On the twenty-third day of the lunar month, when the Ming Dynasty was surging, the Houjin in the Northeast was also in action.

In the snow-covered mountains, I saw a place of fire rising to the sky.

A closer look reveals that a stone fort is being burned, and Jurchens dressed in coarse cloth of animal skins are being tied with ropes and walked out of the city, and finally rushed south.

The open space in the castle was covered with frozen red snow, and lying on the ground, lifeless and dead for a long time.

In front of this group of corpses, Mang Gurtai sat on the corpses of several people, ordering his subordinates to clean up the corpses.

At this time, Amin, who had washed his face, came over and said to Mang Gultai:

"How many Savage Guards haven't been uprooted?"

"More than seventy." Mang Gurtai responded, and then said:

"The map of the Ming Kingdom is too old, and the guards depicted on it are all more than 20 years ago, so I don't know if they have moved."

This sentence of Mang Gurtai speaks of the fact that the Ming Dynasty ruled the northeast before the Nurhachi rebellion.

In fact, since the two years of Yongle, the leaders of the Northeast entered Beijing at the rate of many phases, and the Ming Dynasty established Nuergan, Jianzhou and other nine guards, and the Ming Dynasty has been in the northeast.

Later generations did not understand the role of the Nurgandus, so they thought that the abolition of the Nurgandus represented the loss of the Northeast by the Ming Dynasty.

However, the Nurgan Dusi is actually a metropolitan division that appeases the northeastern ministries.

From the early days of the establishment of the Nuergandu Division, there were only nine guards, and by the time the Nuergandu Division was abolished during the Xuande period, the Ming Dynasty had already appeased the northeastern departments, and not established more than 130 guards.

The establishment of these guards represented the success of the Ming Dynasty's restraint of the northeast, so the Nurgandus was abolished.

However, the abolition was abolished, and the functions of the Nurgan Metropolitan Division, as well as the management of the Northeast Detention and Guards, were transferred to the Liaodong Metropolitan Division.

Not only that, the Ming army has been in charge of the Northeast for a long time, and in the twelfth year of orthodoxy, the number of guards in Nuer Gandu Division increased to one hundred and eighty-four, and during the Wanli period, the number of guards even reached three hundred and eighty-four.

During the long period of detention management, officials who did a good job in the detention and health centers would even be assigned to serve as officials in the two capitals and thirteen provinces.

For example, the commander of the Wudi River Guard (now the Udi River region of Russia) in the third year of Jingtai, he was transferred by the Ming court to the post of Jinzhou Wei, the capital of Liaodong in Shandong Province, because of his outstanding political achievements.

In the first year of Zhengde, Ge Linwei (whose jurisdiction was in the area of the Green River in the present-day Russian Far East) commanded Tongzhi Tahazhu because of his excellent governance performance, and was promoted to Wei Commander by the Ming Court from Wei Commander Tongzhi.

There are countless awards for such transfers, and the punishments are always there.

Leaving aside the Jianzhou Jurchens, who have always had a backbone, six people, including Wu Dingge in the 14th year of Chenghua and Agu Hewei (now the Agu River valley area in the Far East of Russia), were beheaded for violating the decrees of the Ming Dynasty.

This kind of management is still recorded even in the 36th year of Wanli.

However, because of the bitter cold, the Ming Dynasty always only thought about maintaining stability in the northeast, and the continuous restraint led to the rise of Nurhachi.

If troops are dispatched early and a political envoy is set up, I am afraid that the actual control of the Northeast will be very simple.

It's just that there is no regret medicine in the world, and the map of the Northeast Guards counted by Ming Dynasty officials in the 36th year of Wanli was also obtained by the Later Jin, and these Guards will become the new population and financial resources of the Later Jin.

Right now, it is the fourth month after the Battle of Shenliao, Mang Gurtai and Amin were sent by Nurhachi to the north to clean up the Beishan Jurchens.

In four months, they have captured more than 30,000 Beishan Jurchens and seized more than 200,000 stones of grain and grass for Houjin, and the number of their soldiers and horses is only an incomplete two blue flags.

Before receiving Nurhachi's order, they also need to continue to arrest the Jurchens in the Beishan area, and seize their grain to help Houjin survive the harvest until next autumn.

Time waited for no one, and soon, Mang Gurtai and Amin began to continue to lead troops north to encircle and suppress the Beishan Jurchens.

At the same time, the Jurchens of the guard, which they had breached, were sent to Hetuara in the south by a group.

The nearly 2,000-mile mountain road that braved the snow made it possible to see the Beishan Jurchens who were frozen to death on the side of the road from time to time along the way.

When they finally arrived in Hetuara under the watchful eye of the Jian, they were soon rewarded and became low-status armored slaves.

At the same time, various seized documents were also sent to Nurhachi.

At a time when the world is changing, Nurhachi also feels a little unbearable.

He looked at the book in his hand, his brow furrowed, and it was not until a quarter of an hour later that he threw it to the left of his lower position.

The book was used by a person, and this person was Huang Taiji, who had changed into the Jurchen clothes.

Huang Taiji read the book at a glance, and then subconsciously raised his head to Nurha's equator:

"Great Khan, with these more than 200,000 stone grains and more than 30,000 armored slaves, we should be able to make up for our last loss."

"......" Huang Taiji's words made Nurhachi's face darken all of a sudden.

Last Loss......

These six words are like sharp knives, mercilessly piercing Nurhachi.

Even if you don't mention the destruction of Bayo's tribe, as well as the capture and death of thousands of women, children and men, the casualties on Houjin's side alone are unacceptable to Nurhachi.

In the first battle of Bayo, the sweep of more than ten forts in Liaodong, and the final battle with Qijin, Sichuan soldiers, Xianchang Fort, Gushan Fort, etc., there were 4,272 children of the Eight Banners who died in direct battles, and the casualties of the Han soldiers were as high as about 4,000.

After the war, more than 2,000 people were disabled and died in the cold, and nearly 20 Niu Lu's troops were lost, which made Nurhachi almost want to vomit blood.

Although these nearly 10,000 soldiers and horses have also been exchanged for nearly 20,000 Liaozhen troops, if they have been fighting with the Ming army with such battle losses, at most five more battles, Dajin will have no men.

For this reason, he could only target the Jurchens in Beishan, and send Mang Gurtai to the north to catch enough Beishan Jurchens.

As far as the current situation is concerned, I am afraid that all the Jurchens in Beishan combined, no more than 100,000, and 30,000 or 40,000 men.

Excluding children, the old and weak, I am afraid that there are only one or two thousand people to drive.

"Zhu Youzhen ......"

Nurhachi almost gritted his teeth and said these three words, and he also knew that Zhu Youzhen's intention was to stubbornly defend and kill last time, encircling Wei to save Zhao, and advancing in four ways in a roundabout way.

Stick to the Houjin grain and grass, and use the Houjin soldiers and horses to sweep away the intertwined Liaozhen soldiers and horses.

Although the Ming Dynasty lost money, soldiers and horses, it was exchanged for Liaozhen and suffered heavy losses, and also consumed a lot of troops in Houjin.

After that, Sun Yingyuan's siege of Wei to save Zhao was at the same time as the siege of Wei to save Zhao, and at the same time, Chen Cang's secret consolidation of the Ming Dynasty's control in Kuandian and other places.

In the end, the four ways of the big detour made Nurhachi face the situation of dividing the troops, and finally used Nurhachi's gambling temperament to let him and the nearest Zhejiang soldiers face each other, which led to the unbearable pain of thousands of deaths.

I thought this was the end, and they all withdrew to Fushun, as long as they waited for the spring of the next year, maybe they could still send troops to loot.

As a result, Zhu Youzhen directly moved more than 200,000 refugees from Shenyang to the Zhenjiang area, and also left seven battalions of soldiers and horses in Kuandian, Phoenix and other places.

You must know that it is no more complicated than Shenyang, and the mountain road is complicated, and if you leave the seven battalions of soldiers and horses to defend it, Houjin must use a great price to defeat the three cities of Kuandian and plunder the hundreds of thousands of people behind Zhenjiang.

If you don't want to pay the price, then you have to go to Shenyang to fight again.

But here comes the problem, Shenyang City, which has been looted and relocated, can now be said to have basically nothing worth looting.

But if you don't fight, when there are more and more soldiers and horses in Liaozhen, then Dajin really has no chance!

Thinking of this, Nurhachi clenched his fists under the table, and Huang Taiji also saw his father's problem, so he thought about it in his mind.

But without waiting for him to think about it carefully, Nurhachi suddenly spoke:

"Huang Taiji, what do you think of the little emperor of the Ming court and this King of Qi?"

Nurhachi began to put the two Zhu Youxiao brothers in the object of inquiry, that is, in his opinion, the imperial power represented by the two has been balanced with the civil power.

You must know that even in the original battle of Sarhu, Nurhachi's analysis object was still Wenchen, followed by Emperor Wanli, and finally Yang Hao and his generals.

Now that he took the initiative to mention the two Zhu Youxiao brothers, it also shows that he is afraid in his heart.

In this regard, Huang Taiji didn't know what to say for a while, and after thinking about it, he said:

"The two complement each other, but in Erchen's opinion, if you want to say who is more important, it is obviously Zhu Youzhen, the king of Qi."

"Tell me about it." Nurhachi lifted his spirits, and Huang Taiji also said:

"I have learned from the words of Han Shang that although the little emperor of the Ming Court has some means, it is not as good as Wanli."

"Many of his decisions have the figure of Zhu Youzhen, the king of Qi, and similar to the previous war, as well as the current rebellion in the southwest, in fact, this little King of Qi has taken precautions early."

"I have carefully studied it, if the speed of the Ming Court is followed, the soldiers and horses of Qi Jin and Qin Bangping should only be about seven thousand, and they will stop in Tongzhou, wait for a long time to rectify, and then send them to Liaodong."

"This step, judging from the temperament of the officials of the Ming Court, they should not enter Liaodong until the beginning of March this year."

Speaking of this, Huang Taiji said solemnly:

"But the terrible thing is that that the little Qi king Zhu Youzhen, seems to have sensed that we will continue to attack Shenyang in the beginning of spring after supporting the little emperor to ascend the throne."

"Therefore, at that time, he asked the little emperor to transfer troops, and paid silver, and led the Sichuan soldiers and Zhejiang soldiers back to Sichuan and Zhejiang to continue recruiting troops."

"At the same time, he mastered the soldiers and horses of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and he has been expanding the army in private, and once he wins some games with civilian officials, he will immediately find an opportunity to privately expand the army and the number and establishment of soldiers and horses."

"This also created a false impression for the Wenchens, thinking that his strength was still under control, but in fact, his strength was only less than half."

"This kind of dormancy and weakness, when it comes to the need to be tough, will suddenly burst out with all its strength, disrupt the original plan of the civil officials, and let the civil officials operate another thing when they are in a hurry."

Huang Taiji's words made Nurhachi frown when he heard it, and Huang Taiji kept saying:

"When we were still planning how to attack, this little Qi King had already thought of how to deal with us."

"Before the start of the battle of Liaoshen, he had already transferred tens of thousands of Sichuan soldiers and Zhejiang soldiers to garrison and defend them, and they could not leave the city, which is also the reason why we were not able to break through Shenyang and sweep Liaodong in the first time."

"In the past, the Ming court didn't care about whether to hold the city at all, but looked at the number of beheadings, and because of this, our army often snatched corpses, so that the Ming generals lost many men and horses, but there was no chance to get the head."

"In this way, even if the Ming army tells the truth about the beheading, but if they can't get the head, they can only be impeached by Wenchen, and then they will be held accountable."

"Invincible Begins with Sacrificing to the Ancestors"

"But this little King Qi changed his mind, and he ordered the generals of Liaozhen to defend the land for merit, and to take responsibility for the dead and wounded who went out of the city."

"As long as you stay in the city, no matter whether the city falls or not, it is a merit, as long as you walk out of the city, it is a dereliction of responsibility if the beheading does not exceed the number of losses."

"It is precisely because of this military order that many stone forts in Liaodong have been defended one after another, causing us a lot of casualties."

"He then used the stone fort to contain our attention and troops, and then sent troops to Bayo, just to cut off our logistics."

"Then he let people cross southern Liaoning and besiege Wei to save Zhao."

"This link is linked, it costs a lot of money and food, but it also has a lot of credit."

When Huang Taiji said this, his face was already very ugly, but he still needed to continue:

"He should have calculated, my Dajin's cultivated land, Rending, so it is expected that if we want to maintain, we will have to attack Shenyang again."

"Therefore, he moved the people of Shenyang to Zhenjiang, and restricted the influx of the people of western Liaoyang into Shenyang City, but controlled the people who moved from western Liaoxi to Liaodong in various stone forts south of Shenshui."

"In this way, if we sink again, the Ming army's stubborn defense will be even greater than last year, and the grain obtained from breaking through the stone fort will be even smaller than last year."

"And ......," Huang Taiji clenched his fists and said:

"He also sent Qi Jin's third son, Qi Yuanbi, to Zhejiang to recruit troops, and I heard that tens of thousands of soldiers have been recruited."

"If you wait for these 10,000 Zhejiang soldiers to go north, I'm afraid that the land of Liaodong will be even more impregnable."

"Once the soldiers and horses form a scale, he will inevitably let the army go north and take Tieling, Kaiyuan, Fushun, and the northeast section of the Great Wall."

"At that time, I'm afraid he will have to rely on the Great Wall Pass, strictly guard against it, and trap my Dajin in the areas of Jianzhou, Haixi, Donghai, and Beishan."

I have to say that Huang Taiji's analysis is very correct, he thought of every step of Zhu Youzhen, and even thought of things that Zhu Youzhen didn't expect.

To put it bluntly, Zhu Youzhen is playing with a pile of resources.

Guarding Liaodong for a year may cost five or six million taels of silver, and the cost of Houjin is only a fixed expenditure of one million taels of silver.

In this way, it seems that the Ming Dynasty is playing a loss-making business, but the problem is that the Ming model has an advantage, that is, they can increase the Ming Dynasty's taxes by squeezing the inside, seizing power and other means.

As long as Liaodong can be defended and the people's hearts are still there, then they can continue to hold on.

Looking at Houjin again, if they can't take Liaodong and they continue to maintain the scale of a 100,000-strong army, then they will inevitably collapse within a few years.

It was able to survive before because it won the battle against Salhu, Kaiyuan, Tieling, and the capture of Puhesuo in June last year.

Each time he captures the next place, Houjin can continue to live for a while.

Even if you can't attack it, you can hold on as long as you can loot.

But now the question arises, Zhu Youzhen is obviously determined to be a turtle, or a turtle with an iron shell and thorns.

Such a turtle can be eaten, but when it is eaten, it is eaten while bleeding from its mouth.

Don't die of bleeding straight before you have digested it by then.

It can be said that Zhu Youzhen's policy in Liaodong beat many emperors in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, this is only one aspect of Liaodong, Zhu Youzhen is still in Shanxi and North Zhili, and uses military power to innovate and change the law.

There is no need for Huang Taiji to say this, Nurhachi can understand this, what Huang Taiji wants to say is to the southwest:

"The arrangement of this little King Qi, if it is understandable in Liaodong, then the layout in the southwest is very strange."

Huang Taiji's expression was very complicated, because of the layout of the southwest, the more he thought about it, the more terrifying it became:

"Almost at the same time as he laid out Liaodong, he began to lay out the southwest."

"With the situation of the Ming Dynasty and the example of Yang Yinglong, it stands to reason that no Tusi will choose to rebel, but he still arranged the southwest."

"Even among the many southwestern toasts, he accurately found Luxe Chongming, and arranged soldiers and horses around Luxe Chongming, and its rigor was appalling."

"Khan Ama, I estimate that Yu Chongming is already on the way to destruction, and even An Bangyan and Song Wanhua won't last long."

"The reason why they have survived until now is obviously that this little King Qi is playing with his mind."

As soon as Huang Taiji's words came out, Nurhachi narrowed his eyes:

"You mean, he wants to clean up the Southwest?"

"It should be like this, the last few times he did it, it was all against the guard, that is, the land." Huang Taiji responded:

"Not surprisingly, he is going to clean up the toast in Guizhou and Guangxi one by one, and then attack Yunnan."

"As long as the southwest is stable, he can free up his hands and continue to use troops against Liaodong."

"At present, the soldiers and horses in the southwest, once the counterinsurgency is successful, at least tens of thousands of troops can be pulled north."

"If there are tens of thousands of elite soldiers and horses going north, then ......"

Huang Taiji did not continue, but the situation was clear.

At present, in Liaodong, the actual regular soldiers are only 1120,000, which is the same as that of Houjin.

If another 40,000 troops are transferred, then Beizhili will divide the troops to come, then the Ming army will really be able to organize 200,000 soldiers and horses to divide the troops to encircle and suppress.

What is the concept of 200,000 soldiers? If it was the 200,000 soldiers and horses boasted by Yang Hao and others, Nurhachi would only sneer lightly, and then fight the enemy with his heart.

But if it is like the Zhejiang soldiers, the Sichuan soldiers, or the weaker 200,000 soldiers and horses, then the Jurchens may really be buried in the land of Nurgan.

Time waits for no one, and no one can judge when the Lu'an Rebellion will be put down, whether it will attract more Tusi to rebel, and it is uncertain whether the scale of encirclement and suppression will be expanded.

Therefore, Nurhachi did not have much time.

Huang Taiji's words gave him a sense of crisis, and after Nurhachi heard it, his mind began to think.

In the current situation, it is obviously not a good way to go head-to-head with the Ming army in Liaodong.

But if you don't fight hard and continue to accumulate strength, then Jin's potential in the future will be killed by Zhu Youzhen in the mountains and forests in less than three years.

"Daikin needs an ally......"

Suddenly, Nurhachi suddenly spoke, and Huang Taiji also bowed his head when he heard this:

"Khan Ama, now that the Bayo Department has been lost, then it will be difficult for the barbarian tribes to win over, and they probably won't turn their faces against us and the Ming Court."

"Maybe Horqin is a good choice."

Huang Taiji's words gave Nurhachi a new direction, and the Korqin tribe was slightly stronger than the barbarian tribes of Inner Khalkha, with a population of 10,000 households and 20,000 men.

To the northwest are the three great lords of Transkhalkha in Mobei, in the southwest are Lin Dan Khan of Chahar, in the northeast are the Beishan Jurchens, and in the southeast are the Later Jin, which are isolated from the north of the Ming Dynasty.

Under such a geographical pattern, it means that their mutual market is very difficult, and the relationship with the Ming Dynasty is not as close as before.

If this is the case, then Houjin, who has salt and iron, can easily win over the Horqin tribe.

Thinking of this, Nurhachi said to Huang Taiji: "Let Endegel and Shuofu take ten Mongolian cattle to the Korqin Department and discuss an alliance with Oba. ”

"Khan Amma, this matter is a bit serious, is it better for me to take someone there?" Huang Taiji was a little worried that Ndeger and Shuo Zhi would not be able to do this well.

"You can't go, I have something for you to do." Nurhachi shook his head, and then commanded:

"If the alliance is successful, let Daishan send the cattle and horses exchanged for them to Wuye Hewei (Jilin) to bring the captured armored slaves there to reclaim."

"Wu also Hewei?" Huang Taiji was stunned when he heard this:

"There are dense forests, only the seven or eight thousand acres of fields left by the wild men before, isn't it a bit of a waste to send the armored slaves there?"

"Let them reclaim." Nurhachi said with a calm gaze:

"I want to form an alliance with Horqin, after the alliance, I'm afraid that Lin Dan Khan's hairy boy will send troops with a hot head, and we will have some benefits there."

When he said this, Huang Taiji immediately understood.

After all, Korqin still superficially surrenders to Chahar, but if he forms an alliance with Houjin, then it will mean that Chahar has lost face.

In this case, it is difficult not to guarantee that Lin Dan Khan will not launch an attack on Korqin.

Once an attack is launched, then Houjin will have to send troops to support.

If it was before, it would have been easiest to go straight out of the original exit support, but now the situation has changed.

Man Gui built a city in the north of Liaoze, and once Kaiyuan's support led to the lack of strength of the defenders, then Man Gui would inevitably launch an attack on Kaiyuan and Tieling.

Even if he doesn't attack Kaiyuan and Tieling, will he attack the supply lines of the Jin soldiers and horses after leaving the customs?

Therefore, in order to ensure the logistical supply line, it is particularly important to reclaim a place that can be supported in a place that is closer and safer to the Horqin tribe.

"I see, Khan Amma." Huang Taiji nodded to show that he understood, but at this time, Nurhachi raised his head and said:

"There's one more thing I need you to do."

Nurhachi's gaze was a little cold, and Huang Taiji, who was looking at it, couldn't help but feel weak, and after a while, Nurhachi spoke:

"It's a pity to watch the Ming Court suppress the rebellion in the southwest like this......"