The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 239 A new era has arrived
In the royal city of Hue, everyone looked horrified.

The Northern Zheng and Southern Nguyen dynasties had not fought a major war for more than a hundred years. Even when Mo Zibu caused a disturbance in the city of Vinh, the two sides ended up sending envoys to each other to resolve the misunderstanding and no war broke out.

Zhang Fuluan was still pretending to be calm. He glanced around and suddenly felt at ease.

Fortunately, a few days ago, we listened to Nguyen Phuc's advice and transferred Nguyen Thuong Pham from Truong Duc Lei back to Hue.

Now the guards in the royal city are controlled by his own confidants, and the outer city is guarded by the soldiers of Changde Lei, so it is relatively safe.

Not long after, someone presented the manifesto that Huang Wufu had distributed to various prefectures and counties in Guangnan along the way.

Zhang Fuluan only saw the words "First get rid of Fuluan, then get rid of the cunning thief, there is really no other intention." He was immediately furious.

He felt that he was wronged. If he had not tried his best to support it, the court would not have existed for so many years and would have collapsed due to insufficient income.

After calming down, Zhang Fuluan pretended to rush over and knelt down in front of Prince Ding Ruan Fuchun, and instantly burst into tears.

"My Lord, the world insults and slanders me out of ignorance. Only you, my Lord, should understand my painstaking efforts and contributions!"

After crying, Zhang Fuluan waited for the comfort from Prince Ding Ruan Fuchun.

According to the usual procedure, this must be the case. Although Prince Ding is incompetent, he also knows the importance and power of Zhang Fuluan.

However, this time, Zhang Fuluan waited for a long time but still did not receive any comfort from Prince Ding Ruan Fuchun.

He raised his head with some confusion, but saw that Prince Ding Ruan Fuchun had a very strange expression and his eyes were drifting behind him.

Zhang Fuluan was shocked and got up quickly without caring about etiquette. Then he saw the royal family member Ruan Fu standing behind him and winking at Prince Ruan Fuchun of Chongding.

"You bastard, how dare you carry me on your back!" In an instant, Zhang Fuluan knew what had happened. He shouted angrily and pointed his spear at Ruan Fu.

A fierce look and an excited red glow suddenly appeared on Ruan Fu's fat face.

"Traitor, you have deceived the ruler and harmed the people. You have murdered members of the royal family and ministers without authorization, causing the bandits in the Western Mountains to revolt and the Zheng army in the Northern Rivers to march south. Today is the day you will die."

With a roar, Ruan Fu rushed towards Zhang Fuluan like a wild boar, knocking him to the ground.

Zhang Fuluan fell to the ground and was completely dazed. He also knew that Prince Ding Ruan Fuchun was no longer reliable.

Then he scrambled and rolled to crawl behind the screen, still shouting, "Where are the guards? Where are the guards?"

Ruan Fuze pounced on Zhang Fuluan like a fat pig and pinned him down. He then turned around and looked at the ministers in the hall and shouted, "Kill the traitor now. What are you hesitating about?"

This sentence instantly set off an uproar in the hall. Before Zhang Fuluan's trusted henchman Cai Sheng could react, he was knocked down by a punch from his colleague next to him.

Then countless people beat him with fists and feet. Cai screamed miserably. In just a dozen breaths, his neck was broken, his chest and ribs collapsed, and he was beaten to death.

More than ten of Zhang Fuluan's followers desperately ran out of the palace gate, but at this time the other clan officials in the room were all crazy.

Especially the clan members of the Ruan family, they were badly treated badly by Zhang Fuluan, so they were particularly brave in the pursuit.

At this time, the guards who heard the noise in the hall rushed over. These people usually received a lot of money from Zhang Fuluan, and it would be troublesome if they were allowed to come in.

At this most dangerous moment, the eleven-year-old prince Ruan Fuyang blocked the palace gate with a jade ruyi in hand and shouted sternly: "Prince Ding has ordered the execution of the traitor Zhang Fuluan!"

The guards looked at each other, somewhat undecided.

Ruan Fuyang remained undaunted and shouted again, "The country has nurtured you for two hundred years. Don't you know how to repay your kindness? Those who are willing to obey the Ruan family's orders may bare their right arms."

Seeing Ruan Fuyang's righteousness, the guards no longer supported him even though they had received benefits from Zhang Fuluan. They all bared their right arms and stood beside Ruan Fuyang.

Soon after, Ruan Jiufa, the commander of Changde Lei in the city, received the signal and immediately launched an attack. Hundreds of Lingxi border troops broke into the palace and captured Zhang Fuluan and his followers.

Afterwards, Nguyen Phuc Chun, who was still in shock, gave an order tremblingly, ordering Nguyen Phuc, a member of the royal family, to take control of the military power and station himself in the outer city of Hue.

Another royal family member, Nguyen Phuc Chit, left the palace and led troops to search the residences of Zhang Fuluan and his followers.

A group of ministers began to urgently discuss how to deal with the North Zheng army's southward advance. They all felt that instead of Huang Wufu using the excuse of purging Guangnan's court, it would be better for him to tie up Zhang Fuluan and his followers and send them to the North Zheng camp, leaving them with no excuse.

On the 22nd day of the first lunar month, the envoys from Hue and Guangnan sent Zhang Fuluan and his 13 followers to the military camp of Beizheng.

He claimed that Zhang Fuluan had been captured and demanded that the Zheng army in Beihe return to the north of Lingxi.

Huang Tingbao was greatly disappointed and looked at Zhang Fuluan with contempt.

This so-called powerful official of a country is such a rubbish that he was defeated before his troops even reached Hue. Now that they have lost the excuse to advance, things will be difficult.

Huang Wufu laughed heartily. In front of the Guangnan envoy, he said to all the generals:

"The people of Guangnan are at their wit's end. Seeing our troops arrive, they have no intention of resisting at all and only want to survive. This is truly a godsend."

The Guangnan envoys were shocked upon hearing this and wanted to explain. Huang Wufu waved his hand and said, "Take these envoys away and lock them up together with Zhang Fuluan.

"Ti'er, send someone to tell King Nguyen that although Zhang Fuluan has been eliminated, the Tây Sơn army is still there. Since he cannot stop them, I, Huang Wufu, am willing to meet him at the foot of Hue City and help him eliminate the bandits."

After saying this, Huang Wufu ordered the army to march day and night to Hue.

At this time, Zheng's army in the Northern River Delta had already reached Dengchang County, only 50 kilometers away from Hue, and would arrive within two days.

The Hue court was completely at a loss. Prince Dinh Phuc Tuan could only order the royal family member Nguyen Phuc Chiet, the chieftain Nguyen Van Chinh, and the chieftain Nguyen Thu Pha, who had just made great contributions, to be generals.

They mobilized all they had in Hue, even the civilians in the city, and got 8,000 soldiers to go to the last defense point of Hue - Bai Da River, to stop Zheng's army in the Bac Ho River.

But it was too late. The Nguyen army in Guangnan was basically composed of conscripted civilians. There were only a thousand regular soldiers in the army. The marching speed was too slow. They had just reached Baida River when the vanguard of the Zheng army in Beihe arrived.

Seeing that the Nguyen army in Guangnan had not yet established a firm foothold, Huang Tingbao personally led a thousand men to rush across the Bai Da River. The morale of the Nguyen army in Guangnan was low, and they had no desire to fight, and they almost collapsed at the first blow.

Only dozens of the 8,000 people were killed by Zheng's army in the Northern River. The rest fled. Nguyen Phuc Thiet, Nguyen Thu Pha and others fled back to Hue, while the chief Nguyen Van Chinh disappeared.

After receiving the news of defeat at the front, Prince Dinh Nguyen Phuc Thuan did not slow down at all. He brought his trusted royal ministers with him, ordered Nguyen Phuc Thiet and Nguyen Giu Pha to escort them, and led more than 300 people at night, and ran towards the mouth of the Thuan An River.

You ask why he did it so quickly, because although Ruan Fuchun could be considered incompetent in governing the country, he was not stupid.

He had already thought of a way to escape, and accepted Grandpa Luo's advice, taking a boat to escape to the south, to Jiading.

Grandpa Luo said that as long as he was willing to appoint his former brother-in-law Mo Zibu as the governor of Jiading, the people of Mingxiang would support him.

For Nguyen Phuoc Thuan, who was unable to get accurate news from Gia Dinh because the Tây Sơn Army separated the north and the south.

Although he knew that the royal family member Ruan Futan was dead and that Mo Zibu had the intention of establishing himself, he did not know that Song Fuqia was also killed by my General Mo.

Ruan Fuchun thought that once he arrived in Jiading, he could control Song Fuqia's five battalions of soldiers to secure his position.

A little after Zhang Fuluan was tied up and taken to the Zheng army camp in Beihe, the Xishan army also captured the Qingshe soldiers.

But they were not defeated, but the Qingshe soldiers could not fight any further.

They said they were regular soldiers, but in fact they were Zhang Fuluan's private soldiers. Once Zhang Fuluan lost power, the manors and lands they now owned would not be guaranteed.

Prince Dinh of Hue didn't care about them and didn't send anyone to persuade them, so these Qingshe soldiers made up their minds and simply surrendered to Nguyen Van Yue.

With the surrender of the Qingshe soldiers, Nguyen Van Yue and the Tây Sơn army finally upgraded their weapons.

Because the Qingshe soldiers were in Zhang Fuluan's hands, they could not exert much combat power.
Zhang Fuluan came from a noble family and kept Qingshe soldiers, but he just wanted to use them as his thugs.

Normally, relationships are maintained solely through land and rewards, and military officers are promoted by flattering Zhang Fuluan. With such management, naturally, one can't expect others to work hard.

But after falling into Nguyen Van Yue's hands, the Qingshe soldiers had a future of following the dragon. Although Nguyen Van Yue was stingy, he was still very good at doing superficial work.

Compared with Zhang Fuluan, he can better enable the Qingshe soldiers to exert their due combat power.

This time, in addition to the Qingshe soldiers, Nguyen Van Yue also obtained more than 10,000 soldiers from other groups, a large number of swords, guns and artillery, and his strength quickly expanded to more than 35,000 people.

After learning that the Zheng army in Beihe had also moved south, Nguyen Van Yue ordered his men to raise the banner of Wang Sun's army, claiming that they were going to Hue to pledge loyalty to Wang Sun Nguyen Phuc Duong. As a result, all the soldiers from the prefectures and counties along the way surrendered.

By the time Nguyen Van Yue occupied Da Nang, its army had expanded to 40,000.

At the same time, Zheng's army from the Northern River also arrived outside the city of Hue.

At this time in Hue, with the escape of Prince Dinh Nguyen Phuc Tuan, order had been completely lost, most of the people fled, and the city was like a ghost town.

When Nguyen Phuc Tuan fled, he had already passed the throne to his nephew Nguyen Phuc Duong, and proclaimed himself the Supreme Lord. Nguyen Phuc Duong became the eleventh Nguyen Lord.

Seeing the arrival of Zheng's army in the North River, the desperate Nguyen Phuc Duong and the fleeing Nguyen Van Chinh, as well as the royal family member Nguyen Phuc and others, emptied the treasury to reward the remaining Guangnan imperial army. More than 4,000 people were mobilized and firmly occupied the royal city of Hue.

This royal city was built to serve as the last bastion since its inception, so it is extremely strong.

Huang Wufu sent Huang Tingti into the city and saw that the royal city was heavily guarded and Ruan Fuyang responded appropriately on the city wall. So he left 500 infantry and cavalry to guard the royal city, and he personally led the army south to look for the Tây Sơn army.

March 1772, 3, the first day of the second month of the 4th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty.

The vanguards of the Bac Ho Zheng army and the Tây Sơn army met in Jinsha Village, Herong County, 20 miles north of Tuobei (Da Nang).

The Xishan Army, with Li Jiting as the vanguard, repelled the Zheng Army's vanguard, killing more than a hundred people. The Zheng Army's vanguard retreated to a hill in Jinsha and held on, waiting for the arrival of the main army.

On the tenth day of the second month, Huang Wufu arrived with 32,000 infantry and cavalry, confronting the 40,000 Tây Sơn troops across a small stream. Huang Wufu had risen to prominence in Northern Zheng by defeating peasant uprisings led by Nguyễn Thịchú and Huang Gongzhi, and therefore held the Tây Sơn troops in high esteem.

Seeing the Xishan army's disorganized camp, chaotic flags, and a variety of uniforms, he laughed heartily and said to his men with great pride:

"I came here to capture the ruler and ministers of Quang Nam in Hue, and secondly, to wipe out these cunning bandits and seize Hoi An, Thang Hua, and Qui Nhon.

It can be said that if he retreats, he has already gained most of the country, and if he advances, he can take over Jiading and unify it.

Such achievements are enough to comfort the successive rulers of the Zheng family and repay the kindness of the previous king."

Huang Wufu had reason to be excited because this was the first time in two hundred years since the division of Annan that there was a glimmer of hope for unification.

So, the next day Huang Wufu could not wait to order Huang Tingbao to lead the main force of 10,000 infantry to cross the stream and take the initiative to challenge the Xishan army.

On the Tây Sơn Army side, Li Jiting and Li Guangcai still couldn't escape Ruan Wenyue's "hidden arrow".

During the military meeting, Nguyen Van Yue took advantage of the high morale of the collective meeting and unanimously elected Li Jiting's Loyal Army as the vanguard, Li Guangcai's Heyi Army as the central army, and Nguyen Van Yue as the rear guard.

Of course, in order to prevent the two from being dissatisfied and to avoid making things too embarrassing, Nguyen Van Yue himself did not want to be defeated, so he transferred thousands of people to supplement the armies of Li Jiting and Li Guangcai.

The battle started at nine o'clock in the morning. Even Huang Wufu looked down on the Xishan Army, and the Zheng Army was extremely arrogant.

Huang Tingbao regarded Li Jiting's 4,000 loyal soldiers as the already declining peasant army of Beizheng, and looked down on them in his heart.

Seeing that Zheng's army had many muskets and far more troops than his, Li Jiting pretended to be weak and sent the people sent by Ruan Wenyue as the vanguard to fight.

These people were not very strong in combat to begin with, and the Zheng army's muskets were very powerful. After only half an hour of fighting, the Xishan army was defeated and retreated.

Huang Tingbao thought the enemy army had collapsed and immediately ordered his troops to pursue them.

After the Zheng army pursued for more than two miles, their formation began to become disorganized. The fire musketeers and hand-to-hand combat soldiers kept a distance from each other, and the fire musketeers also carried their fire muskets on their backs, holding short knives and busy chasing and snatching spoils.

Seeing that the time had come, Li Jiting led 1,500 loyal soldiers to attack suddenly.

These Huizhou people were tall, bare-chested, with red cloth wrapped around their heads. Instead of using muskets, they held rattan shields and steel knives and carried javelins on their backs.

They shouted "Diaoruo Ma", formed a sharp arrow pig charge formation, and suddenly swooped down from the hill.

The Zheng army, which was busy chasing, was caught off guard. They only saw a group of naked men in red scarves rushing towards them, and were defeated before they understood what was going on.

For a moment, panic shouts in Beihe dialect were heard everywhere. Huang Tingbao hurriedly ordered his personal guards to step forward to hold the line, and at the same time ordered the musketeers to reload quickly.

But the Huizhou soldiers had already started charging.

The head coach Li Jiting is inherently violent and cruel, a bit like the madman Yu Rongguang in the letter to his father.

Under the leadership of this crazy commander, the overall temperament of the Loyal Army is a bit crazy. Once they fight like crazy, they will be an invincible army.

More than 300 of Huang Tingbao's personal guards went up to attack, but they were dispersed in less than ten minutes, with more than a hundred killed or wounded.

At this time, the Zheng army's musketeers had not even finished reloading.

"Throw spears!" Li Jiting shouted, and the Huizhou soldiers dived a few steps, then pulled out the spears from behind and threw them.

The musketeers of the Zheng army who were standing and loading their ammunition were immediately stabbed to the ground. Those who were not dead threw away their weapons and ran back crying.

Huang Tingbao's heart was bleeding. He could only retreat while continuously replenishing his elite manpower, hoping to buy time for the musketeers to reload.

But the Huizhou soldiers chased very fiercely. They simply threw spears and hacked and killed, threw spears and hacked and killed nearly 10,000 Zheng soldiers, making it impossible for them to form a battle line.

Huang Wufu was sweating profusely as he watched from a distance. Only then did he realize how powerful the Xishan Army, no, it should be the Zhongyi Army, these Huizhou people were.

However, he still had a trump card, but Huang Wufu knew in his heart that the opponent's central army and rear army had not moved at all. At this time, he showed his trump card, but Ruan Wenyue did not, which might cause him to fail.

But at this time, Huang Wufu didn't have much choice and it was impossible for him not to save Huang Tingbao.

So, the current military god of Beizheng released his last trick, cavalry.

This is also an important reason why Northern Zheng has always had higher combat effectiveness than Southern Nguyen. Horses can be raised in the mountains in the upper reaches of the Red River in Northern Zheng, near Yunnan, Guangxi and other places.

Although it is a Yunnan horse, if you choose one with higher shoulders, it can still be used as a war horse.

The loyal and righteous army was about to completely defeat Huang Tingbao when they heard the thunder of horse hooves. Zheng army generals Huang Tingti and Huang Fengji each led 800 cavalrymen to attack from both sides.

Although the Beizheng cavalry was not good at riding and shooting and could only drive away and stab the enemy, the loyal army had been fighting for an hour at this time and their formation was scattered.

At the same time, they were just a bandit force and had no experience in fighting against large numbers of cavalry, so they were quickly cut off by Zheng's cavalry.

Seeing this, Li Guangcai kept asking Ruan Wenyue to attack and support Li Jiting.

On Ruan Wenyue's side, a vicious light kept flashing in Zhang Wenxian's eyes.

"General, Li Jiting is a violent and difficult person to control, and he often complains. If he defeats the Zheng army on his own, who will be able to control him in the future?"

So, Nguyen Van Yue immediately stopped his troops.

Li Guangcai waited for a long time for the military order but there was no response. He knew that Ruan Wenyue had evil intentions, so he immediately took more than a thousand of his Heyi troops to support him.

The two fought hard for half a day and suffered more than a thousand casualties, especially the Huizhou soldiers under Li Jiting, more than 700 of whom were killed in the battle and were basically defeated.

However, in the end, they managed to retreat successfully with the help of Li Guangcai and Luo Zhongan's Hui'an soldiers.

The battle lasted from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon, and Nguyen Van Yue only came to support at the very end.

This was actually a case of Li Jiting and Li Guang only having 4,000 men fighting against nearly 10,000 Zheng troops. In the end, the Zheng army lost nearly 2,000 men, and the two Lis also lost 1,000 men.

As a result, the Zheng army, which had won the battle, dared not pursue them any further, and the Xishan army, which had lost the battle, was able to retreat "safely".

After the war, Zheng's army retreated to Hue and took control of Nguyen Phuc Duong.

Zheng Zhu was overjoyed when he received the letter. He rewarded Huang Wufu with 500 taels of gold and 5,000 taels of silver for all the soldiers in the army. He also appointed Huang Wufu as the commander of Hue, intending to continue to take over other territories in Guangnan and complete the unification.

The Tây Sơn army subsequently split. Li Guangcai, Li Jiting, and Luo Zhongan led 4,000 Chinese troops to leave the Tây Sơn army and retreat to Hoi An City, no longer obeying Nguyen Van Yue's orders.

Ruan Wenyue was also a little depressed. He really wanted to trick Li Jiting, but he really didn't want to lose.

But he had no say in the battle. The Xishan Army advanced too late and the situation was irreversible.

He had no choice but to leave Jinshacun, bypass Hoi An City, and retreat to Baojin, northwest of Hoi An.

. . . .

At the same time, a fleet of six large ships was sailing on the sea more than 100 kilometers away from Hoi An Port.

The largest of the colorful boats was brightly lit, making it extremely conspicuous on the dim sea.

In the spacious cabin, more than ten singers were singing and dancing, accompanied by drummers and musicians.

Ruan Fuchun was already drunk, and the royal family ministers around him were also extremely happy.

At this time, it had been two hundred years since the Nguyen family of Guangnan founded the country, and the royal family members had long since become extremely corrupt.

Therefore, no one noticed Luo Zhongda's somewhat crazy look.

"Boom!" A violent explosion resounded throughout the sea, and the orange-red flames rose high.

Uncle Luo screamed in pain, and he remembered what Luo Zhongda had said to him before.

"I have never seen my hometown, so I have never missed it. Since my father has a long-cherished wish, I should fulfill it. This is filial piety."

Grandpa Luo knew that this was the reason why Luo Zhongda chose to put all the beautiful singers on his ship.

His eldest son wanted Grandpa Luo to return to his hometown with pride and pay homage to his relatives.

At the same time, it was not only Grandpa Luo who screamed, but also five or six members of the Ruan family who screamed in fear.

Of course, the Nguyen family understood that they couldn't all board the same boat. On Grandpa Luo's boat sat close relatives such as the brothers Nguyen Phuc Chu and Nguyen Phuc Chung, as well as several distant relatives.

But these two people, the former is thirteen years old, but has a mental problem.

The latter was only nine years old, an ordinary child who would disappear if thrown into a crowd.

However, Grandpa Luo was not going to let them go. When the big ship exploded in the distance, Grandpa Luo ordered all ships to rush to the rescue.

In such gloomy and windy weather, anything could happen during the hurried rescue.

　A distant cousin is getting married today. Tiger had nothing to do with it, but they were short of people, so they insisted on sending Tiger to see the bride off.

　　Alas, I couldn't refuse, so I didn't get back until after six o'clock. There is a thousand words missing, so please forgive me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)