Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 343 You Fight Your Way (Part )

Why did Bao Yu notice this among a bunch of messy intelligence, and why did Lu Jin also become interested after hearing it? It can only be said that these two old cunning guys are in sync. When they find a place where they can use a trick, they will involuntarily think about the possibility of using a trick.
Since ancient times, whenever two armies fought, as long as there was a conflict between the generals of one side, it would be easy for the other side to take advantage of it.

A simpler one could design a plan to sow internal strife among the enemy forces to divide and disintegrate them. A more complicated one could use the "contradictions" among one's own generals to make some advanced schemes. For example, the Battle of Red Cliffs in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, where Zhou Yu fought Huang Gai, is a typical example. Pretend that one's own forces have conflicts, gain the other side's trust, and finally launch a big attack.

In history, Zhu Yuanzhang used this trick against Zhang Shicheng, wanting to plant a spy next to Zhang Shicheng. Unfortunately, the spy was moved by Cheng's generosity and sincerity, and then took the initiative to betray Zhu.
Seeing Lu Jin's interest, Bao Yu immediately explained, "This Yu Que, although his ancestors are not Han Chinese, he seems to have completely assimilated. He calls himself a citizen of the Celestial Empire and regards the Miao people as uncivilized barbarians and beasts.

"In addition, the military discipline of the Miao army from Guangdong and Guangxi is indeed not very good. Although they fought bravely, they repeatedly abused and harmed the people in Jiangxi. Therefore, I hate them. I heard that they have publicly said that they despised the Miao army more than once. It seems that they have also written to the Yuan court to ask the central government not to continue to advance northward."

Lu Jin nodded when he heard this. This was not beyond his expectations, or stereotypes, because in the original history, the Ming Dynasty had always looked down on the Miao army in Guangxi and did not like to use these people. The poor military discipline seemed to have become their stereotype, and the mainland even had the notoriety of "Guangxi Wolf Soldiers". On the contrary, it was not until the late Qing Dynasty and the later Anti-Japanese Period that the Guangxi soldiers made great contributions and finally reversed this bad impression.

As for the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the military discipline of the Miao army is really hard to describe. The original text of "Yuanshi Yuque Biography" reads like this.

"The Jiangxi government troops (the Miao troops from Guangdong and Guangxi) plundered counties and killed infants and impaled them on spears for fun, but they dared not enter Anqing. The Guangxi Miao army commander Aslan arrived in Luzhou and sent an envoy to him. He went straight in with a knife and threatened the emperor to surrender. The emperor ordered his men to tie him up and put him in prison, and wrote a petition saying: 'The Miao barbarians have never been influenced by the king. They are like beasts and should not be allowed to enter China.' The emperor ordered Aslan to return to the army."

This shows the extent to which the Miao army's military discipline is deteriorating, and Yu Que publicly said that the Miao army was the same as beasts, which also shows how much he hates these Miao soldiers.

After Bao Yu finished explaining the details, Lu Jin seemed to be thinking about something, and Xia Yu immediately asked, "Does the Marshal want to take advantage of the rift between the two and use a strategy of alienation to divide and disintegrate the enemy army?"

Lu Jin nodded, "I do have such an idea, but it's just a preliminary idea. To know how to do it specifically, we need to see if we can capture Yu Que's family first."

After hearing this, Feng Guoyong and Bao Yu were both stunned. They didn't understand what this had to do with Yu Que's family. Lu Jin made direct arrangements.

"The current situation is that the enemy's situation is unclear. Let's first check whether there are Miao troops in the Yuan army that is sent to Anqing. If there are, when the Miao army attacks, we can let Liao Yongan and Miao Daheng beat them hard and hurt them. When Yu Que's confidants attack, we can let them go and drive them away.

"In this way, the Miao army will surely see that we are deliberately targeting them, and Yu Que is suspected of secretly colluding with us, so we deliberately let him go and don't attack Yu Que's confidants, which will surely make the Miao army suspicious.

"Then we should go to Luzhou to check if Yu Que's family is still in our territory. If they are, we will invite them over and feed them with good food and drink. Then we will leak the news and say that Yu Que has secretly surrendered to us and is deliberately sending the Miao army to their deaths so that we can get rid of them first and then he can bring the remaining Yuan army to surrender to us.

"This plan will surely cause the enemy to become disunited and even fight among themselves."

The people present were stunned when they heard this. Xia Yu said, "Great! This is an open plot. As long as we spread the false news that Yu Que has surrendered to us, we don't need to explain too much. This will surely make them suspicious of each other and they will not dare to continue advancing."

Feng Guoyong also thought to himself, what a vicious plot, this is not just a simple attempt to alienate the enemy, it even frames Yu Que, aren't you powerful and capable, I am now framing you for collaborating with the enemy, let's see how the Yuan court will deal with you, maybe the Yuan court will really kill him, that would be killing someone with a borrowed knife.

Thinking of this, Feng Guoyong asked again, "My lord, you have framed this man for colluding with us and invited his family to come. Are you trying to win him over?"

Lu Jin shook his head. "Let's not talk about whether I will accept him or not. It's not certain whether he is willing to submit to me. Anyway, let's win this battle first. I have no specific plan on how to deal with Yu Que, and I don't know him well."

At this point, Lu Jin looked at Xia Yu and asked, "Didn't you just say that he was a great scholar? Does he have any articles or books? Show them to me. Maybe I can tell what kind of person he is."

Xia Yu immediately said, "Yes, there is. There is a book called Qingyang Collection, which contains the collection of this person's articles and notes. It should be sold in the bookstores in Jiankang City."

Upon hearing this, Lu Jin quickly called his personal soldier Li Dingbang and asked him to send someone to the bookstore to buy it.

Seeing that Lu Jin had no other arrangements for the time being, Feng Guoyong asked again, "Does the Marshal have any other instructions for the generals in various places?"

"Not for now." Lu Jin seemed to suddenly remember something and said, "Oh, by the way, tell Liao Yongan about our troop adjustments, tell him that I have replenished his ammunition and transferred a division of Zhao Yong as a reserve for him, and they will arrive in Tongcheng soon. If he is short of troops, feel free to use them. Temporarily give him the command of the 111th Division.

"As for our deployment and deployment on the Jiangzuo side, I have sent two divisions, Chang Yuchun and Liao Yongjian, with the navy to attack the Yangtze River southward. Although they cannot directly cross the river to support him, they can help him contain the Yuan army's navy on this side of the river.

"Finally, ask him to report the war situation in Anqing every day, and report at any time when the situation is urgent!"

"Yes." Several people responded quickly, then left.

Feng Guoyong went to draft the military order, Bao Yu arranged for someone to check Yu Que's family. After a while, the personal soldiers also bought him the "Qingyang Collection". Lu Jin just flipped through a few pages and immediately sneered with disdain. Just by looking at the style of the article, he had already evaluated Yu Que as a "hypocritical villain". This guy has completely "naturalized" into the shape of a corrupt scholar.
In the next few days, wars broke out almost simultaneously in the north and south.

After receiving Lu Jin's order, Yu Tingyu of Luzhou immediately sent a regiment to Lu'an to replace Zhao Yong, and sent people to protect the iron factory, notify the pastoral supervisor of Maotanchang, and then let Zhao Yong lead a team to provide emergency support to Anqing.

Hua Gao of Hezhou also sent Tang Xiong's 32nd Regiment to Wuwei to guard the Rushu River, the mouth of Chaohu Lake.

Liao Yongan, who was stationed in Anqing, received Lu Jin's order and learned that Lu Jin had sent him a division of reinforcements, and he immediately felt relieved.

Originally, the total strength of his 35th Army was relatively weak. It was said to have six regiments, but in fact there was a Lei Chi Navy Regiment among them, which was completely unable to go ashore to fight. In other words, the army had only five regiments. Among these five regiments, there was Yin Congdao's 57th Regiment, which was expanded a while ago with new recruits from Jiangnan. It had been reorganized less than a month at most and had just completed basic queue training. It could not be used for combat at all, and it was a stretch to use it to defend the city.

In other words, Liao Yongan actually only had four main combat regiments, and they had to be dispersed in various cities on the Anqing Road to defend the city. He could not even provide mobile forces, which made him passive. Fortunately, Lu Jin sent him a division of reinforcements. With the addition of Zhao Yong's three regiments, he had seven main regiments, and he was more confident in fighting.

Chang Yuchun and Liao Yongjian were not idle either. After drinking in Jiankang that day, they returned to Dangtu immediately without even having time to rest. On the evening of the same day, they began a night march towards Wuhu and Fanchang. Chang Yuchun led the army to Wuhu, while Liao Yongjian led the navy upstream to attack Fanchang in order to buy time with the Yuan army. The two finally surrounded the two cities of Wuhu and Fanchang on the afternoon of the fourth day of the New Year.

Because the two cities and Dangtu belonged to Taiping Road, the elite troops had already been wiped out by Nahachu, and there were not many defenders in the city. Seeing that the Shengwu Army led the main force to attack on a large scale, and the Yuan army soldiers in the city had already heard about the Shengwu Army's land distribution policy from their fellow villagers, they put up almost no resistance, and Wuhu and Fanchang counties surrendered.

After taking the two cities, Liao Yongjian left the new recruits to guard the city, and personally led the navy to continue advancing towards Tongling. Chang Yuchun also led the main force of the 109th Division to follow by land.

Tongling at the end of the Yuan Dynasty was a riverside city like Dangtu. Although the city walls did not reach the river directly, Tongling City was still within the range of the tower ships and gunboats. So on the afternoon of the sixth day, under the powerful artillery suppression of three tower ships and gunboats on the river, Chang Yuchun personally led his team to launch a fierce attack and took Tongling in one fell swoop.

After capturing three cities in five days, they stopped advancing. Chang Yuchun wrote to Lu Jin asking for artillery carts. He wanted to dismantle the cannons of a tower ship and use them to attack the inland cities. He also wanted to reorganize the prisoners and rest for a few days. Liao Yongjian led the navy to stay in Tongling and sent Sang Shijie's main navy upstream to patrol the upper reaches of the river and inspect the main force of the Yuan army's navy.

As for Anqing, the Yuan army was also coming in full force. This time, the Yuan army from Jiangxi that came to suppress the rebellion had 45,000 combat soldiers alone, and more than 50,000 civilian laborers.

Among them were 5,000 troops recruited by Xing Ji, the Pingzhang of Jiangxi Province, from Jiangsu and Zhejiang. These 5,000 people were directly under his command, and the general was Wang Weigong. There were also 10,000 people led by Yu Que himself, some of whom were recruited from Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and some from Jiangxi, and were led by Yu Que's nephew and nephew-in-law.

In addition, there were 30,000 Miao troops coming from Huguang. Their commander was Yang Guantong, who was later named Yang Wanzhe by Emperor Shun of Yuan Dynasty in the original history. However, he had not changed his name at that time. These 30,000 Miao troops were led by Yang Guantong and Aslan, with a total of 45,000 combat soldiers.

With so many troops fighting along the way, they can be said to have a strong military force. However, they have been reluctant to take action, mainly because Yu Que was too cautious.

Among the three most powerful rebel forces in the world today, the one that Yu Que values ​​the most is Lu Jin.

Even though they had fought with Xu Shouhui before, Yu Que actually didn't think highly of Xu Shouhui. Xu Shouhui was the first to proclaim himself emperor and seek a fight, but mainly because he had no development plan and no goal when fighting. He was the type who would fight wherever he could. At the beginning of the year, he had expanded his territory by thousands of miles and seemed to be incomparable, but he immediately showed his true colors as soon as the Yuan court fought back, losing cities and territories everywhere.

In comparison, Lu Jin was very quiet and low-key. They planned carefully before attacking a territory and took steady steps, engaging in production while fighting. Not only did they send heavy troops to guard each place they conquered, they also built city walls with work-for-relief to firmly occupy the territory they conquered. Among the three families, only Lu Jin can produce a large amount of weapons and armor, which makes people dare not underestimate it.

After arriving in Huangmei County opposite Susong this time, Yu Que learned about the local situation and immediately looked as if he had expected it.

When he first arrived in Huangmei, Yu Que was quite surprised to find that not only were there garrisons in Huangmei County, confronting Susong in front of them, but local Yuan army officers and soldiers had even set up a field camp in Huanglianzhai, south of Lei Chi. Yu Que didn't understand what was going on, so he asked the local garrison commander.

Huangmei garrison commander Xiang Ying explained immediately.

"Reporting to the Councillor, the camp in Huanglian is to look after Leichi. What you don't know is that the Susong defense line built by the Luzhou bandits is not simple. Not only are there heavy troops stationed in Susong City to guard it, but there is also a Leichi navy to provide cover on the side.

"When they first captured Susong, I led my troops to counterattack Susong, but the enemy's Lei Chi navy landed from the rear flank and took advantage of the emptiness of Huangmei County to launch a surprise attack on Huangmei. Fortunately, I had prepared in advance and did not let the enemy's navy succeed. Otherwise, I would have been surrounded from front and back and my entire army would have been wiped out.

"After that, I quickly led the troops to withdraw to Huangmei, and sent people to Huanglian to set up camp to monitor the enemy navy. The enemy troops in Susong not only have the navy to cover their flanks, but they also built a strange-looking fort between Lei Chi and Susong. There are not many soldiers guarding it, probably less than a thousand people, but it is the headquarters camp of the navy's water camp.

"That fort looks very strange, and I have never seen it before. I dare not act rashly. Besides, I don't have any navy here. If I can't stop the enemy's navy, it's not a good idea to attack Susong City directly."

"Oh? So that's what's going on." Yu Que suddenly realized and dared not underestimate Lu Jin anymore. He asked again, "Do you know how many ships the bandits' Lei Chi navy has?"

Xiang Ying said immediately, "There are probably hundreds of ships. They were originally Chaohu pirates, and later they seized a lot of ships from the government navy. They must have a lot of ships."

Yu Que frowned, "So, if we don't deal with the enemy's navy first, we won't be able to attack Susong?"

Xiang Ying added, "Not necessarily. The navy also needs a water fort. Otherwise, they can't just float on the boat all the time. Maybe we can first attack the Dunbao water fort on the bank of Leichi and take down their camp."

Yu Que thought for a moment and said, "The entrance of Lei Chi to the river is in Wangjiang County. I also brought the navy of the government army from Jiangxi. Can we sail into Lei Chi from Wangjiang and fight the enemy navy in the lake?"

Xiang Ying immediately said in embarrassment, "Sir, I have also investigated the rebels' news. They naturally know the key point of the Leichi at the entrance of the river in Wangjiang. So the rebels also built that strange fort in Wangjiang. It may not be easy for the government navy to enter the Leichi."

Yu Que frowned and asked, "Is there any other way to go around behind the enemy army?"

Xiang Ying shook his head again and said, "There is a road from the valley in the mountains west of Taihu County that leads directly to Taihu City. As long as we take down Taihu County, we can go around to Susong. But the enemy army also built that strange fort in the valley west of Taihu."

Yu Que glanced at him and said, "So, we have to attack their fort first? What's so strange about that fort?"

Xiang Ying said in embarrassment, "I can't tell you for sure. It would be better for you to go and see it yourself."

(End of this chapter)