The Tian family has a few leisure months, but in May people are twice as busy. At night, the south wind blows, and the wheat is covered with yellow.
The wheat growing area in the Northern Song Dynasty was very large, and wheat was also grown in Nanyang and Xiangyang. In the Southern Song Dynasty, wheat was grown on a large scale in the south.
Taking advantage of the wheat harvest, Ju Ming first summoned the wealthy families around Xiangyang, and then went to Nanyang to summon those wealthy families.
Use gentle words and kind words to persuade the wealthy people to hand over the new wheat to the government.
Part of it was bought with money, and part of it was borrowed from bonds. In conjunction with the reduction of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, the wealthy families were also willing to provide food. In their eyes, the appearance of this food was at least much better than that of the Song Dynasty court.
The Zhu family and his son have no intention of dealing with the wealthy families in Nanyang and Xiangyang.
Compared with the Chengdu Plain, the wealthy families here are not called wealthy families at all. At most, they are relatively wealthy local wealthy people. Because there is no way to carry out large-scale annexation here, there is land everywhere, but there is a lack of people to cultivate it.
After the summer harvest, new wheat is put into storage, and a small-scale battle can be fought.
In fact, while the wheat was still being harvested, the rebel cavalry was already dispatched.
Deng Chun led three thousand light cavalry to plunder everywhere outside Jiangling City.
It cannot be said to be plundering, but the people in Jiangling were not allowed to transport the new wheat they harvested into the city and were ordered to send it to the north. Ju Ming sent officials to receive it and then transport it to Jingmen. As much grain as the people gave, the officials issued as many IOUs as they promised to capture Jiangling.
Return it later.
If any Chu officials go to the countryside to collect grain, they will all be killed!
Two or three miles outside Jiangling City, all the cavalry sent by Deng Chunsa were sent out. Chu officials were not allowed to go out, and Chu people were not allowed to enter the city.
Chen Ziyi also took more than a thousand cavalry to do this outside Zhijiang City.
"Commander of the Brigade, we found a bandit altar at the foot of Longshan Mountain!"
"Let Yang Yun lead five hundred soldiers to destroy them!"
"yes!"
Deng Chun's military rank was colonel and his military position was cavalry brigade commander.
After Ju Ming reformed the military system, various common names also emerged. The division commander was called "division commander" and the brigade commander was called "brigade commander". Anyway, no one usually calls them division commander or brigade commander seriously.
Yang Yun is currently the commander of the cavalry. This young Qiang from the Five Barbarians, after serving as a soldier with the Han people for a year and a half, he can no longer tell that he is a foreigner. He originally has a Han name and a Han surname, and he can speak Han.
In other words, it’s just that the customs have become southern barbarian.
Five hundred Han and Qiang mixed cavalry rushed towards Longshan at high speed.
The rural Dharma altar of Da Chu was both a grassroots religious center and a grassroots tax center; it operated like a missionary organization and a folk mutual aid society.
When Yang Yun arrived with his cavalry, nearby people were paying food to the altar.
Seeing the cavalry coming, the people dispersed, leaving only a few fanatical believers who took up arms.
"The light is universally pure, and there is always happiness, silence, and no curse. He enjoys happiness without trouble. If there is suffering, it is of no use..."
The altar owner here looked horrified, but he was still reciting Manichaeism's "Sighing the World" and leading the believers to take up arms to protect the food.
Yang Yun raised his arm and made a gesture, and the messenger immediately blew the trumpet.
Not only had they been practicing for more than a year, but they also fought against Dali last year. After the order was sounded, the cavalry on both sides quickly dispersed and moved around. Although they could not be uniform, the formation change was very smooth.
Whoosh!
Hundreds of arrows were shot out one after another. These unarmored believers immediately collapsed because they had been hit by arrows and fell to the ground. Even the altar owner who was reciting scriptures was shot and injured.
Before the altar owner was hacked to death, he was still shouting: "Master (Zhong Xiang) is the Ming Dynasty and has come down to earth. Sooner or later, I will kill all of you, the descendants of the Dark Lord!"
What bullshit?
Yang Yun rushed over with his horse, raised his gun and stabbed him to death. He ordered: "Gather the local people and transport all the new wheat to the north!"
Only a few dozen miles apart, the respected rebels in Jingmen and Dangyang turned into shameless invaders in Jiangling.
The nearby people were forcibly summoned and escorted the food reluctantly, with resentment in their eyes.
The rebels' war actions soon attracted Zhong Xiang.
Yang Yao's elder brother, Yang Qin, was already the garrison of Jiangling at the age of twenty due to his valor in battle.
Currently, Yang Yao is serving as the captain of his brother's personal army.
Yang Qinhui reported: "Your Majesty, there are cavalry outside the city, but our army has no cavalry. We really don't know how to deal with it."
"Lead troops to expel!"
Prime Minister Zhong personally led the troops out of the city. He brought thousands of people from the south, plus the Jiangling garrison, a total of ten thousand people.
Among them, only Prime Minister Zhong's two thousand "Forest Guards" had excellent armor. Although the rest of the troops also had armor, their weapons and armor were of all kinds.
Deng Chun was stationed in a small town. When he heard that tens of thousands of Chu troops were coming to attack, he immediately abandoned his food and grass and fled, and sent people to blow trumpets everywhere to gather the troops.
Although Prime Minister Zhong robbed Deng Chun of his food and grass, he was unable to do anything about it.
He had occupied most of Jinghu Road and ordered to search for horses, but there were still less than a hundred cavalry.
There are three thousand Qingqi scattered in Jiangling countryside, which is beyond what Zhong Xiang can handle.
Zhong Xiang sent the only cavalry out to investigate, and soon a dozen of them escaped, followed by more than 200 cavalry in pursuit.
Zhong Xiang sent infantry to respond, and more than two hundred Teng Xiang cavalry immediately retreated.
In desperation, Prime Minister Zhong had no choice but to lead his troops back to the city.
But Deng Chun's cavalry gathered more and more, and the number they recalled from all over the country was close to two thousand.
The Chu army had not seriously practiced military formations. It was a mess during the march and chaos when forming the formation. Two thousand light cavalry took the opportunity to run back and forth and shoot arrows, making the Chu army formation even more chaotic. If it were not for the bonus of religious fanaticism, it would probably be more chaotic.
A few rounds of shooting can make the whole army collapse.
"Boom!"
The remaining one thousand cavalry were finally brought back by Yu Dian.
Yu Dian was originally the commander of the Lizhou Xiang Army. He followed Ju Ming to conquer the barbarians, but his military exploits were corrupted by traitors. Now he serves as the commander of the cavalry regiment like Yang Yun.
Deng Chun, Yu Dian, and Yang Yun each led a thousand cavalry. Taking advantage of the Chu army's confusion, they began to wander in different directions and shoot arrows.
This was the first time that Prime Minister Zhong encountered a large group of cavalry, and he had no means of dealing with it. He could only let the archers shoot arrows continuously. However, there were not many archers under his command, and it was difficult to effectively execute military orders in the chaos.
The nearly 10,000 Chu troops were shot to the point of collapse by three thousand Qingqi.
If it were a city defense battle or a water battle, they would never be so passive, but this was when they encountered a large group of cavalry in the wild.
"Second brother, what should we do?" Yang Yao asked anxiously.
Yang Qin replied: "I don't know either. The Red Thief's cavalry is so powerful!"
Yang Yao said: "If we don't fight back, the soldiers will be shot and run away."
In fact, not many Chu soldiers were shot to death. Most of those who were hit by arrows were only injured. After all, no matter how bad the armor is, it is still armor. The cavalry under Deng Chun's command have not yet completely changed their standard bows and arrows, and many soldiers are still using earthen bows.
Making bows and arrows on a large scale is more difficult than making armor on a large scale.
Even if there are enough craftsmen and materials, it will still take time, and what can be speeded up to create can only be a sample product.
Prime Minister Zhong ordered two troops to attack. As soon as the Chu army took action, Deng Chun led his troops to other directions to shoot arrows.
The Chu army was forced to turn to respond. After several more attacks, the formation became increasingly chaotic.
"Woooooo~~~"
The horn sounded, and Deng Chun led a thousand light cavalry to charge towards the chaotic enemy formation.
"Raise the gun!"
Yang Qin shouted.
Deng Chun rushed to the vicinity and found that the enemy army was not defeated, so he immediately turned and passed in front of their formation.
They have practiced this kind of change of direction countless times, just like water washing through a solid stone, passing through both sides of the stone.
The typical cavalry tactic of cutting corners, unable to charge head-on, becomes diagonal cutting into two corners. The more cuts are made, the two corners of the infantry will become thinner and thinner, getting closer and closer to the collapse of the formation.
Moreover, Deng Chun's men were all light cavalry, and they implemented corner-cutting tactics to avoid close combat.
They bullied the Chu army because they didn't have many archers. They shot arrows close to each other when they cut two corners, thus making up for the weak power of the earthen bows.
Just as Deng Chun made a diagonal cut, Yang Yun led his cavalry to charge over again, still using the same tactics.
When Yu Dian continued his third charge, the Chu army finally collapsed.
Brothers Yang Qin and Yang Yao were trapped by the defeated troops and fled.
Deng Chun, who turned around again and came back, drove his broken troops to attack Zhong Xiang's main formation. When Yang Yun also led his cavalry to fight back, all the Chu army's units collapsed one after another.
When Zhong Xiang led his troops out of the city, he relied on his large number of troops, high morale, and fighting in the homeland, believing that he could drive the enemy away. But now he was defeated in a confused way, and he had no way to fight against the cavalry.
This man's military ability is really poor. He is far inferior to those generals of the Song Dynasty, and even far inferior to Tong Guan.
"Your Majesty, leave quickly!"
"Master, run quickly!"
"Master" is the nickname of the believers for Zhong Xiang, and only old believers before the war can call the Emperor of Chu this way.
Zhong Xiang rode fast among the rebels. The remaining thirty or forty riders under his command escorted him all the way to escape. If the pursuers got too close, some of the cavalry would immediately stop and sacrifice their lives for Zhong Xiang.
The Queen.
The battlefield was very close to Jiangling City, and soon the defeated troops fled to the moat, jumping down like dumplings.
Everyone in the Chu army was good at swimming, and their armor was mostly made of leather or cloth, so not many people drowned.
Even Zhong Xiang abandoned his horse and jumped into the moat.
The emperor wore a pair of armor and sank to the bottom of the river like a weight. However, he was so good at water that he half swam and half walked on the bottom of the river. He walked more than ten meters without holding his breath and took off his armor directly at the bottom of the river.
The several bridges across the moat were completely crowded with defeated troops.
The archers who stayed behind in Jiangling would immediately shoot arrows in that direction whenever they saw a large group of enemy cavalry.
The city gates were also opened, and the defeated troops rushed into the city.
But Deng Chun did not dare to lead his troops to pursue him because there was a barbican city in Jiangling.
The defeated troops just fled into the Wengcheng, and the gates inside could not be opened.
If they dared to pursue the Wengcheng, they would immediately lose their cavalry advantage and be squeezed inside with countless defeated troops. The routed soldiers had no way to escape in the Wengcheng, and it was very likely that they would counterattack on the verge of death. If they were not careful, they would be caught in the urn.
Deng Chun personally guarded the prisoners, and asked Yang Yun and Yu Dian to lead troops to capture the defeated soldiers who fled to the surrounding suburbs.
Zhong Xiang sometimes swam in the moat, sometimes surfaced, and chose a safe place to go ashore.
Until two days later, there were still broken troops fleeing back one after another.
Prime Minister Zhong counted the number of people and found that more than 5,000 people were lost in the battle.
If we were not very close to our own city and were killed like this and the whole army collapsed, the limit of being able to gather a few hundred remaining soldiers would be the limit.
The morale of the Chu army was low. It was only one aspect that they suffered a defeat. What was more serious was that they discovered that the reincarnated emperor, Mingzun, was so frightened that he jumped into the water and fled at the critical moment.
Isn’t “Master” very powerful?
Zhong Xiang was filled with hatred and extremely fearful of the cavalry. He vowed never to fight with the Zhu bandits' troops on open and flat terrain again.
Then, to appease people's hearts, Zhong Xiang declared that Zhu Guoxiang was the reincarnation of the Dark Demon King, while Ju Ming was the Prince of the Dark Demon who descended to earth.
Zhong Xiang also said that although he was the reincarnation of the Great Ming Zun, his magic power had not been fully restored, and he was accidentally plotted by the Dark Demon Prince...
