The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 444: Battle in Shenyang
The dozen or so remaining white-armored soldiers under Aobai retreated into the wall of the post station, blocked the gate with huge stones, and continued to fight desperately.

The team led by Wu Xiao originally followed the main force of the Second Army back east from Shaanxi, but was blocked by bandits halfway. The chief officer Deng Changxiong had to lead his troops to detour through Mongolia and enter the Khorchin grassland.

To make matters worse, the Second Army encountered plague just after entering the steppe, and more than a thousand of the 7,000 or 8,000 men died. Wu Xiao led the vanguard from Kalaqin into Liaodong. To avoid the main force of the Qing army, he made a circuitous journey eastward, traveling thousands of miles, where he unexpectedly encountered Oboi and his entourage.

There is no way out for either side. It is either you or me. When enemies meet, they are extremely jealous and are determined to kill each other.
Oboi and his men hid in the post station and shot arrows outside with bows and arrows. This nameless post station between Kuandian and Shenyang was dilapidated and small. There was a gate in front, leading to a small courtyard and several side rooms on the left and right. The wooden beams had been removed by the Qing army long ago, and only a few bare earth walls were left.

Wu Xiao glanced around, quickly observing the terrain surrounding the post station. A feathered arrow flew towards him. He shielded his eyes with his iron arm, and with a clang, the arrow was deflected. Meanwhile, his younger brother, Li Zicheng, had already slain all the Jiannu who hadn't escaped from the prison cart. Several auxiliary soldiers, supporting the prisoners in the cart, were approaching.

Wu Xiao rode forward, took a quick look at the five people, his eyes wandering over Alessa, and asked loudly:
"Who are you? Why were you captured by the Tartars?"

Old Qian, leaning on his goose-feather knife, struggled forward two steps, raised his head and said to Wu Xiao:

"Are you brothers from the Second Army? The three of us are from the expedition team."

"Expedition team?" Wu Xiao turned to look at Li Zicheng, who also looked bewildered. Sanyuan Shaoxia thought for a while before suddenly realizing:
"An expedition team going to Kuyi Island to farm?"

Old Qian nodded repeatedly. Jiang Liuer stepped forward to correct him, saying, "We are not going to farm. We are going to fight the Rakshasa demons and drive them out of the capital of Nurgan. The Jiannu attacked us from behind and all our brothers died..."

Wu Xiao looked at Jiang Liuer carefully. The boy was in tattered clothes, with a blood scab on his head, and looked dazed. He remembered that when the expedition team set out from Shenyang, there were more than 800 people, many of whom were elite soldiers of the Second Guards Army. Now, only three of them came back alive.

"You mean only the three of you are left back?"

Wu Xiao looked at the three people in front of him in disbelief. Since the Battle of Sarhu, the Kaiyuan army had never suffered such heavy casualties.

"Ma Zhizhou and Commander Li have evacuated safely." Jiang Liuer suddenly remembered something and looked up at Wu Xiao. "Did you encounter a fierce tiger during your trip? A wounded tiger?"

Wu Xiao shook his head blankly. They had experienced all kinds of hardships on their way back from Shaanxi, but they had never seen a single tiger.

Two days ago, Wu Xiao walked eastward from Shenyang. The further east he went, the fewer Tartars he encountered. It was estimated that Du Du had bet all his money on Shenyang. The cities east of Shenyang that were taken over by the Qing army were even in an undefended state, with few Qing soldiers guarding them.

A cavalryman galloped forward and reported loudly, "Captain Wu, the Tartars are still shooting arrows and will not come out no matter what!"

Wu Xiao looked around and since there was no enemy reinforcement for the time being, he decided to have some fun with these Tartars.

"Surround them, set fire to them, and burn them to death!"

~~~~~~~
Two teams of cavalry quickly passed the two wings of the post station. The cavalry threw lit torches into the yard from all directions, and some cavalry threw wooden-handled grenades. Accompanied by bursts of violent explosions, the screams of the Qing army were heard in the yard. More than a dozen light arrows were shot from the yard, but they were not accurate and fell obliquely behind the Qi army.

The cavalrymen surrounding the post station dismounted, took out their long-barreled muskets from their horses, lined up in three rows, raised the muzzles of their muskets, and aimed at the entrance of the post station. Some archers also drew their bowstrings, quietly waiting for the enemy to rush out.

The thatched roof of the inn was soon set on fire by torches, thick smoke filled the courtyard walls, and low roars were soon heard from the inn.

Unable to bear the scorching fire, the Jiannu pushed open the door and fled, shouting and waving their weapons.

"Fire!"

boom!boom!
Amidst the dense roar of musketry, the last twenty Qing soldiers fell to the ground.

Several white-armored soldiers who rushed out of the courtyard tried to shoot at the musketeers with their bows, but they were immediately stabbed to death with lances by the cavalry who came up from behind.

When Oboi saw the last white-armored soldier fall, he roared to the sky like a wounded beast. Knowing that he was doomed, he picked up a long sword and roared as he ran towards Wu Xiao's mount.

Li Zicheng turned his horse and was about to attack the Tartar official when Wu Xiao shouted, "Let me do it!"

Wu Xiao's calves clamped against the horse's belly, and the horse's eyes widened, its nose exhaling hot air. Wu Xiao tilted his lance and accelerated towards the enemy. Soon, they were ten paces apart. Wu Xiao thrust his lance forward. Oboi didn't dodge, slashing across the horse's hooves with his sword. The sword and spear clashed, and the horse neighed. The blade pierced flesh, and a bloody mist rose before his eyes. When the bloody mist dissipated, Wu Xiao's horse suddenly stalled and plunged headlong into the burning post station, its two front hooves severed by the blade. Wu Xiao tumbled off his horse and looked back to see Oboi, pierced in the chest by the lance. His bear-like body was half-kneeling on the ground, still struggling to extract the lance head from his body.

Wu Xiao roared, stepped forward, kicked the strong Jiannu over, raised the sword in his hand, aimed at Aobai's thick neck, and swung it down fiercely.

At that moment, everyone was cleaning up the battlefield. The injured warhorse had died due to excessive blood loss. Wu Xiao asked Li Zicheng to dig a big hole behind the post station and bury the horse. He found some fried noodles and dried meat from the dead Jiannu and gave them to Jiang Liuer and others to eat.

Although there are no Qing troops around, we are now on the territory of the Jiannu after all. More than 200 people will make us too conspicuous. In any case, it is not advisable to stay here for long.

"Jiang Liu'er, where do you want to go? The capital or Shenyang?"

The capital city has been reduced to rubble, the soldiers in Shenyang are in a fierce battle, and Du Du's tens of thousands of troops are surrounding the city fortresses.

No matter where you go, the road is never smooth.

Jiang Liuer looked up at the direction of Shenyang: "I want to go back to Shenyang to help the emperor kill the Tartars and avenge the dead Liao people. Do you want to go with me?"

Wu Xiao was silent for a moment. No one objected to Jiang Liuer's proposal, although everyone knew that their emperor was no longer around.

"Go, why not? The emperor showed some mercy to Du Du and let him serve as a guard, but he turned against Da Qi. Shen Lian is dead, and Lin Yu is gone. I want to kill Du Du and clean up the mess for the Central Army Guard!"

Only then did Wu Xiao notice Zhu Youxiao hiding in the corner.

Back then in the capital, Wu Xiao had met Emperor Chongzhen once. To be fair, he had no ill will towards the carpenter emperor. Emperor Wuding sent Zhu Youxiao to Jeju Island for house arrest, and Wu Xiao was one of the people who knew about it.

Wu Xiao looked up at Emperor Chongzhen. Zhu Youxiao thought that Liu Zhaosun's executioner was going to kill him to silence him, so he quickly dodged.

"Emperor Wuding is missing. Zhu Youxiao, you should come with us and return to Shenyang first to prevent him from falling into the hands of treacherous people. Otherwise, they will use your name to commit crimes and countless innocent people will die."

~~~~~
Tiger Fort, southern suburbs of Shenyang.

Clouds of black smoke, accompanied by rolling fireballs, rose from the flat ground of the pier to a height of thirty or forty meters.

Accompanied by bursts of violent explosions, the shock wave generated by the black powder explosion swept across the entire position like a strong wind.

The huge fireball that exploded and burned from the Divine Fire Crow was like a fire phoenix reborn from the Nirvana. It opened its bloody mouth and let out a shrill howl, instantly swallowing up all the Baoyi Aha who were close to the fort.

A few Aha who had managed to avoid the rocket barrage stepped on the giant mines hidden in front of the trench in a panic.

boom!
Amidst the dull explosion, the human body instantly turned into a bloody mist.

Several Qing soldiers who were supervising the battle were a little further away from the landmine cannon. Their bodies flew into the air like clouds and mist. In the huge shock wave, their legs and feet were broken and their bodies were torn into pieces.

……

Two miles away, the Wuzhenhachao gunners, swarming like ants, were skillfully manipulating their artillery. The artillery groups were lined up in a row and began to unscrupulously adjust the firing range towards the fortifications of the fortress group.

The huge red cannons that had just been removed from the warships worked together with the local generals. The firepower of the Qing army seemed to have increased by two centuries at once. The artillery group stretched for miles, like a giant python waking up from hibernation, revealing its long-hidden fangs and biting the Qi army fortress group wantonly.

The hot lead balls drew slow parabolas and slammed into the meat grinder-like bastion positions in front of Shenyang City.

The shells weighing two to twenty pounds rubbed against the air, forming high-speed rotating hot iron balls that easily smashed the rocket launchers erected in front of the bastion and turned the Qi army gunners who had no time to retreat into meat paste.

(End of this chapter)