When Cao Yu finally sent troops from Kaiyuan, bad news came: Ye Hedong and Xishuangcheng had lost the west city a few days ago, and now only the east city is still struggling to hold on.
However, Bu Zhai, the son of Xicheng Baylor and Qing Jia Niu, behaved extremely decisively this time. Before breaking out, he first burned all the supplies in East City that could not be taken away. This even included a lot of bean cakes, hay, etc., and he shouted the slogan: "Ye He will not leave a straw for the Tumen even if he dies!"
Since Yehe himself was the tribe with the largest number of cavalry among the Jurchens, although the Buzhai could not defeat the Tumen, they still managed to break out of the encirclement. They also joined forces with Belena Linbululi in the east city to temporarily break the siege in the west city and successfully entered the east city to defend.
By the way, it’s really good and worth installing. Even Android and Apple phones support it!
However, although the personnel losses were not large, Ye He counted the number of troops in the east city and found that the loss was only more than 400 people. However, when the west city was lost, many of Ye He's tribesmen in the west city were blocked and could not break out. Now almost all of them have been plotted. They took control.
The Jurchens have always been underpopulated. Even though the Yehe tribe gathered many Jurchens who defected from Hada in the last years of Wan Khan, there were only more than 20,000 people in Xicheng, certainly less than 30,000. Although many of them did not live in the walled city, even so, I am afraid that at least 10,000 people were lost this time.
If the Tumen at this time were still like the Mongols more than two hundred years ago, who attacked a city and massacred it directly after victory as long as they dared to resist, then Ye He would probably be close to collapse this time.
Fortunately, the Mongolia of today is not the Mongolia of the past. The momentum of conquering everything has long since disappeared. Whether the Mongols send troops or retreat, they all consider whether it is cost-effective or not.
Killing the Jurchens in Xicheng will not bring much benefit to the Tumen, and keeping them will not cause any more losses to the Tumen - don't expect the Tumen to feed and drink them like ordinary prisoners. , the Tumen Khan did not have that kind of kindness, and even if he did, it would not be towards them.
Even if Buzhaibeile burns all the reserves in Xicheng, he can only burn what belongs to him, or in other words, what belongs to him as the leader. He does not dare to burn civilian supplies.
In this way, by retaining these people, the Tumen can not only obtain a certain amount of supplements, but also allow them to send one person from each household to go out to find food or do other work. In short, it is a business without capital. As for whether part of it will be lost in the process? Tumen Khan obviously won't consider it.
No matter what, the Tumen at least got a walled city and won a victory, putting an end to their bad luck in the past few years. It was enough to boost morale. It also laid the foundation for the next attack on Dongcheng. .
The Ming army's 20,000-strong army set out from Zhenbeiguan in an arrogant manner. Instead of following the former Nurgandusi Post Road?, they chose to go straight up the Kuangtuzi Mountain along the Kou River. Both the east and west cities of Yehe were near this mountain.
The Kou River is not directly connected to the Liao River or Hun River in terms of water system, so Jinghua's gunboats will definitely not be able to help. In fact, winter has already entered Liaodong early, and it is inconvenient to move even if it is connected? Who knows when it will freeze? It's getting colder and colder in recent years? Even the Ice Age is not that accurate anymore. So this time, the Ming army could only go up the river, but they could not count on help from the water.
Originally, Gao Yuan's pragmatic order was to tell them not to rush into the march, but to fight slowly and steadily. However, since Ye He was already in danger, messengers calling for help came to the army one after another. Cao Yan was also a little worried about what would happen if Ye He really collapsed. The trade between the North and South Passes was completely over. After much deliberation, I had to summon the generals to hold an impromptu meeting.
In fact, summoning the generals was not Cao Yun's main purpose. His original intention was to prop up the situation and then ask Gao Yimin to make this judgment-whether the army could move faster.
Of course, Cao Yan was already a direct general of Gao Pragmatic, not to mention Ma Chengxun, Zhang Wanbang, etc. who went to battle this time, they had already followed the Gao family. But Cao Yan was not like Meng Gebulu. To him, Gao Yimin was like a supervisor sent by the emperor to the army, but this time the person who sent him was not the emperor.
The impromptu meeting was held, and what Cao Yu didn't expect was that before he could ask Gao Yimin, who hurriedly arrived, Gao Yimin took out a letter first and said to Cao Yu: "Mr. Cao, this is a letter from Nurhaci."
Cao Yu was refreshed. As he took the letter, he asked, "What did he say?"
Gao Yimin raised his chest slightly: "As expected by the master, Nurhaci fully accepted the mediation, and also expressed his willingness to send a small chieftain, his younger brother Shuerhaqi, to lead an army to help. The reinforcements are currently about fifty miles away and are galloping."
Cao Yu may have suffered from ambush phobia after the defeat at Chang'an Fort. Hearing this, he was shocked at first: "I haven't agreed yet, but he even sent troops and horses? How many troops are there?"
Gao Yimin shook his head and said: "There are not many people, just five hundred people."
When he heard that it was only five hundred, Cao Yu felt relieved and said with relief: "The chieftain is vulgar after all. How can such a big thing be carried out without an order? Fortunately, there is only five hundred, otherwise... hum."
Surprisingly, except for Cao Yu, the other generals had a good impression of Nurhaci. They all said that Jianzhou was quite respectful, and it was even more rare to send their only biological brother.
After Cao Yu stopped worrying about being ambushed, his thinking became clearer. After thinking about it, he actually acknowledged Nurhaci's submission.
The key to being respectful is to look at who is right. Wan Khan of the Hada tribe was very respectful to the Ming Dynasty, but this does not mean that other Jurchen tribes think that Wan Khan is a good person.
The same goes for Nurhachi. Although he was not merciless at all when he attacked Nikan Wailan, and he dared to take advantage of the situation this time, it was nothing in the eyes of the generals of the Ming Dynasty: What does this have to do with my Ming Dynasty?
In their opinion, Nurhaci's subservience was due to the fact that after Gao Situ sent a letter, he hurriedly withdrew from Fushun Pass without looking back. He even ignored Nikan Wailan, the enemy who killed his father and ancestors.
This is called being respectful! Does it matter whether you are naturally submissive or submissive out of fear? It doesn't matter.
In the eyes of the generals of the Ming Dynasty, fear is also a good mentality. What's more, our Ming Dynasty is a hundred times stronger than him. He can only maintain this kind of fear and this kind of submission. In this case, it doesn't matter where his deference comes from.
Last time, it was said that in the original history, Nurhaci was the first to express his loyalty in the 16th year of Wanli. In fact, he showed his loyalty for a long time. For example, in the 17th year of Wanli, Nurhaci killed the invaders from the border and sent them into captivity. Cheng Xun, Li Zaiting and others then asked Nurhaci to be appointed governor.
"Cheng Xun, who participated in the government in Kaiyuan, and Li Zai, who participated in the government in Liaohai, made the government in Tingheci. They said that so-and-so was the commander of the capital of Jianzhou and led twenty edicts. His ancestors and father led the suppression of Wang Gao and killed him. Now so-and-so has repeatedly Returning the Han population and conquering fifty was a meritorious service. It is appropriate to be promoted to the governor and control the east. In September, Zhang Guoyan, the governor's assistant, heard about it and reported it." - The whole story was recorded in Gu Yangqian's memorial at that time.
In addition, there is: "Menggu Boluo (ie Meng Gebulu) did not learn well last year and wanted to punish you as General Longhu. He has repented recently and allowed you to pay tribute. Now the traitor has fled to various places. He has not refused. Guo is in Jianzhou. If you can capture and kidnap him, you will be more loyal and obedient. As usual, General Longhu will treat you more generously. If Nuerhachi is captured and released, you will see that the slave chief has something to do. He will ask the slave chief to be promoted to governor. , still add General Longhu."
At this time, Ke Shifu had fled to Jianzhou, and Liaodong had already known about it. Menggebulu could only capture Dongge, Gaidu, and Kua'erda, and sent Yi Nake and others to ask for it from Nuerhachi.
Faced with such an opportunity to make meritorious deeds, Nurhachi would certainly not give it up to Meng Gebulu. He then claimed that Ke Shifu had been killed, and the coroner sent by Liaodong happened to be General Secretary Dong Guoyun. It uses the words of Tong Weidong, a general official, to describe the achievements of Nurha Chi's ancestor and father.
"According to the general officer Tong Weidong and others, Nu'erhachi is the grandson of Jingchang and the son of Tashu. In previous years, Jingchang and Tashu were all loyal and obedient. They contributed to China and led Wangtai to capture and transport Wang Gao." There was Ma Sanfei, who came to beg for rewards with a piece of paper written in Chinese characters. Dong Guoyun, Tong Weidong and Ma Sanfei, these generals are connected with each other. Naturally, we can also understand the later behavior of Dong Guoyun and Tong Weidong to attach themselves to Hou Jin.
In fact, these generals and the Liaodong border generals Cheng Xun and Li Zaiting were just front-end players, while Li Chengliang, Gu Yangqian and others were the behind-the-scenes planners. This also explains Ming's attitude.
"In the past, your ancestors and your father were both loyal and obedient to Yi. In recent years, you have also learned well and Fu Zhen Ertang, so you are allowed to receive the reward from Rugong City." The Fu Zhen Ertang here is the governor Gu Yangqian, and the town is the commander-in-chief Li Chengliang. In the end, Gu and Li obtained the title of governor for Nurhachi and supported him to become the Jurchen co-leader. "Fuqi ordered the Ministry of War to review the case and decide to promote Nu'er Hachi to the rank of governor and give him an imperial order to control the Eastern Yi and serve as our border fence. This is the key point of the Eastern Frontier."
In the 23rd year of Wanli, the Ming Dynasty had already started a war with Japan in Korea, and had little thought to deal with Nurhaci. So Nurhachi, who had grown in strength, further "had to add the dragon and tiger generals to the throne." Next year, he would pay tribute to the Yi, which would be beneficial. Sheng, called the total fifty-three chiefs."
In other words, everything Nurhaci did during this period was imitating Wan Khan, and he was indeed successful. He was eventually named General Dragon and Tiger, replacing Wan Khan in controlling the Jurchen tribes.
At that time, Qu Jiusi commented on Nurhaci and believed that he had the legacy of ten thousand sweats. "Nu'erhachi rebelled against Tai, and I didn't care about it. I only talked about his offering of rebels and the captured people and animals, which was Tai (Wangtai, that is, Wanhan) style. He had an intermarriage with a rogue merchant, and his wings were already mature, and Haixi could not get it. Absolutely like a hair. It is not a day off to repay Taiwan. It is better to worship the governor and call him loyal and obedient."
At this point, the Ming Dynasty's policy towards the Jianzhou Jurchens changed drastically, from prevention to support. Nurhachi took the opportunity to become powerful and annexed other Jurchen tribes.
"At the beginning of the Haixi Pass, the two passes had been feuding with each other for 40 years. They were all fighting for their own good. Nurha Chi sided with his hands to reap the benefits of the fishermen, while the Nüzhi tribes were wiped out and established as a state."
It can be seen that timid people are not necessarily born timid. When it is time to pretend to be a grandson, you have to pretend to be a grandson. Nurhachi has been pretending to be good in the past few decades. Even if you think about it, he still waited until Li Chengliang was dead before he dared to jump out and talk about the "seven hates". This shows that this guy's courage was not really the best when there were people in the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty must be "someone" now. Nurhachi is obviously afraid of heights and as pragmatic as a tiger. The world's number one literary commander who is invincible in both south and north battles must be like a mountain standing tall in Nurhachi's eyes, so as a direct descendant of Gao Pragmatism The generals were of course very satisfied with Nurhachi's "submission" and would not have any other ideas.
As for Nurhachi, he even sent his own brother to help... Everyone felt that although it was of no use, these five hundred people were not short of food, so they came as they came, it didn't matter.
Cao Yu was too lazy to care about this little accident. He immediately talked about the theme of this temporary military meeting and asked Gao Yimin what he thought of Ye He's current situation.
Gao Yimin is only twenty-six years old this year, slightly older than Gao Pragmatic, but he looks a bit tanned. It is said that he got his tan during special training at the beach.
He was a tall man and was originally a refugee from Shandong. That year the Yellow River overflowed and caused a catastrophic disaster. He and some other refugees ended up in Weihui. When he was about to starve to death, he was rescued by Gao Pangshi's "three hundred thousand taels" of relief. From then on, he became a servant of the Gao family. After four years of hard work, he was transferred from the coal mine to the escort team, and then because of his outstanding performance, he was selected into the army. He took the nursing training class and then entered the special training class.
During these processes, he participated in seventeen times of suppressing bandits, including nine with bandits, five with horse thieves, and three with small groups of pirate lairs. He made meritorious deeds every time, and four of them were personally directed by him.
Facing Cao Yu's question, Gao Yimin knew it was a subtle question and asked if he could speed up the army. The situation is clear at the moment, and it seems that Ye He may be finished at any time. Once Ye He completely collapses, the North-South Pass system will become a big problem.
However, what the imperial court thinks and whether there are reserve teams for the North-South Pass trade are not something they, the generals, know. For them, all they can do is to ensure that such a situation does not occur.
