Chapter Thirteen: Two Hundred Million Taels of White Silver

  A bloody night has finally passed.

  In the city of Shengjing, more than 30,000 Manchu people lived, including old and young, women and children. More than 20,000 people escaped from the city, and the remaining 10,000 or so were all brutally killed by the Ming army's slaughter. Among them, at least 2,000 Manchu youths lost their lives, never having the chance to grow up to be brave warriors. When the sun rose again, the entire city of Shengjing had become a bloody hell.

  The streets were littered with the bodies of slaves, lying horizontally and vertically everywhere. There were old people, women, and children among them.

  Apart from the imperial palace to the north and the princes' and nobles' residences on both sides, more than half of the city had fallen into a sea of flames, with thick black smoke billowing straight up, visible dozens of miles away.

  Wang Pu's family slaves have completely controlled Shengjing City.

  The jade seal is already in hand, and Jian Nu's Li Qinzong, Zheng Qinwang Jierhalang, and the two concubines of Huang Taiji, Hailanzhu and Bumubutai, have all become Wang Pu's captives. It can be imagined that if Wang Pu can bring the jade seal and these four captives back to the Great Ming, the entire Great Ming Empire will cheer for him, and the defeat at Songshan will be wiped out.

  According to the original plan, let the brothers have a good meal and sleep well. Tonight should be heading towards Korea. By the time Huang Taiji receives the news of Shengjing's fall and sends a large army to reinforce, Wang Pu and his family may have already crossed the Yalu River.

  "General, good news!"

  Just as Wang Pu Zheng was about to find someone to bring Xiao Qi, Knife Scar Face and Big Beard over for a discussion, Big Beard arrived on his own, loudly saying: "General, what wonderful news, hahaha..."

  Because things were going smoothly, Wang Pu's mood was also quite good at this time, and he smiled and asked: "Big Beard, what made you so happy?"

  "General, guess what the brothers found in Jian Nu's imperial palace and the palaces of the princes and nobles?" Da Hu Zi exclaimed excitedly.

  "What did you find?"

  "Ginseng! The best old mountain ginseng, piled up like a mountain, at least several tens of thousands of catties!" Big Beard exclaimed, "And there are also East Ocean pearls as big as goose eggs, dozens of large boxes, and a whole room full of gold, silver, sable fur, tiger skin, bear skin, antiques, paintings... I've never seen so many treasures in my life, General. This time you really have made a fortune!"

  Liaodong was originally a treasure land, with rich products, ginseng, sable fur, and Bao La Cao from the Changbai Mountains, as well as the Dongzhu from the Heilongjiang River basin, which can be considered rare treasures. In addition to the large amount of gold and silver treasures looted by the Qing army during their four invasions of the Central Plains, it is easy to imagine the wealth of the imperial palace of Huang Taiji and the palaces of the various princes and nobles.

  "General, if we transport all these rare treasures and gold, silver, and jewels back to the Central Plains, I estimate that they would be worth at least 20 million taels of silver," said Da Hu Zi with a delighted smile.

  Wang Pu's heart sank when he heard this.

  20 million, this is not a small amount. At that time, the annual revenue of the Ming Empire was only 5 million taels of white silver!

  Gold and silver are good things, people love them, Wang Pu also likes them, but now is not the time to be greedy for wealth. If we really bring these heavy gold and silver with us, I'm afraid that before we reach the Duck Green River, the Eight Banners Iron Cavalry of the Qing Dynasty will catch up with us.

  "Tell the brothers, each of them is only allowed to bring two ginseng, three oriental pearls and ten taels of gold. The rest will be burned, and those that cannot be burned will be thrown away!" Wang Pu said coldly, "Whoever dares not to follow military orders and privately carries gold, silver, and jewels, don't blame this general for turning his face and not recognizing you once they are found out."

  "What?! Burn them?!?" The big-bearded man suddenly widened his ox-like eyes, hardly daring to believe his ears. "General, those are the old ginseng of Changbai Mountain and the Dongzhu pearls, which are rare treasures that even the wealthy officials in Central Plains can't afford to buy one! If we transport these treasures back to Central Plains, we'll become rich!"

  "Are you only thinking about getting rich?!" Wang Pu frowned and said, "Don't you use your brain to think, these things are so heavy and take up so much space! Do you know how many horses and carts it would take to transport all these treasures and gold and silver antiques back to the Central Plains? And how many brothers would be needed to escort them? Don't you know that with these burdens our marching speed will greatly slow down, and if the Qing's Eight Banners Iron Cavalry catches up with us, not a single one of us will make it back to the Great Ming alive!"

  "Should we just return all these treasures to Jian Nu for nothing? General, I am not willing to do so."

  "What's the use of taking these precious treasures with you if your life is gone? Think about it carefully!"

  The big beard was scolded by Wang Pu until he was speechless, but from his eyes, it could be seen that he was still unwilling to give up these riches.

  "General," said Zhen Youcai, who was following Wang Pu, "I have a plan that can achieve two goals at once. We don't have to worry about these treasures becoming a burden, and they won't fall into the hands of Jian Nu again."

  "What's going on?" Before Wang Pu could ask, Big Beard hastily asked, "Speak quickly, speak quickly."

  Zhen Youcai touched the two dog-whisker-like mustaches on his lips and said: "Ginseng, Dongzhu, animal hides, calligraphy and paintings are light in weight and easy to carry, so we can take them all away. As for gold, silver, and rare antiques, they are too heavy, and it would take at least a thousand large carts to transport them all, even if we could find enough large carts within the city of Shengjing. Even then, driving such a large number of carts would be slow-going, just as General said earlier. If Jian Nu's iron cavalry catches up with us, these treasures will fall back into Jian Nu's hands..."

  The big bearded man said impatiently: "Oh dear, just say what to do."

  Zhen Youcai said: "The idea is to pack these gold, silver and jewels into boxes and sink them all into the Hun River outside the city! Wait for the opportunity to come back here to retrieve the treasure, what do you two generals think?"

  Big Beard nodded and said: "This is also a way."

  According to Wang Pu's intention, it was to directly throw away these gold and silver, but he also understood that it would be too difficult for Da Hu Zi and his brothers to do so. Moreover, through the looting of Shengjing, the beastly nature of these bodyguards had been fully mobilized, and if they were over-stimulated, it might lead to a mutiny, which would be disastrous.

  "Alright, let's do it this way." With no other choice, Wang Pu compromised, "Big Beard, you lead the men to pack up the gold, silver, and antiques we found, and before nightfall, sink them all into the Hun River. The remaining ginseng, eastern pearls, and animal hides will be distributed evenly, everyone gets a share. Whoever dares to hide or rob others will be executed on the spot, no mercy!"

  "Yes."

  The big-bearded man promised loudly and went off in high spirits.

  ■■■

  Emperor Taizong was worried about Empress Chongzhen, and he brought only a few trusted officials, including Aobai, Tulai, Ebilun, and Dahai, as well as 200 imperial guards, rushing to Shengjing without stopping. In one day and night, they advanced over 300 miles, and by the afternoon of the second day, they had already crossed the Liao River. However, just after crossing the river, they encountered a eunuch sent by Zhizhi to report an emergency in Songshan. Upon inquiry, Emperor Taizong learned that a group of Ming troops had launched a surprise attack on Shengjing, and the city had already fallen.

  Suddenly hearing this bad news, Huang Taiji could hardly believe his ears.

  "What did you say?" Emperor Taizong grasped the eunuch's collar tightly and asked sternly, "The Ming army launched a surprise attack on Shengjing? Has Shengjing already fallen?"

  The eunuch looked terrified and nodded vigorously.

  "This is impossible, absolutely impossible!" Emperor Taizong roared, "The western Liaoning corridor has tens of thousands of Qing cavalry and infantry heavily blocking it, Korea is already a vassal state of the Great Qing, and various Mongolian tribes have also surrendered to the Great Qing. It's absolutely impossible for them to let the Ming army pass through. So where did this Ming army come from? Can they still emerge from underground?"

  The eunuch's face turned pale and he was speechless.

  "Even if the Ming army came out from underground, aren't there still 2,000 brothers in the city?" The emperor's anger grew as he spoke, and he didn't even notice the blood flowing from his nostrils again. He shouted loudly, "What are Daishan and Jirhalang eating? Are the sixteen red cannons on the city wall just for show? I want to kill them, kill these two useless things!"

  Emperor Taizong was burning with anger, and even Albai and others did not dare to persuade him.

  Until Huang Taiji fainted back onto the soft couch due to excessive blood loss, the imperial physician who followed him dared to come up and stop the bleeding for him. After lying on the soft couch for a while, Huang Taiji gradually calmed down and called the eunuch in front of him again to ask: "Is the army that captured Shengjing really the Ming army?"

  "It is indeed the Ming army."

  "Are you pretending to be Mongolian or North Korean?"

  "These Ming soldiers are all speaking Shanxi dialect among themselves, Mongolians and Koreans can't fake it."

  "How many people?"

  "This is unclear."

  "Where are Prince Li and Prince Zheng now?"

  "It's not very clear, but I only know that Princess Chen and Princess Zhuang are trapped in the city, and the Empress has taken several gege and aguo to escape to the Khorchin grasslands."

  When he heard that Empress Chongzhen had fallen into the hands of the Ming army, Huang Taiji suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart, but he endured it and waved to the eunuch: "Alright, I know, you can go down now."

  Emperor Taizong of Qing then summoned Zheng Huang Banner's deputy commander Tuerai, Dasu and Xiang Huang Banner's deputy commanders Aobai, Ebilun to his presence.

  "Your Majesty, since the Southern Ming barbarians have already captured Shengjing, it's likely that the vanguard and cavalry camps left to defend Shengjing have been completely annihilated. Now all of Qing's military forces are concentrated on the Songshan front line, there are no more troops in Liaodong that can be mobilized. Why not retreat back to Songshan first, then recall the main army from the Songshan camp and counterattack Shengjing later?"

  "Not busy." Huang Taiji said lightly, "First of all, let's figure out where this Ming army came from?"

  "Most of them probably came from the sea?"

  "No." Huang Taiji shook his head, "I have set up more than a hundred informants along the coastline. If the Ming army is coming from the sea, I will definitely know about it beforehand."

  Tulai said: "That must be from Korea, anyway it's impossible that it came from Mongolia or western Liaoning."

  "No." Huang Taiji shook his head and said, "On the contrary, this Ming army came from Liaoxi."

  "Are they coming from Liaoxi?" Tuo Lei asked in confusion, "The Liaoxi Corridor has gathered tens of thousands of elite soldiers from the Qing Dynasty. Any movement of the Ming army cannot be hidden from our scouts. If this Ming army really came from Liaoxi, how could our scouts not know?"

  Hong Taiji said: "If it's a movement of more than 10,000 troops, of course, our scouts can't be deceived. But if it's a small group of Ming army with less than 1,000 people taking advantage of the darkness to sneak around, our scouts will have a hard time discovering them. Do you still remember on the way back to Shengjing, there were several post stations that had been destroyed? At that time, we thought it was done by bandits outside the pass, but now it seems that it was indeed this group of Ming army who did it. Yes, it must be so!"

  As he spoke, Huang Taiji's tone became more resolute.

  Tuerbai and others were silent, but in their hearts they admired Huang Taiji's meticulous analysis.

  The emperor said: "Since this Ming army has only about a thousand men, things are easier to handle. There is no need to recall the Eight Banners Army from the Songshan front line at this critical moment."

  Tulai and others looked at each other and said: "However, Your Majesty, there are indeed no troops in Liaodong that can be mobilized."

  "No, there is another army." Huang Taiji's gaze suddenly turned to the north and said in a low voice, "Mang Zhu Xili's Khan tent is in Changshan, Changshan is only over a hundred miles away from Shengjing, and it can be reached by fast horse in two hours."

  Manggultai was the fourth brother of Empress Borjigit, and because his aunt, Jere, and two sisters, Empress Borjigit and Haran, were married to Hong Taiji, he had a very close relationship with the Qing court. In order to win over the Borjigit family, Hong Taiji gave Manggultai half of the Liao River valley as a reward, allowing him to graze his animals in the area closest to Shengjing, as a show of favor.

  Tulai said: "I will send someone to Changshan immediately."

  Hong Taiji thought for a moment, feeling that relying solely on the Mongolians to recover Shengjing was not entirely reliable. He then instructed Tuerai: "Immediately dispatch someone back to Songshan and have Prince Yu Dorgon lead 5,000 cavalrymen from the Bordered White Banner to rush back to Shengjing. Whatever you do, don't leak the news of Shengjing's fall, lest it affect the morale of our frontline troops."

  Tui Rai Dao: "This humble servant understands."

  ……

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