The Mongolians used to use ladders and other construction tools to rush up the city walls and fight hand-to-hand with the Ming Army. Now, they basically used long-range attacks or feigned frontal attacks. In reality, they were still long-range attacks.
They seemed to have run out of gunpowder and could no longer use the cannons. They were using ballistae and catapults to attack Zijing Pass.
The pressure on the Ming Army was much less. However, sometimes, the catapults and ballistae that did not follow the rules and did not look for opportunities to shoot randomly could always bring great panic to the Ming Army. When the Ming Army prepared to use the cannons to fight back, they would run out of the range of the Ming Army's cannons.
This gave the Ming Army a lot of pressure.
Li Chengliang prepared to ask for help from the imperial court for the third time. Yesterday's roll call, there were actually less than 30,000 soldiers left. There were not many who died in the battle. However, the number of deserters and deserters who were killed was higher. This made Li Chengliang feel both mentally and physically exhausted.
There was nothing more tiring than fighting against the enemy while dealing with internal deserters. The seventy year old general already found it hard to persevere. During these past few days, Li Chengliang continuously thought about his own experience of making a comeback this time, and then came to an extremely depressing conclusion.
He failed. He failed completely.
Whether it was in military or politics, he failed. He lost his last chance.
Li Chengliang was very clear about the purpose of the emperor using him and what kind of answer he gave the emperor. He had to say that he did a very bad job. Not only did he not achieve his goal in military affairs, he also lost all his points in politics. Now, he did not know if he had lost all his points.
The double failure in military affairs and politics made him lose his last chance to make a comeback. After that, if he could survive, he would probably live in retirement until the end of his life and then pass away peacefully. This was his best ending. When the future generations mentioned him, they would probably remember his glory in the past.
Perhaps, this was also a kind of happiness?
Looking at Chai Guozhu's figure that kept running, Li Chengliang seemed to see himself in the past.
How slow-witted. You're already in your twilight years, so why are you still fighting over it?
He had fought for his entire life to reach a position that was almost at the pinnacle of martial generals. He had already fought to reach the pinnacle of martial generals. How high could the martial generals after him, even if it was Xiao Ruxun? How could the Commander-in-Chief's Office of the Five Armies return to its original position?
Even if he thought about it, he knew that it was impossible. Since it was already like this, why was he still so stubborn? What was the purpose of his persistence? What was his goal? What did he get in return?
This situation had almost reached the point where they couldn't even protect their chastity.
Li Chengliang felt as if he had seen through a lot of things that he couldn't see through before, and looked down on a lot of things that he hadn't looked down on before.
His life before the age of forty had given him too much of a blow, causing him to crazily pursue fame and fortune. However, in the end, he would still die. This body could not become young, and it was impossible to return to the past. Li Chengliang was already old, and he was about to die. This was irreversible.
Li Chengliang, who pursued everything, was really about to reach the end.
Chai Guozhu was running again, and it seemed like the Mongolians were about to attack the city again. Li Chengliang smiled bitterly.
At this moment, Li Chengliang couldn't help but think of the young man who had gradually calmed his heart down and revived it. That young general had obtained the same position as him, and that person had shaken his position. If it wasn't for him, perhaps he wouldn't be so stubborn in pursuing fame and fortune again.
To put it bluntly, he was unwilling to fall behind others. Since he was a military general, he didn't expect to compete with scholars. But even if he was a military general, he still wanted to be the number one military general among military generals. Only then would he be satisfied and give up on fighting for fame and fortune.
He just couldn't accept it.
But it was this unwillingness that caused him to take the most wrong step.
Did he regret it?
He didn't.
Even though he was unwilling to accept it, and even though he understood a little, Li Chengliang didn't regret his mistake.
Because at the end of the day, he wasn't a civil official, but a general! It was the greatest wish of a famous general since ancient times. It was glory!
It was also his dream to be able to put a full stop to his military career instead of being unprepared. It was a complete full stop, a wonderful dream.
Now, it seemed that this dream was coming true!
Although Li Chengliang wanted to hypnotize himself in this way, the reality didn't allow him to continue hypnotizing himself. He had to return to reality and face the difficult problem.
Now, the only thing he could count on was the arrival of the reinforcements. He had asked for help twice and was preparing for the third time. But when the reinforcements would arrive was still a problem.
He calculated the distance and time and felt that his son should have arrived. But why hadn't he seen a Liaodong cavalry until now?
'Son, come quickly. Your father, I … really can't stand it anymore …'
It was probably Li Chengliang's sincere call. This time, God finally heard it.
At noon on the second day of the first month of the 26th year of Wanli, a strange army arrived at Zijing Pass. They carried the flag of Daming and wore the military uniform of the capital, but it felt completely different from the soldiers of the capital. More importantly, this army brought a large number of cannons. A rough count showed that there were nearly a hundred cannons.
These were not only the Francs and Crouching Tiger cannons that Li Chengliang was familiar with, but there was also a kind of cannon that Li Chengliang had never seen before. This kind of cannon looked extremely powerful because it was really big.
Li Chengliang took a rough look and found that the cannons were more than ten feet long. Even the shorter ones were about eight feet long. Compared with this kind of cannon, the Francs were like toys.
When this army arrived at Zijing Pass, it caused a lot of commotion. Because the Mongolians did not attack the city at this time, Li Chengliang went to see for himself. After seeing it, he was very surprised and looked for the general of this army.
A very unfamiliar general appeared in front of Li Chengliang.
"Eunuch Li, I am the subordinate of Admiral Xiao Ruxun, the commander-in-chief of the Zhennan Army, appointed by His Majesty. I came to help Zijing Pass with the 3,000 cavalrymen of Admiral Xiao and your son, Commander Li, are on the way. I think they will arrive soon. Please don't worry, Eunuch Li. When Admiral Xiao arrives and completes the handover, Eunuch Li can return to the capital."
As soon as Wang Hui's words came out, Li Chengliang was stunned. This time, Li Chengliang didn't have time to ask about the cannons. He was shocked and said, "Xiao Ruxun? Isn't he in Burma? How did he get here in this remote corner of Tiannan? He wants to replace me as the commander-in-chief of the Admiral? How is this possible?! "
Wang Hui didn't say much. He handed the military order written by the emperor that Xiao Ruxun gave him to Li Chengliang.
Li Chengliang snatched the letter and saw some familiar words on it. There was also the mark of the seal. He suddenly felt the world was spinning.
"Eunuch Li! Eunuch Li! Eunuch Li! Eunuch Li!! "
… … …
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
