si-mexico Chapter 111 The Empress's Lament
Chapter 111 The Empress's Lament
Li Zhenbei's mighty army headed straight for the royal capital.
Poor Li Jin, as the governor of three provinces, actually only had his own 800 private soldiers.
On the one hand, he dispatched soldiers from the three provinces and found that these guys were rotten, so he had to keep screening and selecting some elite soldiers from them. On the other hand, he did the same thing as his son Li Jize and recruited disaster victims to serve in the army.
There's one advantage to disaster victims serving as soldiers: as long as they have something to eat, they'll fight you to the death.
but……
The empress was so poor that she had to patch up her pants. Now, while the barbarians were fleeing, she wanted to vigorously develop firearms! She was also short of money.
So, Governor Li, you figure it out yourself!
Li Jin wanted to curse, how could he solve it? How could he solve it?
It's fine if you don't give me money and food, but you should at least provide policies? You don't give me anything, and you think that me and my subordinates are just eating air and developing a new "aerodynamics"?
If Li Jin had been replaced by Li Jize, he would have said, "I know this trick! Just kill the gentry and landlords directly. Instead of letting them "aid the enemy," it's better to use them to recruit soldiers." Unfortunately, this doesn't work for Li Jin. Don't forget! He is the most loyal and devoted dog of the court and the empress!
The emperor had a dream that told him to kill his son, and he did it without hesitation.
How could Li Jin possibly touch the gentry and landlords? The Empress of the Great Qi was the biggest landlord!
Therefore, he could only put aside his dignity and beg the landlords to give him some food and military pay so that he could recruit soldiers.
Li Jin probably couldn't have imagined that he was the chief noble of the Great Qi, but he was the first one to kneel down and beg for food!
How much money can you get by begging?
Therefore, Li Jin's army could not advance and its number always remained at around 10,000 people!
Most importantly, there was no military pay, only a mouthful of food to eat, barely enough to fill their stomachs. This guy kept shouting to his men every day about loyalty to the emperor and patriotism! If things were impossible, he would die for the cause, along with Li Zhenbei and his rebellious army.
Subordinates: “???”
Ah this...
No! We're just trying to make a living! We don't even have a penny a month, what's the point of risking our lives?
You always tell us about being loyal to the emperor and patriotic, and serving the country. It would be better to give us two taels of silver.
With only 10,000 men, what could Li Jin do in the face of Li Zhenbei's mighty army of a million? The only thing he could do was to be a "fly," taking a bite when the enemy was looting or attacking the city, and then quickly running away when the enemy got angry and turned around to deal with him.
After a while, Li Zhenbei was really fed up with Li Jin! If he wanted to kill him, he would run away very fast. If he didn't care about him, he would keep harassing him!
This thing is just like a toad jumping on its back. It doesn't bite people, but it makes people feel disgusted!
Especially when Li Zhenbei was about to attack the royal capital, the first checkpoint was "Wei Yan Pass"!
The general stationed here is named Wang Yudi!
He was an old subordinate of Li Jin. He was promoted because of his outstanding military achievements and later became the general of Wei Yanguan.
Like his old boss Li Jin, he is loyal to the court, and now Li Jin is protecting him on the flank.
One of these two people was guarding the checkpoint while the other was harassing outside, and they managed to hold back Li Zhenbei's million-strong army.
The empress was overjoyed!
On the one hand, the barbarians retreated, and on the other hand, the bandits were stopped at Weiyan Pass, and they had firearms in their hands.
So what are you waiting for?
Hurry up and order people to work overtime and frantically make firearms! Once the firearms are refined and sent to Weiyanguan Li Jin and Wang Yudi, they will easily crush the refugees.
Therefore, the three taxes that the imperial court finally collected after "making my people suffer" were invested in the production of firearms.
The entire Da Qi was in full swing, and craftsmen were working overtime day and night to create firearms.
And so, a month later...
It has been four months since Li Jize's hydraulic and wind power machines were put into use, but there has been no movement on the Empress's side.
Two months later, Li Jize's muskets began to be put into service in large quantities by the troops, but there was still no movement from the empress.
Finally, after the third month...
The court's first batch of firearms had finally been forged! The empress was overjoyed.
then……
She couldn't laugh anymore!
On this day, Wei Yan Pass was directly breached under Li Zhenbei's attack regardless of casualties and cost!
After the city walls were breached, Wang Yudi led the remaining Qi troops in a street battle within the city, while his wife led over twenty women onto the rooftops, shooting down the insurgents with bows and arrows. Ultimately, Wang Yudi killed over ten men and died fighting! His wife then took over, fighting to the last man, before ultimately committing suicide to follow her husband.
As for what the old boss Li Jin is doing?
He was entangled by the scattered troops. Finally, he had no choice but to lead his army into the mountains to fight guerrilla warfare when he learned that Weiyan Pass had been broken.
This battle had two consequences...
First, on this side of the chaotic army, Li Zhenbei was so depressed that he shut himself off! Looking at the dense and endless corpses of his own people under the city wall, he was in despair.
This is the first checkpoint when attacking the royal capital from the Central Plains, Weiyan Pass!
He suffered so many casualties, and there are still six more levels like this to come!
How is this going to be fought? How many people will have to die?
Forget it! It would be better to withdraw the troops, occupy the Central Plains and compete with the Great Qi.
Yes! As a result of this battle, Li Zhenbei planned to withdraw his troops.
Secondly, the empress was in a panic. On the one hand, she ordered people to quickly send the firearms to the next checkpoint, and on the other hand, she summoned court officials to discuss what to do next?
The court officials began to flatter the emperor. Don't panic! It's not a big deal! We still have six checkpoints ahead, and with the support of firearms, we can defend them!
The Empress was so easily fooled! She actually believed the other party's lies.
result……
It was later proven that Empress, you are crazy! This matter is too serious.
Let’s talk about firearms first. Firearms were highly anticipated by the imperial court, but the facts proved that even dogs don’t use them!
why?
Because it is more dangerous than a sword or arrow, not to the enemy, but to our own people! It will explode!
It’s strange, why didn’t the muskets explode in the hands of the Liangshan heroes, but exploded in the hands of the Qi army?
There are various reasons, you can guess for yourself!
Besides, what about the six checkpoints left as the court said?
It is impossible for the bandits to break in!
The empress thought so, the court officials thought so, and even the rebel Li Zhenbei thought so.
But the fact is...
That very night, when Li Zhenbei was already disheartened and planning to withdraw his troops, a spy came to report: Tongzhou General Jiang Huan sent someone to surrender!
Li Zhenbei was confused!
He has become depressed by this defeat and is worried about how to defeat the next six levels of bosses.
What I didn’t expect was…
The generals of the six passes behind opened the city gates and surrendered to Li Zhenbei.
From now on, there will be no more obstacles on the road to the royal capital.
From then on, in the 15th year of Xuande, the gravedigger Li Zhenbei officially played the "Empress's Lament".