Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"Hahahaha!"

"The tribes on the grassland are really like earthen chickens and dog ears!"

"Great Khan, I am willing to lead the army to the west and capture the Shunyi King and bring him to you."

In the Shunyi Palace in Guihua City, a group of Later Jin generals volunteered to Huang Taiji.

During this Western Expedition, they first defeated the Chahan tribe, causing Ligdan Khan to flee to the Hetao region in panic.

Then they pursued the enemy all the way, defeated the coalition forces of Tumed and other tribes, and captured Guihua City, forcing the King of Shunyi to flee to Hetao as well.

Such a glorious victory was even smoother than last year's eastern expedition to Korea.

This made the generals of the Later Jin Dynasty full of confidence, and they wanted to continue their westward expedition to the Ordos tribe in Hetao and capture the high-ranking officials of the Mongolian tribes in one fell swoop.

Huang Taiji was also very proud after easily winning two big victories.

Although he was invincible in last year's Eastern Expedition to Korea, the losses in the process caused considerable damage to his prestige.

As a result, the position of the leader of the Bordered Yellow Banner that became vacant after Hauge's death was coveted by many people. Huang Taiji finally managed to temporarily bring the Bordered Yellow Banner under his direct control on the pretext of a western expedition.

Now that he had won a series of great victories in the Western Expedition and suffered very few losses, his prestige had risen rapidly and no one objected to it anymore.

For Huang Taiji, this has basically achieved his goal:

Rely on foreign victories to consolidate one's position.

However, it was far from enough to break the siege of Ming Dynasty.

What he wants to do now is to make all the Mongolian tribes submit to him.

To achieve this goal, Prince Shunli and Prince Shunyi certainly could not stay. He wanted these two princes, who were canonized by the Ming Dynasty, to submit to him.

Now sitting in Guihua City, Huang Taiji said:
"Among the Twelve Tumed tribes, many were defeated by us and are willing to submit to the Great Jin."

"Tell them to tell all the tribes to come to Guihua City for pilgrimage."

He planned to rest in Guihua City and then take these surrendered tribes to conquer the Hetao tribes.

I think after seeing his power, those tribes will abandon Ligdan Khan and submit to me.

The generals who followed him into battle had no objection to this.

This time they launched a surprise attack, bringing only 20,000 soldiers and one month's logistics.

Resting in Guihua City is just the right way to restore energy and replenish logistics.

Huang Taiji even ordered:

"Let Ombu Chuhuer send someone to lead the way and tell the Ming Dynasty that the Great Jin is sincere in seeking peace."

"As long as the Ming Dynasty is willing to trade peacefully with the Jin Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty is willing to swear an alliance with the Ming Dynasty and live in harmony in the future."

He ordered Kulchan to be the envoy and take his letter to Zhangjiakou to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty.

The tribe under Ombu Chuhur was closest to the Ming Dynasty, and he ordered him to act as a guide.

This man was the great-grandson of Altan Khan, and ruled a part of the Tumed. The tribe under his command was very close to the Karashen tribe, and had been in contact with the Jin Kingdom when it was invaded by Ligdan Khan.

This time Huang Taiji defeated the coalition forces of the Tumed tribes, and Ombu Chuhur took the opportunity to surrender.

Huang Taiji ordered him to send someone to lead the way in order to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty.

This kind of peace talk was naturally not sincere. However, Huang Taiji had been using the peace talks to consolidate his power, trying to paralyze the Ming Dynasty, strive to obtain supplies from the Ming Dynasty, and get out of the current predicament.

After Zhu Youjian ascended the throne, he had already seen through his intentions and issued strict orders not to negotiate peace.

The Ming generals who used to correspond with Huang Taiji often now no longer reply.

So when Huang Taiji proposed to send people to Zhangjiakou to negotiate peace, the generals of the Later Jin Dynasty were not optimistic about this. Dorgon, who accompanied him on the expedition, said:

"The rulers and ministers of the Ming Dynasty were stubborn and did not recognize the great Khan's majesty."

"I think we should train our troops and take advantage of the summer harvest to invade the border and besiege Yanjing."

He believed that they should attack Xuanfu directly and attack the Ming Dynasty from Juyongguan.

Ombu Chuhuer's tribe was near Yanqing Prefecture, very close to Juyongguan.

Huang Taiji was also somewhat tempted by this, but in order to achieve a sudden effect, he only brought 20,000 light cavalry with him this time.

The rest of the troops stayed behind to avoid being forced to return twice like last year.

With 20,000 soldiers under his command, he was confident that he could conquer the Mongolian tribes, but he was not strong enough to attack the Ming Dynasty.

Even if he broke through Juyongguan, he would not be able to capture the capital. At most, he could plunder the Ming Dynasty and then retreat.

Especially now that the Mongolian tribes have not yet completely surrendered, many people are still loyal to the Ming Dynasty or are plotting to establish their own independence. If these people rebel in the rear and cut off their way back, his 20,000 people may be trapped in the Ming Dynasty if the war goes wrong.

So Huang Taiji thought about it and rejected Dorgon's proposal, and ordered:

"This Western Expedition is to conquer the grasslands south of the desert. We will continue to send people to search for Ligdan Khan and make sure the Chahan tribe surrenders."

"Soldiers who have made outstanding contributions in the battle can rest in Guihua City."

"We must also make peace with the Ming Dynasty and attract Ming merchants to continue to trade in Guihua City."

This was the main purpose of his sending people to negotiate peace, hoping that the Ming Dynasty would relax its vigilance and allow merchants to continue trading.

To this end, he also released some captured Ming caravans and asked them to tell their masters that they could continue to come to Guihua City to do business in the future.

However, he ordered the fact that Ombu Chuhuer surrendered to the Jin Dynasty to be concealed as much as possible, hoping that they would lead a surprise attack on Juyongguan in the future.

Under his command, Kulchan took the caravan captives selected from Guihua City and headed to Zhangjiakou under the guidance of a guide sent by Ombu Chuhur.

He was the grandson of Nurhaci. He was very studious and was given the title of "Bakshi", which means doctor.

After arriving in Zhangjiakou, he ordered someone to deliver a letter, asking the Ming Dynasty to send someone to negotiate peace and trade with the Jin Dynasty.
-
After receiving the letter from the Jianlu, the commander of Zhangjiakou did not dare to act on his own and hurriedly sent it to Xuanfu Town.

Admiral Zhu Mei of Xuanda, Protector of Xuanda Army Liu Ce, and general Hei Yunlong of Xuanfu, who were stationed in Xuanfu Town, gathered together to discuss.

At this time, Xuanfu had been under martial law and entered a state of war readiness in accordance with the court's order, so the chief officer was Xuanfu Admiral Zhu Mei, who was also bestowed with the Shangfang Sword.

According to the system established by the current emperor, only Zhu Mei, the admiral who was granted the imperial sword and the seal of the imperial seal, can reply on behalf of the Ming Dynasty and exercise diplomatic power.

However, Zhu Mei did not act arbitrarily. He asked the guards and generals:
"Jianlu wants to negotiate peace. What do you think?"

Liu Ce, the military envoy of Xuanda, said:

"Xuanfu is so close to the capital, and we can inform the court via carrier pigeons and fast horses."

"I believe that the peace talks between the two countries are of great importance and should be decided by the court."

Zhu Mei nodded and said:
"I have already ordered someone to release a carrier pigeon and send a fast horse to inform Juyong Pass."

"I believe that an order from the imperial court will come soon."

"But if the Jianlu envoy is in a hurry, what should we do?"

Liu Ce stroked his beard and said:

"No matter what, the people in these caravans are all citizens of the Ming Dynasty. We must rescue them."

"I think we should pretend to be friendly with them to buy time, and at the same time let the garrison of Zhangjiakou be ready to send troops to rescue people at any time."

Hei Yunlong, the general of Xuanfu, was speechless upon hearing this and was not optimistic about it:
"The people brought by the Jianlu envoys from outside the pass were only some of the captives."

“Even if they are all rescued, there are still many people trapped in Guihua City.”

"What if the Jianlu kill them to vent their anger?"

"Today, many business owners in Zhangjiakou have come to see the court and requested that it send troops to rescue their caravans."

"Among them is the caravan of Shunning Trading Company. That is a royal trading company, and many Shuntian nobles have shares in it."

When these words were spoken, even Zhu Mei took them seriously and looked at Wang Chaoyong who was attending the meeting next to him.

As the person in charge of the Zhangjiakou Imperial Store, Wang Chaoyong was not only a eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, but was also appointed as the eunuch supervising Xuanda because he often presented beauties to please the emperor.

In the past, this position was the eunuch guarding Xuanda, who had thousands of soldiers and horses directly under his command and could compete with the Governor-General of Xuanda.

That is to say, the current emperor changed the eunuchs in charge of guarding the city into eunuchs in charge of supervising the city, and their power was greatly reduced.

However, these eunuchs with supervisory duties cannot be ignored at will. They have the right to attend and supervise at various meetings.

Both civil and military officials must show enough respect for them, otherwise they may make things difficult for them and even affect the emperor's trust.

The matter involved a business in the inner court. Zhu Mei asked Wang Chaoyong:

"Can Eunuch Wang inform the emperor of this matter?" "Does he have any instructions?"

Chaoyong shook his head and said:

"Such a trivial matter is not worth telling the emperor?"

"Admiral Zhu, please handle it yourself. There is no need to ask us."

As the former head of the household under Wei Zhongxian, he was already satisfied with his current position and had no extravagant hope of returning to the capital.

For him, pleasing the emperor was the most important thing. Forget about the troubles, it would be best to wait until they were resolved before reporting them.

He didn't want to get involved in such a troublesome matter as making peace with the enemy. As an eunuch, he knew how determined the emperor was to resist the enemy.

As a supervisory eunuch, he has always had one task, which is to collect the household registration data of each department, determine the materials they need, and prevent excessive purchases from being resold to the Jianlu.

In the past two years, he has been sending people to various tribes on the grassland to search for beauties, and also to collect household registration data.

Therefore, even if someone from Shunning Trading Company was captured, he would rather sit back and watch than get involved in the peace talks.

Zhu Mei also knew the current emperor's attitude. Coming from Liaodong, it was impossible for him not to know about the famous case of collusion with the enemy.

Because of this case, all the generals suspected of negotiating peace and the local generals in Liaodong were strictly investigated. Many generals were transferred out of Liaodong, including his transfer.

Knowing the power of the situation, he would never negotiate. After understanding everyone's attitude, Zhu Mei immediately said:

"Then it's settled!"

"We will definitely not agree to Jianlu's peace talks. We will just pretend to be compliant and wait for the court's decision."

"If the Jianlu want to invade the border or kill the merchant caravan, we will resist firmly and rescue as many people as possible."

"Inform the guards of the border wall camps and forts to be careful and alert to prevent the Jianlu from invading the border."

He then took out the order issued by the Privy Council and said:

"The Privy Council issued an order a few days ago, asking all regions in the nine border areas to prepare supplies to support the tribes that are determined to resist the invaders."

"But we need to investigate in detail which tribes resisted the invaders and which tribes surrendered."

"We must be careful about this matter. We cannot support it casually, or the court will regard it as collusion with the enemy."

"We must also warn all trading companies not to continue trading with the surrendered tribes."

"Xuanfu and Datong will immediately start controlling strategic materials. Not a single grain of rice will be allowed to flow out without my permission!"

This order will undoubtedly affect the interests of all businesses in Zhangjiakou.

The generals and guards who were involved with them all begged for mercy.

Some people also mentioned the issue of smuggling, believing that this order would only encourage more merchants to engage in smuggling.

Zhu Mei frowned upon hearing this and asked for the Imperial Sword Technique:
"I don't care what happened before, but this time it's an order from the imperial court, and I must not disobey it in the slightest."

"This governor was granted the Imperial Sword and was ordered to act accordingly. Don't say I didn't warn you!"

Let all the generals take a good look at the Shangfang Sword and understand why the imperial court bestowed it upon them.

At this time, these generals felt fear and realized how much importance the court attached to this matter.

Zhu Mei's warning was obviously authorized by the imperial court. He was even waiting for someone to make a mistake so that he could use the imperial sword to establish his authority.

If they don't want to be beheaded, they'd better behave themselves for a while and manage their own areas. The seriousness of secretly communicating with Jian Lu and secretly communicating with Hu Lu is far from the same.

After Zhu Mei warned these generals, Liu Ce, the military commander of Xuanda, also told the military commanders in various places to fulfill their responsibilities as military supervisors. If problems occurred in their jurisdiction, they would be dealt with together.

Even in the current wartime, the military commanders are the main force, and the guard is one of the two chief officers, automatically transferred to the military supervisor. How they can work together to form a joint force is also one of the tasks assigned by the court.

All these things were recorded by the dynasty and passed on to the palace through the inner court channels.
-
When Zhu Youjian received the peace document from Jianlu, he saw the news and said with relief:

"Zhu Mei is still useful. He is worthy of being a general who fought in Liaodong."

"With him in Xuanda, there is no need to worry about the Jianlu breaking through the pass."

The purpose of sending local generals from Liaodong was not only to prevent Liaodong from becoming a warlord, but also because Zhu Youjian had a premonition that the war would expand, so he sent them to strengthen the combat power of troops from various places.

For example, Zu Dashou helped Sun Chuanting train a 3,000-man battalion in Shaanxi, which enabled Zhu Youjian to quickly dispatch them to quell the banditry when it spread in Shanxi.

Zhu Mei also had a 3,000-man battalion in Xuanda, 2,000 of whom were left by Man Gui, and another 1,000 were his retainers and newly selected men.

Although the number of 3,000 people is not large, the people brought by Zhu Mei have experience in fighting against the Jianlu and know how to deal with them when they encounter the Jianlu.

As an elite force, they can also provide timely support when the border fortresses are in danger. As long as the scale of the Jianlu is not large, they can be stopped.

At this time, Zhu Youjian had confirmed through the intelligence of the Jinyiwei that the Jianlu only brought 20,000 troops with them on this western expedition. With 20,000 troops to watch over the Mongolian tribes and guard the logistics channels, it was impossible for them to spare much force to attack the Ming Dynasty.

This made him not worried at all, the Jianlu attacked the Ming Dynasty:
"Twenty thousand troops marching westward may be able to defeat the Mongolian tribes."

"But to conquer it completely will be very strenuous."

"Huang Taiji would never be so unwise as to invade the Ming Dynasty while conquering the tribes south of the desert."

"In this year's war, the Ming Dynasty escaped unscathed!"

I felt somewhat fortunate and relieved.

Because Zhu Youjian knew that the Ming Dynasty, which was undergoing military reforms, was at its weakest.

If the Jianlu took the opportunity to break through the pass, the possibility of conquering the capital would be slim, but it would be difficult for the Ming army to stop them.

If the Jianlu troops were to plunder the capital, it would be a huge blow to his prestige as an emperor.

All the undercurrents hidden now may erupt.

The prosperity he worked so hard to embellish will all be gone.

Therefore, when Zhu Youjian learned that Huang Taiji only led 20,000 people to the west, his first reaction was to feel relieved.

Because this means that the Jianlu will only conquer the grassland this time and will not attack the Ming Dynasty——

Otherwise, the Jianlu should have come out in full force, with at least 50,000 to 60,000 troops.

Instead of like now, with only 20,000 people.

However, even so, there was basically no possibility for the Ming Dynasty to save the Mongolian tribes.

The Privy Council Staff had already made calculations on this.

At this time, the Ming army could not use the Beijing camp. The heavy troops in the Great Wall area were only capable of defense. Even the defense was unreliable. Zhu Youjian had to guard against any loopholes that might allow the Jianlu to break through.

The troops in Liaodong are usable, but because most of the Jianlu troops are left behind, they cannot threaten the Jianlu to return.

Shaanxi is in constant chaos, big and small. If troops are deployed on a large scale, Shaanxi may explode on its own.

Therefore, the strategy previously formulated by Yang Sichang was also to support the Mongolian tribes in their resistance against the invaders, and the Ming Dynasty provided them with support.

This would delay the Jianlu's conquest of the grassland as much as possible and buy enough time for the Ming Dynasty.

Now that the Jianlu have really launched an expedition to the west, the Ming Dynasty will implement this plan.

However, the successive defeats of King Shunli and King Shunyi still made him feel incredible:

"The Chahan tribe now has 4,000 sets of armor, and the Tumed tribes have a total of 5,000."

"How come we were defeated so quickly when facing the Jianlu?"

Providing armor to each tribe to enhance their strength was a decision made by Zhu Youjian after he ascended the throne.

He originally thought that the Mongolian tribes would be able to train an elite army after having iron armor, but he did not expect that they would still be defeated by the Jianlu.

This made Zhu Youjian very worried about how long the Mongolian tribes could hold out, and he was also concerned that after the Jianlu captured Hetao, they would attack Shaanxi.

If the Shaanxi border troops cannot hold out, then internal and external troubles may erupt simultaneously, leading to chaos in the northwest.

Therefore, he ordered the four towns in Shaanxi to prepare for war, and sent people to look for King Shunli and King Shunyi, hoping that these two Khans would show courage and unite with the Ordos tribe to stop the invasion of the Jianlu.

The Ming Dynasty sent several teams to Hetao to express their support for their fight against the invaders, and even sent food and weapons to support them in their fight against the invaders.

The Shunyi King, who was recuperating in the Ordos tribe, expressed his gratitude to the Ming Dynasty. He also took out the golden seal bestowed by the Ming Dynasty and vowed to stand with the Ming Dynasty.

But King Sunli was nowhere to be seen and no one knew where he was.

Even the Jianlu who were chasing him encountered this problem.

After they chased him to the Ordos Desert west of Guihua City, they lost the trace of Ligdan Khan.

The question of where Lin Danhan was became a puzzle for both the Ming Dynasty and the Jianlu. (End of this chapter)