Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 179: The Great War

Sun Bin, who was standing in the wooden building watching the battle, did not expect that the Annan army was so weak. They were defeated before the Chinese troops launched a counterattack.

"Order all troops to attack. Governor Li Yu of the Coastal Defense cannot escape!"

"The last general takes command!"

Ye Chenglin responded loudly with a bow, turned around and went downstairs to gather the troops to participate in the attack.

Sun Bin's order was passed on to the troops on the front line through the flag soldiers on the wooden building. The machine gunner on the front line put down the machine gun handle, picked up the Dreyse rifle that had been prepared in advance, and ordered the three ammunition handlers: "You stay and guard the machine gun. This officer will go to the front line to kill the enemy!"

"Sir, just leave one person to guard the machine gun, and let me follow you to kill the enemy!"

The Annan troops were defeated at the first blow, and the ammunition carriers were unwilling to give up the merit that was within their grasp.

"Okay! You stay and guard the machine gun, and the other two will follow me to kill the enemy and make merit!"

The machine gunner ordered the soldier who was kicked to stay behind and immediately issued orders to the other two ammunition handlers.

"Yes, sir!" The two ammunition handlers showed joy on their faces, picked up two old-fashioned muskets and followed the machine gunner out of the position.

Wave after wave of Chinese troops rushed out of their positions to pursue the Annan troops, causing the scale of the Annan troops' defeat to continue to expand. The front army collided with the rear army, and complete Annan troops were scattered by the fleeing soldiers, forming new fleeing soldiers who continued to collide with the rear, finally causing a major defeat of the entire army.

"We've lost, it's all over!" Looking at the defeated army being driven away by the Chinese troops, the leader of the Annan troops was so scared that he fell off his horse.

"General, General!" When the personal soldiers around him saw their master fall off his horse, they immediately surrounded him and helped him up.

"General, it's bad. The Tang people are rushing towards us!"

Chen Wuyuan had just sat on his horse with the help of his personal soldiers when he heard the bad news.

"Retreat immediately, retreat back to Haifang City!" Chen Wuyuan's face, which had just returned to normal, turned pale in an instant when he saw Chen Shangfa rushing towards him with a knife in both hands like a ferocious monster.

"General, the Governor is still in the camp. Should we notify him?"

"Fool, Governor Gao Mingyuan has instructed that you must get the news in advance and leave first. If you don't return to the camp, the guard battalion will immediately withdraw to Haifang City!" Chief Chen Wuyuan glared at the talkative bodyguard angrily, swung the whip and hit the warhorse under him hard. The warhorse felt the pain, let out a tearing sound, and ran away carrying Chen Wuyuan's fat body. Seeing this, the other two hundred or so bodyguards on horseback immediately followed.

"Captain, they left on horseback, and our brothers can't catch up!"

"Damn it, that cheap, damned Annan grandson!" Chen Shangfa took a breath, looked at Chen Wuyuan who was running away hatefully, and shouted: "Brothers, hold on for a while longer. The Annan officer is in the barracks. We must not let anyone else catch him!"

"Brothers, we can hold on!" Li Yu was a high-ranking official in Annan. Capturing him would be almost the first achievement in this battle. When the more than 200 mountain camp soldiers who were chasing them heard that they had to capture Li Yu, they suddenly felt stronger.

"Good! Capture Li Yu alive and break into Haifang City!" Chen Shangfa shouted and continued to attack forward with his soldiers.

In the Annan troop camp, Li Yu stayed in his tent restlessly, and became even more panicked as he listened to the shouting and killing sounds outside getting closer and closer.

Li Yu thought that the attack on the Chinese camp in Xialong would be a sure win, but he had just handed over the command to Chen Wuyuan and had not yet settled down in the camp when he heard the bad news that the attack had been frustrated from the front line. At that time, Li Yu believed that the Chinese troops were surrounded by more than 10,000 troops and the attack was frustrated because the Chinese fought desperately, so he just ordered Chen Wuyuan to continue to increase the number of front-line attacking soldiers. However, he did not expect that within just 10 to 20 minutes after the order was conveyed between the front line and the camp, the battlefield situation changed dramatically.

The officer who delivered the order had not returned to the camp yet, but as the number of defeated soldiers outside increased, a bad thought emerged in Li Yu's mind. "Did the army collapse?" "Report! Governor, it's bad, all the front-line troops have collapsed, and we have been surrounded by the Tang people!"

While Li Yu was worrying, a wounded officer ran into the tent. It was the officer he had just sent out to convey the order.

"How could an army of more than 10,000 be defeated? Where is Chen Wuyuan? Where is he?"

"General Chen has run away with his personal soldiers. Governor-General, the entire army of the 10,000 Guochao is finished!"

The officer who reported the news knelt on the ground and cried bitterly.

"I promoted Chen Wuyuan from a humble background, how could he treat me like this!" Li Yu angrily threw his official hat to the ground, threw everything on the table, and said frantically: "Chen Wuyuan misled me, Chen Wuyuan misled me!"

"Come on, sir! I will protect you till my death and help you break through the siege!"

The Annan officer who came back to report the news knelt on the ground and said loyally.

"It's too late, too late! The army is defeated. How can I face His Majesty and the Prince Consort?" Li Yu was disheartened. He drew his sword and wanted to commit suicide, but he couldn't bring himself to do it when the sword touched his neck.

"Governor, you are a pillar of the country, you must not commit suicide!" Li Yu's actions frightened hundreds of guards in the military tent. They stepped forward to grab the sword in Li Yu's hand and urged him urgently: "Victory and defeat are common in the military. Besides, the failure of this war is all due to Chen Wuyuan abandoning the army and fleeing. The fault is not yours. Governor, you must not commit suicide. The country is constantly troubled by internal and external troubles, and you are the pillar of support!"

Thanks to the earnest words of many of his personal soldiers and generals, Li Yu finally found a reason to live and preserved his reputation as a scholar.

"The country is in a difficult situation, so I will sacrifice my personal honor and serve the country with my guilty body."

"Governor, you have endured humiliation and carried heavy burdens. I, a lowly general, will never let the rebels hurt you in the slightest!" Li Yu had no intention of dying. The personal guards in the tent breathed a sigh of relief and immediately made a promise.

Since the peasant army entered Annan, the two sides have been engaged in constant battles, but there have been no real casualties among high-ranking officials. Because the peasant army was fighting in a foreign country, killing captured Annan officials would be a mortal offense to the ruling class of Annan, which would lead to complete hostility and counterattack from the other side. Therefore, whenever the peasant army captured Annan officials, they would often ask for a certain ransom before releasing them. Officials at all levels in Annan also tacitly recognized the existence of the peasant army and did not kill them.

The reason why Wu Yazhong incurred the hostility of all Annan officials was that he broke the tacit understanding between the peasant army and the Annan officials. He not only slaughtered the captured Annan officials, but also purged the Annan officials and gentry in the occupied areas and robbed their property.

Wu Yazhong was ambitious and wanted to fight back to Taiping Prefecture to rebuild the Great Cheng Kingdom. He did not care about the opinions of Annan officials. The leader of the Tang people in Xialong was also a scholar, and he would not be as reckless as Wu Yazhong.

Li Yu and his personal soldiers did not choose to resist fearlessly. After a while, they were captured by Chen Shangfa who arrived first. As Li Yu was captured, the defeated Annan soldiers raised their hands in surrender, and some soldiers who had been hiding also left their hiding places and surrendered.

The actual fighting time between the two sides in the attack and defense of Ha Long was only about an hour. For most of the following day, the Chinese troops were busy capturing prisoners all over the mountains.

At the end of the battle, more than 9,000 Annan soldiers were taken prisoner. Excluding more than 1,000 soldiers who died in the battle, less than 2,000 Annan soldiers escaped.

The commander-in-chief was captured, the troops of the two provinces were completely wiped out, and the defenses of Guang'an and Haiphong provinces were empty. Sun Bin immediately ordered to leave 500 young and strong men to cooperate with the old and young in the camp to guard the prisoners, and the other young and strong men to cooperate with the troops to attack and occupy the surrounding areas.

Three days after the Battle of Ha Long ended, Quang Yen and Hai Ninh provinces were completely occupied. On the fourth day, the Annan general Chen Wuyuan who had fled back to Haiphong City abandoned the city and fled again. Haiphong City fell into the hands of Chinese troops. With the fall of Haiphong City, several small counties under Haiphong Province all surrendered voluntarily and came under the control of Chinese troops.

The three provinces fell, 10,000 regular troops were annihilated, and a loophole appeared in the defense of northern Annan. Encouraged by the actions of Sun Bin's troops, the remaining Annan rebels raised the banner of the descendants of the former royal family and started an uprising in Taiyuan Province. Then the rebellion quickly spread to Bac Kan and Nghi Quang Provinces. The Annan troops were unable to fight back under the attack of the rebels and could only retreat to several key cities and wait for the assistance of the Hue court.

(End of this chapter)