Chapter 44 Archery Competition
Upon receiving the order, the Niulu Ezhen of the Bordered Blue Banner named Shuoerhui quickly headed north with twenty bannermen who were skilled in horse riding.

The remaining troops of the Bordered Blue Banner began to clean up the battlefield in the city circle under the command of Jirgalang and the other four Niulu masters.

Because they bypassed the post road from Tashanbao to Ningyuan City, they were unable to witness the field battle that took place in the south, but the battlefield ruins before them still gave the soldiers of the Bordered Blue Banner a great shock.

The first things the flag soldiers dragged out were the beheaded corpses. The heat from the piled-up corpses had long since died out, but the pungent smell of blood was still wafting out.

Even the old soldiers who were used to seeing life and death had to admit that the scene before them was horrifying. As the pile of corpses outside the doorway was cleared away, an even more cruel scene inside the doorway was revealed to the eyes of the people of the Bordered Blue Banner.

"Heshuo Beile, they are all dead."

A Niulu master reported the situation of the gate to Jirgalang.

Out of respect for the bannermen who died in the battle, Jirgalang walked slowly to the cleared doorway and looked inside.

More than a dozen distorted human faces were reflected in his eyes, and many of them were half-hidden and half-visible. Even though they had been dead for seven or eight hours, the expressions on the bannermen's faces were still clearly discernible.

Fear, helplessness, despair!
Jirgalang didn't even dare to imagine what kind of evil had forced these bannermen to swarm into this narrow, cramped doorway.

These were all veterans of the banner. They had at least experienced the great battles of Sarhu, Kaitie, Liaoshen, and Guangning. They had probably seen more dead bodies than dead pigs. Yet, they were so frightened by a Ming general that they rushed into the doorway to escape regardless of everything.

vomit!
Because there were piles of corpses blocking both ends of the doorway, the heat from the dead bannermen and war horses in the doorway was slow to dissipate. The strong smell of blood, the smell of urine and the stench of feces from the incontinence of the men and horses mixed together, reminding many members of the Bordered Blue Banner that this was a real event.

Jirgalang was so provoked that he vomited. Influenced by his cousin Huang Taiji, he learned some Han culture and therefore considered himself a cultured person. When he suddenly saw such a bloody and cruel scene, he was psychologically unable to bear it.

Several Niulu masters and their personal guards rushed over and helped the young flag master to the side.

After vomiting three or four times in a row, Jirgalang's face, which had turned pale, finally recovered a little.

"You continue to dig out the bodies of the bannermen and burn them properly. We will stay in Tashan Fort today. You have all worked hard, so you should rest early."

After listening to his cousin's analysis last night, he had some thoughts on chasing after and shooting Ming general Li Hao in order to improve his own status. However, he was stimulated by what he saw and smelled just now, and he no longer had the intention to chase after Li Hao.

Whoever wants to surround and kill this brave general can go, but Jirgalang will not go.

When the old Khan asked about it, he said that the Ming general had few soldiers and escaped quickly, so their large army could not catch up with him.

After making up his mind, the Heshuo Beile finally calmed down. He took the wine pot handed to him by the bannerman, drank some rice wine and rinsed his mouth.

……

Songshan Fort.

"Stop running if you can!"

On the city wall, Li Hao was chasing seven bannermen and the only remaining bondservant slave.

The two groups of people were about ten steps apart and just couldn't catch up.

The Tartars and bondservants under the city had been killed by him and Huang Long's team. Because they did not know the power of Li Hao's giant axe, they did not know how to dodge after being shot with arrows and were ready to fight with the help of the city gate.

The result is predictable. Most of them who went out of the west gate to welcome the guests were chopped into two by Li Hao, and the rest were killed on the spot by Huang Long and others.

The Tartars and bannermen on the city wall realized that the newcomers were not friendly and began to circle around.

When General Li went up to the city to kill the Tartars, he only brought a broadsword and a hatchet, and was unable to kill them at medium and short range, which led to the current situation.

He had to admit that the running speed of this group of Tartars could make Liu Xiang silent, Blake cry, and Bolt exclaimed to coach, "I'd better go for the cultural approach!"
Damn it, how can he run so fast!

"General, I surrender. Please don't kill me. I am just trying to make a living and have never done anything evil."

The only bondservant begged for mercy in Chinese, but he showed no sign of slowing down. Li Hao asked, "Do these Tartars understand Chinese?"

"Of course I don't understand." The bondservant replied breathlessly.

"Then if you trip up a few Tartars, I will spare your life."

Li Hao made a promise.

The bondservant made up his mind and kicked a flagman next to him, knocking him over.

In the past, he had to treat this bannerman as his master, feed his horses and farm for him, and hand over most of the grain at the end of the year, leaving only a small part that was barely enough to fill his stomach.

The remaining six flagmen naturally had no time to care about what was happening behind them, and they took turns walking down the stairs to the lower city.

Although there were some Ming soldiers blocking the city gate, the oppressive feeling given by this Ming general was not as strong as those Ming soldiers combined.

They believed that as long as they found the war horses, they would still have hope of escaping back to the base alive.

The bannerman who was tripped still had a strong desire to survive, and he was about to turn over and get up after falling to the ground. Unfortunately, he usually exploited the bondservants a little too harshly. The bondservant was determined to turn things around and his courage increased. He pounced on him and held him down, waiting for the general to arrive and deal with the bannerman.

"That's a bit sincere. What's your name?"

"General, my original name is Wang Meng. This Tartar changed my name to Wang Zhongqi. Now that I have rebelled, I should change it back to my original name."

Li Hao rushed forward and killed the Tartar with one blow of his axe. Then he chopped off his head with the second blow and ordered the man to hold the head.

"Wang Meng is a famous official. Your parents are good at giving names."

After ordering this man to clean up the battlefield on the city wall, Li Hao first chopped off the flagpole with an axe, stomped on the flag that fell on the ground on the city wall, and rushed down with the axe, as there were still six Tartars who needed his help.

Unfortunately, they came down too late and failed to kill any of the Tartars. Among the six people guarding the west gate, Huang Long killed two Tartars alone, and among the remaining five, Liu Maocai and Yang Shigong together killed one.

"It doesn't matter. You can keep the ones you cut off now. When we are about to return, I will give you a few more heads. I guarantee that everyone will have four or five heads."

Li Hao comforted Liu Yang and the others.

He is no longer short of Tartar heads. When this picnic is almost over, he plans to distribute some heads to these heroes according to their merits.

Except for the horses, there were no living creatures in Songshan Fort. After ordering people to clean up the battlefield, the team participating in the fighting competition rushed to Jinzhou City without stopping.

That is today's main course.

……

Outside Jinzhou City.

There are quite a lot of Tatars stationed here, and including the bondservants, there are at least one hundred and fifty people active in the city.

Earlier in front of Songshan Fort, Li Hao had ordered Huang Long's team to participate in an archery competition, and Gou Quanzhong and he hit the target flagpole.

Now at the gate of Jinzhou City, this group of fierce generals and soldiers did not split into four teams, but gathered directly in front of the east gate where the Tartars were the most numerous, and began a formal fight.

"Let's make a deal first. We'll be eighty steps from the city wall. Use a large bow and feather arrows. If you want, you can use a Jiannu bow and halberd arrows. Whoever hits the flagpole first will get a head as a reward. It's Bayala's head!"

Under the gaze of dozens of eyes from the defenders on the city wall, General Li held the first archery competition.

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(End of this chapter)