Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1158 Heavy Reward
A few days later, Li Dingguo returned to Xinjing with the captives.

Li Dingguo won a great victory in this battle and directly destroyed the three tribal alliances. Except for a few hundred people who escaped and disappeared, the rest were either killed by Li Dingguo or captured.

There were more than 3,300 prisoners in total. As for those who were killed in this battle, after killing everyone, Li Dingguo ordered all the heads to be chopped off and piled up into a Jingguan. At the same time, he directly destroyed the enemy's camp and pulled back all the remaining prisoners and supplies.

Upon hearing the news, Zhu Mincheng went out of the city to meet him and was overjoyed to see Li Dingguo. He held Li Dingguo's hand and smiled. This Li Dingguo was really the right one to use. He was not only good at fighting, but also reliable. How could Zhu Mincheng not be happy to have such a good general?

After having the captives and the transported supplies settled, Zhu Mincheng took Li Dingguo to his "palace". When they arrived at the palace, Zhu Mincheng personally made tea for Li Dingguo. After serving the tea, he could not help but ask about the details.

"Thank you, Your Highness." Li Dingguo took the tea neither arrogantly nor humbly, put it aside and began to talk about the expedition.

"The information is correct. There is indeed a union of three tribes over there, more than 120 miles east of Xinjing. One of the tribes was originally there, and the other two tribes are said to have just migrated here from other places."

Zhu Mincheng asked: "So, the original tribe found the other two tribes and then they joined forces to attack Xinjing?"

"That's possible." Li Dingguo nodded and said, "According to your judgment, this is probably the case. However, due to language barriers, the captured prisoners cannot be interrogated for the time being, and the leaders of the three tribes have all been beheaded, so the truth cannot be ascertained for the time being. But in my opinion, the actual situation should be like this. These savages probably saw us building a city and reclaiming wasteland here and were jealous. They wanted to attack us, kill people and plunder, but they didn't expect to lose more than they gained, and they hit a hard nail directly."

At this point, Li Dingguo couldn't help but laugh, and Zhu Mincheng also laughed, shaking his head while laughing.

These natives were really brave enough to plot against him and resort to such means. However, it was really dangerous at that time. Zhu Mincheng was unexpectedly inspecting outside the city. If it weren't for his subordinates' desperate efforts, Zhu Mincheng himself was also quite capable, and Li Dingguo's reinforcements came in time, otherwise he might have lost his life.

"Hongyuan, for such a great achievement, what reward do you want?" Zhu Mincheng asked with a smile.

Li Dingguo clasped his fists and said, "Your Highness, to be honest, these natives are like chickens and dogs. This battle was not won fairly, let alone any merit..."

Before he could finish his words, Zhu Mincheng waved his hand and said, "Whether you have made any contribution or not, I know it very well. Not to mention that you led the army to a great victory, your contribution in saving the emperor before is enough to reward you. I am not a stingy person, so tell me."

"This..." Li Dingguo didn't know how to answer for a moment.

Seeing him like this, Zhu Mincheng smiled and shook his head, thinking for a while and said: "My Song Kingdom is just a name now, and I, as a vassal king, can't give you more to be honest. How about this, as a vassal king of the Ming Dynasty, I will temporarily give you a guard post, and also grant you the title of General Dingguo. After a while, I will formally petition the court and the court will give you the reward. How do you think?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your generous gift!" Li Dingguo was overjoyed and quickly stood up and saluted.

Zhu Mincheng helped him up with both hands, and said with a smile that they were all family and there was no need to be like this. With Li Dingguo's ability, he should have been successful long ago, and this reward was justified, so he just had to accept it with peace of mind.

Hearing Zhu Mincheng's words, Li Dingguo was even more grateful. Li Dingguo was different from other Ming army generals. He was originally a bandit and the adopted son of Zhang Xianzhong, the bandit leader. Because he was surrounded by the government army, Zhang Xianzhong had nowhere to go and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty with Li Dingguo and others.

After surrendering to the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong moved to Beijing and lived there. Although he was granted the title of Earl of Dingbian and held a nominal position in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, the emperor later let Zhang Xianzhong serve as a councilor in the General Council, but to put it bluntly, Zhang Xianzhong was just a supporter and had no real power at all. His four adopted sons, including Li Dingguo, were also separated and placed in various armies.

Before following Zhu Mincheng, Li Dingguo first served under Gao Jie, and was later transferred to Jiangxi to lead local troops. Although Li Dingguo made military achievements in the encirclement and suppression of bandits such as Luo Rucai and Li Zicheng, he was unable to fight on the front line for other reasons, so his military rank was not high, and he was only a guerrilla, and was granted the actual title of Anyuan School.

Li Dingguo worked in this position for several years without any chance of promotion until Zhu Mincheng noticed Li Dingguo through Sun Hao's reminder, and asked Zhu Shenzhu to bring him under his command. Although Li Dingguo was surprised by the arrangement of following Zhu Mincheng to be granted an overseas title, he needed a platform to display his talents at that time. Moreover, Zhu Mincheng was a noble son, and he was also a powerful vassal king of the Ming Dynasty. At present, Li Dingguo had no place to use his talents in the Ming Dynasty, but if he followed Zhu Mincheng to go overseas, he might be able to prove himself. So in the end, Li Dingguo agreed to this matter, and was transferred from Jiangxi to the capital, and then accompanied Zhu Mincheng to Liaodong, selected suitable subordinates from the eight banners of the Jiannu, and became the commander of the palace of the King of Song.

After following Zhu Mincheng, Li Dingguo's official position and military rank were quickly promoted. He was promoted from a guerrilla to the commander of the royal palace and became a third-rank military officer. His military rank was also promoted from Anyuan School to General Zhenguo.

Now Zhu Mincheng told Li Dingguo that he was not only given the post of guard, but also promoted to General Dingguo. This was a pleasant surprise for Li Dingguo.

You should know that although the post of guard is a military honor, it is a second-grade military honor, and the rank of General Dingguo means that Li Dingguo has truly entered the ranks of senior generals in the Ming Dynasty. Moreover, Zhu Mincheng also promised to report this reward to the court, and the court would officially confirm it, which made Li Dingguo even more grateful.

After thanking Zhu Mincheng, Li Dingguo hesitated and seemed to be hesitant to speak.

"Does Hongyuan have anything to say to me?" Zhu Mincheng asked.

Li Dingguo nodded and said tentatively: "Your Highness, I am grateful for your reward to me, but this battle is not the achievement of me alone. The soldiers who followed me to the battle, as well as my brothers who were attacked at that time, including those who died in the battle, Your Highness should reward and comfort them more."

"Well said!" Zhu Mincheng's eyes were full of admiration for Li Dingguo. Li Dingguo was not only good at fighting, but he also thought of these things. It was necessary for a general to have clear rewards and punishments, and he had to do so as the King of Song. Not only the soldiers who followed Li Dingguo to the war, but also those who fought to the death to protect him when he was attacked, and those who died at the hands of the natives, these people were his subordinates no matter what, how could Zhu Mincheng forget them?

Zhu Mincheng generously told Li Dingguo that everyone would receive rewards. As for military merits, he asked Li Dingguo to prepare them and confer rewards according to their respective merits. Those who deserved silver would be given silver, and those who deserved promotions would be promoted. As for his guards and those who had died unjustly at the hands of the natives, he would also make arrangements, and no one would be left out.

"Your Highness is wise!" Li Dingguo was delighted to see Zhu Mincheng readily accepting advice.

Zhu Mincheng waved his hand and smiled, "I have also read military books and attended military academies. Rewards and punishments should be clearly defined, whether you are a general or a superior. You have followed me thousands of miles to come here, how can I treat you badly? Follow me, I will never let anyone suffer injustice. By the way, Hongyuan, how are the men and women among the captives this time? How many are the old and weak? Do you know?"

"Your Highness, I have compiled a book." Li Dingguo hurriedly took out a book from his arms and handed it over. Zhu Mincheng took it and flipped through it for a few seconds before nodding slightly.

The three tribes had several thousand people in total, but less than half of them were young and strong. Some of them were killed during the sneak attack on Xinjing, and most of them were beheaded when Li Dingguo led his troops to the war. Therefore, most of the captives were old and young, especially women and children, and the proportion of young and strong was not high.

Li Dingguo brought back more than 3,300 prisoners, of which the majority were women and children, totaling more than 2,000 people. The rest were young and strong men, totaling about 700 people, and the rest were the elderly and the weak.

Let's not talk about the old and weak for now, the children can also be put aside, as for the young and strong, they have other uses, and the estimated number of young women is probably about a thousand. Thinking of this, Zhu Mincheng said directly to Li Dingguo: "Pick out all the young women from the captives for me. We have come here from afar, and the army is all men. Since it is impossible to establish a country here without women. Moreover, this time they have made great contributions. In addition to the normal rewards, all these women should be given to the soldiers. This will not only solve some of the captives, but also make them and the soldiers loyal. When they have offspring in the future, they will be citizens of our Song State."

"Your Highness, this is a very good arrangement! I think it is very appropriate!" Li Dingguo had actually thought of this method before, but as Zhu Mincheng's subordinate, he could not deal with the prisoners privately, especially the women among the prisoners. Unexpectedly, Zhu Mincheng had also considered this before Li Dingguo made any suggestions, which made Li Dingguo very happy.

You have to know that as the commander of the palace, Li Dingguo controls Zhu Mincheng's army, and in addition to some Ming soldiers, most of this army is the elite selected from the Eight Banners. To put it bluntly, the latter is a foreign race after all. Although these people now have long hair and wear different clothes, and have all changed their Han names, and have been trained by Li Dingguo for several months, some things in their bones cannot be changed, and this takes time.

This time, the opponents were only the natives. With Zhu Mincheng's army equipment and combat effectiveness, it was not a big deal to easily achieve such a result. Even if he did not bring these people, Li Dingguo was quite confident of winning with ordinary Ming troops. But Li Dingguo had to admit that these elite Eight Banners had fierce combat effectiveness and amazing performance on the battlefield. Moreover, they were able to win such a great victory at such a small cost, relying on their bravery.

It is true that they can fight, but it is also true that they are still wild in nature. If it were not for Li Dingguo's restraint, I am afraid that they would not be able to leave any prisoners in this battle. If these guys get angry, they may even kill the enemy. So on the way back, Li Dingguo was also thinking about how to better subdue these brave and combative soldiers and let them completely abandon their previous identities and be loyal to Zhu Mincheng. At this moment, Zhu Mincheng not only proposed to reward the soldiers heavily, but also to distribute the captured women to them. This is indeed an excellent idea.

(End of this chapter)