Chapter 81

No dynasty under heaven is eternal.

These gentry had long prepared themselves for the Great Ming to end with the Chongzhen reign.

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But the Han people under heaven would absolutely never allow the Great Ming to perish in this manner, falling into the hands of a foreign race!

This is the Great Ming, where "How can there be land of Huaxia without mountains and rivers? Let the sun and moon reopen the sky of the Great Song!"

In a single night.

All of Liaodong was draped in white mourning.

……

……

Inside the central dragon tent of Hong Taiji.

At this moment, Fan Fan Wencheng stared wide-eyed at Hong Taiji, who had not slept all night, remonstrating with his life:

"Your Majesty, we are now at the brink of survival and extinction."

"Under no circumstances may we yield even half a step!"

"This subject begs Your Majesty to immediately dispatch the Shengjing garrison troops; with one drumbeat of momentum, annihilate all Ming forces in Liaoxi, then breach Guanning and sweep across the Central Plains. We must not give the Han people under heaven any chance to catch their breath!"

Fan Fan Wencheng knew deeply.

With the war fought to this point.

It was already impossible for the Great Qing to bleed the Great Ming to death with the same unhurried ease as before.

More than two hundred thousand clansmen had died in battle right here in Liaoxi.

What an unprecedented humiliation this was.

Once the Great Ming was given a moment to breathe, it would not take long; merely a year or so.

That would be enough for the hundreds of millions of Han people under heaven to crush the Great Qing in Liaodong like crushing an ant.

Hong Taiji's only opportunity now was to act while the news had not yet fully spread.

He must quickly devour the elite Ming troops in Liaodong.

Taking advantage of the weak defenses at Shanhai Pass, he must march directly through the pass in full force, sweeping across the Central Plains.

Otherwise, he might as well honestly wait to return to Mount Mount Zhangbai to gather ginseng.

Hong Taiji naturally understood the profound implications of this.

With hollow eyes, he issued an edict:

"Transmit the order to the Shengjing General: tell every Man in our Great Qing who can still wield a blade to rush immediately to reinforce Liaoxi!"

"Ja!" Three.

81, fight to the death!

Inside Songshan City.

Even Regional Commanders like Wang Pu, who were greedy for life and afraid of death.

Were now coerced by their own troops into going out to battle.

Being greedy for life and afraid of death.

Was merely for the sake of wife, children, and a warm kang bed.

If they fled back from this battle.

They would not even be allowed into their ancestral graves.

With the grave mounds gone, who would still want that wretched kang bed!

Hong Hong Chengchou was even forced to directly abandon Songshan City, leading the entire city's garrison out to kill.

The divisions of Bai Bai Guangen, Tang Tong, and others dug in firmly along the Dalinghe.

The Ming army's intention was very clear.

It was to firmly trap these hundred-plus thousand Eight Banners troops in Liaoxi until they starved, and then devour them.

After the Deng-Lai New Army defected, it was completely annihilated.

The naval warships that had once crossed the river with Kong Kong Youde to surrender to the Qing, upon receiving this news, hardly hesitated at all.

They directly killed the Eight Banners Army Supervisors, scuttled their warships, and began fighting the Qing troops on the spot in Haizhou and Gaizhou.

From Liaodong to Liaoxi, beacon fires of war rose almost everywhere.

However, the Liaodong Han people, who had been weak for decades, would not reverse their declining fortunes with a single defection.

As for the common people of Liaodong.

Nurhaci, due to consecutive years of natural disasters and lack of grain, first issued an "Order to Kill the Poor," executing impoverished Han people who lacked winter food supplies to save on rations.

Afterwards, with Mao Mao Wenlong stationed on Pidao Island, Nurhaci suspected that wealthy Han families in Liaodong were colluding with Mao Mao Wenlong.

He then issued an "Order to Kill the Rich," executing the Liaodong gentry and confiscating all their family assets.

Both the poor Han and the rich Han were almost entirely slaughtered.

Only a few bond servants remained, and nearly all of them were now serving in the military.

Any attempt to stir up waves was quickly suppressed by the Qing troops.

The wheel of history still retained immense inertia.

Nikan, left behind in Shengjing, led Hong Taiji's final fifty thousand Eight Banners reserves; he first broke Bai Bai Guangen, then broke Tang Tong, forcibly cutting a bloody path for Hong Taiji.

Nikan, whose armor was already dyed red with blood, firmly blocked Hong Taiji, who was mounted on a warhorse, and urgently advised:

"Your Majesty, we cannot fight anymore."

Hong Taiji stared fiercely at Nikan and said harshly:

"If we do not fight this battle, our Great Qing will die without a burial place!"

"But Your Majesty, if we continue fighting, our Great Qing will soon have no place left to bury our dead!"

"All the Han people in Liaodong have revolted; if we drag this out, I fear we won't even be able to get supplies through anymore!"

Hearing Nikan's words,

Hong Taiji stared fixedly at the banners of the Ming army in the distance.

He felt only a sudden sweetness rise in his throat.

With a "puh" sound, he spat out a mouthful of black blood.

Then he fell stiffly from his horse.

Led by the Beile Dorgon, Jirgalang, and Daišan, the Qing forces barely managed to retreat to Dalinghe City.

After this battle,

although the Qing army had suffered heavy losses, the Ming army could hardly be called victorious either.

Over two hundred thousand imperial clansmen were completely annihilated.

Of the 130,000 border troops under Hong Hong Chengchou's command, more than half were killed or wounded, leaving only over 70,000 after the battle.

Yet, just as Fan Fan Wencheng had predicted,

when news of these events reached the interior of the pass,

that was when the war truly began.

Countless scouts, having ridden countless horses to death, delivered all the reports from Liaoxi to the Forbidden City.

Beneath the Fengtian Gate,

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian was holding morning court.

Just as the hundred officials had finished discussing affairs,

two scouts in tattered clothes burst into the Fengtian Gate uninvited.

"Your Majesty, urgent report from Liaoxi!"

The previously noisy morning court fell instantly silent.

Seeing the condition of those scouts,

the civil and military officials immediately guessed what had happened on the battlefield.

Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian's lips trembled slightly.

In the end, he forced out only a single word through clenched teeth:

"Read!"