The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 427 Zu Dashou

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, on February 20th, at dawn.

The world gradually becomes clearer and the sky becomes brighter.

The early morning in Liaodong is still as peaceful as ever.

The city of Jinzhou still seemed bleak and desolate.

Six months have passed since the end of the Battle of Songjin.

The eight Ming army regiments swore an oath in Ningyuan, and 90,000 troops came to the rescue and fought a bloody battle in Songjin.

More than 50,000 Ming soldiers were buried between Songshan and Jinshan, and three generals died in the battle.

Songshan Castle fell two months ago, and Liaodong Governor Qiu Minyang died for his country.

The Qing army broke into Songshan City. Although the defenders in the city fought desperately, they were ultimately unable to resist the fierce attack of the Qing army.

The defenders in the city finally retreated into Songshan's armory and ignited the explosives stored in the armory.

The sound of the explosion was earth-shaking and also reached the city of Jinzhou.

On that night, a group of officers and soldiers in Jinzhou City stood on the city wall, watching the raging fire in Songshan City in silence.

Perhaps from that moment on, everyone in Jinzhou City knew their fate.

The snow fell silently, and the north wind blew up the broken jade petals, scattering them freely between heaven and earth.

The mountains and rivers are wrapped in white, layer upon layer, like a roll of rice paper stretching for thousands of miles.

Although it is spring, Jinzhou is still covered with ice and snow.

Zu Dashou stood on the battlement of the city wall, stroking the blue bricks that were covered with scars.

The picturesque beauty of the distant mountains did not improve Zu Dashou's mood much.

Because just outside the city of Jinzhou were the Qing army's camps, which stretched along a winding line.

The gullies separate the entire Jinzhou from the outside world.

The last news from Ningyuan City.

The situation inside the Great Wall remains turbulent.

The Wanmin Army was destroying the South, while Li Chuang was rampant in the Northwest.

Nanjing was in imminent danger, Xi'an was under siege and on the verge of collapse, and the country was in turmoil.

Except for the troops from Liaozhen, most of the troops from other towns that came to provide reinforcements have returned to the interior to stabilize the situation.

Jinzhou, it is no longer possible to get reinforcements.

Smoke from cooking fires gradually rose from the city of Jinzhou, and the voices of people finally began to appear in the isolated city of Jinzhou on the Liaodong plain.

"Brother, eat something."

Zu Dabi's voice came from the side.

Zu Dashou did not turn his head immediately, but was still looking at the snow-covered fields in the distance.

"I had a dream yesterday."

“I dreamed about when we were in North Korea.”

The corners of Zu Dashou's mouth rose slightly, revealing a hint of a smile.

"Father is still here."

“Do you remember the Battle of Pyongyang?”

Although Zu Dabi was a little confused, he still nodded.

"I remember."

Snowflakes were falling, and Zu Dabi's thoughts involuntarily returned to his youth following Zu Dashou's words.

Because of North Korea's false information, there were tens of thousands of Japanese guards in Pyongyang, but North Korea said there were only a thousand.

Their first march to Pyongyang ended in failure, with most of the troops dispersed and only about 500 of the 2,000 cavalrymen returned.

However, reinforcements from various towns soon arrived and they once again marched towards Pyongyang.

In the Second Battle of Pyongyang, 30,000 troops marched to Pyongyang.

They defeated the Japanese invaders, recaptured Pyongyang, killed and wounded tens of thousands of people, and avenged their hatred.

Thousands of troops, flags fluttering, and the mighty sound shook the earth.

With everyone united as one, we will be invincible wherever we go.

At that time, General Li Rusong was like a god.

In just a dozen years, everything took a sharp turn for the worse.

In the battle of Sarhu, they ruined everything...

The whole town of Liao was devastated and fled upon hearing the news of the slave.

The court was in turmoil, and he...

Zu Dashou clenched his fists, his heart full of regret.

When he joined the army as a young man, his heart was filled with the desire to achieve great things and become a general like Li Rusong.

But as time went by and the situation changed, his psychology gradually changed.

The tens of millions of Liao tributes became the purse strings of officials in the Ming Dynasty court.

He was just a military general. Even though he was the commander-in-chief of a town, in the eyes of the princes and nobles in the court, he was just a guard dog.

He chose to go with the flow and became corrupt.

The officers and soldiers below also joined in.

The millions of Liao military pay did not produce soldiers capable of fighting. Instead, the millions of Liao military pay only produced soldiers who became increasingly weak.

The Jurchen hunters who came out from between the Black Water and the White Mountains oppressed them to the point of suffocation.

The slave who was ordered around by Li Rusong beat them so hard that they threw away their weapons and armor.

Zu Dashou's heart was full of regret. When the Jiannu were weak, they should have destroyed them at all costs.

Just like during the Chenghua period, they were completely wiped out.

But it's too late to regret everything.

There is no medicine in this world that can make people regret.

Reclaiming the land has become a luxury, at least for Zu Dashou.

This year, he is sixty-four years old. He is no longer the young man full of vigor and vitality. He has long been unable to do what he wanted.

Zu Dashou closed his eyes, and the earth-shaking shouts rang in his ears again.

"Restore the earth! Restore the earth!"

The bloody battle at Rufeng Mountain in the past is still vivid in our memory.

only……

They tried their best and gave it their all.

But in the end, we were unable to win.

The Jiannu had already become a ferocious tiger.

Raising a tiger will eventually become a disaster.

The fierce tiger Jiannu will never be willing to stay in the snowy country outside the Great Wall.

They are eyeing the northern border of the Great Wall covetously, and what they want is the whole of China.

Zu Dashou sighed.

He couldn't see the way forward.

The city was filled with the aroma of food for the first time in a long time.

Zu Dashou looked back at his hometown, and everywhere he saw was rising smoke from cooking fires.

The city was bustling with noise and filled with laughter.

"Come for a walk with me."

Zu Dashou turned to look at Zu Dabi and smiled.

Zu Dabi was slightly stunned, but did not object. He handed the meat porridge in his hand to the guard beside him and followed Zu Dashou down the city wall.

There were still many people living in the original Jinzhou.

However, as the war progressed, there were no ordinary civilians left in the city, only the soldiers defending the city.

The once prosperous Jinzhou has now become a huge military fortress.

Zu Dabi followed Zu Dashou and walked down along the horse path along the city wall.

"Commander!"

A sharp-eyed soldier saw Zu Dashou and stood up excitedly and shouted.

"Commander!"

"Commander!"

A group of soldiers stood up upon hearing the noise and put down their bowls of wine, porridge and rice.

Zu Dashou walked to a campfire and looked at the soldiers who stood upright and stared at him with respect.

Zu Dashou's heart was cold, and he avoided the burning gazes of the crowd. He didn't dare to look them in the eye, as he felt sorry for the soldiers who had always followed him.

The cotton clothes these soldiers wore were thin.

Because of the cold, their hands were frozen red, and many people had frostbite on their hands and faces.

But their bodies are still upright and their eyes are still full of vitality.

Zu Dashou walked up to a soldier, avoided the soldier's gaze, and just stretched out his hand to straighten the soldier's messy collar.

"Commander!"

The soldier's expression changed slightly, the vitality in his eyes slowly dissipated, his eyebrows drooped involuntarily, and his voice gradually choked up.

"Commander..."

"Afraid."

Zu Dashou patted the soldier's shoulder gently and asked softly.

"afraid."

"But as long as the Marshal is here, we are not afraid."

Zu Dashou felt somewhat relieved, but soon other emotions in his heart suppressed that relief.

Zu Dashou patted the soldier on the shoulder for the last time. He did not stay in one place for a long time, but continued to move forward.

Along the way, all the soldiers stood up and saluted their commander.

Zu Dashou inspected one camp after another until he had visited all the camps and the smoke from cooking fires in the city had disappeared.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!!"

The dull sound of drums slowly rang out in Jinzhou City.

Tens of thousands of soldiers in Jinzhou City have made preparations for war.

The war horses are saddled, the swords are sharp, the armor is on, and the bowstrings are taut.

In the northern city of Jinzhou, the remaining 12,000-odd Ming troops were ready to fight to the death.

The last of the military rations in the city had been consumed, and they had also finished their last bowl of farewell wine.

Zu Dashou put on the embroidered battle robe that he had always been reluctant to wear.

The battle robe is as red as blood.

The armor was white, just like falling snow.

Inside the city wall, thousands of armored cavalry were on full alert.

Zu Dashou was dressed in iron armor, holding a lance, and standing in front of the crowd.

The north wind howled, blowing up thousands of drifting snowflakes, and also blowing up the two extremely tall flags behind Zu Dashou.

The flag on the left was red in blood, with the words "Liaodong Vanguard Commander-in-Chief" written on it.

The flag on the right was black in color, with the words "General of the Vanguard of the Expedition to Liao" inscribed on it.

The group of armored cavalrymen behind him were all wearing robes and belts, holding guns and swords.

The high-spirited sound of war drums resounded in everyone's ears.

The cries of the families lingered in everyone's minds.

There were no passionate speeches, no earth-shaking calls.

Zu Dashou slowly raised the lance in his hand, and the gate of Jinzhou North City slowly opened in front of everyone.

The biting north wind howled and violently penetrated into the corridor of the city gate, bringing with it a rustling sound.

The sun is rising in the east, and the fields in the distance are supporting the rising sun.

There is clarity between heaven and earth.

Zu Dashou tightened his grip on the lance in his hand and gently pushed it forward.

His eyes looked into the distance from under the brim of his helmet.

The flags were waving, and the low and desolate sound of the horn slowly rang out over the city of Jinzhou.

In Jinzhou City, all the armored cavalry urged their horses forward.

In the corridor of the city gate, the sound of horse hooves was as chaotic as rain.

As the war horses galloped, headwinds blew towards them.

The fierce north wind blew on my face like a steel knife scraping my bones.

But Zu Dashou had never felt so good.

Infinite strength seemed to have been born from the originally decayed body, just like in the past.

The weight in Zu Dashou's hand, which originally felt quite heavy, now felt as light as nothing.

The heavy lance was now as easy to use as an arm, and the blurry vision gradually became clear.

This feeling surprised Zu Dashou.

The corridor of the city gate was only a few meters long and it was passed in a flash.

The sky is bright and the sun is rising.

The golden sunlight scattered on everyone's armor, making them look like heavenly soldiers.

The north wind blew into the battle formation, causing the flags to flutter and countless helmet tassels to flutter.

Zu Dashou held a lance in his hand and looked back leisurely.

In the field of vision, countless horse heads are rising and falling, and the manes of the war horses are flying wildly in the strong wind.

The flaming red flags spread like a raging fire.

Amid the sound of iron hooves, all the armored cavalrymen raised their weapons high, ready to die.

Zu Dashou clenched the lance in his hand, gritted his teeth, and tried his best to suppress the pain in his heart.

But he was ultimately unable to do so, and tears slowly seeped from the corners of his eyes.

But before the tears fell, the oncoming headwind blew them away.

All the thousands of emotions and sorrows turned into anger and strength at the last moment.

"Restore the soil!"

Zu Dashou raised his lance high and shouted hysterically.

"Restore the Earth!!"

The three thousand armored cavalrymen behind him shouted in unison as if they had telepathic connection.

The deafening noise had already alarmed the Qing troops besieging Jinzhou.

The Qing army's camp was in chaos at this time. They did not expect that the Ming army in Jinzhou City would dare to take the initiative to attack.

It is obvious that Songshan and Xingshan have already fallen into their hands.

There were clearly no reinforcements coming.

Why did the defenders of Jinzhou suddenly come out of the city to attack them at this time, or attack them from the north city?

Even if you want to escape, to break out, shouldn't you go west or south? Why go north? Why go north?

Are they looking for death?

In fact, the Qing army’s guess was not wrong.

The Ming army was indeed seeking death.

The reason why Zu Dashou chose to attack from the north city was because there was no way out to the north and it was a situation with no chance of survival.

Jinzhou is an isolated city, hanging in the balance. Being trapped in the isolated city is just repeating the same mistakes.

It is better to give it a try and die for your country.

The Qing army's camp was in chaos. When the Ming army from Jinzhou approached, only a thousand people reached the front line.

The result was naturally no suspense. The Ming army, determined to die, broke through the outermost camp wall and charged into the Qing army's northern Jinzhou camp.

Zu Dashou led the armored cavalry to break through the Qing army's line, and the follow-up large group of Ming army infantry in Jinzhou rushed into the Qing army's northern camp in Jinzhou through the gap.

Trumpets sounded from all directions.

Fierce shouts in Manchu rang out in the camps everywhere.

A large number of Qing troops were mobilized, and cavalry from various units were quickly assembled and rushed to the northern camp of Jinzhou to provide support.

The bloody battle lasted for a whole day and night.

In the early morning of the next day, the Qing army broke through the city of Jinzhou.

The soldiers left behind in Jinzhou City set fire to the houses and the incendiary materials they had prepared in advance, setting the entire city on fire.

The Qing army hastily withdrew from Jinzhou City and then vented its anger on the Ming troops who went out of the city to fight.

The Qing troops that came to the rescue initially numbered more than 30,000 people, and later this number increased to 60,000.

By the time dawned on the third day, the fire in Jinzhou City had been extinguished.
The Qing army's camp in the north of Jinzhou also became a scorched earth.

The last Ming army in Jinzhou set fire to their camp before being surrounded by the Qing army and died in the fire.

The fifteenth year of Chongzhen, February 23, dusk.

The Ming troops stationed in Jinzhou were completely wiped out.

Commander-in-chief of the Liaodong vanguard, general of the Liao expedition vanguard, Zu Dashou died for his country.