Lord: Start with a book of Water Margin

Chapter 697 Provocation
Miao Fu heard this from the top of the city wall and shouted, "Wang Junfu, you are a treacherous villain. How dare you see me?"

Wang Junfu shouted, "Master Miao, you kidnapped the emperor for your own selfish interests. You have ruined the reputation of the Red Heart Army. Now we are attacked from two sides, why bother letting the soldiers below get involved?"

"Brothers of the Red Heart Army, listen up. The Lord of Liang has ordered that only Miao Fu be executed, and the rest will be spared. Anyone who presents Miao Fu's head will be rewarded with gold, silver, and high positions with generous salaries."

After hearing this, Miao Fu started to curse non-stop.

Military advisor Wang Shixiu took a peek and saw that not only the newly recruited local soldiers from Fuzhou, but also the veteran soldiers of the Red Heart Army were wavering.

At the foot of the city, Wang Junfu shouted, "Listen carefully, everyone. The King of Liang will only execute the chief culprit Miao Fu, and pardon all the others. Tonight, we must rise up for justice, capture the chief culprit, and bring him back to Liang. Otherwise, tomorrow the army will attack the city, and when the city is broken, we will all perish together."

When Miao Fu heard this, his face changed drastically.

Others didn't know, but Miao Fu knew clearly that although he was the leader of the Red Heart Army, it was because eunuchs such as Kang Lu also abused their power and occupied people's houses. The government trusted eunuchs, and making friends with eunuchs could get high positions. The government's rewards and punishments were unfair, so he and others deliberately spread rumors to anger the soldiers and launched a mutiny.

The soldiers rebelled just to live a better life, but unfortunately they failed and ended up wandering to Fujian.

Originally, it was fine, but unfortunately, they encountered Liang's conquest, and suffered a series of casualties. The soldiers in the army had already complained. Now, under Wang Junfu's instigation, I am afraid that some people will have different ideas.

Miao Fu shouted, "Wang Junfu, you are also a member of the Red Heart Army. Now you have defected to another country, and you still have the nerve to pardon us Red Heart Army soldiers. We don't know what your future will be like, and you dare to talk nonsense and disrupt the morale of the army. Although we are rebels, we are also part of the Song Kingdom. We are definitely not traitors like you who defected to another country."

After saying this, he hurried down the city with his personal guards.

Lu Junyi led his troops to retreat three miles and set up camp.

When Wang Shixiu and Zhang Kui saw this, they also came down from the city wall.

Zhang Kui asked in a low voice: "Military Advisor, what should we do now?"

Wang Shixiu frowned and said, "General Zhang, you have seen what happened today. Not to mention the Liang soldiers besieging the city, the government has also sent the three imperial guards to the north to suppress us. I am afraid there is no way for us to survive."

Zhang Kui listened and said with some regret: "When we hijacked the emperor, even if the emperor tried to persuade us to surrender, they would definitely settle the score later. Therefore, I will not surrender to Yang Yizhong until I am at my wit's end. Liang State is different. The reputation of Zhao Zhen, the great official of Liangshan, spread all over the world. We have all heard of him. Now that he has established his own country, perhaps he can accommodate us."

Zhang Kui stared at Wang Shixiu.

Wang Shixiu said: "Even if you and I are determined to resist to the end, I am afraid that the soldiers under us will not agree. However, the two thousand guards under the command of the governor are his Miao family's loyal followers for generations, and I am afraid they will not abandon him."

"Besides, even if the two of us started a rebellion and killed Miao Fu, and defected to Liang State in the future, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to be used in important positions. Now we can only take one step at a time and see what happens. If nothing else, don't let General Miao get suspicious first."

As he spoke, Wang Shixiu called on the lagging soldiers to catch up and go to Miao Fu's mansion together.

Miao Fu saw the two and asked, "Brothers, do you have any ideas to break the deadlock now?"

Wang Shixiu shook his head and said, "Sir, given the current situation, we should first reassure the soldiers. If we can boost morale and hold out for more than 20 days, we will only have to deal with Yang Yizhong."

Zhang Kui said, "If we want to boost morale, we must win a big battle. How about I go out and challenge them tomorrow?" Miao Fu saw that the two did not seem to want to exchange him for wealth and fame, so he said, "I have a plan. The Liang soldiers must be exhausted after coming from Min County. Otherwise, they would not want to attack the city tomorrow. Tonight is a good time to raid the camp."

Zhang Kui still looked reckless and shouted, "Don't worry, Jiedushi. I will go down and pick out 5,000 elite soldiers. I will ask everyone to rest in the camp and raid the camp at night."

Miao Fu laughed and said, "I don't want you to take any risks. Since Liang State refuses to surrender to me, I will give him a surprise tonight and teach him a lesson."

At night, Miao Fu led two thousand of his trusted followers and two thousand elite soldiers of the Red Heart Army. At three o'clock in the morning, they put on soft armor and took off their horses' bells. They quietly left the city and ran away with their mouths full of gibberish.

When they reached the Liang army camp, they urged their troops to raid the camp, shouted, and charged in with swords and axes.

The gate of the village was wide open, and the lights in the village were bright. Miao Fu knew that he had been tricked, so he retreated hastily. A cannon shot was heard in the Liang army's village, and on the left were three generals: [Black Whirlwind] Li Kui, [White Whirlwind] Li Gui, [No Name] Han Bolun, and on the right were [Precious Light Tathagata] Deng Yuanjue, [Eight-armed Nezha] Xiang Chong, [Flying Monkey King] Li Gun, all of whom rushed over to kill him.

Lu Junyi led the generals Zhang Chi, Ba Zeng, Ji Guang, Lu Duo and other generals in the camp, and led the barbarian infantry to rush out of the camp. The Miao Fu army was defeated and fled in all directions.

In the chaos, Miao Fu bumped into Li Kui and was hacked to death by Li Kui with an axe.

In the chaos and fighting, most of the 4,000 soldiers who had raided the camp were killed or captured, and less than 500 people broke out of the ambush and ran back to the city.

It turned out that yesterday Wu Yong saw Miao Fu and Wang Junfu quarreling and hurried down the city. He realized Miao Fu's intention and ambushed his soldiers early and killed them in large numbers.

On the second day, Lu Junyi had someone carry Miao Fu's head and shout to the wall: "Miao Fu is dead. If you don't leave the city and surrender, it will be too late to regret if you break the city."

On the top of the city wall, Wang Shixiu said to Zhang Kui, "Miao Jiedushi is dead, and we have no choice but to surrender to Liang State. What do you think, General?"

Zhang Kui nodded, ordered the city gate to be opened, and the two men went out of the city to surrender.

Lu Junyi and Wu Yong encouraged Wang Shixiu and Zhang Kui, and then asked about Changxi County, the northernmost part of Fuzhou.

Wang Shixiu said: "General, since the attack by Liang State, the court has also sent troops to attack Fujian Road. Yang Yizhong is in Fuzhou. We have fought with him in Huangqi Town for more than ten days, and both sides have won and lost. Changxi County was voluntarily abandoned by Miao Fu, and now it must have fallen into the hands of Yang Yizhong."

After hearing this, Wu Yong said to Lu Junyi, "Commander, it looks like we will have to fight this Yang Yizhong again."

Lu Junyi laughed and said, "We will have to fight the Song army sooner or later. Now is a good time to test the quality of the Song army."

After pacifying the people, three days later, Lu Junyi led Zhang Kui, Wang Junfu, and Wang Shixiu to lead the integrated [Red Heart Army] of 10,000 people as the vanguard, and he himself led 10,000 Liang State Imperial Guards to follow and marched to Changxi County.

In Changxi County, Yang Yizhong also learned that Miao Fu surrendered, and Zhang Kui and Wang Shixiu surrendered to the Liang army. He stayed in the inn for the past few days to see what the Liang army did so that he could report back to the government.

When Lu Junyi led his army to the city of Changxi, Yang Yizhong looked around at the generals and said, "We need to kill the Liang State's spirit, so that they won't think that we have no one in Song State and underestimate us."

(End of this chapter)