Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 24: The Unrivaled Macho Man Zhu Liangzu (Please Read)
Luzhou is surrounded by water on three sides, with only the northwest side having no moat, so the Chaohu navy could just surround three sides and leave one.

After both sides had finished their battle formations, Chaohu started to make equipment with great fanfare, and even got bamboo poles to build an arrow tower outside Luzhou City. This move frightened the Yuan army defending the city.

The city wall of Luzhou is only five meters high and less than ten feet wide. It is made of rammed earth and does not even have a city tower. If you just build a platform on the Chaohu side, it will be higher than the city wall. When the time comes, people outside the city can shoot arrows from above. There are only a bunch of unarmored rookie recruits inside the city. How can they not be afraid?

Don’t think that this city wall is too low. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the famous Hangzhou city had a city wall that was only six meters high and four meters wide. It was also a rammed earth structure and was not covered with bricks.

After all, the Yuan Dynasty started out as a cavalry dynasty, and when they fought the Southern Song Dynasty, they were disgusted by the strong cities. In order to prevent the Han people from rebellion by occupying the strong cities, they had no interest in building cities. The cities in most places had not been repaired for nearly a hundred years.

When Kublai Khan first established his country, he even imitated Qin Shi Huang and issued a "city destruction order", demolishing many city walls!

The kind of brick-covered fortified cities that are common in later generations did not appear until the Ming Dynasty, which loved building cities.

After a while, a dozen fast horses rushed out from the northwest of Luzhou, split into two groups, and headed towards Lu'an and Hezhou.

Liao Yongan immediately sent troops to stop them. Liu'an just shot a few arrows along the way, and then sent cavalry to chase them for a while, and then let them go as a pretense.

On the way to Hezhou, five or six messengers were all intercepted and killed by Zhu Shou, and not a single one of them managed to escape to Hexian.

The straight-line distance from Luzhou to Lu'an is 140 li on the map. If it is from Feixi County to Lu'an, it is 120 li. These cavalrymen who delivered the letter galloped all the way, stopping and starting, and arrived in Lu'an in the afternoon of the same day. Because of the urgent military intelligence, they were immediately received by Zhu Liangzu.

Zhu Liangzu was 28 years old at this time, 183 cm tall, with a tall, iron-faced body and a big beard. He was extremely strong and not afraid of death in battle. He would always lead the charge in every battle. He was a very good fighter, good at riding and shooting, and was also very good at infantry combat. However, he was a little rude and did not know what etiquette was.

Looking at the messenger kneeling in front of him, he asked in surprise.

"Your General Zuo's entire army was defeated, and the Chaohu pirates even came to attack him?"

"It is absolutely true. Marshal, please send troops to rescue us as soon as possible. My second general is willing to give you 5,000 shi of grain as a reward." The messenger immediately put forward the conditions.

Zhu Liangzu curled his lips. He only had 5,000 shi of grain and fodder. Was he sending away beggars?

He was born into a landlord family, and now he was appointed Marshal of the Volunteer Army by the imperial court, stationed in Lu'an, commanding 5,000 troops. In Lu'an, Zhu Liangzu was the king! How could he be short of food?
Then he asked, "The amount of food doesn't matter, I just want some armor. I wonder if your second general is willing to give us some. Otherwise, if we go to fight the Red Turbans in Chaohu, I'm afraid there will be a lot of casualties."

There was no way around it. Although Zhu Liangzu was good at fighting, he was, after all, a wild-style militiaman. His equipment was no match for Zuo Junbi, who came from the regular army.

However, Zuo Junbi’s main force was completely lost, and all his armor was captured by the Chaohu Red Turbans. Zuo Junfu himself only had a few sets of armor now.

Then he listened to what the messenger said.

"Marshal, please allow me to report that our main force, Marshal Zuo, has been completely destroyed, and all the armor and weapons have now been captured by the Red Turbans. We really cannot produce any extra armor.

"But my second general has something to say. As long as the marshal sends troops to relieve the siege and defeat the Chaohu Red Turbans, the military supplies and armor seized will be at the disposal of the marshal. The second general will also submit a petition to the court to ask for credit for the marshal. Naturally, the military credit for the annihilation of Chaohu will go to the marshal."

"Ha ha ha ha."

Zhu Liangzu burst into laughter upon hearing this. "Okay, I agree. I will gather the troops and go to rescue your second general right away."

The messenger hesitated for a moment and asked again, "May I ask how many troops the Marshal has sent?"

Zhu Liangzu didn't even think twice, "Three thousand soldiers are enough."

The messenger said, "To be honest, Marshal, our General Zuo led 3200 soldiers last time, but they were all killed in one battle. Now the Chaohu Red Turbans have weapons and armor, which may make it even more difficult to deal with them. Marshal, please think twice and bring more soldiers."

Zhu Liangzu immediately snorted coldly and said disdainfully, "In my opinion, the Chaohu Red Scarves are all chickens and dogs, people who are willing to sell their heads. Why should we encourage the villains and destroy our own prestige? Do you know how I got the title of marshal?"

"How did it come?" Lu Jin asked curiously.

Yu Tongyuan said immediately, "Zhu Liangzu is very powerful. When we started the rebellion, he single-handedly killed Miss Jinhua in the midst of thousands of troops. He was named marshal because of this military achievement."

hiss--

Lu Jin took a deep breath and asked curiously, "Is there no one among you who can beat him?" Yu Tongyuan blushed and immediately retorted, "We couldn't beat him before because we didn't have weapons or armor. How can we beat such a fierce man with a hoe? This time it's different. We will definitely be able to capture him."

Lu Jin thought to himself, I’m afraid that may not be the case.

What kind of a man is Zhu Liangzu? Chaohu's generals didn't know, but Lu Jin knew something.

Simply talking about how good he is at fighting doesn't seem to be enough to show it, so let's talk about his record.

Zhu Liangzu came from a militia background. He made great contributions in suppressing the Red Turban Rebellion in Chaohu and was named Marshal of the Righteous Army. Later, he was transferred by the court to Ningguo County in Jiangnan for defense. He was captured by Zhu Yuanzhang and surrendered to him. At that time, Zhu Liangzu was still a nobody.

Later, he surrendered and rebelled again, occupying Ningguo County again. Zhu Yuanzhang was furious and sent two great generals, Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, to attack Zhu Liangzu. What happened next?

Xu Da couldn't even take him down. Chang Yuchun, the best team leader in the Ming Dynasty, was actually injured by Zhu Liangzu!!!
Zhu Yuanzhang was furious when he received the news. He personally went to the front line to supervise the battle and sent Tang Shengzong and seven other Ming dukes to encircle and annihilate Zhu Liangzu. Zhu Liangzu fought alone against seven of them and was not defeated. He was eventually captured because he was exhausted.
This man is even more powerful than Chang Yuchun. He fought seven Ming dukes and did not lose. With the current Chaohu generals, it would be a miracle if they could defeat him.
Zhu Liangzu has such strength that everyone else looks like a piece of clay chicken or a clay dog ​​to him. He is just trying to sell his head, but he is not bragging.

When Lu Jin thought of this guy's battle record, he couldn't help but sigh. If he could subdue Zhu Liangzu, this one great general would be worth one-third of Zhu Yuanzhang's '24 Generals of Huaixi'. However, Lu Jin was not very sure.

In fact, it is much easier to kill such a tough man than to capture him alive. No matter whether you are the resurrected Lu Bu or the possessed Xiang Yu, I will spread lime, throw caltrops, rain arrows, use iron chains and nets, and pile up people to kill you.

But it would be very difficult to capture him alive and subdue him. The first time he surrendered to Zhu Yuanzhang, he only served for a few months before he rebelled again. When Lu Jin thought of this, he had a headache. He couldn't bear to kill him, but he was not sure if he could subdue him.

"Brother Lu, there is no good terrain here. Will we be unable to find a place to set up an ambush?" Yu Tongyuan beside him looked at the surrounding environment and asked Lu Jin worriedly.

Lu Jin was also helpless.

Hefei is originally located in the Huaixi Plain. From Luzhou to Lu'an, the 140-mile road is all flat. There are some hills in Feixi, but there are no hills here, let alone mountains. Looking around, it's all flat land.

If there are no mountains or hills, then are there any places like swamps, rivers, etc.? There are none!

There is no river, not even a stream, between Luzhou and Lu'an, which makes it even more difficult.

What about the forest? There was indeed a forest, but it was twenty miles away from the main road, probably southeast of the later National Highway 312.

If I were marching, I would definitely walk along the main road. Who would go around the forest for no reason? So setting an ambush in the forest would only be a waste of time, as the enemy would not be able to pass by.

After thinking about it, Lu Jin said.

"If we can't find natural terrain, then we can only look for artificially modified terrain. We still have to find a village or something, a place with many houses. Let's go, we continue to search in the direction of Lu'an. The closer we are to the city, the more villages there should be."

"Okay, then do you want to call my dad?" Yu Tongyuan agreed.

"Call them, let them finish their lunch, and continue their covert march towards Lu'an."

"Yes."

After Yu Tongyuan finished speaking, he mounted his horse and went to deliver a message to Yu Tingyu, while Lu Jin led the reconnaissance team to continue searching in the direction of Lu'an.

In order to find the ambush site as quickly as possible, the main force of the six battalions, led by Yu Tingyu, is now marching in secret, trying to stay away from the main roads. Lu Jin is leading the vanguard team, searching and looking for a suitable battlefield.

It was not until the evening of that day, when they were still fifty miles away from Lu'an, that Lu Jin saw Zhu Liangzu's marching column. It was almost dark, but they had not yet set up camp and were still marching towards Luzhou.

Lu Jin quickly called a messenger and asked him to deliver a message to Luzhou immediately. Zhu Liangzu was too powerful. Liao Yongan, who was besieging the city, must not be killed by Zhu Liangzu. That would be a loss.

'Ye Sheng, Ye Sheng, I hope you won't let me down.'

"Tui" Lu Jin spit out the dogtail grass in his mouth and called to the messenger, "Let's go, notify the main force, don't worry about Zhu Liangzu, we will continue to advance to Lu'an!"

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)