Chapter 203 Elites from the Eight Banners Enter the Mountain to Chop Trees
Two days later.
Shuotuo was let back. He was not tortured or had his head cut off. Instead, he was given a good horse and some dry food, and two night cavalry were arranged to escort him. Shuotuo returned to Liaoyang City.
Once again, he saw his younger brother Shuotuo, with all limbs intact and only some minor injuries, standing in front of him alive.
Yue Tuo felt unbelievable, rubbed his eyes hard, and then patted him here and there. After confirming that he was a real person, he asked: "You are not dead. Why didn't Mingren kill you and let you go?"
Come back?" He originally thought that his brother Shuo Tuo would die.
"I also thought they would definitely kill me and exchange my head for a reward, but Lord Wu Xiangwu interceded and saved my life."
Shuotuo explained that because he experienced defeat, walked in front of the gate of hell, and saved a life, now there is no trace of unruliness on his face, but instead shows happiness and gratitude. He is grateful to Commander Wu Xiang.
gratitude.
"Why would he plead for you? The Ming army hates us to the core. If we are captured, we will inevitably die. Could it be..."
An idea flashed in Yue Tuo's mind, and he thought of a word and said: "We should respect ourselves by raising the bandits. Is it possible that seeing how weak we are, these Ming army generals want to play with the self-respect of the bandits in order to prevent the imperial court from being cooked? That must be the case.
It must be like this, hahaha! God help us, it seems that we still have a chance to make a comeback and take over the Central Plains. People in the Ming Dynasty will always fight among themselves and will always be suspicious of heroes and capable officials. Hahaha, as long as there are these self-respecting people who support the bandits
With the Ming Dynasty’s General Soldier here, we will always have a chance to make a comeback!”
For example, wasn't their grandfather Nurhaci raised by Li Chengliang, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, to support the bandits? Otherwise, the Jurchen Eight Banners would not have developed to the point where they occupied almost the entire Liaodong and were invincible.
Unexpectedly, the generals of the Ming Dynasty would pick up their traditional arts again.
Good thing.
This is definitely a good thing for the Jurchen Eight Banners!
"Brother, that's not the case. They just think it's not cost-effective to chop off my head and it won't bring much benefit."
Shuo Tuo shook his head and said: "They let me back because they want me to help spread the word and they just want to establish business cooperation with our Daikin. They want to make more money, not to support the bandit's self-respect."
"Cooperation, what kind of cooperation? We are almost at the end of our rope, how can we still cooperate?" Yue Tuo looked puzzled.
"Trees, there are many trees in Liaodong. Mr. Wu is interested in the trees on our mountains and wants to buy a large amount of wood from us. There are also wild ginseng in the mountains, Dongzhu in the river, etc. They want all these good things, and they said they would
Give us a more suitable price..."
Shuotuo spent some time and explained it in detail.
That's right.
After Shuotuo was captured alive, Houjin Beile, Cao Wenzhao and Wang Yinghui all advocated escorting the prisoners to the capital and having them cut into pieces by the imperial court in exchange for rewards from the emperor.
How much reward can I get in exchange for just one Baylor?
Is it a thousand silver dollars, or is it a first-level title? Or is it a title of wife and son? The most amazing thing is to increase the official rank by half a rank or one level, such as being promoted from deputy commander-in-chief to commander-in-chief, and the commander-in-chief is granted the title of General Longhu or General Jianwei.
The titles basically reach the top. As for admirals, governors, etc., only civil servants are qualified to hold these positions, so they don't even think about it.
No matter how successful you are, the room for improvement is very limited.
What's more, if there are three general soldiers to share the credit, the reward will be even more limited.
Among the three of Cao Wenzhao, Wu Xiang, and Wang Yinghui, Cao Wenzhao has the strongest military command ability and is a relatively pure warrior. Wang Yinghui has no outstanding advantages, but is relatively balanced (or can be said to be mediocre).
Wu Xiang is a genius in business management. He may be a scumbag in leading troops to fight, but he is definitely an excellent businessman. In Guan Ning's army, his Wu family's businesses are prosperous and prosperous.
There are countless industries, so the treatment of the Wu family's servants is the best, and the equipment and combat effectiveness are not weak. In addition, he has a son Wu Sangui who is very capable of fighting. Due to these two factors, the Guan Ning army has gradually been led by the Wu family.
.
Faced with the high-value prisoner Shuotuo this time, Wu Xiang's business acumen immediately started to work. He believed that Liaodong was now short of food, and if Jiannu could not get food supply, he would only take risks. Even if he did not attack the Ming Dynasty, he would
If you attack Mongolia or North Korea, you will always find a way out. You cannot just sit back and wait to die of starvation.
In this case, it is better to establish cooperation with Jiannu and sell them some cheap coarse grains, but you have to bring high-quality wood, wild ginseng, Dongzhu and other resources from Liaodong in exchange, such as one tree for ten pounds of grain, one wild ginseng for
Twenty kilograms, one high-quality east pearl is exchanged for five kilograms. Anyway, any high-value resources can be exchanged for food.
High-quality wood, wild ginseng, Dongzhu, etc. are all the materials that Xujiazhuang needs most. You can purchase as much as you can. Just like various mineral resources, the prices are also very good. You are not afraid that Xujiazhuang will not want them.
In this way, Guan Ningjun acted as an intermediary, the Jurchen slaves provided resources, and Xujiazhuang was responsible for purchasing and paying with silver coins or grains. Guan Ningjun then supplied a certain amount of food to solve the food shortage problem of the slaves.
A three-party trade cycle is formed.
Everyone can get what they need.
As an intermediary, Guan Ningjun gained a lot of benefits with only a small amount of hard work. It was like the Jurchen slaves were working for them, and they didn't have to worry about backlash. If they kept talking, they would be cut off from food. See if they could
How many days will it last?
Or we can apply military pressure. Currently, there are less than 30,000 elite Eight Banners soldiers left, while Guan Ning’s army has 70,000 to 80,000 soldiers, and more than 30,000 people are equipped with plate armor and alloy knives. There is no need to be afraid at all. We really can’t cooperate. Next year
They went straight to Liaoshen to destroy this imperial power and exploit the rich resources of Liaodong themselves.
Jiannu had no choice but to cooperate.
Wang Yinghui expressed his approval and support for Wu Xiang's plan.
Cao Wenzhao did not support it at all. He just wanted to eliminate the huge threat of Hou Jin as soon as possible and regain Liaodong for the imperial court. However, when faced with Wu Xiang's words: "When we wipe out Jiannu, how will the imperial court arrange us?"
Do you agree that we will continue to be stationed in Liaodong? Will the civil servants of the imperial court not slander us and watch us buy property instead of impeaching us for our ulterior motives? When the Ministry of War issues an order, will we obey it or not?"
Hear these questions.
Cao Wenzhao was silent. If it were in the past, he would do whatever the court ordered him to do and go wherever he was told without any hesitation. But now he has bought a property and is surrounded by relatives and friends, disabled soldiers, and retired subordinates.
, all of them have been assigned high-paying positions, and he has gained countless sincere supports. Now he is asked to return to being the pure military commander of the imperial court. He himself is willing, but are the people around him willing? Are the soldiers under his command willing?
Raising the bandits for self-respect, no, raising the bandits for survival is really a last resort. After all, the civil servants in the court are really disgusting.
Yawen library
So in the end, Cao Wenzhao had to painfully go against his original intention and agreed to Wu Xiang's business plan.
…
"It turns out that the Ming army not only wants to support the bandits, but also wants to do business with us and is willing to trade food to us. It's a good thing. It's a great thing!"
After listening to Shuotuo's explanation, Yuetuo became even more happy. He was saved from a desperate situation. Every time the Jurchens encountered a huge crisis, something good would always happen, thus reversing the extremely bad and passive situation.
God bless.
He just wanted to explain it with God's blessing.
"Brother, this is a good thing, but all the Han people in Liaodong have fled. There is no one who wants to cut down trees for food. There are also wild ginseng in the mountains and Dongzhu in the river. They all need to be collected manually. Now the Han people have no clothes.
Now, how do we collect these supplies?”
At this time, Shuotuo asked a question that made Yuetuo's face change drastically, and he turned extremely pale.
nobody.
Millions of Han people and Bao Yi were all driven away or killed.
By the time we got there, almost no one was left.
But who will cut down the trees on No Man’s Mountain?
Who will dig the wild ginseng in the mountains? Who will pick the pearls in the river?
Are they, the children of the Eight Banners and the Jurchens, allowed to do these menial jobs? Do they still have these skills and craftsmanship after not doing these jobs for many years? Can they bear the hardship?
"That's wrong. We made a mistake. We shouldn't have expelled the Han people in order to save food. Without them, we might have to do the work ourselves." Yue Tuo said with regret in his heart.
"Can we grab some people from other places to replace them? For example, Mongolians or Koreans?" Shuotuo asked.
"It's difficult, it's difficult. Your impulsiveness a few days ago ruined 3,000 elites. Now the number of young men in our clan has been reduced to less than 30,000. If you go to plunder the surrounding areas, your hometown will be unguarded. If there is another loss, the Eight Banners will be destroyed."
It's completely over - we no longer have the capital to fight." Yue Tuo said with a dejected expression.
"I, I was wrong, I deserve to die, please punish me, brother!" Shuotuo finally realized his impulsiveness and stupidity, his face turned pale, and he couldn't help but kneel down.
"You deserve to die! But how to punish you must be decided by Father Khan and others."
Yue Tuo called some soldiers and took Shuo Tuo down for the crime of disobeying the general's orders. He pushed Shuo Tuo out and beat him with fifty army sticks to make him look as miserable as possible.
…
September 15th.
In Shengjing City, Dazheng Hall, the kings discuss government affairs.
"You bastard, three thousand elites and one-tenth of the adult clan members have been ruined by you, and you still have the nerve to come back alive? Behead him, push this sinner down and behead him, and give it to the three thousand dead clan members.
Buried with him to apologize!"
The new Great Khan Daishan was furious and wanted to execute his second son Shuotuo immediately.
"You can't sweat profusely."
"Although Shuotuo is impulsive, it is also to cut off the queen and defend my Eight Banners' bloody courage!"
"His crime is punishable, but his actions are pitiable. If I were on the battlefield, I would probably make the same decision."
"There are not many men left in our clan. If we kill each one, we will lose one."
"Relegate Shuotuo to an ordinary flag officer and let him serve his crime with meritorious deeds!"
"Yes, now that all the Han people have run away, let Shuotuo go to work to feed the people."
Thanks to the intercession of other banner leaders and Baile, Shuo Tuo saved his life, but he lost his noble status and was demoted to the lowest level of bannermen, with no future at all.
Only the past two days.
Shuotuo was assigned to Tieling Mountain in the northeast of Shengjing City. He had an extra ax in his hand. He had to aim at a big tree as thick as an adult's arms and start chopping it. He was assigned to chop down at least ten trees a day.
The task of making a tree involves removing branches, sawing it off, and transporting it to the Liao River. It takes at least seven hours of work every day, which is extremely hard work.
But he has to do it! There is a serious food shortage now. A big tree can exchange for 20 to 30 kilograms of food. As long as enough trees are cut down, enough food can be obtained to feed the entire tribe.
It's just that his personal power is limited. No matter how hard he cuts, he can only meet the food rations of a dozen clan members.
Moreover, before October, the Liaohe River will be frozen, and the river will be used to transport wood (land transportation is inefficient and will be tiring), and there are only about ten days left.
So in order to make full use of this precious ten days.
Starting from September 18th.
Nearly 30,000 elite Eight Banners troops entered the Tieling Mountains armed with an ax or a saw, but what they had to deal with this time were not any cattle, sheep, or horses in their eyes, but the big trees, which were the ones cutting people off.
The originally extremely powerful Eight Banners elites were all reduced to lumberjacks.