Chapter 5 Chapter Five

"But let the flying generals of Dragon City stay, and don't teach Huma Du Yinshan..." Staring at the calligraphy with silver hooks on the iron painting on the wall, Li Chengliang couldn't help but recited the verses in the calligraphy gently; whether it is a poem or a book, what he expressed is A generous ambition reveals a majestic momentum; however, when he is facing it at this moment, what arises in his heart is intricate emotions and worries. The news that Zhang Jingxiu hanged himself in prison came on the same day as the good news that he had made meritorious deeds in trapping and killing Qing Jiapi and Yang Jipi of Yehe tribe. Official imperial edicts and official documents from the Ministry of War were transmitted from the post station, and his eyes and ears in Beijing privately conveyed to him the messages from the court at the fastest speed—on the same day, his emotions fluctuated wildly. As in the poles.

Although on the surface, he was still able to maintain a calm composure, with no changes in his emotions showing in his expression, but the turbulent waves in his heart could not be calmed down no matter what. Zhang Jingxiu's fate, together with Zhang Juzheng's life, occupied most of his thoughts, spinning and entangled endlessly; and his own merits and rewards made him pay more attention to his own future, how to maintain The existing fame and status, as well as the idea of ​​"going up to a higher level" and paving the way for the official career of the nine sons are like a pot of fire that gradually burns more and more vigorously after adding new firewood-the replacement of the two trends of thought, They overlapped and even got tangled together, which made him confused for a while, his heart was in a mess, and his head started to hurt. Only Fianbi could force himself to calm down and think carefully by admiring the calligraphy.

"You must not follow in the footsteps of Zhang Juzheng..." He said to himself earnestly in his heart: "You must not..." This is the only conclusion. To allow himself to live, to keep his fame and wealth, and to allow his children and grandchildren to live on, and to keep his fame and wealth forever, he must have a method suitable for this era and the environment; thus, he began to hold his breath. Thinking about it, from the detailed reflections of my past, to the current situation in the court and China, and what I want to cater to in the future... After thinking over and over for several days, he finally analyzed and concluded a general idea: he was quite satisfied with his previous performance, his military exploits were outstanding, not only did he not offend anyone in the court, but he also made perfect friends with those in power; however, Under the current situation, I have to be extra cautious——the coat of "Mr. If you read the book, read your own one!

And judging from the fact that he was recorded and rewarded for trapping and killing Qing Jiani and Yang Jini this time, the little emperor still regarded himself and Liaodong as important—this proved that his previous "Liaodong policy" was correct: To create a situation of "events in Liaodong", battles will be fought every few days, and memorials for battles and victories will be sent to the court every few days. The little emperor will naturally pay special attention to Liaodong and care for himself! Furthermore, he estimated the little emperor's talent. Although his method of liquidating Zhang Juzheng was vicious, he was still a fledgling in governing the country. The situation in the interior is already complicated, let alone the frontier!As for frontiers and military affairs, the little emperor probably didn't even have a basic understanding, and he even talked about governance—that is to say, it was very bluffing!

"As long as he thinks that Liaodong is troublesome - there are not many people in the court who are familiar with Liao affairs, except for this commander - hehe..." Thinking of this, he smiled triumphantly; this part of the "established policy" can be changed, and because it has been practiced for many years, it has long been very handy: cultivate weak Jurchens, and when they grow up, they can then Instigate them to fight with the powerful Jurchens and kill each other, so as to achieve the effect of checks and balances. Occasionally, I personally go out to kill a few powerful elites among the Jurchens, so as not to lose the tail, and also add some military merit to myself— — This "policy for governing Liao Dynasty" can continue to be implemented without modification.

What needs to be corrected is the impression I have given to the emperor and courtiers: the most urgent thing at the moment is of course to downplay the fact that I was promoted by Zhang Juzheng. All the words and deeds should cater to the emperor's wishes as much as possible. You should neither be honest and outspoken in everything like Zhang Juzheng, nor be like Qi Jiguang who wiped out all enemies in one fell swoop and reduced your own importance. Of course, it is easy to achieve "Liaodong is troublesome", but it is difficult to achieve "good physique and emperor's heart". He has to make more efforts.

"Doting on Concubine Zheng De gradually becomes more luxurious..." He turned his thoughts around a few times, and involuntarily thought of these secret words from the capital; he unconsciously narrowed his eyes, and murmured to himself: "After all, it is the heart of a teenager—if it is That way, it’s easy to handle!” He made up his mind, if the news is true, then as long as he follows the path of Concubine Zheng De, then his fame and wealth will be guaranteed forever - moreover, most of the news is true, after all, he spent many years in the capital A lot of money to buy news is not thrown into the sea.

So, the calculation was confirmed: "Since ancient times, officials have taken the emperor's inside line, but there are only two paths of foreign relatives and eunuchs--eunuchs, I have reconnected with Zhang Cheng's line; and with Concubine Zheng De, then If you do both, you'll be safe!" He never acted sloppily, and immediately ordered his left and right: "Broadcast like Zhen!" However, this time it was contrary to the usual practice, Li Ruzhen did not come to him immediately, but after a while, he rushed over with a panicked expression that he knew he was late; , Immediately fell to his knees, bowed his head and did not dare to lift it up, and said in his mouth: "The child is late, father, please forgive me..."

Li Chengliang had something on his mind, so he didn't lose his temper as usual, but just let out a cold "hum", and let Li Ruzhen explain to himself: "My child just went out for a walk. He came back a long time ago, but because of I heard someone talking about Nurhachi at the gate of the city, so I stopped and listened for a long time, so I wasted some time..." As soon as Li Chengliang heard the words "Nurhachi", Li Chengliang's heart trembled suddenly, followed by a complex feeling of bewilderment, and his ears began to buzz, his face remained calm, but when Li Ruzhen finished replying, However, he subconsciously blurted out and asked, "What news did you hear about Nurhachi?"

Li Ruzhen didn't dare to hide anything, but he was timid, and replied in a low voice: "I heard that he brought 400 people to attack Longdun and Samuzhan!" Li Chengliang sneered and said, "I think it's some big news..." Li Ruzhen knelt down on the ground, not daring to express any opinion, and did not even dare to move his whole body; fortunately, Li Chengliang quickly put Nurhachi's words aside and said to him: "Get up! I have something to ask you to go manage!" These words are like the emperor's grace, of course Li Ruzhen stood up in a hurry, Li Chengliang told him: "You take another batch of jewelry and treasures, and go to Beijing to find your second uncle and fifth brother; No need to bring them here, just stay in Beijing to take care of all parties—use as much as possible, and enough; in addition, if they want to follow the path of Concubine Zheng De, she and her mother's family must be on the line!"

When he said something, Li Ruzhen nodded and said yes; as soon as he finished speaking, Li Ruzhen immediately responded respectfully: "I will do it immediately!" "Go ahead!" "Excuse me, baby!" As Li Ruzhen said, he knelt down and kowtowed respectfully, then walked backwards out of the study, turned around and left outside the study door. Li Chengliang watched his retreating figure, walked outside the door, and could still see the figure passing by through the lattice window, an inexplicable impulse suddenly arose in his heart, wanting to ask him to come in and ask a few more words; But when he opened his mouth, he stopped immediately and did not make a sound; when his thoughts became more intense, Li Ruzhen had already walked away during his hesitation. He tried his best to send someone to call him back, but he simply gave up; but when he turned around, he saw the big characters "Don't teach Huma to cross the Yin Mountain" hanging on the wall, and the complicated feeling in his heart surged up again. "Nurhachi..." This name aroused many emotions in his heart. He used to treat this person like a nephew, and he used to want to kill him quickly—now, he is waiting for him to increase his military exploits and consolidate his reputation after he grows up. ! After much deliberation, with all the past events and mixed feelings, he became even more confused!Since his mood is not stable, it is difficult to sleep well at night. Fortunately, his reason is still clear, and he can afford it mentally. Therefore, he can continue to implement the "strategy" against the court and the Jurchen as planned... … But Nurhachi didn't know the complex thoughts, ups and downs, and entangled emotions that existed in Li Chengliang's heart at all; When confronting, you must be patient on the surface, and even try to hide your sharpness on the surface as much as possible, so as to reduce Li Chengliang's attention-he is very aware of the disadvantages he is in. In order to achieve his ideal vision, the timing Patience before arrival is absolutely necessary! Therefore, before each dispatch of troops, he tried his best to avoid Li Chengliang's attention in the battle plan he made and the name of the dispatch; —Of course, this time's conquest of Samzhan is no exception. Jianzhou Zuowei has more than 500 troops. He left more than 100 people to guard the city and protect the old and weak women and children. He personally led 400 troops to attack Samzhan, Longdun and others to avenge Ha Sihu. . According to the report of the spies sent out, Long Dun and Samuzhan fled to Maldun village with their troops and belongings, and defected to Nashen and Wan Jihan, the owners of Maldun village who had always been friendly with them. Maldun Village is naturally dangerous - it is located on the top of a steep mountain, with a cliff on one side, and only one mountain road can pass through it. With the experience of attacking Zhaojia City, Nurhachi dared not take it lightly when attacking such a dangerous mountain stronghold; he first listened carefully to the location and situation of Maldun Village described to him by several spies, and first drew After drawing out a simple map, he took two or three guards and secretly went to the vicinity of Maldun Village to observe it. After returning, he added details to the map. Next, he summoned E Yidu, An Fei Yanggu and his brothers discussed the plan of attacking the city together. After spreading out the map, what Nurhachi said to everyone was not the method of attacking the city, but the method of defending the city: "If we go to defend this Maerdun village, what method will we use to repel the intruders?" Centaur?" When he uttered the first sentence, everyone present was at a loss, and Shuerhaqi even blurted out: "We are the attacking side, why should we think of ways to defend the city for the enemy instead? " Nurhachi ignored him, and asked Eyidu and Anfei Yanggu on his own: "If the two of you are in charge of guarding this Maldun stronghold, now, facing a siege team of 400 people, how would you do it?" Handle?" This time, Anfei Yanggu, who has always been taciturn, answered first. He first looked down at the map carefully, thought for a while and said: "One side of this village is a cliff, which is a natural danger. It can save a lot of effort. This path is narrow and steep from bottom to top, which is very conducive to defense. Just set up a few ambushes at the condescending intersection. Take charge of intercepting and killing the men and horses rushing through the first two ambushes, then no matter how many troops the enemy has, they will not be able to cross this mountain road to reach the stockade!" Hearing what he said, Nurhachi couldn't help laughing, patted him on the shoulder, and praised: "What a good general—if you go to guard Maerdun Village, then we really can't even fly to the village!" His laughter was full of cheerfulness and joy, and Shuerhaqi couldn't help saying in amazement: "You still laugh so happily? An Feiyangu can figure out this foolproof method of defending the city. Could it be that Nashen, Wan Can't Jihan and the others figure it out? Maybe they will use this method to defend the city!" Nurhachi said with a smile: "I also guess they will use this method to defend the city!" As he spoke, he immediately put away his smile, and looked at everyone seriously, with an irresistible majesty in his sharp eyes. Then, he slowed down his speaking speed, and said to everyone word by word: "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle. This sentence is not wrong--before attacking a city, if we first assume that we are the party defending the city, and think clearly about the methods of defending the city, and then think about the method of attacking the city, then , the plan made will be much more comprehensive than just thinking about how to attack the city!" After a few words, everyone suddenly realized; but only E Yi stared at the map carefully, and suddenly slapped his thigh hard and said: "I have a solution..." Then, he pointed to the map and said to everyone: "Look, the road from Jianzhou Zuowei to Maldunzhai is very common. We can march normally. The ones that are really close to the range of Maldunzhai are At the foot of their mountain, the only access is this mountain road, and it is only on this road that an ambush may be set up - please see, this mountain road is not very steep at first, and the mountain is still gentle, so it is not very suitable for setting up an ambush attack , even if there is, it is easy to solve, so this section of the road, based on the combat experience of our troops, is not difficult to pass; the real difficulty is here..." He stretched out his finger, pointed to a point on the map and said: "This place is steep and steep, and you will sweat a lot if you climb up it when you are free, let alone fighting; the three of Amfeyangu ambushed here Daoist horse, that's really because he is a bird that can't fly-but, look, this section of road is dangerous but not long, and the road is narrow, so I thought, let's get some big iron plates, like a roof The first group of soldiers abandoned their horses and crawled under the board to solve the ambush, and the second group of soldiers rushed behind. Go up and clear all their ambushes outside the city, and the third group of troops can march straight in and attack the city!" He finished the entire siege plan in one breath, and everyone applauded unanimously, saying in unison: "Good idea!" Nurhachi also patted him on the shoulder with a smile: "So, don't you worry about not being able to attack the city?" Then, he added: "There is one more thing, send another ten people to do it - Maldun Village is built on the top of the mountain, and it is impossible to dig wells in that kind of place. I guess the drinking water for the people in their village is all They brought mountain spring water into the village to store it, as long as they find their water source and drain channel, and cut off the drain channel, the entire city will have no water to drink, so we just need to surround the city, and they will naturally surrender without a fight!" As soon as he finished speaking, everyone cheered immediately: "That's great—the dispatch of troops this time must be very smooth!" Sure enough, under the use of Eyidu's siege technique, the troops led by Nurhaci successfully eliminated the ambush on the mountain road, and then surrounded Maldun Village and cut off Jidao; four days later, Maldun Village The whole village surrendered voluntarily; it was a pity that the village owners Na Shen and Wan Jihan escaped by virtue of their familiarity with the environment, and only Long Dun and Samuzhan were captured. The two were tied up and pushed to Nurhachi. Seeing Long Dun and Samzhan, Nurhachi's eyes almost burst into flames. He pointed at Long Dun and shouted angrily: "You, your father, and my grandfather are brothers..." Pointing at Samzhan again, he said angrily, "You, your sister is my father's stepwife..." He stared at the two men fiercely, slapped each of them with a wave of his hand, and then cursed angrily: "You two beasts with a human face and a heart - you had a very close relationship with my grandfather and father, In the end, they were murdered, and not only did you not assist in revenge, but you also tried every means to destroy them, and finally planned to assassinate Ha Sihu—are you two still human?" While sternly cursing, he picked up the horsewhip and whipped at the two of them; the faces of the two had already been slapped with red handprints, but now there were a few more bloodstains on their bodies, and Samzhan couldn't bear the pain , Kneeling on the ground with a "poof", shouting indiscriminately: "It's none of my business—these are all Long Dun's ideas—it's him, not me!" Long Dun was still standing upright, dodging the oncoming horsewhip, sneered contemptuously at Samzhan who was kneeling on the ground, and shouted to Nurhachi: "Nurhachi, I fell to you hand, count me as a loser; but, after I die, I will come back to kill you as a ghost!" Hearing his cry, Nurhachi stopped swinging the whip instead, and threw the whip on the ground with a "snap", then looked directly at Long Dun, and said coldly: "Okay! If you have something to say, just explain it! Anyway, let you be a happy ghost!" Long Dun said: "You only know that you want to avenge your grandfather and father, but you don't care about the lives of the whole family - you dare to be an enemy of Nikan Wailan, and Nikan Wailan has the backing of the Ming Dynasty, even if you can kill Nikan Wailan Kanwailan, the Ming Dynasty will not give up with you, let me ask, can you resist? Haven't you seen what happened to Atai, Qing Jiani, and Yang Jipi? You want to take revenge yourself, so it doesn't matter if you lose your life, we Wouldn't the whole family be buried with them? If we don't kill you, our whole family is in danger of being wiped out by the Ming Dynasty!" He talked loudly and endlessly, and Nurhachi was even more furious, and he cursed angrily: "A worthless thing, cowardly, afraid of death..." Long Dun roared: "For us to live, we have to kill you first..." Nurhachi stopped cursing, and said to him coldly: "It's a pity that not only you can't kill me, but you can't live anymore - I could have forgiven you, but you can't forgive Ha Sihu ;I will kill you and give Nichuhe an explanation!" Long Dun yelled like crazy: "You want to kill me—you will kill the whole family together! You executioner!" Nurhachi slapped him in the face again with a "slap", which made him stop shouting involuntarily; then, Nurhachi stared straight at Longdun with sharp eyes, calmly and forcefully, every word. He said to him: "I will take the whole clan to kill Nikan Wailan with my own hands, and kill every enemy with my own hands!" What he said was beyond words, and he didn't say the word "Li Chengliang". Where did Long Dun notice this? When he was about to die, he just yelled wildly as if fighting back: "You dare to fight against Nikan Wailan? He has the Ming Dynasty. Back up, what do you have..." "I have ambition!" Nurhachi answered him coldly, and then ordered the guards: "Pull these two people out and chop them up!" However, as soon as the words were out of his mouth, his thoughts suddenly changed, so he waved his hand to tell the guards to give up, then turned to Yang Shu and said, "You are responsible for escorting these two people back to Jianzhou Zuowei, and personally escorting them to the left guard. Give it to Ni Chuhe, let Ni Chuhe kill them with his own hands, and avenge Ha Sihu!"