You can't only love the Qing Dynasty when you're eating the fruits of others' labor.

Chapter 356 An Inescapable Duty!
As Wuerte gazed at these loyal soldiers of the Plain Blue Banner, his eyes reddened slightly.

Good heavens!
Why allow instigators to occupy high positions? Why drive loyal and virtuous people to desperation?
He slowly drew his sword and choked out, "Gentlemen, let us punish the traitors and rebuild the world, let us begin now!"

The crowd growled.

"May the traitor be punished by Heaven!"

The snow fell even heavier.

This moment feels like that moment before.

The group split into several small teams, silently dispersed, lifted the tent flaps, covered mouths, slit throats, and pierced abdomens—their killing movements were incredibly practiced.
……

Half an hour later!

One of the lucky ones, returning from the latrine, looked at the tent full of corpses and let out a piercing wail.

"Killing! Killing!"

Many people came out and bumped into the Plain Blue Banner guards in their white helmets and armor, their steel swords dripping with blood.

"May the traitors be punished! Slaughter them all!"

Uert roared angrily, and all the bannermen roared in unison.

They killed anyone they saw along the way, regardless of whether they were rulers or subjects, men or women, or nobles or commoners.

Ma Jixiang reacted incredibly quickly. Hearing the screams outside, he rushed out barefoot and shirtless, ran to the stable, and climbed onto his warhorse.

"Drive, drive!"

They rushed out of the camp.

Arrows flew overhead.

He turned his head and glanced at the rebel army, which had already rushed towards the imperial tent. He thought to himself, "It's over. These people really want to kill the emperor."

……

For a long time, Zhenglan Banner has been too docile.

So much so that everyone in the Yongli regime overlooked one thing: these people were once the most bloodthirsty jackals, the most elite warriors, and the terrifying Eight Banners who fought their way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The camp was littered with corpses.

Wuerte wiped the blood from his face; the imperial tent was right in front of him.

Inside the royal tent.

Yongli's face turned deathly pale, and he trembled uncontrollably as he gripped his sword.

A eunuch was standing nearby.

"Your Majesty, hurry!"

"No, no, I can't do it."

The eunuch, who wanted to emulate his predecessor Wang Chengen and achieve lasting fame, couldn't stand it any longer. He simply snatched Yongli's sword, gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and stomped his foot.

The sword pierced the emperor's body.

Yongli screamed and fell down.

The next second, the tent flap was smashed open by several blades, and the rebels had stormed in.

The eunuch held his sword to his neck, roared, "Long live the Ming Dynasty!" and then pulled hard, blood gushing out, and the corpse fell onto Yongli.

……

"Duke!"

Uert stared at the two bloody corpses lying on top of each other, then closed his eyes. The psychological pressure of publicly murdering the emperor was too great. The emperor of the Ming Dynasty was still an emperor!

"Let's go~"

The group left the imperial tent and went to find their own provisions, gold and silver, clothing, and warhorses.

Fifteen minutes later~
Hundreds of riders have assembled.

"Duke, where are we going?"

"Go south, enter the pass, just like our ancestors did. After entering the pass, we must strictly educate the local people and rebuild the Qing Dynasty as we envision it."

The group disappeared into the snowstorm.

Half an hour later, the Eight Banners of the capital, acting as the vanguard, rushed to the aid and were stunned to see the imperial camp covered in blood and fire.

Someone exclaimed, "Damn it, it's 226 again, and it's that same group of Plain Blue Banner soldiers again."

The group entered the camp and began searching everywhere.

Soon, someone exclaimed, "The body of the Ming Emperor is here!"

Ma Jixiang knelt down with a thud, crying bitterly. Although he was completely disloyal to Yongli and had no feelings for him, he still wanted to cry his heart out in this situation. Yongli was covered in blood.

Someone crouched down and reached out to check, discovering that the corpse still had a faint breath.

"Quickly, find a doctor to treat you."

Several hours later, Yongli opened his eyes. Although the sword wound was quite severe, it was not fatal.

"Generals, escort me to the capital."

"Your Majesty, you should rest and recover first."

"No, Yunnan isn't safe, please!"

The group looked at each other in bewilderment, and could only find a horse-drawn carriage, stuff several quilts inside, and brave the wind and snow to continue their journey.

Throughout the journey, Yongli kept urging, "We must hurry on our way."

It was two days later when news of the mutiny reached Kunming.

Li Dingguo burst into tears.

Mu Tianbo sighed.

……

Late March.

When Jiang Qingyun received the report from Yunnan, he was shocked but also felt it made sense, so he issued an order.

"Zhu Youlang was escorted to the capital with strict security. When passing through Fengyang, he was allowed to pay respects to his ancestors in a low-key manner in his personal capacity."

"Li Dingguo, the Grand Marshal of the Southwest Army, moved to Guiyang, while Mu Tianbo, the Duke of Qian, remained in Kunming."

"Of the civil service positions in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, one-third were appointed by the imperial court, one-third were designated by Li Dingguo, and one-third were designated by Mu Tianbo."

"The armies of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces are both under the command of Li Dingguo, with a limit of 10,000 troops."

"Urge these two to send their sons to the capital as soon as possible."

"Urge Shang Kexi to go to Beijing to report on his work."

"We urge Zheng Sen and his family to move to Fuzhou and earnestly fulfill their duties as the Governor of Fujian."

"The envoy was sent to inform the thirteen families of Kuidong that the court had no intention of interfering with them. If they did not wish to submit to the central government, they could enclose their own territories and live independently. However, if they dared to descend the mountain and invade, the court would retaliate with force."

"The above is hereby proclaimed to the world."

The "principle of openness" among the three principles of governing the country is fully demonstrated.

In this change of allegiance, Jiang Qingyun showed great magnanimity and sincerity, offering relatively lenient conditions to all parties and seeking only nominal unification.

……

April 1st.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City.

A familiar palace, but unfamiliar courtiers.

Since Jiang Qingyun took office as the commander of the Southern City Garrison, more than 2% of the civil and military officials of the seventh rank and above in the capital have been replaced. A large proportion of the current officials in the capital are descendants of those who took office two years ago.

In full view of everyone~
Jiang Qingyun walked up the steps to the throne and delivered a shocking speech.

"The United Empire values ​​military strength and is committed to building a diverse and elite professional army. However, due to years of war and recurring diseases, the Eight Banners population is now dwindling, numbering only 11, of which only 7000 are Banner soldiers."

"If this continues, something terrible will happen!"

Inside the hall, the officials of the Eight Banners felt as if they had a fishbone stuck in their throats, shrinking back in fear.

Scared~
Needless to say.

Jiang Qingyun looked down from his high position and sternly surveyed the entire hall.

"The Cabinet has allocated 5 taels of special funds to organize manpower, visit households one by one, register them, divide them into areas, formulate plans, assign tasks to individuals, and achieve the goal."

Jiang Zhongcheng was completely confused.

"What do you mean?"

Feng Shuan, standing to the side, explained softly:
"The Grand Secretary's intention is to urge the young Manchu women in the capital to get pregnant and have children as soon as possible."

"Isn't that too late? If you get pregnant now, you won't be able to go into battle for at least fourteen or fifteen years."

Feng Shuan smiled but remained silent.

Jiang Qingyun spoke with great enthusiasm while standing on the throne in the Golden Palace.
There was an uproar.

(End of this chapter)