The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 19 Change your destiny
After Jiajing, the Ming Dynasty's finances were on the verge of collapse. At the same time, there were wars on all sides, and the Ming army was exhausted from dealing with them.

In the northeast, Liaozhen was alienated from the imperial court, and the emergence of Li Chengliang only accelerated this process.

The empire's rule on the border was unsustainable. Even if there had not been the disastrous defeat at Sarhu, Liaodong's independence was only a matter of time.

The "Gao Huai Rebellion in Liao" and "Yang Rong Rebellion in Yunnan" that occurred during the Wanli period can be described in the classic civil service narrative:

The emperor doted on eunuchs, and the eunuchs brought disaster to the local area, provoking civil unrest or military rebellion. Finally, the situation on the border deteriorated greatly and became out of control.

Unfortunately, the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty had no say. Even Zheng He, a prominent eunuch, was buried in history after his death.

The treasure ship was destroyed and all historical records are lost.

One can imagine what happened to the other eunuchs.

In fact, in the Ming Dynasty, eunuchs were more of a scapegoat, silently taking the blame for the emperor and civil officials, such as Wang Zhen and Cao Huachun.

Gao Huai collected mining taxes in Liaodong, which provoked a "mutiny".

Rather than being the fuse for the outbreak of border incidents, it is more like an excuse for centrifugal forces to break away from the central government.

Of course, later during the reigns of Tianqi and Chongzhen, Liaozhen no longer needed to find an excuse.

The imperial court did not dare to send the Jinyiwei into Liaodong again, which was tacit approval of the separatist status of the military leaders.

Liu Zhaosun's thoughts were in a turmoil. He looked up at the Baoyi Aha who was gradually approaching in the distance, and could not help but express his admiration for the two Tartars' fearless spirit.

As a time traveler, he could understand the determination and courage of these Baoyi Aha in fighting for survival.

Of course, understanding does not mean accepting.

For their own glory and wealth, the bondservants led the Jiannu army from Sarhu to Shanhaiguan, and from Jinzhou to Yunnan, killing Han people in a sea of blood and killing Han people. They left Emperor Yongli with nowhere to escape, and finally created a three hundred years of literary inquisition and the prosperous Kangxi and Qianlong eras.

This is a bit unreasonable.

"Zhuo Zhong Zhi" records: Because Gao Huai rebelled against Liao, forty-five out of ten strong and brave young men fled to Jianzhou.

If being a baoyi slave for the Jiannu was the mainstream of the Han people in Liaodong at that time, it was what Nurhaci called the destiny.

Then, Liu Zhaosun must break this destiny!
Only thirty steps away from the spearmen, the baoyi Aha summoned up their remaining courage and threw the flying axes and hammers in their hands with all their might. Suddenly, a rain of blood splashed in front of the Ming army. Many spearmen in the front row were hit and fell to the ground with a groan.

The spearmen in the back row filled the empty spaces, and the flag captains of each row shouted:
"Tiger!"

The spearmen also threw a wave of flying axes and hammers, and the enemy's armored soldiers fell to the ground one after another. The spear line advanced to twenty steps, and the seventeen-foot bamboo spears were erected high, like a glittering bamboo forest.

"kill!"

The drumbeats of the spearmen became more and more rapid. Thanks to the strict training of the Zhejiang soldiers, the spearmen maintained a neat pace and made a neat stepping sound.

The buglers and flute players of each battalion played the suona, and the spearmen began to advance faster. The silver duck-billed spear tips reflected the cold sunlight of Liaodong, like a dazzling galaxy.

After several rounds of attacks, the surviving bannermen finally had decent weapons and armor in their hands.

They held shields in one hand and swords and spears in the other, and rushed towards the spearmen with bloodshot eyes.

These bannermen also had great contempt for the Ming army. According to their experience, as long as they got close to them, the Ming army would drop their weapons and flee.

Cao Zhongqing held the Shundao in his hand and had discarded the bow and arrow behind him. He was not going to fight the Ming army with the bow and arrow within the attack range of the spearmen.

He was confident in his martial arts prowess and stared at the spearmen in the distance. While protecting his body with his shield, he tried to get closer and chop the spearmen's calves with his sword.

The spearman did not dodge at all. The 17-foot-long spear flew out like a poisonous snake, passed over Cao Zhongqing's left hand shield, and stabbed diagonally into his eyes.

Cao Zhongqing ducked his head, his face swaying as the spear pierced his chainmail, creating an unsettling scraping sound. He remembered his master's words: to chop off the bamboo spearheads, he needed to balance himself, taking advantage of the moment when the spearheads were contracting and gathering power. He thrust forward, poised to strike. At that moment, another spear thrust pierced his throat.

Cao Zhongqing tilted his body and barely avoided the fatal blow. A reckless bannerman behind him was stabbed. The spear head easily pierced his armor and broke into his chest due to the inertia of the spearman's attack.

The short-statured bannerman Aha was pushed back by a spear before he could figure out what was going on.

He looked at the duck-billed spear tip that pierced his chest in astonishment, a look of horror in his eyes, and streams of blood spit out of his mouth. Before the spearman opposite him could draw out his spear, Baoyi had stopped breathing.

Cao Zhongqing was frightened by the scene and subconsciously took two steps back. The ferocious Baoyi raised his right hand, lowered his left hand, and pressed the blade against the shield. This was the defensive action of a sword and shield soldier.

Looking around, all he could see were dense spears thrusting forward, the sound of metal colliding constantly coming from them, and the screams of the surrounding Baoyi Aha. Only then did Cao Zhongqing realize that there was no one around him, and there were only a few Baoyi Aha left.

Just now, in the archery exchange, these Baoyi were able to fight back and forth with their opponents. Now that they are in close combat, the role of the battle formation is highlighted.

As the shield-bearing Baoyi fell one after another, irreparable gaps appeared in the Baoyi line. The Baoyi in the back row without shields and armor looked at the bloody battle in front of them in horror. Most of them only had a sword or a club in their hands. Such weapons had no advantage when facing a 17-foot long spear.

"kill!"

The spearmen in front of him let out hysterical screams and attacked any enemy that appeared in front of them like violent beasts.

Cao Zhongqing was shocked by the indomitable momentum. Although he was fighting and killing, compared with the fighting in the army, it was just a trivial skill.

The baoyi around him turned around and retreated, and the baoyi formation became uneven. Some spearmen even caught up with Cao Zhongqing.

The idea of raising the flag finally disappeared. Now Cao Zhongqing had only one thought in his mind, to quickly escape to the back and save his life.

At this moment, Cao Zhongqing suddenly felt the rumbling sound of footsteps coming from the front, as if the earth was shaking slightly.

He looked at the blue flag position in front of him in confusion. Two hundred steps away, a black line was coming towards him like a tide, with some small blue flags fluttering in the middle.

Cao Zhongqing recognized at a glance that this was the real Yi master. Now that the master had arrived, he was saved.

He was about to shout loudly, but he caught a glimpse of a Baoyi running in front of him. His head flew high into the air, and the rat tail on the back of his head circled in the air and fell limply to the ground.

"Wang Saner?"

A white-armored soldier supervising the battle held a bloody head and screamed hysterically:

"Those who retreat will die!"

The bannerman who rushed to the front and was killed was a fellow villager of Cao Zhongqing, named Wang Saner.

Wang Saner also killed the heads of the Ming army and surrendered to his master. He was usually very respectful to his master, but he didn't expect to end up like this.

Cao Zhongqing had no time to feel sad. He was caught in the middle of two rounds of attack, and seeing that the two sides were about to collide, he tilted his body, pretended to be shot by an arrow and fell to the ground, smeared some blood on his face, and pulled over a stiff, shrouded corpse and pressed it on himself.

The vanguard spearmen ran into the Zhenyi armored soldiers. The two sides had already fought a battle in Dong'e Road, with no clear winner. Now that the enemies met, they were extremely jealous of each other, and the two sides immediately started fighting.

Once the spears were separated from the formation, they lost their advantage in attacking. The spearmen were so excited about killing that they forgot the danger behind them.

Several reckless spearmen were surrounded and quickly killed by the Zhenyi armored soldiers. The Ming army running behind saw the black mass of Zhenyi rushing towards them. The spearmen began to clear their heads and quickly retreated, hoping to regroup and block this wave of Zhenyi attack.

The Blue Banner soldiers who rushed forward certainly would not give the spearmen a chance to re-form their formation.

These veterans looked around, took out their bows and arrows, and calmly used heavy arrows to kill the spearmen who had lost the protection of their swordsmen and shieldmen one by one.

The two thousand Zhenyi took a short rest, hastily formed a wall-shaped formation, and charged towards the chaotic spearmen at the fastest speed.

(End of this chapter)