"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Pass through quickly, it will be safe once you enter the city gate!"
"Watch your doll, don't leave it behind!"
"Leave the stone pots and all the rest behind. There will be iron pots for you when you enter the city."
"Everyone in the tribe listens carefully. Food is collected uniformly. After entering Jixi Pass, each person will be given two kilograms of food per day. Don't worry about running out of food!"
"Beep--"
At dusk, the city gate of Jixi Fort was crowded by tens of thousands of Jurchen people. The Bohai Navy directed them to line up and enter Jilin Bay behind the city gate.
Although there are only tens of thousands of people, they pull camels, transport thousands of cattle and horses, and drive tens of thousands of sheep.
Although there are six stone forts in Jixi Fort, there is only one gate, so everyone is crowded at the gate.
The noise, wooden whistles, and the lowing of cattle and sheep were endless, making people have a headache.
In such a noisy environment, twenty-four tribe leaders who fled south with their tribes gathered in the gatehouse of Jixi Fort.
They were very nervous now and looked at Zhu Gaoxu who was sitting in the main seat from time to time.
Faced with their nervousness, Zhu Gaoxu said calmly: "Spring has just begun, and all the ministries have no food, including Jilin City."
"However, I am not saying this to drive you away, but to explain the current difficulties to you clearly."
"Wuliangha came with thousands of troops. No one knows how long they will besiege the city."
"You can't survive relying on your cattle and sheep, so you will be given two kilograms of grain per day for your tribe, and one kilogram of meat and three kilograms of grain per day for you."
"In exchange, Gu hopes that you can exchange grain with Gu according to the value of cattle, sheep and horses."
"In addition, your twenty-four troops also need to send out men to cooperate with the defense of the city. Of course, I will not let your people stand on the front line. They only need to fight behind the soldiers. It is enough." When they need to work hard, I don’t need to say it alone, you should also understand."
Zhu Gaoxu put forward his own conditions for protecting the twenty-four tribes, and the twenty-four tribes all breathed a sigh of relief.
According to their experience, people who defect to others usually end up being swallowed up.
Now the King of Bohai only needs them to provide cattle, sheep and horses in exchange for food at equal prices, and does not let their men rush to the front line. This approach can be said to be very benevolent.
"We are willing to abide by His Highness's rules..."
Twenty-four leaders shouted in Jurchen language, and Yi Shiha also translated for Zhu Gaoxu in time.
"Now that we've negotiated, let them go to Jilin City. Except for the twenty-four tribe leaders and their families, the rest of the tribe will camp outside the city. In addition, we will have someone bring them some firewood."
It was impossible for Zhu Gaoxu to let the twenty-four tribesmen enter the city. After all, he knew better than anyone how the Jurchen Mongols conquered Shenyang City in the late Ming Dynasty.
Seeing Zhu Gaoxu's order, Yi Shiha also agreed, got up and led the twenty-four tribe leaders towards Jilin City.
Not long after, the tribesmen who entered Jilin Bay behind Jixi Fort were also taken away by them, but each family left a man behind to help defend the city.
Time passed little by little, and it was completely dark. There were thousands of Jurchens outside the city, and Lin Su also brought 200 people under his command to Jixi Fort.
"Your Highness!"
Lin Su came wearing a breastplate and bowed immediately after seeing Zhu Gaoxu: "The general has persuaded Fu Tijin and other six cities many times, but they are unwilling to come."
"Don't worry about them, they are fine." Zhu Gaoxu helped Lin Su up, not caring about the situation in the Six Cities.
The Six Cities were not that easy to break. If they were so easy to break, they would not have been able to survive until the Tumubao Incident before they were massacred.
Tuohuan and his tens of thousands of people failed to completely capture the six cities, let alone Wu Liangha's more than 10,000 people.
The difference in strength between the Uliangha and the Tartar and Wala tribes is not a small one. To say that they are mere wallflowers is to praise Uliangha. In fact, their combat power is only at the level of the horse bandits.
It would be a bit foolish for someone like Wu Liangha to want to take over six cities.
Because of this, the great Khans of each of the six cities were unwilling to go south and seek refuge in Jilin City.
However, despite this, Zhu Gaoxu also received the support of the Twenty-Four Ministries.
As long as these twenty-four people are trapped in Jilin City for ten days and a half, they will have to submit to themselves.
The fragility of the Jurchens outside the Pass was unimaginable to the Han people. If they delayed the spring plowing for ten days and a half, they would have no food. Even if they wanted to exchange furs for food, it would be difficult to find enough furs at once.
The longer the delay, the greater the chance that Zhu Gaoxu will eat them. In the end, it is very likely that they will join him before Zhu Gaoxu even opens his mouth.
Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu, who was standing on the city wall, lowered his head and glanced at the countless Jurchens pouring into the corridor.
These Jurchens will all become their subjects after this war.
"Your Highness!"
Not long after Lin Su arrived, Zhang Chunye came over in full armor.
When he came to Zhu Gaoxu, he bowed solemnly and said: "As you expected, most of the more than 600 military households are civilian households incorporated into military households. Only about 80 people were military households in Shandong before."
"More than eighty people..." Zhu Gaoxu pondered. He calculated his own resources. It can be said that the only people who can fight are the more than 1,900 people. Even if he adds the more than 1,000 Jurchens studying in the academy, they are still no more than 1,900 people. Just three thousand five hundred or six hundred.
It is indeed difficult for such a small number of people to defend Jixi Fort, but the chances of winning are still high.
"How many men are there in the Jurchen tribes? Have you calculated them all?"
Zhu Gaoxu turned to look at Yi Shiha. Hearing this, he also walked to the side of the female wall and asked the official who was counting the people.
After a while, he turned around and came back, bowing and saying: "There are currently 1,427 men left behind. Counting those outside the city who have not yet entered the city, there can be at least 2,000 Jurchens from various tribes participating in the battle. In addition, There are 1,000 men from the Ha tribe in Xiyang, which is about 3,000 people."
"Three thousand people are enough." After hearing that there were as many as 3,000 ordinary men at hand, Zhu Gaoxu felt more at ease.
If he were not worried about these Jurchens rebelling and the lack of armor in the city, he would have intended to let these Jurchens wear armor and follow him to fight.
"The armor in the city will be distributed to the thousand Jurchens studying in the academy, as well as the more than 600 military households in the city who have just arrived."
"Based on this, we can have 3,500 or 600 armored men, plus another 3,000 retinues, which is enough to defend the city."
Zhu Gaoxu spoke about his own situation to cheer up the generals. After hearing his words, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"Okay, let's all go and rest. The Wuliangha people still have to deal with Six Cities, and we still have some time."
"Tomorrow we will train all the men. Although the time is short, it is better to practice than not."
Waving his hand, Zhu Gaoxu signaled the generals to retreat and rest, and he himself walked towards an archery tower.
Looking at his back, Lin Su and Zhang Chun looked at each other and dispersed after a short while.
However, they did not follow Zhu Gaoxu's words to rest, but continued to work on supplies such as wood, rolling stones and other materials needed to defend the city.
By Haishi, thousands of people outside the city and their livestock finally entered Jilin Bay and arrived at Jilin City before Zishi.
This was supposed to be Zhu Gaoxu's wedding night, but in the end he slept alone on the wooden bed in the arrow tower.
Yishiha stayed up all night just to count all the people, grain, and livestock.
Not only him, many people also failed to rest as Zhu Gaoxu said, and most of them tossed and turned.
Before dawn the next day, Zhu Gaoxu stood up wearing a breastplate.
It's just that many people got up earlier than him. As soon as he walked out of the arrow tower, he saw the city head and stone fortress piled with supplies.
Wooden wood, rolling stones, iron pots of firewood, and buckets of river water waiting to be boiled were all simple means used to defend the city.
Last night, some carpenters also made wolf fangs and knife carts, one for guarding the city wall and the other for guarding the city gate.
Although only a dozen tools were made in one night, which was of little use to the Jixi Fort that stretched one mile and three hundred steps, it also allowed Zhu Gaoxu to see everyone's determination to defend the city.
"Your Highness, are you up?"
Zhang Chun's voice sounded from the Jixi Fort under the city wall. Zhu Gaoxu leaned on the female wall and looked down. He saw Zhang Chun leading people to cook rice, and someone was stewing lamb bones next to him.
"Get a bowl and try it."
Zhu Gaoxu didn't say much, he just asked Zhang Chun to make him a bowl of breakfast. Zhang Chun grinned and nodded to show that he understood.
Seeing this, Zhu Gaoxu also turned around and began to inspect the city wall.
The one-mile and three-hundred-step city wall was piled with supplies, and half of the two-foot-wide horse path was piled with supplies. Many Jurchen men slept leaning on the back of the female wall.
Perhaps it was too cold in the morning, so they held on to the animal skin clothes tightly in their sleep.
"Your Highness!"
Zhang Chun's voice sounded, and Zhu Gaoxu turned around and saw him coming with a wooden tray, with a bowl of rice soaked in mutton soup and a fist-sized piece of boiled mutton on it.
Seeing such a breakfast, Zhu Gaoxu subconsciously asked, "Does everyone have this mutton and this soup and rice?"
"No..." Zhang Chun shook his head: "Only brothers can have mutton, but everyone can have soup and rice."
"How many days can the food in the city last if you eat like this?" Zhu Gaoxu was a little worried, but after hearing this, Zhang Chun placed the wooden plate on the parapet and took out a booklet from his arms.
"Your Highness, this is the food register that was printed and registered last night. All the food and meat can last for twenty days."
Zhang Chun handed it over, and Zhu Gaoxu also looked down and frowned.
There is not enough food in Jilin City. Zhu Gaoxu has known this for a long time. Even when he was settling accounts a few days ago, Yi Shiha said that there was only enough food in the city for a month.
He didn't take it seriously at the time, because Liaodong Dusi would send food later, but with the influx of a large number of Jurchen people into Jilin Wei, and the fact that they didn't bring much food, the time dropped from one month to twenty days. .
"Twenty days..." Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath. He was not sure whether Zhou Ding, who ran back to Liaodong, could bring back reinforcements from Liaodong within twenty days.
Based on the fact that the army marched fifty miles a day, even if troops were mobilized from Kaiyuan and 30,000 Liangwei, it would take at least ten days to reach Jilin City.
If we add the four or five days scheduled to return, it will take at least fourteen or five days before reinforcements can arrive.
In the past, Zhu Gaoxu could have believed this time, but now Zhu Di is controlling the troops of the Sandu Division to patrol the north, and they are most likely to be in Quaningwei or Cheche'er Mountain.
These two places are nearly a thousand miles away from Jilin Guard, and are blocked by the huge Liaoze in the middle. Counting the detour distance, the distance is almost fifteen hundred miles.
At a speed of fifty miles a day, even if Zhu Di gets the news and comes to help, it will take at least a month.
Zhu Gaoxu, who knew everything, raised his head and looked into Zhang Chun's hopeful eyes.
He knew that Zhang Chun thought that just fifteen days would be enough. Not only him, but many people also thought so.
Zhu Gaoxu wanted to tell them the real situation, but then he thought that perhaps such expectations would allow Jilin City to defend the city longer.
"It's just ten thousand people who invaded. We don't have food, and there aren't many of them. We just need to hold on until they leave..."
Zhu Gaoxu comforted himself and handed the booklet back to Zhang Chun. He picked up the soup and rice, which had become much colder, and ate it.
The fist-sized piece of mutton was also cut and eaten by him with his carving knife.
It doesn't taste very good, but it's enough to fill your stomach.
"You can choose a thousand Jurchens and two hundred brothers to follow me up to Hadaling Mountain. If Wu Liangha suffers a loss in Jixi Fort, he will definitely want to climb over Hadaling Mountain and attack us from behind."
"yes!"
Zhu Gaoxu ordered, and Zhang Chun responded with a grin.
Seeing that he agreed, Zhu Gaoxu motioned with his eyes to the group of Jurchens huddled behind the parapet: "Let someone get some coarse cloth from the treasury and give them clothes."
"Uh...yes." Zhang Chun was a little unhappy, but still agreed.
Zhu Gaoxu, who knew him well, didn't say anything more when he saw this, and waved his hand to him to do everything he told him.
Zhang Chunzuo bowed and retired, and soon he selected more than a thousand Jurchen men from the 24 tribes and 200 Bohai navy.
With them, Zhu Gaoxu followed the path to Hadaling.
Although Hadaling is not very tall, it has a steep slope and a lot of soil. It is easily slippery even in dry conditions, let alone April when it rains at any time.
Although it hasn't rained in the past few days, the road up the mountain is still a bit muddy.
Even Zhu Gaoxu himself found it somewhat difficult to walk. However, he looked back at the team. Whether it was the Bohai Navy or the Thousand Jurchens, they were all walking swiftly. Even though they were carrying armor and tools on their backs, they were still talking and laughing on the way.
This kind of mountain march made Zhu Gaoxu's anxious mood relax a lot.
With them, it took Zhu Gaoxu half an hour to finally reach the top, which shows that the climbing difficulty of Hadaling Mountain is not low.
Although the mountains near Jixibao are not high, they are still enough to drink a pot of Wuliangha on the Modong grassland all year round.
Zhu Gaoxu didn't believe that they could climb Hadal Ridge wearing armor, let alone that they would still have the strength to fight the Bohai Navy after climbing.
However, although the Mongolians cannot climb mountains, they can climb section by section, climb section by section and rest section by section, in order to conserve their physical strength.
Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu had to be fully prepared.
After arriving at Hadal Ridge, he first observed the terrain, and then began to instruct Zhang Chun and others to cut down trees.
In Jilin at this time, most of the trees in the mountains and forests were large trees that were six to seven feet tall and as wide as a person's waist.
After such a tree is cut down, the crown of the branches is shaved off, then it is rolled behind two big trees and stuck, and then the soil is dug up to the back of the trunk with a hoe.
After it was filled in, a bare tree trunk was rolled down again and mounded with soil again.
With such little bits of building, rows of platforms about a foot high were soon built.
Until dusk, Zhu Gaoxu led his people to build dozens of such platforms on the hillside west of Hadal Ridge, and had people use pruned branches to knock them into a wooden wall, leaving only holes for shooting arrows.
In this way, these dozens of wooden and earthen platforms can serve as dozens of archery towers, shooting arrows at the Uuliangha troops who are trying to come up from the west slope.
Not only that, in order not to leave a bunker for the Uliangha people, Zhu Gaoxu led his men to cut down and saw all the trees thirty steps below the wooden platform, and placed sections of tree stumps weighing a hundred kilograms on the platform to be used as wood.
When the sky darkened completely, Zhu Gaoxu finally led the people to complete everything.
Sixty-two wooden platforms were spread out in a fan shape on the mountainside that was more than a mile long on the west slope. With the help of the terrain, only a thousand people were needed to block the attack of tens of thousands of people.
"You and your two hundred brothers will stay here with your four hundred followers. When I return, I will ask people to carry food up the mountain. Remember to let them build a shed for the wooden platform. You will all have to stay here for the next twenty days. No My military order is not to go down the mountain."
"do not worry!"
After everything was done, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhang Chun, who lit the torch, explained that at this moment, their faces were full of dirt, but no one was laughing at the other.
After a while, Zhu Gaoxu led people down the mountain in the dark and lit torches. When he came down the mountain and returned to Jixi Fort, the smell of meat from Jixi Fort also began to waft.
Everyone swallowed their saliva, but they also knew that mutton was not something they could eat every day.
Zhu Gaoxu called for Lin Su and asked him to send five hundred followers to carry iron pots, ten cooked sheep, and two hundred stones of rice to Hadal Ridge.
Since Zhu Gaoxu and the others had widened the mountain road when they came back, it was not difficult to carry these things up.
After dinner, many people were exhausted and went to bed. After building the city defense day and night, the city defense of Jixi Fort was strong enough.
Now everyone just wants to lie down and rest quietly for a while.
Of course, many people thought about the upcoming battle and couldn't help but hide in the corner and sob.
Most of these people are the more than 600 military households from the south.
Many of them had previously lived in the peaceful hinterland of Shandong, but now they had just moved to remote areas like Jilinwei and encountered war. They didn't know how long they could survive.
Under such pressure, it is normal for many people to want to cry.
In comparison, other military households and soldiers who had come to Jilin Guard a long time ago, as well as the Jurchens who lived a more difficult life, were very calm.
People living outside the customs never care about the future. After all, they can't even guarantee whether they will have food to eat tomorrow, let alone ideals.
Standing on the arrow tower, Zhu Gaoxu looked at them with mixed feelings in his heart.
If the army is peaceful, it is easy to be defeated, but if the nation is peaceful, it is easy to be conquered.
The outcome of a dynasty depends on its political direction.
Today's Ming Dynasty still maintains Zhu Yuanzhang's political philosophy. It does not take the initiative to send troops, but actively suppresses rebellions. It does not waste money and food, but it is not stingy with money and food.
Throughout the ages, only Emperor Taizong Li Shimin's Zhenguan rule was able to achieve prosperity while fighting like Lao Zhu. Even Zhu Di's Yongle rule could barely maintain the economic situation of the Hongwu period while fighting.
If there had been no Jingnan War in history, but a direct transition to his own father, I am afraid that the Ming Dynasty would have appeared in a prosperous era of prosperity, instead of the so-called Yongle rule.
Of course, whether it was the Hongwu rule or the Yongle rule, it was always much better than the watered-down Renxuan rule.
Zhu Gaoxu calculated based on the population growth of Jilin City in the winter. If the population in the Yongle period was 60 million, then by the first year of Xuande, the Ming Dynasty should have a population of at least 8,000, and by the first year of Zhengtong, there should be more than 90 million. .
Even if Cochin is discarded, the population should remain at around 80 million.
Such a large population should have been used to expand the territory, but Zhu Zhanji chose to shrink the border.
"What a great saint..."
Zhu Gaoxu murmured these three words with a sneer on his face.
Only by taking over the Ming Dynasty can he overcome the difficulties of land annexation that began in the 80th year of the feudal dynasty, and make Hongwu and Yongle the foundation of a prosperous age.
The prosperous age must be created in the hands of Zhu Gaoxu.
He is just a bad guy, what can he do?
Looking to the north, Zhu Gaoxu seemed to have seen Wu Liangha's camp, but he had the confidence to block Wu Liangha under the walls of Jixi Fort.
"Eh!!!"
Zhu Gaoxu was still looking out, but the north side had become a kind of purgatory on earth.
Many small and medium-sized tribes that were unwilling to go south were captured by Haragu's troops. Women were captured to vent their animal desires, men who were taller than the carriage were killed, and all the children were used as slaves.
The fire spread from the south bank of the Nen River to Jilin City. Except for a few stone castles, all the other castles, whether occupied or unoccupied, were completely burned by the fire.
The fire lit up the sky, and not far from the burned fortress, the Uliangha people set up a tent.
The Uuliangha people at the bottom were slaughtering the cattle and sheep they had stolen for food and dancing happily around the bonfire.
The middle-level officers and the high-level Taiji captured many women. Regardless of whether they were beautiful or not, they suppressed these Haixi Jurchen women and vented their animal desires wantonly.
In the largest tent in the camp, Haragu, like other Wulangha nobles, had a young Jurchen lying under him.
She was numb, but Harawu didn't care.
Mi Mi's voice came out of the tent, but there was a thousand households kneeling outside the tent: "Towen, Fusimu, Futijin, Kaolanggu, Qilimi, Mangjita..."
"These cities were all defending. Our people did not attack the cities, but only burned the food in their fields."
"The sentries from the former army have already inquired about the news. We are still fifty miles away from Jilin City and will arrive at dusk tomorrow."
"However, Jilin City is surrounded by Hadal Ridge and Songhua River. If you want to enter Jilin Bay, you must first capture Jixi Fort, which is stuck between Songhua River and Hadal Ridge."
These thousands of households reported the information they had obtained from their investigation, and not long after, the voice of Harawu also came from the Mi Mi voice in the tent:
"It's just a stone castle. Don't worry about it. When I see what it looks like tomorrow, it will surrender under my feet."
"Go and tell everyone to set off tomorrow and arrive at Jixi Fort before dusk."
"Yes!" Qianhu nodded in agreement and then left the tent.
That night, all the Uuliangha people were partying, but they all knew that taking Jilin City was the biggest party of their trip...
(End of chapter)
