Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning players from Liaodong to support the Ming Dynasty

Shanhaiguan.

This strategic pass, guarding the Liaoxi Corridor, appeared grim amidst the ice and shards. The bluish-gray city bricks gleamed in the cold wind, and icicles hung from the crenellations, shimmering in the morning light.

The soldiers guarding the city wall, wrapped in tattered cotton armor, huddled in sheltered corners with their hands tucked into their sleeves. They heard a noise. It wasn't the usual rhythm of horses' hooves, but a continuous rumble.

Lu Jian's personal guards, riding at breakneck speed, led the way, holding aloft the black token of the Northern Garrison Command, their voices hoarse from the wind.

"By imperial decree, we are defending the capital! The Guangning army is passing through! Open the city gates!"

The commander on the city wall originally wanted to ask a few more questions, but when he looked down and saw the army that covered the mountains and plains below the pass, he swallowed back the half-sentence he was about to say.

What kind of monsters were they?

Some people ran wildly through the snow shirtless, shouting slogans that were incomprehensible; some rode nags with heavy steel crossbows several meters long on their backs; and some even carried a wheelbarrow full of potatoes at breakneck speed.

Unlike the lethargic Ming Dynasty army, this army exuded a kind of excitement that sent chills down the spines of the defending troops.

"Open the gates! Open the gates now!" the defending general roared.

The city gate slowly opened, making a scraping sound.

Chu Ze rode on horseback, his heavy armor clanging in the wind. He didn't even glance at the guards on the city wall, and went straight through it.

As the army marched out in single file, the North China Plain unfolded beneath their feet.

This was no longer the hard, frozen soil of Liaodong, but a vast wilderness covered with a thin layer of snow. Yet, as far as the eye could see, it was a scene of utter devastation.

Black smoke billowed from the village by the roadside, and charred roof beams lay scattered haphazardly in the mud. Several wild dogs were gnawing on the mangled corpses in the ditch. Hearing the sound of horses' hooves, they let out a whimper and scurried into the withered grass beside them.

"Is this the capital region after entering the pass?" Wang Erniu suddenly reined in his horse, looking at the burning mill not far away, his temples throbbing with veins.

The ring-pommel sword in his hand was drawn half an inch from its sheath, and the bloodstains on the blade, which had not yet been wiped clean, had already congealed into black.

A burnt smell lingered in the air.

Chu Ze slowly stopped his horse. In the void in front of him, the scroll of mountains and rivers that only he could see was emitting a blue light.

On the map, countless tiny red dots are roaming the plains. Those are the Later Jin cavalry, scattered in all directions, plundering people, burning provisions, and clearing obstacles for Huang Taiji's main force.

Ding.

The quest pop-up appeared simultaneously on the retinas of all players.

Emergency Mission: Barren Land

Mission objective: Eliminate all Later Jin cavalry within a radius of thirty li!

Mission Description: The army has entered the pass; intelligence blocking is the top priority. Slaughter all these raiders, do not let a single one escape, and do not let Huang Taiji know of our arrival!

Rewards: 100 merit points for each Later Jin cavalryman killed, with a 1% chance to drop Eight Banners Leather Armor (White). If you intercept a messenger requesting reinforcements, your personal merit points will be doubled!

There was silence for less than three seconds.

"Holy crap! Those are red names! Those are walking merit points!"

A scream erupted from the crowd. Shi Dali swung the giant sword with one hand, kicked off the muddy ground with both legs, and crashed into a cloud of dust in the distance.

"Brothers, let's get the kills!"

The player base was in complete uproar.

The previously well-formed formation instantly collapsed, and tens of thousands of players rushed towards the direction where the red dot appeared.

In the distance, a grain-gathering team of a dozen or so Later Jin cavalrymen was returning laden with looted cloth and grain, along with several Han Chinese women tied to their horses.

Just as the leading Tartar soldier sheathed his saber, he suddenly felt the earth tremble.

He turned his head in confusion and saw a group of people rushing frantically towards him on the distant horizon.

This group of people ran incredibly fast, even though they weren't on horseback. The burly man at the front, carrying a slab of iron, was howling with his mouth wide open.

"Ming army?" The Tartar was taken aback for a moment, then spat out a mouthful of saliva, his eyes full of contempt.

In his mind, the Ming army after entering the pass would only cower behind the city walls and tremble.

"Form ranks! Disperse these Nikans!"

The Tartars shouted in a shrill voice, and a dozen or so cavalrymen quickly turned their horses around and drew their bows.

Whoosh whoosh.

Several arrows shot through the air and accurately pierced the chests of the players at the forefront.

However, the expected screams and rout did not occur.

The players with arrows stuck in their chests glanced down, casually snapped the arrow shafts in half, and then took even bigger strides.

"Damn, that hurts a bit, but this monster's defense is pretty high!" one player shouted as he ran. "Hey, Dali, save an assist!"

Shi Dali had already rushed within ten steps.

He leaped up suddenly, his body blocking the Tartar's view in mid-air. The greatsword whistled as it cleaved down from above.

puff.

The elite Manchu cavalryman, along with his horse, was cleaved in two.

Blood and entrails splattered all over Shi Dali's face. He wiped his face and laughed excitedly, "100 merit points in hand! So satisfying!"

The Later Jin cavalry finally changed their expressions.

They discovered that these charging Ming soldiers were completely unreasonable. They didn't set up camp, didn't shout, and didn't even take any defensive measures. Everyone was staring at their necks, and their fanatical greed sent chills down the spines of these executioners who had been killing for years.

"Light the fire! Set off the signal smoke!" The remaining Tartars tried to escape.

A red shadow flashed by.

Xiao Ran's warhorse let out a long neigh, and his silver spear drew a sharp arc in the air. The tip of the spear accurately pierced the wrist of a Tartar who was about to light his pipe.

"Want to send a message? Did you ask your mother first?"

Xiao Ran flicked his spear, creating several spear flowers, and instantly pierced the two Tartars beside him, knocking them off their horses.

Behind the slope not far away.

Wu Jingjing lay prone in the withered grass, his hands slightly cold and clammy from nervousness. Behind him followed five Ironclad members of the Reverse Scale Guild.

"Did the guild leader really say that as long as we deliver the letter, we can trigger a hidden quest?" a player asked in a low voice.

Wu Jingjing pulled out a bamboo tube tightly wrapped in oiled paper from her bosom. Inside was a letter of surrender written by Long Shuo overnight, along with an exaggerated military deployment plan of Chu Ze.

"When did the guild leader ever miss something? The main storyline of this game is the Manchu conquest of China. We're just following the game's progression, understand?"

Wu Jingjing swallowed hard, watching the carnage on the official road nearing its end.

The main force had already advanced to a much farther location. By the official road, only two lone Later Jin cavalrymen were desperately whipping their horses' rumps, trying to escape into the woods.

"Now! Let's go!"

Wu Jingjing suddenly stood up, tore off a handkerchief, and waved it frantically.

He and a few brothers stumbled and staggered toward the two rangers.

"Don't attack! We've come to surrender! I have important information to share with the Great Khan!"

Wu Jingjing roared in broken Mandarin.

The two Later Jin cavalrymen were terrified by the distant natural disaster when they suddenly saw several Nikan soldiers dressed in Ming army uniforms jump out of the bushes. They instinctively reined in their horses.

Upon seeing the white flag in Wu Jingjing's hand, the two Tartars exchanged a glance, a hint of ferocity flashing in their eyes.

They didn't understand what surrender meant; all they saw was that these Nikans had neither spears nor heavy crossbows.

"Stop! I'm one of our own!" Wu Jingjing was overjoyed to see the other side stop their horse.

He ran quickly to the front of the horse, held the bamboo tube high with both hands, and his face was full of smiles.

"Here is..."

puff.

A saber grazed Wu Jingjing's neck.

Wu Jingjing's smile froze on her face.

He felt a chilling sensation on his neck, and then the world began to spin violently.

He saw his body still standing in the same spot, blood, reddish-black, gushing from his severed neck. He saw the Tartar who had killed him, looking disgusted, tearing the bamboo tube from his arms, tossing it into the mud, and crushing it under his foot.

"Nikan, damn it."

The Tartar snorted coldly, not even bothering to search Wu Jingjing, and shot another player behind her dead with an arrow before galloping away.

Ding! You are dead.

Cause of death: Beheaded by Later Jin cavalry.

A flash of white light.

The respawn point in Guangning City.

Wu Jingjing suddenly sat up from the ground, panting heavily. He subconsciously touched his neck, where a sharp pain still lingered.

"Fuck! Fuck the fuck!"

Wu Jingjing slammed his fist on the stone slab, wincing in pain.

"Are these Tartars out of their minds? Am I waving a white flag?! I'm on my way to deliver intelligence!"

The guild members who returned with him were also stunned. One of them had a long face and said, "Brother Chong, the NPCs in this game don't play by the rules. They seem to have no intention of talking to us at all, and only want to chop off our heads to exchange for military merits."

With trembling hands, Wu Jingjing opened the guild channel.

"President... failed."

Long Shuo, who was observing the sand table from the central command position, frowned deeply upon seeing this message.

He glanced at the ordinary players around him who were happily sharing their kill achievements.

The players were shouting and yelling around several stolen warhorses, and some were even trying to cut off the Tartars' queues as souvenirs.

"Barbarians are barbarians." Long Shuo typed a line in the channel. "These low-level scouts have no brains. They only care about killing, not intelligence. Wu Jingjing, you guys go back to the city to regroup. We'll find an opportunity to try a few more times."

He turned to look into the distance, where Chu Ze's back was visible.

The cloak billowed in the wind, exuding an air of unyielding steadiness.

Long Shuo suddenly felt a sense of defeat. He thought he had mastered history and the hearts of the people. But on this battlefield, his so-called strategies seemed ridiculous in the face of absolute violence.

"Notify Jin Buhuan to continue looking for opportunities in logistics. Since we can't contact Huang Taiji for the time being, let's create some major trouble for Chu Ze that he has no choice but to expose."

Long Shuo closed his eyes.

He didn't believe it. He didn't believe that an NPC could lead tens of thousands of silly players to protect the capital from the encirclement of 100,000 Manchu cavalry.

The front lines of the battlefield.

The last rider who attempted to escape was suddenly thrust out from behind a tree by Qin Jue, who precisely stabbed him in the neck with a dagger.

Qin Jue sheathed his dagger, not even glancing at the corpse on the ground, and disappeared into the shadows once more.

on the official road.

Wang Erniu rode his horse, looking at the mess on the ground.

Dozens of Jurchen cavalry corpses lay scattered about. Some of the Jurchens had died horribly, hacked to pieces by the enraged players.

These Manchu warriors, whom he considered to be incomparably elite, couldn't even last a quarter of an hour against this group of monsters known as the Chosen Ones.

"General," Wang Erniu rode up to Chu Ze's side, his voice a little dry, "None of these scouts escaped. They were all... dealt with."

He had intended to say massacre, but felt it was inappropriate to use it to describe his colleagues.

Chu Ze put away the map in the void, his expression calm.

"This is just an appetizer."

Chu Ze's voice was soft, yet it reached the ears of every core general.

"Huang Taiji's scouts have lost contact, and he will soon realize something is wrong. From now on, there will be very few lone prey like this."

He turned to look at the player army that had resumed its marching order.

This group of people, who were just killing people like crazy, are now gathering together to discuss how to divide the dropped leather armor equally.

A smile appeared on Chu Ze's lips.

Those who are not afraid of death are indeed the sharpest knife in the world.

But he knew better than anyone that the knife was too sharp, and if he couldn't hold it properly, he would be the first one to cut himself.

"All troops, listen to my command!"

Chu Ze suddenly drew his longsword and pointed it due south.

"Speed ​​up!"

"kill--!"

The roar of tens of thousands of people echoed across the vast North China Plain.

The outskirts of Beijing, the Later Jin camp.

A biting north wind raged, tearing at the wolf-emergence banners outside the camp with a mournful sound. Inside the tent, the red glow from the charcoal brazier illuminated Huang Taiji's broad, somber face. He sat sideways on a tiger-skin chair, patiently polishing a golden dragon-embroidered sword he had seized from a Ming general, a piece of pristine white silk. The cold glint of the blade flashed across his pupils.

A messenger, exuding a chilling aura, scrambled through the leather curtain, his heavy armor clanging and rattling with each impact. He collapsed before Huang Taiji, his forehead pressed against the ground, his voice shrill and distorted with extreme terror.

"Great Khan, the scouts in the north... have not sent any news."

Huang Taiji paused slightly as he wiped the sword blade, but did not look up. His calm tone was chilling.

"Explain clearly, what do you mean by 'no news'?"

The messenger swallowed hard, his voice trembling as he said, "Thirty li south of Shanhaiguan, five entire Niru (units of cavalry) of elite cavalry have completely lost contact. The warriors sent out to scout haven't returned with a single word. It seems someone is hunting down our people in droves, using extremely ruthless methods."

Click.

Huang Taiji sheathed his sword and slowly stood up. He walked to the map hanging in the center of the tent, his eyes flashing with a cold light.

Five Niru. He stretched out his finger and pressed it heavily on the gap between Jizhou and the capital, his fingernail drawing a crease on the map of the Ming Dynasty's territory.

I have Yuan Chonghuan firmly pinned down in Jizhou, leaving him in a dilemma. The entire court is filled with incompetent officials who only know how to talk; they're all just empty talkers.

Huang Taiji turned around and stared intently at his subordinate kneeling on the ground, his tone revealing a murderous intent.

Tell me, in this territory of the Great Ming Dynasty, besides those cowardly turtles who are already terrified, who else dares to leave the city and kill my people, Huang Taiji?