Huangming

Chapter 243 Enduring humiliation to survive, plotting a rebellion

As dusk settled, the camps with red flags stretched out in a continuous line outside Fushun City, the banners fluttering in the night wind.

The camp was filled with a pungent smell of blood, which startled the patrolling Goshha men who all turned their heads to look.

Li Yongfang staggered forward, supported by his guards, the blood seeping from the gaps in his armor leaving winding dark streaks on the sand.

"Commander-in-Chief, watch your step!"

Before the guard could finish speaking, Li Yongfang groaned and collapsed into the tent.

In the flickering candlelight, one could see a scarlet patch on his back, with deep whip marks that revealed the bone, turning his original official robes into shreds.

Li Yangeng, who was studying "The Art of War" inside the tent, suddenly looked up and slammed the book in his hand onto the table.

"Father!"

Li Yangeng knocked over the low table and rushed over, his palm getting sticky all over his father's shoulder the moment it touched him.

With trembling hands, he placed the person on the felt blanket, only to see Li Yongfang suddenly bend over and scream in agony. It turned out that the inner garment, which was stuck together by blood scabs, had torn open the flesh.

Choking!

The young man's sword was already drawn three inches from its sheath, the glint of the blade reflecting a crimson light in his eyes: "Which beast did this? I'll go chop off his claws right now!"

After saying that, he was about to draw his sword and go out to cause trouble for others.

"Come back here!"

Li Yongfang lay face down on a simple wooden bed, fine beads of sweat appearing on her forehead.

He endured the pain and reached out to grab his son's wrist.

The hand was rough and strong, but it trembled slightly.

"Yan Geng."

Li Yongfang's voice was hoarse and low, as if it were squeezed out from the depths of her chest.

He turned to the few guards standing inside the tent and waved his hand: "You all go out."

The guards exchanged glances, and one of them hesitated before saying, "Sir, your injury..."

"go out!"

Li Yongfang suddenly raised her voice, then gasped as the pain aggravated her wound.

"Yes!"

The guards dared not disobey and withdrew from the tent.

The heavy curtains fell, cutting off all outside sounds, leaving only the occasional soft crackling of the candlelight.

A deathly silence fell over the tent.

Li Yangeng could hear his own rapid breathing, his chest heaving violently.

He stared at his father's pale face, every wrinkle on which was etched with weariness and forbearance.

Li Yongfang let out a long sigh, a sigh that seemed to carry an immense weight.

"Hey!"

Li Yangeng's fingernails dug deeply into his palms: "Father, who did this? Tell me!"

His voice trembled with suppressed anger.

"I will make him pay for his crimes in blood!"

Li Yongfang slowly shook her head, a complex emotion flashing in her eyes: "You want to avenge me?"

He gave a wry smile.

"But do you know who inflicted this wound on my back?"

"No one can hit him!"

Li Yangeng slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly, causing the teacups on the table to rattle loudly.

"We are human beings, and we have dignity! We are not their dogs, nor their slaves!"

Ever since Li Yongfang surrendered to the Jianzhou Jurchens, Li Yangeng had been filled with an unquenchable resentment.

This fire burned in his heart day and night, making him restless and unable to eat or sleep.

On the day Kaiyuan fell, the Later Jin cavalry, like wolves and tigers, slaughtered with their blades, leaving behind only lamentations and suffering.

Of the officials and civilians in the city, only one in ten survived. The survivors were all taken into slavery, and the rest lay dead in pools of blood.

The corpses piled up like mountains, filling the moat and ditches, and the blood soaked the yellow earth, turning the entire city dark red.

When Tieling fell, the tragedy repeated itself.

Tens of thousands of people in the city were killed, including infants in swaddling clothes and elderly people with white hair.

The once bustling town, teeming with merchants, was reduced to ruins in an instant, with only crows circling and cawing mournfully on the charred beams.

At this moment, the pent-up resentment finally broke through its shackles, like a flood bursting its banks, completely overwhelming Li Yangeng's remaining rationality.

He couldn't take it anymore!

"Today's military meeting revealed my poor performance, which led to the setback of our Great Jin's offensive."

Li Yongfang adjusted his posture with difficulty, took a deep breath, and continued, "The Khan believed that I still had my heart set on the Ming Dynasty, so he ordered someone to whip me twenty times in public as a warning to others."

"Even Nurhaci would not humiliate you like this!"

Li Yangeng's eyes were bloodshot and his voice was hoarse.

"You were once a guerrilla general of the Ming Dynasty, yet now you have to suffer such humiliation under the command of these barbarians!"

Li Yongfang's eyes dimmed: "Yan Geng, you don't understand."

"I understand perfectly!"

Li Yangeng interrupted his father.

"From the day you surrendered, I knew that our Li family had become traitors."

He spat out the last two words through gritted teeth, as if they were the filthiest words in the world.

The air inside the tent seemed to freeze.

Li Yongfang's face grew even paler. He slowly closed his eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Do you think I wanted this?"

Li Yongfang suddenly opened her eyes, which were glistening with tears.

"On the day Fushun fell, there were three thousand defending soldiers and tens of thousands of civilians! If I hadn't surrendered, they would all have died!"

"That's still better than living a wretched life like this!"

Li Yangeng roared, his voice filled with disappointment and frustration: "Look at yourself now! You're like a dog wagging its tail and begging for mercy!"

Li Yongfang suddenly propped herself up, but then fell back onto the bed due to the excruciating pain.

He was breathing heavily, but his voice was unusually calm: "As long as you're alive, there's hope."

"What hope?"

Li Yangeng sneered.

"Continue to be the Jurchens' lackeys? Watch them slaughter our compatriots?"

"Yan Geng!"

Li Yongfang shouted sternly, "Watch your words!"

"What? Are you going to tell your master on this?"

Li Yangeng scoffed, "Just like how you denounced those colleagues who refused to surrender?"

Li Yongfang struggled to sit up. The whip marks on her back burned with pain, but it was nothing compared to the bitterness in her heart.

He watched his son's stubborn back, his voice hoarse and tired, but he still wanted to persuade his son.

Since you've surrendered and become a slave, you should act like one.

Thinking too much and doing too much will only lead to your demise.

"Yan Geng"

“We are surrendered generals, and we have no choice but to bow our heads when we are under someone’s roof. This is better than when we were in Liaodong, being treated like dogs by those civil officials from the capital.”

Do you really think our situation will be better in the Ming Dynasty than it is here?

"Once a traitor, always a traitor. We have no choice."

He reached for the teacup, but found his hands were shaking so badly that he had to give up.

"Besides, we really didn't do a good job this time, so we have no complaints about being punished by the Khan."

"Not thorough enough? And you're still defending them?"

Li Yangeng almost cried and snot was coming out of his eyes when he spoke.

"Is it because Father hasn't done a good enough job?"

“Since the surrender, has my father not gotten up before dawn to handle military affairs every day? In every battle, has he not been at the forefront? Even last winter, when transporting grain, my father personally led the team across the snow-capped mountains!”

“But how have they treated Father? Not only have they never considered us as their own, but they've also been wary of us at every turn! Now they're openly coveting the Niru under Father's command, not even letting go of the meager possessions in our home!”

His voice grew louder and louder until it was almost a shout: "Father, are you addicted to being a slave? I think it's better to leave this Great Jin!"

"Stop talking!"

Li Yongfang's expression changed drastically. Ignoring the excruciating pain in her back, she rushed forward and covered her son's mouth.

This movement aggravated his wound, causing him to feel dizzy and his vision to go black. Cold sweat instantly soaked through his undergarments.

"Are you going to die?"

Li Yongfang's voice was extremely low, almost a whisper, and her eyes were filled with terror.

He cautiously scanned the direction of the tent entrance, and only relaxed slightly after confirming that the tent flap was tightly closed.

Don't you understand the saying "walls have ears"?

He let go, his fingertips still trembling slightly.

"If these words reach the ears of the Prince, our whole family will lose our heads!"

Li Yangeng stubbornly turned his face away, his jawline taut: "Is Father willing to be their slave for the rest of his life?"

Footsteps suddenly came from outside the tent, and the father and son fell silent at the same time.

Li Yongfang quickly made a shushing gesture, forcing herself to maintain a dignified sitting posture.

As the footsteps faded into the distance, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the couch.

"Yan Geng."

Li Yongfang's voice suddenly sounded much older.

"As their father, I know what they're thinking. But you must remember, only by living can you have the chance to turn things around."

Li Yangeng, however, did not agree with Li Yongfang's statement.

"Father!"

His voice was deep and firm, as if it were squeezed out from the depths of his chest.

"Do you know that news has come from within the Great Wall that the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty has ascended the throne? Although the young emperor is only of marriageable age, he has already shown the same talent and ambition as the Taizu and Chengzu emperors!"

He strode to the tent flap, listened intently for a moment to make sure no one was eavesdropping, then turned and lowered his voice:
"The new emperor has been on the throne for less than a year, and he has swiftly purged the eunuch faction and reorganized the Six Ministries. The soldiers of the Beijing Garrison are now well-fed and paid, and are no longer the weak army they once were."

As he got more excited, Li Yangeng spoke faster and faster.

"What's even more encouraging is that the imperial court has begun a nationwide land survey, and those powerful families who encroached on military farms have been punished. No one dares to embezzle a single penny of the soldiers' pay!"

Li Yangeng suddenly knelt on one knee and grabbed his father's wrist: "Do you remember? When we attacked Kaiyuan and Tieling, the Ming army surrendered without a fight, and the cities could be taken in a day or two. But what about now?"

"How many female warriors' corpses are piled up beneath the walls of Shenyang? It's been almost a month! Almost a month and we haven't made a single step forward!"

Li Yangeng's face showed extraordinary determination: "Father, this is a golden opportunity! If we surrender to the Ming now, we can not only wash away the stigma of being a surrendered general, but also help the court recover Liaodong. At that time—our Li family will be heroes who turned the tide and be remembered in history for our loyalty!"

He suddenly looked up, his gaze piercing as he stared directly at his father: "Rather than live a life of humiliation here, I'd rather fight to the death! I'd rather die a glorious death on the battlefield than live a life of ignominy as a slave to a foreign race!"

By the end, his voice was choked with emotion, yet he stubbornly straightened his back, waiting for his father's response.

The tent was silent for a moment, with only a few sparks occasionally popping from the charcoal fire, illuminating the solemn faces of the father and son.

反.
Is it really possible?

ps:
On the third day, I experienced withdrawal symptoms, but I felt much better. Sure enough, my persistent lethargy was due to the loss of my vital energy!
[○｀Д○]
(End of this chapter)