Eastern Jin Dynasty: My powerful father

Chapter 14: A Little Trial (3000)

Huan Wen, Yuan Qiao, Zhou Fu and others left one after another, leaving only 3,000 surrendered soldiers garrisoned in Chengdu.

Huan Xi divided the three thousand surrendered soldiers into two parts and handed them over to Zhu Xu and Deng Xia respectively.

Both Zhu and Deng were not ordinary people. Deng Xia was a brave general who was extremely powerful for a while, while Zhu Xushi was a general and his military skills were even better than those of his father Zhu Tao.

Not long after they took office, they each used various methods to appease and surrender soldiers, and won the hearts of the army.

Huan Xi warned Zhu and Deng not to let down their guard.

Now that Chengdu was empty, he expected that Fan Bi, Wei Wen, Deng Ding and others who had fled far away before would definitely come back and attack Chengdu.

The battle to conquer Shu vividly demonstrated Huan Xi's foresight. Deng and Zhu also believed in Huan Xi's judgment and trained their soldiers all day long without daring to slack off.

And things happened just as Huan Xi expected. Not long after Huan Wen left, Fan Bi, Wei Wen, Deng Ding and others came back, leading thousands of people to approach Chengdu.

Zhou Fu, the governor of Yizhou who was far away in Pengmo, was horrified when he heard the news. He was not afraid of the rebels, but because Huan Xi was in Chengdu at this time.

After the earthquake, many of Chengdu's city walls collapsed and are still being repaired, but there are only 3,000 surrendered soldiers in the city.

Even if Chengdu is lost, it can be regained in the future, but Zhou Fu cannot ignore Huan Xi's safety.

When Huan Wen attacked Shu, he only brought 10,000 elite troops with him.

The soldiers missed their families and wanted to return home day and night. Naturally, it was impossible for them to stay in Yizhou for a long time.

Today's Yizhou defenders are almost all surrendered soldiers, and Peng Mo's defenders only have a few thousand people.

Zhou Fuyi wrote to Chengdu and persuaded Huan Xi to leave temporarily on the grounds that a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall.

At the same time, he personally led Peng Mo's garrison to Chengdu. Regardless of the fatigue of the soldiers, they marched all the way and ordered the garrison generals from various places to come to rescue.

In fact, before Zhou Fu's order was delivered, the generals from various places had already sent troops, and no one wanted to miss the opportunity to show their loyalty to Huan Xi.

Even if we are far away from Chengdu and obviously unable to make it in time, we should at least show our attitude.

Huan Xi did not listen to Zhou Fu's advice and abandoned the city.

He finally won the hearts and minds of Chengdu people through disaster relief. If he abandons the people now, all his previous efforts will be in vain.

However, the city wall collapsed during the earthquake, and the gap has not yet been blocked. Moreover, most of the people are in shantytowns outside the city. This means that Huan Xi is destined to be unable to rely on the city and wait for help.

After much hesitation, Huan Xi decided to lead his army out of the city to face the rebels.

Before the war, Huan Xi opened the Chengdu treasury and rewarded the three armies heavily to boost morale.

The two armies faced each other, and everyone waited with bated breath. On the battlefield, only the horses were neighing.

Huan Xi rode on horseback, looked at the opponent's military appearance, turned around and asked:
  "Who can kill generals and establish power for me?"

Zhu Xu was about to ask for orders, but Deng Xia overran him:

"The last general is willing to fight for our lord!"

The reason why Huan Xi wanted to fight with the opponent was because he had a strong general like Deng Xia under his command.

Now that Deng Xia took the initiative to ask for war, Huan Xi immediately sent people to the rebel formation and shouted:

"What's the crime of the soldiers? If they have to shed rivers of blood, why don't they send out warriors to fight against the generals in front of the battle array. If they lose, my general is willing to lead the army away and give way to Chengdu."

Fan Bi and others looked at each other in confusion, hesitated again and again, and finally agreed to Huan Xi's invitation to fight in front of the formation.

After all, although the rebels were more numerous than the Chengdu defenders, they had been defeated by Huan Wen before, and the morale of the army was low. At the same time, most of these rebels were newly recruited, and their combat effectiveness was really worrying.

Amidst the exciting drum beats, Deng Xia led ten cavalrymen and came out.

These ten cavalry servants are the ones holding the battle for him. If Deng Xia loses, they will have to fight to save Deng Xia.

If the enemy bullies the minority with more, the cavalry must step forward to help.

Deng Xia immediately stood in front of the enemy formation and shouted:
  "I am Deng Xia of Chen County. Who will fight me to the death?"

Not long after, in the enemy formation, a general led more than ten cavalry and rode out.

"I'll kill you!"

The enemy general shouted and immediately fought with Deng Xia on horseback.

This man dared to challenge, so he was naturally a fierce general among the rebels, otherwise Fan Bi and others would not have allowed him to fight.

However, compared to Deng Xia, he was still far behind. The two fought for dozens of times on horseback, and the enemy general gradually fell into a disadvantage. The cavalry who followed him out of the battle rushed to rescue, but were blocked by Deng Xia's cavalry.

Deng Xia became more and more courageous as he fought. The enemy general was frightened and turned his horse's head to escape. However, Deng Xia saw the flaw and took advantage of this opportunity to kill him off his horse with a blow.

When the Jin army saw this, they all cheered and their morale was high. However, the rebels were in chaos and their morale was shaken.

Seeing this, Fan Bi quickly returned to the army and retreated. Huan Xi saw the opportunity and lost the Bodhisattva heart that could not bear the bloodshed of the soldiers before. He immediately ordered a pursuit and chased for several miles. Huan Xi was worried that the formation was scattered and there was an ambush ahead. Only then did he give the order to stop the pursuit.

It's just that Huanxi's army was dominated by infantry, and both sides ran away on two legs. The rebels abandoned their helmets and armor and fled lightly. How could the Jin army catch up? Naturally, they did not cause much damage to the rebels. On the contrary, A lot of armor was seized.

Returning to the military camp, Huan Xi gathered his cavalry, a total of 300 people, and they were all single-horse cavalry who were not capable of running long distances. Huan Xi put all three hundred cavalry under the command of Deng Xia, while Deng Xia's troops were led by Huan Xi himself.

He ordered:

"The rebels will definitely come back tomorrow. During the war, you lead the cavalry in ambush in the rear. When the two armies are fighting fiercely, when you receive the military order, you will lead the 300 cavalry directly to where the rebel commander's flag is."

Deng Xia was not a timid person, he responded loudly:
  "The last general will definitely take the head of the thief general for our lord."

Huan Xi warned:
  "No action is allowed without a military order, no matter how critical the situation is."

"promise!"

The next day, after the rebels regrouped, they left and returned.

Only this time, no matter what Huan Xi said, the other party was unwilling to fight with him again.

Previously, Deng Xia killed the rebel generals in front of the two armies, which was really frightening.

This time, the rebels prepared to fight Huan Xi.

However, Huan Xi had already prepared. Deng Xia's three hundred cavalry were his backup force to decide the outcome.

This battle was extremely difficult. The rebels were outnumbered and their morale was low. However, because of Huan Xi's heavy rewards for the soldiers, and because Deng Xia had taken the lead yesterday and killed the generals to establish his authority, the Jin army had a small number of soldiers, but its morale was high.

This situation is very similar to the previous Battle of Zuoqiao.

At the beginning of the battle, it was indeed not conducive to the Jin army. The rebels had the numerical advantage and took the lead in launching a fierce offensive.

Fortunately, with the experience of the previous battle at Zuoqiao, Huan Xi knew that the opponent only had these three skills, so he did not panic.

Zhu Xu fought desperately as the front man, but was outnumbered and began to retreat until he retreated to the vicinity of Huan Xi's central army before he stabilized his position.

Huan Xi saw that the rebel line was lengthening, and they could not look at each other from head to tail. He realized that fighter planes had appeared, and immediately ordered his men to beat drums and wave flags to signal Deng Xia to attack.

Deng Xia, who was lying in ambush in the rear, saw the command flag waving. Huan Wen, who remembered Huan Xi yesterday, rushed out with three hundred cavalry, bypassed the front of the rebels, and went straight to the commander's flag in the rear.

Fan Bi was the prime minister of the Han Dynasty and the leader of the rebels. When he saw Deng Xia coming towards him among the rebels, he couldn't help but think of his bravery yesterday and quickly ordered an interception.

It's just that the rebels also lacked cavalry, even worse than the Jin army, with only one or two hundred cavalry.

They were completely unable to stop the three hundred Jin cavalry led by Deng Xia. They saw Deng Xia cutting his way to the rebel commander's flag and no one could stop him.

When Fan Bi saw Deng Xia covered in blood and with a ferocious face, like a murderous god riding towards him, he was so frightened that he had no choice but to turn his horse's head and abandon the army and leave.

As soon as he ran away, the morale of the rebels instantly fell to the bottom. All the generals fled. Who was willing to fight again? No matter how Wei Wen, Deng Ding and others shouted and tried to stop them, however, a defeat that was even worse than yesterday's was ultimately the end result. The outbreak occurred outside Chengdu.

Huan Xi immediately ordered the entire army to cover up and kill them, and a pursuit battle lasted from day to night.

The rebels were defeated, and Fan Bi, Wei Wen, Deng Ding and others were captured. Huan Xi beheaded them all and hung their heads on the Chengdu city tower. The chaos of surrendering ministers was put down.

When the reinforcements arrived in Chengdu, the first thing they saw was the heads of the rebels hanging on the city tower.

Huan Xi welcomed all the military commanders into Chengdu and entertained him with wine as a token of his gratitude.

Although these reinforcements could not help, this friendship must be remembered.

Zhou Fu praised Huan Xi greatly during the banquet, and everyone agreed. Among the crowd, Xiao Jingwen, the governor of the west and general Zhenwei, raised a glass in congratulations.

Xiao Jingwen was also one of the generals who followed Huan Wen in his expedition against Shu. In the original time and space, he attacked and killed the conquering general Yang Qian, occupied Fucheng, and gained Brazil, leading to Hanzhong. He named himself Yizhou Mu and established a separate regime until five years later. , Huan Wen sent Zhou Fu and Sima Xun to lead the troops to pacify it.

But at this moment, at that moment, Xiao Jingwen rebelled, taking advantage of the opportunity when Fan Bi and others captured Chengdu, restored the Han Dynasty, and Zhou Fu was unable to suppress it.

Now that Fan Bi and others have been conferred, there is Yuan Qiao in Hanzhong, Zhou Fu in Peng Mo, and Huan Xi in Chengdu. Xiao Jingwen is in the middle, so how can he dare to have a rebellious heart.

However, this person's crime has not yet been revealed. Xiao Jingwen, as a meritorious minister, naturally cannot be punished without guilt. Even if Huan Xi knows that this person has evil intentions, he can only make peace with him.

As the greatest hero of this battle, Deng Xia received a heavy reward, and Huan Xi went to the court to ask for credit for the generals who participated in the battle.

Not only Deng Xia, Zhu Xu, but also Xi Chao, Huan Xi also sought titles for him because of disaster relief and logistics management.

Now that the civil strife in Shu has been settled and there is no danger in Chengdu, the Yizhou armies each returned to their own towns the next day. Huan Xi said goodbye to the generals one by one. Even when facing Xiao Jingwen, he looked nostalgic.

The Battle of Chengdu was the first battle that Huan Xi actually commanded. Although he only relied on Deng Xia's courage to win, in the end he defeated more with less, which further increased his prestige among Huan Wen's generals and subordinates.

Zhou Fu returned to Pengmo and immediately expressed his merits to Huan Xi as the governor of Yizhou.

Huan Xi didn't care about this. As Huan Wen's eldest son, his official title was not important to him.

Now that the rebellion of the surrendered ministers has been put down, what Huan Xi has to consider is how to revitalize Yizhou.

After experiencing the tyranny of the Cheng Han Dynasty, Yizhou is now exhausted and the people's livelihood is in decline.

Huan Xi takes charge of Yizhou as a long history, and this will also be a challenge he faces.

　The next chapter will be updated in the evening.

　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)