Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 82 What is he preparing for? (Subscribe)

The northwest wind was not very strong, but it was blowing with raging flames and licking the government army and navy.

The wind fueled the fire, and the fire fueled the wind. The heat wave spread, and the naval officers and soldiers were so scared that they didn't dare to stay on the boat. Some of them were on fire and jumped into the water howling.

There were also some boats downstream that, although not yet affected by the fire, were unable to open their eyes due to the thick smoke.

"Ahem, this smoke is poisonous. Let's retreat quickly. We've been tricked. There's an ambush ahead. Turn the boats behind us around!"

Fortunately, Wu Xiangrong's ship was not in the front row, otherwise it would have been caught on fire long ago. However, the thick smoke still made them uncomfortable, making it difficult for them to breathe, their eyes hurt, and their throats were burning.

A few days ago, Liao Yongan discovered pyrite in Lujiang. This thing can be used to extract sulfur. When burned in the fire, it can release a large amount of smelly sulfur dioxide gas. When inhaled into the lungs, or combined with moisture on the surface of the eyeball, it can synthesize dilute sulfuric acid, which has a strong irritating effect on the eyeball and respiratory tract.

If these fumes are condensed and collected through pipes, they will become sulfur after evaporation and solidification. There are very few volcanoes in China and natural sulfur mines are also relatively scarce. This method was used in ancient times to produce sulfur from pyrite.

Although Liao Yongan did not understand the chemical principles involved, he knew that sulfur was an excellent arsonist.

Sulfur is highly flammable, and when used in naval battles and arson, this stuff is more flammable than oil. The key is that it has the added effect of toxic smoke. At the time, the soldiers were ordered to collect a batch of it. Anyway, they were free to do something during the performance, and when they heard that Lu Jin wanted to burn the Ruxu River, they immediately sent someone to deliver it.

If the pyrite is crushed and filled into a firewood boat, its lethality will be doubled. The raging fire, accompanied by billowing yellow smoke, can be called a primitive version of a biological weapon.

"Ahem, ahem, ahem, General, we can't retreat anymore, ahem, look behind you!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Xiangrong squinted his eyes and looked downstream, only to see another person suddenly appear on the shore, covering his face with a red scarf as a mask, and rushing into the water with a small boat that was also filled with firewood and grease.

The soldiers of the Chaohu navy first rowed the firewood boat to the middle of the river, then dropped a simple stone anchor to prevent the boat from drifting away. Then they lit the firewood on the boat, jumped into the water and swam back to the shore.

Several panicked government ships accidentally collided with the small fireboats while retreating downstream and were immediately set on fire.

Now there is fire both upstream and downstream, and there are enemy troops guarding the shore. This is a deadly place.

"Jump off the boat and swim to the south shore."

"No, General. The south bank is downwind and we will get choked if we swim over there." The deputy general on the boat said immediately.

"Cough, cough, cough, bullshit. There are still enemy troops on the north bank. Wouldn't it be like sending yourself to death if you go north?"

Wu Xiangrong immediately took off his armor, dived into the water, and swam towards the south bank first.

Now he didn't need to give any commands. The naval officers and soldiers jumped into the water to save themselves and swam towards the south bank.

On the north bank, Hua Gao was in charge of directing the setting of the fire. At this time, he was standing upwind and was not afraid of the smoke at all. He was still directing the archers to shoot arrows at the naval officers and soldiers who were clinging to the boat and resisting stubbornly.

On the south bank of the Rushu River, Li Wang, after completing the mission of intercepting and killing the scouts, also ran over to participate in the encirclement and annihilation battle. So as soon as the naval officers and soldiers climbed ashore, they saw Li Wang leading more than 30 light cavalry charging over, riding and hacking back and forth along the river bank, killing the government troops and the navy so hard that they cried for their parents.

When many people jumped into the water and climbed onto the shore, they didn't even have weapons in their hands. How could they fight? Some of them immediately knelt down and begged for surrender.

However, some shallow-draft boats in the government navy were not stuck by the hidden piles and managed to escape to the upwind side further upstream, but their situation became even more difficult.

Behind him was the main force of the navy, which was burning with a raging fire, and in front of him were more than 200 large and small ships commanded by Yu Tonghai.

How could they defeat this? When the government troops saw this, they surrendered.
In less than an hour, around five in the evening of October 6th, the Wuwei County official navy, which Kang Maocai had placed high hopes on to delay the Chaohu navy, was completely wiped out.

In this battle, the marginal battlefield of Ruxu River was the first to open. Yu Tonghai and Hua Gao captured more than 3000 naval soldiers of the government army, captured the enemy general Wu Xiangrong alive, and seized 43 large ships over 76 feet in length and small boats under feet in length, winning a great victory!

Kang Maocai's plan completely failed. The Chaohu Navy was not restrained by him, and the main force of Liao Yongan's three regiments was also lost.

If his cannon didn't keep an eye on Lu Jin's car, then Lu Jin's car would be free to kill everyone!
On the sixth day of October, at 5:30 in the evening, when it was about to get dark, while prisoners were still being captured on the other side of the Rushu River, the cavalry vanguard sent by Kang Maocai finally arrived outside Chao County.

Several civilians who were about to return to the city were caught up and killed on the spot. Upon seeing this, the defenders on the city wall immediately pulled up the drawbridge over the moat, closed the city gates, and prepared to defend the city to the death.

Lu Changyi rode his horse to the outside of the city, showing off his power and shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Listen, you red-turban rebels in the city. Our Huaixi envoy, General Kang, is leading an army of 60,000 to attack us. Tell that Lu guy to clean his neck and prepare to die!
"Listen, all the bandit leaders in the city. If you surrender early, you still have a chance to survive. If you can kill the other bandit leaders, the imperial court will recruit you and reward you with high positions. You must seize the opportunity and don't be ignorant of the current situation!

"Can you defeat the imperial army by rebelling? It is better to quit while you are ahead! Kill the rebel leader."

"Fire arrows!"

Before Lu Changyi could finish his words, Liao Yongjian on the top of the city wall ordered his men to shoot arrows at the guy.

Lu Changyi had been on guard against arrows being shot at from the city walls. As soon as he saw an arrow flying towards him, he immediately ran to the periphery.

Liao Yongjian raised his telescope to observe and found that there were hundreds of cavalrymen rushing back and forth. This was obviously the main force of Kang Maocai's cavalry. He immediately said happily, "Kang Maocai really came on the day of the Marshal's wedding!"

Yin Congdao also appeared on the top of the city wall. Hearing this, he couldn't help but laugh and said, "The commander-in-chief is very good at planning and predicting things. Fortunately, we made preparations early. I'm sure Kang Maocai would never have thought that we would come back from Lujiang County."

Zhao Zhongzhong had also heard Lu Changyi's shouting just now, and immediately said with disdain.

"It's good enough that Kang Mao can only provide 6,000 soldiers, but he actually claims to have 60,000. He is so arrogant and really makes himself look good. He thinks he can scare us like this.

"We already have tens of thousands of troops in the city, and there are also reinforcements from the Marshal outside. They are at least twice as many as Kang Maocai's. If he really dares to come, I want to see how he dies this time!"

The navy is now divided into two. Liao Yongjian and Zhao Zhongzhong are stationed in Chao County with 3,000 naval soldiers. Yu Tonghai and Hua Gao are leading the other half of the navy to encircle and annihilate the government navy on the Ruxu River. Therefore, there are only two naval commanders in the city.

Upon hearing this, Ye Sheng suddenly reminded the generals, "The Marshal has intelligence that Kang Maocai has increased his troops to 10,000, with 5,000 civilians, and this time there are 15,000 troops. This is news from three days ago.

"There are only 15,000 people, of which only 10,000 are combat soldiers. He dares to claim that there are 60,000. It's still a bit too boastful."

Upon hearing this, Liao Yongjian said, "If that's the case, even if the Marshal doesn't come and there are no other reinforcements, we can still win this battle. Even if we can't wipe out Kang Maocai's entire division, we can at least eat up half of him!"

Now, in Chao County, there are not only 8500 navy soldiers, but also Liao Yongan's three regiments were transferred back from Lujiang. Zhu Shou's regiment came by boat the day before and had been hiding in the city. The two regiments had 1700 main forces, and there were cavalrymen from Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong. The small Chao County had more than soldiers, which was still more than Kang Maocai in terms of soldiers alone. Moreover, they had a city to defend. It was no wonder that Liao Yongjian was so confident.

However, Liao Yongan said, "It is better to wait for the Marshal to come. The Marshal wants to achieve success in one battle and capture Kang Maocai's main force, as well as Heyangcheng. Otherwise, if half of him escapes and we have to transfer troops from Jiangzuo, then our battle will be in vain. How long will it take to waste time on each other?"

Liao Yongjian nodded. He also understood this logic, but he was only thinking about whether Chao County could be defended and how many of Kang Maocai's soldiers could be consumed. Lu Jin had to look at the overall situation. Kang Maocai alone was nothing. The goal of the battle was whether he could capture Heyang and destroy the bridgehead of the Yuan army in Jiangzuo and Jiangyou.

But he still sighed, "This is the day we chose. Wouldn't it delay the Marshal's wedding? At this time, they should still be welcoming the bride. When will the Marshal arrive?"

Zhu Shou looked at the sky and said, "It should be coming soon!"

Sure enough, less than two hours after these words were spoken, around eight o'clock in the evening, when Kang Maocai's main force had not yet arrived, Lu Jin's ship came from Chaohu Lake, surrounded by a group of generals, and entered the city from the water gate on the south side of Chaohu Lake.

Lu Jin said immediately.

"Don't all stand here. Let Brother Yongjian's navy guard the city. Brother Yongjian will guard the first half of the night, and Zhao Zhongzhong will guard the second half of the night. The other troops should quickly let the soldiers rest and recuperate. The cooks should prepare meals, and the soldiers should have hot meals at dawn tomorrow.

"Kang Maocai didn't come that fast. He wanted to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out and attack the reinforcements. I'll show him who is waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out."

"Yes!"

When the generals saw that Lu Jin was so relaxed and was urging them to go to bed even though the enemy army was approaching, they immediately felt more relaxed and more confident about tomorrow's battle.

Lu Jin also came to the Chao County government office and was on guard at all times. He slept with his armor wrapped around his chest. He closed his eyes and went over the arrangements of various places in his mind. After finding that there was no problem, he fell asleep.

I slept until about four o'clock the next morning. When it was dawn, Zhu Shou came to report.

"General, the navy just reported that the main force of the government navy on the Ruxu River was completely wiped out by Yu Tonghai and Hua Gao yesterday evening. More than 3,000 government soldiers were captured, and hundreds of large and small ships were seized."

"Well, this is really good news." Lu Jin rubbed his face with his hands, cheered up, and asked again, "Who sent the letter? Did you tell the soldiers?"

Zhu Shou quickly replied, "It was a captain under Hua Gao, named Li Wang. He was the one who came to us for help when they were ambushed last time. I recognize him. Yu Tonghai didn't come because he was worried about Hua Gao being alone there.

“However, they did send the captured enemy general here, saying that they wanted the Marshal to deal with him. This man was a general of the Wuwei Navy, named Wu Xiangrong.

"In order to prevent the news from leaking, the soldiers have not been told yet."

"Yeah." Lu Jin nodded, thought for a while and said.

"Keep him locked up first, and when Kang Maocai comes, give him this person as a gift.

"Wake up all the soldiers to eat, finish eating early, digest it, and exercise."

"Yes."

On the seventh day of October, at almost nine o'clock in the morning, the Yuan Dynasty's Huaixi envoy, Marshal Kang Maocai, finally arrived with his army of 10,000.

Among these 10,000 troops, there were 4,000 armored soldiers, led by four of his captains.

Chen Hong, Li Jun, Ding Zhongrui, and Wang Ruheng, these four were the men Kang Maocai brought from his hometown in Hubei. They followed him to suppress the rebel army and were awarded the rank of Qianhu for their merits. They were all his trusted fellow townsmen.

Heyang is only a few dozen miles away from Chao County, and even if you march on foot, you should arrive there in one day.

Kang Maocai set out yesterday afternoon and did not arrive until the next morning. One reason was that when he arrived at the city at night, he had not yet gained a firm foothold and it was easy for the enemy troops in the city to run out and raid his camp.

Secondly, even if they arrived that night, it would be difficult to attack the city because it was too dark. It would be better for them to slow down, have a good rest for a night at a distance, and eat and drink enough before attacking.

Now his 10,000-strong army had finally arrived at the city. Looking at Chao County, which had retracted the drawbridge and closed the city gates, Kang Maocai called over his cavalry general Lu Changyi.

"Changyi, is there any unusual movement in the direction of Luzhou?"

"Reporting to the commander, I sent people to scout all night yesterday, but did not find any reinforcements sent by Luzhou."

"Huh?" Kang Maocai frowned when he heard that.

This is not right. Chao County and Luzhou are connected by waterways. Chao County also has a watergate wharf that leads directly to Chaohu Lake.

Chao County discovered the enemy attack yesterday evening. If they immediately sent people to row a boat to Luzhou to report the news, there should have been movement in Luzhou last night, or at the latest at dawn today. How come there was no movement?
Does Lu Jin think that the 3,000 naval forces of Chao County alone can defend this low-walled city?
He looked at the city wall of Chao County and felt confused.

At this moment, on the city wall of Chao County, a large banner of the central army, which was ten feet long and six feet wide, made of red cloth with a black border and with the word "Lu" embroidered in the middle, was raised on the top of the city wall. There were also two triangular flags guarding on the left and right, and four colorful signal flags also appeared on the top of the city wall.

Kang Maocai's pupils shrank when he saw this!
Such a huge central army banner, with the word Lu embroidered on it, no doubt it must be Lu Jin's banner, but didn't he get married in Luzhou? Why did he come to Chao County?

Wherever the commander-in-chief is, the banner is there. If the banner is gone, it means the commander-in-chief has run away or is dead. This is what it means to kill the general and seize the flag. The banner cannot be lent to others.

Could it be that.
The next moment, the gate of Chao County suddenly opened, and the suspension bridge was lowered with a rumble and placed over the moat, stirring up clouds of dust and a rhythmic drum beat.

Behind the dust and smoke, countless red-turbaned soldiers, holding spears and lined up in neat formations, marching to the beat of drums, continuously poured out of the city, as if they would never end.

There were tens of thousands of people forming a huge formation, and the end of it was not visible at a glance.

hiss--

Kang Maocai took a breath of cold air. Doesn’t Chao County only have three thousand naval forces?
Now it seems to have become the result he least wants to see.

What if Lu Jin had known that he was going to take advantage of the wedding to attack? No, what if it was Lu Jin's plan from the beginning?
It has been at least half a month since he posted the notice. What has Lu Jin been preparing for during this period of time?
Tomorrow will still be 30,000 chapters a day. I will adjust the schedule and try to fix the update time.

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(End of this chapter)