One thing that Hong Chengchou did not mention at all was whether the Ming Dynasty could defeat the Tumote tribe in Hetao. Because he had already seen what Emperor Chongzhen did during the war against the captives. He believed in the emperor and would not do useless work.
On the other hand, the Tumote tribe is really useless. Previously, it was defeated by Lin Dan Khan's Chahar tribe and fled. Now the power of Jianlu has come back, but it has been divided into two by Jianlu, and its power has been even weakened. Daming's side has a lot of calculations, but the odds of winning are very high.
After Emperor Chongzhen talked with Hong Chengchou for a long time, early the next morning, he no longer stayed in Yanghe and led the army to continue westward and headed for Datong. Everyone who followed him, especially Wu Sangui, was confused.
Previously, he was holding back his energy, just waiting to kill the enemy and make meritorious service, proving to other generals and the emperor that he, Wu Sangui, was by no means a person who did not live up to his name!
But why go to Datong? Aren’t you going to the Central Plains? Isn't it in Hubei that bandits are causing trouble?
Wu Sangui couldn't figure it out and couldn't understand it. Wu Sangui wanted to ask Emperor Chongzhen several times, but after all, he was not in Liaodong or in the Guan Ning Army. Therefore, he thought about it and finally kept it in his heart and continued to hold it in. .
Emperor Chongzhen had actually noticed it a long time ago, but he deliberately didn't say anything, and just let a few of their generals hold it in until the time was right to turn around, and then let them go to the grassland to reward them. Now is not the time to hold back your ultimate move!
When he led the cavalry to Datong, on the other side, the soldiers of the Ming army had already rushed to Hetao with the Jianlu Niulu, and explained their purpose of coming, which made Gu Luge, the left-wing commander of the Tumote tribe, very surprised when he learned the news. Unexpected, but also very troublesome.
For him, he was very reluctant to encounter such a thing.
In the Mongolian tent, he summoned the counselors, assistant leaders, and the riding school to discuss this matter. They all felt a headache.
The Ming Dynasty offered a price in exchange for a thousand fine war horses, and the time was limited. It would be a matter of words whether to exchange or not, and there would be no time to ask the Qing Emperor of Liaodong for instructions.
In distress, some people complained: "Isn't this true? Aren't the Qing army invincible in the field? How could they be captured by the Ming Dynasty? Ordinary Jurchens were captured, but even Gushan Ezhen was captured. ,What's going on?"
If they were just ordinary Jianzhou Jurchens, they might be able to find excuses not to trade with the Ming Dynasty. After all, there were thousands of good war horses, which was not a small amount of money. For them, it's all painful.
However, there are now high-level Jianzhou Jurchens like Gushan Ezhen among the prisoners. Since they want to rely on the Qing Dynasty to occupy this fertile Hetao plain, they can only replace them. Otherwise, the Ming Kingdom made it clear that if they did not change, they would kill the prisoners to avenge the dead Ming people.
If we really don't change and put these Jianzhou Jurchens to death, then after the Jianzhou Jurchens in Liaodong hear about it, their relatives and friends will definitely hate them. It's hard to say what will happen to them by then. !
"This Ming Dynasty is really treacherous!" Someone in the yurt echoed, "You can just take prisoners as you said, but they actually took them all the way to such a far away place just to trade with us. I'm so busy!"
"..."
When Guruge listened to their conversation, he only heard complaints but couldn't come up with any ideas. He was so depressed that he felt like he had suddenly run into bad luck.
Suddenly, his subordinate's assistant suggested to him: "We can't let our left wing bear the burden of this matter. Don't we also have the right wing? Why don't you let us know and the two families can share the burden?"
Upon hearing this, Guluge's eyes suddenly lit up, and he thought to himself, yes, there is no reason for one family to cut the meat. If you want to cut the meat, then everyone should cut the meat together. These days, the grassland is also suffering from disasters. Life is already difficult, and if we can bleed less, we will bleed less.
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard a noise coming from outside the tent. It seemed like someone was coming this way, and the guards outside wanted to stop him.
Guruge was annoyed, so he shouted sharply: "Whoever makes more noise, believe it or not, I will whip you?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he saw someone walking into the yurt and shouted with an ugly face: "Who are you going to whip?"
Gu Luge took a closer look and found that it was Niu Lu Ezhen who was brought by the Ming army.
The Jianzhou Jurchen Niulu Ezhen, for those in Liaodong, is either big or small; but to these Mongolians, she is the Supreme Master. Therefore, Guruge quickly explained with a smile, saying that was not what he meant.
This Niulu'er really didn't want to hear this, and just asked sternly: "Our Lord Turge is suffering in the Ming Dynasty. When are you going to rescue him?"
Having said this, he stared at Guruge again, took a few steps closer, pointed at Guruge's nose and asked: "Is it true that the lives of our Qing warriors are no better than one of your horses?"
"No, no!" Upon hearing this, Gu Luge firmly denied, "Didn't the Ming Kingdom say that they want good war horses? I'm just afraid that the Ming Kingdom will find fault and affect the rescue of the Qing warriors, so I thought Let’s discuss with the right wing and select some war horses from both sides so that the Ming Kingdom can save Lord Turge and other Qing warriors at once without any reason!”
After hearing this, Niu Lu'er was probably quite satisfied, so he softened his tone a little, agreed with Gu Luge's statement, and urged him to do it quickly: "Don't delay, those Ming troops will return tomorrow. Yes, it wasted time, made the Ming Dynasty think that you didn’t want to exchange, and harmed Sir Turge and other Qing warriors. This is something you cannot afford!”
After a lot of threats, I was still a little worried, so I just sat there and watched with my own eyes as Hang Gao, the commander of the right wing, was summoned, and then they discussed together and finally decided on the bad luck of sending five hundred good war horses each.
The next day, a thousand war horses were selected without any room for bargaining.
According to the true meaning of Niu Lu'e, Gu Luge said to the leading Ming army Xiaoqi: "These war horses are the best war horses in our Tumut tribe, and they are all ready. Then what happens next , isn’t it time to hand over the people with one hand and the horse with the other?”
After hearing this, the Ming Army Xiaoqi replied disdainfully: "That's not the case. These war horses will be brought back to the pass for inspection first. Otherwise, who knows whether you have eaten croton or something like that. If not, If there is a problem, the person will naturally be released. If you have any objections, our Lord Governor has said that you don’t have to change!"
"..." Upon hearing this, Guruge and Hanggao looked at each other, both of them speechless.
Damn it, with those princes in hand, the Ming army is so confident that there is no room for negotiation on their side.
Niu Lu Ezhen was also there. After hearing what the Ming army Xiaoqi said, he still wanted to fight for it and said: "What if the war horse is given to you, but you don't let me go?"
"Haha, our Ming Dynasty is a country of etiquette, how can we be as dishonest as you barbarians!" Xiaoqi, a Ming army soldier, couldn't help but sneered after hearing this, "If you love me, you can't change it. If you don't believe in my Ming Dynasty, then Just say goodbye!”
After saying that, he really had to leave.
This time, this Niu Lu was really dumbfounded! When did Ming Gou become so arrogant?
However, Master Turg is still in the hands of Ming Gou, so he can only endure it! Niu Lu was really aggrieved. He couldn't bear to ask for help, so he had to wink at Gu Luge.
Guruge was helpless, so he had no choice but to stay with his smiling face, say good words, appease the Ming army's flag, and promised to give him the horse first. At the same time, he also believed that the Ming army would let him go if he kept his word.
So Tumut sent people to drive their horses and followed these Ming troops back to the pass.
Watching them go away, the Niu Lu spit out "Bah!" and said viciously: "You Ming Gou, who must die a good death, have made you arrogant. When Lord Turge is rescued, I will definitely kill you Ming Gou." The dogs were killed and no one was left alive!"
Gu Luge and Hang Gao, who were standing by the side, did not speak. They all expressed contempt in their hearts: If they really had such ability, why did they become prisoners of the Ming Dynasty? Really, it hurt us by the way!
At the same time, Zheng Chongjian, the governor of the three sides, had just arrived at Prince Rui's Mansion in Hanzhong. During this period of time, he was exhausted. Shaanxi is not a small country, and the vassal kings entrusted various places. He rushed here and there non-stop, read out the imperial edict, and exchanged the Ming Dynasty Royal Bank silver notes and food stamps he brought with him for money and food.
To his delight, the emperor's edict was useful after all. Although the various vassal kings could see it and were reluctant, they finally paid for it.
Of course, Zheng Chongjian also knew that this was also related to the proportion in the imperial edict. He did not empty out the money and food of the vassals everywhere at once, but only asked them to take out part of it. Now, after dealing with the money and food from King Rui, he had to rush back to deal with the Loop.
However, this time, he ran into trouble.
It is possible that King Rui had already heard the news, so it took a lot of trouble just for him to meet King Rui. King Rui seemed to have done it on purpose. When he finally summoned Zheng Chongjian, he was eating, eating pickles and radish, and drinking gruel. Then, when Zheng Chongjian arrived, King Rui's grandson was still shouting that he was not full from the porridge and wanted to eat rice, white flour steamed buns and so on.
King Rui pretended not to see that Zheng Chongjian had arrived, and scolded his grandson, saying that all his food had been taken away by others, and he could only survive by frugal and frugal.
Zheng Chongjian knew this very well and knew that his stay in Prince Rui's Mansion might not go well this time.
Sure enough, when King Rui saw Zheng Chongjian outside the palace, his face turned cold and he looked very unhappy. And his grandson came to arrest Zheng Chongjian, shouting that Zheng Chongjian should compensate them for the food of Prince Rui's Mansion, and asked Zheng Chongjian to arrest those people and punish them severely.
King Rui seemed not to notice his grandson's chaos and allowed him to make trouble with Zheng Chongjian. Anyone who sees this situation will know that this was instigated by Zheng Chongjian.
Logically speaking, although Zheng Chongjian was the governor of the three sides, he was still a minister of the Zhu family. Just like although Prince Rui is not the head of the family, he is still the second master, third master or something like that, and he is not on the same level as the servants in the family. If Zheng Chongjian wants to cause such a commotion, no matter how high his official position is, Zheng Chongjian will not be able to get into trouble.
King Rui's intention was, first of all, to embarrass Zheng Chongjian.
However, Zheng Chongjian did not want to be angry, so he immediately took out the imperial edict and shouted loudly: "The emperor has a will!"
This little bastard, if you scratch it again, I will become an angel now, representing the emperor!
However, King Rui was obviously very angry, so he pretended not to hear it, continued to drink porridge slowly, and let his grandson scratch him for a while. His grandson even knew that he was about to run out of scratching, so he scratched crazily and even harder, and accidentally tore off Zheng Chongjian's belt.
At this time, Zheng Chongjian and his subordinates couldn't stand it anymore, and they quickly shouted: "The emperor has a decree!"
This shout almost shook the hall. King Rui then shouted back his grandson and pretended to hear it: "Ah, there is a purpose! You see, I have been in a trance from hunger these days. Just heard it.”
When he said this, there was a mocking look on his face, and he didn't look like he had been hungry for a long time and was not in good spirits at all.
Zheng Chongjian refused to take up the topic and immediately asked him to take over the order.
As a result, just as he feared, King Rui spread his hands and began to renege: "I do want to contribute to the country. After all, we are all descendants of Taizu! But you should also see that I, We have fallen to the point of eating chaffy vegetables, where will the money and food come from? It’s not that I don’t do my best, I really can’t come up with it!”
Everyone knows whether Prince Rui’s Mansion has money or food. If things had changed in the past, Zheng Chongjian might have been worried about the emperor's blame and could only follow King Rui's wishes. He was afraid that if he made things worse, he, the governor of the three sides, would not be able to escape and would definitely be punished.
But now, Zheng Chongjian roughly understood the emperor's meaning from the emperor's decree, so he still tried to complete the things explained in the imperial decree so that the border troops in Hanzhong could be appeased. Therefore, he said: "From the time when Prince Rui's Mansion was granted the title in the Wanli Period to the current Twelve Years of Chongzhen, although it only happened this time..."
As soon as King Rui heard what he meant, he knew what he wanted to say, and immediately roared like an enraged lion: "Do you think I am alone? Do you know that I have to support my family? In this world, Is it still our Zhu family's world? They are all trying to get it on my head. Is there any royal law? How do you, the governor, come to this place? I want to report to the court and seek an explanation from my nephew. , How did he become the emperor and treat the clan so poorly? Do you want to leave this emperor's uncle alone? Do you want to starve to death..."
While roaring, foam flew from the mouth and sprayed on Zheng Chongjian's face. If you want to avoid getting drooled on your face, you have to either back away or block it with your sleeves.
Maybe it was because he had nothing to do when he was full and had developed a fighting ability. Like a legendary shrew, Zheng Chongjian was so angry that he had no chance to speak. Obviously, in order not to spend money and food, he has even given up his own identity.
In the end, Zheng Chongjian was helplessly ejected from Prince Rui's Mansion. As soon as the door was closed, there was a "bang" and it was quiet.
Seeing himself in a mess, Zheng Chongjian couldn't help but smile bitterly and said to his men: "I underestimated Prince Rui's face!"
He didn't expect that as soon as he finished speaking, a voice with a capital accent sounded from beside him: "It seems that things are not going well for the Governor in Prince Rui's Mansion!"
Zheng Chongjian was stunned for a moment after hearing this. He turned around and saw a group of strangers standing not far behind him. He knew at a glance that they were not ordinary people. I couldn't help being a little surprised, so I asked casually: "Are you..."
After hearing this, the leader took out a jade plaque and showed it to him. At the same time, he said lightly: "Li Ruolian, commander of the Jinyi Guards, is here to wait for the Governor!"
Upon hearing this, Zheng Chongjian and his men were all surprised, and their expressions suddenly changed.
Because their first thought was, could it be that King Rui had already rushed to the emperor's side, so the emperor sent the commander of the Jin Yiwei to come and deal with the matter?
Could it be that I misunderstood the emperor's meaning, and after all, the clan and family members wanted more?
Li Ruolian took back his badge, approached Zheng Chongjian, and said to him: "I have already been to Lieutenant General Li Guoqi and saw the soldiers who were grabbing land rent. I already know everything. I wonder if the Governor can tell me where he is?" What happened in Prince Rui's Mansion? Why is it in such a mess? I'm on an errand and I need to know the truth without any exaggeration or misrepresentation."
After all, looking at Zheng Chongjian's behavior, it should be another major case of the Chongzhen Dynasty, so we have to be cautious.
