Chapter 88 Ming Dynasty Beheading List

After staring at the servant in front of him and forcing him to repeat himself, Du Du finally realized that this was true.

He closed his eyes and fell backwards, causing severe pain in his injured leg, which almost caused the young prince to die on the spot.

"At this point, we can only summon the bannermen from all over the place to defend the city to the death."

"The Second Prince is now stationed in Liaoyang. You can send someone to ask for help."

"It would be better if the master led his troops directly to Liaoyang and joined forces with the Plain Yellow Banner and the Bordered Blue Banner."

The slaves kneeling on the ground had their own opinions, but no one mentioned leading troops out of the city to drive the Ming army back to the west bank of Sancha River.

Du Du drove away the young wife and sent people to summon Mele Ezhen, Niulu Ezhen and other people in charge of the banner in the city.

There were only about three to five hundred Ming troops crossing the river, all of them servants on horseback. There seemed to be thousands of chariot soldiers on the other side of the Sancha River. The situation did not deteriorate to the point of abandoning the city.

At least that damn catapult hasn't reached Haizhou City yet.

More than a dozen Ezhen of the Bordered White Banner arrived one after another. They had long heard about the Ming general Li Hao's method of attacking the city from the sky, so they were worried.

The Ezhens were much more knowledgeable, and after getting together, they quickly came up with a more reliable approach.

Asking for help from Liaoyang and informing the enemy was a must. Secondly, elite bannermen should be dispatched quickly to go around behind the Ming army, cut off their food supply, and try to send troops across the river to directly attack the chariot camp soldiers.

The Bordered White Banner alone could not deal with Li Hao, but they could still drive away or even annihilate thousands of Ming soldiers from the Cheying.

In order to boost morale, Du Du was ready to wear armor to meet the flag bearers and distribute the reward money, but the pain of his broken leg made him give up the idea.

……

"Isn't this the same old place again?"

On the east bank of Sancha River, looking at the land full of spring, Li Hao suddenly had a sense of déjà vu.

It seemed that he had come here three months ago during his northern expedition.

We were busy on the road at that time and did not have time to clean up carefully. There were still two or three large villages surviving nearby.

"Li Shuai, we did pass by here. I don't know how we bypassed Niuzhuangyi and Dongchangbao. We didn't go to Dongshengbao in the northeast, but attacked Guchengtun instead."

Cao Wenzhao looked at the map and replied.

Li Hao looked at the sky and said, "We still have enough time today. Let's directly capture Niuzhuangyi and Dongchangbao. After the Tartars report to Haizhou and Liaoyang, we will go back."

Sancha River is formed by the confluence of Hun River and Taizi River. Hun River is named because of its fast-flowing and turbid water.

The Eight Banners soldiers had few boats and could not send out a large number of cavalry to cross the river quickly.

After the Bordered White Banner and the Plain Yellow Banner learned of Li Hao's arrival, they would most likely send a number of cavalry to patrol along the Sancha River to prevent the Ming army's servants from crossing the river to harass them.

Li Hao planned to use this method to lure out the elite Eight Banners cavalry from the nearby big city and fight a few good battles along the Sancha River.

When the two nearby flags could no longer hold out and withdrew their forces into the city to defend it, the Jinzhou general prepared to attack the big city.

If a large group of Eight Banners soldiers were sent from Shenyang, he would lead his servants to retreat to the west bank, and while confronting them across the river, he would occasionally run over and kill their way into the Eight Banners camp.

This style of fighting mainly takes advantage of his ability to quickly kill the enemy in small-scale encounters, thus avoiding small decisive battles involving hundreds or thousands of people.

Although the Ming Dynasty could not withstand the consumption of tens of thousands of soldiers being pulled to the Liaohe River for a confrontation, with a scale of several thousand soldiers, it could still hold on if it gritted its teeth.

What's more, navigation on the Liaohai Sea is about to resume. The grain transferred from Denglai, Shandong and other places can be directly transported by large ships to the mouths of Sancha River and Shuangtaizi River, and then transported to the military camps by small boats.

The logistical pressure on the Ming army will be further reduced.

All the generals gathered together and listened to the commander's arrangements for attacking the village fortress.

Zhou Yuji, who was transferred from Ningyuan, also participated in the siege.

This was a young general with deep eye sockets and wide cheekbones. He was from Jinzhou. When Guangning fell in the second year of the Tianqi reign, he fled to the interior with his family. Later, he was recruited into the Beijing camp and was sent outside the Great Wall to serve as a guest army to aid Liao.

"General Li, if we act this way, will it attract a large number of Tartars to gather here?"

The first time Zhou Yuji followed the Jinzhou general to the battlefield, he always felt a little uneasy.

After all, the area east of Sancha River was a Tartar nest, and normal Ming soldiers had an inexplicable fear of this place, as if they would be shot by a heavy arrow from the Jiannu as soon as they turned their heads.

"Brother Zhou, don't worry. My godfather is afraid that the Tartars won't come. The two yellow flag Tartars on the west bank run away faster than mice seeing a cat when they see my godfather."

Wu Sangui, who thought he had seen the world, comforted his fellow villager.

Li Hao smiled happily. If it really went as Zhou Yuji had imagined, today's trip would not be in vain.

The four hundred or so pairs of horse servants were traveling relatively fast, and the time spent on the road was less than that of attacking two village fortresses.

Because there was a complete supply line to the west of Sancha River, the Jinzhou generals were able to deal with the surrendered Tatars in a much more meticulous manner. The shaved Han people, Haixi Jurchens, and wild Jurchens were all brought back to Jinyou and other places, and were also arranged according to the manor system of the Eight Banners to produce the beans needed for the war horses.

The Jianzhou Jurchens still measured by wheel and beheaded after the measurement.

Of course, in order to quickly create internal divisions within the Eight Banners, Li Hao did these things in front of several captured regular bannermen of the Bordered White Banner and wild Jurchen soldiers, and then let them go.

During the Later Jin Dynasty under Nurhaci's rule, there were still great conflicts among the regular bannermen, bondservants, and captured Solon soldiers.

Those bondservants who followed the army into battle were also called Tainikan, which meant that they were elevated from slaves and had a higher status than the Sauron soldiers who had only been captured for one or two years.

The bondservants who farmed the land were called Aha. They truly enjoyed slave treatment and could be bought and sold like livestock within the banner.

This Ming army waited for the reinforcements of the Bordered White Banner patrol cavalry at Dongchang Fort, the second place that was breached. Unexpectedly, they received seventy or eighty armored Tatars, but they did not come close at all.

After letting the surrendered people rush to Sancha River with their families, Li Hao led his troops to try to catch up with the Tartars.

After all, no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat. If you kill dozens more armored Tartars a day, you can cut down one or two more flags in three months.

However, this group of soldiers of the Bordered White Banner obviously did not dare to come into contact with the Ming army. They kept a distance of three to five miles and politely escorted the Ming army, which had looted two large villages and forts, to the river.

While waiting for the rowing soldiers to transport back all the gains of the day, Li Hao suddenly had an idea.

"Who among you is good at carving? Carve a free sign for the Tartars. If there is still time, carve the portrait of the old slave Maigouzi and leave it for these Tartars to see."

Wu Sangui took over the job. He used a knife to carve the Chinese characters "免送" (free of charge) on a shield and also carved a very simple human figure.

The Jinzhou general took a look and saw the figure of Xiao Wu Diao, who was looking back with his butt sticking out. The reference was not obvious.

He then ordered his godson to carve the old slave's name, and only then did he feel that he had achieved the effect he wanted.

Before taking the last boat back to the west coast, the shield was stuck on the shore, waiting to be picked up by the arriving White Banner Tartars.

They may not necessarily hand it over, but the Tartars will definitely see the figure with its butt sticking up.

Ninety-nine percent of the Tatar soldiers did not recognize the Chinese characters on the shields. Thinking of this, Li Hao decided to order the soldiers and civilians to carve some of these shields with propaganda significance after he returned, and then annotate them in both Manchu and Chinese characters.

From now on, wherever you go, leave one piece.

……

The main military tent in the general’s camp.

Several wooden boards from chariots were used as dining tables, and all the generals above the rank of captain in the camp ate here with the commander-in-chief.

Of course, the door curtain of the big tent was open, and there were many curious soldiers squatting on the ground at the door, eating with wooden bowls in their hands. The commander's never-satisfied stomach was a constant topic of conversation among them.

When they were halfway through the meal, a messenger cavalry ran in.

He brought news of the military expeditions from Ningyuan and Guancheng.

While everyone was gathered, Li Hao asked the messenger to read the official documents from the Jinglüe Yamen and the Futai Yamen on the spot.

The meaning of the two official documents was very simple. Around mid-May, the four battalions in Guancheng and the three battalions in Ningyuan Qiantun and other places would be able to rush to the Sancha River area to participate in the Qianfeng Town's attack on the lower reaches of the Liaohe River.

"From what I heard, it seems that General Zhao Lujiao is personally leading the troops here? Is General Man recuperating in Ningyuan?"

Li Hao asked.

He knew that these two people would have conflicts, but he didn't expect that the conflicts would arise so quickly. It has only been about three months now, and the two have reached the point where when one appears, the other turns around and leaves.

"Marshal Man must be suffering from gout. He took a lot of credit in the last recovery of Guangning. He must have been entertaining us every day after returning to Ningyuan."

Someone guessed what was going on and explained it to the coach.

The Jinzhou general put down the steamed bun in his hand and asked, "Speaking of which, have you counted Marshal Man's heads to the thousand mark?"

An ordinary general of the Ming Dynasty, who fought throughout his life until retirement, would probably have chopped off a thousand heads by the soldiers and servants under his command.

Those who can be called famous generals, such as Ma Gui, Li Rusong, and Ma Fang, had soldiers under their command beheading approximately two to five thousand people.

Above them are Qi Jiguang's 7,000 heads, Liu Jing's 10,000 heads, and Yu Dayou's 16,000 heads. However, several thousand of Yu Dayou's heads were chopped off when he suppressed the rebellion of ethnic minorities in the south. They are not of high value and can be counted or not.

The number one on the Ming Dynasty's beheading list was naturally Li Chengliang, who dominated Liaodong. In his lifetime, he handed in more than 15,000 heads to the Ministry of War.

Although a considerable portion of them were obtained by killing surrendered people and forcing the Jurchen tribes to rebel, they were still beheaded after a real battle.

"If you count the heads taken from Yizhou and Guangning, the number must be over a thousand. Add the hundreds taken from the great victory at Ningyuan, and the number should be around fifteen hundred."

Cao Wenzhao replied.

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(End of this chapter)