Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 236 Actor Chen Heng
  "The fight in the south is so lively, do you think we'll be fine?"

"What are you thinking about? Then Wu Liangha has been beaten to a pulp by His Highness Prince Yan and his son. How can he dare to go south?"

Daning and Quaning Acropolis, when the fighting in the south was raging, the three thousand soldiers stationed here had no impact. They were still guarding the border and guarding against the Mongols in the north.

In their words, they still could not change the honorific title they gave to Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu. Perhaps only those who were stationed at the border could understand how much this father and son had contributed to the north.

Since Wu Liangha rebelled and joined the invaders in the [-]th year of Hongwu, Wu Liangha basically joined the invaders in the next three years.

However, all this began to end in the [-]th year of Hongwu.

Wu Liangha first suffered a severe head injury in the Bohai Sea, and then encountered the northward attack of the Bohai and King Ning armies the following year, causing heavy losses.

Last May, we were overwhelmed by the Northern Patrol Army and were unable to move south.

After careful calculation, the defenders of Quanningwei had not seen Wu Liangha's Hu soldiers for four years, so the defense was somewhat lax.

It's just that sometimes, the enemy often appears when one's own side is relaxed, just like right now...

"Beep--"

Harsh and dense whistles came from the horizon. The soldiers on the archery tower looked around and saw hundreds of their own sentries running south and blowing whistles.

"Enemy attack!!"

Without thinking too much, the flag officers on the archery towers rang the bells and blew the horns one after another. The garrison soldiers who were busy farming outside the city carried farm tools and ran into the city.

The soldiers at the city gate also withdrew their horses and urged the troops to enter the city. At the same time, they stood guard at the city gate, waiting for their own pond to cross the drawbridge, then retracted the drawbridge and closed the city gate.

Time passed little by little, and as it went by, large amounts of dust rose up in the north.

Tens of thousands of Hu cavalry marched from the north to the south. They shouted Mai and raised their whips, holding short bows in hand to chase the hundreds of Tangqi. Many of the Hu soldiers still had the heads of the Ming army's Tangqi hanging on their horses.

Four years of comfort have cost some of the Tangqi of the Quaning Guard their lives. Fortunately, not all of them are greedy for comfort. Otherwise, I am afraid that today's Quaning Guard would be attacked by tens of thousands of Hu Qi, killing and injuring countless people. .

"Hurry and pull the suspension bridge!"

Hundreds of Tangqi rushed across the suspension bridge, shouting loudly for their own people to pull up the suspension bridge.

In an instant, the suspension bridge was pulled up, the city gate was closed, and the thousand-jin gate was lowered.

For a time, Quanningwei once again became the first city of Daning with an iron wall.

The commander of the Quaning Guards, Hu Xue, hurried over amidst the sound of trumpets throughout the city. When he walked onto the city gate tower, he was surrounded by endless Hu cavalry outside the city.

Many of them are very thin, and the number of distinctive armors has also become much smaller. Only some of them wear armors, and the rest are leather armors and chainmails.

Obviously, they had not lived well in the past four years, and this time they took advantage of the civil strife in the Ming Dynasty to go south to prepare for plunder.

With Zhu Gaoxu in Liaodong, they naturally did not dare to go, so defending the empty Daning became their target.

Hu Xue had cold sweat on his forehead, and the commander Qian Shi next to him also released a homing pigeon to ask for help from Daning City in the south.

It just didn't make them nervous for too long. Hu Qi outside the city didn't stay too long before he turned his horse around Quanning City and headed south.

After they left, the millet seedlings outside the city that had grown to calf height had been eaten up by the horses. This year's Quanningwei harvest was completely gone.

"Quick! Send a message to the capital commander, telling them that the Hu Qi are heading south, and their number will be no less than [-]."

"Yes!"

After Hu Xue reacted, he urged people to use flying pigeons to convey military information, and had no intention of sending Tangqi.

The war horses they have here have already been requisitioned by the south to fight in the war. Even Tang Qi only uses them as riding horses, otherwise they wouldn't be bitten so tightly by Hu Qi.

For now, we can only release more carrier pigeons, hoping that a few carrier pigeons can carry the news to the south.

While they were flying homing pigeons, the Hu riders heading south came to a place with fertile grass and beautiful water.

The horses were no longer willing to leave. They lowered their heads and greedily ate the lush water plants.

"If we don't get anything during this trip south, I'm afraid there will be revenge from the southerners next year."

In the team of [-] cavalry, Tolu Huchaer, who was much more mature than two years ago, spoke to the man next to him.

Beside him, the once arrogant Haragu had turned gray-haired. No one knew how much pressure he had been under in the past two years.

After many attacks by Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu, there were only [-] to [-] people left in the Uuliangha tribes at this moment, with less than [-] men, and only about [-] people could be mobilized to fight south.

When Haragu went south this time, he also learned that the Ming Dynasty was in civil strife, and then he mustered up the courage to go south with [-] cavalry.

Haragu inquired about the news and did not dare to go south until he learned that Daning had dispatched troops to Liaodong.

He tried his best to avoid fighting with the Ming army this time. As long as he could plunder a few thousand households, Wu Liangha could regain some strength.

If Bu Wan led his troops northward from Songting Pass in the south, he would retreat immediately and never stop.

Thinking this way, it's not that Halawu is timid, but that Wuliangha can no longer afford to suffer heavy losses.

"After robbing everything this time, we will settle in Harawu Mountain. Besides, if Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu fail, we will be able to rest and recuperate with the unknown generals in the north."

Haragu was happy to see the Ming army being beaten and bloody, and even more happy to see Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu die in the internal fighting.

He did not think that these two people could defeat the Ming Dynasty because they had too few troops, not even [-]% of the troops in the south.

"Let's go, continue south, go straight to Daning, and plunder the fortresses around it."

Harawu shook the reins of his horse, and Toluhuchaer also gave orders to thousands of households around him.

Soon, more than [-] Uliangha cavalry began to move southward.

Time passed little by little, and at dusk, Daning City finally obtained information about one of the dozens of homing pigeons released by Quan Ningwei.

The news that Wu Liangha's tribes were going south was quickly sent to the desk of the capital commander's office, and the person in charge of Daning's defense was Chen Heng who was stationed here.

"It's difficult..."

The first time he saw the news, Chen Heng felt a crisis.

Although there were [-] military households in Daning, there were seven villages and three battles, and [-] of the available soldiers were transferred away by Bu Wan and Liu Song.

Bu Wan and Liu Song also transferred [-] of the [-] garrison troops to serve as civilian husbands to help the soldiers transport their supplies.

What was left for him was only [-] fighting troops and [-] garrison troops.

It sounds like a lot, but the cities that Chen Heng wants to defend include Daning City, the front, rear and Zhongtun Acropolis of Yingzhou, as well as Muyuwei, Quaningwei and many other acropolises.

It is easy to rely on these people to garrison the city, but the problem is that many of the forts in the field are outside the city. If there is no strong army out of the city to drive away the Uuliangha Huqi, the number of forts that will be destroyed will be numerous.

"I will go see His Highness Prince Ning in person!"

Thinking of the key point, Chen Heng stood up and went to see Zhu Quan who was thanking guests behind closed doors.

Although Zhu Quan was deprived of the military power of the three guards, Bu Wan left him with [-] guards. If Zhu Quan's [-] guards could be mobilized now, then add the [-] soldiers in Daning City and the surrounding cities. Of the [-] soldiers, we could still muster [-] soldiers and horses to drive away the Uuliangha Hu soldiers.

Chen Heng came to the door anxiously, but it was as if the guards of Prince Ning's Mansion didn't listen to his words.

"Our Highness is ill, please Chen Du, please direct your colleagues to go back."

Prince Ning's Palace Chief Shi came out to bow to the guests, but Chen Heng frowned and said: "Now that the Hu soldiers are marching south, if Your Highness is unwilling to send troops, the situation will be in danger."

"Chen Du directed me to move slowly..." Chang Shi pretended not to hear and directly closed the side door of the palace.

Seeing this, Chen Heng could only lament and leave, and asked someone to send a message to Bu Wan.

However, after he left, the palace chief Shi found Prince Ning Zhu Quan in the palace who was reading a military book. He bowed and said, "Your Highness, it doesn't look like Chen Heng is telling lies."

"It's not like..." Zhu Quan raised his head and glanced at Chang Shi: "If I hand over my guard, do you think I still have room to resist?"

"This..." Chang Shi didn't dare to reply anymore, because he also knew that Zhu Quan's situation was not optimistic.

The six vassal kings in front all surrendered their military power, but the result was not that they were useless or dead.

"It's not that I don't want to save the troops stationed outside the city, it's just that I can't even save myself now, so how can I save them."

"If you want to blame, just blame that boy Zhu Yunwen..."

Zhu Quan continued to read with his head lowered. Prince Shi pretended not to have heard his highness address the emperor by his first name, bowed and stepped back.

Soon, the entire Daning City gathered together, and all the soldiers and garrison troops were asked to go to the top of the city to defend the city. The same was true for other guard cities.

This may be the first time since the founding of Hongwu that the Ming Dynasty was invaded by Hu soldiers and was unable to fight back.

Many soldiers stationed in the forts did not wait for reinforcements, so they could only desperately strengthen the not strong forts, hoping that these simple fortifications could block the [-] Hu cavalry rolling down from the north.

However, they may have despaired too early, or some people may have rushed too soon.

Thousands of cavalry also appeared galloping on the grasslands in the northeast of Daning at noon the next day.

Compared with Wu Liangha's kind, where [-] people could not find even one-third of their cavalry wearing bright armor, this cavalry team can be said to be well-equipped.

Ming Jia rides on a horse with a long and short bow, and a long soldier wears a short yellow horse...

The cavalry configured in this way only existed in Bohai and the former Prince Ning's Mansion outside the Great Wall.

But when it comes to quantity and quality, there is no doubt that only the Bohai Jingqi can carry out long-distance attacks without losing formation.

"Call!!"

"Beep--"

As Zhu Gaoxu reined in his horse, harsh whistles sounded all around, and all the cavalry stopped one after another.

The tired horses lowered their heads to eat water plants, but soon their attention was attracted by the beans in the hands of their riders.

Half a kilogram of bean paste was eaten up in an instant. After a short rest, the horses were in high spirits and did not bother to eat the waterweed that seemed sweet just a moment ago.

"Your Highness, this place is less than sixty miles away from the Daning Guard, and it is only forty miles away from the front and rear guard of Yingzhou in the south. If we stay too long, they may be discovered by their sentries."

On horseback, Zhao Mu rode up and looked around cautiously, but what greeted him was Zhu Gaoxu's hearty laughter.

"Do you think Daning can still pull out Tangqi to spread out forty miles of land?"

Zhu Gaoxu's words made Zhao Mu stunned for a moment, and then he scratched his face in embarrassment: "It seems like this."

"Military strategists make the best of the situation. The data on paper just sounds scary. The real situation has to be seen with your own eyes."

Zhu Gaoxu took the trouble to teach Zhao Mu and pointed to the mountainous area in the south with his riding whip.

"Da Ning mainly defends against Hu Qi, while the Yingzhou vanguard has these mountains and rivers as a barrier, so naturally they will not pay attention to the northwest area."

"As for Daning City, I am afraid that all their cavalry were taken to Songting Pass by Bu Wan. Only a small number of horse and infantry are used as pond cavalry. They can patrol for twenty miles around the city at most. If you want to patrol for sixty miles, you must I, the Bohai Navy, cannot use horses." Zhu Gaoxu touched the yellow gelding under his crotch with his hand. After all, it can carry a man like him wearing armor weighing nearly three hundred kilograms. Needless to say, the quality of this yellow gelding.

Seeing this, Zhao Mu had no choice but to say: "Your Highness, the horses you are riding are the offspring of Chi Huan, Da Shi Ma, and Hequ superior horses. We can't compare with you."

Zhao Mu said and motioned to Zhu Gaoxu to look at him.

Sure enough, the horse under Zhao Mu's crotch was nearly a foot shorter than the yellow gelding that Zhu Gaoxu rode, and its body was half a circle smaller.

"I'll give you a good one in the future!" Zhu Gaoxu scolded with a smile, and then said, "Are everything ready?"

"Everything is ready. This is the waist badge you asked me to prepare during my last northern tour." Zhao Mu took out a Daning waist badge that was very different from the Liaodong Dusi waist badge.

This waist badge was prepared by Zhu Gaoxu when he and Zhu Di visited the north last year. It cost about a hundred yuan.

Today is when these waist cards come in handy.

"You take one hundred brothers to Daning. As long as you find Chen Heng and talk to him about the matter in secret, the matter will be much easier to handle."

Zhu Gaoxu ordered Zhao Mu, and at the same time he got off his horse and looked around: "I will wait for you here with my brothers."

"Yes!" Zhao Mu agreed, and then personally selected a hundred brothers.

Half an hour later, he said goodbye to Zhu Gaoxu and ran towards Daning, sixty miles away.

With the speed of their horses, they could reach Daning City at dusk at most.

"drive!"

"drive……"

Shaking the reins of the horse, Zhao Mu led the one hundred brothers who had prepared confessions and continued to speed up the horse. Finally, at the fourth quarter of the hour (18 o'clock) expected by Zhu Gaoxu, they arrived in the north of Daning City and encountered Tangqi from Daning City.

After a simple token check, Zhao Mu took his Liaodong Qianhu Official token and started to fool Tang Qi.

"We are from the Guangning Guards. We received military orders from Commander Liu Song and came with the Daning Order to meet with Commander Chen Du."

Zhao Mu was so upright that no one would have thought that this guy with thick eyebrows and big eyes was actually pretending to be someone else.

Although Tang Qi was suspicious, because Zhao Mu's official position was too high, he still took Zhao Mu and the others outside Daning City, and took Zhao Mu's waist badge and led Zhao Mu into Daning City alone.

The strange thing is that Daning City is actually strengthening its defenses at the moment, which makes Zhao Mu feel nervous.

"It can't be to deal with us...or is it that King Yan broke Songting Pass to deal with King Yan?"

In an uneasy mood, Zhao Mu was finally brought to Chen Heng, and this was not the first time Zhao Mu met Chen Heng.

"you……"

The first time Chen Heng saw Zhao Mu, he recognized this soldier who often followed Zhu Gaoxu. He subconsciously wanted to call out Zhao Mu's identity, but Zhao Mu quickly bowed: "The general is under the orders of Commander Liu Song." , I have something important to discuss in detail with the general, please shield me from the general."

Zhao Mu was feeling uneasy. He didn't know if His Highness's words were true. If Chen Heng, an old man who was not close to Yan Mansion, chopped him down in anger, then he would be done for.

"Zhao Mu, right? I remember you." Chen Heng pretended to know and waved to the military attachés in the yamen: "You guys step back first."

"The bet was right!" Zhao Mu was excited for a moment, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.

He waited for the military attaches to retreat, then stepped forward to bow: "My Royal Highness has led troops to sixty miles northeast of Daning. As long as the commander opens the city gate to welcome him tomorrow morning, Daning will be under control. By then, Daning’s soldiers must have no desire to fight.”

Although he was relieved, Zhao Mu was still very nervous. After all, if Chen Heng only pretended to be close to His Highness after speaking out about such an important matter, their plan to capture Daning would be ruined.

"Uh..." Chen Heng was speechless, which made Zhao Mu feel anxious, thinking that he was going to refuse, but Chen Heng sighed:

"Your Highness is late. Even if you capture Daning, Yingzhou and other cities, you cannot use the soldiers' families to force them to surrender."

"Why?" Zhao Mu was confused. He didn't believe that all the soldiers in Daning didn't care about the life and death of their families.

"Early this morning, news came from the Quanning Guards in the north that the Huqi from the Uliangha tribes were heading south, with a total number of [-]."

"Are they Wu Liangha's group of barbarians again?" After hearing Chen Heng's words, Zhao Mu immediately became angry.

After all, he was the one who had been with Zhu Gaoxu from the beginning. In the Battle of Jixiguan, almost all the veterans of Bohai had their familiar brothers killed in the battle. The hatred between Bohai and Wu Liangha was as deep as the sea of ​​blood.

"If there are only [-], general, don't worry. Your Highness will lead [-] fine cavalry this time, which is enough to defeat the Wuliangha Huqi."

Zhao Mu not only hates Wu Liangha, but also has absolute confidence in the Bohai Navy. In his opinion, even if he commands the [-] Bohai elite cavalry, he can defeat the [-] Hu cavalry after a fierce battle, let alone commanding the [-] Bohai cavalry this time. The one riding the fine horse is His Highness.

"This..." Chen Heng felt that Zhao Mu was boasting, but out of concern for his face, he did not refute, and just said:

"If that's the case, I'll have the city gate open tomorrow morning and ask His Highness for permission to enter the city."

"However, I have one more unkind request..."

Chen Heng put forward his request. After hearing this, Zhao Mu said happily: "General, it doesn't matter if you say so."

Seeing Zhao Mu ask this, Chen Heng blushed and spoke in a low voice...

"Did he really say that?"

At midnight, when a bonfire rose in the dark plain, Zhu Gaoxu looked in surprise at the little flag officer who led more than ten riders back.

"That's what I said." Xiaoqi Guan said truthfully:

"Comrade Chen Du hopes that Commander Zhao will tie him up and make others think he is being held hostage."

"..." Listening to the little old man Chen Heng's request, Zhu Gaoxu was speechless for a moment.

Co-authoring the story of the little old man being restrained by his subordinates was a drama directed and performed by the little old man himself.

"Chen Du's commanding colleagues are really..."

Zhu Gaoxu hesitated to speak, but didn't know where to start.

But if you think about it carefully, it is quite normal for Chen Heng to do this. His family is not small in Lianghuai. If Zhu Yunwen knew that he took the initiative to open the city and surrender, he might become angry and kill his entire family.

However, if he was captured by his subordinates and surrendered to the city, then his failure would at most mean he would be reduced from his position.

Thinking about it this way, this little old man is quite shrewd.

"Your Highness, there is one more thing you need to know."

The flag officer said cautiously: "Wuliangha from the north invaded Daning. Currently, Daning's soldiers and horses are gathered in Songtingguan and Guangning. The number of Hu cavalry who invaded this time is about [-]."

"Wuliangha?" Zhu Gaoxu seemed to have heard something disgusting.

Historically, Wu Liangha also took advantage of the civil war in the Ming Dynasty to join the invaders, but was defeated by Yang Wen.

In this battle of Jingnan, Yang Wen was transferred away because of his relationship. Liaodong could not stop him, and Wu Liangha was afraid of him, so he came to Daning to plunder.

"It's really a narrow road for enemies..."

Zhu Gaoxu sneered. He now had [-] fine cavalry in his hands. Facing the so-called [-] barbarian cavalry, he was fully confident that he could end the battle within a few hours.

"Let's put Wu Liangha's matter aside for now. They are heading south from Quanningwei and will not arrive in Daning until at least tomorrow evening. Let's set off now and rush to take over Daning in the early morning."

Zhu Gaoxu stood up and said to his left and right: "Tell the brothers to get up at night. Let's have a good rest after we go to Daning!"

"General, take your orders!" The officials from the left and right thousand households responded one after another, and soon they woke up the brothers of the Bohai Navy who had rested for three hours early.

The army fed their war horses and riding horses, and then galloped towards Daning Guard on their riding horses.

In just three hours, they saw Daning City in the distance in the gradually brightening sky.

Zhao Mu, who had been waiting for a long time on the city gate tower, was alert. It was not until he saw the familiar Suzaku flag with red background and black border that he shouted to behind him: "It's one of our own, open the city gate!"

As he spoke, the city gate drawbridge was lowered and the city gate was opened.

Zhao Mu didn't have time to greet Zhu Gaoxu, but went to act with Chen Heng.

"what happened?!"

"Why are there so many cavalry?"

"Who opened the city gate!"

When the Bohai Navy approached Daning, the Daning guards in the city finally reacted. They put on armor and gathered in groups at the city gate to confront the Bohai Navy holding the Suzaku flag.

At this moment, they still couldn't figure out why the city gate was taken over by the Bohai Navy who suddenly appeared, and where the original defenders were.

They confronted the Bohai Navy, and for a while neither side dared to take action.

"Don't do it, otherwise don't blame me for not having an eye on my sword!"

Suddenly, a "severe" voice came from behind. When the Daning guards looked back, they saw Zhao Mu walking with about ten people. In the formation stood Chen Heng, who was tied up with a rope.

"General!!"

Seeing Chen Heng being subdued, the soldiers around him nervously held their short soldiers in their hands.

Compared with Bu Wan, Chen Heng has higher prestige in Daning, but he is not as good as Bu Wan in terms of official position.

Seeing that Chen Heng was captured, Daning soldiers wanted to rescue him, but they were afraid that Zhao Mu would hurt him.

"My Highness heard that Wu Liangha invaded, and in order to protect you and your family, he has come with six thousand cavalry. He is now outside the city."

"Look! His Highness has entered the city!"

Zhao Mu, who had thick eyebrows and big eyes, was not very good at acting, but he couldn't resist Zhu Gaoxu and he did lead the leading cavalry into the city.

Zhu Gaoxu, who entered the city, happened to have a panoramic view of this dramatic scene.

Some Daning soldiers wanted to draw their bows and shoot arrows at him, but Chen Heng cried and cried: "Brothers, I am already a candle in the wind and will not live for many years. Logically speaking, you should be allowed to fight the enemy bravely."

"But now that the Hu soldiers are marching south, you all know who the King of Bohai County is. You surrender him and take good care of yourself and your family. I will take the first step."

Chen Heng exaggeratedly tried to hit the knife on the side. Zhao Mu was so frightened that he quickly pulled the knife away, fearing that the little old man would get into trouble.

"General, if you leave, who can lead us when we surrender?"

Several thousand households knelt down one after another, causing hundreds of soldiers around to kneel down.

Seeing this, Chen Heng turned his attention to Zhu Gaoxu, but at this moment the corners of Zhu Gaoxu's mouth twitched.

"You must have acted with your feet..."

　"Bohai Chronicles": "Guiyou led his troops to attack Daning, and captured Heng in the chaotic formation, so Daning went down."

　　"Records of Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty": "Guiyou, the superior led his troops to Daning, Mu deceived him into the city, and Heng was captured by Mu. In front of the formation, the superior saw Heng and said: "You are my father's minister." Heng did not answer. The superior Lian His talents should be removed from his armor and imprisoned in the palace."

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)