"Collect arrows." Suo Etu and a few other Praetorian Guard officers who had been ordered to stay gave orders to his subordinates. The troops who broke through did not need bows and arrows, and the extra bows had already been thrown from the camp walls; Although there was only an hour of fighting, the arrows of the Praetorian Guards were almost gone, and a batch of arrows were thrown outside the wall just now in order to surrender, and now Suo Etu and their quivers were empty.

The land in the imperial camp was almost full of feathered arrows, and the walls of the camp were also full of arrows, and Suo Etu walked among the arrows everywhere, pulling out arrow after arrow from the ground, and carefully observing their arrows. Most of the arrows had been damaged by the impact, or had been somewhat deformed by the burning grease, and were covered in hard lumps from the burning. These will cause the center of gravity of the bow and arrow to shift, affecting the accuracy and power of the arrow. If they had time, they could repair it, but they didn't have the time to do that right now, so they could only try to find some weapons with good shafts and intact arrows.

Many of the Praetorian Guards' arms were so sore that they couldn't lift them, and now that the fighting was suspended, they felt a burst of pain in their arms. However, Suo Etu and the others didn't take this seriously, anyway, no one could survive until the afternoon, as long as they could make a final resistance for a while.

The Praetorian Guards who were ready to break through waited quietly, they had already heard the cheers of the Ming troops on the periphery, as long as Deng Ming agreed to surrender, they would begin to walk out of the camp gate, and the surrounding Ming troops should have a period of paralysis; Even if there were suspicions when the Janissaries were assembling, it was impossible to bring the tens of thousands of enemy troops who were celebrating their victory back to a state of high alert all at once. Most of the Praetorian Guards who were preparing to protect the Emperor's breakthrough were also very tired, and they struggled to seize the brief gap in the armistice to catch their breath and try to recover.

Most of the Ming troops outside the camp were smiling at this time. Especially for the auxiliary soldiers, the myth of the brave and invincible Eight Banners has always been a heavy burden on their hearts before, although the Ming army is well fed, warmly dressed, and has meat and vegetables every day as well as the New Year, but it has never been able to eliminate the fear in their hearts. When he marched to the imperial camp last night, Deng Ming asked these auxiliaries to follow the soldiers from a distance, and did not let them join the encirclement until the encirclement was completed, for fear that they would make a mess because they were too nervous.

When the attack on the imperial camp began two hours earlier, the auxiliaries were still quite worried when they were ordered to go forward and shoot arrows, fearing that each of the Eight Banners of Manchuria would pass through the Yang in a hundred steps and put them to the ground in the blink of an eye. But they shot arrows at the imperial camp in turn without encountering any counterattack, and over the course of the hour the auxiliaries grew bolder, and now after seeing the Praetorian Guards surrender like this, the auxiliaries were even more elated, and their previous fear of the Eight Banners turned into contempt.

"It turns out that the Manchurian Tartars can't help but fight." Almost all of the auxiliaries expressed similar feelings, and even began to understand why they were so afraid of the Eight Banners before, and many of them laughed and said, "Lao Tzu hasn't shot enough." "More than 10,000 auxiliaries took turns to shoot arrows, and after shooting ten arrows without any pressure and then lining up again, today's battle was almost a game for them.

Most of the auxiliaries were completely unaware that the equipment and supplies of the Ming army today had an overwhelming advantage over the imperial guards. Before the war, there were four provinces that were providing a steady stream of resources for the Ming army, and they were also rich in the four provinces of Liangjiang and Huguang, which gave the Ming army sufficient and excellent equipment. Deng Ming could exchange 100,000 or 200,000 arrows for hundreds of enemy lives without blinking an eye, without considering letting the Ming infantry risk a sudden attack. If you change the Kuidong Army or the Green Battalion, it will have 30,000 troops, and it will be difficult to break through the well-equipped Praetorian Guard in such a short period of time.

The envoy who asked for surrender walked up to Deng Ming and put forward the conditions under the vigilant gaze of the Ming guards: "We are willing to surrender, hoping that the admiral will guarantee not to kill the prisoners." ”

After hearing the envoy's words, all the people breathed a sigh of relief, and the brilliant victory was about to be reached, and all the Ming officers and soldiers were in irrepressible ecstasy and excitement in their hearts. Deng Ming was naturally no exception, but he was not completely carried away by the joy, but remembered the promise to the governors of Jiangnan, Deng Ming replied: "I guarantee the safety of the others, only your emperor I can't let him go, let him cut himself, you give me his body, I will let the others go." ”

This answer was obviously unexpected by the Praetorian Guard's envoy, who did not expect that surrender would be refused. Because there is no law to restrain whether to kill prisoners or not, the surrendering side is completely resigned to fate, and since the victor is not bound by the promise, of course he does not care about this issue, and always agrees to it, and then disposes of the prisoners according to his own mood; The most important thing is that this is the Ming and Qing dynasties vying for hegemony in the world, and in the eyes of the Praetorian Guards, it is obviously more beneficial to capture the emperor than to kill the Ming army.

This completely unreasonable answer stunned the envoy, and after a while he realized that delaying it would inevitably make the other party suspicious, so he argued: "If the admiral refuses to guarantee the emperor's safety, we will not surrender." ”

"Then don't surrender, I can't guarantee his life." The envoy thought that his threat was enough to make Deng Ming agree casually, but the envoy's threat was of no use at all, and for Deng Ming, this was by no means a promise, but a guarantee of responsibility, so he replied without hesitation: "You go back and fight again." ”

The surrounding Ming army officers knew Deng Ming's temper, and even if the Qing army did not surrender, it seemed that they would not be able to hold out for long, and all of them were full of confidence in breaking through the imperial camp and annihilating the Praetorian Guard before noon.

"That's it, let's go back and fight again." Zhou Kaihuang and others shouted one after another. Seeing that the negotiations were about to break down, Deng Ming's guards and standard-bearers also regained their solemn expressions and began to signal that the Ming army was ready to attack again.

"Admiral, wait, wait." Seeing that the plan to paralyze the Ming army was about to go bankrupt, the messenger who asked for surrender hurriedly said: "The villain will go back to resume his life, please wait a while." ”

The messenger turned and ran back to the gate of the imperial camp. After hearing Deng Ming's words just now, Ren Tang decided that the Praetorian Guards would not surrender, and he was not surprised by this result. The soldiers of the Ming army have not participated in the battle, and when he saw the envoy of the Praetorian Guard coming out of the camp to ask for surrender just now, Ren Tang also felt a little regretful that he did not have the opportunity to express himself. Ren Tang even felt that it was not bad for Deng Ming not to accept surrender, and he just wiped out these Manchurian Eight Banners.

"Can they negotiate this condition of ours?" Looking at the panicked back of the Praetorian Guard, Ren Tang said with some confusion: "The Tartar Emperor is willing to sacrifice his life just so that his minions can survive?" Or is it no longer the Tartar Emperor in the camp who has the final say? ”

After hearing that Deng Ming had rejected the emperor's surrender, a fierce quarrel broke out among the officers surrounding Shunzhi. Some people thought that they should try to talk to Deng Ming again in order to complete the paralysis of the Ming army, or simply send a corpse in a dragon robe out; But more people advocated an immediate breakthrough and no time for the Ming army to react - now the Ming army was already preparing to continue the battle, and would soon return to its previous state of alert.

"We surrender!"

Deng Ming heard another shout from the emperor's camp, followed by more shouts: "Let's come out and surrender." ”

The door of the imperial camp slowly opened, and the first few Praetorian Guard officers led their horses out dejectedly, and after seeing the Qing army begin to walk out of the camp, the Ming army erupted in deafening cheers.

"It seems that when Zhu Di accepted the surrender, he sent his own people into the city to surrender, not to let the enemy surrender." After hearing that the Praetorian Guards actually agreed to his request, Deng Ming also felt a little incredible, and he recalled in his heart the history books he had read: "Zhu Di has experienced a hundred battles, why does he never let the enemy surrender, does he have any reason?" ”

The Praetorian Guards accepted the conditions of the Ming army so quickly, this matter was so bizarre that Deng Ming had not yet figured out the reason, and felt very uneasy in his heart, and shouted the order: "Let them stop leaving the camp, and I will send people into the camp to surrender." ”

"Or hold your head and throw down your weapon," and then Deng Ming added another order: "Let them hand over the camp gate to us, and the others stay in the camp and don't move." ”

Although they heard the shouts of the Ming army, the Praetorian Guards did not stop moving, and continued to pour out of the camp gate, and the Ming army's envoys could not stop more Janissaries from leaving their camp.

"Stop them!" In the blink of an eye, after three or four hundred Praetorian Guards came out of the camp gate with their horses, the doubts in Deng Ming's heart had completely turned into vigilance, and he shouted an order: "Attack them and force them to retreat to the camp." ”

After hearing Deng Ming's anxious tone, no matter how sluggish the Ming army officers were, they also realized that something was wrong with the situation, and the officers who were still smiling loudly responded loudly.

After learning of the surrender of the Praetorian Guard, although the 8,000 soldiers of the Ming army cheered, they still stuck to their posts, especially the 800 standing troops deployed in front of the camp gate, a total of 1,000 standing troops were deployed on the opposite side of the camp gate.

"Attack, attack immediately, artillery fire!" Deng Ming saw that the Praetorian Guards were still pouring out of the camp gate, and finally fully understood, and shouted in his heart: "Isn't this Liu Bang's old trick to surrender in Chenggao?" ”

"They didn't go out of the camp and surrendered, they broke through!"

The officers of the Ming army shouted loudly, and the artillery rotated their muzzles one after another and began to aim in the direction of the camp gate, and the standing army also reacted and began to move forward to prepare for battle. The levies behind them also woke up from a dream, and after a moment of consternation, the joy on their faces began to turn to anger.

"It's too late." The Janissaries who had already left the camp saw that the lineup of the Ming army was changing, and also heard the loud warnings between the Ming officers and soldiers, and the 1,200 Praetorian Guards who participated in the breakthrough had just come out of 500 people, and now the emperor and the remaining 700 or so Praetorian Guards had not yet had time to leave the camp, but it was obvious that before the whole army left the camp, the Ming army would recover from the laxity.

"Assault of the whole army!" Zuo Ling immediately made a decision, shouted and turned over and rushed forward first.

"Kill!" The officers and men of the Praetorian Guard, who were still hanging their heads and pretending to be sad just now, also raised their heads one after another at this order, drew their weapons, jumped on their horses, and rushed forward shouting.