Ming Dynasty entry: I am Chongzhen, the greatest emperor of all time!

Chapter 128 How dare you compare the rebel leader to His Majesty?

Song Xianze shook his head helplessly.

If it weren't for the death order given to him by Li Zicheng, he really wouldn't want to come to Li Guo's place.

Among the hundreds of generals in the rebel army, there were all kinds of people: those who were literate, those who were good at fighting, those who knew the big picture, and those who understood people's hearts. He could find several of Liu Zongmin's level.

Li Guo was the only one who was both skilled in writing and warfare, possessed both strategic vision and understanding of human nature, and was both righteous and principled.

If he were in the right, he could easily silence Li Guo with just a few words.

The problem is that he's not in the right!

On the contrary, everything they said was the truth, and there wasn't a single point that could be refuted.

He stared at the curled paper ash in the charcoal brazier, then suddenly grabbed the teapot and tilted his head back to take two gulps.

The rebel army was terrible, but the Ming army wasn't much better.

"Does the young general know how much grain was stored in the cellars of the Zhu family princes when Taiyuan fell?"

"Enough to feed an army of 100,000 for three years!" The old Taoist priest spat as he spoke. "These nobles would rather watch the common people exchange their own children to eat than open the granaries to distribute grain!"

"If Emperor Chongzhen truly cared about the people and their lives, how could he have let it all go unchecked?!"

"General, you've been fooled by that old man Chongzhen!"

Li Guo was furious when he heard this. He grabbed the goose-feather knife and slammed it on the table. The teacup that was knocked over by the knife shattered into eight pieces on the blue brick. "Before Emperor Chongzhen personally led the expedition, he burned all the land deeds in the entire Beizhili region and distributed the land to each household. No matter what kind of prince or noble they were, even the imperial estates were gone."

"That's just trying to win people's hearts!" Song Xianze looked very anxious, as if he was disappointed in his son. "Like when he gave him the rank of General-in-Chief, it was just to sow discord within the enemy camp!"

The window frame rattled loudly as the north wind blew against it, and Li Guo suddenly grabbed the old Taoist's collar.

The bulging veins on the back of his hand brushed against the throbbing pulse in the other man's neck. "Has the strategist ever touched the walls of Xuanfu? Does he know how many arrowheads are embedded in the cracks between the blue bricks?"

"Do you know how many Ming soldiers there are? Do you know how many people I've asked?"

"An army of 100,000! Each person was allocated land, and some even had oxen for plowing. They were even in charge of supervising and enforcing the tax collection. Was Emperor Chongzhen some kind of god? How could he fool 100,000 people!"

Song Xianze fell silent again.

Li Guo continued, "That night at the Battle of Feihu Ridge, 30,000 to 40,000 Ming troops dared to fight against 200,000 Jurchens, and Emperor Chongzhen even personally led the expedition!"

"After that battle, Chongzhen had no intention of surviving!"

"What? Just to fool people, Emperor Chongzhen dared to lead three hundred light cavalry to charge the artillery formation?" The bloodshot in his eyes gleamed gold in the candlelight. "The swords were even dulled from the blows, and you're saying this was all an act?"

The sound of leather boots splashing through water was mixed in with the clatter of iron horses on the eaves.

Just as Song Xianze was about to speak, the courtyard gate was suddenly struck with a deafening crack of a whip.

"Li Jin! How long are you going to be the Zhu family's watchdog?"

Hao Yaoqi's roar startled the crows in the locust tree, and the iron-bladed armor gleamed with blood rust in the lantern light. "If you don't open the door, I'll tear down this dilapidated house and feed it to the donkeys!"

Li Guo's grip on the knife tightened suddenly, his knuckles cracking like popping beans. Li Jin was his original name; because Li Zicheng had no son, he was adopted by Li Zicheng as his son.

The character "过" was changed after adoption.

After arguing with Li Zicheng that day, the latter angrily told him to change his name back.

This indicates that there is no longer any father-son relationship between them.

When Song Xianze heard Hao Yaoqi call out to Li Jin, his heart skipped a beat.

Calling him Li Jin at this point only makes him feel less guilty!

"General Quan, please wait a moment." Song Xianze hurriedly stood up and shouted towards the door, almost slipping and falling on the moss with his wooden clogs, but he didn't care, as long as he could stop that blockhead Hao Yaoqi. "General, these past few days..."

However, a flash of cold light interrupted the old Taoist priest.

Li Guo used the tip of his knife to lift the splattered pages of the book, watching the ink curl into ash butterflies in the charcoal fire. "Go back and tell the rebel king that I, Li Jin, have suddenly contracted a serious illness and can no longer hold a knife."

"Strategist, I respect your character and will not make things difficult for you. Please leave quickly."

"General, why are you doing this to yourself!" Song Xianze hurriedly tried to comfort him, pressing down hard on his hand holding the knife, and found that the other's palm was covered in cold sweat. "The King of Chuang has no choice. In fact, he has known about these things for a long time. He is also very angry. He even pulled me and Prime Minister Niu to discuss it. But look at the situation. If he were to free up his hands to deal with it, I'm afraid the Jurchens would take advantage of the situation."

"The rebel king wasn't really angry with you. He just wanted you to back down. Before I came, he said that as long as you were willing to lead troops out of Tongguan, you would get 30% of the Datong commercial tax!"

"Thirty percent?" Li Guo suddenly burst into wild laughter, his blade flashing and carving a pale white arc between the beams and pillars. "When we captured Luoyang last year, you took seventy percent of the Fu Prince's mansion's cellars! The common people can't even afford to eat Guanyin clay!"

"Now they want to give me 30% of it. I dare not accept this money made from blood and flesh."

At this point, Li Guo became even more disappointed. When he followed Zhu Youjian on his campaigns, no matter when he went, the emperor, who was the supreme ruler of the world, was always dressed in military uniform, no different from the soldiers, and even the food was no different.

He asked that question once more, and he still remembers the words Zhu Youjian uttered.

"We share the same clothes and the same food, all for the sake of the future of hundreds of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty!"

What a level of thought that is!
It's miles ahead of the rest of the world!
From then on, Zhu Youjian became Li Guo's mentor and guiding light!
The blade grazed Song Xianze's ear, severing the flickering candle wick.

As darkness fell, the courtyard wall collapsed with a crash, and twenty heavily armored soldiers carrying spiked clubs rushed into the courtyard.

Three bloody human heads hung beside Liu Zongmin's saddle; judging from their hairstyles, they belonged to Li Guo's servants.

"You think you're so great, huh?" Hao Yaoqi charged ahead, his riding whip pointing directly at Li Guo. "Do you really think you're still one of the Thirteen Protectors of the old camp?!"

Within the entire rebel army, Hao Yaoqi feared only two people: Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin.

Since the latter is dead and the former is no longer around, Hao Yaoqi doesn't need to give face to anyone.

Looking at the twenty-odd riders in front of him, Li Guo did not hesitate at all and directly held his sword across his chest.

"You, Hao Yaoqi, are not worthy to take my, Li Jin's, troops!"

"You son of a bitch!" Liu Zongmin's whip froze in mid-air.

He saw the resolute look in Li Guo's eyes, the same look he had when the eighteen riders charged into Cao Wenzhao's camp.

Song Xianze's tortoise shell fell into the charcoal brazier, emitting a pungent, burnt smell.

The old Taoist priest's eyes darted around, then he suddenly knelt down, clutching the hem of Li Guo's battle robe and crying out, "Young General, please reconsider! If you die, what will happen to the old brothers in the camp who fought alongside you at Ningwu Pass?"

"Then let the rebel king kill them all!" Li Guo said unfazed. "Rather than die bearing the shame of being a traitor, let the rebel king send them on their way first!"

"You, you, you, oh dear!"

Soft approaches didn't work, hard approaches were useless, and Song Xianze was at his wit's end.

"My Lord! What's wrong with you?!"

If it weren't for the Battle of the capital, in which many capable generals were killed or wounded, only a handful of people would still be able to lead an army on their own.

For example, Yuan Zongdi, who is currently leading 50,000 defeated troops and entrenched on Wuling Mountain between Beijing, Chengde, and Tangshan, preparing to become a bandit, has not been lured down by any orders, let alone by the great commotion that Zhu Youjian and Dorgon made near Chengde.

Li Yan, who had been leading the army alone, somehow offended Niu Jinxing, who kept telling Li Zicheng that Li Yan was plotting something sinister.

Now they are firmly bound to Li Zicheng's side and at his beck and call, and have no chance to lead troops on their own.

Only Li Guo, a general with strategic vision, remained, capable of leading a large army into Henan. Otherwise, why would Song Xianze be here to entertain the children?

Judging from Li Guo's reaction, he wasn't throwing a tantrum at all.

If Li Zicheng and Li Guo hadn't been related by blood, and even had a father-son relationship, Song Xianze would have doubted whether Li Guo truly wanted to defect to the Ming Dynasty.

and many more!

Seeking enlightenment...

In an instant, Song Xianze felt as if he had opened the door to a new world.

His eyes gleamed with barely suppressed excitement. He quickly scrambled to his feet and eagerly looked at Li Guo, asking, "General, did you just say that the current Emperor Chongzhen... uh... His Majesty is a wise and benevolent ruler?"

Upon hearing the first part of the sentence, Li Guo's face subconsciously darkened, but upon hearing the latter part, it instantly turned red, and he excitedly introduced Zhu Youjian, whom he had in mind, to Song Xianze.

"He's more than just a benevolent ruler! He's practically a first emperor of all time! Even the Tang and Han emperors would pale in comparison to His Majesty..."

"Stop!" Song Xianze quickly called for a halt, gesturing to Li Guo with his eyes, reminding them that there was still a loyal follower of the rebel leader behind them.

Then Song Xianze lowered his voice and quietly asked, "Who do you think is better, Emperor Chongzhen or Li Zicheng?"

"How dare you compare the Rebel King to His Majesty!? Who is the Rebel King...?"

"Cough cough cough!!!" Song Xianze coughed wildly to suppress the rest of his words.

Moreover, in just two short sentences, he already had an idea in mind.

Pretending to cough until his lungs hurt, he couldn't help but bend forward.

Then, as quickly as possible, he said something that only the two of them could hear.

Li Guo was taken aback, and Song Xianze coughed forcefully again.

The former then realized what was happening and shouted in an extremely exaggerated tone, "Ah! I'm really not human! I've made the King of Rebellion toil day and night!"

"Quickly, men, clothe me with armor! I must go and relieve the King's burdens!"

Song Xianze's lips twitched uncontrollably twice, and he cursed wildly in his heart.

Why don't you try to refuse three times and then ask again three times?
This is too fake!

But since things had come to this, he could only turn around and awkwardly smile as he reminisced with Hao Yaoqi to distract him.

Hopefully, Hao Yaoqi didn't notice.

……

Capital.

Before the sound of the clapper at dawn had even faded, Huang Degong had already ridden out of Desheng Gate and headed straight for the Qian Sanqian Camp outside the city, now the Mongol light cavalry camp.

Qi Yuan followed closely behind, and as the two rode side by side, the iron caltrops in Huang Degong's saddlebag were still clanging.

As they drew nearer, Huang Degong suddenly spoke up and asked...
"General Qi, do you really believe those Tartars can succeed?" He then spat on the ground. "At this time last year, I was still chopping off the heads of Mongol cavalry at the Luan River!"

"This year, these Tartars have transformed themselves into our Emperor's imperial guards."

Qi Yuan chuckled, shook his head, pointed ahead, and said, "Commander Huang, seeing is believing. Look, there's a group of Mongolians lassoing horses over there. Let's go take a look."

Huang Degong looked in the direction of the whip and saw that outside the camp three miles away, a dozen or so Mongol light cavalrymen were surrounding the warhorses that had escaped the previous night.

The leader of the men mounted the bareback horse, and with his legs gripping the horse's belly, he managed to free his hands while galloping, swinging the lasso in a perfectly round motion.

Huang Degong sneered, "All show and no substance! On the battlefield, wouldn't you get riddled with bullets?"

As he spoke, he touched the goose-feather sword at his waist. The red silk wrapped around the hilt had been soaked in blood and turned blackish-brown. "Never mind, His Majesty must have his reasons for doing this. Let's finish what we need and leave quickly. There's a strong stench of mutton here."

Qi Yuan could only smile and quicken his pace to follow behind Huang Degong.

The grass in front of the camp gate had long been trampled into black mud.

Abunai led eight chieftains out to greet them.

"General Huang!" Abunai's Chinese was thick with emotion. He was wearing a bright yellow satin robe bestowed by the emperor. After all, he was a prince. According to etiquette, Huang Degong should have been the one to greet him first.

But both sides knew what was really going on.

Abunai dared not let the current number one soldier in the Ming army salute first.

Leading the leaders of the Mongol tribes behind him, he bowed and said, "The sons of the fifty Mongol tribes are waiting for you to choose them, just like marmots on the grasslands wait for the first spring rain!"

Seeing that Huang Degong had not yet made a move.

Qi Yuan could only cough lightly from the side.

Huang Degong then reluctantly clasped his hands in a fist and said, "Your Majesty is too kind. I am acting on imperial orders and hope you will grant me this favor." He deliberately emphasized the words "on imperial orders".

"No, no, I wouldn't dare," Abunai said with a forced smile, while gesturing for Huang Degong to enter the camp.

"General Huang, please. I have already prepared tea, wine and meat for you. Please come into the tent first."

Huang Degong waved his hand, "No need, I have His Majesty's orders to carry out, let's take care of business first."

"Alright, it was Xiao Wang who was being presumptuous. Tulebato, sound the horn to gather the troops, and quickly let Commander Huang select Mongolian warriors!"

A tribal chief next to him took out a bull horn and blew it loudly.

The sound of horns ripped through the sky.

Nearly 40,000 Mongol cavalrymen were barely able to form eight square formations on the parade ground. Their leather armor was covered with furs of various colors, and from a distance, they looked like a colorful tundra.

Huang Degong rode slowly in front of the formation, then suddenly drew his longbow, nocked an arrow, and fired three whistling arrows toward the central army banner.

"Bravo!" cheers erupted from the Mongol ranks.

But then a scarred man leaped out from under the banner, dodged the arrows by hiding in the stirrups, and then took out his horn bow and fired back.

The arrow grazed past Huang Degong's iron helmet and landed on a hitching post twenty paces away, buzzing loudly.

Qi Yuan's hand was already on the Qi family knife. Abunai turned pale with fright, but then Huang Degong burst into laughter, "Interesting! That scarred brat, step forward!"

He pointed his whip at the Mongol cavalryman who had just fought back, and shouted, "Give me a demonstration of shooting a willow while hiding in the stirrup!"

As the scarred man galloped off on his horse, the eight leaders' expressions changed drastically.

Before Abunai could speak, Huang Degong's goose-feather saber was already held horizontally in front of his chest. "Great Khan, the training ground is the battlefield. Swords have no eyes, so what is there to distinguish between superiors and inferiors?"

Three withered willows stood a hundred paces away.

Suddenly, the scarred man flipped over and hung upside down while galloping, his entire body suspended on the left side of the horse's belly. In an instant, he drew his bow to its fullest extent and fired three arrows.

The willow branch snapped as the horse's hoof stepped over the spot where the second arrow had landed.

"Reward him!" Huang Degong tossed a silver ingot to Qi Yuan and whispered, "His horsemanship is indeed superb, but he is too wild and untamed, unworthy to be the emperor's personal guard."

(End of this chapter)