Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 98, Daxi God of War

But Wang Ziteng took his troops and hid in Hejian.

This place is located on the edge of Zhili, close to Shandong, and has no conflict with the route of the Jin bandits.

The Jin bandits came from Niangzi Pass in Shanxi, went south through Handan, and went north through Baofu. No matter which route they took, they had nothing to do with Hejian.

Wang Ziteng knew his own trump card clearly. As long as he held on to the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in his hands, he would definitely have a place no matter who won or lost between the Jin bandits and the imperial court.

Weigh the importance of things before taking any action, and measure gains and losses accordingly.

During the days when Wang Ziteng was stationed in Hejian, he neither built fortifications nor trained soldiers, but kept asking for money from the capital.

Wang Ziteng colluded with officials at all levels in the capital area, falsely reported his military achievements, and demanded large amounts of military funds and equipment to enrich himself.

In troubled times, only real money and food can stabilize your army.

In the face of the current world, officials began to levy heavy taxes without any guidance for future plans. As long as Wang Ziteng paid money, he would turn a blind eye to such a small matter as falsely reporting military achievements.

In the palace, because Zhending was under siege and the Jinyiwei was disbanded, Emperor Longqing had no idea of the real battle situation on the front line, so he firmly believed in Wang Ziteng's "results".

In order to support the front line, Emperor Longqing had to cut down on palace expenses and only ate two dishes and one soup every day. Sometimes the main dishes would be heated up and eaten twice just to save some military expenses.

In the past, Emperor Longqing liked to eat a delicacy made of egg whites and white sugar, which was similar to cake. The bill given by the Ministry of Internal Affairs was five taels of silver per egg. Emperor Longqing felt that it was a bit expensive, so he reluctantly gave up this dish.

Little did they know that five taels of silver could actually buy a cartload of eggs...

What is even more regrettable is that after the little military funds that Emperor Longqing had saved with great difficulty were given away, they were divided up among the upper and lower levels, and in the end only two or three tenths ended up in Wang Ziteng's hands.

And this last 20% to 30% was used by Wang Ziteng to win people's hearts.

The entire army thought that the military pay was paid by the princes privately, and they did not feel the slightest gratitude towards Emperor Longqing. Instead, they had great respect for Wang Ziteng.

As for the sophisticated equipment issued by the Ministry of Industry, Wang Ziteng sold them at a high price.

According to the previous agreement, 60% of the price was to be sold to the Xue caravan, but when news came from the grassland that they wanted to buy it at 70% of the price, Wang Ziteng became a little hesitant.

Seeing that Wang Ziteng was so easily shaken, Li Ni secretly labeled him as a traitor and profit-seeking person.

But at this time he still needed to cooperate with the Wang family and didn't want to break up with them, so Li Ni had to raise the price to 75%. Wang Ziteng then cooperated with the Huaiyin army again.

On the other hand, the Jin bandits bypassed Zhending and headed straight towards the capital.

The vicious bandits plundered along the way and burned all the towns and villages along the way to ashes in order to coerce the people, leaving them homeless. However, if there was any resistance, their entire family would be massacred.

In this way, we arrived at Baofu.

The Jin bandits' momentum has grown again, and their actual military strength is close to one million.

At this time, the Governor-General of Zhili was stationed in Baofu.

The Governor-General of Zhili had some Green Camp soldiers in his hands. Originally, he planned to wait and see the situation. If the Jin bandits were defeated in Zhending, he would follow the government army to attack them; if the Prince of Jin won, he would take these soldiers and surrender to the Prince of Jin in exchange for an official position and enjoy wealth and honor.

But no one expected that the Jin bandits would dare to bypass the city, committing this major military taboo. This really left the Governor of Zhili a little confused.

Could it be that this Jin thief who claims to have an army of millions is actually a fool?
Out of caution, the Governor of Zhili did not dare to make a hasty judgment, after all, the Jin bandits were too powerful. He decided to rely on the strong city to defend for two days to test the strength of the Jin bandits.

On the other side, Wu Sheng brought his men to Baofu. This fortress, which was no less fortified than Zhending, instantly made Wu Sheng look embarrassed.

Because he had tried to attack Zhending for two months but failed, Wu Sheng felt a little scared when he saw this kind of city.

Wu Sheng led his men to attack the city symbolically for two days, but it had no effect. Wu Sheng thought about it and gave up the attack and took his men to take a detour.

Wu Sheng's troops turned a corner like this.

How could Wang Ziteng in Hejian have imagined that there are people in the world who would take a detour when they failed to capture a city?
Since he never considered that the Jin bandits would come to his place, Wang Ziteng did not conduct a thorough investigation of the surrounding area.

One day, Mao Cheng had nothing to do, so he led a dozen of his men to the nearby mountains to hunt.

A wild deer was foraging in the mountains. Its antlers had just formed. They were top-quality velvet antlers, which are hard to come by.

Mao Cheng was overjoyed when he saw this. He drew his bow and shot an arrow, hitting the deer on the back.

The deer fled in pain, and Mao Cheng and his men chased after it.

After chasing for a while, the deer suddenly fell on its back with an arrow stuck in its neck.

Mao Cheng looked from afar and saw the figures of several hundred bandit soldiers not far away in the forest.

Mao Cheng was shocked and ran back quickly.

On the other side, the bandits from Xiaogushan, a branch of the Jin bandits, saw this scene and mistakenly thought that Mao Cheng was the son of a nearby noble, so they went forward to chase after him.

The two sides were chasing each other in the jungle, during which Mao Cheng was hit by an arrow in the shoulder and was in extreme pain.

Mao Cheng fled desperately down the mountain. His troops were stationed in the town at the foot of the mountain. There were not many people, only a few thousand, but at least he could save his life.

Mao Cheng was accompanied by a dozen personal guards. At this moment, these people risked their lives to step forward and temporarily blocked the enemy army for a moment, buying Mao Cheng time to escape.

Soon, Mao Cheng fled down the mountain.

He was also a man of affection and righteousness. After escaping back, he immediately summoned his subordinates to go up the mountain to meet the bandits and rescue the subordinates who had previously sacrificed their lives for him.

Since the other side had only a few hundred people, Mao Cheng did not think they were bandits from Jin, but just thought they were ordinary bandits nearby.

Soon, thousands of government troops rushed up the mountain. Although Mao Cheng's command level was not high, he at least knew the basic deployment of troops. After all, he was the son of the general.

The bandits on the opposite side were just ordinary mountain bandits who had joined the rebellion of the Jin bandits. The so-called battle was just them rushing forward shouting randomly, with no coordination at all. In addition, there was a gap in the number of people on both sides, so the bandits were quickly defeated by the government troops.

During the battle, the leader of Xiaogushan was unfortunately killed.

The remaining bandits fled out of the mountain crying and shouting, and then they met other Jin bandits.

The defeated bandits at Xiaogushan then told other bandits about their experiences.

The Jin bandits were also a mess, with various factions that were difficult to distinguish. However, they all had one thing in common: they all came from poor backgrounds and were extremely hostile to officials.

After hearing about the experience of the Xiaogushan bandits, the Jin bandits became furious and immediately split into several groups.

They didn't know that they were facing Wang Ziteng's army of more than 100,000. They heard the defeated bandits in Xiaogushan say that there were only a few thousand people on the opposite side, so they thought it was the Green Camp Army stationed there. They had encountered many such armies, and as long as they rushed forward all at once, the enemy would surely flee.

At that moment, several Jin bandit leaders gathered together and formed a coalition force, including more than 1,000 bandits from Jiulong Mountain, more than 800 bandits from Heijiao Mountain, more than 1,400 bandits from Huasha Mountain, more than 600 bandits from Ergang Mountain, more than 1,100 bandits from Guwu Mountain, more than 900 bandits from Tielang Mountain, and more than 1,300 bandits from Jigongzi Mountain.

There are a total of seven or eight thousand people. Since the military strength of each mountain stronghold is different, some have more people but low combat effectiveness; some have fewer people but strong combat effectiveness. Therefore, each of them is a king, and there is no distinction between leaders.

The bandits separated and marched together, heading straight for the government troops.

(End of this chapter)