Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 136 Out of the fortress
"Sorry..."

On April [-]th, the grassland in the south of Horqin is rich and beautiful. On this vast grassland, a slow-moving army is heading southwest.

Among the lineup of nearly [-] people, there are [-] cavalrymen wearing cloth face armor of the frontier army of the Ming Dynasty, [-] infantry wearing cloth face armor of the frontier army, and behind them, [-] Han soldiers and assistants. Soldiers are escorting a thousand carts of supplies.

The supplies on these carts were covered with thick tarpaulins, because there were not enough rough horses, so every horse struggled to pull the carts.

Looking at the appearance of the wheels sinking into the grass, it is estimated that each car weighs seven or eight hundred catties.

At this time, a general rode up to a young general in his early twenties who was at the front of the line, and spoke Jurchen words that the Han people could not understand:
"Master, I have already walked twenty miles today, and I need to let the horse rest and graze. Shen Shi should be able to reach the pasture of the forehead."

"Yes." Hearing this, the young general nodded and responded in Jurchen words.

"Get off the horse to rest, let the horse eat!"

When the general heard this, he turned around and shouted, so the men and horses began to take off their helmets and saddles from the horses, letting them graze.

They took out sacks of bean feed from a cart, and then began to feed the horses according to the amount of one catty for poor horses and two catties for army horses.

When they took off their helmets, they revealed the two money mouse tails on the top and back of their heads, which looked ugly and very ugly.

But they didn't take it seriously, they just put the saddles on the grass, sat on the ground and surrounded the horses and people with the cart, talking and laughing in the formation.

This was the eighth day of their departure. Since the grasslands in the southern part of Horqin were not peaceful, there were also tribes looting against them in Nekhalka, so they hurried on their way very slowly.

Starting from Nurhaci's order to let the [-]-year-old Shuotuo lead the army, they spent two days preparing beans and dry food, and transferred armor and trucks, and collected all the captured Ming army armor before starting. Set off.

It is already April [-]th, and in the afternoon, they will be able to reach the tribe of Engdel, the first Mongolian forehead of the Houjin Dynasty.

At that time, it will be up to Engdel to invite the leaders of several other tribes in Nekarka to come to discuss the price of the armor.

Shuo Tuo only brought one Jiala's troops this time, so he needed to march step by step. The march was too fast, which consumed horsepower, and it was easy for some people who opposed Houjin to take advantage of it.

He took people to rest for half an hour, and then a group of people continued on the road.

After walking on the grassland for half an hour, they saw herders grazing cattle and sheep.

Seeing this, some Houjin soldiers couldn't help but want to use their knives to grab the sheep, but Shuotuo ordered people to call the herdsmen to inform Engedel to come to see him.

At first, the herdsmen thought it was the Ming army who had left the fortress, and they were so frightened that they wanted to run away in a hurry, but they found out that they were from Houjin, and after adding that they were from the Bayo tribe, they put down their guard.

Engedel is Taiji of the Bayeux Department, and also a subsidiary of Houjin's side. No matter how cruel Houjin is, he will not attack them.

Thinking so, the herdsmen drove their cattle and sheep to the station of the Bayo tribe.

Half an hour later, Shuotuo and the others saw more than a hundred horsemen coming from a distance, and the leader was a [-]-year-old Mongolian wearing Mongolian clothes, and he was Engedel of Bayobutaiji , the first Mongolian forehead of the Later Jin Dynasty.

When he saw Shuotuo, he got off his horse and made a gesture to hug him. Although Shuotuo hated the Mongols, he hugged him with a forced smile and said with a smile:

"Forehead, we are here for the exchange market this time."

"The mutual market is good! This spring, the grass is fertile and the water is beautiful, and there are a lot more cattle and sheep. How many cattle and sheep do you want to exchange?"

Engedel responded with a smile, keeping his eyes on the baggage truck behind him.

Shuo Tuo was not afraid that Engedel would be blackmailed, and explained: "It's all armor from the defeated Ming army in Liaodong, as well as some iron pots and salt. We are going to replace it with [-] cows and [-] sheep."

"Fifty thousand cattle and sheep... This is not a small number." Hearing this number, Engedel nodded and said:
"I need to invite Taiji from several tribes to come together to make sure if I can replace everything."

"Thank you for my son-in-law." Shuo Tuo thanked, and then said to Jiala Erzhen next to him: "Pull up the gift I brought to my son-in-law."

"Yes!" Jiala Erzhen turned his head and waved his hands. Among the thousands of vehicles, Limara pulled out [-] vehicles. After the oilcloth was lifted, all of them were relatively complete cloth masks and some yellowed salt.

"Four hundred sets of cloth masks, three thousand catties of salt, this is a gift for the forehead." Shuo Tuo responded with a smile, and Engedel's eyes lit up even more when he looked at the cloth masks.

His tribe is not very large, but only ten thousand people, and there are less than four thousand males over the age of fifteen.

Four hundred sets of cloth face armor are enough to equip one-tenth of the men in the tribe.

Counting the cloth face armor traded with Hou Jin in the past, more than half of the men in his tribe have cloth face armor, and it can be regarded as outstanding in combat power among the five tribes of Neikarka.

"My son-in-law also prepared [-] cows and [-] sheep as gifts for you. Don't dislike too little, haha..."

Engedel smiled, and then asked someone to receive the twenty carts of armor and salt.

The group of them talked and laughed over the small hills ahead, and then they saw a vast small plain, and an earthen city standing on the plain, as well as one or two thousand people farming around the earthen city. Han people.

Different from the impression of later generations that nomads can only graze, nomads actually prefer to absorb Han people who fled north to farm.

After all, war horses need to eat enough beans, and it is impossible for people to eat meat all the time, they still need to eat food.

Therefore, not only the Bayeux tribe, but also other tribes have the habit of absorbing the Han Chinese fleeing north for farming.

"The forehead has more fields than when I came here before."

Shuotuo looked at the Han people farming around the road in Tucheng, and felt very disgusted in his heart. He wished to kill them all, but he still complimented Engedel in his mouth.

Engedel also said with a smile: "Many Liaodong Han people have fled north in recent years. There are already [-] Han people in my tribe. Using their words, it is almost [-] mu of cultivated land."

"It's just that the weather is getting colder and colder. The annual beans are only three to four thousand shi, and the grain is only [-] to [-] shi."

"But you defeated Zai Sai, I occupied a piece of Zai Sai's pasture, and the people in the tribe can still survive."

"That's right." Shuo Tuo said suddenly:

"This time I still need my son-in-law to help us buy some food. I brought more than [-] taels of silver and more than three million copper coins."

"My son-in-law can go to the Guangning Mutual Market, and I hope he can help us buy some food."

"The grain in Guangning is now one or two taels of silver per stone. We should be able to buy back [-] stones of grain here." Hearing this, Engedel sold a fool. Two or two coins, and only [-] shi.

This meant that he was going to eat part of it, and Shuo Tuo knew it too, but he chose not to expose it, but asked:
"How long will it take to gather the ministries and ask them to bring their cattle and sheep?"

"It's about half a month. This season, the tribes with the most cattle and sheep have all gone to the north. It will take a long time to ask them to bring cattle and sheep." When Engedel said this, they also entered the land. In the city.

In the next few days, Shuotuo had been waiting for the Mongolians from various tribes in the north to bring cattle and sheep to the south, but instead of the cattle and sheep, he waited for a group of merchants.

On the early morning of April [-], a group of hundreds of merchants arrived in the Tucheng of Bayeux, and began selling iron pots, grain, salt briquettes and other things outside the city.

The arrival of the smugglers made the Bayo department lively, and even Engedel and Shuo Tuo were attracted to the grassland outside the city and saw hundreds of carts of goods.

"Where do these people come from?"

Engedel asked his commander, but the commander pointed to a leading thirty-year-old merchant and said:

"I haven't seen it before, it's an unfamiliar face. We don't understand Chinese, so please ask Taiji about their goods."

"Well, I see, you bring the businessman here." Sitting on the horseback, Engedel waved his whip, and Shuo Tuo, who was next to him, also asked:
"Are there many merchants avoiding the Great Wall now?"

"There were not so many before, but since Kundulun Khan defeated the army of the Ming people in Sarhu, there have been more merchants who escaped the Great Wall and came to the grassland to sell goods." Engedel explained, pointing with his horsewhip. Refers to the hundreds of trucks of goods:
"Look over there. The goods there are piled up. It should be grain. It seems that you don't have to wait for Taiji this time. You can directly buy a batch of grain and take it back."

"Well, it just doesn't look like there are many." Shuo Tuo nodded, and at this time the leading businessman was also brought over.

But when the businessman saw Shuotuo, he was obviously stunned, because the very characteristic money rattail was really eye-catching.

"Li He, a merchant from Shanxi, has seen Bayo Taiji..."

Li He made a Mongolian introduction ceremony, while Engdel nodded slightly, and then said in unproficient Chinese:

"What goods did you bring? Is there anything new? If it's just grain, iron pots, and salt, then I can go to the Guangning Mutual Market."

"We brought iron ingots and salt, as well as grain and a new type of briquette that appeared in Beizhili." Li He responded with a smile, and then Engedel frowned and said:
"Honeycomb coal? I heard people from Harqin say that it's very good, but it's too expensive."

Spring is the time when the activities of Mongolian ministries are the most frequent. Although briquettes are mainly sold to Karaqin Mongols in Zhangjiakou and Baimaguan, the Karaqin Mongolians also introduced briquettes to Tumed, Chahar, and Neika. Kazhu Department.

Engdel had seen briquettes in a Taiji tent in Karakin Mongolia, but he also knew the price.

Inner Karka is not as powerful as Harqin, and because they are close to the northeast, they have firewood to cut, so they are not keen on briquettes.

However, Li He bowed slightly and said, "We only brought some samples this time. If Taiji is willing to establish long-term trade with us, we are willing to sell honeycomb briquettes, iron pots, and salt to you at cheap prices."

"That depends on whether your price can satisfy me." Engedel said with a frown, and Li He also said with a smile:

"We are willing to exchange a thousand catties of briquettes for a low-grade horse, or three sheep, three thousand catties for a middle-grade horse, and a cow for six thousand catties for a high-quality horse."

"As for food, the food in Beizhili is too expensive. We are willing to exchange beans. Ten stones of beans are for a low-grade horse, or three sheep, thirty stones for a middle-grade horse, or one cow, one hundred stones." For a better horse."

"For the iron pot, if you want, we can exchange one hundred catties of iron for a low-grade horse, or three sheep, three hundred catties of iron for a middle-grade horse, or one cow, six hundred catties of iron for a high-quality horse Wait for the horse."

When Li He's words came out, Engel's heart was moved immediately, especially the iron in the last item.

As long as he has enough iron, he can equip his [-] cavalry and become the most powerful of the five divisions of Nekarka.

As for the soy material, it is also very important, and so is the salt.

Thinking of this, Engdel immediately agreed, but his appearance aroused Shuo Tuo's dissatisfaction.

Since Houjin could mine the open-pit ore in the remnants of the Changbai Mountains, they often used iron and salt as a means of alliance with the Mongols.

If these two resources have other access channels, then their control over Nekhalka will decline.

But Shuotuo also knew that the soldiers and horses he brought were not enough, and the other tribes of Nekhka were on the way to the south. If he did it, he was likely to be besieged by other tribes of Nekhka who hated Houjin. .

So he chose to shut up, but he still thought in his heart that after the battle of Shenyang was over, he would beat up these barbarians on the grassland.

He kept his mouth shut, but Engedel chatted with Li He:
"If you can send [-] catties of iron the next time the goods arrive, then I can trade with you."

"This... [-] catties of iron may take a lot of time, at least three months back and forth." Li He hesitated.

"It's only three months. As long as you bring the Bayo tribe before winter, I will give you the corresponding cattle and horses." After speaking, he pointed his whip at all the supplies and said:

"I've bought all the supplies here. Just according to the price you just said, you can talk to my commander for details, and they will give you enough cattle and horses."

"Thank you very much! Changshengtian will bless you..." Li He was overjoyed, and then went to discuss trade with the commander.

On the contrary, Engedel also knew that his behavior just now might have angered Shuo Tuo, so after Li He left, he smiled at Shuo Tuo:

"Those grains seem to be worth thousands of stones, so they should be my gift to Kundulun Khan."

"Thank you foreboss." Shuo Tuo's tone was a little cold.

Seeing this, Engedel smiled and said, "Now is a good time to hunt, let's go north to hunt."

"Okay." Shuo Tuo nodded slightly, and then the group of them rode away.

After half an hour, Li He also finished his business and rushed to Guangning in the south with a large number of cattle and sheep.

When they had gone far enough, a person next to Li He said:
"Baihuguan, your promise just now is too big. If His Highness does not send troops, then next time we really have to bring [-] catties of iron..."

"Don't worry, Your Highness will definitely send troops." Li He clenched his fists and said excitedly:

"Didn't you see the man with the two braids just now? That guy is obviously Jianlu, which shows that His Highness's estimation is correct. Jianlu has indeed come to Bayeux to trade."

"I've asked just now. There are still ten days to go, and the other parts will go south. If we expedite the eight hundred miles to Lulong County tonight, His Highness will definitely send troops. This time, the man is estimated to be promoted to a thousand households." Already!"

Li He was overwhelmed with excitement. Apparently they were the Jinyiwei of Fusi, Beizhen, under Li Ruolian's command, and all the promises this time were just to spy on information.

"Quick! You call Xiaoqi's men and horses, give me three horses per person, and send the news to Lulong County if you change horses without changing people!"

Having said this, Li He hurriedly commanded, and the people next to him heard the words, and immediately called Xiaoqi's men and horses, and ran towards Guangning with one man and three horses.

They didn't stop, and after arriving in Guangning, they immediately changed three horses and continued to run south.

With a distance of nearly [-] miles, and under the urgent situation of [-] miles, the information crossed Shanhaiguan that night and was sent to Lulong County at dawn.

When this information was sent, Wang Chengen also drove the horses to Yulinkou, while Zhu Youjian and Man Gui were also waiting at Yulinkou.

Therefore, Lu Wenzhao took people out of the city in a hurry, and brought the news to Zhu Youjian at Yulinkou at Chenshi.

Zhu Youjian in the big tent was wearing ordinary clothes, while Man Gui next to him was wearing the fish scale armor of the general soldier, and Wang Chengen was also in the dust.

Lu Wenzhao was still panting and resting, but Zhu Youjian and Man Gui studied how to surprise the Bayo tribe as quickly as possible.

"The situation has changed, and the troops of Bayue's troops must now be supplemented by the soldiers and horses of the general Jianlu."

Zhu Youjian looked at the map and frowned tightly, while Man Gui also pointed to the rugged Yanshan Mountain in the north and said:

"Since Jianlu wants to transport food, cattle and horses, the number of people should not be less than the strength of a Jiala, and if the auxiliary soldiers are added, there may be three or four thousand people."

"Your Highness, according to General Mo's suggestion, it is best to set off now. The General will lead the troops out of Yulinkou, go up along the Qihe River, bypass the Karaqin Tangtu Department, and march northeast, along the north of the Great Wall for more than a hundred miles. Head north."

"There are not enough troops and horses at the moment, and Yulinkou needs to be defended. At the end of the day, the cavalry of a guard army will go north. With one man, four army horses, two horses in camel armor and army rations, the distance is about [-] miles, and you can kill Baba in six days. appointment department."

A guard of cavalry spanned [-] miles in six days and then went into battle, and there were thousands of Jian captives and four to five thousand North captives in their opponents. No one could guarantee victory in such a situation between the enemy and ourselves.

Even Zhu Youjian couldn't guarantee it himself, but Man Gui dared to make this plan.

Zhu Youjian hesitated for a moment. He knew that Tian Cewei and Habayashi Wei were elite cavalry in top three armor, but everyone's casualties were unbearable pain for him.

But if Houjin's way of obtaining supplies from Neikalkha is stopped now, the situation in Liaodong will be even more dangerous.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Chengen and said, "How many cavaliers and rifles did you bring?"

"[-] riding blunderbusses, [-] rifle blunderbusses, [-] pairs of marbles and oil-paper medicines." Wang Chengen bowed in return.

"Okay!" Zhu Youjian said to Man Gui when he heard that riding and rifles were enough.
"The riding gun is only five thousand three, is it okay?"

"Returning to Your Highness, no problem, for riding guns, Tiance Guard and Habayashi Guard each have a thousand, as long as they make up five thousand and six, it will be enough, and the remaining one thousand and seven will be left to His Highness!"

Man Gui was very excited, because he had seen the power of cavalry and rifles before, so he dared to say that with a guard of [-] cavalry, he could attack the Engel's troops with top and bottom golden soldiers and horses.

"Which guard do you want to transfer?" Zhu Youjian frowned, very worried.

"Habayashi Wei, there are more than [-] people in the Habayashi Guard who are veterans of the previous Warriors Battalion and Habayashi Qianwei, and they will be used easily at the end." Man Gui responded, and said to Zhu Youjian:
"Your Highness, besides the distance and horses, there is another problem with the surprise attack on the Bayo tribe, which is Harqin."

Harqin, this tribe that occupied from the northeast of Zhangjiakou to the west of Guangning in the late Ming Dynasty, was the Duoyan Guard conferred by the Ming Dynasty, and its leader was Bo Yunai.

He is Tabu Nang of the Karaqin Tribe (a person married to a descendant of Genghis Khan), and he is also the Duoyan Wei Zuo Dudu appointed by the Ming Dynasty. The next attack harassed the frontier of Ming Dynasty.

In particular, his father, Chang Ang, often joined forces with Tumen Khan of Chahar, Subahai of Neikharka, and Qingbadu of Karaqin to harass Mingjing.

In the third year of Wanli, he led [-] troops to the south to attack the Ming Dynasty. He was defeated by Qi Jiguang's tens of thousands of infantry and fell off his horse. Afterwards, he was released.

As a result, in the eleventh year of Wanli, he and the Taijimen of Neikalkha raised [-] cavalry and went south to avenge Subahai.

In the thirty-fourth year of Wanli, he led his troops to Shanhaiguan to knock on the pass, and finally fell to his death in the spring of the thirty-fifth year of Wanli.

He has been in the army for more than forty years, and it can be said that he has been an enemy of the Ming Dynasty all his life, and his son Bo Yunai is naturally a speculator.

Now that Ji Town is abolished, and Liaoshen is in danger, it is difficult to guarantee that Bo Yunai will not knock on the gate, and it is also difficult to guarantee that Bo Yunai will send someone to inform Engel.

Man Gui was worried about this, but Zhu Youjian took a deep breath and said:
"You just need to defeat Engedel. After defeating him, tell Chaohua to exchange Engedel's pasture for Zaisai, but Daming will build a city in the lower reaches of the Liao River and the north of Liaoze. In the future, Chaohua will trade with Daming in the lower reaches. .”

"As for Bo Yundai of Harqin, I have a solution."

After Zhu Youjian said this, Man Gui could only frown and nod his head, and at this time a general walked into the city tower, and he bowed and said:

"Your Highness, General, Habayashi is ready and can leave the customs at any time."

"Go, I will prepare the silver and wait for your triumph!" Zhu Youjian looked at Man Gui, meeting his eyes, and Man Gui also took a deep breath, then bowed deeply, without saying a word Out of the tower.

He disembarked from the Yulin Pass, got on his horse, and said to the generals such as Qianhu and the command envoy who had already lined up in the Habayashi Guard:

"Brothers! I won't talk nonsense. In six days and nine hundred miles, I will surprise Engdel of the Bayo tribe and kill some Jianlu's heads by the way!"

"Pass down the order! Beheading Jianlu will reward you with a hundred taels for the first level, and beheading the northern captives will reward you with fifty taels for the first level. Brothers don't want to get silver or something! If you want to make money, make a lot of it!"

"If any brother dies on the battlefield, I will personally give one hundred taels to his wife and children to buy land and build a house!"

"Wan Sheng!" More than a dozen generals drew their swords and pointed to the sky, singing and applauding.

Although the Habayashi guard cavalry behind did not know what Man Gui said, they also cheered.

While cheering, the people in front told Man Gui's words to the people behind, and everyone's eyes turned red for a moment.

The slogan of "Wan Sheng" became louder and louder, and even Zhu Youjian walked out of the city tower, walked to the side of the female wall and looked at the guards of the Habayashi guards in the pass, wishing that he could become a Mangui, lead troops out of the fortress, and sweep the barbarians.

"Open the door!"

"Exit!"

Man Gui shouted loudly, and then Tian Cewei's cavalry dismounted enviously, and opened the city gate for Yu Lin Wei, and Man Gui also led Yu Lin Wei out of the pass.

More than [-] riders went out of the fortress. This is a grand event that the Ming army has not seen in many years.

Looking at their backs going away, Zhu Youjian was so fascinated that he couldn't calm down for a long time.

The scene of thousands of galloping horses and fluttering banners all tempted him.

After a long time, he breathed a sigh of relief, then turned around, and said to Wang Cheng'en with a cold face:
"Send a thousand households of Tiance Guards to lead more than a hundred cavalry out of the customs, go to Hara City of Bo Yunai, tell Bo Yunai, tell him to go to Baima Pass to discuss the establishment of a mutual market at Baima Pass."

"Your Highness, Bo Yunai has [-] soldiers. Is it more sincere for the servants to lead them in person?" Wang Chengen was a little worried.

Bo Yun is the head of the thirty-six lords of the Karaqin tribe, and he only sent one thousand households, which seems to be a little underestimated by the other party.

"So what if he raises his troops? As long as he dares to raise his troops, his cemetery will be under the Great Wall!"

Facing Wang Chengen's concerns, Zhu Youjian left such a sentence, then turned around and went down the Great Wall.

Man Gui and Sun Yingyuan both left Beibei.

Now, Zhu Youjian is the only one guarding Beizhili...

　Two more today

　　
　
(End of this chapter)