Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 686 Division of Troops
They guarded the city gate. Not long after, Li Gun and Xiang Chong led their troops to attack. There were only a thousand defenders in the city, a bunch of rabble. How could they stop five thousand fierce and wolf-like soldiers?

Within an hour, five thousand soldiers captured Putian City, and most of the defenders were killed by Li Kui and others. The outcome was set.

If Li Gui had not remembered the military order, Li Kui would have killed even the civilians in the city.

Li Kui raised a large banner with the word "Zhao" on it and asked people in the county government to post a notice to reassure the people.

When the people in the city saw the big flag with the word "Zhao" on it, and saw that the soldiers did not harm any of the people in the city, they all cheered.

When the second wave of soldiers came ashore, they were all shocked to see that there were only a hundred or so people in the stronghold.

The second wave of soldiers came from the Yanzhou commander [Double Spear General] Dong Ping and the military commander [Flying Eagle] Li Ying. Seeing the empty camp, they hurried over to ask.

Hearing from the soldiers guarding the camp that Commander Li Kui had led a large army to attack Putian City, the two men did not dare to delay. They left behind a general with 500 soldiers to guard the camp, and everyone rode their horses at full speed to Putian City.

Seeing that the gates of Putian City were closed and there was no sign of fighting outside the city, a large flag with the word "Zhao" was raised on the top of the city. Dong Ping rode forward and shouted.

It was Zhang Chi who was guarding the top of the East City wall. When he saw Dong Ping below the city, he waved on the top of the wall and ordered the city gate to be opened.

When Dong Ping saw this at the foot of the city, he laughed out loud and drove his troops into the city.

When the two men drove their horses into the county government office, they saw Li Kui sitting behind the desk, scratching his ears and cheeks.

When he saw Dong Ping and Li Ying, Li Kui exclaimed, "Brother, hurry up and take Tie Niu's place in the government office."

Dong Ping and Li Ying laughed out loud when they heard this.

Li Ying asked, "Brother, what makes you so depressed?"

"Brother Li Ying, these guys are not good people. They are using the account books to embarrass me." Li Kui shouted, while standing up and pushing Li Ying to the chair behind the desk, "I still have to patrol the city, so I'll leave this to you two."

After saying this, regardless of how the two reacted, he quickly ran out of the county government office.

Zhao Zhen went ashore, and 30,000 cavalry and infantry soldiers gathered in Putian.

As for Li Kui and others who acted on their own, he reprimanded them in front of everyone, "You black bastard, you are so ignorant. I told you to set up camp and defend, but you took the initiative to attack the city. If it weren't for the sake of everyone, I would have to punish you severely. If you disobey my order next time, I will not forgive you!"

Li Kui was delighted when he heard this and said, "My Lord, Tie Niu doesn't want any merit, he just wants to serve you. It's a pity that this group of people are too useless, and it's not a pleasure to kill them."

After hearing this, Zhao Zhen reprimanded Li Kui a few more times, expelled him from the county government office, and ordered Li Kui to inspect the city wall.

In this expedition, in addition to 30,000 cavalry and infantry, there were also 10,000 naval troops.

The generals who went on the expedition included:
The naval commanders included Ruan Xiaoqi, Tong Wei, Li Jun, Bu Qing, and Ni Yun, and they led Zhu Xiaoba, Yu Gui, Shi Quan, Jia Shan, Li Xiaming, Wang Benxing, Gao Lun, and Cai Zhong, who were in charge of the army. There were nearly 400 warships of various sizes, responsible for transporting the army and the supplies.

The first to go ashore were Li Kui, the Black Whirlwind of the Infantry Brave Battalion, Xiang Chong, the Eight-armed Nezha, Li Gun, Li Gui, Zhang Chi, Ba Zeng, Ji Guang, and Lu Duo. Next came the Yanzhou Commander, Dong Ping, the Double-gun Commander, and Li Ying, the Military Commander, who led 5,000 cavalry and infantry soldiers.

After them came the brave infantry generals [Mountain Guardian] Tang Meng, [God of Death] Bao Xu, [Meng Ben Rival] Yan Shude, [Faceless] Jiao Ting, who led 5,000 heavily armored soldiers and 200 scouts from the [Drum Flea] Shi Qian and [White Day Rat] Bai Sheng, the commander of the Mizhou army [Little Li Guang] Hua Rong, and the training envoy Mian Yixin, who also led 5,000 men.

Finally, there were the Qingyuan Guards, Jinyi attendants, Pojia Dafu attendants, [Xiao Yang Youji] Pang Wanchun from the Shesheng Camp, [Tiger Shooting Warrior] Lei Jiong, [Bear Shooting Warrior] Ji Ji, [Tiantianlei] Ling Zhen from the Shenji Camp, and [Iron Fanzi] Gao Gao, numbering more than 10,000 people.

The four men, Zhang Qing [The Man with No Feathered Arrows], Su Ding [The Man with Two Swords], Gong Wang [The Tiger with a Flowery Neck], and Ding Desun [The Tiger with an Arrow], led the Guard Cavalry Battalion and stayed on the other side to prevent Zhao Gou from sending a fleet to harass them.

The generals were still discussing how to send out the troops. Wu Yong, the military advisor, spoke first, "Lord, although you never expected us to come across the sea, now mobilize tens of thousands of naval soldiers, leave a team to guard this place, and the rest of the soldiers may go along the coast and islands to collect boats and fishermen and send them back to the country. If we can get an advantage and capture the city, we don't know."

Liu Hui Niang said: "If so, one month later, when the two countries separate, this sea area will be ours, right?"

After hearing this, everyone began to ponder.

Zhao Zhen said: "In any case, we should first occupy the surrounding islands. As for the villages, if they are easy to defend, we should hang the flag of Liang State. If they are not easy to defend, we should relocate the people."

After deciding on a strategy, Zhao Zhen passed the military order to Ruan Xiaoqi.

In Putian County, Jiao Ting, the "Shameless" general, was left behind to garrison with 3,000 soldiers.

The army was divided into two. One was led by Zhao Zhen himself to attack Xinghua County, and the other was led by [Double-Gun General] Dong Ping and [Putian Eagle] Li Ying, the military commander, who led [Black Whirlwind] Li Kui of the Yongyi Camp, [Little Yang Youji] Pang Wanchun, [Iron Fan] Gao Gao and others to attack Xianyou.

The next day, after everything was ready, the army marched out of the city.

Let's talk about Zhao Zhen first. In Xinghua City, Miao Yi had already received the news that Putian had been captured. On the one hand, he sent someone to inform his brother Miao Fu, and on the other hand, he gathered soldiers and prepared to go to war.

The Miao family was also a family of generals. His grandfather Miao Shu served as the commander-in-chief of the palace during the Yuanfeng period. His father Miao Lu participated in the Xihe border campaign during the Chongning period. He followed the Linzhou inspector Gao Yongnian to fight against the Qiang people and captured Huangzhou and Shanzhou.

Miao Fu trained an 8,000-man "Red Heart Army" in Xinde. Miao Yi was sent to Xinghua Army. In order to quickly integrate the local area, Miao Fu assigned 1,000 "Red Heart Army" to Miao Yi to command.

The day before yesterday, a soldier who escaped from Putian reported that a group of soldiers with a large flag with the word "Zhao" on it came across the sea, took advantage of the city's unpreparedness, killed the defending general Miao Feipeng, and occupied Putian.

Miao Yi was a general from the Miao family, so he was naturally good at martial arts. When he heard that it was a banner with the word "Zhao" on it, he thought it was an imperial army. Immediately, he left a thousand soldiers to guard the city, and Miao Yi personally led five thousand soldiers to rush to Putian.

Halfway through their march, they encountered Zhao Zhen's army coming from Putian. The two armies met each other with flags and drums, and each used their powerful bows and crossbows to shoot at the enemy.

The horns were blown and the drums were beaten in both armies.

Miao Yi rode out first and shouted, "Listen up, [Red Heart Army] soldiers. The court has broken its promise. It has issued a [Golden Medal of Immunity], tacitly allowing us to occupy Fujian Road, but now it has come across the sea to attack us. If you want to live, fight hard today to let the court know that we are not easy to bully."

(End of this chapter)