The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 251: Xishan Army Offline

The biggest characteristic of a mob is that when they fail, they scatter very quickly.

In fact, the defeat outside the city did not cause much loss to the Xishan Army.

Because they fled quickly, with their backs to Anren City, and when the rear army retreated, they pulled out the wooden boards set up on the moat in front of the city, which greatly hindered the pursuit of the Xing Tang army.

Therefore, although the army of 23,000 to 24,000 people collapsed quickly, the number of casualties was only 700 to 800, and the number of wounded was only 2,000 to 3,000. Including those captured, the number was less than 5,000.

But after retreating into the city, the leaders of the Tây Sơn army were beaten to death, and Nguyen Van Yue was unable to control these people at all.

Before the Xing Tang Army's artillery shells hit the city walls of Anren, some people began to slip away and desert.

As for Ruan Wenyue, he completely underestimated this situation.

Although they were defeated by the Zheng army in Beihe several times before, the difference in the battle scenes between the two sides was not that big. They were only forced to retreat because they had no cavalry.

This kind of retreat is just a slowdown of that kind of retreat. The losses are not great and the morale of the army is not lost.

But this time, they didn't use cavalry, they just fought with infantry.

Apart from some damage caused to the Xing Tang Army by the initial volley of musket fire, the Xishan Army was beaten and retreated screaming before even hand-to-hand combat began.

This gap, like an insurmountable chasm, is like a mortal facing a Gundam. The blow to military morale is more destructive to people's confidence and cognition than the collapse of Mount Tai before their eyes.

It never occurred to him that Ruan Wenyue wanted to stop it at first, but then he found that he had to run away.

Because this time the Xing Tang army did not plan to fight on and off, although the moon had risen and was not bright, the morale of the Xing Tang army was high.

Even the civilians and laborers accompanying the army became excited. More than 20,000 people quickly filled the trenches and set up the cannons in a position where they could bombard Anren City.

As if assisted by God, the first shot hit Nguyen Van Yueh's temporary general's residence, and Nguyen Van Yueh was so scared that cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the guard generals Fan Yan, Zhang Wenduo, and the governor Deng Wenzhen and others carried Ruan Wenyue and began to flee.

Since they fled at night, tens of thousands of Xishan soldiers cried. They were not like the Xingtang soldiers, who had three dry meals on weekdays and one meat meal every day during wartime.

So except for the few thousand people at the top, many others became almost blind as soon as it got dark. It was more like they were committing suicide than escaping.

Many people gathered together, running around relying on the dim light and blurry vision. Once they fell, they could never stand up again. Countless people were trampled to death.

The Xing Tang army pursued the enemy with torches until after three in the morning before withdrawing.

Ruan Wenyue and hundreds of people fled in a panic all the way to a small lake called Danshuitan. Just as he took a breath, he saw flags waving in the distance.

Nguyen Van Yue was terrified and thought that his end was near, but when he looked closely, he found the flag familiar. It turned out that Nguyen Van Hue's troops were stationed there to recruit the remaining soldiers.

When the two brothers met, they hugged each other and cried bitterly. Nguyen Van Yue cried the most. He held Nguyen Van Hue's arm and glanced at the thousands of troops behind his brother.

"Hui, I regret not listening to you! The southern bandits' artillery fire is like a landslide, and their bullets are raining down. They are truly impossible to defeat."

At this moment, after getting rid of the temptations of power and wealth, it seemed as if the brotherhood they had in Xishan Village had returned.

Nguyen Van Hue helped Nguyen Van Yue sit down and said, "This place is a hundred miles away from Qui Nhon. Brother left at night. The southern bandits will not arrive for a while. Let's rest for a while before we continue."

Unfortunately, before Nguyen Van Hue could finish his words, he heard a commotion in the distance, followed by the intermittent sound of musketry.

Ruan Wenyue stood up in panic and looked around, only to see a cavalry suddenly appear in the jungle to the west.

The dozen or so riders in front were dressed like Annan people, and the dozens of riders behind wore tall hats and strange Western cloaks, and they came galloping as fast as the wind.

"You dare to chase and kill us with only a hundred cavalrymen? Do you think that our Tây Sơn army has no soldiers?" Nguyen Van Hue was furious and immediately prepared to order his soldiers to drive them away.

However, as soon as the Xishan Army soldiers moved, these cavalrymen stopped approaching and even dismounted to save horsepower. After a while, several cavalrymen at the rear ran to the west.

When Fan Wenxing led hundreds of soldiers to drive them away, these cavalrymen were each armed with a long spear, and they made Fan Wenxing's men dare not move forward at all.

Cold sweat broke out on Ruan Wenhui's head. He knew that he had met an extremely tough opponent.

These cavalrymen knew their roles very well and would not fight him at all. Their main purpose was to entangle him, as if they were haunted by a vengeful ghost.

Seeing this, Li Guangcai immediately sent two or three hundred people to reinforce. These cavalrymen immediately mounted their horses and left, but they did not go far. Instead, they made a circle and continued to monitor them in the front left.

The Ruan brothers' scalps were tingling, so they dared not stay any longer. They immediately took the thousands of people they had recruited and continued to flee.

At the same time, Chen Guangyao received a notice from the Longxiang Guards Cavalry Battalion.

Ruan Wenyue was very lucky and he miraculously avoided Chen Guangyao's interception.

The unlucky Xuan Xi, Ruan Mingmin and four or five other leaders were stopped and beaten up. Two of their heads were chopped off and used to report the victory to Mo Zibu.

Hearing that there was a high possibility that the Nguyen brothers had been caught, Chen Guangyao immediately selected elite soldiers and followed the leading cavalry in pursuit.

The sun was scorching, and Ruan Wenhui and others were almost fainting from traveling under the scorching sun. In fact, the best way at this time was to find a forest to rest and continue their journey when the sun was about to set.

Otherwise, in a temperature of 37 or 38 degrees, it would definitely be fatal.

But the cavalrymen still followed closely behind. After walking more than thirty miles in half a day, they still couldn't get rid of them.

"The entire army collects gold, silver and silk." Nguyen Van Hue gritted his teeth.

"Yan, take a few people over there and tell them to stop. If they're willing to stop, I'll give them a thousand taels as bribe. If they keep chasing me, I won't be polite."

Zhu Wen fetched a bucket of water to cool down the warhorse, which was almost at its limit, and then took out warm salt water and soybeans to give the warhorse a snack.

Although horses run fast, their endurance is far inferior to that of humans, so they did not ride horses at all but walked from a distance.

But even so, the war horses still showed obvious signs of discomfort. Now it depends on who can hold on longer.

Seeing Fan Yan coming from afar with gold, silver and silk, Zhu Wen glanced at Pierre Ney. Although the two did not speak the same language, they both showed contempt in their eyes.

At this time, he still wanted to spend money to buy his life, and this also made them more certain that the person in front was either Nguyen Van Yue or Nguyen Van Hue.

With a look of contempt, Zhu Wen shot the messenger sent by Fan Yan to the ground, ending Ruan Wenhui's delusion and the thoughts of his own soldiers.

Ruan Wenhui's face was as gloomy as water, knowing that these people were determined to follow him.

So he ordered Fan Yan to take back the gold, silver and silk, and used the money to recruit hundreds of brave warriors in the army.

Afterwards, he led the army away and ordered Fan Yan to lead these hundreds of people to ambush on both sides of the road. As long as the cavalry dared to continue chasing, they would be ambushed.

But Pierre Ney was also an experienced man. He divided the seventy cavalrymen into three teams, with more than twenty people in each team, and they passed through one after another.

Now Fan Yan, who was standing on the roadside, was in a dilemma. If he didn't intercept them, there would still be cavalry following the army. If he intercepted them, there would only be dozens of them.

As a result, he hesitated and the opportunity was lost, and now it was the second team that passed.

Fan Yan had no choice but to rush out. As a result, the Xishan Army rushed down the hillside, and the cavalry in front and behind suddenly turned around and attacked from both sides.

Each of them was armed with two pistols, and the sabers in their hands were made of fine steel, and they had the advantage of morale.

The hussars charged in groups of five horses, firing two rounds from their muskets and then slashing with their sabers.

Among the several hundred men under Fan Yan, there were only less than a hundred muskets, and their firepower was not as good as that of the Longxiang Guards. They were attacked from both sides and immediately fell into chaos.

During the fierce battle, Fan Yan was shot in the head and was killed by Zhu Wen. More than 300 people were killed, including 70 or 80, and the whole group collapsed.

Only five people from the Longxiang Guards Cavalry Battalion were killed in the battle.

After the ambush failed, Nguyen Van Hue was really at a loss. Thousands of people could only flee for their lives under the scorching sun, and were finally caught up in Phong Son County.

The Nguyen brothers were badly defeated by Chen Guangyao, and the last few thousand of their men were completely routed.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Nguyen Van Hue and Nguyen Van Yue had no choice but to abandon everything and escape in the chaos, and the capital they had just gained was lost again.

. . . .

On August 15, Mo Zibu basically wiped out all the Tây Sơn forces near Qui Nhon. In this battle, he beheaded 1,500 people and captured more than 10,000.

At the same time, all the families around Guiren Prefecture that participated in the Xishan Army were arrested, except for the core members of the Pei family who had temporarily turned against the army and were not punished.

There were only about 200,000 people in the entire Guiren Prefecture, and only about 30,000 were not affected. The rest either fled north with the remnants of the Tây Sơn Army or were captured by the Xing Tang Army.

This is actually Mo Zibu's preparation for a replacement, because apart from the Red River Plain, the only places of important value in Annan are Hue, Hoi An, Qui Nhon and Gia Dinh.

Therefore, Guiren City must be settled by a large number of Han people to facilitate its control.

Among the people from Qui Nhon and Guangnan who were arrested, all the Champa people would be sentenced to hard labor with the army, while a small number of Annamites would be retained.

Their wives, daughters, land, etc. will all be handed over to the Chinese who came south from the mainland. Mo Zibu plans to settle 30,000 Hakkas and 30,000 Chinese from other places in Qui Nhon.

On August 17, Mo Zibu's army advanced to the outskirts of Qui Nhon City. The fleet on the sea, led by Manuel Bonn, rushed directly into Schnee Harbor and bombarded Qui Nhon City.

Subsequently, an internal conflict broke out among the Tây Sơn army in the city. Nguyen Van Lü, who stayed behind, was attacked and killed by his own men, and the rest opened the city and surrendered.

On August 20, Mo Zibu appointed Li Xianwen as the Guiren envoy, in charge of all affairs of Guiren Prefecture and the Fu'an and Pingkang camps, and left him the 3,000-man Dragon Flag Regiment.

Afterwards, Mo Zibu led an army of 10,000 and began to march north, taking over the prefectures and counties captured by Chen Guangyao along the way, and arranging people to garrison them.

On September 17, Nguyen Van Yue fled north to Thang Hua Prefecture in Guangnan Camp.

Nguyen Van Hue tried hard to persuade Nguyen Van Yue, believing that there were rumors that Bui Dexuan of the Bui family was still alive and had defected to Mo Zibu.

Therefore, they could not enter Shenghua Prefecture because the commander of Shenghua Prefecture was Pei Dexuan's younger brother Pei Wenri.

But Ruan Wenyue had been tortured by the hundreds of miles of escape. His feet were covered with blisters and he had not eaten a hot meal for more than ten days. He really could not hold on any longer.

So the two brothers separated outside Shenghua Mansion. The result was just as Nguyen Van Hue had expected. As soon as Nguyen Van Yue entered Shenghua Mansion, he was arrested by Pei Wenri and then handed over to Chen Guangyao who was pursuing him.

On September 22, Mo Zibu arrived in Thang Hua Prefecture, and then Rear Admiral Fragosse, who had recaptured Hoi An, sent people to greet him.

Mo Zibu then took Nguyen Van Yue and other Tây Sơn prisoners of war and headed to Hoi An to camp.

At this point, the Xishan Army, which should have been a glorious and powerful force in history, was almost completely destroyed.

Mo Zibu once again returned to the place where the gears of history first turned - Hoi An, the city of the Minh Huong people.

Before that, the Nguyen Lord of Guangnan was basically defeated under the attack of the Zheng Lord of Beihe and the Tây Sơn Army.

Now, in this Annan chicken-eating game, there are only two players left: Mo Zibu and Beihe Zhengzhu.

(End of this chapter)