Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 152 Pull up the artillery for me
Tens of thousands of Ming troops blocked the three sides, and some players blocked the Ji River by boat. More than 10,000 Eight Banners infantry and cavalry were completely trapped.

Although this battle did not result in a big victory as originally planned, it was still a good result to be able to wipe out the effective forces of two Tartars.

Even though it was only a matter of time before he won the final victory, Li Mu still did not let his guard down.

He stared straight at the Tatars who were staying ten miles away. Tens of thousands of Qing cavalry still had the strength to fight.

The closer we are to victory, the more we must not take it lightly.

If tens of thousands of Qing cavalry surrounded and attacked regardless of casualties, the Tatar soldiers with their backs to the Jishui River would become "live chess pieces" and attack the king's army from both inside and outside.

Fortunately, the Qing cavalry did not decide to fight to the death. They turned their horses around and slowly left to the north.

At this time, the sky became gloomy and the cold wind was whistling around us.

Li Mu looked towards the northern sky. Dark clouds were moving towards him. The thick, leaden clouds advanced very quickly, and soon half of the sky became dark.

"The commander-in-chief will send cavalry to follow and monitor the main force of the Tartars." The player who reported the news said in a deep voice.

"You go and lead three hundred players on horseback to follow. Remember! Don't attack the messy flags, just use our black flag."

"Great!" The player was temporarily appointed to an official position and did backflips happily. He was finally considered a full-fledged military officer.

Looking at the backs of the Black Flag Cavalry as they departed, Li Mu's frown relaxed.

His direct infantry and cavalry were tempered in blood and fire in this battle and were thoroughly promoted to veterans. Their faces also changed from immature and fearful to calm and composed.

After this great victory, the reputation of the Black Flag Camp will be known to everyone from Bohai to the Liaozhong Plain.

In the future, when the Eight Banners encounter the Black Flag Battalion, even if the Eight Banners have a one-to-one ratio in numbers, they will not dare to engage in a field battle with the Black Flag Battalion.

This is probably what it means to be awe-inspiring in Liaodong.

More than 10,000 surrounded Tartar soldiers still need to be dealt with.

Whether to kill all the defeated soldiers or recruit some of them was a matter for the senior officials and generals to discuss. Li Mu did not interfere.

He has more important things to consider right now.

After this great victory, the Qinwang Army captured at least 10,000 Tatar soldiers' heads.

According to Lu Xiangsheng's always fair distribution of military merits, the Black Flag Battalion will receive several thousand, and other generals will also receive rewards.

Li Mu secretly thought that his military rank could be promoted further, perhaps to deputy general, or even general of a town.

Higher military rank means greater authority and more visible troops, but also comes with restrictions and oversight, such as the system of senior and junior officials, and eunuchs supervising the army...

However, this was the end of the Ming Dynasty, and any restrictions and surveillance on military officers became a mere decoration.

Military officers often disobeyed orders and refused to follow instructions, and the imperial court was unable to do anything about them.

As a result, the military generals in the late Ming Dynasty formed an atmosphere of "loyalty to the emperor leads to death quickly, while disobeying orders to protect oneself leads to promotion and wealth."

Li Mu certainly would not be a "traitor", but as a "loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty", he would not be led around by the nose by the officials of the court and transferred around, working himself to death.

He also had to find an excuse to keep some players in Shandong. Western Shandong had been plagued by the Tartars for dozens of days, and its military strength was already depleted and bandits were rampant.

A "loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty" like him always had to share the worries of the world and suppress bandits for the people.

It will be very convenient for players to cross the sea to attack the Jiannu in the future, or to seize, no, to restore order in Shandong.

Just as he was thinking about how to reasonably keep some players behind, Li Mu suddenly saw players pushing cannons into the encirclement. "Everyone, make way. Here comes some new toys."

When the government troops heard the noise and saw that it was the black flag soldiers, they tacitly made way for them.

Players gradually pushed their own and friendly artillery closer to the front row of the encirclement. Twenty-seven artillery pieces of various calibers were within three hundred steps of the defeated soldiers.

Every player's face was filled with excited laughter. Many Paradox players who usually talk about "close-range cannonball showdowns" finally had the opportunity to put "shotgun showdowns" into practice today.

"Reload!"

The player who was not the captain acted like a commander, and hundreds of gunners quickly loaded gunpowder bags and shells, even loading double the shotgun shells.

If the muzzle of the field gun was not small, the players would have wanted to stuff themselves into the muzzle and experience the flying meat bomb.

When all the loading steps are completed and the final ignition and firing phase begins, all the players who are loading the guns raise the ignition fuses, and the players in the encirclement can't help but rush over to grab the opportunity to "fire the gun".

At this time, hundreds of personal soldiers surrounded the commander and Gao Qiqian and slowly walked over. Gao Qiqian blurted out in a feminine voice, "Stop!"

The player saw a group of high-ranking officials approaching, but he was not respectful or timid. He raised his head and tilted his head to look over, "What's going on?"

Gao Qiqian was immediately displeased by the soldier's disrespect. "Since the defeated soldiers have no power to resist, allowing them to surrender would save the day. Why add to the slaughter? Selecting the best and strongest soldiers to strengthen the armies would also help fill the gaps. In the future, when we encounter the Eastern Tartars, more of them will surrender on the battlefield. What do you think?"

"Bullshit! The Tartars killed my entire family and my brothers! They spared no innocent civilians. After a defeat, just shouting "surrender" can save you from death and exile. How can such a good thing happen in this world?"

He doesn't take any unruly player seriously, let alone Gao Qiqian. Even if Zhu Youjian is here, he will still confront him.

Faced with a hard roof that was too high to be stepped down, his plump face suddenly turned from red to light purple, like a fat pig with its neck strangled.

Although Gao Qiquan was a eunuch, he had been commanding troops for several years under the emperor's orders, and no general had dared to disrespect him and refute him on the spot.

Not to mention a few soldiers without official positions, he could summon the Jinyiwei with him to chop the soldiers into meat paste with a wave of his hand.

Seeing Gao Qiquan on the verge of a rampage, the other civil officials showed displeasure. Lu Xiangsheng didn't want to kill too many people, so it would be better to persuade the defeated soldiers to surrender...

At this point, they could either rebel completely and go on a rampage, initiating an endless battle, or convince the commander, Lu Xiangsheng, to reject the military supervisor's suggestion to castrate him. There would be plenty of time to exact revenge on the villain later. A highly emotionally intelligent player quickly approached the commander, Lu Xiangsheng, and clasped his hands together.

The guy with high emotional intelligence is worthy of being an actor-level figure. His emotions come and go, and two lines of tears that have been brewing for a moment slid down his cheeks.

He looked at Lu Xiangsheng with emotion, "General, please allow me to report. I, Li Si, was originally a small family in Liaodong. We had a house and land, and we lived a happy life. But who would have thought that the Tartars would invade the Liaozhong Plain, kill my father, and seize my land. My eldest brother led an army to resist the Jiannu, but was captured alive by the Tartars and torn to pieces.

My mother and sister were beautiful and kind-hearted, but the Tartars broke into their house and took turns to rape them a hundred times!

I, Li Si, was forced to flee to Shandong and beg for food in the Central Plains. Unexpectedly, the Tartars were so brutal that they invaded the pass several times to plunder.

I was lucky and strong, so I escaped to southern Henan and survived. Unfortunately, my entire Li family has passed away.

In order to avenge his blood, he had no choice but to join the Black Flag Battalion and train hard.

I have slept on straw and tasted bitter bitterness, and trained hard to strengthen my muscles and bones. I vowed to make great military achievements and kill the Tartars with my own hands. I am determined.

From now on, I will return home to seek revenge and stay by your side. I will never reconcile myself with the dog Tartars who murdered my entire family!"

After telling a series of background stories, Li Si was already in tears. The other officers and soldiers couldn't help but empathize with him and shed tears.

Li Si took a deep breath, suppressed his sadness and indignation, clasped his fists towards Lu Xiangsheng, and lowered his head. "If the commander insists on recruiting my family's ruthless enemy, then you can step over Xiao's corpse!"

As soon as these words were spoken, a group of players from the Black Flag Camp came out one after another, and a chaotic noise rose and fell.

"We may be mere soldiers, but our bodies are as strong as iron. If you want to persuade this evil thief to surrender, you must kill us all first!"

The fierce soldiers of the Black Flag Army had faces full of resentment and their eyes were scorching, as if burning with raging flames.

Seeing the Black Flag Battalion's fierce soldiers all speaking out, Hu Dawei also stood up to speak for the Black Flag Battalion. "Eight hundred Black Flag Battalion warriors risked their lives to attack the Tartar princes under the city of Jinan, saving countless government troops. If we surrender these enemies, wouldn't that be a disservice to the loyal and righteous men?"

Yang Guozhu stood up and said, "I implore the commander-in-chief to kill all these Tartar soldiers to reassure the army."

"I second the motion." Wang Pu also went with the flow.

Even the commander of the Yongwei Camp on the left wing came out to support the killing of this group of Tartar soldiers - they had been entangled by the Qing cavalry and had not played any role in the entire battle. Now was a good opportunity to share some of the credit by killing all the defeated soldiers.

At one point, more than half of the generals reached a consensus, and the senior officials realized that if they insisted on recruiting these surrendered soldiers, the fierce soldiers of the Black Flag Camp would probably rebel on the spot, and the other generals would even watch coldly.

The commander knew that even if he took out the "King's Flag", he would not be able to suppress these arrogant and fierce soldiers and generals, let alone surrendering the enemy who had just killed so many government troops, which would be morally unjustified.

When the soldiers go crazy, they will not talk to the civil officials about the great principles of "benevolence and righteousness". If tens of thousands of fierce soldiers start a rebellion, the whole of Shandong and even the Central Plains will be destroyed.

"what!"

At this time, a wailing sound was heard from the crowd, and everyone looked in the direction of the sound and found that it was Brigadier General Li.

Two arrows were stuck in his chest, and red liquid was oozing out of the wounds.

Of course, he was not really injured, but a plan that came to him suddenly, and the blood was also obtained from the dead players.

"General!"

The players who had learned the news in advance through the commander's voice shouted in surprise and rushed to the injured commander.

"It's okay..." Li Mu said soothing words while trying to stand up.

However, the serious "injury" took away most of his strength, and he was unable to even stand up.

"Don't make things difficult for Commander Lu, you should obey orders..." Li Mu raised his trembling right hand, half of which was covered in blood.

He raised his eyes and glanced at the dog eunuch Gao Qiquan, thinking that it was not convenient to kill anyone in front of tens of thousands of soldiers who were loyal to the king. There would be plenty of opportunities to castrate the dog later.

The news of Lieutenant General Li's attack quickly spread throughout the surrounding area, and the Black Flag Army was furious.

The other government troops were also filled with anger and a desire for revenge. If it weren't for Li Mu's advice and the Black Flag Army's fierce fighting, how could they have obtained the military rewards behind this hearty victory!
It is no exaggeration to say that Li Mu was the greatest contributor to this battle.

The greatest contributor was suddenly attacked by the Tartars, and more than a hundred middle and upper-level generals could not bear it!

"The Tartars are secretly trying to assassinate my general, and you still want to surrender your mortal enemy!"

"I think you old gentlemen who are used to sitting in the government office have forgotten what cruelty is. Otherwise, we brothers will all rebel!"

"Shut up!" Li Mu refuted with all his might, "How dare you be so rebellious!"

"General! These sour guys are bullying us!" The fierce soldiers rushed to Li Mu and cried loudly, "We work hard for them, and they still want to make us feel bad. They are not human! Let's go home and not work for them anymore!"

"Leaving the military camp without permission is a capital offense... Have you forgotten your great wish to fight your way back to your hometown? Save your life, and I will take you home in the future to pay tribute to your families!" Li Mu also shed tears, and then whispered quietly to the players that he would find an opportunity to kill Gao Qiquan in a few days.

The tragic drama between the Black Flag soldiers infected the crowd of onlookers. Anger and touching emotions intertwined together, and they all cast angry glances at the civilian supervisors - if anyone said no, they would draw their swords and tear that person to pieces.

Seeing that a mutiny was about to break out, General Lu rejected the advice of the military supervisor and ordered the killing of all the defeated soldiers to calm the soldiers' anger. He then shouted for the military doctor to come and treat General Li Mu.

The Black Flag Army soldiers who had been crying and cursing just now seemed like different people. They wiped away their tears, suppressed their anger, and returned to the artillery formation in an orderly manner.

There were also some players who glanced at Gao Qiqian intentionally or unintentionally, and secretly swore in their hearts that they would do it to you, the bastard, as long as they found the opportunity.

"Kill the Tartars!"

The brave soldiers of the Black Flag raised the matches and torches to light the fuses of the cannons, and more than 20 cannons fired hundreds of shotgun shells to kill the enemy.

(End of this chapter)