Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

Under the city of Zhongxiang, blood flowed like a river. Despite the superiority in military strength, Li Laiheng still had no way to take down the sturdy city. Hu Maozhen and Yang Laijia relied on the strong city to defend, just like a turtle retreating into its shell. It was really impossible to take it down for a while. What followed was one bad news after another: Maolu Mountain was lost, Liu Tichun and his troops were defeated and retreated to Wushan, the pseudo-King of Qi conquered Yiling and was heading towards Jiangling along the Yangtze River. What really moved him was that the pseudo-King of Qin conquered Baling and the pseudo-General of the Southern Expedition Xi Rimolian conquered Shiqu, Zhongzhou, Dianjiang, Liangshan and other places, and was attacking Wanxian.

"The Wei Kingdom has great ambitions. They want to surround Kuidong from three sides and eat us up in one go!" Li Laiheng was shocked when he heard the news. He thought the Wei army was fighting the Qing army in Shaanxi and had no time to take care of Kuidong. He didn't expect them to dare to fight on two fronts! How careless! How careless!
"Your Highness, we have fallen into the trap of the Wei State. The pseudo-Khan sent an envoy to persuade us to surrender, but it was fake. He really wanted to attack and destroy the Ming Dynasty. What do you think we should do with the Wei envoy who persuaded us to surrender?" Mao Shoudeng, the governor of Huguang, asked. As the highest civil official stationed in Kuidong appointed by Emperor Yongli, although he had no military power, he had a certain influence among the civil and military officials in Kuidong. Asking how to deal with the Wei envoy, on the surface, he was angry at the Wei State's deception, but in fact he was testing Li Laiheng's attitude and whether he was likely to surrender to the Wei State?
"Mr. Mao, how do you think I should deal with the guard envoy?" Li Laiheng glanced at Mao Shoudeng meaningfully and asked calmly.

For a moment, Mao Shoudeng felt as if his soul had been seen through, and he said hesitantly: "The Wei envoy deceived our army under the pretext of persuading us to surrender, and he should be punished. However, when two countries are at war, envoys should not be killed, so they can be expelled from the country."

"Come here, kill all the envoys from the Wei country," Li Laiheng suddenly sneered.

Mao Shoudeng was shocked, "Why is King Jiangling like this?"

Li Laiheng sighed, "I don't really want to kill the guards. If our army has the upper hand, we should expel them. But now that our army has suffered a series of defeats, some people with bad intentions will inevitably have second thoughts. I want to kill the guards to show the Kuidong army and people my sincere heart to defend the Ming Dynasty to the death, and also to deter those villains who intend to collude with the barbarians to sell out Kuidong. I wonder if Mr. Mao can understand my painstaking efforts?"

Hearing this, Mao Shoudeng felt a chill on his neck. He had also received letters of persuasion from the King of Dong'an and the King of Tongshan some time ago, which led to today's test. Seeing that the King of Jiangling had killed the envoy to make his intention clear, he hurriedly expressed his position, "Your Highness's deep meaning is clear to me! I am a Ming minister in life and a Ming ghost in death. I will definitely assist Your Highness in fighting the guards to the death!"

"Well, as long as we work together as one, we will not be afraid of any strong enemy!" Li Laiheng praised loudly, and ordered: "The entire army should be prepared. We will pretend to attack the city during the day tomorrow and return to Jiangling at night."

"Zhongxiang City is within our grasp, why is Your Highness turning back?" Mao Shoudeng was puzzled. He was a civil servant and was not well versed in military affairs.

"The Wei army attacked us from three sides, trying to destroy the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop. I led my army to attack Xiangyang in the north in order to mobilize the enemy, making them exhausted and making it easier to defeat them one by one. Unexpectedly, the enemy remained unmoved and instead our army stopped at the fortified city of Zhongxiang, which dampened their fighting spirit. Now the Pseudo-King of Qi has conquered Yiling, and the Pseudo-King of Qin has conquered Baling. If the two kings join forces, the battle will be difficult to fight! We must return to Jiangling immediately, defeat the Pseudo-King of Qi first, and then deal with the remaining two Wei armies."

"You want to concentrate your forces to defeat the enemy first. This is a very good plan. The Pseudo-King of Qi is the commander-in-chief of the Wei Army. Since ancient times, to catch a thief, one must catch the king first. If we can defeat the Pseudo-King of Qi, the enemy army will collapse without a fight and the siege of Kuidong will be lifted," Mao Shoudeng praised repeatedly.

"Well, it's snowing. Mr. Mao, please go back to the camp and rest first. For the sake of the Ming Dynasty, you must take good care of your health," Li Laiheng said with concern and issued an "order to expel" to Mao Shoudeng.
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After being defeated by the Qing army, Qin Wang Chuo Siji had been trying hard to regroup. He had more than 80,000 troops under his command, and 20,000 of them were sent to Xiangyang. After receiving the military order from his brother, he left a small number of troops to garrison Wuchang, and led an army of 60,000 up the Yangtze River to capture Baling, the capital of Yuezhou Prefecture.

Li Laiheng was a man who loved talents. After Li Sixing and Liu Zhen defected to the Ming Dynasty, he ordered the two generals to station one in Baling and the other in Linxiang, and allocated a lot of food and money to let them recruit soldiers on the spot. He also ordered the general Min Yiqi to garrison Huarong, Anxiang, Lizhou and other places in the north of Dongting Lake to support the two generals. Li Sixing and Liu Zhen were descendants of loyal and righteous people. Seeing that King Jiangling trusted them so much, they were grateful and each recruited 10,000 soldiers. They dispersed the thousands of veterans in their own army to serve as officers in various camps, and trained day and night, hoping to form combat power as soon as possible to serve the Ming Dynasty. However, the newly recruited soldiers were not as good as the veterans who had been on the battlefield for a long time, and their strength was far less than that of the guards. They retreated step by step in front of the 60,000 strong enemy.

The guards successively broke through Puqi, Chongyang, Yanglou and other places, and went straight to the city of Linxiang. Liu Zhen held the city and fought to the death. Li Sixing and Liu Zhen were closer than brothers. Seeing Liu Zhen in danger, he led his army from Baling to help. This was exactly what Qin Wang Chuo Siji wanted. He ordered Xuan Youcai, the general of Jizhou, and Zhang Wei, the general of Tongzhou, to lead the infantry to line up to meet the enemy head-on, and the chiefs of ten thousand households, Tegus Chaoktu and Babai, each led more than 2,000 cavalry to attack from the left and right. The Ming army was defeated, and Li Sixing had to retreat to Baling. Seeing that the reinforcements were defeated, Liu Zhen opened the water gate and led his men to board the ship and escape back to Baling. At this time, the two were left with only more than 10,000 remnants, and they were miserable.

"The situation is urgent, do you have any solution?" Liu Zhen asked Li Sixing anxiously.

"My father once told me before his death, 'It is better to die in the wilderness than surrender', but I actually surrendered to the Qing invaders. This is truly a lifelong regret! This is extremely disloyal and unfilial! Such a mistake is enough once! Now that the barbarians are at the gates of the city, the only thing I can do is die!" Li Sixing's face was full of determination.

Seeing him mention the deceased Li Dingguo, the Prince of Jin of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Zhen's face was full of solemnity. After thinking for a moment, he sighed, "My dear brother, you are right. It is enough to surrender to the barbarians once! As ministers of the Ming Dynasty, today is the time for us to be loyal to our country!"

The two men were determined to fight to the death and encouraged their subordinates to defend the city. The guards attacked for two months but still failed. Qin Wang Chuo Siji did not expect that he had won many battles before, but now there were only a few remnants of the defeated army in Baling City that could make him run into a wall. In shame and anger, he issued a death order, "If Baling cannot be conquered within three days, the commanders of each camp will be beheaded and replaced by deputy commanders; if it still cannot be conquered after another three days, the deputy commander will be beheaded and replaced by a lieutenant commander; and so on, within three days, the commanders will be beheaded one by one."

Military orders are as heavy as a mountain. Upon hearing this cruel order, the guards were all terrified, especially the commanders of each camp, who were determined to fight to the death. Cai Lu, Xuan Youcai, Zhang Wei and other generals led their troops to bravely climb the city.

On the second day after the military order was issued, Henan Admiral Cai Lu led his elite troops to climb the city wall, went down the steps, controlled and opened the East City Gate. The guards rushed in, and the Baling defenders were in danger.

Li Sixing and Liu Zhen still refused to surrender, and led the remaining troops to fight in the streets, causing heavy casualties to the Wei army. Qin Wang Chuo Siji was furious and ordered to set fire to the streets and alleys controlled by the Ming army. He also deployed archers and gunners around the periphery, and if anyone ran out of the streets and alleys, regardless of whether they were soldiers or civilians, they would be shot dead.

Baling became a sea of ​​fire, and the fire burned for ten days before it calmed down. Chuo Siji ordered a search for the remaining defenders. The bodies of Li Sixing, Liu Zhen and dozens of their subordinates were found in a private house, all charred like charcoal. (End of this chapter)