Chapter Fifty-Four: Ruthless Poison

  After driving away Wu Sangui, the hundreds of people under Li Yutian naturally belonged to Gu Zhenhua, making Gu Zhenhua's subordinates nearly three thousand. In a fierce battle between the two armies, it may not be enough, but in Shanhaiguan, it would be no problem to make a big fuss.

  No matter whether it's the Guanning Army or the Dashun Army, including the Manchu Qing, the best outcome would be for all three to suffer heavy losses and the more deaths there are, the more advantageous it will be for Gu Zhenhua's rise.

  "Mr. Li, the Manchu Eight Banners were originally powerful, and if they incorporated the Gengjing Army, they would be invincible. If we don't take this opportunity to weaken the Gengjing Army as much as possible, we will have trouble in the future!"

  "Gu Zhenhua, do you really have the confidence to defeat the Qing? The Ming dynasty and the Qing have been fighting for decades, three courts and four emperors, but none of them were able to eliminate the Qing. Now that things have come to this point, is there still room for recovery?"

  "Haha, Mr. Li, I didn't expect you to be a coward too! Whether we can defeat the Qing dynasty doesn't depend on how powerful they are, but on whether we can cure the illness of the Ming dynasty! The Ming has hundreds of millions of people, as long as we unite our strength, we will be one hundred times stronger than the Qing!"

  "How could I know? I'm just asking the world, who else can have the skills of Taizu and Chengzu?"

  "Several people are still watching this morning!" Gu Zhenhua said without hesitation.

  Looking at the majestic Gu Zhenhua, Li Jibei was also stunned for a moment. He stared at Gu Zhenhua for a while before nodding: "I'll follow you and go crazy too!"

  "The old man suggested a few days ago that Wu Sangui arrest all the officers and demand military pay from them. Wu Sangui has already squeezed out more than 10 million taels of silver, which are now stored in the treasury."

  Gu Zhenhua heard there was money and suddenly came to life, laughing: "What are we waiting for? Let's follow me and charge!"

  These soldiers also came in spirit, following Gu Zhenhua, and charged forward frantically.

  All along the way, there were remnants of defeated troops everywhere, including Ning's army and Dashun Army. They were in a state of utter chaos. Gu Zhenhua and his men showed no courtesy, swallowing up any small groups they encountered, regardless of which side they belonged to, and pretending to be friendly forces when they met larger contingents.

  Li Xu has already surrendered to Li Zicheng and expressed his willingness to take the lead, while many people in the Guanning Army are still unaware that they have gone their separate ways. Therefore, it gave Ku Zhenhua a chance to show off, and they rushed smoothly into the warehouse area.

  Here are not only silver, but also grain, fodder, military equipment, a large piece of black pressure, and the person in charge of guarding is Gao Di, the general of Shanhai Pass.

  This guy is no good at fighting, Wu Sangui let him lead three thousand soldiers to guard these most important supplies. When Gu Zhenhua and his men rushed over, they saw that the defense was strict and were also frightened.

  Gu Zhenhua was about to rush over directly, but Li Jibo pulled him back.

  "Outwit rather than outfight, I reckon Wu Sangui won't even have time to inform Gao Di, let me go deceive him."

  "Mr. Li, you'd better be careful."

  "Don't worry!"

  Li Jibai finished speaking and let a few people protect him, riding his horse towards Gao Di.

  Gao Didi also knew that the city was in chaos, so when he saw a group of people rushing over, he was startled like an ant on a hot pot and hastily prepared for battle. However, when he found out that the leader was Li Jibei, he immediately felt at ease.

  "Mr. Li, what's wrong? You look startled."

  "General Gao, you think I'm willing to do this? It's not that I want to take the lead, but rather it's because Zhang Bo is forcing me to. The bandits have just broken through Xiluo City and Zhang Bo is fighting to the death. He asked me to go get gunpowder, set up an ambush on the streets, and blow the bandits to death."

  "What a great idea!" Gao Di laughed and said: "You guys hurry up and escort Mr. Li to the armory over there!"

  Li Jibei spent decades in Shanhai Pass, and Gao Di never dreamed that this old man could rebel against Wu Sangui at a critical moment. In fact, this was also Gao Di's mistake, including Wu Sangui's failure to understand people. Li Jibei was a man with a round exterior and a square interior, who looked cunning and strange, yet intelligent and wise, but the country and the world were deeply engraved in his heart, and he absolutely could not tolerate the Manchu dynasty poisoning the world. Coincidentally, he also met Gu Zhenhua, a reckless and arrogant guy, and the Battle of Shanhai Pass gradually deviated from the track of history.

  A few people protected Li Jibai as he walked inside, followed closely by the soldiers. Gao Di didn't care, but suddenly he found that among the soldiers, there was a tall guy who looked very familiar, and he immediately shouted: "Halt! Who are you?"

  "General Gao has good eyesight, this official is Gu Zhenhua!"

  As soon as he let out this roar, Gu Zhenhua's chopping knife in his hand chopped towards Gao Di.

  Gao Di was startled and hastily drew his treasured sword to block. However, his sword could not withstand Gu Zhenhua's angry strike.

  The sword chopped open the treasure sword, like lightning, and split towards Gao Di. Gao Di hurriedly dodged, but was still a little late, and his left arm was cut off by Gu Zhenhua's knife, with blood shooting out.

  He let out a loud cry of pain and fell off the horse. Gu Zhenhua showed no mercy, his hand rose and his knife fell, and the man's head was cut off.

  "Brothers, Gao Di and Wu Sangui have betrayed our ancestors and surrendered to the Qing dynasty. If you want to save your lives, surrender to the Shunzhi Emperor as soon as possible; otherwise, there is only one dead end."

  These soldiers were originally panicked by the chaos in the city, and now they heard this and directly scattered and fled, some even surrendered to Li Zicheng.

  Gu Zhenhua ignored these people and led his soldiers into the warehouse. After entering, Gu Zhenhua was also stunned by the sheer wealth of supplies at Shanhaiguan, which were piled up like mountains and countless in number.

  Roughly estimated, there were at least 300,000 dan of grain, over a million pieces of swords and guns, as well as a large quantity of firearms and gunpowder, the numbers are staggering.

  "Grandma's, with so many things, still can't beat the Qing dynasty, are they all useless?"

  "It's not a rice bucket, I'm still being clever!" Li Jibei said bluntly: "The military salary of the entire Liaodong region from Tianqi to Chongzhen, exceeded 4 million taels, plus the various local levies and transfers, the total amount exceeded 5 million taels. Compared to the annual income of the Ming dynasty in the past, it's more than double that of other regions on the nine borders. So much silver, only accumulated so little wealth, is actually a strange thing!"

  "Eating and taking, if half of it reaches the army, that's already not bad. The various generals will embezzle a round, and what's actually used for battle is probably only one-tenth. This is called 'nourishing oneself to be heavy'! Gu Zhenhua, you're right, as long as the Great Ming cures its own illness, clears out all the parasites, and crushes the Qing, it'll be like crushing stinky bugs. In those years, Chengzu's five northern expeditions against Mongolia were so mighty!"

  Li Jibo said with a heavy heart, Gu Zhenhua hastily waved his hand on the side: "Old Li, these lengthy arguments can wait until we escape, you can talk to me for three days and three nights if you want, now let's focus on grabbing things first!"

  Li Jibai also nodded, and they rushed into a brand new warehouse first. After the door was opened, there were big and small boxes inside, piled up all over the floor, with gold and silver stacked high.

  "These are all the ones Wu Sangui has just extorted from the gentry, about 15 million taels, wanting to transport them out, it's a bit troublesome." Li Jibei said with worry.

  Just as they were speaking, Yue Po Hui ran over with a smile: "General, there are quite a few grain carts over there, can we use them?"

  "It can be used, how can't it be used!" Gu Zhenhua said with a smile: "Let Zhou Tong hurry up and drive the pack horse over, and quickly load these things onto the car."

  Gu Zhenhua gave the order, and all the soldiers started moving. However, Gu Zhenhua noticed that everyone was rushing to the silver warehouse, competing to transport gold and silver, and some people took advantage of the chaos to secretly stuff silver into their clothes!

  Li Xu, who was standing beside him, also noticed it and his eyebrows suddenly rose. He pressed his big hand on the knife handle, just about to make a move, when someone suddenly blocked his way - it was Gu Zhenhua!

  "Brothers, I have a habit. No matter what we get, it's all shared equally among us. This silver belongs to each and every one of you, it's for buying land, building houses, and marrying wives. You'd better keep your eyes open, or else when the time comes, someone might have three wives and four concubines, a whole bunch of young wives, and you won't even be able to marry one, I won't care."

  Gu Zhenhua said it couldn't be clearer: the money is yours, whoever takes more means others will get less.

  Fair!

  Everyone has a balance in their heart, and in an instant, these soldiers couldn't help but stare at each other intensely. Those who had just hidden silver in their clothes also took out the money under the scorching gaze.

  Of course, such an arrangement cannot guarantee that there is absolutely no hidden agenda, but it can limit the problem to a controllable range, which is already quite good.

  Li Jibo nodded secretly, Gu Zhenhua indeed had some skills. The newly formed team would disperse if they were too indulgent. On the other hand, harsh punishment would also chill people's hearts. But Gu Zhenhua's method of letting soldiers supervise each other controlled the problem and increased the team's cohesion, which was a brilliant idea!

  The old fox's eyes rolled around, he couldn't be outdone by Gu Zhenhua after all.

  Li Jibei thought of this and walked to Gu Zhenhua's side, smiling: "Wu Sangui arrested over a hundred officials, all of whom were pressed into the prison cells. These days they have been subjected to cruel torture, nearly dying from it. Do you think these people are useful?"

  "It's useful, too useful!"

  Gu Zhenhua's eyes lit up instantly: "Hurry up and take me to see them, the gentry are the foundation of a country, how can I allow Wu Sangui to bully them like this?"

  Gu Zhenhua said sternly and righteously, Li Jibai also burst out laughing: "You little devil, which side are you going to push them to?"

  "Wu Sangui and the Manchu joined forces, their military strength had already surpassed that of Li Zicheng, so naturally they would push him to that side."

  "That's something to be aware of, ordinary people may fear shaving their hair and changing their clothes, betraying their ancestors. But what those officials care about most is money, land, if they knew the Qing dynasty was powerful, they might even defect to the Qing."

  Gu Zhenhua also burst out laughing: "Old Li, you're too bad!"

  Two people, surrounded by soldiers, ran directly to the prison cell not far from the warehouse, scattered the guards, and Gu Zhenhua rushed in. The foul smell pierced his nostrils, making him feel nauseous.

  Gu Zhenhua rushed in with big strides, and there were several large cells inside. More than a hundred people were lying horizontally or vertically, constantly wailing in pain.

  "Listen up, the rebel army has entered the city, Wu Sangui is finished. I am the vanguard officer of Li Zicheng, here to rescue all of you officials."

  "Long live the King of Chu, long live, long long live!" All the scholars and officials couldn't help but shout out loud, overjoyed beyond expectation.