Chapter 103

"Great Ming has been defeated! The Tartars are charging over!"

Following the Ming soldiers' hoarse cries.

Over five thousand light cavalry immediately spurred their horses to maximum speed, galloping toward the Dalinghe ferry crossing.

Then, with clean efficiency, they boarded boats, crossed the river, and completed the maneuver in one seamless motion.

It was as if they had never crossed the river to begin with.

Leaving behind only a ground littered with great banners and war flags...

On the hillside, Hong Taiji watched the scene before him, his expression gradually turning ugly.

Is this warfare or children playing house?!

Could you not have held out a little longer?!

I was just about to prepare my own rout!

This was supposed to be an unparalleled merit!

Songshan Camp.

Cao Cao Bianjiao, having shouted until his voice was hoarse, wiped the heavy sweat from his brow and, with a raspy voice, looked at Hong Hong Chengchou and said,

"Commander, the task is done."

Hong Hong Chengchou, bent over his desk writing a memorial, did not even lift his head as he replied,

"Good, good!"

"By the way, Regional Commander Cao, how many troops did you bring this time?"

"Five thousand."

Hearing this, Hong Hong Chengchou could not help but lift his head, looking at Cao Cao Bianjiao with earnest gravity as he asked,

"Truly five thousand?!"

"That cannot be right; how do I recall it being fifty thousand?"

"This morning, our Liaoxi garrison dispatched fifty thousand elite troops to penetrate Liaodong; encountering twenty thousand Eight Banners elites, they were utterly routed and fell into disarray; it was only because Regional Commander Cao Cao Bianjiao personally braved a hail of arrows that the entire army was preserved and returned!"

Seeing the memorial before him, Cao Cao Bianjiao's face twitched slightly...

What about Hong Taiji personally beheading five hundred men?

And Dorgon single-handedly thwarting the Red Barbarian Cannons?

Cao Cao Bianjiao had lived through those years when the Ming army was slaughtered so thoroughly they abandoned their helmets and armor.

But even back then, the Ming army never wrote memorials like this!

And Dorgon thwarting the Red Barbarian Cannons?

Why not just write that Dorgon caught cannonballs with his bare hands?!

"Commander, you are..."

Hong Hong Chengchou, seeing Cao Cao Bianjiao's expression, gritted his teeth and whispered,

"His Majesty has His Majesty's arrangements; hurry up and sign your name."

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian naturally had his own pressures.

This entire battle was a strategy that Sun Sun Chuanting, Du Yinxie, and Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian had deliberated for a day and night inside the palace.

Great Ming still needed a "great defeat."

One to show the people of Great Ming.

It was necessary to make the people under heaven tangibly feel the threat of the Qing army.

Only then could Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian and the court firmly seize the "moral high ground."

As for the scholar-officials,

let them believe it or not as they wished.

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian had never expected to make them believe this matter in the first place.

In any case, after the Battle of Xingshan, the court, and especially the Zhu family, had already secured considerable voice among the common people.

Many elderly and weak imperial clansmen were sent directly by Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian back to their hometowns to serve as the court's megaphones among the populace; furthermore, due to the Battle of Xingshan, these members of the Zhu family were warmly welcomed by the commoners.

These were the Emperor's relatives.

Wouldn't their words carry more truth than those of some local gentry?!

Great Ming was still weak.

Therefore, Great Ming needed to cultivate its internal strength.

Only by perfecting this internal strength could they crush the Tartars beyond the pass.

Anyone who obstructed Great Ming from cultivating its internal strength

was a traitor to the nation!

Regardless of whether the scholar-officials of Great Ming believed it or not,

the common people under heaven certainly did.

The scholar-officials had even lost the opportunity to petition for battle to wipe away the shame.

So you are eager to fight?

If we truly could fight, would the court not have done so? More than two hundred thousand members of the Zhu family have died in Liaodong; that is a national vendetta and a family hatred. Could you possibly be more anxious than the Emperor? Is there something guilty in your heart? Are you colluding with the enemy?

Regarding this strategy,

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian, Sun Sun Chuanting, and Hong Hong Chengchou had named it the "Great Qing Threat Theory!"

The only pity was that Hong Taiji at this time was clearly still at a stage requiring "strategic deception"...

92, a new chat group member!

Shengjing Great Government Hall.

Huang Taiji's face was iron-blue as he stared at the "court gazette" just retrieved from the scout killed inside the pass.

The gazette clearly stated:

"Catastrophic defeat in Liaodong!"

"An army of one hundred thousand routed beyond recognition!"

"The Jurchen are invincible once they reach ten thousand!"

"In this time of crisis, all commanderies and counties under heaven must unite with one heart; let us not become a laughingstock for future generations!"

"..."

Huang Taiji's expression gradually twisted into distortion.

He had guessed that Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian would exaggerate the results of the battle at Shengjing.

But he never in his wildest dreams expected Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's skin to be so thick.

Such a master of bluster!

"Where did an army of one hundred thousand come from?! Where did an army of one hundred thousand come from?!!"

"Why don't you attack forward then! Take one step, and I will return Shengjing to you!"

"Just attack!"

"..."

In that battle, the three thousand men of the Plain Yellow Banner and the Bordered Yellow Banner had exerted every ounce of strength, even the effort of suckling infants.

Yet they simply could not catch up to the Ming army fleeing for their lives.

However, this was only to be expected.

Over the past decade, the Ming army had gained no other skills.

But their ability to flee had been honed by each and every soldier to absolute perfection.

After all, those who ran slowly, even if they did not die, were captured by the Qing army and made into bond-servant slaves.

Those who managed to survive under the current situation in Liaodong—

which one of them was not a veteran soldier who had escaped death at least a dozen times?

It was simply survival of the fittest.

Huang Taiji slumped exhaustedly onto the dragon throne.

For the first time, he felt the seat beneath him digging so painfully into his buttocks.

"Master Fan, what strategy do you propose?!"

Fan Fan Wencheng gazed at the report before him; a thousand words ultimately condensed into a single sigh.

Had a capable minister descended upon the Great Ming?