So, there are all kinds of suggestions.
Some people shouted to their leader with red eyes: "Chief, blood debt must be paid with blood. Let's go into the prison and avenge our tribe!"
"Are you crazy? You think you can't die fast enough!" Someone immediately retorted, "The Ming Kingdom is no longer the Ming Kingdom it used to be. Don't you have any idea why all your people are dying?"
"That's right, clan leader, please don't mess with the Ming Kingdom again. Look, they are all chasing the clan to take revenge. Will we have to suffer revenge from the Ming Kingdom again in the future?" More people also agreed, They were afraid and did not dare to retaliate against Ming Dynasty.
This kind of thinking is actually natural, because the grassland people believe that the weak can eat the strong, and the strong is king! The tribes on the grassland also annexed and exterminated each other, but they would kill the adult men and leave the women and children behind to become members of their own tribe.
Soon, this topic was dropped by them: "Chief, please find a solution quickly, otherwise, even we will starve to death!"
"Yes, clan leader, look at the weather, it seems like it's going to snow soon. If we don't think of a way, even we will die!" Others reminded them one after another.
Faced with desperate situations, different tribes finally made different choices.
Some tribes decided to return to Huacheng and still want to protect Jianlu's legs and survive this winter; some tribes did not dare to join forces with Jianlu anymore, but became horse thieves on the grassland. Attack and rob other tribes of cattle, sheep and food. In the past, they might have had scruples, either because other tribes were powerful or because they were afraid of retaliation, but now, they no longer care.
Under such circumstances, the situation in the grasslands, which had been relatively peaceful for a while because various ministries surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, no longer existed. The turmoil on the grasslands began at the end of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen.
When several cavalry troops from the Chahar tribe and the Urad tribe hurried back to Huihua City with hope, heavy snow had already begun to fall. However, they did not see their master alive. They only saw two tombs and the thousands of corpses of their masters arranged neatly.
This scene shocked them again. Unexpectedly, in just a few days, the Qing army suffered a disastrous defeat. Counting the dead bodies, it turned out that the entire army was almost wiped out.
"Blood debt must be paid with blood, this is my promise!" These ten words were engraved on the tombstone before the Ming army left. They were painted in red, which was particularly eye-catching and dazzling. It was a chance that these words would still exist. The Mongolian tribesmen hugging Jianlu's thigh felt chilled in their hearts.
Even the powerful Qing army ended up like this. There is no doubt about the power of the Ming Dynasty. There is also an emperor who must take revenge. Whoever wants to mess with the Ming Dynasty again will really be impatient!
With this in mind, these Mongolian tribal armies took away some corpses as their rations, and then joined in the plundering of the surrounding Mongolian tribes.
…………
Zheng Chongjian, the governor of the three sides, did not know the situation on the grassland. He had been worried since the emperor led the army out of the border.
In the vast grassland, what will happen to the emperor's battle?
The Central Plains dynasty attacked the enemies on the grasslands. Even when it was at its most powerful, Chengzu's five expeditions to the grasslands only defeated the Mongolian Tatars. The emperor's expedition this time is at most the same as Chengzu's, right? After all, the grassland is the territory of the Tatars and their world.
The combined strength of the Jianlu and Mongol Tatars amounted to more than 20,000 elite cavalry. The emperor's command, including all the border town cavalry, only totaled about 20,000 people. The strength of the cavalry was almost the same as that of the enemy. As for the chariot camps and infantry, on the grassland, they can only be used for defense and cannot attack at all.
Thinking like this, Zheng Chongjian hoped that the emperor would make a quick triumphant return. He believed that with the emperor's wisdom and martial prowess, nothing would happen. It didn't matter if he couldn't wipe out all the enemies. He must not pursue them to avoid falling into a trap.
He waited and waited. The longer he waited, the more worried he became. Every day he clasped his fingers with his hands. Why hadn't the emperor returned in triumph yet?
A messenger was also sent to the capital, urging the emperor whether he could return to the capital to celebrate the New Year this year? But the emperor is still on the grassland fighting against the enemy. It is obviously impossible to rush back to the capital to celebrate the New Year!
On this day, Zheng Chongjian was dealing with military and political affairs in the palace. Suddenly, he heard a guard shouting outside: "It's snowing!"
As soon as he heard this, he suddenly became excited. Is it snowing? What should the emperor do?
With this in mind, he immediately rushed out to see what was going on.
Sure enough, snowflakes were already falling in the gloomy sky, but fortunately they were not big and sparse. However, Zheng Chongjian's mood did not improve. Based on his experience, he could see that this was just the beginning, and the snow might get heavier and heavier later on.
In recent years, there has either been no snow all winter, or if there has been snow, it has been heavy. It will be difficult for people and horses to travel, and many houses will even be crushed by the heavy snow.
"Hasn't the Emperor made a triumphant return yet?" Zheng Chongjian was worried and immediately shouted to his guards.
"Sir, there is no news!" His personal guard also looked worried when he answered this.
The emperor's expedition to the grassland this time can almost be said to have taken away all the cavalry in the border towns. If an accident occurred, beacons would be lit at the border of the Ming Dynasty. Without the cavalry, they would have to stand firm and be beaten. What's more, if even the emperor had an accident, then there would be a big problem on Ming's side.
Although they all had confidence in the emperor, it suddenly snowed, which was not what they expected. The emperor is wise and mighty, but he cannot match the power of God!
If you fail to return to the customs in time and are trapped on the grassland by heavy snow, just eating will be a problem.
Zheng Chongjian became even more worried when he thought about this. Because he knew that when Emperor Chongzhen left customs, he did not take much food and supplies with him. Although the emperor sent the border town cavalry to sweep the camps of the Urad tribe and the Chahar tribe, they could seize some cattle, horses and sheep to replenish them, and the emperor also had this idea. However, he still had no idea how much supplies he could bring to the army.
Zheng Chongjian was worried and wanted to send people to the grassland to check, but he had no one to send at night. All the soldiers who were familiar with the grassland were taken away by the emperor. If you send someone unfamiliar to the grassland, there will be too few of them, and they might get lost and not be able to come back.
As a result, Zheng Chongjian became even more worried.
At first, he was not worried that the emperor would lose the battle, but God, it suddenly snowed. That would definitely have a great impact on the battle situation. No matter how wise and powerful the emperor was, he would definitely not be able to count on this, right?
I just hope that the emperor will still be the same emperor and withdraw as soon as he sees that the situation is not good. We can attack the enemies on the grassland next year. Besides, didn't the emperor use a strategy before to make the enemies on the grassland have a shortage of food? This heavy snowfall will further exacerbate the enemy's food shortage. When we go to conquer next year, many of the enemies may have starved to death, and the difficulty of the expedition will be reduced a lot.
Just like this, Zheng Chongjian thought and looked forward to it. Every day that passed, he became more and more worried. Not only him, but also the Ming army soldiers who stayed behind in the important town of Yulin were all worried as they watched the snowflakes falling. Especially when I saw that the snow was getting thicker and thicker, and even the backs of my shoes were no longer falling off, I was even more worried.
What if the emperor is trapped on the grassland? What should I do if my relatives and friends accompanying me on the expedition are gone? Although they are just small soldiers, they still have too many worries!
On this day, Zheng Chongjian followed his usual practice. As soon as he got up, he immediately put on his clothes to look at the thickness of the snow, and then headed toward the city head worriedly.
But just as he was approaching the top of the city, he suddenly heard a Ming soldier shouting from the top of the city: "Look, it seems like he is back, the emperor seems to be back..."
Afterwards, more city guards also shouted: "The emperor is back, he saw the army, the red ones, it must be the army is back!"
"..."
Hearing these shouts, Zheng Chongjian was stunned for a moment, and then he was overjoyed and quickly walked up to the city. Unexpectedly, in his excitement, his foot slipped. He had to be supported by the guards around him, otherwise he would definitely fall, which would be too detrimental to the official's authority.
But at this time, he didn't care about this. He didn't remember the lesson and still walked quickly, rushing to the top of the city. He had to see it with his own eyes before he would feel relieved.
Soon, Zheng Chongjian went up to the top of the city. When he saw the guards on the top of the city, they were all cheering. The excitement and joy were immediately transmitted to him. Before he even looked at it, his own mood was rising. Then, he quickly looked up towards the grassland.
I saw a long red dragon in the distance, coming straight from the depths of the grassland to the important town of Yulin. Looking at the long queue and the unhurried speed of the new army, Zheng Chongjian suddenly felt relieved: It looks like everything is fine, just come back, just come back! It's really not the right time to snow this time, and it will be the same if we wait until next year to attack it.
When the good news reached the city, officials of all sizes rushed to the top of the city to watch. When they got closer, Zheng Chongjian led the officials and soldiers in the city and opened the city gate to welcome him out of the city.
Before leaving the city, he sternly reminded: "This battle was affected by heavy snow. It is a blessing to come back safely. We must not mention the situation of the battle, lest the emperor be unhappy. The Chinese New Year is coming soon. The most important thing is that everyone Let’s have fun together!”
He calculated from the time and felt that the war must not have ended so quickly. He probably saw heavy snowfall on the road and the emperor turned around.
Of course, the people below would not dare to violate Zheng Chongjian's words. In fact, anyone who has no discernment will definitely not get into trouble with the emperor!
The army was getting closer and closer, and the emperor did not send a messenger to inform them in advance, so they just marched back normally.
When they got closer, they saw the imperial chariot at the front of the team. When they saw the emperor's figure, they all let go of their last worry, the emperor was fine too!
Until this time, from the front of the team, there was a captain of the Imperial Guard, riding a horse and speeding up, he came to Zheng Chongjian and the others, and announced loudly: "In the battle of Guihua City, the enemy's entire army was wiped out, and the slave chief and puppet Prince Zheng Aixinjue was captured alive. Luojier Harang, captured alive the slave chief and the puppet Chingdoluo Wuwei County King Aisin Gioro Azige..."
His voice shouting immediately stunned Zheng Chongjian and others. Is this a true triumph for the Emperor? And he really did it and wiped out all the Jianlu? Not even the slave chief could escape?
Annihilating all enemies on the grassland, this is even more powerful than Chengzu!
This means that after this battle, there will be a very long period of peace at the border between Qin and Jin!
It's a bit hard to imagine, but the facts are there. After listening to the briefing on the battle situation, and seeing the emperor approaching, Zheng Chongjian and the team behind him all bowed in the snow to greet him. The surprise on their faces was beyond words. Can't cover it up.
The first thing Zheng Chongjian said was: "It's really useless for me to worry about you, your majesty is so powerful, even the ancient Sun Wu is not as good as your majesty!"
He didn't dare to say that the emperor was more powerful than Cheng Zu, although in fact he thought so, so he had to use Sun Wu as a backdrop.
Emperor Chongzhen smiled and let them level up, and then said to him: "I promised the people of Jin before that they would no longer suffer military disasters, and I did it; I also avenged the revenge of the people in the northwest. Next, everyone Let’s have a good New Year together!”
After finishing speaking, he raised his head, looked around at everything white, and laughed again: "The auspicious snow heralds a good year. I hope there will be fewer natural disasters next year! Enter the customs!"
It's the New Year's Eve soon, and of course Emperor Chongzhen can't make it back to the capital. It's the first time in his life that he's celebrating the New Year outside.
The emperor's personal victory in the grassland expedition was reported to all directions after the army returned to the important town of Yulin. All the people, officials, and soldiers who heard this were extremely surprised.
Then, the emperor issued several imperial edicts in succession.
The areas in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty that suffered from military disasters were exempted from taxes for five years, and Jierhalang's head was also passed there. At the same time, it was notified that the bones of the people outside the customs who had been plundered by the Jianqiu had been collected, and thousands of Jianqiu had been sacrificed with blood.
The second imperial edict was that there was still a lot of beef and mutton brought from the grasslands. Emperor Chongzhen distributed beef and mutton to the people in Yan'an Prefecture so that they could have a meal of meat during the New Year.
Here in Yan'an Prefecture, although some people received the New Year meat distributed by the emperor after the New Year, they were still very excited. This has never happened before!
It can be said that after Emperor Chongzhen won this victory, wiped out all the Jianlu in Guihua City, and severely punished the Urad tribe and Chahar tribe, it can be said that there is no Ming Dynasty outside the Qin and Jin Dynasties. Enemies, the people of these two places can truly live and work in peace and contentment, and now they can still eat the meat rewarded by the emperor.
This good news one after another has made the people of Qin and Jin spend this new year much happier than any other year before!
Looking at all this, Emperor Chongzhen breathed a sigh of relief and felt that his efforts were not in vain.
As soon as the year was over, rewards began to be given according to merit, and Emperor Chongzhen also fulfilled his promise. According to the level of military merit, border officers and soldiers are selected to enter the Beijing camp. In addition, Emperor Chongzhen also told Zheng Chongjian to look at the fertile land in the Hetao to see if any Mongolian tribes would come to occupy it, and the news should be reported in a timely manner.
The reason why this area was not brought under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty was that firstly, the military strength was not enough to ensure safety, and secondly, it was used as a bait to continue to lure the Mongolian tribes here.
