How can one be Emperor Chongzhen without money?

Chapter 18 Not One Can Be Let Go (Please Read and Add to Favorites)

On the 15th day of the 9th month of the 7th year of the Tianqi reign, at the third quarter of the Yin hour.

In the dense forests at the northern foot of the Yanshan Mountains, Zu Dashou's three thousand iron cavalry moved silently. The warhorses carried wooden sticks in their mouths and their hooves were wrapped in coarse cloth; only the occasional rustling of armor plates echoed in the forest.

"Change the flag!" Zu Dashou ordered in a low voice.

The mourning period for the Tianqi Emperor was not yet over, and the army already had white banners prepared, with Liao soldiers all wearing plain white battle robes. One after another, white-bordered flags were unfurled in the morning breeze, with coiled dragon patterns faintly visible at the corners. From a distance, they looked almost identical to the Plain White Banner of the Later Jin Dynasty.

"Have you memorized everything?" Zu Dashou glanced at the twenty night scouts in front of him who were fluent in Mongolian. "You must call out Dorgon's name and say that you are acting on the Great Khan's orders!"

The leader of the night watchmen grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth: "Don't worry, sir. I've been dealing with the Tartars in Liaodong for ten years, and I can even imitate the way they fart."

As dawn broke, the "Plain White Banner Army" was already arrayed outside the south gate of Daning City. The soldiers guarding the city wall rubbed their sleepy eyes and saw a vast expanse of white iron cavalry, their banners and armor clearly in the style of the Eight Banners.

"Open the gate! Dorgon, the banner lord of the Plain White Banner, has been ordered by the Great Khan to conscript the Doyan tribe!" The scout's Mongolian language was tinged with a Shengjing accent, and his whip cracked loudly.

General Batel leaned out and said, "Shubu Taiji has led his elite troops out to war, leaving only..."

"Insolence!" the night guard roared, cracking his whip. "Have you forgotten the lesson of the Kharachin tribe's disobedience last year?!" His words struck like thunder, making the guards on the city wall tremble. A year ago, Nurhaci, because the Kharachin tribe, the masters of the Doyan tribe, wavered during the Battle of Ningyuan, sent troops to massacre their pastures, killing over a thousand strong men in one fell swoop.

The city gate creaked open a crack, and Zu Dashou suddenly drew his saber, roaring, "Kill! Wheel Slash!"

Three thousand cavalrymen surged into the city gates like a tidal wave. Zu Dashou personally led two hundred elite troops straight to the city garrison, while the rest split into ten teams to sweep through the streets. This was no ordinary raiding of the city; it was a premeditated massacre.

The Buddhist temple in the east of the city was the first to suffer. When the Liao soldiers kicked open the temple doors, the old lama Tenzin was polishing a gilded Buddha statue. Before the devout Gelugpa monk could even turn around, a long spear pierced his back and pinned him to the palm of the Buddha statue. Blood dripped down the Buddha's fingers, which were holding a flower, and splattered into the butter lamp.

"By order of the Great Khan! Anyone taller than a cartwheel shall be executed!" Liao soldiers galloped through the streets, driving the terrified herders towards the main street. An old woman with a wrinkled face huddled behind a cart, clutching her grandson tightly. Zu Dashou's personal guard captain grinned maliciously, using his whip to measure the height of the cartwheel: "Half an inch shorter, consider yourselves lucky." Just as the old woman was about to kowtow in gratitude, another Liao soldier swiftly brought down his blade. It turned out that Zu Dashou had made a throat-slitting gesture from afar.

The most horrific massacre occurred in the granary. As torches were thrown into the newly harvested millet piles, dozens of boys hiding behind the grain sacks suddenly sprang into action. These twelve- or thirteen-year-old children, wielding sharpened wooden sticks, recklessly charged at the Liao soldiers. The leader even pierced the calf of a cavalryman, and was pinned to the grain stack by three spears while still cursing in Mongolian.

Zu Dashou watched coldly as the unmovable grain storage turned into a sea of ​​fire, thinking: If this grain falls into the hands of the Jianzhou Jurchens, Huang Taiji might really be able to bypass the Yanshan Mountains, outflank Shanhaiguan, and cut off Liaozhen's retreat!
Thinking of this, Zu Dashou said coldly, "Wheel Slash... Lay the wheels flat!"

……

Shu Bu led his thirty-odd remaining soldiers to the banks of the Qinglong River, where they ran into a herdsman fleeing from Daning City. A shepherd named Zhuoligetu, with a broken arm, knelt in the mud and wailed, "Taiji! It's all over! The Liao dogs disguised themselves as the Eight Banners and breached the city, even the chanting lamas..."

"Shut up!" Shu Bu lashed the shepherd with his whip, then turned to look north. The sky in the direction of Daning City was ablaze with red. He suddenly recalled the scene last winter when he knelt in the Chongzheng Hall of Shengjing, swearing allegiance to Huang Taiji. The Jurchen Khan with the spiky tail patted him on the shoulder and said, "The Ming people value empty reputations most. Even if they know you have submitted to the Great Jin, they will only issue an edict and hurl a few insults."

"Hahaha!" Shu Bu suddenly burst into wild laughter, his blood-stained braid dancing wildly in the wind. "What a little emperor! Even more ruthless than the Great Khan of the Jianzhou Jurchens!" Before his laughter subsided, a whistling arrow pierced the hindquarters of his mount.

Xu Qinian, leading fifty light cavalry, emerged like ghosts from the reeds on the riverbank. This eunuch general, a former member of the Imperial Guard, charged ahead, wielding his long-handled saber with a whooshing sound. Shu Bu's personal guards had barely nocked an arrow when Xu Qinian cleaved their skulls open with a single blow.

"You dog Tartar! Do you still recognize your grandfather?" Xu Qinian stepped on Shu Bu's chest, the tip of his knife pressed against his throat. After the "Great Victory of Ningyuan" last year, he had gone to Daning City to reward Shu Bu, who had "sent troops to help," so he recognized him.

Shu Bu suddenly spat out a mouthful of thick, bloody phlegm: "It was you, you castrated dog..."

A flash of light, and Shu Bu's head flew off. The last thing you could see was a gilded waist badge swaying at Xu Qinian's waist, with the seven characters "Commander of the Imperial Guards Xu" shining brightly in the morning sun.

……

September 18th, Panjiakou Great Wall.

Emperor Chongzhen stood before the enemy tower, a pile of human heads laid out at his feet. Sun Zushou was reporting the battle results: "...more than 5,300 heads were taken, 12 granaries were burned, and warhorses were captured..."

"Not enough." The emperor suddenly interrupted, drawing a blood-red arc on the map with a vermilion pen. "Destroy all the Mongol estates within three hundred li from Panjiakou to Daning! Fill in the wells! Burn any millet that cannot be transported back!"

Duke Zhang Weixian of Yingguo couldn't help but speak up: "Your Majesty, such cruelty may offend the harmony of Heaven..." "Harmony of Heaven?" Chongzhen sneered, "These three hundred li are the only way Huang Taiji will be able to bypass Liaozhen, cross the Yanshan Mountains, break through the Jizhen Great Wall, and kill, loot, and plunder the heart of Beizhili in the future!"

The emperor turned and pointed towards the Luan River: "Sun Zushou! You take five thousand soldiers out of Xifengkou and head north along the Luan River for eighty li! That entire river valley plain is to be given to the brothers of Jizhou as estates!"

At midnight, at Eagle Beak Cliff.

Xu Qinian led his men to survey the terrain and suddenly discovered dozens of women and children from the Doyan tribe, along with a teenager, hiding in a cave below the cliff. The boy could speak Mandarin: "General, spare my life! I, Abu, am a Han blacksmith..." He pulled out a rusty bronze plaque from around his neck, on which the words "Yongping Guard" were faintly visible. They were likely children of Yongping Guard soldiers who had been abducted and were now living under the care of the Doyan tribe...

"My lord?" The guard looked at Xu Qinian.

The eunuch general pressed his hand against the imperial waist token, recalling Emperor Chongzhen's words, "Don't take them alive." But when he saw the words "Wanli Thirty-Seventh Year" on the bronze token in the boy's hand by the torchlight, he suddenly changed his mind: "Send them to the wounded soldiers' camp first to take care of the wounded... Just say it was my order."

……

September 25th, Luanhe Camp.

Sun Zushou personally poured a large spoonful of thick porridge into an old soldier's tattered bowl: "The land distribution order has been issued! Cut off a Tartar's head in exchange for a hundred mu of land, with wounded soldiers given priority!" He pointed to the land on the riverbank that had originally been seized by the Mongols but had now returned to the Ming Dynasty, "His Majesty also said that this land was won by our brothers with their blood, and it will forever belong to Jizhou! Moreover, this land is not included in the merit rewards; it's extra! Everyone who is willing to stay along the Luan River and build a fortress will get a share! Brothers who have merit land to share and are willing to move to the Luan River Valley will get five mu for one mu, plus an extra fifty taels for relocation expenses!"

The surrounding soldiers stirred.

To forever belong to Jizhou? This is tantamount to territorial expansion!

Veteran Wang Erbao suddenly knelt down, grabbing handfuls of soil mixed with grass roots, tears streaming down his face. He was originally a military household member of Yongping Guard, captured by the Mongols during the Wanli era and enslaved for several years before escaping back to join the army. Now, he finally had his own land. But he wanted to stay here, to claim more land, more… and the "Imperial Guard Prince" badge on his waist reflected the sunlight.

On a distant hilltop, Zu Dashou coldly watched the jubilant soldiers. His deputy leaned closer and whispered, "Sir, what about the rewards for our brothers in Liaozhen..."

"What's the rush? The current emperor won't order people around for nothing!" Zu Dashou fiddled with the gold ingots he had found in Shu Bu's mansion—this Shu Bu was quite rich; he had actually managed to snatch over a thousand taels of gold in one go... It turns out that slaughtering the Tartars in the city is quite profitable!
Then he recalled the question his personal guards had asked during the massacre: "Why are we killing Mongols even more ruthlessly than killing the Jurchens?"

Now he understood: what the emperor wanted was never heads, but to stain the fertile soil of the Luan River with the blood of the Doyan people, and then use this blood-stained soil to bind the hearts of the border troops... Perhaps those lands swallowed up by the nobles of Beijing will soon have to be returned!
He said coldly, "We've made an enemy of the Kharachin Mongols. The fertile land north of the Liaoxi border wall, along the banks of the Liuzhou River, the Daling River, and the Xiaoling River, will be ours sooner or later!"

……

September 28th, Santunying drill ground.

The autumn wind whipped sand and gravel against the military flags, which fluttered in the breeze beneath the banner bearing the character "Ming" (明). Two thousand soldiers stood motionless. Their blue cotton armor had long since faded to gray, the iron armor beneath rusted, and some even wore blood-stained bandages. Yet, the newly gilded waist badges hanging at their waists gleamed brightly in the dim sunlight—the four characters "Imperial Guards" symbolizing their newfound life.

They were only a part of the imperial guards under Chongzhen. More than two thousand brave men from Jizhou, wearing "personal guard" waist tags, remained under Sun Zushou's command and became Chongzhen's most steadfast supporters in Jizhou!
Emperor Chongzhen walked past the ranks, his boots scraping against the gravel with a harsh, grating sound. He suddenly stopped in front of a man in his thirties at the head of the ranks. The man's face was wrapped in a blackened gauze, and the wooden shaft of his spear was soaked in blood and sweat, turning it a dark red.

"State your name!" The emperor's voice cut through the wind.

"Li Changgen, a centurion of Changping Guard!" The roar aggravated the scar on his cheek, and beads of blood seeped from the edge of the cloth strip. "Four heads have been beheaded, and His Majesty has granted me four hundred mu of land!"

The drill ground was deathly silent. Duke Zhang Weixian of England stared at Li Changgen and gasped – wasn't this the man who led the mutiny over unpaid wages?

Suddenly, Emperor Chongzhen removed his black cloak and personally tied it around Li Changgen's shoulder. The brocade cloud pattern swept across the blood-soaked cotton armor, startling the fierce soldier into stiffening. "Do you know why I chose you?" The emperor turned to face the entire army, his sword sheath pointing westward. "Beyond Shanhaiguan Pass are Zu Dashou's three thousand iron cavalry, beyond Xifeng Pass are Sun Zushou's five thousand elite soldiers—but my sharpest blade is you!"

"Your Majesty, I..." Li Changgen choked up.

"Issue the imperial decree!" Emperor Chongzhen shouted, "From this day forward, the rations and pay of the Imperial Guards will be doubled, and the compensation for those who died in battle will be doubled! Li Changgen is promoted to commander of a thousand men and appointed as the battalion commander of the Imperial Guards' rear camp! Furthermore..."

Emperor Chongzhen turned around and looked at the more than three hundred coffins neatly arranged on the drill ground. His tone was sorrowful: "Those who died in this battle or were seriously wounded will all receive generous compensation, all of which will come from the imperial treasury! Those who die in battle will receive a one-time compensation of one hundred taels of silver! Those who are seriously wounded will receive fifty to one hundred taels of silver, depending on the severity of their injuries!"

"Long live!" Two thousand voices exploded into the sky, the sound waves making the flags on the training ground flutter loudly.

(End of this chapter)