Xie Ming

The expedition failed and he fell ill, and the sudden change in Jiujiang affected the whole army.
It was the night of the tenth day of March, when the Xiao army was approaching Anqing in the east, they made a quick plan and planned to use this place to block the enemy.

The subject changed, and he moved westward, aiming at the front of Jiujiang City.

Zuo Liangyu's 800,000 troops were on boats and ships, anchored in a corner of Jiujiang.

In the main ship, the rebel commander-in-chief Zuo Liangyu, also known as Ningnan Hou, was getting worse and worse.

In fact, when he first started the rebellion, he had been suffering from a chronic illness for many months.

Coupled with my frail health and old age, it is difficult for me to sustain it for long.

However, Zuo Liangyu felt that he was getting old and this eastward march might be his last chance to realize his ambitions, so he could not bear to let it go.

So he pondered deeply for many days, and finally decided to launch an attack.

I thought, if God gives me another year or two, the big issues could be settled.

However, man proposes, God disposes. He did not expect that just after arriving in Jiujiang, an accidental accident would become the reason for his burial.

So, what exactly happened to lead to this situation?
It's a very unexpected time.

Zuo Liangyu's lifelong friend, Governor Yuan Jixian, invited him to join him in making contributions when the army started.

Yuan Jixian had been working in Jiangxi Province for a long time, and it took him several days to finally arrive.

That night, the man was driven to Jiujiang and met with Zuo Liangyu in the commander's cabin of the main ship.

In order to win his heart, Zuo Liangyu used all his tricks and made all kinds of excuses in order to lure Yuan Jixian into joining his gang.

In order to show his seriousness and gain his trust, he even forged a handwritten letter from Emperor Hongguang, saying that he wanted to request troops to Nanjing to quell the rebellion.

With the mandate from Heaven and the Emperor's blood decree, he was allowed to act as he saw fit along the way, rob the generals and soldiers from various places to form an alliance, and work together to purge the emperor's side.

However, Yuan Jixian took on the responsibility of governor-general and experienced ups and downs in his official career for many years.

How could he not see such poor acting skills?

Therefore, without waiting for Zuo Liangyu to come forward and promise an official position, Yuan Jixian firmly and sternly refused.

If you don't agree with me, there's no need to talk to me. If you have different ideals, you can't work together.

So, after the meeting on the two ships ended in a bad mood, Yuan Jixian took his leave and left.

But I just can't die.

Yuan is that kind of person, and he is really stubborn and makes mistakes.

His refusal to join the rebellion has already touched his bottom line. Doesn't this guy think he should flee from this dangerous place as soon as possible?

Relying on his close relationship with Zuo Liangyu, he turned around and secretly entered Jiujiang City.

You must know that at this moment in the Jiujiang area, Zuo Liangyu's troops had already occupied both land and sea.

Right now the city is densely populated with scouts and secret sentries.

Yuan Jixian was totally unaware and was caught up in the chaos. He was even more daring and had secret meetings with many officers in the rebel rear camp.

His intention was to instigate a mutiny and create momentum so that he could report to the imperial court.

Now, the generals in Zuo Liangyu's tent could no longer sit still.

There was a foolish man named Hao Xiaozhong, who acted rashly in private without reporting to his superiors. Thinking that he could gain credit for his actions, he led his troops to break into Jiujiang city at night, intending to capture Yuan Jixian and his conspirators alive, in order to create a fait accompli and put Zuo Liangyu on the spot to show his loyalty.

However, this action soon got out of control.

Inside Jiujiang City, those generals who had conspired to mutiny, seeing that their plan was exposed, no longer cared about anything.

In an instant, riots broke out in the city and large-scale street fighting broke out.

Internal strife among Hubei rebels began.

Moreover, the chaos was difficult to control for a while, and the two sides fought each other fiercely, even using firearms and guns.

It is also possible that before the main fleet of ships on the shore could react, many houses in Jiujiang City were set on fire due to the civil strife.

A fire broke out suddenly and was out of control.

Zuo Liangyu realized the situation later. By the time he understood the details of the incident, the fire in Jiujiang city had spread to the firearms depot in the east of the city. The explosions shot into the sky and half of the city was destroyed in an instant.

Yuan Jixian had made a mistake and could not escape, and was buried in the city. Upon hearing this news, Zuo Liangyu, who was already seriously ill and holding on, showed signs of being furious.

He spat out a mouthful of blood in the court, muttering "Mr. Yuan". At this point, he died with regret.

This incident was quite sudden and the coalition forces were not at all prepared.

On the night of the tenth day, Zuo Liangyu died on the way east.

Soon, the 800,000 Hubei rebels were leaderless and fell into a stalemate.

At this critical moment, we must stabilize the morale of the troops and plan for succession.

In order to cover up his fault, Hao Xiaozhong, the general who was the instigator of the crime, suddenly changed his attitude and made the decision again. In a hurry, he gathered the generals of the first five battalions in the army and reached a unanimous decision.

At this critical moment, the commander-in-chief died midway through his mission. Once the news got out, the army would surely be in chaos.

So he devised a plan to carry out the act secretly without announcing the death.

Together, they elected Zuo Liangyu's son Zuo Menggeng as temporary military commander, giving him command over the entire army.

This matter sounds like the behavior of a loyal general.

But in reality, all the five relatives and generals had their own ulterior motives and selfish interests.

Any attempt to promote Zuo Menggeng's power is just superficial.

The puppet trap technique is just to lure people into being trapped.

After they sat down, the five generals hurriedly gathered their ideas and started to encourage them.

We want to rely on this order to continue advancing eastwards, thinking that this expedition is a general trend and we must succeed, this opportunity cannot be missed and will never come back.

If we continue marching eastward, we will be hard to stop if the Southern Court is unprepared, so we will march into the capital.

The five generals will divide the world and become local emperors to praise the princes. Isn't that wonderful?
As a result, Zuo Menggeng, whose real power fell into the hands of others, had little chance to defend himself or retreat.

He could only cover Zuo Liangyu's body and stay in the ship's hold, grieving the death of his father at the wrong time.

Afterwards, it was just like this, like this, like this.

Let’s put the matter of Jiujiang aside for now and not go into details.

In a flash, half a month has passed.

Two flowers bloom, each in one place.

March 25th.

As for Anqing, although they had heard about the incident in Jiujiang recently, the five relatives under Zuo Liangyu kept the news secret.

From the outside, it was difficult to conceal the mutiny in the rear camp, and it took half a month to suppress it.

As for the situation inside the main ship, his son Zuo Menggeng had already intervened to mediate, but the news of the old commander's death was kept secret from the outside world.

There was no way to further inquire about Xiao's military headquarters, so they had to step up preparations for war.

Moreover, due to the gain of this half month, the troops in the rear of Xiao's army have gradually arrived in full.

When more troops arrived, Xiao Jingchuan did not dare to delay at all and quickly deployed his forces.

Immediately, military orders were issued to all locations.

Li Hongsheng, with two battalions of 5,000 soldiers, was ordered to garrison Anqing City with all his strength.

Zhao Yingyuan's troops, with two battalions of 5,000 men, crossed the river and camped near Wangjiang in order to form a pincer attack.

As for Xu Jizu, he led three battalions of 7,000 troops eastward quickly to occupy Chizhou in preparation for the loss of Anqing, so as to establish a second line of defense to resist the enemy's attack.

Li Huchen was tricked by Xiao because of the drawing of lots on the tenth night. He was unaware of it and accepted the defeat. He then took only one battalion of troops to join the navy for the ship drill.

There were another three battalions of seven thousand men, temporarily placed under the direct command of Xiao, and an army was added to Chuanwu's army, which was stationed in the dense forest at the foot of Yanshan Mountain, southwest of Anqing.

Finally, Chen Jiulang and General Lan Qier led two thousand Fengyang soldiers to climb Wushan Mountain and lay ambushes on the mountaintops on both wings.

Therefore, Xiao's army's blocking formation was ready to lure the 800,000 rebels into the trap.

(End of this chapter)