On the morning of 12 November, Du Du and others, who had been captured by the Ming army, said some things that they felt were inconsequential after receiving preferential treatment from the Ming army and feeling that they had hope of survival.

But once they speak, they can't help themselves what they want to say. Under the temptation of Jin Yiwei's step-by-step guidance, they all said what they could say and what they shouldn't say.

When all the corpses and surviving people were recognized, the identities of Du Du, Bao Chengxian and others and their deeds were also asked from these mouths one after another.

After Zhu Youzhen listened to the interrogation confession sent by Lian Shanxiang, he asked Lian Shanxiang to try to recruit Du Du and Bao Chengxian, although he didn't think that these two people had any effect in recruiting them, one was the son of Guangluo Baylor Chu Ying, who was deeply feared by Houjin Zhubeile.

When Nurhachi abolished the position of Chu Ying's heir, all the Baylors of the Later Jin Dynasty had made great efforts, among which Dai Shan and Huang Taiji were the most hardworking. Therefore, this Dudu Belle has always been a marginalized figure in the post-Jin country, and no one wants to see him return to the power center of the post-Jin.

Zhu Youzhen even felt that if this Dudu Baylor could be killed by himself, it was estimated that the happiest people would be those Baylors in the Houjin country. They don't have to do it themselves, and they can take the opportunity of Du Du's killing to strengthen the Jurchen relatives and nobles to oppose Ming.

And another Han Bao Chengxian, a former Ming general, was the first to flee in the two battles of Liaoshen and Guangning, but because he was born in Liaodong, he was recruited by Nurhachi, but he was not reused. After Huang Taiji ascended the throne, he intended to support the power of the Han people in Liaodong, and was called into the newly established Wenguan by Huang Taiji under the recommendation of Ning Wan.

Because he got Huang Taiji's weight, this Liaodong general was particularly active in the war to enter the pass and attack the Ming, not only actively giving advice to Huang Taiji, but also personally coming forward to recruit the besieged Ming army at the Great Wall Pass. This person can't lead the troops to fight, but he knows the intricate relationships in the Ming army well, and he is particularly familiar with the minds of these colleagues in the army in the past, and he can often guess that he is not far from ten, so after entering the customs, he was rewarded by Huang Taiji again and again, and became Huang Taiji's confidant for a while.

This time, he followed Du Du to Shimen Zhai to supervise the battle, in addition to assisting Du Du, the main task was to supervise Du Du's words and deeds, and prevent the outdated Nurhachi eldest grandson from developing his own power among the Mongols.

Bao Chengxian is indeed useful to Huang Taiji, but for Chongzhen, it has no effect. Because he didn't need to use Bao Chengxian to familiarize himself with the generals and command and combat institutions of the Ming army, the information on Jinyiwei was more detailed. And his performance on the battlefield has proved that this person is not suitable for leading the army to fight at all, and after recruiting him back, he is purely raising an extra waste.

However, in order to show that he did not have the intention of killing all the relatives and nobles of Houjin, Chongzhen still asked Lian Shanxiang to surrender once, at least Du Du, as the eldest grandson of Nurhachi, if he really surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, politically it would be able to cause some impact on the Houjin country.

But Chongzhen's kindness was quickly rejected by the two, and Lian Shanxiang carefully reported back to Chongzhen: "... Du Du simply rejected His Majesty's proposal, saying that he could not disgrace his father's name, but he no longer talked about asking His Majesty to reward him with death as he did yesterday.

As for that Bao Chengxian, he did not explicitly refuse His Majesty's proposal. It's just that he said a lot of misty words with his ministers, and the meaning of these words is about, first, his family and relatives are in Shenyang, if he surrenders, I am afraid that his family and relatives in Houjin will suffer;

The second is that he has surrendered Houjin once before, and now he has surrendered to Daming again as soon as he is arrested, I am afraid that he will be thought to be a capricious villain, and it will be difficult to win the trust of His Majesty.

Therefore he did not dare not to descend, nor did he dare to descend, and everything was left to the Holy Judge. ”

Zhu Youzhen said with a dumb smile when he heard this: "This person is very cunning, let me decide." If I really want to make a decision, I want to order him to be hanged immediately, so as to comfort the dead and wounded soldiers and civilians in Liaodong. Anyway, what do you think of these two people, is it better to kill them, or let them go back? ”

Lian Shanxiang thought about it for a while, and then said cautiously: "The minister and several subordinates have chatted a few words, and the ministers think that killing has the advantage of killing, and there is also the benefit of letting go." ”

Zhu Youzhen looked up at Lian Shanxiang and asked with interest: "You can talk about it, what are the benefits of killing it, and what are the benefits of putting it back." ”

"Killing them can deter the undetermined people in my Ming army, and it can also boost the morale of our Ming army and civilians. Letting them go back would show His Majesty's benevolence and discourage the Tartar army's determination to fight to the death. These are the foolish opinions of the ministers. ”

Zhu Youzhen stretched out his hand and rubbed his temples, still a little hesitant about how to deal with these captives. After coming over for a while, he said to Lian Shanxiang: "Forget it, let the two of them go first, and the others will continue to interrogate." In addition, at noon today, I will hold a banquet for the leaders of the Mongol tribes, including the two brothers Mangol and Engdel..."

At the luncheon, the leaders of the various Mongolian tribes all sang songs with wine glasses, rushing to compliment Chongzhen's benevolence and martial bravery, hoping to exchange their deferential posture for the personal safety of themselves and their subordinates.

Chongzhen also lived up to the expectations of these Mongol leaders, and made a public promise at the banquet that as long as they did not resist and obeyed the arrangements of the Ming army, their lives and those of their subordinates would be saved. The leader of them could return to the tribe after the war, but swore that he would not submit to the Later Jin and the Ming Dynasty, while the others would be sentenced to a certain amount of hard labor as compensation for the losses suffered by the victims of the war.

Except for the leaders of some small tribes, who also tried to continue to beg the emperor to be exempted from the labor of their subordinates, the young men of their tribe were taken with them, and if these young men could not return, then their tribe would also become prey in the eyes of others. As for the leaders of some large tribes, they were already very lucky that the Ming Emperor did not take their heads to worship their ancestors. Since the Ming did not kill their people on the spot, they felt that it was not unreasonable to let these people do some hard labor.

The only thing they were worried about was how they would explain to the Houjin when the Ming Emperor released them, after all, some people's clans were within the Houjin-controlled area.

Zhu Youzhen obviously had no interest in thinking about how many of these tribal leaders had sincerely surrendered, and his actions of getting close to the two brothers Engdel and Manggol at the banquet just happened to make these tribal leaders look at them one by one. One of these tribal chieftains, the young Ulut tribe of Taiji, silently remembered the scene in front of him.

At around 4 p.m. on the 12th, Lin Shixian finally returned to Shimenxia with his subordinates. On the way back, they had already encountered several groups of Jurchen and Mongol mixed sentinels, apparently the Houjin army had quickly reacted after learning the news of the fall of Shimenzhai and the defeat of the Mongol left battalion stationed in Shimenzhai, and covered the area east of Shimenxia to block the connection between the Ming army and Zunhua City.

However, although the Houjin army reacted quickly, the deployment of the army was obviously not completed in a day, so the number of sentries used to cover these areas was not enough, so Lin Shixian and others easily rushed back to Shimenxia.

After learning that Lin Shixian and others had returned, Zhu Youzhen immediately summoned him and inquired about the details of the situation in Zunhua City, there was no news of the fall of Zunhua City, but he heard it from the Jurchens who opened their mouths, but to what extent this siege battle was fought, and what the casualties in Zunhua City were, these Jurchens couldn't say clearly.

Lin Shixian's return finally brought back the most tangible news of Zunhua to Chongzhen, especially the twists and turns of Zhao Shujiao, Zhou Wei, and Wang Yuanya, which more completely outlined the process of defending Zunhua.

Zhu Youzhen did not comment much on the policy of defending the city in Zunhua City, which was carried out in the name of the General Staff Headquarters, and also forcibly confiscated surplus grain and other materials from the homes of ordinary people inside and outside the city and in the shops of merchants, and implemented a wartime supply system. However, this made him feel a little relieved, and the implementation of these policies at least ensured that the defense of Zunhua City would not collapse in an instant, allowing the Houjin army to capture the city in a short time.

After reading these twists and turns, Zhu Youzhen interrogated Jin Shixin and the other three people who entered Zunhua City in detail, and learned from them what the morale of the soldiers and civilians in Zunhua City was.

After Jin Shixin finished talking about what he had seen and heard when he entered Zunhua, he added: "... After the soldiers and civilians in the city heard the news that His Majesty personally marched and led the army to rescue Zunhua, everyone's ambitions were very high.

The minister thought that there should be no problem in the defense of Zunhua City for half a month, but when they sent the minister out of the city, the minister also heard that the city was going to launch a counterattack to defeat the morale of the Tartars? ”

"Fight back? What kind of counterattack. Zhu Youzhen asked with some curiosity. Jin Shixin hurriedly replied: "In the past two days, the Tartars have demolished many houses on the northwest corner outside Zunhua City, and they are all about to be demolished under the walls of Zunhua City.

It is said that the defenders dug a number of tunnels in that area over the past two days, connecting the cellars of the families. Just today, when the Tartar artillery positions move forward, they will reload* in a predetermined area, destroy the Tartar artillery in one fell swoop, and carry out a counteroffensive against the surrendered Han troops in front of the Tartars in order to demoralize the Tartars besieging the city..."

When Jin Shixin reported to Chongzhen, Huang Taiji was also leading a group of Jurchen relatives to the battlefield in the northwest of Zunhua City, looking at the scattered artillery remnants that had been blown up in the distance with a blue face.

Their attack went smoothly this morning, but in the afternoon, when the artillery position moved 100 paces forward, the Ming detonated *and*, which had long been buried in the ground, and almost blew up the Wuzhen Chaoha troops, which had just been established for a few days.

More than 200 Wuzhen Chaoha troops, except for more than 80 who were carrying ammunition in the rear, everyone else returned to heaven together with the artillery that was blown up into the sky.

At the same time that these artillery pieces were blown up into the sky, the new Han army sent by the Houjin to demolish the house was also attacked by the main force of the Ming army, and the earth-shattering explosion in the rear not only blocked the support of the Eight Banners Army, but also destroyed the morale of these Han troops, so they were easily driven back by the Ming people.

Looking at the residential area less than 150 steps away from the city wall of Zunhua City in front of him, Huang Taiji had some realization in his heart, if he wanted to continue the attack, he was afraid that he would have to fill in the lives of the Mongols and Jurchens.

Now that Shimen Village has been lost, I am afraid it will be difficult to persuade those Jurchen relatives and nobles to continue to attack Zunhua.