Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 43: Divine Bow Defeats the Enemy

In the capital, Emperor Longqing stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the sunny weather outside the palace with a worried look on his face.

After the continuous heavy snowfall during the winter solstice, there has been no rain in the capital area for a month. Hearing that there has been no rain in neighboring Shanxi either, Emperor Longqing couldn't help feeling a little worried.

There won't be a drought this year...

Thinking of this, Emperor Longqing became even more depressed, and he couldn't help chanting:

I hope the rain will moisten the land, but I worry about the suffering of the people.

Pray for rain from heaven, and may the dragon’s grace fill the four directions.

As he was reciting, Dai Quan came over:
"Your Majesty, the Ministry of War is sending an urgent message!"

Emperor Longqing quickly took it and looked at it, and his expression became gloomier the more he looked at it.

Yancheng was occupied by Huaiyin bandits, and Huaizhou may be in danger again!

Emperor Longqing was extremely anxious because Yancheng was extremely important to Daxi's finances and must not be lost.

"Go and invite Lord Guo to come and discuss this!"

Dai Quan took the order and hurried to summon Guo Bai.

Just a few days ago, Guo Bai had entered the cabinet.

After Duke Shanguo defeated Feng Tai with great success.

The credit for suppressing the rebellion did not go to the commander-in-chief of the three armies, Duke Shanguo, who captured Guo Tai alive; nor did it go to Chen Ruiwen, who defeated Feng Tai's army and captured hundreds of thousands of surrendered soldiers.

Instead, it fell on the Ministry of War who formulated the battle plan, or more precisely, on Guo Bai.

If you look into it deeply, it's nothing more than prejudice.

The emperor hated the nobles, so even though Duke Shanguo had made great contributions, the emperor was unwilling to reward him.

On the contrary, although Guo Bai, who was favored by the emperor, did not play such an important role in the suppression of the rebellion, he still got the greatest credit because of the emperor's favor.

It is for this reason that when Emperor Longqing received the military report from Duke Shanguo, he immediately called Guo Bai to discuss the matter. This shows the status of Guo Bai in Emperor Longqing's heart.

……

On the eighth day, the order from the capital finally reached Duke Shanguo.

The higher-ups agreed with Duke Shanguo's suggestion to wipe out the Huaiyin bandits, but required him not to divide his troops or mobilize other troops; he must lead the main force from the canal to support Huaizhou City, and then advance step by step relying on the city to wipe out the Huaiyin bandits from the front.

Duke Shanguo looked at the order and remained silent.

At first glance, the command doesn't seem to be a big problem.

The only problem was that the order came a little late.

About four days ago, Huaizhou City was occupied by the bandit army...

So how should he rely on the city to advance step by step?

"How about we report it to the capital?"

Eunuch Zhou said with a smile.

Even he saw the inappropriateness of this order.

Duke Shanguo shook his head and sighed:

"Forget it, let's send troops according to this plan. If we wait any longer, I'm afraid the Huaiyin bandits will attack Xuzhou!"

Duke Shan had no choice but to implement the military department's battle plan.

Although the plan had major problems, Duke Shanguo could not wait any longer. There were not many food supplies in Nanjing, and he also had to supply prisoners of war, so he could not wait any longer.

At that moment, Duke Shan gathered his troops and rushed to Huaizhou.

The war officially began.

Fang Yong and Duke Shanguo's first fight took place outside the city.

Fang Yong ordered Ma Laohei to set up an ambush with artillery on the route that the Shanguo Duke's fleet had to pass, and destroyed several large ships of the Shanguo Duke. This was the first confrontation between the two sides.

Afterwards, Duke Shan’s troops arrived at the city.

At the beginning, Duke Shanguo wanted to take advantage of Fang Yong's unstable foothold to attack the city, but soon this idea failed.

Fang Yong’s defense of the city was impenetrable, and it was impossible to conquer it without several times the number of troops.

Duke Shanguo sent people to dig tunnels and attack the city.

Fang Yong dug trenches in the city and used eavesdropping to detect the location of the enemy's trenches, easily foiling the Duke of Shan's plan.

Duke Shan sent people into the city to distribute letters of surrender, hoping to disintegrate Fang Yong from within.

The result was shocking. Compared with the imperial court, both the wealthy and the common people in the city actually believed the Huaiyin thieves more.

The Duke of Shanguo had no choice but to have his men build arrow towers to shoot arrows at the city wall, but Fang Yong destroyed it with cannons. The Duke of Shanguo attacked from the water, but Fang Yong sent men to intercept them in advance.

The two sides fought for twenty days, and neither side was able to defeat the other.

On the 21st day, the Ministry of War finally gave in and agreed that Duke Shanguo would not attack from Huaizhou, but could lead his troops to attack the enemy's rear via a detour.

Duke Shan was overjoyed and immediately ordered Chen Ruiwen to lead the cavalry to attack Fang Yong's grain transport troops in Hong County from behind.

Chen Ruiwen received the order and led his troops to Hong County that day.

Hong County is one of Fang Yong’s grain transportation routes.

The reason why Fang Yong could fight against the Duke of Shanguo's army for such a long time without losing the upper hand was not only Fang Yong's precise command, but also a big part of the reason was the food he had stored before.

These grains ensured the morale of the troops in Huaizhou City.

On this day, Niu Jinzheng led his troops to transport grain as usual.

Suddenly, a group of cavalry rushed over and fired rockets.

"Oh no! Someone is robbing our food supplies!"

Niu Jin quickly led his men to resist.

Since Fang Yong had fewer horses, Niu Jin's troops quickly fell into a disadvantage.

Chen Ruiwen rode over and stabbed down with a spear. Niu Jin blocked it with a big axe. The two sides competed with each other and were evenly matched for a while.

A soldier beside him drew his bow and shot an arrow, which hit Niu Jin's left shoulder.

Niu Jin was defeated.

All two hundred carts of grain were burned by Chen Ruiwen.

"Oh!"

Fang Yong slammed his fist on the table.

Looking at the injured Niu Jin kneeling below, Fang Yong gritted his teeth and said:

"Damn it, you dare to burn my food!"

After Chen Ruiwen returned victorious, he held a grand banquet in the camp.

Duke Shan advised Chen Ruiwen not to be careless, but Chen Ruiwen was young and hot-tempered, so how could he listen?

A few days later, Duke Shanguo received news that the Huaiyin bandits had another batch of grain, which would be transported to Huaizhou City via Siyang County.

Chen Ruiwen immediately volunteered to go and rob the food.

Duke Shan was afraid that this was a trap, so he told Chen Ruiwen to be extra careful and to make sure there were no ambushes before taking any action. He also asked him to bring two more teams.

Soon, Chen Ruiwen arrived at the location, and after repeated inspections to make sure there was no ambush, he launched the attack.

Fang Yong's men in charge of transporting grain were quickly defeated.

In a dense forest, Fang Yong stood in the forest with only a few personal guards.

He raised his bow and put an arrow on it. The eight-stone bow creaked and the sound of the vibrating bowstring was like a huge bell breaking.

Whoosh!
Two hundred and fifty steps.

Chen Ruiwen, who was charging, felt a violent impact on his head and his steel helmet flew off.

Chen Ruiwen touched his head in confusion. It was soft. It turned out that his skull and helmet had also flown away...

"General, general!"

White cloth was hung in the army, and Duke Shanguo looked at Chen Ruiwen's body with a sad face.

The old Duke Shanguo shed turbid tears.

Thinking back to the time when I was young and greedy for merit and acted recklessly, Chen Ruiwen's father risked his life to save me in the chaos of war. This made Duke Shanguo cultivate his cautious character in using troops in the future.

But now, the identities have been reversed, and Duke Shanguo is unable to save Chen Ruiwen.

"Huaiyin thief!"

Chen Ruiwen's death successfully angered Duke Shanguo.

He changed his usual behavior and started to do everything he could.

Duke Shan ordered his men to throw kerosene into the city and release rockets.

They poisoned water sources and launched indiscriminate attacks on counties and towns controlled by Fang Yong, destroying newly grown crops and brutally killing civilians who were farming.

Impeachments flew into the palace like snowflakes. The emperor severely reprimanded Duke Shanguo for his behavior, but Duke Shanguo directly imprisoned Eunuch Zhou and ignored the emperor's reprimands.

Fang Yong understood what Duke Shanguo meant. He wanted to force him into a decisive battle.

Fight, fight!
(End of this chapter)