Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 112 Sun Deya Becomes a Bandit (Subscription Request)
As the group was heading towards Dingyuan with the captives, Lu Ding suddenly found Zhu Liangzu.

"Commander Zhu, there are more than 2,000 soldiers that Sun Deya kidnapped from me."

Zhu Liangzu said without hesitation, "Pick out your two thousand soldiers."

"Thank you, Commander Zhu. Can you let me handle Pan Yuxing's confidant?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Liangzu immediately frowned and said, "We in the Shengwu Army have military discipline, and we are not allowed to kill prisoners!"

Lu Ding looked sad when he heard this, but Zhu Liangzu immediately added another sentence.

"But the Marshal has not accepted you yet, so you are not considered a member of our army for the time being."

Lu Ding was immediately overjoyed, "Thank you, General!"

Then he turned around and went towards the captured generals under Pan Yuxing.

Zhu Liangzu shouted quickly, "Don't go too far."

"I will not make it difficult for the general."

Of course, Lu Ding knew who he could rely on to get his troops back. Besides, he had to surrender to Lu Jin, so he must not act rashly and embarrass Zhu Liangzu.

Ye Sheng turned a blind eye and pretended not to see anything. Pan Yuxing's men had killed Lu Ding's family. Keeping them alive would only cause Lu Ding to harbor resentment, which would be detrimental to unity. So there was no harm in killing them.

It's okay to kill a few generals, as long as he doesn't make things bigger and massacre those ordinary soldiers.

However, he will report the matter truthfully to Lu Jin. As for whether Lu Jin will pursue the matter, that is none of his business.

With tacit approval, Lu Ding immediately killed more than 20 officers under Pan Yuxing and took their heads to sacrifice to his parents, but he could only find a trusted relative to go home and take care of the funeral.

Although according to filial piety, one should mourn for three years when one's parents have just died, but that is the rule for civil officials. Military officers don't follow this. You are on the march and fighting. How can you go home and rest for three years? You must be kidding.
When the group returned to Dingyuan, it was already noon on October 19th.

Zhu Liangzu, Liao Yongzhong and Ye Sheng discussed the matter and immediately wrote a battle report. They first sent a fast horse to inform Lu Jin, and then began to temporarily reorganize the Dingyuan troops.

Liao Yongzhong and Zhu Liangzu went to see Mr. Miao, and Liao Yongzhong asked straight to the point.

"General Miao really wants to join our Shengwu Army?"

Tycoon Miao nodded confidently, "Really? I'm not lying!"

Liao Yongzhong said this when he saw that he didn't seem to be lying.

"It's your business if you want to surrender, but as for how to arrange it and what position to give you, that's up to the Marshal to decide.

"If you are willing, you can follow Commander Ye back to Luzhou. Your family will be escorted by Wang Bi, and your two sons will follow Feng Sheng. Your 4,000 troops will be temporarily commanded by Guo Zixing. Once you arrive in Luzhou, the Marshal will make arrangements for you. How do you do that?"

Miao Daheng was speechless. He was being watched closely. His son, family, generals, and troops were all separated. He couldn't do anything he wanted.
However, judging from the way the other party handled the situation, they probably didn't intend to kill him. Instead, such an open and honest arrangement made it easier for people to accept. The other party made it clear that they didn't trust him very much at the moment, but were willing to accept him.

This also shows the capabilities of the generals of the Shengwu Army. These people are at least not good-for-nothings like Sun Deya. They are capable of doing things. Following such an army, perhaps things can really be accomplished.

"Okay, I agree."

Then Mr. Miao smiled bitterly and said, "The generals are too cautious."

Liao Yongzhong said, "It's better to be cautious. General Miao is sincere in his surrender, so he should understand our approach."

"I understand, I understand." Mr. Miao was helpless. What could he do if he didn't understand?

After deciding on how to organize the group for the trip to Luzhou, Miao Daheng immediately called his two sons to explain the situation to them.

Upon hearing this, Miao Youzhen immediately asked in a low voice, "Dad, what's going on? Are we really going to Luzhou?"

Mr. Miao sighed and suddenly said with emotion, "Alas, it's fate and time. Let's invest."

He originally wanted to use Sun Deya to gain some military merits, get an official position, occupy one or two cities, and wait for the price to rise. However, who knew that Lu Jin would come so quickly and capture Dingyuan right away. What a waste of time it would take to sell him.

Since Lu Jin is so strong and has tough tactics, just surrender. What else can you do?

In the next few days, everyone took Dingyuan City as the center, and Guo Zixing took out his family wealth and recruited troops everywhere.

Unlike in history, he joined the Shengwu Army in advance, with the invincible Shengwu Army as his trademark, and the number of soldiers given to him was limited, so he could not recruit too many. This saved him a lot of money, and he did not have to "spend all" his wealth like in history.

So the Guo family's ancestral home was left behind, as were some businesses, and were handed over to the servants to manage. Guo Zixing took his family and soldiers and prepared to move to Luzhou to settle down, as he would follow the army anyway.

During the days when Guo Zixing was recruiting soldiers, Ye Sheng also led the cavalry battalion to continue sweeping the area east of Dingyuanchi River, capturing the defeated soldiers who had escaped that day to prevent them from becoming bandits and harming the local people. Over the years, more than a thousand people were captured.

During this period, another "wild general" came to surrender. His name was Shen Ren. He built a stronghold in Huobi Mountain in Dingyuan to protect himself. He was only 20 years old this year and had hundreds of men under him.

Historically, this man also joined Zhu Yuanzhang, served in the army for more than 30 years, and experienced hundreds of battles. Although he did not seem to be granted a title, he was granted the hereditary title of the Commander-in-Chief of Fujian, which is equivalent to the military chief of the Fujian Provincial Military Region, and he was not a small figure.

Shen Ren was directly recruited by Ye Sheng and incorporated into the cavalry regiment. Anyway, Lu Jin had given him the order to recruit soldiers and expand the cavalry regiment. He just needed to recruit people on his own, hand in the roster when he came back, and report to Lu Jin.

Under Ye Sheng's continuous sweep, Sun Deya and Yu Shiliang were also in great pain.

A few days ago, they still had an army of over ten thousand and abundant wealth and food. Now they are hiding in Huangfu Mountain and dare not come out. There are only about a thousand people left with them. In the past few days, they have gradually gathered some defeated soldiers and barely got together more than two thousand people, but there are very few wealth and food left.

Yu Shiliang sighed and said, "What should I do? Alas, I said at the beginning that we should not attack Lu Ding, otherwise I would not have recruited the Luzhou soldiers." At this point, he looked at Sun Deya with a reproachful look.

Sun Deya had a cold face and didn't even look at him, but he said.

"When we robbed Lu Ding's property that day, you got the lion's share, and also gave him a thousand soldiers. Stop talking nonsense. Who knew that this guy actually contacted Luzhou in advance, and the Luzhou soldiers happened to be nearby."

Speaking of this, Yu Shiliang couldn't help but complain, "Everyone who came to the mountain these two days said that the Luzhou soldiers have occupied Dingyuan City, and even Miao Daheng has surrendered. The day we started the uprising was the day the Luzhou soldiers captured the city.

"Why did you choose such a day and such a place to start the rebellion without even knowing that they were coming to seize the city?"

Sun Deya sneered, "What's wrong with the place I picked? If I hadn't picked this place, would you still be hiding in the mountains and complaining? I'm afraid you would have lost your head like Pan Yuxing!"

Yu Shiliang felt his back tighten when he heard that, and he touched his neck before speaking again.

"What should we do now? We are running low on food, and the weather is getting colder. This mountain is not a place to spend the winter. The Luzhou cavalry is sweeping down the mountain, and we don't know when they will leave. Where should we go?"

Sun Deya had been thinking about this question for two days, and he spoke immediately after hearing this.

"The Luzhou cavalry is guarding the foot of the mountain. Now Dingyuan has become their territory. We can't survive here anymore. Let's just go over the mountain to Chuzhou.

"Fortunately, we still have more than 2,000 soldiers. Let's find a way to grab some wealth and food, continue recruiting soldiers, and once we have grown stronger in Chuzhou, we can go north to attack Haozhou!"

"Alas, this is the only thing we can do." Yu Shiliang lamented.

As a result, Sun Deya and Yu Shiliang, the two marshals of the rebel army who originally had abundant wealth and over 10,000 soldiers, were directly turned into bandits and fled to Chuzhou to plunder.
On the other side, October 22nd, Luzhou City.

Lu Jin selected 120 military officers from the military examination and was training them as instructors these two days. The fast horse from Dingyuan ran for three days and finally reached him.

After reading the newspaper, Lu Jin immediately called Li Shanchang and Feng Guoyong, and the three of them held a small meeting.

"We took Dingyuan City on the night of the 17th. The capture of the city went smoothly, but there was an accident outside the city."

"What accident?" Li Shanchang and Feng Guoyong said in unison.

They were both from Dingyuan. Li Xu was Li Shanchang's cousin, and Feng Guoyong's brother Feng Sheng was also there. When they heard about the accident, they all worried about their families.

Lu Jin handed them the report and said, "Look for yourselves. Someone started a rebellion in Dingyuan, but he didn't join us and was beaten by Zhu Liangzu."

The two men immediately took the newspaper and took a closer look. This newspaper was signed by Zhu Liangzu, Liao Yongzhong, Ye Sheng, and Li Xu, so the authenticity of the content should be no problem.

They reported the process of capturing the city. Miao Daheng and his son surrendered and expressed their willingness to submit voluntarily and were very cooperative.

Then Sun Deya and his two companions started an uprising and attacked Lu Ding, who wanted to join the Shengwu Army. Zhu Liangzu and his men led a thousand cavalrymen to attack them, captured nearly ten thousand people, and killed Pan Yuxing in battle. The remaining troops of Sun Deya fled into the mountains, and it seems that they crossed the mountains to Chuzhou or Haozhou.

Then they planned to send Dingyuan's troops back to Luzhou, about 20,000 people, and let Lu Jin reorganize them. They might not have enough rations for the journey, and they were all new recruits, with only Ye Sheng's cavalry battalion as escort. They hoped that Lu Jin would send someone with food to meet them.

In addition, Zhu Liangzu requested that it would be best to station a battalion of cavalry in Dingyuan. Dingyuan was directly facing Xuzhou, Zhima Li, and the front line of the Yuan court. There was only one 5th regiment, which was enough to defend the city, but it was impossible to deal with the enemy. This time, the annihilation of Sun Deya's troops was thanks to a cavalry.

Cavalry can serve as a rapid reaction force and is indeed suitable for being placed on the front line.

Li Shanchang and Feng Guoyong both breathed a sigh of relief after reading it.

Li Shanchang said immediately, "This is a small matter. I have also heard a little about Sun Deya. He will not accomplish anything great. Just drive him away. If he goes to other rebel armies, they will not be able to bear much use. They will attack other rebel armies first. If this matter gets out, no one will befriend them."

Lu Jin nodded. This was also the reason why he left Anfeng alone and did not fight. He wanted to leave a buffer zone between him and Liu Futong's troops to avoid friction between the two sides. Suffering a loss was secondary. The key point was that the Yuan court had not been destroyed yet. Fighting with other rebel forces at this time would be very discreditable.

As for sending troops to support, those are all trivial matters. Just let Zheng Yong lead his cavalry battalion and bring a few hundred stones of military rations to support.

Lu Jin asked the two again, "What is the situation with this Tycoon Miao? Are you familiar with him?"

Li Shanchang stroked his beard and said, "I know him a little bit. He is also a wealthy man from Dingyuan. I think he has the same idea as Kang Maocai, hoping to get rewards from the court for his military merits in suppressing the rebels. But he is not really loyal to the court. He just wants to get an official position. He is a fence-sitter. My lord, you can recruit him."

"Then take him in."

Lu Jin nodded, then opened his notebook again, found the page for civil servants, and selected the names of Sang Hongbin, a scholar from Wuwei, and Meng Zhifang, a scholar from Lu'an, from the forty people who had just been admitted a few days ago.

Sang Hongbin was the magistrate of Dingyuan County, and Meng Zhifang was the chief clerk.

A new regiment would be dispatched to reinforce Dingyuan, and the new regiment would be allowed to defend the city while training soldiers. Zhu Liangzu's main force of the Five Regiments would be able to withdraw at any time to deal with the imperial court or other rebel forces.

Lu Jin glanced at the troop list and finally chose the newly formed Seventh Regiment, which included Yu Tongyuan, Feng Sheng, Zhao Yong, and Xi Guobao.

Among the four combat battalions of the Seventh Regiment, the two battalions of Yu Tongyuan and Zhao Yong are all veterans, and the other half are pure recruits, so the combat effectiveness is still guaranteed.

Anyway, this is how Lu Jin expanded the army. He drew out the backbone battalions from the old troops and added some new troops. This way he could quickly form combat effectiveness. At least at the critical moment, there would be one or two battalions in a regiment that could fight.

However, when Dingyuan's batch of 20,000 new soldiers arrives, his old soldiers will probably not be enough. By then, there will definitely be a group of pure new soldiers, and then he will have to conduct large-scale military training.

If the expansion continues at this rate, there may be 12 or 13 regiments, and the weapons and equipment will not be enough.

The war south of Chaohu Lake must also be intensified!

There is one more chapter before 12 o'clock at night

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(End of this chapter)