Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 174 Capturing Zuo Liangyu alive

September 25, the 16th year of Chongzhen.

In Guiyi Town, about forty miles northeast of Xiangyin, a large number of troops were slowly coming from the north.

Guiyi Town is the later Miluo City. During the Sui Dynasty, a county was established, called Luo County.

But later the county system was abolished and changed into towns.

In addition to Guiyi Town, there is also a Xinshifang next to it, which is basically equivalent to the size of two towns.

At this moment, Zuo Liangyu's troops had already swarmed in, and the surrounding people fled in all directions, basically most of them ran to Xiangyin or Changsha.

This is because Zuo Liangyu’s troops were notorious.

Whether he robbed the people or not depended entirely on whether the imperial court provided him with food and military supplies.

In the tenth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Guowei, the governor of Yingtian, ordered Zuo Liangyu to go into the hinterland of Dabie Mountains to suppress the peasant uprising army hidden there, but he did not give him enough pay. Not only did he not listen, he also allowed his soldiers to plunder the people and kidnap women in Shucheng and other places.

In the 15th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng attacked Xiangyang. Zuo Liangyu went to Wuchang and asked the King of Chu for soldiers, food and money, but he didn't get any supplies. So he plundered Wuchang including the grain and salt ships. After arriving in Jiujiang, he had 200,000 soldiers and waited to protect himself.

There were so many other large and small looting incidents that many historical materials and later scholars believed that Zuo Liangyu's looting and destruction of the people were even worse than those of the peasant army uprising.

However, from Zuo Liangyu's perspective, there was nothing he could do.

Soldiers have to eat food and get paid. If the higher-ups withhold the pay and fail to pay the soldiers, they can't lead the troops and can't take the soldiers to fight on an empty stomach.

The imperial court had no money or food, countless corrupt officials were taking advantage of the situation, and military officers at all levels were exploiting the people. What could Zuo Liangyu do?
Therefore, to a certain extent, there is no question of whether Zuo Liangyu’s approach was right or wrong.

As for obeying orders and not proclamations.

The examples of Zheng Chongjian, He Renlong, Yuan Chonghuan, Liu Ce, Yang Yipeng, Xiong Wencan, Fan Zhiwan, Zhao Guangyan and others are all mentioned above.

This is the problem with Zhu Youjian.

He only wanted to hear good news, not bad news. No matter how many military exploits these people had in the past, or how many victories they had won before, once they lost a battle, he would kill them.

In this way, merits and demerits cannot offset each other, and naturally, the people below will not dare to work hard anymore, leading to the country's demise.

So to some extent, Zuo Liangyu was just trying to protect himself.

of course.

Even so, it cannot excuse him from wantonly plundering the people.

Looting is looting.

Merits are merits, faults are faults. We cannot forgive his guilt just because he acted out of helplessness.

Otherwise it would be so unfair to the people who were robbed.

All we can say is that human nature is complex and cannot be simply described as good or bad.

But it is undeniable that among the current military exploits against bandits, Zuo Liangyu's achievements are second only to Sun Chuanting.

This time he came to Changsha, he reached a deal with Lu Daqi.

Because Zuo Liangyu's mentor Hou Xun was impeached and imprisoned due to jealousy from Wen Tihen, Xue Guoguan and others, and Lu Daqi was on good terms with Wen Tihen and others, Zuo Liangyu was on guard.

However, Lu Daqi still had a broad view of the overall situation. He personally went to Zuo Liangyu's camp to have a detailed discussion with him and provided him with food and military pay.

Under such circumstances, Zuo Liangyu decided to personally lead an army of 200,000 to capture Changsha.

It was only said that there were 200,000 troops, but in fact there were only 20,000 to 30,000 elite troops. The remaining 100,000 or so were all cannon fodder composed of refugees, including many children, women and children, and their appearance and discipline were very poor.

After arriving in Guiyi and Xinshi, they robbed the people's property everywhere, so that the people fled towards Changsha overnight.

It is late autumn now, the Little Ice Age, and the temperature in Hunan has begun to drop, but the sun is still bright during the day, about ten degrees Celsius, with a slight autumn breeze, so it is not particularly cold.

44-year-old Zuo Liangyu rides on a horse, accompanied by his son Zuo Menggeng.

The rest of the generals, including Ma Jinzhong, Lu Ding, Jin Shenghuan, Wang Yuncheng, and Wu Xueli, each led their own troops and continued their journey south.

Contrary to what later generations who don't know much about Ming history imagine, Zuo Liangyu's personal morality was actually quite good.

After his first wife passed away, he never remarried and did not accumulate any personal wealth. He gave his money to his subordinates. When a comrade passed away, he took in his comrade's daughter as his adopted daughter.

According to historical records, whenever his subordinates were having a good time, Zuo Liangyu would stay alone in the tent and not mix with them. He never led his troops to plunder himself, but let his subordinates go on their own when they ran out of food and money.

He usually comforted soldiers, appeased refugees, and never surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in his entire life.

He looked a little thin, and as he rode on horseback, he frowned and said, "Meng Geng."

"Father."

Zuo Menggeng responded.

"What do you think of the guy in Changsha?"

"The child doesn't know either."

"I really hope that it is true that Taizu is here."

Zuo Liangyu sighed.

Zuo Menggeng scratched his head and said, "This is unbelievable, how could it be possible?"

Zuo Liangyu just smiled and said, "Father just hopes it is true."

After saying that, he turned his head and looked towards the south. The densely packed people in the wilderness were heading towards Xiangyin like a tide.

Many of them were dressed in rags. Among them were the elderly, children, and women, who were walking step by step with their families.

Only Zuo Liangyu's central camp had many fully armed soldiers wearing Ming army uniforms.

By noon, Zuo Liangyu's troops were less than five miles away from Xiangyin County.

Xiangyin is adjacent to the Xiangjiang River, with a well-developed water system and numerous lakes.

Fu Youde and Feng Sheng’s command post was located on a small hillside northeast of Xiangyin.

They are not interested in fighting a city defense battle with Zuo Liangyu, they just want to fight in the field!
The two of them had only 1300 men under their command.

The enemy numbered 20.

But the advantage is mine.

The drone operator flew the drone into the air.

On the electronic screen, Fu Youde and Feng Sheng saw a crowd of people slowly moving towards Xiangyin in the northeast wilderness.

Seeing this, Fu Youde frowned and asked, "Why are they all old, weak, women and children?"

Feng Sheng said: "This guy probably used a trick to send the old, weak, women and children to charge first."

"Ah."

Fu Youde nodded and said, "Let the artillery battalion prepare, aim at the elite soldiers behind them. As soon as one round of artillery fire is over, they will surely collapse, so let the soldiers chase them."

"To be honest, they are all Ming soldiers, and I don't have the heart to do it."

Feng Sheng frowned.

They were the founding generals of the early Ming Dynasty, and now it is the late Ming Dynasty.

Although Zuo Liangyu was a military leader and only obeyed orders and not announcements, he was actually still within the ranks of the Ming army.

The clothes worn by those refugee camps were different, but the clothes they wore were all the formal uniforms of the Ming army.

Since they are all soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, it is normal for them to hesitate.

Fu Youde said: "Your Majesty said that Zuo Liangyu was plundering everywhere and causing trouble to the people, so he should be killed. Besides, look for yourself, they used the elderly, the weak, women and children to charge into the battle!"

"okay."

Feng Sheng nodded.

They have seen people using the elderly, the weak, women and children to charge into battle.

This situation often occurred at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and became the norm in the late years of the dynasty.

However, they are the imperial court, the government, not bandits, so naturally there must be laws and regulations.

If the elderly, the weak, women and children are allowed to charge at the front, they are no longer soldiers, but are no different from bandits. Even if soldiers are forced to become bandits in troubled times, it cannot change the facts.

"I'm afraid of hurting the old and weak in front of us, so let's first find out where Zuo Liangyu is. Have someone bring a telescope over and see if we can kill him with one shot."

Feng Sheng thought for a moment and said, "Once Zuo Liangyu dies, they will probably collapse."

"Okay, let's take a look."

Fu Youde asked the drone pilot to search around.

They used telescopes before, but drones are much more powerful than telescopes.

Overlooking the entire battlefield, it is like standing in a God's perspective, and every movement on the battlefield can be seen clearly.

Time passed quickly and slowly.

It is difficult to accurately find one person among more than 200,000 people.

First, they didn't have a photo of Zuo Liangyu, so they didn't know what he looked like. Second, there were so many people that it would be difficult to find him even with a big banner.

However, the big banner was an important reference object. After searching for almost half an hour, they finally found the target.

A group of guards surrounded a man who looked like a general and slowly came to the front of the team.

As time went by, Zuo Liangyu's troops had arrived outside Xiangyin City, and the distance was probably less than two miles.

The formation was slowly deployed, and generals at all levels naturally surfaced.

Fu Youde and Feng Sheng left the command post, stood on the hillside and scanned with binoculars. After comparing, they pointed over there and said, "That should be where Zuo Liangyu is."

"Looking at the banner, it's probably true, but I'm afraid it's difficult to snipe at him from this distance."

Feng Sheng thought about it and said, "Why not fire a shot?"

"also."

Fu Youde nodded.

Then several soldiers pushed the Shenwei cannon over.

A total of ten vehicles were prepared.

Not to mention executing Zuo Liangyu with a cannon, even if he and the hundreds of guards around him were all blown to death, it would be enough.

"Adjust the muzzle."

Feng Sheng shouted.

The artillerymen immediately adjusted the muzzles and aimed through the gun scopes.

At this time, Zuo Liangyu in the distance also began to take action.

The refugees slowly retreated, and Zuo Liangyu's elite soldiers slowly moved forward.

After measuring the distance, Feng Sheng shouted again: "Load the shells!"

The artillerymen loaded the shells.

"Prepare!"

"Wait a moment!"

Fu Youde stretched out his hand to stop him.

Feng Sheng had just been paying attention to the artillery's movements and had not paid attention to the distance. He wondered, "What happened?"

Fu Youde pointed to the distance and said, "Look."

Feng Sheng looked over.

I saw Zuo Liangyu's big banner in the distance slowly moving forward!
"Ok?"

Feng Sheng had a puzzled expression on his face.

This is?

The two men looked at each other.

Zuo Liangyu, who was rumored to have a long history of bad deeds, did not actually use the refugees to charge into the battle line.

Even lead by example?

It made them feel a little unbelievable. "Why not ask His Majesty?"

Fu Youde was also a general in the army and was very fond of this kind of behavior.

Feng Sheng nodded and said, "Well, ask."

The two then returned to the command tent and contacted Lao Zhu via the shortwave radio.

In Prince Ji's Mansion in Changsha, Old Zhu has been keeping an eye on the situation in Xiangyin.

There was always a announcer reporting to him.

After hearing the reports from Fu Youde and Feng Sheng, Old Zhu looked at Zhu Yunfeng.

Zhu Yunfeng sat at the table in the tent and pulled out information about Zuo Liangyu, including a large number of research reports from historical experts and scholars.

After reading it, he told Zhu about Zuo Liangyu's life, and finally said: "That's what happened. He robbed the people when there was no food and grass supply. It was normal at ordinary times. He also took good care of his soldiers, did not remarry, was not greedy for money, and adopted the children of soldiers who died in battle. From this point of view, Zuo Liangyu still has some humanity. He robbed the people because he had no choice. The soldiers had no food or water, and no military pay. The emperor doesn't need hungry soldiers."

Old Zhu frowned and thought carefully.

Zhu Yunfeng continued, "Anyway, it's up to you to decide. He did bad things, but his character seems okay. He never betrayed the Ming Dynasty in his life, but he's not a good son."

"Well"

Old Zhu hesitated for a long time, then gave an order to Fu Youde and Feng Sheng: "Capture them alive."

"Yes."

Fu Youde and Feng Sheng heard Zhu's words through the radio and said, "We will definitely capture Zuo Liangyu alive."

It sounds easy, but capturing him alive is much more difficult than dealing with those people below.

The two men walked out of the command post again, looked at each other, and felt a little troubled.

After a while, Fu Youde said, "Well, send someone over to get the intercom, and I'll talk to him."

"Alright."

Feng Sheng nodded.

Then they sent out a small soldier, who rode away on horseback.

At this moment, Zuo Liangyu in the distance was slowly surrounding Xiangyin.

Wooden ladders were carried over.

Xiangyin is just a small city, serving as a barrier to the north of Changsha. The city wall is less than two meters high and does not require any large siege equipment.

Basically, at the command, the Ming army soldiers under Zuo Liangyu's command on three sides would rush to the city, set up wooden ladders, and flood the entire Xiangyin city like a tide.

At present, Zuo Liangyu's troops have a total of more than 20,000 combat soldiers, and there are 40,000 to 50,000 young and strong refugees in the rear, holding the line with simple weapons.

His soldiers were arranged in square formations. Looking from above, they were so densely packed that it seemed as if there was no end in sight.

When Zuo Liangyu was preparing to attack the city, a horseman came galloping from the wilderness in the east.

Many people saw this scene.

Including Zuo Liangyu.

He found a relatively high position on the hillside where he could see farther, and looked in surprise at the small black dot in the distance that was speeding towards him.

The soldier was full of courage. In front of tens of thousands of people, he rushed to the front of the army, less than thirty feet away, and shouted, "Who is Zuo Liangyu?"

No one responded.

A moment later, a general stepped out with a sword in hand and shouted angrily, "You bold lunatic, you are courting death!"

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

The soldier took the AK and fired at the front of the cavalry general's horse, causing dirt and rocks to splash and scaring the warhorse so much that it raised its hooves high.

If the cavalry general had not tried hard to control himself, both his horse and his men would have fallen to the ground.

This sudden change immediately caused a commotion among the soldiers in the nearby army formation.

Many people bent their bows and drew their arrows.

The soldier holding the AK shouted, "I am here on the orders of the Duke of Ying to pass on a message to Zuo Liangyu. If he has the courage and is willing to talk, then we can talk. If not, you will all die. Go and pass on the message to Zuo Liangyu."

The surrounding soldiers looked at each other in bewilderment. A messenger immediately ran over, ran more than 200 meters, came to the foot of the hillside where Zuo Liangyu was, and reported the matter to Zuo Liangyu.

Zuo Liangyu frowned.

He actually saw that scene just now.

He didn't understand how the soldier almost killed his cavalry from a distance.

But that didn't stop him from wanting to hear what the other person had to say.

This kind of battlefield conversation is normal.

When fighting with Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, there were many such correspondences, in which they persuaded each other to surrender.

So he wanted to hear what the other party meant, so he asked the messenger to go back and ask how the negotiation went.

When the messenger came back, the soldier with the AK just handed the walkie-talkie to the other party, taught him how to use it, and then reined in his horse and left.

After a while, the messenger handed the walkie-talkie to Zuo Liangyu and turned on the dialogue switch.

"Hey, hey, can you hear me?"

The sound coming from the other end scared Zuo Liangyu so much that his hands started shaking and he almost dropped the walkie-talkie.

Fortunately, he managed to steady himself and asked tentatively, "Who? Who's talking?"

"I am Fu Youde, Duke of Ying. Have you heard of me?"

"Nonsense, the Duke of Ying has been dead for two or three hundred years."

"You may not believe that I am Fu Youde, but I can annihilate you. His Majesty asked me to talk to you."

"Annihilate me? What a joke. I have an army of 200,000, and you only have about a thousand in your city."

"You don't believe it? Then look at the open space three miles to the east of you. Look carefully, and fire!"

Following Fu Youde's loud shout over there, Zuo Liangyu almost instinctively looked towards the east.

Then I heard countless "bang bang bang bang bang" sounds coming from the distance.

Immediately afterwards, the sound of "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" breaking through the air was heard.

Then!

"Boom, boom, boom!"

A terrifying explosion sounded.

The earth seemed to be trembling.

Zuo Liangyu saw a scene that he would never forget.

In the open space on the east side, earth and rocks burst, explosions occurred one after another, and they were still continuing.

The rumbling explosions did not stop. In less than a minute, at least hundreds of artillery rounds were heard.

The most important thing is that these are not ordinary artillery, but artillery that can explode.

Zuo Liangyu had a cannon, but it was a solid bullet and would not explode.

But the terrifying power he saw now made him swallow his saliva involuntarily and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

"How about it? Can we talk now? I'll only give you one choice. You come here alone, and I'll go there alone, and we'll talk face to face. If you want to run away, I'll flatten your 200,000-man army."

There was another voice on the intercom.

It was not until this time that Zuo Liangyu realized that the roaring explosion sounded stopped at some point. Within a hundred feet radius of the original place, ash was flying continuously and dust covered the sky and the sun, as terrible as if a military weapons and gunpowder factory had exploded.

Zuo Liangyu turned his head and saw that everyone around him, including his son, had their eyes wide open, and many people even had their teeth chattering.

They are now arranged in dense military formations.

If this really exploded in their army formation, I'm afraid no one here would survive.

"Okay, I'll go there."

Seeing this, Zuo Liangyu gritted his teeth. He knew that the other party was not lying. If he didn't go over, he would be dead.

"Father."

Zuo Menggeng hesitated and said, "You can't go."

"Zuo Liangyu, it is not up to you to come or not. In addition to this cannon, we also have muskets that can fire continuously. The power is ten thousand times stronger than the fire sticks in your hands. No matter how many people are shot continuously, it will only take us half an hour to kill all 200,000 of you. Besides, I just want to talk to you. If I really wanted to kill you, you would have died long ago. This is His Majesty's way of saving your life. The opportunity is fleeting. You should think carefully about whether you can seize the opportunity to survive."

The threats continued over the intercom.

Zuo Liangyu was silent for a moment, then he looked up to the sky and sighed, "I'll be there right away."

After saying this, he ordered his guards not to follow him and he reined in his horse and headed northeast.

Fu Youde also went down the hillside. Feng Sheng rolled his eyes at him and said, "You are really alone."

"I have a gun."

Fu Youde patted the pistol on his waist and said, "If I didn't want to capture him alive, I wouldn't want to go through so much trouble."

"I'll hold you accountable."

Feng Sheng also followed.

Soon Zuo Liangyu slowly came down the mountain.

Fu Youde slowly urged his horse forward, and when he was about four or five feet away, he reined in his horse and stopped, looking Zuo Liangyu up and down, narrowing his eyes and saying, "The generals of the Ming army in the late Ming Dynasty were really not good enough, and you don't look like a general in the army."

"The end of the Ming Dynasty? What do you mean?"

Zuo Liangyu also looked Fu Youde up and down.

As a fierce general who had joined the uprising during the reign of Liu Futong and later followed Zhu Yuanzhang through life and death for many years, Fu Youde was known for his fighting skills, stabbing, riding and shooting, which were unparalleled at the time.

Although he is already sixty years old this year, with black and white beard and hair, he is strong and sturdy, and still has the temperament of a fierce general.

On the other hand, Zuo Liangyu's face was indeed a little thin.

This has to do with the fact that he is in a state of panic and worry every day.

"I told you, I'm Fu Youde. Do you see that guy over there? That's Duke of Song Feng Sheng."

Fu Youde pointed at Feng Sheng in the distance, and then said: "His Majesty Taizu became an immortal and knew that the chaos of the late Ming Dynasty was coming, so he brought us here to sort out the country. Originally, we wanted to wait for you to drive the refugees to charge, and then directly use artillery to deal with you, defeat your so-called 200,000 troops, and then surrender them to open up farmland. I have seen this a lot in the late Yuan Dynasty, but I didn't expect that you didn't drive out the refugees to charge the front. I reported to His Majesty, and His Majesty asked me to spare your life. Now you can do whatever you want."

After that, Fu Youde took out the pistol from his waist, fired a few shots at the ground, and then said: "I only give you two choices. One is that I use this gun to kill you here and recruit your troops. The other is that you surrender and follow me to Changsha to meet His Majesty. It's your choice."

"I"

Zuo Liangyu was dumbfounded.

He had never seen anything so brutal.

Direct fire deterrence.

The key point is that he saw the power of the artillery with his own eyes.

This is how to do?
Or maybe we can launch a surprise attack now and capture the leader first?

That's what I was thinking.

Then I heard a few gunshots.

Then the warhorse under him neighed and fell to the ground sadly.

Zuo Liangyu was caught off guard and fell down.

Fu Youde jumped off his horse and rushed over to hold him down, grabbing him and shouting, "I gave you a choice but you didn't listen. You're such a troublemaker. Just follow me obediently. I'm lucky I didn't kill you."

Zuo Liangyu struggled desperately, but he found that the other party's hands were as terrible as iron hoops and incredibly strong. He could not resist at all and was lifted up like a chicken.

Everyone in the distance widened their eyes.

Under the noses of this army of more than 200,000, their main general was captured alive.

(End of this chapter)