Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

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The garrison commander of Lang Son was named Yang Ying Er, a very senior official who had served as a regent ten years prior.

Two years ago, Yang Ying'er was also in charge of the battle that defeated the combined forces of Champa and Zhenla.

"Grand Commandant, the Nong clan chieftains of Qiyuan and Guangyuan prefectures have sent people to request reinforcements again!" the military commander reported.

Yang Ying'er said, "There's no need to worry about it. Even if the Ming Dynasty occupies that place, they won't leave too many troops to garrison it."

"As long as we hold Lang Son, we can take back the two prefectures in the future."

Yang Ying'er laughed and said, "The enemy general is a fool. Instead of attacking Thang Long Prefecture in one fell swoop, he divided his troops to attack the outskirts, giving us the opportunity to reinforce our troops at our leisure."

"This is a waste of time. If we drag this out until the weather gets hot, they'll suffer!"

Could Yang Zaixing not have thought of this?

"Grand Commandant, Su Maozhou is gone!" A messenger rushed in.

Yang Ying'er was shocked: "Su Maozhou sent 5,000 soldiers to guard the city, how could they suddenly be gone?"

Of course, it was Yang Zaixing who went to Su Maozhou.

The troops that attacked Qiyuan Prefecture and Guangyuan Prefecture were only the Guangxi garrison troops.

Yang Zaixing's six thousand new troops attacked Su Maozhou halfway, where Yang Yao's navy was also there to cooperate in the battle.

Su Mao Prefecture was located in the area of ​​Mong Cai and Hai He in later Vietnam, and its capital was located in Hai He County.

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the barbarians of Su Mao Prefecture frequently raided the border, and Annam also sent troops from Su Mao Prefecture to attack Qinzhou.

Even after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the barbarians of Su Mao Prefecture would occasionally cross the border to plunder.

Must win!

……

The naval cannons were carried ashore and dragged all the way to the outskirts of Su Maozhou City.

This earthen city is not large, and usually only a few hundred soldiers are stationed there. It is mainly used by Annam to suppress the local barbarians.

Dozens of cannons bombarded the city for two days in a row. As soon as the city walls showed signs of collapsing, the defending troops inside the city began to flee.

They were terrified by the cannons; after all, it was the first time they had ever encountered such a thing!

Yang Zaixing's new army, Yang Yao's marines, took the opportunity to launch an attack on the city.

They killed hundreds of enemies and captured more than three thousand alive.

"What should we do with so many prisoners?" Yang Yao asked.

Yang Zaixing said, "I haven't decided yet, but I plan to slaughter them all."

Yang Yao laughed and said, "Slaughtering prisoners of war is not good, but I have a way."

"What method?" Yang Zaixing asked.

Yang Yao said, "Some of it was transported back to Guangxi for mining, where there are plenty of mines."

“I took some of it to Taiwan County, where the local barbarians on the island cultivated the land.”

“Take away women and children as well. There are many single men among the Taiwanese immigrants. Give them to those single men as wives so that they don’t have too much energy and cause trouble all day long.”

Yang Zaixing nodded and said, "That works too."

The two men led their troops to remain in Su Maozhou City, waiting for domestic merchant ships to come and take away the prisoners.

We can't just sit idly by; we should also attack the surrounding barbarians. If we don't inflict a heavy blow on them, they'll continue to plunder the borders of Qinzhou.

Yang Zaixing's new army split into groups of several hundred men and went out to interrogate prisoners for the address of the barbarian village.

If any barbarians dared to resist, they were attacked; not a single prisoner was spared, and all the young women were taken away.

If the barbarians abandoned their village and fled into the mountains, Yang Zaixing's new army would not pursue them, but would burn down all the barbarian villages and houses.

After destroying several barbarian strongholds in one go, Yang Zaixing and Yang Yao finally took a boat to the mouth of the Taiping River.

Chapter 3608 Annam Navy

Annam had a professional navy. When it invaded the Northern Song Dynasty, Annam's eastern army attacked Qinzhou by sea!

The two sides fought fiercely outside the mouth of the Taiping River. The Annamite navy was defeated but did not flee, and continued to entangle with the Ming navy.

Finally, the Annamite navy was defeated.

"Wave the flag, do not pursue!" Yang Yao ordered.

The Ministry of War and the Privy Council are not to be trifled with!

The Ministry of War, in conjunction with the Ministry of Rites, reviewed historical records and extracted cases of battles fought in Jiaozhi by various dynasties.

Then it was sent to the Privy Council, so that the veterans there could study the strategy and tactics.

Yang Yao then received operational guidance from the Privy Council, one of the most important points of which was: pay attention to the ebb and flow of the tides and do not blindly pursue enemy ships.

Because in Chinese history, someone's car overturned at the mouth of the Taiping River!

The Jiaozhi regime set up a hidden stake at the mouth of the Taiping River, intending to lure Chinese ships in when the tide was about to recede.

The ships of Jiaozhi were smaller and had a shallower draft, allowing them to move freely in and out of river mouths.

The Chinese ships, with their deeper draft, were caught by the hidden anchors as the tide receded, unable to advance or retreat.

"Enemy ships are coming again!"

Yang Yao picked up the binoculars to observe and immediately laughed, "Just as the Privy Council predicted. Issue the order: if the enemy ships come, attack them fiercely; if they retreat, do not pursue them."

Before long, two of Annamite ships were hit, and the entire army retreated in panic.

The Ming navy, however, watched from afar without showing any intention of pursuing.

The Annamese naval commanders seemed very anxious, and after regrouping, they came again to lure the enemy.

Because they were too engrossed in their acting, they failed to retreat in time and had three ships sunk by the Ming Dynasty navy.

The situation is quite clear now that things have come to this point.

There were hidden agents at the mouth of the Taiping River, and everyone was aware of it!

The next day, taking advantage of the early time before low tide, Yang Yao led the Ming navy into the mouth of the Taiping River to remove the hidden stakes.

The Annamese navy attacked, but was utterly defeated and fled.

A few days later, Yang Zaixing and Yang Yao led their troops along the Taiping River to Wuanzhou City.

The Taiping River is too narrow and shallow for large naval vessels to pass through; only small ships and merchant vessels can get through.

Yang Ying'er also returned with his troops, leaving 10,000 troops to garrison Liangshan and 30,000 troops to defend Wuan Prefecture.

At the same time, soldiers were urgently conscripted from the Yellow Register, and 10,000 peasant soldiers were recruited to assist in the battle.

The Annamese garrison inside the city numbered 40,000.

Outside the city, there were only Yang Zaixing's six thousand men and Yang Yao's one thousand marines.

Blindly defending the city is a poor strategy. As a veteran general, Yang Ying'er led 20,000 troops out of the city to probe the enemy's defenses.

He sent 5,000 soldiers into battle, while the rest of the troops were responsible for supporting the enemy.

Yang Zaixing only sent out 3,000 men, and after just over ten minutes of fighting, the Annamite army could not withstand the firearms and the Mandarin Duck Formation and collapsed.

Yang Ying'er dispatched troops to provide support, but at that moment, Ming Dynasty warships on the Taiping River suddenly opened fire on Yang Ying'er's central army.

During previous naval battles between the two countries, the Ming Dynasty navy had been concealing the range of its artillery.

Yang Ying'er never expected that the artillery could shoot so far.

The central command of the Annamite army was thrown into chaos, and Yang Zaixing and Yang Yao seized the opportunity to launch a full-scale attack.

Yang Ying'er's troops fled in panic, and nearly 10,000 were killed or captured by the Ming army, while several thousand more were scattered in the countryside.

He fled back to the city in a sorry state with only two or three thousand soldiers, too ashamed to come out.

The Annamese garrison inside the city suffered nearly half its direct losses.

Yang Ying'er was so frightened that he could no longer hold out and wrote back to Thang Long Prefecture requesting reinforcements.

"Should we stay here and attack the city?" Yang Yao asked.

Yang Zaixing said, "Kill all the prisoners and march all the way to Hanoi!"

Yang Yao said, "I'm afraid we won't have enough military rations."

Yang Zaixing said, "Annam has to send troops to fight against Champa and Zhenla, and also send troops to defend Lang Son. How many soldiers can such a small country have left?"

"We should go directly around here and march against the Taiping River towards Thang Long Prefecture. The city ahead must be sparsely defended."

"Moreover, the Annamese garrison here needs food, and the supplies will definitely be transported along the Taiping River. The cities along the way are our grain depots!"

"Okay!" Yang Yao was also someone who dared to take risks.

Yang Ying'er stood on the city wall, watching the Ming army depart into the distance.

Ming warships carried provisions and a small number of soldiers, while the majority of the Ming army marched along the river.

They simply swaggered around the city, completely disregarding supply lines and the rear!

Before leaving, they also scoured up all the ships outside Wuanzhou City.

The few dozen light cavalrymen were divided into two groups: half went ahead to scout, and half stayed behind to keep watch.

Soldiers wearing armor cannot move quickly and need to be out of the enemy's sight before the armor is loaded onto a ship for transport.

The fleet also split into several ships, some to scout ahead and some to keep watch at the rear.

In case of a sudden enemy attack, the infantry did not have time to collect their armor from the ships.

How could Yang Ying'er let them leave so easily? That very night, he led his elite troops in a night raid.

As a result, the Ming soldiers took off their armor while traveling, but before going to sleep, they brought armor from the ship and put it on.

Yang Ying'er's night raid failed, and he fled back to Wu'an Prefecture in a sorry state.

The following day, Yang Zaixing dispatched 500 elite troops who suddenly boarded a boat and sped away.

They arrived unexpectedly outside Beijiang Road, where defenses were weak, with only a few hundred men guarding the grain supplies to be transported to Wu'an Prefecture.

Chapter 3609 The Beauty Trap

They took it down in one fell swoop.

This city is only 100 li away from Thang Long, the capital of Annam!

Yang Ying'er, who was left behind, was impatient. Although he knew that the odds were against him, he had no choice but to lead his troops to chase after them.

They suffered another crushing defeat halfway through the journey!

It's important to know that at its peak, Annam's army possessed phenomenal fighting power.

However, when faced with a large-scale campaign by the Northern Song army, which mobilized elite troops from the north, the Annamite army was still repeatedly defeated.

Annam today is no longer what it used to be. Not only has it been downsizing its military, but corruption and embezzlement within the army have also become more serious.

Their morale was not much better than that of Emperor Huizong's garrison troops.

Inside Thang Long city, upon learning that the Ming army was already a hundred miles away, the civil and military officials were so frightened that they hurriedly packed up their valuables.

Zhang Boyu advised, "Your Majesty, please quickly go west and take your officials and soldiers to the Ailao Mountains to temporarily avoid the enemy's advance."

"The Ming army is demanding the former territory of the Song Dynasty. Just give it to them. We can take it back later!"

"How do we get it back?" Li Yanghuan asked.

Zhang Boyu said, "The late emperor was also defeated by the Song state, but after the Song state withdrew its troops, he harassed the Song state's borders every year."

"The State of Song, unable to bear the harassment any longer, returned the territory it had seized to us."

"We can do the same this time. After the Ming army withdraws, we will send troops to harass the border next year."

“Excellent, let’s go on the western hunt then,” Li Yanghuan said.

Yang Zaixing was still a hundred miles away when the King of Annam had already fled with his officials...

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