The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 206 What's the Difference
The chief instructor walked onto the North-South Street holding a paper loudspeaker, followed by a Niulu Ezhen of the Bordered White Banner who had just surrendered.

Niulu Ezhen's name was very long and difficult to remember, something like Burjigit Bayan, so Senti called this Jurchen Bayan.

A group of long card players walked in front, guarding the two of them.

The long card players were tall, estimated to be nearly two meters tall. Compared with them, Sen Ti and Bayan looked even smaller.

The four of them walked together, like a big hen flapping its wings to protect its two chicks.

This strange and bizarre combination walked onto the devastated battlefield of North and South Streets.

Under the watchful eyes of tens of thousands of troops on both the attacking and defending sides, and under the threat of countless bows and muskets, the four men stepped on the corpses on the ground, taking one deep step and one shallow step towards the barricade.

Just after taking a few steps, the gunners of the Zhengbai Banner on the opposite side could no longer hold back and opened fire at the Kaiyuan army. The iron balls broke through the air, making an unsettling whistling sound.

Then came a dense rain of arrows, and the long shield seemed to be hit by hail. Sen Ti curled up behind the shield, blew the bamboo whistle in his mouth, and called on the musketeers behind him to fight back.

After a burst of dense flintlock musket fire, the rain of arrows from the opposite side immediately became much sparser.

Sen Ti asked Bayan to shout twice, telling the reckless archers of the Zhengbai Banner in Manchu that if they didn't want to be killed by muskets, they should listen to what the instructor said.

Sen Ti shrank his neck, hid his body behind the long sign, took out a note full of words, and raised the paper trumpet.

Although he knew that the long shields had little effect in blocking the artillery shells, once he was hit, even two sets of long shields stacked together would not be able to save his body.

But he still comforted himself by saying that the Tartars' shells would not hurt anyone.

"Brothers of the Zhengbai Banner across from us! I am Sen Ti, the military training officer of Kaiyuan, and a close confidant of Marquis Ping Liao!"

The Niulu Ezhen of the Bordered White Banner who followed behind translated Sen Ti's not very standard Liaodong dialect into Manchu in real time.

"That bastard Huang Taiji has abandoned you. You're now isolated and helpless, just like the Bordered Blue Banner of Yehe, all abandoned pawns! I just counted twice on the city wall, and you only have a thousand soldiers, and half of them are bannermen. Do you know how many people are in the Kaiyuan army?"

"One hundred thousand! A full one hundred thousand! A single spit from each of you could drown you. Your master, Huang Taiji, is now fleeing to Ningguta with all the gold, silver, and jewelry, leaving you to defend this place to the death. He didn't even leave you a single grain of food! That's right, he took the food with him!"

Sen Ti imitated Liu Zhaosun, patted Bayan on the shoulder, shook Niulu Ezhen's big hand, and said solemnly:
"Yes, the translation is very good. There are very few people who can understand my official language. You are the first one! From now on, you will follow me. I will ask Ping Liaohou to let you be my deputy. Young man, you don't have to go to Korea to mine."

Bayan immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Senti.

He was a recently promoted Niulu Ezhen of the Bordered White Banner. He had not fought much in the wars before and had always stayed in Hetuala.

It was precisely because of this that Ping Liaohou agreed to let him persuade the Zhengbai Banner to surrender.

This Niulu Ezhen naturally knew what the final outcome would be if he was assigned to mine.

When he heard that he could work for Kaiyuan in the future, he was very excited and regarded Dongguan people as his immortals.

Sen Ti was not impressed by the Changshengtian belief. He reached out to help Bayan, who was kneeling on the ground, and said loudly:

"Remember, you don't need to worship Changshengtian anymore. Ping Liaohou is Changshengtian. He is the god of Jianzhou and Mongolia."

Bayan was slightly stunned, then he reacted. He had heard that some Mongolian tribes regarded Liu Zhaosun as the Heavenly Khan, and thought it was a rumor. It seems that it is true.

"Alright, keep shouting with me."

Sen Ti held up the paper. The contents written on the paper were all personally approved by Ping Liaohou and Kang Yingqian.

"Marquis Ping Liao is not only the Marquis of the Ming Dynasty, but also your Heavenly Khan, your Eternal Heaven. Surrender to Kaiyuan, and customs will not change. Jianzhou people will continue to be Jianzhou people, and Mongolians will continue to be Mongolians. Whether you are a bannerman or a Zhenyi, as long as you have never killed Han people, you will be forgiven for your past and will be given land and houses. If you can kill Niulu Ezhen... Wait, there is wind."

A gust of wind swept through the hall, making the Dongguan boy's teeth chatter.

The rice paper in his hand danced in the wind and he almost lost his grip.

"windy."

Shouts full of Lingnan flavor rang out on the North and South Streets.

Behind the barricade, Baoyi and Zhenyi looked at the surrounding Niulu'ezhen with somewhat different eyes.

"Any general above the rank of Niulu Ezhen who is willing to surrender will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver, given land and houses, and their entire family's lives will be spared!"

"Brothers, stop working for Huang Taiji. Liaodong doesn't belong to Aixinjueluo. It belongs to everyone. You have one stick of incense to think about it. If you don't surrender after that, divine fire will fall from the sky and thousands of artillery will be fired at once. You will be burned to death and beaten to death like Wuzhenhachao."

"There are two options: surrender and live a good life, or be buried with Huang Taiji! Your choice!"

~~~~
Before Bayan finished translating, there was a sudden sound of artillery fire from the barricade. The last five seven-pound cannons in the middle of the street roared and bombarded the corridor, where more and more Kaiyuan soldiers were gathering.

Fortunately, both shells hit the city wall, and brick and stone debris fell like rain, hitting the soldiers below the city and causing them to bleed.

Ba immediately dragged Sen Ti back behind the shield cart, and two long-shield bearers followed behind, with flying stones constantly hitting the shields with bangs.

Like his master Yuan Chonghuan, Sen Ti was a man who fought with his life in the face of danger. He was enraged by this sudden attack and cursed loudly:

"Don't cry until you see the coffin! What a bunch of losers!"

The duel between the two sides' artillery continued.

The Kaiyuan artillery occupied the west gate city wall and, relying on its advantageous position and artillery performance, bombarded from a high position.

The Later Jin artillery had almost no ability to fight back.

As if under a spell, the Later Jin artillery pieces were hit one after another. The explosions sent wood chips flying, causing heavy damage to the surrounding Plain White Banners.

After several rounds of shooting, the Later Jin soldiers behind the barricade begged their gunners not to fire again to avoid bloody revenge from the Kaiyuan artillery.

After a chaotic bombardment between the two sides, the Kaiyuan army lost a four-pound cannon, and the only five remaining seven-pound cannons of the Zhengbai Banner were smashed to pieces. All the gunners of Wuzhenhachao were killed, and more than three hundred Later Jin soldiers fell and howled after being hit by wood chips and stones.

Deng Changxiong passed through the city wall and personally commanded the subsequent street fighting. Seeing that the artillery in the center of the street had been destroyed, he pointed the flag in his hand forward and shouted:
"Go through the North-South Street and attack the Khan Palace to the north! Huang Taiji is still in Hetuala City, capture him!"

The 2,000th headquarters soldier rushed out of the city wall and onto the north-south streets. The musketeers were divided into groups of ten, ran forward a few steps, stopped, and fired at the rat tails swaying in the distance.

Without artillery support, the Later Jin soldiers guarding behind the barricades could only use infantry bows to block the enemy.

Compared with the strong fighting spirit of the Zhenyi master, the bannermen who were forced to participate in the war almost collapsed at the first touch.

Large numbers of bondservants braved the hail of bullets and ran out of the shops on the North and South Streets to surrender to the Kaiyuan Army.

They knelt down in rows under the eaves, their long pigtails dragging down their shoulders.

Just like when the Jiannu invaded the Liaodong city, they rushed to surrender.

"Those who lay down their weapons will be spared, and the rest will all be killed!"

The spearmen followed the musketeers, stepping on layers of corpses of the Later Jin soldiers and advancing quickly northward.

Huang Taiji's lair, the Khan's Palace, is located just north of Hetuala, which is the highest point in the city. The terrain is dangerous and easy to defend but difficult to attack.

According to the report from Ye Bu Shou who ran back, the Khan of the Later Jin Dynasty and his elite troops with tens of thousands of yellow flags had already built fortifications and were preparing to fight a desperate battle around the Khan's Palace.

When the 2,000th headquarters soldier advanced to a distance of a hundred steps from the center of the street, the windows on both sides facing the street suddenly opened, revealing bald heads, and then waves of dense heavy arrows flew down from the windows on the second and third floors.

The rows of musketeers who rushed to the front were unable to dodge and fell down one after another.

The soldiers behind hurriedly hid under the eaves, and the flintlock soldiers and archers carefully stuck their heads out and shot at the Jiannu above their heads.

Yang Tong raised the Suiyuan musket, facing the front sight and rear sight with his left eye, forming a straight line, and gently pulled the trigger with his right index finger.

"Road to Road, very Avenue."

The musket exploded, and Bayala, who was holding a longbow, tilted his body and fell along the railing onto the bluestone slab facing the street from the second-floor window thirty steps away from Yang Tong.

~~~~~~
"We've reached the Tartars' lair. The Jiannu are determined to fight us to the death. These people won't surrender easily."

Liu Zhaosun stood on the west gate city wall. A pile of Jiannu corpses were burning on the street around him. The auxiliary soldiers were busy building a bridge and no one was cleaning up the battlefield.

"Want to launch another round of rockets?"

Seeing the increasing casualties in street fighting, Sun Chuanting couldn't help but advise.

"We are here to kill Huang Taiji, not to massacre the city."

Liu Zhaosun shook his head, shifted his gaze away from the flames of the corpse, and looked towards the crackling street.

"The Plain White Banner is indeed Huang Taiji's direct descendant. Even at this point, they are still fighting like a trapped beast."

"I don't have time to tangle with them! Have the 5,000th headquarters take over and search every house! The main force continues to advance northward. Ignore the Jiannu attacks from either side and rush to the Khan's Palace as soon as possible!"

The messenger rode his horse towards the North-South Street to deliver the order to Zhu Dong who was commanding the battle at the 5,000th headquarters.

After Shao Jiechun's death, Zhu Dong became the commander of the 5,000th headquarters and commanded more than a thousand remaining soldiers.

The messenger ran back and forth in the dense rain of arrows and soon returned to Liu Zhaosun.

"Captain Zhu said he only has a thousand men, all new recruits, and can't fight in street battles. He begs you to send him more troops!"

Liu Zhaosun smiled coldly and replied:

"Tell Zhu Dong that the Plain White Banner has been defeated. Only a few hundred soul-dead Tartars remain. A thousand soldiers are more than enough. Tell him to quickly eliminate the remaining Tartars and cover the main force's advance. I will kill Huang Taiji with my own hands. If the 5,000th Headquarters can't win this battle, the Qilin Black Banner will be useless in the future!"

The messenger hesitated for a moment, then immediately rode forward to deliver the message. Everyone gasped. Could these new recruits from the 5,000th headquarters defeat those Bayalas?

Kang Yingqian whispered:

"Marquis Ping Liao, why let the soldiers lose their lives in vain? We have already occupied the city wall. We can bring in some artillery and bombard the houses. No matter how many Tartars there are, they will all be killed!"

Liu Zhaosun said sternly:

"Master Kang, do you know how many Han Chinese civilians there are in Hetuala besides the Eight Banners of the Jiannu?"

Kang Yingqian shook his head. He was worried that Liu Zhaosun might be too soft-hearted, so he retorted:

"What Han people? They are nothing but bondservants. Who dares to say they are innocent? If we let them go, they will attack the city with shield carts tomorrow. Are there any people like that?"

Liu Zhaosun fell into deep thought. In the attack and defense of cities in this era, there was basically no distinction between civilians and soldiers. When the two sides became angry, civilians would also be called to the top of the city to throw stones and pour gold liquid.

This is also one of the reasons why the victorious side in ancient wars often massacred the city.

(End of this chapter)