The year of the Great Qing Kingdom was particularly sad.

Although Huang Taiji successfully diverted the contradictions, focused the attention of the Manchu nobles on Fan Wencheng and other Han people, and skillfully avoided his own mistakes, the difficulties existing in the Great Qing State were real, and there was no good solution.

From the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, that is, the first year of Ruiyuan, the Ming court gradually blockaded Liaodong and southern Liaoning, prohibiting the mutual market with the Qing Dynasty, to the second year of Ruiyuan, after the battle of Liaodong, the Ming court was a complete blockade of Liaodong and Liaonan, any goods could not enter the Qing Dynasty, the battle of Fengzhen at the end of the third year of Ruiyuan, so that the situation of the grassland has also changed dramatically, many grassland tribes have clearly expressed their allegiance to the Ming court, directly or indirectly separated from the Qing Dynasty, including the Chahar tribe including the grassland tribes, They all severed ties with the Great Qing Kingdom.

Followed by the withering of the Eight Banners of Mongolia, except for a few grassland tribes who resolutely surrendered and supported the Qing Dynasty, many grassland tribes gradually withdrew the soldiers of their own tribes in the Eight Banners of the Meng, which made the situation of the twenty-four banners of the Great Qing Kingdom almost disappear.

In fact, before this, the Han Eight Banners had suffered a devastating blow, especially in the Battle of Liaodong, the Han Eight Banners were almost lost, even if Huang Taiji ordered to recruit sergeants from among the Han people to supplement the Han Eight Banners, the speed was not enough, after all, those ordinary Han people, it was impossible to become elite sergeants overnight.

The oppression of the Han people by the Manchus caused the Han Eight Banners to also waver, and there was no morale at all.

The greater difficulty comes from the extreme scarcity of materials.

When the Great Qing State was founded, the national strength was strong, and at that time, the Great Qing State controlled almost the entire eastern and southern Liaoning. Relying on the large-scale plundering from Guannai and the help of the steppe tribes, a large amount of money was gathered, and the Qing State could also plunder Korea at any time to meet its own needs.

But with the rise of Zheng Jiajun, that all changed. After that, the Eight Banners Army was defeated by the Zheng Jiajun several times, which made the supply of the Great Qing Kingdom temporarily difficult, and after Zheng Xunrui ascended the throne as the Ming Emperor, the life of the Great Qing Kingdom became more and more difficult, almost to the point of being unsustainable.

The Battle of Liaodong and the Battle of Fengzhen, including the successive rejection of the Han people and the changes of the Manchu nobility, made it impossible for Huang Taiji to concentrate all his energy on the people's livelihood, and the main thing that maintained the operation of a country was agriculture. Huang Taiji did not pay special attention to this aspect.

In the past, Fan Wencheng often reminded Huang Taiji in this regard, and even helped Huang Taiji do a lot of things to stabilize agricultural production, but now no one will help Huang Taiji.

Huang Taiji's side is almost all Manchu nobles, these Manchu nobles have a strong ability to fight and kill, where in the management of agricultural matters, there are not many ideas, some Manchu nobles even look down on agricultural production, because the ancestors of the Manchu people mainly rely on hunting. It's not farming, since the ancestors were able to survive hunting. It is now also possible to feed itself by hunting.

The short-sighted Manchurian nobles are not a few, and those who are as wise as Huang Taiji are very few after all.

The situation of the Great Qing Kingdom is completely different from before, the population has increased dozens of times, and the area under its control has gradually expanded, and it is impossible to maintain it by hunting alone. Moreover, in the Eight Banners Army of the Great Qing Kingdom, the sergeants did not have any money, and they completely relied on fighting to get paid, if there was no fighting and looting, the sergeants would have no income. The Eight Banners Army will not be able to stabilize.

Huang Taiji also thought of a way to allocate a certain amount of military pay to the Eight Banners Army through the imperial court, but this could not be maintained at all, the place controlled by the Great Qing State was not large, the taxes were limited, and it was impossible for the imperial court to support hundreds of thousands of Eight Banner Army.

On the one hand, the income is gradually shrinking, and on the other hand, the Manchurian nobles continue to enjoy life, and this situation continues to be difficult to maintain to a certain extent.

In the Great Palace, Huang Taiji looked at Prince Zheng Ji'er Harang.

Now Huang Taiji relies on Zierharang the most, and Prince Rui Dolgon has been squeezed out, and he is much more honest.

Huang Taiji and Zierharang discussed countless times how to solve the problem of lack of materials faced by the Great Qing Kingdom, but they did not think of a good way, and the Horqin tribe and others also supported part of the materials of the Great Qing Kingdom, but it was a drop in the bucket.

"Jierharang, I am very worried, the materials of the Eight Banners are a little scarce, Daishan, Dolgon, Haoge and others are complaining, it is difficult to maintain, there has been no expedition for several years, and the soldiers of the Eight Banners have no income, this situation continues, how can the Great Qing Kingdom be maintained."

Zilharan did not speak immediately.

"Now the Manchus have gone too far with the Han people, robbing the Han people's money at will, so that the Han people have no way to live, a few days ago there were even soldiers from the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty who entered the barracks of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty to loot, and I killed the soldiers of the Eight Banners who took the lead, but this is not the solution to the problem."

Huang Taiji already looked very old, his hair was almost completely white, and his beard was also grayish.

Huang Taiji's body also has a big problem, sometimes it is difficult to support his speech, he is often in a daze, he has lost his previous pride and wisdom, and he looks like an ordinary old man.

Zilharang coughed a few times and spoke with some difficulty.

"Your Majesty, because the ministers are not discussing with the Ming Dynasty again, as long as they agree to exchange markets with my Qing Dynasty, we will return some of the Han people, and the ministers think that in addition to this method, I am afraid that they will not be able to think of other ways."

Huang Taiji sighed and slowly spoke.

"I have also thought about this method, but it is too difficult to implement, the Han people in the Great Qing Dynasty are almost all slaves of the Manchu nobles, and if these Manchu nobles are required to hand over the slaves, the court will have to take out the silver to compensate, which is also the rule of my Great Qing Kingdom, I can't destroy it at will, but where does the court have these silvers."

Zierharang was speechless, what Huang Taiji said was a thing, the imperial court did not have much silver, several consecutive expeditions, the imperial court took out a large amount of silver, but every expedition was a failure, and the imperial court couldn't even take out the silver to deal with the aftermath, let alone take out the silver to buy Han slaves.

But as things stand, this is the only way to go.

Zilharang thought for a moment, and spoke again.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the way can still be imagined, the minister and Prince Li discussed, let Prince Li take the initiative to hand over the Han slaves in the family, as for Prince Su, the emperor can ask him to hand over part of the Han slaves, the minister is needless to say, the rest is Prince Rui, as long as the emperor speaks, as long as Prince Li and Prince Su have handed over part of the Han slaves, presumably Prince Rui will not be indifferent."

The method that Jierharang said is indeed feasible, as long as the princes of the Great Qing Kingdom take the lead, the rest of the county kings, Beile, Beizi and other Manchurian nobles will naturally follow suit.

But Huang Taiji knew the consequences of doing so.

The Manchu nobles were already very dissatisfied with his Emperor Taiji, especially after he Emperor Taiji taught Dolgon a lesson and placed the Manchurian Eight Banners with white flags under the command of Hauge, this dissatisfaction gradually became apparent.

Huang Taiji knew that he was getting older, his energy was not as good as before, and the Eight Banners Army had suffered successive defeats, and his prestige was gradually decreasing.

Huang Taiji shook his head slightly, obviously vetoing Zilharang's proposal.

Huang Taiji knew very well in his heart that Emperor Zheng Xunrui of the Ming Dynasty would not necessarily agree to such an exchange, and people could raise troops to attack Shenyang, and when the Great Qing Kingdom encountered internal and external difficulties, there was no need to make any transactions with the Great Qing Kingdom.

The main hall fell silent.

Leaving the main hall, Zilharang rode towards the mansion.

Zilharang was the second-ranked prince of the Qing Dynasty, and he could ride in a sedan chair, but he still maintained his horseback riding style, so low-key, and he was able to keep himself energetic.

There were many soldiers around him, and they followed him on horseback, and he firmly surrounded him in the middle.

The Great Hall is about four miles away from Zilharang's mansion, and it takes a short time to ride a horse.

When an arrow rang out, a soldier not far from the right front of Zilharang let out a scream.

More pro-soldiers quickly surrounded Zilharang, some of them stretched their bows and arrows, and looked around nervously, and some of them began to search around.

Someone actually wanted to plot against the prince of the Great Qing Kingdom, and he was the most trusted prince of Huang Taiji, this matter was unbelievable, and Zilharang was also slightly stunned.

This is an alley, the terrain is a bit complicated, after the killer shoots an arrow, he can quickly hide, it is impossible for Zilharang to search from house to house, and there are many Manchu nobles living here.

Just as the soldiers escorted Zilharang back to the mansion, Huang Taiji's holy decree arrived.

This time it was Huang Taiji's command, and Huang Taiji learned that someone actually dared to assassinate Jierharang, and he was furious, and asked the Criminal Department to strictly investigate, even to turn Shenyang upside down, and to search for the murderer.

After thinking about it for a while, he immediately found that something was wrong, there were too many doubts in it, since he was thinking about assassinating him, how could he just shoot an arrow and there would be no follow-up, and the location of the assassination was at the mouth of the alley, which was the place where the Manchurian nobles lived, and what was even more strange was that the soldiers did not find the person who shot the arrow.

Zilharang carefully looked at the soldiers who were shot, and the arrow in his right arm, the bow and arrow were the kind commonly used by the Eight Banners Army.

After thinking about it, Jierharang felt that something was wrong, he was ready to go to the Dazheng Hall immediately, report to Huang Taiji, and prevent Huang Taiji from launching a large-scale investigation in Shenyang. (To be continued.) )