A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 350 Retreat from the enemy

As the officials in the imperial court thought, Zhejiang was basically under the control of the family at this time.

Mainly because in the name of rescue, Lin Xiao evacuated all the battalions and garrison soldiers from Hangzhou, Huzhou, Jiaxing, and Yanzhou Prefectures, and then directly killed their commanders at the banquet before the expedition. Catch them all in one fell swoop.

These armies are leaderless, so they can easily be manipulated by the family.

At this time, these prefectures and counties have basically fallen into an undefended state, almost waiting for the wind to fall.

Although there are still some troops in Quzhou Prefecture, Wenzhou Prefecture, and Chuzhou Prefecture in southern Zhejiang, how can they compete with the army now that the situation is over? General Wen Chushen wanted to hold on, but soon the prefectural city and the county seat fell one after another, and he himself became a prisoner.

More than 20,000 sergeants were captured.

But many of these soldiers are actually ordinary farmers.

After all, when Zhang Lai led his army to fight Zhang Xianzhong, most of the army was actually wiped out. Later, the camp troops were reorganized. They were basically young men recruited from the civilian population and had not received much training. The garrison troops at the guard station, The rest have basically become complete farmers, and the commanders of the guard posts will forcefully recruit a wave of young people from the civilian population before receiving orders to prepare for battle.

Therefore, the only ones with real combat effectiveness in these armies are the retainers attached to each general.

Gao Yingxiang couldn't take Nanjing because the whole city knew the bad habits of the rogue bandits, so they resisted to the death.

When Yan Ling's order came, they cooperated with Yinlong and captured the city in one fell swoop.

After the war, these servants did not go back, but were scattered throughout Nanjing.

Moreover, each guard post has not yet been able to replenish its troops. Most of the guard posts have serious shortages of soldiers. What's more, one guard post has only a hundred or so people from more than 5,000 people, making it impossible to form effective resistance.

But one thing was different from what they imagined.

Except for a small number of generals who were really loyal to the court, many people did not have any strong feelings of resistance when faced with Yan Yinghui, who had already gained an absolute advantage.

Nanjing's Jinyiwei failed to catch Yan Yinghui, which is normal.

But Yan Yinghui arrested them in turn, which was abnormal.

It is important to know that the hearts of the army and the people are very important. In the Battle of Diaoyu City, the army and the people were united as one, and the city was as powerful as Mongolia. However, during the Jiashen national disaster, Chongzhen lost the hearts of the soldiers and the people, so it was as strong as Beijing. , also broke in one day.

At this time, Yan Yinghui's previous resistance to Gao Yingxiang's reputation was reflected, and they hardly encountered any too fierce resistance.

Generally speaking, the development of things basically did not exceed the expectations of the officials in the court.

These servants were either killed for resisting or thrown into the mines to mine, while the rest of the soldiers were returned to their hometowns and arranged to farm.

But Yan Yinghui? He just saved us from the bandits! Not to mention that the Duke of Yue had always had an excellent reputation in the city. The previous battle had brought his reputation to its peak, and the army and the people were convinced.

However, this is the fact. When Gao Yingxiang attacked Nanjing, in order to defend the city, Yan Yinghui secretly increased the number of clan soldiers transferred from his family, increasing the number of servant guards from just over 200 to 900.

The city of Nanjing fell under the control of the family, and it was almost impossible to defeat them.

Then Yan Ling immediately dispatched an army of 7,000 people and quickly moved north from Ningguo to Yingtian.

This place had been attacked once before by Zhang Xianzhong and had barely recovered. The five thousand men easily defeated the defenders and used No. 2 heavy artillery to blast through the walls of Ningguofu City and completely occupy the city. What happened next was logical, and Nanjing and Zhejiang were connected.

The fall of Stone City once again shocked the world.

This is the capital! The place where the dragon energy is entrenched is a city of extraordinary significance!

Not only that, you must know that there are a large number of nobles and retired civil servants in Nanjing! It is important to know that the nobles of the Ming Dynasty followed Yongle to the north, while those of the Hongwu Dynasty basically stayed in Nanjing. There are also many old officials. These people all have their own relationships and have disciples and former officials who are now appearing. How could this incident not shock the world and shake people's hearts!

A flying horse came from the north and went straight into Jiangxi Zuo Liangyu's army, ordering him to speed up his march and make sure to quell the rebellion as soon as possible. At the same time, it seems that they realized that the opponent was not as easy to deal with as they thought, and the imperial court placed the Nanzhili army under its command.

After Zuo Liangyu got the news, he looked at Yanzhou Mansion, which was already close at hand, and thought slightly.

Then he issued the order:

"Turn the entire army and head north!"

The political significance of Nanjing is too great. No matter who comes, recovering Nanjing must be the first priority.

How could I stay in the hands of the bandits for a long time?

Moreover, under such circumstances, recapturing Nanjing would undoubtedly be a great achievement, and it might even be possible to obtain a title.

Naturally, he chose to lead troops into Southern Zhili.

After gathering the surrounding soldiers and horses, his troops reached 30,000.

After all, it had not been long since the various guard stations were ravaged by rogue bandits, and they had not recovered at all.

Fortunately, there are not many bandits in Nanjing. It is said that there are only a few thousand people.

He has 10,000 veterans who are accustomed to fighting, which should be enough.

Soon, he arrived at Nanjing City, and Yan Yinghui had already led his troops to line up below the city.

It has to be said that Zuo Liangyu's army is much more professional than the rogue bandits.

At least they withstood the first wave of volleys of muskets, and then fought back with flanges and firecrackers, causing a certain amount of damage and confusion to the clan soldiers. Many recruits who were first on the battlefield were even frightened to the point of throwing away their guns and running away. road.

But that was all. Under the officer's order, they quickly calmed down, re-arranged their formation, and fired back with muskets and a hundred Type 8 heavy artillery pieces. First of all, they smashed the left army's artillery position.

Then he turned the gun head and slammed into the left army camp.

In terms of firepower, the two sides are not at the same level. The only advantage of the left army is that there are more than 10,000 veterans among them, while the opposite side is mainly composed of new soldiers.

However, Zuo Liangyu's men couldn't get through at all, and they died like leeks in waves. The archers couldn't break the opponent's green armor at all, while the fire musket soldiers could, but they were all killed in just a few shots.

The battle only lasted until noon, when the Zuo army could no longer hold on. First, the newly recruited guardsmen collapsed, and then Zuo Liangyu's army also retreated.

Five hundred cavalrymen rushed out from behind the formation and took advantage of the chaos to pursue and kill them. They did not stop until they reached the boundary of Taiping Mansion, and the towns along the way did not dare to rescue them at all.

In this battle, 341 clan soldiers were killed and 356 wounded.

The left army suffered more than 4,000 casualties and over 10,000 prisoners, and no longer dared to fight against it.

(End of this chapter)