Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

"Father, Jieshan and Korkun sent people from Guangdong to deliver a message, saying that Shang Kexi has let down our dynasty's kindness and has flattered Wu Sangui. That bastard Wu Sangui is now gathering troops in Pingxi Wei and intends to capture Yuanzhou." When the second son Fultai reported the news from Guangdong to Prince Tunqi of Qingyang, Tunqi's face turned pale in an instant.

"I have contacted General Liu Zhiyuan of Zhenhai and General Echu of Jiangning. They are willing to raise troops to respond to the prince. You are a member of the Manchu royal family and have the right to inherit the throne. Please succeed as soon as possible and rally the people!" said the vanguard leader Mu Zhan excitedly. As soon as the news of the fall of Xi'an and the death of Emperor Zhenwu reached Changsha, he suggested that Tunqi succeed to the throne. However, this King of Qingyang was resolute and decisive on the battlefield, but he had many concerns about the succession. If he had been told to succeed to the throne soon, why would it be like this!
"Without the support of the two feudal lords of Pingnan and Jingnan, it would be difficult for me, Liu Zhiyuan and Echu to succeed with just the few troops they have!" Tunqi sighed.

"There are more than 100,000 soldiers in Huguang. Your Majesty, why should you encourage others and destroy your own prestige? I am willing to lead the troops to reinforce Yuanzhou and block the Wu army's eastward advance!" The guard commander Ha Ke shouted. This man was a famous general in the Huguang Qing army. He had conquered the Kuidong bandits and was very brave.

"Yuanzhou is an important military town. We must not let it fall into the hands of Wu Sangui! You lead your troops ahead, and I will lead the army to support you." When the battle was mentioned, Tunqi became excited and shouted, "There is no rush to become emperor. We will discuss it after we defeat Wu Sangui!"
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Yuanzhou in western Hunan was named after the Yuan River. It was originally a beautiful place, but now it has become a battlefield. This battle did not need to be fought, but Yuanzhou Governor Zhou Zhaonan and Yuanzhou General Cui Shilu saw Wu Sangui's anti-Hu manifesto. They were Han Chinese and were afraid of Wu's army, so they secretly decided to surrender the city to Wu. However, the Qing Guard Commander Ha Kesan marched very fast, leading 5,000 cavalrymen day and night, and rushed from Changsha to Yuanzhou in just a few days. Seeing the sharp Eight Banner sabers, Zhou and Cui looked at each other in bewilderment and had no choice but to deal with it.

"I have ordered the scouts to investigate the Wu army's movements. Their vanguard Ma Bao has only 10,000 cavalry and is still far from the main force. Tomorrow, Zhou Fuyuan will defend the city, and I will lead the cavalry to entangle Ma Bao. When the Wu army's horses slow down, General Cui will lead the infantry to follow and kill them. We will definitely win!" Ha Kesan said confidently. His 5,000 cavalry were the guard battalion composed of eight banner warriors. They were very powerful. Together with Cui Shilu's more than 10,000 men and horses, they outnumbered the Wu army, and he thought he would win. Zhou Zhaonan and Cui Shilu readily agreed.

On October 3, the two armies fought on the north bank of the river. As soon as the battle started, Ha Kesan took the lead with a saber in hand, followed by the deputy general and the third-class man Ai Yincha. Seeing the leader being so brave, the Eight Banners soldiers fought to the death like chicken blood.

A snake spear with a sharp tip flashed fiercely and rushed towards Hak's three-sided gate. As the spear was thrown, the mount under him moved forward at the same time, as if the man, horse and spear were integrated into one. Ma Caiyun, Ma Bao's adopted son, was confident that the enemy would never be able to escape from this attack.

"Hmph~" Ha Kesan groaned, and quickly lowered his body on his horse, and the sharp thorn pierced his helmet tassel. But he did not move, and urged the black horse under his crotch to get close to Ma Caiyun, raised the saber in his hand, and pierced his lower abdomen, and twisted his liver and intestines fiercely.

Ha Kesan did not even look at the dead enemy general and continued to look for the next target. Seeing the fierce enemy, Ma Bao did not flinch and led his army to attack the enemy. The two cavalry broke through the enemy's formation and re-formed, and continued to attack. This happened three times, and gradually became tired and the horses began to slow down.

Ha Kesan was secretly happy that his entanglement had worked and the enemy's horses were starting to slow down. If his infantry attacked at this time, he would surely win. He turned his head and looked back, and was surprised to find that his infantry actually stayed where they were and did not catch up.

"These Nikans (Han people) are too cowardly!" He did not think much about it, thinking that Cui Shilu was afraid of fighting, and ordered the flag and drum officers to attack the rear formation. After the flag was hung, Cui Shilu's troops still did not respond and remained where they were.

"Commander, I'm afraid these Han soldiers have become disloyal," the third-class man Ai Yincha noticed something was wrong and reported it to Hake San.

"You bunch of bastards! Retreat~" Hake San finally ordered his men to retreat.

However, the number of Qing cavalry was only half of Wu's, and the reason why they could hold on until now was because of their fighting spirit. Now that they were ordered to retreat, their fighting spirit would be gone and they would be unable to hold on. Ma Bao took advantage of the situation and led his men to attack, causing the Qing army to collapse. Ha Kesan was caught up by Ma Bao and his whip shattered his head. Ai Yincha lost his horse and fell off, becoming a prisoner of Wu.

Ma Bao killed the Qing cavalry and took advantage of the victory to kill the Qing infantry. However, the enemy army on the opposite side raised the flag of surrender, and Cui Shilu, the general of Yuanzhou, surrendered without a fight. Not only did he surrender, but Zhou Zhaonan, the governor of Pianyuan stationed in Yuanzhou, also surrendered. As soon as the war started, two high-ranking officials from Huguang surrendered. The news reached the King of Pingxi. Wu Sangui was overjoyed. After comforting them with kind words, he ordered Zhou and Cui to retain their original positions and use Cui Shilu's troops as the vanguard to cross the Yuan River and kill Changsha. Just after crossing the Yuan River, they received news that Tunqi led 80,000 troops to Xupu. Unlike Wu Sangui, Tunqi had to leave some troops to guard against Weiguo in the north, and these 80,000 people were the limit that could be mobilized.

"If the delay is too long, I'm afraid the Wei Kingdom in the north will send troops to intervene. Your Highness, please pretend to fight with Tunqi in Xupu, and send another army to cut off Tunqi's retreat route, so as to pacify Huguang in one fell swoop!" Liu Maoxia offered a suggestion.

Wu Sangui nodded and ordered the General of the Imperial Guard Wu Yingqi to lead 20,000 troops to bypass the Red Flag Cave behind Xupu to cut off the enemy's rear. He led the main force of the Wu army of 80,000 and the surrendered army of 10,000 to fight against Tunqi. This battle was extremely fierce! As soon as the battle started, Cui Shilu, the surrendered general who served as the vanguard of the Wu army, was shot and killed. Cui Shilu had just surrendered to the Wu army and was eager to gain merit and gain a foothold. He rushed and killed with great vigor, but was hit by a stray arrow. His subordinates lost their command and immediately panicked. Seeing this, the Qing vanguard commander Mu Zhan took advantage of the situation to kill and disperse the first formation of the Wu army. Ma Bao, who was in the second formation, did not retreat and led his army to launch a counterattack. His general, Li Rubi, the former general of the personal army, swung his sword and chopped left and right, beheading more than a dozen Qing army generals including the deputy governor Fu Sen. Tunqi's second son, the governor Fu Ertai, saw his ferocity and ordered his gunners to concentrate their guns and shoot this tiger general into a bloody sieve.

Seeing that Ma Bao could not win, Wu Sangui sent out the third Jinwu Front General Wu Guogui, the fourth Jinwu Left General Hu Guozhu, the fifth Imperial Army Iron Cavalry Left General Gao Dejie, the sixth Imperial Army Cavalry Right General Wang Hui, the seventh General Wang Xu and other troops; Tunqi also sent the Fuguogong Wenqi, the Dutong Yilibu, the Generals Wu Zisheng, Wang Daoheng, and Feng Duo to fight. The battle lasted for five days without a clear winner.

On the sixth day, Tunqi received news that Wu Yingqi, the rear general of the Wu army, had bypassed Baoqing Prefecture and captured Hongqi Cave, killing the defending general Meng Yimao. They were horrified. Now that they were attacked from all sides and their food supply was cut off, what should they do?
"When two armies meet, the brave one wins. I am willing to lead the army to monitor Wu Yinglin. Please concentrate all your efforts and fight to the death with Wu's army," suggested the eldest son, Duke Fuguo Wenqi.

Tunqi nodded and ordered Wenqi to lead 10,000 troops to monitor Wu Yinglin, while he led the main force to fight a decisive battle with Wu's army. Unexpectedly, the cunning Wu Sangui changed his offense to defense, and held his ground with deep trenches and high fortifications. In front of Wu's strong fortifications, the Qing army suffered heavy casualties. The vanguard commander Mu Zhan, general Wu Zisheng, and Feng Duo were killed in succession, but they could not break through the enemy's camp. Tunqi was still fighting hard, but another bad news came: Wu's army led by Wu Yingqi launched an attack on his side and rear, and his eldest son, Fuguogong Wenqi, died in the battle.

Upon hearing that his son had died in battle, Tunqi was stunned. After a sleepless night, he summoned all his generals and said, "We are now in a desperate situation. I have made up my mind to surrender to Wu Sangui."

"Your Highness, you are a descendant of the Aisin-Gioro family, how can you be a prisoner? You might as well fight to the death and die heroically!" When Du Tong Yilibu heard that they were going to surrender, he was so excited that he could not control himself.

Tunqi sighed, walked up to Yilibu, patted his shoulder gently, and said, "You and I are both generals who have survived hundreds of battles. We should know that the war has reached this point and there is no turning back. If we continue fighting, our soldiers will die in vain. Let's leave some human race for Manchuria."

"Prince~" Yilibu burst into tears.
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"Tunqi, the Prince of Qingyang of the Qing Dynasty, writes to His Royal Highness the Prince of Pingxi: After the hunting in Xupu, I recall the past and sigh with regret. In the past, Your Royal Highness guarded the mountains and seas alone, and could not advance even when our country was at its peak. Now that the army is defeated and the luck is gone, you can only sit back and obey orders. I respectfully hope that Your Royal Highness will remember the kindness of Emperor Shizong, and not ask for mercy and pardon for himself, but only hope to pardon the crimes of his subordinates. Alas! Reducing the killing in the world is the greatest benevolence; preserving the blood sacrifice of people is the greatest righteousness. Having both benevolence and righteousness, you will stand in the middle of heaven! Now that I have submitted a letter of surrender, I hope Your Royal Highness will have mercy on me!"

Seeing the letter of surrender written by Tunqi, even a heart as hard as stone like Wu Sangui could not help but feel sympathy. Thinking back to the past, he had also been a Qing official, and he and Tunqi had a friendship of being under the same palace. Now an old friend wrote to him, asking not to forgive him, but to spare his subordinates, this request was not excessive. Besides, the soldiers under Tunqi were still quite capable of fighting, and if he could recruit them, it would surely greatly increase his strength.

Thinking of this, Wu Sangui decided to be generous. He ordered to pardon all the crimes of Tunqi, and made him the King of Yiliang. He ordered Tunqi, Fultai and his son, and General Yilibu to live in Yiliang. Yiliang is near Kunming. Although it was called the Kingship, it was actually to move Tunqi and others to Yunnan for surveillance. Then he took over Tunqi's defeated army and got more than 40,000 surrendered soldiers, which was very impressive for a while.

Even the Prince of Qingyang surrendered to Wu Sangui. The remaining Qing army generals in Huguang no longer dared to fight and submitted their surrender letters one after another. Changsha General Liu Zhigang, Qiyang General Liu Wenjin, Jingzhou General Zheng Liuwei, and Deputy General Du Chong rushed to become Wu Sangui's subordinates.

The proud Prince of Pingxi led his army into Changsha. As if the Eternal Heaven felt that he had too much good luck, bad news soon came: Sangge, the Qing Huguang governor stationed in Yuanling, the capital of Chenzhou Prefecture, surrendered to the Wei State and offered Yuanling and the military stronghold Chenlongguan. Sangge surrendered to the Wei State because he looked down on Wu Sangui and would rather surrender to the Yikmin'an clan, who were also barbarians, than to Wu Sangui, a slave of three surnames. Qin Wang Chuo Siji seized the opportunity and sent General Zhang Wei to lead 8,000 troops into Yuanling to join forces with Sangge.

At this time, Wu Sangui was already satisfied after gaining half of the southern territory. He was thinking of sending envoys to Beijing to negotiate with the Wei State, hoping to achieve a Northern and Southern Dynasties situation. Therefore, he did not want to anger the Wei army and only ordered his subordinates to deploy defenses in Mayang, Chenxi and Xupu.

Then, in order to satisfy his own ambition, no, in order to give an explanation to the soldiers who had worked hard and made great contributions, the Prince of Pingxi ascended the throne in Changsha and became the emperor. He named the country Da Zhou and established the reign title Zhaowu. He proudly changed the name of Changsha to Dingtian Prefecture, conferred titles and rewards on hundreds of officials, created a new calendar, and hastily built hundreds of reed huts as court rooms. Thus, the brand new Wu Zhou Empire was born.

Wu Sangui, who thought he could gain the support of Han people all over the world by expelling the Tartars, underestimated the "orthodox" status of the Ming royal family. Seeing that he actually ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor, the rebels and people loyal to the Ming Dynasty in various places regarded him as a usurper and were no longer willing to cooperate with him. (End of this chapter)