stubborn thief

Ajige was indeed a bit stupid when it came to handling the politics of family relationships.

However, given his upbringing and circle of friends, it is not easy for him to be alive now.

He was seven years older than Dorgon and could not get along with his brothers at all. He followed the old Khan to war when he was a teenager and followed Amin and Manggurtai all day long, even sharing the same pants with them.

These two good brothers would be considered heretics and outrageous people in the Later Jin Dynasty.

Amin, a brave general with great military achievements.

He participated in the Battle of Sarhu, the destruction of Yehe, the conquest of Shenyang and Liaoyang, two expeditions to Korea, the sweep of the Khalkha, Balin and Zarut tribes, the expedition to Ningjin, and the defeat of Yongping.

After Nurhaci's death, he was like a philosopher, regretting that he was born as a human being and envious of the stones on the mountains that were not under the control of Huang Taiji.

He told everyone that he had a dream in which Nurhaci whipped him, but he had a yellow python protecting him and was not afraid of his uncle's whip.

He just has fun when leading the army to war, and his main purpose is to show that a general is not bound by the orders of his king when he is away from the enemy.

In order to sign an alliance with Korea, Korea sent envoys. After the meeting, everyone was ready to return. He said, "If you want to go back, then go back. Anyway, I planned to stay here." However, no one supported me and I failed to become independent, so I returned to Shenyang with a lot of grievances.

During the Ji Si Rebellion, Huang Taiji ordered him to pacify the captives in the four cities of Zunhua, Yongping and save the image of the Later Jin Dynasty in order to reduce the resistance to future border violations.

He said he understood, and then issued an order to shave his head in Yongping. He then abandoned the city after his defeat and massacred the people in the city before abandoning it. Huang Taiji, who heard the news, was so angry that he burst into tears on the spot.

He has no sense of responsibility as the big brother. When he heard that Huang Taiji was accusing him of a crime in Yongping, his first reaction was not to defend himself, but to start making a fuss: Ajige, Manggurtai, and I are as close as a pair of pants, and we do everything together. Why don't you punish them, but target me instead!

Manggurtai was also a brave general with great military achievements.

He conquered Ula, Sarhu, pacified Yehe, drove Lindan away to rescue Korchin, and conquered Balin... He was only one year younger than Amin, and he basically fought in all the battles Amin fought.

He killed his mother to curry favor with the emperor and was a notorious beast. Even after Nurhaci's death, no one nominated him to succeed him, so he voted for Huang Taiji with a pinch of his nose and was dissatisfied.

During the siege of Dalingh River, he reported to Huang Taiji that his troops had suffered heavy losses from the Ming army and requested that his subordinates who had been assigned to other troops be replenished.

Huang Taiji criticized him for disobeying orders and missing the opportunity to fight.

This was not a big deal for the Jianzhou nobles. From the time Nurhaci rose to power to the time Huang Taiji ascended the throne, basically every one of the Ai family's relatives and nephews had times when they disobeyed orders.

In fact, to put it bluntly, Huang Taiji wanted to be the sole ruler, but Manggurtai stood in his way and was caught with something he had no power over, so he took the opportunity to attack Huang Taiji.

It’s a struggle. If you can win, fight. If you can’t, admit defeat.

There are many ways to fight.

Manggurtai, even Mang can't do it.

His choice was to explode right then and there. In front of a group of nobles, he raised his knife and glared at Huang Taiji, cursing at him. He even pulled out his knife while cursing, but he didn't dare stab him out.

When the knife is unsheathed, blood will be drawn, and one of the two will definitely die.

Sometimes more die.

Last winter, Manggurtai and his brother Dergelei died suddenly of a strange disease that left them unable to speak. His sister Manggusi was then exposed for participating in Manggurtai's conspiracy to rebellion. It was said that they were planning to hold a Hongmen Banquet to poison Huang Taiji to death, and she was also executed shortly afterwards.

Let's say, if we put Amin and Manggurtai, two good brothers, on a scale, add a three hundred pound piece of rebellious bone and half a brain, what smart younger brother can they teach in terms of behavior?
Until now, Ajige has neither tortured himself to death nor thought of making himself king, all thanks to the good genes of his mother Abahai.

The three brothers Ajige, Dorgon and Dodo are the most amazing in this regard. They imitate whoever they imitate.

Ajige has both Amin's arrogance and Manggurtai's madness.

The most important thing is that these two people are not completely flawless. They both have rich combat experience and good military capabilities.

Ajige also learned almost the same thing.

After learning of the reply from Guihuacheng, the enemy across the Manhan Mountain told him to wait and not run away.

Ajige's heart was pounding.

There was no doubt that the situation was not what he thought.

But this is definitely not his problem. Dorgon would not lie to him about Yang Qi's character. It must be that the situation on Yang Qi's side changed before this expedition.

Ajige was just a little reckless, he was not really a fool.

Yang Qi from Guihua City dared to send this letter, which obviously meant he had something to rely on. There was no signature on the letter, so it might not be a reply from Yang Qi. Instead, it might be that Liu Chengzong or the Ming Dynasty sent reinforcements to the south of the desert.

Among them, there has been no unusual movement on the Ming side recently, so it is highly likely that Liu Chengzong sent reinforcements to the south of the desert.

In short, for Ajige, no matter what Guihuacheng relies on, he must treat it with caution.

The most prudent way is for the main force to leave quickly and not be surrounded in this wilderness.

Although the Later Jin army was good at field battles, their strength lay in mobile warfare rather than in forming a large formation and fighting tough battles.

Because a tough battle sounds good, as if it means being brave and powerful.

In fact, it is a helpless move by the party that is in a strategic disadvantageous position.

The Ming border troops were the ones who always had to fight tough battles. With just that few men, spread out over a long border, they were always the enemy's concentrated counter to their dispersed forces.

The situation was different for the Later Jin Army. Their battlefield environment was on the outside, which meant that any Eight Banners generals who easily fought a field battle with the Ming Army without any troop advantage would be known as notorious fools.

"This letter is not as long-winded as the Ming soldiers. It is most likely from the barbarians under Liu Chengzong."

Ajige easily guessed and decided not to fight him first, but to go into the border to avoid the barbarians.

They had a certain intelligence base on the Marshal's Office. Liu Chengzong's name was well-known in the north, and their origins were very clear. He was a barbarian who had risen from a bandit in the northwest to a bandit in the northwest.

Those bandits were also enemies of the Ming Dynasty, so they hid in the border areas so that the people from the Marshal's Office could not find them. At the same time, they also made the Ming border troops stretched thin, killing two birds with one stone.

Immediately, Ajige made troop deployment and assembled the army in the eastern part of Yunzhou.

The seven flags of troops, two yellow, two white, two red and one blue, were divided into three routes and entered the border from the eastern part of Yunzhou.

Ajige and the Eight Banners nobles he led were very familiar with the road here. Two years ago, they followed Huang Taiji to enter the border through this gap and fought a battle with Kong Dengke's Zhongquan Camp at Longmen, killing more than a thousand people and also dying more than a thousand.

The Bordered Blue Banner was led by Gushan Ezhen Feiyanggu, who bluffed outside the border and retreated eastward. At the same time, he sent people to inform Shenyang of the changes in Guihua City.

This battle was particularly important to the newly born Dai Qing Gulun, so the deployment was systematic. In the west, Ajige led his troops to enter the border from Xuanda, in the north, a part of the troops harassed Liaoxi, and Huang Taiji's army was also pressing westward to tie down the Guanning troops.

It was just Ajige who led the attack.

On the other hand, the person who replied to Ajige was Liu Chengzong.

He had just learned from Subadi the accurate news of the Later Jin's dispatch of troops. While dispatching troops and commanding the Second Brigade's offensive against Yansui Town, he received Ajige's letter of challenge. Looking at Ajige's arrogant and overbearing tone in the letter, could Liu Shizi, who had been in the army for seven years, bear this grievance for Yang Qi?
He mobilized his troops on the spot and sent more than 10,000 cavalrymen eastward from Yanmen Town to search for any trace of the enemy in the grasslands south of the desert.

Of course, the order for this 230,000-household army led by E'linchen, Sanang Taiji, and Gao Xian was not to fight against the Later Jin army, but to occupy territory as Tangbao cavalry.

Because Liu Chengzong did not understand the terrain and geography of the southern part of the desert, even the 230,000 households under his command in the southern part of the desert lacked understanding of the eastern part.

Even if he knew that the Later Jin army was coming, he would not have thrown out all his main forces at once.

They could only send E'linchen and his men to explore the way, find out the general direction of the enemy, and then formulate a plan for the attack.

Immediately, a battle broke out between Yanmen Town's Taiji Qintu and the vanguard camp of the Later Jin Dynasty.

This was actually an accident.

Liu Chengzong didn't expect that Taiji would take direct action.

As soon as he received the news of fighting on the front line in Guihua City, he led his army to Manhan Mountain to support the front line at any time. At the same time, he received a report on the results of the battle from Qintu Taiji.

One hundred and twenty enemies were killed, thirty-three prisoners were captured, more than one hundred sets of armor and one hundred and ninety-three war horses were obtained.

Seventy-two of our own men were killed and forty-four horses were lost.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

In the words of Zhang Xianzhong, the Minister of Rites: It's a piece of shit.

Three thousand against five hundred, this result basically means that the casualties on both sides are equal during the battle.

It's just that there are few people and they suffered some casualties when breaking out and being pursued.

Liu Chengzong immediately ordered the Chahar Camp to be transferred back to Ulanqab and asked Qintu Taiji to come back and explain how the battle was fought.

Judging from the results of the battle alone, he thought that the Later Jin army discovered the Chahar camp first and launched a surprise attack on them.

In the Jining Yamen in Ulanqab, Yanmen Town, Liu Chengzong met Taiji Tu who had fought a battle.

Taiji Xiantu knew that the battle was fought in an ignominious way, so he went to the central army to pay a visit to Liu Chengzong with a humbled look on his face, and even asked someone to present him with a set of armor and two horses.

It was not until this time that Liu Shizi realized that the Chahar Battalion was, well, how to put it... a jack of all trades in dealing with these five hundred Later Jin soldiers.

The equipment they carried on two horses was more than what the three Chahar cavalrymen carried, and they even took various situations into consideration.

The armor is nothing special, just a cotton armor and a cloth-covered iron armor, and the bowlder is a Mongolian-style ridged helmet.

One or two horizontal ridges are forged on the armor plate of the helmet, which is different from the oval-shaped helmet of the Ming army.

It is the process of forging horizontal ridges when forging the helmet armor plates.

Sometimes they are divided into petals, and sometimes they are forged as one piece. There is no difference in defense between the two.

The one-piece forged helmet looks better, but it is more difficult to forge and maintain, and is usually found on the heads of nobles.

Because a single blow from an axe would destroy the helmet, if the person was fine, they could go back and remove the damaged armor plate, replace it with a leaf and it could still be used. It was mostly used by grassroots soldiers.

The Mingbo helmets are mostly round helmets with a slightly higher top and a slightly larger internal space.

They had their hair in a bun, and it was uncomfortable to wear a scarf and a pointed helmet, but the Mongolian and Later Jin soldiers with braided hair did not have such concerns.

The tops of the seized helmets, helmets and guns were decorated with gourd-shaped iron sheets.

However, weapons such as armor, helmets, spears, swords and sabers are the most common items captured.

Apart from this the equipment they carry is a bit odd.

A bow, a bow bag, and a multi-layer quiver that can hold seven or eight regular arrows and three special arrows.

But there were seventy arrows weighing two or three taels each in a set of equipment, sixty of which were tied to the back of the secondary horse with hemp ropes.

There were also hemp ropes, forty in total, and several sacks, a thick stack strung together, all hung on the back of the secondary horse.

In addition to these tools, there are a thick-backed dagger, an axe, a sickle, an iron hook, a whip, a short spear, and four steel chisels.

There were also other miscellaneous small odds and ends such as tent cloth, flint, and arrow ends.

Liu Shizi and a group of generals were secretly amazed by these things.

Zhang Xianzhong looked at it again and again, confused, and said to Liu Shizi: "Marshal, what are they doing with these things?"

After saying this, he nudged Taiji with his arm and said, "This hundred-man team's stuff is enough for your armed forces to be a general commander."

Liu Shizi was also confused. It was hard to say that the troops that Qi Tu was fighting were an elite force. It was more like they were wiping out a professional robbery gang.

Let’s just say that it is understandable that elite cavalrymen carry 15 kilograms of arrows.

But which good person would carry several sacks and twenty kilograms of rope?
"They are not here to attack Guihua City. Ajige's challenge letter is just to delay the Southern Desert Governor's Office so as not to disturb him from raiding the border. Look at this equipment."

Liu Chengzong thought it was a good thing that he came, otherwise if Yang Qi was here, he would probably be fooled.

It was not because he was more capable than Yang Qi, but because if he had not led his troops here, Taiji Xuantu would not have had the confidence to fight, and naturally there would have been no such spoils.

If Liu Shizi had not seen these anti-plundering equipment, he would have initially thought that Ajige really wanted to fight with Mo Nan.

He pointed to the ground, where all kinds of objects were spread out on the tent cloth.

"Thick-backed knives for clearing paths in the wilderness, iron hooks for climbing city walls, ropes for tying up people and leading livestock, short spears for throwing, steel chisels for prying open city walls and breaking down doors, and sickles for snatching grain."

Originally, Taiji Qintu and some of his generals were puzzled about the purpose of the Later Jin vanguard army carrying these things.

But after Liu Shizi's detailed explanation, I understood everything once I matched the functions and scenarios.

What the hell is a top-level robber? All the situations that Kou Bian will face in the future have been taken into consideration.

The generals at all levels of the Marshal's Army did not have such rich experience in digging the Great Wall, and the old northern barbarian, Tutu Taiji, was far behind.

Wai Liangzi, the battalion commander of the First Brigade, who was standing behind Gao Yingdeng, could not help but sigh: "The Eastern Tartars are really good at looting."

Liu Shizi also sighed in his heart that the Later Jin gang, which had been engaged in robbery for 18 years, had a deep foundation.

When he heard Wai Liangzi's sigh about his peers' business capabilities, he couldn't help but look at him sideways and said with a smile: "There is always a teacher among three people. Don't underestimate the heroes in the world."

After joking, Liu Chengzong said seriously: "Quickly report the news that the Eastern Tartars are about to enter the border to General Fu of Xuanfu, and we will also move our troops to the east. I want to see what we will do if he can get in but can't get out!"

"Block them outside the border wall and trap them to death in the capital!" (End of this chapter)