Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 316: Attack the City and Seize the Stronghold (Wishing you all a happy New Year's Eve and a happy New Year)
Hearing that there was a thousand households blocking the door in the barracks, the squad leader of the cavalry who was blocking the door said quickly, "Go and call all the brothers in our squad to gather together, and then go and inform the company commander and tell him that there is a thousand households blocking the door."

"Yes!"

After all twelve members of the squad arrived in front of the barracks, the squad leader shouted inside, "Listen carefully, everyone inside. Your camp has been completely controlled by us. Don't resist fearlessly. Even if you kill a few of us, you can't escape.

"We all have muskets in our hands, which can penetrate armor within ten steps. Come out and surrender honestly. No weapons are allowed. I will kill anyone who dares to resist. I will count to three, and everyone come out."

"One, two"

A squad of soldiers outside the door drew out their standard cavalry flintlock rifles and pressed down the flint hammers.

This gun is only a foot long and can be easily loaded while on horseback, and can be operated with one hand. Although the range is a bit short, the range of cavalry archery battles is usually only thirty to fifty meters, and the range of a one-foot-long barrel is sufficient. It can be used to make up for the blind spot on the right side when the bow cannot be shot left or right, and can often deal a fatal blow to the enemy cavalry at a critical moment.

It can be said that the Shengwu Army cavalry equipped with short flintlock rifles have all become elite cavalry that can "shoot with both hands."

"three!"

When the people inside heard what was said outside, they gave up the idea of ​​resisting. Zhao Que was the first to lead everyone in the barracks out to surrender. More than 20 people were unarmed and in dishevel, glaring at the cavalrymen outside the door who were holding muskets.

Zhao Que sneered and said, "Everyone has armor and excellent weapons, but instead of fighting the Yuan army, you are showing off to our righteous army. I think your Shengwu Army and your General Lu are nothing but frauds who steal the reputation. You say you want to drive out the Tartars and restore China, bah, are you worthy?"

At this moment, a horse came galloping over, and upon hearing the words, it immediately stopped in front of Zhao Que. The rider on the horse did not say a word, swung the whip and hit Zhao Que's exposed shoulders, leaving Zhao Que with skin and flesh torn. The man was none other than the cavalry company commander Jin Peng who came upon hearing the news.

Zhao Que immediately glared at him, and said even more sarcastically, "Why, are you angry because I hit you in a sore spot? Hahahaha."

Unexpectedly, Jin Peng had a blank expression on his face. He pointed his whip at him and said, "This first whip is for you to be disrespectful to my commander-in-chief. When my commander-in-chief was fighting with the Yuan people, where were you? As far as I know, Yu Shiliang and Sun Deya have only conquered Tianchang County since they started the rebellion. How many Yuan soldiers have you killed?
"This second whip is for your disrespect to our Shengwu Army. Since our Shengwu Army was founded last year, we have recovered thousands of miles of Han homeland, dozens of prefectures and counties, and a population of tens of millions. We are not the ones who are driving out the Tartars, so how could it be you?!"

This rebuttal immediately left Zhao Que speechless. Even if he wanted to continue refutation, he was too ashamed to utter a word. After all, the territory conquered by the Shengwu Army was real and he would not tolerate other people's comments.

Unexpectedly, Jin Peng hadn't finished speaking yet, and said coldly, "As for the righteous army attacking the righteous army, this is funny. Anyone in the righteous army can say this, except Yu Shiliang and Sun Deya. They are both from Dingyuan. Even if they want to rebel, they should do it in Dingyuan. Why do you think he ran around and came to Tianchang?"

Zhao Que was stunned when he heard this, and asked in confusion, "Didn't you, the Shengwu Army, bully others by taking advantage of your power and not tolerate General Yu, so you drove them away?"

"Hahahaha, what a joke. Do you know who Zhu Liangzu, the commander-in-chief of our 36th Army, is? He is a surrendered general from the Yuan court in Lu'an. Our commander-in-chief can tolerate surrendered generals and is willing to grant them important tasks. How can he not tolerate a hero who rebels against the Yuan Dynasty?

"If it weren't for Sun Deya and Yu Shiliang's greed and their ruthlessness, how could they have fled here after being chased by our Shengwu Army for hundreds of miles and killed the rebel generals who were planning to surrender to our Shengwu Army, and then massacred the village and destroyed the village, killing all the women, children, the elderly and the weak, and doing such a cruel and insane thing that was unacceptable to the people of Dingyuan?"

Zhao Que was shocked when he heard this, "How could such a thing exist?"

Jin Peng also became puzzled. "You were appointed as a general of a thousand households by Yu Shiliang, but you didn't even know it? Why are you pretending to be so ignorant in front of me?"

Zhao Que immediately argued, "I really don't know. I am originally from Tianchang County. I joined the army only after General Yu and Sun Deya came here."

"I see. However, there is no point in saying more. First, take them all to the training ground and assemble them. The command will be decided later."

"Yes."

A group of cavalrymen hurriedly drove the prisoners to the parade ground. As Zhao Que walked, he heard calls for surrender and shouts of killing coming from all over the military camp, especially in the central military mansion where Yu Shiliang lived. There were explosions and shouts of killing one after another, but after a while, the situation gradually calmed down.

More and more prisoners gathered in the parade ground. Zheng Yong led the cavalry holding torches and riding horses to guard the periphery. Zhou Dexing also led people to bring the captured Yu Shiliang to the front.

Yu Shiliang doesn't have many soldiers, only 6,000, but he has more than ten officers at the level of a thousand households, which is outrageous. In addition to the four people who were killed in the resistance just now, there are still eleven thousand households detained here.

Yu Shiliang was wearing a dishevelled white middle-length coat at this time, and it was obvious that he had been pulled out of bed. When he saw that a large number of cavalrymen from the Shengwu Army came to rob the camp, he was so scared that he wet his pants. He behaved in front of a group of thousand-household officers, and Zhao Que, who had been indignant just now, frowned immediately. He was beaten with two whips but didn't make a sound. This General Yu was too unbearable.

After all the prisoners had gathered, Zheng Yong rode his horse up to the crowd. Without even looking at Yu Shiliang who was slumped on the ground, he asked the eleven captains.

"How many of you are from Dingyuan?"

No one answered. The few captains who were not from Dingyuan looked at the captains who were from Dingyuan, but they didn't understand why they didn't say anything. Zhao Que was one of them.

"No one is talking, right? Well, let me ask it another way. If anyone is not from Dingyuan, I will spare his life."

"General, I am not from Dingyuan. I followed General Yu in Chuzhou. My name is Han Chang."

"I am also from Chuzhou. My name is Zhong Ming."

"I'm from Lai'an, Tian Hong."

Only Zhao Xu snorted coldly and said arrogantly, "My name is Zhao Xu, I am from Tianchang County, but I am not shouting to beg for my life, because I am originally from Tianchang County."

Zheng Yong ignored him and waved his whip, saying, "You guys stand aside first."

After the others had gone to one side, Zheng Yong asked the remaining seven people, "The rest are all from Dingyuan, right? Tell me, who participated in the massacre of Lu Ding's family, robbing his property, looting towns, slaughtering villages and destroying villages, and burning down people's houses that day?"

None of the seven people responded, and some of them were already trembling with fear.

Zheng Yong added, "You're all silent, right? Then I'll take it as your consent and deal with you all together."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Que immediately looked at Yu Shiliang who was slumped on the ground beside him and asked, "Yu Shuai, is this true? If you tell the brothers that this is a lie, I, Zhao Que, will protect you out today even if I risk my life. If it doesn't work, we can drag a few of them down with us. It won't be a loss even if we die. Why don't you say something!"

However, who would have thought that when Yu Shiliang heard this, he seemed to suddenly come to his senses, turned around and kowtowed frantically to Zheng Yong.

"General, please spare my life. The idea of ​​annexing Lu Ding was proposed by Sun Deya. He was dissatisfied with Lu Ding's determination to join your army and insisted on annexing his wealth. It was also Sun Deya who started the killing and arson. I was just a follower, not the mastermind. At most, I did not control my soldiers well. Please say something good to Lu Shuai for me and spare my life. I have money and I can give all my wealth to you."

When these words were spoken, the few captains who were not from Dingyuan were stunned. This was actually true. It turned out that Yu Shiliang and Sun Deya had been deceiving them all along. The two of them had actually done such a thing in Dingyuan and had to flee to Tianchang.

Zhao Xu was especially angry. He walked up to Yu Shiliang and kicked him to the ground, cursing at him as he kicked him.

"You are such a jerk, Yu Shiliang, you deceived me so badly. I wanted to join the Shengwu Army, but you told me that the Shengwu Army would not tolerate other righteous armies. Marshal Lu was even more sarcastic, so you drove you here and asked me to be your general. It turned out that it was all fake. Damn you, you bastard, you did such a thing, and you even slandered and deceived others. You wasted the knife I blocked for you when you attacked Tianchang!"

The more Zhao Que cursed, the angrier he became. He kicked Yu Shiliang several times. Zheng Yong couldn't stand it anymore and shouted, "Stop beating me. How can I report to General Lu if you kill me? General Lu specifically asked for this guy in Jiankang."

Zhao Que stopped when he heard this. Zheng Yong looked at the seven captains from Dingyuan with a cold face, "I will not spare Yu Shiliang. He was specifically requested by the commander-in-chief. But you all have a share too. Don't even think about running away. Come on, tie them all up and bring them back to Jiankang to be dealt with by the commander-in-chief."

One of them immediately said anxiously, "I have fallen into your hands today. You can kill me or chop me up as you please. If you have the guts, kill me right here. If you frown, you are not a hero."

Zheng Yong sneered, "Are you scared now? You are worthy of calling yourself a hero. When you killed the unarmed women, children, and the elderly in Lu Ding's house, fought against other rebels, and robbed other people's property, why didn't you remember that you are a hero?
"I might as well reveal something to you. The Lu Ding you guys fought with has now become the regiment commander of our Shengwu Army. Do you know how the Marshal is going to deal with you? The Marshal said that he would hand you over to Lu Ding to deal with personally. Guess how he will deal with you? Tsk tsk tsk tsk, I dare not imagine how miserable you will be."

Yu Shiliang was even more devastated when he heard this, and hurriedly said, "Sun Deya is the mastermind, I don't accept it, if anyone is going to kill someone, they should kill him first."

Zheng Yong immediately raised his hand to interrupt, "Sun Deya, you don't have to worry about it. If what I expected is correct, General Zhu should be leading the main force to besiege Tianchang. Don't worry, I will definitely let you two go together when the time comes."

Yu Shiliang instantly collapsed to the ground with a dead heart.

Zhou Dexing suddenly asked, "Commander, what should we do now?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Yong looked at Zhao Que and the other three and asked, "Are you willing to join our Shengwu Army?"

Han Chang, Tian Hong, and Zhong Ming quickly clasped their fists and said, "Yes."

Zhao Xu hesitated and asked, "Can we still lead the troops after joining the Shengwu Army?"

"As long as you are willing, you can continue to lead the troops." Zheng Yong replied. "What military position can you give me?"

Zheng Yong asked in return, "What military position do you hold under Yu Shiliang?"

"Qianhu."

"Don't talk nonsense. I'm asking you how many soldiers you have." Zheng Yong corrected.

Zhao Xu immediately said, "I am originally from Tianchang. I built a stronghold in my hometown to protect myself. I wanted to join the Shengwu Army, but Yu Shiliang and Sun Deya came and I was deceived by them and joined the army of Yu Shiliang. I have more than 400 young men from my hometown, all of whom are young and strong from several nearby villages."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Yong immediately said, "How dare you call yourself a thousand-man army with four hundred soldiers? Do you know the thousand-man army commander of my Shengwu Army?"

Zhao Que nodded immediately, "I have asked around. I was planning to apply anyway, so naturally I had to ask around first."

"Come with us. At least you can become a real captain." Zheng Yong invited immediately.

"Thank you, General. What should we do now? Should we stay in this camp?" Zhao Que immediately asked with a fist salute.

Zheng Yong thought about it and immediately made arrangements.

"The four of you will temporarily take over the position of the thousand households. Go back and make sure all the captives are dressed. Then, divide them according to their place of origin. Those from Chuzhou, Lai'an, and Tianchang will all return to their old units. All the old soldiers and officers from Dingyuan will be separated. You will reorganize the remaining people and divide them into four battalions, each led by the four of you."

Han Chang frowned upon hearing this and warned, "General, if we deal with them this way, I'm afraid those old soldiers from Dingyuan will cause trouble. If you really don't want to keep them, why not, click—"

As Han Chang spoke, he made a knife-chopping gesture with his palm, meaning to kill all those people. Zhao Que and others also looked at Zheng Yong.

Zheng Yong was speechless and said, "My commander-in-chief is not a cruel and bloodthirsty person. This matter has been decided before. Only the main culprit will be executed. Besides, these soldiers are all my Han compatriots. Killing them will not only make our relatives sad and our enemies happy. The commander-in-chief also needs to drive out the Tartars and restore the Han people's country.

"Have you heard about the land distribution strategy of our Shengwu Army?"

The four of them immediately clasped their fists and said, "I've heard of it."

Zheng Yong nodded, "Go and explain to those officers and veterans from Dingyuan that they were also driven by Yu Shiliang and Sun Deya in the initial fight, and that they also conquered Tianchang later. They have contributed to the expulsion of the Tartars and shed blood. Therefore, the Marshal can spare their death penalty in consideration of the Heaven's benevolence and the unwillingness to commit murder in vain.

"But the death penalty can be avoided, but the living crime cannot be escaped. They must serve three years of hard labor to atone for their sins, building cities and mining. They will be prisoners for three years. After three years, if they work for one more year, they will be given ten acres of land each. After the fifth year, they will be given another ten acres of land. From then on, they will not be held accountable for their past and will be classified as good citizens. They will also have twenty acres of land to settle down.

"But if anyone dares to resist or cause trouble, they will be killed immediately. Although the Marshal has a kind heart, the knife in his hand is also sharp enough!"

Zhao Que and the other three looked at each other in bewilderment when they heard this. After a long while, they sighed, "I didn't expect Commander Lu to be so kind and righteous. Not only did he spare their lives, but he also gave them 20 acres of land to settle down. This is too, too good."

Zheng Yong glanced at him, "What else? The Marshal once said it well, smashing a court or a system is not a big deal. A truly capable person should not only smash the court of the Tartars, but also rebuild a system so that all the people in the world can live and work in peace. If you don't give them land to settle down, what are you going to do? Become bandits or refugees? If we drive away the Tartars, but the world still cannot live in peace, then all the wars we fought will be in vain, right?"

Zhao Xu immediately clasped his fists solemnly and said, "Thank you for your advice."

Zheng Yong waved his hand, "Okay, hurry up and get to work. I'm just a regiment commander. The appointment I gave you just now doesn't count. In the end, the general manager and the commander-in-chief will personally appoint you. Whoever does the job quickly and well, I will recommend him to the higher-ups. Don't just stand there, get busy."

"Yes!"

Zhao Que and his men immediately obeyed the order and took the captured soldiers back to the barracks to change their clothes, and then began the reorganization. At first, the old soldiers and officers from Dingyuan were a little agitated, but Zheng Yong brought more than 2,000 cavalry to support them and explained the reason for dividing the land to them. The officers from Dingyuan immediately lost the will to resist.

Some lower-level soldiers accepted their fate. Without the support of the soldiers, the officers alone could not cause any trouble. Zheng Yong executed several officers who were causing trouble on the spot, and the rest became obedient.

In one night, the 1200 troops were reorganized into five camps, including four large camps, with people in each camp, led by Zhao Que, Han Chang, Tian Hong and Zhong Ming respectively.

There was still a hard labor camp of more than 1100 people left. These were the old soldiers and officers brought by Yu Shiliang from Dingyuan. They were all involved in the Dingyuan-Luding incident. They were going to be taken to Jiangnan to do hard labor to build the city. It happened that Jiankang City was changed to Shuntian Prefecture, and there were many projects waiting for them to do.

After doing all this, Zheng Yong ordered his men to count the food and supplies in Yu Shiliang's camp, and had them all loaded onto trucks and taken away to Tianchang County to meet Zhu Liangzu.

As for the camp itself, it seemed a pity to burn it down, so Zheng Yong first ordered people to push down several walls to prevent the camp from being used by bandits and robbers. Then he asked the military instructor to write a notice that Tianchang County would be the territory of the Shengwu Army in the future and the commander-in-chief would send civil officials to govern it.

The wood, bricks and tiles in the camp could be used by the surrounding people, but those who took the building materials back were responsible for filling the trenches and dismantling the barracks. Any useful items left would belong to them.

Then there is the wealth and goods that Yu Shiliang mentioned. This guy ran all the way from Dingyuan to Chuzhou, and then fled from Chuzhou to Lai'an, and finally ran to Tianchang, but he accumulated some wealth and goods. Now they were all seized by Zheng Yong, and all taken to Tianchang to meet up with the main force, and then handed over to Lu Jin for arrangement afterwards.

At the same time, Zheng Yong sent out scouts to Tianchang County to report to Zhu Liangzu, informing him of the situation and arrangements there, and also saying that he was moving closer to Tianchang.

By the time all this was done, it was already the morning of October 13th, and the large army led by Zhu Liangzu had already arrived less than ten miles away from Tianchang County. It was expected that the large army would be at the gates of the city by noon.

Although the main force had not arrived yet, Zhu Liangzu had already sent the cavalry battalion left by Zheng Yong, that is, Qi Xiang's battalion, to the outside of the Great Wall in advance, and rode their horses to patrol outside the city gate to prevent Sun Deya from escaping again this time.

At the time when the 102nd Division in the north won the first battle and took down Yu Shiliang's camp, Liao Yongzhong's 106th Division in the south had already arrived at the city of Liuhe, surrounded three sides and left one, preparing to storm the city.

It was only 90 miles from Lai'an to Liuhe County. Liao Yongzhong led his troops to march 50 miles a day. They arrived at the foot of Liuhe City and set up camp in the evening of the second day. They officially began the siege early in the morning of the third day.

For Liao Yongzhong, the battle of Liuhe was relatively easy to win. He had been stationed in Chuzhou and Lai'an for a long time to confront the Yuan army in Liuhe. He knew the situation here very well. It was impossible to say that he was not prepared at all. He had already planted spies in the city, and they were not planted by the Intelligence Agency, but by himself.

Moreover, just the month before last, Dong Tuanxiao used Liuhe as his base to attack Lai'an, and captured quite a few prisoners at that time. Although most of them were distributed by Lu Jin to Bian Yuanheng and others, Liao Yongzhong still had more than a thousand prisoners in Liuhe.

The city of Liuhe is not big and is located in the lower reaches of the Chushui River. A moat was dug to divert the Chushui River around the city. The city is small and strong, and it was not easy to attack. Fortunately, this time he brought the main force of Yang Huan's Imperial Guard Artillery Regiment.

Liao Yongzhong first ordered scouts to surround the city and conduct reconnaissance. He then ordered his three regiments to surround the south, north and west sides respectively, leaving only the east gate unattacked. He also concentrated all the cavalry of the three regiments, a total of more than one hundred horses, and ambushed outside the east gate, ready to intercept and kill the fleeing enemy.

Then, with the southwest corner as the main attack direction, Yang Huan was asked to build two artillery batteries, use heavy howitzers to sweep the top of the wall, and then let two field artillery battalions attack the three city gates.

While the artillery batteries were being built, Liao Yongzhong sent the more than 1,000 prisoners to the city to make a public announcement, saying that surrender would save their lives, that working for the Tartars was not worth it and that after death their property would be swallowed up and their entire families would be eaten up. Surrendering to the Shengwu Army would exempt them from the interest payment and they could get their slaves and families back. They would also be given land if they surrendered, and that they should stop working like slaves for the Tartars.

The morale of the Liuhe defenders was immediately shaken by the shouting. The garrison commander ordered his men to shoot arrows, and the captives were so frightened that they retreated one after another.

Then Liao Yongzhong asked them to continue shouting, this time he asked familiar soldiers to call out their names, and asked them to shout that they could be rewarded for their merits by killing the Yuan army officers around them, and could become officers of the Shengwu Army.

Regardless of whether anyone would believe it or not, the Yuan army officers on the city wall had to be on guard against the soldiers around them when they heard these words.

The battle hasn't even started yet, but the defenders are already suspicious of each other and are disunited. Even though they know this is an open conspiracy, they still have to be on guard. What if someone really believes the enemy's lies and wants to kill them in exchange for a reward?
At 9:00 a.m. on the 13th, the fort was built and Liao Yongzhong immediately ordered the artillery to fire. When the artillery sounded outside the city, the defenders on the city walls were thrown into chaos. The spies who had been lurking in the city also came out to cause trouble when they heard the artillery sound.

The spies went to the houses of the Yuan army officers and threw grenades and set fires. After setting the fires, they shouted in the city, "The spies have entered the city, the enemy troops have entered the city, there is a fire, come out and put out the fire."

Although it was a thief crying "stop thief", it immediately caused a chaos on the city wall. The officers saw that their homes were on fire and they all panicked. Some of them immediately left the city wall and ran back home to put out the fire.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Liao Yongzhong immediately launched a general attack, using field artillery to blast open the city gates. Zhao Zhongzhong, Li Ruizhong (changed his name to Li Pusheng), and Double-Knife Wang Bi from the 10th Regiment, as well as Xia Xingzu, Chen Shida, Zhou Wen and others from the 18th Regiment, immediately rushed into the city. Liuhe was immediately taken in one fell swoop and was conquered on the same day.

After taking Liuhe, Liao Yongzhong left Zhou Wen from the 18th Regiment to lead a battalion to reorganize the prisoners in the city. He also appointed Zhou Wen as the acting commander of the supplementary regiment and garrisoned in Liuhe County.

Then Liao Yongzhong, taking some officers and soldiers who surrendered in the city, and with these unstable factors, continued to march non-stop. Without even a day's rest in Liuhe, he continued to rush towards Zhenzhou (Yizheng in later generations) and Yangzi along the river.

At the same time, a messenger was sent to Tianchang County to inform Zhu Liangzu that the 106th Division had already headed towards Zhenzhou, and that after they had fought in Tianchang, if they were too late, they could directly meet up at the city of Yangzhou.

On October 36, just three days after the Jiangbei Campaign began, the th Army had already captured a city and a village and wiped out more than enemies.

At the same time, the Intelligence Bureau also made emergency deployments in the three counties of Rugao, Tongzhou (Nantong), and Haimen to the east of Yangzhou Prefecture, sending spies into the city in preparation for a deceptive plan to seize the city.

(End of this chapter)