stubborn thief

According to Liu Chengzong's intention, he originally wanted to erect the monument on the battlefield.

But unfortunately, the battlefield was close to the Liaodong border wall, and everyone was worried that the stone tablet would not be preserved after they left.

Liu Shizi did think about making a big one on the stone tablet, and leaving some cruel words like "the fall of the tablet will lead to the destruction of the country".

But after consideration, it doesn't work.

Liu Shizi judged others by himself and thought that if the soldiers of the Guanning Army knew that there was such a monument outside, and that pushing it would lead to the destruction of Daiqing's country, they would definitely smash it to pieces as soon as the Marshal's Army left.

Finally, they had to decide to return to Xing'an Mountains first and carve a stone to commemorate their achievements on the green hills of Songmo Prefecture.

'In the Bingzi year of Chongzhen, Hong Tai usurped the throne.'

'The Later Jin attacked the Ming Dynasty from the north, and invaded Xuanda.'

"Chengzong raised the cavalry from Guanxi, attacked Liaodong and burned its capital, and the two armies met in Lingdong."

'The wind blew away the dust, and the soldiers of the Chengzong clan wore fine armor and rode strong horses. The sound of the cannons was like thunder and the arrows were like hedgehogs. The cavalry rushed through the formation, first defeating the blue flag and then the white flag, and each one was worth a hundred.'

'Hong Tai was attacked suddenly, the sound of the conch shells echoed in the formation, driving the captives into the camps and fighting one after another. The former died and the latter advanced, and the corpses piled up in the desert. The nine formations of Chengzong remained majestic.'

'From the morning till the evening, they fought dozens of battles. The enemy was unable to hold out. Hong Tai blew the horn and tried to flee. Cheng Zong quickly sent the soldiers from Guanxi to charge into the battle. All who met their attack were defeated.'

'The enemy was defeated, dragging their flags and abandoning their banners. Chengzong pursued them until night, and the battlefield was completely deserted. Eighteen thousand people, including the famous kings, were beheaded, and their corpses were exposed for thirty miles, turning the sand completely red.'

'Chengzong returned to the army and climbed the Xing'an Mountains, sealed the mountains and carved stones, expressing the old anger of Sarhu and avenging the old shame of the year Jisi, showing that China has people, glorifying the heroic spirits and promoting national prestige.'

……

After Qian Shisheng finished writing the inscription, he was disgusted with Zhang Xianzhong.

Because strictly speaking, this inscription was written by him and Zhang Xianzhong together.

He wrote one article at first, which was an inscription. Qian Shisheng was extremely satisfied with it and it was worthy of being recorded in history.

But Liu Chengzong thought it was not acceptable and said that the words he used were too obscure.

What was outrageous was that Liu Chengzong later called Zhang Xianzhong and pointed at the head of the civil servants in the Marshal's Office and said, "Old Master, please write me something that he can understand."

Zhang Xianzhong had a fierce look on his face and picked up Qian Shisheng's inscription and started reading it.

I thought to myself, don’t think that I won’t beat you just because you are the Grand Marshal. Don’t underestimate the cultural level of me, the Minister of Rites!
Then...the Marshal is really good at judging people!
Zhang Xianzhong asked Qian Shisheng with a smug look on his face: "Master Qian, this is a land of depression. What does depression mean?"

He even gestured with his hands, thinking that the instrument was cut into strips and spread out for ten thousand miles.

Liu Chengzong spread his hands and curled his lips, pointing at the inscription and said to Qian Shisheng: "Write it again."

Qian Shisheng felt hopeless about the illiterate people in the Marshal's Office and could only nod his head in agreement. However, he did not despise Zhang Xianzhong and explained seriously: "Depression means the place where Zhang Butang has been."

Then the two ministers studied it, but they couldn't figure it out after working on it for a whole night.

The difference in their cultural level was as great as that of 1,500 Zuo Liangyus. Qian Shisheng felt like he was teaching Zhang Xianzhong how to read.

Finally, he asked Zhang Xianzhong to write it word by word and he revised it, and finally he had an inscription for the mountain that Liu Chengzong would nod to.

Qian Shisheng was even reluctant to sign his name. If the first draft would go down in history, then this one would be infamous forever. The value of the eighty top scholars in the Ming Dynasty would be lowered by this... this thing.

Because what was finally written looked more like a novel than an inscription.

But this is exactly what Liu Chengzong wanted.

If it is just to seal a mountain and carve a stone, to write for God and future generations to see, then it can be as gorgeous as possible.

But he wanted to print it and spread it to the border, not to show off the national prestige of the Ming Dynasty, but his own prestige, Liu Chengzong.

The inscription must be given to the soldiers at the border first. If Zhang Xianzhong can't understand it, then his writing will be in vain.

In fact, Liu Shizi felt that this requirement was not too harsh.

After all, he didn't force Mr. Qian to write an article that Zuo Liangyu could understand.

Since Zhang Butang followed Liu Chengzong, his cultural level has improved by leaps and bounds, and now he can even write the Thousand Character Classic.

Zuo Liangyu was the cultural low point of the Marshal's Office. He was a real illiterate and could only draw his own name.

General Zuo's cultural level was not even as high as that of the fake Tatars he brought back from Hetuala.

After they finished the battle and were still dealing with the spoils on the battlefield, Zuo Liangyu and Feng Rang came back via Hetuala and brought back six incomplete Niulu under Li Yangeng's command.

Normally there should be 1,800 households, but because many people died in the internal strife during the rebellion, only about 1,100 households followed Li Yangeng, most of whom were descendants of Liaodong soldiers.

Li Yangeng grew up in the Later Jin Dynasty and had a much higher level of education than Zuo Liangyu. He was the second greatest gain of Liu Chengzong's Eastern Expedition in terms of talent, after Du Du.

Although he was only in his early thirties, he was the Han Shangshu of the Ministry of Personnel. There was no Shangshu over there, only Chengzheng.

Although Zuo Liangyu felt that he ran back too late and missed the battle that would have made Liu Chengzong famous, Liu Chengzong felt that his return was just in time.

It just so happened that he hadn't assigned all the evil soldiers to Du Du.

Liu Chengzong did not despise Li Yangeng's father Li Yongfang because he was the first to surrender to the Eastern Tartars. After all, the man was already dead, and it was Li Yongfang's business to be despised.

The fire that Li Yangeng set in Hetuala was enough to burn away all the humiliation he had suffered.

What's more, Li Yangeng was the first Daiqing general who voluntarily surrendered to him. Du Duna surrendered only after being captured.

Liu Chengzong simply dyed the flag of the Bordered Yellow Banner black and formed two black banners, each with about 2,000 people. The remaining 4,000 Han and Mongolian prisoners were placed in other camps to make up for the casualties.

Du Du and Li Yangeng had a good relationship. When they met, they would call each other "Dudu! Dudu!" and "Yingge! Yingge!". They met old friends in a foreign land and soon they were chatting with each other.

Liu Chengzong did not restrict their relationship.

Li Yangeng was the one who rebelled from Daiqing and set Hetuala on fire. In the Jin dialect, his level of succession to the throne was no less than that of Zhang Xianzhong.

Du Du is the eldest grandson of the old Khan, and he refuses to leave even if he is allowed to go.

These two people may not be very loyal, but they are both desperate.

There is no possibility of rebellion.

But Liu Shizi never expected that the way to prove the future of the Marshal's Office might be too tragic for Du Du.

On the night when the army moved to Songmo Prefecture City in Xing'an Mountains, Li Yangeng scared Du Du and Heiqi to death.

Ying Xiao, fighting against himself.

The reason was that Li Yangeng had only worn the Jin army's bright armor since he was a child, and had never worn the Ming army's dark armor.

At that time, Qian Shisheng had not finished writing the inscription yet, and he was studying it with Zhang Xianzhong all night. The road in Songmo Prefecture was narrow, and the army had to stay there for a few days. The Black Flag Camp was responsible for digging trenches outside the city of Songmo Prefecture.

The city wall was almost completed, but a lot of earthwork was needed to change the terrain outside to facilitate artillery fire.

Both of them have their own troops and trusted lieutenants to help them, so they are relatively free.

Li Yangeng was free, so he went to Liu Chengzong and asked him to give him a Ming Dynasty hair scarf and a set of cloth armor for an officer of the Marshal's Office.

Liu Shizi certainly met this small request. Not only did he give him armor, he also gave him his own sword to show his closeness to the first person to surrender.

He had plenty of knives. When he went to war, he needed two horses, four knives, and four bows. He had three more after giving him one. Moreover, he had more than 20 good knives for the battle with Dai Qing. Li Yangeng was very happy. He put on his neat armor, a second-hand hair scarf, and a goose-feather knife, and went to Du Du that night to reminisce about the past.

Although the two lieutenant generals did not need to be guarded against, the prisoners had to be guarded against after all. Therefore, the two black flags were stationed in one place, surrounded by the marshal's army camp, for easy surveillance and management.

The two men asked each other about the battles at the Laoha River, outside Shengjing City, and Hetuala battlefields, and asked each other whether their old friends had died in the battle and how they died.

Sometimes crying, sometimes laughing, talking all night long.

Maybe I was too tired and worried.

They chatted until midnight. Du Du went out to ask someone to refill the oil lamp. He returned to the tent with the lamp in his hand. Suddenly, he forgot what he was doing. When he opened the tent curtain, he did not recognize Li Yangeng.

The lights flickered, shining into the dark tent. He only saw an officer from the Marshal's Army wearing red armor and carrying a sword on his waist. His face was extremely unfamiliar. He was so scared that he screamed out the word "enemy attack" in the Jurchen language.

Among the 6,000 men in the two Black Flag Battalions, 4,800 of them were in worse mental condition than him, and all of them were more tired than him physically.

With Du Du's shout, the whole camp exploded. The Black Flag soldiers who were sleeping dreamed of the fighting on the battlefield. They woke up in shock and picked up whatever was at hand to fight each other.

It was only because Liu Chengzong did not send weapons and armor to the Black Flag Battalion that the camp only had three-barreled guns for work. Otherwise, it would be hard to say how many people would be left in these two camps by daybreak.

Even so, Li Yangeng kicked Du Du to the ground, drew his sword and rushed out of the camp.

At this moment, Liu Chengzong, who was sleeping in a tent in Songmo Prefecture, was also awakened by the howling of the Black Flag Soldiers. He climbed up the city wall and looked down at the Black Flag Camp's garrison, and he knew that it was a camp howl.

Although Liu Chengzong had never experienced camp roars, he had heard of them four or five times. This incident was quite common in Shaanxi in recent years.

Especially when he attacked others, like Tang Jiuzhou finally died in Liupan Mountain, Ren Quaner chased Zhang Yingchang to Bingzhou, and the newspaper also said that Zhang Yingchang died in Bingzhou City.

Even Liu Chengzong always believed that Wei Qianer's camp rushing towards Tongguan was a sober call.

When a group is too physically tired and under too much mental stress, their minds will lose the ability to think, and they will be prone to blindly follow others under extreme fear. Thus, one person's strange behavior will trigger the entire battalion to act blindly.

What's more, there are some barely sober people who take the opportunity to do things they usually want to do but dare not do.

It's the camp roar.

Liu Chengzong had no good solution to this problem, and instinctively ordered Liu Tichun to lead the Yulin Camp to control the Black Flag.

But when he was halfway through giving the order, he suddenly realized that there was a language barrier, so he turned around and ordered Wu Sihu to lead the Northern Yuan Camp to surround the Black Flag Camp's headquarters, and also transferred Sun Long to lead the Liaoyang Camp into the Black Flag Camp, and asked the Black Flags to put down their weapons and line up outside the camp.

Sun Long and his soldiers from the Liaoyang Camp established initial trust in the marshal's army through fighting with Huang Taiji. Liu Chengzong did not take back what they had gained on the battlefield, and gave them all their armor, bows and swords.

Even the escaped Gongshun King Kong Youde, who surrendered after being captured, was given the position of Qianzong by Liu Chengzong and assigned to Sun Long's camp.

Originally, it might have been possible to capture King Huaishun Geng Zhongming.

There was a Tang soldier named Guo Jiayin under the Tangqi Battalion who reported that when the Han army was charging into the enemy's formation, there was a general with an umbrella on the formation. When he saw him coming, he did not run away, but tried to fight with his cavalry. In the end, he panicked and was stabbed in the abdomen by the Han army's spear. His iron armor must have been penetrated.

However, the general had his own soldiers, and two of them rushed forward to fight. By the time Guo Jiayin drew his sword and chopped the two men off their horses, the general had already ridden away, holding his stomach.

According to the captives, that was the army formation of King Huaishun, and Geng Zhongming was indeed stabbed.

Afterwards, Liu Chengzong asked Du Du to check the bodies and prisoners, but nothing was found. Geng Zhongming must have escaped.

But this was not a pity for Liu Shizi. In the two battles of Liaoyang and Bianwai, the Tianyou soldiers were completely wiped out, and half of Shang Kexi's Tianzhu soldiers were also captured.

As for Geng Zhongming, he is less important than Tianyoubing.

Kong Youde still had his own way. He led his troops into the camp, shouted his name, and quickly gathered a large number of two black flag soldiers.

At this time, Du Du also woke up, and Li Yangeng was no longer afraid. He entered the camp and helped stabilize the situation.

Due to the lack of weapons and proper handling, not many people died in the chaotic camp, but many people were injured, which also ruined Liu Shizi's mood.

Afterwards, Liu Chengzong called Li Yangeng and Du Du to understand the situation. He did not blame Du Du, but just asked him to follow the Huben Camp first. Li Yangeng would temporarily lead the two black flags before they returned to Shaanxi.

I'll smoke Du Du when I get back to Shaanxi.

This guy's spirit is on the verge of collapse. He needs to be recuperated in a good environment like the Huben Camp. If Liu Chengzong were to punish him by military law at this time, he would probably drive him crazy.

This camp roar also made Liu Chengzong realize that the soldiers of the Black Flag Camp also understood the situation. Now they did not take Du Du seriously, but instead trusted Li Yangeng very much.

In this regard, Li Yangeng is better than Kong Youde.

Kong Youde only held a nominal title of king and was not respected in the Eight Banners. But Li Yangeng was different. He had been with the old Khan since he was a child and grew up with many Eight Banners nobles. He was a Han Chinese among the Eight Banners nobles.

It was the suppression of this camp cry that made Liu Chengzong realize that he had to get those heads away quickly. This battle of his army had left too much psychological trauma on the Eight Banners, especially on the captured surrendered soldiers, many of whom were frightened.

But those heads are difficult to deal with. It would be a pity to throw them away; but there is no use keeping them.

Originally, Liu Chengzong wanted to throw his head on the battlefield, tell the Ming army and let them come out to get it themselves.

But later on he thought that instead of letting them come out to get it themselves and letting the generals get the benefit, it would be better to send someone himself to deliver it to the soldiers along with the printed inscription.

Not only did he send the heads, but when Qian Shisheng returned to Beijing, he also had to send more than 700 heads of nobles and officers in the army directly to the capital to show off his power.

Handing them over directly to the border troops would allow them to use these heads to show off their own power, while also giving some benefits to the border troops around Beijing, reducing the difficulty of capturing the capital in the future, and even winning the hearts of the people.

The capital area was attacked twice.

However, as soon as Qian Shisheng knew of his plan, he quickly stopped him and said, "General, the court doesn't have the money to reward tens of thousands of heads. Besides, these heads were not taken by the border troops. This is against the rules!"

"Mr. Qian is telling a joke. The heads of the Ming Dynasty's military commanders are used to get promoted."

Liu Chengzong asked expressionlessly, "Could it be that they got all of it with their own hands? I don't care whether the court has money or not. If the court has money, the reward money will be given to the soldiers. If the court has no money, the reward money will be given to the soldiers even if the emperor asks for it."

"This……"

Qian Shisheng felt bitter in his heart. He didn't know how to describe Liu Chengzong.

In the battle in the north, although he was the leader of the rebels, he fought under the reign of Chongzhen in the inscription and even said in a resounding voice that there was only one emperor in the world.

He even felt that Liu Chengzong could be regarded as the number one hero in the Ming Dynasty!

But at this time, the great hero had dealt with Chongde and turned around to deal with Chongzhen.

Liu Chengzong does not think there is anything wrong with his ideology.

He was a staunch supporter of the monarchy. Anyone who dared to claim to be emperor would not be recognized by him, and would be regarded as a provocation and declaration of war against him, and he would fight until the person abdicated.

Even though he was the emperor, he was still uncomfortable.

Because he wants to fight for the throne, of course he has to defend the supremacy of the throne!
"The court must give me a reward, Lord Qian, do you understand? I am here to make the court spend money, so I must give you a reward."

Liu Chengzong said to Qian Shisheng firmly: "Since the emperor won't reward, I will."

"But, but you don't have any money either!" Qian Shisheng couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he heard this, and even laughed: "This is a large sum of money, and you have given all your money to the soldiers."

Liu Shizi couldn't help but applaud: "What the elder said is true. I really don't have any silver in my hand, but I still have 3,700 gold bars."

"If Emperor Chongzhen rewards the frontier troops, even if I also reward him fifty taels, I still cannot compete with him for this heavenly merit. He is the only emperor in the world, and the descendants of the family are small and insignificant, not worth mentioning."

"But if Emperor Chongzhen does not reward, the soldiers will be angry in half a month. I only want five taels of silver for each head. Maybe I don't even need to use gold bars. My soldiers will be happy to pay five taels to attract the angry Jizhen soldiers."

Liu Chengzong said with a smile: "When the time comes, when the Ji Gate is opened, the Jizhen soldiers will support me, and the people of Jingji will welcome me. Do you believe that I can fight to the gates of Beijing?" (End of this chapter)