Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 102: The Tragedy of Jin

The death of Da Jin Ya brought grief to the entire Jin bandit army.

Some people advocated revenge first, while others advocated heading north first.

The bandits discussed for a long time whether to take revenge first or go north first, but they could not reach a consensus.

At this time, the army had little food and grass, and the surrounding people had all been looted. It was impossible to replenish military supplies. If they stayed any longer, things would be bad.

Wu Sheng wanted to lead the entire army north first, and then discuss revenge with Da Jin Ya. However, when Da Jin Ya was around, he always had a very good relationship with all the brothers. Among them, there were six people with whom he had a particularly good relationship, and they called each other brothers. They were named Wu Zhi, Zhao Yi, Huang Dai, Sun Lian, Deng Xianlai, and Zhang Jiudao.

These six men strongly advocated revenge. They had nearly 100,000 soldiers and horses under their command, and many small and medium-sized strongholds followed them. In total, there were about 50,000 to 60,000 people, so Wu Sheng could not ignore them.

Deng Xianlai was the first to lose his temper and said:
"Brother has become the king and is unwilling to avenge his brothers. We will leave on our own and dare not delay his taking the throne!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone fell silent.

Wu Sheng stared at Deng Xianlai.

Deng Xianlai looked at Wu Sheng without showing any sign of weakness.

The rest of Wu Zhi, Zhao Yi and others stood up silently and stood behind Deng Xianlai to support him; and behind them many small and medium-sized leaders also stood up.

Most of the other leaders chose to watch the show and neither side helped.

But there was also a part of Wu Sheng’s original team who chose to stand by Wu Sheng.

Wu Sheng clenched his fists tightly, he wished he could tear these people to pieces right now.

But looking around, the anger gradually dissipated.

The internal organization of the Jin bandits was too loose, unlike Fang Yong's vertical military management. Although Wu Sheng was called the King of Jin, he was elected by all the commanders under him.

Although this form of expansion is extremely fast, power is dispersed among the various commanders under it. Once a conflict breaks out, it is bound to lead to internal division, and it will then be difficult to gain any momentum.

In order to stabilize people's hearts, Wu Sheng had no choice but to compromise and agreed to avenge Da Jin Ya first.

Taking into account that the opponent was Chen Zhengdu, a man whose combat capabilities were well known to all the Jin bandits, Wu Sheng ordered Wu Zhi, Zhao Yi, Huang Dai, Sun Lian, Deng Xianlai, and Zhang Jiudao to lead an army of 100,000 to jointly wipe out Chen Zhengdu's forces.

He also ordered his trusted subordinates, Yuan Tianyou and Tang Ming, to each lead 50,000 to 60,000 people to carefully bypass Hejian City and head to Botou and other rich counties in the east to plunder in order to meet military supplies.

The rest of the people continued to stay here to guard against Wang Ziteng's troops in Hejian City.

After the order was issued, all parties began to send troops.

However, when Deng Xianlai and six others led their troops to the vicinity of Hutuo River, they saw the tomb of Da Jin Ya.

After searching all around, there was no sign of any government troops.

After repeated investigations, nothing was found, so the six decided to split up and search.

The six men were divided into six armies, each with more than 10,000 men, and they went to the surrounding areas to search for traces of the government troops.

Huangdai's troops explored along the Hutuo River and reached Huiwo Village, where they found some enemy troops evacuating from the southwest bank of the river.

There was a severe drought in Zhili this year, and the Hutuo River also dried up a bit, with only a small amount of water flowing, and the riverbed was exposed in many places.

Seeing this, Huang Dai was eager to take revenge, so he led his troops across the river to chase after them.

The army stepped into the riverbed, but because there was a lot of mud and sand in the river, they were inevitably stuck in it and it was very difficult to move forward.

At this time, many ambushes appeared on both sides of the river and attacked them head-on.

Huang Dai was hit by an arrow in the face and died with hatred.

When the other bandits saw that their leader was dead, they lost their will to fight and either fled or surrendered.

On the other side, Sun Lian and his troops discovered a group of government troops and chased them all the way to Yidayou Town, but the government troops disappeared.

Sun Liansui led his troops into Dayou Town to search.

There were no living people in the town at this time, but there were piles of dry firewood in every house, and there was a faint smell of oil in the air, which was very strange.

Sun Lian had never been to school and did not know the art of war, so he did not know that this was a fire plan.

Following the trail, Sun Lian went deep into the town and saw a Chengshi oil mill. He went in and saw that it was full of dry grass and firewood, sprinkled with kerosene. At this time, countless rockets suddenly shot out from the sky, and a fire broke out in the town.

Sun Lian was shot in the thigh by a rocket and fell into an oil mill, where he was burned to death.

Zhang Jiudao's troops were closer to Sun Lian. When they saw the thick smoke and fire, they knew something must have happened, so they led their troops to rescue.

On the way, they were blocked by more than a thousand government troops.

Zhang Jiudao used two iron rods to fight back the government troops. He went forward and encountered more than a thousand government troops blocking his way. Zhang Jiudao fought again and fought back the government troops.

Zhang Jiudao couldn't help but feel a little conceited after defeating the government troops twice.

At this time, he had led his troops to the outside of Dayou Town and saw a raging fire in the town. There were people crying and struggling inside, it was like hell on earth.

There were about five to six thousand government troops outside the town, surrounding the exit. The bandit troops inside the town attacked several times but were unable to break through the encirclement.

Seeing this, Zhang Jiudao's eyes turned red. He shouted "Fourth Brother Sun" and led his troops to charge forward.

After a hard fight, the government troops retreated in all directions.

Zhang Jiudao was so eager to save people that he had no time to chase the government troops. He ordered half of his troops to guard outside the town, while he personally led the rest into the town to rescue.

Zhang Jiudao rushed into the town, only to see fires and thick smoke everywhere, making it difficult to tell the direction. He could only rush in and search around, shouting Sun Lian's name with his men.

Faintly, they arrived at Cheng's Oil Shop, where the fire was the most intense. The blaze was roaring fiercely, and it seemed as if they could hear Sun Lian's roar.

"Hu, run away, hu, run away!"

At this time, a soldier rushed over and said:
"It's bad. Many soldiers have come from outside the town and surrounded us."

Outside the town, the government troops came back. It turned out that they had only pretended to be defeated before. Now they brought more soldiers and surrounded the bandits, leaving them with no way to escape.

Amid the fire, shouts and cries of killing continued until late at night.

Zhang Jiudao was blocked in the town and unable to break out, he died of exhaustion, and most of the bandits under his command were injured and surrendered.

Soon, Deng Xianlai, Wu Zhi and Zhao Yi learned the news of the death of their three brothers. They were extremely sad and afraid that they would be defeated by the government troops again, so they joined forces.

Some of his subordinates dissuaded them and asked the three of them to return to the camp to ask King Jin for help.

The three of them refused almost at the same time.

"The seven of us live and die together, how can I go back alone!"

The three men then joined forces to chase and kill the government troops.

Chen Zhengdu led his troops to fight and retreat, fleeing all the way to the northwest along the Hutuo River.

The bandits chased them all the way.

During this period, there were battles of varying magnitudes, with both sides suffering losses.

Chen Zhengdu led the bandits to the Boye camping area, which was once the government army's garrison camp. It was later abandoned, but there were still some basic fortifications.

Before coming, Chen Zhengdu sent people to contact the 15,000 troops sent by the Governor-General of Zhili and set up an ambush here.

The bandits had no idea about this and walked straight into the ambush.

All the ambush troops in Boye camp were sent out, and relying on the terrain, they trapped the bandits.

Chen Zhengdu reversed his previous downward trend and led his troops to block the retreat.

The enemy soldiers were unable to advance or retreat, and had no chance of survival.

Deng Xianlai, Wu Zhi and Zhao Yi led their troops in a hard fight, attempting to break out of the encirclement, but ultimately failed. Zhao Yi was hit by an arrow and bled to death.

Seeing that their breakout had failed, the remaining bandits lost all will to fight.

Chen Zhengdu ordered the entire army to shout that those who kneeled down and surrendered would not be killed. Upon hearing this, most of the bandits knelt down and surrendered.

Deng Xianlai and Wu Zhi laughed miserably when they saw this, and Deng Xianlai roared:
"I, Deng Xianlai, swear to never surrender to the dog officials. Brothers, I am here!"

After saying this, he drew his sword and committed suicide!

Wu Zhi gritted his teeth and said:
"Chen Zhengdu, you have harmed my seven brothers like this, you must be punished!"

After saying this, he also drew his sword and committed suicide.

However, Wu Zhi was not good at it and failed to cut all the throats. He choked and begged:

"Please, please give me a break."

Chen Zheng didn't care about Wu Zhi's previous curse. He stepped forward, drew his knife and stabbed him in the heart, and Wu Zhi died.

Afterwards, Chen Zhengdu remained silent for a long time, and sent people to build a tomb for the seven people in Boye Camp and wrote in the tomb: The Tomb of the Seven Righteous Men of the Jin Bandits.

(End of this chapter)