Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 223: Complete Annihilation of Chelibuhua
Zhang Huzi is worthy of being Zheng Yong's confidant. He has been very clever since the first time he lured Zuo Junbi to send troops. Now when fighting, he is even more brave and resourceful, using many tricks.

He had made great achievements in the previous siege of Zhula, and this time he wiped out Chelibuhua. If the army is expanded in the future, he will definitely be promoted again.

Inspired by the military rank system issued by Lu Jin before the war, the generals of various departments also tried their best to make achievements and get promoted.

Zhang Huzi came up with a plan, saying that he wanted to lure the Yuan army into dividing its forces, but he did not act rashly. This guy had also read Lu Jin's quick-study military strategy and had a deep understanding of some of its contents, such as the fact that generals must think carefully, think more, ask more questions, and pay more attention to details.

Zhang Huzi also thought very carefully. He first mobilized the buglers in the camp and told them how to blow the signal of the Yuan army. Then he mobilized a group of soldiers who had been recruited in Haozhou from the camp. These people were native Haozhou people and were very familiar with the local terrain. They could almost find the way with their eyes closed. With these people leading the way, they would have an advantage in fighting in the fog.

Then Zhang Huzi divided the troops into groups, organized a group of skilled archers on horseback, plus trumpeters and local soldiers as guides, in teams of fifty. They went to attack the scouts leading the way for the Yuan army, disrupt their ranks, and then blew the trumpets to lead the Yuan army to the left wing, handing them over to the battalion led by Zheng Yong to deal with.

The plan was quickly finalized and the armored cavalry of the second battalion also took action.

woo woo woo woo--

Following the surprise attack by Zhang Huzi's Second Battalion, there was soon chaos in front of the Yuan army and the marching speed of the Yuan army slowed down.

Aduqin immediately rode to the head of the team and asked, "What's going on?"

"Captain, the vanguard scouts just blew the trumpets. There were bandit cavalry attacks, but they have been repelled. We can continue marching now."

Upon hearing this, Aduqin looked forward. In the thick fog ahead, he could indeed faintly see the signal flags waving, and from time to time, he could hear the sound of trumpets. These were the signals for the march. He then felt relieved, ordered the marching soldiers to "stay alert", and returned to the center of the team.

But what Aduqin didn't realize was that the 'Yuan army' leading the way in front had already been replaced by soldiers of the Shengwu Army during the previous raid by Zhang Huzi's men.

Sure enough, not long after the Yuan army marched, a trumpet was blown in the front. This meant that the road ahead was not good, and everyone was asked to slow down and adjust the direction. After the Yuan army's vanguard was led to turn left, the marching trumpet was blown again.

The vanguard of the Yuan army had unknowingly been led astray.

After walking for a distance, Zhang Huzi repeated the same trick and organized a second surprise attack, cutting off a section of the Yuan army's vanguard. Then he sent a second team of pretending to be scouts to lead the way, and led the Yuan army to turn right, thus putting some distance between them and the team that had just been led out.

The further Aduqin and Chelibuhua walked, the more they felt something was wrong. Not long after they walked, they faintly heard the sound of galloping horses and fighting coming from the left wing. It sounded like there must be at least a thousand horses running together to make such a sound, but the sound was only faintly audible and soon died down.

Aduqin and Chelibuhua looked at each other, with doubt in their eyes.

"There are thousands of cavalry fighting on our left wing? Who could it be? Could it be that Jura is back?" Chelibuhua asked doubtfully.

"Impossible, Jura must have died long ago. It must be the bandit cavalry following our left wing." Aduqin immediately made a positive judgment.

"Who will be fighting with them? Who else could be here besides us?" Chelibuhua asked doubtfully. At the same time, fear arose in the hearts of the two of them. Today's battle was really weird.

Aduqin couldn't judge, so he could only say, "I'll go to the front and take a look."

After saying this, he urged his horse forward, wanting to go to the front of the team to see what was going on.

However, this time, before Aduqin had run far, he arrived at the head of the team, which immediately stunned him. He clearly remembered that when he came here last time, there were still many people in the queue in front of him. Why did it feel like the team suddenly became shorter?
When Aduqin arrived at the front of the team, he found that the captain leading the team was not the same one as before, so he asked, "Where is the Zhebu in front of you?"

The captain immediately said, "Just now, some bandit cavalry attacked the front line, and Zhebu led his men to drive them away."

Aduqin was stunned when he heard this, "Zhebu didn't come back?"

"No."

"Then why are you still marching?" Aduqin asked in disbelief.

"The scout in front blew the horn to tell us to go, so we continued marching." The captain replied immediately.

Aduqin immediately cried out inwardly, "Damn it, damn it, how many people did Zhebu take away?"

"There were about two or three hundred of them, and then the scouts ahead told us to turn right to avoid them and continue on our way."

Upon hearing this, Aduqin was so angry that his whole body was shaking. There was no doubt that the fighting sounds coming from the left wing just now must have been the more than 200 people led by Jebu being surrounded and killed. The idiot in front of him was still marching.

Suddenly, Aduqin thought of a blind spot. Even Zhebu, who was leading the army, was attacked. Why were the scouts leading the way in front of him okay? Why did they deliberately lead the army away from the direction Zhebu left? !

Thinking of this, Aduqin looked at the signal flag that was looming in the fog in front of him, and suddenly he felt like he had seen a ghost, with the hair on his body standing up.

"Stop marching, the scouts ahead report in!"

Aduqin suddenly shouted loudly in front, but the scout in front did not respond at all. Instead, he waved his whip, shouted "Go", and accelerated and disappeared into the thick fog. Moreover, the sharp sound of bamboo whistles could be faintly heard from all around.

There was no need for Aduqin to explain too much. The leading centurion immediately realized that the person leading the way in front was not their own scout, but most likely someone sent by the bandits to impersonate them just to lead them around.

But even if they reacted, it was too late.

Zhang Huzi was following not far away. When he found out that their plan had been discovered, he immediately organized a third surprise attack, breaking up a section of the Yuan army's ranks again. With three companies surrounding them from both sides, he managed to take three or four hundred Yuan soldiers away from the main force, and this time he also trapped Aduqin inside.

Aduqin had originally come to the front to inspect the situation, but he did not expect to encounter this. Before he could figure out the situation, his team was cut off by the cavalry of the Shengwu Army. There were enemy cavalry on the left, right and back, and people kept shooting arrows at them. There were also enemy heavy-armored spear cavalry behind them, driving them forward. Those who fell behind were either shot to death by arrows or stabbed to death by spears, forcing them to flee forward.

Although Aduqin knew that this was a treacherous plot of the enemy, he had no way to stop it. Moreover, according to his previous guess, there should be a group of about a thousand bandit cavalry nearby who would soon come to encircle and annihilate them.

Aduqin didn't want to lose his life in such a confused manner, so he shouted, "Follow me to break through to the left wing!"

The surrounded more than 300 soldiers immediately followed Aduqin and turned around. Moreover, the Shengwu Army on their left wing happened to be facing the enemy on the right side. They could not shoot arrows in this direction and could only attack with swords and guns. This gave them the opportunity to break out from the left wing.

However, how could Zheng Yong give them this opportunity? In the thick fog on the left wing of the Yuan army, bamboo whistles suddenly sounded, mixed with the rumbling sound of horse hooves like thunder. The main force of the battalion led by Zheng Yong immediately encircled and trapped Aduqin, who had just broken through.

Aduqin groaned inwardly. In the thick fog, even if he opened his eyes wide, he could not see more than 20 meters around him. All he could see were his own soldiers, and he could not see many enemy soldiers. However, dense arrows kept flying out of the thick fog, reaping the lives of his own soldiers. Aduqin immediately drew his sword and shouted, "Follow me to rush out and fight them hand-to-hand. If you shoot at the enemy, you will die. Kill!"

Upon hearing this, the Yuan army soldiers immediately mustered up their remaining courage. They didn't want to die here in a daze. There was thick fog all around and they couldn't see the target clearly when shooting arrows. It would be better to rush up and fight in hand-to-hand combat. Perhaps they could fight their way out and break out of the siege.

However, no matter how good their thoughts were, Zheng Yong did not give them any chance.

It was the same foggy environment, and visual impairment was the same problem for both sides. The Shengwu Army simply relied on the fact that there were many local people in the army and they were more familiar with the terrain, but some of them were inevitably lost during the battle. So Zheng Yong's side basically moved in formation, using bamboo whistles as signals to prevent accidental injuries to friendly forces.

When they were shooting arrows just now, they were doing it in companies, with all the horse archers lined up in a row, and everyone shot arrows in the same direction to avoid accidental injuries. Now that the Yuan army wanted to rush out for close combat, the Shengwu army also attacked in formation.

Wei Tao, the company commander of the first company of the first battalion, led the company's two hundred cavalrymen, divided into two rows, with each hundred people forming a dense formation. All of them held their spears horizontally and charged at the enemy at high speed. Although the casualties were limited in this way, at least they would not accidentally injure friendly forces.

So, when Aduchin and his men rushed out with swords raised, a dense row of spears suddenly rushed towards them from the thick fog ahead. Most of the Yuan army who suddenly saw this scene were stabbed to death by the dense spears before they could react. The Yuan army that was a little further back was so scared that they immediately turned around and ran, and soon lost their way in the fog. Under the siege of Zheng Yong's main force of the first battalion, they either died or surrendered, and soon there was no sound.

Aduqin, the most capable general under Chelibuhua, rushed forward with his sword wielding. Unfortunately, before he could kill a single enemy soldier with his sword, he was stabbed off his horse by two oncoming spears and then trampled by a group of horses. He died tragically in the chaos, and the Shengwu Army soldiers who killed him did not even recognize his identity.

After Aduqin's group of more than 300 cavalrymen were wiped out, Zhang Huzi, who was on the right wing of the Yuan army, tried to repeat the same trick and used the trumpeter to lure the Yuan army forward again. However, this time the Yuan army refused to move and seemed to want to stay where they were to defend themselves.

Zheng Yong quickly sent someone to find Zhang Huzi and Zhou Dexing. The three of them discussed the matter and found that the Yuan army was probably seriously injured at this time, and the time for a decisive battle might be ripe.

Chelibuhua's troops originally had only 3,000 cavalry, plus some baggage wagons and horses. In the first battle yesterday, they annihilated 800 cavalry of Zhula's troops. During the night's harassment and tactical fatigue, they may have killed another 100 or 200 cavalry. As a result, when the Yuan army marched in the morning, the total strength of the main force might be only 2,000.

After the successive raids just now, the three of them counted each other's numbers and found that there might be more than 200 people killed and captured by the rear of the Yuan army, and there should be 200 to 300 cavalrymen on the periphery of the Yuan army. In addition, they killed about 500 to 600 people in the two previous luring and encircling attacks. At this time, the remaining strength of Chelibuhua's troops might be only about 1,000.

In comparison, Zheng Yong's side suffered relatively fewer casualties. Firstly, all members of the Second Cavalry Regiment were wearing armor and had good protection measures. Secondly, they had been fighting assault battles in the past two days and had very little direct hand-to-hand combat, so over the past two days, the casualties were probably less than 200.

In addition, Chelibuhua was no longer moving but defending on the spot. Zheng Yong immediately made a decision. He, Zhou Dexing and Zhang Huzi's three battalions resumed their operations to keep surveillance and contact with the Yuan army. Then he sent someone to call back Qi Xiang's three battalions. After the fog cleared, the four battalions launched a general attack to annihilate Chelibuhua.

Several people immediately agreed to the plan.

But Chelibuhua's side was in a more difficult situation. Just now, when Aduqin found that the scout leading the way in front was not right, he immediately ordered to stop advancing. Then they were ambushed by the Shengwu Army and then disappeared.

Chelibuhua was staying in the middle of the queue. He heard a great commotion ahead. After waiting for a while without any movement, he saw no sign of Aduqin coming back to report the situation. So he immediately sent someone to find Aduqin, only to learn that Aduqin had just been ambushed and had not returned.

Now Chelibuhua became even more panicked, and quickly ordered all teams to stop marching and switch to defense on the spot. Then he counted the number of people and found that a lot of people were missing in the front and back. Now there were only more than 900 people left, less than a thousand troops.

Looking at the thick fog that showed no signs of dissipating, their hearts suddenly fell into the abyss. However, the Yuan army had lost their direction in the fog and now they didn't even know where to run. Moreover, there were enemy cavalry roaming around, so even if they wanted to run, it would be difficult for them to get out.

Chelibuhua could only keep ordering people to guard the periphery, but after these scouts entered the fog, they quickly disappeared. Some were killed by the scouts on Zheng Yong's side, while others felt that they would surely die if they stayed, so they might as well take this opportunity to surrender, perhaps they could still save their lives.

As a result, the number of scouts sent out by Chelibuhua became fewer and fewer, and he could only keep sending people to fill the outer line. However, Zheng Yong's encirclement was getting tighter and tighter, like a python strangling its prey, making the prey trapped in the middle feel endless despair.

Just like this, another hour passed. At around eight or nine in the morning, when the sun was at its highest point in the sky, the fog finally began to dissipate, and both sides inside and outside the encirclement could finally see each other clearly.

In the encirclement, of Chelibuhua's 3,000 cavalrymen, only less than 500 were left, while Zheng Yong's two cavalry regiments and four battalions were lined up in all directions outside. Looking around, there were densely packed enemy troops all around. When the Yuan army surrounded in the middle saw this scene, they couldn't help swallowing their saliva and shivering, and they immediately looked extremely ugly.

"Those who surrender will not be killed!" Zheng Yong rode his horse in front of the army, raised his gun and shouted, and the soldiers of the Shengwu Army around him immediately responded in unison.

"Those who surrender will not be killed!"

"Those who surrender will not be killed!"

Thousands of people shouted in unison, their voices becoming louder and louder, shaking all over the place. The morale of the Shengwu Army was high, while the Yuan Army in the encirclement became even more sluggish, and its morale plummeted.

They have not had a good rest since yesterday. After being attacked and harassed repeatedly, with heavy casualties, they are now surrounded. These Yuan army soldiers have no fighting spirit anymore. They look at each other and many of them tentatively choose to surrender.

"I surrender, I surrender, don't kill me." A Yuan army soldier finally couldn't help but take action. He rode his horse towards the outer Shengwu Army, shouting surrender as he ran. Under the watchful eyes of the Shengwu Army soldiers, he threw his weapons one by one on the road. When he arrived in front of them, the surrendering Yuan soldier was left with only a warhorse.

Zheng Yong did not make things difficult for them and let the surrendered Yuan soldier go to the back.

When the Yuan army in the encirclement saw this scene, more people began to follow suit and surrender. They dropped their weapons and rode their horses to the periphery.

The only 500 Yuan troops left in the encirclement were reduced to only dozens of riders in a blink of an eye. These were Chelibuhua's trusted personal soldiers. They did not want to surrender, but Chelibuhua did not react. He neither ordered the killing of the traitors nor ordered a breakout. He just trembled on his horse, and it was unknown whether he was trembling with extreme anger or fear.

"You are stubborn, Qi Xiang."

"The end will be here."

"Kill the rest!"

"Yes! Go, brothers from the Third Battalion, follow me and kill!"

When Zheng Yong saw that only dozens of people were left to resist, he immediately issued a killing order and asked Qi Xiang to strangle the remaining Yuan troops.

When Chelibuhua's personal soldiers saw that the enemy had launched a general attack, they became extremely anxious. They looked at Qi Xiang who was rushing towards them, and then looked at Chelibuhua who had no reaction. Some of the personal soldiers immediately dropped their weapons, turned around and ran to the back.

"We surrendered, we surrendered, don't kill us, ah~"

Dense arrows suddenly flew towards the center of the encirclement, and finally the personal soldiers following Chelibuhua were shot into hedgehogs, and none of them survived.

Zhang Huzi spat in the south, "Bah, what a thing, you are not even willing to surrender, and now you want to beg for mercy."

(End of this chapter)