Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 134: Leaping into Two Cities (Part )

When Pingding found out that someone was going to attack the city, he had no intention of resisting at all. He immediately took his teammates into the city and hid.

They didn't even go back to the barracks, but hid directly in a street shop.

A few people had just come out of the shack and were blown by the cold wind, and they were extremely frightened.

Li Xin, who was on the same team, immediately asked, "Did you see the Red Turban Army attacking the city? How come there was no movement in the middle of the night?"

As soon as these words were spoken, several people around looked at Pingding, and Pingding tried to remain calm.

"It's snowing tonight, and it's the first day of the new year. It's pitch dark and cold at night. There are not many people guarding the city walls. Isn't this the best time to steal the city?"

When everyone heard this, they realized it was indeed the case.

"Captain, where did the red scarf come from?"

"Outside the north city."

"Why is it in the north? Could it be that Sun Deya has come back to attack us again? Oh, that would be terrible."

Pingding also shook his head, indicating that he didn't know which team they were from.

At this time, Li Xin asked again, "Didn't you say that you would join the army once the Red Turbans arrived? Why don't you lead the way to surrender the city to them? If you make a contribution now, you might be able to become a centurion."

Pingding glanced at him. He couldn't see clearly in the dark room, so he could only say speechlessly, "It's so dark, how can you tell who is who? If I lead a team to steal the city, no matter who he is, I will kill him first. It's not the right time to join the army. Let's save our lives first."

At the same time, outside the city, it was just as Pingding had expected. Generally speaking, if a thief breaks into a house, the owner will be very nervous, but the thief who breaks into the house will be more nervous than the owner. Originally, the thief just wanted to steal something. If you come out to stop him, the thief might get so nervous that he might kill someone.

The same principle applies to stealing a city.

Outside the north city of Chuzhou, Yu Tonghai led a large army to hide three miles away, watching from afar as Chang Yuchun led his team to steal the city.

Under the leadership of Chang Yuchun, soldiers from four companies, each holding a chopstick in their mouths, carried long bamboo ladders in teams of thirty. The front and back ends of the ladders were wrapped with thick cloth to prevent noise when they were being set up.

Each team of soldiers held a ladder to avoid getting separated. They couldn't speak with chopsticks in their mouths, and nearly a thousand people moved quickly and silently towards the top of the city wall.

When passing by the moat, the ditch here was not very deep, only more than three meters deep and nearly six meters wide. It was not full of water and had not frozen yet.

Chang Yuchun arrived at the shore and waved his hand. His soldiers immediately built a bridge across the river according to the method they had practiced in advance. They extended the ladder along the river bank, inserted it into the riverbed and fixed it there. Then they fastened another ladder diagonally on top of it and led it directly to the other side. They repeated this process, and after adding a few more layers to lock them together, a simple bridge was built.

The soldiers under his command crossed the river smoothly. Just after one company had passed, Chang Yuchun did not wait for the troops behind to arrive. He waved his hand again and had someone quietly put up a ladder on the top of the city wall. Then he was the first to climb up.

Stealing the city was too dangerous. If someone saw them and sounded the alarm, it would be all over. So they had to climb the city quickly. As long as they could gain a foothold on the top of the city wall, it wouldn't matter if they were discovered. With his abilities, Chang Yuchun was confident that he could hold a piece of the city wall before the entire company arrived.

He quickly climbed up the six-meter-high earthen city wall. As soon as he showed his head from the top, he glanced around and saw that no one was walking around. There were only some shacks behind the parapet. Chang Yuchun did not hesitate any more. He climbed up with his hands, picked up the bow and arrow he carried with him, aimed vigilantly to both sides, and stood on guard at this climbing point.

After more than thirty soldiers had climbed up beside him, he began to give orders in a low voice.

"Immediately split into two teams and stand guard on the left and right. Don't touch those shacks yet, just keep an eye on them."

The soldiers nodded one after another, and then formed combat teams and advanced towards both sides of the city wall, still following the large and small Sancai formations in the Shengwu Army training outline, with a swordsman in front, two spearmen following behind him, and finally two archers, ready to shoot any enemy that appeared in front of them at any time.

In less than three minutes, more than two hundred people had climbed up to the top of the city wall. Seeing that there were enough soldiers, Chang Yuchun immediately led his men to attack the city gate.

There is a small tower at the city gate, which is only as big as two houses, but there are two wooden horizontal capstans inside, just like the capstans for reefing sails on a ship. These capstans are used to control the drawbridge at the city gate.

Chang Yuchun led the team to the outside of the building and shook his head behind him. Immediately, a soldier came forward and pushed open the door. The whistling cold wind accompanied by snowflakes blew in, immediately waking up the people in the room.

"Who the hell is this? It's snowing in the middle of the night and you're not going to let me sleep?"

Boom——

"Oh my god, someone is killing someone! Ah——"

With a bang, the bowstring sounded, and Chang Yuchun shot and killed one person without saying a word. The other people in the house were blown by the cold wind, and when they heard the shouting, they all climbed up in fear. But before they could touch their weapons, the next moment, more than a dozen men in iron armor rushed in with sharp blades in hand and began to strangle those soldiers who didn't even have clothes and shoes on.

"Ah, don't kill me, I'm willing to surrender, I'm willing to surrender, ah——"

The soldiers who rushed to the top of the city wall were extremely nervous at this time. Now was the critical moment to seize the gate. Who would keep prisoners? In just a short moment, more than a dozen people in the room were strangled to death. There was still one person who ran fast and ran out of the house on the other side of the city wall with bare legs. However, before he took two steps, there was another sound of bowstring behind him. The man was shot through the back and fell on the snow.

Since his whereabouts had been exposed and discovered by the defenders, Chang Yuchun no longer worried and shouted, "Follow me to seize the gate. Quickly lower the drawbridge, light the torches, and send a signal to the outside of the city."

This loud roar immediately woke up the defenders in the shacks on the city wall. Some of them stuck their heads out to check and were killed on the spot by the Shengwu Army guarding nearby. For a while, there were constant screams on the city wall. Now everyone woke up and dared not show their heads anymore. Some of them in the shacks were shouting that they were willing to surrender.

The city walls on the east and west sides were even more interesting. When the defenders poked their heads out and saw a large number of enemy troops on the north side of the city, they ran towards the city without saying a word. They had no courage to fight at all.

Are you kidding? There are so many enemies climbing up here, fully armed and equipped. Are they rushing over to die?
"Oh no! The Red Scarves are coming in. Run!"

Hearing the shouts from the defenders, a soldier immediately asked Chang Yuchun, "Captain, do you want to chase them into the city?"

"No, chase them along the city wall immediately and control the four gates. We have too few troops, so we need to occupy the city wall first."

"Yes!"

At this moment, there was a loud bang, and the drawbridge of the North City was lowered. Yu Tonghai, who had been waiting for a long time, saw three torches swaying in the wind on the top of the city wall. He immediately stood up and shouted, "The city gate is down, follow me into the city! Lan Chun controls the streets in the city, and Hua Yunlong leads the cavalry to the South Gate to pursue the remaining enemies!"

"Yes!"

"Kill!"

A moment later, the shouts of thousands of people poured in from outside the north gate. A large number of torches were lit, casting dim shadows on the streets of the city.

In the shop where Pingding was hiding, several people lay down and looked out through the crack of the door. They saw torches flashing on the street from time to time, and there were a lot of footsteps, as well as screams and pleas for mercy from time to time. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the captain took them out of the city in advance, otherwise their lives would have been in danger by now.

"Where is this red scarf from?"

"From what they call the battalion commanders, and the sound of many armored soldiers, they should be Luzhou soldiers. Sun Deya doesn't have so many soldiers and armors." Pingding analyzed. "That's perfect, now you have got what you wanted. How about it, when are we going to join the army?" Li Xin was a little excited when he heard it.

Pingding glanced at him again, "Why, you want to join the Luzhou army too?"

Li Xin said immediately, "These Luzhou soldiers are really powerful. They dared to steal the city on a snowy night. Without a hard fight, they were able to capture Chuzhou in one fell swoop. We will definitely not suffer any loss if we follow them."

"We'll have to wait until daybreak." Pingding also hoped to have someone familiar join the army with him, so he immediately expressed his opinion.

"Okay, when it's daybreak, let's join the army together."

Pingding then looked at the others and said, "We are brothers after all. If you don't want to join the army, drop your weapons now and find a place to hide. If you are willing to join the army with us, wait here first. We will go together tomorrow. Those who join the army must not betray other brothers. Let's part ways in peace."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone looked at each other, and four of them immediately dropped their weapons and climbed over the wall to run out.

"Coward." Li Xin muttered with disdain when he saw that someone really ran away.

Pingding said, "Oh, there is no need to do that. Everyone has their own aspirations. Let them be."

Upon hearing this, Li Xin immediately asked, "Everyone has his own ambitions. That's a good saying. So what ambitions do you have as a leader?"

Pingding turned around and leaned against the door, looking at the roof, then murmured.

"God has brought me into this troubled time, and I have no say in my life. I have suffered too much in this life, and my family members are all gone. I don't have much to ask for, but I want to leave a legacy for my family and carry on the family line.

"Marshal Lu of Luzhou is willing to make decisions for the people. If he accepts me, I will follow him to conquer the world. My name is Pingding, and this is how my life will be. If I have a son, I will name him Ping'an. He will live a peaceful life with three rooms, ten acres of land and a cow. That's good enough."

"Peace? This is a good name, but I don't know how long this war will end, ah."

At the same time, just when Chuzhou was successfully captured, the Fourth Regiment led by Yang Jing, which was further south, also launched a sneak attack on Quanjiao on the same day.

The pioneer here is Wu Fu. Wu Fu was one of the people who watched Lu Jin conquer Luzhou. He is considered an old man. He joined the Shengwu Army when the Chaohu Navy was reorganized into it for the first time. This time he finally has the opportunity to show himself.

Quanjiao is easier to attack than Chuzhou because there is no moat here, only an earthen city wall. But the disadvantage is that there is a circle of towns around the city wall, and if you want to attack the city, you have to pass through the streets of the town outside the city.

Fortunately, it was snowing and dark tonight, so no one was walking on the streets. However, when they were setting up the ladder to climb up the city, they were still discovered by people in the town outside the city.

Quanjiao is right next to Heyang, and they have been worried that Heyang might send troops to attack them at any time, so the vigilance here is higher. When they heard shouts from the town outside the city, Wu Fu cursed inwardly and hurriedly led his men to climb the city wall regardless of everything.

Fortunately, the weather here was the same, and there were not many defenders left on the city wall. Wu Fu personally led his troops to fight with the defenders for a while, and successfully occupied the city wall, opened the city gate and let Yang Jing's main force in.

In one night, the two cities were captured at the same time.

Lu Jin, who stayed in Heyang, did not sleep at all. The first day of the new year was the time he set for attacking the city, and he was still waiting for news from the north.

However, he had made all the necessary preparations and asked Zhu Liangzu to send troops to support him. Even if they failed to capture the city tonight, they would only lose one or two thousand people at most, and they could still withdraw with the main force.

The loss of one or two thousand people was indeed not small, enough to seriously damage an entire regiment, but he could still afford such a loss, after all, it was two cities.

"Marshal, you should take a rest. Everything has been arranged and nothing will go wrong." Zhang Wen arrived at the county government office at some point without knowing it.

Lu Jin glanced at him and smiled, "Aren't you asleep either?" Then he raised his wrist to look at his watch. It was already five in the morning, but it was still dark, so he continued.

"It's almost dawn. If the siege goes well, and we're close to Quanjiao, we should be able to get the news soon."

Sure enough, just when the people in the city were having lunch, a fast horse finally arrived from Quanjiao with a message.

"Great victory! Great victory! Commander Yang personally led the 4th regiment to attack Quanjiao and captured more than 3,000 enemy soldiers. Quanjiao has been conquered by our army!"

"Hurry and bring the battle report over here."

Lu Jin immediately took the battle report and read it, then he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Marshal, what does the battle report say?" Liao Yongjian asked when he saw this.

Lu Jin immediately smiled and said, "Not bad, the casualties were less than a hundred, more than three hundred were killed in battle, and three thousand were captured, which is a great victory."

"This is truly a great victory. Now all we need is news from Chuzhou." Zhang Wen also nodded.

Lu Jin waved his hand and said, "I am not worried about Chuzhou at all. Tonghai and Chang Yuchun are there, and attacking Chuzhou will be more unexpected. As long as there are no accidents, Chuzhou will definitely be taken."

Liao Yongan and Zhang Wen looked at each other. They didn't expect that Lu Jin valued Yu Tonghai and Chang Yuchun so much.

"The commander-in-chief said that after we capture these two cities, we will recruit two more regiments. Has he decided who will be the commander?"

Lu Jin glanced at the two of them and had nothing to hide from them, so he spoke immediately.

"Of course, there should be clear rewards and punishments for commanding a battle. This time, Chang Yuchun has made great contributions by giving advice and taking the initiative to be the vanguard in capturing the city. If Chuzhou is captured, he should be the new commander of the eastern front, and the other commander should be from the northern front."

"Then the Marshal is going to visit Dingyuan?" Liao Yongjian asked.

Lu Jin nodded, "Yes, we need to go there, not only to fight, but also to find a way to raise some money and food from Dingyuan."

"Go to Dingyuan to raise money and food? Where can we get the money there?" Both of them were puzzled.

"There is no money over there, but there are many salt wells. We can boil salt ourselves and sell it. Doesn't that count as money and food?" Lu Jin turned around and looked at the two of them and smiled.

"There's a salt well over there? Is that true? I've never heard of it."

"It's absolutely true! Someone, go to Quanjiao and call over Zheng Yong's Second Cavalry Regiment."

Lu Jin said this with certainty, and then immediately called a messenger. He wanted the cavalry regiment to escort him through Quanjiao and Chuzhou, first check the two cities, and then go north to Dingyuan.

(End of this chapter)