When Song Yang arrived at Fengxin with 3,000 main troops, his men had already calculated the results of the previous battle.
Kill a thousand and one and capture a thousand!
Our side suffered more than 300 casualties, including 100 killed and 200 wounded.
Three hundred for two thousand.
In the era of cold weapons, this result was already very good.
But Song Yang was still not very satisfied.
We are even more looking forward to thermal weapons such as muskets and artillery.
"Your Majesty, General Yu Ming has been chasing the bandits to the west." The scouting horse from the front came to report.
"Follow us. The thieves must have retreated to Tonggu. Let's go to Tonggu now."
Song Yang nodded, greeted the main force to move forward, and asked about the news about the Ezhou soldiers:
"Is there any news from Wang Ran?"
"Master Wang is not there yet. Tan Ma has already gone to Tonggu. News should be sent back tomorrow."
Wang Ran, who has no news, is engaged in a battle.
A few days ago, after receiving Song Yang's order to send troops, Wang Ran immediately organized his troops to go south to Hongzhou.
At the same time, Wang Ran also asked Xue Jing to send troops to explore the situation in Tanzhou, and if possible, seize Qiaokou, Liuyang and other places.
Wang Ran set out from Tongcheng and sent five platoons of people to Wuning to take over the city defense, while he took the main force of 2,000 people to Fenning.
Tan Ma was sent out and soon got the news about the bronze drum.
Although the main force of the bandits went to Yuzhang, Tonggu left two thousand people to defend it.
"Two thousand thieves guarded an empty city..." All the grain near the bronze drum was harvested by Shen Dan.
Although in the end all these grains fell into Liu Manqing's hands.
But when the army went out for battle, these grains naturally followed them to Yuzhang.
The two thousand defenders of Tonggu were sent by Liu Jinpeng from Tanzhou.
Their food supplies depend on transportation from Liuyang direction.
"Send a letter to Xue Jing immediately and ask him to focus on Liuyang. It is best to trap Liuyang and block the Tonggu grain road."
When Wang Ran got the news about Tonggu, he immediately paid attention and went to send the news to Xue Jing.
Xue Jing has mobilized 2,000 people from the four major battalions and is gathering in Xiangyin.
When the news about Wang Ran came, Xue Jing curled his lips when he saw it.
The distance from Xiangyin to Liuyang is not close.
Originally, they planned to try to see if the bridge entrance could be captured, but Wang Ran's letter disrupted Xue Jing's plan.
Lin Yong read Wang Ran's letter and considered some battlefield situations, so he told Xue Jing that he also supported sending troops to Liuyang.
Lin Yong has gotten much better in the past few days and can barely walk around.
Although Lu Jimin suggested that he cultivate himself more, Lin Yong was really worried when Xue Jing sent troops.
Xue Jing was a civilian official with little experience in leading troops, and he had just taken office not long ago, so his reputation and connections were not well established, so he was afraid that he would not be able to command the Renaissance Army.
That's why Lin Yongcai strongly requested to follow Xue Jing out.
Xue Jing couldn't resist him and could only reluctantly agree, telling him to rest in the car and come to him to discuss anything.
Following Lin Yong's advice, Xue Jing agreed to go to Liuyang even though he didn't want to take the original route.
So two thousand Renaissance troops took a boat from Xiangyin, followed the Miluo River to Changjiang, and then took the land route from Changjiang to Liuyang.
When Xue Jing led his troops south to Liuyang, Song Yang was still waiting for the main force of the bandits to come to fight.
On the other hand, Wang Ran knew that Xue Jing had sent troops to Liuyang, and he immediately took action.
Lead the main force to attack the bronze drum.
The defenders of Tonggu were only civilians organized by Liu Jinpeng. They were not elite and could only be used for defense.
Therefore, when Wang Ran arrived, they did not dare to leave the city and hid in the abandoned city for passive defense.
The bandits knew that the main force was fighting in Yuzhang, so they only needed to hold on to the bronze drum. Once the main force returned, the siege would be lifted.
In the next two days, Wang Ran did not attack the city and spent his main force outside the city.
On this day, several groups of scouting horses came from the direction of Yuzhang.
Most of them are forward spies for the bandits.
Seeing the thieves probing the horse, Wang Ran smiled.
Tan Ma went first, and the fighting in Yuzhang had not been long, so he had already guessed that Song Yang had led the Fuxing Army to Yuzhang.
The bandits either retreated or fled in defeat.
Now we just need to wait for news from Song Yang.
Sure enough, in the afternoon, Wang Ran received a call from Yu Ming.
"Haha! Your Majesty has a great victory over the bandits in Yuzhang, and the main force of the bandits is fleeing westward!"
When Wang Ran heard the news, he laughed loudly and conveyed the good news to the soldiers.
"Sir, what should we do now?"
"Keep guarding. General Yu is leading his men to chase the defeated bandits. Let's attack them from both front and rear! Hey, I guess the news from Liuyang will come soon!"
Wang Ran chuckled and issued a defensive order.
The team was setting up fences and trenches, and the expedition horses from the west also came, also in two groups.
Wang Ran did not let anyone stop him, and several of his riders went straight into Tonggu City.
The other two riders got the code right and were sent by Xue Jing.
This morning, Xue Jing finally arrived in Liuyang after two days of journey.
As soon as the soldiers arrived at Liuyang, they immediately blocked the road east of Liuyang.
The grain channel of Tonggu was broken.
Liuyang sent spies to bypass Xue Jing's troops and run to Tonggu to report the news.
After getting this news, the city was in chaos.
Originally I wanted to wait for the main force to come back.
As a result, the main force of Tan Ma came back just now, and General Liu was defeated by Jiangzhou soldiers!
The deserters are heading towards Tonggu, followed by Jiangzhou pursuers.
Liu Manqing asked the Tonggu defenders to prepare for the response.
The defenders were not good at fighting in the first place, but now that they heard that the main force had suffered a defeat, their morale suddenly dropped.
And before they were ready to deal with the main force, news came from the west.
The food route is broken!
"Damn it! What a slap in the face!"
The young general guarding the city jumped angrily.
Just as I was thinking about sending a message to Liu Manqing, suddenly war drums sounded outside the city.
Wang Ran cleverly calculated the time when the Liuyang messenger entered the city, and estimated that the Tonggu defenders would have known all the news by now.
It's time to try to attack.
"Dong dong dong!"
The war drums beat, and Wang Ran's two thousand troops launched an attack on Tonggu.
"It's not good! It's not good! The officers and soldiers are coming!"
"General! What should we do?"
"This this……"
The young general guarding the city was panicked and didn't know how to respond.
"General, General! More than a dozen officers and soldiers have crawled in from the ruins in the north!"
"Alas! Withdraw! Withdraw quickly!"
When the young general heard that the officers and soldiers had come in, he was completely discouraged.
The main force is defeated and the food road is cut off. It's useless to hold on. It's important to run away quickly!
"Retreat! Retreat quickly! The general said to retreat!"
When the soldiers go out and shout like this, it will be fine.
The retreat became a rout.
The two thousand thieves guarding the city suddenly became like headless flies.
Some are running west and some are running east.
Many others knelt down and surrendered.
The young general guarding the city left the west gate with some of his cronies, only to realize that there were not many people following him.
"Alas! Why are you here!" The young general shook his head bitterly and ran away with his cronies.
"Sir, the Bronze Drum Bandits have surrendered!" The battle started suddenly and ended even more suddenly.
Wang Ran didn't expect that this tentative attack would directly lead to the bronze drum.
He originally thought that this sudden attack would severely damage the morale of the rebel soldiers.
Unexpectedly, the thieves showed no will to resist and simply surrendered their weapons.
"Take over the Tonggu immediately, take the prisoners into custody, and count the results of the battle!" Wang Ran entered the city and directly occupied the Chinese army's tent.
At midnight, the results of the battle were tallied, and two people were killed...
Take 1,300 prisoners...
Our side suffered casualties, one was injured, and he sprained his ankle...
Wang Ran was speechless when he saw this result. He thought he was dazzled.
They captured the bronze drum without spending a single soldier and achieved this kind of result.
"Send the order! In the realm of the whole army, the main force of the thieves will come tomorrow, and we have another battle!" Wang Ran took a deep breath and gave the battle order after taking a moment.
As for those prisoners, they will be escorted back to Ezhou early tomorrow morning. These are the best labor forces!
Wang Ran took the bronze drum and sent a message to Yu Ming overnight.
Yu Ming was notified early the next morning.
At this time, it was only thirty miles away from Tonggu.
Even the main force of the bandits led by Liu Manqing was less than ten miles away from Tonggu.
Liu Manqing also learned about the fall of Tonggu this morning.
I originally thought that after the main force came back, I would stick to Tonggu.
As a result, the bronze drum was lost before the main force came back.
"General, what should we do now! The officers and soldiers have occupied the bronze drum, do we... still want to fight?"
"General, we still have pursuers behind us!"
Of course, the men didn't plan to fight anymore. They were beating drums. If the pursuers came from behind, they wouldn't be able to attack from both front and back.
"Oh! Forget it! Let's retreat. Go to Liuyang and relieve the siege of Liuyang." Liu Manqing finally gave up.
The strength of Jiangzhou soldiers is not a little stronger than that of Hongzhou soldiers, and their number is also much larger.
Once the battle line is stretched, they have no advantage at all.
Liu Manqing finally figured it out. The top priority was no longer the bronze drum, but to train the soldiers in his hands well.
Otherwise, when the officers and soldiers have no shortage of food next year, they will definitely attack Tanzhou with all their strength.
With the current combat effectiveness, there is no way they can stop the Jiangzhou soldiers.
"Woo!"
Liu Manqing led the main force of thieves to Tonggu, and the sound of horns came from the city.
Then there was a shower of arrows.
The bandits left dozens more corpses.
Immediately afterwards, the officers and soldiers of Tonggu came out again.
The pursuers behind him also followed closely.
How could the traitors dare to fight? They were pinched from both sides, and the originally well-organized retreat immediately turned into a rout.
At this time, Liu Manqing could not organize a decent defensive counterattack.
He could only flee with the large group of people.
When they fled from Hongzhou, there were less than five thousand people left with them.
Fortunately, the pursuers behind him had no intention of pursuing him.
Liu Manqing stopped to gather the defeated soldiers, and finally managed to get nine thousand soldiers, and marched towards Liuyang in a mighty manner.
Xue Jing of Liuyang besieged the city for three days. He scouted his horses and found out that the main force of the bandits had returned. He also heard that the bronze drum had been obtained.
He was not reluctant to fight and retreated directly. As for the losses, there were almost no...
Song Yang arrived at Tonggu one day later than tomorrow.
At this time, the bronze drum was filled with Jiangzhou soldiers.
The small bronze drum rallied the revival army.
"Your Majesty, the bandits have returned to Liuyang, should we still pursue them?"
Yu Ming asked with his scarlet eyes wide open.
I really haven't slept well these days.
"Forget it. Let's withdraw. Tonggu will leave three thousand elite troops, and the others will withdraw their troops."
"The prisoners were also left to work as coolies to repair the city defenses! After repairing the city defenses, they were all sent to Yuezhou."
Song Yang also looked tired. Even if he was chasing people, they were very tired.
Song Yang wanted to occupy Tonggu, but Shen Dan had no objection.
They can't defend it by themselves, so now it's the best choice to let Song Yang help defend it.
Song Yang directly changed the Tonggu into a military camp, leaving no ordinary people behind and all moved to Fenning.
In this way, there will be no fear of refugees sneaking in to cause internal and external attacks.
"Tomorrow you take the people back to Jiangzhou via Wuning and Yuning. I will return to Yuzhang via the original route to meet Ma Cheng. I also want to meet my uncle Wang from Hongzhou."
In the evening, Song Yang explained Yu Ming's subsequent arrangements.
He has to go back to Yuzhang and talk to King Hongzhou about some things.