Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

Zheng Liuwei was terrified when he heard the explosion coming from the East Gate, and broke out in a cold sweat.

Zheng Liuwei was a former member of the rebel army and knew how they dealt with traitors. He felt a chill run down his spine when he thought of the traitors he had personally witnessed being boiled in a large pot and then eaten.

Realizing what was happening, he quickly pushed open the door and shouted to his personal guards, "Quickly, prepare the horses! Prepare the horses!"

Zheng Liuwei couldn't understand why, despite sending out scouts every day to monitor the movements of the rebel army, they had discovered today that the rebel army had actually reached the gates of Jingmen.

Although Zheng Liuwei was greedy and afraid of death, he was still quite intelligent. For example, when faced with the choice between defending the city and abandoning it, he chose to monitor the movements of the rebel army and wait for the right moment to abandon the city.

So once he was fully awake, he realized that the force attacking the city might not be Li Zicheng's main army, but rather a vanguard.

The defending troops should be able to hold out for a while longer.

So he shouted to his personal guards who hadn't gone far, "Hurry up and load the valuables onto the carts! Quickly, quickly!"

the other side

Li Chengming and his assault team never even drew their pistols from their waists, let alone their rifles. When they encountered enemy soldiers, they simply stabbed them with their spears.

As it turned out, the spear techniques taught by medic Song Yourong were quite effective. When hundreds of new soldiers entered the city, no matter how many enemy soldiers came to stop them, they were easily dealt with by a few spear thrusts.

Organized into platoons of about thirty men, their movements were perfectly synchronized. They thrust their spears forward with unparalleled success!

With just a few unoriginal moves, they swept all the way from the city gate to the city wall, unstoppable!

Even Li Chengming was surprised by the combat strength of this newly trained army, which had only been drilled for half a month, and the poor performance of the garrison in Jingmen.

The East Gate was quickly captured, and Li Chengming then sent two companies to capture the South Gate and two other companies to capture the North Gate.

As for the farthest and most heavily armed West Gate, after the observers, snipers, and machine gunners led three hundred men into the city, Li Chengming decided to personally lead his troops to capture it.

A short while later, the observer, sniper, and machine gunner also led their company into the city.

The observer reported to Li Chengming: "Captain, the man who appeared to be the garrison commander has been killed by my bomb!"

Li Chengming nodded and said, "Observer, you stay here to control the east gate and provide intelligence support as needed. The rest of you, come with me!"

With that, Li Chengming led three companies, totaling more than 300 men, across the city streets and headed straight for the west gate!

Based on the location provided by the observer, Li Chengming also took the opportunity to cut off Zheng Liuwei's head and ordered his men to take control of the three carriages that were still loaded with valuables and had not yet been moved!

Zheng Liuwei was unlucky, because he was reluctant to part with his valuables. When his subordinates came to inform him that the city gates had been breached, he panicked completely.

They hurriedly waited to load the last box of valuables onto the carriage.

As the last box of valuables was placed, Zheng Liuwei was met with a grenade falling from the sky.

This grenade, weighing about a pound, not only killed Zheng Liuwei on the spot, but also seriously injured several of his personal guards who were moving valuables!

When Li Chengming arrived, several of his personal guards were already bleeding profusely and barely breathing.

Zheng Liuwei was killed instantly by a grenade, his body mangled beyond recognition.

Li Chengming had never met Zheng Liuwei before. He had only heard the name when he was conducting reconnaissance, but he did not know his physical characteristics.

It wasn't until a heavily made-up woman was dragged out of the house and interrogated that they learned the man who had been killed in the explosion was Zheng Liuwei, the garrison commander of Jingmen City.

Seeing Zheng Liuwei's corpse lying on the ground, Li Chengming had an idea. He cut off Zheng Liuwei's head and then carried it towards the west gate.

Although Jingmen Ancient City is not a large city, it is much more prosperous than the villages and towns that Li Chengming had seen before. The buildings and houses are arranged in an orderly manner, and the streets are relatively clean and tidy, obviously because someone cleans them every day.

At this time of day, people who would normally be out working or running errands would have already been up and about, but now every household has its doors and windows tightly shut, the streets are deserted, and it is unusually quiet.

Li Chengming had no time to care about these things; he wanted to take over the four city gates as quickly as possible and completely control the city!

The distance between the east and west sides of Jingmen City is more than a thousand meters. Fifteen minutes later, Li Chengming, the sniper, and the machine gunner arrived at the west gate with three companies.

The hundreds of guards at the west gate were already in full battle array, their military bearing much more disciplined than that at the east gate.

A man who appeared to be a general called out, "I am Wang Zhenhong, the deputy general of Jingmen. Is the visitor a general under Emperor Yongchang?"

Li Chengming looked at the man standing on the city wall who called himself Wang Zhenhong and frowned.

Li Chengming didn't have any grudge against Wang Zhenhong, but he saw a row of archers standing behind him, arrows already nocked and bows already drawn.

The voice of machine gunner He Mingqiu came through the walkie-talkie: "Captain, should we open fire and take them out?"

Snipers and machine gunners had already climbed onto a rooftop and were aiming at the archers on the city wall.

With just one order from Li Chengming, neither Wang Zhenhong nor the archers behind him would survive.

Li Chengming had heard of this Deputy General Wang. The garrison commander, Zheng Liuwei, was a greedy and cowardly man. He had tricked Jingmen City into opening and quickly took control of the entire city, all thanks to this Deputy General Wang.

Li Chengming replied to the machine gunner: "Wait for now!"

Then he picked up Zheng Liuwei's head and threw it forward. The head rolled straight down to the city wall. He looked at Vice General Wang without saying a word. The meaning was clear: if you don't surrender, you die!

Wang Zhenhong's heart skipped a beat as he looked at the rolling head. He might look down on Zheng Liuwei, but no matter what, Zheng Liuwei was the garrison commander and his superior.

Seeing Zheng Liuwei killed and his head cut off, a feeling of shared sorrow welled up in my heart.

Looking at the neat and disciplined troops below, Wang Zhenhong knew that the remaining garrison would not be able to hold them off.

Wang Zhenhong knew very well that he had no reinforcements and his retreat was cut off. He had no choice but to fight to the death or surrender. He was only standing here now in order to try to gain more favorable conditions for himself.

Seeing that Wang Zhenhong remained silent, Li Chengming began to shout: "Brothers defending the city, the commander of Jingmen has been killed by our army. This is the consequence of resisting our army!"

Zheng Liuwei: I didn't resist. Did you give me a chance to surrender? I was killed by you guys without even seeing a single enemy. Who could be more wronged than me?

Li Chengming: "Wherever our army goes, we are invincible. The three city gates of the east, south and north have been captured by our army. Anyone who dares to resist our army will only face death and disgrace!"

Just think about it, betraying your ancestors like this, dying for the Tartars, and being cursed by thousands after death—how can you face your ancestors...?

Lay down your weapons and surrender; that's your only way out. Our army guarantees your personal safety!

When the defending soldiers saw Zheng Liuwei's head and heard Li Chengming's shouts, they began to panic.

Many of them were not originally Zheng Liuwei and Wang Zhenhong's subordinates, but they had no choice but to obey them for the sake of the pay they received after Zheng Liuwei and Wang Zhenhong seized the city.

Even Wang Zhenhong himself didn't believe that the soldiers defending the city would fight to the death for him!

It took a combination of coercion, enticement, and deception to get these soldiers to adopt a fighting-to-the-death stance; this was the limit of what Wang Zhenhong could do.

Seeing this, Wang Zhenhong sighed, knowing that he would soon run out of bargaining chips.

Wang Zhenhong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty out of necessity and for personal gain. To say that he liked being a traitor is nonsense. If he had a better choice, he would never have chosen to be a traitor!

Wang Zhenhong's only worry was that he was a traitor to the rebel army. If he didn't have enough leverage, he might not survive if he fell back into the rebel army's hands.

Wang Zhenhong took a deep breath and said to Li Chengming, "General, can you guarantee my safety?"

He wanted a guarantee, even though that guarantee might not be reliable, it was better than nothing.

Li Chengming smiled. Since they were willing to negotiate, then things were settled.

So he replied, "Not only can I guarantee your personal safety, but I can also guarantee that after I leave, you will be the garrison commander of Jingmen!"

Wang Zhenhong bowed to Li Chengming and said, "Thank you, General. I, Wang, am willing to surrender!"

Wang Zhenhong always believed that Li Chengming was a general in the rebel army, and Li Chengming never clarified his identity.

The two reached an agreement based on this "false" fact!