Chapter 121 Killing a bunch of corrupt officials and eunuchs
The location of Xifengkou is quite special. It is more than 500 miles away from Beijing and Tianjin, so the three places form an isosceles triangle.

By passing through Xifengkou, Zunhua, Jizhou and Tongzhou, you can reach the foot of the emperor.

The momentum created by the three thousand elite cavalry far exceeded the imagination of all forces.

Even Li Hao himself did not expect that just by showing up like this, some people would become restless.

When he led his army to Tongzhou, the garrisons of Jizhou, Northern Zhili, and the Beijing camp appeared one after another, but they all fled in panic after a single encounter with the Liao soldiers.

Of course, it is not appropriate to say that they had a fight. After all, Li Hao charged forward three or four times and only knocked down a few teams of servants, and the soldiers from all directions fled at high speed like an avalanche.

He guessed that because the Liao army advanced too quickly, various senior officials, such as Jizhen Governor Yan Mingtai, Shuntian Deputy Envoy Wang Yingzhi, and Beijing Camp Admiral Feng Jiahui all had no time to mobilize elite troops to fight in the field. The cities along the way only sent soldiers to symbolically obstruct the advance to show that the soldiers had fulfilled their responsibility to defend the territory.

Tongzhou is the terminus of the north-south canal transportation. The canal had long been frozen solid, and in winter, the cargo transfer node in Beijing was transferred from Tongzhou to Wanping.

However, there were still many trackers who relied on the canal transport to pull the boats and stayed near Tongzhou City, as well as many canal soldiers.

Upon hearing that the Liao army had broken through the pass and marched straight into the heartland of northern Zhili, the rich and powerful had already taken refuge in the big cities, and those who remained outside the cities were just ordinary people.

"Take those boatmen and the strong boatmen to the city of Beijing. I will pay them after I get the silver."

Anyway, the core of his men are all cavalry, and their movement speed is much faster than that of the soldiers in the camps inside the pass who lack livestock power. Li Hao decided to try to see if he can capture Beijing this time.

Forcening the militia to attack the big city is the only way to rebel, and he is accumulating experience in advance.

The Liao army recruited civilians all the way from Tongzhou, which reduced the speed of their advance to forty or fifty miles a day, which was much faster than the Ming army inside the Great Wall.

Tongzhou City is only sixty miles away from Beijing City, and the Liao army arrived there in a day and a half.

According to the Ming Dynasty's rules for foreign troops to fight, foreign troops were not allowed to enter cities along the way, and the garrison would only provide them with food on the second day after arriving at a city.

Therefore, even the reinforcements from Jizhen in the north only marched twenty to thirty miles a day, and stopped at a city to wait for the next day's meal in order to save military rations.

The military officials in the capital had long ago issued official documents requiring all reinforcements to bring their own military rations to battle.

The unscrupulous Li Hao would go straight into every farm he passed by, stealing food regardless of whose farm it belonged to, and then divide the land among the tenants living near the farm.

Northern Zhili was densely populated and had little land. Even if Li Hao killed the lackey who managed the farm, the land distributed to the tenants could only reach 11 or 12 acres per household.

Even for these ten mu of land, the tenants were so grateful that they prostrated themselves on the ground, calling him "the great Lord of Heaven" and "Marshal Li" who loved the people like his own children. They even often stole Li Hao's boots and took them back to worship him.

"The stealing of boots is known as the lost shoes among the people. Like the "wanmin umbrella", it is an act of praising the integrity of officials."

Among the marching troops, there was a scholar named Wang Yingjun who explained to Marshal Li.

This man was also a strange person. According to him, Wang Yingzhi, the deputy envoy of Shuntian, was his biological brother. He did not take the imperial examination because he could not stand Wei Zhongxian's control of the tribute. He only helped to resolve rural disputes in his brother's position.

When the scholar Wang Yingjun heard that Marshal Li from outside the Great Wall was leading his troops to Beijing to demand pay, he rode a donkey to find the Liao army, claiming that he could help Marshal Li accomplish his goal.

The Liao soldiers then pulled the scholar who was wielding the broadsword to the front of their commander. After a conversation, the two sides realized that they were of the same kind. The scholar also suggested that after the Liao soldiers had caused trouble at the feet of the emperor, the court should kill Wei Zhongxian to appease the people of the world.

"You are from the Wang family in Shandong, and your family has quite a few members. So let me ask you, who are you brothers to the Wang family in Wuqiao?"

Wuqiao is the place where Kong Youde mutinied in official history. The reason is very abstract. The Wang family lost a chicken, so they caught the Liao soldier who stole the chicken and shot arrows at him while wandering around the camp. The rest of the Liao soldiers mutinied.

In addition to forcing Kong Youde to rebel, a member of the Wang family with the surname Xiang was currently serving as magistrate of Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province, which indirectly forced Li Zicheng to flee to Gansu to serve as a border soldier.

The Wang family in Wuqiao is not very capable of stirring up trouble, but they are always stuck at important nodes. They played a big role in the Zhu family's loss of the world.

"Wuqiao? You are talking about the Xincheng Wang family, right? It has nothing to do with our Laizhou Wang family. The Xincheng Wang family is full of flatterers, and I don't look down on them."

Wang Yingjun, carrying a long sword on his back, answered.

His donkey was skinny, but it could actually carry a strong man like him, and its speed was almost the same as that of Marshal Li who was riding a tall horse. This made Li Hao marvel.

"It's OK. The Wang family of Xincheng has done many evil things. I remember that there is a general in their family who is listed in the Donglin Generals' Record. I will go to their house to collect their salaries when I have time." Brother Xiucai agreed with this move. "The six prefectures in Shandong need Marshal Li to lead troops to rectify them. Several prefectures have been in arrears of miscellaneous taxes and have not paid taxes during the Wanli period. The three prefectures that raise horses cannot collect all the silver for horse labor. The failure of Liao was all due to the Shandong officials' failure to collect taxes."

He is from Laizhou, so he naturally knows the local things very well.

Li Hao listened with great interest. Torturing salaries is also a technical job. If this scholar is really an extremely angry young man as he appears to be now, then Li Hao is going to train him to be in charge of the task of toturing salaries.

As the Liao soldiers advanced towards Beijing, Shang Zhouzuo, the governor of the reinforcements outside Beijing, just wanted to abandon this mess and escort his family back to his hometown in Zhejiang.

He was originally a third-class Jinshi, and did not take the military preparation route. He was promoted to the Minister of War because of his merit in suppressing the rebellion of chieftains when he was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. He actually had no experience in coordinating reinforcements from multiple directions.

Since there was no standard camp, Feng Jiahui gathered 2,000 capable soldiers from the Beijing camp and gave them to him to serve as the direct commander of the camp, in case he could not suppress the reinforcements from the guest troops.

"Mr. Shang, the Liao army will arrive in the afternoon. The reinforcements from Jizhen are still on the way. Marshal Sun is coming fast, but it will take another day or two to arrive. You have to make a decision. Why don't you send an official document to the Ministry of War in the city to let us camp inside the city wall?"

Master Zhang from Shaoxing quickly gave some advice to the worried-looking owner.

The luxury of Beijing City is certainly not comparable to those garrison cities. The inner city circle can accommodate two to three thousand soldiers, which is not much different from staying in the city.

"Master Zhang, if I submit a petition now saying that my mother is seriously ill and urgently needs me to go home to serve her, will the officials in the court agree?"

Looking at the imperial sword he had just obtained a few days ago, Shang Zhouzuo suddenly wanted to leave.

It so happened that his family had only been on the journey for two or three days, so if he could catch up with them on horseback he could take care of them.

"The fire has already reached our eyebrows, so forget about it. You should think about how to deal with the Liao soldiers who will arrive in an hour."

Master Zhang only focuses on the present.

Shang Zhouzuo said helplessly: "I sent someone to communicate with Marshal Li before. He wanted the court to hand over Eunuch Wei, saying that only by skinning Wei alive can he clear his name."

"Then send someone into the city to report this matter to the Ministry of War and the Cabinet. Asking the court to hand over Eunuch Wei won't work, but asking the court to hand over a group of corrupt officials and evil eunuchs will definitely work."

What Master Zhang didn't say was that he felt that after Marshal Li of Liaozhen had killed a group of corrupt officials and eunuchs to his heart's content, perhaps the two sides could have a talk under the city.

Shang Zhouzuo thought about it for a few moments and felt that it was feasible, so he sent people into the city.

The soldiers under his command were also not idle. They packed up their belongings and ran to the Guangqumen city circle. Although Shang Bu Tang could nominally command hundreds of thousands of reinforcements, he currently only had these two thousand people, and he could not command the rest of the Beijing camp soldiers.

They had only half of the troops ready when a large group of cavalry arrived at the camp.

Because of their military service, the soldiers in the Beijing camp had long since become servants of the powerful in the capital. Even if they were capable of fighting, their combat effectiveness was far inferior to that of the Liao soldiers who had been trained in Liaodong.

Before even the third shot from the muskets and muskets was fired, most of the soldiers in the camp began to flee in all directions. The rest had difficulty walking and had no choice but to kneel down and surrender.

The several hundred Liao soldiers who arrived early began to capture prisoners. After entering the pass, they robbed many farms. These Liao soldiers also became smarter and only captured wealthy people who were fatter and had more accessories.

When Li Hao and Wang Yingjun, who was riding a donkey, arrived, a fairly large fish was brought to the commander-in-chief by the Liao soldiers.

"General, this man is Shang Zhouzuo, the Minister of War who is in charge of all reinforcements. Your subordinates have also found his imperial sword."

The dusty Shang Zhouzuo was pushed in front of Li Hao's horse. The soldiers in the camp kicked him on the knees to make him kneel down, but the Minister of War would rather lie on the ground than kneel down to Marshal Li.

"He is a man of character. Let's set up camp outside the city today. Tomorrow we will go to Guangqu Gate and kill him as a sacrifice. Then we will attack the city."

Li Hao said calmly, it would be fine to kill such a high-ranking official.

Hearing this, Shang Zhouzuo became anxious, and regardless of his own ugly appearance, he shouted directly: "Marshal Li, I am still useful. I will go to the city to get the corrupt officials and evil eunuchs, and I will hand them over later so that you can vent your anger."

When death was imminent, he could not care less.

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(End of this chapter)