latelenovela Chapter 663 Military Remonstrance
Chapter 663 Military Remonstrance
The sound of artillery fire in the dead of night startled the entire city of Beijing. When the explosions rang out, many people thought it was an earthquake and rushed out of their homes without even putting on their clothes. According to the elderly, the intense artillery fire reminded them of the Wanggongchang explosion in 1626. Although the intensity of that explosion was far less than that mysterious one, its duration and the extent of the damage were no less severe.
As dawn broke, some of the bolder ones ran to the vicinity of the military camp to investigate. By then, the fire had been extinguished, with only scattered small embers remaining. The military camp and barracks within a radius of about three miles had been reduced to rubble, with mutilated limbs scattered everywhere. Beneath the ruins lay many charred corpses—all of whom had been trapped, injured, unable to escape, and then burned to death by the fire.
At dawn, a large number of soldiers from the Beijing garrison began clearing the area, prohibiting civilians from entering or leaving. Then, laborers organized by the local county government entered the site one after another to move the corpses and clear away the rubble. No one told the people what had happened there, and the people dared not ask, lest they bring trouble upon themselves—those who could use cannons in the capital must be influential figures, perhaps even the emperor himself, and ordinary people dared not inquire about such matters.
Perhaps Yang Sichang was too confident in this encirclement operation and hadn't considered contingency plans for failure. After Liu Ye broke through, instead of staying on site to organize the pursuit, he fled for his own safety, allowing Liu Ye to calmly lead his men through the streets and alleys towards Yongding Gate. Of course, given the loose organization and weak execution of the Beijing garrison, it was already quite an achievement to set up an ambush within a few hours. It was impossible to expect these pampered soldiers to be able to launch a counterattack or even pursue after suffering heavy losses. Even if Yang Sichang had considered it, he couldn't have done it.
Without the suppression of artillery, the special forces and escorts were unstoppable, killing anyone who stood in their way. Whether it was the patrol teams of the Five Cities Garrison or the street constables of Shuntian Prefecture, they were not only not blocked, but if they were not able to dodge in time, they were shot at. These unlucky guys did not know how they had offended these evil gods when they were about to die.
Similarly, due to overconfidence in Yang Sichang's actions, Yongding Gate was not heavily guarded to prevent Liu Ye from storming out of the city. The city gate and the nearby city walls were only guarded by a single garrison commander with a couple hundred soldiers, hardly enough to deter them. After Liu Ye and his men arrived, taking advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness, they didn't even reload their bullets and charged forward with bayonets fixed.
Faced with this rabid crowd that would draw their knives at the slightest provocation, the city gate guards, after having dozens stabbed to death, immediately lost the courage to resist and all knelt down to beg for mercy.
Standing beneath the city gate, Liu Ye gave the order: "Tie up all the garrison troops. Leave the special forces to control the city gate; the rest of you, follow me out of the city!"
Liang Xiaoming asked, puzzled, "Isn't Qin Tian leaving? What's he doing here?"
Liu Ye glanced back at the thick smoke billowing from the south of the city and spat out a sentence through gritted teeth: "Because I still need to bring the army back, they have to leave the gate open for me!"
After leaving the city and joining up with the troops, Liu Ye immediately convened a brief but important mobilization meeting with commanders such as Shi Ying and Xu Yifan. The main purpose was to stage a military coup!
"I'll get my revenge for what I suffered last night, with interest!" Liu Ye slammed his fist on the table and shouted. "Emperor Chongzhen and Yang Sichang must pay the price for their decisions!"
The orders were relayed down to the battalion and company levels. Soldiers, still asleep, were awakened by their officers and ordered to enter combat readiness as quickly as possible. Countless soldiers, carrying rifles, jogged out of their tents and assembled according to their respective units and numbers. The officers' commands and the soldiers' roll calls echoed through the camp.
The commotion caused by the Qionghai Army alerted the neighboring towns of Shanxi and Xuanfu, and Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei came to inquire about it.
Liu Ye knew that these two men were relatively upright and could be won over, so he told them directly: "Generals, Yang Sichang of the Ministry of War has misled the Emperor. Not only has he not given me the reward I deserved for my military merits, but he also tried to harm me. I was lucky enough to escape, and now I am going into the city to seek justice! If you don't want to be implicated, please leave tonight!"
The provocation worked. Hu Dawei immediately objected, shouting, "What are you saying, brother? I only call you brother because I respect you as a man who can kill Tartars. Now that you're in trouble, you want me to leave? Where am I supposed to put my old face?"
Yang Guozhu pondered for a moment and asked, "What exactly happened that made Minister Yang do something that hurts his loved ones and pleases his enemies?"
Liu Ye snorted, "Now that things have come to this, I won't hide Yang Sichang's shameful deeds from you two. This fellow wanted to negotiate peace with the Tartars, and he hated me for severely injuring Abatai and Ajige, ruining his peace plan. He tried to make things difficult for me time and time again. After ordering you two to attack my troops in front of the Tartars outside Yongding Gate, which failed, he took advantage of my lack of a large army in the capital and instigated the emperor to issue an edict to mobilize the Beijing garrison to besiege me. He brought in all the cannons in the capital, intending to blow me to pieces. Luckily, I escaped..."
"Peace talks?" Hu Dawei and Yang Guozhu looked at each other in bewilderment. This was the first time they had heard of such a plan from the imperial court.
Hu Dawei said bitterly, "The Tartars are all vicious and barbaric. Only a knife can make them behave. Peace talks are just wishful thinking on the part of bookworms..."
Yang Guozhu asked worriedly, "If that's the case, then what about the contributions of our three towns...?"
“Of course it doesn’t count.” Liu Ye seized the opportunity to sow discord. “Since they intend to kill me, they have no intention of acknowledging this merit. Otherwise, what would it mean to kill a meritorious official? Wouldn’t that be a slap in their own face? And how would they silence the gossip of the world? But in this way, I have implicated you two, and the merit I was about to gain has vanished.”
"Outrageous!" Hu Dawei roared in anger. "The merits I earned with every sword and spear are just gone with a few words from them? Brother, take me with you when you go to seek justice, count me in as part of Shanxi Town!"
Yang Guozhu had a vague feeling that something was amiss. Losing military merit was certainly a pity, but leading troops into the city was no joke; being labeled a rebel would be disastrous. He asked with concern, "General Liu, under what pretext do you plan to enter the city, and how do you intend to handle the aftermath?"
"I will go directly to the capital to stage a coup and force the emperor to eliminate Yang Sichang, this treacherous villain!" Liu Ye replied with "righteous indignation." "As long as the emperor realizes his mistake, stays away from treacherous officials, and appoints virtuous officials, my goal will be achieved."
Yang Guozhu breathed a sigh of relief and pressed on, "Is that really the case? We'll withdraw our troops after eliminating Yang Sichang?"
"Otherwise what? Are we going to have the army stay in the capital and rebel?" Liu Ye laughed. "If I were planning to rebel, why would I be killing the Tartars so hard?" Then he added in his mind, "It's not that I don't want to rebel, it's just that the time isn't right yet. Now is the perfect time to use the banner of 'eliminating treacherous officials' to reap benefits. The original conditions are no longer enough to satisfy my appetite."
Yang Guozhu immediately made up his mind: "That's good. Xuanfu Town is also willing to follow your troops into the city to claim the credit we deserve."