The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 273 Liu Zhaosun's Enemy

The Wendeng County Government Office is fifty miles away from Pei Dahu, Shen Lian and others.

Mr. Song, as the soldiers of Balipu called him, sat high up in the main hall of Wendeng, looking elegant and sipping Pu'er tea leisurely.

Next to Song Yingsheng sat Zeng Qixiao, the head of the East Factory, Wu Xiang, the military leader of Liaoxi, Wang Wei, the commander of the 6,000th headquarters of Kaiyuan, and Yang Qilong, the commander of Weihaiwei.

Traveling all the way from southern Liaoning to Wendeng, Song Yingsheng, who was born as a civil servant, was more ruthless and decisive than the head of the East Factory. In addition, he was familiar with the affairs of Kaiyuan, and now he has become the leader of this team.

Weihaiwei Commander Dong Yushi and Baichi Captain Wu Menglin stood at the gate of the county government office, surrounded by several county magistrates who had rushed over from Qixia, Zhaoyuan and other places.

From time to time, everyone looked up at their superior sitting in the hall. Beads of sweat oozed from the forehead of the magistrate who had just arrived.

The area around the Wendeng County Government Office was now surrounded by a large crowd of soldiers and garrison troops, who dragged the bodies lying on the ground outside one by one.

Smoke was still coming out of the roof of the third wing room, and the area around the county government office was filled with the smell of burning wood and a strong stench of blood.

The fire in the backyard wing has just been put out.

This place has just experienced a very brutal war.

The last two hundred or so soldiers of the Sixth Thousandth Headquarters who refused to surrender were betrayed by a traitor, and were besieged by the Ming army, which was several times larger than their own.

In order to protect the county government office and the wife and children of Ping Liaohou, they all died in the battle and only more than 20 people escaped.

From the gate of the county government office to the third courtyard, more than 200 bodies of Kaiyuan soldiers were scattered on the ground.

Song Yingsheng, who was sitting in the position of the county magistrate, blew gently on the hot tea in his hand, took a sip, squinted his eyes and said to the head of the East Factory:

"Eunuch Zeng, we have already apprehended Yuan Keli, captured Liu Zhaosun's concubine, and subdued the soldiers from Wendeng and Kaiyuan. What should we do next? Eunuch Zeng and everyone else can discuss it."

Zeng Qixiao turned around and looked at everyone, saying modestly:
"We usually deal with arresting people for the Pacification Division, so we can't do big things. To deal with the thief Liu, we still have to rely on you."

Song Yingsheng looked at the Liaoxi general Wu Xiang again.

Wu Xiang was Zu Dashou's brother-in-law. Compared with this brother-in-law, his son has a more famous reputation in history.

Wu Xiang was originally a horse dealer, but somehow he passed the imperial examination and became a military scholar. His sister also married Zu Dashou, so the horse dealer became the brother-in-law of the Ningyuan general.

The Wu family gradually gained a foothold in Shanhaiguan and later became the most famous warlords in the late Ming Dynasty.

Wu Xiang set out from southern Liaoning this time, intending to take a ride on the Dongchang's boat to Dengzhou to trade horses.

Yes, he is a businessman.

Unexpectedly, when they arrived in Dengzhou, they encountered the Kaiyuan army that Song and Zeng had instigated to rebel, and the two sides fought again.

The businessman was inexplicably involved in this dispute. Wu Xiang, who had a business acumen, simply stopped selling horses and started trading military rations.

This also laid the groundwork for the Wu family's subsequent tragic fate.

"Brothers in western Liaoning said that Liu Bei is mobilizing troops to attack Liaoshen, and the next step is probably to attack western Liaoning."

Wu Xiang stroked his beautiful beard and suddenly shouted loudly:

"Liu Zhaosun is still too young. He is really desperate for his beloved!"

In fact, the one who risked his life for the beauty he loved was none other than Wu Sangui, the son of Wu Xiang, who became famous at a young age and was the bravest among the three armies.

Wu Sangui just turned nine this year and should not have met Chen Yuanyuan yet.

"General Wang Qian, will Liu Zhaosun lead his troops directly to attack Shandong?"

Eunuch Zeng asked worriedly.

Three days ago, after eliminating Yuan Keli of Dengzhou and some other officials who colluded with Ping Liaohou, Song Yingsheng personally went to meet his fellow townsman and good friend Wang Wei.

Song Yingsheng personally told his fellow villagers about the atrocities committed by Liu Ze in Kaiyuan.

In the past two months, more than 500 officials and soldiers in Liaodong have been beheaded, many of them just for accepting 200 taels of silver.

General Wang Qian learned about the Kaiyuan Rectification Movement and knew that anyone who embezzled more than 200 taels of silver would be beheaded.

Song Yingsheng told his fellow townsmen that the so-called rectification movement was nothing more than an excuse for Liu Zhaosun to kill meritorious officials and cultivate his own confidants.

During the more than half a year that General Wang Qian was in Wendeng, he received at least 8,000 taels of silver in gifts from the wealthy and powerful people in the vicinity.

According to Liu Zhaosun's standards, he should be beheaded at least forty times. Song Yingsheng tried to persuade him earnestly.

"General Wang, you have no family in Kaiyuan, no ties, are you going to sit in Wendeng and wait for death? When Liu Zhaosun finishes his campaign in western Liaoning, he'll come to Shandong. Liu's favorite thing to do is to cross the river and destroy the bridge, and to kill the chicken to scare the monkey. General Wang, this time, you are the chicken!"

Realizing that he could not escape death, General Wang Qian finally made up his mind and decided to lead his troops to follow Lord Song and Eunuch Zeng to the capital and fight for great wealth with the court.

The combat troops under the Six Thousandth Headquarters were all Shandong soldiers recruited locally after the Wenxiang Sect was wiped out.

Among the 2,500 people, except for 300 Kaiyuan veterans, the other soldiers had low combat effectiveness. They came from complex backgrounds, including refugees, fishermen, boatmen, and military households.

These people trained for less than half a month before joining the troops to fight against the Wenxiang Sect.

To be fair, the 6000th Headquarters has the lowest combat power and the worst loyalty among the six teams in Kaiyuan.

After the Wenxiang Sect was wiped out, bandits were rampant throughout Dengzhou. In order to quickly complete control of the areas surrounding Wendeng, Liu Zhaosun had to speed up the expansion of his army.

The result of crazy military expansion is a mixed bag of people. When the morale of the Kaiyuan people is high and the Wenxiang Sect is invincible, problems will not break out.

When the generals turned against them and the training officers of the battalions were killed, this seemingly strong army immediately collapsed.

"Eunuch Zeng, Lord Song, the Liu rebels will most likely resort to desperation and rebel. We should immediately execute Yuan Keli and Jin Yuji to put an end to the Wendeng rebels' resistance and prevent further trouble! As for Liu Zhaosun, he will undoubtedly seek revenge. But rest assured, as long as the Denglai navy blockades the Weihaiwei port, no matter how brave the Kaiyuan soldiers are, they won't be able to reach Shandong without the navy!"

Everyone around nodded after hearing this. Zeng Qixiao's face trembled slightly, but he didn't say anything.

Song Yingsheng looked at the commander Yang Qilong who was sitting next to him. Yang Qilong was still as white and fat as before, and when he spoke, sweat seemed to be coming out of his forehead.

Commander Yang timidly bowed to Song Yingsheng, and said with some embarrassment:

"General Wu and General Wang both have their reasons, but Dengzhou isn't entirely under our control right now. Over twenty soldiers just escaped. Governor Yuan, Yuan Keli, has served in Denglai for many years and has many followers. Many of them have ties to Liu Zhaosun, so it might be difficult to eliminate them all at once..."

"Cough cough!"

Eunuch Zeng coughed twice in his hoarse voice, and the hall suddenly became quiet. Everyone stopped talking and stared at the burly head of the East Factory.

Zeng Qixiao stood up from his seat, walked three steps to Yang Qilong, and handed the tea to the commander of Weihaiwei.

"Commander Yang, your garrison soldiers played a significant role in subduing the Kaiyuan Army this time. When I return to the East Depot, I'll commend you for your achievements and reward you with tens of thousands of taels of silver. It's not just silver. That idiot Lü Demin has been causing trouble time and again. This time he blew up the water camp arsenal, causing such a big incident that even the Tianjin Governor couldn't stop his nephew. From now on, all the business on the northern waterways will be handed over to you. You don't have to rely on exploiting those poor military households to make money!"

Everyone around congratulated Yang Qilong, but Commander Yang was not happy at all and could only force a smile on his face.

Yang Qilong certainly needed money. He squeezed a mere tens of thousands of taels of silver from his subordinates each year, and after bribing everyone, there wasn't much left. Lü Demin, smuggling and trafficking people in Tianjin, pocketed two or three hundred thousand taels of silver a year, making the surrounding garrison officers jealous.

However, having money does not mean you have the life to spend it. Commander Yang had witnessed Liu Zhaosun's methods with his own eyes in Qufu that year.

When Liu Zhaosun suppressed the Wenxiang Sect and massacred the Confucius family, he killed people without blinking an eye. It is said that Duke Yansheng was chopped into three pieces by him and died in a very tragic way.

If Liu Zhaosun knew what Commander Yang had done in Weihaiwei, he would be killed even if he had ten heads.

Eunuch Zeng roughly guessed what Yang Qilong was worried about and comforted him:

"Commander Yang, don't worry. Not to mention that the imperial court won't let Liu Zhaosun off, our family and Lord Song have already forged a blood feud with Liu Zhaosun when we were in Kaiyuan. We will never stop fighting until our lives are up. Don't worry, we won't just leave. If we don't resolve the Dengzhou incident and kill Liu Zhaosun, we will lose our heads if we return to the capital! The escaped Kaiyuan soldiers are not a big deal. We have already sent people to hunt them down. Now, we must immediately submit a joint petition to ask the imperial court to send a large army..."

Before Zeng Qixiao could finish his words, there was a bang and a man rushed in through the door.

Everyone looked towards that guy.

Eunuch Zeng looked displeased and cursed:

"These Shandong barbarians really don't know the rules! Please don't be offended."

The man walked quickly to Zeng Qixiao and whispered a few words into Zeng's ear.

Zeng Qixiao waited for the foreigners to speak, waved his hand and asked them to leave, raised his head and looked at Song Yingsheng, his expression gloomy and said:
"Sir Song, the Kaiyuan soldiers who just surrendered report that Liu Zhaosun's personal guards have arrived. At noon, our men encountered Yang Hao and Pei Dahu in Balipu. They only have a dozen men, including a red-haired barbarian and a woman. If they were riding horses, they should be almost at Wendeng by now."

Everyone was shocked when they heard this. Why did Yang Hao come to Wendeng at this time? And why did Liu Zhaosun's personal soldiers appear in Shandong?

Eunuch Zeng continued:

"They were the group that killed the Pacification Office, burned down the Music Bureau, robbed Xu Guangqi, and burned down the Water Camp Arsenal. They killed quite a few people along the way..."

Song Yingsheng glanced at everyone in the county office and slammed the table and stood up:

"No matter what their origins are, kill Yuan Keli, Jin Yuji, and that baby first! Then kill Yang Hao. What about Liu Zhaosun's guards? Kill them one by one! I will make Liu Zhaosun taste the pain of having his entire family wiped out!"

(End of this chapter)