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

Chapter 479 Furious
“Cease fire! Cease fire!”

Seeing this, Yuan Chonghuan hurriedly shouted to cease fire, but how could the artillery fire stop just by saying so? After the order was issued, Yuan Chonghuan's artillery continued to fire a few rounds before stopping. When he looked again at this time, the Eight Banners that had charged before were nowhere to be seen, and the reinforcements of the Ming army that were hit by his own artillery had fallen by hundreds. The lucky ones were directly beaten into meat paste by the artillery, and the unlucky ones lost arms and legs and fell to the ground wailing.

Seeing this scene, Yuan Chonghuan broke out in a sweat. He never expected that the Eight Banners soldiers would actually trick him while chasing him. Not only did his cannons fail to cause too much casualties to the Eight Banners, but they also accidentally injured friendly forces.

This result was completely beyond Yuan Chonghuan's expectations. When he came to his senses and sent people to check, the people who checked came back and told Yuan Chonghuan that the number of Ming soldiers killed in the previous rounds of artillery fire was several times that of the Eight Banners soldiers. What was even more embarrassing was that Man Gui, the general of Datong who came to reinforce, was injured by his own cannon. Fortunately, he was not hit directly by the cannonballs, but was only injured by flying rocks. Otherwise, if he, a general, was killed by a cannon, he, Yuan Chonghuan, would have become completely "famous".

"How is General Man's injury?" Yuan Chonghuan asked hurriedly, his face turning blue and red.

"My Lord, Marshal Man is in good condition. He only has a scratch on his left side and a minor injury on his back. He is fine otherwise..."

He heaved a sigh of relief, fortunately, Man Gui was fine, if he was killed, it would be a big problem. At this time, the subordinates carefully asked Yuan Chonghuan whether he wanted to visit Man Gui. After all, Man Gui was injured by his own artillery. It was a bit unreasonable to accidentally injure the friendly forces coming to rescue on the battlefield. Regardless of emotion and reason, he had to visit and comfort him.

However, Yuan Chonghuan shook his head after thinking about it and refused the idea of ​​visiting Man Gui. It was not that Yuan Chonghuan was unwilling to admit his mistake. A mistake was a mistake, and he did not do it on purpose. How could he have known that Man Gui would come to rescue at this time? He did not know that Huang Taiji was so cunning that he would take advantage of the situation and cause his artillery team to misjudge and cause accidental injuries?

Factually speaking, Yuan Chonghuan should have visited Man Gui and explained a few words, but the problem was that Yuan Chonghuan and Man Gui did not have a very good relationship. If you say, the two are old friends. Yuan Chonghuan and Man Gui had worked together a long time ago. When Sun Chengzong sent Yuan Chonghuan to Ningyuan to build a city, Man Gui was Yuan Chonghuan's partner, and Zu Dashou was Man Gui's deputy general at that time.

Logically speaking, they are old partners and are very familiar with each other, but Man Gui has a straightforward personality and has always had conflicts with Yuan Chonghuan.

After the Ningyuan Incident, Yuan Chonghuan was the military governor and Man Gui was the general, one civil and one military. But at that time, in order to control the Ningyuan military power, Yuan Chonghuan secretly won over the Ningyuan generals, using the power in his hands and the profits from smuggling to pull Zu Dashou and others to his side. This also led to Man Gui, who was very dissatisfied with Yuan Chonghuan, having a lot of opinions about him.

Man Gui was a Mongolian. He looked down on Yuan Chonghuan, who was good at using tricks. In addition, his upright character and temper made it difficult for him and Yuan Chonghuan to see eye to eye. There were many disputes between the two, and the conflicts were very intense.

Finally, Yuan Chonghuan found a way to get the court to transfer Man Gui away, and directly let Zu Dashou take over Man Gui's position. From then on, Ningyuan and Jinzhou all became Yuan Chonghuan's team. Without Man Gui, Yuan Chonghuan easily won over most of the generals of the Guanning Army to his own command. This was another reason why Yuan Chonghuan was later promoted to the governor of Liaodong, and then served as the general and commander.

Now that he had accidentally injured Man Gui, Yuan Chonghuan felt that it would be useless to explain and visit him, given the original conflict and relationship between the two. He knew Man Gui too well, and Man Gui might be cursing at him now. Wouldn't he be asking for a scolding if he went there? Yuan Chonghuan always wanted to save face, so he would not go there and be scolded for nothing. Why would he go there?
Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan gave up the idea of ​​meeting Man Gui in person, and only sent his troops to visit Man Gui. On the one hand, he told Man Gui that it was a complete accidental injury and that he had absolutely no intention of targeting Man Gui. On the other hand, he said that he could not leave because of his busy military affairs, and that it was wartime and he could not personally apologize to Man Gui. He hoped that Man Gui would not take it too seriously for the sake of the overall situation, and that he would personally apologize to Man Gui after the war.

Yuan Chonghuan had a good idea, but he forgot that Man Gui was a hot-tempered person, and that Man Gui had conflicts with Yuan Chonghuan. It was Yuan Chonghuan who drove him out of Ningyuan before. Although he later served as the general of Datong, his position was not demoted and he was still the general. But in Man Gui's heart, the humiliation of being driven away that year had never disappeared, and such a bizarre thing happened today, which made Man Gui even more angry at Yuan Chonghuan.

As the commander-in-chief, he ordered the Xuan and Da divisions to be under the command of Yuan Chonghuan because of the imperial decree of Emperor Chongzhen. Man Gui did not argue with Yuan Chonghuan for the sake of the overall situation and obeyed the other party's command.

After the war broke out, Man Gui led the troops to fight against the Eight Banners, and when he saw that the friendly forces were showing signs of collapse, Man Gui led his cavalry without hesitation to break through the Eight Banners and go to the rescue, intending to save the friendly forces from danger. However, he never expected that his kindness would bring such revenge. He had just broken through the blockade of the Eight Banners with his cavalry and rushed into the fierce battlefield, but before he could contact the friendly forces, overwhelming artillery fire fell from the sky, and he was stunned.

In a blink of an eye, his subordinates who had followed him for many years fell one by one under the artillery fire, and some were even killed. Even he, as the main general, almost died under the artillery fire of friendly forces. If it weren't for Man Gui's good luck, he would have been beaten into a pulp by Yuan Chonghuan's cannons. Now he was injured by Yuan Chonghuan's artillery fire, and his cavalry lost hundreds of people. After such a big incident, Yuan Chonghuan, as the instigator, not only did not come to visit him in person and apologize, but only sent a subordinate with a few words. What does this mean?
Could it be that Yuan Chonghuan didn't take him seriously at all? Or even thought that it was just an accidental injury, and that he was fine as long as he didn't die? Coupled with the old grudge between the two, Man Gui became more and more angry. With a hot temper, he immediately wrote a memorial to the capital, severely accusing Yuan Chonghuan.

On that day of the great battle, after receiving the news that the war had begun outside the city, Emperor Chongzhen personally went to the top of the city wall to watch the battle. He clearly saw everything that happened on the battlefield, especially the scene where Yuan Chonghuan fled to his camp and commanded the artillery unit to fire but accidentally injured the Datong cavalry.

Seeing this scene, Emperor Chongzhen was so angry that his nose was crooked. He couldn't imagine how Yuan Chonghuan, who he had high hopes for, could do such a low-level thing? The artillery troops deployed not only failed to kill the enemy, but also killed and injured their own people. Even a general of Man Gui's level almost died under his own cannon. Not long after returning to the palace, Wang Chengen came to report that Man Gui had submitted a memorial. Emperor Chongzhen asked for the memorial and opened it. He was even more angry and slapped the armrest of the dragon throne with anger on his face.

"Pass on my order!" Emperor Chongzhen said coldly, "Let Yuan Chonghuan and Man Gui enter the palace. I want to see them!"

"I will go and pass on the order." Wang Chengen responded quickly and left the palace in a hurry. When he arrived at the city gate, Wang Chengen asked someone to pass on the order. The messenger hesitated and asked whether to open the city gate to let them in. Wang Chengen immediately glared and said, "Why open the city gate? You can bring them in the same way you left. Who dares to open the city gate now that the enemy is facing them?" Everyone who entered and left the capital had to be lowered from the top of the city wall in a basket, and then the person was hoisted in the basket. This was the case for everyone, no matter who it was, with absolutely no exceptions.

More than an hour later, the two men were hoisted into the city separately. When they arrived, Prince Qi Cheng'en did not say much, but just told them to follow him. The group soon arrived at the palace and soon met Emperor Chongzhen who had been waiting in a side hall of the Qianqing Palace.

When they met Emperor Chongzhen, the two men first paid their respects with great ceremony. Emperor Chongzhen raised his hand for them to stand up, and then asked about the situation outside the city.

Yuan Chonghuan was the commander-in-chief of Ji and Liao, and also the prince's grand tutor. He held the highest official position, so naturally he was the first to report the situation. Yuan Chonghuan immediately explained the current situation of the war to Emperor Chongzhen. Emperor Chongzhen sat and listened quietly with a blank expression, as if he didn't care much about the war. This look made Yuan Chonghuan feel uneasy. After saying all this, Yuan Chonghuan hesitated and was about to explain to Emperor Chongzhen why he arrived in the capital earlier than the Jiannu, but at this time Emperor Chongzhen spoke first and asked Man Gui directly.

"Man Aiqing!"

"Chen is here!"

"I heard that you were injured in the battle with the Jiannu today? Is the injury serious? Are you okay?" When talking to Man Gui, Emperor Chongzhen seemed to have a much softer tone.

"Your Majesty, I was indeed injured, but fortunately the injury was not serious and I have been bandaged. I am still able to fight in the battlefield." Man Gui replied respectfully.

"Where are you hurt, my dear? Can I take a look?"

"Your Majesty, of course, it's fine if you want to see it. I'm sorry for being rude." Man Gui was straightforward and didn't care about being rude. Besides, since Emperor Chongzhen had said he wanted to see it, how could he refuse? Besides, he was holding his breath and was full of anger towards Yuan Chonghuan. Now that the emperor was asking, he could just sue Yuan Chonghuan.

Immediately, Man Gui took off his armor and then took off all the clothes underneath, revealing his naked body to Emperor Chongzhen.

When Emperor Chongzhen saw that Man Gui's body was covered with scars, with dozens of scars of varying sizes, some of which were obviously old, and some were new. In addition, blood was oozing from the white cloth bandaging him. He was stunned by this body full of holes. He could not help but stand up, walked to Man Gui, pointed out the scars on his body, and asked him where these scars came from. Man Gui answered fluently. Listening to Man Gui's answer, Emperor Chongzhen was very moved, and his eyes were a little moist.

"What happened to your injury today?" Emperor Chongzhen finally asked, pointing at the bandaged area.

It would have been better if he hadn't said this. Once he said this, Man Gui felt aggrieved. He immediately kowtowed to Emperor Chongzhen and said with tears in his eyes, "Your Majesty, please help me! My injury today was not caused by the Jiannu, but by Yuan Chonghuan's cannon! If I hadn't been lucky and dodged quickly, I wouldn't have seen Your Majesty! It's a pity that hundreds of my children didn't die at the hands of the Jiannu, but died under Yuan Chonghuan's cannon. I...I want to report Yuan Chonghuan for being jealous of talents and murdering friendly troops in public. He wants to kill me!"

(End of this chapter)