The sun passed over Shanhaiguan and gradually slanted towards the vast land inside the pass, shrouding the beautiful and magnificent mountains, rivers and plains, as well as the Great Wall built along the ridges, under the infinitely beautiful sunset.
On the tower of the most majestic pass in the world, two officials from the Ming Dynasty, one civilized, one military, one old and one strong, were holding the crenels with their hands, looking at the large number of shacks being built in Shanhaiguan, and they couldn't help but sigh.
The young military attache is a rather tall and muscular man with a Chinese character face, thick eyebrows and big eyes, a straight nose, a broad mouth, a beard and a majestic look. This person is the real Wu Sangui, Zhu Cixang's second uncle, who holds 40,000 soldiers, and a single thought is enough to change the situation of the world. Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty's Liaodong Army and the Western Bodhisattva!
"Such a majestic pass...is originally the screen of the Han family. If Donglu is allowed to enter through this, will it lead to a wolf entering the house in the future and make a big mistake?"
The person Wu Sangui asked was a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a python robe, with a dark face and a long beard, thick eyebrows furrowed, and he seemed to be thinking hard.
This man's name is Wang Yongji, also known as Xiuzhi. He is now the governor of Ji Liao and is Wu Sangui's immediate superior. However, almost all the territory under his governor's jurisdiction was lost, leaving only Yongping Mansion, and it was still in danger.
Now there is Li Zicheng's "million-strong army" inside the Shanhaiguan Pass, and the Eight Banners of the Donglu are watching outside the Shanhaiguan Pass. It really feels like being attacked from both sides and desperate.
"Uncle Chang," Wang Yongji called Wu Sangui's name and pointed at the people who were building shacks, "how can we care about the future now? You and I have to pay 300,000 yuan for this place just to repay the court's kindness. Are the living beings thinking about it? They all left their homes and entered the country together with you and me. You and I have to find a way out for them, right?"
The people who built the shacks were all people who moved in from Ningyuan outside the customs. According to the imperial edict issued by Emperor Chongzhen on March 6, while abandoning the important town of Ningyuan, the people must also be evacuated into the pass at the same time. There were as many as 300,000 people accompanying him, most of them were the family members of the generals and sergeants of Guan Ning's army. The families of some of the generals still have some money left over, and they finally have enough food and clothing to live in Linyu County near Shanhaiguan. As for the families of ordinary soldiers and even ordinary people, they lacked food and clothing, and coupled with the long journey, it was really miserable.
I thought that after entering the customs, I could quickly move to various places in southern Zhili and be properly resettled. Unexpectedly, Wu Sangui's vanguard had just arrived at Yutian when they received the bad news that Beijing had fallen and that the lives of Emperor Chongzhen and the prince were uncertain. Li Zicheng's army also took the opportunity to press forward. As a last resort, Wu Sangui had to withdraw his troops and return to Shanhaiguan. The 300,000 people who followed him into the customs could only live temporarily under Shanhaiguan.
Now everyone is really frowning and resentful. What's worse than sadness and resentment is the despair of not seeing a future or a way out!
The 300,000 people here, including the 50,000 officers and soldiers who followed Wu Sangui and Gao Di (the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan Pass), can now be said to have lost their way out!
In the past, the soldiers among them had food and pay from the court, and the people either farmed the land, opened shops, or were supported by their family members who served in the army. Generally speaking, they had no worries about food and clothing. If it weren't for the fact that Manchu soldiers and horses invaded and plundered from time to time, these people could be regarded as living in a paradise in troubled times.
But now, not only have they lost their homes and fields, but they can no longer receive support from the court... How to provide food and clothing for these 300,000 people? The grain and grass brought from Ningyuan and the reserves at Shanhaiguan are not very generous. If a way to survive cannot be found within a few months, then all the 300,000 people gathered in Shanhaiguan will starve to death!
Wang Yongji patted the crenellations of the city wall and sighed: "Uncle Chang, I really have no other way to survive except borrowing Donglu troops to fight back to the capital. Going south is impossible, not to mention that the Holy Emperor and the Prince can We cannot break through to Tianjin.
Even if you can get to Tianjin, you have to leave in a hurry and go south across the sea.
Even if you can stay in Tianjin for a while, it is impossible to accommodate the 300,000 people here in Shanhaiguan! Shen Tingyang only has more than a hundred sea boats in his hands. Even if he can go back and forth a few times, he will end up taking 50,000 to 60,000 people from Dagokou. What happens to the rest of us? Starve to death or let the bandits kill him?
As for the surrender, the bandits cannot survive the more than 300,000 people here... The bandits will not give us the land that can support more than 300,000 people, nor will they give us enough food and wages. With no land, no pay, and no food, within a few months, everyone in Shanhaiguan would die of hunger! "
If Zhu Cihong arrived at Shanhaiguan now and heard Wang Yongji's analysis, he would probably have nothing to say. Because Zhu Cixiang didn't intend to take away all the more than 300,000 people in Shanhaiguan... This is impossible! Shen Tingyang can transport 50,000 people from Dagokou, which is already a great ability. It is simply impossible to transport hundreds of thousands of people!
And Wu Sangui is not willing to abandon the more than 300,000 people here in Shanhaiguan... It's not that he loves the people, but that these more than 300,000 people are Wu Sangui's roots.
Having his own "roots" is the best thing about Wu Sangui! Unlike most of the Ming army at this time, Wu Sangui's army was actually granted land. There was no room for nobles and scholar-bureaucrats to intervene in western Liaoning, so they were all under the control of the Liao army. Moreover, from the time when Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan were running Ningyuan, they implemented the policy of Liao people guarding Liaodong. In fact, it turned the Guanning Army into a military and peasant military group based on the land of western Liaoning.
In other words, the Guan Ning Army cultivates the land in western Liaoning while receiving royal pay. Not only is it extremely financially secure, but it also has its roots firmly planted in the land in western Liaoning - every soldier of the Guan Ning Army Behind it all is a family!
Having a family and a career means that their fate is firmly controlled by the leader of the Guan Ning Army, Wu Sangui himself. At the same time, it also means that Guan Ningjun has additional mobilization and supplementary capabilities. After all, a family often has more than one strong man who can join the army.
So the 40,000 Guanning Army is not just 40,000 people, but 40,000 households and millions of acres of land! Now they have left the land of Ningyuan and have temporarily become "potted plants", in a state of considerable powerlessness and hesitation.
Finding a new piece of soil and re-rooting into the soil has become the goal pursued by Guan Ningjun!
Whoever can satisfy them will be the object of allegiance to Guan Ningjun!
By the way, Wu Sangui's military management ability is actually very powerful! In history, Wu Sangui controlled Yunnan and Guizhou for more than ten years and managed the Guanning Group to a point where it could compete with the Qing Dynasty!
That’s still running Yunnan and Guizhou! What territory is Yungui? According to the results of the national land clearing conducted by Zhang Juzheng during the Wanli Period, the total number of registered fields in Yunnan was less than 1.799 million acres, and Guizhou only had more than 516,000 acres. The combined area of the two provinces is no more than 2.3 million acres, and the total tax and grain tax is less than 200,000 shi. With such a territory, he almost overthrew the Qing Dynasty. If he were given a large province with 30 million acres of land to run, the consequences would be disastrous...
It was a bit difficult to ask him to give up his roots and go south with only a few servants to seek refuge with Zhu Cihong who didn't know where he was.
In addition, Qiu Zhizhong and Zu Zepu also sent Wu Sangui Zhu Cijiong, the Dingwang... If Chongzhen and Zhu Cixiang are no longer alive, Zhu Cijiong is the inevitable successor to the Ming Dynasty throne!
Wang Yongji then analyzed: "If the hundreds of thousands of people here have a way to survive, they can only borrow the troops of Donglu and march westward with the king as the deputy marshal of the world's soldiers and horses. As long as we defeat the bandits, we can always find a piece of land." The land can accommodate these hundreds of thousands of people. Even if the sixteen states of Yanyun are ceded and a yearly coin is promised, the situation of the Northern Song Dynasty can still be achieved!
If the emperor and the prince are still here. We defeated the bandits and recovered large tracts of rivers and mountains in Shanxi, Henan, and Beizhili. We must have merit. And with tens of thousands of troops at hand, the imperial court had to rely on the general! "
Wu Sangui nodded lightly, this analysis was absolutely correct, that's what happened!
In today's troubled times, if you have soldiers, you will be the Caotou King. Wu Sangui now has an army of 40,000 and the banner of King Ding Zhu Cijiong. How can he not accomplish great things?
"Okay!" Wu Sangui finally made up his mind and said, "I will send Zu Zepu to Shengjing to contact Dorgon, the regent of Donglu, and ask him to borrow troops to suppress the bandits!"
