Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 40, Feng Tai's Defeat

Huaizhou.

Yang Fu woke up from the cold.

An old woman brought a bowl of hot soup.

"Kid, drink some soup to get rid of the cold."

Yang Fu stretched out his hand with difficulty. The wound on his body felt a piercing pain because of this action, but Yang Fu still forced himself to drink the hot soup.

"Thank you, Auntie."

Yang Fu thanked him.

The old woman smiled naively and said:
"That's nothing. Although I'm poor, I can still afford a bowl of hot soup. By the way, I got some news about the thing you asked me to find out a few days ago."

Yang Fu was refreshed, not caring about the painful wounds on his body, and asked quickly: "How is it?"

The old woman said:

"Today when I went to buy groceries, I heard people talking about the general sent by the imperial court to garrison there. His surname was Xie. What was his name? That character is not commonly used..."

Yang Fu became anxious and grabbed the old woman's arm.

"Hurry up, tell me! What's your name?"

The old woman seemed to be frightened by Yang Fu. She was stunned for a long time before she stammered, "I, I forgot..."

"You, old man!"

Yang Fu grabbed the old woman's arm tightly, his eyes seemed to be bulging with blood.

But in the end, Yang Fu let go and regained his composure.

"I'm sorry, Auntie. I was too excited just now. Please go and find out the name of the general stationed here. It would be best if you could know the relationship between this general and the Guo family. Please, I will reward you handsomely later."

Two days later.

The old woman came back from the market and said as soon as she entered the yard:
"Kid, I found out that the man's name is Xie Jing, and he has no relationship with the Guo family..."

Before she could finish her words, a sharp arrow shot into the old woman's back.

"People from the Guo family" rushed in.

"Search quickly, we must eliminate the remaining evildoers of the Yang family before the government troops are alerted!"

On the street, Yang Fu was limping away in a panic, with a courtyard on fire behind him.

"Guo family, I, Yang Fu, swear not to be a human being if I don't avenge this!"

In the burning yard, the old woman who was shot by an arrow stood up and complained: "This yard is worth a lot of money. Do you have to act so realistically to deal with a loser?"

"The leader of the Guo family" said: "Being careful in everything will never go wrong!"

One day soon.

Xie Jing took his men to Yanbei Tower for dinner.

Yanbeilou is the best northern cuisine restaurant in Huaizhou City. Xie Jing is not used to Huaiyang cuisine, so he likes to come here.

Suddenly, a ragged man blocked Xie Jing's team.

"General Xie, please help me! I am Yang Fu, the grandson of the Deputy Chief Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. I am suing the Guo family for colluding with the Huaiyin bandits to kill 200 people in my Yang family and embezzle countless properties..."

Soon, Xie Jing brought Yang Fu back to the yamen.

Since the Huaizhou prefect and other officials had been killed by Fang Yong, Huaizhou was basically under military control at this time, and Xie Jing was the highest official in Huaizhou.

Xie Jing was a man who hated evil and hated evil. When he learned about the tragedy of the Yang family being wiped out, he immediately sent people to investigate.

The results of the investigation were basically the same as what Yang Fu said.

The Yang family's property was divided up by the Huaiyin bandits and the Guo family. One of the Guo family's legitimate sons even joined the Huaiyin bandits and served the bandit leader.

The nobles had always been at odds with the civil officials, and Xie Jing had no good feelings towards the Guo family.

Although Guo Bai of the Guo family holds an important position in the court, I have now obtained solid evidence. Even if Guo Bai is extremely powerful, what can he do? Does he dare to be partial to him and commit fraud in the face of evidence of collusion with bandits?

Xie Jing immediately got angry.

He recovered all the property that the Guo family had embezzled from the Yang family, and sentenced the Guo family to pay a large amount of gold and silver as compensation.

At the same time, Xie Jing put the eldest branch of the Guo family directly into prison, waiting for processing!
The reason was that his descendants were in cahoots with bandits.

Originally, according to Xie Jing's temper, he wanted to directly execute the entire lineage of the Guo family!

However, the other party was a family member of an official of the third rank or above, and if a verdict was to be made, it had to be reported to the capital for review. So Xie Jing could only put the eldest wife of the Guo family in jail and wait for the receipt from the capital.

Yancheng.

After several days of hard fighting, Guo Laohei, wearing armor, forcefully climbed up the city wall.

Facing the attack from the soldiers defending the city, Guo Laohei took out the big axe behind him and chopped the soldier in front of him in half.

"kill!"

The walls were stained with blood.

Jinling. Duke Shanguo looked at the imperial edict in his hand with disappointment.

Emperor Longqing rejected his suggestion to send troops to Huaizhou and asked him to strictly abide by the plan of the Ministry of War to suppress the bandits.

First eliminate the White Lotus rebels who pose the greatest threat, and then deal with the Huaiyin thieves in Huaizhou.

The imperial edict had been issued. Even though Duke Shanguo had all kinds of reasons in his mind, he had no choice but to obey the imperial order.

Under the city of Chuzhou.

Feng Tai ordered his soldiers to attack Chuzhou like crazy.

It was because he had received news not long ago that Jinling had been occupied by Duke Shanguo, and his retreat was cut off.

The army's food and supplies can only last for three days. If he cannot capture Chuzhou within three days, he will die without a burial place.

"Attack with all your strength. The first one to reach the summit will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver. No, ten thousand taels!"

Feng Tai roared hysterically.

Faced with the crisis of life and death, Feng Tai was willing to take out even his favorite gold and silver.

As long as he can take over Chuzhou City, he is willing to pay anything.

Unfortunately, it's too late.

I don't know why. The already shaky Chuzhou City suddenly became strong today. The soldiers on the city seemed to have changed and were defending in an orderly manner. They were not confused at all by the numerical advantage of Feng Tai's men.

The battle lasted from morning to evening. Feng Tai's soldiers were exhausted and Feng Tai's voice was hoarse from shouting.

Suddenly, the gate of Chuzhou city opened.

A group of cavalry rushed out.

The leader was wearing silver armor, holding a spear, and leading the army to charge!

Under the trampling of iron hooves, a rebel was shot away by Chen Ruiwen and fell heavily!

"Charge the enemy and take down the leader!"

Chen Ruiwen's roar, accompanied by the sound of horse hooves trampling, resounded across the battlefield.

The exhausted Fengtai soldiers couldn't help but panic when they saw this.

Under the setting sun, Feng Tai's troops were cut straight in half by Chen Ruiwen's cavalry.

Following closely behind the cavalry was a large number of infantry.

They filed out of Chuzhou City and further divided the bandit army that had already been divided by Chen Ruiwen.

Feng Tai's troops had not received any systematic training and could only charge forward in a rush when fighting. After being dispersed, their combat effectiveness was basically reduced to zero and they were quickly defeated by the government troops.

Feng Tai fled frantically surrounded by his men.

Feng Tai now realized that the imperial court's reinforcements had already arrived in Chuzhou. No wonder the defense of the city was tighter today than before.

Unfortunately, it’s too late to understand this now.

Feng Tai fled all the way and Chen Ruiwen chased him all the way.

During this period, many of Feng Tai's soldiers chose to surrender.

After a while, Chen Ruiwen took the initiative to stop the pursuit.

It’s not that they couldn’t catch up with Feng Tai, it’s because there were too many surrendered bandits.

Along the way, more than 100,000 bandits chose to surrender. Chen Ruiwen's troops were too few to guard these bandits while pursuing Feng Tai.

If they forced a pursuit, and Feng Tai reacted and gathered his men to counterattack, Chen Ruiwen's troops would most likely be defeated due to lack of numbers.

Chen Ruiwen was keenly aware of this and therefore decided to quit while he was ahead.

Anyway, his mission has been completed, and now it’s up to Duke Shan.

However, Feng Tai fled all the way, and his soldiers surrendered or dispersed, and in the end there were only less than 30,000 people left.

Feng Tai fled all the way to the river.

After inquiring, we found out that this place is called He County, close to a big river. Across the river is a big mountain called Tianma Mountain, with dense forests, suitable for hiding.

Feng Tai immediately thought of leading his men to hide in Tianma Mountain.

Little did they know that the Duke of Shanguo's army was lying in ambush near the river.

In order to cross the river, Feng Tai led his troops to rob nearby large and small boats.

If there are not enough boats, use ropes to tie baskets on both sides of the boat to carry people.

If that wasn't enough, they also forcibly demolished the doors and roofs of residents in nearby villages and used them as rafts to carry people across the river.

In this way, Feng Tai barely gathered enough vehicles and led his men to cross the river.

The river was turbulent, and when many soldiers had crossed one-third of the way, their makeshift rafts were washed away and they died in the river.

Feng Tai ignored him and continued to fight to cross the river.

(End of this chapter)