"Kill!" Countless shouts in Chinese or local dialects rang out as thousands of people fought each other with steel knives or spears in their hands.
Countless people wearing Ming dynasty hats, or just a layer of cloth with the Chinese character 'Su' written on them, lined up in a neat queue and rushed forward. The people on the opposite side who were not neatly dressed obviously couldn't line up.
In such a neat formation, even though they were fighting hard, those who were killed were retreating step by step, and were about to retreat into the city behind them.
At this time, as if it were raining, countless arrows were shot down from the city and aimed at the advancing Ming army. In an instant, hundreds of people were hit by arrows and dozens of people fell to the ground.
The generals leading the team immediately reorganized and filled the positions vacated by those who had been shot to the ground. Many soldiers took out small bucklers from behind and raised them above their heads, and continued to charge forward.
But at this moment, the sounds of "嘡", "嘡" and "嘡" were heard from behind. The military commander leading the team was stunned, and then he had no choice but to order the troops to retreat unwillingly.
But after he returned to his tent, he immediately went to the big tent and said to the person sitting above: "Your Highness, we are about to hit their city gate and completely defeat the Yalu Kingdom. Why did Your Highness suddenly pay for the withdrawal of troops?"
The man sitting upright looks like he is only in his twenties. He is wearing a Ming Dynasty prince's costume. His complexion is neither black nor white, and he has a square face with Chinese characters. Although he is just sitting upright in his seat, he can instantly
I felt the deep majesty coming from him.
Hearing the words of the general in front of him, he smiled and said, "Cheng'an, why are you so anxious?"
"Today you commanded three thousand households, killed nearly 10,000 enemy troops, and forced your way into the city of the Mulu people. You have made outstanding achievements, and even Gudu saw it."
"But your men have been fighting all day and are very tired. The so-called powerful crossbow arrow cannot penetrate Lu Jin. If we continue to attack with all our strength, I am afraid that we will be defeated by the enemy's counterattack."
"Your Highness, my troops are indeed unable to fight anymore, but your Highness can mobilize other troops to take over the attack on Yalu City!" Cheng'an said again.
"Today is already evening time. Even if we replace other soldiers with sufficient strength, we may not be able to break into Zulu City before nightfall. If we are dragged into a night battle, it will become a big melee. Our army's
The advantage suddenly disappears, and you may not necessarily win in a chaotic battle. To be on the safe side, it’s better to take a good rest tonight and fight again tomorrow.”
"Besides, I'm not in a hurry. It doesn't matter if I still can't break through Mulu City tomorrow. What I have is patience and the loss of Mulu people." said the young prince.
Cheng'an had nothing else to say now and bowed down. Then several other generals also reported several matters one after another, and the young prince dealt with them one by one. After a while, he and his two eunuchs were the only ones left in the tent.
.He sat on the chair with his head lowered, as if he was thinking about something.
This young prince is Zhu Gaoxu, the king of Su who was conferred the title of King of Su by Yunxi three years ago and came to the original Srivijaya to serve as the king two years ago.
Since Zhu Gaoxu was granted the title of King of Su here in the second year of Jianye, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di first completely wiped out the remaining Majapayi army in the area, executed some of them, and sent most of them to Zhu Chanyi in Guangxi.
Later, their father and son stabilized the local situation, severely attacked several of the most powerful temples in the area, and forced the remaining people to surrender to them. Then Zhu Gaoxu ordered the household registration of the people, and compiled all the people in the country into household registrations, completing the process.
for local control.
After that, their father and son began to expand externally. The area designated by Yunxi for them was Sumatra Island, and they had no intention of violating Yunxi's wishes for the time being. It turns out that Srivijaya is located in the easternmost part of Sumatra Island, close to Java.
Island, so they began to plan an attack on the Mulu Kingdom to the west.
After a year of preparation, in September of the third year of Jianye last year, Zhu Gaoxu personally led troops to attack the eastern border of the Mulu Kingdom, capturing dozens of villages and capturing tens of thousands of people.
Of course, the Yalu people would not react without a reaction and immediately counterattacked. But what Zhu Gaoxu was waiting for was their counterattack. He successfully ambushed the Yalu people on the border, defeated them, and then killed all the prisoners and only put them back.
Thirty-six people, to scare the dumb people.
After another two months of repairs, Zhu Gaoxu led his troops to attack the Mulu Kingdom again, and fought all the way to the Mulu people's city, and was about to break through the Mulu Kingdom.
Since the Mulu Kingdom is about to perish, of course what he is thinking about has nothing to do with the Mulu Kingdom. What he is thinking about is the Sumatra and Subendana countries to the west of the Mulu Kingdom. These two countries are relatively strong, at least for now.
Much stronger than his Su Fan, he had to worry about how the two countries that would later become Su Fan's neighbors would treat his Su Fan after the destruction of the Mulu Kingdom.
"How about leaving the Mulu Kingdom for the time being and not completely destroying it? No, I have ordered the killing of too many Mulu people. Based on the knowledge of these people in Nanyang, if I ask for peace, they will probably
They asked for a truce because they thought I was powerless, so they would not be willing to cease the war. Even if they did not have the strength to launch a large-scale attack for the time being, they would send troops to harass the border, causing me great annoyance, so they had no choice but to destroy it."
"But how will Sumatra and Subendana get along with each other after they are destroyed?" Zhu Gaoxu thought hard.
After thinking for a long time, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't think of a clue, so he stopped thinking temporarily and asked the eunuch who was with him to pour him water.
The eunuch poured him a glass of water respectfully and said at the same time: "Your Highness, when you spoke just now, you should use the self-titled 'Gu'."
"Hey, I'm not used to it." Zhu Gaoxu said.
"But Your Highness must get used to it," the eunuch said.
"Okay, I understand. I just talked to the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs. Wasn't there anything wrong?" Zhu Gaoxu said with a smile. This eunuch has been following him for more than ten years and is very close to him, so Zhu Gaoxu talks to him more casually.
The eunuch wanted to say more, but suddenly a voice came from outside the tent: "Your Highness, there is an urgent report from Qian'an City (Palembang)."
"Come in quickly!" Zhu Gaoxu said immediately. Qian'an City urgently reports, what happened?
A man wearing special clothes for a messenger came in. He knelt down to salute Zhu Gaoxu first, and then stood up and said, "Your Highness, the Supreme King has ordered his ministers to deliver an urgent message: Your Majesty has received an order from the capital. Your Majesty wants to conquer Annan and the four Southeast Asian countries."
The vassal states of Su, Pu, Luo, and Song will all send troops. The imperial edict states that each vassal will send out thousands of people to conquer Annan."
"Thousands of people, even thousands of people. Su Fan currently has only more than 10,000 Han troops under his command, and the remaining 20,000 or so are local people. We are still attacking Zhilu in the west.
The country needs to be on guard against Manchu Boyi in the east, so few people can be mobilized." Zhu Gaoxu said.
"Your Highness, the Supreme King also knows that the situation is like this, but he has to obey the imperial edict of the imperial court. Therefore, after discussing with the left minister, the Supreme King decided to send one thousand Han troops, two thousand Fan troops, and mobilize some naval forces to go north to attack
Annan. Let Chen Zuyi dispatch the navy and escort them all the way to Annan." The messenger said.
"My father's disposition is very appropriate." Zhu Gaoxu nodded. But he then asked: "Who will lead the army?"
"The Supreme King said that in order to show the court that Su Fan attaches great importance to this matter, one of His Highness and the Supreme King must go. His Highness was at war with the Mulu Kingdom at this time, so the Supreme King personally led the troops Go to Annan and stay on the left to guard Qian'an City." The messenger said.
Zhu Gaoxu nodded again and said, "Is there anything else?"
"Your Highness, there is nothing else to do," the messenger said.
"Then step back." Zhu Gaoxu said. The ordering soldiers bowed and left.
After he retreated, Zhu Gaoxu said to himself: "No, we have to speed up the attack on the Mulu Kingdom. We can't delay it for a long time. Fortunately, although we could delay it before, we didn't delay it for a few days."
He suddenly said loudly: "Everyone come in!"
Hearing his roar, the people guarding outside the tent hurriedly walked in.
"Immediately, please send word that Cheng An and others are here to see Gu!" Zhu Gaoxu said.
…
…
In Nanyang, on the dock outside Qian'an City, Zhu Di said to Su Fan Zuo Xiang Huaying: "Huaying, I will go to Annan now, and Qian'an City will be left to you to take care of."
"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, I will definitely guard Qian'an City for Your Highness." Hua Ying said.
Hearing him say, "Keep it safe for His Highness," Zhu Di raised his eyebrows, but did not say anything about it. Instead, he said: "But it shouldn't take you a few days. After Gao Xu knows this, he will definitely perish as soon as possible." Yalu Kingdom, please withdraw your troops and return to Qian'an City. You don't have to worry too much."
"Yes, the Supreme King." Hua Ying said.
Zhu Di gave him a few more instructions and then ordered the ship to sail. The ship immediately left the pier and headed towards the pier of Leizhou Peninsula.
Zhu Di looked at Qian'an City for a while, then turned and walked into the cabin.
As soon as he entered the cabin, Zhu Di smiled at the person in front of him and said: "I just asked you to send your men to escort the Lu Division to the Ming Dynasty. Why did you personally bring the fleet to escort?"
When the man in front of him heard Zhu Di's voice, he immediately stood up as if he was very afraid of him, and said: "The Supreme King is going to Guangdong and Guangxi in person, how can I not personally escort him?"
This man was Chen Zuyi, who was famous in Nanyang in his previous life and had been domineering in the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea for decades. He was finally captured alive by a fleet led by Zheng He and was later sent to the capital to be executed.
When Zhu Gaoxu was appointed here as the vassal king, he was occupying the Bolin Kingdom not far from Srivijaya and claiming to be the king. He had hundreds of large and medium-sized ships under his command, as well as thousands of small ships, and his strength was equivalent to that of the Ming Dynasty. A navy guard.
In the previous life, Zheng He only came to Nanyang to promote the power of the Ming Dynasty and wasted money and food, so he used the method of elimination very directly to deal with people like Chen Zuyi. But in this life, Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Di came to open up territory, and they would not deal with the powerful forces nearby. The first thing that came to mind was not to eliminate him, but to persuade him to surrender. Of course, this may also be related to the fact that they were confident that the navy they had at the time could not eliminate Chen Zuyi.