Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 94: Occupy Jinling

The fourth wave of bamboo rafts floated downstream.

Compared to the previous times, the deputy was much more relaxed this time, but he was not completely careless.

Although artillery fire was not used as ordered, the soldiers were asked to carefully identify the target from the lookout tower.

But in the darkness of night, the vision was very blurry.

The soldier could vaguely see some straw on the people on the bamboo raft, so he said:

"Still a dummy."

The deputy felt relieved and let the raft approach.

The bamboo rafts easily approached the Huaiyin Army's navy fleet.

As they got closer, several bamboo rafts happened to hit the boat and were smashed to pieces. The "dummies" on the rafts fell into the water with screams.

This is not a dummy, it is clearly a real person wrapped in straw!
The deputy's face changed drastically, but it was too late. More bamboo rafts had already flown downstream into the fleet.

"Not good, quickly meet the enemy!"

the deputy yelled.

However, at this moment, the soldiers on the bamboo rafts shouted in unison:
"Brothers of the Huaiyin Army, rest assured, we are unarmed and are not here to fight you!"

As they spoke, the soldiers on the bamboo rafts raised their jars one after another and said:
"My prefect saw that the brothers of the Huaiyin Army had come from afar, so he ordered us to send fine wine to reward the entire army!"

As he spoke, the soldier on the bamboo raft threw the jar onto the boat.

Most of the jars broke into pieces after being thrown up, but some were intact.

In just a moment, the government troops on the bamboo raft had thrown all the jars, and then hurriedly drifted away downstream, leaving the generals on the boat looking at each other in bewilderment.

"General, this is not wine, it's kerosene!"

shouted a soldier.

The deputy turned pale and sat down on the ground.

Fire oil!

If the other party ignites the kerosene, I am afraid countless ships will be burned.

Soon, Zhang Yuan rushed out of the cabin after learning the news and kicked his deputy over.

"Asshole, why don't you obey my orders? Come here, tie him up, beat him with 80 sticks first, and then hand him over to the general for punishment!"

The men obeyed the order, immediately stepped forward, tied up the deputy, and dragged him away.

If a person is hit with eighty military sticks, his hands will probably be beaten into a meat ball. Even if he doesn't die, he will be disabled.

The deputy begged for mercy:
"Please spare my life, General Zhang. I am an old man who has always been loyal to you!"

"Twenty more military sticks!"

Zhang Yuan said angrily.

The other person was indeed an old man who had been following him, but the more so, the more he should not have made such a low-level mistake.

He was a surrendered general, and was promoted by General Fang only because of his expertise in naval warfare.

In terms of seniority, there were many generals in the Huaiyin Army who were stronger than him, so Zhang Yuan was very careful in everything he did, trying not to make any mistakes. Unexpectedly, he would fall into trouble today among just a few hundred people.

"What a shame, what a shame! What a shame!"

Zhang Yuan punched the mast in anger.

Shortly after,
Zhang Yuan's fleet arrived in Jinling.

The officials of Jinling surrendered early, and Zhai Xun and Meng Kang led their men to stand at the front.

"Who is Zhai Xun?"

Zhang Yuan asked with a gloomy expression.

Zhai Xun took a step forward and bowed, "I, the guilty official Zhai Xun, pay my respects to General Zhang."

Zhang Yuan snorted coldly.

After being humiliated by the government troops with kerosene that night, they also captured a few people. After questioning, they found out that it was Zhai Xun's idea.

"This is just a trick of deceiving the enemy and stealing their territory. It is really a small trick!"

Zhang Yuan said with disdain.

Zhai Xun did not refute, but bent over and said:

"I know that I cannot defeat you by my own strength, so I resorted to this trick. I beg you to forgive me, General Zhang."

Zhang Yuan looked at Zhai Xun and said unhappily:
"Why are you acting like this? Success or failure has already been decided. How can I be a lowly person? When the general arrives, I will introduce you to him."

Zhai Xun was stunned and asked, "General?" Zhang Yuan explained, "It is the Marquis of Huaiyin."

Generally, generals who were earlier than Fang Yong were usually called General; while in other areas, especially those controlled by the imperial court, Fang Yong was generally called Marquis of Huaiyin.

Zhai Xun was overjoyed when he heard this and thanked him again and again.

A few days later, Fang Yong led his army to Jinling.

Zhang Yuan then came to apologize and told the story of that day.

Fang Yong was extremely angry after hearing this and ordered:

"Zhang Yuan was not strict in managing his troops, and was demoted to deputy general at the age of twenty."

"His deputy disobeyed military orders and will be beheaded!"

In the parade ground, the deputy was tied up, and the soldier in charge of beheading raised his steel knife, waiting for Fang Yong's order to carry out the execution.

The deputy cried bitterly:

"General Fang, when we attacked Yangzhou in the past, I personally led the troops to attack the city and beheaded more than ten people. I beg you to remember my past merits and spare my life."

Fang Yong's face was grim. He said:

"I will give credit to you for your merits and blame to you for your faults. In the past, you have made great contributions. Have I ever failed to reward you? Now you have disobeyed military orders and put the lives of thousands of brothers at risk. How can I forgive you? After you die, I will take care of your wife and family. Go!"

Upon hearing this, the deputy knew he could not dodge the knife, so he could only shed tears and said:

"Thank you General!"

Fang Yong said: "Behead!"

There was a flash of knife, and a good head fell off.

The entire army was in awe, and couldn't help but feel a little more awed.

Afterwards, Fang Yong met Zhai Xun.

A respectful young man, who looked nothing special, even a little too respectful, which made people feel that he was not the kind of person his age should be.

But no matter what, this person's ability has been truly certified.

Fang Yong then recruited him into the Huaiyin army, along with his subordinates, and gave him several hundred more men, making up a force of a thousand men.

After that, Fang Yong began to organize the city of Jinling.

The wealthy and powerful people in Jinling City basically no longer exist, and only traces of ruins remain of the mansions of the four major families of Jia, Shi, Wang and Xue.

Compared with Yangzhou, the people of Jinling are very unfamiliar with Fang Yong, and many of them have never heard of Fang Yong's name.

Even more complicated is the land near Jinling.

These lands were not occupied by large landlords like in Yangzhou and other places, but formed a unique pattern.

A form of bandit separatism unique to Nanjing.

Feng Tai once started an uprising in Nanjing. According to Wu Yuan's statistics, he had about 300,000 soldiers and horses under his command, most of whom were poor people in the city and coolies who were captured from outside the city to work.

Afterwards, Feng Tai was defeated while attacking Chuzhou, with tens of thousands of soldiers killed and hundreds of thousands captured.

The remaining soldiers and horses all fled into the mountains, where they began to occupy the mountains and become bandits.

Among them, the small ones number in the thousands, the large ones number in the tens of thousands, and the remaining ones number in the hundreds and dozens and countless.

At that time, Duke Shan sent Chunyu Jian to be stationed here, responsible for gathering the surrendered soldiers and eliminating the banditry.

As a result, the bandit problem at that time was slightly suppressed.

But not long after, Duke Shanguo was defeated in a head-on battle with Fang Yong and retreated to Gaoyou. He had to urgently summon Chunyu Jian to return for help.

This time without suppression, these bandits began to act recklessly.

Since most of them were from the vicinity of Jinling, they all returned to their homeland, some seized fertile farmland, some established their own kingdoms, and thus the current situation in the Jinling area was formed.

This complicated situation made Fang Yong feel overwhelmed. If he wanted to wipe out these bandits, he would need to devote a lot of time and energy. He also needed to attack Chuzhou as soon as possible and had no time to stay in Jinling any longer.

If left unchecked, these bandits will fight and kill each other, and the common people will be the ones who suffer in the end. I am afraid that next year's spring ploughing will be affected.

By then, bones will be exposed in the wild, and no roosters will crow for thousands of miles...

Fang Yong also came from a poor family, how could he bear to sit idly by and watch?
It’s a pity that I lent Wu Yuan to Ma Laohei in the first place, which led to the current difficulties.

At this time, Zhai Xun took the initiative to ask for a meeting.

He said he wanted to offer treasures.

"Don't worry, General. Just look at this picture!"

(End of this chapter)