Chapter 2 Liaodong Big Stage, Come if You Are Called

Li Hao's sword was also hung upside down on his waist by the servants.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the head system was extremely important. During the Longqing and Wanli periods, a Tatar head could be exchanged for fifty taels of silver, or twenty taels of silver for a promotion. The Jurchen heads were worthless at that time, and the price of one was only half of that of a Tatar. Later, when Nurhaci rebelled, the price of Jiannu heads rose to the same level as that of Tatars.

In order to quickly grab heads, almost every border soldier hung their swords on their waists. Of course, officers at the level of general, lieutenant general, and guerrilla commander did not need to grab heads themselves, as their servants would do it.

"I called you here first because I have something to tell you. According to my estimation, the main camp of the old slave army has not yet reached Youtun and Jinzhou, but the scouts ahead must have passed Jinzhou. I want you to eat and drink enough today and follow me to kill the Jiannu scouts. We must kill at least two teams."

Li Hao didn't care about the orders from Yuan Bingxian and Man Zhen at all. He only knew that the time for a massacre had come.

Liaodong is a big stage, come if you are called!
Today is the 19th. Counting the days, there are still five days before the Battle of Ningyuan officially begins.

Li Tianyang's eyes lit up and he exclaimed, "I knew that you had lofty ambitions. Back then, Zu Chengxun was promoted to deputy general after chopping off seven heads. Now that Ma Biao has a sharp sword, he must chop off a town commander anyway."

This is a 25-year-old rough man of seven feet tall, with an oval face, straight eyebrows, a big and straight nose, and a pointed chin. When he smiles with his eyes narrowed, he looks very much like an actor named Sun Honglei. He has a somewhat reckless personality, but he admires Li Rusong very much and likes to charge forward when attacking people.

Zu Chengxun is Zu Dashou's father. He was promoted from a small flag to a deputy governor and was given the title of deputy general by relying on seven heads.

Zhenshuai is the colloquial title for the general, and Li Tianyang is a very ambitious guy.

The four servants, pigs, dogs, cows and sheep, were also eager to try. The Ming army was only weak in large-scale field battles. In small-scale battles with less than a thousand people, the Ming army achieved a very good winning rate relying on the servant system.

"Baizai, the Jiannu scouts usually form a team of five, with Bayala as the leader and the rest being ordinary flagmen. The four of us will each deal with a flagman, and I and brother Tianyang will deal with Bayala. We have a good chance of winning." Yang Shigong suggested.

Among the four servants of pigs, dogs, cows and sheep, Yang Shigong has the most clever ideas, and the other three have their own characteristics. Liu Maocai is sloppy, but he is very serious in his work, has few tricks, and has strong execution ability; Gou Quanzhong was born into a night owl family, and is good at field marching and night reconnaissance. He also knows a little Manchu and Mongolian, and can communicate verbally with Tatars and Jurchens; Zhu Yingtai is a little vain, but he is quite smart, can write and calculate, and has a strong memory, so he is suitable for managing materials and being responsible for logistics.

"You don't have to be so calculating. If we can meet the Tartar scouts today, I will show you how to kill five with one. You block the four sides and make sure not a single Jiannu escapes."

The retainers were already high-level soldiers. When playing games, Li Hao was reluctant to let high-level soldiers go up as cannon fodder, and now they are even rarer. Besides, early kills can allow Li Hao to quickly increase points, improve various attributes and health limits, so it is more cost-effective to kill people by yourself.

After waiting for a long time and preparing the horses, food and drinks, Li Hao first had a meal with the five servants. Then he ordered the soldiers and settlers under his command to follow General Zuo to Ningyuanwei City in the southeast. Then he mounted his horse and prepared to lead the servants out of the fortress gate and head north.

There were six people and eight horses, and they brought enough food for about four days.

……

"Brother, it's safer for us to go together."

Zuo Liangyu, the captain who had been waiting for a long time, brought his twenty or so servants to block the east gate of Shahebei Fort to prevent the garrison troops from escaping. When he saw a burly man coming with his five servants, he immediately warned him.

He was a soldier recruited from Shandong. The commander and ethics officer who organized the garrison were all native to western Liaoning. The generals from the nine frontiers were always related to each other. Zuo Liangyu and Ning Yuanzu's family called each other brothers, so it would always be right to call the commander here "brother".

"Safe? What a joke! From the moment I showed up with a knife in hand, it was time for the Tartars to consider whether it was safe to travel in the wild."

Li Hao waved his hand, signaling the left captain and his servants to move aside.

Yang Shigong quickly dismounted and ran to General Zuo. He bowed and explained, "Master Zuo, I am leading the army here, so there must be scouts ahead. My captain is willing to take us north to investigate. We have no intention of fleeing south. Our families are all in the fort, so we need Master Zuo to take care of them for the next two days."

As he spoke, he stuffed a handful of copper coins into Zuo Bazong's hand.

Unexpectedly, Zuo Liangyu confiscated it and pushed it back.

"I'm not that blind." He looked up and down at Li Hao, the leader, and said, "I heard that many Jiannu scouts raise falcons. The nearby teams are in harmony with each other. The scout leader is a white-armored Bayala. Although my old brother and the brothers are brave, aren't you afraid of being surrounded by a large group of Jiannu and unable to escape?"

He felt that if these six people encountered a team of scouts, a few of them would survive, but if they encountered two teams, no one would be spared, so he reminded them kindly. "Why don't you ask the Jiannu if he is afraid of me?" After a sneer, Li Hao kicked the horse's belly with the tip of his shoe and headed towards the fort gate.

The other servants followed one after another on horseback. Yang Shigong smiled at the captain and also got on his horse and followed. Zuo Liangyu had no choice but to order his men to move aside.

When the six men and eight horses left the fort, he sighed, "It's a pity that such a hero died in vain!"

The head of the servants beside him also echoed: "These heroes are brave, but they are too reckless. They can save their lives by saving their strength to defend the city. Fighting in the wild will surely lead to death."

Most of the soldiers in the camp were recruited from the military households of the guard posts within the Great Wall. Compared with the local people in western Liaoning, they were less tough and therefore could not understand this behavior.

"Let him be. In two days, I will report this to the commanders in the town and say a few good words to them. After all, he died fighting for his hometown."

Although he admired the courage of Li Hao and others to take the initiative, Zuo Liangyu had already determined in his mind that they would die.

……

The cold in Liaodong seems to freeze time. From November to February of the following year, the whole world is covered in white for four or five months. Although it is past noon, the sunlight is far away, like a peaceful day that never comes, and it cannot give people a trace of expectation and longing.

Even the sky was a little gray, and there was no life as far as Li Hao could see. Only the dry trees covered with snow on the road gave people a feeling that there were still living things in this place.

In the gray world, six lonely men and eight horses were advancing on the thick snow. The sounds of breathing, low neighing, and the rustling of horses' hooves on the snow, along with the passing of time, wore away the ambitions of the servants when they set out.

Li Hao noticed this, so he pointed to the north and said:

"Go east from Shahehe Fort and you will reach a post road near the sea. A little further north on this post road is Ningyuan Zhongzuo. There must be Tartar scouts there. We will guard nearby."

Ningyuan Zhongzuosuo was the official written name during the Ming Dynasty. It was a thousand-household station under the jurisdiction of Ningyuan Wei. It was better known as Tashan.

There is neither a tower nor a mountain on Tashan, only a small mound of earth with no strategic location to defend.

"Master Baizai, we also have a checkpoint at Zhongzuo Station. We can contact our brothers there first. They must know more than us." Gou Quanzhong suggested.

Although most of the Ming troops outside the Great Wall were withdrawn to Shanhaiguan, the areas of Ningyuan and Qiantun were under the jurisdiction of Yuan Chonghuan, the military governor, and the checkpoints and post stations had not completely failed. After all, Tashan was once a thousand-household unit, so there must have been small-scale Ming army activities.

Li Hao followed the advice and moved forward with his five servants. They arrived at Tashan City at the beginning of the Shen time, which was around three o'clock in the afternoon.

"It took almost two hours, four hours, and we traveled about thirty-five miles," he concluded.

This speed was already considered the standard for elite soldiers, who could advance sixty to eighty miles a day and still maintain a high level of combat effectiveness, but it was still insufficient compared to the Jiannu. For the Jiannu generals who were the sons and grandsons of the old slaves, marching two hundred miles a day and night was considered basic skills.

Gou Quanzhong rode his horse to negotiate with the Ming army in Tashan Fort, and then came back to report to Li Hao.

"Master, the brothers at the sentry post said that around 5 p.m. today, a Tartar sentry appeared on the western hill. They were wearing bright armor and should be the White Bayara with two red flags. According to the Tartars' custom, today and tomorrow are the days for them to remove the sentry post. The brothers said they dare not stay for long and will burn the post and retreat at 5 p.m. If we stay here, they will not burn the post."

The "Ming Jia" here refers to the armor with armor plates on the outside, usually lamellar armor. The Bayala are the fifty strongest archers and cavalrymen in each Niulu of Jiannu. Among them, the first ten wear Ming Jia and are the top elites of Jiannu, called white Bayala, and the last forty wear cloth armor, also called red Bayala, and are usually the guards of the flag owner, Jiala Ezhen, and Niulu Ezhen.

In the late period of the Old Slave Dynasty, there were a total of 215 Niulu in the Eight Banners, and the Baibayala had only 2,150 people.

According to the Jiannu's fighting style, before attacking the city, they would first send out elite scouts to eliminate the Ming army's checkpoints along the way and kill the Yebushou and other reconnaissance soldiers in the wild, so that the Ming army generals would not know the whereabouts of the Jiannu's main force.

PS: New author, new book, please collect, recommend and vote for me.

(End of this chapter)