Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 54: One person is responsible for his own actions (Please read it later)

On the main battlefield, Hua Gao was still trying hard to gather the scattered Red Turban soldiers. As the soldiers were running in such a disorderly manner, it was difficult for Kang Maocai to catch them. Both sides were running in disorder and neither side was able to gather their soldiers for a while.

The chaotic fight on the field gave Huagao some room to maneuver.

At the edge of the battlefield, Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong just watched from afar.

Zheng Yong looked at the red-turbaned soldiers who were being chased everywhere, hesitated for a moment and then asked.

"We're just going to watch? Are we really not going to care?"

Ye Sheng frowned, thought for a moment, and then said, "Let's go see Commander Zhang. If he asks us to take action, we will help. This way, it will not be considered as violating the lord's order."

"Good idea." Zheng Yong nodded when he heard it.

On the other side, the main force led by Zhang Wen did not rest for long. They just filled their stomachs and drank water, and then the team set out to march again.

When they were still five or six miles away from the battlefield, a rider on a fast horse suddenly came running towards them. It was Li Wang who came to ask for help. Before he could get close to the team, he was stopped by the cruising cavalry.

"Who? What?"

Li Wang shouted anxiously while riding on his horse, "I am a general under Captain Hua. We were ambushed by Kang Maocai ahead. General Zhao Pusheng is dead. Captain Hua asked me to come to you for help! Can you let me see Commander Zhang?"

The scout was shocked when he heard this and immediately took him to see Zhang Wen. Li Wang then repeated what he had said and emphasized the current situation, especially that Zhao Pusheng was dead and Hua Gao was gathering the defeated soldiers to resist, but they would definitely not be able to hold out for long. He hoped that Zhang Wen could come to the rescue immediately.

Zhang Wen's eyes lit up after hearing this. The task assigned by Lu Jin was to slow down the process. Zhao Pusheng must die. As for Hua Gao, it was up to fate.
Lu Jin was targeting Zhao Pusheng, and it was just bad luck that he accidentally injured Hua Gao. Since he is fine now, he must be rescued.

Zhang Wen immediately gave the order.

"Zhu Shou will lead the second battalion as the vanguard. Yu Tongyuan and Xu Yong, you two will each lead a battalion on the left and right wings. I will lead the first battalion in the center. The entire regiment will be in battle formation, running forward, and be ready to engage in battle at any time. Run!"

"Yes!"

The marching formation was quickly adjusted, and the troops ran quickly in a V-shaped battle formation. However, Li Wang, who came to ask for help, still thought the speed was too slow, and immediately asked Zhang Wen.

"Commander Zhang, can you lend me a few cavalrymen first so I can go and provide support? Otherwise, I'm afraid that Hua Qianhu will have trouble running these few miles."

Zhang Wen immediately hesitated when he heard this. Each battalion organized by Lu Jin had 850 people, including 800 combat soldiers in each battalion, and the remaining 50 were officers, flag bearers, drummers, and messengers. Only messengers had horses, and each battalion had less than ten horses. His regiment had a total of more than horses.

It's not a small number if you put them all together, but one's own infantry still needs scouts and sentries to be on guard.

Just when he was in trouble, Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong finally arrived.

After the two sides met, Ye Sheng immediately said.

"Commander Zhang, the Lord is worried that you are in danger, so he sent me and Captain Zheng to help you. Do you need any help?"

Zhang Wen was delighted when he saw this and immediately asked, "How many cavalrymen have you brought?"

"five hundred."

"Great, I don't need any help here. You guys go to the front and rescue Hua Gao. He was ambushed by Kang Maocai. Find him and ask him to bring the remaining soldiers to join me immediately. I will also lead a large group to rush over."

"Yes!"

Li Wang was also delighted upon seeing this, and immediately led 500 cavalrymen to rush to the rescue.

It’s only four or five miles away, and the cavalry will arrive in a few minutes.

Ye Sheng was originally a cavalry officer, and had many former official cavalrymen under his command. After arriving at the battlefield, he did not need anyone to arrange tactics. He immediately waved his lance and led the charge. Wherever he passed, the Yuan army soldiers were either killed or turned around and ran away.

Zheng Yong had not had much training in riding and fighting with long weapons, but he was good at archery. He led a group of horse archers and galloped past the Yuan army, shooting arrows continuously, causing heavy casualties to the Yuan army in an instant.

500 cavalrymen running on the battlefield is not a small number.

Hua Gao led a group of defeated soldiers to fight everywhere. The arrows he brought with him had long been used up, and his clothes were covered in blood. It was unknown whether he was injured or not. He was still fighting with a spear in his hand.

The red-turbaned soldiers behind him who had originally dispersed saw that their commander was so brave. They also knew that only by breaking out of the encirclement and gathering more people could they have a chance of survival, so they immediately began to fight desperately with Hua Gao.

At this moment, the red scarf cavalry suddenly appeared in the field, which immediately lifted Hua Gao's spirits. He raised his gun and shouted, "Brothers, our reinforcements are here, follow me to fight!"

"Great! Reinforcements are here. We are saved!"

"Isn't that Zuo Junbi's general? He actually came to help us?"

"It must be Marshal Lu who has subdued this man. Brothers, reinforcements are coming, kill him!"

Ye Sheng rode over on his horse, knocked a man flying with his spear, and shouted when he saw Hua Gao.

"Captain Hua, please retreat quickly. I will cover your retreat. Go and meet Commander Zhang as soon as possible."

"it is good!"

Hua Gao did not hesitate any longer. He led the 600 or so defeated soldiers he had gathered and, under the cover of the cavalry, fled towards Zhang Wen.

Since Zhang Wen and Ye Sheng came to support him, Zhao Pusheng was probably overthinking it. If Lu Jin and Kang Maocai were in the same group, then how could Ye Sheng and the others attack their "friendly forces" so happily?

It must be that Zhao Pusheng was judging others by his own standards. He was dissatisfied with the fact that the Chaohu generals had jointly recommended Lu Jin as the marshal and wanted to run back to seize the position. That was why he thought that Lu Jin had the same idea as him.

As for other possibilities, Hua Gao didn't want to think about them. If they came to save him, it meant that he had nothing to do with it. Otherwise, they could just ignore it and watch him get surrounded and killed. What else could he do if he didn't believe it? Could he still lead his people to escape alive, join other forces, and become enemies with Lu Jin and the Chaohu generals?

"General, the main force of the Red Turbans from Luzhou has arrived. Hundreds of cavalry have come to rescue the remnants of Zhao Pusheng's army. There is also a large formation of infantry behind them, and they are rushing towards us."

On Kang Maocai's side, there were also cavalry scouts patrolling around the battlefield who came to report the news, but the funny thing was that the cavalry this guy brought were actually less than those brought by Ye Sheng and Zheng Yong.

But it is also normal. Kang Maocai stationed troops in Heyang with the purpose of blocking the Red Turban Army in Jianghuai and preventing them from crossing the river to attack Jiangnan. Therefore, although he had nearly 20,000 troops, a large part of them were navy, and they were divided into many places. He did not have many infantry and cavalry.

Kang Maocai was shot in the face by Hua Gao's arrow and several of his teeth fell out. He was in terrible pain and kept spitting out blood. When he heard the news, he was shocked and pointed at Zhao Pusheng's body, mumbling incoherently.

"Cut off his head, gather the troops, and retreat."

The purpose of his trip was to kill Zhao Pusheng. Since the combat objective had been achieved, why should he fight to the death with Lu Jin's main infantry formation in such a chaotic situation?

"Yes!"

Kang Maocai was surrounded by his personal guards, who immediately chopped off Zhao Pusheng's head, confiscated his two swords, and were preparing to retreat with Kang Maocai.

Suddenly, I noticed that at the end of the official road on the west side, a large army with red flags waving, banners blocking the sky, and a strict battle formation was rushing towards this side in the dust.

Kang Maocai's eyes widened instantly, and he endured the severe pain in his mouth, jumped on his horse, and ran away with a group of personal guards.

When Hua Gao and his men saw this large army, their tense mood immediately relaxed. Zhang Wen's main force had arrived, and their lives were finally saved.

In less than a moment, Kang Maocai's side heard the sound of trumpets and gongs to gather troops for retreat. The Yuan army, which was running everywhere, gradually gathered and confronted Zhang Wen's infantry formation less than two miles away.

Seeing that Kang Maocai refused to leave, Zhang Wen immediately ordered the troops to stop and reorganize. The soldiers from the four battalions quickly adjusted themselves into a more regular infantry phalanx, holding their spears high and marching forward.

"Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!"

As the big cowhide drum mounted on the carriage began to beat, a group of soldiers immediately shouted "tiger" three times, stepped to the beat of the drum, held their spears flat, and moved forward in an orderly manner.

Kang Maocai no longer hesitated upon seeing this. After a few rapid golden bells, he led the large army that had just gathered and turned around to run, leaving more than 200 cavalrymen behind to cover their retreat.

Only after the enemy really ran far away did Zhang Wen order his troops to stop.

Looking at the tattered corpse in front of him with his chest stabbed like a hornet's nest and his head missing, Zhang Wen still asked Hua Gao for confirmation.

"Is this really Zhao Pusheng?"

Hua Gao had a complicated expression, and felt a sense of fear for no reason. Seeing Zhang Wen looking at him with an inquiring look, he nodded and said, "It was Zhao Pusheng. I saw him die with my own eyes."

Zhang Wen curled his lips, "Then he is really unlucky. If he had held on for a few more moments, we would have come."

Zhu Shou looked at the remaining 600 people around Hua Gao and couldn't help but remind Zhang Wen.

"This is a big deal. So many people died. We can't even pick them up. General Zhao is also dead. How can we explain this to Brother Lu? If I had known, I should have left faster."

Zhang Wen said immediately after hearing this.

"We all like to ambush the Yuan army. Who knows if Kang Maocai will ambush us? What's wrong with me ordering them to walk slower and conserve their strength? Look, isn't Kang Maocai really here?!

"If we had walked faster, we might have been the ones ambushed.

"I am the commander of the regiment. I am responsible for my own actions. If the commander-in-chief wants to punish me, let him punish me alone."

Zhu Shou didn't know the secret behind this matter, but because of his relationship with Zhang Wen, he couldn't help but look at him with sympathy, with an expression that said, "You're done, kid."

Zhang Wen rolled his eyes and immediately shouted to his messenger.

"Notify all battalions. The second battalion will be on guard. The other three battalions will clean up the battlefield, collect supplies, count the damage, bury the bodies, and then send out cavalry sentries to the east."

After a pause, he shouted again, "We must send someone to deliver a message to the commander immediately, saying that Zhao Pusheng's troops were ambushed by Kang Maocai, and General Zhao was killed. We only rescued Hua Qianhu and his remaining 600 people."

"Yes!"

Early the next morning.

When Lu Jin saw the express letter sent by Zhang Wen overnight, he felt relieved that he had finally gotten rid of Zhao Pusheng.

From now on, the Chaohu Navy is his Chaohu Navy, and the connection with Xu Song’s troops in the south has been almost cut off by him. Even if Xu Song sends someone to contact them again, they will be contacting Lu Jin’s Shengwu Army!

However, the follow-up conclusion of this matter still needs to be done more beautifully.

The person who was killed with a borrowed knife is dead, and the murder weapon, the knife, must also be disposed of.

Thinking of this, he looked at Bao Heng, who was holding a stack of account books and reporting on the progress and expenses of the city construction project, and asked him.

"Can you still contact your brother now?"

Bao Heng was stunned, then realized what Lu Jin was talking about and nodded silently.

I spent the whole afternoon writing the outline, and there is still one chapter left in the evening.

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(End of this chapter)