stubborn thief

Liu Chengzong was on the bank of Taizi River, and Huang Taiji was also on the bank of Taizi River.

The only difference is that Liu Chengzong was in the western section, while Huang Taiji was in the eastern section, separated by 400 miles of mountain roads.

Huang Taiji's march to quell the rebellion was extremely fast. He first traveled nearly 400 miles in three days to reach a wall fort. Then he sent people to take a look at Jianchang City. Knowing that there was no hope, he led his troops directly to Shenyang for support, leaving only a small force to continue pursuing and driving away the frantically fleeing Shen Shikui.

The Pi Island soldiers were very fast runners. When they heard that the main force of the Eight Banners was coming, they were so frightened that they fled frantically.

After all, they had already completed the looting and had a great harvest.

They robbed Xiuyan, burned the alkali field, and burned several Niulu villages along the way. They ran south without looking back, transporting carts filled with cotton-padded clothes, bedding, jars of pickles and rice bags, valuables, human heads and dead dogs.

Huang Taiji hated the Pidao soldiers to the core. If he had the chance, he would kill all of Shen Shikui's gang members.

But he had no chance and didn't dare to stay in the south for long.

Because Liu Chengzong had been urging him to advance, ever since he went to the southeast to suppress the Dongjiang landing team, urgent reports had been sent to the army for three consecutive days.

First, a group of Qinghai vultures landed in Shenyang, drove away crows, stole crow food, lifted several pieces of glazed tiles from the Ten Kings Pavilion, pecked at the backs of beasts, and then spread their wings and flew towards Changbai Mountain.

Afterwards, a large group of cavalry marched to Shengjing, and attacked and looted, burned, and killed people and animals in the suburbs of the capital, committing all kinds of atrocities.

It's not a big deal.

He had long expected that Liu Chengzong would attack Shenyang directly and cause destruction to the capital's villages. Emperor Chongde had already made psychological preparations for this.

If Zhuangzi is destroyed, it can be rebuilt. All the people and livestock outside the city that can be brought into Shengjing have been brought in, and the number left outside is not... not too many.

In fact, Huang Taiji’s tactic was to first stabilize the country before fighting against foreign aggressors, but the country he wanted to stabilize was the southern Liaoning coast.

Because the King of Korea ordered the eight provinces to fight against Dai Qing; the Ming Dynasty wanted Chen Hongfan to land in southern Liaoning, and the Jinzhou Army would station troops in western Liaoning. Now Shen Shikui of Pi Island was the first to land and fight.

No one could be sure whether it was the Allied Forces or only the Pidao Army that appeared in southern Liaoning.

To deal with the Guanning Army, the battlefield of the decisive battle with Liu Chengzong had to be moved to Shengjing; and to deal with Liu Chengzong, the armies of Shen Shikui, Chen Hongfan and Korea had to be driven away first before they could go all out.

Therefore, at the cost of being attacked in the suburbs of Shengjing, he tied down Liu Chengzong. He led his troops south to expel Shen Shikui, and then led his troops north to fight a decisive battle with Liu Chengzong who was attacking Shenyang.

If we win, everything will be fine; if we lose, the Guanning Army will have to advance into Liaodong.

Now when I went south, I realized that it was just a false alarm. Shen Shikui was just making a fuss with much ado about nothing.

For Emperor Chongde, the price was completely bearable. Everything was under his control, and he could easily lead his troops to a decisive battle with Liu Chengzong.

However, the urgent military intelligence coming from Shengjing gave Huang Taiji a headache.

The biggest problem now is that Liu Chengzong did not attack Shenyang. He did not even come to Shenyang in person, but sent a group of Mongolian soldiers.

Huang Taiji was furious.

Because Liu Chengzong did not come, the Mongolian soldiers posed limited threat to the nobles who stayed behind in Shengjing, and they fled out of the city.

There was nothing wrong with fighting their way out of the city, but the problem was that the person leading the troops out of the city was his second brother.

Daishan, the marginalized Prince Li, at the age of 54, led the remaining men of the Zhenghong Banner out of the city to ride horses and fight. He defeated the Mongolian cavalry outside Shengjing and captured 130 horses and 33 prisoners, winning applause from the whole city.

Huang Taiji looked very happy, but he felt as if a fly had been eaten by him.

He was not a narrow-minded person, but he and Daishan had too much conflict over the issue of succession.

At that time, Nurhaci was still the leader of Jianzhou. After executing his eldest son Chu Ying, he intended to make his second son Daishan his heir. He made a will, stating that after a hundred years, his widow and young son would be left to Daishan's care.

Then the Queen Mother incident occurred, which was the scandal that Abahai, the mother of Ajige, Dorgon and Dodo, brought food to Daishan and flirted with him.

It was normal for the stepmother to bring meals to the children, and she didn’t just send meals to Daishan, she also sent meals to Huang Taiji.

The one with the problem is Huang Taiji.

He didn't eat it but put it aside as evidence, waiting for it to go bad.

Then two concubines reported the matter to Nurhaci, who then developed a strong prejudice against Daishan: Why do you eat it when others don't?

This sowed the seeds for Daishan's dethronement.

Nurhaci died forty miles outside the city of Shenyang on the afternoon of August 11. Huang Taiji broke into the harem on the morning of August 12 and forced Abahai to death, as well as the two concubines who had informed on the matter six years ago.

There is no evidence to prove what happened back then.

The other concubines and concubines are all fine.

After that, the throne of the Jin Dynasty was vacant for twenty days. Daishan was not a person who was keen on fighting for power, so he lowered his head for the sake of the overall situation.

Even so, after Huang Taiji succeeded to the throne and became Khan, he still respected Daishan as his elder brother, but at the same time suppressed him when he gained popularity.

Although Daishan was not keen on fighting for power and profit, Huang Taiji was!

It doesn’t matter who has reputation, except Daishan.

As long as Daishan was alive, he would always be a threat to his Khan throne. After Nurhaci's death, Daishan was the eldest member of the Aisin family.

If Daishan's victory only made Huang Taiji unhappy, the news that followed really made Huang Taiji furious - his eldest nephew Dudu was captured by the Mongols.

Seeing that his father had won the battle, Yue Tuo also ordered the remaining soldiers of the Red Banner to fight. As a result, Du Du, who was in charge of the troops, lured the enemy deep into their territory and captured them.

Daishan interrogated the prisoners overnight and received even more explosive news.

Those who were defeated and captured by the Zhenghong Banner were the cavalry from Mobei. To be precise, most of the troops that plundered Shengjing this time were from the Three Khans of Mobei.

The prisoners confessed that Subadi Khan, Gunbu Khan, Babu Taiji and Erdeni Hun Taiji were all in the battle.

There were no impenetrable walls in the capital. Once the confessions were made, they spread throughout Shengjing in less than an hour.

The Eight Banners nobles were about to explode.

Shen Shikui's Dongjiang Town sent out troops, Chen Hongfan of the Ming court was building large ships, the vassal King of Korea ordered the eight provinces to resist the Jin Dynasty, and the Northwest Marshal's Office, under the command of Liu Chengzong, invaded the border, and Khorchin was beaten to a pulp.

Now even the Khalkha in northern Mobei are coming to attack us. Doesn’t that make them foreign vassals?

The optimists drew their swords and prepared to attack Shuo Lei... After all, they really could not reach Subadi and Gunbu's territories.

Pessimists simply believe that after Tiancong Khan ascended the throne, the Later Jin Dynasty finally became hated by everyone and became enemies under the wise leadership of Emperor Chongde.

This feeling of oppression, like a catastrophic disaster, is no less than that before the Battle of Sarhu in the Jianzhou era.

In an urgent letter to Huang Taiji, Daishan said that some short-sighted nobles had proposed surrendering to the Ming Dynasty, so he asked the emperor to return to Shengjing as soon as possible to reassure the people.

In fact, let alone the nobles who stayed in Shengjing.

Even Huang Taiji was stunned by the series of urgent reports from Shengjing, and his head was buzzing.

The battle outside Shengjing City, even if we won and captured prisoners, would have had a very bad impact, it would have been worse than losing.

Of course, what made him even more anxious to know was that since Liu Chengzong did not attack Shenyang, where did he take his troops? Huang Taiji soon found out.

As soon as Emperor Chongde's headquarters entered Shengjing, urgent news came that Liaoyang had fallen in the west.

In fact, west of Shenyang, various groups of people have used various means to send more than a dozen groups of people to Shenyang to deliver urgent letters in the past few days, but only this one was delivered.

The person who delivered the letter was Yileshen, the garrison commander of the Zhenglan Banner stationed at the mouth of Haizhou River. He was a veteran from Nurhaci's time and had just been promoted to the third-class Meilezhangjing at the beginning of the year. He had been trying every means to deliver the letter since Liu Chengzong appeared in the suburbs of Liaoyang, and three groups of messengers alone were involved.

He first sent three fish-skinned Tartar slave soldiers, saying that they would be recruited as regular soldiers after they delivered the letter. However, they ran into Zhang Xianzhong who was looting, and one of them died, one was injured, and the other ran back.

The second wave sent Han slaves from their homes, who got military uniforms from Liaodong and dressed them up as Jinzhou soldiers. The Marshal's army was even more efficient when they saw them, and they hacked them all to death.

The third wave learned their lesson. They stopped wearing armor and pretended to be ordinary people from Liaodong, wanting to join the peasant army. When they met Gao Yingdeng's men under the city of Liaoyang, they were afraid that they were spies, so they refused to accept them and let them go.

As a result, he finally reached the outskirts of Shenyang, but was shot to death by Subati's Mongolian soldiers.

By the time the last wave arrived, the content of the letter about the attack on Liaoyang had changed to the fall of Liaoyang.

These people were lucky. Liaoyang was busy melting gold and silver and moving valuables, and the blockade area was shrinking. Huang Taiji's main force of the Eight Banners returned to Shenyang to support them and expelled the Mongolian soldiers from the suburbs. Only then did they successfully deliver the letter to Shengjing.

Liaoyang fell.

Just these four words made Huang Taiji's nose bleed uncontrollably.

He had run fast enough that the two imperial horses, the big and small white, were exhausted.

As for the fortified city of Liaoyang, it took his father three days to conquer the Ming Dynasty because the people in Liaodong had lost their support for the city.

Liu Chengzong was defeated in just one day?

Huang Taiji didn't understand.

He did not dare to rest. He obtained all the information about the interrogation of prisoners from Daishan, and immediately issued a secret decree, asking the leaders of each banner and Gushan in the capital to strictly control their subordinates. He then selected and executed four banner soldiers who had spread the rumor that the Three Khans of Mobei had invaded the capital.

I would like to warn all my ministers that the ones who invaded are Yang Qi’s Mo Nan cavalry.

Of course, that was not a rumor. The nobles and those who led the troops in the diplomatic war all knew what was going on.

But to the noble families, servants and bannermen of the Daiqing Empire living in Shengjing, it was just a rumor.

It’s not that Huang Taiji intended to hide the truth. In fact, it would save him a lot of trouble if he could tell the public all the information he knew.

But this is impossible. People often only know one side of the story and not the other. They only know that there are enemies on all sides, but they don't know who the enemies are or how many troops they have.

If we allow them to spread rumors, they will eventually become a trend and in turn affect the nobles' judgment of the current situation.

It was already a headache for Emperor Chongde to just worry about his troublesome relatives.

The confessions of the prisoners proved that his speculation about the relationship between Liu Chengzong and the Guanning Army was correct.

The Jinzhou army stayed in western Liaoning and did not advance, actually because they were threatened by Liu Chengzong.

Huang Taiji found this very funny.

He had just learned from the intelligence about the battle with Daishan that Liu Chengzong was actually arming Mongolia, which made him feel that this Han Chinese had the ambition to be a heroic leader. Then he heard that he had threatened Zu Dashou... He couldn't help but have a fluctuating opinion of Liu Chengzong.

Arming Mongolia was a brilliant move. The Mongolian tribes had been defeated in every battle since the Wanli reign. One reason was that each tribe served its own leader and was a loose group. The other was that although they had skilled herdsmen, they lacked weapons and had no confidence to fight to the death.

As the initiator of all this, the Ming Dynasty, even if it had a strategy of appeasing the Mongols, it was nothing more than giving silver and food to the Mongolian cavalry to risk their lives to serve the Ming Dynasty. However, this strategy, which was laced with poison, was difficult for even small tribal leaders to be loyal to, let alone Ligdan Khan.

No matter how much money you give, it will be useless.

At its core, the nomadic mode of production makes it difficult to build a standing army with strong armor and powerful weapons.

There was one set of armor for fifteen cavalrymen, which was considered well-equipped on the grassland.

According to Daishan's intelligence, every ten people in this Mobei cavalry had four or five sets of iron armor, and many of them were Ming army standards.

There is no doubt that without Emperor Chongde's knowledge, the Three Khans of Mobei had already become friends with Liu Chengzong.

Huang Taiji could not help but admire his broad-mindedness and envy his population... He was not afraid of a Mongolian uprising, so he dared to arm Mongolia.

Even during the Later Jin period, although they provided some weapons to the left and right wing Mongolian battalions, they did not dare to fully arm the Mongolian soldiers like this.

But this is actually a misunderstanding. Liu Chengzong armed the Mo Nan cavalry, and his main method of arming was to directly send Yang Qi's troops to Mo Nan, and they had very little armor and weapons.

The ones who provided armor and weapons to the cavalry in the south of the desert were precisely the Halashen tribe, which had surrendered to the Later Jin.

The cooperation between the Marshal's Office and the three Mobei tribes can only be said to have just begun. This was the first battle in which the army of the three Mobei Khans, as a detachment of the Marshal's Army, was deployed on the battlefield.

As for the exaggerated armor-wearing rate of five out of ten cavalrymen, it was a complete misunderstanding. Three of them were from the Beiyuan Battalion of the Marshal's Army.

There is also a pair of cavalry from the Marshal's Army, which is of course in the Ming Army style, because they are the Ming Army.

The Northern Yuan Camp is the essence of the entire Mongolia. Half of the soldiers are of the Borjigin clan, and the other half are officials and military commanders such as Zaisan and Darhan, who are in charge of the Khan's court and of course have iron armor.

On the contrary, he felt that Liu Chengzong's decision to intimidate Zu Dashou was quite unwise, which was Liu Chengzong's real intention.

Zu Dashou was the white moonlight in Huang Taiji's heart, just like Guan Yu to Cao Cao.

It was like a blow to the heart. Huang Taiji always felt that he was not working hard enough. If he had worked a little harder, he could have incited Zu Dashou and the entire Jinzhou Army to rebel, and they would have been lured into becoming bootlickers.

How exaggerated?

Shaving one's head after surrendering to the Jin Dynasty has been the consistent national policy of the Later Jin Dynasty to distinguish between friend and foe and cut off the retreat of surrendered people since Nurhaci conquered Shenyang and Liaoyang.

Zu Dashou’s relatives who were captured or surrendered did not have to shave their heads just because they had the surname Zu. To this day, Zu’s family members in Shengjing still do not have to shave their heads.

But Zu Dashou was not Liu Chengzong's white moonlight. He had no good impression of him and no contact with him. He was not willing to say a word more. Could he persuade people to surrender and bring their families back to Shaanxi with him by saying a few nice words?

In fact, Zu Dashou is an honest man and he really falls for this.

Huang Taiji was kind to him, which made him feel that Huang Taiji was a wise and heroic leader. Even if he escaped, his captured family members would not be killed and they could run back and continue to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Chengzong was different. He led a group of jackals and hungry tigers from the western bandits and northern barbarians. Before their troops arrived, vultures had already ripped off tiles from the roofs of Jinzhou City and trampled on crows. Wherever the army passed, black smoke rose into the sky and covered the ground within an hour.

This villain, who is more terrible than smallpox, should either be killed directly or, if you cannot kill him, don't bother with him.

So Zu Dashou was very obedient and was told not to cross the Liao River. The 20,000 Jinzhou troops actually squatted on the west bank of the Liao River counting small fish.

However, for Huang Taiji, it was not all bad on the battlefield. At least with the main force of the Eight Banners returning to Shengjing for support, the armies of the Three Khans of Mobei had been driven out one after another.

They were not as bold as the Mongols south of the desert in Khorchin, who ran around everywhere and just focused on retreating westward, which meant that by chasing them, they could find Liu Chengzong's main force.

A battle is inevitable.

Huang Taiji no longer rode the imperial horse, as if he continued to do so he would tire the two white horses to death.

He prepared seven war horses and even had people bring sedan chairs. He assembled the remaining men of the Eight Banners and banner slaves, armed fish-skin Tatars and Solon soldiers, mobilized the Khorchin left and right wing cavalry that migrated inland, and the Uzhen Chaoha guns and artillery under Geng Zhongming, and marched westward.

Conquer Liu Chengzong and recover Liaoyang! (End of this chapter)