Ancestors, please don't crawl out again.

Chapter 183 I really want to live another five hundred years
Four days later.

night.

Wulonggou Fort.

The moonlight shines through the window.

"You can't call me Brother Ma anymore."

Yang Xianzun looked at Ma Ge, whose head was wrapped up like a pig's head, with a sigh.

The latter was shot horizontally through the face, and both sides of the face were basically smashed. It is unknown what happened to the tongue and teeth inside.

In short, it's no longer appropriate to call him Brother Ma.

After all, he was called Brother Ma because he had pockmarks on his face, but now his face is almost gone.

Moreover, he is still not out of danger and is still in a feverish coma, so it is hard to say whether he will survive.

As for why he is still lying here all alone...

Because the Qing army was still attacking Laiyuan, everyone in the small town joined in the defense, men, women, children, and even the gentry, all terrified by the Qing army's massacre in Yi County. Moreover, while they hadn't reached their end in Yi County, they were now truly doomed. If Laiyuan were breached, the city's men, women, and children would likely be devoured by the starving peasants. Furthermore, reinforcements from the Heavenly Army had arrived. Over a thousand militiamen had already entered the city, and later an infantry battalion and over five thousand militiamen arrived, but they didn't enter Laiyuan; instead, they held their ground at Baishikou and other Great Wall fortresses.

Their goal was to prevent the desperate Qing army from turning south, since they were now like a swarm of starving locusts.

They left not a single blade of grass behind.

Everyone ate it.

In fact, the Qing army has already begun to do this.

After all, they were truly out of food; they had run out of sweet potatoes. They either had to slaughter their precious warhorses or get rid of those useless burdens.

How to choose?
We're surrounded by mountains and forests, so we can't just eat grass, can we?

In addition, able-bodied men from Lingqiu, Yuxian and other places have blocked major passes such as Yimaling and Feihuyu to prevent loyal farmers from sneaking through.

In short, even now, the Qing army remains stuck on this long mountain road. Their main force is advancing towards Laiyuan, but since they couldn't have brought cannons on their westward expedition—only muskets and bows at most—they are simply piling up corpses against the fiercely defending people of Laiyuan, especially with its formidable city walls. Although Laiyuan is a small county town, it is a true fortress within the Ming Dynasty's Great Wall defense system. The city walls, built during the Jiajing era, are 35 feet high. The Qing army, hastily assembled and lacking proper siege equipment, simply cannot breach such walls.

As for the die-hard farmers who were stuck behind and had given up hope, they were trying to escape, but the problem was that they were blocked by the Great Wall to the south.

To the west, there's also the Great Wall.

This section of the Great Wall runs from Zijing Pass to Daoma Pass, and then turns towards Pingxing Pass.

The Great Wall, designed to defend against foreign invasions, failed to stop them, but now it is blocking their escape.

The heavenly soldiers, militia, and even the local young men who came spontaneously, and even some members of the Green Standard Army, all guarded the Great Wall, shooting down hordes of zombie-like Ironclad Crops below. At this point, they no longer cared about the relationships between the various parties. Even the local gentry cooperated obediently with the heavenly soldiers, after all, Brother Ma had previously wiped out the gentry in Yi County and Zhuozhou.

The Feng family, a prominent family that spanned the Ming and Qing dynasties, was completely wiped out simply because they had hoarded several thousand shi of grain and refused to hand it over!
The gentry were also afraid.

Four hundred thousand starving loyal farmers, wherever they went, would devour everything in sight. In the face of hunger, they would not consider whether the gentry were loyal to the Qing Dynasty.

In Shanxi during this season, there would be no food to sustain their southward journey until they reached Taiyuan. Therefore, they had no choice but to plunder along the way. Before even leaving the mountains, they didn't have enough to plunder, so they resorted to cannibalism. This was determined by the predicament they faced, and there were no other reasons. It was simple, but also unsolvable. So, along the way, whether gentry or poor people, including those aristocratic families who had been officials for generations, they should all give up any illusions.

They are now a horde of zombies.

In this chaos, Ma Ge was practically ignored.

Even at this time, most of his sons were seeking their own way to survive. Yinzhi claimed to be acting as regent on his father's orders, supposedly issued when he was lucid, as testified by the Grand Minister of the Imperial Guard, Orondai. Moreover, the Eighth Prince had the support of ministers such as Aling'a and Nalan Kuixu, but mainly, no one was competing with him. He and Yintang were leading the siege outside Laiyuan City, but Longkodo had already fled north with Yinxiang. They headed north from Wulonggou Fort, a route that would eventually connect to the main road to western Beijing and exit through Tianjin Pass.

So they must have gone north to seek refuge with the Fourth Prince.

Many others followed them.

The eldest prince, Yinti, who had been imprisoned for many years, escaped in the chaos and gathered a group of supporters. They fled to Yi County, shouting all the way that Yinsi was forging an imperial edict.

Of course, what he said is probably true.

But whether it was a false edict or not is meaningless now. After all, Ma Ge is lying here all alone. What difference does it make if Yinzhi forged the imperial edict? In this situation, who else would be willing to take over? It's like the tree has fallen and the monkeys have scattered. There should be someone left behind here, but they have already escaped with Longkodo. As for why Longkodo didn't take Ma Ge with him when he escaped...

Even if he manages to escape to Liaodong with Ma Ge, what will become of the Fourth Prince?

Poor Ma Ge has so many sons, but now he lies here all alone like a dying old man. You can tell from his chapped lips that he hasn't been cared for for a long time.

Yang Feng sighed and kicked the hospital bed.

The vibration caused Mako to slowly open his eyes...

"Water, water, honey water."

He said.

He can still speak fairly clearly, which means his tongue wasn't injured. The bullet must have grazed his tongue. You can see that not many teeth are left.
Do you want the blood?

Yang Feng said.

Ma Ge turned his head with difficulty and looked at the stranger.

"Monster, monster!"

He spoke as if they were telepathically connected.

"Ah, you guessed right. But you can't blame me for how you ended up today. You can only blame your sons for being so unfilial, leaving their seriously injured father here. But you can't blame them either. After all, you've been playing them for fools all these years, toying with their feelings. They probably have some resentment in their hearts. It's only fair that you've lived up to the filial piety of father and sons."

Yang Feng said with a smile.

Ma Ge's gang of sons were manipulated by him.

After all, he had been emperor for a long time, and his sons were all adults. To prevent them from getting anxious, he had to find a way to make them fight. That way, he could manipulate them from time to time like a puppeteer and watch their struggle with amusement.

"Hmph, as long as I am the emperor, they will always be just my subjects."

Ma Ge sneered.

This topic clearly perked him up somewhat.

But after he finished speaking, he quickly came to terms with reality.

"You fiend, are you here to harm me?"

He said.

"I have no interest. I only came to see you because I heard you were injured. Killing you would be a piece of cake for me. There's no need to wait until now. Actually, I have no interest in killing you. You were beaten like this by a group of soldiers who were originally peasants. It's an acceptable result for me. A peasant killing an emperor is a story that can be recorded in history books. It's much better than divine punishment killing an emperor."

Yang Feng said.

“Aren’t you afraid that in the future, commoners will no longer be afraid of the emperor? If a peasant can kill the emperor, then everyone can kill the emperor, so who will be afraid of the emperor?” Brother Ma sneered.

"By the way, I just wanted them to understand that if the ruler is tyrannical, everyone can be killed."

Yang Feng said.

“I am a wise and virtuous ruler. How can I be considered immoral? I am merely a ruler of a foreign race. I have worked diligently to bring peace to the world. How can I be considered immoral?”

Ma Ge said angrily.

Then he started coughing violently.

Because of the excessive movement, even the wound reopened, and blood started flowing from the mouth.

"Your title of 'sage ruler' is bestowed upon you by officials, not by the common people. However, to the officials, you are indeed a sage ruler. You know, I am not some kind of deity, nor am I some kind of demon. I am merely a person from several hundred years in the future, but I do indeed serve the gods. However, that is not important. Many descendants of officials from our time, including those corrupt officials, still miss you dearly. They dream of an emperor who would allow them to indulge in corruption and make money at will. They even write books and make movies to praise you."

Do you want to see it?

Yang Feng said with a smile.

Then, to Ma Ge's somewhat bewildered gaze, he opened his notebook and found a clip from a TV series.

Then the singing began.

The image above shows Ma Ge wearing a crown.

"This is the person they hired to play you."

Yang Feng said.

Then came a series of wonderful scenes.

Yang Feng continued singing, occasionally offering him pointers, such as those highlight moments.

Ma Ge was quickly captivated. Although the characters on the screen were quite different from reality, they still gave him a sense of looking back on his life. Coupled with the singing and background music, Ma Ge even sat up, staring wide-eyed at the images on the screen as if everything was real.

"I really want to live another five hundred years!"

The singing resonated throughout the empty room.

"Unfortunately, I destroyed them all."

Yang Feng said smugly.

Then he abruptly closed the notebook.

Ma Ge, still basking in his former glory, was suddenly transported back to this dark, cold, and lonely room, where even a stray dog ​​that had survived the ordeal was running past outside the door.

Ma Ge stared blankly at Yang Feng, the light in his eyes suddenly extinguished.

"It's all gone, nothing at all. Two hundred years of the dynasty are gone, ten years of the throne are gone, even your clan is gone. There will be no more descendants of the bondservant people praising you. You were shot and seriously wounded by a peasant, abandoned by your sons and subjects, lying here all alone waiting to die. Future generations will only remember a failed, tyrannical, and incompetent ruler, a name despised by generations. You and your Qing Dynasty will be despised forever."

I destroyed everything you had.

Including your future, your Qing Dynasty, and even your people.

Yang Feng said smugly.

Ma Ge suddenly erupted.

"I am going to kill you!"

He screamed like a madman, suddenly jumped up from the hospital bed, and then pulled out a knife, stabbing it directly into Yang Feng's chest.

Unfortunately, the knife failed to penetrate.

“I said I’m not a god, but I didn’t say I’m just an ordinary person.”

Yang Feng said.

Ma Ge screamed like a madman, trying his best but still unable to pierce through. At the same time, his wounds all burst open, blood gushing from his mouth, making him look rather miserable.

He eventually collapsed to the ground from exhaustion, blood still gushing from his mouth.

"Building slaves."

Yang Feng said disdainfully.

Then he just turned around and left.

He has no interest in killing Ma Ge now, and he's even less interested in what will happen to the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, the Qing Dynasty no longer needed his concern.

Yinzhi ultimately failed to capture Laiyuan. In fact, he quickly abandoned the attack and bypassed Laiyuan to head towards Lingqiu. However, he was met with fierce resistance from the young men of Lingqiu at Yimaling. Moreover, it wasn't just Lingqiu; some young men from Fanshi also arrived to reinforce them. The Qing army, which had to resort to cannibalism to survive, fought a bloody battle in the mountains with the young men who were also fighting desperately to prevent their families from being eaten. Ultimately, due to the counterattack of the Heavenly Army, the Qing army, attacked from both sides, had no choice but to turn north again and flee to Yu County.

They still had more than 200,000 people at this time, but most of them were actually the elderly, women and children. Of Ma Ge's 400,000-strong Western Hunting Army, only 40,000 were actual Eight Banner soldiers.

After all, Yinzhi still had 30,000 men, and Yinreng had 10,000 men left behind.

This is also why their offensive capabilities are not strong.

All the capable fighters were with Yinzhi, and those who followed him were mostly men from the Eight Banners of the capital who had been spoiled by wealth and luxury.

Then, the young men from Yu County and other places also fought a bloody battle with them in Feihu Valley. In fact, even the Green Standard Army joined the battle to block them. There were also a large number of Green Standard Army soldiers blocking them at Yimaling. The local young men alone might not have been able to stop them. At this time, the Green Standard Army's fighting strength was much stronger than that of the Eight Banners of the capital. And like those young men, they were also willing to fight to the death.

After all, even those in the pro-independence camp have to fight for their families.

Everyone is having a hard time during this spring famine. Even if they steal a single bushel of grain, it could result in a family starving to death.

Moreover, they didn't just rob grain.

Even if these places were still theoretically Qing territory at this time, it wouldn't work.

With the Qing Dynasty already in such a state, who would still care about this brand?

The unfortunate Prince Yinzhi led the Qing army, wandering aimlessly through the mountains like headless flies, trying to break through the hunger to find a way out, but was blocked in every direction.

Moreover, the heavenly soldiers were constantly in pursuit of them.

Ultimately, they broke down.

One night, everything suddenly collapsed. Everyone rushed into the mountains in despair, trying to cross the mountains and escape the area. The heavenly soldiers clearing the battlefield found the corpse of Yinzhen, who was probably injured and unable to escape and had been abandoned. They also found the corpses of several of Ma Ge's underage sons, some of whom were mutilated. As for Yinsi, he eventually escaped the mountains, but that was half a month later. He was escorted to Taiyuan by the masters of Wutai Mountain. As for Ma Ge, he lay alone in that room until he starved to death, though he may have died of thirst before that.

(End of this chapter)