The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 582
Pei Dahu and Wu Xiao, leading more than 300 imperial guards, were waiting outside. Lin Yu went out to mediate.

At the gate of Cining Palace, two large stone lions were illuminated by the firelight, and they seemed to be injured and bleeding.

There were flames everywhere outside the palace, and the sounds of people shouting, horses neighing, and muskets firing were everywhere. Occasionally, the screams of soldiers could be heard, and the palace was in chaos.

"I just came out, and the fight started so soon?"

"Your Majesty, calm down. Neither side will give in. Persuasion is ineffective."

Without waiting for Pei Dahu to finish speaking, Liu Zhaosun clenched his fist and punched the stone lion beside him hard.

With a loud bang, half of the head of the thousand-pound stone lion was smashed off, and the lion's body tilted and fell to the ground with a loud bang.

Everyone stared at the scene in front of them in a daze. The emperor looked like a demigod, but they didn't expect him to be so brave.

The guards were all horrified, and some began to wonder, when the rebels rushed into the palace, should they protect the emperor or would the emperor protect them?

Pei Dahu came forward and whispered, "Your Majesty, Lin Yu just went out and I failed to persuade him..."

"He's so tongue-tied, it's a wonder he can be persuaded!"

Wu Xiao also explained: "Your Majesty, the rebels are powerful, and only Lin Yu can go out and resist for a while."

"Is he dead?"

"I don't know yet."

Liu Zhaosun was upset and didn't expect the situation to deteriorate to this extent.

"Which troops were involved in the fight?"

Pei Dahu quickly said, "Jin Yinghe's troops, Zheng Yishi's troops, Yang Tong's pacification troops, and the Japanese-prepared troops Chen Xin brought from Shandong, total no more than 3,000 men."

According to the laws of the Great Qi Dynasty, the commanders of each corps could not bring more than a thousand soldiers with them when they went to the capital to meet the emperor.

"Yang Tong is here to cause trouble too!"

“He’s still a leader.”

"Where is Senti now?"

"Your Majesty, Instructor Mori went to Guangjimen Camp yesterday to give a speech to the new recruits. He was stopped outside the city before he could return."

The Emperor looked at Wu Xiao and continued, "Where are Zhang Mazi and Liu Xingzuo? They are intelligence chiefs after all. They don't even know the rebels are at their doorstep!"

Wu Xiao and Pei Dahu looked at each other and stammered, "Your Majesty, Zhang Dong is with Deng Changxiong, and Liu Xingzuo is with Yang Tong..."

"What about the other officials?"

"Except for Governor Chen and Lord Kang, no one else is here."

Liu Zhaosun nodded. The situation was slightly better than he had imagined.

"Come on, follow me out to take a look,"

Pei Dahu hurried to stop them. It was a mess outside. There were thousands of rebels and maybe even artillery. Both sides were killing each other so fiercely that they didn't care whether the emperor was retired or not. One shot from them and everything would be over.

"Your Majesty, it's better not to go out. Wait for Deng Changxiong and his men to arrive with their troops. They will be able to put down the rebellion quickly. The rebels on both sides only have a few thousand men, while we have tens of thousands of troops."

Upon hearing this, Liu Zhaosun suddenly flew into a rage and grabbed Pei Dahu with one hand like a chicken:

"Say that again? Wait a minute? There's artillery and gunfire going on outside. Every second, my soldiers are dying!"

Wu Xiao advised, "Your Majesty, please don't go out."

"Get out of the way! Those outside are not rebels. They are my comrades and brothers. They cannot die again. If you are afraid of death, hide behind me!"

Wu Xiao drew out his long sword and stood in front of the demigod, refusing to give in.

The retired emperor was too lazy to talk to the two of them. He waved his arm and pushed Wu Xiao and Pei Dahu away. He took two steps at a time and kicked the pillars piled behind the palace gate. With two or three kicks, more than a dozen huge trees as thick as bowls were broken.

He held the door frame with both hands and pulled hard. With a click, the door weighing hundreds of pounds was torn down.

The guards seemed to be fascinated until a blazing fire appeared in their sight and a dense rain of arrows whizzed towards them. Pei Dahu reminded his men to raise their shields to block.

Arrows struck the round shields of the Imperial Guards, making a tinkling sound. When the rain of arrows passed, when they looked up, Emperor Wu Ding was already standing outside the palace gate, facing the chaotic battlefield where arrows were flying everywhere, and shouted loudly:
"Stop it, everyone! Stop it!"

The sky was filled with flames, illuminating the golden armor on Liu Zhaosun's body. He held the fifty-jin Liquan magic spear in his left hand and the gate of the Cining Palace weighing hundreds of jin in his right hand. His muscles swelled up, and his bones made a crackling sound. His nine-foot-tall body stood in front of the palace gate, immediately attracting everyone's attention.

It is no exaggeration to say that it is a god descending to earth.

Several cold arrows flew towards the palace gate. Liu Zhaosun waved his finger and broke the heavy arrows into two pieces. The arrow feathers fell lightly at the feet of the emperor like snowflakes.

"Stop! All! of! Me!!"

The demigod let out a loud roar, and Wu Xiao felt like his ears were about to be deafened. The armor plates on the rebels rushing in the front row clanged, and several sword and shield soldiers couldn't hold their shields tightly and were actually sent flying.

In the distance, the musketeers from both sides who were lining up and firing at each other suddenly stopped their actions, stunned by the roar. When Liu Zhaosun roared for the second time, there was a loud crash, and almost all the musketeers dropped their muskets to the ground.

A biting cold wind whipped people's faces. The rain had stopped. Under the night sky, torches burned brightly, dimly illuminating the flags of the various teams.

The surroundings suddenly became deathly silent. Only in the middle of the two warring positions, dozens of wounded but not dead soldiers were still groaning.

Several troops that had just arrived stood far away and did not move forward immediately.

A moment later, three or four messengers with black triangular flags on their backs passed through the central position of the two warring parties and ran straight towards the Cining Palace.

"It's Deng Changxiong, Qi Jin, Pu Gang, Wang Zengbin and the others. They've all come to rescue us. Look, the Black Tiger Flag and the Black Dragon Antelope Flag."

The guard with the best eyesight pointed at the messenger running towards them and shouted excitedly.

Four messengers quickly ran to the emperor and reported loudly in front of thousands of people:

"Your Majesty! The main force of the First Corps, 8,000 men, the Second Corps, 3,000 men, the Third Corps, 3,000 men, and the Fifth Corps, 4,000 men... have all entered the inner city of Shenyang and sealed the gates. The navy's main battleships are blockading the ports of southern Liaoning, with their guns pointed at fortresses like Jinzhou and Lushun. Generals Deng and Wu, please advise Your Majesty on what to do next."

The imperial messenger waved his hand and shouted, "Order all troops to remain where they are and wait for orders. Do not move without authorization!"

"Yes!"

The appearance of messengers from several major corps completely disintegrated the rebels, who were already hesitant.

In a moment, except for the chief officers who advocated "serving the king" and "suppressing the rebellion", everyone else immediately put down their weapons and squatted on the spot waiting for punishment.

At this time, a thin official came hurriedly towards the emperor through the crowd.

Liu Zhaosun recognized at a glance that this was the Dongguan boy who had been absent for a long time. His eyelids moved slightly, revealing an imperceptible murderous intent.

The Emperor did not wait for the instructor to come over and give him a lecture. He faced the rebels and said loudly:
"Team leaders and flag officers, step out!"

A dozen or so officers came out sparsely, and some were injured.

"Rescue the wounded. From now on, anyone who dares to kill anyone will be executed immediately!"

The generals took action.

Jin Yinghe's familiar voice came from the darkness.

"Today's events have come to this. We, your Majesty, will slay the traitors, even if we die with no regrets!"

Two people also stood up from the opposite camp, one was Chen Xin and the other was Zheng Yishi.

"Your Majesty, please kill these traitors. Otherwise, reforms will be impossible and Great Qi will perish! Kill Jin Yinghe and Yang Tong, and find their accomplices! Catch them all!"

Liu Zhaosun took the loudspeaker handed to him by Sen Ti and shouted to the soldiers in the front row:
"You have all been so devoted to the well-being of the state, with such fervent passion and unwavering loyalty. While I was in the Cining Palace, no one attacked the gates, proving you are truly sincere! Today's events were instigated by a few scoundrels, leading to the soldiers slaughtering each other and spilling blood! I will thoroughly investigate this matter! All soldiers, disperse and return to your camps! The wounded will be dealt with by the Imperial Guards."

The soldiers who had dropped their weapons stared blankly at the gate of the Cining Palace and at the godlike Emperor. After a moment, everyone shouted in unison:

"Long live our emperor! Long live the Great Qi!"

Liu Zhaosun turned around and said to the imperial guards:

"Pei Dahu and Wu Xiao! Take the people to relocate the wounded. Lin Yu, arrest these commanders on both sides!"

~~~~~
At the beginning of the morning on November 18th of the fourth year of Taichu, the chief officers or lieutenants of the Cabinet, the Imperial Household Department, the Five Cities Military Department, the Imperial Guards, the Straw Clothes Guards, and the Pacification Army all rushed to the Shenyang Palace to report the situation to the retired emperor.

No one, including Zhang Dong, had ever seen such a scene.

Throughout the night, conservatives and radicals engaged in a bloody feud, fighting to the death. In addition to the Cining Palace, killings occurred in many places...

A rough estimate is that at least 6,000 people died.

Zhang Dong was so scared that not a trace of blood appeared on his lips. He was not afraid of death. As the leader of the Suoyi Guard and the head of the imperial intelligence, such a big mistake was not justifiable as a dismissal.

The great cause of the empire will be set back many years because of this chaos. This is what makes Zhang Mazi feel terrified.

Zhang Dong gritted his teeth and told the retired emperor, the prime minister (Lu Xiangsheng), the commander of the imperial guard Pei Dahu, and the commander of the Second Corps Deng Changxiong the approximate casualties he had just counted.

Zhang Mazi told the retired emperor and his confidants that last night, from the Suoyi Guard to the Six Ministries, many government offices were involved in the battle between radicals and conservatives. It was estimated that at least 20% of the officials were killed or missing in the chaos.

Zhang Dong pulled out a blood-stained newspaper and said tremblingly:
"Your Majesty, the Suoyi Guards have sent back news that something has happened in Yangzhou. Zhu Changling said that they will not pay this year's tribute, and Mingnian will not pay any more either. At the beginning of this month, a group of about a thousand people from the Sixth Corps defected! They are now leading the Ming army to attack Xuzhou. Xuzhou is in imminent danger..."

"Oh, I see. Go down."

After waving Zhang Mazi away, the Sixth Corps' letter for help landed lightly on the imperial desk.

The emperor covered his face with his hands and cried bitterly.

The ministers' eyes were bloodshot, and no one came forward to comfort them. All of them had just experienced an unforgettable sleepless night last night, and many of them had lost their relatives and friends.

A gust of wind blew through the hall, making a low, mournful sound.

After an unknown amount of time, Emperor Wuding finally opened his eyes, looked at the surviving civil and military officials, and announced loudly:

"Shenyang is in civil strife, Jianghuai is rebelling, civil unrest is spreading, and the land is full of weeds. This is an unprecedented ominous sign! Da Qi has reached its most dangerous moment! Now, the first thing to do is to immediately quell all disputes and restore the army and the Chamber of Commerce to normal! Other matters can be discussed later!"

(End of this chapter)