Dragon Sea Empire

Zeng Rui was led by agents of the local military intelligence department. When he went north and passed near Tielingwei, he was discovered by a group of Eight Banners cavalry at the junction of Houjin and Ming forces. The protected and monitored area passed through the snow-covered Liaodong Plain, passed through Songshan Fort that had been occupied by Houjin, and arrived at Jiefan City all the way.

The Hou Jin just made Jiefan a temporary capital. The city was built on the mountain, about 150 steps long from east to west, and 30 steps wide from north to south. It was just a small village, and Zeng Rui had no feeling for the strength of the Houjin Manchu Eight Banners until now.

Based on the experience of living in Liaodong for a year, Zeng Rui judged that most of the eight-banner and blue-banner cavalry escorted by them were Mongolians. However, they are more energetic than the Mongolian soldiers in the Ming army.

When entering Jiefan City Walled City, Zeng Rui saw a group of armored cavalry with Zhengbai flag leaving the city and passing through the city gate in a single file. The whole team was well armored, and more than 100 people sat silently on the horse. Around, Zeng Rui's group of mainland merchants hurriedly shrank to a corner of the city gate to make way. After leaving the city, the group quickly completed the transformation from a single column to a three-row marching column, and more than 100 people urged their horses to start at the same time. , disappeared into the vast snow field in the blink of an eye, and no one made a sound during the whole process.

"This is the armored man of the Zhengbai Banner..." the accompanying agent of the Ministry of Military Intelligence said in a low voice.

Zeng Rui nodded. He was wrapped in a leather hat and scarf with only his eyes showing, and said in a low voice vaguely: "Have you figured out the formation of the Eight Banners? This is a strong soldier with a hundred battles." Zeng Rui, who has participated in the recruit training for several months, is very aware of the importance and difficulty of operation of the troop formation change, let alone the change of the cavalry formation.

Jiefan Walled City is placed in the interior, which feels like a big landlord's manor. However, at this moment, all the important ministers and generals of Houjin Kingdom are gathered here to celebrate the great victory of Houjin Kingdom in this year, and they are also preparing for the new year. to plan a new war.

That night, some inland Han merchants rushed to Jiefan City Walled one after another. Zeng Rui and other merchants sent gift lists and goods lists to several household officials sent by Jiefan City, and then registered their names. native place.

A pen post told everyone in fluent Chinese: "My King Khan said that you guys will come here in the ice and snow, and you will definitely not let you return empty-handed... The King Khan will give you a banquet in the evening. Register the names of the people who are to be redeemed, and the King Khan will give you an answer at that time."

Zeng Rui turned his head and looked around, and saw dozens of Han merchants gathered in this simple and simple house, most of them were tightly wrapped in several layers of cotton and leather clothes. I can't see their faces clearly, but the accents are mostly businessmen from Liaodong and Shanxi.

"Here King Khan is a generous man. He has promised to hand over all the ginseng monopoly rights to my family next year," said a shopkeeper of Qiao's family in Shanxi.

"Does your Qiao family earn little money from the Mongolian Tartars? Why do you still come to grab things from the Fan family in Liaodong? Our Fan family transported [-] catties of iron to Hetuala this year. The King Khan should take the mink, The monopoly of herbal medicine is entrusted to us,"

"Comrades, let's start with the ugly words. For ginseng, herbs, and mink fur from Changbai Mountain in Liaodong, our Huaxing Alliance has covered the Jiangnan market..."

The shopkeeper of the semicolon of Zhonghua Company in Liaodong is the shopkeeper Jin, and now the shopkeeper who came to Jiefan instead of him has also participated in the conversation of this group of businessmen.

The group of Ming businessmen were arguing about doing business with the Manchurian Tartars, but Zeng Rui was not happy to listen to such a conversation. I still look down on those Ming businessmen who competed with the Chinese company. Without the careful efforts of the Chinese company and the accommodation of private channels, the Han businessmen other than Shanxi Qiao's family would not have been able to enter this Fancheng.

Unlike Zeng Shan, Zeng Rui was not dissatisfied with the company's tendency to focus on commerce. He just believed that selling a large amount of ironware and other materials to Houjin would help boost Houjin Nurhachi's strength, and he did not think it was completely wrong to conduct business with potential enemies. of.

Zeng Rui walked to the door, opened the thick curtain, a gust of cold wind blew in, and there was a commotion among the people in the house, and someone said: "Brother, close the door, you're freezing to death."

Zeng Rui ignored them and stepped out the door. This is Nurhachi's temporary Khan Palace, just a big house with three entrances and three exits.

The post-Manchurian Kingdom of Jin is still in its infancy. The superiority and inferiority within the Eight Banners are very particular, but the relationship between the upper and lower members of the Manchu family is relatively harmonious. There are many people coming and going in the so-called Khan Palace, most of whom are wearing armor. There were generals, civil servants with long braids and long gowns, and many children and women walking around, not knowing what they were doing.

Judging from his own experience, Zeng Rui judged that the current weather of the Jurchen in Jianzhou is very similar to the appearance after the victory of the Zhonghua Company in counterattacking Manila City. Children, children, are not afraid of the cold, and they all have smiles on their faces. On them, they wear shirts inside, and then put on thin cotton clothes. Ministers wear velvet clothes. This kind of fur is mostly mink, and the plush is very soft and delicate. Such a dress can only be bought with 30 to [-] taels of silver in Liaodong and Guan. Most civilians wear sheepskin clothes. They are all wearing leather jackets on their upper bodies and cotton trousers on their lower bodies, and the hangers are also made of fur. Obviously, if the Chinese Army fights these Manchus in winter, the cold weather alone can make the Chinese Army’s combat effectiveness half-fold. As a result, the fighting power of the Manchus in front of them doubled.

The dinner was held in a lobby, and Nurhachi didn't show up, but a thick-bodied Lord Baylor came out and spoke on the phone.

Zeng Rui from Quanzhou, Fujian has no appetite for the food in front of him. The food on the table includes chicken, fish, pig, beef, and mutton, but the Manchu tartars cook the meat thoroughly and then add some salt They don’t even add salt at all. The dishes are cooked first and then put in soy sauce. The Manchus also use a kind of miso for cooking. The staple food is millet instead of rice, and they use sorghum to make wine. After many years, he was still not used to local food, and Zeng Rui was even more intimidated by the large pieces of pork and beef eaten without salt by the Manchu Tartars, and dared not use his chopsticks.

Zeng Rui knew in his heart that from such a simple food, it can be seen that the Manchu Tartars had a great advantage over the Chinese army in terms of logistics and supplies when marching and fighting, and it could also be seen that the Eight Banners soldiers were rough and arrogant.

During this year's war, hundreds of businessmen who came to Liaodong from the mainland were looted by the Houjin Eight Banners soldiers. After New Year's Eve, most of these hundreds of people were released, and the gold shopkeeper was also successfully redeemed. Nurhachi sent someone to say welcome When everyone came to Houjin to do business again, King Khan would protect their personal safety. An official document in both Manchu and Han languages ​​stamped with the seal of Nurha Chi was sent to three Han businessmen, including Qiao's family, Fan's family, and Huaxing Lianhao, as their future. After entering the token of gold.

The prisoner of the Battle of Sarhu, Zhang Chuli, the flag officer of the Liaodong capital of the Ming army, was also sent here from a Nurhachi king's village by the Liaohe River. Zhang Chuchu was indeed the nephew of Liaodong capital Zhang Chengji, but he was in They were used by Zhonghua Company without knowing it. Zhang Chengji obtained several confidential letters from Zhang Chuchu. Although Zhang Chuchu wrote them, they were just copied and rewritten by the Ministry of Military Intelligence using the company's movable type printing workshop.

At first, Zhang was inexplicably stuffed into the businessman team of the Chinese company, and then he was dragged all the way to Lushun Port of Jinzhouwei. At this time, he realized that it was not his uncle who came to rescue him, but a businessman from the Chinese company.

Zhang was only about 30 years old at the beginning. He was a hero of Zhu Dijing in the early Ming Dynasty. In this era, he is just a child of an ordinary military family. Ordinary people in the military.

He was coerced by two men with gloomy faces on the left and right, and left Jiefan City, passed through the Tielingwei area in confusion, and arrived at the Daming territory.

At this time, most of the people from Huaxing Lianhao went to Liaoyang and Shenyang, but the thin and thin leader of this merchant team continued to take him south. At this time, the people who watched Zhang Chuchu were replaced by two servants Two men who were well-dressed and wrapped in cotton caps with only their eyes exposed, their accents were from the south, they rode on horses and looked closely at Zhang Chuchu from left to right. Hidden with a strong evil spirit, he also peeked at one of them with a dagger in his parka coat. Moreover, Zhang Chu had keenly discovered that there were several mysterious figures with the southern businessman leader, who would often Disappeared from the team, and then suddenly appeared in the front, back, left, and right sides of the team. These people were with the scouts in the Ming army, the new hands. At first, Zhang very consciously dispelled all his thoughts about running away. Very honestly followed the team all the way south.

Huaxing Lianhao is the semicolon of Zhonghua Company. He didn't know about this at first, and he didn't participate in the Battle of the Eastern Suburbs of the Capital during the Anti-Maritime Ban War the year before last. He knew that the Liaodong Army was defeated by the Chinese Army there, but why? I didn't expect that the person who kidnapped and coerced me would be related to the Chinese company.

After he crossed the boundary between Pulandian and Fuzhouwei, and came to the Jinzhouwei territory of the Chinese Army, Zhang Chu finally understood who this group of people was.