Gaotaibao is located in the northwest of Zhonghouso, Guangning (now Gaotaibao Town, Suizhong County, Liaoning Province).
Going north from Gaotaibao through the Yanshan Mountains is the grazing area of the Chaohua, Nuantu, Guiying and other tribes under the Mongolian Kharchin tribe.
Since the Mongols could reach the Liaoxi Corridor from this mountain road, Gaotaibao became an important fortress on the Liaoxi Corridor.
In the first year of Chongzhen, Liaodong suffered from drought.
This drought is severe and affects a wide area.
Except for the riverside areas, the Northeast Plain has almost no harvest.
The eight nearby granaries in North Korea are all empty.
There is no grass growing on the Mongolian grasslands.
Large numbers of cattle and sheep starved to death, and the Mongolian Kharchin tribe was in a survival crisis.
In order to appease the Kharachin tribe, Yuan Chonghuan, then Governor of Ji and Liao, submitted a petition to Chongzhen requesting appeasement.
According to previous practice, the imperial court would allow border troops to sell grain to the grassland tribes to help them survive famine.
But Chongzhen did not agree.
Because the Kharchin tribe followed the Eight Banners Army to attack Ningyuan City in the sixth year of the Tianqi reign.
Selling them food now is tantamount to aiding the enemy!
So Chongzhen replied to Yuan Chonghuan: How can we allow you to use the bandits to support the thieves?
Yuan Chonghuan replied to Chongzhen: For now, we should urgently improve our preparations and try to lure them in. If they return to us, we will pay them generously; if they cannot be brought in, we will expel them when the opportunity arises...
Yuan Chonghuan meant that the situation in Liaodong was tense, and that they should first lure the Kharchin tribe and win over their hearts, and then send troops to suppress them if the other side did not obey.
Out of trust, Chongzhen asked Yuan Chonghuan to find out the population of the Kharachin tribe and sell/exchange grain according to the population of the other party. (Find out the number of tribes, and exchange rice according to the number of people. It is not allowed to sell cloth, rice, or smuggle prohibited items.)
In February of the following year, Yuan Chonghuan began to sell grain in Gaotaibao.
Chongzhen asked him to sell according to the population size, but Yuan Chonghuan sold without reservation.
Since the Kharchin tribe had already sworn a blood alliance with the Later Jin, they immediately sold the grain to the Jiannu.
The Jian Nu were almost unable to bear the hardships. According to the "Manchu Old Documents", there was a great famine in the country, and the price of grain was eight taels of silver. Some people even ate human flesh. Although there was a lot of silver in the country at that time, there was no place to trade...
After obtaining these grains, the Jiannu temporarily overcame the crisis.
But that’s not all. In order to make more money, the Kharchin tribe asked the Eight Banners soldiers to disguise themselves as Mongolians and go to Gaotaibao to buy grain at high prices.
The grain that the imperial court had transported to Liaodong with great difficulty was sold to the Mongols by Yuan Chonghuan at a high price.
Did Yuan Chonghuan really not know about the Kharchin tribe's reselling of grain and fodder?
Of course he knows.
It is recorded in "Guoqie" that although there was intelligence, Chonghuan did not believe it.
There is no wall that is impenetrable.
The sale of grain soon attracted the attention of the court. Other ministers wrote to Chongzhen, but Chongzhen did not believe it at first.
Later, Zhao Lujiao, the general of Shanhaiguan, wrote a letter to Chongzhen.
After reading the letter, Chongzhen realized the seriousness of the problem and issued an order to ban the sale of grain.
But by this time, the border reserves had already begun to run out.
What does it mean that the border reserves are beginning to be exhausted?
Yuan Chonghuan sold all the food reserves of the border troops!
It was the end of June in the second year of Chongzhen, and three months later the Ji Si Rebellion occurred.
The Kharchin tribe led the Jiannu into the pass to plunder.
It is worth mentioning that during the Ji Si Rebellion, Zhao Ruojiao followed Yuan Chonghuan's orders and led 4,000 cavalry to rescue Zunhua, but was attacked and killed on the way.
No matter who killed Zhao Lujiao, his death meant that the Guanning Army was the only dominant force on the Liaodong battlefield.
......
May 15th, the 23rd year of Chongzhen.
Li Xingzhong's deputy general Cha Binxun led 5,000 cavalrymen to the Gaotaibao area.
The once extremely strong castle has been destroyed and has become extremely weathered with the passage of time.
Cha Binxun rode around the abandoned fortress on horseback and sighed, "I've returned to Liaodong after six years, but it's a pity that everything has changed."
"Sir," a personal soldier holding a black object rode up to Cha Binxun and said, "A large number of cavalry passed through this area recently."
"Where is the evidence?" asked Cha Binxun.
The soldier pointed at the horseshoe prints on the ground and said, "From the horseshoe prints, we can see that these horses have horseshoes nailed on them. Free-range horses don't need to carry people or loads, so they rarely have horseshoes nailed on them. But since so many horses have horseshoes nailed on them, they must be cavalry."
"Secondly," the soldier twisted the black lump in his hand, "the horse's feces is not particularly dry, which means that they did not pass through here for a long time."
"Yeah," Cha Binxun nodded.
After thinking for a long time, he gave the order: "Send out all the scouts and make sure to find the traces of the Jiannu enemy. In addition, in order to prevent the whereabouts from being exposed, all the firemen must dig smokeless stoves when boiling water and cooking. Those who disobey the order will be executed!"
The order quickly spread throughout the army.
"What is a smokeless stove?" asked a new fireman.
"You're a new soldier, right?" The old soldier laughed. "This is a stove digging method passed down from the Yongwei Camp in the capital. As long as you dig a stove according to this method, the smoke produced by boiling water and cooking will be very small, and it will not be easy to expose the whereabouts of the army."
The new fireman didn't believe it and stood around an old soldier to observe.
Under the gaze of everyone, the veteran dug the stove pit.
Unlike ordinary stoves, smokeless stoves have many more smoke exhaust ducts.
After digging the stove pit, the veteran began to add firewood and light the fire.
After the flames started, something strange happened.
The smoke produced by the burning firewood penetrated into several chimneys, and then seeped out to the ground through the covering above the chimney openings.
The smoke that emerged from the ground did not rise upwards, but spread and dissipated on the ground.
Compared with ordinary stoves, this stove produces much less smoke.
"Amazing!" the recruits exclaimed immediately.
"Of course it's amazing!" an old soldier said proudly, "According to the brothers in the Brave Guard Battalion, this method was taught to them by His Majesty the Current."
"Your Majesty?" The recruits opened their mouths wide, not daring to believe what they heard. "Your Majesty... is truly amazing!"
"Stop being dazed. Your Majesty's method is for digging smokeless stoves, not for being dazed! Go dig!"
"Yes, yes, we'll go right away." The new firemen went back and followed suit with their hands dancing.
Cha Binxun's 5,000 cavalrymen quietly ambushed in the Gaotaibao area, waiting for the enemy.
At noon on May 13, Wu Sangui's vanguard army arrived near Zhonghouso in Guangning.
"Report!" The scout came to Wu Sangui and said, "General Gao Dejie sent a message that the road ahead is blocked by a river called Liugu River. The bridge on the river has been destroyed. There are more than 10,000 Jiannu cavalry on the other side of the river."
Wu Sangui's expression became solemn after hearing this.
If the previous cavalry battle was just an appetizer, then the following river crossing battle was the main course.
Although the narrowest part of Liugu River is only a few feet wide, its widest part is hundreds of feet wide!
In addition, the enemy cavalry was guarding the other side of the river.
Want to cross the river...
Disaster!
Wu Sangui put on his armor and said, "Send a message to all the troops, the army should rest here! The Dingying in the town flag should follow me to the river to observe the terrain!"
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