The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 363: Singing from all sides

The Duke of Huguo walked out of the Cining Palace and looked up at the capital city, which was already engulfed in smoke.

The arsonists were unscrupulous scoundrels who took advantage of the situation, and of course there were also some ordinary people.

Liu Zhaosun was heartbroken. He never expected that Zhu Youjian wanted to die with him. The new order of the Ming Dynasty that he had painstakingly built collapsed overnight.

I don’t know how many more people will die.

In accordance with the order of the Duke of Protector of the Country, the garrison troops in the Beizhi area have abandoned their outer positions and withdrawn all troops to defend the capital to ensure its safety.

Almost all the passes along the line from Tongzhou to the capital were open. In other words, Zhang Chun and his "loyalist army" could march straight into Beijing without any effort.

Of course, now, the enemy is far more than just Zhang Chun.

"With internal and external troubles, and the sound of Chu songs everywhere, it seems that I, Liu Zhaosun, will really become the Overlord of Chu."

Liu Zhaosun looked at the thick black smoke rising in front of him, and heard the screams of the people in his ears.

The capital is about to become hell.

The goose-feather knife that had killed countless people let out a low whistling sound.

The knife wants to do the right thing, and so does its owner.

Since traveling through time, he has been working tirelessly every day, walking on thin ice, and examining himself as diligently as an ascetic monk, not for the purpose of saving this dying feudal dynasty.

He just wants to establish a new order that is in the interests of the majority.

However, no matter how hard they tried, the enemies could never be killed or eliminated.

Now, because of Zhu Youjian’s short-sightedness, all efforts have been wasted overnight and the new order has collapsed.

The efforts for a peaceful transfer of imperial power came to nothing, and from then on, there was only violent confrontation with rivers of blood.

On the sixth day of the eleventh month of the second year of the Tianqi reign, at the beginning of noon, the Duke of Huguo, surrounded by a group of his confidants, quickly climbed up the Meridian Gate Tower.

Liu Zhaosun, fully armored, with a flintlock pistol and a goose-feather sword slung over his waist, sat majestically in the same position where Emperor Wanli had reviewed the victory of the Kaiyuan Army, overlooking the more than 4,500 new recruits of the 13th and 14th Guards Armies - the remaining nearly 100,000 troops were scattered in Henan, Shaanxi, Japan, Korea, Liaodong, Liaoxi and other places. Many troops were still unaware of the crisis in the capital.

"Duke Protector of the Country, the troops that the capital can mobilize now, in addition to these 4,500 people, are the Suoyi Guards, the Pacification Soldiers, and the guards of the Chamber of Commerce, Civil Affairs, Schools, Workshops, and other departments. Adding up, there are less than 8,000 people..."

Qi Jin approached the Duke of Huguo, pointed at the slightly immature faces under the city wall, and said worriedly.

"More than half of these new recruits haven't even started practicing their spear formations, and many of the pacification troops are injured. Captain Shen sent back intelligence saying that that scoundrel Zhang Chun has already mobilized over 30,000 Ming troops in Northern Zhili, and the Xuanfu and Datong groups are also on their way. Zhang Chun's vanguard is already thirty miles away and will reach the capital today, but the Xuanfu troops will be a few days behind."

The situation is serious and the capital is in danger. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Kaiyuan army has no advantage this time.

Liu Zhaosun bit his lip, looked around, and comforted everyone:
"It's no problem. They are all defeated. Xuan Da still has the guts to come again. They only have 50,000 troops in total. As long as they can hold the capital for three days, the garrisons from various places will arrive one after another. When my elite troops return, it will be their death."

Zhang Dong couldn't help but say:

"But there are more than 50,000 or 60,000. Zhang Chun also mobilized the refugees from Northern Zhili, so I'm afraid the number is more than 100,000."

Liu Zhaosun smiled awkwardly.

"Driving refugees to attack the city? Interesting. Are Zhang Chun and his men officials or bandits? Why do they look more and more like those people from Shaanxi?"

"Where are Shen Lian and Liu Xingzuo now? When will the troops from Kaiyuan return?"

Zhang Mazi knew he had spoken out of turn and quickly replied:
"Captain Shen is in Tianjin, and Vice Magistrate Lü has expressed his willingness to aid us. They will be back tomorrow. Liu Xingzuo and Zhu He are in Liaodong, monitoring Buerhanggu and Dudu, and guarding against the Jiannu rebels. They are currently tied up."

"Lü Demin is willing to help the Kaiyuan Army? Is the information reliable? How many troops does he have?"

"Two thousand garrison soldiers and dozens of retainers."

"Oh."

Liu Zhaosun wiped his beard. He had heard about the combat effectiveness of the garrison soldiers. Shen Lian alone could kill more than a dozen of them.

Ma Shiying tried to smooth things over:
"It's better to resolve a feud than to create one. Lord Protector of the Country, we are besieged by bandits and cannot come to their rescue in time. If Fatty Lu can really help me, he will be credited with helping the Lord Protector of the Country become emperor in the future."

When a group of confidants discussed the matter, they did not hide anything. Entering the Pass and proclaiming themselves emperor was something that had been decided in Kaiyuan long ago, and there was nothing to hide.

"What about the other tribes? Where's the nearest one?"

Lin Yu commanded two guards to unfold a huge map of Northern Zhili. Zhang Dong pointed to Weihaiwei, Shandong, and said to everyone:

"The closest are the Third, Seventh, and Tenth Imperial Guard Armies stationed in Shandong. Wang Erhu began gathering troops from various counties five days ago, amassing 16,000 soldiers at Weihaiwei. They will be crossing the sea in batches by ship and are expected to land in Tianjin soon. The vanguard troops could reach the capital in three days at the earliest, of course, assuming there are no enemy forces blocking the way."

"No news yet from the Second, Eighth, and Twelfth Armies?"

Zhang Dong ordered the map to be put away and replied:
"No, the horses and post roads in Shaanxi have been cut off by bandits. They are short of food and fodder, so they initially only slaughtered the wealthy, but now they're robbing civilians and merchants too!"

Liu Zhaosun gnashed his teeth and said, "A bunch of lunatics, occupying Shaanxi and Henan is useless!"

"Are both Japan and Korea still stable?" Zhang Dong's expression relaxed. He finally had some good news.

"The Mino Guard receives reports from the Fifth, Sixth, and Ninth Armies every month. In October, Wu Ahheng led the navy in another battle against the Dutch in the southern waters of Ryukyu, capturing 35 red-haired barbarians. Prefect Yuan inquired whether they should be brought back to the capital."

"Not for now, behead him on the spot."

Liu Zhaosun waved his hand to interrupt Zhang Dong's report, stood up and walked to the front of the city wall.

"Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst. After occupying such a large territory, we should have expected that we would have to rely on ourselves if we were to face this situation today."

Everyone looked at each other in confusion. Whether it was Qi Jin or Qiao Yiqi, both civil officials and military generals expressed concern about whether they could defend the capital.

The combat effectiveness of these new recruits is worrying.

"Instructor Mori!"

Sen Ti ran to the front of the Duke of Protectorate and waited for orders from his superiors.

"Give me the loudspeaker. I need to speak to my soldiers."

Sen Ti quickly handed over a large paper loudspeaker and stood beside the Duke of Protectorate with a respectful attitude.

The slightly childish faces in front of him made Liu Zhaosun feel as if he was back in the 47th year of Wanli, when he was personally training trackers.

"Brothers of the Fourteenth Imperial Guards Army! I am Liu Zhaosun, Supreme Commander of the Kaiyuan Army. Many of you have seen me and know me! I get up early in the morning just like you do, and run drills. I also started as a soldier, just like you do. Six years ago, in the forty-seventh year of the Wanli reign, the Jiannu rebelled. At Sarhu, the Ming army was defeated in two of its four main armies, and one escaped. I led thousands of brothers to carve out a bloody path, so the soldiers trusted me and made me their leader. Six years later, I became the Duke of Protector of the Country, the one who protected the Ming Dynasty."

Thousands of soldiers raised their heads and listened silently to the speech of the Duke of Protector of the Country.

"Everyone who knows me knows that I'm just like a soldier. I eat whatever you eat, and I'm always at the forefront during training and battles. I was just like you before, I'm just like you now, and I'll be just like you in the future! During the bloody battle at Hunhe, I was struck in the left rib by a Jiannu scout and shot several times. Thank goodness, I didn't die, but my family did today!"

The soldiers raised their heads, many of them clenched their fists, and veins bulged on their faces.

"I just want things to be the way they were before. Farmers have land to farm, merchants don't sell out the country, officials don't suck blood, and the emperor works hard. But they won't do that. An hour ago, my wife was poisoned to death by them. If the patrol hadn't arrived early, she would have been killed by them too!"

Liu Zhaosun shouted loudly at the crowd of people under the city wall. At some point, tears began to flow down his cheeks.

He wiped away his tears:

"They! These bastards are now attacking the capital. They want to kill not only me, Liu Zhaosun, but you too. They want to take back your fields and houses, forcing you to return to your former selves, pulling boats on the canal and becoming tenants in Qufu. They want to take your women, kill your children, and drain you dry. Do you agree?"

The area around the Meridian Gate suddenly became quiet, and thousands of people opened their eyes wide, opened their mouths, and raised their fists.

Two thousand five hundred recruits shouted in unison:
Do not agree!
The battalion instructors and combat representatives led the shouting:

"Defend the capital and kill all the enemies!"

"Defend the capital and kill all the enemies!"

Liu Zhaosun waved his hand to interrupt the crowd's shouting, pointing to the nine gates of the capital and said:
"Climb the city wall! Defend this city!"

Workshops, chambers of commerce, schools, all parts of the Kaiyuan system joined in this defensive battle. Their opponents were not just Zhang Chun, the general of Hejian Prefecture. Zhengding Prefecture and Shuntian Prefecture, those counties and prefectures that were transferred to Shaanxi to quell the bandits, took advantage of the absence of the Kaiyuan army and killed or placed under house arrest the generals recommended by the Protector of the Country, responded to Zhang Chun's call, and joined this vigorous Jingnan Action.

During the Ming Dynasty, since the financial and military powers were all under the control of the imperial court, the local prefectures and counties were weak and basically posed no threat to the imperial court, so there were almost no cases of local rebellion. However, with Liu Zhaosun's various operations in recent years, the imperial power was in jeopardy and lost its mystery. People had no loyalty to the imperial court, and many people had evil intentions.

More importantly, under the Little Ice Age climate, the disaster situation in northern Zhili was not much better than that in Shaanxi and Henan. It was only because the scale of refugees in northern Zhili was still small and they were more strongly suppressed by the imperial court that the civil unrest in northern Zhili in the late Ming Dynasty seemed less prominent.

Now that the Kaiyuan army has been suddenly transferred away, the tight valves in various prefectures and counties have suddenly loosened, and local forces have risen up.

In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of Shaanxi, the only thing the Beizhi army leaders could think of was to go to the capital and try their luck. Even if they could not capture Beijing, they could take the opportunity to rob some money without having to wait for the soldiers under them to rebel.

So when the main forces of the Kaiyuan Army were transferred away one after another and General Zhang launched a campaign to defend the emperor, everyone responded and wanted to eliminate the traitors for the emperor.

Liu Zhaosun met Jin Yuji and her daughter and Yang Qing'er. Jin Yuji was wearing fish scale armor and carrying a short bow.

Yang Qing'er was holding the two-year-old Liu Yufei's hand, while the maids Jin'er and Shaoyao were taking care of the baby Liu Kan.

"Husband, are you okay?"

Yang Qing'er looked at her husband's blood-stained face, feeling worried.

"It's someone else's blood."

Liu Zhaosun forced a smile on his face and reached out to pinch his little daughter's nose.

Jin Yuji walked up to her husband and daughter, and Liu Zhaosun said in surprise:
"I asked you to protect Elder Yang and his daughter, why are you all here?"

"My husband, Hunhe swore an oath. You are the Overlord, and we will never part until death."

Liu Zhaosun gently hugged Jin Yuji and looked up at the Ming army flags rolling in from all directions.

"Okay, I'm Overlord, you're Concubine Yu, and today we die together."

(End of this chapter)