The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 267: The End of Liaozhen (I)

"The Tartar scouts are few in number."

Zu Dashou took a breath, looked at the frightened servants around him, and began to skillfully load ammunition into his three-barreled gun.

The weapons stirred up the thick fog, emitting a strong smell of blood. When the dust settled, Zu Dashou counted the number of people and found that he was missing five or six servants.

Faint sounds of messy footsteps could be heard in the distant fog.

The surviving servants looked at each other in bewilderment. These brutal men who usually bullied men and women and killed people without blinking an eye now had fear of death on their faces.

"They're coming."

The servants all knew that there were still hundreds of thousands of foreigners and Liao people in the fog.

In the Battle of Ningyuan a few days ago, they were deeply impressed by the fighting power of these foreign Liao people.

Not to mention these two hundred servants, even if all the elite soldiers from the nine borders were pulled over and thrown into the thick fog, they would probably not be a match for hundreds of thousands of people if they fought hand-to-hand like they did just now.

"Hurry up and mount your horses! The Xuanfu soldiers have also been surrounded. Let them cover the rear and escape!"

After Zu Dashou finished speaking, he didn't care whether the people around him heard him or not, and he whipped the horse's belly and fled for his life.

Accompanied by the screams of the last few servants, the Liao people who caught up with them stretched out their dense fingers and pulled those unlucky Zu family servants off their horses.

In the end, the servants were pinned to the ground by a dozen hands and died from the horrific bites of the Liao people.

Zu Dashou was galloping on his horse. He looked back and saw that the servants who had fallen off their horses had been submerged in the dark crowd. After a few blood flowers rose up, everything returned to dead silence.

Zu Dashou took a deep breath and urged the surviving servants to leave quickly.

At this time, a group of confused infantrymen happened to pass by here, and were immediately overwhelmed by this group of zombies.

The Liao people and foreigners were in high spirits, appearing and disappearing in the fog like ghosts, seeking revenge for their parents, brothers and sisters.

The Zu family occupied western and southern Liaoning for more than 30 years. Zu Dashou and his father and brothers, relying on 3,000 servants, cruelly plundered the people of Liao, levied heavy taxes every year, abused women, and trafficked in people. In Ningyuan, Guangning and other places, almost every household had a blood feud with the Zu family.

Under the simple mobilization of the Kaiyuan training officer, the civilians accompanying the army burst out with amazing fighting power.

Ping Liaohou has always believed in the power of revenge.

Repay kindness with kindness and repay evil with justice. This is also the law of Kaiyuan.

After the long bombardment, the Liao people were allowed to take revenge freely, and the Kaiyuan Cavalry Battalion and the Second Guards were responsible for covering them.

More and more Liao people joined the revenge action, and the targets of revenge expanded from the servants of the ancestral family to all the soldiers of Liao Town.

Those Liaozhen soldiers who had managed to survive the bombardment were already terrified at this moment. When they heard the shouts and cries of killing all around them, they immediately turned around and fled without thinking.

Most people were in a panic and just waved their weapons and killed people indiscriminately. When they collided with other Liao soldiers, they started killing each other.

One group of soldiers even ran headfirst into Zu Dashou, screaming and hacking at the servants, and were then killed one by one by the servants.

The chaos caused by the fog accelerated the collapse of Liaozhen.

The Liao people and foreign tribes were groping in the fog, and any soldier wearing a mandarin duck battle jacket was their enemy.

Their number reached 60,000, and the Kaiyuan Army temporarily issued them low-end weapons such as swords, spears, and shields.

Their number is ten times that of Liaozhen’s troops, and the advantage in numbers offsets the lack of training. In such a melee, the side with more people undoubtedly has a greater advantage.

The Liao people and foreign tribes often gathered in groups of hundreds or so, without any formation. When they met the Liao soldiers, they would rush forward and hack them to death with their swords.

Some brave Liao soldiers rushed forward to fight, and after killing several people, they were chopped into meat paste by the crazy Liao people.

Zu Dashou was extremely anxious. He didn't care where these Liao people came from or what deep hatred they had against him.

"Don't worry about them. Go back to Ningyuan and head west. Once the Kaiyuan army surrounds us, we won't be able to leave!"

The servants swarmed westward, hacking and killing the fleeing soldiers who blocked their way, until they could finally see the outline of Ningyuan City a few miles away.

At this time, flames shot up into the sky behind him, and the carriages and supplies of the defenders leaving the city were all set on fire. It seemed that Xuanfu Town was also surrounded.

The fog finally dissipated.

Behind him, groups of Liao soldiers and servants were chased by the people and were immediately hacked to the ground. The whole place was filled with the crazy cries of Liao soldiers and servants.

A huge crowd of people was rushing towards the west, estimated to be tens of thousands of people.

Suddenly, a burst of musketry was heard from the area near Ningyuan in the west.

"General, You Shiwei's retainers are blocking our way, chopping anyone they see and won't let us retreat!"

Zu Dashou's eyes were wide open with anger. In front of him, shouts of killing were deafening, and occasionally the sound of gunfire could be heard. Zu Dashou recognized that it was the Portuguese cannon from Xuanfu Town.

"Damn it! This You Shiwei is more of a hindrance than a help! Even if I die, he won't survive! Idiot!"

The defeated soldiers who had fled to the front retreated one after another, sweeping forward like a tide.

More than two hundred war horses were crowded in the crowd and could hardly move.

"Step aside!"

Zu Dashou brandished his one-handed sword and chopped at me with all his might. Wang Rong and his servants followed behind, hacking and killing indiscriminately, trying to carve out a bloody path.

The two hundred cavalry servants were unable to move forward as they were surrounded by thousands of infantry.

The Liaozhen infantry, fleeing like a tide, quickly separated Zu Dashou and his servants.

These fleeing infantrymen didn't care about Marshal Zu or Marshal Ma, they just fled eastward desperately, staying away from the artillery of Xuanfu Town.

They crowded in front of Zu Dashou, pushing the horses vigorously. Some ferocious Liao soldiers swung their swords at the servants above, dragged the injured servants off their horses, grabbed the horses, and fled eastward.

Dense crowds of people crowded the plains of western Liaoning, like an endless flock of sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

On both sides of the flock of sheep, the first and second battalions of the Kaiyuan Cavalry Regiment formed twelve neat rows on the left and right sides respectively, sharpening their swords.

Each battalion waved its general command flag, and the cavalry line swept across the fleeing soldiers on both wings like a razor.

Faced with the dense wall-like charge of the cavalry, the infantry, having lost their fighting spirit, had no ability to resist, and the combat space in Liaozhen was further compressed.

More and more Liao people and foreigners flocked from the east, and they ran head-on into the fleeing soldiers on the opposite side who were trying to escape from the battlefield.

As soon as the two sides met, the defeated soldiers were repelled by the Liao people with high morale, and turned around again and fled towards Ningyuan.

Suddenly, the first wave of Kaiyuan soldiers appeared from the left wing.

They held a strange kind of musket with a sharp knife stuck in the butt, stood twenty steps away, and fired volley after volley at the fleeing soldiers who were trampling on each other.

Blood splattered on the left side, and the defeated soldiers rushed towards Zu Dashou like crazy.

The entire Liaozhen town was like a deformed piece of plasticine, suddenly bulging to the right.

Zu Dashou was terrified. He had no way to go and could only flee in the direction of the crowd. The number of servants behind him kept decreasing. People were constantly being dragged off their horses by the Liao people nearby, and then disappeared under the chaotic swords...

Teams of Kaiyuan cavalrymen galloped past on both wings, and the shouts of Kaiyuan soldiers could be heard all around:

"Those who lay down their weapons will be spared! Those who capture Zu Dashou alive will be promoted to a thousand households and rewarded with five thousand taels of silver!"

Zu Dashou looked back and saw that the fleeing soldiers on the official road were gradually sparse. The Kaiyuan army finally set out and began to stop the fanatical Liao people and foreigners from slaughtering Zu's army.

Many Liao soldiers knelt on the ground and surrendered to the Kaiyuan soldiers who rushed up from behind.

There were only five or six servants left with Zu Dashou.

The head servant Wang Rong said to Zu Dashou with a righteous look:

"Master, don't worry. We don't trust Liu Zhaosun. This bastard is full of tricks. His promises of promotions and rewards are all lies! We will help you break out!"

Zu Dashou rolled his eyes and said to the exhausted servant behind him:
"The imperial court will not sit idly by and watch Shanhaiguan fall, unless the emperor no longer wants the capital! Go to Shanhaiguan! Take refuge with the Wu family! Even though Wu Xiang is dead, we still have a relationship with the Wu family!"

Zu Dashou felt slightly relieved and looked forward again, thinking about how to appease these loyal servants.

Suddenly, a black shadow flashed before his eyes.

(End of this chapter)