The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 247 Ping Liaohou asks you, will you surrender?
Thirteen iron balls fell at high speed and plunged into the high-speed charging cavalry formation. After a burst of blood splashed, several gaps were created in the cavalry line.

"Their artillery will only explode! They will blow themselves up! Don't be afraid! Charge!"

The head servant followed Zu Dale and shouted loudly.

"Yeah! I just blew up three doors! I can't hit anything!"

As soon as Zu Dale finished speaking, the field artillery on the opposite side roared again, and more than a dozen shells fell into the cavalry line.

The neighing of war horses and the screams of servants were heard all around. The left arm of a servant riding in front of Zu Dale was hit by an iron ball. The servant's right hand was still holding the reins, so he did not fall off the horse for a while. He rushed forward a few steps, and the gushing blood splashed on Zu Dale's face.

"You idiot, so many cannonballs!"

Zu Dale wiped the blood and was about to gather the scattered front line when he suddenly caught a glimpse of countless red dots rising behind the Kaiyuan Army formation three miles away.

"You idiot, what the hell is this!"

Liu Zhaosun heard the sharp whistling sounds of the Divine Fire Crows. When he looked up, he saw two hundred Divine Fire Crows flying quickly past his head several feet high.

"The artillery fire is intense, and Deng Changxiong is getting better and better."

Liu Zhaosun watched the rockets fall like meteor showers onto the heads of Zu Dale's servants, watched the rockets explode like fireworks in the crowd, watched the Liaozhen servants fall off their horses one after another and struggle painfully in the mess of horse hooves.

Liu Zhaosun could imagine the crunching sound of the warhorse's hooves crushing bones, and could feel the pain of the servant before his death.

However, the coach's expression did not change at all, and he murmured:

"Almost over."

After being attacked by field artillery and rockets, more than one hundred of Zu Dale's family members were killed or wounded. Adding the casualties in the previous dog fight, there were only more than eight hundred surviving cavalrymen.

Zu Dale's face was covered in blood, which had frozen and stuck to his eyelashes, making him very uncomfortable.

"Charge forward, their infantry can't stop us!"

The more than 800 surviving servants mustered up their remaining courage and rushed towards the spearmen formation 200 steps ahead.

The spearmen of the First Battalion of the Second Kaiyuan Guards Army, at the forefront, saw the red tassels swaying before them. The cavalry line fanned out toward them. The rumbling of horse hooves gave them a tremendous sense of oppression, and the spearmen's morale immediately wavered. More than a dozen gaps appeared in the strict line, and some soldiers fled to the rear. The pacification troops in the rear suppressed the fleeing soldiers.

The archers in the back row symbolically shot a wave of light arrows and fled first. The spearmen phalanx immediately collapsed. The pacification soldiers could not suppress them and also fled backwards.

"Hahaha, I said before that Liu Zhaosun is vulnerable!"

"General! The Kaiyuan army's defeat is strange. We are too far away from the chariot camp. Should we retreat?"

The head servant had fallen behind Zu Dale at some point. He whipped his horse, caught up with the commander, and tried to persuade him loudly.

"Retreat? So many of my retainers have died, why should I retreat?"

Zu Dale took off the wine gourd, wiped the ice chips off his face with the wine, and said angrily.

As the two men were talking, the cavalry line had already passed the Kaiyuan spearmen's position.

Zu Dale looked at the scattered corpses of Kaiyuan soldiers on the ground and was surprised.

"Why are there so few deaths? Liu Zhaosun ran so fast!"

The head servant's face changed drastically, and he pointed at the cavalry behind him and said:
"Marshal! Kaiyuan Cavalry!"

Zu Dale narrowed his gaze. Two or three hundred steps behind him, a torrent of soldiers with black flying eagle flags on their backs cut off the Liaozhen cavalry's retreat like a razor.

"They have five or six hundred cavalrymen. Let's charge them now!"

Just as Zu Dale finished speaking, he heard the crackling sound of muskets in the distance.

The dense lead bullets swept through the cavalry in the front like a whirlwind, knocking all the servants in the front to the ground.

The continuous attacks finally caused these ferocious servants to completely collapse.

"Marshal, the cavalry are coming from both wings! Their muskets are faster than bows and arrows!"

"Liu Zhaosun, you bastard! Retreat! Retreat, everyone, retreat back to the chariot camp."

～~～~
Liu Zhaosun, surrounded by the guards of the central army, rode his horse to the front of the chariot camp.

He stopped a hundred steps away and looked at Zu Dale on the other side of the fence.

The Kaiyuan army had already killed all the Liaozhen servants, and Zu Dale led the last thirty servants back to the chariot camp.

The last 3,000 Liaozhen soldiers fought stubbornly.

The artillery battalion pushed all the artillery pieces one hundred steps in front of the wagon camp and continued to bombard the wooden fence.

Liaozhen suffered heavy casualties, but still resisted stubbornly with the help of fortifications.

Liu Zhaosun turned around and whispered a few words to the instructor Sen Ti.

The instructor nodded repeatedly and immediately went downstairs with several instructors. Under the cover of the long banners, they came to a distance of fifty steps in front of the car camp and raised their paper trumpets to shout at the wooden fence:
"Zu Dale, Ping Liaohou asks you, do you surrender?!"

"Surrender your mother, Liu Zhaosun, you bastard, your time of death has come. Reinforcements from Shanhaiguan will arrive soon. I still have red cannons, which will blow you to death..." Zu Dale had just finished speaking when the red cannons on the city wall suddenly roared.

The huge iron ball hit the dense fence, and wood chips and bricks flew everywhere.

"Marshal! The Standard Battalion has rebelled! They're forcing the gunners on the city walls to fire at us! The soldiers behind us have all run away!"

The camp was filled with soldiers wailing in pain.

"Marquis Ping Liao asks you, do you surrender?"

Zu Dashou's hoarse response came from the wooden fence.

"I surrender! I surrender! Don't kill my servants, and spare the people of Shenyang."

Sen Ti snorted and returned to Ping Liaohou.

Liu Zhaosun's expression remained unchanged.

Under the watchful eyes of the pacification troops, more than 2,000 surrendered servants and soldiers filed out of the exit of the chariot camp.

"kill!"

Ping Liaohou waved his hands violently.

The sound of muskets crackled and arrows rained down. The spearmen who followed were like killing machines, finishing off the servants who were still alive one by one.

The servants and guards surrounding Zu Dale were quickly killed.

The last head servant fell to the ground. Zu Dale looked up at Liu Zhaosun:
"Liu Zhaosun! You bastard, you damned bastard, I won't let you go even if I become a ghost..."

Liu Zhaosun waved his hand, and the pacification soldiers immediately stepped forward. Several of them held Zu Dale down, tied him up with a rope, and stuffed a rag in Zu Dale's mouth.

Liu Zhaosun turned around and looked at Yuan Chonghuan:

"Take his family to the Commander-in-Chief's Mansion."

Half an hour later, Liu Zhaosun sat on the seat of the lieutenant general's mansion, holding the goose-feather knife in his hand.

Qiao Yiqi's face was gloomy after visiting Zu Dale's mansion.

"I thought Ding Bi's house in Tieling was luxurious, but compared to my ancestral home, it pales in comparison. There are more than a dozen study rooms alone, much larger than our general's residence!"

Liu Zhaosun took Qiao Yiqi through a corridor full of calligraphy and paintings. He picked up a piece of calligraphy and painting with his knife and caught a glimpse of Dong Qichang's signature at the bottom.

"If you're a military commander, fight well. If you're a dilettante, give up your military skills and study hard. If you don't fight well, and don't study well, this will be your fate in the end."

Qiao Yiqi nodded and smiled:
"What Ping Liaohou said is very true. You don't know that our Zu family has brought disaster to Liaoxi, and there are many greedy people there!"

"When Gao Huai caused chaos in Liao (Note 1), our Zu family was also the culprit!"

In the middle of the Wanli period, there were 47 wealthy families in Liaoyang, each with assets of several thousand.

After Gao Huai arrived in Liaodong, he plundered all the forty-seven people, and many people were left on the streets.

If even the wealthy can't handle it, you can imagine how ordinary people feel.

So the Liaodong people at that time sang:

The Liao people had no brains, so they all went out from Huai. The Liao people had no marrow, so they all went out from Huai.

"Gao Huai is so rampant in Liaodong. Besides the Emperor's will, he also has the support of the Li and Zu families! Li Chengliang and Zu Dachengxun (Zu Dashou's father) are colluding with each other and sharing the spoils! They've hollowed out Liaodong!"

Liu Zhaosun looked indifferent:
"Since so much of the people's wealth has been plundered, I, the official, will enforce justice for the people. I will accept the antiques and transport the silver back to Kaiyuan. I will register them and bring Zu Dale here."

Zu Dale was tied up and brought in front of Liu Zhaosun, and the guards removed the rag from his mouth.

Zu Dale cursed:
"Liu Zhaosun, you bastard, you're a born rebel. When I saw you fighting with Ding Bi in Shenyang, I knew you'd rebel sooner or later! You're just like Liu Jing, both thieves! He suppressed the rebellion in Sichuan and stole hundreds of thousands of silver from the court. And you..."

Liu Zhaosun's expression remained unchanged, and he said to Zu Dale happily:
"Where is Song Yingsheng?"

Zu Dale laughed wildly:
"You're too late. Ten days ago, he and Eunuch Zeng crossed the sea to Shandong and must have reached Weihaiwei by now. I was afraid they wouldn't succeed, so I sent fifty servants to him. Liu Zhaosun, all those people you have in Shandong will die this time! And your women too!"

Zu Dale had a lewd smile on his face, and he struggled to roll forward two steps:
"Liu Zhaosun! Your woman will be sent to the Jiaofangsi by the factory owner and tortured! After she dies, she will be thrown to feed the dogs. I heard that she is pregnant with your bastard, that's even better, two lives for one corpse..."

Liu Zhaosun looked at Zu Dale coldly, and after he finished speaking, he waved his hand gently.

The male members of Zu's family were brought up, and Liu Zhaosun stuck the goose-feather knife in his hand into the ground and pointed at the person in front of him.

"Starting with him, all the male members of the Zu family who are taller than this sword must be killed! Don't kill them all at once, kill them one by one, and let Zu Dale watch from the side."

The pacification soldier raised his sword and chopped off the man's head.

Note:
1. Gao Huai caused chaos in Liaodong. In the middle of the Wanli reign, Emperor Wanli sent mining supervisors to various parts of the country to collect mining taxes. The eunuchs, under the pretext of taxation, made up various excuses and levied heavy taxes, which was met with fierce resistance from local civil officials. Gao Huai was in Liaodong for ten years and paid more than taels of mining taxes, and embezzled one million taels for himself.

(End of this chapter)