Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 249 The next battle, Liaoyang!

"Manchu Prince Zheng Jirgalang led more than 30 generals from the Bordered White Banner and Bordered Yellow Banner to surrender."

Following the loud shout of a Ming soldier in white clothes, Jirgalang, wearing a white plain robe, a white ribbon around his head, a piece of jade in his mouth, and holding his sword in both hands, walked out of Dalinghhe City step by step.

Wait until they are more than a hundred steps away from Dalingh City.

"kneel!"

Jirgalang and his men knelt down one by one.

Li Banghua raised his hand towards Chongzhen, "Prince, please!"

"Supervisor, please go first."

Li Banghua smiled and rode up to Jirgalang, "Prince Zheng?"

"Please be kind, Commander-in-Chief of the Ming Dynasty, and spare my life and the lives of my soldiers." Jirgalang prostrated himself on the ground. In fact, he did not want to betray his country, but he did not want to die even more.

After surrounding the Qing troops, the Ming army did not fight at all. Instead, their siege tactics were not simply to surround the city, but to set up four trenches and build walls more than ten feet high around the city, and poured water on these walls.

Under the low temperature, it froze into walls of ice.

The Dalinghhe City was completely surrounded. Despite the several charges by the Qing troops, they never made it to the front of the Ming army. They were unable to break through the ice wall alone.

There are trenches outside and densely packed Ming troops, making it even more impossible to break through.

Under such siege, their cavalry was like an ant trying to shake a tree and suffered heavy losses.

As Sun Tzu's Art of War states, if the attacking party loses one-third of its soldiers and still cannot break through the city, morale will be low and the siege will be hopeless.

This move by the Ming army was too cruel, and it immediately dealt a heavy blow to the Qing soldiers who had already had no food or water.

After the Ming army took control of the initiative on the battlefield, they were still in no hurry to attack, but continued to besiege and harass.

From day till night, artillery shells were fired at them continuously.

Sometimes someone would fire muskets at them, or a gong would suddenly explode in the middle of the night, disturbing them and preventing them from sleeping.

Who can stand not being able to eat the food in your stomach, being cold and hungry, and unable to sleep?

So when the Ming army's authorities just started to work, the Korean soldiers and the Eight Banners of Mongolia came out to surrender. When the Ming army entered Dalingh City, they found that some of the Qing soldiers didn't even have the strength to pick up their swords or guns.

Defend the city?

What can we use to defend the city?
Some soldiers cut up the bodies of the Tartars who died in battle, boiled them in water and ate them. When the Ming army distributed food to them, the soldiers all cried, wiping their tears as they cried.

The whole army burst into tears.

Chongzhen looked at the pale and tense Dalinghe City in front of him, and thought of the Battle of Dalinghe six years ago. He murmured: "The war is fierce and dangerous, but it will only last for a few years."

The Tatars' firearms have made great progress in recent years, and the Eight Banners cavalry is known as the world's elite. After a few years, the Qing army's combat effectiveness has reached a new level.

But they were defeated by the Ming army.

Even if Chongzhen was unwilling to admit it, he had to ask himself at this moment, how would he handle the same situation?

Just treating Li Banghua, I can't do the same as Zhu Changgan.

If I had been more kind to Yuan Chonghuan...

His thoughts were suddenly awakened by the sound of war drums, which was the signal for the Ming army to withdraw and set up camp.

The Ming Dynasty now has sufficient manpower and food supplies, but the increasingly cold weather makes Li Banghua more cautious about the next battle.

"Fill the trenches with ice water to prevent the Qing soldiers from finding an opportunity to attack again."

……

In Shengjing, Qing Dynasty, as the war reports came in, all kinds of news were flying around, and the inner expectations of Dorgon and the Qing princes and ministers began to be rapidly stripped away and sunk.

As the Qing troops west of the Dalingh River fought and were defeated, the Ming army continued to clear up all the battles near the Dalingh River.

There were eight teams in total, including the Five Camps, the Pinglu Army, the Ji-Liao Army, and the Xuan-Da Army. They advanced diagonally like a sieve and continued to kill the Manchus.

Six years ago, almost all the people in Dalingh River were Han people, but now there are hardly any Han people to be seen. The current ecology is a different one.

Iron hooves crush the wilderness!

Anyone with a rat-tail braid will not be spared.

The corpses lay everywhere, and the blood seeped into the ground, turning into bright red, then dark red. The low temperature hit, and finally they were frozen into pieces of ice and snow.

The wilderness became a slaughterhouse, the Manchu Tartars were like stray dogs, and their blood dyed the snow red.

Some Tartars hid in haystacks and piles of earth and smeared dirty things on their bodies in the hope of avoiding pursuit by the Ming army, but the Ming army searched inch by inch, stabbing their spears into the haystacks.

Until the Tartars inside crawled out like maggots...

……

Shengjing, the Imperial Palace of the Qing Dynasty.

"He is not qualified to be Nurhaci's son or nephew. He is a scum among the princes and nobles!"

Dorgon drew out his guard's sword and chopped it on the pillar, cutting off the wooden head of a strange beast.

Everyone was shocked.

The prince who had a rift with Jirgalang before immediately jumped out and said, "Your Majesty, Jirgalang was the Prince of Zheng of the Qing Dynasty, but at a critical moment he surrendered to the enemy and wiped out the Qing Dynasty."

"Your Majesty, his entire family should be arrested, interrogated, and all executed according to the law."

The beiles who had a good relationship with Jirgalang quickly pleaded:
"Your Majesty, Jirgalang sacrificed himself to save Your Majesty. He was like a bait hanging from a tiger's mouth. He challenged a powerful enemy with his remaining troops and a defeated general. He had no food or grass, and was besieged by the Ming army for seven days. He was unable to defeat them, suffered heavy casualties, and broke through the siege more times than before. In the end, all the arrows were shot, and no reinforcements arrived. More than half of the soldiers were killed or wounded, and blood flowed like a river. How tragic this is!"

Dorgon angrily threw the knife in his hand to the ground, "But... he walked out of Dalinghe City and defected on his own."

"Your Majesty, perhaps he is just pretending to surrender and reserving his strength. When there is a suitable opportunity in the future, he will serve the Qing Dynasty again."

"fart!"

Dorgon's furious voice echoed like thunder in the Shengjing Palace, but now he could not find a better way to check and balance the anger.

"Your Majesty, Dudu is back."

"Quick, let him in."

Du Du led a group of men to intercept the Korean army. When he was trying his best, he suddenly heard that the Qing army was defeated by the Ming court, so he hurried back with his men to help the king.

"How could His Majesty be like this? We already have powerful red cannons and muskets, so how could this happen?"

Dorgon held his forehead, the pain was unbearable as if an axe had hit his head.

"Du Beile may not know that the Ming court's artillery has been improved again and is more advanced than ours. We have suffered a great loss before we even fought." Man Dahai stepped forward to explain.

The next moment, a sentence raised by Dudu made Dorgon's eyes widen suddenly.

"Your Majesty, I heard that you want to implement the eight banner leaders' policy?"

This was his real intention for running back in a hurry. The so-called "serving the king" was just an excuse.

He was staring at the princes, the leaders of the eight banners, who were discussing state affairs.

"You..." Dorgon looked at him with red eyes. The Council of Ministers system would inevitably cause conflicts with the imperial power. This was a move he made under pressure on the battlefield. Now that he had returned to Shengjing... But what he couldn't believe was that the eyes of the other flag owners were also burning.

……

Ming army camp,

Li Banghua asked all the soldiers to rest and recuperate. "Although we killed many enemies in this battle, we also suffered a lot of casualties. Send all the wounded back to Shanhaiguan for recuperation."

In addition, Li Banghua and Chongzhen also met Zu Dashou and his son.

Both men were seriously injured. Several knife cuts were clearly visible on Zu Dashou's armor, but his life was not in danger.

"His Majesty asked me to visit you and give you credit for your first achievement. The supplies have been shipped out from Shanhaiguan and will arrive tomorrow."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zu Dashou struggled to kneel down to express his gratitude, but was held back by Chongzhen.

"Thank you for your hard work, General Zu." Chongzhen's eyes turned red, and these words came from the heart.

He walked all the way from Jinzhou City and saw their tragic situation clearly, and once again gained a deeper understanding of the war in Liaodong and the hardships of the Ming soldiers.

So much so that Chongzhen was in a bad mood all the way back to the central military camp from Jinzhou.

Li Banghua punched him, "We are the victorious party, sweeping away decades of decline in the Ming Dynasty. Why should you be depressed, Prince?"

"Yes, we are the victorious party. Decades of decline have finally been reversed in one fell swoop."

Chongzhen said this, but he felt a sour and unwilling feeling in his heart.

Li Banghua shook his head and said nothing more.

……

In the Pinglu Camp, the atmosphere among Sun Kewang, Shi Daoshen, Li Dingguo and others was extremely enthusiastic.

"Damn it, I thought the Eight Banners descendants of the Qing Dynasty were very good at fighting, but I didn't expect they were just good at selling out to Seoul!" Shi Daoshen said with a smile.

"Hey, you stole my lines!" Li Dingguo said angrily.

"Haha~"

Everyone burst into laughter.

Sun Kewang sighed, "It's a pity that we went to the battlefield too late, otherwise we could have gained more military merits."

"Oh, what a miscalculation!" Shi Daoshen also regretted, "Prince Xin was also thinking about us, afraid that we would be cannon fodder."

Sun Kewang looked at Shi Daoshen and Li Dingguo, and said solemnly: "What do you think, if we ask Prince Xin and the commander-in-chief to have greater authority, is it possible?"

"You want greater authority?"

"That's right." Sun Kewang nodded. "Just like the five major camps, the general has this autonomy. As long as the general strategic direction remains unchanged, the specific combat methods do not need to follow the central army's signal flag."

"That would be great, but..."

But they were surrendered bandits after all. Although Prince Xin said he was a prince, Li Banghua was an important minister to the emperor. How could he listen to a prince on such a core matter?

"No matter what, I'd better mention it to Prince Xin."

But what they didn't expect was that just one hour after everyone went to look for Prince Xin, the military order came down.

The person in charge of delivering the order was Li Ruolian, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. He was also in the army during this battle. Sun Kewang, Shi Daoshen, Li Dingguo and others immediately became solemn.

"Your Majesty has already drafted an edict, but this edict will only be issued based on your performance."

That means, if you volunteer to go into battle and kill the enemy, this imperial edict may never be issued.

Sun Kewang and the others immediately turned serious, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness!"

Li Ruo Lian laughed and placed the imperial edict in their hands. "The battle of Xingshan and Tashan was admirable. I, the Jinyiwei, will not hide any of your military achievements. Report them truthfully. On the day when you generals are conferred titles, I hope you will treat me to a glass of light wine after you return to Beijing."

"Commander, you are too polite. We are honored to have the honor of inviting you to drink."

As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere between the two sides suddenly eased.

Sun Kewang quickly took the time to ask his own question, "Commander Li, I wonder how far the Ming Dynasty will fight this war? Please give me your instructions."

Li Ruo Lian looked at them with a smile, "You are all more cunning than each other... My Ming army has already cleared out all the troops west of the Daling River, and Sun Chuanting's Northwest Frontier Army of more than 50,000 people has also entered Shanhaiguan."

"The Manchus have now suffered tens of thousands of casualties and are running low on food. They have already done their best, so naturally they must continue to advance."

Having said this, they were clearly told that there would be further battles to fight, so they didn't need to worry about previous gains and losses. Sun Kewang immediately understood and a smile broke out on his face.

Li Ruo Lian narrowed his eyes and asked them, "Aren't you afraid of losing your troops?"

Shi Daoshen sighed deeply, "There are always casualties in war. Although we are peasants, we rebelled to survive and to have a future. It was the same when we followed Zhang Xianzhong and Prince Xin. Now that we have the chance, how can we let it go? Please tell His Majesty that we are not afraid of death!"

Li Ruo Lian patted his shoulder and said, "I will tell His Majesty. You guys take care of yourselves too. It's best if you suffer as little loss as possible. If you suffer too much loss and it affects the morale of the entire army, I'm afraid the commander-in-chief will soon transfer you back to Shanhaiguan for rest and recuperation."

Sun Kewang suddenly became solemn, "Thank you, Commander!"

Li Ruo Lian waved his hand and said before leaving, "I have another piece of news for you. The next battle will probably be in Liaoyang. You now have more autonomy and can think about how to attack the city."

"And I'll tell you something in private. Liaoyang may be easier to attack than you think."

"Drive~"

The snow and mud were kicked up, and a group of people walked away.

As soon as Li Ruolian left, Sun Kewang and others hurriedly took out the map of Liaoyang. Liaoyang was once the capital of Nurhaci and its location was extremely important. If Liaoyang was conquered again, the road ahead would be smooth and Shengjing would be completely exposed to the Ming army.

"General Sun, what does it mean when the commander said Liaoyang is easier to attack than we thought?" Li Dingguo asked puzzledly.

Shi Daoshen also frowned.

Sun Kewang thought for a long time and said a possibility, "I heard that the Jinyiwei spies of the Ming Dynasty are elusive. Imagine that the entire old camp of our Prince Xin's army is made up of Jinyiwei people. What do you think... Will it be the same with the Manchu Tartars?"

"Sigh~"

Shi Daoshen and Li Dingguo gasped.

……

At the same time, the Qing Dynasty seemed to have noticed the Ming army's intentions and stockpiled a large number of troops in Liaoyang.

The person leading the troops was Gushan Ezhen Baiyintu of the Bordered Yellow Banner, the third son of Bayala, the Duyi Kongo Beile, the nephew of Nurhaci, the founding emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and a Dorob Beile.

He had just been given the title of Gushan'e. Before that, he had been the commander-in-chief of the Bordered Yellow Banner. He was promoted to the position because he was a close confidant of Dorgon.

Just when Baiyintu was reorganizing his troops, a piece of news came from Shengjing, which made him panic.

"Sony and Aobai joined forces with some people from the Zhenglan Banner and the two yellow banners to directly seize power from the Zhenglan Banner."

"How could this happen? How could this happen at such a critical moment?" Baiyintu cursed angrily, "Have you lost your mind?"

……

ps: Thank you all for your support. It’s the end of the month now… I’m a little embarrassed to ask, but if you have any, please vote for me.

(End of this chapter)