I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 56: People are ruthless and don’t talk much

With Fan Rui killed, Xiang Chong was already seriously injured and lost his fighting ability, and Li Gun turned against him and laid down his armor. Zhao Zicheng quickly took control of the situation.

In a short while, hundreds of prisoners were captured, but a considerable number of them simply fled - there was no way around it. Zhao Zicheng had too few soldiers, only sixty in total before the battle, and they had suffered some casualties in the bloody battle just now. It was too difficult to expect them to control or even surround the enemy that was several times their number.

After a period of chaos, Zhao Zicheng counted the number of people and found that he had captured more than 200 prisoners in total, and Li Gun also surrendered voluntarily.

Xiang Chong was not found because he had been injured a long time ago. During the second round of fighting, he had been arranged to recuperate behind the formation. When he saw that the situation was not right, he might have run away as soon as possible.

Zhao Zicheng had no time to bother with him; he'd just run away. Xiang Chong's strength, by comparison, didn't inspire much desire to subdue him. His melee skills weren't top-notch, and he might have had some experience in mountain warfare and training swordsmen and shieldmen, but Li Gun could do those things, too.

As for his specialty, the flying knife shooting, in Zhao Zicheng's opinion, it is far less useful than Li Gun's javelin technique.

Flying knives may be more useful in gang fights and bandit robberies, because the merchants you want to rob are often unarmored, and flying knives are more flexible and lightweight, have a higher attack frequency, and are easier to aim.

In the future, Zhao Zi said he would face a national war. The army would fight in an upright formation. The enemy would be heavily armored. What good would a flying knife do? Javelin can at least penetrate heavy armor. It is worth training a group of mountain warfare javelin soldiers.

In ancient times, both the East and the West had the habit of using javelins to deal with heavily armored soldiers. The Romans were especially fond of doing so, and this has been verified by history.

Flying knife soldiers are only common in India and even in the black areas. Those who have played the remastered version of "Age of Empires" know that the unique military force of the Mali civilization in Africa is the flying knife soldiers, who specialize in bullying naked and unarmored soldiers.

"County lord, the leader who used the flying knife has escaped with a group of defeated bandits. It may be difficult to seize the stronghold by taking advantage of the situation." After cleaning up the battlefield, Yang Zhi rushed to report to Zhao Zicheng, with obvious regret in his tone.

If we can wipe out all the enemies, we can seize the stronghold and maybe even plunder the remaining money of the thieves.

Now that we have failed to capture the village, even if we only killed monsters but didn't take the treasure, it is still a pity.

"It doesn't matter. Nothing in this world is perfect. We're lucky to win this battle. The enemy is probably ten times ours. If we capture them all, we won't dare recruit them. What if chaos breaks out? We'll screen the prisoners, select those who are relatively good and have been coerced into joining the bandits, and expand the army to 200 people.

The remaining ones will be asked to identify each other. Anyone who helped Fan Rui poison his own people with the drug smoke and is truly guilty should be killed, arrested and sent to the authorities, or released back to their hometowns. With so many more people suddenly, it will take some time to clean up the mess in Fengpei and Xuzhou."

Zhao Zi said that he never thought that he could rely on his hegemonic power to subdue a large number of surrendered troops at once, especially when the number of prisoners exceeded the original army by many times. Blindly expanding the army is a huge risk, and unstable people's hearts can easily backfire.

He had only a team of sixty people. According to later experience, the three-three system of expanding the army was the most stable. If there were more people, it would be difficult to ensure a thorough transformation.

Later modern states, when faced with war mobilization, generally tripled their military forces. For example, a battalion of regular troops would be expanded by adding two battalions of mobilized reserve soldiers to form a regiment. With a sufficient foundation of veteran soldiers, the morale and discipline of the new army were guaranteed. Once the troops were well-trained and battle-tested, they could then triple their forces again, in a gradual and orderly manner.

If you take too big a step, you'll easily go astray.

Yang Zhi had already been promoted to commander, commanding a battalion. However, his superiors had only given him two blank certificates for captains. Expanding to 200 men on the way would be just the right amount to fully utilize the bonus. Upon returning to Suzhou, he could then expand to a full 500 men. This would double or triple the expansion rate with each step, making it a very reasonable move.

……

Yang Zhi reorganized the captives according to Zhao Zicheng's instructions.

The whole process took a good hour or so, but it was done as fairly as possible. All the petty thieves were screened, some were coerced into thieves' captivity, and some were simply fleeing taxes and rents to make a living, so they went to the mountains to make a living. As long as their crimes were not serious, they could be recruited after emphasizing military discipline.

Find out more than a dozen of Fan Rui's confidants who usually help Fan Rui control his own people with smoke screens. Then kill them all. And let the surrendered soldiers who are truly loyal and have committed minor crimes do the work. This can be regarded as a reverse token of allegiance.

The weapons and armor found on the battlefield were sorted through, and about 150 sets of relatively good quality were selected and loaded onto carts to be taken back, with the intention of providing them to the surrendered soldiers for a while. However, they could not be sent back immediately to avoid further unrest and rebellion.

Some gunpowder balls used by Fan Rui and barrels of gunpowder and smoke agents used as raw materials were also seized on the battlefield.

Zhao Zi said they had all been carefully screened. Gunpowder and non-toxic smoke bombs could be kept and taken back for research and improvement. However, herbal incineration products with hallucinogenic or stimulant effects were completely destroyed.

The destruction was also done with great caution. Yang Zhi originally wanted to burn it, but Zhao Zicheng sternly stopped him: "How can you burn it? Wouldn't that release the poison? Let's just throw it into the swamp and let it ferment. We don't have quicklime, so this is the only way."

Lin Zexu, a national hero in later generations, strictly used lime water to destroy the poison. Zhao Zi said that he did not have such conditions, so he could only bury it under water and let it rot and decompose naturally.

After the treatment, Zhao Zicheng personally explained Fan Rui's crimes to the captives, explaining that some of them had previously experienced inexplicable excitement whenever Fan Rui used poisonous smoke. This was because they were under the control of the stimulant. The enemy was afraid of the poisonous smoke simply because they were new to it and unaccustomed to the euphoric hallucinations, which caused them to panic. However, this poisonous smoke would eventually kill them, a temporary solution to their thirst.

These bandits, ignorant of medical and physiological knowledge, gradually realized the true evil of their former bandit king and finally felt a genuine gratitude towards Zhao Zicheng. Even Li Gun, the leader who surrendered, initially surrendered out of fear and hesitation, believing his side had made a grave mistake, provoking the wrong person. But after listening to Zhao Zicheng's clear-cut instructions, he finally began to reflect and became more convinced.

Because there were so many people surrendering, there were not enough unforgivable criminals to be used as materials for the surrender letter. Zhao Zicheng asked the remaining soldiers who had not yet surrendered to take out a knife and take turns to chop the body of Fan Rui, the old pig-dog, so that it would be considered as surrender.

After all this trouble, people's hearts and morale were finally turned around and united.

After finishing all this, Zhao Zicheng ordered all the troops to assemble and go down the mountain to Fengxian in an orderly manner.

……

Because of the fierce battle on the mountain and the delay in recruiting and cleaning up the battlefield, Zhao Zicheng and his party had no time to reach Fengxian County that night.

Before dark, we hurried and hurried but barely managed to get out of the mountainous area. By the time we reached the county town, it was almost midnight.

The county seat of Fengxian County was right next to the impoverished and barren Mangdang Mountain. The magistrate and the lieutenant certainly did not dare to open the city gate at night. When they heard that troops were approaching outside the city, they were on high alert in the city and did not sleep in the middle of the night.

Zhao Zi said he wasn't asking for any special treatment. He simply sent a notice to the underside of the city wall, which was then pulled up in a hanging basket and delivered to the magistrate. He explained the situation and offered to reenter the city the next morning. It was the seventh lunar month, and the weather was still very hot. Sleeping outdoors for the rest of the night was no problem, though there were a few more mosquitoes.

I posted this because I didn't want any misunderstanding or accidental shooting. Otherwise, if the government troops in the county thought he was a bandit and attacked the camp in the middle of the night, it would be bad.

In fact, Zhao Zicheng seriously overestimated the courage of the civil officials and soldiers in the city. They thought that the Mangdang bandits had come down the mountain and would not dare to rob the camp.

After hastily setting up camp outside the city, Zhao Zicheng couldn't sleep for a while, so he called his main military officers and Li Gun, who had just surrendered, and gave them some instructions.

"What we said today on the battlefield was merely a tactic to win over the enemy's heart. After we enter the city and the handover is clear, the soldiers will be considered recruited government troops. Their words and actions must be mindful. Deputy Captain Li, I won't say much else for now, but keep your troops under control. There's no need to publicize my deeds of slaying the snake in Fengxi Lake and breaking the demonic spell.

If outsiders ask how I broke Fan Rui's magic, I will say that I have studied the teachings of the sages since I was young and do not talk about strange things, so those evil magics naturally cannot harm me. "

Li Gun's heart trembled, and he became increasingly frightened. He quickly knelt down and said yes. He had just surrendered, and his obedience to Zhao Zicheng was more out of awe and fear. The more Zhao Zicheng said this, the more he felt that he had followed a hero with a destiny by chance.

The secrets of heaven must not be revealed. He knew this kind of thing clearly in his heart, so he could let the soldiers feel at ease and bravely follow Zhao Xianzun to fight for their lives and make great achievements. However, he absolutely could not publicize it. He also knew that the treacherous officials in the court would definitely be jealous of talented people.

After the beating, Zhao Zicheng fell asleep peacefully. He woke up at five o'clock the next morning, assembled his troops and asked to enter the city.

The magistrate of Feng County was in a state of emergency. He waited until dawn to officially confirm Zhao Zicheng's identity before he cautiously ordered the city gates to be opened. As a result, the normal entry and exit of the people of Feng County were delayed for at least a quarter of an hour that day.

"Zhao County Magistrate came from Tokyo, on his way to Suzhou to take up his post, and passed through a small county on his way east?"

Zhao Zicheng had just entered the city gate on his tall horse when a fat man in his forties, dressed in official uniform, came up to him cautiously and confirmed it in person.

The fat man's name is Huang Song, and he is the magistrate of this county.

"County Magistrate Huang, you are too polite. You are a seventh-rank official, and I am only an eighth-rank official. Why should you be like this? Everything is just as you said." Zhao Zicheng also bowed in return.

Huang Song still didn't dare to neglect his words. He asked in disbelief, "I have read the letter you sent last night. County Magistrate Zhao brought these followers and defeated Fan Rui, the bandit who had been entrenched in Mangdang for many years? It's not that I don't believe it, but it's simply unbelievable. That bandit must have thousands of troops..."

Huang Song's claim of several thousand people was definitely a problem. He probably included the ordinary people in the mountainous areas controlled by bandits, as well as the families and children of the bandits controlled by Fan Rui.

If we only count the combat soldiers, Zhao Zi said that he had already experienced the situation with real swords and guns, and there were definitely less than a thousand people.

Zhao Zicheng calmly explained, "County Magistrate Huang has overestimated the number of bandits. The number of the bandits is no more than a thousand. The rest must be the elderly, the weak, women, children, and the common people who have been taken hostage by the mountain people.

Yesterday was also a stroke of luck. Fan Rui underestimated the enemy and took the initiative to rob me, so I fought back and killed him. The remaining bandits fled back to the mountain stronghold. I only have a few dozen guards and am unable to break through.

Zhao Zicheng was a ruthless man who spoke little. He stopped at the point and did not explain much. He just threw Fan Rui's head to the ground.

When County Magistrate Huang saw the head, he jumped up in shock, covered his face and stepped back.

(End of this chapter)