Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 459 Happy Huang Taiji
The death of Mao Wenlong can be said to be a watershed in the complete split between the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty. Since this incident, the rift between civil and military officials has become increasingly larger. In order to protect themselves, the military group's distrust of the civil group has continued to expand, which eventually led to increasingly serious discord between the civil and military officials.

In addition, Yuan Chonghuan's actions also made the military generals extremely distrustful of the court and even the emperor. Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong in this way, but in the end nothing happened to him. Such an ending is heartbreaking.

Apart from the reaction from the Ming Dynasty, the one who had the biggest reaction to Mao Wenlong's death was Huang Taiji of the Qing Dynasty. When Huang Taiji learned that Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan, he didn't believe it at first, and thought that the Ming Dynasty deliberately spread the rumor to trick him. But when follow-up news came one after another, and Huang Taiji personally sent people to Pi Island to inquire and learned that Mao Wenlong was really dead, Huang Taiji was so happy that he danced with joy and laughed up to the sky.

To Huang Taiji, Mao Wenlong had always been a thorn in his side, a thorn in his flesh, and his biggest rival whom he wanted to get rid of as soon as possible. In fact, Huang Taiji often valued Mao Wenlong more than Yuan Chonghuan. Although Yuan Chonghuan had fought off Nurhaci's attack at Ningyuan, causing the Later Jin to return empty-handed, in Huang Taiji's eyes, Yuan Chonghuan was just a scholar who knew a little bit about fighting. Yuan Chonghuan could only defend the city at best. As long as he was not attacked, Yuan Chonghuan would not take the initiative to attack him.

But Mao Wenlong was different. He spent 33 years in Liaodong and experienced countless battles of all sizes. His identity and status were entirely earned through fighting with the Later Jin Dynasty.

Over the years, Mao Wenlong has killed countless Jurchens, and even many Jurchen nobles died at his hands. In the most critical time, Mao Wenlong almost led his troops to capture Shenyang and directly destroyed the Qing Dynasty's lair. If Nurhaci had not returned quickly and Mao Wenlong's army had not been relatively weak, the situation of the war might have changed completely.

As early as the time of the old Khan Nurhaci, the Jurchens hated Mao Wenlong to the core and wanted to kill this guy who always hid behind them and ran out to make trouble from time to time. Unfortunately, they had no way to deal with Mao Wenlong. Mao Wenlong had 30,000 elite soldiers and a navy, and stayed in Pi Island. Although the Qing Dynasty was unparalleled in cavalry and archery, they could not do anything to Mao Wenlong. If you went to attack him, he would not come ashore. As soon as you left, Mao Wenlong would bring people ashore to poke your ass. It was a headache.

Now, Mao Wenlong is dead, and he died at the hands of Yuan Chonghuan, at the hands of his own people in the Ming Dynasty. This is simply the best news Huang Taiji has heard in these days.

The reason why Dongjiang Town was difficult to deal with was because of Mao Wenlong. Once Mao Wenlong died, Dongjiang Town was not to be feared at all. As for Yuan Chonghuan, Huang Taiji didn't take him seriously. In his opinion, ten Yuan Chonghuans were not as good as one Mao Wenlong, who was just a scholar.

After confirming that Mao Wenlong had been executed by Yuan Chonghuan, the happy Huang Taiji quickly made a decision. He decisively interrupted the "peace talks" with the Ming Dynasty. Originally, Huang Taiji believed that this peace talk was used to paralyze the Ming Dynasty, because he had just succeeded to the throne and needed time to rectify the internal affairs. At the same time, he also had to free up his hands to deal with Ligdan Khan and eliminate the threats in the rear. It happened that Yuan Chonghuan asked someone to propose a peace talk suggestion, and Huang Taiji agreed to it. However, Huang Taiji had no real idea of ​​peace talks from the beginning. The reason he did this was to buy time for himself to prevent himself from going to war with the Ming Dynasty without dealing with internal conflicts and external hidden dangers, which would affect his layout.

Now, after more than a year of internal adjustments, Huang Taiji has completely controlled the Eight Banners, eliminated dissidents, and secured his position. As for Lin Danhan, it goes without saying that under the attack of Huang Taiji and other Mongolian tribes, Lin Danhan abandoned Chahar and fled to Tumed. Later, he fought a fierce battle with Bushitu in Tumed and failed to capture Guihua City in time. He had no choice but to continue westward and had already fled to Qinghai.

With internal and external troubles resolved, Huang Taiji had already begun to deal with the three Solon tribes in the north. However, although the elite Eight Banners forced the three Solon tribes to retreat step by step and surrender, they had not yet succeeded in truly recovering the three Solon tribes. They had to continue fighting with the Solon tribe until the entire Solon tribe and the Eight Banners were merged to achieve Huang Taiji's goal.

Now that Mao Wenlong is dead, Huang Taiji sees the best opportunity again, which is the opportunity to launch another war against the Ming Dynasty.

However, this time Huang Taiji was not targeting Shanhaiguan. He knew that it was not so easy to break Shanhaiguan. To go south, he must first break Yuan Chonghuan's Jinzhou and Liaodong defense lines. If these two cities could not be taken, the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty would not be able to march to Shanhaiguan. Even if they reached Shanhaiguan, it would not be easy to enter the pass. Compared with the Ming army, although the Eight Banners were brave and good at fighting, they lacked effective siege equipment, especially powerful weapons such as artillery. The Eight Banners were far inferior to the Ming army. Except for a few artillery pieces snatched from the Ming army, Huang Taiji's firepower was of little use. In addition, the Qing Dynasty did not have the technology to cast artillery and real artillery gunners. If he fought the Ming army under the strong city, Huang Taiji would have no chance of winning.

Therefore, Huang Taiji had no intention of directly confronting the Ming army in Liaodong. His target for interrupting the peace talks and restarting the war was the east, and his east was, apart from Mao Wenlong's Dongjiang Town, Korea.

Huang Taiji is different from Nurhaci. Although Nurhaci is the founder of the Later Jin Dynasty and the founder of the Eight Banners system, Nurhaci is more capable in using troops and fighting wars. He lacks political acumen and judgment of the overall situation.

On the contrary, Huang Taiji had such vision and judgment. He knew very well that if he wanted to compete with the huge Ming Dynasty, it was far from enough to rely on Liaodong alone. Liaodong's territory was too small, and its geographical location was not good. It was located in the north and did not produce much. Even if he changed the political attitude of Nurhachi's period, he began to show a tolerant attitude towards the Han people in Liaodong, encouraged people's livelihood, and changed the situation that the Eight Banners only knew how to plunder and survive. He began to use his means and methods to establish a truly effective regime. However, given the actual situation, even if he could do this, it was limited and still far less powerful than the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, Huang Taiji had to find a way from other places. Among them, solving Lin Danhan, winning over the Mongolian tribes, and attacking the three tribes of Solon in the north were Huang Taiji's targeted strategies for such considerations. Now, after learning that Mao Wenlong had died, Huang Taiji set his sights on the Korean Peninsula in the east. If he could take Korea for the Qing Dynasty, then his power would expand again, and he would eventually have the strength to directly compete with the Ming Dynasty.

The name of Korea was given by Zhu Di in the past, which means the country with distinct sunrise and sunset. The country was designated as a non-conquerable country by the Ming Dynasty and has always been a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

Over the years, the relationship between Korea and Ming Dynasty was very close, and Ming Dynasty had given Korea a new life. When Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who unified Japan, invaded Korea with the intention of using Korea as a springboard to attack Ming Dynasty, Emperor Wanli directly sent troops to aid Korea, fought a great battle with Japanese troops in Korea, and finally drove out the invading Japanese troops and recovered the Korean territory.

From this point of view, if it were not for the Ming Dynasty, Korea would have ceased to exist long ago. It is not an exaggeration to say that the Ming Dynasty is the reborn parent of Korea. The people of Korea also regarded the Ming Dynasty as their parent country, imitating the Ming Dynasty in terms of clothing and culture, and even called themselves "Little China".

When Nurhaci started his rebellion, Korea always stood on the side of the Ming Dynasty and joined the Ming Dynasty to fight against the Later Jin army at that time. Even though the Ming Dynasty was defeated again and again, the Korean army never betrayed the Ming Dynasty. After Mao Wenlong established Dongjiang Town, Korea was his rear base. He was able to raise 30,000 troops in Pi Island and provide relief to nearly 100,000 Liaodong soldiers and civilians. If it were not for Korea as the rear base, the income from his business and tax collection would still not be enough.

Although Mao Wenlong's relationship with Korea was not very good when he was alive, after all, as a general of the Ming Dynasty, Mao Wenlong considered more from the perspective of the Ming Dynasty. It seemed natural to Mao Wenlong to ask Korea for food, supplies, etc. as military supplies to fight against the Later Jin Dynasty. However, Korea paid more and naturally had complaints. However, under Mao Wenlong's pressure, Korea had to give things to Mao Wenlong.

Now that Mao Wenlong is dead, Dongjiang Town still exists but has become a mess. Huang Taiji keenly saw that this was the best opportunity to subdue Korea.

Without Mao Wenlong, Korea alone is nothing to be feared. The combat effectiveness of the Korean soldiers is simply vulnerable in front of the Eight Banners. Once Korea is suppressed and made to surrender completely, the benefits of Korea's strength to the Qing Dynasty will be obvious. In the future, with the replenishment of food, weapons and other supplies from Korea, the Qing Dynasty will not only be able to solve its worries, but also have enough confidence. More importantly, with the control of Korea, the Ming Dynasty will lose a foreign aid, and the Qing Dynasty will no longer have any worries in the rear.

Huang Taiji set his sights on North Korea and was ready to completely subdue it for his own use. However, it was not so easy to conquer North Korea. Although North Korea was weak, it was still a country, and it would take some effort to conquer even the weakest country.

Huang Taiji was a man who planned before taking action. He did not launch a war against Korea immediately. Instead, he tentatively sent a part of the Eight Banners Army to move eastward, trying to attack the territory controlled by Dongjiang Town and open up a channel to launch a war against Korea.

At the same time, Huang Taiji also mobilized another part of the Eight Banners to Jinzhou and Ningyuan to test Yuan Chonghuan's reaction. With the mobilization of the Qing troops and the outbreak of a small-scale war, Yuan Chonghuan, who had just returned from Pi Island, could not sit still. Yuan Chonghuan was very angry that Huang Taiji suddenly used troops regardless of the continuation of the negotiations between the two sides, but he did not want to completely tear his face with Huang Taiji. He thought again and again and sent people to negotiate and ask Huang Taiji what he wanted to do? Why did he start to use troops when the negotiations were originally going well? Wouldn't it be good for everyone to be friends happily? Why must we fight?

"Hahaha, this Yuan Chonghuan...hahaha!" After receiving Yuan Chonghuan's letter, Huang Taiji couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Why is the Khan laughing?" Sitting next to Huang Taiji was a man with a shaved head and a braid, dressed in Jurchen costume. He was tall and strong, with a square face, a handsome appearance and a mustache. He looked like a military general, but he had a scholarly air. This man was Huang Taiji's most trusted Han minister - Fan Wencheng.

(End of this chapter)