When the Ming army attacked the imperial camp, there was almost no resistance, and the lost Janissaries sat on the ground one by one and wept bitterly, and no longer had the will to fight. For Suo Etu and them, their only mission left in the camp was to cover the emperor's breakthrough, and the destruction of the emperor's guards was tantamount to the collapse of the sky for them, and these Praetorian Guards completely collapsed at once.

"The captives confessed that the Tartar Emperor was in the midst of that large group of enemy troops." Ren Tanglai, who was in charge of the interrogation, reported to Deng Ming, and their previous guess was indeed correct: "I have ordered all the bodies to be separated and identified one by one. ”

"Then I'll leave this matter to you." Just now Ren Tang was on the battlefield, and Deng Ming handed over this task to him: "How do you plan to make the Qing army honestly recognize the corpse?" ”

"I'm going to tell them that these corpses will be thrown in the wilderness to feed the wild dogs, and if they still want their masters to have a chance to be buried, they will honestly tell them which of our corpses belong to the Tartar Emperor." Ren Tang replied.

"Good." Although the captured Praetorian Guards unanimously confessed that Shunzhi was hiding in that enemy army, Deng Ming was still careful to keep every prisoner in custody so as not to be fooled by Shunzhi: "All prisoners must be carefully screened, and you must not carelessly let the Tartar Emperor escape." ”

"The Admiral is right." Ren Tang confidently told Deng Ming his thoughts, if the Tartar Emperor was really dead, it was estimated that the body would be able to be found soon; At the same time, the screening of captives will also be carried out: "I have ordered each captive to report his name, and then he will be given to five different men to identify him. There are also people among the Mongol Tartars who know the Tartar Emperor, and we will show the captives to the Mongols one by one, and we will definitely not let the Tartar Emperor slip through the net. ”

"Good." Deng Ming felt that Ren Tang had arranged it very carefully, and he couldn't come up with any supplements.

The bodies of more than 300 Praetorian Guard officers and soldiers killed by the cavalry of the three walls were lined up, and then the Ming army escorted the captured Praetorian Guard officers to identify the bodies. Suo Etu walked slowly beside the corpse with a sad face, and suddenly, he stopped, although the corpse in front of him was covered with blood and there were traces of trampling on it, but Suo Etu still recognized it at once.

"Your Majesty." Suo Etu screamed, threw himself on Shunzhi's corpse and cried, and the other Praetorian Guard officers who were brought to identify the corpse also grabbed the ground with their heads, knelt in front of Shunzhi's corpse and beat their chests.

"This one?" Ren Tang waved his hand, and the Ming soldiers ran up and took the Praetorian Guard prisoners who were looking for death and life away from Shunzhi's corpse: "Clean it and give it to the Mongolian Tartars for recognition." ”

Before noon, Shunzhi's body was reconfirmed by the officers and soldiers of the Eight Banners, and when his body was carried to the rest of the Praetorian Guard prisoners, they all began to cry.

"Looks right." Deng Ming saw that it was done, and he was in a very happy mood. In this battle, the Ming army launched an attack after a few hours, destroyed the Mengba Banner in one hour, rested until dawn and launched an attack, and it only took one hour to completely annihilate the recalcitrant Praetorian Guards, and the whole battle and cleaning the battlefield took only five hours, which can be called a thunderous blow; If you don't count the losses of less than 200 Mongol death squads, the casualties of the Ming army are only a few dozen. On the other side, the Praetorian Guard and the Mongol Eight Banners were all wiped out, and in addition to the Mongols, 500 Praetorian Guard prisoners were captured.

"Announce the good news to the whole army. Don't let the dead Tartars expose their corpses to the wilderness, let the captives dig pits and bury them. Deng Ming quickly issued a series of orders. Soon there were waves of cheers on the Ming army's position, and the proud three-walled knight erected a sturdy wooden pole, and then hung the body of Shunzhi in a small soldier uniform to show the whole army.

"Who the hell killed the Tartar Emperor," Deng Ming then handed Ren Tang an order: "I'll also be in charge of you." ”

"Yes." Ren Tang replied loudly, but immediately asked rhetorically, "Did the Admiral kill him?" ”

"Me?" Deng Ming shook his head. As an art student who has painted many portraits, he is accustomed to carefully observing the facial features of people, but when he charged just now, he was so engrossed in the attack that he didn't care about examining the enemy on the opposite side, especially Shunzhi didn't put up any resistance, so he didn't leave the slightest impression on Deng Ming: "I don't remember attacking him, I shouldn't have killed him." ”

"I don't remember this person either." Ren Tang is not good at remembering people's appearances, and he is even less impressed: "But judging from the traces on the corpse, it is likely that we were killed during the first assault." ”

"Really? Anyway, I'll leave it to you. ”

When the excited Ming army began to eat lunch, Ren Tang ran to report the preliminary progress to Deng Ming. Now he has confirmed that Shunji died in the first attack of the cavalry of the Three Walls. Several Praetorian Guards who protected Shunzhi's breakthrough confessed that although they escaped from the range of the three walls when the cavalry first stormed, they saw that those colleagues who were close to the emperor were involved. After the Ming army rushed over, they did not see the emperor and those personal bodyguards. However, the emperor's personal guards were all killed by the Ming army, so it is impossible to know from them who killed Shunzhi.

"I carefully examined the body of the Tartar Emperor and found that a knife in the throat was a fatal wound, and at the same time there was a blow to the front chest, several ribs were broken, and a knife was also received on the right arm, perhaps the Tartar Emperor waved his sword to resist and was cut by the covering riders." Before taking the captives to identify the corpses just now, all the weapons on the corpses of the Praetorian Guards had been removed, so it was impossible for Ren Tang to know that Shunzhi's sword had not been drawn at all.

"The knife wound on the right arm is on it, so the Tartar Emperor should be forward

Stab your saber instead of slashing straight from top to bottom. According to the wound on Shunzhi's body, Ren Tang carefully analyzed the emperor's dying movements, and also compared the action of stretching his arm and stabbing in front of Deng Ming: "Otherwise, the knife wound should be under the arm instead of the arm." ”

"That's a good point." Deng Ming nodded. He took a closer look and found that he had not encountered an enemy with a straight sword, so he was sure that he was not involved in killing Shunji.

"I have carefully questioned all the warriors, and ten of them vaguely remember that they seem to have encountered an enemy who made such a move, so the warrior who killed the Tartar Emperor should be among them." Three wounds alone were not enough to identify the meritorious person, for almost every Praetorian Guard had similar scars: "I inspired them to remember as if they had struck each other in the throat. ”

"Punching the other person's throat seems to be your habit." Deng Ming interjected. In the dense array, most of the Three Walls Knights prefer to split straight from top to bottom, and there are relatively few people like Ren Tang who like to split horizontally, and it is indeed not as effective as the former.

"yes, I wish I had done it, but unfortunately I remember very well, neither of the two enemies I hit head-on came straight through. One was slashed with a knife, and his hand was cut off by the Admiral—well, yes, a severed finger flew to my face; The other seemed to be completely stunned, and did not draw his sword at all, and the Admiral had no need to cover the chop, as if he hadn't done it. ”

"Well, really? I don't remember exactly. Deng Ming knew that if it was Ren Tang's victory, then it should indeed be himself in the cover position. However, since it was not Deng Ming's main attack, the impression left was even shallower than Ren Tang.

"I've asked them to turn in their weapons and check their wounds, and it will take some time, but we'll soon find out which warrior has done this."

Ren Tang's prophecy failed, and it was soon discovered that the weapons did not match the wounds, and several Ming knights continued to recall their movements under his many inspirations, but according to their accounts, they would not cause such wounds, and the knights who assisted them on their left and right said very differently. In the end, Ren Tang had no choice but to report to Deng Ming in despair, and he couldn't find the strong man who killed the emperor.

"It's a pity." Deng Ming had to dispel the idea of introducing this hero to the three armies: "Check slowly, rather slow than leave any doubts, this kind of honor must not be mistaken." ”

"The Admiral is right, and I think so too."

However, although the exact hero could not be found immediately, Shunzhi must have died at the hands of the hundred people of the three walls. Seeing that Ren Tang couldn't find it, someone immediately suggested that Deng Ming should receive the honor, but Deng Ming refused without thinking. He clearly told everyone: "I killed an enemy just now, and that man has a big beard, and he is definitely not the Tartar Emperor. I think we still have a chance to find out, but even if we can't find it in the end, this honor should be shared by everyone, and there will be nothing wrong with him dying at our hands anyway. ”

The Ming army rested for the night beside Gaoyou Lake and then returned along the canal. Using the captured Shunzhi Great Seal, Deng Ming issued three holy decrees in his name, ordering Zhou Peigong, Liang Huafeng, and Jiang Guozhu to cut themselves in the name of unfavorable combat and lack of leadership. These holy decrees will not be sent by special people, but handed over to Liang Huafeng's henchmen, and the governor of Jiangnan is responsible for finding someone to act as a messenger to send them.

Shunzhi's body was taken away by Deng Ming's army. He openly told the captured Praetorian Guards that he did not intend to keep his previous promise to let Shunzhi be buried in peace, but would cut it with thousands of knives in accordance with the express order of the Southern Ming court, throw it to wild dogs to eat, and the head should be pickled and spread to the world.

Suo Etu and the others were furious, although they tried to pounce on Deng Ming with their bare hands, of course, this was impossible to do, and the Ming soldiers easily subdued these prisoners.

Late at night the next day, Suo Etu and several other Praetorian Guard officers were sleeping soundly when they were suddenly pulled up from the ground by the Ming soldiers who broke in, pushed and shoved and brought them into a tent.

Mu Tan sat proudly in the middle of the torch-lit tent, and next to this Ming general stood a Manchu official with snow-white hair (freshly dyed) and red eyes (smeared with color).

"I'm Lin Qilong, the governor of Caoyun." The old man said to Suo Etu with a miserable face: "Dare to ask, is the emperor's dragon body really real?" ”

Suo Etu, who was in a daze, was dizzy by the torches, and couldn't understand how he could see the governor of Caoyun in the camp of the Ming army, let alone why the prefect of Yangzhou also appeared here. Lin Qilong didn't explain much to them, and after receiving an affirmative reply from the Praetorian Guard officer, the governor of Caoyun turned around tremblingly and knelt down at Mu Tan.

"I'm not lying, am I?" Mu Tan's triumphant voice came, and the guards behind him let out a strange laugh.

Lin Qilong waved his hand silently, and the two crying young girls were led into the camp tent by several middle-aged women.

"This is the little daughter of the lower official, and she has been taken care of by the general since then." Lin Qilong wiped the corners of his eyes with the cuffs dipped in chili water, and suddenly there were old tears.

"This is Xia Guan's niece." The Yangzhou prefect on the side also wailed, kept wiping his eyes with his sleeves, coughed violently until he cried, and shouted breathlessly: "It's also entrusted to the general." ”

"Please also ask the general to say good words to the admiral on his behalf, as long as the emperor's dragon body is returned," Lin Qilong assured loudly: "The lower officials are willing to give away the jade silk of the children of all Yangzhou." (To be continued)