Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 4 Luzhou is not yours

The next day.

At dawn, Zhu Shou was keeping vigil for his father at home, while Lu Jin and Zhang Wen had already arrived near Chaohu Lake.

Joining the army is not something you can do just like that. Will they accept you? How will they settle you down? Do they need someone to pick you up? What will you get after you join? These are all issues, so the two of them came here to make a first move.

If only one person joins the army and is willing to be a soldier, then it won't be that troublesome. But Lu Jin wants the right to speak, or even wants to take over, so that requires negotiation. It will take several rounds of negotiations for Kong Erlangzi to recruit Xie Baoqing.

"Be careful, when we get there, don't say we are here to seek refuge, say we are here to join them." Lu Jin instructed Zhang Wen on the way.

"Isn't there any difference between surrendering and joining a gang?" Zhang Wen was puzzled.

"Of course it's different!" Lu Jin explained to him in detail.

"We only have 800 men. If we surrender, they might divide our 800 men up, with one general getting 100 and another getting 200. People's hearts would fall apart and we would become cannon fodder. We would be sent to charge into battle, but we would not get a share of the spoils. We would die without knowing how we died.

"If you join us, you'll be leading your own army. We'll have a say in how we fight and how we divide up the spoils."

"So that's it."

Zhang Wen scratched his head and said, "Brother Lu, you know more. Why don't you tell me later? I'm afraid I'll say the wrong thing."

"That's fine. You should talk less and watch and listen more." Lu Jin nodded.

As the two walked along the way, they encountered several uninhabited villages. There were no signs of war in the villages. It seemed that the villagers had moved away on their own. No one knew whether they were avoiding the war or hiding in the lake.

It was not until we passed by a village again and could see Chaohu Lake from afar at the entrance of the village that we finally met someone.

"Stop! What do you do?"

A young man suddenly jumped down from a big tree at the entrance of the village. He was about seventeen or eighteen years old and stood in front of Lu Jin and Zhang Wen. At the same time, several figures flashed behind them and surrounded the two of them.

Lu Jin glanced at the few people and found that they were not dressed in red scarves, and they were holding farm tools such as hoes and pitchforks in their hands. However, the way they surrounded the two people as soon as they appeared showed that they were formal sentries, not ordinary villagers.

Lu Jin clasped his fists towards the young man and said, "Excuse me, sir, is this General Liao's camp? We are here to join them."

"Join a gang? Join what gang? We are a legitimate village. You may have come to the wrong place to look for bandits." The young man pretended to be confused while being alert.

Lu Jin found it a little funny. He couldn't even pretend to be a villager properly. How could a villager hide on a tree and stand guard for no reason? He chuckled and mocked him deliberately.

"It seems that the Chaohu Red Turbans are just so timid. No wonder they are defeated in every battle. The more they fight, the fewer people they have. Now they don't even dare to leave the lake. I'm afraid we have really found the wrong place. Zhang Wen, let's go."

After saying that, he took Zhang Wen and turned away.

"Wait a minute!" The young man's voice came from behind to persuade him to stay.

"What else, little brother? Didn't you say we found the wrong place?" Lu Jin asked knowingly.

"Do you really want to join us? Just the two of you?" When the young man heard that he really wanted to join the Red Turban, he was too lazy to pretend and asked directly.

Lu Jin winked at Zhang Wen, and Zhang Wen spoke.

"Why would I want to trick you into thinking that you will be beheaded for rebelling? You don't want to live, but I do. However, we are not just two people. We have a brother. Together, we have eight hundred strong men who can serve as soldiers."

"Eight hundred young and strong men? Where are you from? Why do you want to join us?" The young man was a little surprised when he heard this. The Chaohu navy is in a very bad condition now. If they are really eight hundred young and strong men, it would be a great help.

"Of course they rebel because they can't survive."

Next, Zhang Wen briefly explained the current situation. Zuo Junbi looted villages and towns, killed innocent people to claim credit, and forcibly collected military rations. He and Zhu Shou were both from rural villages in Feidong area, and their backgrounds were clean and traceable.

This is very important. Although the Red Turban Army rebelled, they did not accept everyone. Especially now that they were in a weak position, they were nervous and afraid of spies from the Yuan army. When Zhu Yuanzhang joined Guo Zixing, he was almost killed as a spy. "What about you?" The boy gestured to Lu Jin, who was fair-skinned but very burly.

"My name is Lu Jin. The day before yesterday, the armored soldiers under Zuo Junbi killed innocent people for credit. I couldn't bear it, so I killed one of them. Since they killed the government soldiers, I can only come here to join you heroes.

"Although I am alone, I did not come empty-handed. I happen to have two treasures to give to General Liao."

Lu Jin briefly explained the "letter of surrender", then took out a cowhide box and took out a pair of Type 89 binoculars from it. These were things his father used to use at work, and later Lu Jin took them away to play with. However, he also had a single-tube binocular, so it would be fine to give this one away.

"What is this?" the boy asked curiously, looking at the strange-shaped tube.

"This thing is called a telescope. It can be used to see the enemy's strengths and weaknesses. Look over there."

Following Lu Jin's instructions, the boy picked up the telescope and looked towards Laoshan Island in the lake. He was immediately stunned. Laoshan was several miles away from the shore, but he could clearly see the figures of people on the island with this thing.

"It's really a great treasure. What about the second one?" The young man no longer dared to look down on Lu Jin.

"Haha, the second thing is Luzhou City." Lu Jin said with a smile.

"Luzhou. City??? Please wait a moment, I will pass the message to you right away!" The young man clasped his fists towards the two of them, and was about to run to the lake with the telescope. Seeing this, Lu Jin hurriedly stopped him.

"I haven't asked for your name yet, little brother?"

"My name is Yu Tongyuan, and I'm a centurion here." After saying that, he ran to the lakeside, jumped into a small boat, and had someone row the boat quickly to Laoshan Island. It seemed that the headquarters of the Chaohu navy was on the island in the lake.

'Yu Tongyuan?'

This time it was Lu Jin's turn to be surprised.

The famous Yuexi Marquis, one of the generals who won the great victory at Buihuerhai! I didn't expect that he is still a boy of 17 or 18 years old.'

In fact, he has met four marquises of the Ming Dynasty in the past two days, and two of them are by his side, but Lu Jin himself doesn't know it.

He did know something about the historical trend at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, but how many of the 24 generals of Huaixi could an ordinary person name? Who could recite all of their names, hometowns, and resumes?
In addition to these twenty-four generals, there were at least dozens of marquises and dukes in the early Ming Dynasty. Some of them died in battle very early and did not live to see the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Lu Jin felt excited about meeting a historical figure, but he was not too superstitious. Famous generals also grew up step by step. Zhu Shou and Zhang Wen were still ordinary farmers at that time, and Yu Tongyuan was just a small centurion.

Just as he was sighing with emotion, two boats came from Laoshan Island in the lake, and more than ten people jumped onto the shore. Their ages ranged from over 40 to teenagers. It seemed that his words had attracted all the generals from Chaohu Lake?
Everyone soon saw Lu Jin and Zhang Wen, and the leader, a sturdy man in his early thirties, wearing armor and with dark skin, spoke immediately.

"This brother Lu has a pale complexion. He doesn't look like someone who can kill a soldier. Instead, he looks like a pale-faced scholar."

"General, do you judge people by appearance?" Lu Jin laughed when he heard this. "I have indeed read a lot of books, but I am not a weak scholar. I have strength and means."

With a swish, Lu Jin suddenly swung out the golden baton, held it in front of him and said, "That armored soldier was squatting on the ground digging up the body, and I was lying on the tree. When he was not prepared, I used this baton to hit his brains out. Do you believe it, General?"

The visitor nodded when he heard this. It was a sneak attack, and the soldier was just a lone armored soldier. If he was strong enough, he would be killed with one hit of the iron rod. This made sense.

"Brother Lu said he would give us Luzhou City. Luzhou City is not yours, and you are not Zuo Junbi's biological father. How can you ask him to give the city to us?"

Lu Jin immediately noticed the details of this sentence, "we", and then looking at the positions of several people, there seems to be no clear subordinate relationship. It seems that these people are on an equal footing and there is no recognized boss. This is an opportunity!

But now is not the time to be calculating, he immediately explained.

"I am indeed not Zuo Junbi's biological father, and Luzhou City is not mine, but as long as we defeat Zuo Junbi, we can take Luzhou City."

"Brother Lu, do you have a plan to defeat the enemy?!" another person nearby also asked.

"Of course, but I need to know our situation first, as well as Zuo Junbi's strength. The Art of War says 'Know yourself and know your enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without danger'. I wonder if the general can tell me?"

(End of this chapter)