Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 326 Sweeping Huaidong (Part )

On October 36, the main force of the th Army of the Shengwu Army captured Yangzhou City in just one day. Yangzhou City was captured, but some unexpected events occurred.

Just as the various units were clearing out the remaining enemies and maintaining public order in the city after the war, and Zhu Liangzu and Gao Yao were taking over the government office and warehouse, Zheng Chao, the battalion officer of the 106th Regiment of the 10th Division, came to Gao Yao to report that Tu Hai's soldiers were eating and drinking for free in the city's restaurants and had also robbed and killed people.

This was a serious matter. According to military law, the person could be beheaded directly. Gao Yao did not dare to delay and immediately went with Zhu Liangzu to arrest the man. On the way, he asked Zheng Chao questions.

"How did you know?"

Zheng Chao clasped his fists and said respectfully, "In response to the instructor, Tu Hai's Independent Second Regiment and our Tenth Regiment both attacked the East Gate. After entering the city, the area he was in charge of was next to my camp. I saw people on the street watching him and soldiers making trouble, so I went over to take a look. That's when I heard the female shopkeeper of the restaurant shouting that someone was killed.

"I went over to ask and found out that it was a company commander of the Second Independent Regiment who was eating and drinking for free with his soldiers in the restaurant. The shopkeeper dared not refuse to treat them. As a result, this group of people drank and robbed the shopkeeper's property. The shopkeeper refused to give them anything, so a fight broke out. This group of people then killed the shopkeeper.

"When I went to inquire, the company commander knew he had committed a crime, so he ran away with his soldiers, saying that I was not a high-ranking official and had no right to manage them. I then quickly reported it to the instructor, and I also asked someone to keep an eye on the female restaurant owner."

Gao Yao turned his head and glanced at Zheng Chao without saying anything. He then asked the platoon leader of his personal guards beside him, "Where's Tu Hai? Go find him right away!"

"Yes!"

"And Liu Minhua, come along too."

"Yes!"

After a while, the group arrived at the scene of the incident in Dongcheng District. They looked at the two bodies carried out of the restaurant and identified them as the restaurant owner and the waiter. There were also signs of being turned over on the counter. The cook in the backyard was spared because he had to cook for them, but was beaten. The owner's wife, Zhang, was lying on the bodies, crying at the top of her lungs, and yelling for Gao Yao to take charge of the matter for her.

Gao Yao moved a bench and sat at the door of the restaurant with a livid face. After a while, Liu Minhua and Tu Hai were finally brought over. When they saw the corpse at the door of the restaurant and the crying woman, they suddenly felt a pang in their hearts and thought to themselves that something was not good.

Gao Yao saw Tu Hai, who looked confused, and immediately asked, "Do you know?"

Tu Hai immediately clasped his fists and said, "Instructor Gao, please understand. When you sent someone to look for me just now, I was still at Ximen. I really didn't know what was going on."

Gao Yao secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and then continued to ask, "Then what do you think we should do?"

Tu Hai gritted his teeth, clasped his fists, and bowed his body, saying, "It's all up to the instructors to deal with it. Whoever violates the military law will be punished."

Tu Hai surrendered in Tianchang County simply to save his life, but in the past few days he followed the Shengwu Army to fight and witnessed the strength of the Shengwu Army. They captured five cities in six days, including a big city like Yangzhou. What a terrifying strength. After the war, he has decided to formally join the army. If he follows such an army to conquer the world, maybe he can really get a title and bring honor to his family in the future?

If this was just a matter of free food and drinks, he could still find a way to protect his soldiers by saying that they didn't bring any money and he could just make up for it himself. But now that someone had died, he couldn't do it even if he wanted to.

Gao Yao nodded and said, "Well, I heard that your soldiers dared to resist arrest. Come with me to arrest them."

"Yes!"

Not long after, the group found another street. The soldiers who were causing trouble were from the Fourth Battalion of the Second Independent Regiment, which was the combat battalion led by Tu Hai's fourth brother Tu Dian. This man was actually blocking the street entrance to protect the soldiers and prevent them from arresting people.

Seeing this, Tu Hai cursed in his heart, but he shouted sternly, "Old Four, get out of the way."

"Brother, it was Zheng Chao who framed a good man. This man is Lu Ding's brother-in-law. It is obvious that he wanted to take revenge, so he called Gao Xundao here."

Upon hearing this, Tu Hai immediately looked at Zheng Chao who was following Gao Yao. Zheng Chao immediately yelled, "You are talking nonsense. It is true that I reported you to the instructor, but you brought this upon yourself. The instructor has also been to the restaurant to check. There are witnesses and evidence. You still want to quibble? Are you accusing me of framing you?"

Gao Yao also spoke up at this time, "Public affairs must be handled impartially. Even if you have some private disagreements, even if he really wants to cause trouble for you, he must produce evidence. If he dares to frame his colleagues, I will not let him off. Now that he has witnesses and physical evidence, do you still want to continue to protect your subordinates? Do you dare to bring people over to confront him face to face?"

Upon hearing this, Tu Dian stopped talking immediately, but his attitude remained the same. Although his soldiers did not resist arrest with weapons, they formed a human wall, blocking the intersection and preventing anyone from entering.

Gao Yao saw this and said coldly, "What? You want to rebel? Or do you think that the law doesn't punish everyone and I don't dare to punish you?"

Tu Hai became anxious when he saw this, and quickly shouted, "Old Four, don't be stupid!"

When Tu Dian heard his elder brother speak, he reluctantly moved aside, while the soldiers behind him continued to block the intersection.

Gao Yao immediately stepped forward and yelled at the soldiers, "Fuck you, get out of my way! You are so greedy! If you protect these bastards from robbing restaurants today, they will come back to rob your families and kill your wives and children tomorrow. Do you still want to be soldiers of the Shengwu Army? Do you still want to share the fifty acres of land? If you don't want to share the land, get out of my way!"

When the soldiers who were blocking the road like a human wall heard that they would not be given any land, they looked at each other in dismay. But they finally moved aside for the sake of the fifty acres of land.

"Tu Hai, do I need to catch people myself?" Gao Yao said coldly.

Tu Hai's forehead was covered with sweat, and he immediately said, "Which bastard dares to disobey military orders? I will arrest him right now!"

After a while, all the soldiers of the Second Company of the Fourth Battalion were brought over. The leading company commander Zhang Xian was escorted by Tu Hai himself and sent to Gao Yao.

Zhang Xian was still shouting in dissatisfaction, "Instructor Gao, I don't accept it. It was the shopkeeper who secretly cursed us behind the counter and thought I couldn't hear him. When I scolded him, he refused to admit it, so I started a fight with him and accidentally beat him to death."

Gao Yao became furious upon hearing this, and immediately pulled out a steel mace from his waist, pushed Tu Hai away, kicked Zhang Xian to the ground, and hit him on the back with the steel mace, cursing as he hit him.

"You dare to quibble? You led your troops to eat and drink for free in someone else's restaurant. What's wrong with them scolding you? If I were the shopkeeper, I would drug you and poison you bastards to death.

"What do you mean you accidentally killed someone? Didn't I see the knife wounds on the body? Do you think I'm blind? You accidentally got into a fight and you pulled out a knife, right? You dare not admit it, you idiot, and you dare to say you don't accept it?"

Gao Yaolian used his mace for more than ten times, but unfortunately, he was a scholar after all, and soon he was exhausted and out of breath.

With Tu Hai and Zhu Liangzu standing by to support him, Zhang Xian did not dare to fight back. When Gao Yao was tired of fighting, Zhang Xian shouted with a red face, "I am responsible for my own actions. I killed the man. If you want to pay with your life, just kill me. It has nothing to do with my brothers!"

"You say it has nothing to do with it? Now you want to act like a hero, but what were you doing when you were killing people before?" Upon hearing this, Gao Yao kicked him a few more times, then he looked at the soldiers of the second company of the fourth battalion and said.

"Who else has killed someone? Come out now. Don't wait for me to check them one by one. I have the roster. If you dare to do it and don't take responsibility, I will find out. Not only will you die, but your parents, wives and children will also be exiled overseas. Don't force me to do it to the extreme!"

When the soldiers heard this, five of them immediately stood up. Two others were so frightened that they collapsed to the ground and were dragged out by Tu Hai. Including Zhang Xian, there were eight people in total.

"You eight have violated military regulations, committed murder and robbery. According to military regulations, you will be beheaded, and your families will not be held accountable. Is that ok with you?"

"No problem!" Zhang Xian responded loudly.

Only three of them were so scared that they fell to their knees and kowtowed frantically to beg for mercy, "Instructor, please spare our lives. We will never dare to do it again."

Gao Yao immediately shouted, "Spare your lives? When you killed people, why didn't you spare the lives of the shopkeeper and the waiter? If I spare you today, how can I explain to the hundreds of thousands of people in Yangzhou City? Take them away!"

After dragging the eight men away, Gao Yao looked at the remaining people from the Second Company of the Fourth Battalion and asked, "Who followed me to that restaurant to eat and drink for free? Stand up. Each of you will be punished with fifty military sticks and fined twenty acres of land. If you do it again next time, all your land will be confiscated and you will be beheaded! If you are a man, stand up and don't wait for me to find someone to identify you, otherwise you will be beheaded together!"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment when they heard that Gao Yao had left them 30 mu of land. They gritted their teeth and stood up one after another. More than 50 people stood up at once. Tu Dian, who was watching anxiously, pulled Tu Hai and whispered, "Brother, don't you care about it?"

Tu Hai glared at him. "You've done such a bad thing that you can't even control your own soldiers. You've made me look bad here. How can I control you?"

Just at this moment Gao Yao looked over, and the two brothers immediately fell silent. Gao Yao then spoke again.

"Tu Hai, as an officer, you allowed your soldiers to plunder and kill civilians. What do you think should be done with him?"

Tu Dian's face flushed upon hearing this, while Tu Hai immediately knelt on one knee and clasped his fists, saying, "Master Instructor, my fourth brother didn't know anything about this either. It was all done by that bastard Zhang Xian. How can you say that he allowed his soldiers to plunder? At most, he was lax in his military discipline. Please forgive him, Master Instructor."

"Well, since you said that the army was not disciplined strictly, then let's deal with it according to the principle of lax discipline. Tudian failed to discipline his soldiers and officers, and was punished with 20 military sticks. The soldiers killed and robbed, knew about it and did not report it, and protected their subordinates. They will be fined another 20 military sticks, for a total of 40 military sticks. If they commit the same crime again next time, they will be punished for both crimes.

"Tu Dian is your subordinate. You can execute it yourself. Is that okay?" Gao Yao announced the verdict immediately.

Tu Hai immediately clasped his fists and said, "Thank you for your training and kindness!"

"Then let's execute him."

"Yes!"

Gao Yao asked Tu Hai to carry out the execution personally, intending to show some leniency to him. After all, he was his brother and how could he beat him too harshly? However, with so many people watching, Tu Hai couldn't be too lenient. After forty blows of the military stick, Tu Dian was still grimacing and was finally carried away.

Everyone was happy as they had just captured Yangzhou, but this incident ruined Gao Yao's mood. Gao Yao quickly discussed with Zhu Liangzu. Since the newly recruited troops were of mixed quality, in order to prevent these guys from continuing to disturb the people in the city, the two of them directly ordered all the participating troops to withdraw from Yangzhou and only allowed Hu Hai's 36th Regiment to enter the city to maintain law and order.

All other troops retreated to the camp outside the west city. The commanders of each unit kept their soldiers under control and did not allow them to leave the camp.

Gao Yao then appointed Li Bin, the head of intelligence for Zhenzhou and Yangzi, as the acting prefect of Yangzhou, to stay and govern Yangzhou temporarily until the Marshal's Office sent a formal official to take over.

Then he asked Li Bin to post a notice to reassure the people, as well as the way to deal with this robbery and murder case. He personally supervised the execution of Zhang Xian and eight others, and beat the remaining dozens of soldiers who ate and drank for free with military sticks. He also compensated the restaurant for its losses. When the people of Yangzhou saw this, they immediately applauded and praised the benevolent actions of the Shengwu Army.

In the camp outside the city, Zhu Liangzu was also summoning officers from various departments to discuss the next actions.

Looking at the commanders in the tent, Zhu Liangzu said, "We advanced too fast a few days ago, and the soldiers are very tired. Now that Yangzhou has been taken in one day, we should rest in Yangzhou for another day and let the soldiers have a good rest.

"We're not going anywhere tomorrow, the 17th. We'll move out on the 18th. Lao Gao, you should also take out some of the spoils and have someone go around to buy some meat so that the soldiers can have a good meal."

"Okay." Gao Yao agreed immediately.

Zhu Liangzu added, "But the main army can rest, but the cavalry can't. Zheng Yong, you have to leave one battalion of cavalry in Yangzhou, and send the remaining two battalions to Gaoyou. This time, we will not only monitor the enemy in Gaoyou, but also surround Gaoyou and cut off the connection between the city and the outside world. Don't let them escape!

"In addition, we have captured Zuo Cheng Zhedu. Kill him, as well as the Wan Hu, Darughachi, and the General Manager. Cut off their heads and have the cavalry take them to the outskirts of Gaoyou City to first damage the morale of the defenders in the city!"

"Yes!" Zheng Yong immediately stepped out and accepted the order.

However, at this moment, Yang Huan suddenly stood up and said, "Boss, I have a different suggestion."

"Oh, so Xiao Yang is in charge. Tell me, do you have any different suggestions?"

When Zhu Liangzu saw that it was Yang Huan who was speaking, he immediately became serious. Although Yang Huan was young, he performed well in the Jiangbei Campaign. Not only did he command the artillery regiment effectively, he also made many useful suggestions. For example, during the street fighting in the siege of Yangzhou, he followed the light artillery into the city and found a guide to lead the way. These were things he learned from Lu Jin.

This time is no exception, and what Yang Huan wants to talk about is still the experience he learned from Lu Jin.

"The steward said before that Gaoyou prefect Li Qi was the top scholar selected by the Tartars and a diehard. Even if we bring those heads over, it will probably be of little use. He won't open the city and surrender anyway.

“Then why not take the heads of these Tartar officials to the small counties east of Yangzhou? Maybe we can force them to surrender directly and reduce the pressure on the 108th Division.

"When I was fighting the crossing-the-river campaign with the Marshal before, the Marshal did exactly this. He used the heads of Yuelu Temur and several Tartar officials to directly persuade the four counties of Lishui, Jurong, Jintan, and Danyang to surrender."

When Zhu Liangzu heard that it was Lu Jin who had done it, he immediately nodded and said, "It makes some sense, but who should we send? We only have one cavalry regiment."

Liao Yongzhong said immediately, "It's just a few heads. Now that Yangzhou has been captured, there is no force in Jiangbei that can stop our cavalry except Gaoyou in the north. We can just send a few messengers to deliver the heads."

Zhu Liangzu nodded, "Then let's do it this way. Take care of the head and send it to Li Huafu. It's up to them how to use it later. Oh, and the thousand laborers in Tianchang, Sun Deya's body, and Yu Shiliang must also be sent to Guazhou. Let the navy crossing the river pick them up tomorrow. Lao Gao, you will arrange this matter."

"Okay." Gao Yao agreed immediately.

Then Zhu Liangzu said, "In addition, we have captured a lot of prisoners this time. Our battle line is getting longer and longer, and there are more cities to occupy. We need to discuss expanding the army."

Everyone sat up straight upon hearing this.

Previously, Zhu Liangzu had incorporated more than 5,000 people from Yu Shiliang's group in Tianchang, and left 1,200 people in Tianchang to defend the city. Now there are still more than 3,000 people following the main force. In addition, there are the two independent regiments of Liu Minhua and Tu Hai, which together have the strength of three regiments.

Liao Yongzhong's 106th Division fought all the way from Liuhe. In the three cities, apart from leaving some troops to defend the cities, most of the prisoners were also brought here. There were a total of five to six thousand people here.

Finally, there are the prisoners captured from Yangzhou City this time.

There were 25000 Yuan army garrisons in Yangzhou. After Zhu Liangzu laid siege to the city, Xie Zhedu and others temporarily recruited more than people in the city to participate in the defense, for a total of more than people.

Among the more than 7,000 people who had just been recruited, Gao Yao had ordered the release of all of them. As long as they could tell where they were and someone came to claim them, they would all be released.

In this battle, more than 3,000 defenders were killed, leaving only about 22,000 men. They are now all being held outside the city.

Twenty-two thousand people, plus the prisoners captured previously, are enough to expand the army by another six or seven regiments. However, they do not have the right to formally expand the army, nor do they have that many weapons and equipment, so how to expand the army becomes a problem.

Before Zhu Liangzu could speak, Gao Yao reminded him, "We can expand the army, but there are still wars to fight. The temporarily expanded army is not well organized and trained, and it is of no use at all. Therefore, we cannot split the main force too much. We have to maintain a certain combat power, otherwise we will not be able to cope with the next war."

Zhu Liangzu nodded, and Liao Yongzhong also said at this time.

"How many cities do we have to fight for? We don't have to worry about the areas east of Yangzhou, but we still have five cities to the north: Gaoyou, Xinghua, Baoying, Yancheng, and Huai'an.

"Yangzhou is a big city and a newly annexed territory, so at least one regiment must be stationed there. Gaoyou must also have one regiment stationed there. As for Xinghua, Baoying, and Yancheng ahead, how many troops should be stationed there? It depends on whether Huai'an can be taken. If so, we will concentrate our main forces in Huai'an and use the natural barrier of the Yellow River to block Tuotuo.

"If not, should Xinghua, Baoying, and Yancheng be defended or abandoned? If you are prepared to abandon the city at any time, you don't need to leave too many people. The main force should be concentrated in Gaoyou, and mobile forces should be sent to support and cover the withdrawal of the front troops, and strive to fight more field battles with the Yuan army."

Upon hearing this, everyone looked at the map and began to ponder.

(End of this chapter)