Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 166 Huang Taiji's Plan
On the [-]rd day of the twelfth lunar month, when the Ming Dynasty was in turmoil, Houjin in the Northeast was also in action.

In the snow-covered mountains, there is a place where the flames are soaring into the sky.

Looking closely, it turned out that a stone fortress was being burned, and the Jurchens dressed in animal skins and coarse cloth were tied up with ropes, walked out of the city, and finally rushed to the south.

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

In front of this group of corpses, Mang Gurtai sat on the corpses of several people with a big horse and a sword, and ordered his subordinates to clean up these corpses.

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

"How many savage guards have not been removed?"

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

"The map of the Ming Dynasty is too old. The guards depicted on it are more than [-] years ago. I don't know if they have been moved."

Mangurtai's words express the fact that the Ming Dynasty ruled the Northeast before Nurhachi's rebellion.

In fact, from the second year of Yongle, the leaders of the Northeast led by Duoxiang to Beijing, and the Ming Dynasty established the Nine Guards such as Nuergan and Jianzhou, and the Ming Dynasty has been in the Northeast.

People in later generations did not understand the role of Nurgandusi, so they thought that the abolition of Nurgandusi represented the loss of the Northeast by the Ming Dynasty.

However, Nurgan Dusi is actually a capital to appease the various tribes in the Northeast.

From the early days of the establishment of the Nurgan Dusi, there were only nine guards. When the Nuergan Dusi was abolished during the Xuande period, the Ming Dynasty had already recruited all the ministries in the Northeast, instead of establishing more than [-] guards.

The establishment of these guards represented the success of the Ming Dynasty's confinement of the Northeast, so Nurgan Dusi was abolished.

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

Not only that, the Ming army has been managing the Northeast in Jiyu for a long time. By the [-]th year of Zhengtong, the number of guards in Nuer Gandusi increased to [-]. During the Wanli period, the number of guards even reached [-]. The number of temples and the wide area of ​​​​ruling are common in the world.

During the long period of Jumi management, officials of the Jumi guards who did a good job would even be appointed as officials in the two capitals and thirteen provinces.

For example, in the third year of Jingtai, Wushan, the commander of Hewei (now the Udi River area in Russia), was transferred by the Ming court to Jinzhouwei, the Liaodong capital of Shandong Province, because of his outstanding political achievements.

In the first year of Zhengde, Tahazhu, the commander of Gelinwei (whose jurisdiction is now the Green River region in the Far East of Russia), was promoted by the Ming court from the commander of the guard to the commander of the guard because of his outstanding achievements in governance.

There are countless rewards for such transfers, and punishments have always existed.

Leaving aside the Jianzhou Jurchen who has always been rebellious, in the [-]th year of Chenghua, six people including Wu Dingo from Aguhewei (now the Agu River Basin in the Far East of Russia) were beheaded for violating the Ming Dynasty's decree.

This kind of management was even recorded in the thirty-sixth year of Wanli.

However, because of the bitter cold, the Ming Dynasty always only wanted to maintain the stability of the Northeast, and the continuous restraint led to the rise of Nurhachi.

If troops are dispatched early and a political envoy is established, the actual control of the Northeast may be very simple.

It’s just that there is no medicine for regret in the world. In the [-]th year of Wanli’s reign, officials of the Ming Dynasty counted maps of the Northeast Guards, which were also obtained by Houjin, and these guards would become Houjin’s new population and source of income.

Right now, it is already the fourth month after the battle between Shen and Liao, Mangurtai and Amin were sent to the north by Nurhaci to clean up Beishan Jurchen.

In four months, they have captured more than [-] Beishan Jurchens for Hou Jin, and seized more than [-] stones of grain and grass, and their number of soldiers and horses is just an incomplete two blue flags.

Before receiving Nurhaci's transfer order, they still need to continue to arrest the Jurchens in the Beishan area and seize their food to help Houjin survive until next autumn's harvest.

Time waits for no one, and soon, Mang Gurtai and A Min began to continue to lead troops northward to encircle and suppress Beishan Jurchen.

At the same time, the Jurchen guards who were breached by them were sent to Hetuala in the south by a team.

The nearly [-]-mile mountain road is covered with snow, so that from time to time along the way, you can see the Beishan Jurchen who was frozen to death by the roadside.

When they finally arrived at Hetuala under the guard of Jianlu, they were soon rewarded by others and became low-status armored slaves.

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

When the world was changing, Nurhachi also felt a little overwhelmed.

He looked at the document in his hand, frowning tightly, until a quarter of an hour later, he threw the document to his lower left.

The file was picked up by a person, and this person was Huang Taiji who had changed into the Jurchen uniform.

Huang Taiji read the document at a glance, and then subconsciously raised his head to Nurha Equator:

"Khan, with these more than [-] stone grain fodder and more than [-] armored slaves, we should be able to make up for our loss last time."

"..." Huang Taiji's words made Nurhachi's face darken.

The last loss...

These six words were like sharp knives, piercing Nurhachi ruthlessly.

Even without mentioning the destruction of the Bayo tribe, as well as the capture and death of thousands of women, children and men, the casualties on Houjin's side alone made Nurhachi unacceptable.

In the first battle of Bayeux, they swept over ten forts in eastern Liaodong, and in the final battle with Qi Jin, Chuan Bing, Xianchang Fort, and Gushan Fort. There were [-] Eight Banners who died in direct battles. The casualties of the soldiers were also as high as about [-].

After the war, more than [-] people were disabled, cold and dead, and nearly [-] Niulu's troops were damaged, which made Nurhachi almost want to vomit blood.

Although nearly [-] soldiers were replaced by nearly [-] troops in Liaozhen, if they kept fighting with the Ming army with such losses, and fought at most five more battles, Dajin would have no males.

For this reason, he could only target the Jurchens in Beishan, and sending Mang Gurtai northward was to catch enough Jurchens in Beishan.

From the current point of view, I am afraid that the total number of Jurchens in Beishan does not exceed [-], and the number of males is at most [-] to [-].

Excluding children, the old and the weak, I am afraid there are only [-] to [-] people to drive.

"Zhu Youjian..."

Nurhachi almost gritted his teeth and said these three words, and he also learned from the information of the Han merchants that Zhu Youjian's various strategies such as sticking to the wall last time, encircling Wei to save Zhao, and advancing in four ways in a roundabout manner were Zhu Youjian's meaning.

Stick to the food and grass of Houjin, and use Houjin's soldiers and horses to sweep away the intertwined Liaozhen soldiers and horses.

Although the Ming Dynasty lost money and soldiers and horses, it returned to Liao Town and suffered heavy losses, and it also wiped out a lot of Houjin's troops.

Afterwards, Sun Yingyuan encircled Wei and rescued Zhao, and at the same time he used Chen Cang to consolidate the Ming Dynasty's control in Kuandian and other places while encircling Wei and saving Zhao.

In the end, the roundabout four-way advance made Nurhachi face the situation of dividing his troops. Finally, he took advantage of Nurhachi's gambling temper and let him head-to-head with the Zhejiang soldiers who were closest to him. As a result, thousands of people died in unbearable pain.

I thought it was over, and they all withdrew to Fushun. As long as they waited for the spring of the next year, they might still be able to send troops to loot.

As a result, Zhu Youjian directly moved more than [-] refugees from Shenyang to the Zhenjiang area, and left seven battalions of soldiers and horses in Kuandian, Fenghuang City and other places.

You must know that there is no more complicated mountain road than Shenyang. If you leave seven battalions of soldiers and horses to stick to it, Hou Jin will have to pay a huge price to take down 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 and fight again.

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

But if you don't fight, and when there are more and more troops in Liao Town, 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 before he could think about it carefully, Nurhachi suddenly said:

"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 brothers Zhu Youxiao as the object of inquiry, that is to say, in his opinion, the imperial power represented by the two has been balanced with the literary power.

You must know that even in the Battle of Sarhu, Nurhachi still analyzed civil servants, followed by Emperor Wanli, and finally Yang Gao and his generals.

Now that he took the initiative to mention Zhu Youxiao's brothers, it showed that he was afraid in his heart.

Regarding this, Huang Taiji didn't know what to say for a while, and after thinking about it, he opened his mouth and said:

"The two complement each other, but from my son's point of view, who is more important is obviously Qi Wang Zhu Youjian."

"Tell me carefully." Nurhachi raised his spirits, and Huang Taiji also said:
"I learned from the words of the Han merchants that the little emperor of the Ming court, although he has some tricks, is not as good as Wanli."

"Many of his decisions have the figure of Qi Wang Zhu Youjian, and similar to the previous wars, and the current chaos in the southwest of She'an, in fact, this little Qi Wang has taken precautions in advance."

"I have studied carefully. According to the Ming court's speed, Qi Jin and Qin Bangping's troops should only be about [-], and they will stop in Tongzhou, wait for a long time for rectification, and then send them to Liaodong."

"This step, according to the temperament of the officials of the Ming court, they should not have entered Liaodong until the beginning of March this year."

Speaking of this, Huang Taiji said solemnly:
"But the frightening thing is that Zhu Youjian, the little king of Qi, seems to have realized that we will continue to attack Shenyang in the early spring after supporting the little emperor to ascend the throne."

"Therefore, at that time, he asked the little emperor to transfer troops, and paid money, and sent soldiers from Sichuan and Zhejiang to Sichuan and Zhejiang to continue recruiting troops."

"At the same time, he has mastered the soldiers and horses of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and has been expanding the army in private. Once he wins some games with the civil servants, he will immediately find an opportunity to privately expand the numbers and numbers of the soldiers and horses."

"This also created an illusion for the civil servants, thinking that his strength is still under control, but in reality his strength is only less than half."

"This kind of dormancy and showing weakness will suddenly burst into full strength when it is time to be tough, disrupting the original plan of the civil servants, and making the civil servants to operate another thing when they are in a hurry."

Huang Taiji's words made Nurhachi frown, but Huang Taiji continued to say:
"While we were still planning how to attack, this little King Qi had already thought of how to deal with us."

"Before the battle of Liaoshen began, he had mobilized tens of thousands of soldiers from Sichuan and Zhejiang to garrison and defend the city. This is why we were not able to break through Shenyang and sweep Liaodong in the first place."

"In the past, the Ming court didn't care whether to defend the city at all, but looked at the number of beheads. Therefore, our army often snatched corpses, causing the Ming army generals to lose many troops, but there was no chance to get the head."

"In this way, even if the Ming army told the truth about the beheading, if they couldn't get the head, they would have to be impeached by civil servants, and then be held accountable."

"But this little king of Qi has changed his mind. He ordered the generals in Liao Town to defend the land for meritorious service, and to be responsible for the dead and injured when they leave the city."

"As long as you stay in the city, it doesn't matter whether the city falls or not. As long as you get out of the city, beheading does not exceed the number of losses. It is a breach of responsibility."

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

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

"Then they sent people across to the south of Liaoning to encircle Wei and rescue Zhao."

"This link is linked together, costing a lot of money and food, but also 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 that my Dajin's arable land has a small population, so it is predicted that if we want to maintain it, we will have to attack Shenyang again."

"Therefore, he moved the people from Shenyang to Zhenjiang, and restricted the people from western Liaoning to flow into Shenyang City. Instead, he controlled the people who moved from western Liaoning to eastern Liaodong in various stone castles south of Shenshui."

"In this way, if we sink again, the Ming army's defense will be stronger than last year, and the food and fodder obtained by breaking the stone castle will be even smaller than last year."

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

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

"If we wait for these [-] Zhejiang soldiers to go north, I am afraid that the land of Liaodong will be even more impenetrable."

"Once the troops and horses have formed a large scale, he will definitely let the army go north and take down Tieling, Kaiyuan, Fushun, and the northeast section of the Great Wall."

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

I have to say that Huang Taiji's analysis is very correct, he has thought of every step of Zhu Youjian, and even thought of things that Zhu Youjian did not think of.

To put it bluntly, Zhu Youjian is just playing with resources.

It may cost five or six million taels of silver to defend Liaodong for one year, and the consumption of later gold is nothing more than a fixed expenditure of one million taels of silver.

From this point of view, it seems that Daming is playing a loss-making business, but the problem is that Daming's model has an advantage, that is, they can increase Daming's taxes by squeezing the inside, seizing power and other means.

As long as Liaodong can be defended and the hearts of the people are still there, then we can continue to persevere.

Looking at Houjin again, if they can't win Liaodong and they continue to maintain the size of an army of [-], they will inevitably collapse within a few years.

I was able to survive before because I won the victory over Sarhu, Kaiyuan, Tieling, and the capture of Puhesuo and other places in June last year.

Every time a place is captured, Hou Jin can continue his life for a period of time.

Even if you can't attack, you can survive as long as you can loot.

But now a problem arises, Zhu Youjian is obviously determined to be a turtle, or a turtle with iron shells and thorns.

Such a tortoise can be eaten, but when it is eaten, it bleeds from its mouth.

Don't just bleed dry and die before the time comes.

It can be said that Zhu Youjian's policies in Liaodong have beaten all the emperors in the middle and late Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, this is only one aspect of Liaodong. Zhu Youjian is still using military power to carry out reforms in Shanxi and Beizhili.

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

"If the arrangement of King Qi is understandable in Liaodong, the arrangement in the southwest is very strange."

Huang Taiji's expression was very complicated, because of the Southwest layout, the more he thought about it, the more frightened he became:
"Almost at the same time he was arranging Liaodong, he began to arrange the southwest."

"With Daming's situation and Yang Yinglong's example, it stands to reason that no chieftain would choose to rebel, but he still arranged for the Southwest."

"Even among the many southwestern chieftains, he accurately found She Chongming, and deployed soldiers and horses around She Chongming. The level of rigor is appalling."

"Khan Ama, I guess She Chongming is already on the way to destruction, and even An Bangyan and Song Wanhua can'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. I will see that his previous actions were all aimed at the guards, that is, the land." Huang Taiji responded:
"Not surprisingly, he is going to clean up the chieftains 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."

"Right now, if the Southwest soldiers and horses succeed in suppressing the rebellion, at least tens of thousands of troops can be pulled northward."

"If there are tens of thousands of elite soldiers heading north, then..."

Huang Taiji didn't continue talking, but the situation was obvious.

In Liaodong right now, the actual number of soldiers is only [-], which is the same as that of Houjin.

If another [-] troops were brought in, then Beizhili would divide its troops to come, then the Ming army would really be able to organize [-] troops to encircle and suppress them.

What is the concept of two hundred thousand soldiers?If it was the [-] troops boasted by Yang Gao and others, Nurhachi would just snort, and then confront the enemy with all his heart.

But if it is like Zhejiang soldiers, Sichuan soldiers, or the weaker [-] soldiers, then the Jurchens may really be buried in the land of Nurgan.

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

Therefore, Nurhachi did not have much time.

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

As far as the current situation is concerned, it is obviously not a good way to head-on with the Ming army in Liaodong.

But if you don't head-on and continue to accumulate strength, then in the future, Jin's potential will be held to death by Zhu Youjian in the mountains and forests in less than three years.

"Dakin needs an ally..."

Suddenly, Nurhachi suddenly opened his mouth, and Huang Taiji also nodded and said:

"Khan Ama, now that the Bayo tribe is lost, it will be difficult for the barbarian tribes to win over. They probably won't turn against Ming court for us."

"Perhaps Horqin is a good choice."

Huang Taiji's words gave Nurhaci a new direction. The Horqin tribe is slightly stronger than the barbarian tribes in Neikalkha, with a population of [-] households and [-] to [-] males.

They are the three major lords of Waikalkha in Mobei in the northwest, Lin Danhan in Chahar in the southwest, Beishan Jurchen in the northeast, and Houjin in the southeast. They were isolated from the north of the Ming Dynasty.

Under such a border 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 Engel and Shuotuo take ten Mongolian Niulu to the Horqin tribe to discuss an alliance with Auba."

"Khan Ama, this matter is a bit serious, is it better for me to take someone there?" Huang Taiji was a little worried that Engel and Shuo Tuo could not handle this matter well.

"You can't go, I have something for you to do." Nurhachi shook his head, and then ordered:
"If the alliance is successful, Daishan will send Daishan to Wuyehewei (Jilin) ​​to take the captured armored slaves there for reclamation."

"I am also Hewei?" Huang Taiji was stunned when he heard this and said:

"There are dense forests there, and there are only seven or eight thousand acres of land left by the savages before. Isn't it a waste to send armored slaves there?"

"Let them cultivate." Nurhachi said calmly:
"I want to form an alliance with Horqin. After forming an alliance, I'm afraid Lin Danhan, a hairy boy, will send troops out of his head. There are some benefits for us to cultivate there."

After saying this sentence, Huang Taiji immediately understood.

After all, Horqin still surrendered to Chahar on the surface, but if he formed an alliance with Hou Jin, it would mean sweeping Chahar's face.

In this case, it is difficult not to guarantee whether Lin Danhan will launch an attack on Horqin.

Once an attack is launched, Hou Jin will send troops to support it.

If it was before, it would be easiest to leave the original customs and support directly, but the situation has changed now.

Mangui built a city in the north of Liaoze. Once Kaiyuan's support led to insufficient defenders, Mangui would inevitably launch an attack on Kaiyuan and Tieling.

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

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

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

"Besides this, I need you to do one more thing."

Nurhachi's gaze was a little cold, and Huang Taiji couldn't help but feel weak when he saw it. After a while, Nurhachi opened his mouth and said:

"It's a bit of a pity to watch the Ming court counteract the rebellion in the southwest..."

(End of this chapter)