The black soil and fallen leaves were constantly thrown into the air, and the horses seen along the way began to become thinner, and after a few days of hard fighting, it was a severe test for the war horses, especially in the late winter and early spring, when the war horses were the most tired, the armor and bannermen seen along the way were leading the horses to walk, and when they saw this team of people riding forward, they quickly got out of the way.

This time the war against Yehe mobilized more than half of the Eight Banners Dingkou and all the Han army, the junction of the Jianzhou Department and the Jurchen almost everywhere can be seen walking armor people and bannermen, from time to time you can see the Niu Lu flag and the Jia La flag fluttering in the air, every other distance you can see the Niu Lu flag fluttering in the middle of the mountain, this is set up in the key place of the sentry card Ezhen, they are responsible for guarding the key point, once the alarm is found, it will be cut off on the spot, reported or led by himself to attack.

At this time, several sentry posts were really punished, or confiscated family property, or beheaded, everyone knew that this war against Yehe was not fatal, the threat of the Ming Dynasty was imminent, and the Great Khan would severely punish everyone who slacked off, and there was no possibility of forgiveness.

Nurhachi was camped less than sixty miles from the city of Yehe, a small valley surrounded by undeveloped forests, Zhang Han knew that in later generations there must be a crisscross of towns and fields, and there might even be mines and large mining enterprises, there would be roads, or railways, there would be whistling trains, but at this time there were only groups of soldiers wearing cotton armor leading horses to pass by, there were hundreds of tents of various sizes, and there were also a few wooden huts built by the Yehe tribesmen who collected ginseng or dried fruits. Other than that, there is only the silence of the dense forest and the whistling sound of the wind blowing.

Nurh Chi sat in the tent, and his own soldiers stood around with bows and arrows, and a map was laid out in front of him, and the people beside him were talking.

Yehebu for this attack is the virtual outside the real inside of the war, in the enemy is strong and weak in the war this method of warfare is very effective, the outer city is almost abandoned, Nurhaci with tens of thousands of soldiers and horses all the way to attack, so far there has not been a hard battle, more than 20 walled cities were destroyed, the captured Yehe tribe is less than a thousand people, looted cattle and sheep are also very few, there are many of them are Horqin side of the Mongol cattle and sheep grazing, Yehebu will concentrate the soldiers and horses in the big city of Yehe, it is expected that there are about 15,000 men and horses, Of course, half of them were old and weak men, but as long as the Jurchens who could walk and pull their bows and arrows were a threat, these people could lean on the fence of the camp and shoot arrows outward, and it was not easy to pull down such a city where all the Yehe forces were concentrated.

When Nurhaci saw Li Yongfang and Zhang Han riding with a small group of people, he waited for everyone to get off their horses and walked closer, and asked, "What's the emergency?" ”

Li Yongfang replied: "I just received a report from Tangmalai that Beyler Jintaishi and Buyangu of Yehebu reported to the Ming army in Kaiyuan that the Ming army had already left the city, and when Tangma came to report, it was expected that they had already come out for dozens of miles, approaching the border guard post between us and the Ming Kingdom. ”

Nurhachi asked, "Do you think the soldiers and horses of the Ming Kingdom are really coming to fight?" ”

Li Yongfang replied in a very precise and contemptuous tone: "Kaiyuan will not have more than 20,000 soldiers all the way, and there are many auxiliary soldiers, and the soldiers are mainly based on the original Liaodong soldiers, the military discipline is very bad, the drills are also very poor, and most of the weapons are decayed. No need to worry at all! ”

Nurhaci nodded and said, "What you said is very true, then you think, how long will it take for the Ming army to be dispatched?" ”

Li Yongfang said: "If you can call the generals to be strategic, it will take at least another year to talk about the use of soldiers, raising war horses, making weapons, training soldiers, and more run-in between the generals and generals, and only when they work together can they fight." However, the Ming Dynasty has always been a civil official strategy, and his generation is easily constrained by the imperial court, the center does not know the soldiers, and the emperor is focused on money, and the rumors I have heard recently are that the expenses in Beijing are too large, but I am afraid that the old teacher is tired, and the grain and grass and silver are consumed in vain, so the attitude of the first auxiliary party from Zhe and the soldier Huang Jiashan is in a hurry to use the army, and will not delay, the slave predicts that at most two or three months, the Ming army will definitely attack our country in many ways. ”

"Hmm!" There was a look of approval on Nurhachi's face, and he instructed Li Yongfang: "You consult with Erdeni and write a letter to the Ming Kingdom in my name, basically saying that I want to negotiate peace with them. ”

The so-called "peace talks" are of course a trick used to confuse Yang Hao, Yang Hao has been to Shenyang for many months, has been concerned about the transfer of grain, grass and soldiers and horses, and there is to ask the center for money, everything in the Jianzhou Department is only a superficial understanding of the past in Liaodong, and Yang Hao has been transferred to the Ming army generals also lack understanding and respect, according to Li Yongfang's spy system, Yang Hao relies most on Li Rubai, the Li family since Li Rusong's death, Li Rumei and Li Rubai brothers are senior military positions, Li Rubai is now also a general soldier, Yang Hao was supported by the Li family when he served in Liaodong, and Yang Hao also reciprocated with peach, and now the generals of Liaodong are as rich as cypress, which can be described as the heart of the heart.

Li Rubai is a very unqualified general, and his relationship with the Houjin side led by Nurhachi is also very ambiguous, and the two sides have been secretly in contact.

Even in terms of ability, Li Rubai is cowardly and cowardly, lustful and greedy for money, and is by no means a qualified general.

Yang Hao has great opinions about Liu Ling, and even hates each other.

The rest of the general soldier Yang Ho also did not know much about it, and in general, the current Yang Ho neither knew the enemy nor knew it.

Nurhachi said: "It means that if the kingdom can eliminate my seven hatreds, and withdraw from the army to show sincerity, and give me three hundred taels of gold, three thousand taels of silver, and three thousand horses of silk, then the two sides can be reconciled and strike each other." ”

Li Yongfang hurriedly responded, and Nuerhachi ordered him to keep an eye on the high-level of the Ming State as much as possible, especially the copy of the residence of the Beijing division and the Tang newspaper of the general soldiers in the border town, which must be copied regularly.

Zhang Han didn't expect that the old Khan in front of him had the same hobbies as himself, and he didn't know if Wang Faxiang, who was sent to Beijing, was as efficient and capable as Li Yongfang's people.

Nuer Hachi glanced at Zhang Han and didn't talk to him, Li Yongfang gently pulled Zhang Han's robe, the two saluted together, turned around and retreated.

……

Yang Hao has been in Liaodong for several months, and in the blink of an eye, it is the middle of February in the forty-seventh year of Wanli.

The weather is gradually warmer, the sunny days are gradually increasing, the sunshine hours are starting to become longer, and the snow has almost melted, only when the Shenyang city wall looks high, you can occasionally see some residual snow on the roofs of the houses in the south of the city.

Shenyang has four city gates, the name of the city gate is similar to the rest of the Ming city gate, compared to Liaoyang, Shenyang is more a pure military fortress, the city gate is tall, the corner tower and the arrow tower are numerous, the battlements have perforations, the city is more than nine miles, two feet high and five feet, each gate also has an urn city, there are auxiliary facilities such as moat and horse wall outside the city, there are nearly 50,000 garrisons in the city, only from a military point of view, Shenyang is a male city that can not be conquered and can not be besieged by the Houjin.

Every day at noon, the road will thaw, the black and yellow soil on the official road is turned up, the original rammed earth layer is in disrepair for a long time, and the horses and vehicles have long been destroyed, the four gates of Shenyang City lead to several important directions, behind it is the Liaohe Hetao, to the north is Kaiyuan and Tieling and Qinghe Pass, to the east is Fushun Pass and Jurchen boundary, to the south is Hupiyi Baitapu and Fengji Fort, and then to the south is Liaoyang City, each official road is connected to the core area of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong, The barrier Liaohe guarding Mongolia has always been the top priority of Shenyang, compared to Liaoyang in Liaozhong, Shenyang has seen more wind and rain dozens of years ago, and the Mongols have invaded here many times, but none of them have succeeded.

Yang Ho since arriving in Shenyang to live near the central temple, these months he has been busy urging the imperial court in financial support, last month the first assistant party from Zhe wrote a letter sent to Shenyang, the letter to Yang Hao made it clear that the court has no extra money and grain, the treasury is empty, the household department of Shangshu and the household department to the matter to ask the emperor to send the inner silver out, the emperor said a high-sounding words, and then deduced that the inner treasury is empty, and asked the ministers to find their own way.

Nearly a year ago, when the Liao affair just started, the ministers asked the emperor for internal money because of the emptiness of the treasury, after all, everyone knows that the emperor has money, and the Wanli Emperor has carefully taken care of his small treasury for decades, and the internal treasury is by no means a minority, and the treasury has been used up completely because of the relationship between the three major levies, and Zhang Juzheng's nearly 10 million family funds that he had saved ten years ago have long been lost.

Ten years of work, the accumulation of a large amount of wealth was used up by the three major wars and peacetime expenses, the finances were overwhelmed, after Wanli ordered the elimination of the Jianzhou Jurchens, the imperial court began to mobilize soldiers and horses, at the same time it was silver like water used out, Fang Congzhe complained to Yang Hao in a private letter that the finances were overwhelmed, in fact, it was also a disguised reminder that this war must be solved quickly, otherwise not only the emperor was displeased, but the colleagues in the center would not understand Yang Hao, they would only think that Yang Hao was constantly looking for trouble, This will affect the wind evaluation of Yang Hao, and even attract severe attacks.

After Yang Hao received Fang Congzhe's private message, he knew that he couldn't delay, but in fact, he didn't intend to enter the army now...... After all, he has been an official on the border for many years, some of the most basic experience told him that it was not timely to enter the army at this time, first of all, the weather was still cold, the soldiers were not enough ordnance, tents and cold utensils were insufficient, no need for the general to tell him Yang Hao also knew that the army was not convinced, morale was low, and Houjin could defeat the Ming army in a row, showing strong military strength, some ministers in the court compared this war with the old incident of Chenghua sending 50,000 troops to sweep the Jurchen tribe in three years, Yang Hao also felt disapproving.