The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 261: Starry Night in Shunzhou

The moon quietly disappeared behind the dark clouds. In an instant, the sky and earth, which had been bright just a moment ago, became completely dark.

Taking advantage of this dark period, the vanguards of the Xingtang Army, who had been walking for most of the night, began to make final preparations.

Lei Ahu took out the glutinous rice ball that had been completely soaked in syrup and started to eat it in big mouthfuls. This kind of food, which was extremely high in calories and could also satisfy hunger, was the best choice before the war.

After finishing the rice balls, Lei Ahu took the small wine pot and clinked glasses with each of the fifty people who followed him.

"Go first!" Lei Ahu roared in a low voice.

"Go first!" the soldiers also responded in a low voice.

Then they began to wrap headbands on their heads and red strips of cloth on their arms.

When raiding in the dark, the most important thing is not to kill the enemy, but to try not to hurt anyone by mistake.

. . . .

Shunzhou City is not big, so it certainly cannot accommodate more than 80,000 people from Beizheng.

Apart from some senior military officers, the only people who could live in the city were the three-prefecture army with more than 10,000 people. Among them, 8,000 elite soldiers were guarding Zheng Sen, the ruler of Zheng, in the areas of the Confucian Temple and the provincial school.

In the south of Shunzhou City, the Qinghua and Shanxi troops were divided into four large camps, each with thousands of people, guarding Shunzhou City like a fortress.

As for the outermost area, there were a large number of civilians and Guangnan people who were abducted and captured.

These people were devastated by the Zheng army and their families were destroyed. They were full of hatred for the Zheng army, but they had to rely on this collective in order to survive.

They numbly completed various hard labors as required in exchange for food that was barely enough to maintain their vital signs. They could no longer be called human beings, but animals.

At this time, these animals snuggled up to each other and slept in a huddled ball like cats and dogs.

There is no real winter in Hue, and it is not very cold there, but after losing everything, they need to feel the warmth of the world in this way.

A layer of straw was spread in the middle of where the laborers gathered, and two garrison soldiers who were supervising these laborers were resting.

They were at the outermost periphery and naturally had to bear part of the responsibility of guarding. The garrison soldier on duty unconsciously took a dried vegetable cake and nibbled it gently. His extreme sleepiness made his eyelids droop continuously.

There were flickering fires in the distance and short bursts of gunfire. Although they were very light, someone had indeed heard them.

Several civilians who were awakened looked at the garrison soldiers at the same time. The garrison soldiers were still extremely sleepy and seemed not to have heard clearly, so the civilians didn't care.

After a while, the rustling sound became louder and louder, and one of the laborers was awakened.

But his night blindness was very severe. When he opened his eyes, he could only see white dots flying on a black screen and could not see the surroundings at all.

He got up and stretched his neck to try to see clearly, but he could not see anything until a group of soldiers in red clothes holding sharp blades suddenly appeared in front of him, as if they had broken through the fog directly from the darkness.

"Ghost!" The civilian let out a terrifying scream.

Then a long bayonet pierced his throat.

The scream immediately woke up the garrison soldiers who were monitoring them. The soldiers grabbed their weapons and tried to run away, but Huang Silang raised his hand slightly and a crossbow arrow pierced his throat.

Another awakened garrison soldier was almost simultaneously stabbed by the Xing Tang army's vanguard.

The vanguards quickly moved forward, and the grenadiers at both ends lit the bombs in their hands. When they saw a crowd gathering, they raised their hands and fired one.

Whether the people gathered together were poor farmers or Zheng’s army, they were all treated equally. At this moment, no mercy was allowed.

The civilians on the outermost line were immediately in an uproar. Due to nutritional problems, most of these poor guys suffered from night blindness to varying degrees.

Many people could only see flickering flames and nothing else, as if they were in the pitch-black hell.

The terrified cries of "Ghosts, ghosts!" resounded throughout the camp, and many civilians who had not seen the Xing Tang army soldiers and had not been hurt at all also began to howl.

They lost everything and were captured here, which was already like falling into hell. Now they were frightened and were in a complete state of stress.

These people didn't know where was safe, so they instinctively ran towards Shunzhou City.

A guarding soldier stood up a little slowly and was immediately trampled by countless pairs of big feet of civilians. After a few shrill howls, he was unable to get up again.

His screams only added to the terrifying atmosphere.

"Forward, forward!" Lei Ahu ordered loudly. The vanguards of the Xingtang Army lined up in a very neat formation and marched forward in unison. Any creature that dared to run past them would be stabbed with a bayonet immediately.

The soldiers did not open fire because even for the first step, it would be difficult to reload easily in such a complex environment.

Even bayonets can only be used by half of the soldiers, and the rest of the soldiers must ensure that they can fire normally.

Of course, there are still free men. The grenadiers at both ends of the team are throwing bombs to both sides frantically.

Terrible howls and waves of crazy people began to pour into the garrison camp.

Although these people are soldiers, they cannot even take time off from work. After being attacked in the early morning, their reaction was not much better than that of civilians.

Lei Ahu was holding a long spear painted red. It was his command weapon, but it could also be used to kill the enemy.

As a garrison soldier just poked his head out of the barracks, Lei Ahu roared and thrust his spear forward.

The garrison soldier screamed and instinctively grabbed the gun barrel. Lei Ahu did not rush to pull it out, but held it level and pushed hard until he pushed the garrison soldier back into the barracks. Then he kicked him in the chest and pulled the gun back.

Almost at the same time, the grenadiers threw the bomb into the barracks with a grin. With a loud bang, more than a dozen soldiers ran out screaming, most of them wearing only calf shorts.

A few of them who were in a daze actually ran in front of the vanguard and were immediately stabbed to death. The others ran to the crowded places howling, and were as frightened as the civilians.

The violent explosion also woke up a barracks on the right. They were obviously much more elite. An officer wearing an iron helmet, waving a long sword, rushed out with several soldiers.

The vanguards quickly fired a volley of gunfire and then threw a bomb, instantly killing all the few soldiers who still had the wits to fight.

Then, by the light of the nearby fire, the soldiers began to reload rapidly, and then the killing began.

All this was like a hot knife cutting butter. Hundreds of vanguards quickly created huge chaos in Zheng's garrison camp.

Countless irrational civilians and garrison soldiers were running around everywhere, and the few camps that could remain awake did not dare to open the gates and attack in the dark.

Not only that, they would even attack anyone who approached their camp to ensure that their side would not be infected by fear.

This, in turn, increased the confusion and panic of the Zheng army to another extent.

Lei Ahu and others finally rushed to the edge of Shunzhou city wall, but when they rushed to the low section of the city wall provided by the insider as arranged, they found that the gaps had been sealed with stones.

But this did not pose a problem for Lei Ahu. He found a thick piece of wood from somewhere. The pioneers held the wood together and knocked down the crudely piled stones with a bang.

With a loud noise, a vanguard suddenly rushed in, but then roars and sounds of fighting were heard from inside.

It turned out that these breached city walls were also the focus of Zheng's army's defense. The loud noise from the barracks outside had already awakened the elite soldiers of the Three Prefectures Army guarding here.

Huang Silang did not hesitate at all, he also flipped over, then he angrily saw that his comrade who had just flipped over had been stabbed to the ground by seven or eight soldiers from the Three Prefectures.

At this moment, Huang Silang felt a surge of anger rushing to his head. He fired his gun and knocked one of them down.

The second one rushed over, and Huang Silang knocked him down with a push and a stab, immediately taking care of him.

Then, without any hesitation, he loosened the grip of his rifle, pulled out a pistol from his waist, and fired with a bang. Fortunately, it went off.

A Sanfu soldier who had rushed in front of him and was about to stab Huang Silang in the lower abdomen with his spear suddenly had his neck swung back, and the right half of his face was beaten into a bloody mess. He fell on his back with a howl.

Behind Huang Silang, two or three more comrades arrived and quickly killed off the elite soldiers of the Three Prefectures Army who were defending here.

Looking at his comrade who was still struggling slowly on the ground, Lei Ahu immediately assigned a soldier to bandage him, and the rest of the people began to move quickly towards the city gate.

When Lei Ahu and his men arrived, Li Bao's company also arrived. The company members worked together to kill all the hundreds of soldiers who were gathering here, and then opened the city gate.

In an instant, Lei Ahu saw the most shocking scene in his life.

The moment the city gate was opened, the crowd, already furious, rushed in like wildebeests crossing a river, roaring.

You can't even see how many people there are, you can only see a vast expanse of gray passing by.

The howling sound even completely drowned out all other sounds, so that the only thing left in the world was this creepy howling.

Li Bao and Lei Ahu looked at each other in tacit understanding, then wisely pulled their soldiers back to the corner to form a semicircle, continuously using muskets and bombs to make the chaos even more crazy.

Just after they opened the city gate, the second batch of 5,000 elite soldiers of the Xing Tang Army finally arrived.

The three fierce generals Chen Guangyao, Chen Lian and Wu Wenyong each led more than a thousand people, forming a square formation with two to three companies as the basic combat units. They continuously used fierce volleys and bombs to drive away and intimidate Zheng's army, which had completely blown up its camp, from all directions.

Zheng Sen suddenly woke up from his sleep, and then saw a group of bodyguards rushing in. He had just experienced a big quarrel with his subordinates, and for a moment he thought someone was rebelling.

It was not until he saw Nguyen Pan, the chief commander of Thanh Hoa Outer Town, who was not staying in the military camp outside the city and had drunk with him last night, rushing in in a hurry that he realized that the enemy had launched a night attack.

Although Ruan Pan was not a famous general, he knew the basics of leading troops. He grabbed Zheng Sen's arm and wanted to take him away.

"Your Majesty, the situation outside is completely chaotic. Anything could happen. We don't know how many enemies there are right now. We should quickly leave the city and retreat to Pei Shida's rear camp to see what happens next."

Zheng Senrang took the clean water brought by his followers and washed his face twice, and then he became a little more sober.

But his expression was gloomy. The fight hadn't even started yet, and he was already running away?
This is too embarrassing!
At this time, a general from the Three Prefectures Army shouted loudly: "Your Majesty, my troops have not yet fallen into chaos and can stabilize the situation."

Zheng Sen was overjoyed upon hearing this and immediately ordered, "Ruan Zhangqi, gather your troops immediately, occupy strategic positions, and calm the panicked warriors.

You can fly my banner, beat the drums, and rally everyone."

It can be said that there was nothing wrong with Zheng Sen’s actions, and they could even be said to be textbook-level fast and accurate.

But there is a prerequisite for doing this, that is, the army is relatively elite, and the superiors are sympathetic to the subordinates, and the subordinates support the superiors, and basically achieve unity.

Because only when these basic conditions are met, the panicked soldiers will see that the central army flag is still there, and then come together and fight a bloody battle with the enemy.

But unfortunately, the Zheng army was not such an army at all. Or rather, the elite soldiers of the Zheng army could do this, but Zheng Sen, the leader of the Zheng army, could not get such a level of loyalty from the entire army.

Ruan Pan certainly understood this, but he did not expect that even the generals in the Three Prefectures Army did not know this.

How much prestige and ability does it take to organize these chaotic soldiers who have basically blown up the camp?

Is Zheng Sen worthy?
For a moment, Ruan Pan wanted to run away, but more than 20 years of Confucian education and 200 years of prestige of the Zheng family held back his steps.

However, the actual situation was even worse than Ruan Pan had imagined. After receiving Zheng Sen's order, a group of generals from the three prefectures went down to assemble, but not many people came to join them.

Because while the people above were eating and drinking, the three prefecture armies below were not idle either.

They kidnapped women and looted property. There were 20,000 to 30,000 people in Shunzhou City, so naturally there were a lot of good things to be taken away.

Therefore, most of the junior officers of the Three Prefectures Army were not in the barracks, but were in more comfortable places, hugging the captured women and having a great time, and had no time to gather.

By the time these guys who had wasted a lot of energy in bed came back to gather, the soldiers had already run everywhere and the sky was already dark.

To gather an army under such circumstances is basically a dream, and the only way is to rely on luck.

In fact, the combat effectiveness of Zheng's army was not too weak. At least after being attacked, the three prefecture armies were only in chaos instead of fleeing.

However, they were unlucky as they encountered the Xing Tang Army, a product of the times. While the Zheng army was gathering in chaos, the Xing Tang Army entered the city from the south in large numbers and then began to clear out and drive them away.

They successfully followed the predetermined battle plan and drove tens of thousands of Zheng troops and civilians to the Shunzhou government office, Confucian Temple and provincial school.

Then, just when these people were in chaos, Jean Pierre's Guards Artillery Battalion arrived.

Everything in Annan was learned from China, including architecture. In a city like Shunzhou, the widest and straightest avenue naturally leads to the government office.

So even if it was dark, the guards artillerymen could quickly determine the direction of the artillery fire under the cover of hundreds of Hakka elite soldiers.

Jean Pierre pushed twenty-seven field guns directly towards the government office and its surroundings. With a wave of his hand, earth-shaking cannon fire suddenly rang out.

The hot projectiles appeared dark red in the early morning and hit the Zheng army like meteors.

Zheng Sen still hoped that the generals of the three prefectures' army would organize the troops, and he was unwilling to accept defeat.

But before the reward of 30,000 taels of silver for the entire army if they held the position was passed on, the artillery shells arrived.

In an instant, the small Shunzhou government office was riddled with holes, and countless soldiers screamed in agony as their intestines and stomachs were pierced by the shells falling from the sky.

A scream was heard. Uncle Wang, who had just been standing next to Zheng Sen, Zheng Qiao, the son of the seventh generation Lord Zheng, was directly hit by an eight-pound cannon shell.

Before the screams could even reach the end of his voice, the obese uncle Wang's body below the pelvis had almost completely turned into meat paste. After his upper body spun 720 degrees in the air, it fell in front of Zheng Sen with a plop.

His intestines and stomach were scattered everywhere, and the flesh paste and blood spots were also all over Zheng Sen's body. This sudden and great stimulation scared the pampered Zheng Sen silly.

Ruan Pan, who was also almost scared silly, maintained his composure. He quickly ordered someone to grab Zheng Sen, turned around and started to escape from the north gate.

As soon as they left, the morale of the entire Zheng army quickly collapsed.

By the time Mo Zibu led 600 rear troops to Shunzhou, the entire city had fallen into complete chaos.

Under the faint sunlight of dawn, figures were running everywhere, and the soldiers of the Xing Tang Army were also hurrying back and forth, chasing and killing people everywhere.

The orderly sound of volleys of gunfire was rarely heard anymore, and the organization of most of the troops had been completely disrupted.

The Zheng army in Shunzhou City was not the 70,000 or 80,000 people that had been expected, but a full 110,000. In addition, Pei Shida, the commander of Nghe An, also led 20,000 rear troops and camped five miles north of the city.

The reason why the number expanded to this level was that Zheng's army burned, killed, and looted all the way south, taking with them a large number of Guangnan refugees.

Mo Zibu attacked them at dawn with 5,400 men, and the battle was naturally extremely successful.

But because the enemy was twelve times more numerous than their own and the light was not very sufficient, the battle soon became chaotic.

"Raise my red banner with a white sun and moon, beat the drums to rally the troops, and capture the Zheng army strongholds southeast and southwest of the city."

"Don't chase the poor bandits!"

Mo Zibu gave loud orders. In this battle, 6,000 troops had to march quickly, covering 30 miles in three hours in the dark, and they had to carry 27 field guns and a large amount of artillery shells.

By now, after fighting for almost two hours, the soldiers' physical strength should have reached its limit.

At the same time, the main force of Zheng's army, except for the destroyed government office, should be in the two camps outside the city.

Only elite troops commanded by strong generals could maintain their organization or even resist in a raid of this scale.

As for the others, they are either auxiliary soldiers or civilian laborers. There is no need to kill as many of them as possible, as it will only damage the labor force.

Especially if they caught up with the enemy and were ambushed by Zheng's army, it would be unnecessary to lose some soldiers.

Therefore, the most important thing now is to maintain the results of the battle, and there is also Huang Wufu and 15,000 elite soldiers in Hue City to deal with.

When they saw Mo Zibu's battle flag and heard the drums of assembly, they realized that the Xing Tang army was much stronger than the Zheng army.

Hearing the sound of war drums, the officers immediately began to assemble the troops around them, and the soldiers quickly formed an organizational structure based on their military ranks.

Officers above the rank of major who recognized the flag also raised it immediately, and the entire army gathered together from small to large.

Then, under the command of the school officer, according to the actual situation, some of them blocked the enemy, some captured prisoners, and some began to move towards Mo Zibu.

(End of this chapter)