Drought, thieves, plagues, and fierceness were the main problems faced by the Chongzhen court in the last years of the Ming Dynasty.

They converged together and weaved a big net, torturing the Ming court, binding the Ming Dynasty tighter and tighter, and finally strangling the Ming Dynasty completely.

The Ming Dynasty was emptied of the treasury and taxed the people, so that when the Ming Dynasty faced a great drought, it was unable to provide relief, causing the Liukou to swarm, and the Liukou slaughtered the city and killed people, moved around, and created and spread the plague. In turn, natural disasters, rogues and plagues consumed the vitality of the Ming Dynasty, which made the Ming even more powerless to face the fierce people outside the Guan.

This time, Li Zicheng broke the Yellow River, flooded the beams, killed millions of living beings, and within a radius of hundreds of miles, there were swollen and rotten corpses soaked by the river water everywhere, and a big plague arose, and the source of the disease was carried by the displaced people, and quickly spread to all directions.

An epidemic even more terrible than the drought swept through Zhongzhou in a very short period of time and spread to Shaanxi and Jiangnan.

In Tongguan, Shaanxi, the plague has spread to here, and there are officers and soldiers infected with diseases in the barracks every day, and people continue to die, which makes the city of Guancheng permeated with a sense of despair, and the soldiers have become numb and lifeless in the continuous death.

Inside the pass, in a ravine, puffs of smoke swirled and rose, and officers and soldiers wearing red cotton armor, covering their faces with thick cloths, were working in pairs, throwing corpses down the ravine for burning.

At this time, the superintendent Sun Chuanting was dressed in iron armor, wearing an iron helmet, holding a sword in his hand, and his tired and sunken eyes stared at the corpse that had been thrown down, and his heart was very heavy, "How many people have died today." ”

"Back to the overseer, there are seventeen people." One of the generals replied with a fist clenched.

"How many people are infected?" Sun Chuanting's face did not show sadness and joy.

"There are two more tent soldiers in the standard camp, and all of them are infected." The general said gloomily: "General Zheng also has a few soldiers infected on his side."

Sun Chuanting's heart was tight, there were more than 10,000 people under his command, and if he continued like this, he would not wait for the battle with the thieves, and the Qin army would be afraid that half of it would be lost.

"Has the medical officer's medication been effective, has he found a way to treat it?" Sun Chuanting asked in a deep voice.

The general sighed, "Supervisor, the medical officer has prescribed a lot of medicines, but none of them have improved. ”

Sun Chuanting was silent for a while when he heard this, his eyes swept into the distance, landed in a valley, suddenly pointed there with his finger, and said in a cold voice: "Zhang Qianhu, see that valley is not, you let people set up some tents there, and place all the infected soldiers there, no one is allowed to enter or leave, and if there are infected people in the camp, they will also be sent immediately."

Zhang Qianhu's name is Zhang Zhen, a hereditary Qianhu official of the Qin Army, and he asked with a pang in his heart, and some understood that Sun Chuanting was going to give up his sick brother and wanted them to fend for themselves.

Zhang Zhen was shocked in his heart, but the medical officer couldn't do anything, and Sun Chuanting could only take this countermeasure, Zhang Zhen was silent for a while, and then raised his spirit and hugged his fist and said: "I understand my humble duty."

Sun Chuanting's expression was sharp, and he continued to order: "After entering the valley, the soldiers are not allowed to leave the valley without authorization, and those who escape without authorization will directly correct the law on the spot." In addition, from now on, Tongguan will be closed, and no one from the east will be allowed to enter the Guanzhong to prevent the spread of the disease. ”

"Yes, lowly commanded!" Zhang Zhen clenched his fists in a deep voice.

At this time, a cavalryman suddenly galloped to the bottom of the hillside, hurriedly turned over and dismounted, and then hurriedly climbed uphill and knelt down on one knee behind Sun Chuanting: "Qiqi Supervisor, Your Majesty urgently order, let the Inspector quickly get out of the customs and meet the thieves!"

When Sun Chuanting heard this, his body couldn't help but tremble, and he didn't turn around.

Zhang Zhen turned around and took a few steps forward, picked up the order that the cavalry held above his head, and turned around to present it to Sun Chuanting. Sun Chuanting didn't take it, but looked up, looking at the smoke and dust of the cremation corpse with his eyes wandering, and as the heat slowly rose, it obscured the sky and turned the sky gloomy~

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, in July, the matter of peace was leaked, and Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the military department, was imprisoned. However, Chongzhen was angry that Xinjia exposed the peace talks, and on September 20, Chen Xinjia was beheaded in the city.

Chen Xinjia died, and the Ming Dynasty lost the possibility of peace talks with the Qing Dynasty.

On September 30, the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the land of Liaodong has been covered with snow, and this year's snow fell earlier than in previous years, completely disrupting the agricultural time, and it is expected that next year will be another disaster year.

Shenyang City, in the Manchu Imperial Palace, there are several large wax sticks lit around the main hall, and there is a brazier in the center, and the temperature makes people feel hot.

On either side of the main hall sat a group of men full of anger, all of them with bare scalps, with only a small piece of hair the size of a copper coin and a small three-inch long braid on the back of their heads.

They were all wearing cotton clothes snatched from the gate, covered with brocade robes, and in front of them were placed a large basin of boiled meat, and a dagger was directly inserted into the fat meat, which looked very rough and savage.

On the main seat of the main hall, there is a person, a little white and fat, it is the Manchu chieftain Huang Taiji, compared with the group of pampered Manchu generals below, Huang Taiji's expression is undoubtedly relatively kind, only a pair of inverted triangular eyes, which looks particularly gloomy.

The white fat figure makes him look kind, but in fact, he has been fighting on the battlefield for many years and has killed hundreds of demons with his own hands.

"I recently got the news that Chen Xinjia, the lord of peace, has been beheaded by Chongzhen, it seems that the sincerity of the peace talks in the Southern Dynasties is not enough, and I am still a little unconvinced." Huang Taiji had no expression on his face, and his joy and anger were invisible, so that the people below did not know what he was thinking.

When Chen Xinjia was imprisoned in July, Huang Taiji got the news through his fine work. Since then, while waiting for the Ming Dynasty's further handling of the peace negotiations, he has been actively preparing and ready to enter the Kou Pass again at any time.

Now that Chen Xinjia is dead, it undoubtedly gives him an excuse, and it can be claimed that the Ming Dynasty has no sincerity in peace talks, deliberately tricks him, and robs him again.

"Great Khan, we annihilated more than 100,000 Ming thieves in Songshan, and captured the bird overseer, the Southern Dynasty is not convinced, let's beat him again." Bel Abatey laughed loudly.

Everyone on both sides also laughed, all of them were very arrogant, and they no longer took the Ming Dynasty in their eyes.

Dolgon, who was sitting on the side, said in a contemplative manner: "Since we have won the battle of Songshan, I don't think there is any need for peace talks, and it is not a problem to continue to fight directly, and it is not a problem to take Beijing."

Duoduo and others hurriedly echoed, threatening to take Beijing and destroy the Ming Dynasty, and were a little dissatisfied with Huang Taiji's caution.

"That's it!" Huang Taiji waved his hand to shut everyone up, squinted at Dolgon, and said with a somewhat gloomy gaze: "The snow fell early this year, the weather is abnormal, and next year's harvest will be affected." I have found out that the thieves in the pass are fighting with the Ming thieves in Henan, and Li Zicheng is no more than a rabble, and I can't let the Ming thieves exterminate Li Zicheng. In addition, according to the detailed report, the Ming State had the intention of building a ship in Denglai, Shandong, and wanted to contain me, but I could not let the Ming thief succeed in this plan, so I decided to recruit Ming in the near future. ”

Huang Taiji didn't really want to make peace with the Ming Dynasty, he was just not as anxious as others, and understood that it was not yet time to extinguish the Ming Dynasty.

Since his accession to the throne, he has launched five entrance battles before and after, and even broke through Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, but he finally chose to withdraw, because he thought that the time was not yet ripe, and the Manchurians could not gain a firm foothold in the pass.

When everyone heard that they were going to conquer the Ming Dynasty, they immediately became a little excited, the Ming Dynasty is now their back garden, and if they lack anything, they can go directly to get it.

"Great Khan, I am willing to be the pioneer and take the lead in breaking through." Abatai stood up excitedly.

Huang Taiji smiled on his face, "I ordered you to be the general who was ordered to preside over the affairs of Zhengming." However, you must be clear that this expedition has three purposes, one is to loot materials in case of famine in the coming year, the second is to contain the Ming thieves, so that the Ming thieves cannot deal with the thieves with all their strength, and the third is to hit Shandong and burn the things built by the Ming thieves. Do you understand? ”

Huang Taiji's thinking was very clear, and what he said was clear, Abatai immediately laughed and took the order, but Dolgon and the others on the side were a little displeased.

At this time, Huang Taiji glanced at everyone, then stood up, waved his hand and ordered, and said loudly: "Okay, pass on my will, and Zhengming will be seen on the same day~"

Many people suddenly geared up and were eager to try~