The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 40: Can’t Be Hou Jing

Can you bargain on the battlefield?

Of course they can. Both the rebel army and the government army used this tactic a lot in the late Ming Dynasty.

And what can we say about the Zheng army that retreated far away? It was indeed a crushing defeat, but there were still several thousand people.

Mo Zibu's army was not limited to fighting with the wind in their favor. The rebel army was gasping for breath like a bellows. The number of Zheng troops was at least six or seven times that of Mo Zibu's army.

These people have no way to survive now, but they have not yet collapsed. If we attack them fiercely now, we may be able to defeat them and drive them into the Zi River to drown them.

But there are certain risks. Not to mention the possibility of losing the fight, even if you get a tooth popped, that’s not worth it!
I only have a thousand or so men, and I just defeated the bandit army with one man against ten, which earned their full admiration for me. As long as I go back and give them generous rewards and train them, they will become elite soldiers.

At the moment, the most important thing is to go to Myanmar to seize French artillery. There is no need to fight to the death with the main force of Beizheng here.

Not long after, Chen Guangyao came back with his men, and soon he brought over dozens of war horses, all of which had large baskets on their backs.

"Victory, victory!" Thunderous cheers were heard, and everyone was cheering.

When the first warhorse came back carrying two large baskets full of gold, pearls, jade, silver cakes and gold coins, the cheers became even louder.

It seems that Yi'an Province is basically finished. Not only are the rebels killing and looting the rich, but the official troops of Beizheng are also looting. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many jewelry from civilians.

Mo Zibu's decision to let Zheng's army go was also very wise.

In this battle, although Mo Zibu and the rebel army killed and wounded more than 3,000 Zheng soldiers, the Zheng army still had 12,000 to 13,000 people, and the main force did not completely collapse.

They were simply tortured by the nine-month siege and lost their will to resist, so they did not try their best.

For nine months, both the attacking and defending sides rolled in the mud in the wilderness, day after day with no end in sight. The civilians below were living in hell, and the Zheng army was not much better off.

Most people were eager to return to their hometown. Before Mo Zibu and others arrived, the Zheng army had several riots due to homesickness.

This time, Mo Zibu and others arrived, and they were carrying the banner of the Nguyen family of Guangnan, making the Zheng army think that the war between the North and the South was about to start again. Mo Zibu and others were only the vanguard, so they were naturally unwilling to fight with all their strength. They just wanted to retreat first to avoid being surrounded and annihilated by the Guangnan army.

But if they are forced into a situation where they have no way to retreat, the Zheng army will have no choice but to fight to the death, so giving them a way out now is an extremely appropriate solution for both sides.

As for why the Zheng army in the north and the Nguyen army in the south fought for more than a hundred years, their armies are now worse than each other, and they completely lack the martial ethics of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.

Because, these two guys have an emperor above their heads.

In 1672, the fifth King of Tay Dinh, Trần Thu, and the fifth Duke of Duong, Nguyễn Phúc Bìn, engaged in a decisive battle.

As a result, both sides won a few games each, but even with all their strength they still could not defeat the other side. Instead, the people in their respective countries were left with miserable lives.

Seeing that they would lose the throne if they continued to fight, they both wrote to the emperor almost at the same time, asking him to judge the matter.

At that time, Ma Ge was in power in the Qing Dynasty. Since the Three Feudatories had not yet been destroyed, the vassal ministers came to him for help. Naturally, he was very happy to accept the request. In fact, Ma Ge was a little worried that the Zheng and Ruan families would get involved with Wu Sangui.

So he personally stepped in and sent ministers to Annan to mediate. He used the identity of the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty as a guarantor, divided the territories of Zheng in the North and Nguyen in the South, and agreed not to attack each other again.

With Ma Ge's golden words, the Zheng in the north and the Nguyen in the south immediately quieted down. With the Qing Dynasty as a guarantor, their status was secure.

So, not only did the two of them stop fighting, they also diverted the gold and silver originally intended for military equipment to the extravagant consumption of the princes and ministers, and the joy of holding hands between the two sides was corrupted. Upon learning of this, Mo Zibu suddenly realized that it was no wonder that they had fought for over a hundred years without producing men as strong as Xue Andu and Xia Luqi.

It turns out this is not the Southern and Northern Dynasties nor the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, but the Liao Dynasty and me and the Song Dynasty!
After the Treaty of Chanyuan, everyone gave up and was defeated by the Jurchen Jin Kingdom in one wave.

They were even worse than the Liao and Northern Song dynasties. These two still had Western Liao and Southern Song left, while the Zheng and Nguyen families were completely wiped out by the Tây Sơn army of the brothers Nguyen Hue and Nguyen Hue.

In history, Nguyen Phuc Anh of the Nguyen family made a comeback, and it was all thanks to all the Chinese in the south who helped him.

Ugh!
Mo Zibu even had an idea at this moment. Since the two families had become so corrupt, it would be better not to go to Burma, but to take the fleet directly to Hue, kill the Nguyen family, and then go north to kill the Zheng family!

But after a while, Mo Zibu calmed down. Bei Zheng and Nan Ruan had not yet completely become rotten to the point of being out of control.

The Zheng family had to wait two years for the tenth generation Zheng Lord Zheng Sen to ascend the throne. As soon as this gentleman came to power, he forced the puppet emperor of the Le Dynasty to kill the prince, and even personally killed the loyal ministers of the Le family, causing public outrage.

Internally, the eldest son was deposed and the youngest son was enthroned, and the legitimate wife was deposed and the illegitimate son was enthroned, completely destroying the last ray of hope for the Zheng family.

The Ruan family would have to endure several more years of Zhang Fuluan's mischief before the gods were enraged and the people resented them, leading to a tragic situation where no roosters crowed for thousands of miles and bones were exposed in the wild.

The enemy has not yet completely collapsed, and I am an outsider. Going there at this time may be counterproductive and turn the class contradictions in the Nguyen family into national contradictions.

Moreover, from a moral point of view, the Nguyen family did a great favor by taking in the Minh Hung people, so killing Nguyen Shi Yuan could be said to be excusable, but directly seizing the Nguyen family property was unacceptable, and it would probably cause a backlash from all the Yue people.

No matter how powerful Hou Jing was, he could not have become the emperor of the Southern Dynasty without Chen Baxian.

It seems that the best option is to merge Ha Tien and Gia Dinh first, then win over the hearts of the Chaozhou people, and preferably marry Taksin's daughter to seize the Chakri Dynasty.

After figuring all this out, Mo Zibu finally gave the order to withdraw his troops after receiving a bribe worth more than 7,000 taels of silver from the Zheng army.

The soldiers of Kunlun Mountain Hall retreated back to Rong City happily.

The Zheng army scrambled across the Zi River to escape.

. . . .

As soon as they returned to the vicinity of Rong City, more than a thousand soldiers left in the Zheng army's southern camp also came to pay money to save their lives.

There were originally 3,000 people in the South Camp, and hundreds of cavalry and corresponding auxiliary troops had been pulled to the front battlefield, and they were left behind by Nguyen Dinh Thich.

This time, Mo Zibu was no longer polite and only allowed the Zheng soldiers to take the clothes they had on them. The rest, including most of the weapons, mules and horses, tents, and the most important property and food, were confiscated.

Not long after, Chen Guangyao came to report that tens of thousands of Zheng's soldiers and civilians were blocked in several camps. Some of them had already escaped, but most of them did not.

These Zheng soldiers and civilians came to Chen Guangyao to plead with him, hoping that Mo Zibu would let them return home.

After a while, someone from the rebel army in the city came to report that Ruan Tuoqiu, who claimed to be the general of national defense, came to ask Mo Zibu to meet him.

Mo Zibu snorted coldly, looking quite arrogant. He ignored these people as he had more important things to do.

(End of this chapter)