The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 420 Will Chen Yuanyuan stay?

The roar was like the roar of a tiger and the roar of a dragon, and the weapons of the surrounding Ming soldiers clanged loudly.

The chaotic soldiers were all frightened by the terrifying aura, and for a moment their souls seemed to be captured. They stood there in a daze. Liu Zhaosun gently whipped the horse's belly, and the warhorse neighed and rushed out like an arrow.

The archer who was hiding in the dark raised his sword to block the arrow, but Liu Zhaosun had already approached him. He picked up the archer with one hand and threw him into the air, then slashed him with his sword. The poor archer was cut into two before he could figure out what was happening.

The flying blood splattered on Emperor Wuding's white hair, making him look even more hideous and terrifying.

The long sword pointed at the dazed soldiers, and the sound of dragon roars and tiger roars erupted:

"Will you surrender?!"

There was a loud noise, and the soldiers dropped their weapons one after another, facing Emperor Wuding, and knelt on the ground in a black mass.

"Zhang Dong!"

Zhang Dong led the Liaoxi soldiers and quickly advanced to collect the weapons.

Emperor Wuding rode his horse to Zhang Dong's side and whispered, "Kill Zuo Liangyu's servants first!"

Zhang Mazi nodded and left, his face also full of murderous intent.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the servants of the Zuo family shouted and turned around to flee to the south. Liu Zhaosun dismounted, raised his bow, and shot three arrows in a row, all of which hit the back of the heart. The soldiers from Zhangdong and Liaoxi also took out their bows and shot. Soon, dozens of servants' bodies were left around the camp.

Liu Zhaosun looked down at the kneeling defeated soldiers, his eyes kept changing, and his fingers slowly pressed towards the scabbard...

~~~~~
The night is vast.

At the west gate of Linqing City, the fighting continues.

Huang Degong and Liu Zeqing's troops suffered a sudden attack. After a brief period of chaos, they relied on the suppression of their servants to finally stabilize their front.

Huang Degong and Liu Zeqing each sent out their elite servants to frantically hack and slash at the fleeing soldiers who were running and shouting in front of them. After killing and wounding hundreds of fleeing soldiers, the Qi army's artillery fire on the city wall happened to stop and the remaining troops retreated to the moat, and the Ming army's line was barely maintained.

Amid the servants' scolding, the auxiliary soldiers held torches and pushed the French cannons and red cannons towards the moat, joining the firefight with the Qi army's artillery.

During this Northern Expedition by the royal army, Huang Degong bought a batch of red-coated cannons at a low price from British arms dealers in Nanjing (British merchants strongly supported the Ming army's attack on Qi. They not only sold cannons at low prices, but also were responsible for training Ming army gunners). There were a total of 23 red-coated cannons in this batch.

Fatty Huang had been reluctant to use his artillery during the siege a few days ago - the four towns in northern Jiang were all conserving their strength, and Wu Sangui actually had the leisure to go to the capital to rob tombs - and now they had suddenly lost thousands of troops. If they didn't fight hard, their entire army would be wiped out. Huang Degong no longer hid his strength and immediately ordered his servants to push up all the artillery. Under the command of the British instructors, they bombarded the Guangjimen city wall two miles away with all their might. The two sides of the moat were immediately filled with white smoke. When the Qi army was bombarding just now, several British instructors with the team had already marked the position of the city wall early on. Now the gunners only had to fire according to the marked position.

A ten-pound iron ball flew over the moat and slammed heavily on the top of Guangji Gate. A wolf-tooth bat hanging on the top of the city wall was hit by the cannonball. Thousands of three-inch-long iron nails immediately broke and sprinkled on the surrounding musketeers like raindrops, sweeping away the surrounding Qi army like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

"Hit, perfect!"

Rupprecht Cohlen, the manager of the East India Company, faintly heard the screams of the enemy on the city wall a mile away and smiled with satisfaction.

Three years ago, after he was defeated by the Kaiyuan Army at the Battle of Tsushima, he was nearly sentenced to death by the London House of Representatives. Relying on a huge bribe of pounds, he escaped death and was exiled to Macau in southern China, responsible for the unimportant Chinese trade. For two years, he actively planned revenge against the Kaiyuan Army until he met Huang Degong, a gentleman who was "determined to launch a northern expedition and eager to restore the new order of the empire"...

The head servant of Huang Degong's family looked at the red-haired barbarian who did not save any ammunition for him, and said to Huang Degong cautiously:

"Master, what should we do if we fight hard here and Liu Zeqing takes advantage of us?"

Huang Degong panted heavily, shook his fat body, and slapped the servant's forehead fiercely: "Zuo Liangyu has escaped. It's already this late, and you're still fussing about this? We're just trying to save our lives! If we don't fire a few shots, everyone under us will run away."

Huang Degong was about to speak when the servant suddenly pointed towards the moat and shouted:
"Master, look! Liu Zeqing's archer is here."

Groups of archers appeared on the battlefield, carrying bows and arrows on their backs and holding ox horn bows weighing two stones in their hands. They stepped on the corpses all over the ground, quickly crossed the moat, and took advantage of the cover of night to approach to a position fifty steps away from the city wall. The eight hundred archers were salt merchants recruited by Liu Zeqing from Huaiyang at a large sum of money. They were usually paid double salary, and all the looted goods belonged to them.

The Huaiyang soldiers were brutal, aggressive, and one of the few elite troops in the imperial army. Like Fatty Huang, these archers rarely appeared during sieges. Now, when the time came to fight, Liu Zeqing, seeing that Fatty Huang hadn't hidden his skills, threw his best men forward and launched a barrage of arrows at the city walls.

In the critical moment, the two military leaders who usually engaged in intrigue and even fighting against each other consciously banded together to survive. The artillery and archers cooperated closely. Huang Degong's red cannon was responsible for suppressing the firepower on the city wall, while the Huaiyang archers approached and shot, eliminating the defenders on the city wall.

The Linqing defenders were attacked unexpectedly and suffered heavy casualties.

~~~~
Zuo Liangyu's central army tent, which is close to the Linqing Yaowang Temple, is now standing alone.

In the big tent, boxes and luggage were piled up like a mountain. Liu Zhaosun opened a box at random and saw that it was filled with calligraphy and paintings.

A large pile of gold and silver jewelry was scattered on the ground, and some women's hairpins and jade pendants were stained with dried blood.

Twelve guards from the central army entered the tent to stand guard, while the remaining Liaoxi soldiers were outside guarding the surrendered soldiers.

~~~~~
Zhang Dong didn't even look at the gold, silver and jewelry scattered on the ground. He stepped over an exquisitely shaped agate wrench and whispered to Emperor Wu Ding about the intelligence he had just collected. Kneeling in the tent were the families of Zuo Liangyu and Wu Sangui who had not been able to escape, as well as several women and children.

"Your Majesty, Zuo Liangyu's entire army was annihilated, and he escaped with a small number of retainers. Huang Degong and Liu Zeqing have joined forces and are still fiercely attacking Guangji Gate."

Liu Zhaosun grabbed an inkstone from the desk, held it in his palm, and crushed the hard inkstone into powder.

"How many more of them are there?"

Zhang Dong glanced at the scattered powder and said in a deep voice:

"There are 7,000 or 8,000. The Ming army's auxiliary soldiers and civilians have all fled, leaving only the servants and elite soldiers still fighting."

Liu Zhaosun's eyes fell on the mountains of antiques, calligraphy and paintings, gold, silver and jewelry in the big tent, and he revealed an expression of extreme disgust.

Zhang Dong hesitated for a moment, then mustered up the courage to ask:
"Your Majesty, we just suffered heavy losses in the night attack. Half of our cavalry were killed, wounded, or lost. Huang Degong and Liu Zeqing are far more formidable than Zuo Liangyu. Should we continue to fight..."

"How can I not fight?! They've been plundering and killing countless people all the way north. Even if they didn't provoke me, I would still kill them! I still owe the Kaiyuan Army 53,700 graves. I remember all of that!"

Zhang Dong nodded. After hearing what the emperor said, the hesitation in his eyes disappeared immediately. He wiped the blood off his face and said through gritted teeth:

"Then, I will lead the charge. These Liaoxi soldiers outside are useless, so we have to rely on our Central Army Guard..."

Liu Zhaosun patted Zhang Dong on the shoulder and interrupted him:
"From now on, I will not let any of you die. Not even one of you will die. You, stay here while I go kill Huang Degong and Liu Zeqing alone."

Zhang Dong wanted to argue, but Emperor Wuding waved his hand, signaling him to stop talking nonsense.

Zhang Dong knew Liu Zhaosun's character. He turned around and looked at the group of Ming army families kneeling in the tent, asking what to do with these people.

Liu Zhaosun didn't even look at him, and said indifferently:
"Kill, leave no one behind."

Zhang Dong's throat moved because there were several children aged seven or eight in his family, one of whom was Zuo Liangyu's only son.

Emperor Wu Ding began to put on his armor. Zuo Liangyu had plenty of armor in his tent. He selected a piece of fish-scale armor to wear innermost and was in the process of putting on his cotton armor.

"Zhang Mazi, when I let Wu Sangui go, pardoned Zhang Chun, and Shen Lian spared the Tianjin garrison, what did they do to us in the end? Have you forgotten?!"

"To cut the grass, you must remove the roots. This is a truth I learned after killing over 50,000 people."

"Kill! No matter old or young, leave no one alive!" Zhang Dong nodded heavily and said nothing more. He picked up the goose-feather knife and strode to the back. Suddenly, miserable cries were heard in the big tent.

Emperor Wuding put on chain mail again, and Tan Er walked in carrying a long sign.

With a puff sound, a human head flew high into the air and rolled into the corner of the tent.

Tan Er didn't dare to look over there, but just gasped for breath.

Liu Zhaosun took the long card and ordered Tan Er to retreat.

He held a shield in his left hand and a knife in his right hand, and a ten-pound iron hammer was hung on each side of his neck armor.

Zhang Dong ignored Zuo Menggeng's pleading and struck him with another knife. Zuo Menggeng's head and body were separated and rolled behind Liu Zhaosun. He stared at the godlike and strong Emperor Wuding in front of him with his eyes wide open in his death.

Liu Zhaosun remained calm, as if he was oblivious to the slaughter that was happening right next to him.

After putting on his armor, he waved his goose-feather knife twice and angrily said to the guards:

"It's too light! Change it!"

The guards quickly brought over a mace pick that was 13 feet long and weighed over 20 kilograms. Liu Zhaosun weighed it in his hand and shook his head again:

"Change again!"

The goose-feather knife was swung down again.

The bodies of the women fell to the ground with a loud bang, and the huge candlelight caused the Liaoxi soldiers who were watching the excitement outside the tent to exclaim in surprise.

The killing continues.

The two guards were about to continue their search when Liu Zhaosun remembered the statue of Yue Wumu in the Yaowang Temple behind the tent. He stopped the guards and said loudly:

"No need to look any further, go to the Medicine King Temple and bring back the Liquan Divine Spear from Grandpa Yue's hand!"

The guards looked at each other and hurried out to look for him.

"You tyrant beast, are you worthy of using Yue Wumu's weapons!"

Angry curses rang in his ears, and the originally calm Liu Zhaosun suddenly looked up and searched in the tent.

Zhang Dong held the woman's head and chopped it with his knife. The emperor's questioning voice came from behind.

"Wait a minute,"

"Who are you?"

The woman suddenly looked up, and Zhang Dong was startled when he saw her face. The goose-feather knife in his hand fell to the ground with a bang, hitting the scattered silver ingots.

"It's a pity that I can't leave a bloodline for General Wu. The Wu family will never have an heir. You tyrant, just kill me if you want to. Why ask so many questions?"

It turned out to be Wu Sangui's concubine.

Liu Zhaosun's ignited hope was instantly extinguished. He waved his hand, signaling Zhang Mazi to continue.

Zhang Dong stared at the woman, but did not move.

Emperor Wu Ding picked up the hammer, turned his back to the candlelight, and strode towards this side. His burly body cast a huge shadow on the woman.

He took two steps to Wu Sangui's concubine and without saying a word, he swung the hammer and hit her.

The woman was not afraid at all. She raised her head and glared at the white-haired tyrant with resentment in her eyes.

The ten-pound iron hammer whizzed down, brushed against the woman's loose hair, and slammed heavily onto the ground. With a bang, a huge hole more than half a foot deep was smashed into the ground.

Everyone's attention was drawn here.

At the last moment, Emperor Wuding moved the hammer away, and as a result, he staggered and almost fell.

"Zhang Yan?"

This angry and resentful face, this woman who claimed to be Wu Sangui's concubine, looked exactly like Lady Zhang Yan, and even her voice was almost the same.

"Who are you?"

"General Wu's concubine, a Jianghuai girl, Chen Yuanyuan!"

"My husband was killed by you?"

Liu Zhaosun nodded indifferently.

Chen Yuanyuan angrily cursed: "You tyrant, you scoundrel, you shall not die a good death!"

Emperor Wu Ding looked at the woman in front of him, as if he saw Zhang Yan again, his expression dazed:
"I have died once, so I have nothing to fear."

Zhang Dong was stunned on the spot. If the woman had not looked up just now, he would not have noticed.

At this time, two guards appeared at the door carrying the Liquan Divine Spear, both of them panting. The statue of Yue Wumu in Yaowang Temple was holding this huge spear, which was as thick as a child's arm and weighed forty kilograms. It was said that it was made of fine iron with funds from the local Chamber of Commerce during the Chenghua period to suppress the river god...
Liu Zhaosun held up the spear with his left hand and gently brushed away the dust on the spear with his right hand. Under the dim candlelight, the spear blade still shone with a cold light.

"A divine soldier and a famous general, trapped in the temple and gathering dust, what a pity! Drink blood with me today."

He turned around and looked at Chen Yuanyuan, his tone soft:
"Wu Sangui and Zuo Liangyu, two thieves, brought disaster to the country and its people, burning, killing, and looting. Your husband turned his back on his kindness by robbing the imperial tomb. This is despicable and shameless, and he should be punished along with his entire clan!
"A beauty should be paired with a hero. This kind of rat is not worthy of you."

"Considering that you still know Yue Wumu and are not a bad man, I pardon you. Stay here! Do not wander off!"

After saying that, Liu Zhaosun put the Liquan magic spear on his shoulder, picked up the long sign, and left the tent alone.

~~~~
The night is quiet and the stars are sparse, but the war is raging.

Liu Zhaosun came to the open space and thrust out the 81-step Soul-Breaking Spear taught by Taoist Zhang in one breath. The spear came out like a dragon emerging from the water, and went in like a tiger returning to the cave.

The sky is dotted with cold stars and the silver light is flickering.

Then, he leaned on his gun and looked at the Guangjimen city wall in the distance where artillery fire was everywhere.

Recalling his own glory in sweeping away the Taoist priests of Wudang Mountain in Junzhou, he grabbed the fiery Liquan Divine Spear with his big hand and roared to the sky:
"kill!"

He rushed towards Huang Degong's artillery position.

(End of this chapter)