Nurhaci did not unify the Jianzhou Jurchens by his own strength, but thanks to Li Chengliang's policy of "supporting the weak and suppressing the strong" in Liaodong.

Li Chengliang pacified Liaodong, not only relying on his powerful Liaodong cavalry, but also relying on the tactic of "supporting the weak and suppressing the strong".

In the early days of his defense, the main border threats in Liaodong were Mongolian tribes such as the Tuman and Wuliangha, and the Jurchens were just a small ethnic group oppressed by the Mongols.

Li Chengliang then supported the Jurchens to help him deal with the Mongols.

Later, after driving the Mongols out of Liaodong and strengthening the Jurchens, he supported the Hada tribe among the Haixi Jurchens to deal with the Yehe tribe, which was the most powerful and rebellious against the imperial court at that time.

With the support of Li Chengliang, the Hada tribe quickly grew stronger. Li Chengliang also used the power of Hada to suppress the Yehe tribe.

Civil unrest broke out, and the Yehe tribe took the opportunity to invade their population and territory, and the Hada tribe quickly declined.

Therefore, Li Chengliang hoped to find a new candidate from the various Jurchen tribes who would listen to him, be loyal to the court and not disturb the border, and could serve as a minion of the official army to conquer those disobedient tribes.

After much deliberation, he chose Nurhaci...

With the strong support of the "King of Liaodong" and Nurhaci's own strength, he quickly grew stronger and stronger. Three years later, he defeated Nikan Wailan, the enemy who killed his father. In the 15th year of Wanli, he annexed the Zhechen tribe.

In September of the 16th year of the Wanli reign (1588), the army and civilians of the Suwan, Dong'e and Yaergu tribes also submitted to Nurhaci, which greatly boosted his prestige. In the same year, he eliminated the Wanyan tribe, the last rival of Jianzhou. After five years of fighting, Nurhaci successively conquered the five tribes of Jianzhou and became a famous chieftain in Liaodong.

At the same time, he actively approached the imperial court and got in touch with Hao Jie, the governor of Liaodong.

In his private letter to him, Hao Jie not only encouraged him to be loyal to the court and "watch over the border", but also promised to arrange for him to go to Beijing to pay tribute.

At this time, Nurhaci, at least on the surface, was the commander-in-chief of the Left Guard of Jianzhou, who was loyally guarding the border for the Ming Dynasty. Of course, he did not feel that there was any danger in going to Beijing.

He himself was eager to enter the pass and see with his own eyes what the Ming Dynasty was like.

Actually, he had only been to Liaoyang and Guangningwei with Li Chengliang when he was a slave in Li's army. The southernmost place he had been to was Guangning Zhongwei...which is Jinzhou in later generations. But even these cities under the control of the Ming Dynasty military opened his eyes and benefited him for life.

He believed that by paying tribute and visiting the real prefectures and counties of the Ming Dynasty and seeing what the capital of the Celestial Empire looked like, he would definitely learn a lot of new things and gain many new inspirations, which would be of great help to the development of Jianzhou Zuowei.

So he gladly accepted the arrangement made by Hao Zhongcheng. In the spring of this year, he took Eyidu and He Heli, two of the "Five Ministers", the newly recruited Han staff member Gong Zhengliu, and more than 100 people from various Jurchen tribes to form a tribute group of 108 people, set out from Feiala City, first went to Liaoyang, and joined the Ming army sent by Hao Jie.

Because Nurhaci wanted to carefully examine the Ming Dynasty, he did not travel quickly.

When he revisited the old place, he found that the Liaohe Plain was much more prosperous than he remembered. Especially after entering Liaoyang City, he saw that the streets were lined with shops, the market was prosperous, the traffic was busy, and the goods were dazzling.

The Han people on the street speaking in different accents were generally tall, well-dressed, well-groomed, and polite in their dealings with others. Their air of pride as the people of a superior country made these Tartars who came out of the mountains feel ashamed. They dared not speak too loudly, for fear that their strange language would be laughed at by the people of the Celestial Empire.

However, speaking the barbarian language is not entirely without merit. At least they speak casually and are not worried about anyone understanding them even if they say something taboo.

"There are so many good things on the street. If we can bring people to grab some, won't we be rich?" Eyidu, who was the first to join the army with Nurhaci, felt that his eyes were not enough to see and his mouth was drooling. He said, "I thought Tieling was the best place in the world, but it's nothing compared to this place."

"Don't dream." He Heli, one of the Five Ministers and Nurhaci's son-in-law, said with a smile, "This place is just like Tieling, it's all the property of Grand Tutor Li."

"Alas." Eyidu just wanted to vent his anger and said depressedly: "No wonder the Han people look down on us, it turns out that beggars are more respectable than us."

"Liaoyang City wasn't so prosperous before." Nurhaci, who had been observing silently, said, "In the past ten years, there are more and more shops." He pointed to the street in front of him and said, "Originally, this corner was a ghost alley where poor military families lived. How could there be so many businesses?"

"This is all brought by the Northeast Company." Gong Zhengliu stroked his goatee and said, "They set up a Panjin Port at the mouth of the Liaohe River, with a fleet sailing to and from Tangshan. Moreover, the trade is fair, there are no corrupt officials exploiting, and even Li Taishi's people never cause trouble. This business has been booming all of a sudden. I'm afraid it's dozens or even hundreds of times more than before, right?"

Gong Zhengliu was originally a Shaoxing accountant who was only slightly literate. He followed his boss to Liaodong to do business, but was captured by the Jurchens and returned to Nurhaci last year. In order to avoid becoming a slave, he raised his status and boasted that he was a Shaoxing lawyer with great learning.

This trick really worked. Nurhaci's cause of building a state urgently needed intellectuals to join. In the entire Feala City, not to mention the strategists with full of strategies, even the general correspondence could not be understood by anyone. At this time, it was really thirsty for talents. And Gong Zhengliu did have some talent. He was not only fluent in Jurchen, Mongolian, and Korean, but also could write Mongolian and Korean.

Nurhaci was overjoyed and treated him very well. He respected him as his teacher and called him "Wailang of Literature". He was in charge of documents and foreign affairs. He had to discuss all military, political, civil and other military and national affairs with him. He also asked him to teach himself and the children of other leaders to learn Chinese. Yezhupi was afraid of making a fool of himself when he went to Beijing to pay tribute. So he also brought his literary talent.

Gong Zhengliu told Nurhaci that there was an immigration office here, recruiting people to go south to cultivate the land. People from Liaodong were overwhelming, and even many Mongolians, Jurchens, and Koreans were eager to join. The Northeast folks' yearning for the warm south is really not a lie.

After listening to this, Nurhaci pondered for a moment and said to the two ministers: "No wonder there are fewer and fewer Jurchens coming to Tieling and Shenyang in recent years. It turns out that they all ran to the south."

"Then who wouldn't go? It's so cold over there." Eyidu and He Heli nodded together, revealing the yearning for warmth in their blood.

"The first thing we should do when we return is to stop the Jurchens from going south!" Nurhaci said in a deep voice, "All our people have left, so what can we do?"

"Yeah!" The two of them responded quickly.

~~

The group of Jurchen women met up with the troops sent by the Liaodong governor in Liaoyang, and then headed towards Shanhaiguan via Guangning Zhongwei.

In front of Shanhaiguan, Nurhaci and his entourage saw for the first time in their lives the Great Wall, which was built on the mountains and stretched into the sea.

They looked up at the majestic Shanhaiguan Arrow Tower and the five powerful characters "No. 1 Pass in the World" on the plaque, and felt their own insignificance.

Looking at the towering city walls, numerous enemy towers, beacons and a complete and solid defense system, one can only sigh in despair. This winding dragon that spans the mountains and reaches into the Bohai Sea is definitely a barrier that makes all invaders despair.

This indescribably magnificent pass shocked Nurhaci beyond words. After a long while, he finally let out a long breath and exclaimed: "The world's number one pass is so magnificent!"

E Yidu and He Heli nodded in shock and said, "This is what we call a strong pass. Those in Liaodong are nothing..."

"If we could also have such a magnificent pass, our life would not be in vain!" Eyidu murmured.

He just said it casually, but Nurhaci felt that all the blood in his body rushed to his chest, and his heart was pounding. After a long time, he gritted his teeth and said: "A real man should take conquering this majestic pass as his ideal!"

But his ambition quickly vanished the moment he entered the city gate. The guards of Shanhaiguan were neatly dressed and well-armed, and they stared at them coldly from the moment they entered the city gate.

Nurhaci was very familiar with that look, it was the look a hunter gave his prey...

He carefully observed the guards of Shanhaiguan, and when he arrived at the accommodation, he heaved a long sigh and said dejectedly: "This army is probably much stronger than Li's army..."

"Of course, this is Qi's army." Gong Zhengliu said with emotion: "Marshal Li's cavalry is the best in the world, but the others are not as good as Marshal Qi, especially in training and leading troops, they are far inferior."

"Then my ideal will never be realized in this lifetime." Nurhaci lay down on the kang, looking hopeless.

"Fortunately, Marshal Qi has been out of office for two years," Gong Zhengliu changed the subject and said, "It's only because his old subordinates are still here. But when the nest is overturned, all the eggs will be broken. In ten or eight years at most, I estimate that these people will have withered away."

"That's okay!" Nurhaci sat up again and felt that he was fine again.

~~

After entering the land inside the Great Wall, the group saw a vast expanse of fertile land and a prosperous and wealthy scene. Compared with the land inside the Great Wall, the place where the Han people lived in Liaodong was nothing more than a remote and poor place with poor mountains and bad water.

Seeing this, Nurhaci felt itchy and itchy, and he kept shouting inwardly, "It would be great if this were mine..."

Gong Zhengliu also told Nurhaci that there was a new city called Tangshan not far to the south, which was several times more prosperous than Liaoyang and was also the capital of steel! It was said that Tangshan alone produced more steel than the entire Ming Dynasty...

He quickly wrote down the place name, thinking that if he could cross Shanhaiguan one day, he must take Tangshan first, so that he would have endless food and steel.

Unfortunately, there were government troops monitoring us along the way, so we couldn’t take a detour to Tangshan to feast our eyes on what the blast furnace with billowing smoke looked like.

This regret disappeared the moment we arrived in Beijing.

Looking up at the Chaoyang Gate Arrow Tower, which was more than ten feet high, the Jurchens' necks were about to break, and they were completely stunned. This great capital of the Celestial Empire was even more magnificent than Shanhaiguan! It was a thousand times better than Tieling, and a thousand times better than Liaoyang!

This group of Jurchen country bumpkins who came into the city were only busy looking around among the crowds of people entering the city, and they were so overwhelmed that they did not notice that a pair of ordinary eyes were staring at them from the lattice windows of the arrow tower above the city wall.

ps. It’s gone tonight…