Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 172 Shengjing Massacre!

It was daybreak and Shengjing was still sleeping in the morning mist. The scent of rouge in the willow alley was gently surging like running water.

The inns and restaurants had not yet woken up, but were suddenly awakened by a huge force. Under the iron hoof, they became indescribably panicked.

The entire Willow Lane was brightly lit by every house.

The sounds of tables and chairs being moved, porcelain falling and breaking, panic and exclamations mixed together.

People were falling, women were screaming, people were running, shouting, and everything was colliding with each other, and the sound kept shaking above Willow Alley and then spread out into the distance.

"Tell me, are these two men there? Yes, there is a mole near his mouth..." The officers and soldiers held torches and two portraits and asked the people in the brothel.

"I seem to have seen it somewhere?"

One of the women stared at the people in the portrait and said tremblingly, "Fat Orange, are these the two people who came to see you before?"

"How could it be the two people who were looking for me?" A sturdy woman from Zuichunlou yelled angrily, "If you keep talking nonsense, I'll tear your mouth apart."

But before she could stand up, the Eight Banners soldier held a knife to her neck, "Have you seen these two people?"

"Sir, I did receive two people before, but I don't know if they are the two you are talking about."

Just when the Qing soldiers found Zuichunlou, more than 20 miles away, several groups of Jinyiwei people had already stuffed a sack into the coffin and ran towards Shanhaiguan.

Because of Chao Pichang's first experience, the Qing Dynasty made corresponding arrangements in this regard, making it unrealistic to leave with the same fanfare as last time. They could only move towards the Ming Dynasty little by little.

There were not many roads in Shengjing, and the Qing troops were constantly spreading out, so they had to be extremely careful.

Just as they were hiding, a loud noise came from afar.

The ground felt like it was shaking.

……

The sky in Shengjing was not yet completely bright when suddenly a huge fireball that shocked the sky and the earth began to roll in the air.

As the fireball rose, a loud noise woke up everyone in Shengjing, from the emperor to the common people. The sky was filled with wispy and tidal black smoke.

A large, black cloud of smoke, like a mushroom or a Ganoderma lucidum, stood in the southwest corner of the imperial city.

The sky was dark and the earth was dark. Dust, stones, wood, corpses, flesh and blood, rubble... fell from the sky like raindrops, breaking all the windows of the rooms of thousands of families living next to "Tianyou Camp".

Some rooms sank, some roofs collapsed, and thousands of people were blown into pieces, with clothes flying across dozens of streets.

Inside the imperial palace, the elephants in the ceremonial guard prepared for Dorgon's enthronement were frightened, ran out of the elephant house, and ran wildly on the street with their four legs in the air, colliding with the fleeing civilians in the street, causing a stampede and numerous deaths and injuries.

When the explosion occurred,
Dorgon was having breakfast when he suddenly felt the hall shaking. The bowl and chopsticks in his hands fell to the ground. He did not care about the bowl and chopsticks and ran out of the hall at such a speed that even the eunuchs around him could not keep up with him.

As a result, wooden sills and tiles fell from the roof, and the top of Dorgon's personal guard's head was smashed and he died.

Looking at the mess on the ground, Dorgon was horrified, "Quick, send someone to find out what happened?"

……

All this was because the "God's Blessing Army" piled up all the gunpowder in the barracks and set it on fire.

At this moment, Kong Youde was carried out by two lieutenant generals. He looked behind him, his face pale, his heart and courage almost burst.

It was not until this moment that he understood why the two lieutenant generals said that it would be too late if they didn't leave now.

"It's over... nothing can be saved!"

Before that, he was still thinking about how to persuade the two lieutenant generals and the soldiers to turn back.

Based on his understanding of the current situation of the Qing Dynasty and Dorgon's emphasis on gunpowder and firearms, even if the "Tianyou Army" mutinied, they would not be punished with death, and there was still room for everything to turn around.

But now… such a huge explosion shattered all his fantasies.

"Your Majesty? Your Majesty?"

Kong Youde suddenly came to his senses and found that it was two lieutenant generals calling him. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Don't hold me up. Get on the horse quickly. Let's go to Pi Island!"

"Pi Island?"

Kong Youde nodded deeply, "That's right, it's impossible to return to the Qing court. The Ming court wants to get rid of me as soon as possible. Now the only plan is to find a place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and take it slowly. Among the current defenders of Pi Island, half are old men from the time of King Huaishun."

Kong Youde did not choose Pi Island on impulse. The Qing court would definitely not tolerate the Tianyou Army after it committed such a tragic crime in Shengjing.

But he also didn't trust the Ming court. Apart from the two, the only place he was most familiar with was Pi Island.

First, Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming and others were the first to come out of Pi Island. They were once subordinates of Mao Wenlong and were very familiar with the geographical location of Pi Island.

In this year's battle of Pi Island, the reason why Oboi was able to defeat the defenders of Pi Island was under the guidance of Shang Kexi.

After Mao Wenlong raised the flag in Pi Island, refugees flocked in. Within a few years, the island took in nearly one million refugees and gradually developed into a major stronghold to contain the Later Jin.

The Eight Banners soldiers were not good at naval warfare and had no way to deal with this.

Secondly, after the Qing army destroyed the Pi Island fortress, it moved its main force westward to continue fighting the Ming army. Pi Island is now under the jurisdiction of Korea, but there are still many Han people from the Mao Wenlong period.

And because of the "Bingzi Rebellion" in Korea this year, Korea was defeated by the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty, with many casualties. The defense force on Pi Island was much weaker than when the Ming Dynasty was there.

"Just as the prince said, we will head south to Pi Island."

"Report!" A scout came back, "There is a large camp of the Eight Banners of Mongolia ahead, blocking our way."

"kill!"

"Kill anyone who stands in the way~"

The Eight Banners of Mongolia actually just came to see what happened. Faced with the sudden charge of the "Tianyou Army", no one reacted.

"Bang bang bang..."

The muskets roared and bullets rained down into the crowd of Mongolian Eight Banners soldiers.

In the Later Jin Dynasty, there was not only a difference between Manchus and Han people, but also a difference between Mongolians and Han people. Manchus were the most valuable, followed by Mongolians, and finally Han people.

This time, Geng Zhongming exchanged for the Chahar Prince of Mongolia, so the Han camp felt no pressure at all about the Mongols' actions.

They planned unintentionally, and given that this group of Mongolian Eight Banners consisted of only a few hundred people, they were quickly killed by the "Tianyou Army" in the chaos.

After looting, Kong Youde led his men to advance quickly to the south.

The combat effectiveness of the "Tianyou Army" was not bad. Although their riding and archery abilities were not as good as those of the Manchu and Mongolian cavalry, the muskets and artillery they had were better than those of the Ming court a few months ago.

At least it won't explode.

……

At dawn, chaos and shouting broke out all over Shengjing.

The Jinyiwei were also a little stunned. "What happened? Should we hide for a while and wait until this wave of Qing soldiers' actions is over before taking action?"

A captain stuck his head out and carefully distinguished the sounds. "With such a big scene, it doesn't seem like they are here to arrest people. Instead, it seems like a fight has started."

Arresting and war are two completely different situations. Arresting involves teams of people, while war involves the collision of hundreds or thousands of people. The Jinyiwei Qianhu climbed to a high place and looked around Shengjing. He found that the whole Shengjing seemed to have changed. There were flames and shouts.

“Who is attacking Shengjing?”

"It's impossible. Apart from the Ming Dynasty, who has the guts to attack Shengjing?"

The captain of the Imperial Guard threw the sack to his subordinate and said, "You take him back. I will go back to Shengjing. No matter who caused such a big mess in Shengjing, the Ming Dynasty has to help."

"Yes!"

……

In Shengjing, people were crying and wailing, some were cursing the heavens, and some were kneeling and burning incense, thinking that it was a punishment from the gods.

Jirgalang and his men quickly arrived at the disaster area.

The scene before them shocked everyone.

What was supposed to be the military camp of the Tianyou Army had disappeared at this moment. Not only the military camp of the Tianyou Army, but also some of the surrounding streets and houses were razed to the ground into a big pit.

All the trees and wood around were burnt black, and inky black human arms, limbs, noses, foreheads could be seen everywhere...it was a horrible sight.

Some people were crying while holding a half-body, but they couldn't find the rest of the body.

Passing by a coffin shop, someone wanted to buy 45 coffins, but the next person came and asked for 52. The shop owner said with a sad and angry face: "We have no more. people have died in my family. It's not enough for us."

At this moment, a soldier came on horseback to report.

"Prince Zheng, the Tianyou Army mutinied and killed hundreds of soldiers of the Mongolian Bordered White Banner. They are now breaking out to the south."

"The Tianyou Army mutinied?" Jirgalang's face was extremely ugly. "So, they were the instigators?"

The key point of the war between the Qing Dynasty and the Ming court was firearms. It can be said that the emperor attached more importance to Kong Youde than during the Huang Taiji period. What's more, Kong Youde had just made a breakthrough in gunpowder technology and was invited to a banquet by the emperor.

He didn't understand why Kong Youde wanted to mutiny and rebel?

And in such a decisive way, with such a big explosion.

Isn’t that the gunpowder in “God’s Blessing Army”?

Dorgon asked Jirgalang to lead the firearms attack. Last night, he transported all the gunpowder of the eight Manchu and eight Mongolian banners.

I think this gunpowder is probably dangerous.

"We must stop them at all costs." Jirgalang's face twisted into a knot of anger, and he slammed his fingers on the table. He didn't even feel the cracks on his fingers. "Why? Isn't what the Qing Dynasty has given him enough?"

It was not until Beile Dudu arrived and brought a "rumor" that Jirgalang suddenly understood, "This is the Ming court's calculation. How could the Qing Dynasty exchange the Three Shun Princes for a waste like Ezhe?"

"Now that the incident has happened, what we need to do now is to stop the Tianyou Army first. He has almost all the firearms of the Qing Dynasty."

Du Du bowed, "I will obey Prince Zheng's order!"

"Yue Tuo, send people to the west to search for Geng Zhongming. In such a short time, the Ming court must not have succeeded, at least they haven't entered the pass."

"Yes!"

Yue Tuo and Du Du left quickly with their men.

……

Prince Zheng's mansion had been busy for more than an hour, issuing orders continuously, from the time Jirgalang was awakened by the shock to the scene.

At this moment, the sky was about to brighten. He finally returned to the mansion. With a dry mouth, he habitually called out, "Third Lady, bring me a cup of tea."

"The Third Lady..."

After asking a few questions, he suddenly realized that he hadn't seen Su Tai for a long time. After asking the servants, he was shocked to find that his wife had not returned home since yesterday afternoon?

"Where did he go? Didn't he tell you?"

"My Lord, Fu Jin didn't say anything."

Having been in a high position for many years, Jirgalang was more severe than before whenever major events occurred. Under his questioning, he finally got the answer from a servant.

Before this, Su Tai had actually met Huaishun King Geng Zhongming several times, and in his own mansion.

In a rage, Jirgalang ordered his cronies to torture all the servants in the mansion to extract confessions.

Soon someone confessed...

"Ezhe? Geng Zhongming? Su Tai..." From the clues he got, he quickly pieced together a general idea of ​​what happened.

Jirgalang's body swayed, and he pressed against the door frame to slow down, then he suddenly smashed a piece of porcelain on the ground, "Chop them all... Chop them all..."

The Qing Dynasty's attempt to persuade the Han people to surrender completely collapsed this time, and the culprit was actually the woman beside him, which he had never expected.

“Send someone to chase her and bring this woman Su Tai back to me. I will chop her into pieces!

This stupid woman destroyed decades of hard work of the Qing Dynasty in one day! "

Suddenly, the ground in Shengjing shook violently again.

With the imperial palace as the center, rumbling sounds of explosions were heard from all directions.

Flames shot up into the sky, smoke filled the air, and some official residences, government offices, and bridges were blown up.

The Jinyiwei who were ambushing in Shengjing took action.

Instead of collecting the gunpowder at night, the Jinyiwei took out all the gunpowder stored in Shengjing... causing the already chaotic situation to fall into even greater chaos.

The soldiers who originally wanted to chase after the "Tianyou Army" had to take a detour because of the broken bridge. Some soldiers directly jumped into the water and swam over to continue the pursuit.

……

The "Tianyou Army" that was marching southward was startled when they saw the flames rising from behind them. "Your Majesty, someone is helping us!"

"Yes! They don't want us to be caught by the Qing government like this." Kong Youde murmured.

He naturally knew who had done it.

But for now, Kong Youde could only curse in his heart, "This move by the Ming Dynasty is so cruel!"

First, he kidnapped Geng Zhongming, which not only alienated the relationship between the Manchus and the Han people, but also indirectly prompted the mutiny of the Tianyou Army, which brought trouble upon himself. Now he wants him to be grateful to him.

Kong Youde's eyes flickered, and he suddenly made a decision, "If we go this way, we will definitely be caught up by the Eight Banners Cavalry, and we will go to the dock to seize the navy's ships."

"The incident happened suddenly. The Qing court certainly hasn't issued a decree yet. The Liaoxi Navy naturally has no way to prepare for it. This is our only chance. With the ships in hand, the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty can no longer do anything to us!"

"Boom~~"

There were several loud noises coming from behind again. It was the demolition experts from the "Tianyou Army" who blew down a small bridge behind them.

(End of this chapter)