On the winter solstice of the 45th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, on the snow field in the northeast of the Ming Dynasty, in a place called Hetuala, the Jurchens have not yet developed the habit of attaching importance to this solar term called "the winter solstice is as big as the year" by the Han people.

However, today, there are still many flag men, like a festival, flock to the Khan's palace to watch a ceremony.

Not a sacrificial ritual, but a murderous ritual.

The owner of the Khan's palace, the fifty-eight-year-old chief of Jianzhou, Nurhachi, sat in the hall he named the "Great Yamen of the Khan's Palace", and his indifferent gaze passed through the not spacious hall door and landed in the crowd on the snow in the distance.

The temple where he sat was made of bricks and wood, with a two-story roof, but it was made in an octagonal shape in the shape of a tent.

If the invincible civil and military generals in the huge empire in the west see it, they must laugh at it, this kind of building that is more like a resting pavilion is not only the same as its name "Khan Palace Great Yamen", but also extremely cold.

Also shabby is a small row of tiled houses to the east of this "octagonal pavilion". The layout and land area are similar to the ordinary carriage and horse shops of the Ming Jingshi, but it is the entire space of Nurhachi, the "Khan King", from living and sleeping to meeting guests and worshipping.

However, Nurhachi, who had been to Jingshi Nagong and seen the glorious Forbidden City, was now very satisfied with his little Khan's palace, and he did not feel inferior at all.

In his understanding, in the history of the Han people, "Tang is seventy miles, King Wen is a hundred miles", and Liu Bang won the world from a Surabaya pavilion, all indicate that he will also move from the small city of Hetuala in the northeast corner to the west and south step by step to realize the grand plan.

However, the "carriage and horse shop" style dormitory is indeed cramped, so that only Nurhachi's concubine can squeeze in with her husband and sleep on the kang inside.

The other women of the Great Khan, those who had come to Hetuara because of their marriages with other Jurchen and Mongol tribes in Jianzhou, slept in the more modest kang houses in the surrounding area.

Now, these women have finally been temporarily released from their cages and come to the snow between the Khan's palace and the Khan's well, and blend in with the crowd of onlookers watching the killing.

The one who was about to be killed by the neck was also a woman.

The status of the shaman once caused this woman to accept the worship of the believers in the house built by the tribe called the "Tangzi", just as Nurhachi accepted the submission of the soldiers of the Eight Banners.

Tangzi and shamans are the spiritual pillars of the Jurchens. In each tribe, the hall and shaman are different, and the statues of the gods and the words of praise are also strange.

But in the hands of conquerors like Nurhachi, the cousin and the shaman have the same fate: destruction.

As the head wolf of the Jianzhou Jurchens, when Nurhachi conquered the Jurchen tribes in Haixi, he would burn the local halls and kill the shamans who were the spiritual leaders everywhere he went.

And the reason why this shamanic sorceress of the Urabu, who was kneeling in the snow at this moment, did not die three years ago was because she was young and was favored by Nurhachi's fifth son, Mang Gurtai. Mang Gurtai was not willing to kill her at that time, but hid by his side.

However, his younger brother Huang Taiji found out about the matter and reported it to his father Nurhachi.

The cruel and superstitious head wolf can spare the lives of those who have descended, but will never open up to shamans.

The ultimate way to exterminate the race is to destroy their faith. Just as years later, Nurhachi's descendants did the same trick against that people in the western empire.

A warrior of Bayara, dressed in a kaeki armor made of iron, walked up to the witch like a bear cloaked in silver.

To deal with prisoners who have been tightly bound, it is not necessary to rush and kill in battle, but the strong, in order to bless their own inevitability, often need to be supplemented by a solemn and funny sense of ritual during execution.

"Ah......h

"Hey......"

"Yo ......"

The cries of the crowd of exclamations or cheers erupted without suspense as the beautiful head separated from the weak body, as the steaming blood sprayed onto the white snow.

The Bayala warrior leaned over, lifted his head, and swaggered back to the Great Yamen of the Khan Palace not far away.

Mang Gurtai, who was sitting at the seat of Baylor, stared at the strings of blood that fell on the snow, stretching from far to near, until Bayala entered the temple, and the beads of blood gathered together at his feet.

Nurhachi looked at Mang Gurtai, and then at Huang Taiji, who was sitting opposite him, who was also expressionless, and said to several beylers and ministers: "This should be the last shaman of the Ula tribe. ”

He stared at his son Mang Gurtai and said: "Wubeile, you have hidden the shaman of the Urabe tribe privately, and you have an heir with her, but fortunately it was discovered by Ben Khan in time, and both mother and son were removed." Ben Khan will give you a bull and give it to the other banners. ”

After Nurhachi's reform of the Eight Banners military system, the number of people in each "Niulu" was fixed at 300 people, and only the Khan could decide the distribution and trading of Niulu.

Mang Gurtai got up and knelt beside his woman's head, not caring that the skirt of the cotton armor was stained with blood.

He raised his arm and saluted, and said solemnly: "Obey the Great Khan's punishment." ”

Nurhachi waved his hand and motioned for his son to sit back in his seat, and then asked the executioner Bayala to retreat with his head on his shoulder.

Huang Taiji leaned slightly, faced his father, and said respectfully: "Great Khan, Haixi Jurchen, Hulun Sibu, now only the Yehe clan is left, it won't be long, all the Jurchens can only worship our Aixin Jueluo's cousin." ”

Mang Gurtai snorted and teased: "When Babeile usually hunts, he likes to rush towards tigers and bears, why when it comes to conquering the city, his eyes are only staring at the shaman and Tangzi. ”

Huang Taiji pursed his lips in a daze, and his loud voice did not mean to dispute: "What Wubeile said is that when attacking the city, we must not only see far, but also make a trade-off in the order. Today, we are here to listen to the Great Khan and the plan after the beginning of spring. ”

Nurha twisted the beads in her hand.

Since the construction of the "Seven Great Temples" in his royal city and the inclusion of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and even Lamaism in the Jurchen ethnic group, Nurhachi often touched the strings of Buddhist beads on public occasions of political discussion, and at the same time deliberately expressed his habit of respecting Confucius and Guan Erye in his speech.

He pondered the Buddha beads for a while, opened his eyes and said, "Sage Kong doesn't think that you have to think twice before doing anything. He said, again, Sko. Ben Khan thought about it twice last night, and then decided, between Ye He and Fushun, let's fight Fushun first. ”

……

Five hundred miles away, Daming, Liaoyang City.

"Zhang Shilang, Miss Zheng, Wu Gongzi, the winter solstice is as big as the year, let's have a New Year's dinner in advance today. Mao, I drank this cup first. ”

In front of the big iron pot on the charcoal stove, Mao Wenlong personally held the spoon, turned the soybean sauce stewed goose meat in the pot several times, picked up the wine glass, and drank it all.

Zhang Quan, the soldier who sat at the top, looked modest, and after drinking the wine in the cup, he said to Zheng Haizhu, who was sitting at the bottom: "This wine is very strong, Miss Zheng is just free." ”

Zheng Haizhu raised his body to give a blessing.

Her face was slightly red, not because of the charcoal heater, or the effects of the spirits, but because of excitement.

She didn't expect that a month after she came to Liaodong, she met Zhang Quan, a squire of the military department, at Mao Wenlong's place.

This Ming Dynasty civilian official, who has just become Qin Liangyu's in-law and Ma Xianglin's father-in-law, is, in Zheng Haizhu's view, the second trustworthy soldier in the Liaodong Territory besides Mao Wenlong.