The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 262 If you don't give up, I will be your foster father
Pei Shida's expression was very complicated. He looked at Shunzhou City in chaos in the distance, and his breathing became increasingly rapid.

"Prince Jing, please lead the troops to assist. Prince Jing, please lead the troops to assist."

The three-prefecture army that reported the news was shouting loudly outside Pei Shida's rear army camp. The Pei family's sons and daughters were all dressed in their armor and looking at the head of the family, Pei Shida.

After hesitating for more than ten or twenty seconds, the fierce look on Pei Shida's face gradually faded away, and he strode out of the tent.

"Quick, assemble the troops. Shijun, take Zuoqi's elite soldiers to support the king."

For a moment, Pei Shida really wanted King Jingdu Zheng Sen to die here, but at the last moment, he gave up.

Because, after this great defeat, Huang Wufu would definitely not be able to escape, and the Sanfu Army would basically be finished.

Even if he retreated, the only ones Zheng Sen could rely on to protect the Northern Zheng officials were the Nghe An garrison controlled by Pei Shida, and the Shannan, Jingbei, and Haiyang garrison troops that did not move south.

Ruan Pan supported Zheng Sen and fled in a panic under the protection of dozens of people.

Although Mo Zibu raised the flag to gather troops and beat the drum to assemble, he did not completely stop the pursuit.

Instead, it was necessary to restore the organization of the Xingtang Army, which was becoming increasingly smaller in the darkness and chaos, so as to avoid a disaster.

As soon as the organization was restored, Chen Guangyao found that he could still pursue the enemy, so he immediately selected more than 700 people who still had relatively sufficient physical strength to pursue, and sent someone to report to Mo Zibu.

The place where Pei Shida's rear army was stationed was called Aizi Village, which was actually the original location of Shunzhou.

When Nguyen Hoang, the first leader of the Nguyen family of Quang Nam, moved south, he first established his foundation here.

Therefore, even though Shunzhou had moved seven or eight miles to the south, in the household registration book of the Nguyen family in Guangnan, Aizi Village was still the seat of the old camp where Shunzhou was located.

The most important building in Aizi Village is the Taizong Temple, which is dedicated to Nguyen Hoang, the first Nguyen Lord.

Chen Guangyao looked up and saw that Pei Shida's rear camp soldiers had already occupied the high ground and set up cannons.

The wise ruler Nguyen Hoang chose this place as his foothold because Aizi Village is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and has a geographical advantage.

Chen Guangyao ordered his men to attack from above for a while. Although the Nghe An soldiers screamed in pain, they did not collapse. Soon the roar of war elephants was heard from Aizi Village.

Considering that they had no heavy weapons to restrain the war elephants, there were not many Zheng troops fleeing towards Aizi Village.

Chen Guangyao had no idea that Zheng Sen and Ruan Pan were mixed in the crowd. He felt that the pursuit was almost over, so he left two hundred people to warn Pei Shida and led the army back to clean up the situation.

In the south of Shunzhou City, cheers were heard one after another. The last two or three Zheng army strongholds that were still holding out were bombarded by artillery fire and were captured one after another.

Mo Zibu looked at the devastation on the ground. He estimated that many more Zheng soldiers were killed by their own people than by the Xing Tang army.

The biggest reason is that these Zheng soldiers generally suffer from night blindness. They cannot see the situation clearly at night and will attack anyone who approaches them in panic.

Therefore, as long as the night attack is successful, you don’t need to kill many casualties, the enemy will kill each other.

"General, the Zheng army's rear camp has not collapsed. They have set up cannons in Aizi Village and have war elephants in the camp. Therefore, I chose not to attack by force."

Chen Guangyao rushed back to report. Mo Zibu snorted coldly, "It seems Pei Shida has made his choice. This line is of little use."

Chen Guangyao naturally knew that Mo Zibu must have an insider in the Zheng army, otherwise the Xing Tang army would not have been able to know everything about the Zheng army so clearly, but he did not expect that this insider was Pei Shida.

"Everyone in the world is driven by profit. It's understandable that Pei Shida wants more benefits." Mo Zibu said to Chen Guangyao, "But he will have to pay a price."

"Guangyao, I'll give you two thousand men. Don't attack Aizi Village from above. Instead, make a move to encircle the rear. Pei Shida will escape on his own."

January 1773, 1, the 19th day of the th lunar month, was the th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty.

Mo Zibu personally led 6,000 elite soldiers to attack the Northern Zheng army at night. The 30,000 combat troops commanded by Zheng Sen, the ruler of Zheng, and 80,000 to 90,000 civilians and forced laborers were completely defeated.

In the chaos, Zheng's army killed and trampled on each other, resulting in heavy casualties. After the war, the number of intact bodies counted was more than 20,000.

Zheng Lord Zheng Sen fled back to Bac Ha in a panic under the protection of Thanh Hoa's governor Nguyen Pan and his entourage, and Nghe An's commander Bui The Da.

However, during the retreat, Chen Guangyao pursued them relentlessly. Pei Shida organized a blocking battle, but was quickly defeated. He had no choice but to abandon all his baggage and civilians and flee in panic.

Chen Guangyao chased Pei Shida for hundreds of miles, killing him and making him lose all his armor. He chased him all the way to Changde Lei and Changyu Lei of Lingxi Long Wall, and left behind a hundred soldiers and hundreds of his men to guard him before returning.

Under Chen Guangyao's pursuit, Pei Shida's more than 20,000 men were almost all scattered. When he finally retreated back to Beihe, only six or seven hundred of his confidants were left.

His idea of using the Nghe An troops to control Zheng Sen and gain control of the government officials completely failed.

As for Mo Zibu, he quickly gave up Shunzhou, which had been devastated by Zheng's army and was like a wasteland, and began to return south with his army to attack Huang Wufu in Hue.

When Mo Zibu came, he had 6,000 people, and when he returned, he had almost 15,000 people. As for the other 40,000 captives, they were completely abandoned by Mo Zibu.

Because all these captives were injured, in that era, Mo Zibu simply could not find enough doctors and medicines to treat 40,000 patients with knife and gun wounds.

In fact, even if they could be found, it would be impossible to use the precious doctors and medicines on these people.

The fate of these people basically depends on their own willpower, and perhaps 30% to 40% of them can survive.

The others will die from various illnesses in the next half month or so.

Mo Zibu finally understood the important reason why, after a great war in history, although only a few thousand people were killed, the entire army was almost destroyed in the end.

In this era without modern medicine, antibiotics, and industrialized drug production capabilities, more than 60% of battlefield wounded will be killed by diseases.

The most Mo Zibu could do was to leave behind a few people and a few hundred stones of grain, and cook two meals of porridge every day to keep these people alive and ensure that they would not starve to death. The rest depended on their luck.

. . . .

In Hue City, Chen Lian, who led the siege, had filled up the entire moat, and the earth piles outside the city were higher than the city walls.

The Zheng army in the city actually sensed something was wrong, and Huang Wufu organized two large-scale battles out of the city.

But the window of opportunity had passed, because when Mo Zibu decided to lead 6,000 people north to raid Zheng Sen, he had already sent the remaining troops outside the city of Hue.

The failure of these two large-scale attacks further confirmed Huang Wufu's judgment that the Xing Tang Army outside the city was the main force.

However, some people have different opinions. Nguyen Van Hue has grown continuously from repeated defeats. He smelled a familiar scent from the Xing Tang Army's procrastinating siege.

"My Lord, I am certain that the southern bandits' elite troops are definitely not here, because according to the current situation, the southern bandits only have two choices.

Either they could quickly capture Hue before Prince Jing's army arrived, or they could surround Hue with a small force, pretending it was the main force, but in reality, they would send their best troops north to attack Prince Jing's army heading south."

At this moment, Nguyen Van Hue suddenly realized that the southern bandits' siege of Hue this time was similar to the tactics they used to besiege Qui Nhon last time.

They are all pretending to surround you and attacking slowly, acting as if they are not strong enough, but in fact they have carefully hidden their strength and will use their ultimate moves when you are not paying attention.

Huang Wufu nodded after listening to this. To be honest, he didn't think there was anything wrong with Ruan Wenhui's guess.

Because according to common sense, this is the normal way to fight this battle.

Ruan Wenhui only brought six or seven hundred people to join Huang Wufu, but he was still treated as a guest of honor and regarded as a half-confidant. This was because Huang Wufu was very optimistic about the boy's ability and potential.

He wanted to win over Nguyen Van Hue so that he could assist his adopted eldest son Huang Dinh Bao, who lacked strategic vision, in the future.

However, Huang Wufu still couldn't understand. Since the main force of the Xing Tang Army was not here, why could he not defeat the enemy after going out of the city three times to fight?
Faced with this soul-searching question, Ruan Wenhui fell silent. Suddenly, he thought of a possibility, and a layer of fine sweat suddenly appeared on his back.

If this is true, the growth rate and potential of the Southern Bandits are too terrifying.

So, this often defeated general who thought he had thoroughly studied the Xing Tang Army replied uncertainly:
"My Lord, could it be that the southern bandits' army is stronger than we thought? Even if they are just a small force, they can still defeat us in a field battle."

"That's impossible. The southern bandits came from the southern part of the world, where malaria is rampant and full of barbarians like the Champa, Khmer, and even the Shang people who eat raw meat and drink blood.

If they can defeat my two armies separately, they will need at least 50,000 soldiers. Where did the southern bandits get so much money, food, and so many lead bullets and gunpowder?"

Huang Tingbao had a determined look on his face. He absolutely did not believe that the southern bandits had such strength.

Because at this time, the people of Annan in Beihe looked at Jiading and other southern areas in the same way that the Chinese in the Sui and Tang dynasties looked at Lingnan.

They had no idea that the entire southern part of Annan, headed by Jiading, had already been largely cultivated.

However, Nguyen Van Hue thought of other things because of Huang Tingbao's fierce attitude. In an instant, his thoughts became clear, and many things that he had not figured out before suddenly became clear to him.

Ruan Wenhui stood up suddenly, his face flushed as if he was drunk, "Master, Duke, we have all been fooled, we have all been fooled!" Huang Wufu and Huang Tingbao looked at Ruan Wenhui in surprise, not knowing what he meant by being fooled?
"We all regarded the southern thief Mo Wu as the consort of the Guangnan Nguyen family and a member of the Guangnan Kingdom, so we always used Guangnan's strength to estimate Mo Wu."

As he spoke, Nguyen Van Hue's face darkened and he looked extremely painful. If he had seen through this earlier, his own Tây Sơn army would never have taken the initiative to go to Qui Nhon to send troops, and the war situation would not have deteriorated to this extent.

“In fact, Mo Wu did not inherit the mantle of the Guangnan Nguyen family at all. He was actually a leader elected by the northerners in Southeast Asia.

Behind him, not only is Jiading in Guangnan supporting him, but the entire Siamese and the northern people of Southeast Asia are also supporting him."

At this point, Nguyen Van Hue made a decisive conclusion, "There must be a large number of northerners and Siamese in Mo Wu's army.

Mo Zibu and Zheng Zhao are not just father-in-law and son-in-law, they are blood allies. Mo Wuxian used the power of the Mo family to help Zheng Zhao conquer the entire Siam.

After Zheng Zhao conquered Siam, he fully supported Mo Wu in seizing Guangnan!

I have to say that Nguyen Van Hue is really smart. Although there are some shortcomings in the details, he has made it generally clear.

Huang Wufu was silent for a moment, then suddenly jumped up and said, "Quick, send someone to inform Prince Jing. Be careful of the southern bandits' sneak attack."

Huang Tingbao opened his mouth wide and it took him a long time to come back to his senses. Although he was a little weak in politics and vision, his military ability was even better than Huang Wufu.

So when Huang Tingbao heard his adoptive father and uncle say this, he shook his head calmly.

"Father, it's too late. The southern bandits have been besieging Hue for almost a month, and there has been no news from Prince Jing's army for ten days.

If Hui's prediction is true, then either the army has already defeated the southern bandits and will arrive soon, or the southern bandits have already succeeded and will soon besiege Hue."

Hearing Huang Tingbao's words, Huang Wufu, who had just stood up, sat down again heavily. After a while, he looked at Ruan Wenhui and said, "If what you said is true, is there any other way?"

Seeing that Huang Wufu basically believed in his judgment, Ruan Wenhui thought of someone, so he bowed to Huang Wufu and replied:
"Sir, the southern bandit army has not yet closed in, and there are still hundreds of war horses in Hue City. In my opinion, we should select a thousand or so elite soldiers to leave the city and head north to investigate the southern bandit's movements.

If the southern bandits are indeed just besieging Hue, there will not be much loss. They can just turn around and come back, but they will take the risk of being entangled by the southern bandit cavalry.

But if my judgment is true, these over a thousand elite soldiers will likely be Beihe's reliance in the future."

Nguyen Van Hue's words were very direct. In fact, he was advising Huang Wufu to select the most elite soldiers in Hue City.

If the main force of Beihe is really wiped out here, these more than a thousand elite soldiers will be the last force to support the regime.

Huang Wufu stood up again and walked back and forth in the study thinking. Suddenly he turned to look at Ruan Wenhui.

"What's the point of sending just over a thousand soldiers? If the southern bandits are really as powerful as you say, let alone a thousand soldiers, even with ten thousand elite soldiers like them, it would be difficult to defend the North River."

"Sir, please listen to my explanation." Ruan Wenhui said in a low voice:

"During the recent rebellion in Guangnan, from Guiren to the northernmost Long Wall of Lingxi, all areas were devastated by war, with three to four out of ten people killed, and roads, bridges, and even water conservancy projects completely destroyed.

Even if Mo Wu wants to go north, he won't be able to do so without a year or two of rest and recuperation."

"More importantly, the person sitting on the dragon throne in the Northern Kingdom is not the Han emperor, but the great emperor of the bannermen.

This bannerman emperor had always been wary of the Han people as if they were thieves. Three generations of emperors launched a literary inquisition, and anyone who used the previous year name would be beheaded.

The Mo family is from Mingxiang, who have never even shaved their heads or changed their clothes, and still retain the Han clothing. How could this bannerman emperor not be afraid of them?

Today, our King Li has been enthroned by the Emperor of the Northern Kingdom and has the status of a vassal state.

If we report this southern bandit to the emperor, he will certainly not ignore it. Even if we can't capture the southern bandit, at least we can prevent him from invading the north."

Huang Wufu pondered for a while, "What if the Northern Kingdom can't do anything about it?"

This kind of thing has happened before. When King Le Loi of the Later Le Dynasty caused trouble, the Ming Dynasty just ignored it.

Nguyen Van Hue shook his head and said, "My Emperor Taizu of Dali is originally from Jing, and it is the will of heaven to expel the Ming and restore the country.

"The thief Mo is a Ming exile, his ancestral home is Leizhou, right beside the Beihe River. If he were to establish a country, would he not covet Guangdong and Guangxi? How could the Qing emperor not care?"

"Even if we can't control it, we can still escape to the northern land, take away the gold and silver and other valuables, and go to Guangzhou to become a rich man. Even if we go to the northern capital to become a rich man, isn't it much better than dying in a ditch?"

Huang Wufu nodded, and the wrinkles on his old face relaxed, "Ahui, you are indeed a talented person, and you have a plan for both advancement and retreat.

Abao, go down and secretly select a thousand elite soldiers and take all the war horses. I will let you leave the city on the pretext of supporting Prince Jing's army.

If the situation is really as Ah Hui predicted, you should return north immediately without hesitation. In the future, you should also listen more to Ah Hui's opinions."

Huang Tingbao was completely confused. What did his adoptive father mean by this? Not only did he call him Abao, but he also called this kid who had just come to him Ahui?
Ruan Wenhui understood, and he was overjoyed. He fell to the ground and said, "If you don't mind, I will be your adoptive father."

"Hahahaha!" Huang Wufu laughed rarely and pulled Ruan Wenhui up from the ground.

“Although my Huang family is not the master of Beihe, our status in Beihe is incomparable to that of ordinary families.

Ah Hui, you are so smart and have vision. As long as you get the support of my Huang family, you will definitely be the one to assist your brother Ah Bao and take charge of state affairs in the future.

From today on, you will be called Huang Dinh Hui. I heard that your wife, Fan, was murdered in Qui Nhon, so I have decided to marry my niece, Huang Shiyan, to you.

Nguyen Van Hue was overjoyed and kowtowed three times to Huang Wufu respectfully. "I thank you, my foster father, for your kindness. I will definitely assist you and stabilize the Beihe River in the future."

It was not until this moment that Huang Tingbao realized that Huang Wufu was going to stay in Hue, and he became very anxious.

"How can a son put his father in danger and then escape on his own? This is extremely unfilial and I will never agree with it.

I am a warrior, so I should let my son defend Hue while I personally lead the elite troops back north overnight."

A loving expression appeared on Huang Wufu's face. Although Huang Tingbao had many shortcomings, he was filial, which was the quality that Huang Wufu valued most in him.

"Son, don't say such foolish things. I am the commander-in-chief of the army. If I leave, how can we defend Hue?

In that case, no matter whether Prince Jing's army defeated the southern bandits or was assassinated by them, you and I, father and son, would be sinners.

At this moment, don't do that foolish filial act. Listen to me and quickly go down to prepare. Be careful of the southern bandits who are about to encircle us."

After Huang Wufu finished speaking, Huang Tingbao burst into tears in anxiety, but still refused to do it. Ruan Wenhui also hurried over to persuade this newly-minted brother.

Huang Wufu called in several members of the Huang family and gave them instructions one by one, and Huang Tingbao finally accepted it.

Seeing that Huang Tingbao accepted, Ruan Wenhui immediately ran to his camp in the north of the city to find Li Guangcai.

Li Guangcai was startled by the sudden appearance of Ruan Wenhui, and was even a little scared by his gaze.

"Brother Li, Mo Zibu Mo Xuande is the king promoted by you northerners, right?"

Li Guangcai stammered twice, but his heart was terrified. He thought he was exposed.

But he quickly calmed down. It was obvious from Ruan Wenhui's tone that he didn't think that way.

The reason is very simple. Even Nguyen Van Hue himself did not know that the rebellion of his Tây Sơn brothers could become so big, so it was even more impossible for Mo Zibu to know. Of course, it was even more impossible for him to let Li Guangcai come in ambush at that time.

So in Nguyen Van Hue's view, Li Guangcai was a poor man who had poor vision, chose the wrong path, and missed the opportunity to become a successful leader.

He really couldn't imagine who could be lurking as far as Li Guangcai.

After realizing that Ruan Wenhui had no suspicion, Li Guangcai immediately pretended to be embarrassed and said:
"I hope the three generals will understand this. I can't block all the roads, right?"

Ruan Wenhui nodded slightly. Sure enough, this northerner had left a way out for himself. Things should be just as he guessed. This Mo Zibu was the king pushed forward by the northerners.

"Brother Li, please send someone out of the city to find Lord Xuande of the Mo family and tell him that if we can return north with a thousand or so men, I will kill the person he fears the most for him!"

Li Guang was shocked and deliberately said, "Are the three generals going to kill Huang Wufu and surrender the city?"

Ruan Wenhui laughed, "I'm not from the north, and if I surrender to Mo Xuande, I'll just be a small general, and he may not accept me.

The same goes for you, Brother Li. If you join Mo Xuande, you will become a subordinate of your former subordinates."

"Brother Li, please send someone to tell Mo Xuande that if he agrees to let us leave Hue, I will kill all the Nguyen clan members in the Hue royal city before I leave, especially the prince Nguyen Phuc Duong, to clear the biggest legal obstacle for him."

Shit! Li Guangcai felt a little dizzy. This was his ultimate goal as an undercover agent, but he never expected it to be accomplished like this.

(End of this chapter)