Chapter 32: Conquer Three Cities in Three Days

The Yunhui Army garrison garrisoned in Jincheng was assigned an army of three thousand men by the imperial court.

However, under the "wise" leadership of Northwest General Wu Qingyun, the actual number of troops defending the city was only a little over 2,000, and the quality of the soldiers was even worse.

This kind of situation of eating empty pay and drinking soldiers' blood was not uncommon under the rule of Wu Qingyun, the commander-in-chief of the Northwest.

It was even common in inland cities that were not along borders or coasts throughout the Great New Dynasty, and had long been a tacit and tacit approval among the generals in various places.

After all, for these powerful generals from all over the country, the top priority was to amass a large number of troops to guard the border towns and ensure that the territory of the New Dynasty was not annexed and encroached by foreign countries.

As for these inland cities that are not along borders or coastal areas, there is no need or reason to guard them with heavy troops.

Under the diligent rule of the late emperor Zhao Mang, the entire country prospered during the Great New Dynasty.

Even the successor, the second emperor Zhao Qianhao, made great achievements. In the six months after taking the throne, he launched major projects that wasted people and money, such as digging the Grand Canal, rebuilding the imperial tombs, and conducting three naval expeditions to the West.

For the people across the country, it did increase the burden of taxes and corvees, but it was far from the point where the government forced the people to rebel.

Therefore, for the general soldiers in various places, there is even less reason to recruit and train city defenders in full according to the establishment of city defense forces for each inland city given by the imperial court.

It's better to take advantage of this opportunity to fill up your own pocket first by eating empty pay and drinking soldiers' blood. Anyway, if you don't do this, others will do the same, so you might as well enrich yourself first.

Because of this, when Chang Yuchun, the most powerful general of the Ming Dynasty who was excellent at attacking cities, the deputy marshal of Longcheng soldiers and horses, and the general who conquered the south, led 20,000 elite troops and attacked Jincheng with lightning speed, the two thousand clouds defending the city The soldiers under his command could not even organize a decent resistance before the city was breached.

In fact, even the messengers who asked for help and sent messages were all captured by Dragon City's southern army before they could even ride their horses out of the city.

At noon.

Chang Yuchun, a fierce general wearing Mingguang armor and holding a ring-headed sword, rode his horse and stood on the gate tower of Jincheng. Looking at the large group of surrendered soldiers and generals of the Yunhui army who were kneeling in front of him, a look of unfinished expression appeared on his face as sharp as a knife. look.

The siege battle just now can almost be described as one-sided.

Chang Yuchun only killed three or five small soldiers, and the Yunhui army guarding the city on the opposite side surrendered completely.

The siege battle was declared over before the long-hungry sword in General Chang's hand had even tasted the enemy's blood.

Seeing this, Chang Yuchun had no choice but to put away the knife.

In any case, Chang Yuchun personally took the lead in shouting this slogan of "surrender and avoid death." The dignified Deputy Marshal of the Dragon City Army and General Zhengnan can't keep his word, right?

Chang Yuchun stood proudly on his horse at the top of the city, and issued an order in a domineering manner: "Go ahead and leave two thousand elite soldiers to guard the prisoners and wait for the army to enter the city!"

"The rest of the people, follow this general's commanding flag and continue to charge towards the next city, Chizhou. There must be no mistakes!"

"The general will get the order!"

Soon, Chang Yuchun led 18,000 elite troops to continue the blitzkrieg offensive, heading towards Chizhou, another city on the army's southward expedition, 120 miles away from Jincheng.

The two thousand elite soldiers who stayed in Jincheng were responsible for maintaining public security in the city in accordance with the appeasement strategies and policies formulated by Jin King Chen Huaian before the army went out.

At the same time, he announced to the people of Jincheng the policy agenda of the King of Jin: within ten years, the taxes of the people of Jincheng would be halved. If anyone is willing to join the army and join the Polu army, his family will be exempted from all taxes for five years.

As soon as this news came out, the whole city was shocked.

In the past six months, the people of Jincheng, who had been fed up with the brutal expropriation, oppression and ravage by Wu Qingyun's officers and soldiers, have expressed their support for Jin Wang Chen Huaian and were willing to contribute to the relief army in Longcheng.

For a time, the recruitment office of the Polu Army was crowded with people, and countless people inquired about joining the army.

.......

Yunzhou territory, Hutou Pass.

An army of about 100,000 people was marching slowly in the ravine-ridden northwest land in a long snake formation. It was the Yunhui Army stationed in Yunzhou, personally commanded by the Northwest General Wu Qingyun.

According to the plan, the army will arrive in Jincheng in five days, and will merge with another 100,000 Yunhui troops and 20,000 Turkic cavalry heading south from Shuobei, and send troops to Longcheng.

At this time, Wu Qingyun, who was wearing a military officer's official uniform, was still riding on horseback. His extremely ugly face looked solemn and distracted. His left eyelid, which had been beating incessantly in recent days, was beating even more now.

"Could it be that these northern barbarians have bad intentions when they go south to help out?"

Wu Qingyun asked to himself.

He had already received urgent military information from Shuobei, eight hundred miles away, from former army general Liang Erhu.

Tell him that Timur originally promised to borrow 50,000 cavalry, but in the end only 20,000 horses came, but he took the departure pay and 3,000 labor girls that were agreed upon by both parties for only 50,000 troops.

After hearing this news, Wu Qingyun couldn't help but start to reflect on himself, whether it was improper to borrow troops from the Northern Barbarians to deal with Chen Huaian. These Northern Barbarians were all wolves in human skins.

The appetite is not small, and there is no faith at all.

It's a trivial matter to pay people and labor girls. Wu Qingyun is worried about whether Timur will take advantage of him to mobilize the Yunhui army stationed in Shuobei to go south to put down the rebellion in Longcheng.

After capturing Shuobei, an important border town, the Northern Barbarians' cavalry will be able to gallop across the northwest at a smooth pace.

Before borrowing troops from Timur, Wu Qingyun had considered this point, and that’s why he asked for 50,000 troops.

Because, according to the intelligence Wu Qingyun had, Timur could mobilize at most 100,000 troops, and he borrowed half of his troops to go south to deal with Chen Huaian.

Not only was it to eliminate Chen Huaian and the remnants of King Jin in one fell swoop, but it was also used as a bargaining chip to ensure that Timur would not take this opportunity to march south and cause chaos in the northwest.

These 50,000 Turkic cavalry were both reinforcements and “hostages”.

Who would have thought that Timur, the old fox, agreed to the request to borrow 50,000 troops on the surface, but played such a trick on him behind the scenes.

In this way, Wu Qingyun was put on the fire.

On the one hand, Prime Minister Qin Ruhui has sent him a letter asking him to resolve the Dragon City issue as soon as possible, otherwise the longer the time drags on, the more suspicious Emperor Zhao Gan will be, and in the end, he may not be able to cover it up;

On the other hand, Timur has only borrowed 20,000 cavalry to go south this time, and these 20,000 people are not enough to threaten Timur. He is afraid that as soon as the Yunhui army stationed in Shuobei leaves, Timur will use all his forces to attack Shuobei.

Compared with the temptation of sweeping across the northwest, robbing money, food and women, the 20,000 troops who became "hostages" in Wu Qingyun's hands seem less important.

So, after receiving the news from Liang Erhu three days ago, Wu Qingyun has been weighing the pros and cons.

Until yesterday, when another 800-mile express letter from Prime Minister Qin Ruhui arrived in Yunzhou, asking about the progress of the Dragon City rebellion, Wu Qingyun made up his mind to march the army to Dragon City.

During the whole journey, Wu Qingyun's left eyelid never stopped twitching.

Although he was not a superstitious person, this sign on the eve of the army's departure made him feel that it was not a good thing after all, and he always felt that something bad would happen.

"Report-"

"Report to the general, urgent military information!"

Just when Wu Qingyun was uneasy, he suddenly heard a burst of galloping horse hooves in his ears, followed by the hurried and anxious shouts of the messenger:

"General, the vanguard scouts reported that the Longcheng Po Lu Army captured three cities in three days, and successively conquered the three cities of Jincheng, Chizhou, and Yangquan where our army was stationed from north to south!"

"At this moment, the cavalry of the Po Lu Army's vanguard troops is less than a hundred miles away from Hutou Pass!"

"What did you say?"

After hearing the words of the messenger, Wu Qingyun felt his blood boiling and his eyes went black, and he almost stumbled and fell off the horse.

Then, he forced himself to get off the horse, grabbed the collar of the messenger who was kneeling on the ground, and his eyes seemed to be popping out.

With a ferocious expression, he asked word by word: "Can you tell me again?"

The messenger trembled and replied with a stiff face: "General, the Longcheng Po Lu Army has successively conquered the three cities of Jincheng, Chizhou, and Yangquan where our army is stationed. More than 100,000 troops are advancing towards Yunzhou, and the vanguard cavalry is less than 100 miles away from Hutou Pass!"

Puff——

Wu Qingyun couldn't help spitting out a mouthful of old blood, his eyes turned black and he fell down, unconscious on the spot.

Then, a deputy general of the Yunhui Army took over the command and decisively ordered: "Pass the general's order, the rear team of the whole army will become the front team, and quickly withdraw to Yunzhou City to deploy defenses!"

"I have received the order!"