I

  Chapter 246 244【Limited Elite】

   It would be embarrassing if the sneak attack failed, because Liao Sheng had to cross the river.

   Either go to the west bank of the Xiangjiang River or go further downstream to cross the Xiangjiang River. Either go to the east bank of the Xiangjiang River and cross the Lushui River on the opposite bank of Lukou Town.

   There is a bridge in Lukou Town, built in the Song Dynasty, with a total length of more than 150 meters. It is a wooden pier and wooden beam structure, and it needs to be repaired every few years. If you don't take this bridge, the entire Lushui River will only have the Lujiang Bridge on the Liling side, which is also a Song Dynasty bridge with wooden piers and wooden beams.

  Liao Sheng does not have a dedicated navy, and his ships are only used to transport luggage.

  Zhao Han's navy can't come from Jiangxi, and the ships can only be used to transport baggage—of course, they can make a big circle from the Yangtze River, and then follow the Xiangjiang River to this side.

  Crossing the Xiangjiang River was too difficult, so Liao Sheng could only choose to cross the bridge at Lushui.

   Landed on the south bank of Lushui, Liao Sheng breathed a sigh of relief, the rebels finally did not set fire to the bridge.

   Camped across the river and did not move that day.

  Liao Sheng asked his younger brother Liao Kun to lead 1,500 elites with good water skills to smuggle them upstream at night. At that time, the main force will forcefully cross the bridge, and the surprise soldiers will attack from the east at the same time, and the two sides will be able to win in one battle.

  Fei Yinggong didn't respond, as if he didn't know how to guard against enemy smuggling.

  When the news of the successful smuggling of the clan brother came, Liao Sheng sneered in the camp: "The thief general who guards the grain road is so incompetent, this battle is bound to be won!"

  Fei Yinggong didn’t move for two reasons:

  First, although he can command a thousand regular soldiers now, Huang Yao took away five hundred to besiege the city. He only has 500 regular soldiers and 500 peasant soldiers, which is too weak after division;

  Second, if the enemy is not allowed to cross the river, how can he wipe it out?

   At noon the next day, the 1,500 regiments of Yong who successfully smuggled in were led by Liao Kun to kill after recovering from a rest.

  At the same time, Liao Sheng forcibly crossed the bridge ahead of time to restrain the bandits and cooperate with his clan brothers to reach the battlefield smoothly.

  Shields and spearmen are in the front, and three hundred archers are in the back. Only a few hundred troops can be invested at one time, and there are too many people to stand on the bridge.

  They were not in a hurry to attack, so they shot from the bridge to the opposite bank, and waited for the smuggling friendly troops to arrive before attacking on both sides.

   "Father, the enemy from the east is here, and more than a thousand people have been smuggled away." Fei Ruhui said.

  Fei Yinggong turned his head and took a look: "No hurry, just wait."

  The five hundred soldiers guarding the bridge were holding up rattan shields to defend against bows and arrows. When the 1,500 regiments on the side approached bravely, Fei Yinggong suddenly exclaimed: "Quick retreat!"

  Taking advantage of the gap between the archers' shots, the bridge guards turned around and fled, as if they were afraid of being attacked from both sides, and they were frightened to death.

   Very poor acting!

  However, Tuan Yong, who was attacking on the bridge, believed it, and Tuan Yong, who was double-teamed by illegal immigrants, also believed it.

  Since they formed an army, they have been fighting bandits for a long time. Those thieves also fight in the same way, once they are ambushed or double-teamed, they will be defeated.

  Liao Sheng on the other side of the river said anxiously: "Ming Jin, Ming Jin, gather across the river, don't chase after me!"

   "Dang Dang Dang Dang!"

  The gong rang wildly, but it was too late.

   Tuanyong who crossed the bridge, and Tuanyong who smuggled across the bridge, saw that the Datong army was fleeing, and immediately got hot-headed and swarmed to kill them.

  Obviously, these regiments are brave and elite, and they can't be banned by orders.

  After Liao Sheng crossed the river, his troops had split into two groups. One is chasing and killing the Datong Army, and the other is very obedient and gathers on the shore. In desperation, while leading his troops to chase, he blew the trumpet to stop the troops in front.

   This is a commercial town. There are so many people that it is impossible to line up. They can only advance along the bluestone streets.

  Two streets in the shape of "⊥".

   One extends horizontally along the river, and the other extends vertically along the shop.

   Tuanyong, who was the first to cross the bridge, got into the vertical street to pursue. The 1,500 regiments who stowed away bravely pursued them from the small road outside the town. All dragged into a long snake array, to be precise, dragged into two long snakes.

   They went crazy after them, just like they used to hunt thieves.

   "Woo!"

  The sharp and ear-piercing copper whistle sounded, and the five hundred soldiers who escaped from the town suddenly stopped to gather in formation.

  This kind of operation, in the entire Ming Dynasty, only a few troops can do it. Most of the officers, soldiers, village heroes, and bandits, even if they had made arrangements in advance, were defeated when they fled, and the feigned defeat directly turned into a rout.

  The regiment warriors couldn't do it, so they thought that the Datong Army couldn't do it either. They firmly believed that the Datong Army was really fleeing.

   "Under Heaven!"

   "Farm and eat!"

  The 500 soldiers who had quickly completed their formation suddenly shouted in unison, scaring Tuan Yong, who was chasing at the front, trembling with fear.

"kill!"

  On the narrow Qingshiban Town Street, at most ten people can stand side by side. No matter how many regiments were chasing, they couldn't be separated at all, and were instantly strangled by the Datong army lined up at the street.

   "Run, there is an ambush!"

   Tuan Yong who was running in front hurriedly turned around, but Tuan Yong who was behind was still rushing forward, and soon huddled together at the street corner.

   Tuanyong's command system has completely failed at this time, and even the officers are squeezed into the crowd.

   All the shops in the town are closed, and a few shops have two floors. Shopkeepers, shopkeepers, merchants... all watched from the windows on the second floor, and they saw a very exciting scene.

   There were only 500 soldiers of the same army, arrayed in a crescent shape at the street entrance, and countless regiments bravely crashed into the concave gap. A brave regiment is often assassinated by several long spears, and the front and back are crowded there, unable to advance or retreat.

  Tuan Yong, who was chasing from behind, didn't know what happened at first, and stood behind and fell into a sleepwalking state collectively. After strangling like this for at least a minute, the group braves behind began to flee, but the middle area was crowded with people, and countless group braves fell down in panic, and many group braves were simply trampled to death by friendly troops.

   An out-of-town businessman who lived in an inn watched the whole battle through the window and couldn't help sighing: "There are elite troops on one side and mobs on the other. This battle is not unjustly lost."

   On the other side, under the leadership of Liao Kun, the 1500 smuggling group Yong chased from the small road outside the town and outflanked them.

  They bumped into five hundred farmers and soldiers head-on!

  There are houses on one side of the path, and dry fields on the other. Liao Kun raised the flag and shouted.

  Facing the peasants and soldiers waiting in full force, the regiment warriors did not dare to chase after them, and jumped into the dry fields one after another to form an array.

  However, before they finished their formation, five hundred farmers and soldiers also jumped into the dry field, trotting and began to charge in a formation of mandarin ducks.

  These regiments are indeed elite, and they didn't lose immediately. They are much more powerful than the regiments of the Zhou family in Xiangtan.

   That's all.

  The 1,500 regiments were brave enough to face the 500 peasants and soldiers who were charging in formation. After holding on for about two minutes, he was directly killed from the middle. The group warriors wanted to fight, but there were wolf sticks in front of them, and then a long spear stabbed them in a daze.

  Liao Kun raised his knife to split two wolf whisks, and was suddenly stabbed by a wolf whisk. While parrying and retreating, he was stabbed by another long spear, and then he was shot in the shoulder, abdomen, and chest, and fell to the ground dead on the spot.

  Liao Sheng came with his own troops, and the two regiments had all fled, so he could only retreat to the bridge to form a response.

   But more and more rout soldiers rushed back, and the Datong army was chasing after them, and Liao Sheng's main formation was also shaken instantly. When the rout was getting closer and closer, Tuan Yong, who was in charge of responding, was so frightened that he turned around and ran away, which immediately led to the rout of the entire army. Liao Sheng couldn't even kill several people.

  The five thousand regiments brought by Liao Sheng are already the most elite troops in the entire southern Shonen region at this time.

   They have been fighting for more than a year, and all belong to veterans who have seen blood. The other troops, including the soldiers under Governor Wang Zhiliang's command, were all peasants recruited temporarily, and had no combat effectiveness at all, and could only be used to defend the city.

  The only elite in southern Shonan, the whole army was defeated in this way.

  The reason for the defeat turned out to be Fei Yinggong's very clumsy feigning defeat, which caused these elites to chase to the ambush point in disregard of military orders.

  At this moment, more than 3,000 of the five thousand elite are still alive. A small number fled along both sides of the river bank, and most of them were squeezing on the wooden bridge, trying to cross the river from the only bridge. Across the river was their camp.

  Liao Sheng was powerless to prevent the defeat, so he could only be caught in the chaos and quickly retreated under the protection of his confidantes.

  Liao Sheng successfully crossed the bridge and ran away, but more regiments were squeezed on the bridge, and many defeated soldiers were even squeezed into the river.

"kill!"

  Fei Ruhui, a woman, rushed forward with a long gun in her hand, quickly stabbing at the defeated soldiers. She prefers to use a sword, but fighting on the battlefield is more comfortable with a spear.

   Stabbed several people to death one after another, the broken soldiers on the bridge jumped into the river one after another, and the rest were chased across the bridge.

   "Slow down, slow down!" Fei Yinggong yelled anxiously, fearing that her daughter would have an accident.

  Fei Ruhui had already rushed to the other side, chasing several miles away, before stopping to rest out of breath.

  Liao Sheng fled frantically with the remnant soldiers and returned along the original road of Xiangjiang River. After escaping until dark, he finally saw no pursuers. He asked his confidants to count the number of people, and there were only more than eighty left.

  Liao Sheng wants to cry but has no tears, these are his five thousand elite soldiers!

  Although Leiyang and Hengshan each had 3,000 regiments bravely guarding the city, Hengyang still had 1,500 regiments bravely defending the city. But the 7,500 regiments of bravery were all weak in combat effectiveness and belonged to the mob recruited by other gentry.

  Liao Sheng was in a trance, feeling helpless.

  He lost his own elite, so what's the use of returning to Leiyang, Hengshan, and Hengyang? Even if they go back, they may not be able to command, because they are other people's soldiers, and there are conflicts among the squires.

   That's all, that's all, stop fighting.

  Liao Sheng waited by the river for two days, and more than two hundred regiments fled back one after another. These were all his subordinate soldiers, and there were only three hundred left, so they simply found a ferry to cross the river and fled all the way back to his hometown in Longhui, robbing landlords to raise rations along the way.

  Hearing that Liao Sheng's main army was wiped out, the three cities of Hengyang, Hengshan, and Leiyang on the southern line suddenly became agitated, and soldiers deserted every day.

  Zhang Tieniu took the opportunity to surround Leiyang, and Liu Zhu took the opportunity to surround Hengshan.

  Hengyang, between the two cities, was about to become an isolated city, and the prefect was so frightened that he ran away. The county magistrate is kind, he stepped forward when he was in danger, and opened the treasury to recruit soldiers on the spot.

  However, the Hengyang garrison recruited less and less.

  The magistrate recruited one, and seven or eight escaped that night.

  Hengyang is a big commercial city. There are many wealthy merchants here, and almost every wealthy merchant has numerous servants.

   There was a slave named Zhang Feng. After he made a fortune, he asked scholars to change his name to Zhang Wenyu.

  He had never been to Jiangxi, but he got a copy of "Datong Collection" from Jiangxi merchants, and began to inquire about the situation of domestic slaves in Jiangxi.

  In the latest edition of "Datong Collection", there is an article called "Release the Slaves", which classifies tenants, long-term workers, domestic servants, and military households as slaves. It is believed that only by freeing slaves can the world be truly unified, and these slaves should also be treated equally.

   Seeing that only two or three hundred of the Hengyang defenders had escaped, Zhang Wenyu immediately began to join forces, and half of the domestic slaves in Hengyang City were incited.

   Judging from the slave rebellion at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the intensity of the domestic slave rebellion was far lower than that of the peasant rebellion.

  In most cases, domestic slaves just beat their masters, forcing them to hand over the contract of sale, or forcing their masters to improve their treatment. Only a very small number of them will kill their masters. The reason is very simple. All the slave change movements are led by the slaves. These slaves also have family businesses, and they don't want to make it too big.

  The two cities of Hengshan and Leiyang have not yet been conquered, and Hengyang in the middle has changed its flag instead.

  Zhang Wenyu led countless domestic slaves, drove away the Hengyang defenders, and erected a self-made Datong army flag.

  (end of this chapter)