judge of the soldiers. In addition, he also specially recalled Song Shilie, the young prince of the world who lived in seclusion in Chungcheong Province, to Li Hao's staff officer, and by the way, he also showed goodwill to the Ming envoy.

Li Hao and his brother Li Wang both went to the Qing Kingdom as hostages and were brainwashed by Dolgon for many years. His brother Yi Wang was brainwashed even more thoroughly, and Dolgon had been trying to put him back in the future and succeed him to the throne so that he could get a pro-Qing Korean king.

However, the anti-Qing forces in Korea were not small, so after Li Wang and Li Hao brothers returned to China in the second year of Shunzhi, Li Wang was poisoned by the ministers of the pro-Ming faction, but everyone said that Dolgon was "indeed sick and died", and Dolgon did not catch the evidence, and there was no way. Then it was the turn of Li Hao, who was not so completely brainwashed, to be the son.

As for the young master Song Shilie, he was responsible for teaching Li Hao to read in his early years, and later when the pro-Qing faction came to power, he abandoned his official position and lived in seclusion. This time the king re-conquered him, which was also a signal.

Song Shilie originally wanted to pretend to be high, but I heard that he was asked to receive the envoy of the Great Tomorrow, so he came out again as an official.

Gu Yanwu didn't play with Li Shibai and Song Shilie in private, so he directly asked Zhang Mingzhen and Li Yu to show their muscles and military exploits, emphasizing that the Ming Dynasty is no longer what it used to be, and it can definitely counterattack the Tartars. Hu Lu has no luck for a long time, and his qi is exhausted!

After winning the hearts and minds of the North Korean people, Gu Yanwu talked to them about some details of the conditions for re-asserting the Ming Dynasty.

It is nothing more than a promise that as long as Korea returns to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty will lift the trade embargo on saltpeter and sulfur that has been in place for 16 years since the fifth year of Chongzhen.

At the beginning, the Ming embargo was mainly due to the fact that North Korea was under pressure to trade with the Qing state, and some of the arms raw materials were resold to Liaodong through North Korea, and because Mao Wenlong was killed and Dongjiang Town's anti-smuggling inspection ability was greatly reduced, Daming had to ban North Korea's imports across the board.

Now that Daming dares to reopen, of course, he is sure that he can manage it well.

In addition, this time, the Ming Dynasty also reiterated that the purchase of military rations by the new Donggang Town and the DPRK side can be handled according to a pre-approved official price. Although it is still required to be cheaper, at least there are rules to follow, so as not to be exploited by the executive at all levelsNorth Korea-

Korea, as a vassal state, should have provided a little military ration for the Ming garrison. However, in previous years, the implementation of this policy was not good, mainly because of the increased exploitation and corruption at all levels.

Of course, back then, the household departments, eunuchs at all levels, and local money and grain handling officials of the Ming Dynasty did the same to their own army, not specifically against North Korea.

Now it is nothing more than that Zhu Shuren has completely rectified the military rationing system of the Ming Dynasty. His father, Shen Tingyang, has been the head of the household department for many years, and he has rectified a lot, and he has also killed and degraded a lot of garbage interest groups in the north and south of Beijing under the pretext of reversing the unspoken rules.

The fact that the Koreans were given so much security, and the fact that the prince Li Hao himself had been humiliated for many years as a hostage in the Qing state, made him firm in his determination to accept this condition.

The main reason is that Li Hao also realized that Li Shibai's concubine became the dog of the Ming Dynasty, with the establishment of three battalion guards and 12,000 elite soldiers, and 2,000 of them were holding new rifles that he had never seen.

Now his father is seriously ill. If Li Shibai was co-opted by Daming and wanted to "change to a pro-Ming Korean king", then things would be troublesome.

Instead of waiting for Li Shibai to sell, it is better for him to sell it himself, and there is no middleman to make the difference.

And so it was settled. Korea began to secretly prepare for war at home, resumed trade with the Ming Dynasty, and exchanged information about whether or not to provide the military rations required by the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, North Korea is not in a hurry to show off, and this kind of thing must be blocked as much as possible to delay the news and give more time to prepare.

Therefore, the Qing court did not realize the problem immediately. It was not until a few months later, almost at the end of the summer, that the Qing court realized that something was wrong, sent several envoys to visit it, and finally delayed it until the autumn harvest that it was completely convinced that Korea had defected.

Dolgon, of course, was furious, and immediately demanded that his troops be divided back to the banks of the Yalu River to reconquer Korea by force.

However, Dorgon's order was questioned by more people, and everyone felt that since North Korea was only on the defensive now and did not take the initiative to provoke, why bother making more enemies. It's already like this with the Ming Dynasty, so why bother making more of a mess.