Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

On the north bank of the Yangtze River and the bank of Wangjiang County, 20,000 cavalrymen were galloping. Xi Rimo, deputy general of the Eastern Expedition, was ordered by Qin Wang Chuo Siji to lead 20,000 cavalrymen to cruise along the north bank to prevent the Wu army in Chizhou from reinforcing Anqing. These 20,000 cavalrymen were the main force of the Eastern Guard, almost all of them were Mongolian warriors, all of whom were skilled in riding and shooting. Although the military order of His Royal Highness the King of Qin only allowed them to cruise along the coast, the Wolves of Oirat were not ordinary military generals. After receiving the military order, they changed their cruise to attack. Guilintan, Jingjiangkou, Yangwan Town, Leigang, one town after another, and ports fell under the attack of the Mongolian army.

Hearing that the Wei army was coming, Wangjiang garrison commander Shan Yinzhi, the right battalion commander of Anhui Fubiao, and Li Genji, the guerrilla commander of the city guard camp, had only 5,000 soldiers and horses and dared not go out to fight. They simply closed the city gates and let the Wei army ravage the outside of the city. This pitted Liu Jirun, the commander of the Anqing Navy Battalion. He led 3,000 naval troops to Leigang outside Wangjiang City. He was confused and attacked by the Wei army cavalry into the water fort and hacked and killed everywhere. Seeing the fire everywhere, Liu Jirun hurriedly ran to the warship, and met Babai, the captain of the Wei army, who was riding a horse and galloping. With a swing of his axe, Liu Jirun returned to the embrace of Changshengtian.

In this battle, Xi Rimo only lost a few dozen of his men, but he killed more than a thousand Wu soldiers and seized nearly a hundred ships of various sizes. In order to prevent the enemy on the south bank from landing at the port on the north bank, the Wolf of Oirat ordered all ports, docks, and ships in the Anqing section of the north bank to be burned.

In the blazing fire, the old general led his troops to Wangjiang City. Shan Yinzhi and Li Genji thought that the guards were going to attack the city, so they organized the soldiers and civilians to defend the city. Unexpectedly, the Xirimo people were old and shrewd. They knew that their subordinates were cavalry and lacked siege equipment, so they only ordered their subordinates to circle the city every day and not attack the city. They also ordered the second son of Liao King Sumur, Tucheng County Prince Nagat, and the eldest son of the first-class Chechen Hou Babu, Du Qianhu Chang Taipeng, to lead the cavalry to continue patrolling along the river.

A few days later, Xuan Youcai, the general of Jizhou, led his troops from Susong to attack. After the two armies joined, there were 50,000 people, and they surrounded the small city of Wangjiang. Xuan Youcai's troops were mostly infantry and carried a large number of siege equipment. After a few days of attack, the city was in danger everywhere.

In Guichi County, Chizhou Prefecture, Zhou Gui, the general of Huiningchi, Baitalazhi, the deputy general, Xu Shihua, the lieutenant general of Chizhou, and Wang Dacheng, the lieutenant general of the Navy Camp, were arguing over a letter. The letter was written by Zhang Chaozhen, the governor of Anhui Province, describing the crisis in Anqing and asking the generals to cross the river immediately to support Anqing. Zhou Gui had a very good relationship with Zhang Chaozhen and believed that if Anqing was lost, Chizhou would sooner or later be lost, so he advocated rescue; Xu Shihua was the garrison commander of Chizhou and only wanted to defend Chizhou to the death. Wang Dacheng had suffered a great loss from the guards when he was ordered to defend the capital before, so he did not dare to cross the river to fight the guards. In addition, the governor Lang Tingzuo had previously ordered the generals to defend Chizhou, so he was unwilling to leave; Baitalazhi was originally a Manchu, and after the fall of the Qing Dynasty, he worked only to make a living, so he was indifferent to whether Anqing was rescued or not.

Seeing that there was no consensus, Zhou Gui became anxious and bowed to Wang Dacheng, saying, "I can only take 10,000 troops across the river. Please send me off, Wang Canrong." As troops from various places were ordered to come to reinforce, Chizhou City already had more than 30,000 defenders. Zhou Gui was the highest-ranking general in the city, and he claimed that he would only take 10,000 troops across the river. Wang Dacheng could not object and had to agree.

Small boats sailed towards the north of the river, aiming for Leigang in the east of Wangjiang City. Leigang had been burned down by the guards at this time, and it seemed that because of this, there were no guards along the coast. Wang Dacheng secretly said "lucky" and ordered his men to land by boat and let Zhou Gui's troops go ashore. Wu's troops went ashore one after another, unaware that several guards had already escaped from the woods on the shore.

"Take care, General Zhou! I will be waiting for good news on the boat." After completing the task of sending Master Lu ashore, Wang Dacheng was unwilling to stay for a moment. He bowed to Zhou Gui and ordered his subordinates to set sail and head towards the center of the river.

Zhou Gui did not say anything, and while the guards had not yet noticed, he urged his men to line up quickly. The Wu army lined up in a noisy manner, but before they were even formed, the sound of horse hooves could be heard from all directions.

“Da da da~da da~da da~”

Xi Rimo led Babai, Nagat, Taipeng and other generals and more than 10,000 cavalrymen to charge. How could infantrymen who had not yet formed a battle array be a match for cavalrymen? Moreover, their opponents were Mongolian cavalrymen who were famous for their archery skills. The guards controlled the horses by clamping their legs under their bellies, first shooting arrows on the horses' backs with their hands, and then shooting with three-barreled guns after rushing closer, then switching to lances and scimitars, slashing with lances and swords, and even charging with horses, and soon the Wu army was routed.

Zhou Gui was shocked when he saw this, and hurriedly sent a signal to Wang Dacheng's troops who had already sailed into the middle of the river for help. Wang Dacheng saw the signal and ordered the navy to sail back to provide support. Before reaching the shore, the whistling sound of camel-drawn cannons came from the woods on the shore. The battle-hardened Xi Rimo ordered 200 small cannons pulled by camels to be hidden in the woods and concentrated on firing at the enemy. Although this type of cannon was not very powerful, it was highly maneuverable and easy to operate.

"Boom~Boom~Boom~" The intense artillery fire frightened Wang Dacheng, who was preparing to command the ships to land, and made him mistakenly believe that there was an enemy ambush on the other side of the river.

"Return~Return quickly~" In a hurry, Admiral Wang did not care about General Zhou, and led his subordinates to turn around and rudder again to escape.

His departure put Zhou Gui's troops in a deadly situation. In just over an hour, the Wei cavalry annihilated 10,000 elite Wu troops at the cost of only a few hundred casualties. In a panic, Zhou Gui jumped into the river and tried to swim back to the other side, but the wind was strong and the waves were turbulent, and he drowned halfway through his swim.

"Come here, take the captured Wu soldiers to the city of Wangjiang and persuade them to surrender," the Wolf of Oirats, who was experienced in combat, gave the order coldly.

At this time, Wangjiang City had been on the verge of collapse due to the attacks of Xuan Youcai's subordinates. The soldiers and civilians in the city were unwilling to surrender because they were worried about the reinforcements. After hearing the news that the reinforcements from Chizhou were wiped out, they were immediately in an uproar and no longer had the will to fight.

Shan Yinzhi looked at Li Genji, smiled bitterly and asked, "Brother Li, what should we do today?"

"Brother Shan, the army has lost its morale. It will be useless to continue fighting," Li Genji said with his head down. "Alas! I want to be loyal to my country, but I still have an old mother at home! Come on, open the city gate and surrender," Shan Yinzhi sighed.

After successively capturing Susong and Wangjiang counties, Xi Rimo and Xuan Youcai proudly reported the victory to General Zhengdong and Prince of Qin Chuo Siji. Chuo Siji was overjoyed upon hearing the news and ordered Shan Yinzhi and Li Genji to be retained at their original positions. He also ordered them to write letters to persuade Wu troops in other places to surrender. The two's persuasion played a very good role. Guerrilla General Xin Weishi, the magistrate of Qianshan, and the garrison commander of Tongcheng who had fled to Taihu Lake all sent people to surrender. Chuo Siji was very proud of the victory after capturing three more counties without bloodshed. He gathered a large army and headed straight for Huaining, the capital of Anqing Prefecture.

At this time, in Huaining City, Anhui Governor Zhang Chaozhen had already assembled the garrisons of Anqing, Luzhou, Chuzhou, and Hezhou, as well as his own Fu Biao, a total of more than 20,000 soldiers and horses, but still felt that it was not enough. He anxiously asked Anqing General Deng Junbi: "Where are the troops from Xuzhou, Fengyang, and Huai'an going?"

"In reply to the Governor-General of the Fuyuan, Liu Chaofu, the general of Xuzhou, wrote to me earlier saying that he was contacting the governor of the grain transport system, Qu Jinmei, about the grain ships, and was planning to sail south via the Huai River. But there has been no news since then. The deputy commander of Fengyang, Xie Chen's troops have already reached Hefei," said Deng Junbi, who was Zhang Chaozhen's confidant and had always been trusted by him. He bowed and answered.

"Alas! We can't count on the reinforcements from Jiangnan in the short term. The defense of the city will all depend on you!" Zhang Chaozhen sighed and patted Deng Junbi on the shoulder.
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The battle of Anqing is in full swing!

His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin ordered the Deputy General of the Eastern Expedition, Xi Rimo, to lead an army of 20,000 to be stationed in Tongcheng to intercept the troops from Xuzhou, Fengyang, Huai'an and other places that might move south. He personally supervised his subordinates to attack the city, first concentrating artillery bombardment and then using infantry to attack the city.

He was reluctant to use his own troops, so he ordered Shan Yinzhi, guerrilla Li Genji, Xin Weishi and other surrendered troops and prisoners to attack first. Fearing that the surrendered troops would not contribute, he ordered the head of the ten thousand households, Tegus Chaoketu, to lead the troops to supervise the battle from behind, and anyone who dared to retreat would be killed immediately. In just three days, more than 6,000 surrendered prisoners were lost, and guerrilla Xin Weishi was killed in the battle. The casualties of the defenders were only more than 2,000, but a large amount of supplies for defending the city were consumed.

Seeing that the surrendered troops had played a role in consuming the enemy, Chuo Siji mobilized the main force. He ordered Henan Admiral Cai Lu, Deputy Admirals Xuan Youcai, Zhang Wei, and Yang Laijia to attack the four walls respectively. After ten days of fierce fighting, the defenders suffered heavy casualties. Luzhou Lieutenant General Zhang Bi and Hezhou Guerrilla Shu Lianggan died in the battle.

Seeing that Anqing City had reached the point where it could no longer hold out, Chuzhou Guerrilla Gao Zan secretly discussed with Anqing General Deng Junbi, "The city is about to fall, why don't you persuade Zhang Fuyuan to surrender and leave a way for the brothers to survive?"

"Alas! I have advised him many times, but Zhang Fuyuan said that as a Han Chinese, he had surrendered to a foreign race (referring to the Qing Dynasty) once before, and he was unwilling to surrender to the barbarians (referring to the Wei Dynasty) again. His determination is as strong as a mountain and cannot be broken!" Deng Junbi sighed.

"This is the opinion of a corrupt scholar! The Wei Kingdom does not prohibit Chinese clothing, and His Royal Highness the Prince of Qin has half the blood of the Ming Dynasty royal family, so how can he be a barbarian? In this case, we cannot die with him. We should make arrangements early!" After saying this, Gao Zhan held the hilt of the knife and stared at Deng Junbi. Deng Junbi felt the strong murderous intent and couldn't help sweating on his back. After a while, he finally nodded in agreement. The two generals sent people to sneak out of the city to surrender to the Wei army. Chuo Siji half-believed and half-doubtedly agreed to their surrender and ordered Zhang Wei, the general of Tongzhou, to lead his troops to meet them.

When it was dark, Deng Junbi and Gao Zhan led their troops to open the north gate and let the guards in. In order to gain merit in front of the new master, the two generals led their troops to attack the governor's office.

"How dare you rats do this!" Upon seeing the two of them rebel, Zhang Jinzhong, the deputy general of the Fu Biao Camp who was guarding the governor's office, was furious. He led his subordinates to close the gate of the yamen and put up a desperate resistance. However, he was outnumbered and died tragically at the hands of the rebels.

Deng Junbi rushed into the hall and saw Zhang Chaozhen, the governor of Anhui, who was sitting upright. Zhang Chaozhen was great. He was not panicked at all in the critical moment. He looked directly at Deng Junbi and asked slowly, "I regard you as my right hand, why are you like this?"

Under the accumulated pressure, Deng Junbi couldn't help but feel timid and speechless.

"If you want to be loyal to the Great Zhou, we all don't want to die with you. We just want to get your head and gain wealth and honor!" Gao Zhan was not afraid. After saying this viciously, he raised his sword and chopped Zhang Chaozhen to death in a pool of blood.

On December 1669, , the Wei army captured Anqing. (End of this chapter)