The New Destiny of the Ming Dynasty

The next morning, which was the morning of the third day of the third lunar month, a cold wind was blowing across the small drill ground at the East Gate as dawn broke.

Early in the morning, all of Yang Zhen's former subordinates—about two hundred men—were gathered here to be "inspected" by Yang Zhen.

By evening the previous day, Zhang Degui and Li Lu had already divided the two hundred men into three teams, as Yang Zhen had instructed: an artillery team, a grenadier team, and a musketeer team.

To facilitate command and boost morale, Yang Zhen had Zhang Degui and Li Lu send people to Ningyuan City that very night to find a tailor to sew three team flags, in preparation for a "flag-giving" ceremony the next morning.

This morning, as soon as Yang Zhen got up, he received these three team flags. He shook his head with a wry smile while secretly admiring the wisdom of the ancients.

Most soldiers from the garrison in this era were illiterate, and among Yang Zhen's two hundred men, few were literate, and there were hardly any scholars.

Therefore, in order to make it easier for these people to identify their respective banners, Zhang Degui and Li Lu simply had people draw simple pictures of muskets, ten-thousand-enemy-type guns, and tiger-squatting cannons, and then embroider them directly onto the banners.

Fortunately, the tailors in Ningyuan City were quite skilled. Although they had never seen what the "Lumi Cannon" looked like, they had seen other matchlock guns before. With the rough outlines drawn by Zhang Degui and Li Lu, they managed to embroider a fairly accurate one.

Even though the words "musketeers" weren't clearly written on the flag, anyone could tell it was the flag of the musketeers just by looking at it.

The grenadier squad's flag featured a large black sphere with a fuse embroidered on it, making the meaning crystal clear.

As for the flag of the advance artillery unit, it was embroidered with the shape of a cannon that was hard to tell whether it was a tiger-squatting cannon or a breech-loading cannon. Rather than a tiger-squatting cannon or a breech-loading cannon, it looked more like the powerful "Red Barbarian Cannons" on the walls of Ningyuan.

That morning, as the sun rose in the dawn, Yang Zhen led several of his personal guards, each carrying a team flag, to the small drill ground.

At this moment, the musketeer team of forty men, the artillery team of eighty men, and the grenadier team of sixty-six men had been divided into three small square formations, lined up in a row, and stood there waiting.

Yang Zhen led several personal guards carrying team flags to the front. The 186 men standing in the three small square formations all stared at Yang Zhen, waiting for him to speak.

With a serious expression, Yang Zhen approached the formation. He paused briefly at a few soldiers in the front row whose faces were covered in scars, patted them on the shoulder without saying a word, and then walked past the musketeer corps, then past the artillery corps, and then past the grenadier corps.

Finally, without a word, he turned back to his original position, faced the nearly two hundred people, scanned the entire room again, and then said in a deep voice:

"I am Yang Zhen, but I am grateful to all of you for not abandoning me and for following me all the way to this day! You have followed me, Yang Zhen, through life and death for many years. In terms of affection, although we are not from the same mother, our bond is far stronger than that of siblings. I regard you all as my brothers and sisters!"

"In the past, Yang Zhen shared joys and sorrows with you all; from now on, Yang Zhen will also live and die with you all! I, Yang Zhen, am willing to swear that if I ever become rich and powerful, I will share it with you all! We will live and die together, and share wealth and power! If I break this oath, may Heaven and Man destroy me!"

As Yang Zhen finished speaking, Zhang Degui and Li Lu simultaneously responded loudly, raising their arms and shouting to the more than 180 people standing and listening attentively: "We will live and die together, share wealth and honor! May Heaven punish those who break this oath!"

Although Yang Zhen cherished his soldiers and always shared weal and woe with them, he was not good at talking and rarely spoke frankly with them.

Even last year, when he was surrounded by a large number of Tartar troops in Beizhili while following Lu Xiang-sheng, Yang Zhen rarely showed his emotions in front of his soldiers.

This time, Yang Zhen, who is usually a bit aloof, "very rarely" spoke such heartfelt words, which naturally seemed extraordinary to his soldiers.

Therefore, after Zhang Degui and Li Lu raised their arms and shouted the oath of "Sharing life and death, sharing wealth and honor!", the nearly two hundred battle-hardened veterans standing in front of Yang Zhen were finally moved and quickly joined the two in raising their arms and shouting: "Sharing life and death, sharing wealth and honor! May Heaven punish those who break this oath! Sharing life and death, sharing wealth and honor! May Heaven punish those who break this oath!..."

Yang Zhen looked at the soldiers and veterans shouting their oaths, his gaze sweeping over their faces, which were flushed with excitement. Seeing that the atmosphere in the training ground had finally become heated, he immediately raised his hands and pressed them down. After a moment, the small training ground quieted down again, and everyone looked at Yang Zhen.

At this moment, Yang Zhen continued loudly, "I have gathered everyone here today for three matters to explain! First—just the day before yesterday, I, Yang Zhen, received orders to lead you all north to relieve Songshan!—"

As soon as Yang Zhen finished speaking, the veterans in front of him suddenly erupted into chaos, like a ladle of water being poured into a pot of boiling oil.

In the past few days, Yang Zhen's subordinates have been making constant moves. Some quick-witted people have already guessed that something must be going to happen again. Some individuals have even found out the general situation from Zu Keyong's troops, who have recently moved to the joint camp.

However, most people were unaware of the plan to head north to rescue Songshan, and upon hearing this, they were filled with suspicion and uncertainty—wasn't this clearly sending them to their deaths?!

Yang Zhen's troops were all veterans who had survived countless battles, including many seasoned and shrewd old soldiers who had served for many years. They knew that the Tartar army of tens of thousands was besieging Jinzhou and Songshan. Going there now would be tantamount to suicide, with a slim chance of survival and even no return. They immediately began to clamor.

Yang Zhen had anticipated these people's reactions. Their mentality was the same as when he first learned that he was Yang Zhen; their first reaction was to shirk responsibility and avoid the situation.

So he neither spoke nor stopped them, but just stood there, observing the reactions of his soldiers.

Zhang Degui, Li Lu, and Yang Zhen's personal guard captain Yang Zhan'ao were all watching Yang Zhen, waiting to see his reaction.

If Yang Zhen signaled to stop them, these people would certainly not mind finding the ringleader and executing him on the spot for disobeying military orders and instigating a disturbance, so as to establish their authority and subdue the crowd.

However, Yang Zhen himself made no comment, simply watching the clamoring crowd silently until the clamor turned into whispers, and finally, after a long while, the crowd quieted down again.

"I know everyone has objections to this arrangement and is dissatisfied. To be honest, I, Yang Zhen, was dissatisfied with it at first, just like you all! There are so many government troops in Ningyuan City now, why should we, the old, weak, sick, and disabled, be sent north to provide relief!? But—"

Seeing that the crowd had finally quieted down, Yang Zhen continued his previous conversation, wanting to explain a few more words. However, just as he finished speaking, he noticed that the old soldier at the front of the musketeer team, whose right cheek was covered in scars, raised his hand at him with a face full of resentment, as if he had something to say. Therefore, Yang Zhen immediately stopped and looked at the "scarred" soldier with a ferocious face.

At this moment, Zhang Degui also realized something was wrong and shouted at the "scarred" soldier, "Zhang Guogan! What are you doing! How dare you interrupt the magistrate's speech!?"

"Uncle! I have something to say!" The "scarred" soldier didn't seem afraid. After hearing Zhang Degui, the second-in-command of Yang Zhenjun, he still stubbornly spoke up.

Upon hearing this, Yang Zhen carefully examined the "scarred" soldier. Although the soldier was described as an old soldier, he was not actually old; he looked to be in his twenties or thirties, only slightly younger than himself.

"What nonsense do you have to spout, you lowly platoon leader who's been dismissed from his post and is now a criminal undercover officer?!"

Zhang Degui didn't give the "soldier" named Zhang Guogan a chance to speak at all, cursing and telling him to shut up. But Yang Zhen could tell that Zhang Guogan was not convinced.

In fact, Yang Zhen also wanted to hear what his soldiers were thinking. Without knowing their psychology and understanding their thoughts, who knew what would happen after they marched north?

Therefore, just as Zhang Degui finished speaking and calmed the situation down, Yang Zhen immediately spoke up.

"It's alright! Let him speak! I also want to hear the brothers' honest opinions!"

After Yang Zhen said this, Zhang Degui had nothing to say, and the whole place became extremely quiet, with only the sound of the wind blowing the flags.

The soldier named Zhang Guogan, nicknamed "Scarface," grinned, ignoring Zhang Degui's furrowed brows and gloomy face, and said, "Sir! It's not that we're being rude! It's just that we brothers are furious! You yourself said you're not satisfied either! After what happened last year, anyone who's satisfied with this arrangement is either heartless or stupid!"

"Even if there were no Guan Ning Army of nearly 20,000 men in Ningyuan City, why should we go?! What does the siege of Jinzhou and Songshan have to do with us?!"

"Last year, we followed you, my lord, your uncle General Yang, and Governor Lu, and were surrounded by tens of thousands of Tartar troops in Julu. Who came to our rescue?! The Guan Ning Army was only a few dozen miles away, but they just stood by and watched us and the Tianxiong Army be wiped out! If it weren't for you leading us to break through the encirclement at all costs, my lord, we would have perished there!"

"They were surrounded today, and instead of helping their own people, they made us go and rescue them, Grandma!?"