Chapter 62 A Little Shock to the Li Family
The front hall of Wenhua Hall in the Forbidden City.

On the four wooden tables were three memorials and a head.

The Prime Minister Gu Bingqian, cabinet ministers Huang Liji, Shi Fenglai, Lai Zongdao, the Minister of War Wang Yongguang, the Left Vice Minister Feng Jiahui, the Minister of the Imperial Household Huo Weihua, the Junior Minister Li Chunye and other dignitaries, as well as the Imperial Household Department's Wei Zhongxian and several eunuchs from the Imperial Stables gathered together, circling around the wooden table, analyzing memorials and the heads of great chiefs.

Prince Xin Zhu Youjian, dressed in a red python robe, sat on a chair near the entrance of the corridor and listened to Liu Yingkun telling the details of the Battle of Ningyuan.

"Great, great!"

This prince's performance was much more immature than his brother's. After Liu Yingkun's words, Prince Xin already believed them to about 70%. After Eunuch Liu told him about Wei Zhongxian's strategy, he exclaimed, "Now I know there is a loyal person in Liaoxi."

The eunuch, who was nearly fifty years old, despised the fifteen-year-old prince who was so easily fooled. He thought that General Li, who dared to go out of the city to fight to the death, was the only loyal one, meaning that the other Liao soldiers defending the city were disloyal. However, he still had tears in his eyes while smiling, and tried his best to praise General Li who had fought many fierce battles.

"Killing Daishan was nothing. When I heard that the old slave had plundered Juehua Island, General Li immediately requested to send troops to take it back from the Tartars. The generals in Ningyuan were afraid that General Li would be trapped in Liaodong and Liaonan, so they tried their best to dissuade him. I forced them to gather the military supplies for General Li's troops.

Sure enough, two days later, there was no report, General Li conquered four cities alone, chasing those Tartars. Before I left, I heard that General Li had captured hundreds of heads again. Now I don’t know where he is going. Maybe he went straight to Shenyang while I am away. "

Zhu Youjian sighed and his face flushed with excitement. He didn't care about the important ministers and eunuchs in Wenhua Hall. He stood up and ran to the back hall, apparently wanting to talk to his brother.

The eunuchs of Prince Xin's palace hurriedly followed.

"Liu Dayong is the eunuch supervising the army at Shanhaiguan. May I ask when the heads and spoils of the enemy from Ningyuan City will arrive at the capital? After our Ministry of War has checked them, we will have to hold a Wumen Prison Prisoner Presentation Ceremony to boost morale. We are counting on a great victory to boost morale."

The speaker was cabinet minister Huang Liji, a native of Northern Zhili, who had urged Wei Zhongxian to kill Xiong Tingbi with the words "a piece of paper in the middle of the night will do the trick".

Among the people present, some were attached to Wei Zhongxian, while others were neutral officials close to Wei Yan. As long as His Majesty the Emperor did not object, even if they sent hundreds of heads of Han people who had rebelled in southern Liaoning, these pigs would still believe that these were the real Tartar heads.

"We also have to check at Shanhaiguan. If we send them to the capital from there, it will be around February 20th at the latest. There is no rush for this. General Li can still do something in Liaodong and Liaonan. I estimate that he can bring back one or two hundred real Tartar heads."

Liu Yingkun told the truth, he really believed that Li Hao could chop off hundreds of heads.

Huo Weihua, the Minister of the Imperial Household, immediately gave a look that said "we understand". Border generals often exaggerated small military achievements into particularly great merits. The officials in the capital had seen a lot of such words. There was even a general in Liaozhen who reported that he had pacified Liao in two years.

Seeing this man, Eunuch Liu suddenly remembered that Li Hao's troops were short of horses, so he instructed:

"This year, the money allocated to Liaoxi for the price of horses will be more. If there are any tall and strong horses near the capital, please find some and I will send them to Ningyuan. Although General Li is brave, he is too big and sturdy for ordinary war horses to carry him."

The Imperial Household Department was in charge of the carriages and horses of the two capitals and the horse affairs of the various provincial governments, and the Nine Border Gardens Horse Department was its branch agency.

Li Chunye, the junior official of the government office, bowed and said, "I understand."

"You don't need to give more money." Duke Wei suddenly said, "I gave many people the right to ride horses in the imperial city, and I got a lot of good horses. I'll pick some for Li Hao."

Both Huo and Li were affiliated with the eunuch party. They joined forces with the factory manager to grant the ministers the privilege of riding horses in the imperial city.

Anyone who received this gift had to pay a good horse to the Imperial Household Department. No one knew who pocketed the saved money, but the good horses paid by the ministers were all kept in the Imperial Household Department's horse farm in the suburbs of Beijing.

Eunuch Wei likes to use other people's things to do favors for himself.

The main hall of the Qianqing Palace.

Prince Xin rushed in and relayed Liu Yingkun's words to his brother.

"You believed what he said?" Emperor Tianqi sighed, stopped his carpentry work, turned to look at his younger brother, and said sincerely: "Remember, if Liu Yingkun tells the truth, Li Hao couldn't have been just a small centurion before this battle. Who is Li Chengliang? Each of his sons guards a place, and his servant Li Pinghu has become a general. How could his brothers be so miserable? I don't need to give you any advice on Wei Zhongxian."

Shocked, Zhu Youjian opened his mouth but no words of rebuttal came out. He knew Wei Zhongxian's character very well. Just now, the Wenhua Hall was full of Wei Yan's men, so there was no point for him to stay there.

After thinking for a while, he finally became discouraged, "Could it be that Li Hao's bravery is all fabricated? Could it be that Dai Shan's head is also fake?"

Emperor Tianqi, who was working again, replied leisurely:
"It's hard to tell!"

Whether the victory report is credible or not, what matters is where the Liaoxi front is. If there is really a great victory, the pro-war factions in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas will immediately request the restoration of Jinyou. Only then can we see how much water there is in the Ningyuan victory.

The killing of Daishan in battle and hundreds of Tatars did not bring Li's shock to the Zhu brothers, but the Dongjiang generals, who were thousands of miles away at the city of Fuzhou, witnessed the so-called Li's shock with their own eyes.

"Is General Li usually this fierce?"

"Look, the group of Han soldiers with long spears were forced back to the city gate tower by the general alone, and they are about to be defeated."

"If it weren't for the Blue Banner Tartars supervising the battle, those Han soldiers would have already scattered like birds and beasts."

After a battle with the surrendered Tartars by climbing ladders, the chief general of the Liaoxi Army went up to the city himself to attack the city wall. Mao Wenlong and other generals saw clearly that General Li could continue to climb the ladder after being hit by two stones. When he reached the top of the city wall, he took out his battle axe and started chopping.

The Dongjiang generals could not see the specific situation clearly, but they could vaguely catch a glimpse of General Li's majestic figure and the big axe that was exposed from time to time, as well as the meat scraps and blood mist brought up by the axe blade from the battlement.

"Which Tartar army can last even a stick of incense in front of General Li?" Mao Chenglu sighed repeatedly. It was really exciting to watch this thrilling and fierce battle.

Huang Long, Zu Kuan, Yang Shigong, Li Tianyang and others accompanied Marshal Mao and the Dongjiang generals.

Hearing the sentiments of Mao Shuai's eldest son, Li Tianyang said disdainfully:
"Of course there is. My two yellow flag guards, Bayala, fought with my elder brother for nearly an incense stick. That battle really showed my elder brother's bravery."

Although he had been shocked by his cousin's bravery many times before, after seeing the Dongjiang generals grinning from ear to ear today, he suddenly felt a little more contempt in his heart.

Marshal Mao and his generals are no better than this. They became crazy just by seeing the scene of Big Brother charging into the Eight Banners Han soldiers. If they saw Big Brother charging into a formation of three or four full-number Niulu in the wild, wouldn't these Dongjiang soldiers faint?

When the iron tips of the spears of the spearmen on the top of the city wall could no longer be seen, everyone realized that General Li had driven the Blue Banner Tartars to the foot of the city wall.

Huang Long bowed to Mao Wenlong and asked, "Excuse me, General Mao, which battle did these spearmen surrender to the Tartars? I saw their gestures were all in Grandpa Qi's way of greeting the four barbarians."

The Four Barbarians Submission Style is the second of the Twenty-Four Styles of the Six-Combined Golden Spear developed by Qi Jiguang. It is usually the starting gesture of the Jizhen and Liaozhen spearmen's military formations.

"Perhaps it was the Guangning War. Sun Degong, Zhang Shiyan, Huang Jin, Shi Tingzhu and their gang all surrendered to the Tartars. Most of them were stuffed into the Bordered White Banner and the Two Blue Banners by the old slaves. Although the land they were allocated was in Yizhou, they would come to the Tartars' various banners to guard during the slack season. We in Dongjiang have also dealt with this group of traitors."

The lands allocated to the regular bannermen of the Eight Banners were located in various places, not necessarily near the garrisons of the banners.

Huang Long bowed again, "I appreciate your advice. When I return this time, I will persuade General Li to go to Yizhou to fight and see how they respond."

After a few polite words between the generals of the Liaoxi and Dongjiang armies, the Liaoxi general took the lead and returned to the army formation. Next, they had to prepare to rush in and take over Fuzhou City.

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(End of this chapter)