How can one be Emperor Chongzhen without money?

Chapter 54 Wei Zhongxian: Our family really knows how to fight! I should have known better than to castrate him (Please add to your favorites and read on)
Beneath the West Gate, the thick flagpole creaked in the wind.

The Choerji Lama, bound hand and foot, knelt on the cold brick floor, his bald head covered in snowflakes. His face, flushed red from the high altitude, was contorted with terror, the composure expected of a lama long gone. He strained to lift his head, crying out towards the figure in a fur coat atop the city wall:
"Eunuch Wei! Governor! Bodhisattva! Spare my life! This humble monk is merely a messenger! In times of war, envoys are not to be killed... If you kill me, the Khan will surely launch a desperate attack on the city, and the people of Xuanfu will suffer! Please reconsider!"

Wei Zhongxian, wrapped in a sable fur coat, stood at the top of the battlement, the wind making his coat flutter. His face was expressionless as he looked down at the pleading lamas below, his eyes chillingly cold. He slowly drew his sword from his waist.

"Two countries?" Wei Zhongxian's voice wasn't loud, but it carried clearly to the ears of the surrounding soldiers. "How many times have I said it? The Mongol Yuan Dynasty has been gone for over two hundred years! Hudun Tuhan is just a bandit leader, a stray dog. What kind of country does he belong to? He wants to be a dog of the Ming Dynasty, wagging his tail obsequiously. His Majesty is kind-hearted and might even give him a meal. But he also wants to act like a powerful ruler of the grasslands... Does he deserve it? Is he?"

He suddenly raised his voice, which boomed across the city wall:

"You wicked monk! You've come here under the guise of peace negotiations to extort money! You demand 300,000 taels of silver and 100,000 shi of grain! You even dared to force the Ming Dynasty to kill its own general! Do you think we can't see your wolfish ambitions? You've disrupted the morale of our army, you deserve to die!"

He paused for a moment, his eyes sweeping over the soldiers both on and below the city walls:
"Today I'll kill you! I'll make those Tartars, Hudun Tuhan, see clearly! I'll make all the soldiers and civilians inside and outside Xuanfu City see clearly! The Ming Dynasty will not be at peace! We will fight to the death! I, Wei Zhongxian, am ordered to lead the army and will live and die with Xuanfu! Anyone who dares to invade the border will only face death!"

Before he could finish speaking, Wei Zhongxian suddenly stepped forward, his sword flashing coldly in the dim sunlight!
"No!" Choerji's last howl was stuck in his throat.

"Pfft!"

The sword swiftly sliced ​​across the neck! A bald man, his body spurting blood, collapsed to the ground, the blood splattering onto the bricks and quickly freezing into red ice.

Wei Zhongxian didn't even glance at the corpse. He rubbed his sword against the lama's robe, raised it, and shouted:
"Hang their heads up! Let Hudun Tuhan see this clearly! This is what happens when you extort the Ming Dynasty! Let the soldiers and civilians of Xuanfu see it clearly! Neither we nor they have a way out! Either we fight off the Tartars, or we die!"

With that one strike, he essentially bound the entire city to the war machine.

The guards readily agreed, and with long spears they hoisted the still-glaring head high onto the flagpole of the west gate tower.

……

In the snow-covered ground below the city, in front of the golden tent of Hu Dun Tu Han.

"Report!" A scout stumbled and crawled into the tent, his voice trembling with sobs, "Great Khan! Grand Preceptor Choerji... was beheaded by Wei the eunuch! His head is hanging on the flagpole of the city tower!"

"What?!" Hu Dun Tu Hanlin Danbatuer suddenly stood up, his vision blurred, and he almost knocked over the golden throne. He pushed aside his guards and staggered out of the tent, not even putting on his robe.

The wind felt like knives scraping his face. He looked up and saw a bald head swaying in the wind atop the flagpole of the west gate of Xuanfu. Who else could it be but the most respected National Preceptor Choerji!

"Ah, that eunuch Wei!" Tiger Mound Rabbit roared inhumanly, his eyes bloodshot, his whole body trembling with rage. He suddenly drew his jewel-encrusted gold sword, pointed it at the city wall, and screamed, "Kill! Kill for me! Raze Xuanfu to the ground! Leave no one alive! I will personally chop that eunuch to pieces! Ah..."

"Great Khan, calm down! Calm down!" General Dorjigunchuk and his uncle, Juntutaiji, rushed forward and hugged him tightly.

"Let him go! I, the Khan, will kill him with my own hands!" Hu Dun Tu Han struggled desperately, swinging his golden knife wildly.

"Great Khan! We can't attack head-on!" Khuntu Taiji was sweating profusely. "Ming Goucheng is formidable..."

"Get out!" Hu Dun Tu Han kicked Gong Tu Taiji aside, pointed his golden sword at the city wall and roared, "Sound the horn! All troops attack! I, the Khan, will personally supervise the battle! The first to scale the city walls will be rewarded with ten thousand gold pieces and appointed a thousand-household commander! Kill! Kill them all!"

"Woo-woo-woo-woo-woo!"

The mournful sound of horns ripped through the sky! It was no longer a probing attack, but the rage of Ligdan Khan! The entire Chahar camp erupted into chaos, countless Mongol cavalrymen pouring out like a pack of wolves with bloodshot eyes! They no longer conserved their strength or regard formation, howling and charging towards Xuanfu Town under the command of their generals! Some even dismounted, carrying ladders to scale the walls! This was no longer harassment, but a full-scale assault! They charged straight for the west gate, where their Grand Tutor's head hung!
On the city wall, Wei Zhongxian watched the Mongol soldiers surging in like a black tide. Far from being afraid, he grinned and muttered, "This Tiger Mound Rabbit is truly living up to its name. From afar, it looks like a tiger, but up close, it's just a desperate, stupid rabbit..."

He waved his hand: "Liu Yingkun! Hou Shilu!"

"The slave is here!"

"The general is here!"

"Just as I ordered! Serve the Tartars a 'grand feast'! Let them understand the price of disrespecting the Ming Dynasty!"

"As ordered!"

……

Outside the west gate of Xuanfu Town, behind the sheep and horse wall, all was deathly silent. Liu Yingkun, with his one eye pressed against a crack in the wall, stared intently at the approaching Mongol cavalry, who surged closer like a tsunami. Behind him were not only musketeers.

A dozen heavy breech-loading cannons were quietly dragged down from the city wall by the Jingjun and Xuanfu soldiers and hidden in reinforced bunkers behind the sheep and horse walls! The dark muzzles of the cannons protruded from the firing ports, pointing at the open, trampled snowfield in front of them. The gunners dared not breathe, their hands tightly gripping the lit matchlocks, with piles of muskets loaded with loose rounds beside them. Hou Shilu, gripping the hilt of his sword, lay prone behind another bunker, surrounded by hundreds of daredevils armed with spears and axes, awaiting orders.

The Mongol vanguard charged forward at breakneck speed, less than a hundred paces from the sheep and horse wall! They saw the low earthen wall, but they were enraged by the death of the Grand Preceptor and blinded by the huge reward for "first to scale the wall," so they paid no heed to this small obstacle! The horses' hooves pounded the frozen earth and the remaining snow with a muffled thunderous sound. The cavalrymen crouched low and howled, their scimitars gleaming, as they charged straight ahead!

Eighty steps... sixty steps... forty steps!

Liu Yingkun's one eye flashed with a fierce light, and he waved his large hand violently: "Release!"

"Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump..."

More than a dozen breech-loading cannons roared in unison! Flames several feet long shot from their muzzles! Thick white smoke instantly obscured everything!

Thousands upon thousands of lead and iron pellets, each the size of a finger, were scattered out in a fan shape like a storm from hell! They covered an area several dozen paces wide and nearly a hundred paces deep in front of the sheep and horse wall!

The Mongol cavalry charging at the forefront felt as if they had run into an invisible wall of fire!

"Puff puff puff puff..."

A terrifying sound, like rain pattering on banana leaves, erupted! It was the sound of lead bullets tearing flesh and shattering bones! The shouts of men and the neighing of horses were instantly drowned out by shrill screams!

The horse screamed and crashed to the ground, throwing its rider off its back! The rider was riddled with bullets in mid-air, blood and bits of flesh spraying everywhere!
One volley of fire! Within forty paces of the sheep and horse wall, it became a scene of carnage! Hundreds of the fiercest Mongolian vanguard, men and horses alike, were reduced to mangled remains in the blink of an eye! Blood stained the snow, and the stench of blood filled the air!

The Mongol soldiers behind them were stunned by this sudden and devastating blow! Their charge, like waves crashing against rocks, came to an abrupt halt! Fear instantly overwhelmed their anger! They looked at the death zone that had been cleared in an instant, at the mangled corpses of their comrades, and at the heart-wrenching screams, and their eyes suddenly cleared...

"An ambush! Ming dogs have an ambush!"

"Retreat! Retreat quickly!"

Panic spread like wildfire! The charge crumbled instantly, and the surviving cavalrymen, in a panic, turned their horses around, trying to escape this deadly trap. The entire offensive came to a standstill!

On the city wall, Wei Zhongxian looked at the bloody and gruesome scene in front of the sheep and horse wall, his face as if nothing had happened, only his old eyes flashing with a complex light.

He suddenly realized he was quite good at fighting. Maybe, perhaps, maybe he'd chosen the wrong profession? If only he'd never been castrated.
"See that?!" Putting aside his earlier thoughts of "if only I had known," Wei Zhongxian's shrill voice boomed from the city wall again, "This is the fate of the Tartars! Anyone who dares to offend the Ming Dynasty will face certain death! The Tartars, that's all they've got! Hudun Tuhan, what a fool! Let me tell you this: Xuanfu City is the Tartars' graveyard! Hudun Tuhan, if you have the guts, come and attack us yourselves! We'll wait and see, and use his head to offer as a sacrifice to the dead!"

"kill!"

"Kill all the Tatars!"

"Fight to the death with the Duke!"

A deafening roar, mixed with the ecstasy of victory, erupted!

……

Outside the city, in the snow, Hu Dun and Tu Han stood before the golden tent.

Lin Danhan stared blankly at the sheep and horse wall that had instantly turned into a living hell, at the retreating cavalry, and at the cheering Ming army on the city walls. After a moment of stunned silence, his eyes cleared, and he finally realized that he had been made a fool of by the eunuch Wei Zhongxian! Wei Zhongxian had killed Choerji to provoke him, hoping to enrage him into sending another wave of people to their deaths.

Although a hundred or so warriors were nothing to the large army, the courage of the soldiers and civilians in the city was bolstered.

This battle is going to be tough!

A chill, colder than the winter wind, instantly spread throughout his body. He shivered violently, and the golden knife in his hand fell limply.

"Great...Great Khan..." Dorjigunchuk's voice trembled.

Tiger Mound Rabbit's chest heaved violently. After a long while, he managed to squeeze out words through clenched teeth, his voice hoarse and strained:
"Surround...surround them...cut off their supply lines...clear the fortresses...capture...capture the Han people...breach the city with earth..."

(End of this chapter)