The scenery of Layue, the snowflakes in the north are getting bigger and bigger, and in the vast white mountains, there are countless roads and countless stone forts.

Deep in the road where the stone fort was set up, after stretching for hundreds of miles, a five-way plain sandwiched between the mountains appeared, houses that stretched for more than ten miles and a city standing on the top of the mountain.

Right now, the place is brightly lit, and if you look closely, the houses that stretch for more than ten miles are all blacksmith shops.

All the blacksmiths lit lanterns and waved their hammers in their hands shirtless in the blacksmith's shop, constantly striking the red iron blocks on the tongs in their hands.

With the sound of "dingding", pieces of iron were made into arrows, blades, hammerheads, and even armor.

Some women sit in the doorways of the blacksmith's shop, expertly inlaying the pieces of armor that have just been made and then left to cool in tandem behind cloth coats.

Here, it is like a military factory, and here, that is, the capital of Houjin, Hetuala......

Hetuala, it was called "Xingjing" by Jianlu, and Han means Henggang, that is, a city built on a flat hill.

The city lies between the mountains and the arch guards, is composed of two cities inside and outside, the inner city is less than one mile in the east and west, north and south, and there are not some palaces of the Ming Dynasty, but it is the real Houjin Imperial City.

The outer city is two miles long and wide, and more than 60,000 Jurchens live in the city, and there are more than 400,000 acres of cultivated land outside the city, accounting for almost one-twentieth of the Houjin cultivated land.

Since Kaiyuan, Tieling, Fushun and other places were defeated, these three places have become the big granaries of the Later Jin, and millions of stone of grain are transported to Hetuara every year, barely able to maintain the huge army of the Later Jin.

It's just that Houjin's life is not easy......

In the main hall of the palace, an old man with a well-proportioned figure about five feet two or three inches tall sat on the sweat seat, and below him sat the four great Baylors who were in their thirties to their twenties, as well as the five great khans.

In addition to these nine important ministers, there are several other Taiji, Han generals and so on.

They gathered here to be summoned by the old man on the stage, and this person is the current "wise khan of the nations of the great gold", Nurhachi......

He is not tall, nor is he powerful, he can develop to this point because of three words.

Know how to advance and retreat......

From taking refuge in Li Chengliang, to using Li Chengliang's power to exterminate the tribe of Jianzhou Sanwei who refused to obey him, to unifying Jianzhou, and conquering the Beishan Savage Jurchen, Haixi Jurchen and so on.

All this is based on the pattern of admitting to the border army of the Ming Dynasty.

When the generals of the border army of the Ming Dynasty were still pleased to think that Nurhachi was just a wild chief under the command of the Ming Dynasty, he had grown his troops from more than 16,000 people in the Jianzhou Sanwei quota to 30,000 people, and was awarded the official position of the Ming Dragon and Tiger General by the Ming court.

However, in the first year after Li Chengliang's death, Nurhachi, who had accumulated nearly 100,000 troops (recorded in the old Manchu files), finally raised his army, proclaimed himself Dajin Khan, and publicly questioned the Ming Dynasty in the third year of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and issued the "Seven Hatreds" oath to heaven.

Later, Salhu defeated the Ming army and took Fushun, Kaiyuan, Tieling and other places.

It's just a pity that because Wanli used Xiong Tingbi to pass through Liaodong, and Xiong Tingbi's iron wall defense directly broke Nurhachi's ambition to occupy the Liaodong Peninsula.

At present, although the Houjin is singing and advancing on the surface, everyone knows that if they can't defeat Liaodong, they will be Yang Yinglong's generation at most for the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, Nurhachi had been preparing for the next attack for half a year, and at this time, a letter disrupted his deployment.

Under the candlelight, Nurhachi looked at the letter in his hand, crumpled it into a ball, threw it directly into the stove beside him, and looked up to everyone who was standing:

"This little emperor of the Ming Kingdom should not be underestimated, three days ago, six thousand Sichuan soldiers were stationed in Shenyang City, and they went to the vacancy, and laid off the old and weak in Shenyang."

"Two days ago, Liaoyang also stationed a Zhejiang army of 4,000 people, and the leader was Qi Jiguang's nephew, who had guarded Jizhen and participated in the Battle of Korea."

"Han Shang came to report that Shenyang's troops should be less than 20,000, and the food is enough to eat for about half a year."

"Liaoyang's troops are 123,000, including 4,000 Zhejiang soldiers from Qi Jin, 2,060 remnants of Zhejiang soldiers from the previous northward transfer, and more than 6,000 Liao soldiers......"

Nurhachi's words instantly made the situation on the Liaodong Peninsula clear.

Liaoyang and Shenyang combined, the strength of the army is about 34,000, and the art of war is cloudy, "ten is to surround it, five to attack it, and to fight it if it is doubled, the enemy can divide it, if it is less, it can be defended, and if it is not, it can be avoided"

This means that if I am ten times as strong as the enemy, I will encircle and annihilate, if I am five times as strong as the enemy, I will attack, if I am twice as strong as the enemy, I will try to defeat the enemy, and if I am evenly matched, I will try to disperse and break each one.

If the forces are weaker than the enemy, avoid fighting.

And at the moment, Hou Jin's troops are far more than Zhu Youzhen and others thought, if it is a war to destroy the country, Hou Jin can pull out all the men over the age of thirteen, a total of more than 90,000 soldiers and horses.

In fact, the Houjin were not as powerful as they boasted, and in the battle of Salhu, after fighting with Juniper and Liu Ling, more than thousands of people were killed and wounded.

At present, they are only three times the strength of the local defenders in Liaodong, and it is obviously not advantageous to attack strongly.

When Nurhachi said these words, he was not announcing information, but asking what should be done next.

"Khan Ama, we have fought Shenyang City more than once, it is not so easy to fight, the artillery of the Ming army is farther than ours."

The first to speak was a man who was not tall, over thirty years old, wearing a red robe, and he was Nurhachi's second son, the leader of the Red Banner Daishan.

As soon as he spoke, the others dared to speak, and the second one to open his mouth was the Blue Banner Lord, Nurhachi's nephew Amin.

"Great Khan, we don't have much food left, we still have to fight."

He is thirty-four years old, and his figure is tall in the Aixin Jueluo family, with a full five feet four inches.

Because he killed Liu Wei who had no weapons and was exhausted in the Battle of Salhu, he was praised as the bravest of the four Baylors.

At the moment, Nurhachi was very satisfied with his words, but it was not what he wanted to hear.

He looked at the young man who was sitting in the seat, a slightly obese young man, and this person was the only Huang Taiji who knew Chinese except Nurhachi among the many Taiji and Beile in Houjin.

Seeing Nurhachi looking at him, Huang Taiji said unhurriedly:

"We failed before because the Ming army's firearms were sharp, and the three thousand cavalry under He Shixian were good at breaking through the formation."

"However, they have also exposed their shortcomings."

"Khan Ama, the last general thought that He Shixian liked to drink heavily, and liked to personally lead the troops into battle."

"With his character, once we lure him with a small group of people, he will definitely take the bait, and then we can round him up."

"What about the Sichuan soldiers in the city?" Nurhachi was very satisfied with Huang Taiji's answer, and asked like an examination, and Huang Taiji also replied:

This matter is very simple, as long as the rumors are spread to show that the court is ready to continue to send eunuchs to collect mining taxes, and then spread the slogan of "having a house to live with, food to eat, and land to plough" to spread in Shenyang City. ”

"If you spend enough gold and silver to buy some of the Mongols and Liao soldiers in the city, as long as the drawbridge is lowered and the city gate is opened, the Sichuan soldiers will be just corpses under the golden warriors."

At present, Huang Taiji is only in his twenties, he is still very immature, and he doesn't know about the white pole soldiers, so he thinks that the white pole soldiers are at most the level of Liu Wei's subordinates.

However, even so, the means he said about booby-trapping He Shixian, and then using the mining tax to cause the Liao people to resist the Ming court, and then spreading slogans, did hit the key point of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong.

As for Nurhachi, he nodded his head to the crowd:

"The soldiers and horses of each banner prepare their own grain and grass, and prepare to set off in March to besiege Shenyang and capture Liaodong!"

"Yes!"

Because of the hasty creation of the dynasty, many of the current Houjin's words and words do not have so much etiquette, but even so, that barbaric momentum still broke out.

After this meeting, the banner owners of each banner began to supervise the blacksmith shop outside the city, hoping to make their soldiers as better equipped with armor and weapons as possible before the next battle began.

Everyone was waiting, waiting for Shenyang to move into the first city in Liaodong.

While they were waiting, the capital thousands of miles away rang the morning bell and announced the arrival of a new day......

"Bell...... Clang...... Bell ......"

With the ringing of the morning bell, the first year of Taichang and the forty-eighth year of Wanli have completely become history, and the first year of the Apocalypse has officially entered the life of the people of the Ming Dynasty.

"Crackling—"

When the morning bell rang, it rang with the sound of firecrackers in Beijing, Shuntianfu.

In the city of Beijing, where millions of people live, red lanterns are hung in many places, and new couplets and blessings are pasted.

Amid the crackling sound of firecrackers, the smell of gunpowder, which smells very "fresh", obsesses some children.

Some of the children in new clothes use sticks to look for unlit firecrackers in the debris of firecrackers, while others follow their parents to visit their neighborhoods.

Such a visit can often get a red envelope of one or several articles, and after they get the red envelope, they all run to the street, looking left and right, hoping to see the figure of the merchant.

When they saw the merchant pushing the cart, all the children gathered around.

On this merchant's cart, there is cane sugar, there are rattles, kites, windmills, sour vinegar, shoes, rattles, brooms, hats, scissors......

On his back he also carried a bamboo basket, on which were pinned bamboo rakes, pu fans, bird cages, umbrellas, maza, shuttles, snacks, bottles and cans......

Even on the merchant's body, there are a number of items such as fences, flutes, horns, and gourds pinned to his waist, which is dazzling!

It's just that the merchant hasn't walked out of a street yet, and the things on his body and the car have been snapped up, and finally with a heavy money bag, humming a little song and preparing to push the cart home.

As for the children, some flew kites, some showed off their rattles, and some put on their new hats, shaking their heads and swaggering around.

The adults in the distance, as well as some girls who had not yet left the pavilion, stood at the door, looking at these children shaking their heads, and couldn't stop laughing.

Perhaps for the people of the Ming Dynasty, the New Year is the beginning of a new atmosphere, and no one would have thought that such a prosperous Ming Dynasty is not far from extinction.

Don't say that they, even the ministers above the temple, don't feel it.

"Sing the salute!"

"Hooray......

In the Wenhua Palace, accompanied by the singing of Honglu Temple, the officials in court clothes knelt down one after another, and then stood up one after another under Zhu Youxiao, who was wearing a crown robe.

In the late Ming Dynasty, even if it was a big court meeting that only happened three times a year, it was just a New Year's court.

Whether it is a Wenchen or an emperor, they prefer to handle government affairs in the Wenhua Hall and the Qianqing Palace, but Zhu Youzhen still thinks too complicated.

After the congratulatory gifts of the hundred officials and the congratulatory gifts and congratulatory tables of the yamen of the state capitals and many vassals at home and abroad were read, the court meeting ended in a hurry, and no political topics were discussed.

If there is, it is that Zhu Youxiao ordered many nobles to go to the imperial mausoleum of Tianshou Mountain in Changping to worship the ten imperial tombs.

and Zhu You's school banquet, and from the inside, took out the New Year's money-saving banknotes for the New Year, and gave money to Sun Ruyou, Fang Congzhe, Liu Yixian and other cabinet scholars and six books.

Looking at it this way, the emperor is still quite bitter.

Not only do you have to be scolded by this group of guys every year, but you have to pay them benefits with private money in the end of the new year.

"Suffer, ......"

At the door of the Wenhua Palace, Zhu Youzhen held a handful of watermelon seeds in his hand, and spit in the cloth bag held by the little eunuch next to him while knocking.

He looked at the courtiers in the hall who were still congratulating the table, and felt bored, so he led people out of the Wenhua Palace.

Crossing the Wenlou, taking advantage of the fact that there were not so many scholars, Zhu Youzhen came to the three major halls with ruined walls, led people to the ruins and asked:

"Didn't the imperial brother say that the three major halls would be repaired?"

"Your Highness, where can you afford to cultivate this......" The little eunuch next to him smiled bitterly:

"Emperor Shenzong spent more than 20 years to finally save enough wood, and as a result, the Ministry of Industry quoted 15 million taels, where did the imperial court get so much silver......

"Fifteen million taels, they really dare to ......" Zhu Youzhen pursed his lips, then looked at the broken eaves and walls, and thought to himself:

"When this place is about to be built, I will definitely ask the royal brother to get a few lightning rods and lightning wires in the square next to the East Palace."

Speaking of this, Zhu Youzhen was also speechless.

The cost of these three major halls is high, and as a result, after more than 200 years of construction, there have been two lightning and fire burns.

If you burn it like this, you won't be able to take out the big bright bottoms.

"Your Highness, Your Highness......"

When Zhu Youzhen was eating melon seeds, a eunuch ran over from the Wenlou in a hurry and shouted at Zhu Youzhen.

"What are you doing, panicked, where is the etiquette?"

Zhu Youzhen swallowed melon seeds and taught the eunuch a very rude look, and after the eunuch heard it, he also ran over and said with a smile:

"Your Royal Highness, the slave and maid are the eunuch Wang Tiqian, the eunuch of the ceremonial eunuch, and the ...... of the Dongchang Wei palm print"

"Okay, okay, got it." Hearing that it was Wang Tiqian, Zhu Youzhen waved his hand to indicate that he knew.

This guy's name Zhu Youzhen still remembers, because in history, when Wei Zhongxian wanted to falsely accuse Chongzhen of organizing the palace guards and attempting to rebel, Wang Tiqian pulled him and told him not to falsely accuse Chongzhen, and if the false accusation was not good, it would be a group of people's heads to move.

This guy has a good brain, and he can see it clearly, if Wei Zhongxian carries the black pot about the same in the future, he can use him to continue to carry it.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen smiled and stretched out his hand, patted Wang Tiqian and said:

"Xiao Wang, do a good job, Lone is very optimistic about you."

"Eh......" Hearing this, Wang Tiqian was flattered, and he also remembered the matter, so he wrote:

"Your Highness, long live you to go to the Heart Cultivation Hall and wait, and by the way, ask the imperial dining room to make some breakfast you like."

"Well, I see, you can go back." Zhu Youzhen waved his hand, indicating that he knew, and then let Wang Tiqian leave.

After Wang Tiqian returned the salute, he walked towards the Wenlou, while Zhu Youzhen walked towards the Palace of Nourishing Heart with melon seeds.

It was just when he had just crossed the temple of the body that a voice calling for him sounded behind him.

"Letter from Your Highness, Liao Shen and Nanchang!"

"Stop ......" Hearing that it was a letter from Liao Shen and Nanchang, Zhu Youzhen immediately raised his hand to make people stop, and then waited for the panting Jinyi Wei to come over.

He walked to Zhu Youzhen's side and handed out three handwritten letters and a volume of documents in his hand, while Zhu Youzhen said to the little eunuch of the Qingong Palace next to him:

"Ten taels of silver."

"The slave and maid receive the order...... the little eunuch returned the salute, and the little flag officer of the Jinyi Guard also happily returned the salute.

"Your Highness!"

After Zhu Youzhen nodded, he was not in a hurry to open the letters, but led people into the heart cultivation hall of the Qianqing Palace, and instructed some things to do for breakfast, and then opened three letters.

His first letter was opened, and it was written by Qin Bangping of Shenyang.

The letter mainly wrote about the situation and process of entering Shenyang, and then wrote about the personalities of He Shixian, You Shigong, and Xiong Tingbi, and finally wrote:

[Shenyang soldiers are 20,000 regular soldiers, 10,000 auxiliary soldiers, after checking the vacancies, 9,000 regular soldiers, 3,000 auxiliary soldiers, after being dismantled, 6,070 regular soldiers, 2,040 auxiliary soldiers, 6,000 Sichuan soldiers, 3,000 auxiliary soldiers, a total of 12,070 regular soldiers, 5,004 auxiliary soldiers, a total of 18,100 people]

At the end of the letter, Qin Bangping responded to Zhu Youzhen, saying that according to Zhu Youzhen's previous arrangement, the salary of the regular soldiers in Shenyang had risen to 15 taels, and the auxiliary soldiers had risen to 10 taels.

"Six thousand and seven regular soldiers, two thousand and four auxiliary soldiers......" Zhu Youzhen calculated quickly in his brain, and finally came up with an answer.

"That is to say, the previous salary of Shenyang on paper was at least 300,000 taels, and counting grain and baggage, it was at least 600,000 taels a year."

"After the current cut, about 230,000 taels of military salaries have been reduced, and there are still about 200,000 taels of grain and straw."

Zhu Youzhen was depressed and hated He Shixian's behavior of eating empty salaries.

But there is no way, if it weren't for empty salaries, He Shixian and You Shigong would not have 3,000 families, and they would not be able to defend Shenyang City.

The past is gone, and the accountability of admitting death will only make the Ming Dynasty reduce two more generals who can fight well.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen opened Qi Jin's letter.

He unfolded the letter, read the contents of the letter at a glance and ten lines, and couldn't help but nod his head with satisfaction.

In the letter, Qi Jin was more relaxed than Qin Bangping to settle in Liaoyang City, and after entering Liaoyang City, he handed over the military power of the original Liaoyang General Army as soon as possible.

Perhaps because of the "Jizhen Mutiny" and Li Rusong's targeting of Zhejiang soldiers in the Korean Campaign, Qi Jin had some hatred for the generals in the Jiliao area compared to Qin Bangping.

Therefore, after checking the vacancy in Liaoyang, he chose to raid his house as soon as possible.

Liaoyang, which had 25,000 regular soldiers and 10,000 auxiliary soldiers on paper, only had 5,000 regular soldiers and 2,000 auxiliary soldiers after going to the vacancy, as well as 2,060 ordinary Zhejiang soldiers who fled back from the defeat of Salhu before.

After screening, Qi Jin only left two thousand six Zhejiang soldiers and one thousand Liaodong soldiers, as well as five hundred auxiliary soldiers.

This is much more than the empty salary that He Shixian and You Shigong ate!

Not only that, He Shixian and You Shigong eat empty salaries, at least to support the elite of the family, while there are only 8,000 people in Liaoyang City, and there are only 1,000 people in the family.

As for the person responsible for guarding Liaoyang City, it was a Liaodong general that Zhu Youzhen was not familiar with.

However, in this way, after the reduction, Liaoyang only has 6,060 new and old Zhejiang soldiers plus 1,000 Changping auxiliaries, as well as 1,000 Liao soldiers and 500 auxiliaries.

In other words, Liaoyang currently has only 7,06 regular soldiers and 1,500 auxiliary soldiers.

With such a small number of soldiers and horses, if Nurhachi really invaded Shenyang, then Liaoyang would have more than enough self-preservation and insufficient support.

"There is no time, I have to let Qi Yuanfu quickly lead the troops north......"

This thought flashed through Zhu Youzhen's mind, because if nothing else, Nurhachi would launch an attack on Shenyang in two or three months.

"It should be in time to take the sea boat." Thinking of the warship used by the Imperial Horse Supervisor to transport cattle and sheep, Zhu Youzhen breathed a sigh of relief, and then opened the letter from the Imperial Horse Supervisor Nanchang, hoping to see the good news.

Under his glance and ten lines, the letter written by Lu Wenzhao in the south field is very pleasing to the eye, and all the circumstances are explained very clearly.

After inspecting the military tun fields of the four guards and three institutes, the military tun fields of more than 1,576,400 mu were obtained.

As for the tuntian fields of the gentry, grain merchants, and officials, there are far more data than on paper after taking the land deed and checking it.

The actual number of acres of land is more than 2,891,320 mu......

Looking at the string of data in the letter, Zhu Youzhen was overjoyed.

If the contents of this letter are true, then there are now more than 4,467,720 acres in the south field of the Imperial Horse Prison.

With so many fields, even if you pay three or seven points with the tenants, plus the land endowment and the additional distribution, there are more than 3 million stones.

Thinking that he had gotten so many good things for his good brother, Zhu Youzhen smiled and continued to look down.

In his heart, Lu Wenzhao and Cao Huachun gave an average of 4 million mu of cultivated land to more than 1.2 million tenants of the imperial horse supervisor, and the remaining more than 400,000 yuan was used to raise cattle and sheep.

The cattle are mainly explained by Zhu Youzhen, and the south field must raise cattle well, and he will be of great use in the future.

As for the sheep, it is an economic product.

Zhu Youzhen happily read Lu Wenzhao's letter, and then saw Lu Wenzhao's last message at the end of the letter.

This news was on the 28th of the lunar month, and he had already escorted Qi Yuanfu to the north with Qi Yuanfu to pay taxes such as autumn taxes, grain, and additional distribution.

"Twenty-eight......" Zhu Youzhen muttered softly, and after a while, five days have passed.

According to the journey of forty miles a day, they should also arrive in Xuzhou.

When Zhu Youzhen was thinking about whether there was enough time, a pair of hands covered his eyes:

"Guess who I am......"