The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the border troops, it was overthrown and the Qing Dynasty was destro

Chapter 157 Searching for People on the Battlefield
The night was deep, with only the endless flames rising from the plateau, casting an eerie dark red glow on the sky.

The once bustling camp is now a ruin.

Everywhere you look, there are collapsed and burned tents, broken weapons and flagpoles, and dead soldiers.

After forcing Cao Wenzhao's army to retreat, Jiang Han finally breathed a sigh of relief and immediately began to direct his troops to clean up the battlefield.

Zhao Sheng led his auxiliary soldiers to shuttle back and forth in the camp, helping the various leaders to salvage their camps and extinguish the remaining fires.

In addition, Jiang Han dispatched 300 auxiliary soldiers to search for survivors buried in the tents and to promptly receive and treat the wounded.

Yu Chengye carried a sheepskin bag filled with water and hurried toward Zhang Xianzhong's camp, where the fire was raging and the chaos was at its worst.

He was extremely anxious and ran all the way to find his newly acquainted younger brother, Li Dingguo.

He finally found a kindred spirit in the army who was of similar age.

God help me, please don't die in a night raid by government troops without knowing why.

Zhang Xianzhong's camp had been reduced to scorched earth, with burnt tents everywhere, and the air was filled with a strong, nauseating smell of burning and blood.

Yu Chengye frantically searched through the ruins, anxiously questioning the surviving soldiers:
Hey bro! Have you seen a kid who's eleven or twelve years old?

"He's about five feet tall, thin, and I heard he's your king's adopted son."

However, most of the people who were asked either had blank stares, were still in shock, or seemed to have lost their souls, and did not respond to his questions at all.
They either shook their heads numbly, too busy protecting themselves to care about the life or death of a little kid, even if he was the king's adopted son.

Looking at the group of people, Yu Chengye's heart sank. Well, these people were probably scared out of their wits, so asking them would be pointless.

He searched for almost half an hour, and his voice was almost hoarse from shouting.

They asked no fewer than a hundred people, but the scene was so chaotic that most people didn't even notice Li Dingguo's presence.

Someone pointed to a temporarily cleared area not far away and sighed:

"Young man, in this kind of chaotic battle, even seasoned veterans can hardly protect themselves, let alone a half-grown boy?"

"Why don't you go check out the morgue team? Maybe."

Upon hearing this, Yu Chengye's heart sank, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.

But he still refused to give up and was preparing to bite the bullet and go check in the direction of the body collection team.

Just then, a familiar voice suddenly came from not far behind him:

"Brother Yu, I'm here."

Yu Chengye turned around abruptly and ran towards the direction from which the sound came, to the ruins of a barracks that were now only half-framed.

He quickly cleared away the wooden beams and tattered cloth from the ruins, and saw Li Dingguo, covered in dust, struggling to squeeze out through the gaps.

"Hey kid, what are you doing hiding here?!"

I thought you were gone!

Yu Chengye was both surprised and delighted. He pulled Li Dingguo out from under the rubble and punched him twice on the back.

Li Dingguo is a cunning and shrewd fellow.

When the night raid alarm sounded and chaos erupted in the camp, he found a place to hide.

Li Dingguo knew very well that with his small frame, let alone fighting on the battlefield, he could probably be trampled to death by a few people in the chaos of battle.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention, he slipped into the corner of the outermost barracks and covered himself up completely with a few tattered tarpaulins.

Despite the raging flames and the sounds of battle outside, he remained unmoved. Only after the fighting outside had ended and he heard Yu Chengye's familiar voice searching for him did he dare to peek out.

Seeing that although he was in a sorry state, he had only suffered minor injuries, Yu Chengye was finally relieved and breathed a sigh of relief.

So Yu Chengye pulled Li Dingguo along, intending to take him to the wounded soldiers' camp to settle him down first.

As they were walking, they happened to run into Zhang Xianzhong, whose face was ashen. He was leading a group of remnants of his army back to tidy up the camp and take stock of the losses.

Zhang Xianzhong immediately spotted Li Dingguo, who was covered in dust and standing next to Yu Chengye.

He was very surprised. Yu Chengye's clothes and appearance made him look like an auxiliary soldier sent by Shangshanhu. How did he end up with his adopted son?
The night raid just now came too suddenly and was too chaotic.

Zhang Xianzhong was so busy directing the resistance and rallying his troops that he didn't even notice whether his youngest, usually unremarkable, adopted son was alive or dead.

In Zhang Xianzhong's subconscious, he had already assumed that Li Dingguo, like the other unfortunate souls, had died somewhere in the chaos of war.

To be honest, Zhang Xianzhong wasn't that heartbroken.

He was just an eleven or twelve-year-old child. He's dead, so be it. Once he's recovered, he can just pick a smarter one from among the orphans.

Zhang Xianzhong stopped Li Dingguo and asked in a deep voice:

"Dingguo, who is this young man?"

Fearing his father might misunderstand, Li Dingguo quickly stepped forward and respectfully explained:

"Reporting to Father Commander, this is Yu Chengye, an assistant soldier of Commander Shangshanhu. We usually address each other as uncle and nephew."

“I met him in the camp a few days ago, and we hit it off immediately. So we became sworn brothers and he became my sworn brother.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Chengye stepped forward, cupped his hands in a respectful gesture towards Zhang Xianzhong, and said in a manner that was neither humble nor arrogant:
"I have met the Eighth Prince."

"We are here on the orders of the commander-in-chief to assist your camp in rescuing people and putting out the fire."

"The situation was chaotic just now, so I came here specifically to find him, fearing that he might be lost."

"Now that the fire is gradually dying down, I was planning to take my sworn brother to the wounded soldiers' camp to treat his injuries."

Zhang Xianzhong nodded upon hearing this. He was preoccupied with his own troubles and had no time to ask further questions; he simply waved his hand.

"Oh, I see."

"Go ahead, be careful on the road."

Yu Chengye nodded after hearing this, and then helped Li Dingguo head towards the wounded soldiers' camp.

"When did these two lads become sworn brothers?"

Zhang Xianzhong watched the two figures walk away side by side, somewhat puzzled.

But he didn't pay much attention to it. To be honest, it was very common for soldiers in the rebel army to swear brotherhood with each other.

He himself had many such "sworn brothers" under his command, and even he himself.

But what really caught Zhang Xianzhong's attention was what Li Dingguo had just said: this kid surnamed Yu was actually a nephew of Shangshanhu.
Zhang Xianzhong stroked his chin, his eyes flickering, and watched the two teenagers' figures gradually disappear into the distance, lost in thought.

After more than two hours of all-out rescue efforts, the fire on the plateau was finally extinguished, and the injured received initial care.

Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, the drums, signaling a generals' meeting, sounded again at Jiang Han's camp.

(End of this chapter)