Chapter 385: Thunder Sweeps Out the Stubborn Enemies
The Khan of the Grassland became more and more excited as he spoke, and he started to cough violently, with deer blood spurting out of his mouth, all over the carpet. The maid was so scared that she quickly crawled over to clean up the mess.
The Khan nonchalantly took a silk scarf and wiped his mouth, and said, "Let's not move for now, just let them fight, and be prepared to bite them hard in the autumn, and make sure to tear off a piece of fat meat for me."
Yelu Chucai knew that the Khan was bragging, and his heart was beating fast.
The Mongol Empire does have troops at the moment, and its strength remains strong.
However, the cohesion of the seemingly powerful empire is more than three times that of the era of the Great Khan. The royal court sees that there are many soldiers, but can no longer mobilize several of them.
Moreover, in recent years, the army has been fighting against the Southern Song Dynasty for many years, and there have been some gains in attacking Lin'an, but the Shenwei Army attacking the west has suffered heavy casualties.
The Khan boasted that he wanted to bite off a piece of meat from the New Song Dynasty, but he was just deceiving himself.
In Pingxiang on the Jiangnan West Road, Zhao Yulin traveled continuously and finally arrived at the Jinghu front line, exhausted.
After Cao Youliang caught him, he kept reviewing himself and honestly said that he had underestimated the enemy and sent troops without proper battlefield reconnaissance, which killed so many good brothers and damaged the reputation of the Shenwei Army. He asked the commander to punish him.
After he helped Cao Youliang up, he said that it was enough for him to realize his mistake. There was no fixed pattern in war, so how could there not be casualties?
Going to the war means going to the battlefield. As the commander, we must not be careless. He asked us to tell him what to do next.
Cao Youliang reported to him: After the defeat in Huangma Valley, they adjusted their deployment. On the one hand, they concentrated their forces to besiege Pingxiang, and on the other hand, they printed a large number of leaflets and sent them out, exposing the truth that Zeng Yaozu pretended to surrender but actually harmed the people and lured the Shenwei Army to station there.
On the other hand, they sent troops to attack the surrounding towns, and captured several in succession, completing the deployment of troops in Pingxiang. After destroying the west gate in one fell swoop, Zeng Yaozu fled to Yuanzhou with the remnants, and they took advantage of the situation to surround him.
At this moment, the Jianghai Column of Jinghu North Road has crossed the river. He plans to go all out to capture Yuanzhou City, capture Zeng Yaozu alive, and recover the entire Jiangnan West Road .
Cao Youwan blamed his third brother for his rashness, underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly, which led to the tragedy. Then he reported to Zhao Yulin: With the arrival of 20,000 main forces from Guangnan, plus the 20,000 troops and navy from Jianghai, there should be no problem in taking over the western part of Jiangnan.
Just listen to your orders, brother.
Zhao Yulin nodded, took a sip of tea and said, "Jiangnan is different from the Mongolian-occupied area in Jiangbei. We can do whatever we want. Peace is still the most important thing here."
Order Jiang Hai to launch a feint attack on Hongzhou to tie down the enemy. Brother Youliang will be in full charge of the command here. Take Yuanzhou with lightning speed to establish prestige, and then sweep away the stubborn enemies in the surrounding areas.
Cao Youliang looked at Zhao Yulin very happily and asked him for more instructions, but he refused and asked with a smile: Brother Youliang, do you still want me to help you draw up a battle plan?
Cao Youliang scratched his head and wondered why he could let his brother do the rough work while he did the rest.
Zhao Yulin waved his hand and ordered him to unleash all the killing weapons of the Shenwei Army. Even if he couldn't catch Zeng Yaozu, he would have to scare him.
Cao Youwan glared at his younger brother and said, "Brother Yulin is protecting his third younger brother. He made a mistake but was not punished. He was asked to continue leading the troops in battle. He should be showing off now."
Zhao Yulin waved his hand, told his brothers to get busy, and went back to the back hall to have tea.
For him, defeating Zeng Yaozu was a piece of cake. With hundreds of thousands of soldiers under his command, Zeng Yaozu was nothing. His demise was a matter of time.
Zhao Yulin discovered that the Cao brothers' troops were still designated as garrison troops and had not met the requirements for unification during the reorganization of the army. He began to plan for a unified designation for the entire army. He decided to conduct a comprehensive reorganization of the Shenwei Army to lay a solid foundation for future large-scale troop operations.
In Yuanzhou city, Zeng Yaozu never expected that the Shenwei Army was so powerful. They broke into his Pingxiang county in less than two hours and drove him to Yuanzhou.
He told his elder brother, Zeng Yaoxian, the prefect of Yuanzhou: the firearms of the Shenwei Army were truly powerful. After being ambushed in Mahuang Valley, they fought to the death and surrounded his Pingxiang County. What was more, he did not expect that they would launch an attack within three days. The dense mortar shells made it impossible for him to enter the city, and the city gates would be breached in minutes.
This guy only now realized the power of the Shenwei Army. He immediately led his men and took the civilians with him to flee to his brother Zeng Yaoxian in Yuanzhou.
However, this guy had only been in Yuanzhou City for a few days when the Shenwei Army surrounded him again and blocked all four gates in a flash, making it impossible for him to come in or leave.
At this time, Zeng Yaoxian was convening Zeng Yaozu and all the generals to discuss matters.
Zhao Bing of Lin'an praised the Zeng brothers for their loyalty to the country and their determination to defend the border until their death. He promoted Yuanzhou to a prefecture, Zeng Yaoxian to prefect, and Zeng Yaozu to general. He also rewarded them with one million strings of brand new money and ordered the pacification envoy to bring them three hundred cotton armors, bows and arrows, and some gunpowder to repel the enemy.
This completely tied his Zeng family army to the chariot against the Shenwei Army.
Zeng Yaozu hesitated for a moment and said that although he had ambushed the Shenwei Army in Pingxiang and achieved good results, the Shenwei Army, which had regained its consciousness, was unstoppable. He only defended Pingxiang County for half a day before it was lost. Of the eight thousand Zeng family troops that returned to Yuanzhou, less than a thousand
The firearms of the Shenwei Army are indeed powerful, and they are just as fearless of death.
The leaders of the small militias under his command, who were transferred by the pacification envoy, were worried. Damn, everyone knows how powerful the Shenwei Army is, so why are you still trying to touch the tiger's butt?
This is taking us to rock jumping.
His dog-headed military advisor, the second master, twisted his sparse beard and said that he had indeed not expected the Shenwei Army's firearms to be so powerful and strong. The shells fell like hail and rain, and no one could resist them.
However, we are not completely unsure of defending Yuanzhou. We can do this to prevent the Shenwei Army from bombing us.
Zeng Yaoxian heard the second master's idea and thought it was indeed a good way to deal with the artillery fire of the Shenwei Army, so he immediately gave instructions for the arrangements. A large number of craftsmen immediately came to the wall of Yuanzhou, and they were busy like ants carrying wooden sticks, planks and other construction materials.
Zhao Yulin rested in Pingxiang for three days, and then the military report came: the Shenwei Army was defeated in the battle of Yuanzhou.
Cao Youliang led his troops to fire mortars at the city wall and then approached the city gate with iron barrel cannons, intending to break into the city. Unexpectedly, many bunker-like shelters appeared on the city wall, and the soldiers hiding inside rushed out, drew their bows and arrows, and threw iron and pottery mines, which actually blocked the attack of the Shenwei Army.
When his mortar fired again, the enemy had hidden in the bunker and could not be found.
Reconnaissance at the front line revealed that the enemy had remodeled the city walls and built a large number of bunkers on them to hide their troops.
Haha, the enemy has become smarter.
Zhao Yulin was not in a hurry and told them to use their brains to think of a solution.
He also felt that there was a master on the other side.
However, the Shenwei Army cannot be stopped by these militiamen. If they fail to capture the city after a long siege, it will inevitably damage the prestige of the Shenwei Army and encourage the enemy's arrogance.
He immediately ordered to transfer a few of the latest red-coated cannons from Cuiping Mountain, and to bring a few hot air balloons to him. It would be strange if the Shenwei Army had no way to capture Yuanzhou City.
The Yuanzhou City mentioned here is Yichun in later generations. It is a large city with strong walls and thick walls. The thickness of the city walls is much wider than that of ordinary county towns, and horse-drawn carriages can run side by side on them.
Zeng Yaozu's second master suggested building a bunker on the wall. After digging the city wall, he used wooden sticks to hold up wooden boards, then backfilled the wall with soil and laid bricks, hid the soldiers inside, and then came out to intercept when the Shenwei Army launched an attack. This greatly reduced casualties during the bombardment and shortened the speed at which the soldiers went up the city, and it really worked.
Not only that, they also dug caves at the foot of the inner city wall to store soldiers. These methods avoided direct casualties of the soldiers defending the city under artillery fire, accelerated the speed of soldiers going up to the city to provide support, and became a simple and easy way to resist the attack of the Shenwei Army.
Zhao Yulin suggested to Cao Youliang that there was no need to rush, and that he should change his tactics, and surround the enemy and then sweep the surrounding areas. Since they were here, they had to stay and not leave. What was the point of just being a state capital? He planned and recovered the surrounding counties at the same time.
The Shenwei Army immediately dispersed.
There is news that the militia in Ganzhou in the south wants to surrender.
This time they really surrendered, but Cao Youliang did not dare to be careless. After sufficient preparation, he quickly captured Ganzhou City and occupied a large area, connecting the area south of Yuanzhou with Fujian and Guangnan.
The Zeng brothers in the city panicked.
Damn it, what a bunch of pig teammates. We shed blood and sweat in Yuanzhou, but Ganzhou surrendered to the Shenwei Army without firing a single arrow. What does this mean?
After the Shenwei Army failed in its siege, they surrounded the city without attacking. In just a few days, they captured Jizhou and Ganzhou, plus most of Yuanzhou. Half of the western part of Jiangnan fell within half a month.
In this way, Zeng's Yuanzhou was completely exposed to the siege of the Shenwei Army and became a real border town. Zeng Yaoxian never dreamed that the Shenwei Army would act immediately and make his dream of leading these places with a victorious army come to nothing.
Moreover, the Shenwei Army besieging the city was not idle. They opened their defensive positions to allow farmers to enter and exit, and distributed leaflets advocating the execution of only the main culprits and not harming innocent people.
Only the main culprits will be punished, which means only the members of Zeng’s family will be killed.
The most hateful thing is that the Shenwei Army encouraged landless people to go out and claim land, and directly divided his family's prime land free of charge to the people outside who dared to take it for cultivation.
This move by the Shenwei Army is quite cruel.
The two brothers used their own houses and properties to reward those loyal warriors in the hope that they would work for them.
Now, the Shenwei Army has confiscated all the land of Zeng's family, and then used his land as a favor. After measuring it, they gave it to the people to cultivate without charging a penny.
The soldiers in the city were already discussing privately: This business is not profitable. The Shenwei Army has already distributed the land to those who did not cause trouble. What's the point of us working hard here?
Even if he could still survive, the Zeng family’s land would be gone.
What's the point of fighting then?
Some people say that the Zeng family still has silver for reward money.
Several old bandits said that they would have to wait until the Shenwei Army retreated before they could enjoy life.
Judging from the situation, the Shenwei Army will definitely not leave. The surrounding area has become the Shenwei Army's territory. We are not only creating a prison by drawing a circle around ourselves, but also locking ourselves in it.
