I

  Chapter 645 642 [Annan Civil War]

  The news of Champa’s “attachment” has not been transmitted back to Nanjing, but the Vietnam Civil War started first.

  Xu Ying hurried into the palace and said, "Your Majesty, Annan has already started the war!"

  Zhao Han was a little surprised: "Is Mrs. Zheng so impatient? She didn't wait for the rice to be harvested before harvesting."

Xu Ying explained: "Your Majesty, Annan rice can be planted for two seasons, and some areas can be planted for three seasons. If there are two seasons of rice, it can be harvested every winter and replanted after spring. Annan Zheng's dispatch of troops this time is harvesting Last year's winter rice, after the farmers planted the summer rice, took advantage of the gap before the rainy season to send troops!"

   "How many troops did the Zheng family send?" Zhao Han asked.

  Xu Ying replied: "I'm not sure, but at least more than 50,000 people, the Ruan family should be able to withstand the danger. If it drags on for two months, the rainy season will come, and our army will definitely not be able to send troops."

Zhao Han called You Julian, the female officer in charge of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and asked the female officer Shang Bao to fetch the emperor's seal, and drafted an edict saying: "Notify the cabinet, let the Ministry of War and the Governor's Office order the Datong Army in Guangxi and Qiongzhou to follow the established regulations. Make a plan!"

  The established plan to send troops is to wait until the Vietnam Civil War is over and send troops when Zheng Zhu's regime is most vulnerable.

  Of course, as Xu Ying said, it cannot be too close to the rainy season.

   If the civil war between the two sides drags on for too long, the Datong Army will definitely not be able to move. It is really a trick to let the army drill into the forest during the tropical rainy season.

  In fact, Zhao Han's edict must have been sent to the front line too late. Fortunately, the plan was formulated long ago, and even the food and grass were already in place. Li Dingguo, Liu Xinyu, and Ding Jiasheng had great autonomy.

  At this moment, the cabinet received the news, and the three cabinet ministers did not speak much.

  Pang Chunlai did not oppose the conquest of Vietnam, but he thought the time had not come. At least the Tartars must be completely wiped out, and only after Hetao, Monan, and Nuer Gandusi have been harvested can they be freed up to use troops in other places.

  Li Banghua and Song Yingxing were worried about the old rules of Ming Dynasty.

  At the beginning, Zhu Di also brought down Vietnam. Not only did he set up the chief secretary of Jiaozhi, he even opened a department in Vietnam to recruit scholars. Those Jinshi in Vietnam, the highest reached the position of chief envoy, should have been assimilated logically, but decades later, an uprising still broke out, and they forcibly became independent from the Ming Dynasty.

  …

  The domains of the Nguyen and Trinh clans were bounded by Heng Son, the mountain range at the junction of Ha Tinh and Quang Binh provinces.

  Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty sent troops to Vietnam to destroy Linyi State and set up three counties. In the Tang Dynasty, when the Linyi Kingdom was restored, Hengshan was used as the boundary. To the north of Hengshan is the territory of the Tang Dynasty, which is now the main territory of Zheng; to the south of Hengshan is the state of Linyi, which is now the main territory of Ruan.

  The Linyi Kingdom was the predecessor of the Champa Kingdom, which was continuously encroached on by Annan, and now only a place the size of a palm is left.

  Farmers in Zheng's jurisdiction were enlisted to fight in large numbers just after transplanting rice seedlings.

  The old Zheng Yi not only personally led the troops south, but also brought the puppet king with him. This is his Nth southern expedition, with repeated defeats and repeated defeats, and vowed to destroy the Nguyen family and unify Vietnam.

  The Zheng family was defeated every time, and took the initiative to go to war every time.

  Ruan wins every time, but has always been passive defense.

  The reason is due to national strength.

  The area controlled by the Zheng family has three times the population of the Ruan family, and the land development level is higher, and the land area that can be cultivated is larger.

   "Fire, fire!"

   "Boom boom boom!"

  Zheng Yi pressed the hilt of his sword with his left hand, stood up and looked at the results of the shelling, turned around and said to the puppet king: "Your Majesty, this expedition will definitely be a victory!"

   "Okay." Li Zhenzong nodded numbly.

   Li Zhenzong was very young. A few years ago, Zheng Yu's southern expedition failed, and he blamed his father for all the faults. So, he abolished his father Li Shenzong and made him the new lord.

  If he is also defeated this time, Li Zhenzong will also have to take the blame, and another puppet king will have to be replaced.

  The Annan Civil War was small in scale, but compared to King Fei.

   Commanding the artillery was a Dutch officer.

  The gunners of the Zheng regime are mainly Dutch mercenaries, and the Vietnamese artillery are all responsible for miscellaneous work.

  Zheng Ting learned from the pain and saved money and food for several years. This time, he increased the number of artillery pieces to twelve.

   Fired hundreds of shells, Zheng Zuo, the son of Zheng Yu, drew his sword and shouted: "Go to the camp first and attack, break the Great Wall, break the Great Wall!"

  The Ruan family built some earth and stone walls in the dangerous place of Hengshan, and declared it to be the Great Wall...

  The Zheng family went to the camp first, holding a shield and holding a cold weapon, and charged desperately towards the earth and stone wall ahead. In less than half an hour, the first line of defense of the defenders was broken.

   It went so smoothly, it was purely Zheng Yi's scheming.

   Vietnam is fighting a civil war. Due to climate and agricultural reasons, it should break out in late winter and early spring.

   Zheng Yi deliberately delayed the time to make Ruan think that there will be no war this year, so the border guards have not many troops.

   After Zheng Jun broke through the first earth-stone wall, he continued his efforts and quickly broke through the second one, completely opening up the main road in the mountains going south.

  Counting the civilian husbands, a full 60,000 troops quickly captured several towns south of Hengshan.

  Ruan finally came to his senses and hastily gathered troops to resist. The two sides confronted each other on the banks of the Lishui River.

  Ruan Master Ruan Fulan personally led an army of 20,000, and his son Ruan Fubin became a general.

  Zheng Jun had already crossed the river, but because he had crossed mountains and ridges, he didn't bring any decent navy, but only collected some small boats on the way.

  Although the Ruan Army has few soldiers, it has a well-organized naval force.

  In order to guard against the navy, Zheng Bing built artillery positions along the river, and asked the Dutch gunners to stop the enemy navy from making trouble.

   After two days of confrontation, Ruan Fubin put down the binoculars and said with a smile: "Father, the Zheng's artillery has been lured away by the navy, and our elephant soldiers can be dispatched."

   "Go."

  Ruan Fulan waved his hand and spoke weakly. This time he went out with a sickness.

   Soon, the Nguyen Army came out of the battalion and harassed by the navy to contain the enemy artillery.

   Zheng Jun also left the camp when he saw this, and defected to Sha Dingzhou in Vietnam.

  Sha Dingzhou led the Yunnan cavalry to go around to the flanks, and the eldest son of the Zheng family, Zheng Bing, commanded the main infantry to advance.

   Just when the two sides were about to meet, a hundred war elephants of the Ruan Army came out from the other side of the camp. Before they had time to line up, these war elephants were urged to kill Zheng Jun's flank troops.

  Ghost knows why the Ruan family has a hundred war elephants, when they fought a few years ago, there were only more than twenty.

   Zheng Ting was shocked: "Notify the Dutch quickly, quickly turn the muzzle, and shoot at those war elephants!"

   It was too late, a hundred war elephants rushed faster and faster, and rushed into Zheng Jun's flank in a blink of an eye.

   Zheng Jun also has a small number of firecrackers, but whether they shoot arrows or shoot, they arouse the ferocity of elephants even more. These war elephants rampaged, trampled countless corpses wherever they passed, and Zheng Jun's troops collapsed one by one.

   Both sides are secretly training troops.

   Zheng's training is artillery, while Ruan's training is elephant soldiers.

   "Father, go!"

   Seeing that the situation was not good, Zheng Zuo rode back to the formation of the Chinese army, urging Zheng Bing to cross the river and escape.

  Zheng Yi said while running: "Take Your Majesty away, if you can't take it away, you will kill him, and the Ruan family can't be arrested!"

   Zheng Zuo hurriedly turned around on his horse, and soon found Li Zhenzong, and helped the puppet king onto his horse.

   Li Zhenzong fled on horseback in a daze, and he did whatever Zheng Zuo told him to do. His father is a puppet, and he himself is also a puppet. He has long been used to obeying the orders of powerful ministers.

  On the battlefield, the 60,000 Zheng army was defeated by the 20,000 Ruan army.

  The soldiers scrambled to get on the boat to cross the river, and the ferry was in chaos. Many couldn't wait to get on the boat and simply jumped into the river, while the Ruan's navy took the opportunity to intercept them under fire.

   "Boom boom boom!"

  The Dutch gunners did not escape, they all stood at the artillery position and fired at the Ruan family's navy warship.

   They know they can't run, jumping into the river will make them a living target.

  They didn't intend to surrender either, because the Ruan family burned churches and drove and killed the Dutch, and most of them were killed after surrendering.

  Going around to Shadingzhou on the other side, I was a little dazed when I saw this, why did I lose out of nowhere?

  Sha Dingzhou led the cavalry and rushed to Ruan's central army, and sent someone to shout in advance: "I wish to surrender, I wish to surrender, and the cavalry belongs to Master Ruan!"

   Without waiting for the Ruan family's father and son to agree, this guy led the cavalry to turn around again, and actually went to chase and kill the Zheng family's rout.

  Zheng's father and son led their own soldiers, hacked and killed the broken soldiers who blocked the way, and ran fast by boat, and the puppet king did not fall behind.

  The artillery positions of the Dutch were quickly attacked by Ruan's navy and army. More than 30 Dutch gunners all chose to fight to the death. They knew that they would die worse after being captured.

  Zheng's father and son fled all the way back to Hengshan with the remnants of their soldiers. There were only a few thousand of the 60,000 army.

  Most of the soldiers fled, because the Ruan family only took more than 3,000 prisoners, and more than 2,000 corpses were found on the battlefield, and one or two thousand drowned in the river.

   Just as Ruan Jun was pursuing the victory, Ruan Fulan died of illness.

  The son Ruan Fubin had no choice but to stop the army, and hurried back to formally succeed to the throne, lest there would be any trouble in the rear.

  However, they said that Zheng's father and son had not fled back to Shenglong Mansion, and they started discussing halfway.

  Zheng Zuo said: "Father, this battle has been defeated, and the royalist party in the ruling and opposition parties will definitely make trouble. We have to start in advance."

   Zheng Yi said: "The defeat in the war was all due to the lord's lack of virtue. Re-establishing a virtuous lord can calm the criticism."

"After returning to Shenglong Mansion, don't change the king for the time being, and wait for those traitors to jump out," Zheng Zuo planned, "Anyone who dares to collude and cause trouble is the henchman of the king of no virtue. Kill these traitors , there is just enough reason to change the head of the country!"

   Zheng Yi praised: "My son has grown up and is capable of governing the country. After returning this time, you will start to take over the government. You will not live for a few years as a father."

   "Father is in the prime of his life, so he will live a long life." Zheng Zuo said quickly.

  Father and son discussed it properly, and looked at the thousands of remnants around them, feeling disappointed and regretful again. This is a major defeat that the Zheng family has never experienced in decades. There must be a royalist party who wants to make trouble when they go back. In history, after this battle, the Zheng family and the Ruan family stopped fighting. Later, they simply chose to formally negotiate a peace.

   "Han soldiers are coming, Han soldiers are coming!"

   It was more than ten miles away from Shenglong Mansion, when Zheng Yi received the news, his face turned pale instantly.

  Thousands of remnant soldiers, just lost a battle, how to resist the attack of the Chinese army?

  (end of this chapter)