Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 322: Soldiers are powerful and fast

After introducing the rules of the Shengwu Army to the two newly surrendered generals, Gao Yao invited Zhu Liangzu back to give orders to the generals.

Zhu Liangzu immediately said seriously, "You two have heard what Instructor Gao said. In our Shengwu Army, the duty of a general is to win battles. The commander often says that soldiers should be pure and think less about those twists and turns. If you have something to say, just say it openly to avoid guessing each other.

"But considering that you are new here, if you have any questions, you can ask me directly. If you feel that there is something that is inconvenient to talk about, you can talk to Lao Gao in private.

"The other senior instructors have already said it, so I won't say more."

"Yes! Thank you, General, for your instruction." The two of them quickly bowed in response.

This time Gao Yao waved his fan and nodded without saying anything, while Zhu Liangzu spoke again.

"Enough of small talk, now I give the order!
"Zheng Yong sent a battalion of cavalry to monitor the enemy in Gaoyou. If there is any situation, please report to me in Yangzhou at any time. If I am not in Yangzhou, please go to Zhenzhou or Yangzi to look for me."

"Yes, I'll obey your command. Then send Zhang Huzi's battalion." Zheng Yong quickly clasped his fists and agreed.

"It's up to you. Just keep an eye on Gaoyou. The main forces of the other divisions will march 40 miles to Yangzhou and set up camp today. Zheng Yong will lead the cavalry regiment to clear the way ahead, find a campsite in advance, clear the area and guard the surroundings, and send troops to support the main forces.

"Send another messenger to Zhenzhou to ask Commander Liao of the 106th Division if he needs our help. If not, we will go directly to the city of Yangzhou and wait for him. If he does, we can reach Zhenzhou in about three days. Send someone back quickly. We need to get the result today.

"For the rest of the troops, the marching order is Liu Minhua's Independent 1st Regiment in the front, Tu Hai's Independent 2nd Regiment in the second, the 5th Regiment in the third, and Feng Sheng's 14th Regiment in the rear. After receiving the military order, the entire army will immediately break camp and march out!"

"Yes!" All the generals responded loudly and immediately began to move their camps towards Yangzhou.

Tianchang County is 100 miles away from Yangzhou. Zhu Liangzu plans to travel in two days. He will stop for one night at a place forty or fifty miles in the middle to wait for news from Liao Yongzhong. If they need help, Zhu Liangzu can turn to Zhenzhou. If they don't need help, he can go directly to Yangzhou. This way of arranging the march will avoid taking a detour.

On the other side, Liao Yongzhong's troops, the 106th Division captured Liuhe County at noon on the 13th. After breaking the city, they did not even enter the city and continued to march towards Zhenzhou in the afternoon of the same day. Liuhe County is only 70 miles away from Zhenzhou. They marched until night on the 13th, and walked thirty miles in the afternoon before stopping to camp. At dawn the next day, the 14th, they continued their rapid march and arrived at the foot of Zhenzhou city in the late afternoon of the 14th. The Yuan court defenders in Zhenzhou immediately felt like they were facing a powerful enemy.

When they arrived at the city of Zhenzhou, Liao Yongzhong was not in a hurry. He first asked people to set up camp three miles outside the city, and sent scouts to scout the situation everywhere, especially to Yangzi County, which was only ten miles east of Zhenzhou, to see if there were any reinforcements sent from there or any other unusual movements.

In addition, Pang Junyi, the training officer of the 106th Division, was asked to contact the local Shengwu Army intelligence station in Zhenzhou to inquire about the situation of the Zhenzhou defenders.

Sure enough, seeing the arrival of the Shengwu Army, the Zhenzhou Intelligence Station quickly took the initiative to come to the door. The person in charge was named Li Bin, who was also a failed scholar in the two examinations in Luzhou. Later, he was recruited into the Intelligence Bureau by Bao Yu.

When Li Bin arrived, Zhu Liangzu's messenger had also arrived. Upon learning of Zhu Liangzu's inquiry, Liao Yongzhong asked the messenger to wait until he had finished questioning Li Bin.

Upon hearing this, Li Bin immediately introduced, "General, there are about 3,000 soldiers guarding Zhenzhou, of which only 1,000 are regular government troops with bows, crossbows, armor and other weapons, and the remaining 2,000 are militiamen who were recruited less than a month ago, and most of them only have a spear in their hands.

"The commander of this city is named He Jun, who is over 30 years old this year. His wives and concubines are all in the city. He is a thousand-household official under the Wanhu Mansion of Yangzhou Road. The county magistrate is named Xu Xiuyong, a Jinshi in the eighth year of Zhizheng. He is a mediocre person and has no influence.

"Zhenzhou is not a major transportation route, and there are not many merchants here. The city is small and has few people and little wealth. It is not valued by the Yuan court at all, so the military force is not large."

Liao Yongzhong nodded and asked, "Do you know the situation in Yangzi County?"

"I know. I am in charge of Yangzi and Zhenzhou. It's similar to this side. There is also a thousand households from a Wanhu Mansion guarding it. The thousand households is named Zeng Jie. He has about five thousand soldiers under his command, but only one thousand of them are regular government troops. The rest are temporarily recruited militia." Li Bin answered again.

Liao Yongzhong frowned and said in surprise, "There are only a thousand households and a county magistrate guarding the two cities, and only a thousand regular official troops. Are they simply not going to take them? Where are all the Tartar officials in Yangzhou Road?"

Li Bin immediately replied, "The Tartar officials are all in Yangzhou and Taizhou. Yangzhou is rich and close to the Grand Canal. It is also a place where north-south commerce converges. It is also the capital of Yangzhou Road. Taizhou faces the salt fields on the southeast coast and is mainly responsible for supervising salt affairs. Therefore, there are high-ranking officials in charge.

"Yangzhou Road Wanhu Huoerchi and Yangzhou Road Darughachi Tuohuchar are both in Yangzhou City. There are even two provincial officials in Yangzhou. One is the left prime minister of Henan Jiangbei Province, named 'Xie Zhedu', who is a Semu from the Western Regions, and the other is the provincial government official named 'Sheng Zhao', who is a Han official.

"They have deployed a large number of troops in Yangzhou City, with 5,000 elite soldiers alone. Most of these 5,000 people are equipped with armor, with almost half of them wearing iron armor and half wearing leather armor. In addition, there are 17,000 to 18,000 militiamen, totaling 23,000 troops.

"Of course, the number of soldiers may be greater. Yangzhou City is not small, with a population of 200,000 to 300,000. It is possible that they temporarily recruit 10,000 to 20,000 young and strong men to defend the city."

When Liao Yongzhong heard this troop deployment, he immediately understood that the Tartars were preparing to protect Yangzhou and Taizhou and abandon Zhenzhou and Yangzi, and that Zhenzhou and Yangzi would hardly support each other.

Why? Because Zhenzhou and Yangzi are both counties, they are at the same level. If the two counties want to support each other, they can only send people to ask for help. Besides, the two counties don’t have many garrisons. If there is no senior official to coordinate and organize a joint defense, why would others send troops to rescue you?

For example, when organizing a war that involves joint defense in multiple locations, you should send a high-ranking official to take charge, otherwise you won't be able to give command. Since there is no high-ranking official here, then just don't do it. Just withdraw all your forces and use them to defend Yangzhou.

In this way, as long as Liao Yongzhong ensures that Yangzhou does not send a large number of reinforcements, he will be sure to take over these two counties. Thinking of this, he asked Li Bin again.

"Do you dare to be responsible for the intelligence you provided? Especially since there are no high-ranking officials at the provincial and provincial levels in these two counties, if the intelligence you provided is wrong and we make a misjudgment and suffer a defeat, the Marshal's Office will not forgive you."

Li Bin frowned and thought about it. There really weren't any high-ranking officials coming over recently. He had developed subordinates in the two county offices. If there were high-ranking officials coming, even if they were hiding in the county office, he should be able to find out. So he gritted his teeth and said, "There really aren't any high-ranking officials at the provincial and municipal levels. I'm responsible for what I say!"

"Okay then." Liao Yongzhong immediately ordered his personal soldiers, "Reply to Zhu Zongguan's messenger, tell him that the 102nd Division doesn't need to come over. Our 106th Division will fight in Zhenzhou and Yangzi counties on its own. But I hope he can send cavalry to contain the enemy in Yangzhou immediately and make sure that Yangzhou doesn't send reinforcements here. He can just go to the city of Yangzhou and wait for us to join him."

"Yes!" The personal soldier immediately went to find the messenger to report the news.

After replying to Zhu Liangzu, Liao Yongzhong called the generals of various departments to a meeting in the central army. He roughly told them the information that Li Bin had just provided, and then spoke.

"Besiege three and leave one gap; besiege a division and there must be a gap; besiege a point and attack the reinforcements. Today we will do all three together. Since the defenders of Yangzi are not many, the possibility that they will send reinforcements is very low, but we must be on guard to avoid being capsized in the ditch.

"Well, Wang Bi, you lead a battalion and ambush between Zhenzhou and Yangzi, a little closer to Zhenzhou. Your main task is to kill the fleeing soldiers escaping from the east gate of Zhenzhou. At the same time, you must send out cavalry scouts to scout the Yangzi side. If Yangzi really sends reinforcements, your task will be to block them."

When Wang Bi heard that he was only given a blocking mission, he wanted to say something, but Liao Yongzhong raised his hand to interrupt him and added.

"If neither the rout nor the reinforcements succeed, I will let you be the vanguard when we attack Yangzi."

"Yes! I will obey your order!" Wang Bi agreed with satisfaction.

"As for the other troops, Zhao Zhongzhong's 18th Regiment will attack the north gate, my 36th Regiment will attack the west gate, and Hu Hai's th Regiment will attack the south gate. Only the east gate will not be attacked to allow the defenders to escape. Start the action now, and attack the city immediately after the troops are deployed! We must take Zhenzhou before dark today, the sooner the better.

"This is the floor plan of Zhenzhou City provided by the Intelligence Station. Each of you should take a copy back."

"Yes!" All the generals responded immediately.

It was around 4 o'clock in the afternoon and the sun was already setting. After nearly an hour of preparation, all the units had arrived at the designated combat site.

Zhenzhou was just a small city, with a wall only five meters high, no moat outside, only a narrow trench. It was a joke for such a city to stop the main force of the Shengwu Army. Not to mention that they had artillery, a powerful weapon. To attack such a low city, they didn't even need to build a fort, they could just shoot at the top of the city with a high trajectory.

At 106: in the afternoon, following Liao Yongzhong's order to fire, the main force of the th Division immediately launched a fierce attack on Zhenzhou City. Eight heavy howitzers were distributed in the northwest and southwest corners of the city. They fired two rounds of grenades at the corners of the city wall, scaring off the defenders on the city wall. They then began to fire solid iron bullets, using ricocheting techniques to clear the city defense equipment on the city wall, completely defeating the defenders.

Two other field artillery battalions bombarded the three city gates in the north, south and west. They first used close-range precision shooting to break the pillars supporting the drawbridges, causing the drawbridges in front of the three city gates to collapse. After lowering the drawbridges, they began to bombard the city gates with solid bullets, breaking the door bolts. The city gates were immediately broken, and the defenders who were holding up the door inside the gate were beaten into pieces by the shells and fled in panic.

Taking advantage of the opportunity when the city gates were wide open and the defenders on the city walls were suppressed by heavy artillery, the main forces of the three regiments of the 106th Division swarmed in, and soon shouts of killing and the sounds of grenade explosions were heard in the city.

Zhao Zhongzhong's Tenth Regiment was responsible for attacking the north gate. It happened that the county government office was also in the north city. When they found the county government office according to the map drawn up by the intelligence station, they discovered that Xu Xiuyong, the magistrate of Zhenzhou County, had hanged himself. Although this Jinshi of the Yuan Dynasty was a mediocre official with no ability, he had great backbone and would rather die than surrender.

In comparison, He Jun, the defender of Zhenzhou and the hereditary commander of Wanhu Mansion in Yangzhou Road, was in a much worse situation. He was commanding the defense of the city on the top of the city wall at the beginning, but was hit in the leg by shrapnel from the first round of heavy grenades and was injured on the spot. The subsequent artillery bombardment directly stunned him. Although He Jun had seen muskets, he had never heard of a firearm that could fire so far, with such great power, and could even explode a second time after being fired. There was chaos on the top of the city wall, and then the city gate was also breached.

When Liao Yongzhong led the 18th Regiment into the city from the west gate, He Jun's personal soldiers were escorting him to the east gate. As a result, they were caught up by Xia Xingzu, the battalion officer of the th Regiment, who stabbed He Jun into a hornet's nest with a spear on the spot. However, some Yuan troops still escaped from the east gate, but were blocked by Wang Bi who was ambushed outside the east gate. After a battle, the Zhenzhou defenders were completely wiped out.

At 106 p.m. on October , Zhenzhou County was captured by the th Division.

Liao Yongzhong left behind the auxiliary battalion of the 106th Regiment and nearly two thousand captured local militia soldiers to guard the city. All the wounded in this battle were left in Zhenzhou to recuperate. He personally led the main force of the th Division and escorted hundreds of captured official troops, and rushed non-stop to Yangzi County.

Yangzi and Zhenzhou are only ten miles apart. The army marched quickly for an hour and arrived outside Yangzi city at 15:33 on the same day. By then, it had become completely dark.

During the previous battle of Zhenzhou, Wang Bi did not gain any great victory. He only intercepted a group of defeated soldiers fleeing from the east gate, and was very dissatisfied.

So this time when attacking Yangzi, Liao Yongzhong used the same tactic again. He first surrounded three sides and left one behind, and let his 18th Regiment and Hu Hai's 36th Regiment surround the city from the east, west and south, leaving only the north gate unblocked. He also ordered the soldiers to light torches and flags, beat drums and blow trumpets to bluff.

Then he hung the heads of Zhenzhou defender He Jun and county magistrate Xu Xiuyong outside the west gate, and sent hundreds of Zhenzhou captured soldiers to the foot of the city to persuade them to surrender, telling them that Zhenzhou had been captured in an hour, which frightened the Yangzi defenders to death.

Then Liao Yongzhong ordered the artillery battalion to fire several more shots at the three city gates. The solid iron bullets punched several holes in the city gates. The Yangzi defenders immediately realized that these city gates were useless to the Shengwu Army outside the city.

After making all these arrangements, Liao Yongzhong ordered the four combat battalions of Zhao Zhongzhong's 10th Regiment to ambush outside the north gate and form a pocket formation. Then, they would make a noise and pretend to attack the city from time to time, firing a few cannons every half an hour to scare the defenders in the city.

At midnight that evening, the Yangzi defender could no longer hold out. He was so frightened that he took a thousand elite soldiers and a thousand militiamen, a total of two thousand soldiers, and quietly fled out of the city through the north gate at night without lighting torches, intending to escape to Yangzhou.

As a result, they were blocked by the main force of Zhao Zhongzhong's Tenth Regiment not long after they left the city. The Tenth Regiment used the advantage of numbers to fight the disadvantaged, and used elite warriors to fight the frightened army. They soon defeated the fleeing Yuan army. The Tenth Regiment's fierce general Wang Bi, who was armed with double swords, even killed the Yangzi defender Qian Tianrui in battle, and finally made a great contribution.

On the other side of Yangzi County, they learned that their commander had fled with his troops and were defeated by an ambush outside the city. Commander Qian Tianrui was even killed in battle. The remaining 2,000 militiamen in the city were abandoned. So, after Liao Yongzhong's repeated persuasion, the abandoned defenders in the city finally tied up the county magistrate and opened the gates to surrender the city.

In the early morning of the 15th, Yangzi County was captured.

Liao Yongzhong ordered the wounded to stay in Yangzi to recuperate, and sent the auxiliary battalion of Hu Hai's 36th Regiment and one thousand Yangzi militia surrendered soldiers, a total of two thousand people to garrison Yangzi County. He took the remaining three to four thousand Yuan army prisoners and the main force of the 106th Division and camped outside Yangzi City. At the same time, he summoned the generals of various units to the central army tent to discuss matters. He announced that they would march fifty miles tomorrow to meet up with Zhu Liangzu's 102nd Division at the foot of Yangzhou City. The generals of various units immediately wailed.

The battalion commander of the 11th Regiment, Chen Shida, even begged for mercy, "Commander-in-chief, let's stop and rest, even for a day. We set out from Lai'an on the morning of the 13th, captured Liuhe at noon on the 14th, captured Zhenzhou at dusk on the 15th, and captured Yangzi at dawn on the 180th. In just four days, we captured three cities and marched more than miles, an average of to miles a day. We are not afraid of fighting the Yuan army, but marching is really tiring. Can't we stop and rest for a day?"

But Liao Yongzhong stood up angrily, swung the horsewhip and whipped Chen Shida several times. Of course, it didn't hurt much because of the armor.

"Call, shout, shout, shout, shout your ass off. The Luzhou, Dingyuan, and Haozhou soldiers of the 36th Regiment don't complain. The newly arrived Jiangdong soldiers of the 18th Regiment don't complain either. Only the Anqing soldiers of the th Regiment are pampered, aren't they? A hundred years ago, Yue Wumu's Yue Family Army could march a hundred miles in the snow at night, but you can't stand it if you are asked to march fifty miles a day?
"We will continue to march 50 miles tomorrow. Can you walk? If not, take off this armor and go back to your hometown to hug your child!"

These few whippings immediately made Chen Shida lose his temper. Among the battalion officers of their 18th Regiment, except Zhou Wen who was left behind to guard Liuhe, an officer from Chaohu, the officers of the other two battalions were surrendered generals captured during the battle of Anqing. After the Battle of Anqing, the army was expanded and their officers were assigned to Liao Yongzhong.

Although the whips just now were like scratching an itch on the iron armor and did not hurt at all, Chen Shida was still too scared to say a word. He had never seen Liao Yongzhong get so angry and whip people in front of everyone.

Seeing Liao Yongzhong stop, Chen Shida said timidly, "Yes."

"Louder, haven't you eaten yet?"

"I can walk!"

Liao Yongzhong then put down the whip and returned to his original position, then spoke seriously to the generals.

"Is marching fifty miles a day fast? Of course it's fast! I know the soldiers must be tired after walking so fast, but why are we in such a hurry? The military meeting before the war has made it very clear that Tuotuo is about to go south. It is not the best time for us to send troops to Jiangbei now. We can even say that we are completely unprepared and are sending troops in a hurry.

"But why do we send troops at this time when we know it is urgent? It is to obey the overall strategic situation. We must occupy the entire Yangzhou and most of Gaoyou before Tuotuo goes south, and push the defense line to Huai'an Road.

"If not, you can stay at home and not go anywhere, that would be comfortable, but leaving so many cities to Tuotuo, won't he rely on these cities to attack us directly?
"Even if we win the fight, won't our land and houses be destroyed? Won't our people be killed? Even if we win, we'll still be the losers. So if we want to fight, we can go to someone else's house. We won't feel bad if something gets broken, because we'll make money anyway. Do you understand what I mean?
"The reason why we are in such a hurry is to get ahead of Tuotuo and occupy more land in Jiangbei. It is best to stop Tuotuo's main force north of the Yellow River. This is to protect our fellow villagers, parents, wives and children at home from the Yuan army. If we fight more outside, we will suffer less losses at home. Do you understand?"

"Understood!" All the generals responded in unison.

Liao Yongzhong added, "Before this battle, the commander-in-chief said that speed is the essence of warfare, that is, to catch the enemy by surprise and seize the strategic advantage. That is why we have been able to fight so smoothly along the way and conquer three cities in four days. If you were allowed to go slowly and wait until the enemy was fully prepared, would you still be able to conquer three cities so quickly? You are dreaming!

"But I know that marching is tiring, so when you go back, you must tell the soldiers of each unit to have a good rest tonight and hold out for another day tomorrow. As long as we reach the city of Yangzhou, we can stay in Yangzhou for at least two to three days. Then I will let you have a good rest for a day."

After hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and immediately responded in unison, "Yes!"

Liao Yongzhong also waved his hand tiredly, "Go back and rest, don't forget to arrange the sentry."

"Yes!"

The next morning, on the 106th, the th Division broke camp again and set off, heading north towards Yangzhou.

Yangzi is only 50 miles away from Yangzhou. Today they only need to march more than miles to the outside of Yangzhou city. Anyway, even if they reach Yangzhou today, it will be too late to launch an attack. So if they just march, it is not considered tiring. The only thing they are afraid of is that they don't even take a rest after the march and go straight into the siege. That would be really tiring.

On the other side, Zhu Liangzu's 102nd Division was actually in a similar situation. They set out from Lai'an on the morning of the 11th, destroyed Yu Shiliang's Shiliang military camp in the early morning of the 12th, captured Tianchang County on the evening of the 13th, marched 14 miles on the 15th, and another miles on the th.

The two divisions arrived at the city of Yangzhou at the same time at the end of the evening of the 15th. Zhu Liangzu and Liao Yongzhong successfully joined forces in Yangzhou, and the first phase of the Jiangbei Campaign was successfully completed.

Next, as long as they capture Yangzhou and Gaoyou, the two key cities in northern Jiangsu, they can advance to Huai'an Road depending on the situation. Once they reach Huai'an Road, there will be no more rigid requirements. As long as Tuotuo has not come, they will take advantage of any opportunity and occupy as many cities as possible. It doesn't matter if they cannot capture them. They can even capture the cities and then abandon them and withdraw their troops.

On the evening of the 102th, outside the city of Yangzhou, the 106nd and 36th divisions joined forces, and the main force of the th Army was gathered. Zhu Liangzu and Liao Yongan also brought their respective generals to the central army tent to discuss the next battle together.

(End of this chapter)