Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 98 Xu Shouhui proclaims himself emperor (Subscribe)
On the eighth day of October, Liao Yongan received an advance tip from Lu Jin that he would be promoted to commander-in-chief. He felt a little nervous, always worrying that he would not do well. Fortunately, Lu Jin gave him two books, so he could only study hard.

After leaving the Marshal's Mansion and returning to Chao County by boat, Liao Yongan prepared to attack Wuwei while conveying a message on behalf of Lu Jin, calling Zhu Liangzu and Liao Yongzhong back, so the two of them returned to Luzhou by boat.

Yesterday, Yu Tongyuan brought his combat battalion and a newly formed battalion of Xi Guobao to Chao County. Zhu Liangzu and others already knew that Lu Jin had been transferred again, and this time he must have come to receive orders.

As expected, as soon as the two arrived at the Marshal's Mansion, Lu Jin spoke directly.

"Go back and gather the troops. Take the main force of the Fifth Regiment and go and capture Dingyuan County."

Zhu Liangzu was stunned when he heard this. "Only four thousand of us? Going to attack the city?"

Normally, if a city has two thousand defenders, the attackers have to gather several times the number of troops to attack, otherwise it will be difficult to capture the city.

Lu Jin looked at him and said teasingly, "Why, aren't you a good fighter? You don't dare to attack Dingyuan with only 4,000 men?"

Zhu Liangzu's face immediately turned red with anger. He said, "Why not? I will take Dingyuan down!"

"There's no need for you to risk your life, just come closer." Lu Jin shook his head and waved for the two to come closer.

"Mr. Baishi, the secretary of our Marshal's Office, has a brother who is the county magistrate of Dingyuan County, named Li Xu. He will cooperate with you in the city. Mr. Feng Guoyong's brother Feng Sheng has already returned to Dingyuan to gather his friends and let his friends sneak into the city to act as an insider.

"Just march at a normal speed. When you reach Dingyuan in a few days, they will be almost ready.

"Before you steal the city, you'd better contact Feng Sheng and the county magistrate Li Xu first to discuss countermeasures. It would be best if you can take the city without bloodshed, just like the four regiments attacked Heyang this time, and take over the city step by step.

"Your regiment is indeed a little short. It's hundreds of miles from Luzhou to Dingyuan, and there's not even a city to rest in between, nor a solid camp. So, I'll let Ye Sheng bring a cavalry battalion to accompany you and protect your infantry battalion along the way."

After listening to Lu Jin's plan, the two learned that there was an insider in Dingyuan City and even the county magistrate was his own man. Liao Yongzhong immediately breathed a sigh of relief and felt that this task was not difficult.

Zhu Liangzu felt like he was on a roller coaster. Just now, when he heard that only his regiment was going there, he was worried that he might not be able to take the city. But now when he heard that they were only going there to cooperate with the insiders to take over the city, he became depressed again.

"So it's just a fraudulent city takeover. Doesn't that mean there won't be any more wars?"

"Who said there is no war? This time when we go to Dingyuan, we will let you fight to your heart's content!" Lu Jin suddenly said.

"Hmm? What does the Marshal mean? Is there something else happening in Dingyuan?" Zhu Liangzu asked puzzledly.

Lu Jin then stood up, put his hands behind his back and paced, saying, "It's easy to take Dingyuan, but it's not easy to defend that place.

"I have received intelligence that the Yuan court is preparing a large army to deal with Xuzhou's Zhima Li. Although their main target is Xuzhou, they will not leave us alone. They will definitely send a small army to sweep us. By then, you will have no choice but to fight."

At this time, Lu Jin suddenly turned around and looked at the two of them and said to them.

"After you go there, you must immediately start to arrange the city defense and survey the surrounding terrain and villages. If the Yuan court really sends people to attack, then Brother Yongzhong will be responsible for guarding the city and you, Zhu Liangzu, can go out and fight the Yuan army in the field."

Zhu Liangzu's eyes lit up when he heard this. It would be great if he could have someone to help look after the house so he could go out and fight, he said immediately.

"Hahahaha, then Dingyuan is really suitable for me. Don't worry, Marshal. I will definitely hold Dingyuan firmly and make sure that the Yuan army can't even see the edge of the city wall."

Lu Jin didn't care how he fought specifically. Zhu Liangzu had led the army to conquer two provinces in history, so he must be quite capable. It would be a good idea to let him go to the northern front to have some friction with the Yuan army, which would be a good opportunity for him to gain some experience.

Lu Jin gave another final instruction.

"Luzhou and Dingyuan are separated by several hundred miles, and there is only one city, Liang County. If you fail to defend Dingyuan, then I will have to prepare for the defense of Luzhou.

"Our families are all in Luzhou, you'd better not let me see the Yuan army outside the Luzhou city wall!"

"Yes, I promise not to let any Yuan army go south!" Zhu Liangzu said seriously.

You must be kidding. His whole family is living in Luzhou now. How could he let the Yuan army take down Luzhou city?

"Go ahead, but don't go too fast. Give them some time to prepare."

"Yes."

The two men then took the order and left. On the afternoon of the eighth day, they led the team and marched towards Dingyuan.

Since Zhu Shou's regiment returned and took over the defense of Luzhou City, Yu Tingyu's temporary garrison mission was over. So he returned to Lu'an with Chen Hong, who had just surrendered, and prepared to replace Zhao Yong who stayed in Lu'an, so as to quickly fill up the establishment of seven regiments for his son.

The next day, at noon on the ninth day, the day when Feng Sheng rushed back to Dingyuan, the surface of the Yangtze River outside Hezhou Port was covered with thousands of sails!

The huge fleet rode the northwest wind and sailed all the way up the Yangtze River.

After Liao Yongjian and Zhao Zhongzhong took 3,000 naval soldiers to Hezhou to take over the Yangtze River Defense Navy, with the active cooperation of Bai Guangtai, they first familiarized themselves with the operation of the new ships for two days and reorganized the personnel of each ship. Then the three of them led the original Yangtze River Defense Navy and sailed to Wuwei upstream.

Wherever the fleet passed, the three cities of Dangtu, Wuhu and Fanchang on the other side of the river were all shaken!

The rebels in Luzhou have become powerful and have taken control of a strong navy. Anyone who knows a little about history knows how the Southern Chen Dynasty of the Northern and Southern Dynasties was destroyed. It would be strange if they were not afraid.

When the huge fleet sailed across the river near Dangtu Caishiji, Liao Yongjian held up a telescope and looked towards Dangtu City. Looking at the densely packed colorful flags fluttering above and the oversized Chen-character Shuai flag on the city wall, he immediately said with disdain.

"Humph, just bluffing. Kang Mao just transferred the 2,000 defenders from the opposite side before the decisive battle. Now Dangtu must be very empty. He can only plant more flags to give himself courage."

Zhao Zhongzhong also sighed when he heard this.

"It's a pity that we have too few troops now. Even if we take Dangtu, I'm afraid we can't stop the counterattack of the Yuan army in Jiangnan. Otherwise, now is the best time to cross the river and capture Dangtu. It's such a pity."

Liao Yongjian put down the telescope and said, "There is nothing we can do. Since the Marshal is not planning to cross the river at this time, then we should listen to him. He thinks more long-term than we do, and he must have his reasons for making the arrangements."

"Yeah." Zhao Zhongzhong nodded.

Historically, it should have been this year that Liao Yongjian defected to Xu Song. Now he has been completely conquered by Lu Jin, and has won battle after battle. Now he is about to take over the entire Luzhou Road. The Yuan court's Jiang defense navy has also been captured by them. The Chaohu navy has doubled in size, and its power is growing extremely fast.

Therefore, not only did he not leave, but he became a loyal believer of Lu Jin!
Liao Yongjian raised the telescope again and looked towards Dangtu. It seemed that someone on the opposite city wall was also looking at him.

He asked Bai Guangtai who had just come over. "Captain Bai, do you know who the general named Chen on the opposite side is?"

Bai Guangtai said immediately, "It seems to be a commander-in-chief named Chen Yexian. I heard that he was also a self-recruited local militiaman, and his hometown is Jiqing Road. He seems to have a lot of troops, but I don't know how many more there are. I'm not familiar with him."

Liao Yongjian nodded. He was also from a landlord militia, which meant he was the same kind of person as Kang Maocai.

He then put down the telescope, looked at the big banner with the word Chen on it, and muttered, "Mr. Chen Ye, I will kill you sooner or later."

Chen Yesian, who was on the Dangtu city wall on the opposite bank, looked at the huge fleet from Hezhou with a very grim expression.

Before Kang Maocai's decisive battle with Lu Jin, he not only transferred the 2,000 defenders from Dangtu there, but also took the navy away.

After all, Kang Maocai was in charge of river defense affairs, so it was completely reasonable for him to mobilize the navy.

But he transferred the navy away, and as a result, all the soldiers were killed in a battle. The navy fell directly into Lu Jin's hands, and Dangtu was now in a passive position.

Now Chen Yexian doesn’t even have a boat, let alone a naval battle with Lu Jin. He would be thankful if Lu Jin didn’t take the initiative to cross the river to beat him.

Chen Yetian was born into a local landlord family in Nanjing. He was also a well-known figure in history. Lu Jin actually knew him. After all, he was a key figure who changed the course of history in the late Yuan Dynasty.

Historically, Chen Yexian first fought with Zhu Yuanzhang in Heyang, but was defeated and fled to Dangtu. After Zhu Yuanzhang crossed the river, he fought with him again, but Chen Yexian still couldn't defeat him and surrendered directly this time.

The situation at that time was that Guo Zixing had just died, and his eldest son Guo Tianyou was also killed in the attack on Heyang. Zhu Yuanzhang only had two cities, Dingyuan and Chuzhou. At this time, Liu Futong and Du Zundao recruited them.

Zhu Yuanzhang thought that it was good to lean on a big tree for shade, and after joining Liu Du's army, he could avoid friction with other rebel forces. So he nominally surrendered to Liu Du's Red Army, that is, to the Little Ming King Han Lin'er.

However, Du Zundao was well versed in the art of political struggle. When he served as secretary to Boyan and Tuotuo, he learned a lot about these political struggles.

He knew that if he conferred the title of marshal on Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Yuanzhang would not be grateful to him, and they would not be able to truly take over the military power of this army, because this team was originally formed by Zhu Yuanzhang himself, and whether you conferred the title or not, he was the commander-in-chief.

So Du Zundao, in the name that Zhu Yuanzhang was a general under Guo Zixing, appointed Guo Zixing's son Guo Tianxu as the "Marshal of Haozhou". Zhu Yuanzhang, the son-in-law, and Guo Zixing's brother-in-law Zhang Tianyou were both deputy marshals, directly sidelining Zhu Yuanzhang.

Zhu Yuanzhang was disgusted at the time, but what the other party said was the truth and he couldn't say anything. So the military power of Zhu Yuanzhang's own troops was taken away and given to Guo Tianxu.

Zhu Yuanzhang was so depressed at the time that he even said the line in Ming history: "How can a man be controlled by others?"

If history had continued in this way, perhaps Guo Tianxu would have become the emperor.

But here comes the interesting part. After Guo Tianxu and Zhu Yuanzhang crossed the river and captured Dangtu, they began to attack Nanjing. When they reached the city of Nanjing, it was Chen Yexian who changed sides on the battlefield, surrendered and then rebelled again, colluded with the Yuan army in Nanjing, and directly killed Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou.

The two generals of Guo Zixing's faction were taken away by Chen Yexian, and the military power returned to Zhu Yuanzhang's hands.
Some people in later generations said that this was a conspiracy of Zhu Yuanzhang, who deliberately killed Guo Tianxu and Zhang Tianyou. However, Zhu Yuanzhang almost died under the city of Nanjing that time. It was a young general named Song Guoxing among his personal soldiers who put on Zhu Yuanzhang's white battle robe and acted as a stand-in to lead away the Yuan army.

Finally Song Guoxing was captured. When the Yuan army discovered that he was not Zhu Yuanzhang, they were so angry that they stabbed him to death.

Zhu Yuanzhang was able to survive that time thanks to this substitute and Chang Yuchun who fought his way out of the bloody battle to rescue him.

So the conspiracy theory is untenable. I can only say that this might just be luck.
Afterwards, Zhu Yuanzhang was very sad for the substitute who led the Kaiyuan army for him, so he promoted his younger brother to be the general manager. The younger brother of Song Guoxing, who served as a substitute for Zhu Yuanzhang, was Song Sheng, the Marquis of Xining, who would later be feared in the Western Regions!
In the history of the late Yuan Dynasty, the only person who almost killed Zhu Yuanzhang was Chen Yexian. How could he not leave a deep impression on people?

However, Chen Yesian could only sigh in despair. He had no boat and could only watch Liao Yongan lead the river defense division to leave without any way to counterattack.

Facing this huge navy, Chen Yesian was not the most worried. After all, Lu Jin had no plans to cross the river yet.

What we should really worry about, of course, is Wuwei County, which is about to be beaten.

Han Qinglu, the defender of Wuwei, and Ai Yan, the Mongolian governor of Wuwei, were extremely panicked when they faced the simultaneous pincer attack from the upstream and downstream by the brothers Liao Yongan and Liao Yongjian.

When Liao Yongan led his army to the foot of the city, he ordered his soldiers to raise the captured Kang Maocai's central army flag without saying a word, and then placed five human heads in order under the flagpole.

Kang Maocai, Lu Changyi, Wang Ruheng, Ding Zhongrui, and Wu Xiangrong, the heads of the five people were neatly arranged, with white cloth hanging underneath and the names of their owners written in brush.

This move immediately caused 10,000 points of psychological damage to the Wuwei defenders, and their morale was completely destroyed.

Then Liao Yongan sent Bai Guangtai to persuade Han Qinglu to surrender. With this general who had successfully surrendered and had not been killed as an example, Han Qinglu also surrendered quickly.

This result was within the expectations of Lu Jin and Liao Yongan. What was more surprising was that the Mongolian governor Ai Yan also surrendered.

Liao Yongan was a little overwhelmed and decided to send the person to Luzhou and let Lu Jin handle it.

On the ninth day of the tenth month of the eleventh year of Zhizheng, Wuwei County opened the city and surrendered, and the Shengwu Army almost occupied the entire Luzhou Road.

Why do we say almost? Because there is a Yingshan County to the southwest of Lu'an. This county is deep in the Dabie Mountains and is not far from Xu Shouhui's base camp Huanggang.

Lu Jin has now been pushed to the foot of Dabie Mountains, so let's not compete with him for this small county town in the mountains.

At the same time, on the day when Lu Jin captured Wuwei, news came that Xu Shouhui had proclaimed himself emperor in Qizhou and restored the Song Dynasty.

In early October, Xu Shouhui occupied Qizhou, Huanggang and other places, defeated the counterattack of the Yuan army, put forward the slogan of equalizing wealth and benefiting the poor, and officially proclaimed himself emperor and founded a country, named "Song" and established the reign "Zhiping".

This move immediately shocked the world. Someone rebelling is one thing, but the court was unable to suppress the rebellion is another. But someone rebelling and could not be suppressed, and even proclaimed himself emperor and founded a country. This was a real big event!
As soon as the name of the country came out, anyone with a little knowledge knew that this was a disaster.

At the same time, Xu Shouhui's declaration of emperorship also provided a banner for countless rebel forces in the south, and countless rebel forces flocked to him.

He has already been crowned emperor, do you want to be made a duke? If you want, why don't you go now?
Among these rebel forces who defected to Xu Shouhui, there was also a less conspicuous little leader named Chen Youliang!
Luzhou City, on the tenth day of October, when Lu Jin received the news in the Marshal's Mansion, he immediately looked at Li Ruizhong in front of him with amusement and asked curiously.

"Do you regret it? Xu Shouhui proclaimed himself emperor at this time. If you had surrendered to me a few days later, and waited until you received the news to surrender to Xu Shouhui, with your master-disciple relationship with Peng Yingyu, you would have been granted the title of a duke, if not a title of a marquis, right?"

Li Ruizhong immediately knelt on one knee and said hurriedly, "I dare not, I don't have such thoughts."

Before Lu Jin could say anything, Li Shanchang came in with a pile of documents. When he heard the conversation between Lu Jin and Li Ruizhong, he sneered.

"Humph, whoever can't help but declare himself emperor at this time will have to face the full force of the Yuan court. Xu Shouhui is really out of his mind, obsessed with profit."

One chapter left, will make up for it tomorrow
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(End of this chapter)