Chapter 7: The War Begins (2)

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  The wheels of history have been rolling all the time, they never stopped, only it seems to be slower, but it still came.

  The woman that Zhū Yǐng Lóng rescued was very quiet on the way, rarely speaking. When others ate, she would eat too; when others rested, she would rest as well. She seemed even more demure than a lady, but whenever she saw Zhū Yǐng Lóng, her eyes would reveal a fearful expression, which often earned her Xīong Huò's overflowing affection. As time passed, Zhū Yǐng Lóng rarely approached within three feet of her.

  The further east I go, the more I feel a suffocating feeling in the air. Is spring here? The answer is obviously no, because the ice in the river seems to have not melted yet. However, it can be confirmed that spring should be coming soon.

  "Your Highness, I feel something is off. This road used to have people coming and going all the time, but we've been walking for half a day and haven't seen a single person?" Xiong Tingyi said in a low voice as he overtook Zhu Yinglong's horse from behind.

  "Does General Xiong know Gao Di?" Zhu Yinglong asked vaguely, knowing why it was like this.

  "Gao Di, I've never heard of this person." Xiong Tingbi had been in the border areas for a long time and rarely interacted with high-ranking officials in the imperial court. Gao Di was previously just a local official, so it's natural that he wouldn't know him.

  "This man is now the Minister of War and concurrently the Governor of Liaodong." Zhu Yinglong sighed, if it wasn't for his passive defense, this distant defensive battle might not have been necessary to fight, and the price that Houjin would pay for wanting to destroy the Ming dynasty would be even greater.

  "Isn't this the result of abandoning all cities outside Shanhai Pass and forcibly relocating the civilians inside the pass?" Xiong Tingbi was shocked, he had invested a lot of effort into the Liaodong defense system, never expecting such an outcome. How could it not pain him? This is truly a case of corrupt officials bringing down the country, and incompetent officials making it even worse!

  "If it weren't for General Yuan Chonghuan's sacrifice, leaving behind Ningyuan and Qianyun two cities, I'm afraid all of our Great Ming's land beyond the pass would have fallen into the Later Jin's hands." Zhu Yinglong said with a sigh.

  "How could this be? How could this be?" Xiong Tingbi's emotions were somewhat agitated.

  "Prince! Prince..." Suddenly a horse appeared in front of everyone, and the person on the horse shouted loudly while urging the horse forward.

  As the horse galloped up, everyone saw that the person on the horse was covered in blood. With a loud thud, he fell from the horse's back. Xiong Tingbi quickly dismounted and followed by others who also got off their horses and rushed over to surround him.

  Only then did Xiong Tingbi rush over and pick up the injured person, asking urgently: "What happened? Why have you come back alone?"

  The man who returned stretched out his hand and pointed in the direction he had just rushed from, intermittently, with blood foam still coming out of his mouth: "We...in front...ten miles...found...the Later Jin army, they are..."

  "He's dead!" Xiong Tingbi slowly put the person down.

  Zhu Yinglong's expression changed at this moment, he suddenly remembered that Nurhaci's attack on the Ming dynasty was to open up Shanhai Pass, and along the way, he would not let anyone leak messages, so as not to lose the effect of a surprise attack. As long as people encountered on the road either followed the army or had only one dead end, now someone escaped back to inform him, then there must be pursuers behind him, hurriedly calling out: "Everyone quickly get on horseback, hurry up and leave here!"

  Xiong Tingbi was the first to react, mounting his horse and shouting loudly: "Brothers, mount up and prepare for battle!"

  Lu Haitian pointed at the corpse of the deceased brother from the Ferocious Tiger Troop and asked: "What to do with his body?"

  Zhu Ying Long thought quickly and gave a decisive order: "Take him away, I won't let my brother's body be exposed in the wilderness!"

  "Your Highness, the corpse is still bleeding profusely, taking him with us might..." Shen Xi said worriedly.

  "No need to say more, just wrap it in a blanket and hurry up on horseback!" Zhu Yinglong glared at Shen Xi fiercely, Shen Xi hastily lowered his head with a guilty conscience. A merchant is a merchant, after all, the first thing they think of is their own interests!

  Just as Zhu Yinglong and others left the original place for less than a stick of incense, a cavalry of about 1,000 people rushed to the place where Zhu Yinglong and others had just rested. Due to the interruption of clues, they stayed for about a cup of tea and searched around, but didn't find anything. They quickly left, while five miles away, on the back of a hill, Zhu Yinglong and others, who were observing with binoculars, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

  "Nurhaci has finally made his move!" Zhu Yinglong said with a punch on the hard rock.

  Xiong Tingbi also guessed what had happened at this time, and his mind couldn't help but think of the strange situation of Zhu Yinglong before leaving the pass a few days ago. He even asked himself a question, seemingly having expected the Later Jin to attack the Ming Dynasty earlier. He was stunned, could it be that Xing Wang had foreseen it? No, it should be that after his own rescue, he hadn't paid much attention to the situation in Liaodong, and had put all his energy into the military academy, which led to this oversight!

  "Your Highness, why don't we just head back the way we came? We're no match for their large army with just this few of us." Lu Haotian suggested.

  "We're not going to confront their large army, what's there to be afraid of?" Zhu Yinglong responded.

  "But we've already had two brothers die at their hands, they won't let us off easily. For your safety, Your Highness, I think it's best if we head back the way we came." Shen Xi also joined in on the persuasion.

  "What's wrong, are you afraid of death?" Zhu Yinglong turned around and stared at the two.

  Lu Haitian is a warrior and also a military officer. Being stared at by Zhu Yinglong like this, and being asked like this, his face suddenly turned red. He was also from the battlefield, how could he not have the courage to show up at the critical moment? As a man, he had blood in his veins. Maybe it was because of the constant suppression and exclusion by his superiors and colleagues that some of his edge had been worn off. But at this time, if he let someone younger than him, who had never been on the battlefield, look down on him and think he was a coward, it would be more painful than being killed. In an instant, he raised his head, met Zhu Yinglong's gaze firmly, and said: "Lu Haitian is willing to live and die with the king!"

  "Shen Xi is willing too!" Shen Xi had no choice at this time, he couldn't let others look down on him, it was a matter of face, but the firmness in his voice and tone was much weaker than Lu Hao Tian's.

  Zhu Yinglong looked at Lu Haotian with a comforting gaze, then turned around to face Xiong Tingbi and asked, "General Xiong, is there any shortcut here that can lead us to Ningyuan City?"

  Xiong Tingbi was still in a daze, but when Zhu Yinglong asked him like that, he immediately came back to his senses and said: "There is one, but I don't remember it very clearly, and it's not easy to walk. It's possible that horses can't pass through!"

  Zhu Yinglong suddenly felt a bit disappointed, he didn't want to enter Ningyuan City at this time, his purpose was just to watch how Yuan Chonghuan fought this battle of Liaoyang.

  "Your Highness, isn't there a map by your side? It was drawn for you by Old Master Sun before he left." Lu Haotian reminded.

  "Ah, yes! How could he have forgotten something so important?" Zhu Yinglong slapped his forehead, overjoyed.

  He took out the detailed map drawn by Sun Chengzong from his backpack, and after Xiong Tingbi's identification, he found that there was indeed a small path leading to Ningyuan City. It seemed that Sun Chengzong was also a careful person, and even such a secret path was marked on his map.

  They first determined their direction and then followed Sun Chongzong's map to find the entrance of the small path before nightfall.

  After resting for a night, the fur and other goods purchased along the way were hidden in a dry cave. If there was an opportunity in the future, they would come back to retrieve them; if not, or if someone else discovered them, it didn't matter. All the horses they rode were reluctantly released, and they went into battle lightly equipped.

  It was indeed a very difficult road to walk, with no signs or directions, and they often took wrong turns, having to start over from the beginning. The path was treacherous, with steep cliffs and falling rocks, making their hearts skip a beat as they feared that one misstep would send them tumbling into the depths below. The woman whom Sun Shouxing and Zhu Yinglong had rescued couldn't even walk on her own and had to be carried by someone else. The journey was truly a near-death experience. Finally, after completing this treacherous stretch of road, night began to fall, and they were all exhausted, like limp noodles.

  "Wooo... wooo..."

  A loud horn sounded through the clouds, Nurhaci led 130,000 troops to surround Ningyuan City, and launched an attack at dawn. At the same time, it also woke up Zhu Yinglong and others under Nurhaci's eyelids. Maybe they were too tired, Zhu Yinglong's camp was less than five miles away from Nurhaci's large camp, but there was a small hill in between that blocked their view. Everyone couldn't see each other, but Zhu Yinglong was very lucky. When they arrived here to set up camp, Nurhaci had just sent out scouts and confirmed that there were no ambushes here. At that time, he had already surrounded Ningyuan City and cut off its connection with Shanhaiguan, so Nurhaci only sent out a scout to the west and then boldly attacked Ningyuan City.