The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

The Nurgan Regional Military Command's Twin City Guard, later known as the Twin Cities of Ussuriysk in Tsarist Russia, had walls that were about 70 to 80 meters long on each side, judging from the raised rammed earth mounds. This was a typical garrison city with a hundred households.

A hundred Han cavalrymen, dressed in fur coats and carrying red flags with black dragons, were slowly marching along the mountain crevices. Even though it was almost June, there was still snow on the mountaintop.

Upon reaching the vicinity of the Twin Cities, they finally saw an open plain. A young Han Chinese flag officer in the hundred-man squad, upon seeing the terrain, subconsciously looked at the centurion.

"Centurion, the Manchus are truly brutal. Almost all the Haixi Jurchen tribes along the way have been forcibly conscripted into the Eight Banners. Even the four major tribes on the map, such as Yehe and Ula, have been completely massacred and incorporated!"

"Our current location is the Twin Cities on the map, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Donghai Jurchen. No wonder the Ming Dynasty built a city here. If we could grow wheat here, we could produce enough food to feed a thousand people!"

"If we just station troops at the centurions, the extra grain can be traded with the Jurchens for furs and game. It's a sure-fire way to make money!"

A Jurchen woman who had joined the Han army by beheading ten enemies showed a sad expression upon hearing this and, unusually, spoke up.

"I am from the Yehe tribe. My ancestors told me that before Nurhaci rebelled, our Yehe tribe did business with the Ming Dynasty. We only needed to pay a small amount of tax each year, and we lived a decent life in Changbai Mountain!"

"I heard that when Nurhaci defeated the Yehe tribe, only 1,500 households remained out of 70,000 to 80,000 people. Now, those Yehe nobles have forgotten their blood feud and are marrying into the Aisin Gioro royal family. They've forgotten their past blood feud and don't care about us lower-class tribesmen!"

The centurion standing nearby, recognizing the round face as that of a Mongol, looked at the Yehe Jurchen woman with a mocking expression.

"So it turns out that Nurhaci's army, which Ligdan Khan couldn't defeat even once, was comprised of your four Jurchen tribes of Haixi who have already submitted to Nurhaci!"

"But before this, you were quite happy eating the ironclad crops, and you didn't resist like the Plain Blue Banner. So you can't blame anyone else for being punished by His Majesty."

The centurion was a Mongol who had never been friendly to the Manchu Eight Banners Jurchens. After speaking, he looked at the Han Chinese junior officer.

"Li Ye, even though you're in our centurion's troop period, you're quick-witted. Take a good look at the map; the sooner we find a tribe, the sooner we can go back!"

Upon hearing this, Li Ye took off his hat, felt the cold wind blowing from the valley, and then strode towards the ruins. He climbed onto the rammed earth mound and looked around. Before long, a smile appeared on his face.

"Centurion, there are fishing nets in the river!"

"There must be a tribe nearby!"

Just as Li Ye finished speaking, an arrow shot out with a whoosh, the arrowhead piercing his chest. Fortunately, it was stopped by the inner iron armor, which startled Li Ye so much that he tumbled to the ground.

"The enemy is on the left side of the ruins. The first flag bearer should change into a warhorse and charge immediately. The rest of you should stay put and wait for orders."

In the centurion's eyes, this meant that someone had ambushed Li Ye, and he immediately gave an order to the flag officer beside him.

The ruins were not large. After receiving the order, the flag officer immediately led fifty cavalrymen to surround the leeward side of the ruins and then rushed up to it.

The centurion, a seasoned warrior, gave this order out of fear that the enemy had more men and that not all one hundred of his men would be trapped. However, he found only three Jurchens dressed in animal skins hiding there, their faces showing fear.

Upon seeing this, the Yehe Jurchen man immediately drew his scimitar and stepped forward, asking questions in Jurchen.

"Which tribe are you from?"

"We are soldiers of the Han Dynasty!"

The eldest of the three heard the Jurchen language, which he understood despite its incoherence, and immediately stepped forward to reply in broken Mandarin, though the others could not understand him.

Not long after, the centurion arrived with the uninjured Li Ye and the remaining troops, and the Yehe Jurchens immediately went forward to report.

"Centurion, they say, is from the Warka tribe. From Nurhaci to Huang Taiji, they have been sweeping through their tribe to conscript soldiers. A few years ago, they even killed their tribal chief and relocated most of the population."

"They also said that although there was no leader, the Manchu Qing dynasty had Ningguta in the north, and those Eight Banner soldiers often went south to plunder. They thought we were soldiers from Ningguta, so they couldn't help but shoot arrows."

Li Ye, standing nearby, couldn't help but tease, "How many soldiers did the Jurchens actually die in their wars with the Ming Dynasty? From the Haixi Jurchens to the Haidong Jurchens, plus the Jianzhou Jurchens, there must have been five or six hundred thousand people. How come Beijing is so small?"

The centurion also found it quite interesting, since he hadn't known these things before. However, he grasped the key point and quickly stepped forward to ask.

"Yehe boy, tell them that the Jianzhou Jurchens have been wiped out by the Central Plains dynasty. They can go to the west to trade with us for supplies. But first, ask them how many soldiers Ningguta has."

"I'm worried that the brothers going to Ningguta might be ambushed without their knowledge; that would be too dangerous!"

Upon hearing this, the Yehe Jurchen immediately questioned the three Donghai Jurchen, and their expressions gradually turned serious.

"Centurion, they said they didn't know the exact number, but each time it was more than three hundred people who went south to collect taxes."

The centurion's expression turned serious upon hearing this. "If they can easily send out a Niru, then they must have at least two or three thousand men, and most likely all of them are cavalry."

"Li Ye, take your flag, mount three warhorses, and send an urgent messenger to Hetu Ala. You must deliver the intelligence to the general as quickly as possible!"

Without wasting any words after receiving the order, Li Ye immediately led the other nine men in his squad, changed into their thirty best warhorses, and galloped off in the direction they had come from.

The centurion, on the other hand, led three Jurchens from the East Sea to their tribe. They had salt, grain, and iron pots, which the Jurchens were eager to trade.

They couldn't possibly use all those wild animal pelts.

……

At this very moment, twenty miles north of Mudanjiang, outside the ancient city of Xinning, which later became the Ning'an Municipal Government, a cavalry of three hundred men gathered together.

Judging from the flags and the armor inside the fur coats, these are the Han cavalrymen who set off to trade with the tribe. All three hundred of them are gathered in a sheltered spot to avoid the cold wind.

The north wind was howling. The three centurions were gathered together. One of them was a man with a stern face. Judging from his appearance, he was a Han Chinese from the Northwest. He was frowning.

"Gentlemen, I never expected that there would be a Manchu city in this barren land. It seems that there are quite a few soldiers inside. If it weren't for the freezing rain yesterday, we would probably have to go directly to the city to greet them, which would have been troublesome."

"Tell me about it, all the Jurchens and barbarians around here are under the control of this Ningguta government. They're completely avoiding us, which is really hindering our mission!"

"I've heard there are many former Ming generals who have rebelled against the Qing in recent years. Should we take them down? Maybe we can coordinate an attack from within and without, and achieve great success!"