Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 99, Battle of Zhili

The two sides were not far from each other, so they met quickly.

Mao himself had no experience in commanding large-scale battles. Seeing that the enemy had a large number of troops, he hurriedly ordered his troops to retreat.

When the rebels saw the government troops retreating, their arrogance suddenly increased and they accelerated their pursuit.

The two sides were chasing each other and fleeing. When they arrived at Baiyangzhuang, the government army was caught up by the bandit army and a fierce battle broke out between the two sides.

After the war started, as the battle progressed, Mao Cheng was surprised to find that the opponent's fighting ability was not strong.

Due to his previous tragic experience, Mao Cheng had a preconceived notion that the rebel soldiers were like the Huaiyin Army, well-equipped, well-trained, and a strong army that could remain undefeated even if it fought two government troops at the same time.

But now it seems that the bandits are without armor, in tattered clothes, and the only equipment in their hands is a broken sword with dents on it.

Not to mention the Huaiyin Army, they are not even as good as the government troops.

The swords of the government troops were already very worn out. They were old swords from the Kangning period. Because the good swords had been sold, they could only use the old swords after polishing them. Although they looked almost the same as new ones, the blades were very thin and were often damaged when fighting with the Huaiyin troops.

However, what was unexpected was that the bandit army's swords were even more broken, and some people actually used sickles and kitchen knives to fight. Isn't this a joke?

Not to mention tactics like battle formations and coordination of arms. The entire bandit army of seven or eight thousand people did not even have a hundred decent shields. Mao Cheng saw that some of the bandits used iron pots and wooden pot lids as shields, which was simply horrible.

As time passed, the three or four thousand government troops and the seven or eight thousand Jin bandits were actually in a stalemate, evenly matched.

Both sides sent out requests for help to the large force behind them.

The bandit soldiers rushed back to the main force of the Jin bandits, found Wu Sheng, knelt down and said:
"Your Majesty, our army was resisted by the local government troops in Suning County when we were out looting. The enemy troops are numerous. Please send troops to help us quickly!"

On the other hand, Mao Cheng's men also rushed back to Hejian Prefecture and reported to Wang Ziteng, saying:

"Sir, General Mao was attacked by bandits in Suning. Please come to rescue him as soon as possible."

Almost at the same time, Wu Sheng and Wang Ziteng asked:
"How many people are there on the other side, and where do they come from? / How many troops are there on the bandits, and where do they come from?"

The thief said:
"No one is here, just a few thousand government troops, probably the garrison nearby."

The officer on the other side said:
"My Lord, there are only a few thousand bandits, they are in disarray, their clothes are ragged, they claim to be bandits from Black Dragon Mountain and Iron Wolf Mountain, they are probably just ordinary bandits."

Upon hearing this, both sides felt relieved and sent troops to rescue.

For Wu Sheng, although he had nearly one million troops under his command, they were all bandits who were loosely dependent on him. Although they respected him as a king, these people's troops were actually still in his hands. Wu Sheng only commanded these people based on his own prestige.

Now that his men are in danger, if he does not go to rescue them, his prestige will certainly be greatly reduced, which Wu Sheng cannot accept, so Wu Sheng must go to rescue them.

And on the other side,
Mao Cheng is also very important to Wang Ziteng.

Mao Cheng's father is Mao Jie, the general of Jinhai. It is said that he has Cheng Daxueshi as his backer in the court. If he does not rescue Mao Cheng this time, he will inevitably become enemies with Mao Jie. When the matter of his false reporting of military achievements is exposed, it will be difficult for him to gain a foothold.

So when Wang Ziteng heard that the other party was just an ordinary bandit, he immediately sent troops to rescue them.

Both sides sent 10,000 troops each to rescue, and they arrived almost at the same time, and then a war broke out.

With the same number of reinforcements, the bandit army was obviously inferior to the government army in strength. They were quickly defeated and fled all the way, with countless casualties.

Mao Cheng returned victorious, in high spirits.

Then, things started to go in an uncontrollable direction.

Through the captives of the bandit army, Wang Ziteng quickly learned that the other side was a subordinate of Jin Wang Wu Sheng.

As for the names such as Black Dragon Mountain and Iron Wolf Mountain mentioned by those people before, they were the names they used before they defected to King Jin. Because they were used to them, they just said them casually during the battle.

Wang Ziteng was devastated after knowing the truth.

On the other hand, after the bandit army was defeated by Mao Cheng and fled back, they lied that they had encountered the main force of the government army and that the other side had tens of thousands of troops coming to support them because they were afraid of being punished. They used their superior numbers to bully the weak, which led to their disastrous defeat.

Wu Sheng was furious after hearing this.

He immediately led his troops to the location where Wang Ziteng was. On the way, he encountered some defense lines set up by Wang Ziteng in the surrounding towns and counties. In order to vent his anger, Wu Sheng pressed his army forward and destroyed all the defense lines; all the people inside, regardless of men or women, were slaughtered.

When Wang Ziteng heard the news that Prince Jin was attacking, he was somewhat worried, and he did not want to be an enemy of Prince Jin, so he sent envoys to ask for peace.

In Wang Ziteng's opinion, it was just a small misunderstanding. There was no need for him to fight to the death with Prince Jin. If Prince Jin took power in the future, he would still like to join Prince Jin.

To show his sincerity, Wang Ziteng sent his nephew Wang Yi as an envoy to seek peace.

On the other hand, Wu Sheng easily wiped out some of Wang Ziteng's defenses, and began to look down on Wang Ziteng in his heart.

Now hearing that Wang Ziteng had sent his nephew to seek peace, Wu Sheng's arrogance was further fueled.

Soon after, Wang Yi entered the Jin bandit camp.

Wang Yi, who came from a noble family, despised these bandits from the bottom of his heart.

But before Wang Yi came, Wang Ziteng had repeatedly told him to put down his attitude and not to clash with the King of Jin. So after Wang Yi entered the Jin bandit camp, he tried his best to conceal his arrogance and saluted the King of Jin respectfully.

However, even so, the arrogance that comes from the bones cannot be easily concealed.

For example, when ordinary people saw the King of Jin, they would kneel on the ground tremblingly and perform the ceremony of three kneelings and nine kowtows. Some would even shout "Long live the King", which made Wu Sheng extremely satisfied.

But now Wang Yi just bowed and saluted, which made Wu Sheng very dissatisfied and felt that he was being looked down upon.

However, despite this, Wu Sheng did not get angry immediately.

After all, Wang Ziteng was guarding the big city of Hejian. If nothing unexpected happened, he would not be able to defeat him.

It would be best if we could get the other party to surrender voluntarily.

The two then began to discuss the conditions. Wu Sheng's request was very simple. He asked Wang Ziteng to open the city and surrender, and then he would agree to spare Wang Ziteng's life.

This was naturally something Wang Ziteng could not accept.

For Wang Ziteng, even if he surrendered, he would have to sell at a high price. Now the situation is still unclear, and it is still unknown whether the Jin thieves can seize the world. How could he surrender easily?

Besides, Wu Sheng only asked Wang Ziteng to surrender, but did not mention any specific conditions. How could this work?
Who would surrender without conditions?
Wang Yi argued with Wu Sheng, telling him that his uncle still had more than 100,000 soldiers and horses at his disposal, and that Hejian City had high walls and was easy to defend but difficult to attack, so it was impossible for him to surrender without anything.

In theory, this is a very common sentence in negotiations.

But Wu Sheng felt that he was insulted and the other party was threatening him!

Yes, it is true that the walls of Hejian City are high and thick, and we cannot break in by ourselves, I admit that, but are your skin and flesh as thick as those of Hejian City?

"Come here, tie this man up, cook him in a copper pot, and slice him up for the generals!"

Soon after, the sound of the generals laughing heartily could be heard from the camp...

The next day, Wang Ziteng was heartbroken when he learned the news of his nephew's tragic death.

At the same time, the Jin bandits began to attack Hejian City.

Wu Sheng certainly knew that he could not capture Hejian City. After all, he had not even captured Zhending and Baocheng, which had tens of thousands of garrisons, let alone Hejian, which was defended by hundreds of thousands of troops.

But not being able to defeat it is one thing, and not fighting is another.

He had suffered a major defeat before, and if he did nothing, his prestige would surely drop greatly.

Attacking Hejian can divert conflicts. Even if the city cannot be captured in the end, it would be good to let the subordinates scold Wang Ziteng and vent their anger.

After the resentment in the army has subsided, he will order his men to bypass the city and head straight for the capital.

Wu Sheng had gotten used to circling the city after several easy journeys, but he didn't know that he would soon be in big trouble.

The disadvantages of the previous method of bypassing the city were about to become apparent.

(End of this chapter)