The New Destiny of the Ming Dynasty

After waking up, Yang Zhen continued to pretend to be unconscious for two days and two nights. Finally, after roughly understanding his situation and the circumstances he was about to face, he decisively "woke up".

After "waking up," the first thing he did was, accompanied by several officials, to bite the bullet and go to pay his respects to his superiors in Ningyuan City.

Through subtle inquiries, he not only learned his official name, but also that there were two "commanders-in-chief," one civil and one military, temporarily stationed in Ningyuan City.

Among them, the head of the civil officials was Fang Yizao, the newly appointed governor of Liaodong, while the head of the military officials was Zu Dashou, the general of Liaodong.

In fact, Zu Dashou's garrison had always been in Jinzhou, but his current deployment to Ningyuan was a last resort.

In the winter of the eleventh year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, the Jurchen army once again bypassed Mongolia and invaded the heartland of the Ming Dynasty. General Zu Dashou of Liaodong was ordered to lead the main force of the Liaodong army back to the interior of China.

However, in this great battle, the Ming Dynasty suffered heavy casualties once again. Countless civil and military officials were killed in battle, murdered, or imprisoned for failing to resist the enemy.

Moreover, when the Liaodong army followed Wu Aheng and Zu Dashou into the pass to reinforce the capital, Huang Taiji, the ruler of the Jurchens, knew that Liaodong was vulnerable, so he immediately sent tens of thousands of troops to besiege the Ningjin defense line.

Unable to capture the city after a prolonged siege, they besieged Jinzhou and Songshan.

When news of the danger arrived from Liaodong, the already overwhelmed Chongzhen Emperor had no choice but to turn his attention back to Liaodong.

However, at this time, the civil and military officials who had previously governed Liaodong, including Wu Aheng, the governor of Jiliao, had all been killed or wounded in the battle to reinforce the capital, leaving a large number of positions vacant and no one available.

In this situation, Emperor Chongzhen urgently appointed Hong Chengchou, who was supervising the front line of the bandit suppression, as the new Governor-General of Jiliao, and sent Gao Qiqian, a trusted eunuch, to serve as the supervising eunuch of Liaodong.

Hong Chengchou was called the "Supervisor-General," and Gao Qiqian was called the "Chief Supervisor," yet neither of them was in Liaodong.

Hong Chengchou was still rushing back from the front lines of suppressing the peasant army, while Gao Qiqian was dealing with the aftermath of the Zhili resistance against the Jurchens.

Left with no other choice, Emperor Chongzhen had to reinstate the position of Governor of Liaodong, which had been abolished in order to unify the powers of the governors and viceroys of Liaodong. He then appointed Fang Yizao, a pro-war civil official who came from the censorate, as Governor of Liaodong and sent him to Liaodong to take charge of the overall situation.

Shortly afterward, the Qing army that had entered the pass withdrew, and Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to immediately issue an edict ordering Zu Dashou to lead the Liaodong army back to Liaodong to rescue Jinzhou and Songshan.

Zu Dashou led the Liaodong army on a long march, but failed to fight a single decent battle before setting off back. By the time he arrived in Ningyuan, his men and horses were exhausted and their morale was low.

Moreover, by this time, Jinzhou and Songshan had been heavily besieged by the Jurchen army, and the Tartar army's advance was reaching Xingshan and Tashan. The Tartar vanguard scouts had already appeared north of Ningyuan.

Therefore, Zu Dashou led his exhausted army to Ningyuan and stationed there, not daring to go to the rescue of Jinzhou and Songshan.

Next, Zu Dashou led the remaining 12,000-plus main force of the Liaodong army to garrison and rest in Ningyuan City for more than a month, not daring to move north, and allowing Huang Taiji to personally lead the Jurchen army to besiege his own stronghold.

It is now March, and Hong Chengchou, the governor-general of Jiliao appointed by Emperor Chongzhen, has still not arrived in Ningyuan City.

Meanwhile, Gao Qiqian, the so-called Liaodong General Manager, who had already arrived at Shanhaiguan, remained stationed there and dared not go north at all.

This is the military situation in Ningyuan that Yang Zhen is currently facing, and this situation is giving Yang Zhen a huge headache.

He was not familiar with Fang Yizao, the governor of Liaodong, and did not know anything about him.

But just hearing the names Zu Dashou, Hong Chengchou, and Gao Qiqian was enough to make him almost collapse.

Because these people are all terrible teammates, they are all extremely unreliable.

There's no need to mention Gao Qiqian; Lu Xiangshan and his Tianxiong Army were killed because of this damned eunuch.

Zu Dashou had already surrendered to Huang Taiji once back in the fourth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign. From that time on, he began to obey orders but not summons from the emperor, showing a somewhat ambivalent attitude towards both the Chongzhen Emperor and the Ming Dynasty.

As for Hong Chengchou, it's impossible to say anything about him.

The final defeat of the Ming Dynasty was, in fact, his own doing; he single-handedly destroyed the last main force of the Ming Dynasty.

That was the only asset the Ming Dynasty's border troops had at the time!

Yang Zhen, who had transmigrated from another world, didn't want to see these people at all, but considering that he would be working under their command and struggling to survive, it seemed that he had no choice but to see them.

Moreover, as the deputy general of Ningyuan, he had been visited by others when he was unconscious. Now that he has woken up, it would be unreasonable and illogical not to pay him a visit.

Fortunately, he didn't want to see these people, and they didn't have time to see him right now.

Accompanied by several officials, Yang Zhen arrived at the Ningyuan General's Mansion, where Zu Dashou was temporarily stationed. He introduced himself and requested an audience with General Zu, but General Zu was not at the General's Mansion.

When he finally arrived at the temporary residence of the Liaodong governor in Ningyuan City, the Jiliao Supervisory Office, he was once again turned away.

However, the gatekeeper of the Liaodong Governor's Office recognized Yang Zhen, the Ningyuan Deputy General, and helped to pass on the message.

However, not long after the request for an audience was reported, the gatekeeper returned and said that Governor Fang was discussing important matters with important figures such as General Zu of Liaodong and General Qiu of Ningqian Military Commission. He said that the governor said that Yang Zhen did not need to pay his respects, but only that he should rest and recuperate for the next few days and be summoned again in a few days.

Of course, the fact that he failed to see Shangguan that day was actually more to Yang Zhen's liking. After all, he was also worried that since he was new to the area and his situation was unclear, others might see through his scheme.

Therefore, upon hearing the gatekeeper's words, he turned around and left without saying a word, returning to his camp under the east gate, preoccupied with figuring out how to escape his impending tragic fate.

Of course, although he had tried very hard to conceal his true identity, his repeated discomfort in his interactions with others and his speech and behavior after he woke up still revealed many clues that he did not belong to this era.

For example, his polite attitude towards the officials and servants around him aroused doubt and confusion among some people.

In particular, his sudden and extreme attention to all kinds of firearms and muskets in the Ningyuan Army made some people think that Yang Xiezhen was a bit strange, and wondered if he had damaged his brain.

Yang Zhen was unaware of the gossip circulating about him among his officials, servants, and personal guards.

However, even though he knew about the gossip among the servants and soldiers, he no longer cared about such trivial matters.

Because the third month of spring in the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign was the day Yang Zhen, the powerless and unranked deputy general of Ningyuan, died.

He didn't know the exact date, but right now, he had to find a way to escape his tragic fate as soon as possible.

After much thought, he could only come up with two options, one of which was to feign illness.

In other words, when the imperial court and the governor of Liaodong sent troops to rescue the besieged Songshan City, he used the excuse of falling off his horse and being injured to refuse to go, acting like a coward.

No matter what others say, as long as you're not killed on the spot, firmly refuse to go, claiming illness.

Wherever he goes in the future, he should follow Zu Dashou closely, or follow Wu Sangui, who is currently serving as a deputy general under Zu Dashou. Then he will have at least several decades to live.

In this way, he would no longer be like in history, knowing full well that there were tigers in the mountains, yet forced to venture into the tiger's den, only to be surrounded by the Qing army that was besieging the stronghold and attacking the reinforcements, ultimately resulting in the annihilation of his entire army.

But could he refuse? Could he not go? Was it so easy to cling to Zu Dashou's powerful back?

At this time, Zu Dashou already had a multitude of fierce generals under his command. The older generation of generals were still around, while a new generation of generals had risen, such as Wu Sangui and Zu Keyong. There was no need for him to spend time trying to win over Yang Zhen, an outsider.

Take rising stars like Wu Sangui and Yang Zhen, for example. Sending them to carry out a mission as perilous as rescuing Songshan City was as obvious as a bald man's lice.

Wu Sangui was a veritable local tyrant in the Liaodong army. He was the nephew of Zu Dashou, the Liaodong warlord, and the adopted son of Gao Qiqian, the supervising eunuch. If he didn't want to go, no one could force him to go, even without a legitimate reason.

But Yang Zhen was different.

In Liaodong, he not only lacked a powerful backer, but also had a mortal enemy who harbored deep resentment towards him: Gao Qiqian, the powerful eunuch whom Wu Sangui had recognized as his adoptive father.

Although Gao Qiqian, that dead eunuch, is currently living in seclusion in Shanhaiguan, he is, after all, the eunuch in charge of the Liaodong army appointed by Emperor Chongzhen, and his influence on the Liaodong army should not be underestimated.

He, the deputy general, had just been released from the prison in Beizhili in the first month of the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign and was sent to the Ningyuan front to serve as a deputy general. In short, he was an outsider who came to Ningyuan to redeem himself through meritorious service.

The personal guards and old soldiers who came with him to Ningyuan, including both the capable and the incapable, totaled only 196 people, including himself.

When the time comes, Gao Qiqian will issue an order urging the Ningyuan Army to go into battle. If Zu Dashou orders him to go, would he dare not go?!

Even if Zu Dashou didn't say anything, he couldn't refuse if the Liaodong governor Fang Yizao asked him to go!

With a major battle imminent, if we stubbornly refuse to go, they could easily pin a crime on us and we'd be beheaded on the spot.

What the historical deputy general Yang Zhen was really thinking is unknown to the present Yang Zhen, but it is probably not something he did willingly.