Chapter 129 When will we attack the Liao army?

An inn in Mingshifang, Dongcheng, Beijing.

"It's unfair, it's unfair! I'm just a merchant from the south, and I have never owed the court any taxes. Sir, please be kind and let me go."

Xu Xianchun, a clean-faced and beardless man, was pulled out from under the bed. He immediately took out a few small silver ingots weighing two taels and stuffed them into the hands of the searching soldiers one by one.

"Are you kidding an idiot? A southern merchant speaking with a northern accent?"

As soon as the soldiers heard his accent, they knew that the man was from Northern Zhili because they were also from the same region.

"I am just doing business near the capital all year round. Sir, please give me some convenience. Please give me some convenience."

Xu Xianchun smiled along, thinking that these soldiers thought the silver he was given was too little, so he took out a few larger silver ingots from his pocket and slapped them into the hand of the leading soldier.

The soldiers nodded with satisfaction, hid the silver in their hands, and the leading soldier said, "Xu Xianchun, your crime has been exposed. We came to arrest you after seeing the portrait, and you were in charge of the Jinyiwei, so just go and don't force us to resort to any means."

Marshal Li allowed Xiaoyu to keep the fish, so the soldiers accepted Xu Xianchun's small gift with peace of mind.

"My lords, I am not Xu Xianchun. There must be something wrong here. I still have some money. Why don't you share it with me and let me go?"

This assistant commander of the Northern Pacification Division, who was in charge of affairs, had taken the military examination in his early years. Although his body was hollowed out by alcohol and sex, he had not completely lost his foundation. He seized the opportunity, pushed over the leading soldier closest to him, and without caring about the money in the room, he jumped out of the window.

He had chosen this place carefully. The room was on the second floor. Outside was a small alley which was not very wide but had a lot of traffic. He could hide among the pedestrians and escape.

Unfortunately, he miscalculated.

There were hardly any pedestrians in the alleys. When he climbed out the window, he discovered that there were also soldiers guarding the streets, and they were cavalry.

Seeing that he was not behaving himself, the cavalrymen on the street took advantage of the moment when he fell to the ground and could not recover and shot him several times in the legs.

"Ah~"

Xu Xianchun screamed in pain. He was the nephew of Empress Dowager Li and had never suffered such severe pain since he was born.

"Old Wang has a good aim. Xu Xianchun has really become a eunuch." A soldier exclaimed in admiration.

The cavalry on the street specifically aimed at this man's crotch and shot. The effect was very obvious. A lot of dark blood flowed between Xu Xianchun's legs. He was not a eunuch, but he was almost the same.

After the soldiers on the second floor looted the room, they took Xu Xianchun's luggage downstairs, tied up Xu Xianchun's hands, who had a broken leg, and hung him on a war horse, and then flew a kite directly on the street.

"This street is operating normally. Marshal Li has ordered that the people's salaries will not be extorted."

After the Liao soldiers took away the target person, the cavalry read out the commander's orders along the way.

Although Beijing's West City and Central City were in turmoil, the Liao soldiers' torture of salaries temporarily only targeted nobles, eunuchs, the Jinyiwei, and officials from the six ministries and nine officials. The wealthy merchants in East City were not affected. Therefore, the order in Mingshifang and Chengqingfang on both sides of Chongwenmen Street was relatively normal.

The end of the year was approaching. Although there were not many peddlers on the street and all the shops along the street were closed, news spread quickly among the neighbors. When the Liao soldiers walked away, many windows that had been closed tightly were opened and the residents leaned out to talk to each other in a low voice.

"Marshal Li is such a loyal minister. He even brought down Xu Xianchun!"

"I heard that the Five Tigers of the Eunuch Party have all fallen into the hands of Marshal Li. I wonder how many blows Xu Xianchun will get?"

"I bet on twelve cuts. Wu Chunfu and Tian Ji only took eleven cuts before they died. Xu Xianchun is strong, so he only took one more cut."

The original beheading site in the vegetable market was on the south side of Xuanwu Gate, but a large number of Jizhen soldiers were stationed in the south city. The Liao soldiers carried out the lingchi execution on the north side of Xuanwu Gate, and allowed the people to buy rice and meat and eat them with blood.

Ordinary people naturally did not have the courage to go over there to watch the fun, but the Five Tigers and the Five Biao had offended too many people. During the previous lingchi executions, thousands of people risked their lives to watch and bought meat from the Liao soldiers.

According to the laws of the Ming Dynasty, the prisoner had to be killed by lingchi using twenty-six cuts. The first eight cuts were minor ones, just cutting off a little meat to offer sacrifice to heaven and earth. The ninth cut was the real deal, and the entire breast meat had to be gouged out. Most people could not endure this.

As for the lingchi that involves hundreds of cuts, it is called fish scale slicing and can only be used with the emperor's order. It has not appeared since the Liao soldiers took control of the city.

Although people were not allowed to buy New Year's goods due to the war, the people strongly agreed with Marshal Li's decision to kill the eunuchs. It was rumored that even Emperor Tianqi cried every day, feeling that he had been deceived by Wei Zhongxian and the eunuchs, which led to the neglect of the nine frontiers and chaos in the government.

...Tongzhou City, garrison office.

Although the Ming army and the Liao army were confronting each other on the front line, the atmosphere of the New Year was quite strong in Tongzhou City. The war was still going on, but life had to go on.

Sun Chengzong, who felt that it was unsafe outside the city, had already moved the central army to the garrison office inside the city. Except for the generals leading the troops, almost all the civil officials and eunuchs ran into the city.

Although all the eunuchs in Beijing fell into the hands of Marshal Li, the eunuchs supervising the army in Jizhen, Shanhaiguan, Tianjin and other places were all alive and well. They followed the army to Tongzhou.

"What do you think Marshal Li means?" the old eunuch Ji Yong asked the civil and military officials who were discussing matters in the yamen.

He previously served as a military supervisor in Jinzhou. Later, Qianfeng Town made many great contributions, which benefited him a lot. He was directly promoted to Shanhaiguan to continue supervising the army. Thus, he avoided the turmoil of the Liao soldiers' liquidation of Jinzhou officials and eunuchs.

Eunuch Ji still calls him Marshal Li. Other civil officials do not have high enough status, so no one comes to correct him in addressing them.

"He wanted to rebel, but his Liao soldiers didn't agree, so it has been delayed until now. The Ming Dynasty's guards are still loyal. After the Li Rebellion is settled, I will report to the emperor and commend the Liao soldiers."

Sun Chengzong had led Liao soldiers before and felt that these soldiers did not support Li Ni.

Among the people in this room, Sun Chengzong and Ji Yong have the highest status. Although Man Gui, the general of Shanhaiguan, is of the first rank, his power is far from comparable to that of the eunuch Ji, who is of the fourth rank, so he has no say.

"When will Sun Butang plan to attack the Liao army?"

Ji Yong questioned Sun Chengzong in his tone, and he planned to slip away before this army attacked the Liao army.

He had experienced the power of Marshal Li, who would kill people if they disagreed with him. He didn't want to risk his own life.

This eunuch lived to be over sixty simply by following his heart.

"The soldiers have no intention of engaging in a fierce battle with the Liao soldiers. I am also concerned about the emperor in Li Ni's hands, so we cannot start a war with the Liao soldiers for the time being."

Old man Sun was a proponent of war, but the generals leading the troops were unwilling to go to war with the Liao soldiers, so he had no intention of urging reinforcements from all directions to go forward and besiege the capital, and just kept dragging it out.

But I don’t know when it will end.

"I say, Minister Sun, if we delay any longer, the reinforcements will run out of food. You have also heard about the Liao soldiers' method of attacking Xuanda's army. They even paid the soldiers on the battlefield. Who can defend against this? Why don't we retreat directly to Tianjin and take the food away."

Seeing that Sun Chengzong also did not want to start a fight, Ji Yong advised him to take the reinforcements gathered in Tongzhou and retreat westward to Tianjin to avoid the reinforcements being defeated due to food shortage.

"Isn't this abandoning His Majesty? I can't bear the world's infamy!"

Sun Chengzong was not as thick-skinned as the old eunuch. He did not have the courage to lead his army to attack Li Ni, but he also did not want to give up the capital area just like that.

"What's the point of fighting now? Most of the soldiers from Baoding have fled. Some of the soldiers from Xuan went to Marshal Li to collect their salaries. They are plundering every household. Not to mention the reinforcements, even if all the nine frontier military towns are added together, Marshal Li can afford to pay them. If we don't withdraw now, all the people in Tongzhou will flee."

Ji Yong was intent on persuading Sun Chengzong to lead his troops to retreat eastward, so he repeatedly mentioned the Liao soldiers' silver-distributing tactics.

"But my Sun family is also a farming and reading family. How can we leave them in the capital?"

Sun Chengzong was also very conflicted. The old eunuch was telling the truth. If he didn't run away, the soldiers from Tongzhou would also desert.

Judging from the whereabouts of the Xuanda and Baoding troops in recent days, the Tongzhou deserters will also quickly go to Li Ni to receive their salaries, accept the reform, and become Li Ni's loyal subordinates.

There was no way. Wei Zhongxian had been poisoning the Ministry of War for a long time. Apart from Liaozhen, almost every military town in the other eight border areas owed wages. The soldiers could not even get enough food, so how could they have the mind to defend the capital and the emperor?
"How about this, Governor Yuan and I will lead the reinforcements to retreat eastward, while Sun Bu Tang will lead a few elite soldiers to guard Tongzhou to prevent the desertion incident from escalating?"

This was the most compromising proposal. Sun Chengzong looked at his subordinates and reluctantly agreed.

Although he also knew the tactics of the Liao soldiers, how could the Ming Dynasty have the money and food to make up for the unpaid wages for the reinforcements?
We can only wait and see.

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(End of this chapter)