The sky was getting dark, and the heavy clouds in the sky seemed to exude a sad atmosphere. Inside the valley, the smell of blood, accompanied by the smoke of gunpowder that had not yet drifted away, mixed into a disgusting pungent smell.

"Master, this is the place where the Ming Dynasty officials **."

Halfway up the back hill in the valley, Mang Gurtai was surrounded by the guards, carefully examining the corpses on the ground.

The corpses were already burned, and the official robes had turned to ashes. According to the guards, the people on the mountain saw that they were surrounded and there was really no way to escape, so they committed suicide en masse. The big official raised fire**, and the rest of the entourage wiped their necks with swords. Although the body of the senior official had been burned to the point that it was impossible to distinguish his face, some things remained, such as the seal and sword he had carried with him, and the large flag that had fallen to the ground behind him.

No matter how prominent he was during his lifetime, he was also an ugly pile of stinky meat after death.

"Hmph, this person must be that Yang Ho. I'd rather die than surrender, but it's quite kind. Mang Gurtai knew that the Han officials were all scholars, and the Han scholars all paid attention to something called integrity. To make them bow their heads and beg for mercy from the Jurchens whom they regarded as barbarians, many would rather die than suffer such humiliation.

That Yang Ho is a big official, and he must read more deeply, and his fancy for that integrity must be stronger. When the incident happened suddenly, he saw that the defeat was decided, so he simply ended his life in such a vigorous way, which was worthy of his identity.

Moreover, from the things left behind by his body, it proves that his identity should be Yang Hao.

How can you think about it, think about the Ming army guarding this valley, the combat effectiveness is so strong, and the fight is so fierce, it is enough to prove that they are the elite of the elite of the Ming army, such an army has always been regarded as the meat of the heart by the generals of the Ming army, how can they be easily taken out and fight. Only a big man like Yang Ho is worthy of their desperate protection.

This shows that he has come to the right place this time, and he has now made a great achievement. He was moved by his luck in his heart, and such a good thing finally happened to him.

"Come on, cut off the head of this Han dog for me, even if it is burned to death, his head can still be taken back to repay the merits."

The corpse's head had been scorched, its head was burned out, and its entire face was deformed. A flag man stepped forward and cut off the half-cooked man's head, wrapped it in cloth, and carefully hung it on his horse.

"Clean up the battlefield, cut off the heads of these Han dogs, and go back to this is the bounty and the girls!" Mang Gurtai was in a good mood, and he should have retreated to the outside of the Great Wall soon, but he didn't want to leave. At this time, he was full of pride, and he couldn't control the excitement in his chest, and felt that the Ming army was not a big deal. At this time, the Ming garrisons of Zhenbei Pass and Qingyang Fort should have received the news, what if they got it? Even if the Ming army of Kaiyuan Tieling poured out, he was not afraid.

He was a little busy leaving at this time, thinking that I would wait to see when the Ming army would come, and Lao Tzu hadn't enjoyed this battle yet.

But after waiting for a long time, I didn't wait for the movement of the Ming army. At this time, the battlefield had been almost cleaned, and all the clothes and armor and weapons of the dead of the Ming army had been stripped off, and just when he was about to order the withdrawal of troops, he got an unexpected news that he found a construction site not far away, and the things found in it made Mang Gurtai gasp.

"What are you talking about?! Gold!? ”

Although Mang Gurtai's trip was mainly for Yang Hao, he also knew that Yang Hao was fighting Gao Huai's idea of hiding gold. It's just that he is skeptical about this, and thinks that even if Gao Huai Zangjin really exists, it won't be a big deal. If the Jurchens want to break out in Liaodong, they still have to rely on strong force as a backing in the end. However, Nurhachi has specially confessed, and he does not dare not take it to heart. He knew what Yang Ho was doing here, and he was actually very skeptical that Yang Ho would be able to dig it up, but now that such a good thing had happened to him again, he was really excited.

Could it be that God has really opened his eyes? Such a good thing that kills two birds with one stone really happened to me?

"Take me to see it!"

The flag leader led the way, and Mang Gurtai soon followed to the construction site. I saw some corpses scattered around, not like soldiers, but like coolies. Half of the tunnel mouth collapsed, the earth and stone buried most of the hole, and some wooden shelves and other sundries were covered, obviously in the panic there was no time to cover up carefully, killing the people who dug the hole to extinguish the mouth, and collapsing the tunnel, but the Jurchen soldiers came too quickly, and in the end they still did not come and completely destroyed the tunnel.

At this moment, more than a dozen Jurchen bannermen were digging up soil at the entrance of the cave, and soon cleared the passage inside.

Niu Lu, who led the team, really saw that the flag owner was coming, and hurriedly presented a gold ingot. The gold was ingot-shaped, dirty and black, and it looked like it had been buried in the ground for an unknown number of years. But when you scratch the stains and black rust on the outside, you can see the golden light. Mang Gurtai took it in his hand and weighed it, and weighed his hand. Look at the ingot under the imprint of the Ming Dynasty official cast.

Most of the local circulation in Liaodong is scattered gold, silver and copper coins, and these official ingots and gold ingots are only available to some wealthy merchants except those issued by the government. At that time, Gao Huai looted a huge amount of money, gold, silver, jewelry, copper money, grain, and even livestock, cloth, land, and land, all kinds of huge and huge quantities, if you want to collect, you can only collect it by exchanging it for gold and silver. Presumably, he exchanged all the gold and silver he collected for gold and cast them into gold ingots. He didn't know where he had found so much gold.

Mang Gurtai was overjoyed when he saw this, and immediately ordered the passage to be cleared out and all the contents inside.

After a while, the contents were lifted out one by one like ants moving. The moldy wooden box that is about to rot, and the ingots one by one, scrape the black mud and dirt on the outside to see the golden luster inside. After a total of almost an hour, more than 10 boxes of gold ingots were cleared, a total of more than 1,000 ingots, basically 50 taels of big treasures, the total weight of about 50,000 taels. In exchange for silver, I am afraid that there will be hundreds of thousands of taels.

In terms of the current standard of living of the Jurchens, this is definitely a huge windfall from the sky. Even if the previous few robberies of Fushun and Hebei Zhubao are added together, I am afraid that the harvest is not as rich as this time, this is the gold of the hard state, just like my own credit, it is really hard enough.

And he counted them at once, and divided fifty horses to load them with the ingots. Du Mubu, your soldier is in charge of the care, there is one ingot, only you ask! "Mang Gurtai didn't want to stay here for a long time at this time. People are like this, they are afraid of losing when they get cheap. In case the Ming army rushes over, I am afraid that these gold ingots will not be able to be transported back. If you lose a spindle, you will be reduced by one point, and it is better to collect it when you see it.

At this moment, the scouts who had spread out came back with military information. The Ming army of Zhenbei Pass, Qingyang Fort, and Zhenyi Fort has been dispatched in a big way, and is desperately rushing here, and the scout soldiers of the Ming army have appeared seven or eight miles away, and the large army may soon drive over.

"Hmph, it's late." This was to be expected by Mang Gurtai. After all, Yang Hao is here, even if the military information is transmitted back later, those border generals of the Ming army know that the commander is in danger, and it is impossible not to come to the rescue. Even if they knew it was too late, they couldn't be indifferent, even if it was pretentious, unless these people didn't want their heads, but this time it was really too late, and they would only find headless corpses everywhere here. If it weren't for the drag of these gold, Mang Gurtai really wanted to stay and fight with these reinforcements of the Ming army, but now he didn't want to make trouble. The credit for this establishment is big enough.

"Collect the troops! Leave a cow behind the army. Sent someone back to the camp with the red flag to report the victory, saying that the battle was a great victory, and the head of the Ming army was 1,000, and Yang Hao was killed in front of the battle. Another 50,000 taels of gold were seized, and there were many war horses and armor! He ***, it's finally my turn to raise my eyebrows today! ”

About an hour later, the sky had already darkened, and the Ming army's brigade of soldiers and horses hurried to the battlefield where people had slipped away, and under the countless torches, all they saw were corpses all over the ground. In the atmosphere of horror and grief, the generals of the Ming army began to command the soldiers to clean up the battlefield to find out if there were any people who were still alive.

Many people don't know what happened, when and why did the Jurchen Tartars come here? It's not clear. There are also people who are afraid that the Tartars have not left, and they are afraid of being ambushed again, so they cower so much that they dare not explore the way forward. There are also some Ming soldiers and generals, who are mixed in the crowd to look around, focusing on the construction site and the halfway point of Yang Hao**. In the chaos, a pair of eyes secretly observed the expressions of the soldiers and generals around them.

Of course, it was the Ming army stationed in several nearby forts, and they actually just knew that Yang Jingluo was here for a business trip. As a result, as soon as they came, they met the Jianzhou Tartars who crossed the border in a big way, they were panicked now, if they didn't come early or late, they came at this time, if Yang Hao came out with three long and two short, they all had to lose their heads, so once they got the news, they immediately gathered a team to rush here.

As a result, when I got here, I found that things had developed into the worst result, and after looking for a long time, I didn't find the corpse that was Yang Jingluo, all of them had no heads, and none of them had seen Yang Hao's true face.

All the officials were stunned, and both of them trembled like chaff. Everyone scolded Yang Hao in their hearts for not dying, why did he sneak to Zhenbei Pass, if they had notified them earlier, plus their troops, although they might not be able to repel this raid of the Jianzhou Tartars, but it should have been possible to keep him out, but now he has fallen to this step of the field, he died alone, and these people will be unlucky together.

Now, they are only ready to lose their heads and go back to wait for their homes to be imprisoned. No one thought of continuing to chase forward, chasing over the Great Wall to fight the Tartars, to see if they could atone for their sins. The elite soldiers and horses from Tieling were all wiped out, and his rabble was simply sent to death.

They just didn't understand that the news from Yeh said that Nurhachi's tens of thousands of soldiers and horses were stationed on the east bank of the Dakersai River on the Yeh border, and they continued to send elite cavalry into the country every day to plunder, and Yeh's ranger scouts were killed countless times, and no one dared to approach them again. Originally, it was thought that the Jianzhou soldiers were cutting wood and building a village there, preparing to launch a general attack on Yehe. As a result, he suddenly crossed Yehe's territory and appeared near Zhenbei Pass, what was going on?

Thinking of Yang Hao also appearing in this vicinity, some people are already thinking in their hearts, is this Tartar specifically for Yang Jingluo? Even the local officials didn't know the news that Yang Jingluo was here, how did it reach the ears of the Jianzhou soldiers? These Jianzhou soldiers are too bold, are they really going to fight to the death with the imperial court?

And what is Yang Jingluo secretly doing here? If the Tartar dares to move, he is also taking a certain risk. But the secrets of these high-level officials are not known by these ordinary petty officials below, and the only thing they can do now is to wait for death. And the lower minions are just cleaning up the battlefield like headless flies, searching for survivors.

And some of them, taking advantage of the lack of time to maintain order in office, quietly turned the battlefield around in the night, and they could also see that the panic of the Ming army was not pretended, and the army's morale was really chaotic.

In the distance, on the high slope, Mang Gurtai looked at the sparkling fires in the valley and smiled triumphantly. In his opinion, he has embarked on the golden road to the pinnacle of power......

In Qinghe City, Yue Xiang stood on top of the city tower and looked at the northwest direction.

At his feet, a small note had turned into a wisp of green smoke in the flames. He had just received a message from the flying pigeon, saying that a fierce battle had taken place in the valley of Zhenbeiguan yesterday, and that the Jurchen Tartars had crossed the border and attacked a secret camp of officers and soldiers, killing more than 1,000 officers and soldiers. After the reinforcements from the nearby fort arrived, no live mouth was found at the scene, and now the Kaiyuan Tieling area has been under martial law, and the officials and governments in various places are panicking, the army is frequently mobilized, and the local area has been in chaos, and it seems that something big has happened.

Zou Chuxian, who was next to him, had an ugly face, his eyes were a little nervous and desperate, and he muttered, "Could it be, is it, Yang ...... ......

"I'm afraid Yang Ho has already died there......"

Yue Xiang said what he didn't dare to say for him, Zou Chuxian was stunned for a long time, and finally sighed. Now he has no way to regret it, he got on Yue Xiang's thief ship, and now that even Yang Hao is dead, it is impossible to come down at all. Now the only way is to follow Yue Xiang all the way to the dark.

Now he is still nominally the supreme commander of Qinghe City, but in fact, everything is Yue Xiang's idea.

But Yue Xiang was thinking about the future, is Yang Hao dead? It should be dead! He had no reason not to die. With Nurhachi's ability, he will never let go of such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And the death of the Qianming army is enough to show that the officers and soldiers at that time really fought to the death and did not retreat, so they were all confessed there. Why? Isn't it just to protect Yang Ho's safe evacuation? If he really escapes, he must ask the local garrison for help, and the news will definitely spread.

And he was able to get this news through Li Liang. Due to his long-term business everywhere, he had acquaintances in some local gangs in the garrison of Baotai near Zhenbei Pass, and these people had a messy relationship with the spies in Yehe Jianzhou and other places, and they belonged to whoever had money would give their lives. After Li Liang turned to Jianzhou, he would sometimes buy intelligence from these people.

Such information should be credible, and Li Liang really has no reason to lie to him. Because he has betrayed Yang Hao and shown enough "sincerity", Li Liang should be eager to cut off his own way back.

In addition, the fate of his master, who is Yue Xiang's eldest brother, also completely depends on Yue Xiang's attitude, no matter how he thinks, there is no reason for him to make false information out and make trouble.

In other words, Nurhachi really did it. As long as he comes to the real thing, with mental calculation or unintentional, coupled with the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners Army, Yang Hao will not be able to run away. The kind of civil official old man in his sixties is no sharper than a young man, and he wants to be chased and killed by the Jurchens with his own skills or run for his life, and Yang Hao is even more unlikely to escape. Breaking through the siege on the battlefield is not as simple as the storyteller said, it would be nice to have one out of a thousand people escape.

Yang Ho is really dead, and he died like this.

It is hard to imagine that a figure who influenced history died in an unknown ravine because of himself. Yue Xiang found that his mood was not excited, as if he had died an unknown pawn, and it didn't matter. Maybe when I got here, I had more contact with the people of this era, and I realized that in addition to the things recorded in the history books, these people were just ordinary people.

"As expected, Nurhachi is coming to us next. He received a great gift from us, which was already very heavy, and it was enough to dispel all his concerns. ”

"If Nurhachi hypes that we betrayed Yang Hao, then wouldn't our back road be completely cut off, and then we will really succeed, and we will no longer be allowed to be in the imperial court."

"It's possible, but it's risky to do anything. I don't think Nurhachi will spread such news before he returns to Qinghe. Otherwise, give the court a warning as soon as possible, maybe the court will send troops to control Qinghe before he arrives, and when the time comes, there will be less you and me, and he will have to go through a bloody battle if he wants to take Qinghe. ”

"Moreover, the news of Yang Hao's death should not have spread, Nurhachi is well aware of the tradition of our Ming officialdom to deceive and conceal it. The imperial court learned that Yang Hao was dead, and it was a big deal to come here with a different strategy, and lead the overall situation, maybe it would be a few points stronger than Yang Hao, so it was better to conceal the news, and take advantage of the chaotic opportunity of the officers and soldiers without a leader at this time to expand their strength, and when the court understood it, he would have made enough money. It can also delay the timing of the deployment of the imperial court, why not? ”

"Won't this news get out of the officers and soldiers?"

"Most of the officers and soldiers don't know the inside story, how do they know where Yang Ho is? Those who know the inside story probably don't dare to say it, otherwise the commander of the strategy was killed in his own defense area, what kind of crime is that. One day is one day to hide, one more day is a day, no one will think that they have lived too long, what are those officers and men of our officers and soldiers like, don't adults understand? ”

Zou Chuxian bowed his head and said nothing, Yue Xiang turned around and went down the city tower.

"Instead of thinking about it, let's prepare early. Whether it's dead or alive depends on this one. It won't be long before Nurhachi's army arrives at the Raven Pass......"

。

(*^__^*)