The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 464: Emperor Wu Ding kills Rakshasa by the willow tree, Jiang Liuer captures the slave chief under the pine tree

Du Du heard about the tragedy in Liuge Village from Ayinggua, the Niulu of the Plain White Banner. In just half an hour, Dorgon and 2,000 soldiers of the Plain White Banner were all wiped out by the Qi army.

Although the Qing emperor was extremely reluctant to accept it, he now had to accept the reality that his former master Liu Zhaosun was still alive and was about to attack the Qing army.

The Qi army massacred all the soldiers of the Zhengbai Banner in Liuge Village, leaving no prisoners. Even the bondservant Aha was killed by them.

"The Liu rebels have approximately 60,000 troops, their camps are continuous, and their firearms are superior to those of the Shenyang garrison. Yesterday, their cavalry ambushed the Plain White Banner scouts, catching Dorgon off guard."

Ayinggua knelt in front of the emperor and chattered on and on about the details of the destruction of the Zhengbai Banner. Du Du felt more and more frightened.

"What kind of firearms did they use?"

"It's similar to ours, only more powerful. Some of the cannons can explode when they hit the ground. Our cavalry suffered from this."

Du Du thought in his mind that the main force of the Qing army was still there. The two red flags, the two yellow flags, the bordered white flag, and the blue flag, the six flags had not suffered too many losses and could still fight.

"How can we fight this war if Liu Zhaosun comes in person?"

"With more than 10,000 people causing chaos, how can the Qing Dynasty resist another 60,000?"

Several flag owners were discussing endlessly, while the commander-in-chief and the red-haired foreign merchant sitting next to them looked at each other in confusion.

The two Cossack cavalry leaders, as strong as bears, were still drinking.

Du Du urgently summoned his allies to explain to Li Shunyi, Kelun and others the principle of "the lips and teeth are cold".

"Everyone, if the Qing army is defeated and Liu Zhaosun reoccupies Liaodong, you will be the next to suffer. From what I know about this thief, his ambitions extend beyond Liaodong and Liaoxi. He wants to occupy Kuyi Island and Korea."

Li Shunyi's face was full of displeasure. The Korean soldiers should not appear at this time and place. According to the plan made by the Korean King Li Jong, after robbing Shenyang, the commander-in-chief would return with a full load. Now he and his subordinates were stranded in Shenyang, and their return home was nowhere in sight, and they might even lose their lives.

The strength of the other allies is too weak, but at least they are better than nothing.

Everyone was filled with sorrow, and several flag leaders stared blankly at the table, speechless. They looked like eggplants hit by frost, wilting.

Liu Zhaosun is alive, the devil who killed the old Khan and Huang Taiji is alive.

From Hunhe River to Hetuala, from the 47th year of Wanli to the first year of Wuding, Nurhaci's descendants have been living in the shadow of this man.

In the memories of Duoduo and others, Liu Zhaosun, who killed their relatives, is equivalent to the god of death.

The bloody Battle of Hetuala was an indelible childhood shadow for the young flag owners.

With Liu Zhaosun's army approaching, there was no other way out except surrender.

"Don't even think about surrendering. They killed all the prisoners, leaving no one alive. Even the bondservants of the Plain White Banner were killed."

"Damn Liu Zhaosun!"

Tudor cursed loudly.

"Liu Zhaosun is not at peace even after his death, and he still pretends to be a ghost! He is trying to scare the Eight Banners of Manchuria!"

The Qing emperor insisted that Liu Zhaosun was dead and that the Zhengbai Banner had encountered only the remnants of the Qi army entrenched in western Liaoning.

He was worried that the Qing army would collapse immediately if they knew that Emperor Wuding was still alive.

So they called a shaman and asked him to exorcise the evil spirit and send the lingering ghost of Liu Zhaosun to hell as soon as possible.

The shaman, wearing a cloth robe with feathers stuck on his body, turned around twice, dragging his rag-like skirt, muttering something, and finally fell to the ground unconscious, spitting out large streams of white foam from his mouth.

Dudu leaned over to the wizard and listened attentively. After hearing the wizard's mumblings clearly, the emperor announced God's will to the flag owner and the red-haired barbarians:

The ghost of Liu the thief has been killed by Changshengtian. Use your arrows to kill all the Liu the thieves and burn Nikan to ashes.

Koren and his European companions looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders, and smiled awkwardly.

The British businessman rubbed his red nose and muttered to the Dutch businessman:

"An ancient mysterious hypnotic ritual from the East. Gentlemen, we are going to be buried with the Tatars."

The arrows mentioned by the Qing emperor were certainly not ordinary bows and arrows, but the Woolwich Arsenal rockets that the British East India Company had recently provided to the Qing Dynasty.

This rocket was developed by William Woolwich, a colonel of artillery at the British Royal Laboratory. It weighs 14.5 kilograms, is 1.06 meters long, has a diameter of 0.1 meters, and is equipped with a 4.6-meter-long balance rod. Its range can reach 1800 meters. After continuous improvements, its range can reach 3000 meters. It mainly kills the enemy by burning its tail flame.

When the Qing army attacked Shenyang in February, they only had the last 100 coins left.

Du Du felt that this powerful weapon should be able to stop the attack of the Qi army. Although the soldiers under Liu Zhaosun were brave, they were still flesh and blood after all. Two waves of rockets would make even the strongest army collapse.

The emperor ordered his men to take out the last 100 Woolwich rockets, set them up beside the camp gate, and fire them at the Qi soldiers approaching from the east.

"Burn you to death! Burn you, Liu Zhaosun!"

At the last moment, Du Du did not choose to escape, but led the Zhenghuang Banner to the front.

Looking at the rockets and meteors rising all over the sky, Du Du was excited. He felt that his body would also climb into the sky with the rockets, falling rapidly with a terrifying whistling sound, and finally falling into the battle formation of Qi army, bursting into a brilliant spark.

~~~~
In the fields west of Shenyang, white smoke drifted in the wind and explosions sounded one after another. When the infantry of both sides were still three miles apart, the impatient artillerymen began to bombard each other endlessly.

The Qi army, which had been watching the battle from the top of the west gate of Shenyang, suddenly fired several field artillery shells from behind. The shells fell into the dense formation of the Zhenghuang Banner armored soldiers. The rolling and jumping iron balls splashed blood among the crowd. Wu Zhenhachao immediately retaliated from the top of the city wall. The few remaining small cannons on the top of the city wall were immediately suppressed by the Qing army's artillery fire, which was several times larger than theirs. After a while, there was no more counterattack.

Wuzhenhachao easily dealt with the attack of the defenders, and took out all the red-haired barbarian rockets that their emperor had kept in his possession, and directed them to the west, bombarding the approaching Qi army formation.

The First Battalion of the First Guards Army crashed headfirst into a dense meteor shower. More than 500 soldiers were instantly engulfed in the flames and smoke of the burning Woolwich rockets. More than 500 human-shaped fireballs ignited out of thin air on the Liaodong plains.

Emperor Wuding put down the telescope and waved his finger forward.

The messenger passed the battle order to the front. After Pu Gang confirmed it, he shouted:
"Second Battalion, attack!"

"Target: the Zhenghuang Banner Central Army Camp! March forward!"

The soldiers of the second battalion continued to move forward, stepping on the burning bodies of their comrades. Lu Xiangsheng led the cavalry to attack the two wings of the Qing army and fought with the Qing cavalry on both wings. Under the cover of the cavalry, the artillery pushed the field artillery forward.

Shuo Tuo frowned. He was shocked by the army before him. This Qi army, which was transferred from the interior to reinforce, exuded an indescribable strange temperament from top to bottom, which was really difficult to describe in words.

He felt like the men charging toward him were Liu Zhaosun's arms, completely obeying his commands, as if life and death were no longer a concern. Over the past year, Shuotuo, leader of the Zhenghong Banner, had fought many tough battles in Liaodong, but he had never encountered an opponent like this one. His intuition told him that the army before him was even more formidable than the Qi army in Shenyang. He felt like there was something missing from these soldiers, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
As the second battalion of musketeers approached step by step, Wuzhenhachao gradually panicked. They had fired all their rockets and burned the first wave of Qi troops to death, but what was the use? The second wave was coming soon.

What was puzzling to the Qing army was that these cannon fodder on the opposite side did not need to be suppressed by the supervisory team at all, and they immediately came up to reinforce them.

Before the Qing troops in the front row could react, the Qi army's field artillery had already opened fire. In a moment, hundreds of shrapnel shells fell into the array of Wuzhenhachao's fire musketeers.

With a loud bang, thousands of well-equipped and well-trained baoyi soldiers were wiped out in an instant.

No one reacted. In the past, a round of solid bullets would kill at most dozens of people...

Liu Zhaosun stood up suddenly from the armchair, holding a command flag in his hand, pointing to the central army tent of the Plain Yellow Banner, and continuously issuing orders to his soldiers.

"Don't worry about the flank threat, just attack and destroy the Zhenghuang Banner! Capture Dudu alive!"

~~~~
On the tenth day of April, Emperor Wuding sent Pu Gang, Deng Changxiong, Zhao Lujiao and others to Tieling, Qinghe and Kaiyuan to accept the surrender. He personally led an army of 60,000 to continue the pursuit eastward, sweeping through Liaodong with great force. Liaoyang, Fushun and other places surrendered without a fight. On the twenty-eighth day of April, the army drank water from the Yalu River. The Korean defeated soldiers in Kuandian City were unable to escape and their retreat was cut off. The emperor ordered them to be massacred.

On the first day of May, a 100,000-man Qi army arrived at Hetuala. Emperor Wuding announced to the people that anyone who could tell Dudu's whereabouts would be granted a thousand households and a reward of 1,000 taels of silver. Anyone who killed or captured Dudu alive would be granted a commander-in-chief and a reward of 10,000 taels of silver. Anyone who hid and failed to report would have their entire clan executed.

After the notice was posted, the local villagers in Liaodong spontaneously organized themselves to search the mountains and seas to capture Du Du.

Hetuala reached Wutaizi Mountain, and Dudule, with a tired face, rode slowly on his horse, leaving the pursuers far behind. Looking back, he found that only about a hundred people were left.

"The old Khan was killed by the thief Liu, the fourth prince was murdered by the thief Liu, and today I will also be forced to death by the thief Liu. Changshengtian, are you blind? Why are you so vicious to my Aixinjueluo family!"

Du Du pointed to the sky and cursed, then burst into tears. Everyone around him was crying, and no one could look up.

Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong cried for a while, then got on their horse again, with more than a hundred Goshiha cavalrymen under his command.

Unlike Huang Taiji, Du Du did not defend Hetuala to the death at the last moment. Instead, he led the remaining soldiers of the Zhenghuang Banner to break out of the encirclement before the Qi army closed the encirclement. He fought two battles with the Qi army along the way, suffering heavy casualties. After crossing the Suzi River, only more than a hundred people were left behind.

Du Du and his companions reached Mount Wutaizi and lost their way. They asked an old farmer named Nikan who was plowing nearby. The old farmer squinted his eyes and gave the Qing Emperor directions:
"Walk east along the Suzi River and you'll be out of the mountains in three miles."

Everyone hurriedly rode their horses and galloped eastward.

Du Du opened his bow, aimed at the thin old farmer, and shot the old farmer through with one arrow.

"If you die, there will be no news."

The Qing emperor muttered to himself and whipped his horse to catch up with Goshiha who had already run half a mile.

The riders walked two miles to the left. The road under the horses' hooves became softer and softer. Finally, they sank into a muddy tidal flat and had to slow down.

"Damn it, I got cheated by that old man!"

The Jurchens manipulated their horses out of the swamp while shouting and cursing loudly.

Soon, the sharp bamboo whistles of the Qi cavalry came from behind them.

Du Du had no choice but to turn his horse around and gallop north. When he reached the outskirts of Kuandian, he had only 28 riders following him.

The black mass behind them was all the Guards cavalry, at least several thousand of them.

Du Du knew he had nowhere to escape, so he said to everyone:

"Since six years ago, I have endured hardships, sleeping on straw and tasting gall, just to destroy the thief Liu. From last year until now, I have fought over seventy battles in Liaodong. All those I have blocked have been defeated, and all those I have attacked have surrendered. I have never been defeated!"

"Today we are trapped here. This is fate, not the fault of war."

What Du Du said, translated into human language, means that Liu Zhaosun is really too strong, and it is not unfair for me to die at his hands!
At this time, a small boat came to the Yalu River. The boatman was Li Shunyi's staff. When he saw Du Du and others, he shouted:
"Although Korea is small, it has an area of ten thousand miles and a population of several million, making it large enough for a kingdom. I implore the king to cross the river quickly. I alone have a boat, and with the arrival of the Qi army, we will have no way across."

Du Du knew that Korea was not defensible, and even if he fled to Seoul, he could only survive for a few days. Moreover, Liu Zhaosun and Li Jong had a blood feud. After pacifying Liaodong, Liu Zhaosun's next target would be Korea.

Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Qianlong raised their heads and howled loudly, "Now Heaven is determined to destroy the Qing Dynasty. What's the point of me crossing the river alone?"

He thought for a moment and added, "Besides, I once promised your King of Korea that I would help him capture Kuandian and Fushun and restore the territory of Korea. Ten thousand Koreans crossed the river west, but now not a single one has returned. Even if the King of Korea takes pity on me and takes me in, how can I face the people of Jiangdong? Even if the Korean people don't say anything, won't I feel guilty?"

He then said to the Korean who had rowed to his rescue, "You are a good servant of the Qing Dynasty. I have buried ten thousand taels of gold on the riverbank of Balipu, east of Kuandian City. I will give it all to you as a reward!"

Du Du took off his gilded armor, his ochre-yellow robe, threw away the golden flower, spit on his head, took off his court boots, put on straw sandals and hemp shoes, and ordered all the Goshiha to dismount and walk, form a battle formation, and engage in hand-to-hand combat with the Qi army for a final fight.

The last twenty-eight Goshahas dismounted one after another, and the Qi cavalry immediately surrounded all of them.

Only Du Du took advantage of the situation by surprise, looked into the deep mountains and wilderness, penetrated the ridges and went through the forests, and galloped on his horse without stopping, as panic-stricken as a dog that had lost its home, and as anxious as a fish that had escaped the net.

It is said that Du Du retreated over five mountains overnight and came to the edge of a valley, where he saw a thatched hut nestled under a big pine tree.

Du Du was hungry and was about to go to the thatched hut to get some food when he saw a tiger coming out from behind the hut. The tiger roared and the thatch rustled. Du Du shuddered with fear and hurriedly drew his sword and faced the tiger, his teeth chattering.

"Ah! Ah!"

Du Du roared, swung his sword and chopped down, but hit nothing. He looked at the tiger again and saw it taking two steps back, limping.

When Du Du looked closely, he saw an arrow feather stuck in its hind leg. The emperor knew at a glance that it was Baturu Aobai's three-edged wolf-tooth heavy arrow. The wound had already festered, no wonder the beast was dying.

"Hahaha, I'm really hungry, so I'll kill you and grill you!"

Du Du was about to move forward to finish him off when he saw a young man suddenly appear from behind a pine tree. He knocked over the scabbard of his sword and tied him up with a rope. The young man was none other than Jiang Liuer, a soldier of the Great Qi Dynasty.

The man and the tiger were reunited and were overjoyed. Jiang Liuer hugged the pine tree and cried. Seeing that the tiger was still breathing, he quickly looked up and broke off some pine needles from the old pine tree. He went into the house to boil some water and gave it to the tiger to drink. He heard that this could save his life.

After a while, Songxia slowly opened his eyes and struggled to stand up. At this time, Lao Qian, Alessa, Zhu Youxiao and Kang Guangxu had already caught up.

The crowd captured Du Du, brought him to the thatched hut, and gave him some food. When they were about to get out of the mountain, they met the scouts who were searching the mountain. They tied him up and brought him to see Qi Jin who was guarding Kuandian.

Qi Jin was overjoyed to see Du Du captured, and asked, "Jiang Liu'er, why are you waiting for this bandit leader?"

Jiang Liuer said, "I came out of the Wansong Forest on Mount Wutaizi, chasing the Rakshasa ghost deep into the mountains. It was a great pleasure to run into him."

Qi Jin was overwhelmed with emotion when he saw that Emperor Tianqi and Kang Yingqian's son were both there. He patted Jiang Liuer on the shoulder and laughed loudly:
"Good, good, you are all still alive. The emperor will surely be delighted to see you."

(End of this chapter)