The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 59 True Dragon
To the east of Kaiyuan City, dusk is falling.

Jin Yuji holds a nine-section whip in her hand, a small bow on her back, a plum blossom dagger hidden on her body, and stands on her horse with her head held high.

She wore a headband, a layer of chain mail over her skirt and jacket, and a bright red cape on the outside. She had a slender figure and was as cold as ice. After several days of busy military service, she looked even more heroic.

Liu Zhaosun looked back at Jin Yuji and felt that this woman was more charming and attractive, not comparable to ordinary vulgar women.

Since that night, the Korean beauty has regarded herself as the concubine of Brigadier General Liu and has been inseparable from Liu Zhaosun.

She followed her father to fight against Japanese pirates since she was young. She was skilled in archery and horse riding, and was bold and resolute. Later, her family fell into poverty and she lived in a foreign land, where she experienced the vanity of life and wars.

Seeing that Liu Zhaosun was such a heroic figure, she loved him even more. She asked him about his well-being and was very attentive to him. She even had the intention of replacing the lady of the imperial edict and making her the legitimate wife.

When the lieutenant general was fighting at the north gate, he ordered Jin Yuji to guard Yang Hao and his daughter. However, the Korean beauty was not willing to protect her rival, so she hired a chubby maid to stand at the gate of the courtyard and asked a group of combat soldiers to guard it. She disguised herself as a servant and rode to the north gate to help in the battle. She also shot and killed two fleeing soldiers along the way.

"The Jiannu have all fled. Why don't you continue to pursue them?"

Liu Zhaosun looked at the beauty, sighed, and said after a long while:

"The casualties in the battle were heavy. The general and the coastal defense governor have both died for their country. Many issues in the city are difficult to resolve, and I must personally take charge."

Liu Zhaosun looked at the city that was falling into darkness, determined to kill one to warn the rest and quell the rebellion in the city.

If not, Kaiyuan tonight would be a hell on earth.

He ordered all the soldiers at the north gate to immediately stop pursuing the Bordered Blue Banner and return to the city to be on guard.

Except for the bannermen, the Zhenyi of the Bordered Blue Banner all had horses and were mounted infantry. Soldiers could not catch up with them on foot.

"After the soldiers return to the city, immediately close the four gates and execute the fleeing soldiers and civilians. Anyone who resists with weapons will be treated as a Jiannu spy and killed!"

Fires were everywhere in the city, and shouts of killing were heard. If no action was taken, Kaiyuan would become a hell.

Liu Zhaosun was about to ride his horse to the north gate for inspection when he heard someone behind him say:

"Commander Liu, congratulations! For securing Kaiyuan and relieving the emperor of his worries, a promotion is a given!"

It turned out that Kang Yingqian was here.

Military Supervisor Kang treated me as his mortal enemy just a few days ago, but now he has such a friendly demeanor. This man changes his expression faster than turning the pages of a book.

He stepped forward and patted Liu Zhaosun on the shoulder, as if his previous collusion with Liaozhen to murder Liu Zhaosun had never happened.

"Lieutenant General Liu, the Emperor promoted you to Lieutenant General last time, and this time you must be promoted to Deputy General! You insisted on staying in Liaodong. Now it seems that you are worried about the long-term."

There seemed to be no precedent in the Ming Dynasty for a 20-year-old general, so to be on the safe side, Kang Yingqian said he was a deputy general.

Liu Zhaosun didn't care about the general and deputy general, he looked to the west.

At this time, the sky gradually darkened and the crescent moon rose in the northwest.

"General Xiong is about to enter the city. He will lead the Jizhen troops to camp ten miles west tonight. Tomorrow, he will see the city in ruins and corpses everywhere. It will not be good. I asked you to come here to help comfort the refugees. I heard that you have served as a prefect and a coastal defense commissioner, and have lived in Liaodong for a long time. You are familiar with the people's sentiments. But what can the military inspector teach me about the current situation?"

Kang Yingqian had heard of Xiong Tingbi a long time ago and knew that this was someone he couldn't afford to offend. Seeing that Liu Zhaosun had come to his senses, he felt that the young man was teachable, so he said straight to the point without any further ado:

"Lieutenant General Liu, I have come all the way here and have seen your pacification troops killing people everywhere. I wonder why?"

Liu Zhaosun looked at Kang Yingqian in surprise. Could it be that this old man also knew how to sympathize with the world?

"The pacification troops are clearing out the rebels and killing the Jiannu spies. Supervisor Kang, please don't ask questions when you already know the answer."

Kang Yingqian had just had some expectations of Liu Zhaosun, but when he heard him keep calling him "this official" and putting himself on the same level as him, he immediately became very angry.

After all, he was a military supervisor and a distinguished Jinshi. How could he, a mere lieutenant general, be so rude?

However, he did not bother to argue with this warrior. After all, the warrior had soldiers and had something on him.

Kang Yingqian pondered for a moment and lowered his voice:
"I have something to say, but I'm not sure if I should say it."

Liu Zhaosun glanced at him and smiled slightly:

"General Kang, if you have anything to say, please speak."

Kang Yinggan stroked his beard, glanced around, and stared at Jin Yuji.

Liu Zhaosun glared at him and said angrily:

"These are all my confidants, don't worry, just tell me if you have anything to say!"

An old hand like Kang Yingqian certainly didn't trust any confidants. He withdrew his gaze and said with a smile:

"Many things in this world go wrong because of confidants. Confidants are confidants, of course, but I'm afraid that the next few words I say will bring up a heinous crime. Does Lieutenant General Liu really want them to hear it?"

Seeing that he was laughing in a rather creepy way, Liu Zhaosun thought that he was going to say something earth-shattering, so he said to the servants:

"Back off!"

Several servants rode their horses and slowly retreated. Jin Yuji snorted, leaned forward, and whispered softly into Liu Zhaosun's ear:
"Sir, this old man is so evil!"

After saying that, he glared at Kang Yingqian fiercely.

Kang Yingqian snorted and decided not to bother with this barbaric woman.

"Okay, let's talk."

Liu Zhaosun looked at Kang Yinggan. If the old man couldn't explain anything, he would keep him locked up and sell him to Seoul as a male prostitute.

Kang Yingqian looked around and saw thick smoke rising from the city, some houses were still burning, and the shops on both sides of the street were in ruins.

"Liu Zhaosun, I know what you are thinking. You want to take advantage of the chaos in Liaodong and establish a stronghold in Kaiyuan."

"You are making friends with the eunuchs while placing your subordinates in the Pacification Office. You are really aiming for something big."

When Kang Yingqian said this, he suddenly lowered his voice and smiled at Liu Zhaosun:
"Want to follow Li Chengliang's example and become the King of Liaodong?!"

Civil servants are civil servants. They always have wild fantasies. When they were county magistrates, they aspired to be the chief minister. When they first arrived in Liaodong, they conquered the barbarians in three years and pacified the Liao in five years.

Liu Zhaosun said coldly:

"Eunuch Wei and I are heroes who appreciate heroes. You're overthinking it."

"hero?"

Kang Yingqian didn't expect Liu Zhaosun to classify the eunuch as a hero. He couldn't help but find it ridiculous. He laughed for a while before continuing:
"Kaiyuan boasts a thousand miles of fertile land, adjacent to the Song and Liao Rivers, and the farmland is ideal for farming. You've made a good plan to occupy land here, but you must also know that Li Chengliang has been operating in Liaodong for many years, and the Liaozhen area is deeply rooted. Do you think that simply occupying Kaiyuan City will give you a foothold in Liaodong?"

Liu Zhaosun looked at Kang Yingqian seriously, wondering what this old man was up to.

"If you want to gain a foothold here, you still lack two things?"

"Your head and Nurhaci's head?"

Kang Yingqian laughed dryly twice and said with a serious expression:
"The land and the title deeds."

"The land is outside the city, and the title deeds are in the hands of a wealthy family. Without land, even if you occupy Kaiyuan, you will be like a tree without roots. You won't be able to survive in Liaodong."

Liu Zhaosun smiled as he looked at Kang Yinggan. He saw this old official with a white beard and a ruthless face. He suddenly found him quite interesting. After all, Liu Zhaosun was only a twenty-year-old young man. Although he had the blessing of time travel, he was usually busy charging into battle and had no time to think about anything else.

There are as many as 500,000 to 600,000 mu of arable land around Kaiyuan, and millions of mu of abandoned land that no one cultivates.

If Liu Zhaosun wanted to recruit refugees, train soldiers and cultivate land, he would need a large amount of land. Where would this land come from?

There seemed to be an opportunity in front of him, and Liu Zhaosun's eyes focused:

"I considered this matter when I was in Shenyang. At that time, I wanted to convert all soldiers into military households to facilitate the distribution of land later. This time, the Later Jin army besieged Kaiyuan and killed countless people in the area east of the city. Many civilians died, and much of the land became unowned. It can be directly converted into military farmland. Besides, Generals He and Ma both died for their country, and the land under their names is vacant. General Ma once promised to rent me 30,000 mu. After calculating, I think that all this should add up to 50,000 to 60,000 mu."

After the Battle of Kaiyuan, there were only 4,000 surviving soldiers under Liu Zhaosun's command, and it was estimated that more than 1,000 wounded soldiers would die in the next few days. 50,000 to 60,000 acres of land should be enough.

If they occupy too much territory at once, it will inevitably cause dissatisfaction among the surrounding forces, and Liaozhen will definitely fight them to the death.

"Hahaha, 60,000 mu? How can that be possible? Are you going to let all your men starve? You must know that this Liao military pay is not yours."

Kang Yingqian laughed for a while as if he had heard a very good joke. Regardless of Liu Zhaosun's aversion to the word "Qiu Ba", he continued to laugh:
"Hahaha, Xiong Manzi is a stubborn person with a hot temper. Back then, when he was checking the Yellow Scale Land Register in Jiangxia, he got into a fight with the prefect over three acres of land."

"If you don't occupy it now, you won't be able to occupy it when the Xiong Manzi arrives, and it will only benefit the wealthy families. Fifty thousand acres is certainly not enough, Lieutenant General Liu, you don't just want these three thousand soldiers, do you? How will you resist the Jian Nu next time they come?"

"The land in Kaiyuan is concentrated in the hands of wealthy families."

Kang Yingqian said this, looked around, moved closer to Liu Zhaosun, and lowered his voice:
"If you want land, you have to kill people!"

"Kill, who?"

Liu Zhaosun already knew the answer, but he didn't want to say it himself.

"Hahaha, who do you want to kill?"

Kang Yingqian looked disdainful and despised Liu Zhaosun's white lotus behavior.

"General Liu, you really don't know?"

"Don't say anything inappropriate. I know it, I just don't want to say it."

Kang Yingqian laughed heartily, thinking that this boy had some of the flavor of an ancient sage, but now was not the time to be a gentleman.

"Tonight, withdraw all your combat troops and let the defeated soldiers continue to rob the wealthy merchants. Tomorrow, enter the city to quell the rebellion and seize the silver of the defeated soldiers. The wealthy merchants have been slaughtered, so it's a good opportunity to use Li as a scapegoat. We have silver and land. If they die, there will be no evidence. What can Xiong Tingbi do..."

Liu Zhaosun was breathing rapidly and felt his heart beating faster.

Kang Yingqian's expression remained unchanged, as if the lives and deaths of tens of thousands of people could be used as a stepping stone for his own promotion, and he trampled on them without mercy.

Master Kang stepped forward and patted Liu Zhaosun on the shoulder, giving the young man the courage to kill.

"We've occupied the land and burned the deeds. Xiong Manzi won't be in Liaodong for long. Many officials in the capital are planning to make trouble for him. Once he leaves, Kaiyuan will be ours. By then, when the new army is trained, even the Jiannu won't be able to defeat you, and the Liaozhen will not dare to provoke you..."

Liu Zhaosun looked at Kang Yinggan in surprise. This old fox said in just a few words something he had never thought of.

Aren’t you the military supervisor sent to Liaodong by the emperor?
You are waving the red flag to oppose the red flag, not supervising the army properly, but also instigating me to establish my own separatist regime and dominate the world. Your actions deserve to be punished!

No wonder the world is about to perish and the people are about to rebel.

He looked up at Kang Yingqian and said righteously:

"The defeated soldiers are looting. Are they only robbing the wealthy? What about the rest of the people? Will they kill anyone who refuses to pay?"

"Besides, among the wealthy families, there are some who are usually kind to others. If I kill all of them, how will the remaining people feel? How will they view me? How will I survive in Liaodong in the future?"

"As a military supervisor, not only do you not care about the people, but you also harm them for your own selfish gain. Aren't you afraid that the Emperor will be furious and have you arrested and sent to the Pacification Office?"

Kang Yingqian smiled coldly and waved his hand to the southwest, which was the direction of the Ming Dynasty capital.

"That's the capital. Have you been there?"

"Afraid? I'm only afraid that I don't have enough money for my retirement."

"Even if I enter the Pacification Division, I have Lieutenant General Liu to look after me, Shen Lian, and Eunuch Wei to protect me. I have nothing to fear."

"Liu Zhaosun, if you are afraid, then take your troops back to the interior of the country and watch them become bandits and eventually starve to death."

Having said this, Kang Yingqian suddenly sped up his speech and said angrily:
"Thanks to you, Eunuch Wei has sent word to several censors to impeach me, accusing me of embezzling the Emperor's treasury and exploiting the Kaiyuan people. They also allege that I revel every night. How ridiculous! Returning to the capital is now impossible. I can only stay in Liaodong, in this den of wolves."

"So you chose me, and I also have ulterior motives?"

Kang Yingqian glanced at Liu Zhaosun and said meaningfully:
"Liu Zhaosun, I have observed you for a long time. You are neither a wolf nor a tiger. From a distance, you look a bit like a dragon..."

Liu Zhaosun was stunned for a moment and waved his hand to interrupt Kang Yingqian. He was not interested in the dragon and tiger appearances.

When I heard that Wei Zhongxian stood up for me, I was somewhat touched.

It seems that Eunuch Wei is indeed a figure like Guan Gong and Yue Fei.

He remembered that he had just said a few words about Kang Yingqian in front of Wei Zhongxian, but he did not expect that his elder brother would immediately stand up for him and impeach him as a censor.

This brother is worth it.

"I have been supervising the army for many years and have a clear understanding of what is happening in Liaodong. Those who can gain a foothold in Liaodong, such as Gao Huai, Nurhachi, Yang Hao, and Xiong Tingbi, are either tigers, wolves, or jackals and leopards."

Liu Zhaosun looked at Kang Yinggan coldly. This old man was quite bold, just like his father-in-law Yang Hao. Both of them were betting on him.

However, when Liu Zhaosun heard him say that by defeating the local tyrants and dividing the land, he could get hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land in one go, this was still very attractive to him.

For a moment, he was actually quite moved.

However, after careful consideration, Liu Zhaosun rejected Lord Kang's kindness.

"I will not allow my subordinates to do such things that harm the country and the people."

Kang Yingqian wanted to scold Liu Zhaosun for being too soft-hearted, thinking that this warrior had just killed so many people on the battlefield, but now he was pretending to be kind and righteous, and was even fussy about slaughtering several wealthy families.

But then the lieutenant general continued:
"At least, I won't let the soldiers do it."

Hearing this, Kang Yingqian's gloomy face immediately showed joy again:

"I understand what the lieutenant general means. He's worried that the soldiers will pick up bad habits. Okay, then let the wolf soldiers do it."

There are still more than 300 surviving wolf soldiers at the East Gate. These soldiers are fierce and good at fighting, and are no less powerful than the Jiannu. It would be perfect to use them to massacre the wealthy. Then, we can directly put the blame on the Jiannu or Liaozhen. If that doesn't work, we can also massacre these barbarians from Guangxi.

Kang Yingqian looked at Liu Zhaosun expectantly, waiting for his order to lead the wolf soldiers into the city.

Kang Yingqian knew that after the Battle of Kaiyuan, those soldiers were obedient to Liu Zhaosun's orders.

If he could gain a foothold in Kaiyuan, within ten years, Liu Zhaosun might become a figure like Li Chengliang. It is not too late for him to join him now.

The military inspector now transformed into a strategist, his face full of pride. He took out a paper fan from his sleeve and waved it twice in the biting cold wind, with a bit of the style of Kong Ming and Guo Jia.

"No, not even wolf soldiers."

"I will not slaughter innocent people, nor will I sit idly by and watch civilians suffer. What you are saying are all heretical ways. I will follow the right path! I have made up my mind. Tonight, I will behead all the fleeing soldiers and civilians!"

(End of this chapter)