Chapter 52: The Great Ming Dynasty Has Its Own Loyal and Virtuous People

  Beyond this village, there is no such store. Gu Zhenhua was crystal clear that the number of war horses he could get this time would determine how many cavalrymen he had. He absolutely couldn't be polite when taking action, leading the charge and killing the guards, these soldiers were like bandits, rushing into the horse farm.

  "Brothers, the Mongolian cavalry is equipped with six horses per person. You each ride one and bring five more, that's enough." Li Xu looked at the chaotic crowd and couldn't help but shout loudly.

  "Brother Li, aren't Mongolian cavalrymen supposed to have three horses per person? When did it become six horses per person?" Gu Zhenhua was somewhat perplexed.

  Li Xu burst out laughing: "Guo Jun, you're really inexperienced. One person with three horses is for going to war, but warhorses are just like people, they get sick, pregnant, and old and weak. In order to pull out three good horses during a battle, you'd need at least six spare ones!"

  Gu Zhenhua suddenly realized that any weapon has a reserve, and war horses are no exception. However, thinking of this consumption, Gu Zhenhua also had a headache - one war horse is equivalent to the consumption of three soldiers, and a cavalryman with six war horses means that a cavalryman's actual consumption is eighteen times that of an infantryman!

  Just afraid of eating, can make oneself eat poor!

  However, Gu Zhenhua soon put this idea aside, that was something to be considered next step, the most urgent thing now was to seize the war horses and absolutely not leave them for Wu Sangui.

  The great traitor has lost his war horse, how can he lead the way for the Qing dynasty. The more losses they suffer, the more time they have to spare, even if they can't take away all the war horses, they must destroy them all, in short, they cannot leave any resources for the enemy.

  Gu Zhenhua was also thoroughly enraged, at this time the soldiers had already divided up the war horses, with each person getting six war horses, a total of more than 12,000 war horses, a scale that was quite shocking.

  At first, he had obtained more than 700 horses from Li Yan, and Gu Zhenhua felt suddenly rich. Now that he had gotten tens of thousands of warhorses, he could simply walk sideways!

  "Sir, there are over three thousand more pack horses here, would you like to take them all away?" Yu Po Xu couldn't help but ask.

  "Bring more war horses if you can, but never compromise our combat strength. We'll be charging into battle soon, so use your discretion - if we can't bring them all, kill every last one of them."

  "What a pity, sir?"

  "If it's left to the Manchu, it won't be a pity, but a hatred!" Gu Zhenhua said: "A benevolent person cannot wield power, at critical moments, one must be ruthless."

  "Sir!" said Zou Tong in a low voice, not far from Gu Zhenhua: "I have a way to drive all the pack mules away."

  "Oh? You have this skill?"

  Guo Yunlong, who was standing beside him, also smiled and said: "Sir, Zou Tong really didn't lie, this kid is usually in charge of releasing horses, give him a few people to take care of several thousand horses, absolutely no problem."

  Gu Zhenhua couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion, every person has value. At the time of the martial competition, Zou Tong had even used heavy arrows to plot against himself, but now looking back, not pursuing responsibility at that time was the right decision, at least this kid still has some use.

  "All right, Zou Tong, drive out as many war horses as you can from the city, and I'll reward you with two silver coins for each one!"

  Zou Tong swallowed hard at once: "Sir, are you telling the truth? What if the little ones get out one thousand or ten thousand?"

  "I'll give you 10,000 taels of silver and 10,000 mu of land, it's up to you whether you can make a profit or not."

  Zou's eyes turned red, without saying a word, he jumped onto his war horse and rushed towards the pack horses, whistling in his mouth. More than 3,000 pack horses were actually driven over by him.

  More than 10,000 war horses and more than 3,000 pack horses. This harvest was already quite astonishing, and with the addition of more than 2,000 cavalrymen, Gu Zhenhua was thoroughly satisfied.

  Just as Gu Zhenhua had just left the horse grounds, a horse-drawn carriage suddenly came running towards him, followed by several cavalrymen for protection, and soon arrived in front of the horse grounds.

  The curtain was lifted, and Li Jibo jumped out from inside, still holding a large pile of things in his arms, panting heavily.

  "Mr. Li, you've finally arrived! I was worried that Wu Sangui would discover the mole and have you arrested."

  "Hahaha, I've seen it all before. Wu Sangui thinks he can capture me? That's a pipe dream." Li Jibei smiled and said: "General Gu, you've seized these warhorses, what do you plan to do next?"

  "Of course we're leaving the city, this place is too dangerous!"

  "Scoundrel!" Li Jibo's eyes widened suddenly, and with a swift motion, he stretched out his hand and flung the thing in his bosom at Gu Zhenhua!

  "Die, you disloyal and unrighteous scoundrel!"

  Gu Zhenhua was also quick on his feet and hastily caught the object, then exclaimed in surprise: "Old Li, what's wrong with you? Are you trying to murder me?"

  "You still dare to call yourself a noble, I ask you who gave you your title? At this moment when the crown prince is in danger, you think of escaping, isn't that disloyal and unjust?"

  "Father, Gu Jue didn't say he wouldn't take care of the Crown Prince, it's just that the safety of so many brothers is also very important."

  "Good boy, it's your father who risked his life to get the jade seal and the will from the Commander's mansion. You bunch of scoundrels don't care about the Crown Prince at all, it's infuriating!"

  Gu Zhenhua then unfolded the things that Li Jibei had thrown over, which turned out to be Chongzhen's jade seal and will. Originally, this thing had fallen into Wu Sangui's hands, but now the old man had taken it back, and Gu Zhenhua was also extremely delighted.

  "Old Li, you have a good heart, but don't underestimate others. I had already arranged for Gao Hongtu to go and welcome the prince, he might have brought him over by now."

  Li Jibei nodded after hearing this, but immediately said: "Gu Zhenhua, I heard that the Qing forced Wu Sangui to shave his head. Once he shaved his head, he would be a subject of the Qing. It's possible that Wu Sangui will poison the prince to show loyalty to the new master. You should hurry up and take people over, the prince must not be in danger."

  Gu Zhenhua was also shocked, to think that Wu Sangui had personally strangled Emperor Yongli to death. This lunatic was capable of anything, and for the time being, the crown prince still had use, so he must not let Wu Sangui get him killed.

  Having thought of this, Gu Zhenhua hastily summoned his men and went to meet them.

  Actually, when Gu Zhenhua was deploying troops, Gao Hongtu had already fallen into a bitter battle. At first, he followed Gu Zhenhua's instructions and secretly led his men to hide near the Crown Prince's courtyard, protecting Zhu Ciyan.

  The war began, and Gu Zhenhua immediately gave Gao Hongtu an order to bring the prince out as soon as possible and leave the city with Gu Zhenhua.

  Gao Hongtu, of course, did not dare to slack off. He led his soldiers and suddenly killed into the courtyard, taking Zhu Ciyan away. Everything went very smoothly, but when he rushed to the street corner, a team suddenly blocked him.

  The first one was Yang Ming, Wu Sangui's beloved general. Beside Yang Ming stood an old eunuch, who was Guo Gui.

  Gao Hongtu's eyes widened as soon as he saw him: "Old eunuch, was it you who informed Wu Sangui of the rebellion?"

  Kou Gui burst out laughing in a shrill voice, like a night owl: "Our family sees you as the real traitors, daring to kidnap the prince, your crimes are unforgivable."

  Yang Ming sneered: "What's the point of talking, bring them up and kill them all!"

  At the sound of the order, Yang Ming led his men in a charge. Although the Beijing camp soldiers under Gao Hongtu were not bad, they were far inferior to these valiant and courageous Ningxia military households. As soon as they clashed, more than a dozen people were cut down. Gao Hongtu's martial arts were also no match for Yang Ming. In just one encounter, he was slashed on the shoulder, cutting off a large piece of flesh, and fresh blood stained half his body red.

  However, Gao Hongtu was worried about the safety of the crown prince and could only grit his teeth and fight desperately. At this moment, a horseshoe sound suddenly came from afar, Wu Sangui led Yang Kun and others to rush over.

  From a distance, Wu Sangui shouted loudly: "The Taizi of the Great Ming has already gone missing, this is an imposter, they have deceived our commander, kill them all!"

  When this sentence was shouted out, everyone present was shocked. Kou Gui was the most unacceptable. He went to frame Gu Zhenhua, but Li Jibei resolved it. However, after Wu Sangui found this old eunuch, he used flowery words to persuade him to "protect" the crown prince.

  Driven by jealousy towards Gu Zhenhua, Kou Gui agreed without hesitation. Gao Hongtu wanted to rescue the crown prince, which was exactly what the old eunuch had revealed.

  However, Kou Guizhen did not expect that Wu Sangui would actually want to kill the crown prince. Although the old eunuch was power-hungry and jealous of others' abilities, he still had loyalty towards the Ming dynasty. Suddenly, he charged at Wu Sangui like a madman.

  "Traitorous dog, didn't you say you would support the crown prince's ascension? Why are you deceiving our family?"

  Wu Sangui had a sarcastic smile on his face. Although he had acknowledged Gao Qian as his adoptive father, in his heart, he looked down on these eunuchs. They were nothing but foxes exploiting the tiger's might. With the emperor gone, what value did eunuchs have?

  Kou Gui had not yet rushed to Wu Sangui's front, when Wu Sangui's long sword stabbed out, instantly stringing Kou Gui like a sugar gourd. The old eunuch's corpse fell under the horse, his mouth making a few choking sounds as he kicked his legs and died.

  Wu Sangui immediately urged his war horse forward, charging towards Gao Hongtu and the others. He wanted to personally kill the prince and use this head to exchange for the Qing dynasty's dispatch of troops.

  Wu Sangui was young, he rushed to save his father, exceptionally brave, Gao Hongtu and others didn't think much of Wu Sangui's abilities. He suddenly charged forward, the Seven-Star Sword in his hand swung out, cutting down six or seven people in a row, the prince's carriage was right in front of him, the great traitor didn't care about anything anymore, directly rushed up.

  "Traitorous dog, stop!"

  With a loud shout, hundreds of cavalrymen rushed over from afar. The leader rode a sorrel horse and grasped a precious sword, charging forward.

  Wu Sangui frowned and sneered: "Governor Li, you also want to oppose me?"

  The one who came to kill was actually Li Yutian, the governor of Liaodong. He smiled slightly and said, "This official does not dare to oppose the Pingxi Earl of the Great Ming."

  "Why do you want to stop me?"

  "Haha, you traitorous dog, aren't you the one who shaved your head and became a Qing dynasty's Pingxi King? Now you want to kill the Ming dynasty's crown prince? You're just a running dog of the Tartars! I'm an official appointed by the imperial court, how can I tolerate you?"

  "Die!"

  Li Yutian rushed forward as he spoke, and Wu Sangui burst out laughing: "Those who obey me will live, those who oppose me will die. Li Yutian, you have fulfilled your own destiny!"

  Li Yutian was a scholar by origin, no match for Wu Sangui. At their first encounter, Wu's heavy sword cut Li in half.

  "Who else wants to be a loyal minister of the Ming dynasty? This is what happens!" Wu Sangui shouted wildly.

  Just then, a louder voice came over: "Wu Sangui, do you still remember me?"