The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 127 Zhu Ming Background (Qixi Festival Blessings to Liu Zhaosun Jin Yuji)
The Yitian Palace in the Western Garden of the Capital.

The thin Fang Congzhe followed behind Lu Shou and ran forward with his feet on the ground.

As Lu Shou ran, he urged Fang Congzhe, "Hurry up, Lord! The Emperor is waiting to see the victory report."

Fang Congzhe was panting unsteadily and soon couldn't hold on any longer. He gasped and said, "I just rushed over from Wenhua Palace, but I didn't expect His Majesty to arrive at the West Garden. Tea... I haven't even had a sip of tea yet, and I'm running here with my father-in-law. My heart is pounding."

Seeing his expression, Lu Shou said anxiously:

"Lord, if it were any other day, I would have prepared a sedan chair for you. But today is unusual. Yesterday, Minister Liu (Liu Yijing)'s memorial displeased His Majesty. Finally, we have received the news of victory in Liaodong, and we wanted to rush over to celebrate."

When Fang Congzhe heard Liu Yijing, he immediately stood still.

"What did His Majesty say? The cabinet ministers have never discussed the matter of recalling the mine supervisor with me, so I don't know..."

Lu Shou knew Fang Congzhe's non-stick pan properties and said anxiously:

"Don't worry, Lord Fang. No one is blaming you this time. His Majesty nearly made Liu Yijing faint with rage, but luckily, good news arrived. Today, His Majesty is so pleased that he has moved to the West Garden to enjoy the scenery in the Banana Garden. I was just asking where Tang Bao is."

They talked all the way to the warm room of Yitian Palace.

On the east side of the warm room, Emperor Wanli was like a sick elephant, breathing slightly, and there were several heaters around him.

Seeing Fang Congzhe come in, Zhu Yijun waved.

Lu Shou stepped forward and whispered, "Your Majesty, Lord Fang came from Wenhua Palace and did not take the sedan chair."

The old emperor gestured to serve tea to Lord Fang. Fang Congzhe had no time to kneel down to thank him. He just held the teacup handed to him by Lu Shou and drank it all in one gulp.

Zhu Yijun asked, "Is the great victory in Liaodong true?"

Fang Congzhe put down the teacup and said slowly:

"Your Majesty, I just received the news as well."

As he spoke, he took out a newspaper from his robe and handed it to the emperor with both hands.

Lu Shou took the report and handed it to Zhu Yijun.

Fang Congzhe whispered beside him:

"Your Majesty, the head of the slave chieftain is in the Ministry of War. I've had someone verify it, and it's indeed the old slave. I arrived in such a hurry that I didn't have time to bring it with me. The Liaodong Censor reported back on October 26th, and yesterday, the Kaiyuan scouts came to the capital to report their capture. This corroborates the claim, so it must be true. To be on the safe side, I've sent the head of this department to Shenyang to verify the military exploits. The Censorate has also sent someone to verify it, and they should be arriving in the next few days."

Wanli took the reading glasses handed to him by Lu Shou, put them on tremblingly, and looked at the newspaper carefully.

Lu Shou and Fang Congzhe stood quietly by. A palace maid came forward to refill Fang's cup, and Lu Shou waved her away.

Only the king and his ministers were left in the warm room.

Wanli read it three times before putting it down and said with a little excitement:

"Okay, okay, rebuild Jiannu and kill Nurhaci. Manggurtai and Jiannu will soon be destroyed. It's a pity that General Longhu was not captured alive."

"He accomplished what Li Chengliang failed to do. After defeating the Jiannu, he allowed Liu Zhaosun to take the lead and wipe out Hetuala."

Fang Congzhe didn't respond. Lu Shou whispered, "Your Majesty, the Kaiyuan army has been fighting for over half a year and has suffered heavy casualties. They are in urgent need of rest and recuperation. The Jiannu are severely weakened and are no longer a concern. We just need to take our time."

"Xu Xu Tu Zhi?"

Zhu Yijun was a little displeased.

Lu Shou said with a stiff upper lip: "The most important thing at the moment is to quickly implement the Kaiyuan military merit, provide compensation to the soldiers who died in the battle, comfort the Liao people, boost morale, win the hearts of the people of Liaodong, and serve our Ming Dynasty..."

Wanli said coldly: "Lu Shou, how much silver did you receive from Liu Zhaosun?"

Lu Shou suddenly became silent and stopped talking.

Fang Congzhe struck while the iron was hot, saying, "For now, we should dispatch a new governor to Liaodong to verify the military achievements and then award them. Liaodong has a population of hundreds of thousands and countless farmlands. Spring plowing is approaching, and farming cannot be neglected. The cabinet is discussing that the former governor, Xiong Tingbi, brought a million in Liao tribute with him. Now that the Liao incident has been quelled, much of this tribute remains, which is just enough to cover the debts owed by officials in Beijing this year."

When Zhu Yijun heard that there was still one million silver coins to be recovered, the corners of his mouth rose slightly.

Thinking of rewarding the Kaiyuan army with silver, wrinkles appeared on his face again. He suddenly coughed violently, and the palace maid hurried forward to feed him medicine.

Zhu Yijun pushed the maid away and struggled, "I am afraid that time is running out. The Crown Prince is weak, and the Donglin gang is unreliable. We cannot leave him with a Li Chengliang. We must first teach Liu Zhaosun a lesson."

Lu Shou wanted to say something, but the old emperor glared at him fiercely.

Fang Congzhe didn't dare to say anything.

"Lord Fang, who do you think is suitable for the new governor of Liaodong?"

Fang Congzhe glanced at Lu Shou and raised his head and said:
"Your Majesty, the cabinet has already made their selections years ago, and the chosen one is Yuan Yingtai, the Minister of War."

"Yuan Yingtai?" Wanli tried hard to recall.

Fang Congzhe continued, "Your Majesty, this man is intelligent, strong, and resolute, and has always been known as an efficient official. If you send him, he will be more than capable of handling this important task."

"Okay, let Yuan Yingtai go to Liaodong as soon as possible to settle the accounts with the previous Liaodong governor first, and then provide compensation. I heard that Zu Dashou and Kaiyuan have a rift..."

After Wanli finished speaking, he moved his fat body and closed his eyes slightly.

Lu Shou and Fang Congzhe looked at each other, faced the emperor, and slowly withdrew.

Fang Congzhe had just taken two steps when someone behind him said leisurely:

"Lu Shou, bring Nurhaci's head here. I haven't seen General Longhu for a long time, and I miss him terribly."

~~~~
Sun Simiao's "Thousand Golden Prescriptions" was indeed remarkable. After three doses of the decoction, Jin Yuji regained her rosy complexion. Three days later, the tenacious Korean girl was out of danger, her pulse steady, but she had not yet regained consciousness.

Liu Zhaosun was the commander of Kaiyuan, and all military and political affairs awaited his decision, so personal affairs had to be put aside.

Getting busy again.

Expand the territory, stabilize the front, gather the remaining troops and thousands of Later Jin prisoners, a lot of things need to be solved.

Man Gui took away a thousand Zhenyi heads and left behind five hundred war horses.

In such an exchange, neither side suffers a loss.

In comparison, Huduntu was very unreliable. Liu Zhaosun was betrayed by Ligdan Khan twice and was completely disillusioned with the Mongols.

The Kaiyuan army was busy dragging the bodies of the Later Jin soldiers on both sides of the Hunhe River to the suburbs and burying them.

It's not because of any compassion. So many corpses piled up on the river bank will rot in the spring and cause a large-scale plague.

Shen Lian sent back news from the capital that Yuan Yingtai, the new governor of Liaodong appointed by the court, was already on the way and would arrive in Liaodong in a few days. He would reward the Kaiyuan army on behalf of the court.

The various parties are still arguing over the rewards and pensions for Kaiyuan and the whereabouts of the Liao Dynasty's military pay from the previous governor.

From the pensions given to the soldiers to the title and reward of General Liu, the cabinet and the censors had different opinions.

Huang Liji, Liu Yijing and others hoped that General Liu would be promoted to the position of General of Liaodong or even a marquis. The censor who was close to Zu Dashou tried his best to impeach the Kaiyuan Army and fabricated a list of thirteen major crimes of Liu Zhaosun.

When the news reached Shenyang, Kang Yingqian and others were immediately furious, cursing the traitors for being in power and slandering loyal officials. They said they disregarded the will of the soldiers and the people and were not afraid of provoking a mutiny.

Lao Kang was eager for a mutiny.

Liu Zhaosun appeared calm on the surface, but in fact he was already furious.

From Sarhu to now, he has been ostracized and suppressed everywhere. Now that he has made such great achievements, there are still people who want to harm him.

"Xiong Jinglie offended many censors, and you were close to him, so you were impeached and attacked. This is one of the reasons."

Kang Yingqian's analysis is well-reasoned and well-founded.

"Secondly, these bastards saw that we had just won a victory and captured a lot of prisoners, so they wanted to get a piece of the pie." "You mean they want to extort money?"

"Of course, everyone knows that the Jiannu's money is all here with us."

The censors of the Ming Dynasty did not simply report rumors. Their so-called impeachments were mostly for blackmail.

Liu Zhaosun said indignantly, "What a bunch of vultures! You want to extort money from me? No way!"

He was too lazy to pay attention to this trivial matter. He would just deal with it as it came and wait for Yuan Yingtai to come.

Now, we must take advantage of this window of time to fully digest the results of the Hunhe Campaign. This is the most urgent and necessary thing to do. We must actually occupy the Liaodong cities that Huang Taiji gave up.

On the day Huang Taiji retreated, the Intelligence Bureau sent out night patrol scouts to track him down. Half a month later, the scouts brought back news about the Later Jin.

The Plain White Banner troops besieging Kaiyuan and Tieling also withdrew after Huang Taiji's defeat. Huang Taiji returned to Hetuala and immediately proclaimed himself Khan, abolishing the Tianming era name and not establishing another one. As agreed, he ceded the cities of Qinghe and Fushun.

When the Eight Banners Army retreated, they took away more than 100,000 Liao people, as well as food and livestock. They even took the unripe rice and sorghum in the fields. They also helped Liu Zhaosun harvest and pack the rice and transport it back to Hetuala.

Of course, the new Khan did not take the matter too far. He left some Han people behind and did not completely rob them of all their food.

Liu Zhaosun analyzed that the Eighth Beile now needs to establish his authority in the Eight Banners as soon as possible and consolidate the Khan's power, rather than fighting a life-and-death battle with the Kaiyuan Army.

Therefore, Hetuala does not dare to break off relations with Kaiyuan for the time being, and the two sides will at least maintain superficial peace.

The Later Jin had no other options except plundering Mongolia and Korea. Plundering Korea could be ignored because the Jiannu's routes to the south or east were blocked.

Qiao Yiqi, Sun Chuanting and Yuan Chonghuan, who stayed behind in Kaiyuan, mobilized all their forces, gathered 10,000 people, and quickly occupied Fushun, Qinghe, Kuandian and other places.

If you are poor, you will put aside disputes, and if you are rich, you will live forever.

Military leaders such as Ding Bi and Li Ruzhen are no longer with us, and the fields, shops and houses under their names have been taken over by the Kaiyuan Army.

Liu Zhaosun encouraged Qiao Yiqi and others to be bolder and launch a comprehensive enclosure movement. They should seize as much land as possible before Yuan Yingtai left for Liao. If any local tyrants and evil gentry resisted, they would be charged with colluding with the Qing army.

Qiao Yiqi, who had always been eager to invade, and Sun Chuanting and Yuan Chonghuan hit it off, and the three immediately took action in Fushun Kuandian and other places.

The Kaiyuan army defeated the Jiannu and was at the peak of its power, so the resistance it encountered was much smaller than expected.

One month after the bloody battle of Hunhe, they occupied 500,000 acres of fertile farmland in Liaodong.

Ding Bi's brothels, tea houses, pawnshops, horse markets, and many other businesses in Liaobei were also taken over, as well as dozens of fine mansions and official residences...
Kang Yinggan was so happy that he couldn't stop smiling as he held the news sent by Qiao Dazui and others from Kuandian.

"General Liu has fought bloody battles for more than half a year, endured many hardships, and experienced life and death several times. This is your reward! Come and see, there are more than a dozen brothels alone. When I return, I will definitely..."

Liu Zhaosun laughed.

Unknowingly, General Kang has now become an important point in the Kaiyuan system, and his interests are also tied to this chariot that is advancing rapidly.

"No matter what, we must quickly expand our army and seize territory, otherwise we will be sorry for these dead soldiers."

"General Liu is right. If we don't rob them, others will."

After the baptism of blood and fire, the two of them have a better understanding of each other.

He sincerely hoped that he and Lao Kang could have a good beginning and a good end.

While Qiao Yiqi was aggressively enclosing land in Liaodong, Liu Zhaosun was also recruiting soldiers and expanding his army in Liaoshen.

After the Battle of Hunhe, General Qi Jin led the remnants of his troops to join the Kaiyuan Army and followed General Xuanwu to gain a foothold in Liaodong.

This decision was not made on impulse.

After the bloody battle of Hunhe River, only 1,000 of the 7,000 Zhejiang soldiers were left.

Qi Jin felt ashamed to return to Zhejiang and face his fellow villagers.

After this battle, many families in eastern Zhejiang had their children killed in the war.

Qi Jin had experienced the pain of losing his brothers and comrades, and did not want to see the miserable plight of their families again.

He had already requested compensation from the imperial court for the Zhejiang soldiers who died in battle. He himself had no family and no worries.

According to the court's usual practice, even if the southern soldiers were allowed to return to the interior, their future would probably not be optimistic.

Although they will not be slaughtered like their fathers, they will still be short of food and wages, and their wages will be delayed, which should be the standard that the court gives everyone.

After thinking it through, Qi Jin finally decided to stay in Liaodong, follow General Xuanwu in the war, and help him train his troops.

Qiao Yiqi heard from his friends in the capital that, considering that the Zhejiang troops had suffered almost all casualties, a certain official in the Ministry of War proposed to remove Qi Jin's troops from the list...

Now that things have come to this, even if I can only be a captain in Kaiyuan and Tieling, it is better than returning to the interior and relying on others to satisfy the bosses.

Qi Jin personally witnessed the scene when the Kaiyuan soldiers defeated the two yellow flags. More than 20 soldiers and cavalrymen rushed forward one after another, fighting at the risk of their lives, and broke through the formation, defeating the Later Jin in one battle.

Such soldiers are real soldiers.

This kind of army is what Qi Jin wants.

General Xuanwu began to build a new 4,000-man infantry corps, composed of remnants of the Zhejiang and Sichuan troops, as well as some Liao troops, with a total of 2,000 troops. Currently, 1,600 new soldiers had been recruited, and Liu Zhaosun requested Qi Jin to be appointed as the commander of the 4,000-man corps.

The first, second and third thousand headquarters suffered heavy casualties, with only one-third of the original number remaining, totaling less than 1,300 people.

Each and every one of these surviving veterans will become a precious spark of the Kaiyuan Army, and they will be given priority in future officer promotions.

Liu Zhaosun planned to recruit a group of new soldiers from the settlers as soon as possible after returning to Kaiyuan to supplement the three thousand headquarters and restore their strength as soon as possible.

Many families in Shenyang were massacred by the Jiannu, leaving only one or two people in the family, and were forced to become refugees. These refugees were attracted by the spirit of the Kaiyuan soldiers and asked to join the Kaiyuan Army so that they could live like human beings.

Among these Liao people, some had participated in the revenge against the Yehe people and had seen blood on their hands, which made them different from ordinary people.

General Liu was quite cautious. He selected more than 2,000 young and strong men from the 7,000 young and strong men who came to apply for the army and first incorporated them into the auxiliary battalion.

After returning to Kaiyuan, the two thousand people will receive recruit training, and only those who pass the training can enter the combat camp.

Among the crowd eager to join the army was Jiang Liuer. This eight-year-old boy walked through the crowded streets of Shenyang, dragging a goose-feather knife longer than himself. The knife was still stained with blood. This was Peng Yong's weapon...
The cavalry battalion and the mountain warfare battalion were completely destroyed, and only twenty people were left in the central army guard.

The reconstruction of the two troops will have to wait until they return to Kaiyuan.

By the end of October, the Kaiyuan Army's strength had gradually recovered to 5,000. Finally, news arrived from the capital that Yuan Yingtai, along with a large group of officials from the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Rites, and the Ministry of Personnel, had rushed to Shenyang to verify the military achievements. They had already passed Shanhaiguan and would soon arrive in Shenyang.

Jin Yuji's dream will soon come true.

That day, Liu Zhaosun returned from his patrol early and walked into the central military tent. As usual, he sat in front of the bed and told the story of the snake demon in the Southern Song Dynasty to the unconscious Jin Yuji.

He told the story for half an hour every day, and before he knew it, the story had progressed from the meeting between Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen on the Broken Bridge to the suppression of Bai Suzhen by Fahai at the Leifeng Pagoda.

Fahai transformed into a ten-thousand-foot-tall golden Buddha, looking down at Bai Suzhen in the golden bowl:

You daring evildoer, who flooded Jinshan Mountain with water and committed heinous crimes, are sent to Hangzhou and will be forever imprisoned under the Leifeng Pagoda! The day the Leifeng Pagoda falls will be the day you and your husband will be reunited!
Xu Mengjiao, still in his cradle, stared blankly at his mother as she flew into the tower. The tower, fading into the clouds, enveloped half of Jinshan Temple, casting half the city's inhabitants and demons in its shadow. Xiaoqing, transformed into a giant python, soared into the clouds, engaging Fahai in a desperate battle...

Leifeng Pagoda collapsed.

The morning sunlight streamed through the tent window, illuminating the pretty face of the beauty. After Liu Zhaosun finished speaking, he turned and took the medicine from Old Song. He scooped up a spoonful and tasted it first. It was just warm enough.

He was about to help the unconscious Jin Yuji up.

I caught a glimpse of two tears sliding down the corners of the beauty's eyes.

"My dream was true. My lord defeated the Jiannu and was granted the title of Marquis of Ping Liao. How wonderful!"

(End of this chapter)