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

Chapter 953 Liaodong Situation
Zhu Shenzhu was a little hesitant when facing Sun Chengzong's question. Just as he was thinking about what to say, Sun Chengzong said, "This question of yours embarrasses Your Majesty. With Your Majesty's ability, you should be able to recover the lost land and wipe out the Jiannu. But I also know that this is not easy and may not be resolved in a short time. I am just unwilling to give up. Please don't blame me..."

"Sir, you've gone too far. I understand your heart for the country. When you were the commander of Ji-Liao, you made great contributions to the country by turning the tide of the Liaodong war. Unfortunately, I failed to do my best. This is not your fault." Zhu Shenzhui comforted Sun Chengzong and continued, "To be honest, sir, I have made plans for the Liaodong war these days. However, you also know that the Jiannu are different from the bandits. It is too risky to go to war with military force alone. I have been planning for the past few years. Since you asked today, I will tell you the truth."

Zhu Shenzhui immediately told Sun Chengzong about the arrangements in Liaodong. It was the first time that Zhu Shenzhui told outsiders about many of the situations, and it was also the first time that Sun Chengzong knew about these things.

As Zhu Shenzui spoke, Sun Chengzong was first surprised, then thought deeply, then suddenly realized, and finally a look of joy appeared on his face.

He did not expect that Zhu Shencui had been planning the Liaodong war a long time ago, and had been making arrangements for these years. Moreover, the means adopted by Zhu Shencui were better than those adopted by Sun Chengzong before, which greatly surprised Sun Chengzong.

After the Battle of Jinzhou, the Ming Dynasty imposed a military and economic blockade on the entire Liaodong region. Not only that, it also used Shandong's navy and foreign trade caravans to corrupt and win over the nobles of the Jiannu army, and used economic means to weaken the opponent's potential.

In addition, in Mongolia, the power of the Tenger tribe has expanded eastward. Originally, Chahar was the territory of Ligdan Khan. After Ligdan Khan was defeated by Huang Taiji and fled to the west, the territory of Chahar was divided up by the Mongolian tribes that surrendered to Huang Taiji. It is precisely for this reason that Huang Taiji's sphere of influence not only controlled Khorchin and Inner and Outer Khalkha, but also penetrated into the Chahar region.

But after the failure of the attack on Tumed by the Dorgon brothers and other tribes, the pattern of the grassland changed. After defeating the enemy's coalition forces, the Tenger tribe of Tumed not only captured several leaders of the Chahar tribes, but also forced them to surrender through various means.

During the Battle of the Great Wall, the Tengger tribe cooperated with the Ming army in attacking the grassland and decisively advanced eastward. Not only did it force Huang Taiji to retreat, but it also took the opportunity to seize the grassland in central Chahar and headed straight for the eastern part of Chahar, including the Khorchin and Inner and Outer Khalkha regions.

Because of the existence of the Tenger tribe, Huang Taiji's plan to invade Tumed through Chahar and suppress and recover the Mongolian tribes in one fell swoop was completely thwarted. After the death of Huang Taiji, although the Ming Dynasty has not made any moves, the grasslands are expanding eastward. Not long ago, the Tenger tribe defeated the coalition forces of three tribes in one fell swoop and captured most of Chahar. The remaining Chahar tribes did not dare to fight in front of the Tenger army and could only surrender in order to protect themselves.

A few days ago, news came that Tengger agreed to the surrender of these tribes and asked for hostages from them. In addition, he planned to let his brother Agudamu marry the daughters of the Taijis of these tribes to form an alliance.

Zhu Shenzhui has replied to express his agreement, and asked Tenger to send envoys to Khorchin and Inner and Outer Khalkha to ask them to send women for marriage, whether to marry Tenger or Agudamu. Huang Taiji did this back then, and the Tenger brothers can do the same now. Moreover, compared with the Qing Dynasty, which was in decline and had just died, the Tenger tribe was in its heyday on the grassland.

Mongolians have always been pursuing interests. In the eyes of Mongolians, nothing else in the world is meaningful except Changshengtian and interests. The tradition of marriage is also the most suitable for Mongolians. Besides, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty is just a child, and marriage is impossible. However, the Tenger brothers are different. They are young heroes. Isn't it better to marry a daughter to such a man than to a child?

According to Zhu Shenzhui's plan for Mongolia, the Chahar region will be Agudamu's territory in the future, while Tengger will develop westward and northward. This is to prevent one of the two brothers from dominating, and it is also a plan to divide Mongolia. Of course, this plan is only the first step and will be adjusted in the future, but one thing is certain, that is, the Tengger tribe must suppress other Mongolian tribes in the south of the desert, especially the Khorchin tribe, so as to change the situation that the Khorchin tribe and other tribes will turn to the Qing Dynasty.

As long as this is achieved, the influence of the Jiannu in Mongolia will inevitably be greatly reduced. Even if the Khorchin and other tribes are still dependent on the Qing Dynasty, with the Tenger tribe in the west, the Khorchin and other tribes will have to weigh the consequences of offending the Tenger tribe and the behemoth Ming Dynasty.

In this way, the possibility of Jiannu obtaining a large amount of supplies from the grassland or repeating the old trick of going south through the Chahar region will no longer exist. With the blockades on both ends being carried out at the same time, it is extremely difficult for the so-called Qing Dynasty to survive by relying solely on its own output without the benefits of plunder. According to Zhu Shenzhu's estimation, it will take only a few years for Jiannu to be unable to bear it. Without sufficient sources of supplies, Jiannu will become a toothless tiger no matter how strong it is. And by then, Jiannu will have only two ways to change this situation. One way is to go to war with the Ming Dynasty again and make up for the lack of its own supplies by plundering the Ming Dynasty.

But it was simply impossible to do so. With the majority of Chahar in hand, it was no longer possible for the Qing Dynasty to bypass the Liaoxi Corridor and go through Mongolia to invade the Ming Dynasty as before. The only thing they could do was to attack the Ningjin Defense Line, break the blockade of the Liaoxi Corridor, and then attack Shanhaiguan to enter the interior.

But this route was not feasible at all. How could the Ningjin defense line established by Sun Chengzong be so easy to break? Huang Taiji besieged Jinzhou for more than half a year and failed to capture Jinzhou. Moreover, the entire Liaoxi Corridor had been rearranged long ago. The so-called farming policy that Yuan Chonghuan had previously put forward was completely abolished. The local Liao people were all taken to Shandong for resettlement. The entire Liaoxi Corridor had become a battlefield. The Ming army had no other concerns when they went into battle lightly. In addition, the strong defenses of several cities and the abundant food and grass in the cities made it impossible for the elite Eight Banners to easily capture them by force.

Unless the Jian Nu could think of Zhang Xianzhong's method of digging holes to attack the city, they could use it to break the city. But the problem was that since Zhang Xianzhong proposed this method in the General Council, Zhu Shenzhui asked the General Council to come up with a lot of ways to crack this method, and secretly informed the two main generals in Liaodong, Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui, to pay attention to this matter. If the Jian Nu showed signs of using this method, they must not be careless.

With Wu Xiang in the General Senate, Zu Dashou and Wu Sangui would naturally take it seriously, so it was simply a pipe dream to break the Ningjin defense line of the Liaoxi Corridor. Moreover, Pi Island had returned to the hands of the Ming army, which had stationed troops there. In addition, with the strength of the Shandong Navy, once the Jiannu attacked the Liaoxi Corridor, the troops on Pi Island and the Shandong Navy would be able to cut off the Jiannu's retreat, forcing them to be cautious and not take action.

In this way, the Jiannu would not gain anything from the Ming Dynasty, and would suffer losses in the Liaoxi Corridor. Therefore, the Jiannu had no other options, which were to fight Mongolia and plunder materials from the Mongolian grasslands for their own use, or to suppress Mongolia through diplomatic means and force the Mongols to hand over cattle and sheep to the Jiannu to ensure the survival of materials in Liaodong.

Under such circumstances, you can imagine what the Mongolian attitude would be. As mentioned before, Mongolians are the most concerned about interests. As long as there are enough interests, Mongolians will be close to you like wearing the same pants. But if the interests are greater or violate the interests of the other party, then Mongolians will turn hostile in a blink of an eye and pull out their knives to stab you.

The Mongols, whether they were Khorchin, Inner and Outer Khalkha, or Chahar, all joined Huang Taiji because they had greater benefits. For example, they drove away Ligdan Khan and divided up all the pastures, cattle and sheep that belonged to him. They followed the Jiannu south to the Great Wall, rushed directly into the heart of the Ming Dynasty, burned, killed and looted, and obtained countless supplies and people from the rich Ming Dynasty. These were all real benefits.

But once these benefits no longer exist, and you have to pay more than you get, how can the Mongols continue to follow you? It's totally not worth it. As for your desire to get supplies from the Mongols to make up for your own shortage, it's even more impossible. Not to mention cattle and sheep, even cow dung is extremely valuable to the Mongols. If you want to take their cattle and sheep, it's like taking their lives. No matter who you are, it would be strange if the Mongols don't draw their knives and fight you to the death.

Therefore, once Jiannu wanted to reach out to Mongolia, the Mongolian-Manchurian alliance that Huang Taiji had finally formed through marriage would be broken, and the Mongols would inevitably resist, or even turn against each other and surrender to the Ming Dynasty. Of course, this approach was unlikely, because Jiannu was not a fool, and both Empress Dowager Zhezhe and Shunzhi's biological mother Bumbutai were from the Khorchin tribe. They naturally refused to let the Eight Banners plunder their own families. It can be seen that there was only one way to solve the Jiannu dilemma, that is, to squeeze Korea and obtain materials from Korea to maintain its rule.

This was also a result that Zhu Shenzhu was happy to see. Before Huang Taiji's death, he found a reason to plunder Korea and obtained a large amount of supplies from Korea. Originally, Huang Taiji planned to use these supplies as a backing to first deal with the Solon tribe in the north, and then turn around and start a war against the Ming Dynasty again.

Unfortunately, Huang Taiji himself did not expect that he would die so suddenly. With the sudden death of Huang Taiji, Hauge, who was attacking the Solon tribe, turned back to Shengjing to fight for the throne, and the Solon tribe thus escaped the disaster.

Then Hauge and Dorgon fought endlessly for the throne, but in the end, neither of them became the winner, and the throne fell into the hands of Shunzhi, who was still a baby. With Shunzhi's ascension to the throne, the power within the Eight Banners changed again. Dorgon took advantage of this incident to gain power, and Hauge was unwilling to fail and intended to fight for power. The two continued to fight, and they didn't care about Huang Taiji's plan at the time? It was unknown when they would finally decide the winner. By then, no matter who won or lost, they would face the same dilemma. The only way to solve this dilemma was to continue to plunder Korea and use the power of Korea to fill the gap between the Qing Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)