Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 418 0413 [Dark Prince Zhu Chenggong]

The Tian family has a leisurely month, and people are busy in May.At night, the south wind blows, and the wheat is covered with yellow.

The wheat planting area in the Northern Song Dynasty was very large, and wheat was also grown in Nanyang and Xiangyang.If it came to the Southern Song Dynasty, wheat would be planted on a large scale in the south.

Taking advantage of the wheat harvest, Zhu Ming first summoned the big families around Xiangyang, and then went to Nanyang to summon those big families.

With gentle words and kind words, please persuade the big family to hand over Xin Maiduo to the government.

Part of it is bought with money, and part of it is borrowed from bonds.In conjunction with the reduction of exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes, the rich are also willing to give food. In their eyes, this food is at least much better than the Song Dynasty.

The rich families in Nanyang and Xiangyang, Zhu's father and son did not intend to clean up.

Compared with the Chengdu Plain, the big clans here are not called big clans at all, at most they can be regarded as relatively rich local rich men.Because there is no way to do big mergers here, the land is everywhere, but there is a shortage of people to cultivate it.

After the summer harvest, the new wheat is put into storage, and a small-scale battle can be fought.

In fact, when the wheat was harvesting, the rebel cavalry had already been dispatched.

Deng Chun led [-] light cavalry to plunder around the city of Jiangling.

It can't be said to be looting, that is, the people in Jiangling are not allowed to transport the new wheat into the city and ordered them to be sent to the north, and Zhu Ming sent officials to receive it and then transport it to Jingmen.As much food as the people gave, the officials issued IOUs, promising to return it after capturing Jiangling.

If any officials of the state of Chu go to the countryside to collect grain, they will all be killed!

Two or three li outside the city of Jiangling were full of cavalry sent by Deng Chunsa. Chu officials were not allowed to go out, and Chu people were not allowed to enter the city.

Chen Ziyi also took more than a thousand cavalry to do this outside Zhijiang city.

"Marshal Lu, found a thief altar, it's at the foot of Longshan Mountain!"

"Let Yang Yun lead five hundred soldiers to destroy them!"

"Yes!"

Deng Chun's military rank is colonel, and his military position is cavalry brigade commander.

After Ju Ming reformed the military system, various nicknames emerged.The division commander is called "Master Commander", and the brigade commander is called "Brigade Commander". Anyway, no one is called a division commander or brigade commander seriously.

Yang Yun is currently the commander of the cavalry regiment. This young Qiang from the five tribes of Man, after serving as a soldier with the Han people for a year and a half, can no longer tell that he is a foreigner.He originally had a Chinese name and surname, and he could speak Chinese, but the customs have become barbaric.

Five hundred Han and Qiang mixed Qingqi galloped towards Longshan.

The rural Buddhist altars in the Great Chu State are both a grassroots religious center and a grassroots taxation center; the operation mode is not only like a missionary organization, but also like a non-governmental mutual aid society.

When Yang Yun arrived with his cavalry, the nearby people were paying food to the altar.

Seeing the cavalry coming, the people dispersed in a rush, leaving only a few fanatics who took up arms.

"The light is universal and pure, and there is always happiness, tranquility, and no movement. He enjoys happiness without trouble, and if he says that there is suffering, there is no place for him..."

The altar master here showed a look of horror, but he was still reciting the Manichaeism "Sighing the Ming Realm", leading the believers to take up weapons to protect the food.

Yang Yun raised his arm and made a gesture, and the orderly immediately blew the horn.

Not only did they practice for more than a year, they also fought against Dali last year.After the sound of the order, the cavalry on both sides quickly dispersed and circled out. Although they could not be uniform, the change of formation was very smooth.

shhhhhh!
Hundreds of arrows were shot one after another, and these unarmored believers collapsed immediately, because they had already fallen to the ground after being hit by the arrows, and even the altar master who was chanting scriptures was shot.

Before the altar master was hacked to death, he was still shouting: "My lord (Master Zhong) is the Great Ming Lord, and sooner or later I will kill all of you descendants of the Dark Lord!"

What kind of shit?

Yang Yun rode his horse and rushed over, stabbed him to death with a single shot, and ordered: "Call the local people and transport all the new wheat to the north!"

Only dozens of miles apart, the respected rebels in Jingmen and Dangyang turned into shameless invaders in Jiangling.

The nearby people were forcibly summoned and escorted food reluctantly, with resentment in their eyes.

The war behavior of the rebel army soon attracted Zhong Xiang.

Yang Yao's elder brother, Yang Qin, was already guarding Jiangling at the age of 20 because of his bravery in battle.

Currently, Yang Yao is serving as the captain of his brother's personal army.

Yang Qinhui reported: "Your Majesty, there are bandit cavalry outside the city, but our army has no cavalry. I really don't know how to deal with it."

"Lead troops to expel!"

Zhong Xiang personally led the troops out of the city. He brought several thousand from the south, and the Jiangling defenders totaled ten thousand.

Among them, only the [-] "Imperial Forest Army" of Zhong Xiang were well-armored. Although the rest of the troops also had armor, they had various weapons and armor.

Deng Chun was stationed in a small town. When he heard that tens of thousands of Chu troops were coming, he immediately abandoned his food and ran away, and sent people to blow trumpets to gather troops.

Although Zhong Xiang snatched Deng Chun's food and grass, there was nothing he could do next.

He has occupied most of Jinghu Road and ordered to search for horses everywhere, but there are still less than a hundred cavalry.

Three thousand Qingqi were scattered in the Jiangling countryside, which was not something Zhong Xiang could handle.

Zhong Xiang sent the only cavalry out to inquire, and soon a dozen or so fled back, followed by more than 200 cavalry in pursuit.

Zhong Xiang sent infantry to respond, and more than 200 Teng Xiang cavalry immediately retreated.

In desperation, Zhong Xiang had to lead his troops back to the city.

But Deng Chun's cavalry gathered more and more, and they were called back from all over the world, and the number was close to [-].

The Chu army had never seriously practiced the formation, and it was a mess when marching, and it was also chaotic when the formation was formed.Two thousand light cavalry took the opportunity to run back and forth and shoot arrows, making the Chu army even more chaotic. If it weren't for the bonus of religious fanaticism, it is estimated that a few more rounds of shooting would destroy the entire army.

"Boom!"

The remaining one thousand cavalry were finally brought back by Yu Dian.

Yu Dian was originally the commander of the Lizhou Xiang Army, and followed Zhu Ming to conquer the barbarians, but his military exploits were embezzled by the treacherous party. Now he is the commander of the cavalry just like Yang Yun.

Deng Chun, Yu Dian, and Yang Yun each led a thousand cavalry, and taking advantage of the chaos in the Chu army, they began to roam around and shoot arrows in different directions.

It was the first time that Zhong Xiang encountered a large group of cavalry, and he had no way to deal with it, so he could only let the archers keep shooting arrows.However, there are not many archers under his command, and it is difficult to effectively execute military orders in chaos.

The nearly ten thousand Chu army was shot down by three thousand Qingqi just like that.

They would never be so passive in a city defense battle or a water battle, but they encountered a large group of cavalry in the wild.

"Second brother, what should we do?" Yang Yao asked anxiously.

Yang Qin replied: "I don't know either, Zhu Thief's cavalry is too powerful!"

Yang Yao said: "If you don't fight back, the soldiers will be shot and run away."

In fact, not many Chu soldiers were shot to death, and most of those shot were only injured. After all, even the rotten armor is still armor.As for the cavalry under Deng Chun's command, the standard bows and arrows have not been completely changed, and many soldiers are still using earthen bows.

Building bows and arrows on a large scale is more difficult than building armor on a large scale.

Even if there are enough craftsmen and materials, it will take time, and what can be accelerated can only be a prototype.

Zhong Xiang ordered two troops to attack. As soon as the Chu army moved, Deng Chun led the troops to shoot arrows in other directions.

The Chu army was forced to turn to respond, and the formation became more and more chaotic after several more visits.

"Woooooo~~~"

The horn blew, and Deng Chun led a thousand light cavalry to charge towards the chaotic enemy formation.

"Raise the gun!"

Yang Qin shouted.

Deng Chun rushed to the vicinity and found that the enemy army was not defeated, and immediately turned and passed in front of his formation.

They have practiced this change of direction countless times, just like running water washing away a solid stone, passing by both sides of the stone.

The typical cavalry cutting corner tactics, unable to charge frontally, became obliquely cutting two corners.Cut a few more times, the two corners of the infantry will become thinner and thinner, getting closer and closer to the collapse of the formation.

Moreover, Deng Chun's men are all light cavalry, and they implement corner-cutting tactics to avoid melee combat.

There were not many archers who bullied the Chu army, and they approached the archers when they cut the two corners, so as to make up for the shortcoming of the low power of the earth bow.

Just as Deng Chun cut across, Yang Yun led the cavalry to rush over again, still using the same tactics.

When Yu Dian charged for the third round, the Chu army was finally defeated.

Brothers Yang Qin and Yang Yao fled under the pressure of the rout.

Deng Chun, who turned around again, drove the defeated soldiers to attack Zhong Xiang's main formation.When Yang Yun returned with his cavalry, the Chu army collapsed one after another.

When Zhong Xiang led his troops out of the city, he believed that he could drive the enemy away because he had a large number of soldiers and high morale, and he was fighting at home.But now they were defeated in a daze, and there was no way to fight against the cavalry at all.

This man, his military ability is really not good, far worse than those generals of Song Dynasty, even far inferior to Tong Guan.

"Your Majesty, let's go!"

"Master, run!"

"Master" is the pet name for Zhong Xiang by the believers, and only the old believers before the army can call the Emperor of Chu like this.

Zhong Xiang rode fast among the rebellious army, and the only thirty or forty horsemen under his command escorted him to escape all the way.If the chasing soldiers got too close, some cavalrymen would stop immediately and sacrifice their lives to fight for Xiang Zhong.

The battlefield was very close to Jiangling City, and soon the defeated soldiers fled to the moat, jumping down like dumplings.

All the Chu soldiers were good at swimming, and most of their armors were leather and cloth armors. Not many people drowned.

Even Zhong Xiang abandoned his horse and jumped into the moat.

The emperor's brother was wearing a pair of armor and sank to the bottom of the river like a weight.However, because of its excellent water quality, he half-swimmed and half-walked at the bottom of the river, holding his breath and advancing more than ten meters, and directly took off the Zhajia at the bottom of the river by himself.

Several bridges over the moat were completely packed with rout soldiers.

The archers who stayed in Jiangling, as soon as they saw a large group of enemy cavalry, immediately shot towards that side.

The gates of the city were also opened, and the broken soldiers rushed into the city.

Deng Chun didn't dare lead his troops to chase after him because Jiangling has an urn city.

The rout soldiers just fled into the urn city, and the inner city gate could not be opened.

If they dared to chase into the urn city, they would immediately lose the cavalry advantage and be squeezed inside with countless routs at the same time.There is no way for the defeated soldiers to escape in the urn, and it is very likely that they will fight back when they are dying, and they will be caught in the urn if they are not careful.

Deng Chun personally guarded the prisoners, and asked Yang Yun and Yu Dian to lead troops to arrest the defeated soldiers who had fled to the surrounding suburbs.

Zhong Xiang sometimes dived in the moat, sometimes surfaced, and chose a safe place to go ashore.

Until two days later, there were still rout soldiers who fled back one after another.

Zhong Xiang counted the number of people and lost more than 5000 people in one battle.

If it weren't for being very close to one's own city, and the whole army collapsed after being killed like this, it would be the limit to gather hundreds of remnants.

The morale of the Chu army was low, and losing the battle was only one aspect. The more serious situation was that they discovered that the emperor who had been reincarnated from Daming Zun was so frightened that he jumped into the water and fled at a critical moment.

Isn't "Master" powerful?

Zhong Xiang felt great hatred, and at the same time he was extremely afraid of the cavalry, and vowed never to fight against the Zhu thief's troops on open and flat terrain again.

Immediately afterwards, he wanted to appease people's hearts, Zhong Xiang declared that Zhu Guoxiang was the reincarnation of the Dark Lord, and Zhu Ming was the descendant of the Dark Prince.

Zhong Xiang also said that although he was the reincarnation of Great Ming Zun, his mana had not fully recovered, and he was accidentally plotted against by the Dark Prince...

(End of this chapter)