Chapter 201
Huang Taiji knew very well that the consequences of failure in the Battle of Liaoyang were very serious. In the final analysis, it was the myth that the Kingdom of Jin lost less than ten thousand Jurchens and was invincible. The Eight Banners elites were no longer invincible in the eyes of their former defeated generals. rival!
The consequences of this are quite serious, because the nomadic grassland has always been a mother, and enemies they cannot defeat will take the initiative to join, just like the Xiongnu and Xianbei during the Han Dynasty, and the Turks during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Whether it is the Xiongnu or Xianbei, Or the Turks, both rose very quickly and collapsed very suddenly.
The prairie people's intuition about power is very accurate. Once they find that the force they have surrendered to begins to weaken, they will immediately turn against them. Rebellion is considered a minor thing, and attacking in groups is the way for the prairie wolf tribe to survive!
After the defeat in the Battle of Liaoyang, even if it was ice and snow, even if there was a lack of food and grass, even if people and horses were trapped, Huang Taiji gritted his teeth and persisted. He recruited more than 4,000 elites from the 40,000 surviving Jianzhou elites. These four thousand elites were Among the remaining elites, there are as many as 640 white-armored soldiers. This is also the only white-armored soldier left in Dajin.
Therefore, Huang Taiji made a huge gamble. If the expedition against the Chechen Khan failed, Daikin would collapse instantly. For this expedition, Huang Taiji personally led the army and even killed more than 5,000 war horses to use as military rations.
These more than 5,000 war horses, if it were in the past, building slaves would not be a big deal, but after the defeat of Liaoyang, the entire country of Daijin only had more than 50,000 war horses, and one-third of them were ponies. Qi was unable to fight at all. However, Huang Taiji was like a gambler who lost his eyes and lost all the wealth of the Kingdom of Jin in one go.
This time, Huang Taiji won the bet.
The Khan King of Chechnya is called Shuolei. He was Lin Dan Khan's ally and brother-in-law. This Lin Dan Khan, I have to say, is a strange thing. Lin Dan Khan was also a famous figure in the history of the late Ming Dynasty. He is nominally the co-leader of all Mongolian tribes and the master of the Chahar tribe. He is determined to unify all Mongolian tribes and restore the glory of the Genghis Khan era.
However, this "Genghis Khan" was very unlucky. He encountered the rise of Hou Jin early, and wars inevitably broke out with Hou Jin. Then he was defeated and fled again and again. Like Chongzhen, he was completely Huang Taiji's sandbag. , punch twice when you are in a good mood, kick twice when you are in a bad mood.
When the Jin Dynasty was strong, he adopted the strategy of uniting with the Ming Dynasty to fight against the Jin Dynasty, which was wise. However, after repeated defeats, he unexpectedly sent troops to loot the nine areas of the Ming Dynasty in an attempt to get some compensation from the Ming Dynasty. This kind of move He can only be described as "mentally retarded". Not only did he fail to save his tribe, but he also turned himself into a target for both the Jin Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.
Because in January of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Lin Dan Khan marched eastward to the Xilamulun River and attacked the Alukorqindalai Chuhu'er pasture that had surrendered to Jiannujin. Chuhu'er lost to Lin Dan Khan and was killed by more than 8,000 people. He asked Huang Taiji for help. Huang Taiji led the slave-building elite and joined forces with the Mongolian Horqin tribe, totaling more than 40,000 troops to attack Lin Dan Khan. Lin Dan Khan's tribe only had more than 20,000 cavalry and was poorly equipped. He was defeated by Huang Taiji and was forced to flee westward.
As Lin Dan Khan fled to Qinghai, Lin Dan Khan's rule in Mongolia also collapsed instantly. Lin Dan Khan's brother-in-law, Shuo Lei Jinong, who was originally an ally of Lin Dan Khan, took the opportunity to become the Chechen Khan. , Haoqite and other ministries took refuge in him.
In this situation, Shuolei was actually very nervous. He was ready to escape at any time. However, the news of Huang Taiji's defeat in the Battle of Bali Bay came. Shuolei was thinking about forming an alliance with Cheng Shijie, but because of the heavy snow The reason is that he wants to send people south after the beginning of spring.
However, Shuolei did not expect that Huang Taiji, with his vitality severely damaged, would lead more than 4,000 elites to raid the Balhu Grassland (now northwest of Hulunbuir City), the temporary residence of his Khan Court. When Huang Taiji led the army to attack, Shuolei was completely unprepared, and the elite Mongolian troops he had assembled were scattered to various places.
In this way, Huang Taiji successfully raided Shuolei's Khan tent and killed more than two thousand of Shuolei's riders. Shuolei fled in confusion at first, gathering his troops while running away.
In February of the sixth year of Chongzhen, Shuolei gathered nearly 30,000 Mongolian cavalry in Kukuhetun (named "Guihua City" by the Ming court) to launch a decisive battle with Huang Taiji. It's a pity that Shuolei fell into Huang Taiji's plan. When Huang Taiji saw that Shuolei had gathered a large number of troops, he pretended to retreat.
Huang Taiji first retreated towards Liaodong at a speed of fifty or sixty miles a day. On the third day, Huang Taiji's troops were already more than two hundred miles away from Kukuhe Tun, and Shuolei once again relaxed his vigilance. As a result, Huang Taiji stayed out at night and day, and spent the whole night returning to Kukuhe Tun. More than 600 white-armored soldiers under his command had been lurking near Kukuhe Tun. There was no shortage of people and horses. A night attack was launched.
It is said that no matter how powerful the white-armored soldiers are, there are more than 30,000 Mongolian cavalry in Kukuhetun. How many people can the white-armored soldiers under Huang Taiji kill even if they die from exhaustion? But the problem was that there was chaos under Shuolei's command in the dark night, and because the slaves were well equipped, the weapons of the Mongolian cavalry could not cause damage to the white-armored soldiers. This kind of battle made the Mongols very desperate.
In desperation, Shuolei surrendered to Huang Taiji.
After the battle in Kukuhetun, the various Mongolian tribes who originally had different ideas understood one thing. Although the Ming army could defeat Jiannu, Jiannu still had no problem in dealing with the Mongols.
In this case, Huang Taiji not only stabilized the military morale of Mongolia, its main ally, but also used Shuolei's wealth to survive the most difficult moment.
With the food of cattle and sheep seized from the Chechen Khan, the Jiannu no longer had a food crisis. But the problem is that the biggest problem with Shenyang as the capital of the Jin Dynasty is that it is too close to Liaodong.
As the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula, Lushun is only more than 400 kilometers, or more than 800 miles, from Shenyang. As the administrative center of Liaodong, Jinzhou is only more than 360 kilometers away, which is more than 700 miles away.
The distance from Liaoyang controlled by Cheng Shijie is only 80 kilometers, which is more than 170 miles. If Cheng Shijie wants to attack Shenyang, with Ning Haijun's marching speed, he can even do it in the morning and in the evening.
This made Huang Taiji very insecure. If it were before the Battle of Bali Bay, Huang Taiji would not have worried about this problem, because "if there are less than ten thousand Jurchens, they will be invincible!" With this powerful political legacy, even if he was released in Shenyang There were 20,000 troops, and Ming Dynasty did not have an army of 100,000, so it did not dare to think of attacking Shenyang.
But the problem is, with the defeat of Baliwan, the defeat of Liaozhong, and the battle of Liaoyang, Ning Haijun used tough and brutal methods to tear off the disguise of Jiannu.
In fact, this cannot be regarded as Jiannu's disguise. They are really powerful. Huang Taiji knows it very well. Without the myth that "the Jurchens are less than ten thousand, they are invincible", the offensive and defensive positions of Dajin and Ming Dynasty changed instantly.
Now that Cheng Shijie had strong soldiers and horses, he got news that Emperor Chongzhen sent Cheng Shijie fifteen guards and eight independent thousand-household stations, which was nearly one hundred thousand troops.
According to the past, he could easily deal with nearly 100,000 Ming troops by sending out at most one banner, which was tens of thousands of Jiannu cavalry. However, now, if Cheng Shijie attacks Shenyang, he will have to station a large number of troops in Shenyang City.
But the problem is that Jiannu still has about 40,000 troops at full strength, and quite a few of them have great fear of the Ming army. He is really afraid that Cheng Shijie will lead the army to attack Shenyang.
He was stationed in Shenyang but he did not have the strength to feed a huge army. Each unit had to feed its own army. For this reason, Huang Taiji became thinner day by day. He has now grown from a fat old man to a strong old man.
That's right, his saddle was originally an extra-large size, otherwise it wouldn't be able to fit his fat ass. But now it's better. He can ride a normal saddle, and he has successfully lost weight.
However, Huang Taiji couldn't laugh.
Faced with Huang Taiji's worries, Fan Wencheng was very relaxed: "King Khan, you don't have to worry!"
"How can this make King Khan not worry?"
Huang Taiji looked at the huge map in front of him. This was the defense map of the Ming army. Of course, this was not the real defense map of the Ning Navy, but the defense map of the Fifteen Guards and Eight Thousand Households.
Now there are 8,000 households in the Fifteen Guards. From the east of the Liao River to the south of the Taizi River, from west to east, fifteen new guard posts have been established. This makes Huang Taiji worried.
Fan Wencheng explained: "King Khan, when we were in Liaoyang, if Cheng Shijie continued to order the pursuit, what would King Khan think?"
"The consequences could be disastrous!"
"Then why didn't Cheng Shijie pursue him?"
"Is it difficult for the Ming army to sustain food and grass?"
"No!"
Fan Wencheng said solemnly: "Cheng Shijie is not short of food and grass, nor is he short of soldiers and horses. The reason why he did not pursue him is actually very simple. Cheng Shijie knew how to stop when he was ready!"
Huang Taiji understood.
Cheng Shijie is also playing tricks on himself.
In fact, if Li Chengliang had not respected himself as a bandit, then Nurhaci would not have had the chance to raise an army with the Seven Hatreds. The current Cheng Shijie has become the original Li Chengliang.
Huang Taiji finally breathed a sigh of relief.
…
In mid-April of the sixth year of Chongzhen's reign, the warm spring breeze blew green across the land of Liaodong. After a long cold winter, the dormant life began to sprout vitality again. The solid ice in the river has long turned into running water, and the riverbanks, fields, mountains, forests, and swamps are all covered in green again. Mountain flowers are brilliant, butterflies are flying, and the sky is blue and the water is blue.
After following Zhu Weiti to southern Liaoning, I learned that Cheng Shijie had five adopted sons and daughters, namely Cheng Shi, Cheng Hu, Cheng Jing and Cheng An Ning.
The youngest one is Xiao Jiaxin.
When Zhu Weiti saw little Jiaxin for the first time, she liked her very much. At this time, little Jiaxin could already run around, and because of Cheng Shijie's pampering, little Jiaxin was not like most children of this era. , she looked very bold.
The first time I saw the princess Zhu Weiti, I looked at her with big watery eyes and said, "Who are you and why do you come to my house?"
When Zhu Weiti asked Xiao Jiaxin to call her mother, Xiao Jiaxin asked instead: "What are the benefits of calling you mother?"
In the end, with Zhu Weiti's bribe of three pastries, Xiao Jiaxin became Zhu Weiti's daughter, and Yang Yunniang became Xiao Jiaxin's aunt.
As spring blossomed, Cheng Shijie also felt that he had been very busy at work recently and it was time to relax. His suggestion was agreed by Yang Yunniang, Jin Qiaoer, Yang Waner, Wang Wei and others.
Cheng Shijie's so-called spring outing was actually to inspect the farming conditions in various parts of southern Liaoning. Just looking at the data and reports, Cheng Shijie naturally knew that the spring plowing work in southern Liaoning had come to an end.
But in fact, you still need to see it with your own eyes.
After several days of preparation, Cheng Shijie's team set off from Jinzhou, and their first stop was Xinghai City in southern Liaoning. On the way to Xinghai City, the farmers working in the fields stood up with their hoes and looked at them happily. It drove by mightily.
The originally wasteland is now covered with tender green wheat seedlings and potato seedlings. The green color is very pleasant. The river flows happily along the long ditch, bringing necessary moisture to the fields.
There was a lot of snow last winter, but there were only a few light rains since the beginning of spring. There was some drought in various places, but southern Liaoning was not affected by the drought. At least, in Cheng Shijie's sight, neither military fields nor civilian fields were affected. Effects of drought.
At this time, many factories were built in Jinzhou. Without exception, these factories used a large amount of coal. Although it had not officially entered the steam era, the advantages of coal had been fully utilized in southern Liaoning.
For example, imitation factories need to wash fabrics and dry them, which requires a lot of coal. The same is true for woodworking factories. Of course, there are also some factories that are purely for the welfare of workers.
Because of Cheng Shijie's request, there are almost no slovenly people in southern Liaoning. No matter what the factory is, collective bathrooms must be built. Bathing frequently and hot baths can not only relieve fatigue, but the key is to reduce illness. People's health and safety can be guaranteed by preventing the spread of lice and other bugs.
But the problem is, there are gains and losses. Although a large amount of coal is burned, there are already particles of dust in the air. Even if Cheng Shijie is sitting in the carriage, there are traces of dust on his white clothes.
Environmental issues are necessary for industrial development and cannot be avoided. As for how much impact the environment will have on people, Cheng Shijie thinks it is nonsense.
Hansteel Group is a heavy industry group, especially workers on the front line of production. They are directly faced with high temperatures, strong magnetism, and high radiation. So how many sub-health problems do steel workers have? Yes, but very few. At least they are healthier than those white-collar workers in big cities.
Entering Xinghai City, the situation is obviously different. This is Cheng Shijie's pilot project for agricultural science and technology. Therefore, wherever you go, you can see the farmers in Xinghai City carefully fertilizing their crops. The fertilizer they apply is of course There are many types of fertilizers, including phosphate fertilizers produced in primitive ways, plant ash, and organic fertilizers.
However, the chemical fertilizer has a strong smell. Zhu Weiti pointed to the military households in the farmland on the roadside and asked: "What are they doing? It smells so bad!"
"They are all fertilizing the crops. Even if they sprinkle it little by little, this fertilizer is hard-won and is directly related to the harvest. They cherish every bit of it."
This time when he came out, Cheng Shijie really discovered a problem. Many children were pulling weeds in the farmland. This scene reminded Cheng Shijie of his past.
He is from a rural area. When he was young, because his father Cheng Weiguo was a veteran, he was placed in the Hansteel Group. However, his mother had a rural registered permanent residence. At that time, their family did not have a house in the city and could only live in the countryside. live.
At that time, the mechanization era had not yet entered, and primitive harvesting methods were adopted. When Cheng Shijie was very young, he had to help his mother work in the fields.
This situation lasted until around 1998. At that time, during the last welfare housing allocation by Hansteel Group, Cheng Weiguo was allocated a building with two bedrooms and one living room, with an area of 68 square meters. Of course, this was the actual usable area, and there was no shared room for six months. A house of eighteen square meters.
Although Cheng Shijie invested a lot of money in education, he also provided free school uniforms, free breakfast and lunch for the children. But the problem is that there are still too few schools, and school construction cannot keep up with the growth of immigrants.
This is a serious problem.
Zhu Weiti was very happy. There were still more than ten miles away from Xinghai City. Cheng Shijie could have entered the city immediately, but he suddenly thought that in such weather, it would be possible to have a picnic.
Just do what you think of, Cheng Shijie ordered to stop in front of a river beach.
"Commander, what are your orders?"
"The scenery here is nice, let's have a picnic!"
"yes!"
Dozens of maids and eunuchs got busy immediately. Although Zhu Weiti had a carriage and RV to rest, they still built a tent for Zhu Weiti.
To say that Zhu Weiti's princess appearance is really not small, these palace maids and eunuchs took off the wooden planks one by one from the carriage and built them directly in front of the river beach. These wooden planks are structures that can be combined at any time. After a while, , the parts of the three carriages were actually assembled by Zhu Weiti into a small wooden house.
The area of the wooden house is really small, about thirty or forty square meters, occupying half of the river beach, and there is a small terrace.
Cheng Shijie looked at his horse-drawn RV and suddenly felt a little off.
No matter how comfortable a carriage or RV is, it gives people a very depressing feeling due to space constraints, but this kind of wooden house is different. The height is nearly one foot, especially the roof of the wooden house and the waterproof awning, so you are not afraid even if it rains.
After the wooden house was officially assembled, there were still a few steps that could be extended directly to the river. Several maids pulled up the curtains, and Zhu Weiti sat on the steps and released her feet from her shoes.
Cheng Shijie saw the problem. Originally, Zhu Weiti did not have her feet bound, but now she did.
Cheng Shijie looked at Zhu Weiti and said, "You obviously didn't bind your feet, why do you want to bind them now?"
Zhu Weiti smiled slightly: "In the past, when I was in the palace, I deliberately didn't bind my feet. I had big feet, so I couldn't get married. But it's different now. I married my husband and I can't embarrass him!"
Only then did Cheng Shijie remember the legend of the so-called three-inch golden lotus. Foot binding, as the name suggests, is to tie up the feet with cloth to prevent their natural growth and development, making the feet pointy and small. This is an important criterion for evaluating whether women are beautiful or ugly in ancient times. A woman with a pair of natural feet has a beautiful face. No matter how beautiful you are, no matter how good your figure is, you will still be disliked.
But the cost of doing this was that the soft tissues of the feet contracted, and the feet seemed to have been burned by fire, turning into a severely distorted fleshy lump with abnormal skin color, which was very ugly.
Of course, the ancients did not see it this way. They thought it was beautiful, but they did not realize that the price paid for this beauty was that women became disabled and lost their ability to work. Arthritis would accompany women throughout their lives and make them suffer.
Women's feet are disabled and it is inconvenient to walk. They can only support their husbands and raise children at home. They cannot go out or step out of the second door. This is in line with the ancient requirements for women since the Song Dynasty.
In the Ming Dynasty, the practice of foot binding was not very popular. It was mainly concentrated in wealthy families because they had people to serve them and could bind their feet. However, it was different for ordinary families.
Many people say that foot binding was very serious in the Ming Dynasty. This is actually a slander against the Ming Dynasty. Foot binding really spread. Starting from the Qianlong period, foot binding, which was not very popular in the south, became popular even in the northwest and southwest. Some ethnic minorities in China have also contracted the custom of foot binding.
I have to say that this kind of request is very abnormal. From the pre-Qin Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, no dynasty required women to stay away from home, and there was no literati in any dynasty who strongly praised women's home confinement. However, since the Song Dynasty, the trend of banning women has spread.
Of course, it is no accident that the trend of confinement spread in the Song Dynasty. At that time, the Song Dynasty was extremely passive in the war against the northern nomads. From the Northern Song Dynasty to the Southern Song Dynasty, it was always in a position of being beaten. This made the men of the Song Dynasty full of frustration and could only fight in the Song Dynasty. Women look for their broken dignity. They cannot make themselves stronger, but they can make women weaker. Since ancient times, men's strength has been set off by women's weakness.
In later generations, the status of women has improved, and transvestites have become common, because transvestites can reflect the masculinity of women. To be honest, those sissies will make a man feel disgusted, because women like them, so they will operate commercially.
I have to say that this is the tragedy of the times.
Cheng Shijie picked up Zhu Weiti's foot-binding cloth and threw it directly into the river: "No foot-binding is allowed in the future. How about a good foot-binding? This binding will not make the feet crippled!"
Zhu Weiti smiled bitterly and said: "If you don't bind your feet, you will embarrass your husband..."
"Ha ha……"
Cheng Shijie pointed at Zhu Weiti and said: "What kind of logic is this, do you think you are binding your feet for my face? I don't believe this evil. You lose face to yourself, and face is given to you by others. You are not allowed to bind your feet!" "
Zhu Weiti still wanted to explain.
Cheng Shijie said directly: "When you enter the Cheng family, you are a member of the Cheng family. The Cheng family will never bind their feet. I will also legislate that anyone who binds their feet will be fined one tael of silver a year."
"Only one tael of silver?"
"The next year he was fined 2 taels of silver, the third year he was fined 4 taels of silver, the fourth year he was fined 8 taels of silver and so on!"
Zhu Weiti said: "Nowadays, those who bind feet are all wealthy people, and they are not afraid of fines at all!"
"hehe……"
Cheng Shijie smiled and said: "No matter how much property they have, I can punish them until they lose everything!"
"How can this be?"
Zhu Weiti calculated silently in her mind, and she found that it was true as Cheng Shijie said, no matter how much money she had, she would be fined to the point of bankruptcy.
(End of chapter)
