Chapter 80

These corpses... are they all of the Great Ming's imperial clan and descendants of meritorious officials...?

Are you Han, number 80?!

A biting cold wind blew through.

The Ming soldiers in the canyon were instantly jolted awake.

They looked at the corpses surrounding them.

No one knew who started crying first.

"Child, we're going home soon... wait until we get home and your mother will make dumplings for you."

Before long, the canyon echoed with the weeping of the Ming soldiers.

Hong Taiji rode his horse slowly to where the Tang Prince, Zhu Zhu Yujian, and the Old Qin Prince, Zhu Zhu Cunji, stood, then personally dismounted and, bowing his hands to Zhu Zhu Yujian, said:

"Your Highnesses, surrender; if this fighting continues, the Zhu family will be utterly extinguished!"

Zhu Zhu Yujian paid Hong Taiji no heed.

Instead, he spotted Fan Fan Wencheng dressed in a Confucian cap and Han Chinese official robes.

Burning with rage, Zhu Zhu Yujian immediately shouted a stern rebuke:

"Are you Han?!"

Stung by Zhu Zhu Yujian's fierce scolding, Fan Fan Wencheng instantly froze on the spot.

By now, the sound of weeping had permeated the entire canyon.

Eventually, all the crying gradually transformed into a single voice of furious accusation.

Are you Han?!

At that moment, all the soldiers of the Han Eight Banners involuntarily bowed their heads.

In the empty valley,

the Ming soldiers' accusation lingered long and refused to fade.

Just then, from the other end of the canyon, a sudden burst of urgent battle cries erupted.

"Where is the captive chieftain? Come quickly to meet your death!"

"The Great Ming's reinforcements have arrived!"

In an instant, the entire canyon descended into chaos once more.

The remaining Ming soldiers immediately went mad, rushing to rally around Cao Cao Bianjiao.

However, news of these Ming soldiers' identities was spreading through all the Qing forces at a fractal speed.

The Qing army, which had previously held every advantage, was now thrown into complete disarray!

Having crawled out of the sea of Zhu family blood, the Obedient Prince, Kong Kong Youde, still stared fixedly down into the canyon.

He shouted fiercely at the Deng-Lai New Army behind him:

"Why are you all standing there stunned? Load your ammunition and rush to aid His Majesty!"

But this time,

not a single man in the Deng-Lai New Army behind Kong Kong Youde moved without orders.

A vice general behind him, his eyes hollow, gazed at the Ming soldiers at the foot of the mountain and said:

"Prince, those people are all members of our Great Ming's imperial clan."

"Even the royal family has been beaten to this extent... we brothers are Han people!"

Kong Kong Youde immediately flew into a rage and shouted:

"Who said 'our' Great Ming to you?! Are you plotting rebellion?!"

"Men, seize this villain!"

Kong Kong Youde shouted several times in succession.

Yet not a single soldier around him moved.

All the Deng-Lai New Army stared fixedly at Kong Kong Youde in the night.

Only then did Kong Kong Youde realize with shock that all the Manchu Eight Banners Army Supervisors sent by Hong Taiji had somehow already been cut down and lay on the ground.

Before Kong Kong Youde could even react,

a flash of cold steel appeared before his eyes.

A sharp blade plunged viciously into Kong Kong Youde's chest.

Then Kong Kong Youde lost consciousness forever.

Less than the time it takes to burn one stick of incense later,

the Deng-Lai New Army on the Qing positions immediately began frantically pouring ammunition toward Hong Taiji's dragon tent.

The whistling cannonballs directly knocked Hong Taiji off his warhorse.

Protected tightly by several bond servants, Hong Taiji asked in shock:

"Where did these cannons come from?! Where did the Ming army get cannons?!"

It was only then that Jirhalang ran over in shock, shouting hoarsely to Hong Taiji:

"Your Majesty, the Deng-Lai New Army has rebelled; the Obedient Army has rebelled!"

"Where is Kong Kong Youde?!"

"Kong Kong Youde has been beheaded and thrown off the cliff!"

Hearing this, Hong Taiji felt everything go black before his eyes.

However, the defection of the Deng-Lai New Army was merely the beginning.

Not long after,

within the Han Eight Banners, Han soldiers themselves threw off their helmets and, in one motion, cut off that ugly pigtail.

He cursed in a fierce voice:

"Damn it! Since the Deng-Lai New Army has defected, we of the Han Army's Plain Red Banner are defecting too!"

"Tell the brothers below: recognize only the queue, not the man. Cut down those bastard sons of bitches!"

"..."

On the other side, Dorgon stared fixedly at the artillery position of the Deng-Lai New Army's Red Barbarian Cannons.

With eyes nearly bursting from rage, he led the soldiers of the Plain White Banner in a massive charge against the Deng-Lai New Army.

This was the Qing court's only firearm unit.

All their assets were now in the hands of the Deng-Lai New Army.

If this force were lost,

the Qing army's combat effectiveness would immediately regress to the era of Nurhaci.

The soldiers of the Plain White Banner fought like madmen to seize the Red Barbarian Cannons from the Deng-Lai New Army.

The Deng-Lai New Army numbered only seven thousand men to begin with.

Under the fierce assault of the Plain White Banner, they soon began to falter.

Finally, amidst the sinister laughter of the Deng-Lai New Army soldiers, they ignited all the gunpowder stored at the position.

A tremendous boom echoed out.

Over eight hundred Red Barbarian Cannons were completely reduced to a pile of scrap metal in the violent explosion.

The two sides fought until dawn, when the order to cease fighting and withdraw was finally given.

Yet everyone knew

that this war

had only truly begun after this battle.

Twenty-eight princes of the Great Ming died on the battlefield!

The Crown Prince's fate remained unknown!

News that two hundred and fifty thousand imperial clansmen had been annihilated in Liaoxi spread across all of Liaodong in an instant.

Ming troops in Jinzhou, Ningyuan, and Shanhai Pass continuously dispatched forces to reinforce Songshan.

Common people from surrounding areas also voluntarily went to the Xingshan region to recover the bodies of the slain imperial relatives.

Only when they saw with their own eyes the corpses of these imperial clansmen lying on the battlefield

did all the Han people in Liaodong break down in grief.

Urgent dispatches, traveling eight hundred li per day, were sent to the imperial capital at the Great Ming Dynasty's fastest possible speed.

Gentry and landowners everywhere directly opened their granaries to send grain and fodder to Shanhai Pass.