Chapter 47: The Qi Family Army

On the walls of Shenyang, Xiong Tingbi watched Nurhaci's great army advancing slowly outside the city, his expression utterly unchanged.

"The Grand Commander's foresight is truly divine." Li Guangrong, standing beside Xiong Tingbi, hurried to speak, his face full of admiration—though there was also a hint of flattery.

Still, Li Guangrong's genuine respect for Xiong Tingbi was real as well.

The Jurchen had indeed made the Mongols take the lead—the Mongols marched at the very front, pressed forward by the Jurchen behind them. Clearly, the Jurchen intended to use these Mongols as cannon fodder for the assault on the city.

"Tell the men to be cautious and hold the line." Xiong Tingbi looked at Li Guangrong and said, "The Jurchen won't last much longer."

"Yes, sir, I'll go at once." Li Guangrong acknowledged and turned to summon the men to defend the walls.

On the walls of Shenyang, the Ming defenders watched the Jurchen army outside; some of the more timid soldiers were already showing signs of fear.

Ever since Sarhu, the Ming army had lost its psychological edge when facing the Jurchen. Everyone knew the Jurchen were hard to fight, impossible to beat—death in battle was the norm.

Under such circumstances, Liaodong was universally averse to battle, and with commanders issuing blind orders, the fighting spirit of Liaodong's troops was hardly strong.

This time, however, things were somewhat better. Because they were relying on the city walls, they didn't have to go down and face the Jurchen in direct combat, which gave the soldiers at least some measure of security in their hearts.

The Jurchen set up camp outside the city, only five li from the walls. It seemed they weren't preparing to attack, looking instead as if they were waiting for the Ming army to come out and fight.

Xiong Tingbi looked at the Jurchen camp, then turned to Li Guangrong and asked, "Can our cannons reach them?"

"No, they can't." Li Guangrong shook his head directly. "Too far."

"Then tell the men below to pay them no mind—if the Jurchen provoke us, let them." Xiong Tingbi ordered expressionlessly.

In any case, Xiong Tingbi had made up his mind: he absolutely would not go out this time. He would just hold Shenyang to the death—if they had the guts, let them fight their way in.

Beijing, the Forbidden City.

Zhu Youxiao leaned back on the daybed, looking at the routine memorials laid out before him without so much as lifting an eyelid.

Glancing at Chen Hong, Zhu Youxiao asked expressionlessly, "All of them impeaching Xiong Tingbi? What do they say?"

"Your Majesty, they all say Xiong Tingbi is cowardly and timid, afraid to fight and unwilling to advance." Chen Hong hurriedly replied, his tone full of caution.

Zhu Youxiao burst out laughing.

Cowardly and timid? Afraid to fight and unwilling to advance? Then who should go fight?

The Liaodong problem was now very serious. The Liaodong men were no longer usable—or rather, Liaodong wasn't nearly as resistant to the Jurchen as people imagined.

Fight and run if possible, surrender if escape failed, or even surrender without fighting at all—this was also why in his previous life it had ultimately come to mobilizing troops from all over the country to march to Liaodong.

They even transferred the White Pole Army of Qin Liangyu, the chieftain of Shizhu, because Liaodong was finished—it was spent, beyond saving.

Zhu Youxiao couldn't possibly listen to the empty talk of these Donglin Faction people. Among them were those who wanted to retake Liaodong, like the faction of Yuan Yingtai.

And there were those who wanted to get rid of Xiong Tingbi, all for the sake of the case of framing Xiong Tingbi that the Three Judicial Offices were currently investigating. As long as Xiong Tingbi was dismissed once more, things would become easy for the Three Judicial Offices—because once Xiong Tingbi was dismissed, it would mean His Majesty had once again grown weary of him.

Beyond that, there were the pure talkers, who wanted to make a name for themselves and get promoted through this.

No matter what these people wanted to do, Zhu Youxiao wasn't going to pay them any attention. He waved his hand directly and said, "Take them all and burn them. If any more routine memorials like this come in, burn them all."

Regarding Liaodong and Xiong Tingbi, Zhu Youxiao's only expectation was that they hold the line and buy him time—nothing else mattered.

In fact, Zhu Youxiao had never taken the Jurchen in Liaodong seriously. The Great Ming's problems were never the Jurchen's problem.

"Your Majesty, there is one more routine memorial here." Chen Hong hesitantly produced a memorial and spoke with great care.

"Who submitted it?" Zhu Youxiao asked lazily. He simply didn't want to look at memorials right now.

Chen Hong stepped forward a few paces and said respectfully, "Qi Jin, the nephew of Qi Jiguang."

When Chen Hong mentioned this name, he was extremely cautious.

Qi Jiguang—who was this man? He was a truly remarkable figure, and his Qi Family Army was genuinely renowned far and wide.

But because the Wanli Emperor detested Zhang Juzheng, after Zhang Juzheng's death, Qi Jiguang had also been caught up in the fallout. If Qi Jiguang had fallen, how could Qi Jin fare well?

No one knew the current Emperor's attitude toward the Qi Family Army, which was why Chen Hong was so careful when he mentioned this name.

Qi Jin?

Hearing this name, Zhu Youxiao jolted with a start and leaped straight up from the daybed.

At this moment, Zhu Youxiao wished he could slap himself a few times—how could he have forgotten Qi Jin?

This nephew who had followed Qi Jiguang since childhood could be said to have received the true transmission of military training from both Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, and he was extremely familiar with the Mandarin Duck Formation and the wagon formation.

Just a few days ago, he had been thinking of finding someone to train troops, wondering whether to summon Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng, and had even thought of Zu Dashou and Hong Chengchou.

How could he have forgotten Qi Jiguang?

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao said directly, "Quick, quick—give me the memorial! What did Qi Jin say in it?"

"Your Majesty, Qi Jin says in his memorial that Liaodong is unsettled and the Jurchen are unsubmissive, and he requests permission to leave the pass." Chen Hong hurriedly handed over the memorial, speaking with urgency.

Hearing Chen Hong's words, Zhu Youxiao felt as if a basin of cold water had been poured over his head. He remembered Qi Jin from his previous life, remembered the Qi Family Army from his previous life.

In his previous life, Qi Jin had done exactly this—requested to leave the pass, and at the advanced age of sixty-seven, led three thousand veteran soldiers of the Qi Family Army out of the Ji Garrison, heading straight for Liaodong.

It was at this very time that the Eight Banner army struck directly at the key Liaodong city of Shenyang, and a Ming army was already rushing to reinforce Shenyang—that army was the Qi Family Army led by Qi Jin.

But unfortunately, Shenyang fell in just one day.

Yuan Yingtai not only lost Shenyang, he also doomed Qi Jin.

On the south bank of the Hun River, Qi Jin, following the military manuals left by Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, directed his soldiers to rapidly deploy the Ming army's famous wagon formation.

A bloody battle was about to begin.

And Nurhaci ordered the Eight Banners to launch wave after wave of saturation attacks.

This kind of suicidal assault finally paid off after corpses piled up in heaps—the Ming army ran out of ammunition and arrows, and the wagon formation was finally broken.

After the Later Jin forces broke into the wagon formation, the Qi Family Army immediately formed Mandarin Duck Formations by squad and engaged the enemy in brutal hand-to-hand combat.

But in the end, outnumbered and exhausted, the Qi Family Army fell one after another. Regional Commander Chen Ce, after killing over a dozen enemies, also collapsed into a pool of blood.

This battle would later be called "the bloodiest battle in the Liaodong campaigns," and the famed Qi Family Army vanished into the river of history just like that.

"The Great Ming has failed Qi Jiguang! My Zhu family has failed the Qi Family Army!" Zhu Youxiao reached out and took the memorial Chen Hong presented, his expression extraordinarily grave.

Hearing these words, Chen Hong knelt directly to the ground.

He was terrified!