Due to the snow on the road, hundreds of horses fell down and injured their hooves. Hong Tai's horse almost slipped. Although it did not fall, the horses' hooves were obviously injured. Azig changed his horse to Hong Tai himself took the soldier's mount and rode on it.
When she was still more than twenty miles away from Shenyang, Hong Tai's nosebleed finally stopped, but her whole body was also weak from excessive blood loss. She could not help but shake while sitting on the horse. If it weren't for the breath in her heart, she would just I'm afraid I'll collapse on the road from exhaustion.
The doctors accompanying the army kept trying to persuade Hong Tai to stop and rest. Abatai and the others also tried to persuade Hong Tai to stop and rest, but Hong Tai refused.
At this moment, Hong Tai, in addition to worrying about the Eight Banners women and children in Shenyang City, was also worried about his two youngest sons, Ye Bushu and Shuosei. He was very afraid that the Ming army would kill his own flesh and blood, and he was also afraid that the Ming army would take his own. The two sons threatened him, and after much thought, he considered whether to send someone to contact the generals of the Ming army if he could not take Shenyang to see if he could redeem Shenyang and his sons through money.
His past understanding of the generals of the Ming army made Hong Tai's idea of redeeming the city and redeeming people even stronger. He also thought about who to send to contact the Ming army. This person was Tong Yangxing, the concubine of the West House, who was very familiar with the generals of the Liaodong army of the Ming army.
However, Hong Tai was worried about what the price would be. Since Lao Khan raised his army, Dajin had indeed robbed a lot of money, but most of this money was in Shenyang City. Now that Shenyang is occupied by the Ming army, the money will naturally no longer be available. It belongs to Dajin, and there is little money and food in other places, so I am afraid that I will not be able to pay the ransom.
If there is no money to redeem the city and people, the best way is to cede the land to the Ming army. Since the Ming army landed from southern Liaoning, Dajin did not pay much attention to those places. After the Ming army looted them, they will definitely be more dilapidated. It is better to Liaonan was returned to the Ming army.
It would be best if the Ming army agreed to this condition. If they didn't agree, Hong Tai's bottom line was to return Guangning to the Ming army, and no other concessions could be made.
But what if the Ming army does not agree to this condition?
Hong Tai was a little worried. The fact that the Ming army was able to capture Shenyang showed that they had a large number of troops. Combined with the news sent by Daishan before, it was estimated that there were tens of thousands of troops. If they were not taking advantage of the situation but wanted to recapture the outside world, no matter how many conditions they had, they would not be able to win. It may impress the Ming army. The young emperor of the Ming Dynasty has been committed to regaining the outside world since he came to the throne. He did not even agree to the peace negotiation in which Dajin had the upper hand. Now that he is at a disadvantage and the capital is occupied, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty is afraid that he will not even agree to it. Ken made peace with Dajin.
Without peace negotiation, it is naturally impossible to redeem the city and the people. As a result, the matter has reached a dead end. Apart from fighting, Mrs. Hong can't think of a better way. The main army is hundreds of miles away, waiting It would take at least seven or eight days for them to reach Shenyang. Hong Tai couldn't even think of taking Shenyang with the five thousand cavalry in hand.
At that time, Lao Khan was able to capture Shenyang thanks to internal support within Shenyang City. Not only Shenyang, since the Eight Banners raised their troops, every Ming city captured by Dajin relied on internal support, and none of them relied on forceful attack. The outcome of the forceful attack was Every battle must be defeated. The lessons of Ningyuan and Jinzhou have taught Hongtai that before there are enough artillery, it is basically impossible to attack the Ming Dynasty's cities by manpower.
The city of Shenyang has been built very solidly in recent years, and it is definitely impossible to attack Dalinghe City by force. The Eight Banners is good at sieging cities and providing reinforcements. Last year's battle of Xiaolinghe was based on the method of siege and reinforcements. During the entire battle, the Eight Banners did not attack Dalinghe City by force. However, victory was achieved by relying on the tactics of surrounding the defenders and repelling the reinforcements.
Thinking of this, Mrs. Hong had an idea. There was not much food in the city of Shenyang. The Ming army could not carry much food when they crossed the sea and marched north. If they held on to Shenyang, wouldn't they end up like Zu Dashou, trapped in a lonely city?
A smile finally appeared on Hong Tai's bloodless face. He had already figured out how to deal with the Ming army in Shenyang. The bargaining chip of the Ming army in Shenyang was not Hong Tai's. As long as the Ming army's food route was cut off, Blocking the Ming army coming from southern Liaoning would cause a headache not for him but for the commander-in-chief of the Ming army.
After making up his mind, Hong Tai's energy improved again. Abatai and the others were relieved a little. If Hong Tai fell at this juncture, the Eight Banners would be leaderless.
Hong Tai sent an order to speed up the march and must reach Shenyang before noon. The three thousand cavalry were indeed the elite of the Eight Banners. Although the road was covered with snow and it was difficult to walk, none of them complained. They gave full play to the Jurchens' tenacity in the cold weather. , just increased the marching speed a lot.
However, the closer they got to Shenyang, the more ominous the Eight Banners felt. They always felt that something bad was waiting for them ahead. Not only the soldiers had this feeling, but also Hong Tai herself had this premonition.
After crossing the sand ridge, all the Jin soldiers knew why they had a bad feeling, because Shenyang, the capital city of Jin more than ten miles away, was currently covered in fire.
.........
The sky-high fire in the direction of Shenyang rushed straight into Yunxiao. Looking at the fire, the entire city of Shenyang was probably burning. The black smoke was like a giant dragon with teeth and claws, twisting wantonly above the earth.
Black smoke means that the city is burning. If it is completely burned, what comes out will be white smoke. The Eight Banners still know this. They looked at Shenyang with their mouths open, as if they saw the world. The most incredible thing.
Hong Tai's expression was extremely ugly, and the guards on the side could even see his right hand holding the saddle shaking.
The Ming army made the stupidest and smartest decision. They actually burned the city of Shenyang!
Hong Tai thought about any measures that the Ming army commander might take after occupying Shenyang, but he did not expect that the Ming army had no intention of occupying Shenyang. They chose the simplest and most brutal method - burning down the capital of Daijin.
Hong Tai's heart was worried. He knew what the Ming army had done before setting off the fire, and he would have done it in other circumstances.
The little faces of Ye Bushu and Shuose could not help but appear in his mind. Thinking of the way they were babbling and calling "Ama", Mrs. Hong felt extremely painful.
The pain caused Hong Tai's face to be extremely distorted, and his face, which had no color at all, became extremely hideous and terrifying under the distortion.
None of the guards dared to speak, they were too frightened to move.
Abatai, Duo Azige, and Dorgon didn't look any better. Their families were also in Shenyang City. If the Ming army had set out to burn the city first, what would happen to their families based on the blood feud between the Ming and Jin sides? You can get a rough idea of the outcome without guessing.
Thinking of his sons, Abatai was ready to die. Dorgon was newly married, and he was so doting on Fujin that he couldn't help but shed a tear at this moment. Duo Yi was young and heartless, but he didn't lose much. He felt the pain of his loved ones, but he also gritted his teeth and his eyes were full of vengeful anger.
Among the three brothers, Azige has the most impatient temper. He is always the first to shout when something happens, and he is very out of control. However, this time he remained silent. He neither roared angrily nor cursed. Just staring there blankly, staring blankly...
Some golden soldiers began to cry loudly, calling them mother, mother, wife and children. As more and more golden soldiers cried, the morale of the Eight Banners army was in chaos. Everyone felt like they had lost their heirs. How could there be any hope? They had no fighting spirit at all. They were either sitting on their horses, or they were paralyzed under their horses, lying on the snow and wailing towards Shenyang City.
Seeing this, Abatai was shocked. He was the first to react from the pain, and hurriedly shouted to stop the red-armored fangs around him, and then asked them to immediately suppress the howling flag soldiers. The generals also returned God came, and the Baylors above did not need to give orders, and they began to suppress the soldiers. After a lot of scolding and beating, they finally stopped the crying in the army, but the small choked sobs could not go away no matter what. .
The commotion in the army only made Hong Tai frown. The soldiers' low sobs did not make him angry. He just sighed and ordered to set off immediately. He rushed to Shenyang without stopping to see if he could put out the fire. Put it out and rescue some people who were not poisoned by the Ming army.
.............
The three thousand cavalrymen were all the elites of the Two Yellow Banners, and their families were all in Shenyang City. When the Great Khan said that he had to rush to rescue people, he calmed down for a while and held some hope. Maybe his relatives would still be alive. Still alive.
After running for more than ten miles, I didn't care about the horse power at all. I pushed the horses harder and harder. After arriving at Shenyang City, I was afraid that hundreds of horses would die from exhaustion. Hundreds more horses could not stop vomiting foam. There were even blood blisters coming out of his body, and it looked like he would not survive.
Ignoring those exhausted horses, Mrs. Hong first asked Azig to lead a few hundred cavalry to patrol the city to prevent an ambush from the Ming army. After confirming that there was no Ming army, Mrs. Hong quickly ordered Dorgon and others to lead people into the city to attack. Fire saves people.
Shenyang City, whether it is the inner city or the outer city, is mostly made of wooden structures. The Ming army set fire to it and used up all the kerosene and vegetable oil in Shenyang City. After two days of burning, most of the city had been reduced to a heap of ashes, and the rest was all left. A few isolated wooden pillars were burning. What was even more vicious was that after the Ming army set fire to it, they piled up all the city gates in Shenyang, so that none of the residents in the city could escape.
Shenyang was completely destroyed. It was even more completely destroyed than when the Jin army captured Shenyang. Except for the still intact city walls, this largest city outside the Pass with a population of more than 100,000 no longer looked like a fortified city.
The Jin army thought that there would be lucky enough people to survive in the city, but after searching the inner and outer cities countless times, they could not find a living person except for the corpses that had been burnt to charcoal.
Most of the corpses in the outer city were found in houses. The corpses were relatively intact. Most of them were choked by thick smoke and burned to death. It was rare to see those who were killed before death.
The inner city was miserable. Countless beheaded corpses were concentrated in the garrison with red and yellow flags. The Khan's Palace was even more densely packed with burned corpses. Some corpses were not completely burned because the high temperature kept glowing. Corpse oil.
Thousands of corpses were found piled up outside Fengtian Gate. After identification, they were all men of the Eight Banners. All the heads of the corpses had been cut off. This is also the only area that has not been burned by fire. Thousands of corpses The corpses were piled up and looking at the corpses, the Jin soldiers looked pale from top to bottom.
After reluctantly searching again, the Jin army had no choice but to withdraw from Shenyang because the fire in the city could not be extinguished. The high temperature and the smell of burnt corpses made Shenyang feel like a hell city. No one could stay in this hell for a moment longer. .
The bodies of Ye Bushu and Shuosei were found in the corpse viewing. When Hong Tai saw the headless bodies of his two sons, he could no longer hold on, and his vision went dark and he fainted again.