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

Chapter 790 Reoccupying Pi Island
After receiving the reply from the capital, Chen Xinjia immediately sent people to send Tun Ta Xi's children to the capital. When they arrived in the capital, Zhu Shenzui had people settle them down and sent someone to inform them of his arrangements.

These people were very grateful for Zhu Shenzhu's arrangement. The Ming Dynasty treated them very well. Not only did they give the title to Tun Tasi's youngest son, but they also specially granted marriage to his eldest daughter. Especially Tun Tasi's eldest daughter was very happy after learning about Deng Wenyuan's origin and age. Although she was also a Jurchen noblewoman, how could the Jurchens compare with the sons of Ming nobles? Marrying a son of a noble like Deng Wenyuan was something she had never dared to think of before. As for the fact that Deng Wenyuan had a wife and a son, the woman didn't care at all.

They hit it off immediately and the matter was settled. They picked a good day and held a grand wedding. Tun Tashi's eldest daughter married Deng Wenyuan. On the wedding day, Zhu Shenzui even sent a gift, which made both parties overjoyed.

After marriage, Deng Wenyuan treated this woman quite well. Although she was a Jurchen, she was not bad looking. Moreover, as a Jurchen noblewoman, she was polite and not rude. In addition, because of Zhu Shenzhu's arrangement of marriage, Deng Wenyuan and this woman had a happy life after marriage.

However, neither Zhu Shenzhu nor Deng Wenyuan would have thought that this woman, who seemed to have lost both her parents and only had a younger brother, was not a simple woman, not because of her background, but because of herself. If Zhu Shenzhu had not appeared, according to the original trajectory of history, Tuntaxi would have also rebelled against Huang Taiji and would have been exterminated by Huang Taiji.

But after Tuntaxi died, his youngest and eldest sons could not escape the pursuit and fell into the hands of Huang Taiji. Huang Taiji was cruel and would naturally kill his youngest son, but this woman survived by chance and was eventually given to his subordinate Sony as a concubine.

After this woman became Sony's concubine, she gave birth to a boy the following year. Although this woman herself did not leave any name in history, her son was famous because this boy was the powerful prime minister Soetu in the early Qing Dynasty.

That's right, Tuntaxi was Soetu's maternal grandfather, and this woman was also Soetu's mother. But now everything has changed, because of the Ming Dynasty's interference, after Tuntaxi's death, his youngest son and eldest daughter were not captured by Huang Taiji, and came to the Ming Dynasty, which meant that Soetu would never appear in history.

Because of Zheng Hongkui and Li You, not only did they engage in guerrilla warfare and harass Huang Taiji's rear, but they also caused the Zhenglan Banner to rebel against Huang Taiji.

Although the rebellion of Tuntaxi was eventually suppressed by Huang Taiji, the successive rebellions of the Zhenglan Banner resulted in the loss of nearly half of its troops in the civil strife. Moreover, because of these two incidents, there were signs of instability within the Eight Banners.

This was a great threat to Huang Taiji's rule, and he had to focus on internal affairs to consolidate his position. This was also the reason why Huang Taiji had no choice but to give up Jinzhou, which was about to be in his hands. As Huang Taiji's army withdrew, the siege of Jinzhou was finally lifted, and Zu Dashou and his subordinates were also out of danger.

The battle in Liaodong has now ended. On the surface, both sides suffered losses and it seemed to be a draw, but in fact, the one who suffered the loss was Huang Taiji. The rebellion of the Zhenglan Banner made Huang Taiji realize the drawbacks of the Eight Banners system. If he continued to fight with the Ming army without completely solving the internal problems of the Eight Banners, similar situations might occur again.

For this reason, Huang Taiji began to rectify and clean up the Eight Banners after dealing with Tuntaxi. He must completely control the power of the Eight Banners and never allow similar incidents like Tuntaxi to happen again. As for the harassment by Zheng Hongkui and Li You's troops, although it caused a lot of trouble for Huang Taiji, it was only an external factor after all. Compared with external factors, internal factors are the most important.

Moreover, with the coming of winter and the change of the monsoon, it became much more difficult for the Ming navy to continue landing operations. Chen Xinjia, who was on the front line, discussed with Li Xin, Zheng Hongkui, Li You and others and decided to adjust tactics. Using Ludao as a base, they would advance eastward to capture Pidao, which originally belonged to Mao Wenlong, and restore the previous sphere of influence of Dongjiang Town. This would not only continue to put pressure on Huang Taiji, making him hesitant to attack the Ming from the Liaoxi Corridor with all his strength, but the successive capture of Ludao and Pidao would also be more beneficial to the opening of Shandong's sea trade routes.

Taking over Pi Island was the last battle of this expedition, and it was not difficult to fight. The navy of Pi Island had already been annihilated by Zheng Hongkui at sea, and now Pi Island not only had few ships, but also had a serious shortage of garrison troops.

When Zheng Hongkui's navy carrying Li You's army arrived at Pi Island, the Eight Banners soldiers and Han Army Flags stationed on Pi Island were completely defeated after just a brief resistance. Except for a small number who escaped to the shore by boat, most of the others were either annihilated or taken prisoner by the Ming army.

The Ming army did not massacre these captives directly. All the captives were sent to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to be used as captives. Because a major event was happening in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, the captives were presented at this time, which was a perfect ending for Zhu Shenzhui for the Liaodong War. Half a month ago, with the lifting of the siege of Jinzhou, the Liaodong War had basically come to an end. This time, the Ming army not only did not suffer a crushing defeat, but also gained some advantages in the war. In particular, the rebellion and surrender of the Zhenglan Banner made the Ming Dynasty very excited.

Since Nurhaci started his rebellion, the Jiannu have been suppressing the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty has lost nearly one million troops in Liaodong, and dozens of civil and military officials have died in battle (surrendered to the enemy) or been dismissed, imprisoned or even executed for poor combat. It can be said that Liaodong has become the most troublesome problem for the Ming Dynasty. As long as the Liaodong issue is not resolved, the Ming Dynasty will not be at peace.

However, since Zhu Shenzhu entered the capital and served as regent, he fought two battles with the Jiannu. One was the Battle of the Great Wall, and the other was this Siege of Jinzhou.

In these two battles, the Ming Dynasty not only did not suffer any losses, but also dealt a heavy blow to the enemy, especially in the Siege of Jinzhou. According to the Cabinet and the Ministry of War, it would have been necessary to gather 200,000 troops to rescue Zu Dashou, and there was no absolute certainty of success.

However, Zhu Shenzhui used a surprise attack, with Zheng Hongkui and Li You leading the troops to attack from the sea. More than 2,000 people turned the enemy's rear upside down. In addition, the reinforcements from Xuanda and Jizhou Town, including Wu Sangui from Liaodong, continuously launched multiple small-scale harassment tactics against Huang Taiji's army that was besieging Jinzhou, thus breaking Huang Taiji's original strategy of besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements.

Not only that, there was also the incident of the Zhenglan Banner surrendering to the Ming Dynasty. Although it was a pity that the incident of Tuntaxi failed to carry out the strategy of splitting the Eight Banners to the best of its ability, the mere fact that Jingwuer and Guanbao surrendered to the Ming Dynasty had great political significance, which was unprecedented.

For a time, Zhu Shenzhu's prestige in the court and the country increased greatly, and the whole Ming Dynasty saw the possibility of completely solving the Liaodong issue. Moreover, under the heavy siege of the Ming army, the various bandits in the Ming Dynasty could no longer run around and cause trouble everywhere. The elimination of the bandits was just around the corner, and there was hope for the Ming Dynasty to be revived and the world to be peaceful.

At this time, the Prime Minister Wen Tihen's people suddenly proposed in the court that it was because of Zhu Shenzui's regent that they had such a great victory, and they were able to subdue the four directions and stabilize the world. This great achievement was comparable to the great conquest of the Yuan Dynasty by Taizu and Chengzu in the north.

Such merits must be written in great detail. Not only that, although Zhu Shenzhui was the regent, he was only a prince, which was a bit inappropriate. With such merits, it was not a problem to be promoted from a prince to a prince. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, except for Taizu and Chengzu, which emperor could do this?
Therefore, I implore Zhu Shencui to put the Ming Dynasty and the people of the world first and promote him to the rank of prince. When this was said, everyone had different thoughts, some were excited, some were surprised, some were shocked, and some could not wait to jump out and agree.

There are so many different things, and everyone has different calculations. In fact, everyone knows that Zhu Shenzhu, the so-called regent, is actually no different from the emperor, and what he lacks is just a title. Now some people are proposing that Zhu Shenzhu be promoted from a county prince to a prince, which is nothing more than taking another step and laying a solid foundation for the last step. In fact, everyone has been prepared for this situation. Not to mention taking another step, even if it is just one step, many people have already expected it.

Zhu Shenzhui has basically taken control of the court. Although the Donglin Party, Zhejiang Party, Chu Party, Qi Party and other parties still exist, most of them have been divided and disintegrated by Zhu Shenzhui. Even the strongest Donglin Party is not as strong as before. Because of the Beijing inspection, the Donglin Party has been in a state of panic these days. From time to time, officials have problems, and these problems are all proven and irrefutable.

Bribery and corruption are minor matters. There are many people who have been found to have made money from inappropriate places. In the past two months alone, more than 20 officials have been dismissed and punished. Most of these people are from the Donglin Party, and the rest are members of other parties.

With the treatment of these officials, the Donglin Party is now being tortured to death by Zhu Shenzhui. What's more terrible is that Zhu Shenzhui's approach is different from that of Emperor Tianqi and Emperor Chongzhen. Zhu Shenzhui did not use eunuchs to suppress them directly, nor did he use the imperial power to directly suppress and treat them like Emperor Chongzhen. Instead, he followed the formal procedures and laid everything out in the open.

Zhu Shenzhu even involved several bigwigs of the Donglin Party in the final process of deliberating and dismissing these officials. The Supervisory Office, the Censorate, the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Justice, the Dali Temple and other departments were responsible for judging and executing the cases according to the law. This move made the Donglin Party extremely uncomfortable, because it would be impossible for them to suppress the case under such circumstances. The shit these people had done was known to everyone in the government and the public, and it could not be concealed at all.

But it is extremely difficult for the Donglin Party to follow the rules. After all, these people are the backbone of the Donglin Party. Although the imperial examination only targets officials below the fourth rank and does not involve senior officials of the court, it should be known that no matter which party or faction, the upper-level people are ultimately a minority, and the basic members are the majority. Without the support of the people below, these big guys at the top will be unable to support themselves. Once they deal with these people, how can they explain to their followers?
(End of this chapter)