The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 193: No One Can Cross the River (I)

Ping Liaohou looked at Liu Xingzuo standing before him, ignoring the rat-tail braid hanging from the back of his head, and said with joy: "Today I am fortunate to have the help of a noble man. I will definitely capture Hetuala and kill Huang Taiji!"

Since the fall of Liaodong, there have been as many benevolent and righteous people as there are traitors.

Among the many heroes who resisted the tyranny of the Later Jin Dynasty, Liu Xingzuo was undoubtedly the most dazzling one.

Liu Zhaosun admired this relative very much.

The current situation is critical and the Kaiyuan Army is about to be destroyed, so it is not convenient to introduce this person in detail.

Simply put, Liu Xingzuo was a lone hero.

This man chose to give up his high position and generous salary in the Later Jin Dynasty, and abandoned his entire family (all in the Later Jin Dynasty), and ran back to the Ming Dynasty alone to continue fighting against the Jiannu.

Later, due to Yuan Keli's resignation from Dengzhou and Mao Wenlong's exclusion and frame-up, Liu Xingzuo was forced to flee. He was finally killed in Yongping and his body was obtained by Huang Taiji.

In the third year of Chongzhen (1630), Huang Taiji dismembered Liu Xingzuo's body in public, opened his abdomen, and his intestines spilled all over the floor [Note 1].

Kulchan, a minister of the Later Jin Dynasty, could not bear the loss and secretly collected Liu Xingzao's body. He was later killed by Huang Taiji for this. [Note 2]

This shows how deeply Huang Taiji hated Liu Xingzuo.

Now that Liu Zhaosun has intervened, the fate of this lone hero will undergo major changes.

"I was kind to you when you were alive, but you killed me when you were slaughtering people in Shenyang. It was God's will that you were beheaded by General Liu!"

Liu Zhaosun personally helped Liu Xingzuo up and arranged for guards to take him down to rest.

Liu Xingzuo pushed the guard aside and said urgently, "General Liu, the situation is critical. Please make a decision quickly! Halt the river crossing immediately. Huang Taiji is waiting for you to cross! He has been planning this battle for a long time. You have come all the way from Kaiyuan and have been invincible. Don't you suspect this is a Jiannu ploy to lure the enemy?"

Kang Yingqian shouted angrily, "The army is about to cross the river. We must not disrupt their morale! Ping Liao Hou, quickly give the order to cross the river!"

The surroundings were in chaos.

"Ping Liao Hou, cross the river!"

"My troops should be the vanguard!"

Looking at the fanatical officers, Liu Zhaosun realized that except for Sun Chuanting and Deng Changxiong who had remained unchanged, the others might have already lost their original intentions.

Could it be that Shao Jiechun, who was anxious to cross the river to win merit, was really going to die without a burial place this time along with his thousands of soldiers?
If that were the case, it would be a devastating defeat.

Liu Zhaosun subconsciously pulled the reins. He certainly suspected that this was Huang Taiji's strategy to lure the enemy, but how many remaining soldiers could Hetuala have?

Although he was not one of those time-traveling firearms experts who could rub nuclear weapons with their hands, he knew that with the level of gunpowder technology of that era, it was impossible to bury tens of thousands of pounds of gunpowder under the ice, let alone detonate it on time.

unless······
He shook his head decisively and comforted himself: "Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

However, the surrounding Liaodong soldiers all knew Liu Efu, and Liu Zhaosun had already sent people to check and confirm that it was indeed Liu Xingzuo himself.

If what he said was true...

There are tens of thousands of pounds of gunpowder buried under the Suzi River, more than 3,000 firearms soldiers in Hetuala City, and Zu Dashou's tens of thousands of troops are waiting on the outer battlefield...

Kang Yingqian feigned composure and said, "Marquis Ping Liao, these must be spies sent by Huang Taiji to delay us. Disregard them. Order the remaining troops to cross the river immediately! Don't give them the chance to carry out their schemes!"

Everyone fell into deep thought.

Deng Changxiong looked at the 5,000 headquarters soldiers scattered across the river, and his body trembled involuntarily.

All the shield carts have been brought ashore, and a flag team of soldiers is hiding behind them, slowly advancing towards the main city of Hetuala, shooting arrows and firing muskets as they go.

The musket fire emitted a few white smoke particles that floated in the air, like clouds in the sky, so far away yet so close.

Everything is like a dream.

There were no musketeers in the 5000th headquarters, and the musketeers behind the shield carts were all reinforcements drawn from Deng Changxiong's command.

Yang Tong was also among them.

Liu Zhaosun's expression kept changing, and he tried hard to show the calmness that a commander should have.

However, the beads of sweat on his forehead betrayed this young man who was only twenty years old.

Fortunately, no one noticed this detail.

Everyone was already arguing. "No more troops allowed! Withdraw the 5,000th headquarters immediately!"

"We can't retreat! If we withdraw the troops now, what will happen to the artillery and cavalry that have crossed the river? They only have 3,000 men in total. They are no match for the Eight Banners Army. And we have so many artillery pieces. If we give them away to Huang Taiji for nothing, how will we defend Kaiyuan in the future?"

"Fushun's food and fodder have all been burned. We don't have enough food to sustain our retreat to Tieling. In this cold winter, on the Liaodong plains, do you know what the consequences of retreating are? A crushing defeat, the annihilation of our entire army!"

"Why not go back and kill Zu Dashou first? He has food!"

"So what if we destroyed Liaozhen? We've been marching for hundreds of miles, and our morale is already low and our strength is exhausted. If the Jiannu follow us, we'll have nowhere to defend ourselves. Without our cavalry and artillery advantage, how can we fight them?"

"Don't count on Tieling and Kaiyuan. If it's true as Liu Xingzuo said, Huang Taiji has flintlock rifles and the Jurchens, Yuan Chonghuan will definitely be defeated in Yehe, and his defeat will be even worse than ours! Perhaps now, Kaiyuan has been lost, and Tieling is also unsafe. Are we going back to die?"

While the argument was going on, a scout came galloping from the west. In full view of everyone, a rider covered in blood ran non-stop to the Suzi River.

Just as the guards were about to step forward to stop him, the rider had already fallen off his horse. Leaning on his bloody lance, he struggled to his feet and said in despair to Liu Zhaosun:

"The food and fodder...was burned by the remnants of the White Lotus. Most of the Fushun soldiers were killed. Zu Dashou occupied Fushun. Tens of thousands of Liaoxi troops are heading towards Hetuala..."

"God damn White Lotus!"

"Zu Dashou is such a bastard!"

Everyone screamed in shock, their faces pale as death. After finally regaining their composure, they all looked towards Ping Liaohou:

"General Liu, advance or retreat! Give the order immediately!"

"Marquis Ping Liao, quickly give us an idea to recapture Fushun!"

"Kill the Liaoxi soldiers first! Destroy Zu Dashou!"

·······
"Enough! Stop making noise!"

Ping Liaohou roared, and the surroundings suddenly became quiet. He looked around, his eyes wide open, and said:
"I am incompetent and have brought disaster upon the three armies. Now we are attacked from both sides. If we advance, we have a chance of survival, but if we retreat, we will die without a burial place!"

"We can't advance through this section of the river anymore!"

"Pass on my command. The entire army is to cross the river immediately from the ice of Suzi Bridge! Send 20 auxiliary troops from each battalion to repair the bridge. Leave 1,000 soldiers on each bank to guard the bridge. As long as the bridge is alive, we will be there!"

"After crossing the river, attack Hetuala from all sides, focusing on the west gate. Use the spearmen to lure the Jiannu flintlock musketeers out of the city. Deploy 500 soldiers to cover the artillery's advance and bombard the city from close range. Our artillery is more powerful than the Jiannu's. As long as we hold our artillery, we will surely win!"

"When operating a large-scale military operation, military discipline must be strict! I will personally attack the city. If you fail to capture Hetuala within two hours, all officers above the rank of lieutenant will be beheaded!"

Before he finished speaking, there was a deafening explosion from the distant river, like thunder in the clear sky, which almost broke the eardrums. The dense solid shells slammed into the ice surface.

The ground beneath their feet shook violently, and the soldiers waiting to cross the river retreated involuntarily.

Several war horses carrying armor were frightened, neighed, and fled. They jumped onto the ice, and their four hooves slipped weakly on the ice.

"The river's broken!"

"The river's broken!"

The screams were like a surging wave.

The Suzi River was like a broken mirror, with cracks spreading from the center of the explosion to the surrounding areas.

Suddenly, a suffocating crackling sound was heard on the surface of the river, and the sounds of thousands of cracks merged into a wave, breathtaking!

The ice surface was suddenly in a mess, with soldiers and horses screaming incessantly. Dozens of soldiers immediately fell into the ice cave. Spearmen and hammermen wearing heavy iron armor instantly sank into the river and disappeared.

The musketeers and cavalry floated up and down among the ice floes.

At the same time, dense flintlock sounds were heard from the direction of the Hetuala city wall, and the cavalrymen in front of the moat fell off their horses like fallen leaves swept by the wind.

Kang Yingqian's beard trembled as he muttered to himself, "It's over, it's over."

The thousand cavalrymen who crossed the river earlier disappeared from sight at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Notes:

(1) “The bandits got hold of Xingzuo’s corpse and carried it back to the old camp. There, they ripped open his chest and intestines in front of the crowd to vent their anger.” Zhou Wenyu, Ming Dynasty, “Border Affairs Notes”, Volume , “The Facts about General Liu”

(2) "Undressed and killed Zhuo Xingzao, the emperor ordered his remains to be cut off and crucified. Kulchan then secretly collected his remains." In February of the seventh year of the Tiancong reign, "the emperor accused Kulchan of various crimes and also investigated the crime of protecting Liu Xingzao, sentencing him to death." Biography of Kulchan in the Draft History of Qing Dynasty

(End of this chapter)