Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 935 0930 [Solitary Army Deeply Advances]

In the eyes of Annan soldiers, Du Yingwu has become somewhat of a "God of War".

In the first battle, Annan faced siege from four countries, and the other generals were all defeated, except Du Yingwu who defeated the coalition forces of Champa and Zhenla.

In the second battle, barbarians from Wendan (Vientiane, Laos) invaded, and Du Yingwu led his army to kill the generals and capture the prisoners.

In the third battle, the mountain barbarians invaded and all the generals returned without success, except Du Yingwu who defeated the mountain barbarians.

These three wars took place within just a few years, and Du Yingwu quickly accumulated extremely high prestige in the military.

Moreover, his father is Li Changjie's nephew.

Li Changjie was the previous Annan God of War, who defeated all the surrounding states and even led his troops to invade Guangxi.

In addition, in the past two or three decades, Annan has been promoting culture over military power, disbanding the army, and reducing military pay, which has led to resentment among soldiers across the country. After Du Yingwu's coup, although he did not order an expansion of the army, he restored military pay and benefits, which immediately won the hearts of the soldiers.

"Why did you get involved in the conspiracy?" Du Yingwu asked.

Su Xiancheng was not killed because he was the Grand Tutor, a position so high that even the imperial guards did not dare to touch him.

Su Xiancheng sighed: "If I don't go, they will instigate a rebellion against the imperial guards."

Du Yingwu sneered: "How can the imperial guards rebel with nothing but empty words?"

"They are tempted with money, threatened with the Ming army, and rebuked with justice. There must be some generals of the imperial guards who have been instigated to rebel," Su Xiancheng said. "These people are not discreet and will inevitably leak the news. At that time, the imperial guards will kill each other and let the Ming army slaughter them. A few years ago, nearly 100,000 people were abducted from Thang Long Prefecture. Although the late emperor ordered the people to move to Beijing, the number has only recovered to 40,000 or 50,000 so far. Do you want to be robbed by the Ming army again?"

Su Xiancheng did not want to get rid of Du Yingwu because he was afraid of pushing the other party into a desperate situation.

Su Xiancheng's idea was very clear, which was to prevent Du Yingwu from directly usurping the throne, while at the same time governing the country well and waiting for the little emperor to grow up before taking power.

Historically, it was because of this man who eased the situation that Du Yingwu never turned the table.

Even after the young emperor came of age, the ministers still dismissed Du Yingwu from office, and it was only after Empress Dowager Li repeatedly pleaded for him that he was reinstated.

Of course, Du Yingwu, who has been reinstated, will definitely not let it go.

He fabricated a series of charges, killing eight people, crippling five people, exiling more than thirty people, and dismissing more than sixty people from office, including a prince, two marquises, and a prince consort.

He also implemented a high-handed rule: eunuchs were not allowed to enter the palace without permission. The King of Annan had to get his permission to see eunuchs. Court officials were not allowed to make friends with royal nobles. In the palace, officials were not allowed to gather and talk with more than three people and less than ten people when they went to court or left court... This is what a powerful official is. Du Yingwu was driven crazy by the civil servants.

Now, before the little emperor could grow up, the Ming army suddenly arrived and broke the delicate balance.

The Annan civil officials wanted to use the Ming army to eliminate the powerful official, so they would naturally force the powerful official to take the first step!
Du Yingwu said: "If I don't kill him, I will kill him. What do you think we should do?"

Su Xiancheng said: "Release the families of the officials who were killed, and then send people to negotiate with the Ming army."

"Do you think I'm a fool?" Du Yingwu sneered: "If I release the families of those traitors, they will definitely lead the Ming army into the city!"

Not all the families of those killed were in Thang Long Prefecture, but several key figures were, including the son-in-law Yang Siming.

In addition, the conspiracy took place in Wu Dai's home.

Wu Dai was the infantry commander of the Palace Army and the third most powerful person in the Annan Imperial Army. He was dissatisfied with Du Yingwu's sole control of the Imperial Army. He did not gain any benefits from the coup, but was instead deprived of his military power by Du Yingwu.

How can we not eradicate these people completely?
Su Xiancheng asked, "How will you end up killing all the officials' families?"

"We are in a difficult situation, so we have no choice but to do this," Du Yingwu said, "You should go home and rest, and no family members are allowed to go out at will. After the Ming army withdraws, I will invite you to be my tutor."

Su Xiancheng was disheartened and was escorted back home and placed under house arrest by the imperial guards.

Du Yingwu sat in the quiet room, all kinds of emotions flooding his mind.

He is only twenty-five years old this year!

It was inevitable that he was in a hurry to do things, and the coup was too crude. Moreover, he became arrogant all of a sudden, and stayed overnight in the palace without restraint, leaving too many handles and excuses for others.

He made two diplomatic missions to the Ming Dynasty and knew how powerful the Ming Dynasty was.

He believed that as long as he did not usurp power, supported a young emperor, and then sent people to Luoyang to ask for the title of king, the Ming emperor should be able to back down smoothly.

I never expected that the Ming Dynasty would send troops directly and use the name of my sister, Empress Dowager Du!

Not only did the Ming Dynasty send troops, but Dali was also involved.

Shen Li, a local powerful figure, raised an army to purge the court of evil officials, but was easily defeated by Du Yingwu and actually fled all the way to Dali.

Shen Li borrowed hundreds of elite soldiers from Dali and recruited barbarian soldiers on the northwest border of Annan. He captured Jidong (Cao Bang Province) and headed straight for Taiyuan.

At this moment, Shen Li has already broken through Taiyuan City.

He then changed his name to Zhao Zhizhi, claiming to be the illegitimate son of the previous king Li Renzong, and proclaimed himself "King Ping" and "General Pingyuan", calling on the gentry of Annan to rise up together to fight against the thieves Du.

In other words, Du Yingwu was now under attack from two sides: to his east was the Ming army, and to his northwest was the Shenli rebels.

Suddenly, Du Yingwu opened his eyes, called a few confidants and said: "All the traitors who were killed yesterday, whose families are in the capital, will be exterminated. The men will be made slaves, and the women will be given to the soldiers. Their property and land will all be distributed to the soldiers of the imperial guards!"

Not only did the Annan Imperial Guards receive land, but even the local troops and generals who were urgently transferred in received generous rewards.

Moreover, Du Yingwu promised that more land would be distributed to the soldiers after the war. For a time, the morale of the Annan army was high.

Du Yingwu, who was only 25 years old, asked his cousin to lead the troops to guard the palace and the capital, while he led 40,000 troops to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army.

He had already received news that the Ming army had only two or three thousand men, and the rest were local garrisons recruited from Annan.

Ten against one, even if we cannot win a big victory, we can still stop the Ming army from capturing cities.

It was useless to simply flee and avoid fighting. The Ming army had the righteousness of Empress Dowager Du. If Du Yingwu gave up Thang Long Prefecture, he would truly become a rebel. Even if the Ming army withdrew, a new king would be established in Thang Long Prefecture and a new court would be reorganized.

……

"Your Highness, there were enemy attacks ahead, but we have defeated them. Beijianglu City and Tiandefu City are both heavily guarded!"

When Zhu Kang got the news, he was not happy but delighted.

Beijiang Road City and Tiande Prefecture City are located on the north and south banks of the Longjiang River respectively, less than a hundred miles away from Thang Long Prefecture.

The two cities control the Long River and are the eastern gates of Thang Long Prefecture.

After defeating the defenders of the two cities, we can advance quickly and reach Thang Long Prefecture.

"Your Highness, I would like to take the lead in the attack!" said an Annan general named Zeng Huai.

"We are willing to fight to the death!"

Many Annan officials shouted.

They were all officials Zhu Kang had won over on the way, and they believed that Du Yingwu would definitely lose. The civil officials stayed in their posts to raise food and grass, while the military officials led their troops to follow Zhu Kang into battle.

The number of Annan troops under Zhu Kang has exceeded five thousand.

Of course, they are all a mob.

Zhu Kang gave some encouragement and sent these Annan generals away.

After the locals had left, Xie Hong said, "If we go deep into the enemy's territory alone, will our food supply be cut off?"

Han Jing smiled and said, "If Du Yingwu is not stupid, he will definitely send troops to cut off the food supply and even capture our rear cities. We have few soldiers, only 3,000 elite soldiers, and it is impossible for us to take care of the rear. We can only make a concerted effort to capture Shenglong Prefecture!"

"Are you sure, General Han?" Xie Hong asked.

Han Jing said: "When we left Guangxi, General Yang Zaixing gave me several maps. Among them were maps of the walls of Beijianglu City and Tiandu City. We also borrowed 20 naval guns from the navy, so it won't be a problem to fight all the way to Thang Long City. If we can't take it down for a long time and run out of food and grass, we can only collect food locally."

Xie Hong said: "This time is not like the last time, General Yang could just rob and leave, but we have to govern Annan. Collecting grain locally will inevitably cause resentment among the people, which will be detrimental to future governance."

"How pedantic! If we can't take down Thang Long Prefecture, how can we talk about future rule?" Han Jing retorted.

Han Jing also has character flaws. He doesn't know how to build good relationships with civil servants.

This man was originally a non-Chinese, and although he had read some books, he had a hard time passing the examination for a scholar. When he was fighting guerrilla warfare against the Jin soldiers, he developed a bandit mentality and often robbed rich families in Shanxi, otherwise his troops would have starved to death long ago.

He also dislikes civil servants and speaks ruthlessly.

Of course, Han Jing's values ​​are still very positive.

Historically, he pacified the chaos in Fujian and Guangdong, which had long been ravaged and riddled with problems. Han Jing was able to restore production in Lingnan and even cracked down on corrupt officials to protect the people. As a result, he offended all the local officials, and after he was dismissed from office, the people took the initiative to build a shrine for him.

Xie Hong was scolded by Han Jing and smiled and said nothing more, but he felt a little uncomfortable.

Zhu Kang didn't know how to read people's expressions yet, and didn't understand that his men might be at odds with each other. He thought that Han Jing had persuaded Xie Hong, so he decided, "Continue the march tomorrow!"

The next day, noon.

Zhu Kang led his army to the outskirts of Beijiang Road and set up camp several miles away from the city, waiting to attack the next day.

Du Yingwu personally stayed in charge of guarding the city, keeping his troops still and waiting for news.

When the Ming army was setting up artillery and preparing to attack the city, several speedboats came from behind, and several Annan civil and military officials reported in panic: "Your Highness, the thief Du sent elite troops to launch a surprise attack, and the city... the city was lost. The food and grass stored in the city were also seized by the thief Du!"

Zhu Kang said: "Don't worry, we will have food soon. Besides, the food and grass we brought with us is enough for 20 days, and if we save it, it can last for more than a month."

Having said that, Annan's civil and military officials and soldiers were in a panic about running out of food.

"Boom boom boom!"

Twenty cannons removed from naval ships bombarded Beijiang Road City.

The terrifying momentum restored the morale of the Annan troops following the Ming army, who believed that this thing could bombard all the way to Thang Long Prefecture.

However, the Annan defenders in the city began to panic.

After three days of continuous bombardment, cracks began to appear in the city wall, and it was estimated that it would collapse in a few days.

Du Yingwu felt that morale was plummeting, so he called together his generals and said, "We just received news that our detachment successfully captured the city. The enemy's rear cities are vulnerable, and our army has already captured two cities in a row. Without follow-up food and grass, the enemy's army will surely be in chaos. We can't be trapped in the city any longer. While the enemy's morale is declining, we must go out of the city tomorrow and fight to the death!"

(End of this chapter)