There are always many weird things in the world, and it is not that unusual to suddenly discover that the enemy is your own brother on the battlefield.
After all, Zeng Ziwen was also a member of the Ming Army. He appeared in the new army of the Tang Dynasty because he was captured due to defeat. However, the news of his capture was not widely publicized by the Tang Dynasty. Even in order to avoid implicating his family, Zeng Ziwen
He also used the pseudonym 'Li Congwen', but this pseudonym was only used publicly, and internally everyone still used to call him Zeng Ziwen.
As for whether the Ming Dynasty army knew about it or not, this matter is debatable. The senior Ming army officials in Zhengtai County, such as Su Jiakang, should have noticed something. However, Zeng Ziwen has never appeared in public and has never led troops and the Ming army.
We have fought, so Su Jiakang and the others probably don't know the accurate information yet, otherwise the Zeng family would have been doomed long ago.
Or maybe Su Jiakang and the others noticed something was fishy, but pretended not to know it in order to cover it up.
At the beginning, Su Jiakang said that Zeng Ziwen had "married his country", and then put all the responsibility for the defeat in Luohu Valley on Zeng Ziwen. The court had already distributed relevant pensions to the Zeng family. If Zeng Ziwen was discovered at this time,
If Zeng Ziwen was still alive, that would be a slap in the face of the imperial court. After the imperial court was slapped in the face, how could Su Jiakang, the man who originally said Zeng Ziwen was dead, end up with a good ending?
As a person with political wisdom, even if Su Jiakang knew about it, he would definitely not publicize it. On the contrary, he would try his best to deny it, saying that Zeng Ziwen of the Tang Dynasty was not Zeng Ziwen of the Ming Dynasty.
At least so far, the Zeng family is doing well and has not been punished by the court. If the news that Zeng Ziwen was a thief was revealed, it is estimated that the Zeng family would have been ransacked several times.
Under such circumstances, when Zeng Ziwen discovered that the Ming army wandering around the logistics line of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty was actually his own brother, his inner feelings were shattered.
And when Li Xuan heard Zeng Ziwen talking about this, he was quite speechless.
What is this, brothers killing each other?
This doesn't count. I guess Zeng Ziwen's younger brother doesn't know that Zeng Ziwen is still alive. He always thought that Zeng Ziwen had died in the hands of the puppet Tang rebels. He probably wanted to wipe out the puppet Tang rebels and avenge his eldest brother.
Where is Xuhen.
Looking at Zeng Ziwen's helpless look, Li Xuan said, "So what are Zeng Aiqing's plans now?"
Hearing Li Xuan ask this, Zeng Ziwen was stunned at first, and then his expression changed slightly. He didn't understand it at first, but after thinking about it for a while, he understood why Li Xuan asked him what his plans were!
Now Zeng Ziwen's younger brother led an army to harass the logistics line of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty, and also caused considerable trouble to the New Army of the Tang Dynasty. The New Army of the Tang Dynasty lost at least thirty people, and the logistics line also became blocked. In order to ensure the logistics
Li Xuan even mobilized the main force to form a temporary mixed force in order to wipe out the Ming army led by Zeng Ziwen's younger brother.
Judging from the combat effectiveness of the temporary mixed force led by Hao Bainian, as long as the Ming army led by Zeng Ziwen's brother is not super elite, the possibility of defeat is extremely high.
By then, it will be difficult to say whether Zeng Ziwen's brother is dead or alive.
As for leaving the Ming army alone because the man leading the army was Zeng Ziwen's younger brother, this is absolutely impossible.
As long as he goes against the new army of the Tang Dynasty, let alone Zeng Ziwen's younger brother, even if he is Li Xuan's younger brother, Li Xuan will still kill him.
In the face of major military and national affairs, the personal relationship between his children does not matter. He should be killed or buried. At most, his body should be left intact.
Zeng Ziwen did not answer Li Xuan immediately, but remained silent for a long time. After half a day, he said: "Your Majesty, before the army moves, can you give me a chance? I want to personally persuade my brother to join our new army of the Tang Dynasty. No matter what, it will not work.
Let him retreat!"
After Li Xuan heard this, he also did not answer immediately. Instead, he pondered, then looked at the map spread on the table, and soon pointed to the Lanjiang Ferry on the map and said: "Our army is located at the Lanjiang Ferry, and it is a short distance away."
It is impossible to leave within this time, and the more than a thousand soldiers of the New Army of the Tang Dynasty absolutely cannot bear to have a Ming army wandering behind, threatening our supply lines at any time!"
Li Xuan's words did not seem to directly answer Zeng Ziwen's question, but Zeng Ziwen heard it. What Li Xuan meant was that if he surrendered, everything would be easy, but if he was unwilling to surrender, then Li Xuan would
I won't let him go.
In such a large Zhengtai County, except for the Ming army Li Xuan in Longhua Town and Zhengtai County who was unwilling to fight, the Ming army that appeared in the countryside needed to be annihilated, because this was not only a military issue, but also a political issue.
Liu Bagou and the others are now preparing to establish more village-level administrative points in the rear, with the intention of bringing all rural areas in Zhengtai County under actual control, thereby laying the foundation of the Tang Dynasty.
At this critical moment, Li Xuan needed to block the Ming army in Fucheng to the east of the Lanjiang River. He also needed to block the Ming army in Zhengtai County and Longhua Town in the city, so that no large-scale Ming army could block their follow-up plan.
Otherwise, there are hundreds of Ming troops wandering around the countryside of Zhengtai County, and those rural landlords and gentry would have to rebel every day. Besides, there are no large-scale garrisons in those village-level administrative points.
, only a dozen people were used to maintain public order, and they could not stop the invasion of hundreds of Ming troops.
Seeing Zeng Ziwen's expression of embarrassment, Li Xuan said: "In this way, Zeng Aiqing can go with the army. Then try your best to persuade Zeng Aiqing. If he is unwilling to lead the army anyway, then bring him back together after the war. We, the new army of the Tang Dynasty, will raise one person."
It’s still affordable!”
After hearing this, Zeng Ziwen said: "I obey your order!"
Li Xuan's words had already explained that even if Zeng Ziwen's brother was unwilling to lead his army to surrender, then after Hao Bainian and the others defeated his army, they would capture him and bring him back.
In other words, this is to save his life!
Zeng Ziwen was worried about his brother's life, fearing that he would be shot to death by Hao Bainian's musketeers before he arrived, so he resigned immediately, then directly mounted his horse and led his men to Hao Bainian's place.
Riding a horse at a very fast speed, it only took Zeng Ziwen half a day to find Hao Bainian and the others.
At this time, Hao Bainian still didn't know why Zeng Ziwen didn't stay at the Lanjiang Ferry but came to him.
"Sir Zeng, why are you here?" Hao Bainian was still very curious about Zeng Ziwen's arrival. Could it be that His Majesty had some new decrees and many strategic changes, so he asked Zeng Ziwen, the combat commander, to come in person?
convey?
However, after Zeng Ziwen explained the purpose of his visit to him, Hao Bainian was quite speechless.
Like Zeng Ziwen and Li Xuan, he did not expect that the opponent he had been looking for for three days turned out to be Zeng Ziwen's younger brother. Moreover, Zeng Ziwen said that the guy was only sixteen years old this year, and this age was still false. Really
He is a young kid.
When he thought this, he consciously forgot that he himself was only nineteen years old, and most of his fellow officers from the Guards were sixteen or seventeen years old, and some were even only fourteen or fifteen years old.
, there is no one over twenty years old.
In today's New Army of the Tang Dynasty, the core class of officers can be said to be exclusively young officers.
Hao Bainian was silent for a while and then said: "What is your Majesty's decree?"
Hao Bainian didn't care what Zeng Ziwen himself thought, he was more concerned about what his teacher, His Majesty, thought.
Zeng Ziwen said: "Your Majesty means to persuade you to surrender as much as possible. If you cannot persuade them to surrender, you will defeat this Ming army and capture the leading generals alive!"
Hao Bainian murmured at this time: "Catch him alive? That's not a problem!"
At this time, he glanced at Zeng Ziwen again: "I guess you, Mr. Zeng, are here just to persuade you to surrender?"
Zeng Ziwen nodded and said: "Yes, this is exactly why I came here!"
"In that case, let's go together. If nothing else happens, we will be able to catch up with or even surround them tomorrow morning!"
When Hao Bainian said this, he was full of confidence!
Zeng Ziwen didn't say much, but nodded, and finally said: "Then I'll leave the follow-up to Mr. Hao!"
If it were normal, Zeng Ziwen would not call Hao Bainian "sir", but would use his position to match his position. After all, Zeng Ziwen's status in the New Army of the Tang Dynasty was still higher than that of Hao Bainian. Even though Li Xuan never let Zeng Ziwen lead the army, Zeng Ziwen
Wen had always been a close official of the emperor, serving as a staff advisor to Li Xuan, and had great influence on Li Xuan.
The word "adult" is usually used by Hao Bainian to address him.
But today, for the sake of his younger brother's life, Zeng Ziwen had to lose face!
Hao Bainian naturally offended Zeng Ziwen for no reason. As long as it did not affect his mission, he did not mind selling Zeng Ziwen a favor.
He immediately said: "Easy to say!"
On that day, Zeng Ziwen marched with Hao Bainian's troops. Hao Bainian led the troops to march very fast. In order to speed up, he even abandoned the baggage troops and marched with only a combat force of two hundred people.
However, in order to prevent accidents, the soldiers themselves will still carry weapons, ammunition and food needed for combat.
That night, Cao Mingda's reconnaissance cavalry reported that the Ming army they were tracking was five miles away. However, although the enemy army was already close to Chi Chi, Hao Bainian did not order to continue the attack, but had the troops set up camp early.
rest.
However, it was not yet dark the next day, and Hao Bainian had already led his troops to set off. The five-mile journey was completed in less than an hour, and at this time, their enemies were still making pots and preparing breakfast!
By the time the Ming army discovered that the puppet Tang bandits had caught up, it was already too late, because at that time Hao Bainian had already ordered the attack!
This was not only a sudden attack, but there were only over a hundred Ming troops on the opposite side. The force led by Hao Bainian had reached 200 men. They had an advantage in strength, and half a team of elite musketeers served as the core. This battle had been decided from the beginning.