Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 49, Economic Blockade

After Chen Zhengdu arrived in Zhongwu, he immediately executed the officials who wanted to surrender, stabilized the situation, and made Fang Yong's plan fail.

Fang Yongsui sent people to launch a strong attack on Zhongwu using various siege weapons such as cannons, towers, ladders, and battering rams.

Chen Zhengdu used rockets, kerosene, rolling logs and falling rocks to defend his position.

The two sides fought for more than ten days. Chen Zhengdu had a large number of troops and Zhongwu City was strong. Fang Yong saw that it was difficult to achieve results and had no choice but to choose to retreat.

Chen Zhengdu observed the retreat of Fang Yong's troops and saw that the flags were scattered and the army was in disarray. He immediately concluded that the morale of the Huaiyin bandits was low, and therefore they retreated.

Now is a good time to attack out of the city!

Since Chen Zhengdu was promoted by the emperor out of turn, his prestige was not high, and many people in the army were dissatisfied with him.

Chen Zhengdu urgently needed to make great achievements to prove himself.

So when Chen Zheng saw the opportunity, he immediately decided to rush out of the city to hunt down Fang Yong's troops!

The result was naturally a great defeat.

After Chen Zhengdu left the city, he was soon ambushed by Fang Yong.

The so-called retreat was just Wu Yuan's strategy to lure the enemy.

In the chaos of the battle, Fang Yong shot an arrow and directly killed a general of the opposing army who was wearing a golden helmet and armor.

Chen Zheng, who was standing next to the golden-armored general, was so scared that he peed his pants.

If General Cao had not said before leaving the city that he wanted to try on his armor for fun, he would be the one dead now!
At that moment, Chen Zhengdu no longer had the courage to fight and fled under the cover of his personal guards, causing the army to fall into chaos.

Fang Yong quickly and successfully captured Zhongwu.

Chen Zhengdu fled all the way to Xia Pi.

After this battle, Chen Zheng never dared to fight Fang Yong again.

He turned around and led his troops to take a detour to meet up with Duke Shan.

On the other side, Duke Shanguo retreated to Gaoyou with his remaining troops.

As the army had no food, Duke Shanguo ordered the army to forcibly collect food from the surrounding wealthy households.

This caused dissatisfaction among many people.

But at this time, Duke Shanguo could no longer care about so many things. Let him impeach, he would not be afraid of itching if he had too many lice. He could not just watch the army mutiny because of lack of food.

Soon after, the surrendered White Lotus soldiers led by Chunyu Jian were the first to reunite with Duke Shan.

Duke Shanguo gathered his old soldiers and the surrendered soldiers and reassembled them together to form an army of more than 100,000.

However, compared with the previous 100,000 elite soldiers, the current army composed of a large number of surrendered soldiers is not even a little bit inferior.

Duke Shanguo was also aware of this, so he no longer engaged in a head-on battle with Fang Yong.

Duke Shanguo personally led his troops to garrison in Gaoyou, and dispatched Chunyu Jian with 50,000 troops to garrison in Hailing. He also contacted the naval commander Zhang Yuan in Fanliang Lake and ordered his 12,000-man naval fleet to cooperate in the operation in Fanliang Lake. The three parties jointly formed a blockade line to block the southern part of Fang Yong's territory.

Duke Shanguo firmly guarded this blockade line, using force to prohibit all merchants and civilians from entering or leaving the blockade, and from time to time sent small groups of troops to attack the people in Fang Yong's area.

At this time, Fang Yong was preparing to attack Haizhou. However, due to the harassment from Duke Shanguo, he had to lead his troops back to provide support.

This old guy deserves to die!
Duke Shanguo indeed deserved to die, but it must be said that his strategy was effective.

Because of the defense of the city, it was difficult for Fang Yong to break through the blockade of Duke Shanguo.

The method of luring the enemy was also ineffective against the cunning Duke Shanguo.

Once Fang Yong left, Duke Shanguo sent people to attack the people.

After a period of time, the people in Fangyong were suffering terribly and the land cultivation was severely damaged.

Not long after, Chen Zhengdu's troops successfully reunited with Duke Shanguo.

In front of Duke Shanguo, Chen Zhengdu read out the imperial edict of Emperor Longqing.

Duke Shan accepted the order calmly without any resistance.

According to the imperial edict, he handed over the command of his army to Chunyu Jian, and then handed over the seal of the commander-in-chief to Chen Zhengdu. Chen Zhengdu couldn't help but feel a little respect for this veteran with outstanding achievements.

Suddenly, the country is fair:
"Fushan (Chen Zhengdu's pen name), I heard that you were defeated by Zhongwu. If I leave today, do you have a good plan to resist the bandits in Huaiyin? If not, would you like to listen to what I have to say?"

Chen Zheng was stunned when he heard this. He was silent for a long time, but still shook his head.

He admitted that he really had no good way to fight against the Huaiyin bandits.

"Would you like some advice, old general?"

Chen Zhengdu said.

Duke Shan then called Chen Zhengdu aside and said:
"As a general, you can adapt to circumstances and not stick to one pattern in order to defeat the enemy. The Huaiyin bandits are strong and powerful now. If we fight them, it will be difficult to win."

Chen Zheng nodded in agreement and asked, "How can we defeat the enemy in this case?"

Duke Shan Guo said: "Nothing special, just make the best use of one's strengths and overcome one's weaknesses."

Duke Shan then explained.

"We should use defense as offense, firmly hold the important cities, build many forts, besiege and trap them, so that they cannot trade and cut off their economic sources. We should also secretly send elite troops to harass their people and destroy their farmland, so that they are trapped both internally and externally. If we do this for a long time, the enemy will be defeated without a fight."

Chen Zheng was very surprised when he heard this.

This strategy is too unscrupulous!
But after being surprised, he quickly judged that Duke Shanguo's strategy was feasible.

But he can't use this strategy.

Massacre the people, destroy the foundations of farmland, and prohibit trade!

Any of these is a big taboo.

If he really used the method suggested by Duke Shanguo, he would be impeached by all officials and his military power would be taken back before he could defeat the Huaiyin bandits.

Duke Shan Guo seemed to have anticipated this and asked:
"Is Fushan afraid of criticism from the court? Don't worry. If we implement this strategy, Fushan can pretend to be controlled by me and avoid impeachment from the officials."

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhengdu looked at Duke Shanguo in shock.

He couldn't help but say:

"You absolutely cannot do that, old general. If you do that, you will be severely punished by His Majesty afterwards. I'm afraid your family will be in danger!"

Duke Shan comforted him:

"Don't worry, Fushan. My family has a certificate of immunity from death granted by the Emperor. Even if something unexpected happens, it will only mean the loss of military power. I have long wanted to retire and enjoy the rest of my life in peace."

Death-free iron ticket!

Chen Zheng suddenly understood.

Yes, the retired emperor once granted Duke Shanguo an iron certificate of immunity from death, which could save him from the death penalty.

He was worrying too much.

Chen Zhengdu bowed respectfully and said:
"I am willing to follow the old general's orders."

Duke Shan smiled, looked up at the sky with his one eye, and sighed:
"I will repay your kindness on the Golden Terrace and die for you by supporting Yulong. After this, I don't owe you anything."

Afterwards, Duke Shanguo did not obey the order and return to the capital on the grounds that he was seriously injured and unable to move.

Chen Zhengdu took away more than half of the troops under Duke Shanguo, and then garrisoned several major cities around Fang Yong's forces and established defense lines.

Many large cities such as Gaoyou, Hailing, Yangzhou, Chuzhou, Fengyang, Xia Pi, and Haizhou were firmly controlled by him. Each city was garrisoned with 20,000 to 30,000 troops, and Fang Yong's forces were surrounded extremely tightly.

Chen Zhengdu did not attack, but only defended. He did not allow merchants to pass, blocked the economy with all his strength, and constantly sent small troops to harass the people.

Shanguo believed that under such a strategy, the economic system in Fang Yong's territory would soon collapse.

However, something happened that Duke Shanguo never expected.

While Fangyong's economy had not yet shown any significant changes, the price of salt in Daxi had already risen by one third.

(End of this chapter)