Bright Spring

After half a day of fighting, Ruan Shuai has completely collapsed. With so many troops in his hands, he has never fought a decent battle.He felt as if he was running backwards all the time, running!

All the roads in the south are full of broken soldiers.Ruan Shuai and the others had no choice but to take a detour and head for Beijiang Fucheng.

After a long time, they were finally able to vaguely see a city tower between the treetops.The soldiers who came forward to watch came back and said, "You can't go to Fucheng!"

Regardless of persuasion, Ruan Shuai endured the severe pain and continued on his horse. He came to a forest and looked at the city in the distance.In the smoky depths, a brightly colored dragon flag was flying on a city wall, and the city was in chaos.

He looked carefully for a while, and roughly understood the situation.

Some soldiers of the Great Vietnam Army who fled from the battlefield did not enter Dazhai to resist at all, they ran straight to Beijiangfu City; and the Ming army that appeared below the city probably came from the west side of the Shang River, surnamed "" Yin" men.The officers and soldiers of the Ming army drove the rout of the Da Yue army to the gate of the city, and brutally shot them with firecrackers, which was simply a massacre.

The dragon flag on the city wall has already indicated that the city has fallen, and Fucheng does not know how it was captured.Although the city defense forces were empty, the Ming army came quickly, and only the firecrackers should not be able to capture the city too quickly; most likely the defenders opened the door and wanted to run, but the Ming army took advantage of the situation to snatch the door.

Because the Ming army did not stop the defenders in all directions.Until now, a gate of the city has not been blocked by the Ming army, and soldiers of the Great Viet Army have been escaping from that gate.

At this moment, a general said by the side: "We have to run into the woods, first hide in the woods until dark, and then send someone to find an empty house, and pick out the bullets from the wound for the commander. come out."

Another person said: "Go to the woods, take off your armor and bury it."

Ruan Shuai sighed and said regretfully, "I am sorry for your loyalty."

The general said: "Now there are people from all walks of life in Dayue, each family is their own family, if the commander-in-chief has three strengths and two weaknesses, we brothers will have nowhere to go."

After discussing with each other, the group tied up the horse's mouth with cloth strips to prevent the horse from opening its mouth to attract the enemy; they were reluctant to throw away their war horses and hoped to leave the Beijiang area on horseback.In the outskirts of Dayue Village, it is not easy to find a few horses.The horse was obviously very unwell, and kept shaking its head trying to break free.

Everyone walked slowly in the woods for a while, but soon there was movement from behind.It is not known whether it was the rebellion of the Vietnamese army or the chasing soldiers of the Ming army who discovered their whereabouts.

"Hiss..." Suddenly a horse broke free from the cloth and neighed.

Ruan Shuai and the others looked at each other immediately.There are some big trees in this forest, but most of them are bushes; you can't escape on horseback, you have to cut a narrow road with a knife, and Ruan Shuai has a wound on his leg and moves slowly. The turtle in the urn.

After a while, people could already be seen swaying along the road they opened up behind them.Some bright lights can be seen faintly flickering behind the leaves, like fireflies. The firecrackers of the Ming army did not use ignition wires.

Those enemy soldiers finally showed their heads, and the front gunmen wearing wide-brimmed iron helmets squatted down on the spot vigilantly, and the men holding the firecrackers immediately raised their firearms and pointed them at Ruan Shuai.

Everyone stood where they were, with nowhere to escape.Looking at those shiny iron guns, time seemed to freeze in an instant.

"Ji Li wah la" an incomprehensible voice yelled fiercely.Ruan Shuai could understand some Chinese, but the yelling person obviously spoke a dialect, and he couldn't understand a single word.

At this moment, the subordinates around Ruan Shuai threw their swords, bows and arrows to the ground one after another.

7 Chapter Forty

At that time, a group of surprise soldiers from the Ming army first attacked Beijiang Fucheng, and soon someone from the "Dayue" army fled through the south gate; Soldiers and horses are so absurd.

However, when the situation in Beijiang mansion became chaotic, Ruan Jian himself was an official of Dayue, so he was left unattended, and he was able to escape from the mansion.

Ruan Jian was born in a family of officials and landlords who had been officials for generations. His father Ruan Feiqing was a bureaucrat in the Chen Dynasty. Later, the Hu family usurped the throne, and his father continued to be an official in the court.The Hu family originally started as a powerful minister of the Chen Dynasty, so there are many civil and military officials of the Chen Dynasty under their command, and it is normal for Ruan's father to defect to the Hu family.

Unexpectedly, due to bad luck, the Hu family was destroyed by the Ming army soon after taking the throne.Ruan's father was convicted by the "Jiaozhi chief envoy" of the Ming Dynasty and sentenced to exile in Liaodong on the charge of "helping the emperor to abuse".The exile from the southernmost tip of the Ming Dynasty to the northernmost tip was probably more unfortunate than good luck, and life and death were farewell. Ruan Jian sent his father to Zhenyi Pass (Friendship Pass); when he returned to Thang Long, he was immediately placed under house arrest.

Later, a civil war broke out in the Ming Dynasty. Huang Zhong, Xie Jin and other civil and military officials of the Ming army in Shenglong City were in Shenglong City, mainly dealing with the spies sent by the King of Han.Annan people like Ruan Jian were relaxed.He heard that Chen Jikuo from Annan was proclaimed emperor, so he tried to escape from Thang Long, went to join Chen Jikuo, and became the Minister of War in the "Dayue" court.

Then, this time, he followed Ruan Shuai, the leader of the North Road Army, to Beijiang Mansion, but encountered chaos and fled again...

Ruan Jian seems to have learned a lot from his running experience, and he is very skilled in the whole process.

At the moment when Beijiang City was in danger and people were chaotic, Ruan Jian did not forget to break into a house, find some dry food and clothes, and then leave the city.In a war-torn land, most people who have a place to go will go out to hide, and there are many unoccupied houses.Ruan Jian changed into commoner clothes, destroyed the official uniform and seal, and followed the rebel army out of the city.

His stature is a bit short, his head is big and square, and he is not conspicuous among the crowd.

Once outside the city, Ruan Jian left the crowded route and headed south alone.

The Ming army stationed in Thang Long has already crossed the Yellow River (Red River) and is active in the Dongjiang River Basin;Ruan Jian walked in hiding for two days and came to the north bank of the Dongjiang River.

In order to cut off the retreat of the Vietnamese army, the Ming army burned all the bridges on the Dongjiang River and banned ships from sailing on the river.However, the Dongjiang River, a tributary of the Yellow River, meanders on the plains, the water flow is slow, and the river surface is not too wide.Ruan Jian looked around for rafts or boats, and they could also cross the river.He rowed across the Dongjiang River in a canoe at night.

As soon as they reached the south bank of the Dongjiang River, the activities of the Ming army were very few.

The Ruan family has been officials for generations and knows a lot of people. He doesn't need an official seal to find acquaintances in the army.He was going to rush to the southeast of Thang Long City first, to another Vietnamese army camp; he warned them to immediately retreat to Manhaikou (near Nanding City), and rely on the water and terrain to avoid being destroyed by the Ming army.

Then he got the horse from the army, rode to Thanh Hoa, and reported the serious situation on the front line to the Dai Viet court: the combat power is not equal, and the frontal battle is almost collapsed!

... The general who took Fucheng in one fell swoop was none other than Yin Desheng; he quickly penetrated from the right wing with a surprise soldier, crossed the main camp of Annan rebels, and went straight to Jiangbei Fucheng to seize this opportunity.But this action was Zhang Fu's military order, not Yin Desheng's own initiative.

At first, Zhang Fu looked down on Yin Desheng, who was born in a hundred households, but then he gradually realized that the right deputy general is quite easy to use even though he is a member of the Han Palace.Yin Desheng is not greedy for merit at all, cherishes soldiers, and is not greedy for money and exploitation, so that his subordinates can fight fierce battles. Yin Desheng is very practical in executing military orders.

On the contrary, it was Liu Sheng who gave Zhang Fu a headache.Many people in the capital thought that Liu Sheng was from Zhang Fu's side, but Zhang Fu was very dissatisfied with Liu Sheng's performance in this campaign.

"Damn it!" Zhang Fu cursed on the spot when he heard the report from Liu Sheng.

Liu Sheng said in the letter that he had heard the definite news that the rebel general Ruan Shuai had been captured and that the officers and soldiers had won a complete victory; he decided to leave Zhiling County immediately and take a boat to the mouth of the Songtai River to avoid delaying the military plane.

Zhang Fu's face was very ugly, walking up and down the city wall, almost tore the letter in his hand into pieces on the spot!He watched the plain south of Beijiang City for a while, resisting the anger in his heart and pondering for a while.

The main battle had just ended, and Liu Sheng went ahead first, and then wrote a letter to say hello, which caused Zhang Fu a lot of trouble.If Liu Sheng didn't leave at this time, but waited for Zhang Fu's military order to march westward from Zhiling County and along the Dongjiang River to cooperate with Huang Zhongbu; then he could completely cut off the retreat of all the defeated enemy troops, buy opportunities for Zhang Fu's army, and quickly move forward. Annihilate Ruan Shuai's remnant army.

However, the reality is that Liu Sheng ran quite fast, and he seemed to realize in advance that he would stay if he didn't leave.So Zhang Fu had to face a choice, either to let go of some of the rout soldiers, or to waste time and continue the pursuit.

Zhang Fu was annoyed, but he had nothing to do with Liu Sheng.Because the original deployment of the Chinese army was to let Liu Sheng cut off the enemy's retreat at the confluence of the four rivers in Zhiling County before the end of the Jiangbei War.Now that the war has indeed been won, Liu Sheng's departure does not seem to be considered a disobedience to the military order; let alone running away, Liu Sheng is going to attack the enemy in Qinghua, not retreat.

Moreover, Zhang Fu knew very well about the affairs of the court.When this kind of battle is won, even if a general violates the military law, most of the yamen such as the Ministry of War and the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies will mess up and let it go; Find someone to take the blame, and the general who violated the military law at that time deserves to be unlucky.

"Ben will know!" Zhang Fu glanced at the messenger and waved his hand vigorously.

The man clasped his fists and said, "I will retire at the end."

Liu Sheng should understand Zhang Fu's dissatisfaction, because the answer of "I know" is usually a veiled meaning of disapproval but not easy to be held accountable.

As soon as the messenger left, Zhang Fu couldn't hold back the unhappiness in his heart, and finally said to the generals: "This Marquis of Anyuan has made military achievements during the Northern Expedition, and his tail is already up to the sky! I will look at him, Sooner or later, you will suffer. Look at the right deputy general, He Yanghou, who followed the Holy One to fight the world, have they ever acted rashly and made their own decisions?"

Some of the generals persuaded Zhang Fu to appease his anger, but some talked too much: "The traitor Chen Jikuo proclaimed himself emperor illegally, and he is really the chief culprit of the rebellion. Ji Kuo, that's the first achievement! No wonder Marquis Anyuan is so courageous that he doesn't even care about brotherhood..."

Zhang Fu glanced at that person, and thought: You are the smartest, you can see the most clearly!

But the "wise man" was telling the truth.Although Zhang Fu was very angry, he could not write a letter to impeach Liu Sheng, otherwise he was worried that the Holy Majesty would be suspicious, Zhang Fu was greedy for merit and wanted to become the Duke of the country as soon as possible, so he attacked his own people who were fighting for merit.

Those who can be promoted to Duke are either those who have made great contributions to the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, or those who have made great contributions to the current emperor's throne, such as the guards and commanders of the Han Palace.

Zhang Fu knew that he was in the wrong place before the Wude Dynasty. He wanted to get back the title of duke that the "Jing Nan Hero" deserved.Like the last time when the deposed prince was burned to death in Xiaoyao City, Zhang Fu rationally thought that there was no reason for His Majesty to do that, and stood on His Majesty's side; Backfired!

"That's all!" Zhang Fu finally calmed down his anger, and then decisively ordered: "Order Huang Zhong to march eastward along the Dongjiang River and continue to wipe out the remnants of the rebel army. Our army will go straight to Dongguan (Hanoi) and go to the east as soon as possible." Enemy south of Dongguan, launch a full-line attack!"

All the generals clasped their fists together and said, "Decree!"

Zhang Fu said again: "Send someone to order Yin Desheng to lead his troops as the vanguard and speed up the march; after reaching the north bank of the Yellow River, the vanguard should ensure that the boat bridge is built and let the army cross. Ask Yin Desheng to send people to Dongguan City, count the grain and fodder in the granary."

The general of the pro-military department said: "Decree!"