Chapter 32: Lord Wei needs talents like you

The eunuchs who were sent to the front line to deliver military weapons all had some knowledge of military affairs.

Liu Yingkun's doubts are well-founded.

In order to cope with the Ming Dynasty's system of military merit based on heads, the Eight Banners soldiers would rather take the risk to retrieve the bodies than let the bodies of the dead bannermen be obtained by the Ming Dynasty.

During a siege, if the city could not be conquered, the corpses would be burned when the attack stopped.

Even the flag soldiers who died on the city wall would, if conditions allowed, be thrown to the foot of the wall for easy burning.

Therefore, during the battle to defend the city, many enemies were often killed, but only about one or two hundred Tatar heads were captured.

Man Gui was already satisfied with the gains of over a hundred people on the first day of defending the city, but he did not expect that Li Hao in the north was so brave.

So he was surprised and happy, until he couldn't hold back his inner excitement and burst into laughter.

"Even if all forty of them are fake Tartars, it is still a great achievement. Li Hao is so brave, after this battle he must be promoted to guerrilla commander, lieutenant general, or even deputy general."

He estimated that Li Hao might have chopped off twenty or thirty bodies, and his servants chopped off another ten or so, so this number was reached.

These were the Tartars killed in Ningyuan City, which was under the jurisdiction of Man Gui. He also had the credit as the admiral, so he laughed out loud with joy.

Eunuch Liu Yingkun didn't quite believe it. Although Li Hao killed the Tartar leader Daishan, that was the result of dozens of brave servants rushing forward together. Liu Dayong felt that it was impossible to gain so much just by defending the city.

Fortunately, it was only the end of the Shen hour and the beginning of the You hour, and there was still more than half an hour before dark. Before nightfall, we would be able to figure out how many Tartars had been killed.

"Manzhen, shall we move to the government office? First, to report the good news to Yuan Bingxian, and second, we really want to take a closer look at who Li Hao is."

Man Gui readily agreed, and ordered his servants to take all the Tartar heads, and rode happily towards the city center.

……

After the Tartars retreated, the commanders on all sides gathered the soldiers from various camps, arranged for guard duty and patrol, and then took the generals in charge of the camps, the captains, the captains, the commanders and other officers to the provincial government office to summarize the military achievements and to discuss the defense in the next few days.

In order to show off their achievements and gain face in front of Yuan Bingxian, Man Zhen, eunuch Liu Yingkun and others, these battalion commanders and thousand-captain commanders brought the heads of Tartars captured by their own retainers. As a result, the provincial government office was very lively, with officers boasting about their military exploits and retainers following behind them with plates carrying the heads of Tartars.

The more plates a battalion commander has servants carrying behind him, the more his subordinates have gained and the more presence he has.

Of course, the person most mentioned among the generals was Li Hao, the brave general guarding the north.

The news about the northern city wall had been delivered to the provincial government, and the results were astonishing.

"Have you heard that Li Hao beheaded forty Tartars?"

"What old news are you talking about? At the beginning of the evening, it was said that General Li killed 150 of them. But how come the number keeps decreasing when you say it?"

"Stop bragging. If there are forty of them, I will acknowledge him as my godfather. If there are really a hundred and fifty, I will acknowledge him as the brother of Marshal Cheng Liang and kowtow to him and call him grandpa."

Although these generals and captains had a certain understanding of Li Hao's combat capability, some of them were still unwilling to believe that someone could really behead more than a hundred real Tartars at once.

It’s no wonder that they are so narrow-minded, because one hundred real Tatar heads are truly astonishing.

According to the rules of the Ming Dynasty officialdom, a great victory could only be reported after beheading more than 100 people. If one person beheaded more than 100 people and reported it to the officials and generals inside the country, they would just think you had written the wrong number.

Perhaps only those novelists along the Qinhuai River would choose to believe the news when they heard it, and then make up a story about gods descending from heaven and write it into "Liaohai Danzhonglu", so as to fool the people in the south into believing that it was a peaceful time.

The people got psychological comfort, and the novelists earned the money from the pages of their books.

……

Li Hao, who came with Zhu Mei and others, arrived a little late because it took a lot of time to collect the heads of the Tartars.

"Marshal Zhu, General Li, General Deng, General Chen, please go into the main hall. Eunuch Liu, General Yuan, General Man and all the generals are waiting for you."

A servant had been waiting at the gate of the Dao Hall, specially inviting the late generals in. Li Hao and others dismounted, and Zhu Mei greeted the servants behind him at the right time.

"My men, bring in all our spoils from today, and let these colleagues inside see General Li's majesty, and let them see what kind of heroes our Liaodong generals are!"

There was a hint of tears in his voice when he said this. After the fall of Liao, the people of Liaodong lost their homeland. Liao generals like Zhu Mei were often looked down upon by generals from other places.

Zhu Mei couldn't refute it. Although he was from Qiantun, his father was guarding Guangning at the time and he actually grew up in Guangning.

If we can’t recover our hometown, we won’t be able to stand up straight.

Today, Li Hao had a fierce battle, and Li Hao, who is also a native of western Liaoning, finally made Zhu Mei's pent-up anger burst out.

Even though he was forty-three or forty-four years old, he could hardly control himself. His voice was trembling, and even his body was straighter than usual.

All the servants responded in unison, and then each of them carried three or four Tartar heads and followed the generals and captains inside.

"Finally he's here. We want to see how many Tartars this majestic General Li has killed."

As soon as I reached the door of the living room, I heard a sarcastic voice.

Li Hao stopped and asked Zhu Mei in a low voice: "Is this the eunuch? How did he come out to meet us warriors after thinking it through?"

There was a eunuch in the city who was in charge of delivering military weapons. His name was Liu Yingkun and he had a very high rank. It was said that he was ranked third or fourth in the Imperial Stables.

However, when this person came, the Tartars were about to march south, and Eunuch Liu was afraid that the journey would be unsafe. The garrison in the city was short of manpower and could not spare time to send him south, so Eunuch Liu and his party had to stay in the city.

It is said that Liu Yingkun felt that Ningyuan City would definitely fall, so he sent his eunuchs to occupy the most beautiful well in the city, ready to jump into the well once the city was breached.

He certainly did not have the courage to die for the city, but he felt that he was too delicate and tender to be saved if he was captured by the Tartars, so it would be better to die quickly than to suffer humiliation.

This man should have participated in the previous military meetings, but he might have given up hope and stayed in a yard he built all day, letting people perform for him, hoping to enjoy himself to the fullest before his death.

"It's him. General Li, just deal with it calmly. Liu Yingkun is the man of Duke Wei and is quite good to our Liaodong generals."

Because Eunuch Wei did not covet the military pay of Liaodong, he enjoyed a good reputation among the generals.

The reason why the eunuchs did not drink the blood of soldiers or covet military pay was naturally not because they were kind-hearted and loyal to the country, but because the Liao pay could not pass through their hands.

If they could get their hands on the Liao salary, the eunuchs would be just as greedy. This group of eunuchs and the corrupt officials in the court are like a crow landing on a black pig, both thinking the other is black.

After knowing the factions, Li Hao felt more at ease and strode in.

Even the deputy general Zhu Mei didn't dare to walk in front of General Li, for fear of stealing his reputation.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, you are indeed the one who killed the great Tartar of Daishan in battle. Look at your physique, look at your resolute face, you have a really good appearance. What are your trophies today? I heard that there are hundreds of them. I want to see if they are all real Tartars."

The hall was crowded, but very quiet; all the noise came from the eunuch.

Yuan Bingxian had a smile on his face and Man Gui was grinning with joy.

Li Hao's seat was the same as last time. He walked over and sat down. The generals on the north city wall followed suit and sat down. Then the servants carrying the heads of the Tartars came in one after another.

Liu Yingkun was still speaking in the unique voice of a eunuch, but he soon shut up because the pile of Tartar heads had formed a small hill.

"My goodness, Duke Wei needs talents like you."

As more Tartar heads were brought in by the servants, Liu Yingkun could no longer sit still. He took two steps to the pile of heads and collapsed to the ground in shock.

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(End of this chapter)