The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 215 Are there any masters?

Zongshi Yan is a little confused now because he feels that everyone is playing by his own rules.

The people he sent to Haxian returned.

One of the two spies in the open was detained by Ou Tianci, and the other was beaten to death with sticks, and then one of their ears was cut off and released.

Ou Tianci asked him to convey a message, saying that the Hexian army would be coming soon to take back Jiading.

To be honest, when Zongshi Yan heard the news, he was stunned for dozens of seconds, and he even wanted to laugh.

Because the five battalions of Jiading had a total of 10,000 soldiers, even if some of the soldiers in the left battalion in Hexian had received some empty pay, not many of them retreated, but there were still at least 6,000 people.

Hexian only has a few hundred regular troops, and they can only mobilize tens of thousands of people at the maximum. Is Ou Tianci crazy to use his head to attack Jiading, a city with high walls, thick moats, and dozens of cannons on the city walls?

The three groups that had gone out secretly did return, but they all said they did not dare to approach Hexian, and they did not see the soldiers from Zuoying. It was said that they had all been killed.

Zongshi Yan was even more disdainful. It was hard to say how Ruan Zhongming fought, but he was definitely not a fool. Even if he couldn't win, how could he not run back alone?

The "one person" here does not refer to the soldiers of the Zuoying camp, but senior officers such as Ruan Zhongming. There are dozens of war horses in the barracks, so it is inevitable that a few people can escape.

"Could it be that the Siamese have sent troops? I heard that the Mo family's son-in-law became the son-in-law of the Siamese king. They are both from the north, so maybe they borrowed the Siamese soldiers to come back."

The commander of Pingkang Camp, the counselor of Jiading Garrison, and Li Hou Ruan Taidong speculated that he really knew too much and actually thought that the Siamese soldiers would come to help.

In fact, it is not too outrageous, because this was Mo Zibu's original plan. He would first serve Zheng Xin, and then borrow Siamese soldiers to take back Jiading, but they are no longer needed now.

When Ruan Taidong said this, Zongshi Yong was suddenly shocked. If Siam sent troops, it would be troublesome.

And it's very likely! When Ou Tianci said he wanted to take back Jiading like crazy, it must be Siam that was behind him.

"Please submit a petition and ask the court to send a large army south. If Siam really comes, we may not be able to resist."

Zongshi Yan, who had suppressed the matter just a second ago because he didn't want to make things worse, was now panicking again. He chose to report it to the court without even confirming the facts.

The commander of the army, Song Fuqia, felt something was amiss and was about to try to mediate when a horse came rushing in to report.

"The Chen family of Ben Tre has been making unusual moves. They have gathered together, expelled the officials of Ben Tre, killed the soldiers guarding the warehouse, and looted all the food in the warehouse. They have also issued a proclamation in the name of the Ming general, demanding that all the Ming Xiang people in the towns come to gather."

"T'me mày!" Zong Shiyan's heart ached and he blurted out "T'me mày".

The Chen family had suffered a disaster this year, and they were short of food. So, clan member Yong stockpiled tens of thousands of dan of grain in Benchi, where the Chen family had the largest base, and sold it at a price five times higher than usual.

At the same time, he also used troops to blockade the surrounding area and did not allow other grain merchants to sell grain. If the Chen family wanted to eat, they could only eat his high-priced grain and make a profit.

As a result, before the Chen family was forced to eat high-priced grain, their own granary was robbed and people were killed.

"These troublemakers must be colluding with the River Immortals. We must take drastic measures to ruthlessly wipe them out!"

However, the clan member Yan did not speak out, and the several camp leaders who came to discuss the matter immediately expressed their indignation.

Song Fuqia, who had recently suffered heavy losses, shouted excitedly, "My Longhu Camp is the closest and can attack immediately to wipe out these rebels."

Zongshi Yan felt his eyelids twitching, and he suppressed his anger so as not to curse out loud.

These people didn't want to strike a heavy blow to the Chen family, they clearly wanted to strike a heavy blow to the fat meat that he had not yet tasted.

If these people went to Ben Tre, given their character, not only would the Chen family be completely plundered, but he would not be able to get back much of the tens of thousands of dan of grain that was stolen from him.

Therefore, the officers of the five battalions who had just hesitated about sending troops to Hexian, after some discussion, decided to send 1,000 troops from the Pingshun Battalion controlled by Zongshi Yong, 800 troops from the Longhu Battalion controlled by Song Fuqia, and to recruit 3,000 auxiliary soldiers and civilians, and immediately march towards Ben Tre.

Haha, we are not familiar with beating Hexian, but we can easily beat your Chen family who is often dealt with.

After the wrangling was over, the deployment was very fast this time. The troops were assembled in just two days.

The soldiers in the camp were very excited, and even the conscripted civilians were a little excited.

Over the past few decades, under the instigation and protection of several Jiading garrison commanders, it has become commonplace for Guangnan people to cause trouble for Mingxiang people.

They even dared to imprison and torture to death Chen Shangchuan's eldest son, Chen Dading, who served as the governor of Jiading. How could they be afraid of you, Chen Dasheng and Chen Dali?

To them, the Chen family from Jiading was like a boss whose mechanism had been fully understood and who was as weak as a wooden stake. Even if they didn't have all the people, they still dared to come up and give it a try.

Ben Tre, Chen Family Ancestral Hall.

Chen Guangyao took the lead and knelt in front of Chen Shangchuan's tablet, while Chen Dali took the initiative to kneel a little behind his left to show that he had handed over full authority to Chen Guangyao.

After the worship, Chen Guangyao wrapped a red cloth around his forehead.

Although the Tang Dynasty headband is no longer popular, it is still useful for distinguishing between friend and foe on the battlefield where there is no military uniform to identify the enemy.

"All the men of the Chen family, remember this: on the battlefield today, anyone who dares to retreat will have their entire family driven out. If we lose, we will all be slaves to the Guangnan people. If we win, they will be our slaves."

Hundreds of Chen family members selected by Chen Guangyao responded enthusiastically. They were not weak, they just lacked a strong leader and hope for the future.

The Mekong River does not have a main or even only estuary like the Yangtze River.

Due to the flatness of the Mekong Plain, the river water from the upper reaches is filtered out by the Mekong Plain like a sieve before it reaches the estuary, forming three large rivers and more than a dozen small rivers that flow into the sea respectively.

A dozen miles northeast of Ben Tre, there is a river that was "sieved" out of the Mekong Plain. The south bank of the river is full of shrubs and swamps, which is suitable for ambushes.

Chen Guangyao arrived with 800 men, personally leading 500 Chen clan men in battle formation. Wu Yuansheng led 200 Hakka soldiers, hiding in the bushes and swamps. Another 100 elite Hexian troops, led by Li Quan, circled upstream and infiltrated behind enemy lines.

It was almost noon when Ruan Juzhen, commander of Pingshun Camp, saw that the bridge over the river was still intact and only dozens of Chen family men were destroying it. He immediately sent elite soldiers with muskets to drive them forward.

These guys started firing their guns across a small river about a hundred or two hundred meters away, and the Chen family's strong men also performed as well as they always did.

Well, instead of going up to fight or standing still, they just ran back crying.

These people were specially selected by Chen Guangyao. They were not the men he had trained in the ancestral hall. Their performance was extremely realistic because they were not acting, but were just cowardly.

Ruan Juzhen burst into laughter when he saw this. This was a common scene in their fight with the Chen family and there was nothing to doubt about it.

"They claim to be from a superior country, but they are so cowardly and timid. How can they be considered Han Chinese?"

Flattery was heard all around like a tide. Nguyen Cu Trinh was elated at the thought of breaking into Ben Tre and looting on a large scale.

He looked back and saw that his 5,000-strong army was divided into seven or eight columns. Although they were delayed for several miles, it didn't matter. More than a thousand elite soldiers who could fight were by his side, and the Chen family was still the same. What was there to be afraid of?

Therefore, Ruan Juzhen immediately ordered several of his trusted men to lead dozens or even hundreds of soldiers to walk on the pontoon bridge or find a shallow place to cross the river.

Chen Guangyao immediately ordered Chen Guangdong to lead 500 Chen family men forward. They had dozens of muskets, and the rest were javelins and swords.

As soon as the Ruan army crossed the river, the Chen family's men fired muskets and threw javelins. The Ruan army was caught off guard and more than ten of them were killed.

But because they were already familiar with fighting the Chen family, these Guangnan soldiers were not panicked, but instead their ferocity was aroused.

It was inconvenient for the Guangnan soldiers to fire their muskets in the river, so they rushed forward with their swords in hand. Although the Chen family's strong men were briefly trained by Chen Guangyao, most of them were still quite timid.

When the two armies met, blood began to spurt out, and there were only a few sporadic screams. There were no more than ten casualties before they could no longer hold on. I don't know who led them, but they retreated in a mess.

Chen Guangyao was so angry that his face turned red like Guan Gong. If he hadn't made a backup plan, he would have rushed up himself.

The Guangnan soldiers followed the routine and chased after them. Hundreds and even thousands of them fought all the way and finally caught up with them around these bushes and swamps.

A minor officer of the Ruan army grinned and said, "There's a swamp ahead. They can't escape even if they have wings."

As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sound of gongs and dozens of bombs were thrown out from behind the bushes.

The sudden and violent explosion made the Nguyen army dizzy.

Immediately, dozens of muskets were fired again, and lead bullets shot in a fan-shaped manner from the front. This time the damage was great, and more than a dozen people fell.

"Kill!" Wu Yuansheng rushed to the front with a big knife in hand and a horse in hand.

The Hakka men, who were used to fighting in their hometown and had a tradition of robbing and looting for more than a thousand years, also howled and rushed out like tigers descending the mountains.

The young officer who had just laughed was miraculously not killed by the explosion or the musket. He got up in panic and was about to run back when Wu Yuansheng arrived.

As a martial arts hero, Wu Yuansheng liked this kind of melee the most. He twisted his waist and, using inertia, cut a big hole in the young officer's neck with one knife.

Then he shouted again and rushed into the Ruan army, hacking and killing.

The Hakka people behind him were no less powerful, all using close-range and fierce hacking tactics. Although the Ruan army had more people, their morale was taken away and they were killed back.

Chen Guangyao's face was full of frost. He grabbed Chen Guangdong by the collar and started slapping him in the face.

"I'm the first one to charge now. If I don't die and you guys run away, I'll hang all of you guys from the mast and dry them like salted fish."

If King Mo Zibu Mo were here, he would definitely be filled with gratitude to his uncle Chen Dasheng. No wonder the relationship between uncles and nephews has always been much closer than that between uncles and nephews.

Chen Dasheng really likes me, King Mo. Judging from the current performance of Chen Guangdong and others, the 200 red-coated and silver-sword soldiers that Chen Chengshan brought to reinforce Mo Zibu were definitely carefully selected from tens of thousands of people.

On this side, Ruan Juzhen was about to cross the river, but he saw that his vanguard was defeated along the way and retreated back to the river.

Although they were only defeated and not in danger of collapse, the Chen family's fighting power still exceeded his expectations.

After thinking about it, Ruan Juzhen, who was about to send more troops, suddenly heard a noise. He rode his horse to a high place to take a look.

I saw a group of people coming from a distance. They were wearing red jackets, red helmets, and holding flintlock rifles with bayonets. They looked very tough.

Ruan Juzhen's heart skipped a beat. Just by looking at their clothes and formation, he knew that although there were only a hundred people on the opposite side, they were by no means easy to deal with.

Seeing this, a team of more than 300 Nguyen soldiers who were covering the army's flank bravely stepped forward, shouting and marching for seventy or eighty meters. On the opposite side, bursts of fire flashed and the sound of gunfire was like thunder.

The three hundred Ruan soldiers retreated in a hurry without even seeing the enemy's appearance. Three volleys of gunfire killed more than twenty of them.

"Damn it, these aren't Chen family members, these are Siamese imperial guards!" Ruan Juzhen cursed, "Retreat! Make everyone on the other side of the river retreat! This is a Siamese trick!"

This wise man was also a god. In history, Zheng Xindu fought to the outskirts of Ha Tien City. The clan member Yong asked him to go and investigate the situation. He was afraid and stopped halfway and stayed for a few days before reporting back.

He accused Ou Tianci of lying about military intelligence and Siam did not attack. In the end, the truth was revealed and he was demoted and sent home to eat rice.

However, this time, his cowardice actually saved thousands of people, especially the hundreds of elite Nguyen soldiers on the other side of the river.

It was also the first time that Li Quan encountered an army of several thousand men who began to retreat as soon as he, a hundred men, attacked them. After chasing them for several miles, all they killed and wounded were civilians who were running around aimlessly. He felt bored and stopped chasing them.

Upon seeing this, Chen Guangyao also called back his troops. After this setback, he believed that the clan leader Yong would soon become anxious and would think of sending out a large army to capture Ben Tre before the Ha Tien army arrived.

(End of this chapter)