"Collect the troops!"

Bell Bell Bell ......

"Dog Tartar has the ability to keep coming!"

"Whoever doesn't come is the grandson!"

At noon, with the fierce battle for several hours, the Jin army outside Liaohe County, Daning Prefecture, Ming Jin withdrew his troops, and the Ming army at the head of the city also began to mock them wildly.

I saw that outside Liaohe County, Mang Gurtai on horseback had a blue face, while thousands of taels of Blue Flag soldiers were constantly retreating with siege equipment.

Looking at Liaohe County, I saw that the camp outside the city was broken, and under the city wall were burning siege equipment and the corpses of soldiers with two blue flags.

"If these Ming dogs hadn't relied on the sharpness of their artillery, they would have cut off their heads today."

"Continue tomorrow, I'm going to kill a few Ming dogs to vent my anger after destroying this city!"

"Enough!" Listening to the group of generals behind him, Mang Gurtai suppressed his anger and scolded, and then looked at the Ming army flag fluttering in the wind at the head of Liaohe City, if the anger in his eyes could be turned into substance, he might be able to ignite this flag.

"Withdraw your troops!" With reluctance, Mang Gurtai could only give the order to withdraw the troops, and a group of people behind him were puzzled:

"Master, we still have plenty of time, so it's okay to attack for another day, right?"

"Yes, master"

"I said withdraw!" Mang Gurtai looked back at the generals of the two blue flags viciously, making them boo and dare not say more.

Mang Gurtai also knew that there was plenty of time, and according to Tang Qi's report, Xiong Tingbi did not take He Shixian to the Northern Expedition, but stayed in Daning Mansion.

Daning Mansion is only a hundred miles away from Liaohe Mansion, if he waits for He Shixian's support to drag him back, and Xiong Tingbi sends cavalry to cut off his back road, then more than 10,000 of his own people will be buried here.

Therefore, no matter how much unwillingness there was, Mang Gurtai could only order the withdrawal of troops.

With his order, the soldiers and horses of the two blue banners began to abandon all siege equipment and began to return north with hundreds of thousands of stone of grain looted from some villages.

Although many people died because of the siege, the grain looted from the village still satisfied Mang Gurtai.

I believe that with this batch of grain, even Nurhachi will not be too harsh on him.

The army retreated, and the entire Liaohe City also relaxed.

After four hours, when the sun had sunset, the sound of horses' hooves rumbling came from the southeast.

The Ming army at the head of the Liaohe city looked outside the city, only to see the dark wilderness, the Ming cavalry team marked with the word "He" rushed to attack.

"Quick! Open the gates! Mr. He is here. ”

The generals defending the city immediately urged to open the city gate, but before they could open the city gate, He Shixian rushed to the city with dozens of cavalry in advance and shouted to the city head:

"Don't open the city gate, where is Jianyu going?!"

"Go back to the general army and go to the northeast!"

The general of the city head hurriedly responded loudly, and He Shixian did not stop when he heard this, and immediately took two battalions of more than 6,000 cavalry behind him to chase in the northeast direction.

Standing on the head of the city, the general of the Gongwei battalion could see that many of the cavalry holding torches were one person and two horses, which was compared to three years ago when the cavalry of Liaozhen could only be one person and one horse, it was simply turning over and singing.

These military horses were all distributed to the armies of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies after Zhu You's inspection, and He Shixian had more than 6,000 cavalry, so he naturally dared to pursue Mang Gurtai.

However, when he led the cavalry to pursue for more than 50 miles, in addition to killing more than a hundred sentinels, he did not come into contact with the soldiers and horses of Mang Gurtai's own formation.

After all, the two blue banners were not seriously damaged in the battle of Fuliao, but as several more mobile horse infantry in the Jin army, so after learning that He Shixian was pursuing, they hurriedly retreated with grain carts with one person and three horses.

After all, they withdrew for four hours first, and He Shixian led people from Daning to Liaohe, and the horsepower was naturally not as sufficient as theirs.

However, killing more than 100 sentinels can be regarded as some land defense.

"Send a message to Jinglu, and say that Jianlu is retreating, if it can be intercepted, please intercept it."

"Yes!"

He Shixian gave the order unhurriedly, and Tang Qi calmly led people to Kaiyuan after receiving the order.

It's just that when they arrived in Kaiyuan and then went north to Yidong River City, they only saw the completely renovated Yidong River City and the cleaned streets.

"A market town and two villages have been captured, and according to the arrangement of His Highness's regular liquidation, no less than 100,000 stone of grain should have been plundered."

Taking the situation reported by He Shixian and the officials of Daning Mansion, Xiong Tingbi frowned, and Sun Yingyuan also persuaded:

"Cutting off the heads of more than 700 captives is also considered to be worth the merits."

"Hmm......" Xiong Tingbi bowed slightly, it seemed that in their opinion, it was more cost-effective to exchange 100,000 stone grain for more than 700 true captive heads.

Although these 100,000 stone of grain can alleviate the problem of famine within Jianlu for several months, in Xiong Tingbi's view, it will only be two or three years before the Ming army exterminates Jianyu.

Not only can it exterminate Jianyu, but it can also reclaim millions of acres of arable land in northern Liaobei, which is a very cost-effective thing.

Therefore, after reading the military report, he turned his head to look at Sun Yingyuan and asked:

"Where is Your Highness now?"

"It should be over the Haravan Mountains......" Hearing Xiong Tingbi's words, Sun Yingyuan also responded with some incomprehension.

It's just that his uncertain response is really what Zhu Youzhen is experiencing now......

"Be careful with your feet, tie your armor and stomach, and don't get bitten by any mound (snake)."

"Wow!"

In March, the mountains of the Haravin Mountains are stacked with greenery, and the rivers gathered by the melting winter snow in the forests continue to flow towards the Mongolian Plateau and the Northeast Plain.

In this primeval dense forest, the Ming army wearing mandarin duck jackets is wielding firewood knives and axes, constantly blazing a trail.

Dozens of soldiers in front were clearing the way, while hundreds of Ming troops in the rear were cleaning up tree branches and clearing the road hidden under weeds and bushes to its original appearance.

"This road is the road that Emperor Cheng Zuwen walked through when his old man, but I didn't expect that hundreds of years have passed, and no one has cleaned it up, it seems that Horqin and Mobei's Transkhalkha really only know how to walk the plain."

On the riverside stone of the river valley mountain road, Zhu Youzhen sat on this table-sized stone, with a smile on his face, and kept talking.

Man Gui, who was sitting on the side, wiped his sweat and said:

"Your Highness, if I had known that this road was so difficult, I would rather stay in Kaiping Mansion to build a city."

Man Gui said, and Sun Shoufa next to him also said: "Fortunately, this road was stirred up back then, otherwise Tang Qi may not be able to find it." ”

"This is also ......" Zhu Youzhen picked up the water bladder and opened it to take a sip, then smiled again:

"But it's precisely this road that is hidden enough to make a surprise attack."

"I'm curious now, Oba and they suddenly saw the look on our faces as we pulsed out of Mount Haravin."

"Hahahaha......" The surrounding generals laughed, obviously they also felt very new about crossing the Haravin Mountains.

But at this time, Qianhu, who was in charge of opening the road ahead, also rode his horse and ran from the end of the road, and then turned over and dismounted:

"Your Highness, the people below have hit two bears, look at ......"

"Tell the kitchen with the army to clean up, I just happened to be a little hungry." Zhu Youzhen waved his hand and signaled Qianhu to let go and clean up, and Qianhu immediately retreated when he heard this.

At present, they have opened the way to the middle of the middle section of the Haravan Mountain, and at most there are more than 240 miles to penetrate the entire territory of the Haravan Mountain.

The plank road left by Zhu Di back then was not to connect Kaipingwei and the traffic in the northeast region, the starting point of this plank road was the current Shangjing City, which is the Jianluwei where Huang Taiji is located.

Its target is Hailaerwei, which is currently being grazed by Bo Huang and others, that is, the Hulunbuir grassland.

A post road that can control the northeast and Harawen Mountain, but the person who doesn't want to set foot on it after Zhu Di is actually Zhu Youzhen two hundred years later.

This point, Zhu Youzhen felt very novel.

He has seen the map of the Ming post road and post station before the Chenghua period, and the greatest help to the current Ming Dynasty is that Zhu Di presided over the construction of the post road that leads directly from Liaoyang to the Thorn Lu Wei, and then the Thorn Lu Wei is divided into three, leading to Sakhalin Island, Hailaer, and Mowen River (Vladivostok).

In addition to this, there is also a post road from Xining and Songpan that leads directly to Lasa (Lhasa) and then south to the foot of the Himalayas and later the Sikkim Pass.

The last one is the good ancestor of Zhu Youzhen, who presided over the construction of the Yun-Burma Post Road from Kunming to the hinterland of Myanmar and the Yinrawaddy River Plain.

In these three post roads, except for these few in the northeast that are untended and deserted, other local ethnic groups such as Usizang and Duogan, as well as Donghu Burma are taking care of them.

It was originally a post road for his children and grandchildren to rule the local area, but he never thought that it would become a transportation road for the locals to communicate with the economy after they became independent......

Every time he recalls the post road map he saw in the ancient and modern classics museum, Zhu Youzhen is embarrassed.

Judging from the examples of the death of Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di, Zhu Youzhen fully understands the insignificance of personal ability under the torrent of the times.

However, if a few of the previous emperors of the Ming Dynasty can inherit the rich inheritance left by Zhu Di and Zhu Yuanzhang, the territory of the Ming Dynasty will not become smaller and smaller.

Sometimes Zhu Youzhen is sighing, if he came not to Chongzhen, but to Zhu Qizhen and Zhu Youzhang.

I'm afraid that in more than six years, he is enough to double the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

But it's not bad to come into this world......

Zhu Youzhen suddenly remembered his brother, as well as a group of familiar subordinates such as Man Gui, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but pick up on his face, bringing a hint of a smile.

In such a smile, Zhu Youzhen continued to talk to Man Gui and them about some things other than the war, and as the sky became darker and darker, he also ordered the army to open the road in six shifts, and the rest of the people rested normally.

Because he was in the Haravan Mountains, Zhu Youzhen was not afraid that someone would ambush him, because the surrounding situation could not arrange ambushes at all.

Sitting on the stone, waiting for the cook to let the bear meat and bear paws be served, Zhu Youzhen and Man Gui ate a good meal with the low amount of military ration rice and the bear's paws worth thousands of gold.

Not only them, but the army will always encounter a lot of silly roe deer and all kinds of wild animals along the way.

Although the whole army of more than 20,000 people could not be allowed to open meat, it was good to taste some of the fishy smell.

After eating and drinking, it was dark, and the army lit small bonfires, not fearing that anyone would find them.

The soldiers gathered around the campfire and began to talk about the affairs of their hometown, as well as interesting stories about their home before the expedition.

Zhu Youzhen took Man Gui and them through the long line, listening to some words in their ears, and at the same time explained to some soldiers:

"Contact your family more, if your hometown suffers a disaster, you can let your little flag officer play, and the lonely will play long live and deal with it."

Most of the soldiers were flattered by this kind of talk, after all, in their opinion, these things were trivial things, and they were not worth bothering King Qi to speak.

However, when they said these words, Zhu Youzhen always shook his head and said:

"If you can't let the people be fed and clothed, if there is a famine and you don't save it, then how can you be embarrassed to be in a high position?"

"Your Highness......"

Some soldiers didn't know how to respond to Zhu Youzhen's words, but Zhu Youzhen patted them and said that they would continue to talk, and he got up and left the place.

He is well aware that the historical record of the Xiaoice River drought is limited, because many officials will deliberately hide the local famine, or lie about disaster relief, and then resell the grain in the local official warehouse at will.

At this juncture, every small natural disaster is an existence that cannot be ignored.

Compared with hundreds of officials, and even Yanshan students who have been officials for many years in the future, Zhu Youzhen is more willing to choose to believe that ordinary people and ordinary soldiers and students who have not stepped into the political arena.

Officialdom is a big dye vat, and whoever walks in it will be muddy.

Even the Yanshan students who were righteous and awe-inspiring at the beginning will become pot-bellied in the future, and they only know how to verbally perfunctory and do superficial work as corrupt officials.

It is impossible for him alone to see the whole world, and what he needs is not only the strength of the Jinyi Guard, but also the strength of the people and the soldiers in the army.

Mobilizing the people to picket corrupt officials is the cheapest cost and the most difficult thing to do.

If Zhu Youzhen can do this, he can even thoroughly investigate corruption and use the money and food from the house to relieve the disaster, and the burden on Daming and his shoulders will be much smaller......

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen stopped and looked up at the starry sky.

The bright night sky, without the pollution of the industrial age, Zhu Youzhen can see the galaxy very clearly.

He didn't know much about astronomy, but he recalled the words of the officials of the Qin Heavenly Prison last year, as well as the heavy snow of the previous year, so he couldn't help but say to Man Gui:

"The officials of the Qin Heavenly Prison came to ......"

"Yes!" Man Gui responded, and then sent someone to pass on the officials of Qin Tianjian.

Zhu Youzhen took people back to his resting place, and he didn't have any special treatment, and like many soldiers, he set up a small tent enough to sleep.

Sitting in front of the tent and waiting for a quarter of an hour, the officials of Qin Tianjian followed the messenger Tang on horseback, turned over and dismounted:

"His Royal Highness Chitose ......"

"Okay, there's no need for false courtesy, I just want to ask, do you see if this celestial phenomenon will affect our army's conquest, and does this celestial phenomenon have any warning for this year?"

Zhu Youzhen raised his chin slightly, signaling the other party to observe the celestial phenomenon, and for this Qin Tianjian official who observed the celestial phenomena every day, this celestial phenomenon had already been seen clearly by him when the sky was falling.

Therefore, he didn't look at the sky, so he said to Zhu Youzhen:

"Your Highness, judging from this celestial phenomenon, the sky should be clear these days, and as for this year, ......"

Speaking of this, the official of Qin Tianjian hesitated for a few seconds, and then said, "It doesn't seem to be any different......

"No?" Zhu Youzhen frowned and asked, and the official of Qin Tianjian also stubbornly said: "It's really no different......

"Alright, let's go down." Seeing this, a trace of disappointment flashed in Zhu Youzhen's eyes.

The prediction of the officials of the Qin Tianjian last year made Zhu Youzhen think that the Qin Tianjian was the object that he needed to focus on in the future, and now it seems that the Qin Tianjian is not omnipotent.

But it's right to think about it, if Qin Tianjian is omnipotent, then there won't be so many natural disasters that make people rush back and forth.

Thinking so, Zhu Youzhen exhaled a turbid breath, looked up at the night sky, and didn't know what he was thinking.

Maybe it was because he had a heart, when Zhu Youzhen looked up at the sky, in the Palace of Heart Nourishing, thousands of miles away, Zhu Youxiao also walked to the window and glanced at the sky above the Forbidden City.

"Long live, this is a ...... sent by the celebrant of ceremonies."

Zhu Youxiao was looking at the night sky, but Wang Tiqian dragged the tray and put more than ten books on the tray on the table.

Hearing the sound, he turned around, looked at the more than ten books, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and said:

"You've done a good job with Chung-hyun during this time."

"Slaves and maids are all for long live...... Wang Tiqian bowed his head in response, and Zhu Youxiao also walked behind Long Yu and sat down, picked up a piece of music and looked at it, and only after finding that there was nothing major before he spoke:

"How's the matter with Lianghuai?"

"The Sixth Section and the Metropolitan Procuratorate are still investigating, but recently, people in the DPRK and China, such as Cai Maode, Li Hai, Gu Zongmeng, Wei Guangxu, Lian Guoshi, Jiang Yunyi, etc., seem to be dissatisfied with the two Huai affairs." Wang Tiqian pretended to be honest and replied:

"This group of people, along with some officials who had previously been dismissed and returned to their hometowns, thought that the imperial court was too harsh on the two Huai salt merchants, and that it was ...... to arrest them before the three divisions were tried."

"Humph!" Hearing Wang Tiqian's words, Zhu Youxiao snorted coldly, making Wang Tiqian quickly close his mouth.

"How can the affairs of the imperial court be allowed to be discussed by a group of corrupt people?"

"Those who talk about the two things again will be dismissed and investigated!"

Zhu Youxiao closed the recital, and Wang Tiqian also pretended to be afraid when he heard this, and withdrew from the Heart Cultivation Hall while waving Zhu Youxiao's hand.

After he exited the Heart Cultivation Palace, Wei Zhongxian walked out of the corner and whispered, "How?" ”

"As you wish, the dismissal will be investigated......" Wang Tiqian narrowed his eyes, and Wei Zhongxian also smiled and nodded with satisfaction:

"This group of Donglin rotten Confucians, impeaching our family every day, not giving them some color to see, and thinking that our family is vegetarian."

"This is a good time to find evidence of the guilt of some of them." Wang Tiqian offered a bad idea, and Wei Zhongxian felt that it was not bad after hearing it, and nodded slowly:

"I let Liangqing and Guoxing handle this matter, they have a way to deal with this group of hard-mouthed rotten Confucians."

"Just don't go overboard." Wang Tiqian reminded Wei Zhongxian, and Wei Zhongxian was also dissatisfied:

"Long live to protect our family, the King of Qi is going out on an expedition, the burden of the people of the two capitals and 16 provinces of the Ming Dynasty is now on the shoulders of our family."

"Our family doesn't raid the homes of these corrupt officials and seize dirty silver, where is the silver in the Ming Dynasty to comb the Yellow River? Where is the silver to give to the officials? ”

"Long live to repair the Imperial City of Nanjing, and now it is more than one million taels of silver, if you don't check these corrupt officials and corrupt officials, where will the silver come from?"

"......" Wang Tiqian looked at Wei Zhongxian, who was a little presumptuous, and couldn't help but think of the origin of this old thing.

As a person from the Inner Book Hall, he naturally looked down on Wei Zhongxian, a person who had been emasculated into the palace, but now he needed to rely on Wei Zhongxian, so he could only persuade him:

"It's too big a problem, it's not good to disturb His Royal Highness King Qi, don't forget that Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen are still on an errand in the imperial city......"

"......Forehead" Hearing the words "His Royal Highness King Qi", Wei Zhongxian's arrogance immediately fell, and he was a little speechless, not knowing what to say.

He looked around and made sure there was no one else before he said:

"His Royal Highness the King of Qi knows that as long as our family explains it well, presumably His Royal Highness will not blame our family."

"......" Wang Tiqian looked at Wei Zhongxian, a little speechless, but for the sake of the stability of power, he still said to Wei Zhongxian:

"The matter of Donglin has been put on hold for the time being, but the number of this net army, do you think you can find an opportunity to increase the number of the three guards in the imperial city?"

"This ......" Wei Zhongxian was immediately a little moved when he heard that he was going to increase the number of the three guards in the imperial city.

Since Zhu Youxiao did not have too many people under him, the three guards of the imperial city given to him by Zhu Youzhen were actually under the control of the three eunuchs Wang Tiqian, Wei Zhongxian, and Liu Ruoyu.

Liu Ruoyu and Wei Zhongxian and others are not the same faction, in addition to mastering Yiluanwei, he also mastered the Han generals.

As for Wei Zhongxian and Wang Tiqian, they controlled the Dragon Tiger Guard and the Flying Bear Guard respectively, as well as the Jing Army.

Wang Tiqian suddenly opened his mouth to expand the three guards of the imperial city, which made Wei Zhongxian happy and a little jealous at the same time.

He was afraid that Zhu Youzhen would be a little unhappy when he heard this, so he discussed:

"After all, the three guards of this imperial city were founded by King Qi, even if it is expanded, I am afraid that I will have to ask King Qi what he means......"

"Who knows when King Qi will come back, besides, even if it doesn't expand, but the belonging of Yiluanwei and General Dahan among the three guards, don't you want to plan it?" Wang Tiqian spoke in a low voice, which made Wei Zhongxian subconsciously glance at the Heart Cultivation Palace.

After finding that there was no one else, he whispered: "You mean to squeeze Liu Ruoyu out?" ”

"This guy is not good for us in the inner court, it is better to get rid of it as soon as possible, he is old anyway." Wang Tiqian said this, while Wei Zhongxian hesitated and said:

"I need to think about this, after all, he is Banzai to check and balance our ...... with Cao Huachun."

Although Wei Zhongxian is sometimes arrogant, he is not a fool, and he can see Liu Ruoyu's role.

"Leave this matter to me, I promise that it won't take three months, and before the king of Qi comes back, this old horseman will obediently return to his hometown to beg for the elderly." Wang Tiqian was very confident, and Wei Zhongxian heard this, and after a moment of silence, he said:

"You can do it, if you need help, go to the woman from the Ke family."

"Rest assured, I guarantee that you won't be involved ......"

Wang Tiqian squinted his eyes and smiled, and after Wei Zhongxian also looked at him deeply, he turned around and left the Qianqing Palace......