The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 417 Strong soldiers and horses
Under the pitch-black night, the city of Linqing was bustling with noise. Outside Guangji Gate in the west, the vanguard troops of the four towns in Jiangbei were pouring towards the city gate like a tide.

Tens of thousands of troops crowded the narrow ground in front of Guangji Gate. The troops from each battalion quickly filled the shallow trench. After crossing the moat, the three or four li-long area below the city walls was completely empty, completely packed with Ming troops. Another thirty or forty thousand more were waiting to join them in the distance. People pushed and shoved each other, and hundreds had already been trampled to death.

Running in the front were the sword and shield soldiers under Huang Degong. Thanks to General Huang's wisdom and quick response, the brothers in General Huang's camp were the first to discover the fire in the east of the city. Based on the information provided by the informant in the city, General Huang immediately judged that Linqing City would be conquered soon, so he immediately ordered all his soldiers to go out and enter Linqing City before the other two generals.

Liu Zeqing and Huang Degong received roughly the same information, which was also told to him by a medicinal herb merchant who called himself the Grand Official of the East. It was agreed that on the evening of July 27th, at the hour of Yin, traitors in the city would set fire to the east gate, Weiwu Gate, and the defenders of the west gate, Guangji Gate, would open the gate.

The military leaders knew that no matter how wealthy Linqing City was, no matter how much money and women it held, it would definitely not be enough for the 40,000 or 50,000-strong imperial army. Everyone understood the principle of first come, first served, and now that Liu Zongzhou had died for his country, the generals had no further concerns.

This northern expedition by the royal army also made the generals of the Southern Ming Dynasty realize that as long as they had soldiers and power, the imperial court could not do anything to them. In particular, Liu Zhaosun, who had previously usurped the throne, gave these warriors the courage to rebel and establish their own regimes. In the past few years, the emperors of the Zhu family have been replaced one after another like a revolving lantern. If you think about it carefully, the so-called imperial power is actually just that.

~~~~~~
"Charge! Everyone, get into the city before Liu Zeqing's men. Anyone who lags behind will be punished by military law!"

Huang Degong's head servant rode on a horse, waving his scabbard constantly and whipping the Ming soldiers who were still dawdling behind him.

"Damn it, what are you talking about? Do you want to get married? Do you want to build a house? Hurry up and catch up, kill him, kill him!"

The head of the retainers brandished his sword and shouted. Fortunately, two sword-shield soldiers carrying long shields dropped their shields and rushed towards the trench with a group of auxiliary soldiers. The shallow trench in front of the city wall had been filled up by the Ming army during the day's battle, and the iron caltrops placed around it were also cleared away by the auxiliary soldiers. When the Ming army was clearing the fortifications outside the city, the defenders on the city wall did not react at all, and even the artillery did not fire.

Some soldiers held torches in their hands, the flames illuminated the earth, and there were running figures all around.

In the light of the fire, the obese Huang Degong rode a dark warhorse. The black horse came to the front of the battle panting, snorting constantly, trying to break free from the fat man.

Huang Degong saw that his head servant was still working hard to drive the soldiers to attack the city, and nodded with satisfaction.

"Great! With the money and food from Linqing City, I can gather another 20,000 brothers and defeat that bastard Liu Zeqing. I'll have a good life in the future."

Huang Degong laughed loudly twice. He obviously did not take Zuo Liangyu and Wu Sangui into consideration. It might be that the two younger brothers had few soldiers and lacked food, and they were not in Huang Fatty's eyes at all.

The head servant wiped the sweat from his forehead and echoed loudly:
"Yes, following the master, we can enjoy the best food and drink. Brothers will also have something to look forward to, and we don't have to endure the bullying of those civil servants!"

Soon after Huang Degong's army left Nanjing, they began to rob along the way, from Nanzhili all the way to Linqing. The commanders under Huang Degong even claimed that they celebrated the New Year every day and were bridegrooms every night, leading a very happy and carnival life.

Huang Degong squinted his eyes and looked at the countless jumping torches in front of him. Hundreds of torches were like twinkling stars, dotted the dark night sky. Huang Degong stared at the red dots in the front that had begun to slowly rise, and his greasy face showed the expression of a baby longing for breast milk.

The head servant came up and said with a flattering smile, "Master, it's our sword and shield soldiers. Our soldiers run the fastest and have already started climbing the city. Liu Zeqing's soldiers have just woken up."

He pointed behind him. There was a commotion in Liu Zeqing's camp. Countless torches were waving at the camp gate. Liu Zeqing's elite cavalry were rushing towards this side with torches in hand.

"Hahaha, they're late!"

The head servant raised his whip, ready to ride forward to supervise the battle, but the raised whip was caught by Master Huang.

"master?"

Huang Degong pulled off his horse whip and ordered his head servant:
"Don't be impatient. It's so dark out here that it's easy to get into a fight. It would be terrible if we were trampled to death by our own people. Let the soldiers go in first. There should still be some Qi soldiers inside the city. Once the gates are wide open, we can enter safely. These soldiers would even kill their own fathers if they started looting in the middle of the night. If you rush in now and get mistaken for a Qi soldier, you'll be in big trouble."

The head servant touched his head and showed an expression of sincere admiration.

"Master is wise, Master is thoughtful, Master is a master of military strategy..."

Huang Degong was too lazy to listen to the head servant's flattery and yawned:
"I'm tired. You stay here and watch for a while. The master will go back to accompany Li Niang. When the city gate opens, call me again. After the city is captured, I will give you a few more women." The head servant raised his thumb and praised sincerely: "The master is calm in the face of battle and can even have sex with several women at night. He is indeed a man who can do great things. I admire him very much!"

~~~~~~~
The night patrol captain Guo took the lead, followed closely by Huang Degong's sword and shield soldiers, and led more than a hundred brothers to cross the moat in the first group.

A few of his brothers were missing, and it was not known whether they were trampled to death or fell behind. Captain Guo did not care about these things, as there would always be casualties in a war.

A group of people were running forward in a disorderly and chaotic manner. Suddenly, Huang Degong's troops blocked the road ahead.

That was a shortcut leading directly to the city. Hundreds of sword and shield soldiers, holding shining swords, blocked the intersection with murderous intent, shouting at General Guo and his men to retreat.

"This road is reserved for the Yellow Battalion. No other battalions are allowed to pass! The merchants in the city have revolted, and General Huang is rushing in to rescue them!"

"Huang Degong is the general, and General Zuo is also a general. Get out of the way!"

The other side drew a knife. Seeing that they were outnumbered, General Guo cursed and had to lead his brothers to bypass them.

Captain Guo looked up and saw flickering torches everywhere. Within a few hundred steps around him, there were four flags of generals, with the words "Zuo", "Huang", "Liu" written on them respectively, and even Wu Sangui's flag.

"Wu Sangui's remnants are also here to take advantage of the situation and loot? What a bunch of lunatics!"

Captain Guo cursed, and only then did he finally understand that Dongfang Zhu had not only discussed the fire attack with his own family, but the damn drug dealer and all the military leaders had also told them about his plan of internal fire attack.

"Damn it, the dog merchants are doing business with all sorts of companies, not just us!"

"Damn it, they are all liars..."

"Damn it..."

Captain Guo suddenly stopped, as if his toe hit something hard. He stopped, held up a torch and bent down to check on the ground. There was a clay pot, half buried in the ground, with a fuse left outside.

A strong wind blew by, and a pungent smell of saltpeter emanated from the surrounding ground.

"Who buried the piss pot underground? I almost fell down. The people of Linqing are so damn mean!"

Captain Guo cursed and wondered if this was a urine pot discarded by some wealthy family. The crowd behind him was already rushing over.

"Stop! Stop right there!"

The soldiers, with their excited faces, could not hear the captain's call.

Until more people fell, countless torches illuminated the densely packed pottery jars on the ground.

"What the hell is this?"

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"Damn it, don't push me, I stepped on a landmine."

(End of this chapter)