The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 496 Shanxi Merchants
On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month in the third year of Taichu, in the mountains south of Linming Pass in Guangping Prefecture.

Deng Changxiong, commander of the Second Corps, turned over and jumped off the chestnut horse under his crotch, and his personal guards immediately came up to take the reins.

"Old Zhan, how long will it take to get to Jize County?"

Zhan Diyou, the chief instructor of the Second Corps, dismounted and took out a copy of the Tang newspaper he had just received from his bosom. He compared it carefully with a parchment map.

"Fifteen miles. Damn it, I almost got killed by this map. I'm going to teach those nerds in the workshop a lesson when I get back!"

The instructor cursed, took off the coconut ladle from the gong belt, tilted his head back and gulped down a few mouthfuls of water. At this time, Deng Changxiong was giving orders to the messenger:

"The cavalry will continue their patrols. The combat troops and artillery will rest for a quarter of an hour. The cavalry will be on guard duty."

Zhan Diyou was surprised and said, "Old Deng, there are only fifteen miles left. Why do we need to rest? Let the cavalry rush into the county town and capture those two corrupt officials! Then we can finish this trip."

The messenger passed on the chief officer's order, and there was a loud noise of weapons clashing. The musketeers and spearmen of the two battalions who were marching on the mountain road stopped immediately, put their spears and muskets aside, sat on the ground and started to eat fried noodles. More than 500 cavalrymen of the cavalry battalion attached to the corps were cruising back and forth nearby.

"Is it done?" Deng Changxiong raised his telescope and looked at the Qi Juntang horses hidden in the mountains, and said to the instructor:
"If it were that easy, the Emperor wouldn't have sent the Second Corps here. If we rush a hundred miles, the general will be defeated. If we rush a fifty miles, half the army will arrive. We've come from Luoyang, a distance of several hundred miles. If we continue to attack, people will die."

Zhan Diyou glanced at Deng Changxiong as if he were a monster and said impatiently, "Old Deng, why are you just like those people from the Workshop School, so pretentious?"

Deng Changxiong put down his telescope, took out a book from his saddlebag and handed it to his instructor.

Zhan Diyou took it and asked, "What is this?"

“The Art of War.”

"How many times has the Emperor said that generals should read more military books? I heard that Old Han, the instructor of the Third Corps, memorized Sun Bin's Art of War, Wu Zi, Liu Tao, Wei Liao Zi, Sima Fa, Taibai Yin Jing, Hu Something Jing, and even Qi Nantang's (Qi Jiguang) military books, and even received praise from the Emperor. You, on the other hand, haven't read as much as a rough man like me."

Zhan Diyou immediately returned the yellowed copy of Sun Tzu's Art of War to Deng Changxiong.

"To be a disciplinary officer, all you need is courage and good eloquence. I'm not a nerd, so why would I read so many books?"

Deng Changxiong shook his head helplessly and pointed to the Linming Pass towering in the valley to the north.

"Do you know the origin of Linming Pass?"

Zhan Diyou shook his head. He had never been to Guangping Prefecture before, so how could he know this?

Deng Changxiong smiled faintly and said, "This place is located on the east side of the Taihang Mountains, at the throat of the north-south land transportation. It is said to be "the most strategic point between the north and the south" and "the throat of the world, forever and ever." It has always been a battleground for military strategists. If there really are rebels, they will definitely station a large army here."

Zhan Diyou stared blankly at his chief officer Deng Changxiong. When did this rough fellow become so elegant and speak so pretentious? He spoke in a very sophisticated way, almost like the civil servants.

"Where did you know that?"

"County annals."

Before he finished speaking, a horseman came rolling down the mountain road from the north.

When he was more than ten steps away from Deng Changxiong, two personal soldiers stepped forward to stop Tang Ma and brought him before the chief officer and the instructor.

"General, the garrison at Linming Pass is less than two thousand, and the one leading them is one of our defeated generals."

A defeated general? Deng Changxiong and Zhan Diyou exchanged a glance, only to hear Tang Ma continue, "He was a general under the traitor Zhang Chun, his surname is Ye, and he was originally a captain."

Deng Changxiong nodded and waved his horses back. The instructor laughed and said, "A mere two thousand defeated soldiers still need the elite troops of our Second Corps to fight them. The Emperor really thinks highly of these Ming troops."

"Even a lion will use all its might to fight a rabbit. We're not here just to catch these two corrupt officials."

This time, the Second Corps dispatched 4,000 elite soldiers and rushed from Luoyang to Guangping Prefecture overnight, but they did not come to fight a security war.

After receiving the order from Emperor Wu Ding to send troops, Deng Changxiong rushed to the military camp three days before the departure, summoned the officers and captains of each camp, performed blood sacrifices, packed up the equipment, and took all the cavalry and artillery with him.

Before leaving, Emperor Wu Ding specially summoned Deng Changxiong and told him that the target of this expedition, in addition to the group of corrupt officials in Guangping Prefecture, would be to take advantage of the situation to enter Shanxi, eliminate a group of Shanxi merchants, and by the way, find out what kind of people Zhang Zicheng and his Dashi Army are.

Deng Changxiong had previously fought against the Dashi Army during his time in Shaanxi. Overall, Zhang Zicheng's bandits were roughly equal in strength to Li Xianzhong's Chuang Army. In the first year of the Wuding reign, Li Xianzhong was utterly destroyed in the bombing of Wanggongchang, and the remaining bandits under his command were largely recruited by Zhang Zicheng. From this perspective, Zhang Zicheng's strength should be stronger than the Chuang Army.

Deng Changxiong was extremely cautious throughout the march. He initially dispatched Tangbao cavalry to conduct scouts. Each day, after counting their provisions and baggage, the four thousand men would rest and regroup while the Tangbao cavalry went out to conduct reconnaissance. Once the army began its march, Deng Changxiong dispatched Tangbao cavalry to each route. Each route consisted of twenty-four cavalrymen, each mounted about a li apart, for a total range of over twenty li.

Each Tangqi was equipped with a waist knife, a pair of bow and arrows, two liters of roasted yellow rice, one liter ground into powder and one liter packed separately, one liter and a half of flour, and the Black Tiger flag of the Second Corps.

According to the Great Qi military system, when the Tangqi spotted the enemy, if the enemy was still far away, they would slowly wave the flag. If the enemy force was approaching quickly, they would wave the flag in a circle.

~~~~
After everything was ready, Deng Changxiong immediately ordered an all-out attack on the city.

The field artillery roared low, and the shrapnel shells sent wood chips flying through the city gates, leaving the rebels with almost no foothold on the city wall of Linming Pass.

The guerrilla general Zhao Xiaomei, who was guarding Linming Pass, had abandoned the people inside the pass yesterday and fled north with his servants to join the Dashi Army. Only a group of soldiers who had lost their backbone were left. After the earth-shaking roar of the infantry field artillery, they scattered.

After the government troops fled, the only people left in the city were the horse caravans hired by Shanxi merchants.

Linming is close to Shanxi, and the military power of the Shanxi merchants here should not be underestimated. There are many caravans and horse caravans, and they are well-equipped.

Before this, eight families far away in Shanxi, including Fan, Wang, Jin, Liang, Tian, and Huang, offered a reward of 100 taels of silver to recruit death squads and put a reward on the heads of Qi soldiers in order to protect their goods from loss.

There will always be brave men when there is a big reward. Desperadoes gathered from all directions and arrived in Guangping Prefecture, ready to fight with the Qi army.

The news that Emperor Wuding was preparing to execute Shanxi merchants reached Shanxi early on.

According to what the Qi army did in Shandong and Liaodong, when the Qi army arrived in Shanxi and began to settle accounts with the Eight Great Families, it would not be as simple as fining them some silver and paying off the taxes owed over the years.

According to Liu Zhaosun's routine, the pacification soldiers would probably skin the eight families and execute them by slow slicing.

The Shanxi merchants were as anxious as ants on a hot pan, and were in a state of panic all day long.

The Ming Dynasty was harmed by Liu Zhaosun, and the Tang Dynasty was destroyed by Liu. The desperate Shanxi merchants suddenly realized that their only way out was to fully turn to the new dynasty, Dashi.

"Boom! Beat me to death!"

The soldiers attacked the Linming Pass city wall in wave after wave like a tide, and field artillery, French machine guns, and rockets poured down on the city wall.

The caravan suffered heavy casualties and quickly collapsed under the violent siege of the Qi army.

~~~~
The city gate corridor was filled with the corpses of Ming soldiers and caravan servants. Blood flowed into the moat through the ditch, dyeing the already not-so-clean ditch reddish-brown.

At the beginning of noon, under the sunshine, Deng Changxiong and Zhan Diyou rode on their war horses and entered Linming Pass in a mighty procession.

The representatives of the Eight Great Shanxi Merchants in Linming were tied up and forced to kneel beside the road.

Deng Changxiong put down his whip and cursed loudly.

"When I did business with you before, I never let you suffer any loss. I never thought you would be so greedy..."

After saying that, Deng Changxiong swung his horse whip and whipped him hard, once, twice, and three times. The Shanxi merchant let out a scream that was not like a human voice.

Zhan Diyou said viciously: "Where's the food? Where's the silver? Where did you hide it? Take it out!"

A Shanxi merchant took two steps forward, banged his head against the ground, and howled:

"Sir! God have mercy on our Wang family! The emperor and the rebels did not let us go! It's a shame that I failed to defend the city well, which allowed the bandits to come in and harm the people."

Deng Changxiong laughed heartily, full of murderous intent:

"You're colluding with thieves, and you still think you're right. If you want to die so badly, I'll grant your wish!"

"Drag him out and chop him up!"

Two personal soldiers stepped forward and dragged Manager Wang out like a dead pig, then killed him with their swords.

Deng Changxiong looked at the heads rolling outside with a fierce look on his face, and shouted to the others:

"If you don't want to die, tell us the whereabouts of the silver and food you hid! The first two people to tell will live!"

There was silence all around.

They all value money over life.

Deng Changxiong raised the whip and casually extended it to a caravan member.

"Push it down and chop it off!"

(End of this chapter)