"Uh-huh!"

"Hurry up!"

The shrill screams came out with the swing of the whip, but such a sound made a man sitting in the house couldn't help but tremble.

After a while, an old slave with a shaved rat tail came in and saluted the man:

"General, Manggul Taibele ordered us to hand over 600 men..."

"boom--"

When the old slave's words came out, the man immediately punched the stone table and cursed angrily:

"In the past, we promised that the Han people who surrendered to the Jin Dynasty should be treated kindly, but now there are not even one out of 300,000 Han people left, and they still want me to hand over my soldiers!"

"General, be careful that walls have ears!" The old slave was startled by the man's words and quickly tried to dissuade him, but the man said:

"I regret that I betrayed the Ming Dynasty and paid the money!"

His words were heard by the old slave, who couldn't help but sigh, and his identity was the current number three among the Han generals of the Jin Kingdom, Liu Aita, whose Chinese name was Liu Xingzuo.

Unlike Tong Yangxing and Li Yongfang, who had a great family and a great business and took refuge in Nurhaci, Liu Xingzuo was originally an ordinary citizen.

Although the three brothers in the family all read books, they did not read too much. The family fell into decline due to the Gaohuai rebellion in Liao Dynasty.

Therefore, like most people in Liaodong before the second year of Tianqi, he hated the Ming Dynasty officials from the bottom of his heart.

Later, he was whipped by Kaiyuan Bingdao for wearing a Confucian turban and Confucian uniform without entering the Wei School. In order to avoid the punishment, he fled to the then Jianzhou Guard.

Because he was literate, he was also appreciated by Nurhachi, who was the commander of the Jianzhou Guard of the Ming Dynasty at that time, and was awarded the post of Preparatory Guard. He was also given a Jurchen name "Aita".

From the 33rd year of Wanli to the 39th year of Wanli, Liu Xingzuo, under the Zhenghong banner of Dai Shan, was responsible for appeasing the Han people who fled north. He also managed civil affairs and appeased the Han people who fled north. Therefore, the people of Liaodong trusted him at that time. Before fleeing north,

I often communicate with him through letters.

At the same time, unlike other Han generals who only knew how to exploit the Han who fled north, he would use his special status to protect the Han people under his command.

When some Han people were bullied by Jurchens, Liu Xingzuo would scold them and punish them.

What he did was like eating away at people like Daishan and Manggurtai, so Daishan and Manggurtai often took over his fields and livestock.

However, Liu Xingzuo didn't care about this, because Nurhachi lacked political talents at that time, and Nurhaci would often scold Daishan and Mang Gurtai after something happened.

This situation remained unchanged even after Nurhaci rebelled against the Ming Dynasty and captured Tieling, Kaiyuan, Fushun and other places. Liu Xingzuo still used his power to protect the Han people.

It's just that this situation ended completely after the Battle of Fu Liao.

When Nurhachi, who fled north beyond the Great Wall with hundreds of thousands of people, faced the situation of insufficient food, he immediately tore off the mask he had put on, even if Liu Xingzuo tried to dissuade him, to no avail.

Of the more than 300,000 Han people in northern Liao, less than one-third remained in less than five years.

At present, Huang Taiji is the only one who still supports Liu Xingzuo's kindness to the Han people.

However, even Huang Taiji treated the Han people as nothing more than "slightly precious consumables".

Watching the Han people who once called him "General Liu" were forced to work to death, Liu Xingzuo fell into a kind of internal conflict.

Does he want to rebel? What does he rebel against?

Although the Kingdom of Jin had more than 15,000 Han soldiers, these five battalions were commanded by Fan Wencai, Fan Wencheng, Tong Yangxing, Li Yongfang and Liu Xingzuo respectively.

He, Liu Xingzuo, only had one battalion of more than 3,000 soldiers and horses. If he dared to rebel, his soldiers and horses might have been surrounded and suppressed by the other four Han battalions before they left the boundaries of Xingjing City, without the Eight Banners of Jianzhou taking action.

Therefore, in such a situation, it is not difficult to understand that he fell into self-conflict emotions.

"General, the savage Jurchen Mengmaohu sent someone to give you a gift."

Just as Liu Xingzuo was complaining, a Han boy ran into the backyard again. When Liu Xingzuo heard this, he also frowned and said, "You gave it specifically to me?"

"No, it is said that there are all the generals and Lord Baylor in the city." The boy replied, and Liu Xingzuo waved his hand and said: "Let people come in."

"yes……"

The boy bowed and excused himself, and then went to the front yard to report. After a cup of tea, the sound of footsteps came from a distance, and Liu Xingzuo also picked up his wine glass and started drinking.

After taking a sip of wine, he took a deep breath and said, "The taste of this sweet potato wine is still not as good as the rice wine from Liaodong."

Sweet potato wine, this word appeared in Liu Xingzuo's mouth.

The cultivation of sweet potatoes has begun in the Jin Kingdom, and the origin of sweet potatoes comes from the sweet potatoes obtained by Mang Gurtai's attack on Daning Prefecture during the second sweep of the North by the Ming Army.

They captured some of the Liao captives, and after learning about the yield of sweet potatoes, they began to return north with the sweet potatoes.

However, the promotion of crops did not happen overnight. Zhu Youjian used millions of acres of land to cultivate and promote sweet potatoes. It took him six years to secure more than 40 million acres of sweet potato fields.

The sweet potatoes that Mang Gurtai plundered from Daning Prefecture amounted to only a few thousand dan, and even if Nurhachi tried his best to promote it, the amount of sweet potatoes now only amounts to more than 40,000 acres.

In addition, Xingjing City was too far north, and the cultivated land was not cultivated intensively, so the yield of sweet potatoes could only reach one mu and five stones.

But even so, sweet potatoes have become the main food of the Jin Kingdom since last year.

More importantly, the existence of sweet potatoes offset War Horse's dependence on soybeans, which allowed the Jin Kingdom to free up a lot of fields to grow rice.

Starting this year, the Kingdom of Jin will be able to achieve self-sufficiency for 420,000 people, and this so-called self-sufficiency is based on the corpses of more than 200,000 Han people.

As the food becomes richer, naturally we can use a small amount of food to make wine.

However, the internal control of wine in the Jin Kingdom is still very strict.

Niulu Ezhen can only enjoy one catty of sweet potato wine a year, Jia La Ezhen and Hanying, Mongolian camp general can enjoy ten catties of sweet potato wine a year, Gushan Ezhen can enjoy ten catties of rice wine, Baylor has thirty catties, and Nurhaci himself has five Ten pounds.

After careful calculation, this did not consume too much food, and the reason why drinking was allowed was a policy that the top brass of the Jin Kingdom had to implement.

Since arriving outside the customs, more than four years of oppression have made many people feel resentful. Proper drinking can relieve the emotions of the middle and lower-level generals, which is a good method.

Liu Xingzuo was drinking wine, and the naturalized Jurchen under Guo Sangdai also walked into the backyard, bowed to Liu Xingzuo and said:

"Beishan Jurchen Gaotai, see Liu Shenjiang. This is a gift from our leader, the great shaman."

Having said that, Gaotai also handed out a gift list with both hands, and the person next to him took it and handed it into Liu Xingzuo's hands.

Liu Xingzuo didn't pay attention at first, but when he opened it, his expression changed instantly.

This is not because Guo Sangdai and Gao Tai blatantly wrote letters urging surrender, but the content of the gift list.

In this gift list, there are a large number of specialties from Kaiyuan and Tieling. These specialties are difficult to obtain even in the Jin Kingdom because the Ming army has almost cut off all smuggling.

So the question is, how did the Beishan Nuzhen in Nurgan City obtain something that the Jin Kingdom near Liaodong could not obtain?

"Is this also the case with the gifts you gave to other generals, Baile?"

Liu Xingzuo quickly closed the gift list, while Gaotai said with a smile on his face:

"Yes, ten taels of gold, three hundred taels of silver, and some furs and ores from Beishan."

What Gao Tai said was very different from what was on the gift list. Liu Xingzuo's eyes were filled with uncertainty, and then he said:

"If there are any more similar items, please send them as tribute next time."

"General, please rest assured, there will be tribute teams coming in the first month of next year." After Gao Tai said this, he also bowed and said:

"The gift has been delivered, so I won't disturb the general."

"Well..." Liu Xingzuo waved his hand to signal him to leave, but instead of handing the gift list to the old slave next to him, Liu Xingzuo took it directly and walked into his study.

He opened the gift list again, and then a servant entered the study carrying two baskets of gifts.

Liu Xingzuo asked people to put their things down and then drove them away.

After everyone left, he stepped forward and opened some wooden boxes wrapped in furs.

Among these wooden boxes, many things related to Kaiyuan appeared one after another, and after the last wooden box was opened, a box full of hair appeared.

When he saw these hairs, Liu Xingzuo subconsciously touched the top of his head, but he only touched the ugly money rat tail.

When he touched the braid, he seemed to have lost all strength, fell backward, and sat limply on the ground, never regaining consciousness for a long time.

It took a quarter of an hour for him to react, and then he put away all the things related to Kaiyuan. Among them, two jars of Kaiyuan rice wine were carefully stored under the bed.

After finishing this, he threw the gift list into the incense burner in the house. He breathed a sigh of relief when he watched the gift list being lit and finally burned to ashes...

"how?"

"He didn't expose me. Maybe as His Highness said, he is trustworthy."

While Liu Xingzuo solved the hidden danger, Gao Tai also returned to the post house and chatted with Guo Sangdai about Liu Xingzuo's attitude.

They did not only send things about the Ming Dynasty to Liu Xingzuo, but also sent things about the Ming Dynasty to Tong Yangxing, Li Yongfang, Fan Wencheng, Fan Wencai and others.

However, in terms of the things given to these people, Guo Sangdai selected some gifts that the Ming Dynasty had given to the commanders of Jurchen guards in Beishan, Qianhu, and Baihu in the past.

Therefore, when Fan Wencheng and others saw these gifts, they would suddenly stand up and ask with gloomy faces where the gifts came from, and Gaotai would also use them as gifts from Emperor Wanli as an excuse.

Although such an action would arouse suspicion, there is no danger in spying on information. Besides, they all made the gifts old, and anyone who saw them would know that they were things left behind many years ago.

Therefore, although Fan Wencheng and others were shocked when faced with these gifts, they did not have too much doubt afterwards.

The reason is very simple. It is more dangerous to travel by sea from Jingcheng to Nuerqian. After all, this sea area is not as safe as it seems.

Fan Wencheng and others also do not believe that the emerging force of the Beishan Jurchens was supported by the Ming Dynasty, because they do not understand that the Ming Dynasty's current projection ability is several times, or even more than ten times, that of the Wanli period.

Therefore, Fan Wencheng and the others were fooled, but their attitude was clearly seen by Gaotai.

Even Li Yongfang couldn't remain calm when faced with the gift list, but Liu Xingzuo was very calm.
To be continued...