Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 200 Bloody Congyang River
Hearing Lu Jin's question, everyone present became nervous. Some captured Yuan army generals struggled desperately, some knelt there with sweat on their foreheads and trembling all over. The Shengwu Army immediately became alert to prevent these prisoners from rioting.

Jin Siyuan and the other two looked at each other and roughly understood what Lu Jin meant. Was he asking them to surrender? !
This time, before Jin Siyuan could speak, Hong Bao, one of the three men, said, "General, please allow me to report. When we were marching in the south bank, Molunchi let his soldiers plunder the countryside and killed everyone in a village. He also abducted hundreds of women from two villages and brought them to the army. After being humiliated, all the women were killed this morning."

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin's face instantly turned gloomy. Fighting is one thing, and even robbing the people's food still shows some humanity. But killing people indiscriminately and raping women are simply beastly behaviors. They are only beastly and have no humanity. He will never keep such a soldier in his army.

"Who did it?"

"Fuck you, Hong Bao. You are a traitor who betrayed his country and betrayed his master. Even if I did it, it doesn't matter. Come on, use my life to exchange for your promotion!"

Among the prisoners being held aside, one of them suddenly started shouting loudly. Lu Jin took one look at the man and knew what was going on. He ignored him and turned to ask Hong Bao.

"Who is that?"

"Reporting to the Marshal, this person is Zhang Bin, the deputy general of the left army."

"Is it just him? Is there anyone else involved?" Lu Jin asked.

Hong Bao glanced at the captured generals again, pointed at the two and said, "There are also Wei Yuquan, a centurion under Zhang Bin, and Wang Suner."

"Hong Bao, you bastard, do you think you are so clean? You hurt me today, and I will not let you go even if I become a ghost."

Upon hearing this, Wang Sun'er immediately started cursing. At the same time, there was a thud sound nearby, and the other person named, Wei Yuquan, was so scared that he fainted.

Zhang Bin also howled, but this time he was cursing at Lu Jin, "You traitor surnamed Lu, you are a rebel and everyone has the right to kill you. It's my bad luck to fall into your hands today. Kill me if you want. If I make a sound today, I'm not a hero. Why are you pretending to be a righteous man here? Bah!"

Hearing this, Lu Jin looked over again, pointed at Hong Bao and said to Zhang Bin, "Do you think I will kill you just because I listen to his one-sided story?"

Zhang Bin and Wang Sun'er were both stunned when they heard this, and looked at Lu Jin in confusion, not knowing what he meant. But then they heard something from Lu Jin that made them feel very vicious.

"Whether it is true or false, the people you have killed will decide. When the time comes, we will bring you to the village to identify you and let the people judge you. We will avenge our grievances and revenge our enemies. Let's see if those people will eat your flesh alive!"

The two men were shocked when they heard the words and shivered violently. If they were brought in front of those common people, with Lu Jin's support, those common people would probably really eat them up.

Zhang Bin was immediately terrified and said, "You traitor, if you want to kill me, then kill me. You are not a hero if you are so cruel and ruthless. If you have the guts, kill me!"

"Want to die? It's too late. Why didn't you give them a quick death when you slaughtered the people?"

Seeing this, Lu Jin immediately joked, and then shouted to Zhang Desheng next to him, "Desheng, take these three people away to watch over them. Don't let them die. Then go to their left army and pick out the soldiers who massacred the people. Take them all away and wait for punishment."

"Yes!" Zhang Desheng agreed, and immediately led people to interrogate and select those evil Yuan army soldiers. He was also a member of the Liao and Yu families in the rebellion. He hated the Yuan army who harmed the people and killed innocent people for credit, so he showed no mercy to these people.

"Lu, you better give me a quick death. Killing prisoners is unlucky. If you torture prisoners, you will surely die violently!"

"Shut up, you."

Zhang Bin was still cursing when Zhang Desheng kicked him in the stomach, knocking back the rest of his sentence.

Lu Jin then turned around and looked at the group of generals and spoke in a loud voice.

"Today you have been captured by me. If you are willing to serve me and follow me to drive out the Tartars and rebuild China, I will wholeheartedly welcome you. If you are unwilling to serve me, I will let you go after the war.

“Although I am not a cruel person, I cannot tolerate any grain of sand in my eyes. In the past, the soldiers under Yue Fei’s command would rather freeze to death than demolish houses, and starve to death than steal food. I don’t ask all of you to be like Yue Fei, but in my army, if anyone robs the people, kills innocent people for credit, or rapes women, I will make him pay with blood. If you can’t even do this, how can you call yourself a royal army, and what about rebuilding China?
"Now, those who feel they can abide by the above military discipline and are willing to serve, please stand up and step forward. Those who do not want to serve, or feel that the military law is too harsh and cannot be followed, please stay where you are. We will let you go after the battle. Move now."

After Lu Jin finished speaking, the captured generals looked at each other. Lu Jin's words sounded nice, and those who didn't want to surrender could be sent home, but who knew whether he was telling the truth or not? What if they didn't want to surrender and were killed?
So everyone hesitated for a moment, then stood up and took a step forward.

Seeing this, Lu Jin was immediately surprised and asked, "No one wants to leave?"

Seeing everyone looking at each other in confusion, Lu Jin said, "I'll give you one last chance. Those of you who don't want to stay now, stand up. I'll let you go after this battle. But for those who stay, if anyone dares to violate military regulations in the future, don't blame me for being cruel and merciless."

This time, no one dared to hesitate. Upon hearing this, Jia Boying, deputy general of the front army, stepped forward and asked, "I heard that the commander-in-chief issued an order to abolish slavery in Luzhou, and all those who bought and sold slaves were severely punished. He also abolished the usury of the Yuan court. My family has also bought slaves and maids, and we also let the usury go. If I surrender to the commander-in-chief, will he deal with me in the future?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin immediately explained, "In the past, each served his own master. Since you are not under my rule, you naturally do not have to obey my orders. But if you join me, you should set an example for the people. The current laws of my Marshal's Office stipulate that the annual interest rate on loans shall not exceed 2%. If it exceeds 2%, it will be considered illegal and will be severely punished.

"As for your slaves, you may not force them to stay. If they wish to leave, you may not stop them. You should compensate them with severance pay and let them go. If they wish to stay, you should return their indentures and replace them with employment indentures. They should be paid a monthly salary. You may not set up a private torture hall to detain, punish, or abuse hired workers.

"As long as you do these things, you can let the past go."

Jia Boying was stunned when he heard this. He didn't expect that the conditions were just like this. He immediately said, "Okay, then I will follow the commander-in-chief. There is no joking in the army. I hope the commander-in-chief will keep his word and not deceive us, the surrendered generals."

Lu Jin immediately sneered, "Oh, you want to deceive a surrendered general? You are not worthy of me risking my reputation. This cavalry commander Ye Sheng was originally a general under Zuo Junbi. I captured him personally and he is now my imperial guard.

"The commander Mu who just defeated your right formation was captured by our army in Dingyuan. I also captured the commander of the 102nd Division, Zhu Liangzu, from Lu'an. As long as they are loyal and dedicated, I have never treated them unfairly." Jia Boying opened his mouth and then bowed his hands to apologize. "I was judging others by my own meanness. I apologize to the Marshal. I am a straightforward person. I hope the Marshal will not mind. From now on, I, Jia Boying, will definitely be loyal. If the Marshal tells me to go east, I will never go west."

Lu Jin nodded expressionlessly, "I hope you can do what you say and don't let yourself down today."

"Yes."

"Okay, are there any who don't want to stay? Everyone, please do your job quickly and don't go back and forth. I don't want to execute you personally one day in the future and make everyone lose face. If no one withdraws, all of you can come to my right hand."

This time, everyone no longer hesitated and came to Lu Jin's right side.

In fact, there were not too many captured generals. Among the generals above the rank of thousand households, except for Hong Bao, Lu Zhong and Jin Siyuan who remained on the south bank and had just surrendered voluntarily, the only generals above the rank of thousand households captured on the north bank were Li Sili and Jia Boying of the front army, and Li Jin and Zhang Bin of the left army. However, Zhang Bin had already been arrested for looting villages and towns and raping women.

Then there was Yaozhu of the Right Army. He was killed by a howitzer shell when he was leading the Right Army across the river. He was the first mid- to high-level general to die in the battle between the two armies. The other one was the army's main commander, Molenchi, who was also killed by a shell.

There was still a living deputy general named Yesen Timur, but he had been tied up and was about to be taken to various cities for exhibition. Lu Jin had no plan to keep him.

Therefore, including those who were captured and those who voluntarily surrendered, there were only six Yuan army commanders: Li Sili, Jia Boying, Li Jin, Hong Bao, Lu Zhong, and Jin Siyuan.

However, there were many centurions captured, dozens of them.

In addition, based on the confessions of these people, Lu Jin also learned that among the thousand-household generals of the Wanhu Mansion of the Yuan army in Anqing Road, there were several scattered in various cities, and they might be able to help persuade them to surrender when the time comes.

For example, Shao Yongjian and Ge Yanling from Tongcheng, Wang Ying and Xu Yuanyan from Qianshan, Zhao Boyan and Yang Heng from Huaining, but Lu Jin showed little interest in these people and had no intention of insisting on their surrender.

What he lacks is soldiers, but he does not lack generals, because the military system designed by Lu Jin has a large number of deputy positions. After a battle, the main positions are promoted to expand the army, and the deputy positions are promoted to main positions, and each level is promoted in turn. Finally, less than 20% of new recruits are added, which can ensure that the combat effectiveness does not drop too much and the army can be expanded rapidly. Therefore, he is not short of middle and low-level officers, but there are indeed not many generals who can lead troops independently. Fortunately, they can be trained slowly.

Miao Daheng, Liao Yongan, Zhu Liangzu, Yang Jing, Chang Yuchun, Yu Tonghai, these are all good seedlings. He even has a Zhu Chongba under his command, but he must be cautious when using this person. Lu Jin has no plans to use Chongba yet.

Guo Zixing's performance this time really made Lu Jin a little dissatisfied, but he was indeed doing his best to carry out the task assigned by Lu Jin before, but he lacked the decisiveness to deal with the situation on the spot.

This man is indeed not suitable for military command. After this battle, Lu Jin has planned to hide Guo Zixing and let Zhang Desheng, a powerful general, be his deputy. It is a waste of Zhang Desheng's talent!

For the next two days, Lu Jin did not move at the Shahe wooden bridge. He ordered the soldiers to repair the wooden bridge while reorganizing the army. He temporarily organized the 13 prisoners into temporary battalions, and transferred some deputy officers above the rank of deputy platoon leader from Guo Zixing's Eighth Regiment to manage them. The formal appointment would have to wait until after the war.

Zhang Bin captured all 500 of his personal soldiers who had massacred civilians, and prepared to take them to the villages they had ravaged to massacre them and to commemorate the civilians who had died tragically there.

At the same time, under Lu Jin's orders, Miao Daheng, who was preparing to capture Congyang Town, was also marching eastward with his 12th Regiment, but their speed was still one step slower than the river water.

On the evening of the day when Lu Jin attacked and annihilated the Anqing reinforcements, those fleeing soldiers who jumped into the river and prepared to swim away but were eventually drowned were all washed downstream by the river.

When the people of Tongyang were drawing water in the evening, they found these floating corpses floating down from upstream and were immediately shocked. Some government officials fished up a few corpses and found that they were all from the Yuan army, but there was not a single corpse with a red scarf. They immediately understood what was going on. The army that had just left here two days ago and was preparing to go north to support Tongcheng might have been defeated in the battle upstream.

Upon hearing the news, those who were rich and well-connected quickly began to prepare to flee. Some wanted to go directly to the port and take a boat to leave. However, at some point, a group of Red Scarf Soldiers suddenly appeared in Zongyang Town. A young general led them and had already taken control of the port. All the boatmen and owners of the boats were controlled. The boats whose owners could not be found for the time being were towed to the shore and stranded to prevent them from being taken away.

As for those who wanted to escape, Miao Yi couldn't care less. They could run, but he had to find a way to keep the ship that Lu Jin specifically ordered.

Miao Yi had too few soldiers under his command, only one company of 200 men. It was already their limit to be able to prevent the port from being taken away. As for Congyang Town, they really had no choice but to send people to ask their father for help.

Mr. Miao and his men hurried forward, marching day and night, and finally arrived in the afternoon of the next day. They traveled a hundred miles in one day and night and reached the town of Tongyang. His soldiers were exhausted, but fortunately there were no Yuan troops in Tongyang, and as soon as the 12th Regiment arrived, they immediately took control of the place.

All we have to do next is hold on for a few days and wait for Lu Jin to bring a large force to join us.

On the other side, Lu Xianzong and Cao Liangchen, also with several hundred cavalry and a battalion of infantry, disguised as the defeated Yuan army, spent two days to arrive at the city of Qianshan. Lu Xianzong easily tricked the city gate open, and Cao Liangchen led his troops in one after another. With Lu Xianzong's persuasion to surrender, Qianshan was quickly captured.

If the original battle plan had been followed, almost half of the mission would have been completed at this point, with only Huaining County, the capital of Anqing, remaining to be captured. Moreover, this broken city was still missing a city wall. They only had to wait for Liao Yongan to join them, and the army would be at the gates of the city, and would surely be able to capture it in one fell swoop.

But Liao Yongan in Tongcheng was inconsolable after receiving Lu Jin's letter.

Originally, he planned to surround the point and attack the reinforcements. He would just pretend to surround the point and wait for the reinforcements to complete their mission. Then he would make a concerted effort and take Tongcheng in two days at most. However, the reality was completely different.

The three defenders of Tongcheng, Zhen Yanlong, Shao Yongjian, and Ge Yanling, had a very strong will to fight. Originally, they wanted to line up outside the city to fight with the Shengwu Army, and then retreat into the city to defend it. But later, after learning about Liao Yongan's military strength, they changed their plans and all entered the city.

When Liao Yongan came to besiege the city on the first day, the defenders saw that Liao Yongan did not attack the city immediately, so Ge ​​Yanling took his elite troops and went out of the city at night to attack Liao Yongan's camp. Fortunately, Liao Yongan was strict in military discipline, and the defenses were tight at night, and the sentries were strict, so Ge ​​Yanling failed.

Ge Yanling did not succeed in his attempt, but he still bragged for two days after returning to the city, telling the defenders that the Red Turbans outside were just so-so, which greatly boosted the morale of the defenders. However, they knew that Liao Yongan's camp was well-defended, so they did not dare to leave the city to rob the camp again.

The two sides continued to fight until they received the news that reinforcements from Anqing were dispatched. Only then did Liao Yongan officially start to attack. However, he did not expect that the defenders of Tongcheng fought extremely tenaciously. After three days of continuous attack, Liao Yongan had lost more than half of the battalion's troops, and three company commanders and a deputy battalion commander were killed. However, the city was not taken, which made him very angry.

(End of this chapter)