Haidongqing streaked across the sky, and twelve cavalry columns spread out for more than ten miles, walking quickly through the wilderness.
Military flags of various colors are hunting in the wind, flag slaves on the side roads lead their camels with their heads buried, soldiers of various flags in the middle are galloping on their horses, and several king's carts pulled by nine oxen are creaking forward.
The cavalrymen walked back and forth in the queue, the shamans danced in front of the carriages, and the monks played conch shells on the carriages.
The Manchurian Army is advancing.
Emperor Chongde is in the mobile sweat tent in the middle of the military column.
Huang Taiji wore an upper and lower piece of azure blue satin embroidered dragon cloth face armor. He held the edged helmet and pressed his hands on the long table. His eyes were fixed on the map on the table. His back was as majestic as a mountain.
Time is not forgiving.
He was already forty-four years old. His strong physique when he was active on the battlefield in his youth has put on weight due to age and changes in lifestyle. He has gained more than 200 kilograms of fat, and even a good horse can hardly carry it alone.
Even a trivial matter such as marching for hundreds of miles requires two good horses to carry the load alternately.
In fact, not only Huang Taiji, but also the Manchu nobles of various banners, although they have military flags, their armor and common clothing fabrics are mostly made of blue satin, and civilians wear Buddha-head green cloth on a daily basis, which is also mainly blue.
Traditionally speaking, Jurchens are still white, but traditions and preferences often change due to the surrounding environment.
For example, in North Korea, which became a vassal state during the Zhu Yuanzhang era, the Spring Festival couplets were white; while in Vietnam, which was made a vassal state after the Zhu Di era, the Spring Festival couplets were red.
Because in Zhu Yuanzhang's time, the Spring Festival couplets were couplets, which were written in black and white.
In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang promoted couplets, a literary and artistic tradition for high-ranking officials and nobles, to the common people, making everyone write them.
The Spring Festival couplets transformed from the couplets are the evolution of the most powerful defensive technique in ancient times, the peach charm.
In the past, the names of the two gods "Shen Tu" and "Yulei" were hung on peach boards to ward off evil spirits. Meng Chang, the Lord of Later Shu, was the first to write couplets on peach boards, which later became a tradition.
It was not until the time of Zhu Yuanzhang that the rule of using rice paper to make couplets and hanging Spring Festival couplets in every household was established.
But there is a problem. The door gods, Zhong Kui, peach boards, peach charms, Caimen Blunt Donkey, Huitou Luma, and Tianxing Posts on the New Year's door are the ultimate defense equipment to ward off evil spirits.
Only these Spring Festival couplets have no meaning in warding off evil spirits and warding off New Year beasts.
However, as the most powerful man in the fourteenth century, no one could change the rules he set.
So until Zhu Di ascended the throne, he even changed the rules about who should be the emperor. Is there any rule in the world that cannot be changed?
The Spring Festival couplets turn into cinnabar color, which finally adds the function of warding off evil spirits.
Ji Qing's current habit of wearing blue clothes is also related to the general environment.
This kind of blue satin is called Shiqing Japanese Satin.
Although it is called Japanese satin, the fabric is actually neither Japanese nor satin. Firstly, the Japanese country does not have this technology, and secondly, it is a fleece fabric.
It's actually traditional velvet.
The reason why it is called Japanese satin is that it was first used as a luxury fabric and flowed into the Zhangquan area through the Japanese country and Japanese pirates at sea. Later, after local production and improvement, it became Zhangzhou velvet, which is also velvet.
One of the velvet making techniques evolved into the later azurite Japanese satin in Jiangning Weaving House.
The material is Shu silk, which is woven on a large scale in Nanjing and Suzhou. The process is a multi-layer structure. It is dyed first and then weaved. During the weaving, short cotton lint is sandwiched in the warp. It is scraped after a few inches of weaving to make the suede surface
Extremely bright.
Because it looks complicated and luxurious, it was briefly popular in the Central Plains for a period of time.
Later, wealthy weaving businessmen discovered that this kind of fabric was impractical.
In a social environment with simple classes and poor manufacturing capabilities, there will be fertile ground for manufactured luxury goods with inflated values.
In a society with complex classes and strong manufacturing capabilities, this soil will become barren.
There are more people who know what they are doing, more people who are involved in manufacturing, more people who have the ability to spread culture, and more people who have mastered basic wealth.
As long as these people generally believe that such a thing is not good, its inflated value will soon be affected by public opinion.
The azurite Japanese satin, which is complex to weave, costly and luxurious in appearance, faced such a dilemma just a few decades ago.
During the Wanli period, there was a large inflow of silver, and everything was cheap. Ordinary people could afford this kind of fine fabric. If they couldn't afford it to make a whole dress, they could just buy a small piece to use as a trim for clothing.
Either make a hat or a collar.
But here lies the problem. As a hat, it easily collects dust; as a collar, it deforms after being worn.
Everyone disliked it so much that even wealthy businessmen and officials later stopped liking it.
The price was so high that it kept falling, until it reached the point where there was no way to sell it in China, so I went to the north exit and sold it to Beilu.
A large amount of Japanese satin was used as luxury goods and flowed into Mongolia, Houjin and other places, and was deeply loved by the nobles.
This habit formed a tradition and gradually became a rule. Huang Taiji also had many people in charge. Nobles and below were not allowed to wear satin clothes, and were only allowed to wear clothes made of green cloth with Buddha's head, which was only one-tenth of the price.
As for the green cloth for the Buddha's head, all Jurchen tribes of the Savages were weaving it, which is equivalent to Hou Jin's control of the production area.
For example, recently Huang Taiji has been sending troops to the tribes of Hurha and Warkha in the East China Sea to plunder goods and people and animals, and the amount of green cloth with Buddha heads that they snatched back was more than mink skins.
Huang Taiji, who was in the king's carriage, was enveloped by tremendous pressure and his face turned livid.
He couldn't even explain clearly the source of the huge pressure, just like Chongzhen's financial situation.
It’s not that the gap in the empire’s fiscal deficit is really ridiculously large, it’s that no matter how hard it tries to tear down the east wall to make up for the west, it just can’t fill the gap.
Huang Taiji is also facing such an embarrassing situation right now.
His original plan for this battle was to use Azige to enter the capital via Shanxi, but he sent troops to wait and see the situation from western Liaoning to the capital, and personally led the army across the Liao River to contain Guan Ning.
To put it bluntly, for him, Azig, Hauge, Dorgon and other Eight Banners nobles, this battle was a rehearsal for the destruction of the enemy country.
No one knows whether it will succeed, so we have to rehearse.
But now there are two surprises on the battlefield.
The first one is Ming Dynasty.
In March of this year, Chen Hongfan was appointed as the Chief of the Coastal Forces, bearing the seal of General Pinglu. He mobilized naval divisions from various towns and stationed troops from Shandong at Lushunkou, Beixunkou and Tongjiang.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! According to the confession of the Ming army captured by Hou Jinshao, it is said that the new marshal of Shandong, Chen Hongfan, led 400 warships and 100,000 troops. The momentum was huge, even more than that of Shang Fang Baojian.
Mao Wenlong.
The second one is the Monan Governor's Mansion.
In fact, before sending troops, due to Yang Qi's cowardly performance last year, although Huang Taiji, Dorgon and others had some expectations of Yang Qi's participation in the war, they did not expect that the Mongolian army's battlefield performance would be so ferocious.
The draped Dorgon stood respectfully beside Huang Taiji, while Duoduo, with a black fox hat covering his face, sat crookedly on an armchair in the tent, like a sick man.
It's not that Duduo was really ill, he was just unhappy.
He was originally serving in Jinzhou, but he was not very happy and reported to Huang Taiji that he wanted to go home and sing in operas.
Huang Taiji had just promised him, but Fei Yanggu set the fire on fire. He led the army to move north in a hurry, and Duduo's wish to go home and perform in operas was also dashed.
So much so that now I have a straight face, and a hundred thousand people are not happy about it.
Dorgon asked: "Brother Emperor, why did you send that letter insulting Yang Qi?"
In Dorgon's eyes, there was nothing wrong with the letter itself, but if combined with several other letters, the risk of the estrangement being discovered was high.
So he didn't understand why Huang Taiji did this.
Dorgon's words seemed to dissipate the haze that shrouded Huang Taiji's face.
He turned around and looked at Dorgon, took two more steps, threw aside the black fox hat on the face of the bastard Duoduo, and then said: "You want to ask, since we guessed that Liu Chengzong is here,
Why are you writing letters on purpose?”
Mentioning this speculation, Dorgon looked embarrassed.
They don't want to think in that direction.
After all, Liu Chengzong, whose base camp was in Qinghai, led the army to the edge of the capital three thousand miles away, which was very outrageous in itself.
But now even more outrageous things like the Mongolian soldiers beating away the Eight Banners soldiers have happened.
What else is impossible?
After all, for more than ten years, Ming Dynasty has won at the defensive counterattack and battle level, but Mongolia has never won at the battle level, and has long lost its will in the attack from all sides.
Even the Mongolian soldiers who relied on Hou Jin had no remarkable battlefield performance on the battlefield.
They dared to take the initiative to fight against Xianglan Banner, and even drove Xianglan Banner away, as if they were possessed.
Huang Taiji now would rather believe that Liu Chengzong can fly than that coward Yang Qi can lead a bunch of homeless dogs from various Mongolian tribes to stand up.
His hand covered the map to the west of Xing'an Mountains where the Marshal's Army was currently located, and said: "That was a deliberate flaw. We are not sure whether it is Liu Chengzong or not."
There is no basis for mutual trust between the Han and the Mongols.
This has been verified many times in the battles between Ming and Jin, even by the Yi Ding under General Ming.
Huang Taiji drove a wedge between the Mongolian soldiers and the Ming Dynasty.
Erlinchen of Ordos, Tumoteombu, has huge influence in Monan, so he cannot be said to be trusted by anyone in the Dudu Mansion.
If the top commander on the opposite side is Yang Qi, even if he doesn't believe it, he will definitely transfer Erlinchen and Ermubu.
Because of Yang Qi's status, he cannot bear such a heavy responsibility.
But if the supreme commander is Liu Chengzong and Yang Qi has been mobilized, the estrangement can be seen through at a glance.
If Erlinchen, Ermubu and others really had an alliance with Houjin, then Huang Taiji must have known about Liu Chengzong's arrival, and there was no need for the letter insulting Yang Qi.
The letter insulting Yang Qi was a flaw he deliberately exposed in exchange for Liu Chengzong's ridicule.
After all, there is a very embarrassing thing now, that is, Feiyanggu lit a fire to stabilize the front.
The existence of this fire directly caused the roads on the east and west sides of the Xing'an Mountains to be almost isolated. There is only Keshiketeng Pass in the north, and you have to follow the side wall in the south.
Moreover, the road left to the south made it difficult for large groups of people to walk because of the Luanhe River.
The problem is that even if a small group of Ming troops cut off their heads with such force, even a small group of troops can't even think of passing through.
Before the war began, although Huang Taiji was able to ensure that the intelligence in the eastern part of the Xing'an Mountains was not known to the enemy, it was also difficult for him to obtain the intelligence in the west.
Therefore, he can only exchange for information through active exposure.
"It is far less important to alienate a few frontline generals than to find out who the enemy's top general is."
Huang Taiji said, shaking his head slightly in distress.
He took a deep breath and said: "If the enemy general is Yang Qi, then the enemy only has 30,000 soldiers and horses from the Monan Governor's Mansion, so the battle is not difficult to fight."
"If Liu Chengzong arrives in person, things will be in trouble. Don't expect a quick victory. The war will be dragged into summer or even autumn, which will consume his food and grass."
In fact, Huang Taiji's heart was bleeding when he said this.
Indeed, he firmly believed that his judgment was correct.
Liu Chengzong led his army to stay in the north of Beijing for a long time, and the food consumption of the soldiers must have been a pain that the poor people of Shaanxi could not bear.
But then again, let’s not laugh at others about the financial situation of our country of warriors.
With troops stationed on three sides, even Emperor Chongde cannot withstand it.
It's nothing more than hard resistance.
So even though he prepared himself mentally for the worst-case scenario, Huang Taiji still didn't want to face the worst-case scenario.
Soon, as the army was marching, a messenger cavalry came from the front to report. Within a moment, a soldier in white armor guarding the gate asked to enter the tent and reported: "Report to the Holy Khan, inlaid with blue flag, urgent report, enemy troops to the west of the pass
After retreating and setting up camp, the captive cavalry are still wandering around the battlefield."
Huang Taiji waved his hand and ordered Bai Jia to leave the tent. He gritted his teeth and frowned while facing the tent door.
Things went counterproductive.
The Mongolian soldiers were not transferred away, and although no mocking letters were sent, it still meant that Liu Chengzong from the west had indeed arrived on the battlefield.
The difficulty of the matter has reached a new level.
For a moment, Huang Taiji took a deep breath and said: "It was passed on to Aisongu, and he went to Horqin to mobilize troops; Luobi went to Aohan, Naiman, Zhalut, Wulat and other tribes; Xibai Deyi went to the tower of the Alu Sizi tribe.
Lai, Ongniut, Bahrain and other tribes.”
"All Mongolian tribes, all Mongolian tribes, each will send fifty troops."
As soon as these words came out, Dorgon immediately looked sideways, and even Duduo who was sitting stood up and said: "Bago, this can't work!"
In the past, when recruiting troops, all Mongolian tribes used conscription, and each banner recruited a hundred men, so as not to offend the nerves of the big nobles.
Especially this year, Huang Taiji had just deposed Horqin's Khan title, so he did not recruit troops from Horqin for fear of causing a backlash from the Horqin nobles.
In this conscription, each army will send fifty troops. What is the concept of this?
There are 106 Niulu in the Six Banners of Horqin, and these foreign vassals together have less than 200 Niulu. They will need to mobilize more than 5,000 troops from Horqin at once.
Who can bear to have his lifeblood taken out directly?
But there's nothing Huang Taiji can do. He really doesn't have enough troops, so let's bet.
It depends on whether your own internal affairs will collapse first, or whether the military supplies of the Marshal's Mansion will collapse first.
Dorgon dissuaded him and said: "Brother Emperor, if we are stationing troops like this, we will definitely be the first to fail. Then Liu Chengzong's food road is long, but what if the Ming Dynasty provides Liu Chengzong with food and grass?"
"If that's the case, that would be great."
Huang Taiji laughed out loud and patted the location of Zunhua on the map with his hand.
"In this place, if you send people to the border areas, they will be captured by the Ming army. You write a letter, select a Han who has a family member as a slave under your banner, and order him to bring the letter to Liu Chengzong. Just go here."
"Do you know how to write a letter?"
Huang Taiji looked at Dorgon and tapped the table with his fingers: "Let me just say that Marshal Khan Sujing, although I want to negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty, cannot go against the Marshal's good intention of forming an alliance, so I am willing to temporarily perform a show outside the Pass and retreat to Liaodong.
, just wait for the marshal to get food and grass, and then join forces to attack Ming Yunyun."
"Wait until this letter is received by Emperor Ming."
Huang Taiji said as he drew a circle in the western part of Xing'an Mountains on the map: "The Marshal's army entrenched here will face enemies from both sides."