Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 369: Becoming King and Fighting

Hearing that someone came to pay tribute to Li Zhima, Fu Youde was immediately puzzled, "Come to pay tribute to Li Shuai at this time? Which Lu Shuai sent this person, the Luzhou Lu Shuai who sold us Tiejia?"

Mao Gui glanced at him and said, "Who else could it be except him?"

"The Marshal is dead, and you went to inform him of his death?" Fu Youde asked puzzledly.

Mao Gui shook his head and said, "No, the Yuan army is still on the other side of the Huai River, very close, and has not yet withdrawn. Why should I tell him this now?"

"Then how did he know?"

Mao Gui immediately guessed, "I don't know, maybe he sent scouts and spies to our side. Besides, his soldiers are also in Huai'an now, helping us cover our flanks. It's not surprising that they are always paying attention to the movements of the Yuan army and us, right?"

Fu Youde nodded and said nothing more.

Mao Gui waved to the soldiers around him and said, "Please invite the Luzhou envoy to enter the city."

"Yes!"

Xia Yu quickly entered Xuzhou with his soldiers and was led all the way to the mourning hall of the government office. He first presented gifts. Before coming, Lu Jin also had someone bring a brocade dress to Zhima Li as a shroud, and also gave him a set of armor, saying that Zhima Li could wear it when he was buried.

After all, he was a rebel general, and his death should be dignified. But after arriving, he found out that Zhima Li did not even leave behind a body, and Mao Gui only put some of Zhima Li's old things into the coffin, preparing to build a cenotaph.

However, Mao Gui still accepted these things on behalf of the family and put them into the coffin in front of Xia Yu.

After Xia Yu finished the worship, Mao Gui and Fu Youde expressed their gratitude as family members, and then Xia Yu started to talk about business.

"General Mao, I am Xia Yu, an attendant of the Martial Academy of the Marshal's Office of the Holy Martial Army. In addition to paying tribute to Marshal Li, I am also here on the orders of my master to convey some words to you."

"Oh, I wonder if General Lu from your army has anything to tell me?" Mao Gui was a little surprised. He originally thought that the envoy was just here to pay tribute to Zhima Li, but he didn't expect that Lu Jin also had a special message for him.

Xia Yu said immediately, "My master said that although our two armies have not formed an alliance, we are both righteous armies and close neighbors. We have always been friendly neighbors and shared what we have. It is not an exaggeration to say that we are as close as brothers. This time, we were able to repel the main force of Tuotuo's Yuan army because of the mutual support of the two families and our joint efforts to fight the enemy. Otherwise, it would be impossible for the Yuan army to retreat so easily.

"But now that General Li has passed away, we don't know who will be in charge of your army from now on. Moreover, after this battle, your army suffered heavy losses. The Lord asked me to tell General Mao that if there are any difficulties in the future, you can send someone directly to Jiankang or Huai'an to contact us. The Lord will definitely donate generously and will never let General Li's former subordinates be displaced and helpless."

Mao Gui was a little surprised when he heard this. He didn't understand what Lu Jin meant by being displaced and helpless. Did it mean that if Zhima Li died, they would fall apart?
But since it was Lu Jin who took the initiative to show his goodwill, he also followed the etiquette and asked Xia Yu to return the greeting, "Thank you for your army's kindness, General Lu, and also say hello to General Lu on my behalf. However, I am in mourning now and have the responsibility to guard the city, so I cannot go to pay a visit in person. I hope the envoy will not be offended."

Xia Yu immediately said that there was no need to bother, and then he took the letter and the musket gift box from the guards behind him, handed them to Mao Gui, and said, "This is a handwritten letter from my master to General Mao, and there is also a gift. Please accept it."

"Oh? Thank you, Coach Lu, for your kindness. But I don't know Coach Lu very well. Why did he specially send me a gift?"

Xia Yu immediately explained, "You have made a great contribution to stopping the Yuan army in Xuzhou. My master has always liked wise and brave generals. Perhaps he values ​​talents, so he specially gave you a gift. You don't have to be suspicious, just accept it."

Mao Gui frowned and nodded, then said, "Thank you very much, General Lu. I will definitely visit you if I have the chance in the future."

Xia Yu exchanged a few more words with Mao Gui before saying goodbye and leaving.

As soon as Xia Yu left, Fu Youde curled his lips and said disdainfully, "We supported each other and fought together, and this is why the Yuan army retreated. Bah, what a joke! If it weren't for General Li's strong defense and defense of the city, and if it weren't for my surprise attack from behind and sneak attack on Tuotuo's food supply route, how could the Yuan army retreat so easily?
"What did the Luzhou soldiers do? At best, they just helped us cover our flanks. What credit did they have for the retreat? If there were 100% credits this time, they only accounted for 10% at most. They even joined hands to fight the enemy. They really have the nerve to flatter themselves."

Mao Gui opened the letter and said indifferently, "You are biased. Although they used us to block the main force of the Yuan army in front and expanded madly in the back, they also sent troops to Huaibei, at least helped us to contain 10,000 or 20,000 troops, and reminded us several months in advance and sold us 10,000 sets of armor.

"Think about it, if they hadn't held back the 10,000 or 20,000-man army, these soldiers would either come to Xuzhou or stay in Fengpei. Would it be that easy for you to burn the Yuan army's food supplies?"

Fu Youde curled his lips when he heard this, but did not refute it because Mao Gui was telling the truth.

But then, after Mao Gui finished reading the letter, he immediately changed his tone and said, "I'm afraid we have underestimated the role of this neighbor. Their contribution to forcing Tuotuo to withdraw his troops may be greater than ours."

Fu Youde frowned and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? What did that Lu Shuai write in the letter that he asked you to speak for them?"

Mao Gui handed the letter to Fu Youde and said, "You can read it yourself. General Lu of Luzhou said that Tuotuo's military rations were just collected from Dadu. They were not much to begin with and were not enough to support the Yuan army in a long-term battle.

"So not long after Tuotuo arrived in Xuzhou, he asked the governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to collect food and fodder for him, and then asked Fang Guozhen to transport it to Haining.

"The Luzhou soldiers in Huai'an did not contribute much, they just helped to cover our flanks. But according to him, the Luzhou soldiers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang did contribute a lot. They launched the Eastern Expedition on the 15th day of the 12th month, and the four armies marched straight to Hangzhou. Now they have reached Shaoxing and cut off the Yuan army's food supply from land.

"We also defeated Fang Guozhen's navy, forcing him to stop sending food and fodder to Haining. The navy alone intercepted at least 160,000 shi of food.

"If they hadn't fought this battle in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, even if you burned the tens of thousands of stones of grain in Pei County, it would be useless. The Yuan court in Jiangsu and Zhejiang could still supply Tuotuo with a steady supply of military rations from Haining, and he would never withdraw so easily.

"From this point of view, they should take at least half of the credit for forcing Tuotuo to retreat this time, or even more."

Upon hearing this, Fu Youde quickly looked at the contents of the letter and could not help but be a little surprised, "So that's how it is. But how did they fight? They took over the eight routes in eastern Zhejiang in just one month? Also, why does it say here that we should be careful of Zhao Junyong? It also asked you to carry this musket with you day and night. Is it that serious? Can Zhao Junyong come and kill us?" Mao Gui did not speak, but opened the wooden box. Inside lay an exquisite cavalry-type flintlock musket, and there was an instruction manual attached, explaining how to use it. Mao Gui played with it for a while according to the instructions, and was amazed to see that it said it could penetrate armor within ten steps.

Then he did not directly answer Fu Youde's question, but asked him back.

"Zhao Junyong is greedy for power. Now that General Li has passed away, he is also a veteran of the uprising in Xuzhou. If one day he comes to seize power and asks you to hand over your soldiers and drive you away, what will you do?"

"What should I do? I'll kill him!" Fu Youde said unconvincedly, "I admire General Li and General Peng more, but what's Zhao Junyong? Apart from his contribution in the initial conquest of Xuzhou, has he made any military achievements since then? Just because he is a veteran of Xuzhou, we all have to obey him?"

Mao Gui spread his hands when he heard this, with an expression that said, "That's all." Then he said, "In fact, Li Shuai said something similar to me before he left."

"What?"

"Before leaving, Marshal Li called me to a side room and told me in private that if he died in this battle, we should be careful of Zhao Junyong. Zhao Junyong is greedy for power, vindictive, cruel and bloodthirsty. He will do anything to fight for power, and even his own subordinates cannot compete with him for power.

"So General Li told me that if he died in battle and Zhao Junyong came to seize power, we should go to Luzhou General Lu. If we don't want to go to Luzhou and plan to continue to stay under Zhao Junyong's command, we must not anger him, otherwise our lives may be in danger."

Fu Youde frowned when he heard this, but said nothing.

Mao Guize continued, "Before, only Marshal Li said this, and I didn't take it seriously. Just relying on Zhao Junyong, can he come to seize power? But now even Marshal Lu from Luzhou has mentioned this in the letter, so I'm afraid we really have to be careful."

Fu Youde nodded and asked, "So what should we do now?"

Mao Gui immediately said, "The most urgent task is to unify the various units first. The army cannot be leaderless, it must have a backbone to come up with a plan.

"I plan to send people to the back to look for the scattered soldiers in those military camps to see if we can find them back. We will also look for the whereabouts of General Peng. If he is still alive, why don't we accept him as our new leader? What do you think?"

Fu Youde nodded. "If we let General Peng take charge of the situation, then I have no objection. I agree to bring General Peng back, but we have to bring Li Xixi back as well. Then we can all gather together, plus Xuzhou City, we will have at least 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers, so we don't have to be afraid of Zhao Junyong."

Mao Gui nodded and immediately arranged for people to go to the south to gather the defeated soldiers and search for Peng Da's whereabouts.

On the other side, since the military camp was defeated and Zhima Li was captured, Peng Da, Xue Xian and others broke out separately and hid under different names.

However, the two did not run far. They just hid for a few days. After seeing the Yuan army retreat, they came out again to gather the defeated soldiers. They only gathered more than a thousand remnants along the way, and they had no food or grass. They were afraid that the Yuan army was still in Xuzhou, so they did not dare to return to the north, and had to go all the way south to Suzhou to join Zhao Junyong.

On the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, after Peng Da and Xue Xian arrived in Suzhou, Zhao Junyong opened the door and took them in, while asking Peng Da and Xue Xian about the situation of the war in the north.

When Zhao Junyong learned that Zhima Li was captured by the Yuan army and most likely dead, he immediately rolled his eyes and said, "We have suffered a great defeat. Although we did not lose the city, we have lost a lot of soldiers. I think we should find a way to boost the morale of the army as soon as possible. What do you think, Peng Da?"

Peng Da had an injured arm and had just had the doctor bandage his wound. He was eating and immediately asked, "It's time to boost the morale of the troops. Do you have any ideas?"

Zhao Junyong immediately laughed and said, "Old Peng, what do you think everyone wants by joining us in the rebellion? Isn't it for wealth and glory, and to avoid being bullied by the Tartars?
"But Li Er had always been suppressing me, wanting to be a marshal and refusing to be a king, so his brothers were all called Wanhu and Qianhu. He was a marshal, so it was difficult for everyone to surpass him. Now that Li Er is gone, I decided to be a king and let my brothers get promoted. What do you think?"

Peng Da was eating a chicken leg. He glanced at him and thought he was a madman. But he smiled and asked, "This is a good idea, but what title do you want to be called? Also, we are all brothers who started the rebellion together. You are the king, so should I be the king? What title do you think we should be called?"

Zhao Junyong stopped smiling immediately. If it were according to his own idea, he would of course want to monopolize the military power. Why would he want Peng Da to become king and be on the same level as him to share his power?

Seeing that Zhao Junyong had remained silent, Peng Da put on his clothes, put the remaining chicken leg bones on the table, and immediately stood up and said, "Old Zhao, President Zhao, when we started the uprising and seized Xuzhou at night, what did you call me?

"Now that Li Er's life or death is unknown and the army has just been defeated, you are thinking of becoming king now. Are you happy that Li Er is dead? If Li Er hadn't been suppressing you, I'm afraid you would have wanted to become king a long time ago, right?
"Well, I won't say anything if you want to be king, but you are only thinking about yourself now and not your brothers. Isn't that a little mean? What, you want me to kowtow to you when I see you in the future?

"Since you don't recognize me as your brother, I won't need to beg for food from you anymore. Let's go to Xuzhou and I won't be a bother to you anymore. You can go and call yourself the king."

After saying that, he stood up and walked out the door.

Zhao Junyong's face turned pale and blue, and he immediately scolded, "Peng Da, don't forget that when you were starving, I asked you to join the rebellion, otherwise how could you be where you are today?"

Peng Da didn't even turn his head when he heard this, "Oh? So I didn't contribute when Xuzhou started the uprising? Or did I not take action during the subsequent sieges? When Xuzhou was captured at night, I was at least one of the eight people, right?
"Before you kept calling me brother, saying we could share the wealth, but now that you're king you don't recognize me as your brother?

"In that case, then what else is there to say? Let's go our separate ways." With that, he left with the remaining soldiers under his command and headed towards the city gate.

Zhao Junyong was looking at Peng Da's departing back, gritting his teeth in anger. At this moment, a man suddenly appeared beside him. It was Zhao Junyong's adopted son Zhao Qi. When Zhao Qi saw Peng Da leaving, he immediately reminded Zhao Junyong.

"Father, since Xuzhou has not been conquered, there must be at least tens of thousands of soldiers in Xuzhou. We can't let Peng Da go, otherwise he will return to Xuzhou, take over Li Er's troops, and maybe turn around to attack us."

Zhao Junyong immediately made up his mind after hearing this, and said fiercely, "Go and lead the troops quickly to capture Peng Da, don't let him escape."

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)