stubborn thief

The naval battle on Taizi River lasted only two hours before it ended.

The navy's cavalry were attacked alternately outside and could not bear it after three attacks.

Six ships in the fleet were sunk by artillery fire.

Lu Ke wanted to retreat to the north bank, but before his sailors could board the ship, hundreds of Mobei cavalrymen who had run down the south bank of the Hun River came over and shot arrows at the ship.

They were the advance team sent by Subati to report on the city defense situation near Shengjing. They originally planned to go from the east of Liaoyang, but were attracted by the sound of artillery fire.

The river was blocked by sunken ships at both ends. On the south was Zuo Guangxian, and on the north were Mongolian soldiers, who trapped him in the river and left him with no way forward or backward.

Lu Ke didn't think about it for too long. He had the sails removed, wrote the words "peace talks" in large letters, and waded south.

Before the war, Liu Chengzong estimated that this navy would surrender when it was at its wits' end, and he had already listed the conditions for surrender. The envoy was sent back within an incense stick's time after he brought the flag ashore.

The conditions are still the same as before: if you lose and surrender you will be demoted.

In fact, Liu Shizi did not expect Lu Keyong to surrender. He had been fighting in the northwest and had accepted at least 80,000 troops who surrendered. He had already figured out the most effective way to accept surrenders.

Killing the main general on the battlefield, forcing his trusted subordinates to surrender and entrusting them with important tasks is the easiest way to win people's hearts and turn them into the backbone of your own force in the shortest possible time.

Because no matter which force the army is, whether it is Han, Mongolian, Fan, Manchu or Rakshasa, as long as there is a clear hierarchy, there will be strong or weak personal dependence relationships in the army.

As long as the commander is alive, others will listen to him. Even if they surrender, they will be difficult opponents with their own reputation like Zhang Xianzhong, Zuo Liangyu, Guoshi Khan, and Dalai Taiji. You must figure out what they want and take good care of them. Only then can the army be subtly influenced and used for your own purposes.

On the contrary, people like Qintu Taiji and Wu Sihu after the death of Ligdan Khan, and Zhao Zhirui and Wang Xingshan after the death of Yang Jiamo were much easier to control.

Of course, this is also because Liu Chengzong himself looked down on King Sanshun’s army in his heart.

Preconceived notions make you look at things through tinted glasses.

He looked down on this group of people, and even his prediction of the enemy's strength to Zuo Guangxian before the war was derogatory.

He said: "Compared to the Ming army of similar level, the troops under the King of Samshun are probably more ferocious in fighting, but their resilience in the face of setbacks is also definitely weaker. Be careful in dealing with them!"

Tell Zuo Guangxian this, to put it bluntly, they are a bunch of cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong, so go ahead and beat them up.

Liu Chengzong turned out to be right.

They fought desperately, but when they saw that there was no hope of winning, they immediately tried to escape, and if they couldn't escape, they surrendered.

They would never be like the Ming army, which, even though there was no hope of winning, would just bow in the direction of Beijing and continue fighting to the death under the bombardment and gunfire.

Of course, tinted glasses do not affect Liu Chengzong's intelligence.

It's not because I look down on people that I make this kind of analysis, but it's because I make this kind of analysis that I look down on people.

Firstly, the brave and courageous outlaws and fools under King Samshun had died during the rebellion and the suppression of the rebellion.

Secondly, they had surrendered many times, their thoughts were confused, and their morale was not very high.

To put it bluntly, they couldn't find a reason to fight to the death and didn't know why they were fighting.

The Ming army knew it, the Eight Banners army knew it, and the rebels knew it too, but the combat morale of surrendered generals and soldiers like them who were treated poorly was even lower than that of the Mongolian camp under Liu Chengzong.

Liu Chengzong's Mongolian camp could only play supporting roles, and that was because Liu Chengzong treated them very well, allowing them to eat the grass on the graves of Han emperors with the surname Liu.

What kind of treatment did King Sanshun receive in Daiqing? He had no military pay, no status, and no personality.

When Geng Zhongming's subordinates had their iron pots stolen by the Mongolian soldiers of the Eight Banners, they had to write a special letter to Emperor Chongde to complain... How could this be something a prince should do?

It was because Lu Ke and his gang had naval experience that the Marshal's Office lacked that Liu Chengzong was willing to accept them.

But the treatment was naturally not much better. Lu Ke and more than 900 people, including those who surrendered and were captured, were stripped of their armor and weapons and assigned to Sun Long's Liaoyang Camp to form a thousand-man headquarters.

Sun Long was so pleased that he almost lost his mind.

Because Lu Ke once followed Shang Kexi and beat him so badly at sea that he was at a loss what to do.

After they surrendered to the Jin Dynasty, they acted very arrogantly in front of Kong Geng's subordinates.

Things change. He was so powerful back then, but now he works for me as a subordinate.

You have come to this day too!

Liu Chengzong was also worried about Sun Long, but he gave enough face to the general who surrendered first in Liaoyang: "These people are different from your rebel army. Watch them and build the pontoon bridge. When you return to Shaanxi, I will reserve a place for you to settle your family and build a naval division for you to be a general."

In Liaodong, he couldn't trust the Liao people. Only if these people followed him back to Shaanxi could he let them use their power.

As the floating bridge over the Taizi River was built, the advance troops of the Mongolian desert came back to report the looting of Shengjing. Liu Chengzong calculated the time and knew that he should withdraw.

"Gather the treasures, armor, weapons, horses, cattle and sheep. There is no time to demolish the city. Push the shells that cannot be transported into the river. Send a message to Zhang Xianzhong. If you cannot take them away in the east, set fire to them. After burning them, build a floating bridge to the Hun River."

A floating bridge is also being built on the Taizi River using warships. Several large sand ships are connected across the river to serve as a floating bridge.

However, one pontoon bridge was not enough, so the warships of Haizhou and Liaoyang were all mobilized. Some had to be pulled out of the river first, travel on land for a while and then be pushed into the river. In order to facilitate the army to cross the river quickly, a pontoon bridge was set up every hundred steps.

Once it was built, it was immediately put into use to transport ox carts carrying artillery, goods, grain, gunpowder, and supplies.

The Marshal's army did not transport rice, only a small amount of food and fodder, most of which was dried meat.

Before setting off, all the troops had a big meal in Liaoyang, where they had plenty of rice, meat and vegetables to eat. After the meal, they set fire to several warehouses in the west city of Liaoyang.

At the same time, fire also broke out in Tokyo City on the east bank of the Taizi River.

It was Zhang Xianzhong who received the order and set the fire directly.

Zhang Xianzhong was not greedy at all. In fact, he could take away many things, but he felt that other than gold, silver, silk, gunpowder and lead ingots, he had no value in transporting other things... As long as Shaanxi could produce them, there was no point in transporting them.

On the contrary, arson is very meaningful to him.

Therefore, things like blue cloth were simply piled up in a room and set on fire. Even the cloth armor was removed and the armor plates were burned. All the copper and iron objects that were searched were also dumped away.

If you can pour it into the river, pour it into the river. If you can throw it into the well, throw it into the well.

As a result, he ran faster than Liu Chengzong. The main force was still being transported from south to north on the Taizi River, while Zhang Xianzhong had already built two floating bridges on the Hunhe River with carefully selected wealth and goods.

The spoils from his looting of Tokyo City were very monotonous: gems, large ginseng and ganoderma lucidum, and handicrafts smashed into gold and silver cakes, filling more than seventy sacks.

He also had a box in his hand, but it was filled with books.

This is the case: if the superior likes something, the subordinates will like it even more.

Zhang Xianzhong thought that transporting gold and silver was of no use. So many boxes were transported to the west, but the Grand Marshal did not even boast about it.

Just stuff that thing in a random sack, and use a good box to put all the things with words on them.

The Marshal likes this, he must praise me when he gets back!

With that compliment, wouldn't our Zhang be able to join the cabinet?

That bastard Zuo Liangyu, don’t even think about getting ahead of me!

The last thing Liu Chengzong did before retreating from Liaoyang was to ask Qian Shisheng to write a letter to Zu Dashou.

"Liaoyang has been conquered. Lord Qian can ask the Jinzhou Army to take over the defense. There are still money, food, fodder, guns, armor and weapons in the city and on the river. Even if Zuzhen is unwilling to take over Liaoyang, he can send soldiers to transport them. Don't let the Eastern Tartars get them."

Qian Shisheng thought to himself, your words sound very grand, but in fact you haven’t left anything behind.

During the entire looting operation of the Marshal's Army, Qian Shisheng was shocked again and again by the orderly looting process, and was also heartbroken by the extremely brutal acts of destruction, until he became numb.

Some behaviors are simply bad.

Although they were short on time, Liu Chengzong set up a special furnace to burn copperware.

There were many extremely valuable handicrafts, fine items inlaid with gold and silver and gems. The Marshal's army had limited transportation capacity and was unwilling to carry them, so they pried the gems off and took them away, threw the objects into the furnace, burned them into plain copper blocks, and pushed them into the Taizi River.

And in the end, just as Gao Yingdeng suggested, a large number of single-barreled guns, three-barreled guns, and small-caliber artillery such as the Yongzhuhushun were indeed difficult to carry.

The Marshal's Army was selective and divided the armor pieces, arrowheads, firearms and other items into three categories, which were loaded onto trucks in batches. The first and second categories were transported away, while the third category, with relatively crude craftsmanship, was pushed into the Taizi River.

That mess blocked the moat.

Therefore, when Liu Chengzong asked Qian Shisheng to write the letter, Mr. Qian did not object and he did not lie.

There are really a lot of good things in the river.

Enough to arm a battalion.

Even the cannons in the city, three of the four big red cannons, were pulled away by oxen by Liu Chengzong.

Another one was made of iron and had a large hole in it, so Liu Chengzong had it thrown on the city wall. Of the 120 cannons, only 88 were taken away. The remaining dozens were pushed onto the city wall, and together with the red cannon, they were filled with gunpowder to block the muzzle, and the fuse was stretched and fired three times in a row, until all of them exploded on the city wall.

Qian Shisheng will never forget the muffled boom of cannons and the sound of a series of heavy artillery explosions.

Finally, on the Liaoyang city wall, among the large pieces of artillery wreckage, only one large general cannon was left standing alone.

The soldiers wanted to block the muzzle of the gun to stifle it, but Liu Chengzong stopped them, saying that it was not destined to die.

Let a team of Yu Lin ride up to the city wall, push it down from the city wall, let it fall on the edge of the sheep and horse wall, and then fall heavily into the soil.

ruins.

Qian Shisheng was a witness to Liaoyang, the most important city in Liaodong. He witnessed it surviving the rebellion of Nurhaci but not the disaster of Liu Chengzong and became a ruin.

But Liu Chengzong was really rich.

First, they won at Taizi River, and Zuo Guangxian's cavalry battalion and the artillery team of the first brigade lined up to receive the reward.

Afterwards, when the work in Liaoyang was completely completed and the whole army was about to move out, Liu Chengzong took Qian Shisheng with him and ordered the Yulin cavalry to escort the carriages and travel from camp to camp.

Except for the reinforcements led by Zhang Xianzhong and the Northern Yuan camp led by Wu Sihu, all the other camps, from the Huben, Yulin, clan members to the rest of the brigade, each with a hundred generals as a unit, lined up with their horses to receive the reward.

More than 20,000 people.

Each person had one silver bar weighing one pound, and they were all stuffed in the horse's hip pouch and carried around.

Even the newly surrendered Liaoyang Camp had the 96 officers who were led out of the city by Sun Long to surrender lined up separately, and were watched by the other surrendered prisoners in the camp, and were given silver bars.

More than 20,000 silver bars and more than 20,000 kilograms of silver.

Liu Chengzong spoke without even blinking, he just moved his mouth and uttered it.

Qian Shisheng was watching from the side and listening to Liu Chengzong farting, calling this reducing the pressure on baggage.

He has now been disciplined by Liu Chengzong's lavish spending to the point that he feels nothing when he sees gold and silver. It's just like seeing ordinary pieces of iron.

Really, Lord Qian felt that only Liu Chengzong would dare to do this, and he would dare to do it on the eve of the Liaodong War.

Firstly, his men were riding horses, so carrying an extra pound was not a big deal; secondly, the Western soldiers were unfamiliar with the people and the place in Liaodong, so they had no intention of running away in the face of the enemy.

Even in Shaanxi, if silver was distributed on the eve of a war, someone might take the silver and desert the army.

What's more, even if every soldier was grateful, no one was as generous as Liu Chengzong. Everyone had a contribution and everyone was rewarded, and the reward was sixteen taels.

Qian Shisheng knew that the person who did this was Zhu Zongqiang, the King of Anhua in Ningxia during the Zhengde period. He rewarded the entire army with one or two taels of silver, became the emperor on the spot, and killed the governor An Weixue for rebellion.

Liu Chengzong, amid the shouts of his soldiers who wanted to "die for the commander", ordered the camp to be broken up and the troops to return to the north with the abundant harvest.

The way back was still destroying as usual.

After crossing the Taizi River, all the ships used to build the pontoon bridge were pulled ashore and burned. After crossing the Hun River, the ships were pulled ashore and burned in the same way. Only three small boats were left, which carried six coffins dug out from desolate graves and filled with gunpowder. Two teams of people were left to guard them.

They just waited for the Beiyuan camp and Subati's Mongolian cavalry to withdraw, then drove the boats into the bridge hole and blew up the stone bridge over the Hunhe River.

By the time Liu Chengzong's large group of troops crossed the Pu River, the vanguard had reached the border wall, and the cavalry who had gone to deliver a letter to Zu Dashou had also returned.

The cavalry did not run to the Sancha River mouth, but only ran west to the border wall, and saw the Jinzhou army on the other side of the Liaohe River. The Ming army's warships were already towing upstream on the river.

Just light a fire and create smoke to draw their attention, and then shoot the letter over with an arrow. As for what Zu Dashou would do after receiving the letter, that was not Liu Chengzong's concern.

It would be best if Zu Dashou could take advantage of the situation to push the Ming army's front line to Liaoyang and destroy Shang Kexi who was entrenched in Haizhou.

If he doesn't have that ability, or considers it inappropriate to do so, Liu Shizi doesn't care.

Anyway, Liu Chengzong did everything he wanted to do.

Even when Zu Dashou did nothing, Liu Chengzong felt more at ease.

Because his baggage moved slowly, it was difficult to get it across the Greater Khingan Range before the Eight Banners Army caught up; at the same time, there was no news from Zuo Liangyu and Feng Rang's troops advancing on the eastern front.

Therefore, when the army goes out to the border, it will definitely have to stop for a while in Kulun or Khorchin.

Liu Chengzong sent a message to Zu Dashou just to prevent the Jinzhou army from causing trouble.

If Zu Dashou didn't even dare to take Haizhou and Liaoyang, he wouldn't dare to come to the north to cause trouble.

If he took Haizhou and Liaoyang, he would not be able to be distracted to the north.

In fact, the Jinzhou Army did intend to cause trouble in the north.

He Huchen and Qintu Taiji, who stayed behind in Songmo Prefecture, led their troops south after receiving Liu Chengzong's request for support.

Since Liu Chengzong went south, the two of them followed Wang Chengen of Shangdu to transfer troops eastward, and transferred some wounded soldiers who had recovered well to garrison Songmo Prefecture. At the same time, they gathered E'linchen and Sanang Taiji who had withdrawn from the Chechen tribe in the north, and selected the most capable soldiers to march south.

As a result, at the gap where Liu Chengzong broke through the border, the Jinzhou army and warships were seen swimming around.

Taiji Xiantu still had some tentative intentions towards the Liaodong army.

But He Huchen, the general, was a high-ranking lieutenant general who was used to being reckless. Moreover, when he saw the Liaodong army in such a place, he didn't have to consider whether they were enemies or friends. His intention to intercept the spoils of war was obvious.

He Huchen pulled the cannon and rushed forward to fire.

This frightened the more than 300 Liaodong cavalrymen who were scouting on the river bank. They thought, let's just wait and see how the situation develops. Why would they bring 6,000 or 7,000 people to attack us?

As soon as the battle was over here, Liu Chengzong came out from the side wall, carrying as usual, a pound of silver bars, along with a brigade of reinforcements, one for each of the three battalions.

After the melted silver bars are distributed, they will be temporarily credited and will be distributed again after the silver cakes are melted down.

By the way, someone put up a sign: "This year is great, come again next year."

Just as I finished writing, Subadi's men sent a message from the other side of the border wall, saying that the Aisin noble Dudu had been captured, and a large group of troops were evacuating towards the border wall. They had already crossed the Hunhe River and blew up two of the three stone bridges, leaving only one intact.

Liu Chengzong immediately ordered He Huchen to provide support inside and outside the border wall. Taiji's troops cooperated with the Huben Camp to supervise the Liaoyang Camp and escort the baggage and livestock to continue northward.

At the same time, he sent people to make a long detour to report the military situation on the western front to Zuo Liangyu, Feng Rang and the Darakhan army led by Xiao Zhamusu, and told them that if they failed to complete the mission of igniting Jianzhou, they should withdraw to the north of Liaoze as soon as possible.

Liu Chengzong personally led the central army, the first brigade and the Liaoyang camp to move towards the Kulun grassland to find a suitable terrain for deployment.

Cartloads of baggage, prisoners, livestock and war horses were sent out along the border wall by the Mobei cavalry, and then transported to Songmo Prefecture in the Greater Khingan Range via the Kulun grassland.

The army moved out slowly, with large groups and wounded squads gradually coming out of the gap.

When the evacuation was coming to an end, the gaps in the border wall became chaotic. Sometimes, panicked Mobei cavalry ran out, and sometimes, the vanguard of the Eight Banners Army rushed out. He Huchen killed them once, and then, seeing that the enemy was increasing in number, he gave up the border wall and evacuated towards Kulun.

The last to evacuate from the north bank of the Liaohe River were the Tangqi, who had fought with Wu Sihu and Subadi throughout the battle near Shengjing. Waving the triangular dragon flag, they watched with eager eyes as the Eight Banners Army gathered outside the border wall and retreated mile by mile.

"General, the Eastern Tartars have left the border. We have seen more than 20,000 of them. We can't get any closer."

At the edge of the Kulun Desert, Ma Xiangxiang, the commander of the Tangqi, summarized the report of the rear Tangqi and reported to Liu Chengzong: "They pushed shield carts, lined up guns and cannons, and formed eight teams, forming a one-two-line formation and pressing forward with great momentum."

"whispering sound!"

Liu Chengzong couldn't help but sneer. They had already robbed everything, transported everything away, and everyone had run out of the wall. Of course they were in high spirits.

Subadi, Gunbu, Babu Taiji and Erdeni Hun Taiji, who had also reaped riches along the way, reunited with Liu Chengzong at this time.

This robbery made them very happy and they completely accepted that they were in the same gang with Liu Chengzong.

However, the expressions of the four Mobei leaders were also very different. The three at the back, who had sent out fewer troops, all had an unsatisfied look on their faces.

Subati sent the largest number of troops and plundered the most property, people and livestock, but he also suffered the most severe beating during the pursuit. It was all thanks to Youhe Huchen's support, but even so, the losses were not small.

His face was full of fear, and he warned Liu Chengzong: "Great Khan, be careful, their army is very good in field battles."

Liu Chengzong looked at him with a look of sympathy that Subadi didn't understand, but he managed his expression well and nodded carefully, "Brother is right, I will handle it carefully."

Of course he sympathized with Subati.

The One or Two Character Formation is very famous. It is the god of the Liaodong soldiers and Li Chengliang's famous battle formation. It made the Mongolian tribes outside the Liaodong border cry for their parents.

But Brother Subadi came from Mobei and didn't have the muscle memory to run away when he saw three rows of troops. It seemed that he was beaten badly.

But now that Huang Taiji had used this battle formation and was setting it up to chase him, Liu Shizi couldn't help but find it funny.

He thought, this Emperor Chongde even set up a one-two character formation, is he really treating him like a northern barbarian? (End of this chapter)