Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 52: Birthday Celebration, We've Been Sold Out! (Please Read)

"Damn Lu Jin!"

Looking at Hua Gao's departing back, Zhao Pusheng cursed inwardly, turned around to look at the nearly three thousand soldiers behind him, and felt more confident in his fight for power with Lu Jin.

These were the first group of believers who were bewitched by him and Miss Jinhua. Among them were several core members of the Maitreya Sect whom he personally developed, and they were considered his base.

In comparison, both the Liao and Yu families had invested capital, and the fishermen were their foundation. At the beginning, they just joined together to revolt. This was why he proposed to go to Hanshan, but the Chaohu generals were unwilling to give up their ships and follow him.

As long as he brought these believers to Luzhou and contacted Peng Yingyu to support him, he could then disperse these believers and place them in the Yu and Liao teams to preach and see who they would listen to.

"With the righteousness given to me by my master, I wonder who among you can stop me!"

"Marshal, can you stop this?"

Ten miles ahead of Zhao Pusheng, in the woods on the side of the official road from Hanshan to Luzhou, the 6,000 main forces led by Kang Maocai were hiding there.

Looking at Hua Gao who had just run past him, Jiang Can, a general under Kang Maocai, immediately asked.

Kang Maocai waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, this should just be a scout in the front. We are going to fight Zhao Pusheng's main force.

"Now that Lu Jin has occupied Luzhou and Liu'an, the court will definitely come to punish us. When the time comes, we will hand over Zhao Pusheng's head so that we can report to the court."

The current situation in Huaixi puts Kang Maocai, the Huaixi envoy, under tremendous pressure, mainly because Lu Jin performed too steadily after taking Luzhou.

He did not expand as rapidly as Sesame Li of Xuzhou and conquer cities everywhere, but he was not idle either. He conquered a piece, controlled a piece, and then expanded his army. He was so steady that it was terrifying.

Such an enemy was certainly not one he could defeat easily, so Zhao Pusheng became his only way to deal with the court.

Thinking of this, he instructed Jiang Can again, "It doesn't matter if some of Zhao Pusheng's soldiers escape in this ambush, but Zhao Pusheng's head must be captured. Don't let him escape."

"Yes, Marshal, rest assured, I will definitely take Zhao Pusheng's head!"

Fifteen miles west of the woods, Zhang Wen had already led his troops here. When passing by a village beside the official road, Zhang Wen suddenly ordered them to stop and asked the generals and soldiers to rest on the spot and not enter the village. They were only allowed to eat some dry food and send people to the village to get some water.

Upon hearing the order, the other generals of the regiment, Xu Yong, Yu Tongyuan and Zhu Shou, all gathered around. Yu Tongyuan and Zhu Shou didn't say anything, but Xu Yong frowned and asked.

"Commander Zhang, didn't the Marshal ask us to go to Hanshan to meet up with our friendly forces? Why have we been walking so slowly, stopping and starting all the way? Now that we are only a few dozen miles away, why are we stopping here to rest?"

Xu Yong was the young man from Feidong who was watching the excitement outside the city and observing Lu Jin attacking Luzhou.

After hearing about Lu Jin's deeds, he admired him very much, so he took the able-bodied men from his hometown to join him. He was assigned to Zhang Wen's army, but he has not yet participated in any serious combat operations.

Hearing that he actually doubted Zhang Wen's order, before Zhang Wen could say anything, Yu Tongyuan jumped out and said something.

"Brother Xu, I don't understand. We are on a long march, and we are not carrying out a combat mission. We are just supporting friendly forces. Of course, there is no need to be so anxious.

"Moreover, marching too fast will make the soldiers too tired. The last time the commander led us to fight Zhu Liangzu, he used the strategy of tiring out the soldiers, which led to his being ambushed and annihilated by us."

Yu Tongyuan immediately recounted the details of how Lu Jin beat Zhu Liangzu last time. Xu Yong was fascinated by what he heard and no longer had any doubts.

But Zhang Wen said.

"Tong Yuan is right. We are just picking someone up, not going to fight. We should be cautious when marching. We should not only conserve the soldiers' strength, but also send out scouts. Although we are resting here, we should also send scouts to scout the surrounding areas."

He immediately ordered, "Tongyuan, send your battalion's cavalry scouts to the front to see if Zhao Pusheng has moved and where he has gone. He doesn't really want to wait for us to arrive at Hanshan before leaving, does he?"

"Yes, I'll have someone go take a look."

On the other side of the official road six miles away from Zhang Wen's troops, Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong also took several hundred cavalrymen to rest here. The riders dismounted and fed the horses with salt water and beans to replenish their energy.

At this moment, several cavalry scouts suddenly ran over and started blowing beeping bamboo whistles before they got close, announcing their identities. They were none other than Zhang Huzi and Xi Guobao, Zheng's men.

It was Zhang Huzi who personally tricked Zuo Junbi out of the city and led him into an ambush. Now he has also followed Zheng Yong to join the Shengwu Army. Both of them have become cavalry company commanders under Zheng, each leading more than a hundred cavalrymen.

Although these two were not famous generals, they left their names in the history books. Their greatest achievement was that they followed Zheng Yong's 300 cavalrymen to ambush Zhang Shicheng's troops, winning a great victory and capturing Zhang Shicheng's younger brother alive.
At this time, Zhang Huzi came running all the way, his face serious and anxious. Seeing this, Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong hurriedly asked, "But what happened?"

"Brother Zheng, Captain Ye, I found a large group of Yuan soldiers on the official road about ten miles ahead. There may be several thousand of them. They are hiding in the woods, without raising flags or making any noise. They may be trying to ambush Commander Zhang.

"I was afraid of revealing my whereabouts, so I didn't dare get too close. I wasn't sure exactly how many soldiers they had."

Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong frowned upon hearing this. Ye Sheng then looked at Xi Guobao and asked, "Where is the regiment commanded by Zhang now? How far is it from the Yuan army?"

Xi Guobao immediately replied, "Commander Zhang is only five or six miles away from us, resting outside a village on the other side of the official road. They have stopped and are not moving forward."

Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong looked at each other after hearing this, and Zheng Yong asked again, "Where did Zhao Pusheng go?"

Xi Guobao replied, "Zhao Pusheng is less than ten miles away from the Yuan army, and they are still marching."

"Ah, this." Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong looked at each other again, neither of them knew what to say.

Zheng Yong was recruited when Lu Jin ambushed Zuo Junbi. He was familiar with Zhang Desheng, a native of Luzhou, who was in the Chaohu navy. At first, Zhang Desheng wanted to invite him to join the Chaohu navy, but Zheng Yong did not agree at that time because he felt that the Chaohu navy would not be able to succeed.

The reason why he joined later was because after Lu Jin joined, the Chaohu navy began to improve. In addition, when he first met Lu Jin, he saw Lu Jin giving orders and the Chaohu generals obeyed him. Zheng Yong realized at that time that Lu Jin was the real boss of the Chaohu navy.

To put it bluntly, the reason why he joined the Chaohu Navy was because of Lu Jin. If it was the Chaohu Navy led by Zhao Pusheng, he would definitely not go.

If it weren't for Lu Jin, perhaps he would have just followed the original history and waited until the next year when Guo Zixing launched the uprising and then joined Guo Zixing at the same time as Zhu Yuanzhang.

Therefore, Zheng Yong had no good feelings towards Zhao Pusheng. Now the Shengwu Army led by Lu Jin was developing so well. What would be the benefit of bringing Zhao Pusheng back?
Needless to say, Ye Sheng was well-educated and a legitimate military general. After being captured by Lu Jin, he personally tried to persuade him to surrender. He had no good feelings towards Zhao Pusheng, the cult leader.

Lu Jin is not only his marshal, but also his lord!

There is no need to explain the difference.

The two were silent for a moment, and Zheng Yongcai hesitated and said, "Do you care?"

Zheng Yong himself didn't want to care about it. It would be better if Zhao Pusheng just died, but he was not sure what Ye Sheng meant.

Ye Sheng still had that expressionless look on his face, and seemed to be very calm at all times.

After a moment's thought, he said, "My lord's order to me is to keep an eye on the First Regiment. As long as the First Regiment is not in danger, we don't have to worry about anything else!"

Zheng Yong also breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this. It seemed that Ye Sheng had the same attitude as him.

But then Ye Sheng said again.

"But we have to protect the regiment. All soldiers should put on their armor immediately and string their bows. We should move secretly to the vicinity of the Yuan army. If Commander Zhang encounters them, we will seize the opportunity to intervene in the battlefield."

"it is good."

To the west of Hanshan, near an official road less than thirty miles long, four armies each had their own plans, with scouts constantly coming and going, everyone waiting for their prey to come to them.

Hua Gao was angry and galloped for a while. Suddenly, he saw a scout coming towards him. He saw the scout had a red armband on his left arm, which was the symbol of the Shengwu Army. He was delighted and went forward to ask.

"But are they Marshal Lu's men?"

"That's right. Are you a subordinate of Hua Qianhu from Hanshan?" The cavalry scout also rode up to him.

"Hahaha, I'm the Captain Hua you mentioned. You're finally here. I wonder how many troops have come to meet us and how far are we from here?" Hua Gao asked happily.

"The scout bowed and said, 'Reply to the captain, the commander has sent four battalions of our regiment to help us. More than 3,000 main forces are here. Commander Zhang is leading the brigade in the rear, less than ten miles away from here.'"

"That's great. We are only ten miles away from here. I will go back and tell everyone to come and meet you as soon as possible. You go back and report the news."

"Yes."

Hua Gao and Zhang Wen's scouts met, informed each other of the distance, and immediately turned their horses around to go back to look for Zhao Pusheng.

Although he didn't think much of Zhao Pusheng, he wasn't going to break up with him. After all, they were still in the same group. At worst, when he got to Luzhou, he would just follow Liao Yongan, Yu Tonghai and the others and have less contact with Zhao Pusheng in the future.

Hua Gao ran all the way back, and when he passed a forest, he saw Zhao Pusheng and a large army chasing after him, and immediately said.

"General Lu has sent more than 3,000 soldiers to support us. They are less than 20 miles ahead. If we hurry up, we will be able to meet them."

Zhao Pusheng said coldly, "Okay, I understand."

Then he called out to the large group behind him and asked everyone to jog.

However, just as he waved his hands and shouted, something strange happened on the scene. Hundreds of archers suddenly emerged from the woods beside the official road and without saying a word, they fired a hail of arrows at them.

Before Zhao Pusheng could react, he was hit by two arrows, one hitting his waving arm and the other hitting his eye.

Suddenly suffering a severe blow, Zhao Pusheng howled miserably and used his only remaining hand to pull out the arrow from his eye socket, and in the process pulled out a bloody eyeball.

He used his only remaining eye to glance around and saw that dozens of his men were shot dead or injured in an instant. He immediately shouted and cursed.

"We've been sold out!!!"

“Cu da shou” means doing something immoral and shortening one’s life. It is a curse word in Jianghuai dialect.

There is one more chapter today

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(End of this chapter)