Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 556: Captured
If Kong Youde is shocked now, then Li Xin is happy.

When Li Xin saw that Kong Youde's troops were defeated by Zhang Keda and Zhang Keda had led his troops to reinforce him, he felt relieved.

Although this battle is not over yet, it is already destined to be won.

With Li Yingyuan's defeat, Kong Youde's defeat was only a matter of time. Even if his outer cavalry arrived, it would not change the outcome. Now all he had to do was not give Kong Youde a chance to escape.

"Kong Youde! You are about to be defeated, why don't you surrender quickly?" Li Xin shouted.

"Bah!" Kong Youde was furious. "I am a brave man, how can I surrender in battle? Even if I lose today, I will die on the battlefield and live up to my name!"

"Hahaha!" Li Xin laughed. "How dare a mere rebel general be so arrogant? Kong Youde, you are a military officer of the imperial court, and you have been promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. The imperial court has treated you well, but you did not think of repaying the emperor and led your troops to rebel, plundering and killing people, committing heinous crimes. You have done such unjust things, and you still call yourself a hero? What kind of bullshit reputation do you have?"

"Back then, you were under the command of General Mao. He founded Dongjiang Town, gathered Liao people, organized an army, and fought to the death with the Jiannu. In the past ten years, he made countless contributions and was called the pillar of the country and a hero of the world. General Mao loved talents. Seeing that you, Kong Youde, were brave in battle, he promoted you from a soldier to an officer, and even adopted you as his grandson, giving you the name Yongshi. But can what you have done now be worthy of General Mao's trust and kindness? If General Mao knew what you did today, I'm afraid he would not be able to rest in peace in his grave!"

"You... you are talking nonsense!" Kong Youde was furious at Li Xin's words and immediately shouted, "Since you are talking about Marshal Mao, what do you say about his unjust death? If the court had not been on guard against military commanders like us and favored treacherous villains like Yuan Chonghuan, how could such a hero like Mao end up like this?"

"Yuan Chonghuan is Yuan Chonghuan! The court is the court!" Li Xin said solemnly, "Yuan Chonghuan forged an imperial decree to kill General Mao, and the court has its own way of dealing with it. Moreover, the court has already skinned him alive, which is enough to prove that Yuan Chonghuan acted on his own initiative and it was not the court's intention. There are countless people in the court who admire General Mao, and countless officials have written to vindicate General Mao. As a general of the Ming Dynasty, don't you know right from wrong? Are you angry at the entire court just because of one person's behavior? If so, what is your behavior of leading troops in rebellion? Do you represent all the generals of the Liao army just because of you alone?"

"Kong Youde! Now you can't escape, if you surrender you still have a chance of survival. I know you rebelled for a reason. But the law of the country is the law of the country, especially since you massacred people in the area after the rebellion and even led troops to attack Leiden. Have you ever thought about how you would have a foothold in Leiden if it weren't for Lord Sun Yuanhua's kindness in taking you in? How could you be where you are today?"

"Lord Sun took in Liao generals and soldiers like you, and even settled hundreds of thousands of Liao people. He trusted and valued you so much. Now you betrayed the court and started a rebellion. You even attacked your benefactor and put Lord Sun in danger. Don't you feel ashamed for doing this? Kong Youde! You are such an unkind and unjust villain. You have acted in a rebellious way. Not only have you let down the court, Lord Sun, and your colleagues in the Liao army, but you still have the nerve to call yourself a real man? It's a huge joke!"

"You...you..." Kong Youde was so angry that he was fuming. When it came to eloquence, he was no match for Li Xin. You had to know that Li Xin was a scholar. Although he failed to pass the imperial examination, he was a juren, and now he was the head of the Ministry of War.

Kong Youde was just a miner by birth. He only grew up in the army after joining Mao Wenlong. He even learned to read and write later, so he is not as good as Li Xin.

Kong Youde was speechless after a few words from Li Xin, especially because Li Xin's words directly touched his sore spot. Kong Youde always considered himself a real man and a hero, but his current actions were indeed not heroic, especially his action of leading troops back to attack Leiden.

Sun Yuanhua had been very kind to him and had great trust in him, but now Kong Youde was repaying kindness with enmity. It is no exaggeration to say that he was a villain for his behavior.

In fact, Kong Youde felt guilty when he made the decision to attack Leiden, but he forced himself to convince himself and made up his mind that he would never harm Sun Yuanhua after taking Dengzhou. He even wanted to recruit Sun Yuanhua for his own use.

In Kong Youde's view, this is also a way to repay Sun Yuanhua, right? To put it bluntly, it is a self-deceiving behavior, and Kong Youde's subordinates will naturally not refute these. After a long time, Kong Youde thinks this is a natural behavior. But now this fig leaf has been exposed by Li Xin in person, and he even scolded him for being unkind and unjust, not a real man and a hero, which made Kong Youde ashamed and angry.

With a livid face, Kong Youde knew that he could not be Li Xin's opponent if he continued to talk, and he had no time to argue with Li Xin in the current situation. Seeing that his troops were about to be defeated, Kong Youde had to make the final choice.

The choice was to run! While the two opposing armies had not completely surrounded him, Kong Youde had to fight his way out. He still had several hundred cavalrymen on the periphery. As long as he joined forces with these cavalrymen, he would still have a chance of survival even if he was defeated.

Thinking of this, Kong Youde no longer hesitated. He turned around and rushed in one direction with his men, intending to rush out first. But how could Li Xin, who had noticed him long ago, let Kong Youde do what he wanted? Without saying a word, he led his men to stop Kong Youde, and the two sides continued to fight fiercely.

After several rounds, Kong Youde couldn't get rid of Li Xin. The two had similar martial arts skills. Although Kong Youde was slightly stronger due to his rich battlefield experience, he was only slightly stronger. The two had been fighting for a long time and couldn't defeat each other. Now Kong Youde had the intention to retreat, and his fighting lacked the momentum of going forward. But Li Xin was different. Seeing that the battle was already won, as long as he could entangle Kong Youde and prevent him from escaping, he could win the battle completely. Li Xin no longer had any worries in his heart. As one side gained strength while the other lost strength, Kong Youde was gradually suppressed by Li Xin. The more anxious he was, the harder it was to get rid of Li Xin. Moreover, as Li Yingyuan's troops were defeated, Kong Youde's central army began to waver.

Just as Kong Youde was extremely anxious and was retreating to the periphery while fighting, he suddenly heard another scream. He subconsciously looked up and saw that the flag of Kong Youde, the representative of the central army, was swaying and falling down. As the flag fell, people from all directions shouted, "The rebels are defeated!" "The rebel general Kong Youde has been beheaded! Why don't you kneel down and surrender?" "Defeated, defeated...Everyone run!"

Kong Youde felt disheartened upon seeing this. He knew better than anyone what the fall of the commander's flag meant. Originally, the flag guard would never allow the commander's flag to be easily approached by the enemy. After all, on the battlefield, the commander's flag not only played a command role, but also represented the safety of the main general.

Once the general's flag fell, it meant that the command center was gone, and even the commander had been killed or captured. This was a huge blow to morale. When such a situation occurred on the battlefield, it meant that one side was completely defeated and there was basically no chance of recovery.

"I'm still alive! Why are you panicking! I'm still alive! Don't panic, brothers! Hold on! Hold on!" Kong Youde shouted around, and a dozen rebels around him were also shouting, "Marshal Du is safe and sound! Brothers, hold on..." and so on.

But their shouts had no effect on the entire battlefield. The central army, which was already on the verge of collapse due to Li Yingyuan's defeat, completely lost the courage to resist after the fall of the commander's flag. Everyone scrambled to escape. Some who saw that they could not escape simply dropped their weapons and knelt down to surrender. In a short time, the army was defeated like a landslide, and Kong Youde's troops were completely finished.

At this time, Kong Youde was still trying to make an effort, planning to gather some remnants and rush out with them. But how could Li Xin give him this opportunity? Taking advantage of the chaos of the rebels, Kong Youde had no intention of fighting, and Li Xin held Kong Youde tightly, making it difficult for him to escape.

Kong Youde was so panicked that he was forced to retreat step by step by Li Xin and was unable to resist. When the two swords collided, Kong Youde's hand suddenly shook, and the long sword that had been with him for many years flew out of his hand. Then there was a flash of cold light, and Li Xin's long sword was in front of him. Kong Youde was shocked and closed his eyes waiting to die, but after waiting for a while, he did not feel the pain in his neck. He opened his eyes and saw that Li Xin's long sword stopped just a few feet away from his neck, staring at him coldly.

"Kill me if you want. I'm not a hero if I frown..." Kong Youde knew that he was finished, but he still said this.

"Killing you like this is a bargain for you!" Li Xin sneered, raised his foot and kicked Kong Youde to the ground, and before Kong Youde could react, he said to his left and right: "Tie him up! Tie him up tightly!"

"Yes!"

The people around were overjoyed and rushed forward to suppress Kong Youde. Then they tied Kong Youde tightly with hemp ropes and even stuffed a cloth ball in his mouth to prevent Kong Youde from chewing his tongue and committing suicide.

With Kong Youde captured, the battle was completely won, and the next step was to clean up the mess.

After having someone guard Kong Youde, Li Xin and his men joined forces with Zhang Keda to continue hunting down Kong Youde's remnants. On the entire battlefield, Kong Youde's remnants either died or surrendered, and some fled desperately. The battle was finally over at dusk. After cleaning up the battlefield and counting the casualties, it was found that except for more than 300 cavalry and nearly 100 infantry who escaped, all of Kong Youde's 3,000 rebels were left behind.

Among them, more than 800 people died in the battle, and the rest were all captured. Li Xin's troops suffered more than 380 casualties, and Zhang Ke's troops suffered more casualties, nearly 750. The total casualties of the two armies were more than 1,100, which was not small in terms of proportion.

This is enough to prove the strong fighting power of Kong Youde's troops. If Li Xin had not caught Kong Youde by surprise, and the two sides had deployed their troops for a face-to-face decisive battle, it might be hard to predict who would win or lose.

As for the generals in Kong Youde's army, Kong Youde, Li Jiucheng and his son failed to escape, and most of their subordinates were either killed in battle or captured. Among those who escaped, there were only two officers, both commanders of Kong Youde's cavalry, who took advantage of the speed of the cavalry to escape first and jumped out of the encirclement.

That night, the victory report was sent to Dengzhou. Xu Xiancheng, who had been waiting for news in Dengzhou, learned in the middle of the night that a scout had arrived outside the city to report the news. He hurriedly asked someone to bring the person into the city in a hanging basket. After reading the victory report, Xu Xiancheng finally let go of the worry that had been hanging for several days, and his face was filled with joy.

(End of this chapter)