The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

In a blink of an eye, two days passed and the snow stopped.

Early in the morning, Heshen stood outside the gate of the central army headquarters like a young wife waiting for her husband to come home, looking into the distance with her eyes wide open.

"Hey, whose daughter-in-law is this?"

Heshen heard Wang Daniu's vulgar voice and looked in the direction of the voice, and was slightly startled.

In front of Wang Daniu stood Li Hu, who was dressed in military uniform and armor. The commanders of each camp had also arrived, all wearing helmets and armor.

Are we going to attack the city?
He Shen didn't have time to think about it, and hurriedly stepped forward and saluted: "Your Majesty."

Li Hu looked at him and smiled: "Don't wait."

He Shen's expression suddenly changed: "Your Majesty."

Li Hu interrupted him: "I am not Fu Kang'an, who treats promises as farts." At this point, he smiled and said, "Don't be too Fu Kang'an."

Everyone laughed.

Heshen stared at Li Hu without blinking.

Li Hu said with a smile: "Your reinforcements have arrived. I will take you to see the elegance of our Han men."

He Shen asked anxiously: "Which reinforcements are coming?"

Li Hu: "The Korean vassal army."

Heshen felt a little disappointed after hearing this.

Li Hu seemed to have seen through He Shen's thoughts and continued, "Don't count on Hong Zhou. He is just a clay Buddha now. How can he care about Shengjing City?"

He Shen was startled: "What happened to the Prince of Heqin?"

Li Hu smiled and said, "Nothing serious, it's just that Hong Zhou suffered a few defeats and more than half of his troops were killed."

Heshen was stunned and didn't say anything for a long time.

Li Hu smiled secretly. He did not deceive Heshen, but he did not tell the truth either. He had just received news that Marquis Zhongjing Shi Ding had withdrawn his troops in a hurry. Obviously something happened in the capital!

Therefore, Li Hu also prepared to withdraw his troops and wait until the spring of next year to fight again.

He Shen spoke up: "Your Highness, aren't you afraid that the Eight Banners soldiers in Shengjing City will come and raid the camp?"

Hijacking the camp?

Wang Daniu and others all laughed.

Heshen naturally heard the disdain and sarcasm in the laughter, but since he was under someone else's roof, he could only laugh awkwardly along.

At this time, Zhang Xi, the general of Yulin, strode over and said to Li Hu, "Your Majesty, everything is ready."

Li Hu: "Let's go."

Heshen's property was finally liquidated.

The Sixth Prince, accompanied by a group of Jurchen high-ranking officials, walked into Heshen's mansion.

The open space in the yard was already filled with large mahogany boxes, and the Eight Banners soldiers were still moving the boxes.

Looking at the piles of boxes, the Sixth Prince's eyes turned red with anger: "This damn slave is really the most corrupt official in the Qing Dynasty!"

The leading military minister spoke up: "When we checked the warehouse, we found that a lot of silver had been eaten away by insects and ants and turned into silver flakes. This is simply unscrupulous!"

The Sixth Prince said angrily: "This dog slave!"

Several military ministers looked at each other, and another military minister spoke up: "Your Majesty, this thief has lost all conscience and is not worthy of marrying into the royal family. Please cancel the engagement in the name of the regent and choose another prince consort for the tenth princess."

The Sixth Prince hesitated for a moment and said, "I'm afraid this is not a good idea."

Another military minister said: "Your Highness, the Han Chinese have a saying, 'If you don't kill the snake, you will have endless troubles.' If Your Highness returns to Beijing, he will spare Heshen's life for the sake of the Tenth Princess. With Heshen's ability, he may have a chance to turn things around."

The leading military minister looked around, leaned close to the Sixth Prince's ear, and whispered, "If Fengshen Yinde had not betrayed the late Emperor and opened the inner city gate, the Emperor would be you now!"

The Sixth Prince's face changed and he shouted, "Don't talk nonsense!"

Another military minister quickly changed the subject: "A lot of usurped treasures were seized from Heshen's home, including more than a hundred strings of Dongzhu bracelets. One of the big beads in particular is much bigger than the Canglong Training Son Pearl on the emperor's crown. He is so evil!"

The Sixth Prince's face darkened. He did not expect Heshen to be so bold.

The leading military minister said, "Your servants are not good at seeing things, and we cannot recognize many of them. We don't know if they are usurped. We have sent them all to His Majesty's home. Please help me take a look."

The Sixth Prince was silent for a moment, then looked at them and said, "Isn't he sending it to your home?"

Several military ministers hurriedly replied: "These treasures are not for the slaves to enjoy."

The Sixth Prince was not a fool, so he naturally understood the hidden meaning. They had embezzled a lot of Heshen's property! The leading military minister said: "Prince, the marriage of the Tenth Princess..."

The Sixth Prince was silent for a moment, then said, "You should draft a memorial to the Military Affairs Office first."

Several military ministers smiled at each other.

Just then, several veteran military officers of the first and second ranks, with red hats on their heads and lions embroidered on their robes, came in hurriedly.

These old military officers walked up to the Sixth Prince:

"Your Majesty, Li Hu led the main cavalry of Yulin out of the camp and headed northeast."

"It must be the Korean vassal army that has arrived."

The Sixth Prince sighed softly: "The Korean vassal army is finished!"

The leading military minister blinked his eyes and said, "Should we take this opportunity to launch a surprise attack on Li Hu's camp?"

After a pause, he asked, "What if it works?"

The Sixth Prince was silent.

An old military officer with a red hat spoke up: "That's right. We have forcibly conscripted 30,000 young men from Gyeonggi Province, Korea. Add to that the 5,000 troops stationed in the Korean royal palace. Although we are definitely not able to defeat the Yulin cavalry, we can still delay them for a while."

Another old military officer said: "That's right. Even if there are 30,000 pigs, the Han people can't catch them all in one day!"

The Sixth Prince walked back and forth for a few steps, then shook his head: "Even if the Yulin cavalry is not here, there are still more than 100,000 troops outside the city!"

Another old military officer said: "Without the Yulin Cavalry, those Mongols are nothing but chickens and dogs. Our Eight Banners Cavalry can defeat them with a single charge!"

Several old military officers started shouting:
"Yes, those Mongols are nothing but chickens and dogs!"

"It's dinner time now, they must be completely defenseless!"

The Sixth Prince hesitated for a moment, then looked at the chief military minister.

The leading military minister thought for a moment and said, "We don't need to achieve much success. As long as we burn the Han people's food and grass, we will win." Then he pointed to the large mahogany boxes and said, "All these treasures will be saved."

Several old military officers knelt down together: "Your Majesty!"

Several military ministers looked at each other and knelt down.

The Sixth Prince gritted his teeth and said, "Okay!"

The war came suddenly and ended just as suddenly, leaving Heshen dumbfounded.

The Korean fleeing soldiers were all over the mountains and plains, and the Yulin cavalrymen caught them like sheep, and they caught them in a bunch. The Korean fleeing soldiers they caught were very honest, and one Yulin cavalryman could bring back more than a hundred fleeing soldiers.

Wang Daniu put down the telescope, rubbed his eyes in disbelief, and scanned the battlefield again before saying, "If this was one of our soldiers, we would have killed him a long time ago!"

Li Hu shook his head. He knew that the Korean vassal army was weak, but he didn't expect it to be so weak. The Yulin cavalry just started to charge, and before they even started fighting, the Korean vassal army collapsed! They also broke through the formation of the thousands of Eight Banners soldiers.

At this time, Zhang Xi, the general of Yulin, rode up on horseback and reported to Li Hu: "Your Majesty, those Eight Banners soldiers have surrendered."

Li Hu raised his eyebrows: "Surrender?"

Zhang Xi smiled: "Except for some unlucky ones, everyone else surrendered, about 4,000 people. By the way, those Korean vassal soldiers were not soldiers at all, they were all slaves of Korean nobles. The surrendered Eight Banners soldiers also said that their deputy governor took the property of the Korean nobles."

Li Hu looked at Heshen.

He Shen's face darkened: "These damn slaves!"

Li Hu laughed. It turned out that the world was a huge makeshift group where everyone was fooling each other!
Pigs are hard to catch, but people can surrender.

However, cleaning the battlefield is still very time-consuming. By the time we finished cleaning the battlefield, the sun had already set.

Li Hu glanced at the huge crowd of captives and asked He Shen with a smile, "Do you think they have sent the remaining compensation?"

He Shen glanced at the sun and replied with a smile, "Carts loaded with large mahogany boxes are continuously driving out of Shengjing City and into the prince's camp."

Before he could finish his words, Wang Yaozu rode over on his horse and reported loudly, "Your Highness, the Jurchens were still determined to take advantage of our army's meal and attacked us. We repelled them!"

Heshen trembled all over and his eyes widened.

Li Hu looked at him with a smile, then asked Wang Yaozu, "What is the specific battle situation?"

Wang Yaozu said excitedly: "Your Highness, you have a brilliant plan. The Jurchens really went straight to our granary. Our army fired thousands of arrows and wiped out all the Jurchens who fell into the encirclement. In the pursuit, we captured more than 3,000 people. The number of Jurchens who escaped back to Shengjing City was less than 20,000." At this point, he glanced at Heshen and said, "I learned a piece of news from the captives that Heshen's house was raided."

He Shen's mind buzzed: "What? What did you say?"

Wang Yaozu: "They said that the Sixth Prince of the Tartars and the Military Affairs Council posted official documents, colluded with the Dashun, leaked secrets, were corrupt, and disrespected the imperial power."

He Shen's head buzzed, blood immediately rushed to his face, and then his body swayed. He immediately grabbed the saddle with both hands, trying to steady himself, but his hands went limp, as if he had been hit by a stick, and he fell off the horse, and then a mouthful of blood spit out of his mouth. (End of this chapter)