Chapter 97 Which one should I cut first?

In order to conceal his sturdy figure, Li Hao sat in the carriage, and the task of driving was taken by the Jurchen soldier.

By the time of Chenshi, the rosy glow gradually dissipated from the east, and the city gates of Shenyang were finally opened.

In the area around the South Gate, soldiers of the Four-Color Armor Banner would set out in groups from time to time, and some militiamen were also forced to go south.

Letting Du Du lift the car curtain, Li Hao looked at everything silently.

To a certain extent, it is true that whoever wins the hearts of the people will win the world. However, on the stage of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, whoever can squeeze out the power of the grassroots people, and then accurately transform the power into the combat power of the soldiers, and match it with a reward and pension system with clear rewards and punishments, will survive to the end.

The strategy of winning the hearts of the people does not work because not enough labor can be squeezed out of them.

As far as Li Hao can see now, the war potential of the Later Jin has not been pushed to its limit. At least in the plains north of Liaoyang, farming is still going on. The Ming army's ability to infiltrate and flanke is quite weak, and for the time being it has not posed a strong threat to the core farming areas of the Eight Banners.

Fortunately, the climate this year has been a great help. The coldness in Liaodong is rare in history. Even if the Liaoxi army had not caused this trouble, the Eight Banners would have suffered from famine in the next two years.

Of course, this is the case when they can still stay in the Liaodong Plain. If they cannot occupy the Liaoshen Kaitie area this winter, there will be no famine.

Almost all the people have died, and hunting is enough to keep the tribe going, so there is no way famine would occur.

Wu Sangui followed the carriage on horseback. He was not so calm and his heart was in his throat.

The other three people felt a little uncomfortable. They restrained their hands and feet, did not dare to look around, and followed the carriage with their heads down. After all, this was a Tartar nest.

Fortunately, their behavior was consistent with a defeat, so they were not suspected by the Tartars guarding the city because of this.

Du Du's identity also helped a lot. Once they were intercepted, this descendant of the Lao Ai family who had surrendered to the Ming Dynasty would stick his head out and curse.

There was a fierce general in the car who could kill him at any time, so Du Du did not dare to act recklessly. He stuck his head out and scolded the two short-sighted yellow flag soldiers away, then retracted and explained to Li Hao in detail what the Manchu language he had just spoken was.

Burha, the Jurchen soldier driving the car, was in charge of keeping an eye on the situation. Li Hao had previously agreed with him that if Dudu's words and deeds were okay, Burha would call him "Ama".

If Dudu talked nonsense and revealed the situation in the car, Burha would shout "Mafa".

Li Hao remembered it clearly that as soon as he heard Mafa, he would pull out the whip hidden under the bedding in the carriage, first beat Du Du to death in the carriage, and then jump out of the carriage to do it.

He prepared for a long time, but it was of no use at all.

No matter how low Du Du's status was, he was still the grandson of the old Khan, one of the four young beiles, and also the leader of the Zhenghong Banner.

The soldiers of the two yellow flags guarding the city gate were all shrewd men and understood that this was the real master, who had a much higher status than Niulu'ezhen and Jiala'e in the two yellow flags.

So he lowered his head and made way to allow Li Hao and his group to enter the city smoothly.

Shenyang City was originally just an acropolis of the Ming Dynasty, and the shape of its city walls was not much different from that of Ningyuan City. It was only last year that the Later Jin Dynasty moved its capital from Liaoyang to Shenyang. The main architectural layout of the Cross Street has not changed much, except that buildings such as the Hanwang Palace have been rebuilt near Beida Street.

The residences of the other banner owners are also on North Street.

Du Du was now nominally the leader of the Zhenghong Banner, but Daishan’s mansion in Shenyang and his estate outside the city had all been occupied by Sahalian, and he had not gained a penny.

"Is the current Zhiyue Beile working in the government office? Are the deputy flag masters in Shenyang handling government affairs in the Ten Kings Pavilion?"

After learning about the layout of the city, Li Hao confirmed the specific details.

The Great Yamen was the Da Zheng Hall in later generations, where the four great beiles took turns to work and handle state affairs every month.

The Ten Kings Pavilions are ten tent-style buildings to the south of the Da Zheng Hall. Each of the Eight Banners maintained a banner master or deputy banner master in the capital. All marriages and funerals of able-bodied men in the banner had to be reported to the banner master by the Niulu Ezhen.

Du Du nodded with a bitter face to confirm. He no longer cared how many relatives died in Shenyang City. He just hoped that when the two sides started fighting, he would be spared from his life.

"Are all my wives, concubines, and young children in the Han Palace? Are the wives and sons of some banner owners also in your newly built mansions?"

The Jinzhou general asked again.

"No doubt about it, General, you will reach the Ten Kings Pavilion by following this road."

Although he was getting closer and closer to home, Dudu's heart was beating faster and faster, as if he was not far from death.

"Why are you so nervous? Let's go to your house first and put these people there before discussing it."

Li Hao patted Du Du's shoulder gently, which scared him so much that he shrunk his body to the point where he could not shrink any further. However, the space in the car was so small that no matter how hard Du Du tried to hide, the evil claw was always in front of him.

The Jinzhou general ordered Burha to drive the car to Dudu's residence.

When we walked along South Street to the city center, the accident still happened.

A group of red-armored flag soldiers emerged from nowhere and surrounded the carriage so quickly that Wu Sangui and others had no time to react.

Li Hao immediately pulled out the two whips and shouted, "Du Du, you are really tired of living. You dare to do something to me."

Seeing that he was about to die, at the moment of life and death, Dudu burst out with the greatest wisdom in his life. "Don't fight, General, those people outside are Sahalian's gang, they are coming for me, trying to force me to give up the position of leader of the Zhenghong Banner, it has nothing to do with you. I will send them away right now, and will not delay your important business."

He immediately explained why he was surrounded by the Red Armor Bannermen.

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Hao's whip hit him on the head.

Du Du had already felt the terrifying wind from the mace, and his face suddenly turned pale.

If he spoke a little slower, his brain would explode.

Li Hao thought about it and realized that it was true. The Tartars did not directly shoot Wu Sangui and others outside the car, which meant that they were not coming for them.

This place is quite far from Nurhaci's Hanwang Palace, the great beile on duty of the Eight Banners, and the big yamen where the banner master and deputy banner master are located. We should stabilize it if possible.

He signaled Du Du to go out and greet them and send this group of red-armored Tartars away as soon as possible.

After taking a deep breath, the young prince calmed himself down, leaned his head out of the car window, and said bluntly that he was willing to give up the position of flag leader and let his cousin wait for the old Khan to come back to make the decision.

Unexpectedly, the leader Sahalian had no intention of retreating.

"Then you come with me to the government office now, and we'll ask the Fourth Prince to decide on the flag change."

Sahalian had a good relationship with his young uncle Huang Taiji, and took advantage of the old Khan's absence to settle the matter.

Du Du was really forced into a corner and, with Li Hao's consent, he stretched his splinted broken leg out of the car door for Sahalian and the Red Flag flag bearer beside him to take a look.

"Or tomorrow. My leg hasn't been given medicine yet. If I delay any longer, it will be completely useless. I have to hurry back to change the medicine."

After looking at the veteran beside him and getting his hint to let him go temporarily, Sahalian ordered his flagmen to make way.

The carriage then slowly set off, went around the gate in front of the Ten Kings Pavilion, and headed towards North Street.

Li Hao has been memorizing the terrain. He has a rough idea of ​​the layout of the cross street of the Ming Dynasty Acropolis. He doesn't need to remember the Han Palace and the Ten Kings Pavilion, which are just around the city center. However, he needs to remember the locations of Huang Taiji and Amin's mansions.

After arriving at Du Du's mansion, the group safely entered the three-courtyard house with the help of his servants.

After the door was closed, Ma Ze could no longer stand and collapsed to the ground. The linen pants under his white armor were stained dark. He was obviously frightened by what had just happened. His nerves were stretched to the extreme and he couldn't hold his urine when he relaxed.

The rest of the people were not much better. Only Wu Sangui looked a little normal, but he also had sweat on his forehead and a chill on his back.

Obviously, thinking back on it afterwards, the more I think about it, the more scared I become, and the aftereffects are quite strong.

Seeing them like this, Li Hao knew that he had to settle these subordinates first. In the unbelieving eyes of the servants of the Bordered White Banner, he killed all the servants in the front yard with one chop.

Then he searched the two courtyards at the back for a while, killing them one by one. After confirming that there were not many survivors in the mansion, he ordered his men to go to the second courtyard, where they took Du Du hostage and hid him in a remote room.

After doing all this, Li Hao, carrying a whip, a bow, and a heavy sword, left the house through the side door. He remembered very clearly that the nearest Tartar mansion to Du Du's house was Huang Taiji's.

But there are obviously more important people in the Daijoden and Juou-tei.

After hesitating for a while on the road, he made up his mind to attack the Ten Kings Pavilion and the Da Zheng Hall first, and then fight his way back along the Han Palace, Amin Mansion, and Huang Taiji Mansion.

……

Sahalian originally wanted to bring Dudu to the yamen to do some work, but Dudu had a broken leg after all. On the advice of the old generals in the banner, he temporarily let his cousin go, but they had already arrived at the gate of the Ten Kings Pavilion, and it seemed inappropriate not to discuss state affairs with his young uncle.

So he ordered his flag soldiers to wait in front of the main gate, and he took a few trusted men into the yamen to meet the fourth prince on duty.

But before he could even sit down on the kang, he heard a commotion at the gate.

The Fourth Beile was estimating the food and wages for the front line with several Han officials and had no time to take care of the trivial matters at the door, so he sent Sahalian out to see what was happening.

"If the servants cause trouble, the leader will be beaten with a stick and the rest will be driven away."

Huang Taiji, who was very busy, gave these instructions.

After receiving the assignment, Sahalian put on his boots, walked out of the gate of the yamen happily, and walked south for a few dozen steps with his trusted confidants.

Meanwhile, several deputy flag masters who were working in the Ten Kings Pavilion also came out to see who dared to cause trouble here.

Soon, the nobles of the Eight Banners who had seen the incoming person no longer cared about their dignity and simply ran for their lives towards the north.

Although Sahalian had never seen the Ming general who killed his father in battle, he could tell from the behavior of the others that he would die if he didn't run away.

He also ran north.

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(End of this chapter)