Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 601 The Ruan Family's Actions

On the long and narrow land of An Nanguo, there are two long walls of defense that cut off An Nanguo in the middle. The north is owned by Lord Zheng, and the south is owned by Lord Ruan.Originally, the two lines of defense were built by Nguyen Lord Nguyen Fuyuan on the suggestion of Tao Weici, the first counselor. The one slightly north is the Changyu base, and the south is the Changde base.Last year, the "Forest Army" formed by Lord Zheng launched a surprise attack on the defense line of the Ruan family. At the cost of a large number of artillery and the lives of soldiers, they finally captured Changyu Base.

Originally Lord Zheng planned to capture Changyu Base and Changde Base in one go, but when the defense line of Changde Base was about to break through, the Nanyang Fleet and the Ruan Family Navy captured Rili Haikou, which made Lord Zheng's Imperial Forest Army worried that their retreat would be cut off, so they had to Not giving up the plan to attack Changde base, they sent some troops back to defend Rili Haikou, and some troops stationed at the conquered Changyu base to confront the Ruan army at Changde base.

The defender of Changde base is Ruan Youjin, one of the two newly promoted generals of the Ruan family.It is not for nothing that Ruan Youjin took charge at a young age. He is the son-in-law of Tao Weici, the first counselor who died last year, and he is also a friend of the original prince's son Ruan Fulan. He participated in the defense of Changyu Lei and Changde Lei last year.If Tao Weici and Ruan Fulan hadn't died, Ruan Youjin might have a higher status.

It's just that the Ruan family is in a precarious state and is always in danger of being overthrown. It's useless to care about the so-called status at this time, because if the Ruan family is destroyed, everything they got from the Ruan family will be lost.

Wearing armor, Ruan Youjin inspected the city wall of Changde Base, holding the sword with his right hand and holding the bricks with scars on the city with his left hand, he sighed softly.It was only a year ago that Prince Ruan Fulan was still here fighting alongside him, and now Changdebai is still there, but his former comrades-in-arms are gone, how can it be not sad.

Suddenly, Ruan Youjin looked at Chang Yulei, as if he saw something was wrong.He stared at Chang Yulei, and stood there for a quarter of an hour without speaking.

The soldiers who followed Ruan Youjin also followed Ruan Youjin's example and looked at Chang Yulei.On the long wall of Changyu Base, there are soldiers of the Zheng family patrolling, and Lord Zheng's banner is fluttering against the north wind.There is still smoke rising above Changyu base, which is also swaying with the north wind.Now it was the time when the sunset started, and the cooks of the Zheng family and the Ruan family began to prepare the meals for the whole camp, such a scene couldn't be more normal.

"General, what are you looking at? The Zheng family's army in Changyu Lei is huddled in Chang Yu Lei as usual, and there is no abnormal phenomenon." Ruan Youjin's soldiers said curiously.

"No, look at the cooking smoke." Ruan Youjin pointed to the cooking smoke slanting in the north wind in Changyu Lei.

"What's wrong with this cooking smoke?" Several soldiers looked at the cooking smoke in the air, looked at each other, and shook their heads.

"Hey, so you are not generals yet. I have reminded you and still can't see the problem. Look, how is the amount of these cooking smoke compared to the previous days? Has the firewood consumed by each wisp of cooking smoke increased or decreased? Already?" Ruan Youjin reminded again.

After being reminded by Ruan Youjin, several soldiers were still a little dazed. Only one of them, who was a little astute, understood what Ruan Youjin wanted to say: "Do you think that they use more firewood and more smoke? that is……"

"That's right, the number of their soldiers is gradually increasing. I didn't notice it a few days ago, but after thinking about it now, I discovered the joint. According to my speculation just now, their number has doubled. Go up The number of Zheng family soldiers reported by our spies stationed in Changyulei last month was 1, and now it is estimated that there are more than 2." Ruan Youjin discovered a terrible fact with his extremely terrifying observation skills.

"Are you saying that they have started mobilizing troops on a large scale again?!" Several soldiers looked at each other in blank dismay.Lord Zheng sent more troops to Changyu Base, the purpose can be imagined, if it is not for attacking Changde Base, is it because he is here for sightseeing?
"Ninety-nine out of ten are like this. Last year we lost our army and destroyed our Ruan family's foundation. If there is another big war, I'm afraid the south of our Changde base will be a piece of wasteland." Ruan Youjin frowned. Deeply locked, pessimistic about the future war.

"But the Zheng family also lost a lot of soldiers and horses in last year's war, and also lost Rili Haikou. Now it's only a year later, why is it making a comeback again?" A soldier asked in confusion and panic.

"They occupy the most fertile plain area, but our Guangnan side has jungles and swamps, with a population of only 40 households, and they have 3 households. The death or injury of 3 or [-] people is nothing to them. It would be nice to conscript some strong men into the army. But if [-] or [-] people die on our side, it will be a catastrophe, and we will be unable to fight any more. This is the tragedy of a small country." Ruan Youjin felt that he had nothing but nowhere to display his abilities, "Huaxia During the period of the Three Kingdoms in history, the population of Shu was the smallest. Even though Prime Minister Zhuge devoted himself to conquering the Central Plains six times, he was still consumed by the populous Wei State. Jiang Wei inherited his will and still did not forget to restore the Central Plains, but was limited by national power , I can’t recover, I am in Jiang Wei’s situation.”

The soldiers didn't know how to respond to Ruan Youjin's emotion, because they could feel Ruan Youjin's sense of powerlessness.In the past two years, the situation of the Ruan family has turned sharply down, almost to the brink of extinction. The huge contrast has doubled their pressure. I don't know when this dance on the two eggs of the Zheng family and the Jiuzhou army will completely collapse due to mistakes.

"Join me in the army account. I want to write a secret letter to the regent and Ruan Youyi, asking them to recruit strong men immediately and prepare to support our Changde base defense. If our Changde base cannot be defended, the Zheng family's forest army Drive straight down, and Fuchun City will be more difficult to defend, so we must stop the enemy to the north of the defense line of Changde Base." Ruan Youjin said.

Ruan Youjin quickly wrote his discovery into a secret letter, and then entrusted his own soldiers to send it to Fuchun City as soon as possible.Ruan Fuxi, king of Yixing County, received Ruan Youjin's secret letter and immediately understood the seriousness of the situation.He is also an old opponent of the Zheng family, and he is one of the few old opponents of the Zheng family who are still alive, so he summoned all the officials and generals, especially Ruan Youyi, on behalf of the current Ruan Lord Ruan Fubin.

The Ruan family acted hastily, a new conscription order was issued, and the Ruan family soldiers also began to forcibly recruit strong men in the cities and villages to supplement their troops.At the same time, the regent Ruan Phuc Khei also went to Hoi An Port to visit Deng Qianlong, the commander of the Nanyang Fleet stationed here.Otherwise, relying on the current strength of the Ruan family, there is no hope of repelling the Zheng family's offensive.

(End of this chapter)